where does the time go?

it has been a literal age since i've posted. and, as usual, so much has happened that it will take a lot of writing to convey it all. so, i thought i might use this as our new year's/valentine's day letter. normal people like to write christmas letters. but, let's be honest, we heaners are not normal people.

i know it's not going to be surprising when i say that this past year has been one of both joy and sadness, gain and loss, triumph and... well... not-so-triumphant. because that's life. it's a mingle, a divine mish-mash. a glorious, terrifying mess and all the more beautiful for it.

we spent a good portion of this year just settling into marriage. we figured out that it takes a lot of work to maintain a healthy, loving spousal relationship -- it's even more work than long-distance dating. but even the hardest of the hard stuff in our life together has been full of beauty, joy and reward beyond measure. we laugh together. we trust each other. we forgive one another. we never run out of things to talk about. we like each other. a lot. it's easily been the best year of either of our lives. as cliche as that might sound, it's the gulldurned truth. yeah... being married is good business.

i started school in september. i was a little bit rusty and rather full of trepidation, but i made the dean's list in that first semester back. and that while working 30-35 hours a week and taking 12 credits. i'm bragging a little, but mostly i feel relieved. i also feel really grateful for a kind, generous husband. tim helped so much around the house and gave me space to study and freak out and study some more. next semester, for various reasons, i've decided to only take one 5-credit course. striking a balance has never been one of my strong suits. it always takes a while for me to get comfortable...

speaking of which, tim changed jobs twice this year. he was working at engen power products, managing the shop for the industrial battery supplier. when he finally landed a construction job in july, they were sad to see him go. but go he did, to a company called solid construction. the long-awaited construction job was less than ideal, though. it required a lot of traveling. and entry-level pay is... well... entry level. tim gave it a good go, but after three months, we decided that the impact the job was having on our little family was just too much. so, after a lot of deliberation, he decided he wanted to make a proposal to his previous employer, EPP. he met with the owner and explained what he wanted to do. the owner was more than agreeable, gave tim a raise and welcomed him back quite happily. tim's now the shop manager and in charge of increasing communication and efficiency in the company (so up his alley!). i couldn't be prouder of him.

now we're both back in school, though each of us is only taking one class. i'm taking spanish (still working, albeit slowly, on finishing that B.A.) and tim is taking psychology (working on a business degree).

we spent our one-year anniversary in myrtle beach, south carolina. the word lovely doesn't cover it. we spent nearly every day either at the beach or one of the many resort pools. we visited georgetown and walked the spanish-moss-draped historic streets.

(in georgetown, sc)
a really big (and apparently scary) gator

we saw too many alligators and crocodiles to make a girl comfortable. we ate great seafood and went to a really fancy restaurant called the library (it smelled like old books and creaky leather mingled with fresh rosemary and garlic -- perfect for this girl). we walked on boardwalks. we watched sunrises. we saw pods of dolphins. we read and played games and watched cable tv. we talked a lot and made some big decisions:

1) tim was going to quit his construction job (see above)
2) we were going to start trying to have a baby (yes. a baby.)
3) we were going to start looking for a house (yes. a house.)

we're still looking for a house. the baby's due august 18th, 2011. we are so excited. and blessed. and the teensiest bit nervous. i feel great. i haven't had any morning sickness so far, and though i'm often tired, i feel so happy that the exhaustion doesn't totally register. tim's reading a ton of fathering books, and i'm reading just as many birthing books. it's fun to research things together. also, we have incredibly generous friends. as soon as they found out we were pregnant, they started loading us up with lovely baby items. the news hasn't even been out that long.

what gains we've experienced this year have been tempered by loss. we lost two grandfathers this year. tim's maternal grandpa, lawrence joyce, passed away just before mother's day. we miss his singing, his laughter and his storytelling. his passing is a loss to those of us who remain behind. we are comforted by the knowledge that it was his time. and he went so peacefully home to Jesus. my paternal grandpa, clyde kieffer, passed away just before thanksgiving. he had five sons and each was able to spend time with him in the hospital before he passed away. much healing came from those final days together. i miss him in unexpected moments. now that he's passed on, i find that he occupied a large space in my heart. i know i'll see him again, but that now-empty space does ache sometimes.

