Puerto Rico Citrus Hill Project - Day 6

Today we woke up to clear blue skies and the chance for an outside work day! The kids and I tackled the upstairs railing, scraping off all the old and peeling paint. It was tedious and time consuming but we made it all the way around both sides of the deck! As we worked we talked about color ideas for the house and railing and still haven’t quite come to a unanimous decision yet…but at least we’re all ready for priming and painting the railing! 

Meanwhile Josh got to work on the yard and suited up like a ninja ready for battle. It was sunny and hot and he must have been roasting out there, but he got the whole yard trimmed and did it all with a weed whip! They don’t use lawn mowers around here at all, just trimmers and we are people everywhere just trimming their yards. It took him a good 3 hours but he was a champ and finished the whole thing! After he was done, the cold shower was no problem I’m sure! And the yard looks so much better. Now we have an idea of what we’re working with and what we need to accomplish around the yard. Overall a really productive day!

We took the kids out for dinner and then a stroll along the beach as the sun was setting. We feel lucky to be in this little piece of paradise and have such a fun project to work on together!

Puerto Rico Citrus Hill Project - Day 5

We broke out of the work mode today and just took off to the beach. We really wanted a day in the water and it was just what we needed! The kids couldn’t wait to get out their boogie boards and snorkel gear and I loved just watching them have fun out there with all their new gear. We spent lots of time digging holes and making sand castles, snorkeling in the shallow water, writing in the sand, chasing birds, making a sand tunnel and anything else we could think of.  It was heavenly being out in the warm air and soaking in the sun. 

After we left the beach we headed home and had a fun drop in visit from Dona Carmen. She is the sweetest and brought us a house warming gift and dropped off some extra keys that she had forgotten to give us. It was so fun to visit with her and have her meet the kids. She invited us to go swim at her new apartment sometime next week and I’m sure we’ll take her up on that offer! 

Just as Carmen was leaving we got a visit from a family that just moved here from Eagle Mountain and wanted to meet us and bring dinner. It was so nice of them and we loved meeting new people and making new friends on the island. Andrea has 6 kids and some of them line up perfectly with our kids ages so I have a feeling we have made some friends that we’ll have for life! 

Kim and hector invited us over for pizza and swimming tonight so after our two visitors we drove the few minutes to their house and spent the evening with these amazing friends that we have grown to love so much the last few months. They are the best people and it’s going to be such fun to be neighbors with them!

Such a fun and relaxing day and a great evening with good friends! One more day in the books. 

Puerto Rico Citrus Hill Project - Day 4

I should have known how the day would go when we saw this hanging around outside the gym this morning. Crazy. Wacko. Only in Puerto Rico. Yep all those things. And the day didn’t get any less wild from there. 

We planned on a morning of some deep cleaning inside the house - washing walls, mopping, dusting, taking away old curtains and shelves, and prepping for painting. Our reward was going to be the rest of the day at the beach and the kids were excited! They all worked hard and we got the front room and entry way all done before we got a surprise visit from Kim and hector our friends just down the way! We love those two and had such a fun visit with them. Meanwhile and they were looking around the house and we were chatting, it started to rain. And rain hard. 

Kim finally said that they better go cause their dogs would be nervous with the thunder and lightning that was going on, so off they went. And we settled in and realized that we might not be going to the beach after all. We sat outside and watched the rain come down in sheets from our covered garage and couldn’t hardly believe the amount of water that was falling! Josh jumped on a phone call and the kids and I started lunch. A minute later Liev came out and said that there was water all over the floor in the girls room. And sure enough…the floor was flooding and we all went into discovery mode trying to figure out where the water was coming from. We figured out soon enough that water was coming in from the back room as well and flooding out into the main room and kitchen. Quick as we could we picked up everything from the ground and piled it onto beds and tables and anything that was high enough to keep dry. Josh jumped off his call and came and helped us get buckets and garbage cans and towels to try and keep the water from continually flooding the house. But still a large amount of water was getting in and we were just doing our best to get it out fast as we could! I went outside and found a large area on the back of the house that had a big pool of water gathering and started digging a trench to let that water go. Josh joined me and we found another pool on the side of the house doing the same thing. We dug and dug and made a little progress while the kids were hauling buckets in and out and mopping the water out the front door. It was a group effort and we did good! Finally…the rain started the let up and the pools around the house drained enough that the water stopped flooding into the house. We breathed a small sigh of relief then started working inside to clear all the standing water that was left. We mopped and squeegeed until it was as dry as we could get it, then turned on the fans and hoped that would dry it out the rest of the way. It was quite and event and we could hardly believe that had just happened! 

