Patience with an Almost Closing

We signed all the closing papers for the house today, unfortunately, the seller decided that she didn't understand everything she was going to sign, and didn't show up for her signing. So, we're still in limbo! Her realtor is hoping they can resolve everything and have her lawyer explain it AGAIN on Monday and re-sign everything on Tuesday. I am a bit annoyed because she already flaked once and delayed things a week, then said okay, I'll sign, then nevermind. . . . . Come on already!

We've also been waiting a week with no additional word from Texas about Emilio. I would really like to know when they want us to fly down and meet him. Just a little thing, right?

We also started Ryan and Trish in school/seminary this week by the new house. Jeanisha starts Kindergarten on Monday. Jeanisha and Trish are both on A/B days, but the days only match up every other week, so I get to make LOTS of trips back and forth (20 minutes each way) which is going to get old fast.

But, the key to the whole thing is patience. And just in case I wasn't getting the message through life, tonight when we went to the temple, the name of the person I was proxy for was Patience. I guess I needed a real clear hint. She was born in 1800 in England. Does this mean the craziness of my life is all part of a plan with pieces planted over 200 years ago? I guess if she waited 200 years for her temple work, I can wait another week. But I'm really tired of learning this lesson!

Skinny Boy

Tyler is super skinny. He always has been. He has no bottom! He is constantly tugging up his pants, even with the adjustable elastic waist thing inside. Yesterday, I was tired of telling him to pull up his pants, so I cinched in the waist as tight as I could. The pants finally stayed up. About 30 minutes later he comes in from playing and asks me to loosen it so he could use the bathroom. I told him to just unsnap them and go. He said, "What? I never undo them, I just suck in and pull them down." Poor kid, he's 8 years old and never learned to unbutton his pants to use the bathroom. He honestly had no idea that's what the snap in the front was for!

Limbo (venting)

I feel like our whole world is in limbo. Our house is on hold because of legal wording on the promissory note the bank is asking the seller to sign, that seller now won't sign. We were supposed to be signing yesterday. So we're holding our breath, waiting to hear what the bank and seller work out.

In the meantime, the judge in Texas approved visitations with Emilio and if we are still wanting to proceed after meeting him, she approved placement with us! So it looks like the long wait is finally drawing to a close! Then it will be 6 months until we can finalize the adoption. (It's been such a long, draining process, it almost doesn't feel real right now!) It is wonderful and we are excited, it's just hard knowing when to schedule the visits (and a little nervous feeling, like a blind date that will go straight to marriage 2 weeks later). We are trying to figure out when we can go to Texas in the next couple of weeks, while not knowing if/when we will be trying to paint, clean, recarpet, and pack. And I don't want him to get here while we are right in the middle of packing and moving. We need to be settled first, at whichever house, so things can be as normal as possible for him to settle him. And we don't want to visit and then have it be a long wait until he comes here to stay. I can't imagine what a 6 year old must be thinking and how scary the idea of getting a new family must be, especially when it is people you've never even met before! At this point, he hasn't even seen a picture of us.

To add to the craziness/confusion, we had decided to put Ryan and Jeanisha into regular public school this year. The school by the house we are supposed to be moving into is a really good school and I think Ryan would do good seeing what public school is really like. (Right now, he's on a "grass is greener on the other side of the fence" kick. He keeps telling me, "Public school kids don't have to write their answers as complete sentences. Public school kids don't have to show their work on long division. Public school kids get to play computer games. . . . ) I'm not sure where he is getting these ideas, but I think it will be a good experience for him, IF we move and are in the boundaries of a good school. I am still not willing to send him to the school right down the street from us now. As far as Jeanisha goes, she will love kindergarten and having someone give her schoolwork to do all day, and the school by the new house does an A Day/B day, so she can still homeschool part time and I can still take the kids at home on field trips and other activities because we won't have to work around being home in the middle of the day everyday. But, again, if we don't move, she is not going to school. And school in the new neighborhood starts NEXT Wednesday the 18th, so I feel like I need to make a decision soon, but I can't without knowing on the house.

I have a pretty good idea of what I will be using/buying if we end up homeschooling those two, so if it ends up going that route, it won't be too hard to get up to speed. I do have Tyler's stuff figured out and ready to go. Trish is on the waiting list for IDEA, so she is in limbo too. She should end up getting in, but if not, I'll have to get her registered with a different virtual charter school. So I can't really order her stuff yet either, although I do have most of it listed out. And with Emilio, I know he is in 1st grade, but don't know much about his learning style or what he needs or where he is academically.

