A visit with Aunt Di

A couple of months before Christmas, our friend, Chris, called us and asked if he could give our friend Diane (his wife) a trip out to see us for her Christmas gift.  We were very excited because it has been a while since we saw her, and it’s definitely been a little while since her last trip here.  Zoe was very excited to see her Aunt Di (and so were we!)

We spent last weekend hanging out, catching up, and sharing stories.  My parents came over on Saturday to stay with Zoe while just the three of us went out to dinner.  We visited a new place on Sunday called The Robot Garage.  They have open play time and workshops for kids and adults.  Their shop is filled with Lego toys, robotic equipment, and other building toys.  It was a lot of fun and definitely a place we’ll go back to visit.

I had to share this…a Vincent Van Gogh portrait in Lego!  Wow…I know I was impressed!

This past week and weekend weren’t anywhere near that much fun…Steve had a very hard week at work.  Thursday morning our water heater decided to die and flooded our laundry room.  Thursday night I smelled gas as I was trying to clean things up and we had to contact the gas company.  They shut things off for us and did find a small leak, so it’s good I called.  We had a company come out to fix our water heater on Friday, so now we are all good.

It was very strange, though…two years ago – almost to the day – was when our furnace died (it’s in the same room as the water heater.)  We had 11 inches of snow that day.  Friday – the day we got the heater fixed – we had somewhere around 3 or 4 inches to shovel.  And two years ago was when Steve started having a hard time catching his breath and that led to his surgery a couple weeks later.  We called the company that fixed our furnace and they came out and fixed the water heater.  They remembered that Steve had been at the doctor for tests while they were putting in the new heater.  They asked how he was feeling which was really nice.  It was  an odd feeling, though…similar situations….I told Steve that NO ONE was allowed to get sick or have any health problems this time around! 

I’m so grateful that he’s doing so great and has recovered after the surgery as well as he has.

Where have I been?

I guess I’ve missing from action for a while.   We have had a lot going on here, I guess.  I have been sort of keeping up with reading blogs, but I haven’t been keeping up on my own. 

Let’s see…in my last post I mentioned that Zoe’s birth grandparents and her uncle were moving.  They were able to visit the weekend before the big move, so we were happy to get to see them.  We spent some time at their house and then had lunch together.  They suggested we go to a restaurant that wasn’t really close to them, but it was convenient for a shopping trip they needed to do after lunch.  We followed them and as we pulled up in the parking lot, I realized it was the same restaurant Steve and I ate dinner at the day Zoe was born and when we met for the first time.  It was definitely a feeling of deja-vu but sort of full-cirle, too since this time we were together.  The only thing that could have made it even more perfect was if her birthmom had been able to be with us, too.  We had a great lunch (although Zoe was definitely acting a bit shy and she was tired.)  After hugs in the parking lot, we drove down the street to show Zoe the hospital she was born at.  And yes, I took pictures of her in front of the sign. 

A picture of artwork Zoe made for them.  It’s cropped a lot to delete their names for privacy.

Tired out from the drive

We have had busy days at preschool and visits with my family.  We have had a fair bit of snow like most of the country.  It’s given Zoe a lot of time to practice her shoveling skills!  It’s been nice, too, because she’s helped me help out some of the neighbors with their shoveling, too.  She likes to be a big helper.

She’s developed a really big interest in anything space-related over the last month.  We have made many trips to the library to help out with that!

For the past month she has been super excited for Valentine’s Day.  We started a countdown calendar (which will now have to become a countdown for Easter.)  She helped hang hearts all over our windows and decorate with lots of pictures.

She made some Valentine gifts and got those in the mail.

modeling the necklace she made for Z, her birthmom

She was excited about the Valentine mail she received over the last week, including a special gift from Mom-Mom Cheryl, Aunt Tracy, and her birthmom, Z.

posing with “Valentine,”  her new bear from Z

She spent a night at Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Janice’s this week while I spent the day at the hospital with a cousin who was having surgery.  She’s doing well. 

Zoe developed a cough over the weekend and it went to just-when-she-laid-down kind of cough to a much more frequent cough.  Tuesday night was really rough, so she ended up staying home from preschool and missing her Valentine’s party.  I felt so bad (I still remember missing my Kindergarten Valentine’s party when I had eye surgery.)  The last thing I wanted was for her to miss it, but she was coughing so much and really needed to rest.

We stopped at her school today and picked up her Valentine’s from her buddies. 

This was what Zoe gave her friends and family:

And finally, a picture from today.  Still a bit under-the-weather but hopefully on the mend.  Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!