Lisa Heuer

Zane has a buddy.  It is miraculous when they play.  There is rarely any fighting, they manage themselves, they both love trains and they understand each other.  This little guy is so great!

I turned around and saw this today.

It is so weird. I am sitting here watching Zoe swim, its swim team in
the mornings. I just found myself so excited to see her come across
the pool and climb out of the water, I was beaming with pride, "that
is my daughter, the cute one with the swim cap on. Yes, the one who
has her ears sticking out because she says she wants to hear the
coaches… Yep, that's her.".
I think it is even weirder that I have a daughter. A daughter old
enough to know how to swim. A daughter that turns 7 this year. I am
old enough to have kids? When did that happen?
Zane and I just sit here in the bleachers watching our Zoe cross the
pool over and over again. Occasionally I hear a, "whoo hoo," from Zane
to mimick a train whistle because he earned a train as we were rushing
out the door. Isn't that always the time when the poo has to come,
when you are in a hurry??? Its fine, he goes almost every day now AND
3 times yesterday. I stocked up on some trains so I had some ready to
hand over.
Zoe, we are proud of you. You are a great swimmer! I hope your love
of swimming continues!

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Sent from my mobile device

I had a post… where did it go?  It was all about the fine days of home ownership, the American dream right?  How you go out side to check the yard at 12:00am (and after spending too much money for a yard clean up and valve repair) to learn that the water hasn’t turned off and has flooded your yard, sloshing through the grass after midnight.  How having an apartment would be so wonderful because you could pick up the phone and tell someone else of the problem and let it become THEIR problem.  How you always want more or bigger but more and bigger is too much to maintain. 

I was ornery so it is best that it somehow disappeared.  I also had promised to be in a better mood.  So, do I have to keep my promise since it never posted?  : )

TJ called and was looking for an out to his almost assignment of talking on Sunday.  “Do you guys want to get away this weekend?”  I was ready to jump on the band wagon, for sure!  We eventually ended up on VRBO.com and rented a cabin in Payson for Saturday and Sunday night.  It was way out there, the middle of nowhere, probably about 30 minutes or so outside of Payson.  The weather was absolutely perfect and the view was amazing.  It was a great weekend to go!  We created lots of memories:

-played Mexican Train, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Chicken Foot, Loot

-went for a walk down to the stream and found all sorts of bugs, elk, a bridge, and sticks that resembled guns and swords

-watched Lauren kick TJ’s booty climbing up the path on mountain bikes

-laughed about anything and everything

-ate too much food, just because we could!

It is all fun and games until somebody gets hurt!  Lindsey and Tvedt came up for the day and the kids were playing on the deck until Gage got a pretty large splinter in his toe…

Kristie, we wish you could have come!  Can you take a summer long vacation?

This short trip reminded me of how much I love the outdoors—I am back on the hunt for a trailer! : )

It was a short weekend but perfect.  The location was the perfect distance… one movie away!  We were very lucky to find something so last minute. 

It has been better, my emotional roller coaster that I live on over here with a little girl whose name rhymes with Poe.  : )  At my bedside at 6:15am, I hear in a very whiny voice, “Mom, my stomach hurts.  I don’t feel good.  I am so hungry because I didn’t eat dinner.”  It is true.  I cannot claim to be mother of the year if I send my kid to bed at 5:30 and don’t feed her dinner.  That part, I didn’t do on purpose, it was just a free added bonus.  I need more added bonuses in my life. 

We had a better day today.

She was kind… er.

Then, when when I watched her wash her hands today, those beautiful tiny hands, I remembered why I love her so much.  She was washing her hands, delaying the bedtime routine, washing hands after going to the bathroom (just like the hepatitis commercial song sings… “wash your hands after going to the bathroom.  Wash your hands after changing babies too…  We don’t want to catch Hepatitis and we don’t want Hepatitis to catch you.”  …holy cow, side note.  I just googled “wash your hands after going to the bathroom, wash your hands after changing babies too” as it had sparked a memory and there it came up…  WOW!) taking her sweet time, I mean SWEET TIME, scrubbing up like she was going into surgery.  Anyhow, I watched her while trying to remain patient as I do get a little excited as the quiet house time approaches.  Her hands, so tiny, so smooth.  Her hands that will help her in so many things in life.  Those hands will do so much for her.  Those hands that I love to hold and watch grow… (OH, her hands… I am now remembering the talk at Women’s Conference, our favorite lady who talked about our wonderful hands.)  Anyhow, seeing her cute hands softened my heart and helped me to remember that I want to hold that hand as long as possible.  I know there will be a day, not too far around the corner, when being with Mom won’t be so cool, holding mom’s hand will be out of the question, and talking with mom will be a thing of the past. 

