surviving the travel season

tim's has a great job. 

it is fun and exciting and interesting and there is always something. 

but it is also hard. 

it calls for long hours and lots of travel. 

the long hours are one thing. 

but the travel. 

that is a whole different ball game. or wrestling match. or something like that. 

we can totally handle the long hours. 

because with long hours daddy always comes home. even if we only see him for a little bit before bed or a little bit in the morning. 

he comes home. 

travel is different. because well. he doesn't come home. 

when the travel season hits it is a bit tough on us. 

we really like having tim around and him being gone is a total change to our routine. 

we are lucky that tim's travel time lumps together into a five month period. 

but that also makes it tough. 

i know there are lots of families out there with moms and dads that travel a whole lot more than tim does. and to them i say God bless you. it's a tough life.

we just made our way through a rough few weeks. tim travel six out of the last seven weekends. 

i have a coworker is often says to me "i don't know how you do it."

quite frankly all i can think of is i don't know how we wouldn't do it. 

i love tim and i love that he has a job he loves. 

so we make this work. doesn't mean it is always easy for him and for us. but we do it. cause that is what we do. 

we survive.

and hopefully we thrive. 

we learn not to take our time together as a family for granted. 

we enjoy just being together. 

we have been doing this for quite some time now. over the years i have learned a few things for surviving a traveling spouse. these are the things that work for me. and our family. 

1. keep it simple. i try hard to avoid doing anything extra when tim is away. even going out to eat can be overwhelming. i try to make it as easy on myself as possible. that way momma doesn't loss her mind. 

2. routine, routine, routine. i work hard to stick within our routine. when tim is away it is easy for me to lose track of time and then things just get all crazy. i work hard to stay within the norm. one thing i do like to do is move up bedtime. we can all benefit from a little extra sleep. momma included.

3. games and movies. tim travels during the winter months. so we can all start to go a little stir crazy. this is the time of year thethe games come out. we have been board game playing fools already this season. candyland, sequence for kids, uno, hungry, hungry hippos. play all the games. the wii has been getting plenty of action too. we love wii party. those silly, simple games work well for all of us. and then movies. we watch tons of movies. tim does a good job keeping the DVR loaded up with movies for us to watch. 

4. stay on top of daily tasks. this makes sense to do everyday. i mean i should always stay up on daily tasks, but i don't always. and often tim picks up the slack. if i don't get the dishwasher cleaned out he will do it. but when he is gone, well he can't. a little time everyday keeping up on things helps me avoid spending lots of time trying to get caught up. 

5. do something special. i think it helps to have something special that you do with the kiddos. nothing extravagant. just something different. picnics in the living room, watching tv with momma in bed, ice cream as a snack. just something we wouldn't typically do with daddy around. 

well. 

that is what i have for you. 

my wisdom for surviving. 

and thriving. 

we can do this. 

my ode to ice

i heart ice water. 

actually i heart ice. 

no really i just heart eating ice.

i am not sure what it is but once i reach the 25ish week of pregnancy my main craving is to chomp through a big ole glass of ice. 

oh goodness it is sooooooo good. 

i mean seriously, if you haven't tried it. you should. 

it's just so........

wonderful.

have i mentioned it drives mr. weesner nuts.

like he hates it. 

he doesn't hate much but i am fairly certain he hates when i eat ice. 

yep i am pretty sure he hates two things....the hawkeyes and me chomping ice. 

i keep reminding him, i only do this when i am pregnant. so it will all be coming to an end soon. 

with the girls ice lost its appeal before we were home from the hospital. 

so i am going to enjoy it while i can. 

excuse me. 

i need, yes NEED to go eat some ice. 

perfection. 