grandma ruth and grandpa lawrence joyce

grandpa clyde kieffer

i think that's enough news for now. i promise to be better about posting this year. there will be so much to tell.

much love from the heaners.

the first christmas

here we are. the year 2010. tim + i made it past the buffeting of the holidays, our hair + emotional capacity a little worse for the wear, but otherwise breathlessly grateful. contented, even.


we didn't mean to, but ended up doing four christmases. five, if you include the one that we celebrated "just for us." mel + cody were home from princeton. rachel was home from montana. we just really didn't want to miss anything. i will say, though, that this year was quite a bit less hectic than the previous one.


the tuesday before christmas, we went to a singalong that grandma joyce led at the pines (their senior living community). it was awesome. i mean it. then we went back to mom heaner's place to exchange gifts + consume mass quantities of christmas cookies baked by rachel + linda. uncle peter was there, too. we missed having jonathan in the mix, though... dang, we miss that guy!

we celebrated christmas eve with mark + kathy. just us + them in burnsville. we ate the best beef stew i've ever had, exchanged gifts, laughed a lot. then we went to the christmas eve service at their church + afterward drove around to look at christmas lights.

it was snowing like crazy when tim + i left for north minneapolis. in fact, i can't remember a whiter christmas than 2009's.

christmas eve night we spent at home, lights low, christmas tree + candles glowing. we read the christmas story out loud to one another. i cried at the part where john leapt in elizabeth's womb when she heard mary's voice. that part makes me cry every single time. i don't know why, exactly. but i love it.

christmas morning, we woke up + sang happy birthday to jesus (just like we always did when i was growing up) + had birthday cake for breakfast. we opened our stockings + our gifts to each other. we laid on the couch + just enjoyed being with one another. it was lovely.

then around noon, we left for momma k's house. kim + mitch, mel + cody, mom + the heaners. it was quite a crowd. we ate a feast fit for kings, drank lots of wine, played board games, took lots of pictures + talked our heads off. a very kieffer christmas.

we got to spend a night on the town with melody to celebrate her birthday (ON her actual birthday, no less!). matt's bar for juicy lucy's -- tim's first ever -- then to psycho suzie's for tots + some very strong tropical drinks.

on sunday following melody's birthday, we went to tom + elle's to celebrate with mel + cody, kelly + art + maddy + adam. good food, adorable kids, fun gift swap/steal.

for new year's eve, we had our friends bud + rachel cushing + kim kieffer over. we played board games, watched monty python, drank lots, ate even more + had a generally rowdy + amazing time. the perfect way to ring in the new decade.

this past weekend, after celebrating the first decade of the new millennium, we spent some lovely time with the adam + sarah kieffer clan, went to a housewarming party for our dear friend, rachel, and finally made a stop at our neighborhood library.

we've been meaning to visit the library for months now. tim needed a library card. and i needed the comfort of being surrounded by shelves and shelves of nothing but books. (i could never, ever switch to kindle. sorry amazon.) our library is in an abandoned brewery. i know... right? how much happier a place could there possibly be?


sunday, we stayed at home the whole day. we read our new library books, watched a kung fu movie (i heart donnie yen) + ate leftovers. it was lovely. i felt completely relaxed + so connected to tim.


today is the coldest day of the winter so far + i've a flat tire to show for it. i made it to work just fine. but was alerted to the deflation by a concerned co-worker. i'm glad it didn't pop on the highway. i'm endlessly glad for a husband kind enough to offer to drive to plymouth from fridley + change it for me in the subzero temperatures. stinkin' cars. stinkin' tires. gracious God. loving husband.


i've been thinking all day about how much things have changed for us since we got married. in some ways (all the best ways), nothing at all has changed. we still like each other. i mean, really, genuinely like each other. we still laugh at all the same ridiculous jokes we laughed at before. we still like to hold hands. kissing hasn't lost any of its appeal.


really, though, our love for each other HAS changed. i remember thinking on our wedding day that i couldn't imagine loving tim any more than i did at that moment in time. but i DO love him more. i loved him then with every part of my heart + mind. but now that love is a part of my very body. i love him in my bones if that makes any sense. i'm doing a terrible job of describing it. mostly, i think, because it's a mystery to me. but i like it. i like our love. and i think that's a good thing.