Actually, maybe I am oblivious… is that day here?  : )

On an opposite note, Zane had been in bed for at least an hour tonight when I heard him say, “Mommy, I want you to sleep with me.”  I sent Tim in hoping to have a little more time to decompress.  Then a few moments later, here Zane comes around the corner, “Mom, I want to give you a kiss.”  Another delaying of the bedtime tactic that he just came up with-or maybe Tim helped him with that one-but I will take it any day.

Differences can be a strength.  ~Condoleezza Rice

Everyone needs to be valued.  Everyone has the potential to give something back.  ~Diana, Princess of Wales

No one can persuade another to change.  Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside.  We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or emotional appeal.  ~Marilyn Ferguson

I don’t know what I have written tonight.  I usually go back and read but tonight is different.  I am tired.  (Ok, that part isn’t different.)

Today I don’t want an RV, I don’t want a truck, I don’t even want kids…  I have completely overwhelmed myself with research and information, negotiations and calls.  There is so much to know and I could continue but I had to put an end to it. 

Today, Zoe was terribly rude, inconsiderate and sassy.  It was all I could do to keep calm and under control.  In my head, I was going crazy and couldn’t believe that she would talk to me like that-couldn’t believe it.  It got to every nerve I own.  I didn’t know what to do or what to say.  How do you handle that in a proper manner without lowering yourself to THAT level or getting in a power struggle?  She went to bed at 5:30pm-that was the only power that I had.

Zane followed right in her footsteps and started saying, “You’re mean mommy.”  That was simply because it was time for friends to go home.  Ya know what… all I wanted was for somebody to just tell me that I was a good mommy, a nice person, and to talk nicely to me-asking too much? 

Zane eventually gave me a hug and said, “I’m sorry mama.”  That made me happy.

There we were, in Disneyland with our new hats!

We thought for sure we would do another one and we didn’t want to offend the guy we asked for help. 

I drove up to LA on Thursday after school with the kids.  We told Tim that we were going to surprise him-good surprise huh (totally surprised)?  He was there for TechEd.  We stayed with him on Thursday night and then played in the hotel room while he worked.  We got pancakes which Zane ate for breakfast and lunch…  they were huge and Zane was happy with that.

On Friday late afternoon, we went into Anaheim, checked in our new hotel and then decided to hit Disneyland.  I am so glad we did because we really did have fun that night.  We went back the next day and couldn’t resist those beauties (Mickey Mouse ears).  We brought the stroller and somehow Zoe and Zane managed to make the single stroller a double stroller…

It was a long and exhausting couple of days but worth it.  I couldn’t believe how great Zoe and Zane were.  There were hardly any complaints or fighting and we just had some good ‘ol fun.

Zane could not get enough of anything related to trains.  I didn’t realize how much Disney had around trains.  I was able to experience some things I had never seen or been on before.

One more note… I was not a camera hog.  As a matter of fact, I only took a few pictures-probably less than 5.  Zoe was the photographer and these last pictures were her self-portraits.  I enjoyed looking back over the photos and seeing what she captured. 

We left Disney around 2:00pm and had a glorious ride home as the kids fell asleep about 2 hours into the trip and then slept for the next 3.  It made for a short ride home.  We hope to go back often and visit the happiest place on earth more often.

I time blocked my day- what an incredible feeling when you give every
task, every phone call, an assigned time slot. Not only did I stay in
control of my day, but I got to see all that I can do in a day.

It really was nothing spectacular, but I did have a bubble bath today!
(Oh, that was because I forgot to block in some time for a shower so
I saved it for the time that said BED TIME. Ya know what else, I
didn't block any time for this blog post… It is interfering with
READ and then SLEEP.). : )

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Sent from my mobile device