Heyes Family

Stephen has always teased me about the Americans and their funny obsession with senior pictures.  (The English are supposedly too modest for the whole ordeal.) So, when I got ahold of these photos that where taken at his work for a productions project, I couldn’t't resist posting them.  So, Stephen finally got his photo shoot, and although I’m sure he will never admit it,  I think he actually kind of enjoyed it.   Oh, and he looks pretty cute, course, maybe I’m just partial, he being my husband and all. 

We had two wonderful, fun-filled weeks with Gramma Mary here.  We where so busy every day doing all sorts of fun things!  We shopped a lot, played outside, went to parks, and even to the Children’s museum.  The kids are adjusting to not having 100% gramma attention, and mommy is trying to adjust to 100% mommy time again. We hope she comes back soon! Click to Flickr for all the Fun!

Kristian’s crazy gramma trick, Erin’s CUTE new raincoat set, and Gramma and Erin at the Children’s Museum.

Two little monkeys in grammas bed, Erin the Gnome (complements of daddy), and fun with friends at the Museum!

Well, this mornings art project turned out pretty cute, but unfortunately, it was a major headache, which consisted of me yelling at Kristian not to use too much glue, which was then shortly followed by  a temper tantrum which lasted for the rest of the morning!  Ugh… I really do know the true meaning of “terrible twos!”

Yesterday was our 5th anniversary and so I surprised Ste by having Cindy Pheifer make us an identical cake topper to what she made for our wedding!  We never got to eat ours, because it was stashed in Krishers freezer, and then was too old by the time we finally made it back to the farm.  So it was a lovely treat!  We just had a relaxing evening with mom here.  So here is us… 5 years after the fact…. and the result of 5 years together!

So, It turns out that Home Depot installed the wrong color carpet!  When the installer was here doing it, I thought, “hmmm that looks darker than I remembered,” but I  just thought it was down to the florescent lighting in the store, etc.  But when Ste came home, he confirmed my doubts… The carpet installed was MUCH darker than we ordered.  In-fact it was brown, and we had ordered a cream sort of color.  So, we called up Home Depot, and to make a long story short, they have a VERY impressive customer service department that arranged for the RIGHT color carpet to be installed within the same week!  So… Here is the finished guest room, all decked out with some of our African souvenirs.  And this big comfortable bed is waiting for mom to arrive in 3 days!!!

Well, Spring is in the Air, and we couldn’t be more excited!  Spring brings the opportunity to play outside!

Tea Anyone?  Here are my little British children, caught up in one of their favorite activities!

 And we are excited about getting another room finished in the house!  We had carpet installed in one of the upstairs bedrooms this morning..  the kids think it is a great new place to read books!

So, Kristin has moved to the next level in his potty training!  He is now doing his “big job” on the potty chair too!  Also, we have been out of the house several times with NO accidents!  So, of course, this makes mummy VERY happy! Yesterday Erin wanted to be in on some of the excitement too, and insisted on wearing some of Kristians y-fronts…  but she has no clue…  just wets all the time.   

I also decided to buy a clippers and try to cut Kristians hair myself, partly due to the fact that I hate paying $10 for a little boy haircut, and partly because Sandy was flabbergasted that I hadn’t already tried it. It turned out pretty short, but Ste likes it, and says the it makes him look like a Royal Marine

I had a VERY fun and relaxing trip with the girls to IKEA over the weekend!  When I got back , Ste and the Kids where still all in one piece too!  I purchased a bunch of storage containers, baskets and matching potty chairs for Kristian and Erin, since they where only $3 a piece.  It may be too soon to get excited, but Kristian has shown a GREAT interest in the new potties, and went 3 times in a row this afternoon!!!!  So, here are the photos to prove the success!  Flick Link for all photos!

Well, I am really regretting not taking pictures of this project from the VERY beginning, so those of you who didn’t see the house the way it was when we bought it will have to use your imagination a little!  There where three closets backing onto each-other, that where really pretty useless, so one day Stephen came up with the idea to knock out the internal walls, making those three closets into one big pantry!  Who was I to complain!  So, the project has been in process for quite some time now, but recently Ted helped us get the lights and switches wired in, we got the plastering/skimming done, and Stephen built the shelves.  He is currently in the process of painting them all…  Also, the counter top is in place, and this weekend, I get to do the best part of the project… Go shopping at Ikea for containers and baskets to help organise the food items that will be put on the shelves!   So, of course we will post pictures of the finished product, but here is a little preview… compete with the kids favorite new activity… hide and seek in the cupboards.  They better enjoy it while it lasts, cuz pretty soon that’s going to be mommy’s haven!

Hip Hip Horray…. I finally got the job!  For those or you who don’t know anything about this, I will start from the beginning!   Since we moved to Wisconsin, I have been working as a nurse assistant for an agency as I have to wait to take some tests before I can practice as a nurse here in the States.  Anyhow, working for the agency has been OK, but the work has not been overly reliable, and sometimes the only shifts they have for me have been a long ways away, or night shifts.  That was all OK until Christmas, and then the shifts dried up all together…  leaving me with no work, for almost a month.  So, I decided to do a little job hunting, and amazingly enough, I found out that a little place down the road was hiring!  I never knew about the place before now, but it is a small assisted living home right here on Jacobsen Road.  Well, I was thinking, “This is really too good to be true… have I really found a job only 300 yards from my front door???”  Well, it turns out it was true, and the details just kept on getting better.   After a rather unusual application and interview process, I got the job, and was generously offered the very practical hours of 5-9 or 11pm.  It will most likely be a 5 day week, working every other weekend.  But, again, I couldn’t believe luck, as these hours means that Stephen will be home before I have to leave for work… and I will actually be home at a reasonable hour, so I can still have some time with my husband in the evenings. ;-)  AND, I’m extra excited about the fact that it only takes about one minute to get there, so there is virtually no gas expense or wasted commuting time. (In the summer I will walk… making it about a 5 minute commute… everyone who has experienced a Wisconsin winter will know that walking right now is out of the question ) Oh I am SO happy that this has all worked out!  Yippee….  so, yes, this is me.. in my new uniform… all excited!