Carrie here...
So, since my last post a lot has gone on. Taya and I are completely finished moving in. It only took one week to unpack and start to decorate, a new record for me. Part of the motivation for that was the BBQ we were having on Friday night, which was so much fun! I really enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. My favorite story of the night was my dad's little cow chasing tale, it was hilarious. His bat chasing tale was also quite funny, especially his ducking and slow motion running imitation.
On Saturday night, we went to dinner with Callie and Jason, my parents and Jason's sister Valerie and her husband Jon. I love when I get to see my sister and her family since they live in Roosevelt, so it's not often we get to see them. We are going to be taking a road trip to see them next weekend actually. We had that planned before they unexpectedly came down this weekend, but a double helping of Callie is never a bad thing. Except when I was younger and a double helping of her meant that I got two beatings instead of the one, but I sure love her now.
I'm still crazy busy with school, it's down to the wire now and finals are stressing me out a bit. I have exactly two weeks to finish 3 final projects and sit in on an hour of a trial, no sweat, right? My homework should be a lot easier now that the house isn't full of moving bags. It's really hard to concentrate on school work, when the house is a mess and it's all my crap that's messing it up. I'm so excited to be done; this was definitely the wrong semester to up my hours to full time.
The kids are doing so great! Noah and Taya are loving the warmer weather and mommy is too, since that means playing outside instead of messing up the house. They're also loving the swing set that daddy just put together and their new sand box, that Dan blogged about. I was at school when the sand arrived and when I got out of class there was a message on my phone from Dan that said, "Honey we got the sand and I don't want to talk about it." So I promptly called him and he said, "We're moving!!" My first response when I saw the sand was shock and then laughter when I pictured Dan's face seeing all that sand pile up before his very eyes.
Also the kids are doing so great with our new love and logic way of parenting. Dan and I wanted to get on the same page with discipline and parenting in general, so we've been taking a love and logic class for the last 4 weeks. It's seriously so awesome and the kids response to it has been amazing. It hasn't exactly been easy for me to stay consistent with all of the ideas but Dan's a champ with it. He keeps me firm with his way of making me see the long term benefits and bigger picture. I keep him merciful with my sad looks and "but honey". I honestly think we make a wonderful parenting team.
So pretty much, all is good at the Pearce home.
Bye for now.....
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Sand Pile
Dan here...
Had an awesome adventure this week. We'll start with a picture. Should save me a thousand words...
So, Carrie and I pulled the old warped trampoline out of the ground, and decided to make the kids a sandbox. Should have been simple. Pull out the trampoline, fill the hole with sand, insert children. Done.
Step one: Pull out trampoline. Simple enough. Until I saw what was UNDER the trampoline. 9 years of garbage. Old toys, bottles candy wrappers, leaves, pine needles, spiders, and a little midget which apparently had been living there for the last 9 months.
Step two: fill the hole with sand. I called the nearest sand place and gave them the dimmensions. 13 feet across by 18 inches deep. I hear her clacking the calculator buttons and she boldly and confidently states, "you need 14 tons of sand". I cough a little because that sounds like a LOT of sand to me, and tell her exactly that. More calculator buttons, and "nope, should be about right". I decide not to micro-manage, and since I have no idea how much sand weighs, go along with it.
The next day the dump truck arrives. And it ain't no baby dumper. 12-wheeler, big sucker with all the bells and whistles. As he pulls up, I see the load of sand over the top of the truck, almost completley filling it. I say to the driver, "that looks like an AWFUL lot of sand, sir." He says so boldly, "let me see your hole". After realizing what he meant by that, I took him back to the trampoline hole which was getting smaller and smaller in my mind. "Should be about right," he says. So, I say okay, I must be having a hard time seeing the true volume.
