Lisa Heuer

More Geocaching

Walks, adventures, and Sunday afternoons have new meaning at the Heuer home!  We have new reason to get out and discover parts of Washington… there are buried treasures everywhere!  We found a beautiful 10 mile trail and along the way, we did a little geocaching.  If you weren’t a geocacher (is that a word?) then you would never notice such things.  This one had a large loose rock in front of it-difficult to find even if you WERE looking for it.  The kids love the bigger treasures because they can take something out if they leave something behind.  We have our “team” emblem that we always leave in the treasure box.  Zoe took out a golf ball (who knows why… she lost it on the walk anyhow) and Zane took out a plastic gold token.  Fun times, you should try it!

going for a walk

this was while we were out geocaching but I had to note the sings and the environment.  The trail is surrounded by “wetlands” and the lake is just to the right of the trail.  These signs are found everywhere near the waters.  At the end of my street, there is a large park with these signs everywhere.  We saw a miscellaneous turtle wandering around one day.  The wetlands have tons of critters including turtles, otters, ducks, and who knows what else.  One of these days, me and my camera will go for an early morning walk down to these wetlands!  Also, nearly along every street, path and backyard are wild blackberry bushes.  Zoe loves to find a ripe blackberry and eat them.  

Some inner stuff

I went for an eye follow up today, all by myself and it was wonderful.  I arranged and then rearranged some arrangements so I could grace the doctors all by myself.

Last appointment, my show with the children was just short of completely humiliating and totally embarrassing.  Actually, it wasn’t short of, it was!  The kids argued and voices were loud-cries and screeches by the darling Zane with some antagonistic pushing and shoving by the lovely Zoe.  Then, they decided to try out the super cool equipment WHILE I WAS IN THE CHAIR being examined.  It wasn’t exactly easy for me to square the children away while I had a big machine supporting my chin and pressing on my forehead.  I could only give them so many looks that mean, “If you don’t get your act together, you are really asking for trouble,” while the doctor was acting completely patient.  Eventually, I had to excuse myself from the conversation and examination with the doctor and put Zoe in one corner of the examine room and Zane in the opposite corner with a threat to take away every single quarter they had earned thus far (jars of coins has been our summertime earnings for anything from chores to lovely attitudes and manners).  It seemed to work… temporarily.  Needless to say, I felt like a complete failure of a mother with crazy children acting up in one of the quietest places in Washington, next to the library.  I couldn’t even get my kids to behave for 10 minutes, act in control or relax and be patient. 

Back to the appointment…  I arrived, she greeted me at the front desk.  They know me there, by name, and they have gazillion patients.  I shouldn’t be proud of that (even though it does feel good to have somebody know me) I’m sure its because who could forget an act like that?  Anyhow, she asked a simple question, “How are you?”  Actually, she may have asked, “How are your kids,” now that I think about it.  It didn’t matter what she said because it was an open door to profess my undying need for school to start ASAP!  My response, “My kids are driving me crazy and I can’t wait for school to start.”  I shouldn’t have.  She didn’t want to hear it, I’m sure.  It was her job to meet and greet the patients.  But she asked and I responded.  I needed to voice it.  My nerves were fried and nearly at the end of my rope (why do we use terms like “rope” to describe our ability to completely lose it at any moment?)

It was a difficult morning with Zoe expressing her dislike (complete hatred) for Washington, and the fact that she had nothing to wear in Washington (yep, she blamed Washington).  I won’t even tell you how I feel about that, Ok, I will.  No matter where we live, she has problems with clothes and we just bought her tons of new clothes that she loves.  We did a fashion show and I photographed her favorite outfits and put together a fashion book for her so she could look often and get ideas for outfits, but it was just something to be angry about.  She cried and cried and didn’t want to get ready and I reminded her about my appointment and that I needed to get out the door.  I am sad when she is sad.  Why do I have to be the one to hold it together and soothe her?  Sometimes I want to fall on the floor too and cry that I can’t find anything to wear either.  I want to cry that I miss my family, friends and my house, I want to cry that I don’t have a kitchen table and we eat on a 6 foot Lifetime table and folding chairs everyday, I want to cry that I miss seeing my nieces and nephew play with my kids-even if it is loud and messy, I want to cry that it is hard to be a mother, let alone mother to a sad little girl.  I want to cry that I miss good Mexican food and Sunday nights at my mom’s house.  I want to cry too…

So, she asked me about my morning in one way or another and I answered.  It was like she opened a shaken bottle of rootbeer.  The good news is that I think she found in me someone that would listen to her similar complaint…, “Me too, my son has had the worst attitude lately.”  So, we pow wow’d and had a venting moment and then went back to loving our jobs as a mom. 