lazy sundays

yesterday was lovely.

tim + i decided to be heathens for the day. we skipped church, slept in + generally indulged our need to just be together. no appointments, no dinner plans, no interruptions... just us in our little apartment... enjoying each other on a sunny december sunday.

on our last date night, we went and got our first christmas tree. it was such a perfect evening. we went to the most unromantic place possible to pick out our tree: the home depot. but it was a slow night there. so we pretty much had the store (and the tree lot) to ourselves. it was snowing, those big, quiet flakes that fall so slowly you can almost see them dancing, and the orange-y parking lot lights made it seem like we were in a really huge snow globe.

the tree lot attendants were so adorable when we told them that it was our first tree. they cut off a little bit of the trunk for a "fresh cut" and saved the little cutting for us. they said we should make an ornament of it... isn't that the cutest? good grief... it's the home depot!

anyhow, we decided to wait to decorate the tree until we had a little more time to really enjoy it.

so, on sunday, after a leisurely breakfast, i turned on some christmas tunes, made some hot cocoa + we were off. it was really fun to dig out all the old ornaments, passed to us from our loving moms. i have one of those "baby's first christmas" ones from 1978, a glitter-bespangled wooden star of david that i made in kindergarten, a hollowed-out egg with papier mache all over it (probably made in my brownies/girl scout days), and a noodle angel. tim had this gorgeous hand-blown glass tree topper. and i have to say, our tree is just perfect. it's short + fat + full of all the wonder-filled memories of christmases past. tim + i laughed + told stories + laughed some more.

after tree decorating, we did some thank you notes (still working on them from the wedding -- we're such slackers!), some laundry, some dishes, some cooking... i started work on some christmas gifts that i'm sewing. we snuggled up on the couch + watched part of the very depressing vikings game. and we finished up season 4 of lost. yes. we're addicts.

and then, to end the day of luxuriation in style, i took a very, very long, very, very hot shower.

it was a perfect sunday. perfect.

good grief!

i've been slacking off... it's been nearly a month since my last post.

yesterday was the two month marker of being a married woman. tim was saying that sometimes it feels like we've been married two minutes, and sometimes it feels like two years. and he's right. it seems so natural to be together. but so new, too.

blah, blah, mushy stuff, blah. the point is, we're married. it's going well. we still like each other a lot. and from all accounts, that's a good sign.

we've been working our financial plan for the past month. it's gone pretty well. i've enjoyed the challenge of living on cash only. and i really appreciate all the communication that is necessary to make a budget (and a marriage) work.

the past few weeks have been s o . d a n g e d . b u s y ! we scheduled ourselves solid and found that it was really taking a toll on our energy + physical health, not to mention our mental health. tim came down with a cold. and i ended up in the emergency room on monday -- i have the i.v. bruises to prove it! we're both okay now. lesson learned.

we've begun a TIME budget... just being intentional about alone time, together time, family time + friends time. we'll see how it goes. but if the money budget is any indication, i'm looking forward to a serious reduction in stress levels for both of us.

we're hosting thanksgiving at our house this year for the moms, the joyce grandparents, uncle peter (mom h's younger brother -- a recent addition to the MN-dwellers), mom k's friend + former client, marge. hopefully, kim + boyfriend, mitch, will be able to stop by. but even without their company, we'll have a full house.

i was planning on brining the turkey, but realized the only place that's protected from the elements + still cool enough to store the turkey is the spider-infested garage. yep. brining is out. so i've switched to a orange rosemary recipe (though, per usual, i will depart from said recipe rather widely). i'm pretty excited about it.

i'm a little nervous about the gravy + the stuffing. historically, my attempts at gravy made rather poor showings. and i never eat the stuffing, so i'm fairly inept at making it.

* m m e h *

i guess that's what "the joy of cooking" is for.

i still have a whole bunch of hawaii pictures to post. AAANNNND all of our wedding pictures.

p.s. if you took pictures at our wedding, we'd love, love, love to see them. you can send them by email to lisaheaner@gmail.com if that suits your fancy.