Next part was *kind of* my fault. I tell him to back up to the hole because heaven knows I don't want to wheelbarrow 14 tons of sand through my backyard. He tells me that it *will* leave deep ruts in the grass. I feel like he's exagerating, so I say just go ahead. 20 feet in, I ask him to stop because, turns out he was right. That truck was digging a hole to China. He then, so boldly and so confidently, tells me that it'll be all right, with a few rains those rivets will come right back up. The part of my brain that DID NOT WANT to wheel 56,000 wheelbarrow loads through my backyard believed him and let him finish.
He gets to the hole, which by this time I have forgotten about because I'm sprawled across my lawn weeping over my loss, and starts to dump. "We can't do a little bit at a time," says he, "because the sands wet and it all comes out in one giant dump." I start biting my fingernails, hoping he's right. Hoping beyond hoping that I just plain ol' suck at visualizing space and volume (I'm an artist and a photographer, what was I thinking?). The beeps start, going faster and faster with my heart rate, and.... PHLOOOMP!
Good news is, it was definitely enough to fill up the 18" hole. The mili-second later, when that was full, and the rest of the pile phloomped all the way up to my chin, I think I heard the flutter of a butterfly's wings. Everything zoomed out and the world stopped for a moment. Then, a single tear dropped from my eye as I realized that even worse than wheelbarrowing it all in, I'd have to wheelbarrow it all out, but with nowhere to wheelbarrow it to.
The driver's response... "Sorry about that". "Well, can you guys do something about it?" says I. "No," says he. And he got into his truck, happy as a clam, his load so much lighter. And I stood motionless for over three hours, afraid to move and afraid to speak. What the !&%*# was I supposed to do with this sand pile?
Well, turns out a lot of people will take sand if you offer it for free. I put up an ad on KSL that said, "Free Sand Box Sand. I want it gone by tomorrow morning."
By afternoon the next day, I had received 57 calls (not an exageration), and the pile was GONE and my kids had their sandbox. Wow, I never knew sand was so in demand.
Step three: Insert children. That was easy.
Had an awesome adventure this week. We'll start with a picture. Should save me a thousand words...
So, Carrie and I pulled the old warped trampoline out of the ground, and decided to make the kids a sandbox. Should have been simple. Pull out the trampoline, fill the hole with sand, insert children. Done.
Step one: Pull out trampoline. Simple enough. Until I saw what was UNDER the trampoline. 9 years of garbage. Old toys, bottles candy wrappers, leaves, pine needles, spiders, and a little midget which apparently had been living there for the last 9 months.
Step two: fill the hole with sand. I called the nearest sand place and gave them the dimmensions. 13 feet across by 18 inches deep. I hear her clacking the calculator buttons and she boldly and confidently states, "you need 14 tons of sand". I cough a little because that sounds like a LOT of sand to me, and tell her exactly that. More calculator buttons, and "nope, should be about right". I decide not to micro-manage, and since I have no idea how much sand weighs, go along with it.
The next day the dump truck arrives. And it ain't no baby dumper. 12-wheeler, big sucker with all the bells and whistles. As he pulls up, I see the load of sand over the top of the truck, almost completley filling it. I say to the driver, "that looks like an AWFUL lot of sand, sir." He says so boldly, "let me see your hole". After realizing what he meant by that, I took him back to the trampoline hole which was getting smaller and smaller in my mind. "Should be about right," he says. So, I say okay, I must be having a hard time seeing the true volume.
Next part was *kind of* my fault. I tell him to back up to the hole because heaven knows I don't want to wheelbarrow 14 tons of sand through my backyard. He tells me that it *will* leave deep ruts in the grass. I feel like he's exagerating, so I say just go ahead. 20 feet in, I ask him to stop because, turns out he was right. That truck was digging a hole to China. He then, so boldly and so confidently, tells me that it'll be all right, with a few rains those rivets will come right back up. The part of my brain that DID NOT WANT to wheel 56,000 wheelbarrow loads through my backyard believed him and let him finish.
He gets to the hole, which by this time I have forgotten about because I'm sprawled across my lawn weeping over my loss, and starts to dump. "We can't do a little bit at a time," says he, "because the sands wet and it all comes out in one giant dump." I start biting my fingernails, hoping he's right. Hoping beyond hoping that I just plain ol' suck at visualizing space and volume (I'm an artist and a photographer, what was I thinking?). The beeps start, going faster and faster with my heart rate, and.... PHLOOOMP!