We hung the towels out to dry somewhat, left the fans on and headed down the street to the basketball court to get out of the craziness at home. Josh left for the laundromat with three baskets full of dirty laundry and towels (we haven’t had our washer and dryer delivered yet) and was going to try and get some work done on the WiFi at the laundromat. 

We played basketball, threw the football around and then eventually lost the soccer ball down a small ravine that led to a larger stream that was even more like a river because of all the rain. So that was the end of the soccer ball that we just bought yesterday. 

We got back home just around dinner time and had lots of leftovers in the fridge. Leftover night is always fun cause no one can decide which old dinner they want to have. Lots of dishes later we realized that the water was off again.  So ironic that we just got loads of water flooding into our house, but none coming out of our faucet when we need it. I feel like we should be used to it since it has gone off at some point every day since we got here. But it still makes me crazy! Anyway…we left a pile of dishes in the sink to be done later. 

I sat down the fold laundry, the kids turned on a movie and josh was trying to finish up one last work call of the day. And wouldn’t you know…the power goes out. Why not? The adventure continues on the island and we just jumped right in again for one more thing.  We got the candles and flashlights out (which we luckily bought this week just in case), finished the laundry and getting beds ready in the last few hints of daylight and sat down for bedtime book and and early night to bed. It’s not too uncommon for the power to go out here for a little while so I wasn’t too worried when it went off. Then we got a couple texts from Kim and Carmen and realized that maybe this power outage might be more involved. Turns out there was a fire at one of the substations and 700k people on the island are without power! Who knows how long this will last. 

So here I am writing this while josh is off to Home Depot to buy a generator. Still no power. Still no water. But I’ll tell you this…we have a dry house and four boys laying by me doing puppet stories on the wall in the shadow of the candlelight. We’re rollin with this wild ride we’ve started and I am so glad to have the crew that I have with me! It has been AN ADVENTURE today. But I guess that’s what we signed up for right? Bring it on…

Puerto Rico Citrus Hill Project - Day 3

The day started out good! Josh and I found a small gym just down the road from us and had a great workout together and signed up for a month membership on the spot. Sooo fun to work out with this man of mine! Then it was back home and cold showers were in order. Nothing like a cold shower to shock the senses and bring out a tear or two. Desh didn’t love it…

And who knew it would take another day of shopping to knock more things off our list of house needs. 

The boys and I hit Costco this morning and filled our small car full of food, snorkel gear, a ladder, flashlights, lightbulbs, batteries and water to name a few. We had just enough room left to stop at Walmart and get basketballs, boogie boards and football and soccer balls. The kids worked hard last week before we left and had some “fun money” to spend and have been dreaming of what it could be. They found all the right things and couldn’t wait to get home and open it all! 

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting things away, putting light bulbs in lamps, playing games, reading, coloring and drawing and staying quiet for a few hours while josh was on an important work call. All in all, a great day that ended with a massive game of dodgeball in the garage after dinner! 

Josh had a roof guy come out and take a look and gave us the amazing news that the roof only needs $10,000 worth of work to get it back in order (eye roll and throw up emoji at the same time). We knew it, but didn’t want to admit it until someone else told us. Ahh well. Tomorrow we plan to clean and possibly paint inside walls. We’ll see how far we get! 

Puerto Rico Citrus Hill Project - Day 2

Today we all woke up and realized it was almost 10:00! We were all catching up and slept for the night that we basically missed too and we were glad to do it! We all felt much better and were ready to start the day. With lists on hand, josh and the boys headed to Home Depot and the girls and I went to Marshalls and Walmart for house supplies. 2 hours and 3 full carts later we were done checking out and squeezed it all into our little car.  We literally packed Rease in and piled stuff around her just to fit it all. Luckily it’s not to far of a drive to get back home :)

Once home, we unloaded and got to work putting together tables, lamps, shelves, fans, night stands and unloading silverware, pots and pans, knives and cleaning supplies. Everyone worked hard and each had their own project going and before we knew it the job was done! Josh was able to work out on the patio while we had our workshop going inside. And it RAINED so hard this afternoon while we were inside working. It was coming down in sheets and we loved watching it! 

Highlights of the day:

Liev ran out into the pouring rain and got drenched in about 15 seconds 

We survived the check out line at Walmart 

Pikole for lunch (YUM)

Rhen made it through her first cold shower 

Amazing sunset from our top deck 

Desh was a master with the screwdriver 

The water in our house goes up and down...as I sit here there’s actually no water at all coming from the faucet. In 15 minutes there might be, but for now it’s bone dry. So crazy! And we love it!

