Try It, You Might Like It

Dear Grandma,
You know the phrase, "try it, you might like it"?  This gives new meaning to it.

Gavin and I were grocery shopping yesterday.  He likes to hold the newest item I am buying and chucks the other stuff in the back of the cart.  I was buying some deodorant.  I let him hold it.  He took the cap off.  He sniffed it.  He licked it.  He said, "I don't like it," with a scrunched up face.



He tried it, he didn't like it.

Love,
H

Traffic Jams

Dear Grandma,
I never thought of Omaha as a typical "big city".  To me, a big city has lots of skyscrapers, spaghetti-like highways and traffic.  Recently, it's felt like a big city here.... it takes about 45 minutes to get home after work.  Someone was super smart and decided to do road construction on most of the north-south bound streets that lead to the interstate.... all at the same time.  I would love to know whose idea that was....
































All of the yellow triangles = road work. 

I definitely see where road rage comes from.

Love,
H

Big

Dear Grandma,

We went fishing for Father's Day with Joe's dad.  It was fun - never thought I'd be into fishing, but I enjoyed seeing how it's done.  Gavin wasn't all that into it, but maybe as he gets older he will like it more.  Definitely made for some cute pictures.


Father and son - getting a lesson in fishing.

Though Gavin didn't catch this guy, we wanted it to look like he did.

Hanging out with mommy on the rocks by the lake - watching the ducks.

Three generations of Tureceks.

When asked how big the fish was that he "caught", like a true fisherman, Gavin extended his arms out as wide as he could and simply said, "big." 

Love,

H

Happy Dad's Day

Dear Grandma,

It's Father's Day this weekend.  I want to thank my dad for being a good father growing up.  He's always been sensitive and kind and has a good sense of humor.  I want to thank my husband for being such a good dad.  He's fun, caring and easy going. 

I know Gavin loves his daddy to bits and pieces (Joe trying to show him how to ride his new bike on his birthday - - had to take the bike back).


Gavins loves his Papa.....


...and Grandpa to pieces too.


I think this is a great picture of Joe and dad.  Ha.

Happy Father's Day!

Love,
H

Pool Stand-Offs

Dear Grandma,
Gavin's favorite thing to do in the backyard is to play in his pool. 

It's a little plastic baby pool, but you'd think Santa Claus lived there or something - he gets so excited to have his pool time.  However, we've had two stand-offs so far.  We tell him he can go outside and play in the pool after dinner, IF he eats all of his food.  I think he's using his selective hearing as he decides when he's done and then it's time to go outside to play.  Well, it breaks my heart, but we have to stick to our guns and tell him how much of what he needs to finish eating in order to go play in the pool.  One evening it was just half a meatball and another evening it was a piece of chicken.  Nothing monumental, it's just the principal of the matter.  He says, "no," we say, "ok, no pool."  He says, "pool please," we say, "eat your meatball."  Back and forth.  This went on for one hour one night.  Both times though, he finally ate what he was supposed to and then was rewarded with pool time.

I love seeing him splash around.  He rarely sits in the pool.  He prefers to ladle the water out and feed the flowers and plants. 

See, it's worth eating half a meatball to get to play in the water!

Love,

H

Dorothy and Domino Went To Church

Dear Grandma,
Remember when I used to have goldfish?  They never lived too long, but they were fun to have while they lasted.

Gavin has become interested in fish, turtles, birds, hamsters and so on.  It may have something to do with the fact that I've taken him to the pet store a few times.  His grandparents got him two goldfish as a surprise.  The first few days we had to keep his step stool at the counter so he could get up and down and check on them.  He did this about ten times a day.  He named them Dorothy and Domino. 

Dorothy and Domino had short lives though.  Their bowl may or may not have been cleaned with soap..... after being put back into the sparkling clean bowl, one of them stopped moving.  No glub, glub from the mouth, no flitting of the fins.  So, down that one went to its watery grave.  Less than an hour later, the other one went lifeless as well.  (We learn our lessons the hard way, don't we?)....

The fish at the top of the bowl is the one that died first.... the one at the bottom of the bowl was just trying to get away.  Ha.

The next morning, Gavin came to inspect his fish.  As soon as he looked at the bowl, he asked, "fishies?"  I told him that his fishies went to heaven to be with Jesus.  He thought for a second and then responded, "church?"  I love how kids make the cutest connections.  So yes, Dorothy and Domino went to church (I just love that).