Good news is, it was definitely enough to fill up the 18" hole. The mili-second later, when that was full, and the rest of the pile phloomped all the way up to my chin, I think I heard the flutter of a butterfly's wings. Everything zoomed out and the world stopped for a moment. Then, a single tear dropped from my eye as I realized that even worse than wheelbarrowing it all in, I'd have to wheelbarrow it all out, but with nowhere to wheelbarrow it to.
The driver's response... "Sorry about that". "Well, can you guys do something about it?" says I. "No," says he. And he got into his truck, happy as a clam, his load so much lighter. And I stood motionless for over three hours, afraid to move and afraid to speak. What the !&%*# was I supposed to do with this sand pile?
Well, turns out a lot of people will take sand if you offer it for free. I put up an ad on KSL that said, "Free Sand Box Sand. I want it gone by tomorrow morning."
By afternoon the next day, I had received 57 calls (not an exageration), and the pile was GONE and my kids had their sandbox. Wow, I never knew sand was so in demand.
Step three: Insert children. That was easy.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The vortex...
Dan here...
I believe that there is a vortex of space in every home where certain things dissappear to, and only the innocent hands of a child can reach into that space and pull them out. There is certainly no other way to explain it...
The light fixture and ceiling fan in my bedroom can be turned on and off with a remote control. The problem is, if you turn it off with the remote control, no matter how many hundred times you stand there like a dummy and flip the switch, the light won't come back on until you use the remote control. This is usually an annoying at worst system... until you lose the friggin' remote control. Then, you're just in the dark until you can find it.
Once I lost the remote control while the light was off, and you better believe I turned the house upside down trying to find it on at least five occasions. I looked every object in the house trying to find the thing. After all, you can only take so many stubbed toes. Alas, it was gone and I was due to have bloody stumps for foot digits the rest of my life.
Six weeks later, Noah was playing on my bed as he often would, and suddenly the light turned on. I looked over and there he was, happily playing with the remote control. Where did he get it? There's only one place he could get it... the vortex.
Of course, it's not always as complicated as I'd like to think. Sometimes things go randomly missing and find them in his diaper or down the leg of his pajamas. Maybe I just hadn't noticed the remote control wedged somewhere while I was changing his nappy. Who knows, all I know is that it is freaky. Very freaky.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Juice Fast...
Dan here...
So, tomorrow morning we start our juice fast. Yes, that's right... for three days, we will drink nothing but juice. And not just any juice, freshly strained juice from the (hold on while I look this up. It's rather new to me, oh yes...) produce section of the grocery store.
In preparation of our big day tomorrow, tonight we went and bought about 600 oranges, 32 pineapple, 824 bananas, 62 plastic boxes of strawberries, 2 vineyards worth of grapes, plums, nectarines, apples, and let's not even get started on the vegetables.
We used exactly HALF of all the fruit we bought, you know... the fruit that was supposed to last us three days... and mixed a delicious HALF GALLON of juice! Let's just say, I'm not going to complain about $4.50 for a gallon of apple juice anymore. On top of the sheer quantity of fruits that went through the juicer, we spent over an hour getting that 1/2 gallon of juice.
But hey, we have the juice, and we're ready for our 3-day juice fast challenge!
The goal is to clean out our body of all the toxins and extra water that is filling our cells. If I've done my math right, I've eaten crap for 28 years, times .000000002 grams of crap per cell, times 42 trillion cells... I should lose about 93 pounds by Thursday night!
So, you may want to skip any blog entries that I input during the next few days. One side effect of this juice fast is that people go schizophrenic, but it wears off after a few years.
See you on the skinny side, folks!
So, tomorrow morning we start our juice fast. Yes, that's right... for three days, we will drink nothing but juice. And not just any juice, freshly strained juice from the (hold on while I look this up. It's rather new to me, oh yes...) produce section of the grocery store.