Puerto Rico Citrus Hill Project - Day 1

Well we’re off on an adventure! And what an adventure it will be. We did something crazy and bought a house in Puerto Rico and now we’re headed to renovate it as a family! The kids just finished school on Friday and we get the spend the rest of the month of June working on the house and the property and hopefully making lots of crazy memories while we’re at it. 

Our flight out of salt lake was a midnight flight and we got to the airport just as everyone was feeling the effects of the late hour. Once we were on the plane we all tried to sleep as much as possible but it ended up not being very much. We had a really short connection in Fort Lauderdale and actually almost missed our flight to San Juan because our plane came in late. But luckily we got off the plane and our gate for the next flight was just two gates over. We walked off one plane and right into another! 

By the time we got to San Juan we were beat and ready for a nap. We had a long wait at the rental car place that was actually a big joke and not run very well. We waited and waited and the kids were so tired from no sleep the night before that they just fell asleep as they were and where they were! We finally got our cars (two small cars since there are no vans available right now) and finally we were off and headed to our new (to us) home. 

About two weeks ago josh and I flew down and spent 24 hours in PR just to sign papers on the house. While we were here we ended up buying some mattresses, futons, a few dishes and appliances, etc just so we could have a few things when we first got here with the family. I am soooo glad we did that! Because when we got to the house we were all tired and and just wanted to have a place to sleep. We spent about an hour putting futons together and setting up mattresses and were so glad to have a place to sleep last night. Before bed we took a walk around the neighborhood and found the basketball court just down the street and watched a rainstorm from the top deck. We already have a huge list of things we need but for now we’re just happy to be here and have a house of our own! We know there’s lots of work ahead...bring it on!

Rease turns 14!

Rease turns 14 today and I couldn't be more excited to celebrate this daughter who first made me a mother!  She is THE BEST teenager and we wouldn't change a thing about this girl.  Of course she wanted a marching band cake so I tried my hand at a fondant cake.  It certainly wasn't perfect, but it turned out cute enough.  She loved it.  

She wanted a night game party with friends so that's what we did.  Cake and ice cream and then loaded into the truck for a night of Fugitive.  It was a blast and we had fun laughing and playing into the night!

14 year old stats from Dr. Erikson:

Height: 5'7" - 92%

Weight: 166 lbs. - 96%

My favorite things about 14 year old Rease:

1) Rease is passionate about things that are important to her.  She's completely dedicated to doing what she loves and gives it her all.  Marching band has become her favorite thing and she works hard at it.  She's also passionate about keeping good relationships with people she loves.  She had great friends and they love spending time together.  She makes a big effort to put time into the family and she loves being with Josh and I.  We couldn't ask for a better teenager than this girl.

2) Rease is super smart.  She catches on to things easily and has a mind for figuring things out.  School comes easily to her and she uses her brain to excel in her classes.  That's going to get her far and I know she'll be successful in whatever she does!

3) Rease is my friend and her friendship is something I cherish!  She tells me all that she's thinking, doing, wondering and who she likes or doesn't like.  She is so good about keeping in touch with me and making sure she knows how I'm doing.  She is a true friend and I hope that never changes.  Love this girl to pieces!

Happy Birthday Ras!

 

Rease and her friends

This group of girls have been friends for as long as I can remember.  The 4 of them have been in the same classes on and off together since 1st grade and now as 8th graders are still best of friends.  Love them all and what they do for each other!

 

Rease end of year

 

Rhen end of year

 

Liev end of year

 

Keen end of year

 

Beck end of year

 

Last day of school

It's the last day of school and these 7th graders-to-be planned a celebration in honor of graduating from elementary school!  They took a trip to the district for lunch, shopping and a movie.  Such a cute group of kiddos that are getting so grown up!

 

Stress Fracture

So this happened...

I've been training for a marathon for what seems like 2 years now.  Since races have been cancelled so much lately (covid) I've basically just continued training until I found one that is actually going to be officially run.  I'm signed up for Utah Valley on June 5th.  Turns out my body said no to that request.  I found out today that I have a stress fracture on the inside of my left shin.  It's been hurting for the past few months and REALLY hurting for about 3 weeks now.  Especially when I put in a lot of miles or play basketball for a long time.  Anyway I finally got it checked and sure enough...Doc says no running for 6 weeks while it heals and that I have to wear this silly boot.  I think those are real tears in my eyes as I am realizing that I'm not going to be running the marathon I've trained for forever!

 

Bike Ride

These cute kids headed up to the hills today on their bikes and enjoyed the gorgeous morning on the trail!

