Trying Times Are Not Times To Stop Trying

This week has been what I would call trying!!!!! At first, I questioned - a lot! Does this mean we are doing the wrong thing? Rick said he was surprised, since I was the one who was usually "the strong one" -- whatever THAT means. Anyway, this week, for some reason, I hit my limit for a day or two. I will try to keep it short.

On Monday, while I was in the middle of the last of my cooking spree -- 2 double batches of muffins and a 3-loaf batch of bread -- Rick called to say that the buyers were ready to close on Tuesday. I was thrilled! After 2 weeks of being told one thing and then another, I was glad it was going to be done. The bad news was that they had changed their mind about renting back to us until we closed on our new house. When we closed they wanted the keys. Agh! That meant we would have to finish packing and clean in 24 hours. They said they could push it out until Wednesday and Thursday to not cause too much stress, but if we did that we couldn't close on our new house, which we were scheduled to do on Wednesday. So, we decided to go for it. We had many friends help out that night and it all got done -- including the 72 muffins and 3 loaves of bread.

The next morning our realtor called their realtor to see why they weren't there for the scheduled walk-through and she said there might be a "hang-up" with closing that day; the buyers still had one last piece of paperwork to turn in. My first reaction was, "You have GOT to be kidding me." We had 2 loaded moving vans sitting outside our house, the house was clean and empty and we had reservations at a hotel for the couple of days until we could get into our new house. Well, our realtor called to talk to the loan officer and we found out the real story. I don't want to say bad things about their realtor, but .... agh! good grief! So, we cancelled our hotel reservations, got our phone and internet turned back on (which you know how trying THAT can be if anyone out there has AT & T), and started camping in our own home. But I was grateful for the cooking spree I had done the week before!!!!

We found out on Friday that all of the buyers paperwork has now been turned in and everything is sitting in underwriting, so we are hoping it goes quickly now. Our biggest cost at this point is having 2 moving vans sitting there that we are paying for by the day while we have waited for the buyers to get everything done. We really don't know how much of this is the buyers being flaky and how much is their realtor. We think it is the latter. We think they don't really even know all of what she had been saying to our realtor the last few weeks. We just pray this all really happens. I can't imagine moving everything back in at this point. What a mess!

We have talked so much about closings, etc. that the kids are getting to be pretty literate in all of this. We thought so anyway. Tonight, when we were talking about hopefully closing in the next few days, Emma said, "When are we opening on our new house?" She thought that since closing was part of selling, opening must be part of buying. :) She has been sick for the last few days and it was good to see a little happy spunk out of her.

Last night Rick and I went with some friends to watch the BYU-Utah game. Since I am blue through and through I won't even go into the game, but when we went to their home tonight, they had a red UofU jacket and hat on their wooden pilgrims just for us, to show what they were thankful for this week. Very funny, Mark and Katharine!

TAGGED

Okay, I have been tagged numerous times in the past and I never do this sort of thing -- so why am I doing it now?? :) Who knows. I guess Jeannie caught me in the right mood. So, anyone who gets annoyed by this- just skip this blog and move on.

8 favorite TV shows
1. Biggest Loser (except this season has been disappointing with the "drama")
2. Chuck
3. Dancing with the Stars
4. Amazing Race (although I haven't seen any this season since our Media Center is packed away and I can't record the shows)
5. ????
6. ????
7. ????
8. ????
*sorry, I really don't watch much TV anymore. I feel too good these days. :) And now that I am not at my Mom's house there is no cable -- no HGTV (sob)

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Mom's House - free, good food!
2. Jason's Deli
3. Sahbuddy's - Israeli food (fabulous falafel and hummus)
4. Thai Palace
5. Cheddar's
6. Johnny Carino's
7. PF Chang's
8. My house -- really I'm too cheap to eat out much and I love to cook, so I end up thinking, "I could have made this better. It IS nice not to have to do the dishes, though.