That day, we went to the pet store and got two new fishies.  He had to hold them in their little plastic baggie like they were his favorite stuffed animal.  They sat on his lap on the way home and he clung tight to the bag.  What a good boy.

Not more than, oh, 1-2 days after that, one of the replacement fishies went belly up.  I noticed as Gavin was saying, "hi" to them before going to daycare, one wasn't moving.  So we're down to one fish now.  He's lived longer than the other three, so hopefully that is a good sign.

I don't think Gavin noticed that the third fishie went to church.

We just weren't meant to own fish!

Love,
H

Takes After Nana

Dear Grandma,
More and more, Gavin has traits emerging that are just like his Nana.....

He likes Cheerios
He likes chocolate ice cream
He likes applesauce
He's bossy (Nana admits she was bossy as a little girl - you would obviously know this)

They have definitely bonded over their likes.

Love,

H

Shim Project

Dear Grandma,
Here's a glimpse at one of my future art projects.



I will be using wooden shims.... more to come.  Have a good weekend!

Love,
H

Lucky Number 13

Dear Grandma,
Heidi and I rarely get to spend time together since I'm a wife and mom and we just have different schedules.  So, we decided to make it a plan to go to see Taylor Swift in concert when she came to town a few weeks ago.
Oh my gosh.  What a concert it was.  She's inspiring in how sweet and thankful she is.  Seems like the life of a rock star hasn't gone to her head - otherwise, I might not like her. 


It's good to be humble and grateful for what one has. 

Heidi and I had a great time.  It was nice to have an evening out as sisters.  Funny thing - Heidi was SO EXCITED for the concert, I was able to trick her three times that night.  At different times and places during the evening (not at the concert), I would point and yell, "Oh my gosh, there's Taylor Swift!!!"  She about fainted then realized it was a joke.  I did this on drive from dinner to the arena, again on the way to the arena and then after the concert in the parking garage.  Hilarous.

Speaking of being grateful, we are grateful for the tickets we received.  They were awesome seats and we had a memorable night.

Love,
H

P.S.  I guess Taylor's lucky number is 13.

A Few Of My Favorite Fuzzies

Dear Grandma,
I know you were severely allergic to dogs.  I am glad that I'm not as I really like the company of animals.  These are some of my favorite fuzzies!  And yes, I know they all grow up and aren't meant to be housepets!  Darn. 

A baby panda - so soft,cuddly and innocent looking! 


Newfoundland puppy - such a sweet face, I love the droopy eyes!  (Except they slobber just a little....)


St. Bernard puppy - I think I'm into "block headed" dogs with big heads, cute faces.  (The slobber thing again.)


A fluffy kitten - sweet and impish (but those kitten claws...ouch).
 

Baby polar bear - who can resist their powdery, soft fur?


A tiger cub - oversized paws are adorable.


There are many others, but I couldn't find good pictures for them - such as the Andean bear (they look like half dog/half raccoon) and baby penguins.

Love,
H

What I Like

Dear Grandma,
I think he knows his mama likes chubby cheeks.....

Love,
H

Fit for a Sailor

Dear Grandma,
I have been working on creating some things for my boy's new nautical bedroom theme.  It will be very boy, which = fun!  Here is one of the wall decor items I created.

The background is the words to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat...." painted over and over again.  Then I drew an outline of a boat and glued buttons along the pencil markings.  I painted the inside of the sail and boat bottom to cover up the song lyrics.  And voila!  I think it's whimsical and fitting for a sailor boy!

Love,
H

Cupcake Art

Dear Grandma,
Recently I created this easy little piece of artwork.  I like to call it cupcake art (they look like jellyfish though too).

Materials:

canvas

cupcake wrappers of different sizes (and/or coffee filters)

glue

spray paint

1.  Arrange cupcake wrappers on canvas then glue them down.

2.  Spray paint all over top and sides.

3.  Allow to dry.

Do you like the hands in the picture?  I think they give the picture a little something extra.  Ha.

Love,

H

Paging Miss Crabby Pants

Dear Grandma,
I was so tired after work yesterday, I could have honestly fallen asleep driving.  I had no good reason for being so exhausted.  I did not overextend myself during the day, I thought I had slept good the night before..... I just don't know.  I met Joe and Gavin at Home Depot to look at paint colors for the basement and Gavin's bedroom.  I was completely dragging my feet, having to concentrate to move each muscle.  Pathetic. 

