Smith Family: March 2011

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A Glitch in the Matrix...

This is going to be an odd post, but something strange just happened to me and I thought I'd write it down and see what interpretations I get...

I woke up at 4 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so after I had sent kids off to school and done my morning chores I laid down in bed to snatch a few Z's. This was around 9:45.

I found myself in this really weird dream, I was travelling in a car and this girl asked what time it was supposed to hit. I wasn't sure what she meant and thought maybe "it" was supposed to be a shock wave from the tsunami in Japan or something, but she made fun of me for my ignorance and said something about a meteor... and then of course, we came over the next hill and there's this big planet thing in the sky headed straight for us. Buildings in the distance start to explode and I know we are all doomed so I say my goodbyes and I love you's to the other people in the car and wait.

The dream wasn't a big deal, I figure it was a remnant from the YouTube I had just watched about the tsunami, but what happened when I started to wake up has me intrigued.

I was mostly awake, I knew where I was and I wasn't in that sleep paralysis state or anything, I could move if I wanted to. It was that state where your head is still buzzing and if you try to get up you would be dizzy for a minute and then feel a little "off" for a while... so I just laid there and waited.

Laying there with my eyes still closed, I realized I was seeing something; not a dream, but something resembling snow on a TV screen but more organized. A matrix of all these little squares, like pixels, only they were many different sizes and they were... well, dancing. It was fascinating to watch all the undulations and patterns they created; swirls and waves flowed through them every once in a while making it seem both organized and random. As the visual display started to fade, I realized there had been a machine-like sound too, kind of a mix between a washer and a copy machine. It felt like some strange broadcast had been transmitted into my head, and after it faded I couldn't bring it back.

It only lasted a few minutes, and when I opened my eyes and looked at the clock it was just after 10... 15 minutes after I had laid down. The "experts" say we don't get into the dream state until about 70-90 minutes after we fall asleep... not true in my case...

So what does it all mean? Maybe nothing, but I thought it was curious, and maybe someone out there would have some explanation.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Company!

We finally had our first company come this last week; our friends from Minnesota who drove out to interview for a job. They have 3 little kids, the oldest (Cinderella) is Ella's age, and they brought Solei's friend (McKinnon) to help out.

With the cold weather there is not a lot to do this time of year, but the local mall provided some indoor entertainment for these shopping queens...

It was fun to see old friends again, and now we are looking forward to our older girls' friends visiting next weekend from Iowa. Maybe they'll like the mall too...

En Garde!

Taron has been learning about fencing... but not the kind you use to keep the neighbors dogs out...

It started "Karate Kid" style; the first day they did so many warm ups they didn't even touch their swords till the very end. I think it was a little frustrating to him at first, but now that he's gotten to do the "battle" stuff, he's loving it.

Watch Out NBA

Caden had tons of fun playing basketball with the school league, it was a short but exciting season.

Snow Day... Again

A few weeks ago we woke up to this...

Which meant this...

The Mind of a Child...

When Solei was a toddler, she found some bark that was lying at the base of a tree and said in disgust, “Ooooooh! Tree poo-poo!”

When the girls were little, we were taking a walk with the dog who was bombarding Sierra with her friendly but slobbery kisses. Frustrated, our sweet little Sierra yelled out “NO KINA, I'M NOT YOUR ICE CREAM CONE!”

Telling Ella how to crawl, Caden explained “But I’m four, so I crawl standing up.”

I was sitting with Caden one day and I told him that the couch used to be a cow (it is leather), and I said (half jokingly) “did you know that cows turn into couches?” To which he replied, “No they don’t, they turn into pies!”

Watching the Tabernacle choir sing during conference, Solei (who was 8 yrs old at the time) said that they should sing “Do as I’m Doing” (with all the motions, I’m sure).

We put in an underground fence for the dog and Caden (age 5) saw us burying the wire. We then put up little white flags to mark where it was. A few days later he went outside and turned on the hose. When I saw him, I asked him to turn off the water. He looked at me questioningly and asked, “Until when? Until the fence grows?” He thought it needed watering!

Taron (2) looked at the varicose veins on grandmas legs and said, “owy... lightning!”

When Caden was 5, he would ask if he could go play with his friend in the morning, and I would sometimes reply, "No, it's too early". Well one day he finally asked me "can we not play on 'too early's? Can we play on 'one early'?"

Sierra told me one night that when she was little, she used to think the word “couch” came from the word “cow”, and that our couch had a cow inside (partially true since it is leather). She would try to sit down carefully so it would not run away. She thought the wood parts inside were it’s bones and the black pegs on the bottom were the feet.

Sometimes Taron (age 2) would find dog poop and say “Eew! Dog poop!” and then proceed to stomp on it as if it were a bug.

Caden (age 5) and I were talking about the sounds letters make and he asked if I knew what the sleepy letter was. I replied that I didn’t and he said, “It’s the Z... when you go to sleep then the Z’s come out of your head. And there’s a big round white thing too but it’s invisible. Maybe he had been reading too many comic books...

Sierra (age 8) made a Halloween card for her friend and wrote ENSTINE (meaning Einstein) on it, I thought it was an odd thing to put on a Halloween card so I asked if she knew who Einstein was and she said "Isn't he the guy who made Frankenstein?"

Caden (age 5) asked if it was a ghost who said the sacrament prayer because he couldn’t see anyone at the podium but he could hear the voice.

When Taron was 2 he would always respond to an “I love you” with “Much”.

Taron (3) woke up one morning, started to play and when I asked him if he wanted a pancake, he said, “Oh yeah, I was supposed to be hungry!”

Dad was singing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” and Taron said “Jesus likes sunbeans, they’re delicious!”

I was teaching Taron (5) how to read, and came upon the word "loose". I told him, "the two O's say "oo" and the E is silent. Slowly and deliberately, he sounded it out........"Loooosssilent".

Caden had been learning to tell time in school and was asking me about the big hand vs. the little hand on the clock. Apparently Taron was listening somewhat because he held up his right hand and asked "is this the big hand?"

Ella (4) came up to me with some of my reading glasses and said "Mom, when I put glasses on, I still don't know how to read!"

At a restaurant, Ella was impatiently waiting for her food and, looking for the waitress, she asked "when is the human coming back?"

One morning I said, "Ella, come look! There's a wild turkey in the backyard!"
Ella (excitedly): "Can we kill it?!?"
What kind of daughter am I raising???

Ella mistook another guy for Chris and was about to follow him to his car, but soon realized her mistake and said, "I was about to follow the 'not dad'".

Smith Family