8 Books You'd Recommend

1. Anything by Shannon Hale -- especially Goose Girl, Enna Burning and River Secret
2. Anything by Jane Austen - I have to admit that Pride & Prejudice will always be up there at the top!!!
3. L.M. Montgomery -- Emily of New Moon ranks as high as Anne of Green Gables on my list
4. Anti-Cancer: a new way of life by David Servan-Schreiber
5. The Whole Foods Market Cookbook
6. Raw Food Made Easy for 1 0r 2 people
7. Any "Alfie and Annie Rose" book by Shirley Hughes. I HIGHLY recommend these books of hers, especially for people with little ones who have siblings (like "Alfie gets in first")
8. Biographies -- just about any

8 Things That Happened Yesterday

1. I cooked enchiladas, sweet 'n' sour chicken, chimichangas, beans and rice w/spicy sausage, chili, chicken noodle soup, and calzones to go in the freezer to make the move easier.
2. Helped Caleb with his Polish Texans Immigration Project, his spelling and his math.
3. Helped Emma with her homework.
4. Read to Emma
5. Went grocery shopping with my kids and still loved them when I got home (a major accomplishment)
6. Watched "Chuck" on nbc.com while I cooked
7. Felt accomplished with the above 6
8. Put my leg up while I waited for Rick to come to bed

8 Things to look forward to

1. A new house
2. A new house with no stairs
3. A new house with a bigger kitchen
4. A new house with a doggy door for the naughty puppy who won't tell us he needs to go out and then pees by the door.
5. A new house with french doors on the living room for a quieter piano
6. Waking up every day
7. Having energy when I wake up every day.
8. Seeing people I love every day.
*can you tell I'm not one bit excited about our new house! Only a few more days!

8 Things on My Wish List

1. A relaxing holiday season (I absolutely refuse to be stressed this year, even if there are boxes surrounding me)
2. A long and healthy life
3. A new digital camera
4. More books (can you ever have too many?)
5. More sheet music (ditto)
6. Healthy children
7. Obedient children who never fight (okay, my Mom used to say that this is all she wanted for birthdays and Christmas. We would say, "No, REALLY, Mom! Tell us what you REALLY want!" I get it now)
8. A Temple closer than San Antonio

8 Things I Love About Fall

1. Christmas Music (we start before Halloween often in this family)
2. Christmas Decorations, smells and wrapped presents under trees (who cares what is in them -- it so fun to see them under the tree!)
3. Gingerbread Cookies and an excuse to make gingerbread (the cakey real stuff), for breakfast
4. Pumpkins -- pie, muffins, bread, etc
5. Thanksgiving -- This year we have soooooo much to be thankful for!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat (please don't let me be the goose this year!)
7. Sleeping with the windows open/No more Air Conditioning
8. Nippy mornings and glorious afternoons

I am not tagging anyone else, but if anyone else wants to do it, I would read it with pleasure.

Happy Fall! Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Holidays! Enjoy the smells of the holidays! Hug the people you love today!

What do you call a cow with a twitch?

Beef Jerky -- Compliments of Laffy Taffy. I entertained everyone while they ate their Halloween Candy. This is the first year Rick and I dressed up with the kids. I was a pirate, although we never got around to figuring out how to rig up a peg leg. Maybe next year. Rick was Neo (sp?) from Matrix. I have never seen the movies, but Rick looked very Keanu Reeve-ish. Caleb was Indiana Jones and Emma was an angel (in every sense of the word).

Caleb has been quite the little man around here, lately. He has been begging to be allowed to mow the lawn. He finally got to. Our lawn mower isn't self-propelled, so I don't know if he will be begging again anytime soon, but he did such a good job, he is hired for the job. He also likes to fix some of his own meals. Breakfast is his favorite and his specialties are: omelets, eggs/toast, and breakfast tacos. He can also make grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese and is learning to make pizza dough for pizza/calzones. Emma's specialty is breakfast, too -- she can pour a mean bowl of granola. :) She almost has mac and cheese down and loves to make her own sandwiches. They both are big help cleaning and folding laundry and doing dishes. Emma thinks doing dishes is fun. Let's see how long THAT lasts. :)

I went to AZ for 2 days last week for another treatment. I forgot how icky I feel after chemo. I am still feeling "chemo-lag" today. Rick was such a trooper while I was gone. He was trying to work from home, help kids with homework, and get them off to school all by himself. :) He was truly grateful that I am still alive so that he isn't doing this alone. I am grateful, too.

We feel truly thankful this Thanksgiving!