In preparation of our big day tomorrow, tonight we went and bought about 600 oranges, 32 pineapple, 824 bananas, 62 plastic boxes of strawberries, 2 vineyards worth of grapes, plums, nectarines, apples, and let's not even get started on the vegetables.
We used exactly HALF of all the fruit we bought, you know... the fruit that was supposed to last us three days... and mixed a delicious HALF GALLON of juice! Let's just say, I'm not going to complain about $4.50 for a gallon of apple juice anymore. On top of the sheer quantity of fruits that went through the juicer, we spent over an hour getting that 1/2 gallon of juice.
But hey, we have the juice, and we're ready for our 3-day juice fast challenge!
The goal is to clean out our body of all the toxins and extra water that is filling our cells. If I've done my math right, I've eaten crap for 28 years, times .000000002 grams of crap per cell, times 42 trillion cells... I should lose about 93 pounds by Thursday night!
So, you may want to skip any blog entries that I input during the next few days. One side effect of this juice fast is that people go schizophrenic, but it wears off after a few years.
See you on the skinny side, folks!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The three day conversation...
Dan here...
Have you ever noticed that a fifteen second conversation can take up to three days when you have more than one kid?
Generally, this is how it goes around these parts...
"Carrie..."
"Yes?" she says.
"Hold on. Noah! Sit down buddy. You're gonna get hurt." Then, a common statement... "Sorry about that."
"It's okay," she says.
"Anyway, I was, oh crap! Taya! Go wash your hands before you touch ANYTHING!" Then another "Sorry about that."
"Don't worry," she says.
"Ha ha, anyway, I was thinking maybe this Saturday we could... Urg... Noah, not right now buddy. Daddy's trying to talk to mommy."
"Sorry baby."
"That's okay."
"So, I was thinking on Saturday we could all go...""Taya, what did we say about doing that?"
At this point, we would generally start having a seven to eight minute debate with the last child to steal our attention, usually ending in tears and time out, at which point, we would completely forget about the conversation we were attempting to have.
LATER THAT NIGHT:
"Oh baby, I just realized we never finished talking about Saturday!"
"Oh yeah!" she says.
"So, I was thinking this Saturday maybe we could go to the..."
"Hold on honey, did you just hear little kiddie footsteps? I think somebody's out of bed. Paper rock scissors who has to go check."
NEXT DAY:
"So, Saturday, I was thinking we could all pile in the car and drive down to Salt Lake. They have this..."
"Daddy, Noah hit me!"
"Noah, say sorry and don't hit your sister."
"No!"
"DADDDY! Noah hit me again!"
"Noah, don't hit or you'll get a time out."
"DADDDDDDYYYYYY!"
"NOOOOOAAAAAH!"
"TAAAAYYYYAAAAA!"
And, lots of tears and tantrums and two kids sent to their rooms this time!
Once again, Daddy and Mommy forget about the Saturday conversation.
NEXT DAY (SATURDAY):
She says, "What should we do today baby?"
"I don't know. Can't really think of anything. It seems like I had something that sounded fun, but I can't remember now. Why don't we just hang out at home?"
"Okay."
Have you ever noticed that a fifteen second conversation can take up to three days when you have more than one kid?
Generally, this is how it goes around these parts...
"Carrie..."
"Yes?" she says.
"Hold on. Noah! Sit down buddy. You're gonna get hurt." Then, a common statement... "Sorry about that."
"It's okay," she says.
"Anyway, I was, oh crap! Taya! Go wash your hands before you touch ANYTHING!" Then another "Sorry about that."
"Don't worry," she says.
"Ha ha, anyway, I was thinking maybe this Saturday we could... Urg... Noah, not right now buddy. Daddy's trying to talk to mommy.""Sorry baby."
"That's okay."
"So, I was thinking on Saturday we could all go..."
At this point, we would generally start having a seven to eight minute debate with the last child to steal our attention, usually ending in tears and time out, at which point, we would completely forget about the conversation we were attempting to have.
