Lisa Heuer

Maidenform was back tonight.  New color-it must be the new fall line.  

so, how does it happen?  I wonder these things when I see a grumpy man standing outside of Ikea waiting for it to open.  He is lifting his watch to the window and yelling through the window that they are late.  The employees open the door and say good morning and he mumbles, “you’re late.”  What happened to him?

I wonder if being grumpy is worth the extra energy?  Or is it the other way around… does it take more energy to be pleasant?

I was grumpy yesterday.  I wasn’t actually grumpy, I was irritated.  It was 4pm-the worst time of the day for me.  Zoe was pounding out her piano practice and arguing with me when I tried to show her the music and where she was making a mistake.  She couldn’t stop whining and then she was hanging on me and putting her hands in my hair.  Then she made Zane mad by messing with his trains and he was making loud noises and hanging on my legs because he wanted me to fix what Zoe’s messed up.  It was all too much at the moment.  I was tired, a headache was making headway and I just needed something quiet.  I went to my room and locked the door and told the kids that I need some quiet time.

I wasn’t being grumpy-I was still trying to be pleasant.  Is that an oxymoron?  I just told them the truth… I need some time alone.  They didn’t respect that at first and tried to unlock my door.  BUT, I have a top latch on my door, also known as the love lock.  (Sorry, was I not supposed to say that?)  I latched that baby, went to my bed where nobody could touch me, talk loudly too close to my ear, whine, or make me do anything.  It was bliss for a moment or two…

Grumpiness is still something I wonder about.  Isn’t it a choice?  If you are grumpy now, what happens when you are the guy at the door at Ikea? 

I will stop referring to it as Emerald Cove… I didn’t know what else to call it but now I know that it is situated in Parker, AZ and that sounds more like the truth.  It was no Emerald and it was not a cove.  I want to remember its reality in case there is ever a day when I rely on this for a full mental picture.

There was one cool thing.  We went for a drive to get out of the heat one day.  We couldn’t drive around long enough (meaning until the sun went down) but we did come across a super cool (and scary), completely picture worthy scene.  I asked Tim to stop.  Reluctantly he did but agreeing to go up with me was not in the cards.  I had a pep talk with myself that went something like this, “OK, I can do this.  If I ever want to call myself a photographer…

I carefully walked toward this abandoned house/store-not sure what it was.  I was sure that a rattlesnake would come out of nowhere, upset that I had invaded his house.  I was also certain that there were land traps or combustion traps.  I made it safely to the scene while Tim and the kids sat in the AC and enjoyed honking at me after a few minutes of no return.

Here is what I saw.  It was eerie-not sure why.  My mind told me all sorts of stories about what it was. 

(oh wow, things look so much different when I post here.  Color, exposure, ok everything is tweaked.  Oh well, its just Parker.)

I got brave and walked around, curious.  I tiptoed.  It was stupid.  I took all sorts of pictures of things that would not pass a construction inspection.   It was cool and fun but to save myself ultimate boredom, I will put a few.

What I really was after was the bus/RV.  I couldn’t tell what it was due to the condition.  I got as close as I could without walking on stuff but it wasn’t good enough. 

I looked around and saw that I could go around the back of the building and get closer to the bus.  My heart started racing.  Why?  Well, it was the stories in my head.  Something was going to get me.  : )  I carefully walked around the back and it paid off because I killed the curiosity.  It was an RV. 

So, what does that tell you about my vacation if this was the highlight?

I promised a recap… I had to recover before I had to regurgitate my
experience.
We showed up, 12:00pm appt with Betsy apparently was overbooked for
the 12 so we ended up with another very nice gal. Sales tactics
started up but the sad thing is that we knew we were NOT going to buy
before she even started. Should we have just told her? Anyhow it was
a bunch of, "you get this and that and a discount on this and such and
such for only $59 and your kids this and that. And, you need to decide
today. It is either for you or not for you, we don't allow you to
'think about it' so which package are you interested in?"
Ah, very clever. She never asked if we wanted to purchase or not she
just asked which package we wanted to purchase. Then, back-up guy came
in and again tried to convince us that we were passing up something
incredible. He said things like, "its only $100 per month," and,
"that's too bad, you guys are the perfect fit for this.".
We just wanted to say NO thank you.
But they don't think you mean it until you say it 3 times.
So, needless to say, once the "presentation" was over I was ready to
go. I didn't want to bake in a desert lot anymore. I can do that in
queen creek. I enjoyed the evenings but it wasn't enough to keep us
there. We packed up early and decided to head home.
We did tet a gift-5 more trips to the same place BUT can't be used on
weekends or holidays. So, pretty much it isn't a gift but that's ok,
they like to use the gift as leverage when they tell you what they are
doing for you.
It was hard to say no. It is hard to disappoint someone, especially
after they spend 90 minutes telling you about how cool it is. But
again, isn't that part of sales? They don't let you say no until the
very end when it is harder to say no.
I am tired just typing this-its hot and I kind of wish we would have
used this weekend we had to go to the mountains!