. 

fun times in the basement!

our basement project is really moving along.

tim has passed the biggest hurdle....drywall and mud....and we are on to the fun stuff.

paint, trim and carpet....then decorating.

fun stuff.

i am excited.

i have been pinteresting and listing and thinking. i have some definite ideas of what i want in this space. i think it is going to come together nicely.

here are some of my ideas....

we are going with a gray, red and yellow color scheme.

there will be a photo wall for sure. i love the arrow bunting, so something similar may just find it's way into the basement. and those floor pillows. those seem like the perfect place for little bodies to watch movies.

i love the idea of finding an old buffet and painting it up to sit under the tv. and i even love the mustard yellow. last spring i picked up two school desks for $2 a piece they will be getting a coat of paint and will make their way into the basement. looking for some cool chairs to put with them.

obviously there will have to be some sort of garland or bunting. i really like the idea of the felt circle garland.

there will also be some maps and globes. we have a couple pieces of furniture that i will be painting to bring into the room.

we are definitely excited to get this room finished and put together. i am a bit of a slow decorator. i am going to start with what we have and see how it fits and then go from there.

links...

Photo wall http://thepleatedpoppy.com/2011/10/house-tour-nicoles-home-part-1/

Arrows http://www.alovelylark.com/

Buffet http://lollyjane.com/mustard-yellow-buffet/

Felt Garland www.dana-made-it.com 

School desks http://www.classyclutter.net/2014/01/diy-homework-station.html

Floor Pillows http://creativeoutpour.com/floor-pillows-completed/

summer soccer

a few weeks back, the girls finished up their summer soccer league at our church. this league is a pretty big deal at our house. it's tim's baby. he puts a lot of time and energy into this program. and he does an amazing job bringing families and soccer together in a Christ centered environment. 

and boy do the kiddos have fun. 

both cece and ellie had a good time, improved their skills, learned a little more about Jesus, made some donations to Imagine No Malaria and scored plenty of goals. 

and then there is mags. the girls biggest cheerleader. 

here she is shhhing me as a cheer for the girls. she is a funny little thing.

happy soccer. 

trip to Minneapolis

or minnie-an-app-olis if you are cece.

our anniversary fell on father's day this year.

so mr. weesner decided we needed to get out of town. he planned us a lovely little trip to minneapolis.

the girls were all excited. they do like traveling and checking out new places.

tim planned for us to go to the mall of america, IKEA, the Minnesota Zoo and to visit friends of ours from when we lived in arizona that had recently moved to minnesota.

we were going to go to the mall and more importantly the American Girl Doll Store on saturday. but once the girls found out we were going there. we knew we had to go there straight away. so on friday we drove straight to the American Girl Doll Store. they were so excited.

they had a great time picking out a couple things and spending some birthday money they had been saving.

after eating at the mall we headed back to the hotel. mags thought the hotel and particularly the elevator was the coolest thing ever. she would squeal with delight every time we got on the elevator. she was a little nervous about the gap in the floor at the elevator threshold. but oh she loved it. i wish i had pictures.

we did plenty of swimming in the hotel pool. because we don't swim often enough. hahaha.

saturday ended up being a rainy stormy day.  we ate breakfast and visited IKEA in the morning. napped and did more swimming in the afternoon and visited friends in the evening. it was a very relaxing day.

sunday didn't start out looking so good. as we packed up the van to head to the zoo it started pouring. we sat in the parking lot trying to decide what to do. we could just go to an indoor aquarium or we could stay with our zoo plan and possibly get rained on.

we decided to stick with our plan to go to the zoo. as we arrived at the zoo the rain stopped and the sun started to shine. we knew we were going to have a good day.

and boy did we. it was a perfect day.

first stop the Weesner Family Amphitheater. yep you read that right!! we thought we should get free admission since we are the weesner family:) 

 mags was sooooo excited about the carousel. then we got on it and she changed her mind. not a fan...for now. 

after this picture was taken, cece tapped on the window. then tim told her that she wasn't supposed to tap on the window. if she woke up the bears a trap door would open and they would feed her to the bears. as you can see in the next picture she was a little nervous. don't worry we told her it wasn't true. she now claims that she did not believe daddy. you be the judge. just some good ole weesner family fun. hahahaha