 

Desh's year end program

Desh had his year end preschool program today.  Miss Melanie does such a great job with her preschool and teaches these kids so many fun and amazing things.  I love the program with all the songs they've learned throughout the year and seeing how much they've grown.  It is the end of an era for us and Kinder Cottage.  5 of the 6 kids have been with her for preschool and I just have so much love for this woman and her kindness to all our kids.  Desh has loved being in her class and we will certainly miss her.  Kindergarten here we come!

 

Desh's Birthday!

Desh turned 5 today and I can't even believe it!  He asked for a monster truck cake and when I reminded him that we did that cake last year, he insisted this year will be different because he wants a white on this time.  So a white monster cake was on the menu for the party tonight!  We had german pancakes on the "You are Special" plate for breakfast and a family party with cake and ice cream tonight.  We couldn't get enough celebrating for this 5 year old caboose of ours!

5 year old stats from Dr. Erikson:

Height: 3'11" - 98%

Weight: 49 lbs 3 oz - 90%

My favorite things about 5 year old Desh:

1) Desh is my baby boy and though he's not a baby anymore, he is my buddy during the day.  The other kids are off to school and we get to hang out together.  He tags along for grocery shopping, basketball days, doctor appointments or whatever it is that's going on during they day.  He is my right hand guy and sometimes I don't know what I'd do without him right by my side!

2) Desh has a "cheery disposition" like I've never seen in anyone else!  He is happy, joyful, excited and all the things that come with being cheery.  He's the first to complement anyone on something he likes about them.  He gets excited about anything that sounds fun or out of the ordinary.  He loves to play and laugh and have fun.  All things that make you just want to be around him because he's so happy!

3) Desh is the youngest of 4 brothers and he just wants to be like them.  Anything the other boys are doing, he is game to try and do as well.  He doesn't get nervous or scared about trying new things.  He just wants to be a part of the group.  I love this adventurous side of him!

Happy Birthday Big D!

 

Turning 40

I tried to turn 40 quietly and without any fanfare.  I thought it was going well until Josh and my kids got involved.  Josh quietly started to spread the work.  My best girl friends took me on a birthday trip to Las Vegas (and we had THE BEST time!).  Then, because of timing and other conflicts, our annual Amazing Race was scheduled on the night of my birthday (no problem).  If only Shelley wouldn't have made me a HUGE banner that said Happy 40th Birthday, I don't think anyone would have known.  Turns out everyone knew and it ended up being a big party (ok fine I'll be 40).  But best of all, my cute Rease made me a 40th birthday cake all on her own.  She's so thoughtful and wonderful.  Turns out I couldn't turn 40 quietly.  So now I just embrace it.  I love these wonderful people who made my birthday and LOUD success.  

 

Amazing Race 2021

Our favorite neighborhood activity of the year is here!  We love putting the Amazing Race on for our friends and neighbors and we had a record crowd this year!  10 teams and all so much fun.  Love all these people in our life!

 

Year end band concert

Rease had her final concert of the year tonight.  She has loved both her band classes and especially has loved jazz band which is a class she goes to early every morning.  They have worked hard but also have had a lot of fun together as a group!  She is playing the french horn in symphonic band and started playing the trumpet in jazz band this year.  She is pretty amazing to pick up on a new instrument like she has.  I know she's looking forward to marching band season where she plays even another instrument - the mellophone.  What a girl she is!

 

Birthday Trip

Shelley, Melissa and I (Steph couldn't make it) came across some super cheap plane tickets to Las Vegas not too long ago and decided on a whim to take a trip for the weekend!  It was so last minute and none of us really had plans on what we were going to do, but knew we wanted to get out of town for a few days.  It turned out to be pretty close to my birthday, so Shelley and Melissa took over plans for the trip and turned it into a 40th birthday weekend.  I must say, they did a great job with their planning.  It was a blast!  We had the best time and it was just what we all needed - some friend/girl time.  We did all the fun things: ate at yummy restaurants, watched the fountains at the Bellagio, walked through the gardens, sat by the pool, drank pina coladas and just enjoyed having nothing else to do.  By far my favorite thing we did was a spa/yoga day by the lake.  We had a private yoga class on the deck looking out over the lake and then had head and neck massages in the warm sunshine outside.  I know I fell asleep on and off at least 3 or 4 times, it was so relaxing.  It could not have been a better way to spend my birthday!  These ladies are the best and are such an important part of my life.  I don't know what I would do without them to lean on, talk to, figure things out with and just be there when one of us needs something.  We have grown to love each other like sisters and we laughed and joked and ate and worked out and slept and did all the good things.  It was the perfect weekend!  

Thanks for an amazing birthday trip!  Love you ladies to death!

 

Liev's county report

Liev has been studying and learning all about Box Elder county so that he could write a report and present it to his class.  He really did a great job on this project!