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.

appleton trip - pt. 2

after our brief stop in appleton proper, we headed back west to aunt linda + jeff's place. we always enjoy spending time with them in their beautiful home.

as additional incentive, the adam kieffer family was hanging out. we had a great brunch together + much fun playing with winter + river.

here are some pictures so that you can share in the general adoration of the next generation of kieffers:

this is river's "i'm so cute you can't even handle it" face

and this is me proving that he's so cute i can't even handle it.

winter + tim hanging out in uncle jeff's workshop

we had to take 6 pictures in a row to get one where we were both smiling.

gosh, she's a cutie!

big sister pushing little brother in the swing

sibling love!

a little catching up to do

sooo much has been happening. too much to blog about in the moment. as a result, we will subject you to a series of flashback-style posts to get you all up to date on the heaner family happenings.

we took a spur-of-the-moment trip to appleton, which is where lisa spent many of the happiest moments of her childhood, and (perhaps not coincidentally) the majority of the kieffer cousins live(d). adam + sarah + family were also in appleton at the time. so we had a truncated version of a kieffer cousins reunion at uncle john + aunt colette's place. the kieffer bros were in attendance, along with the always lovely abby. and we played some of the most hilarious rounds of "he said, she said" that have ever been played.

evidence of the somewhat twisted hilarity:

this is adam's "i can't believe you just said that!" face

and how cute is abby in her hat?
table-pounding funniness.

cousin adam vs. the unstoppable uncle joe

(joe, joe, supercool joe)

tim inhaling his watermelon

next to grandpa kieffer carefully cutting his pizza

over the moon: our honeymoon in hawaii (part one)

day one on molokai...

we were literally the only people on this two-mile beach

on the far west end of molokai
breathtaking

a little windblown, but loving it

tim thinks this looks like a verizon ad

can you see the little yellow + black striped fish?

they were everywhere in the tide pools

super old, gnarled trees in the park

that bordered the two-mile-long beach

the halawa valley river ends in the ocean here

on the extreme east end of molokai

this is looking out toward the ocean

halawa valley -- looking up toward the mountains

my husband, flaunting his pectorals

at the halawa inlet

it's so green + gorgeous there

the view from our condo's balcony

the kalaupapa peninsula

the amazingly weird + ancient-feeling forest
up near the kalaupapa overlook

you can't even tell where the ocean ends + the sky begins

looking down a sheer cliff to the black sand beach

on the mountain top

kalaupapa overlook

we went out to the overlook twice in one week
and must've taken about three thousand pictures there

sitting on the wall at the overlook

the phallic rock

yes, we were there.

we went ocean kayaking + snorkeling

this is lisa about to disappear into a mangrove tunnel

the mangrove tunnel -- it was spooky + totally amazing

resting in the shade of the ancient fish pond

we happened to be there for the annual

women's outrigger race from molokai to oahu

women come from all over the world

to row 40 miles of the most treacherous spans of open ocean on the planet

we got up way early to drive to the far side of the island

to see the start of the race

this is taken at the harbor where the race started

a panoramic view of the harbor

it was way fun climbing around on all the lava rocks,

exploring the tide pools,

searching for sea glass... we could have stayed all day!

10.19.09 = one month!

it's been a blissful month. tim + i were talking last night about how being married doesn't seem unnatural at all. it feels like (almost) nothing changed, because the transitions from singlehood, to dating, to engagement, to marriage have been so timely... so right.

anyhow, i thought it was time to post some photos from the wedding. these were all taken by my dear friend, kim howe. she + her husband live in chicago. kim + i have been friends since high school + it made the day feel so much more complete to have her there, sharing in it with us.

if you were at the wedding + took pictures, we would LOVE to see them. please email them to ldkieffer@gmail.com. we'd so appreciate it!

tim + honor corps member, bud cushing

walking in to the church + looking quite handsome

the hair + beauty ninja, briana stone

she gives fantastic hair treatments at

euphoria salon in st. paul

http://www.euphoriasalon.info/

i'm so not the photogenic type

mama k, kim k + mama roth, laughing it up

mom heaner in the background, waiting her turn with the hair ninja

the prettier half of our pro-photographer team

tamrah ryan

check out their work at http://ctryan.com/blog

me + my pretty mama

she looked so fantastic because she IS so fantastic (and hot!)

the programs

they look like letters because tim + i have written so many to each other over the course of our relationship

the confetti was made from antique magazines + construction manuals

the birds were made from antique sheet music

that originally belonged to lisa's aunt whitney's mother

(her name was hayden)

the door + window were salvaged from old building

originally, tim was going to build a chuppah

it's a jewish wedding element that is meant to signify

God's covering over the couple

the home that they will build together

the four open walls of the chuppah

signify the couple welcoming others into their love

and inviting them under the covering of God

we didn't have time to build one... so the window + door are a stand-in

the communion table

the two books are the one tim used to propose to me

and an old leather-bound volume of poetry

that we found on one of our bookshop haunts

the flowers are three different varieties of cosmos, my favorite flower
tim planted, tended them + picked these for me on our wedding day

honor corps members + sisters

kimberly kieffer

melody oaks

so pretty. and this photo is just way too typical of them!

honor corps members

melody oaks

bridgitte showell

again... with the gorgeousness

this is the breathless bride, waiting to walk down the aisle

from this point, everything was a beautiful, joy-infused blur

walking to meet The One

mom + dad met me at the end of the aisle

mom lifted my poorly-attached drop veil and...

WHOOPS!

off it came!

we had a good laugh... i'm not sure that anyone else even saw what happened.

taking a moment to take in

all the faces of our loved ones.

we are so lucky!

tim + i (with the help of mike, the pastor)

wrote every single word of the service

(except the pastor's charge to us + when he went "off script")

even the repeat-after-the-pastor vows

every single moment of that day was so full of meaning

this was part of that "off script" moment...

and, in my mind,

one of the most significant parts of the ceremony

i cry every time i think about it.

the ring

the kiss

SO happy.

cheesy married grins

man + wife!

costumes for the photo booth

one of the many board games available for our guests

flower arrangements by wedding warriors

abbey von gohren

robbie lewis

kari holmes

table arrangements by wedding warrior

rachel cushing

all the books, vases + candle holders were purchased

at thrift stores, yard sales or borrowed from friends

part of the dessert buffet

because what's a wedding without tootsie pops?

our "guestbook"
guests were asked to put a pin (with a little note)

in a spot that was special to them

we'll have the pinned-up version hanging in our living room.

all the notes will be pasted into our wedding album

the photo family tree

five generations of our history

the wedding favors were mix cd's

tim + i made about a jillion of these for each other while he was living in ohio

we thought we'd pass along some of the music we like best

the long hallway from the sanctuary to the reception hall

lined with borrowed mason jars that served as luminaries

it was a perfect evening.

perfect.