Geocaching

Ever heard of this thing?  About 3 days ago, Tim introduced our little family to geocaching.  It went a little something like this, “We find treasures… it is a worldwide game and the kids will love it.”  That is probably a good paraphrase BUT needless to say, I question the kids’ enthusiasm when I see these pictures.  I suspect that there is one big kid that is most excited.  Anyhow, it is actually lots of fun and so interesting to see the world come together on such a fun hunt.  When you reveal what you have been looking for after following a GPS and basic hunting instructions, it is amazing to see that there really is a capsule of some sort filled with signatures from others who have done the same trail.  We have done a few each day since our inaugural hunt.  The kids are losing steam but the biggest kid has only gained steam.  It was no help to see all the cool trinkets at REI (one of my favorite stores) to assist in the game of geocaching.  We all know how Tim is about gadgets and gizmos.  It is fun to know that we can do this ANYWHERE we go.  You should try it!  Maybe we can put a trackable treausre of some sort and see how long it takes to get to Queen Creek???

Wicked

I have been staring at these while they await their hiding place.  It is a little eerie to me.  I will eventually wrap them, put them in a large box and then tuck them safely in my closet.  This empty room in the front of my house has provided a safe haven for them while they patiently wait for their dark, hidden place.

Magic Medicine

We have a natural Doctor (Thank you Jenna for the referral) that is wonderful with Zane.  She is so patient and listens and tries to solve the problem instead of cover it up or ignore it.  She has given him some natural supplements that will help him and they have done just that.  Zane is excited about it and wants to call Dr. Anna and share the joy.  He isn’t fond of the taste but he still takes it just as the doctor ordered.  Such an obedient little one.  ; 0

Just another day

I took some pictures of the kids today while they were chillin’ on the sofa.  Let’s talk about chillin’ on the sofa because it is a double edged sword for me.  I feel so much peace and quiet when they have found a great movie to watch.  They actually get along : ) and they aren’t asking questions and interrupting my thoughts.  But the other edge of the sword is that it is not what I thought I would be so happy about as a mother.  I suppose you could say that I pictured motherhood something like this:  baking cookies together, painting pictures of the beautiful creations that surround us, speaking kindly toward one another and enjoying our time together.  I can’t say that my picture has come to life yet which is why when there is a chillin’ moment, I want to take advantage.  I told them, “OK, enough TV, let’s go to the park or do something fun now.”  They didn’t really acknowledge and I realized that I was rocking the boat.  They were happy to relax (and usually they want full time entertainment by yours truly) and I was happy to make use of the time.  So, today is a chillin’ day and I will embrace the downtime and the ability to think.  ; )

Mailman

I guess you could say “old school”…??  We actually have a mailbox and a mailman that comes to our street.  I wouldn’t say that they use high tech to alert them of the changes in residency.  We opened our mailbox after a few days of being here and saw the correction had been made.  : )  The kids love to get the mail-sometimes several times a day.  I have tried to educate them on the mail delivery process but they don’t seem to listen.  One would think I lock them in the house and their only opportunity out is "mail time.”  They love getting the mail so much that they willingly empty our neighbors box and deliver it to their door.  BUT, unfortunately that didn’t last long because their son loves to get the mail just as much as my kids.   Zane is often missing and I know exactly where to look-at the mailbox.  The other night we were sitting for dinner and had called Zane to the table several times.  I figured he had fallen asleep but decided to hunt him down.  I found him outside at our front neighbors home playing on their steps to the door.  Man oh man, I bet they are wishing for different neighbors.  : )

Anyhow, the moral of the story is that having our own mailbox in front of our home is proving to be great recreation for the Heuer children.

Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light

Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light.

Click on that title above (I saw this today and it is incredible).  I sometimes like to find one of those Mormom Messages for the day for inspiration.  There are so many that are just as great as this one…

Learning about our new home

We were in Seattle for my friend, Marci, her son’s birthday party.  She is a long time friend back from junior high.  We schooled together and went on to be roommates at NAU.  When I finally got my act together and called her to let her know we had moved here, she invited us over to the party.  It was great to see her and on the way home, we decided to make the most of our time in Seattle.  We don’t go downtown everyday so what the heck?  Tim is not one for spontaneity but somehow I got him on this VERY TOURISTY thing at the last minute of our time in Seattle…

The kids had a blast (OK, Zoe had a blast the whole time, Zane lasted about 45 minutes).  They made noise, danced to the music and laughed at all the hats that the captain was wearing.  Zoe is ready to go again when we have visitors-Zane said he will pass.  : )