I feel like I'm on one of those amusement park rides that spins you all around and upside down until you don't know which way is which and what way is up. And I'm ready for it all to stop so I can get off and things can be "normal" again!

Sprint Triathlon Pictures

The pictures from the triathlon are on web, but I'm not sure how long they will be up. (These are the expensive ones, we didn't have a camera since we were all doing the race.) Stephen's bib # is 313, Janet's is 189, and Trish's is 114. We all look pretty tired. Here is where you enter the bid #'s.


Stephen's swimming pictures are half way down the page here. He is in orange shorts.


And really, now that we are a few days past the race, I think I would do it again. Anyone want to join us in October?

Sprint Triathlon

Stephen, Trish, and I did a Sprint Triathlon last night. The race is a .25 mile swim (imagine one time around a high school track), 6 Mile Bike ride, and 2 Mile Run.

The race was VERY hard!!

They split the race of 400+ people into 9 groups, starting 10 minutes apart.

It was 96 degrees.

The swimming section was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be. We all got kicked a few times in the water. We were wrong in our calculations in the swimming pool (we were off by a half) so the real swim race was REAL hard. Stephen and Trish would agree with me on this.
When I (finally) made it to the first marker in the lake, I was completely exhausted. Luckily there were plenty of other slow swimmers, so I had company.

After the swim we went to the 6 mile bike section which was mostly flat, but the two bridges at the half way point got a lot bigger when you went over them (Stephen had told us they would be flat.) There were several bike wrecks with paramedics assisting people along the course as we made it through. I was just grateful not to be one of them. At the end of the bike race we all felt tired but pretty good.

Then came the transition to the run.

Running after you have swam and biked is an interesting feeling. Your legs tell you that you are doing it all wrong as you are trying to make your body run. It takes a little while to remind your body how to run. The run portion was 2 miles long and my body was not happy with me at this
point. It was all I could do to convince myself to keep going and get it over. At that point I just wanted to be done!

All three of us finished, which is awesome.

So here are the times.
Stephen 55:49
Janet 1:22:09
Trish 1:24:31

Trish would like to do another one. I don't know and Stephen says he doesn't know if he ever wants to swim again.

Summer is flying by!

This summer has been so busy and fun and crazy. We've been going, going, going. In July, we went camping to Garden Valley and saw 2 plays, The Wizard of Oz and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It is an outdoor theatre and is in a beautiful area. The following week my sister Sariah came to visit and Tyler and Jeanisha went to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's. We went skating and send Sariah and Trish out on their first date (from my house). The next week we went to Utah to see Stephen's family. We always pack a lot into our visits. We went to Lagoon with my family on Tuesday, to Antelope Island out in the Salt Lake on Wednesday, rode the Frontrunner train to Temple Square on Thursday, then to a "fun center" on Friday. The fun center has roller skating, an arcade, bounce houses, and climbing gym thing. Several cousins were able to come and the kids had a blast. That night we had a big barbq at Grandma and Grandpa Cox's house with everyone there. I think we counted 29 people, 12 adults and 17 grandkids. It was fun to see everyone and just visit and have fun. Saturday we went to Fort Buenaventura's Pioneer day Celebration. We went last year and the kids enjoyed it both years. One of the highlights was canoeing in the lake. On the way home, we dropped off Ryan to spend the next week visiting my parents and enjoying one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa. They brought him back home last Saturday when they came up for my cousin Lindsey's wedding.

In the middle of all this, we've been getting ready to move to a new house. It's not very far from here, but it's much bigger and on almost an acre! I am so excited for the extra space. It was a shortsale that we put the offer in on in May, so the process has taken awhile, but we should be closing on Aug 16. We are basically just waiting for the seller to get all her stuff moved out. The yard is pretty overgrown and neglected, but has a lot of potential. We've been working on packing up and getting ready to move.

Things are also moving along with adoption and hopefully by the end of August we'll know for sure which kid(s) we will end up with. Either Emilio (6) from Texas or Shania (5) and Kayce (2) from Oregon. It's been a crazy journey, but I know Heavenly Father will bring the right kids home to us.