We arrived in the paint section and looked at the overwhelming amount of choices (we've done this many a time before, but it seemed to be more tedious this go round).  The lady behind the paint counter asked if we needed assistance.  She was kind to offer.  We told her we were trying to pick out a paint color.  Doing her best to help us with such a broad task, she pointed out every paint kiosk on the wall.  Immediately, I felt annoyed.  You know that feeling of wanting to lash out or cut someone off mid-sentence because you cannot bear to hear another word?  I felt like that - like, duh, we see all of the other millions of paint swatches surrounding us.... thanks for pointing them out.  She continued to grate on my every nerve when she came up behind me and started passing what seemed like every paint "inspiration" pamphlet that Behr paint produced to me so that I knew all of my options.  During this time, she was also helping Joe pick out the right kind of primer for the drywall and in between her going down the aisle to help him and back to the paint counter, she would throw in her ideas on this and that.  Gavin was sitting in the cart "stocking up" on Gorilla tape - which just so happened to be displayed right next to him.  I didn't care that he was filling the cart with Gorilla tape as I was growing more and more agitated with this paint lady.  I had never been to Home Depot's paint department when there was actually someone there to provide assistance - they are usually swamped or missing in action. 

What added to my crankiness was the feeling of a group of bang hairs sticking out away from the rest of the pack along with my underwear squeezing at my leg joints - completely uncomfortable.

I knew I was not interacting with the paint lady like I normally would, politely and in a friendly way.  I was in an I don't care mood.  Then I saw how well she was treating Gavin - she had won him over because she was so friendly and nice.  She was making an effort to talk to him, ask him how old he is, etc.  She mentioned that she has a grandson and then showed us pictures.  She was a proud grandma. 

We started to connect.  She had been trying her hardest to provide excellent customer service, and it took her showing an interest in Gavin and relating to us for me to give her a chance?  Gees.  That is not like me.  I can usually recognize good customer service from the get go.  I think I saw Gavin enjoying the paint lady and realized I was missing out on something because I was feeling tired and crabby.  It's very easy to do but totally not worth it. 

Still dragging my feet a bit on the way to the cashier stand, my eyes met with another Home Depot employee.  He was in a wheelchair and had no legs from the knees down.  His whole face smiled.  My gosh.  Why must it take such a wake up call to look inward? 

I am selfish.  It's not right to be aggrevated with someone else just because of my own feelings.  Who's to say what the paint lady had been through before we got there, yet she was extremely kind and helpful.  The employee in the wheelchair is physically handicapped but seemed fully joyful. 

I will definitely think about this and I hope to become a better person - I know I have a lot of room for growth.

Oh, and this is the paint color we chose, with thanks to the paint lady.  :)



Love,
H

Making Summer Memories

Dear Grandma,
Summer used to mean coming to see you - driving or flying to Florida to spend a few weeks with my favorite people, my grandparents!  Going to the pool, showing off new toys, doing fashion shows in the living room, going to restaurants at 4:30 for dinner.  It was fun. 

I want Gavin to feel that kind of summer fun.  He's fortunate, both sets of his grandparents are only 10-15 minutes from our house.  He wants to go back to their houses each time we leave - as soon as we hit the car, he says, "more nana's house/more grandma's house?"  I love that he loves being with them.

I love making memories with and for him.  Two year olds get excited about everything, it's a happy and contagious excitement.  Some of the summer memories I want to make with him.....

• Plenty of trips to the zoo to see the gorillas and polar bears
• Lots of time in the driveway drawing roosters with sidewalk chalk at his request
• Many bubble blowing sessions in the backyard where he tries to pop as many as he can

• Picnics at his plastic picnic table underneath the big tree by the back patio
• Dinners on the patio with the white lights strung above our heads
• Art projects at the kitchen table when it's just too hot to be outside

• Digging and exploring in the green turtle sandbox, one that is exactly like the one I had as a girl
• Wagon rides to the park so we can slide down the slides together
• Splash time in the baby pool out back when we need to cool down

These are a few of my favorite things to look forward to -- sometimes the simplest things make for the best memories.

Love,
H