Play while you Play

Work while you work,
Play while you play,
This is the way
To be happy each day.

All that you do,
Do with your might,
Things done by half
Are never done right.

-Nursery Rhyme

We may have been in Idaho to remodel a house and get it on the market, but Mommy and Zoey needed a little time for play.  Play with a four year old is never boring, but sometimes draining.  I'm grateful Zoey has a few aunts and uncles around to help keep things going when Mom has crashed.

While home we were back to the daily grind of renovations, there was always time in the evenings to go to Grandma and Grandpa's (Memoo and Papa) and visit, oh and play with Rufus of course...

...the races with Chrissy, Karlie and Bianca.....

 ...take trips to the park and have water fights in the back yard.

The slides are her favorite.

The end of June we took our annual trip to Ogden for the D.C.  Although we were there for a specific purpose, we weren't going to pass up a chance to make it a full vacation.  My sister, Chrissy, and I thoroughly enjoyed taking Zoey to Cherry Hill, our old stomping grounds, to ride the water rides.  She rode each one fearlessly, including Cardiac Canyon, a wild tube ride down waterfalls  and through twisty canyons.  At the end she declared it was fun, but she wouldn't be going down it a second time.  Her favorites were the blue tube slides and a pirate ship where she play-steered the ship then ran periodically down stairs to check the map and change course.

One day after the D.C. in Ogden, my other siblings Karlie, Micah, and his wife Jessica joined us for the Dinosaur Park adventure.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the fossils and life sized replicas of dinosaurs artfully displayed amongst dense vegetation.  

The work on the house was not over in July as I had hoped, but we still had many wonderful days of fun ahead of us.  Although we had already bid farewell to our poultry, we did get to foster a neat little rooster for a week (he loved to perch as near us as possible, which was often my head); and  we loved the cool little 20's dress-up dinner party hosted by Karlie and Bianca...

 


...days in the canyon with friends and family.....

with Barbara and Joe's little ones.

...the county fair and Zoey riding her first pony...

...and of course our own petting zoo.

 There were so many great moments this summer.  When we worked, we worked hard; and when we played, we played hard.  The only sadness was that I was only able to share most of these experiences with my loving husband, John, via pictures, but at least we had that.  I hope all my friends, family, and if you're reading this and I don't know you, I hope you too had a wonderful, fun filled summer too.

Everything Changes

"Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one."   -Hans Syle

Catalpa Tree in the Park

I've never been brilliant at dealing with stress, but I'm guessing few people are.  I'm a planner who relies greatly on the strength of my husband and when you change the plans or take my husband out of the equation, I stress.

In the last eight months the road of life has brought me many stressful situations but I've come out on top of them all (some less gracefully than others).   All the while my husband, John, has taken every change, every disappointment, every challenge with determined persistence and grace.  I look to him for support and he is always there in word, deed and example.  But still, sometimes it was not easy for lil ol' me:

Stress #1 : Big Changes

The hint of big changes to come was the moment John received word that he had been accepted for a position in Texas.  We didn't know when he would be leaving so we held our breath as all things were "processing".  One afternoon he was informed he would have to make the 2-3 day drive in less than two weeks.  It was official, our life was changing, and fast!

Ocotillo Cactus at Monahans

Stress #2: My Partner Gone

Those two weeks flew buy faster than I knew possible and I tearfully watched him walk out the door not knowing when we would see each other again.  With the help of my Aunt, I quickly threw a yard sale to take advantage of the waning good weather and continued to work for another four weeks, all the while juggling being a mom.  I concluded that single mothers are super heroes (and I have only one child comparing to some other mothers).

Stress #3: New Experiences and Break Downs

We scheduled for John and I to meet in San Antonio so I could both visit him and Texas for the first time.  I was a bit nervous not having flown alone, but found the whole process quite easy.  Upon arrival in San Antonio, John's truck quit working and we ended up towing it to a garage and taking a rental car.  Our arrival in San Angelo found us canvasing the town for a motel room and paying twice what we should have for a hole in the wall. I wanted to stress, and did a bit, but I endeavored to focus on enjoying my trip despite hick-up we had encountered in our plans, and the trip became enjoyable. Upon leaving John in Sonora, TX, I found a roach motel room waiting for me in San Antonio and after a few minutes of "freaking out", I focused, got my refund and found a better room elsewhere.   In the end it all worked out. (Isn't it funny how it always does?)

A trip to Tucson was a good practice run for the longer drive I would be making when Zoey and I finally moved.  My usual position was passenger, so being the driver was a whole new experience for such a long trip. I found that my little girl was a gem and despite the fact I never payed much attention to the road before, our new GPS on our phones worked wonders showing me the way, including redirecting me when I took the wrong exit in Vegas during rush hour, and the trip couldn't have gone smoother.

Stress #4: The Fork in the Road

After four months away from my husband, tackling house renovations, and numerous other changes in our life along the way, I left for Texas early in January.  Half way through the trip John informed me that I would be meeting him in Midland, Texas instead of Sonora, Texas and we would have little to no income for about a month during the transition. "Okay", I said to myself, "change in plans instead of heading South at the junction I head North." That was it, change my driving route,  these different plans and circumstances were no more than a little bump in the road this time, a little wrinkle to be smoothed out. And it all did smooth out, soon John was back to work, the bills were caught up, and I had settled into this new city.

Conclusion:

Pump near my house, the sky was so yellow.

As I contemplate going back to Idaho, I'm dreading the coming months of sorting through the last of my stuff and preparing my house for the real estate market.  I remember the piles of boxes left behind in my living room and  I can only hope the house repairs will go uneventfully with a bright shiny house as the end product with a line of potential buyers at my door.  Even if it isn't what I want; even if it takes longer than expected, even if there are more repairs than I had imagined, even if the house takes a while to sell, I vow to take this stress as confidently as possible.  Focusing on the end results, I will remember that someday all this will be a distant memory, a bump in the road, and I will enjoy the journey.