–
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www.lisaheuerphotography.com

When we bought our trailer, we were kindly awarded 20 nights at this
place called Emerald Cove on the Colorado River. The pictures looked
amazing-gree, fresh, cool, water, water, water… Kids club, golf,
karaoke, and much more. Well, here we are at Emerald Cove and we seem
to be one of only 2 guests. Hmmm. Does the rest of the RV owner world
know something that we don't?
We later learned that part of our 20 nights free is a requirement to
attend a 90 minute presentation. Ah-hah. They sell annual memberships
to this place and that is precisely what they hope to get from us by
giving us 20 nights.
How could I possibly consider purchasing a membership to something
that has a twin sister temperature to the place I just came from?
That is not vacation! Thank goodness for RV hook-ups and the AC. Yes,
the evening weather was perfect and my rest was great but I know what
lies ahead this afternoon.
Last night we arrived and celebrated Zoe's 7th birthday. She was
appreciative of her few gifts and the gift of a redecorated room soon
to come. We swam, ate some penne pasta with yummy cream sauce, had
some brownies, one with a special birthday girl candle and then hit
the sack at about 9:45. I can never seem to do that at home so it felt
good-I was tired.
Today we attend the show, excuse me, the presentation. This should be
interesting to see what the kids do for 90 minutes! I will be sure to
give an update to take note of my experience. For now, it's read a
book and enjoy this beautiful morning weather until it becomes sickly
hot afternoon weather.

–
Sent from my mobile device

www.lisaheuerphotography.com

I have a feeling that there will be many posts in my life about prayers. 

Today, I got such a clear answer to a prayer that there was no way I could deny the gift and clarity.  I was going to add lots of words, actually I did.  I wanted to share my experience, like a missionary loving the Gospel.  I wanted to let everyone know that my simple prayer was answered; prayers are answered.  Well, I couldn’t shout out so the closest thing I could do was get out my favorite little orange piece of technology (Blackberry) and start a post to my blog so I could record what I experienced, what I felt and all the details. 

I went back and deleted and decided to keep this simple.  I suppose it is personal and sacred, just for me.  Today was an answer to a prayer.  It was incredible to feel the love and awareness that Heavenly Father has for me.

I am sitting here in my little (did I mention little) “hobby” room.  I love the crisp feel in here-new floors, new paint, and new baseboards.  It is refreshing and inspiring to me.  It leaves me with the ability to do something new in here.  I was catching up on blogs while waiting for my next appointment and one link took me to Mormon Messages…

It struck a cord today and has inspired the beginning of this Saturday.  The last quote was awesome…

~Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.

Then I watched further (as my first appointment needed to change times I found that I have an hour to spare with a babysitter keeping the kids busy downstairs), clicked on more messages to see what I have been missing and saw this one (also a link on nieniedialogues)

It is kind of cool to see these little messages.  There are all sorts of messages on all different topics.  Cool way to start my day.

Zane came home from preschool with his first official craft.  “Mom, its a monkey,” he said and I could see that.  Then he wanted me to touch the brown pipe cleaner tail.  As I touched it he said, “Mom isn’t it cozy?”  He has been carrying little monkey around with him for 2 days now.  He even took monkey to bed with him.  I think he is proud of his creation.  Mr. Monkey’s head sort of bit the dust so we had to tape it back on.  Zane didn’t mind one bit-I think it is because the cozy tail is still hanging on!

Meet Monkey and the Cozy Tail…

I am taking a new class and using “monkey” as my subject.  He is doing good so far.  Monkey is a good subject because he never complains about the amount of time I need from him.  He doesn’t even move.  I can practice all sorts of stuff and he sits there without a word of complaint.  Thank you Monkey and the Cozy Tail!

Tim and I picked up Zoe for lunch today.  Isn’t it funny how please kids are to see you for lunch?  I love it-the simplicities of life.  Anyhow, during lunch, her front tooth (which has been very loose for some time now) started to bleed.  We were trying to convince her to pull it but  she wasn’t ready.  BUT, the minute she walked in the door from school, she headed to her bathroom, sat close to the mirror and started working on that darn tooth.

After some setbacks and frustration, she conquered!

Zoe was at our bedside this morning asking for help with a ponytail in
her hair. I rolled over to confirm that the night wasn't over and sure
enough, I still had time to sleep-it was only 5:30. Tim told her that
it was too early to wake-up and her comment, "I wanted to wake up
early so I could have time to play on the computer."

Well, if you thought I was on the computer too much, you haven't met
Tim but I can assure you that neither of us would ever wake one hour
early to have time to play on the computer.

–
Sent from my mobile device

www.lisaheuerphotography.com