I am sitting here waiting for Mo' Nature to make up her mind as to whether she's gonna let me garden or not. Right now, it's not looking favorable, so I guess I'll write part II of the trip to see the 'rents.

It's been a while since we've seen my parents and brother, so when I saw my mom and dad at the airport I hugged the stuffin' right out of them. My dad probably wondered what the heck happened to the daughter who he had to chase around the house to get a hug.

Seriously, he'd chase me around saying, "give me a squeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzeeeeeeee" and I'd run. I was in my.... ummmm... 30's at that time. It was a fun game.

My dad has changed a lot since I saw him last. He's shaved the mustache that he's had since the 70's and he's changed his hair. He now has a metrosexualish 'doo. Kind of a flat top. It's SOOOOO cute on him!

I hope this doesn't insult my dad, but he's turning into a very cute old man. We all know how much I love old men. Now I have one of my own. tee hee.

Mom looked just like she did the last time I saw her, except she's now sporting an oxygen tank almost 24/7. I'm thankful that I've been around that sort of thing a lot between my Hospice experiences and BJ's dad- so I knew what to expect when I saw her. Quite honestly, I'm surprised she hasn't found a way to jazz the nose cannula up a bit. Surely there must be some sort of bedazzler kit for cannulas.

Of course, it's always shocking to see my parents after I haven't seen them in a while, because when I talk about them or think about them, I picture them in their 40's. Now I'm the one in my 40's, so I guess it stands to reason that they're older than that. And my brother Joel. He'll always be my 'little' brother, even though he'll be 42 in June. That's just nutty to me.

Dad took us for a short walk from their house to see the petroglyphs- aka blogging for cave dwellers. Looking at some of the petroglyphs made me wonder what story these people were trying to tell. I'm guessing that they had a more urgent reason got get to the point than I do. Not sure if I'd be so wordy if I had to carve my stories in stone.


As long as I've known my dad (trust me, it's a long time), he's always been a putterer. It seems that my dad is having a good time puttering in his yard, creating vegetable gardens and stone gardens. According to my dad, this stone garden represents the sun.


Mom is an artist as well as writer, so she spends a lot of time indoors doing those sorts of things. I gave her this for an early Mother's day present. I'm expecting to see some great digital art out of her. Hint, hint.... *When* she sends me something I'll share it here. I know it will be amazing. I think I became a photographer because of my mom's ability to draw. I was always envious of that talent.

My brother, Joel, is one of my favorite people to hang around because he ALWAYS laughs at my jokes. I like that in a person. Of course, the more he laughs, the more it eggs me on, so I get pretty obnoxious after a while. Poor BJ...... he tries so hard to convince me that I'm not THAT funny and then Joel has to go ruin all his good work.

I think- no, I KNOW- this visit was one of the best visits I've ever had with my parents. Something has changed in my relationship with them- especially with my mother- and I believe it's because of my blog. I send 99% of my blog entries to them (the 1% are things that they wouldn't want to know, like my second career as a table dancer. KIDDING!), and so now they know me and now I know they accept me for who I am (mostly, anyway). I never really gave them that opportunity before because I never really shared all of me with them. If for no other purpose, I'm glad that I started this blog because it brought me closer to my parents. Now they get "all" of me (probably more than they'd ever want to know... ha!).

My long-time blog readers probably knew me better than my parents up until the time I started copying them on my posts. Strange, isn't it? I'm not going to question the pathology behind what made me so secretive, I'll just be happy that I've stopped.

I enjoyed every minute of my visit with my parents and Joel, and for the first time in my life I honestly wished we had been able to spend more time with them. I like being in this 'space' where I enjoy my parents.

Mom and Dad, I love you so very much and it was very hard for me to say goodbye. How awesome is that? Lemme tell you... it's AWESOME.

More pictures of the trip (including LOTS of petroglyphs) can be found on my flickr account.

I think I have another post about the trip I need to add. It'll only interest the bird people. Stay tuned.