Working from home

Well, part of being single dad means that if I have a sick kid I have to take care of him/her AND work.
Luckily I have a full work rig a home, so it's an easy problem to solve.

Currently Caleb is my little sick guy. About 7 last night, he started having the dreaded diarrhea. I'm sure he would horrified if he knew I was letting everyone know about this.

Then later in the evening I was informed that Friday while at his mothers home, he was throwing up. That would have been something nice to know when he came over on Saturday. Might not have sent him to that birthday party in the afternoon.

Oh well, we're both a little tired, having been awakened every 2 hours by uncontrollable bowels. (I hope noone is eating while reading this.)

Currently he is able to help me work. Here's some pics of him coloring in my office.


My sister says that when he is able to start eating, give him the B.R.A.T. diet. Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast. Seeing as he doesn't eat half those things, he'll be on the R.T. diet.

Does anyone out there, have any other tips??

Almost There

My revised moving plan seems to have worked pretty well.
I spent 3 days moving loads to the new house with part 1 of the plan.
Saturday brought part 2; 4 friends and 2 pickups making 3 trips each.

Phase 3 was incredible. Movers showed up at 9:00 Monday morning, and by 10, the piano and the rest of my crap was in the new house.

There's still a couple car loads of knick-knacks in the old place, not to mention all the cleaning that needs to be done. I started cleaning on Monday with Kelsey and Karissa who had the day off. They lasted about an hour before saying they were exhausted.
After the cleaning, I need to tackle all the organizing in the new place, which has to be done before everything is out of control.
Number one priority is laundry, which is currently in heaps scattered around my bedroom.

Moving Week

I closed on my new house on Tuesday, but due to some weird Utah law, I couldn't get in until Wednesday.

I had a moving plan, which was simply that I had no plan. I figured that since it is just down the street, I would take truckloads of stuff when I had time to. I don't have to be out of the rental until May 1st, and I simply was not ready to do a full on move all at once.

When I went to church last Sunday, however, everyone must have gotten word of my move and were insisting on helping. It's such a good feeling to know that there are people out there that want to help me out. I tried explain my plan of having no plan, but they seemed taken aback. So now I have devised a plan, which is actually a plan.

1. I am boxing and moving things with my Pilot. Instead of doing so at a leisurely pace like I had planned, I am taking 2 truckloads in the morning and 2-3 more in the evenings.

2. Saturday, after the kids Easter Egg Hunt, a group of guys are coming to help with some of the larger items that won't fit my Pilot.

3. On Monday, official movers are coming to transport the items that would cause back problems for my friends, such as the piano and library cabinet.

I guess this is a better plan, then my no plan plan. The kids won't be back until Sunday night, and by then I should have 90% of things moved, making the transition easier for them.

Balloon Frenzy

So it's been a month since Caleb had his birthday party, and I still find balloons lurking around the house on a daily basis. Whenever I find one, I take a nice pair of scissors to it, sending to it's eternal doom. I think though, that these balloons have been breeding. We started out with a bakers dozen on his birthday, but I know I've killed at least thrice that amount. Plus, they've been able to find some clever hiding spots. Can someone tell me how to get rid of these pests once and for all.

Bad Boy Bob

So this had been a great week for me. My friend April and I have become quite close and our relationship has become more than the friendship we were merely looking for.

She means a lot to me and I think the world of her. Her family seems to see things differently, though. I'm apparently a bad boy in their eyes and they want to have nothing to do with me.

Their concern is a somewhat valid one. You see my divorce, which has been going on for 18 months or so, is not completely final. It is a huge source of frustration, b/c it is completely out of my hands. I don't know how to speed up this process or know when an end date will be accomplished. I can't even get a hold of lawyer to get an answer out of her. Phone calls don't get returned, emails unread.

So April's aunt and uncle, who she has lived with since her divorce last year, pretty much forbade her from seeing me anymore. They see this situation as black and white. They told her that even though I don't consider myself married and there's no way in he** I'm ever going to even try to reconcile, I'm still married and spending time with April is a form of adultery.

As much as I would like to tell them to blow it where the sun don't shine, I can't. To a degree I see their point, but I wish they would also see ours. Also, I don't want to cause a rift between them and April, they are letting her stay there rent free until she gets back on her feet. I'd hate to be the cause of any animosity between them.

So here I'm stuck in this weird limbo. I've finally found someone who I enjoy spending time with who seems to really like me as well. I'm in the middle of this stupid divorce and there's no way I'm going to let my guard down and concede anything for myself or my children, because of this turn of events.

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts? I could use a clear head to tell me what they think.

Once

As a lot of you know, I have been over the moon this year about the movie, ONCE.

It was a small independent film , made with 2 handycams over the course of 2 weeks, but it resonated with me.

The story is of 2 musicians who just broke up with their significant others and collaborate through song about their heartache. It came out at a time in my life when I was going through the same things they were in the film. I related to their raw emotion that came forth as they belted out these songs in the flick.

It's safe to say that the multiple listenings of the soundtrack helped me through the second half of 2007.

But a funny thing happened as I progressed through my own personal trials and brought myself to my current positive state of mind. I started to notice that the second half of the movie and soundtrack is filled with optimistic songs of hope and strength.
Now it's these songs that I find myself listening two again and again.

Yesterday, I was on a website related to the movie and saw that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the leads of the movie are going to be here in concert in SLC. This is so exciting. I bought the tickets for my friend April's birthday which is the week of the concert, but it is really more of a present for me.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I encourage you to see it. It is Rated R and I know that's an issue for some, but it's mostly because they say the F word a bunch of times. But they say it with an Irish brogue so it sounds better than if it were some guy from Jersey.

If that's still an issue, give a listen to some of the songs on itunes. You'll thank me later.