"Oh baby, I just realized we never finished talking about Saturday!"
"Oh yeah!" she says.
"So, I was thinking this Saturday maybe we could go to the..."
"Hold on honey, did you just hear little kiddie footsteps? I think somebody's out of bed. Paper rock scissors who has to go check."
NEXT DAY:
"So, Saturday, I was thinking we could all pile in the car and drive down to Salt Lake. They have this..."
"Daddy, Noah hit me!"
"Noah, say sorry and don't hit your sister."
"No!"
"DADDDY! Noah hit me again!"
"Noah, don't hit or you'll get a time out."
"DADDDDDDYYYYYY!"
"NOOOOOAAAAAH!"
"TAAAAYYYYAAAAA!"
And, lots of tears and tantrums and two kids sent to their rooms this time!
Once again, Daddy and Mommy forget about the Saturday conversation.
NEXT DAY (SATURDAY):
She says, "What should we do today baby?"
"I don't know. Can't really think of anything. It seems like I had something that sounded fun, but I can't remember now. Why don't we just hang out at home?"
"Okay."
Friday, April 10, 2009
We are definitely cool now!!!
Carrie here...
Well, so far I've been crazy busy with school, changing everything to my new name and getting my stuff moved over from the Sandy house. My semester will be over around May 10th, not too much longer, then things will calm down quite a bit, hopefully. Everyone is doing great and adjusting very well to a new home and area or new people in their home and area. We are excited to be a new little family and loving every minute together. It's been really fun starting new traditions and routines. One of my favorites is our bedtime routine, which includes: reading stories, cuddling and singing songs. I'm also loving family home evenings, where the kids do a somersault for their talent every time.
Alpine is beautiful and I love having family so close. Tonight we'll be coloring eggs and getting the house reading for alot of junk that's coming tomorrow from my Sandy house. Taya and Noah are so excited for the Easter egg hunt at Nana and Papa's house Sat. morning. Dan and I are so excited for our first holiday together as a family. We get to start our new traditions and make memories that our kids will remember and pass down to their kids someday, very exciting!! We are so grateful for everyone that's been helping Taya and I get moved over. We have the most wonderful family and friends, I feel truly blessed to have such wonderful people surrounding me.
This should be good for now.
Well, so far I've been crazy busy with school, changing everything to my new name and getting my stuff moved over from the Sandy house. My semester will be over around May 10th, not too much longer, then things will calm down quite a bit, hopefully. Everyone is doing great and adjusting very well to a new home and area or new people in their home and area. We are excited to be a new little family and loving every minute together. It's been really fun starting new traditions and routines. One of my favorites is our bedtime routine, which includes: reading stories, cuddling and singing songs. I'm also loving family home evenings, where the kids do a somersault for their talent every time.
Alpine is beautiful and I love having family so close. Tonight we'll be coloring eggs and getting the house reading for alot of junk that's coming tomorrow from my Sandy house. Taya and Noah are so excited for the Easter egg hunt at Nana and Papa's house Sat. morning. Dan and I are so excited for our first holiday together as a family. We get to start our new traditions and make memories that our kids will remember and pass down to their kids someday, very exciting!! We are so grateful for everyone that's been helping Taya and I get moved over. We have the most wonderful family and friends, I feel truly blessed to have such wonderful people surrounding me.
This should be good for now.
We made it to Bloggerville!
Dan here...
Well, we finally made it to Bloggerville! After years of sifting through such high quality, mind provoking, and down-right incredible blogs from our friends and family members, we've decided to delude ourselves with the notion that the world can revolve around us as well... at least for a few seconds at a time! Seriously though, you should subscribe to the blog or at least check-in once in awhile. The content you find here will be unbelievable. The humor will be off the charts. The love that will rush your soul every time you even begin to type in the blog address will floor you. Let us take you on an adventure in life through our eyes! Let us boost your self-subscribed level of importance through our pointless banter!
More than anything, you're about to discover just how insane Dan is and just how incredibly uninsane Carrie is! Enjoy.
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