Whew.

This one's for you, Mom and Dad: something new at the blog!

I dropped my folks off at the airport this morning. They were finally escaping the household contagion after enduring more than a week of sick kids heading back home after a visit that was much appreciated.


I don't know how we would have made it through last week without them! Because S is teaching three classes this quarter (all with different preps) he is super busy and less able to be home to help with things like sick kids. But thanks to my parents, even with BB home sick all last week I was able to meet my obligations (volunteering in BJ's class, helping out with the box office for the school play, getting the kittens to the vet for their 3 month old shots...) Alas, both of them (as well as I) caught something towards the end of the week. Might not be the same awful crud the kids had, but yucky enough. Certainly not the way I would have chosen the trip to go; not the kind of souvenir I wanted them to take home.

My mom and I had made plans for lots of fun while they were here, including a visit to FabMo and a pedicure. No way those were happening this time around. In truth, the visit was a lot of hanging around the house. Happily, this meant a lot of time with the kittens. (Kittens make everything better, right?)

(Think they are relaxed and comfortable with us?)
Mom had an app on her iPad that was for the cats, much to the delight of the kids (and the mild interest of Shelly and Stormy).


We did manage to do a few of the things we'd hoped during their visit. Dad was a huge help in lending his photographic expertise (and much nicer camera) so that I could get some new product photography. I'm excited to get some new things listed in the shop! (Just need to find the time to tinker with the pics and get the listings written!) We made it out to dinner at Aqui's to celebrate my dad's birthday (a little early). BB wanted to be sure she looked nice -- since she got sick the next day, I was really glad we'd gotten this out of the way. Here she is with my dad before we headed out for dinner.

I was happy that I found time to rework Mom's nest pendant to include an additional egg for my niece. I was very relieved that in spite of coughing and sniffles, we were all able to make it to the performance of BJ's play. (As always, with my dad around we had lots of great pics of the life events... thanks, Dad, for the photography! All the shots in this post are his!)


And, very exciting for me, I got to pick up my grandfather's Gibson guitar from the repair shop!
Turns out its a 1933 L50 Gibson, in quite good shape for its age and history. It sounds really good and is so much more suited to my size. I was very happy to be able to play a little bit with my beginner fingers for my parents. (And it was fun to compare the sound between the Gibson and my Dad's Harmony that I'd been using!)
Now I've got good motivation to practice -- I'm looking forward to when everybody is healthy again and the household settles down a bit, so that such things are more possible. Lots of catch-up to do, including several blog posts I'd hoped to write during the past few weeks... we had a running joke while my parents were here; they'd check my blog frequently, sometimes looking for something new to be posted when I'd been sitting with them the entire time! I teased that I was going to schedule something in advance to post in order to surprise them, but I never managed to do it. I'll put that with the pedicure and crafting plans on the list of Things To Do Next Time Mom and Dad Visit. Looking forward to it already!