We're having a...

GIRL

It looks like #4 will be a girl. We are all pretty excited about this, especially Cailey who really wanted a little sister.
Now we can start thinking of a name. This is always so hard for us, so we are open to any and all suggestions.

Home Sweet Home

Well...where to start? The three months since my last post were filled with a lot more waiting, uncertainty and frustration about getting into a house. The brief version is that the house that we were waiting for in short sale went into foreclosure on June 1. So we were basically back to square one. At that time we changed realtors, and started looking again. The same house came back on the market a few weeks later as a foreclosure and listed at a lower price than what we had offered before when it was a short sale. We made another offer and it was accepted by the bank. Even after that there were so many crazy things that happened. For example, the title company lost our file for a few weeks, the title didn't get recorded properly when the bank took possesion, so we had to wait for the bank's legal department to straighten it out, I could go on...but we did finally close on August 10th. That week Shane's dad, and sisters Janette and Jessalynn, came to Tucson to help us paint. We got a lot done in 3 days and are very grateful for their help! Carpet was laid on the next Monday/Tuesday, and Wednesday 5 ladies from my ward came and helped me clean. Friday we received everything that had been in long term storage for 4 years (why did I keep some of this stuff?) and Saturday, August 22, we brought all of those boxes from Japan that were in the rental house to the new house. That night we started living here among all of the chaos. Since then I have been trying to tackle projects each day, but it is still pretty overwhelming and chaotic here. Besides all of that, we love being in the house. I love how the paint and carpet look and I feel very blessed. It makes you forget that you ever thought this was a trial. I wish I could post pictures of the progress on the house, but I just found the camera last night. (I am lucky to find anything these days!) Pictures will be soon to come.
Besides everything dealing with the house, we also found out that I am expecting again. Baby #4 is due on Valentine's Day Feb. 14. We are very excited about the addition, but I must say that feeling puky has not made the move easier. I am feeling pretty good now though. We will find out the sex of the baby in about 3 weeks.

SLOW boat arrival...

After living out of 4 suitcases for the past 5 months, our things from Japan finally arrived last Tuesday...all 49 boxes! Although we were ecstatic to finally have our stuff, we aren't quite sure where to put everything. We are still in a small rental home and hope to be moving soon, so for now we just have boxes stacked everywhere. This was right after the movers left. Bryant soon found a box of toys and within minutes we had toys scattered all over the house.
Over the last few days I have been going through boxes, stacking them in every closet and corner that I can find and have cleared out the living room except for a stack of boxes along one of the walls. It sure was a lot easier to keep the house clean when we only had 4 suitcases of stuff!

Also this week, we went to see Cailey perform in the Kindergarten Luau. The last month or so they have been learning songs for the luau and a lot about Hawaii. Yesterday Cailey asked me if we could go to Hawaii.
This is Cailey's teacher Ms. Boreson. She has been a great teacher.
I just thought I'd throw in one more picture of the kids in their new pj's and sunglasses.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

A piece of advice...

NEVER try to buy a home on short sale (unless you feel that patience is one of your better qualities). For the past couple of months we have had an offer in on a home that is in short sale. Yes, we were warned that these can take a long time, but I guess we didn't realize how hard this waiting was going to be. Of course, we have looked at other options and gone house hunting more times than we would like, but we always go back to this house and decide we will keep waiting. Supposedly we are at the end of the process. We have learned that we have the highest bid and are in first position on the home. Because the people who owned it were not only in upside down, but had two mortgages on the house, two different banks have to approve it. It is now in the hands of the second bank (and has been for quite some time). We have this rental house until the end of May, which seemed like a long time back in February, but now we are getting worried that we aren't going to have a house by then. Everything will work out, right??? That is what we have to believe to keep ourselves from getting too stressed about it.
Besides the all consuming house stress, life is pretty good for us here. Cailey has really loved being in school. She loves her teacher and has improved greatly in her reading and writing skills in the short time she has been here. I am really glad that she got to experience Kindergarten in the US. The rest of us are doing well too. Shane and I just got callings (YW secretary and gospel doctrine teacher) in the ward we are hoping to move into, which makes us even more anxious to actually live in the ward boundaries. See...the house thing IS all consuming...everything always goes back to getting a house. We welcome any advice or techniques in distraction so that we don't sit here waiting our lives away to find out. Help. anyone?

Life is full of surprises

Life for us has taken an unexpected turn. Since it has been so long since I have blogged, I will recap the last couple of months for our family. On December 19th we moved from Japan. We went to Utah and spent the holidays with our families. On Jan. 1st Shane and I went down to Los Mochis, Mexico to look for a house. We found one that was smaller than we liked, but clean and fairly new and in a good location. I stayed with Shane there for a week as we looked and I also spent time visiting the schools etc. From January 8th until February 14th I stayed in Utah with the kids while Shane started work in Mexico. Shane came to Utah get the rest of the family on Feb. 11th, and our plan was to drive down to Mexico (because we wanted to take the car we had in Utah) leaving Saturday the 14th. We were going to stop in Gilbert, Az to see Spencer and Kristol and then spend a few days in Tucson before making the rest of the drive to Mexico. Well, that was the plan anyway...Shane flew in on Wed the 11th. On Thursday night we were up in Cache Valley with Shane's family having a "Mexican fiesta" farewell party. Just as we started to eat Shane got a call and disappeared for a while. As I was eating he pulled me into the other room and said, "we aren't going to Mexico". All of a sudden I felt sick and said "what??"' The company had just decided that day that in order to cut costs they weren't going to have us go to Mexico. When Shane's boss called the first thing he said was, "don't worry, you still have a job, but..." So, instead of Mexico we are back in Tucson. It took a few days for this news to sink in, but now that it has I feel good about it, and there are definite benefits to being back in the states. Back to the story...we decided to leave just as we had planned, because I was sick of being in limbo (as fun as it was to be with family and see tons of friends). So, Saturday we left Orem and drove to Mesa Az. We went to church with Spencer and Kristol on Sunday and hung out all afternoon. This was also Shane's birthday. Kristol made us a very delicious dinner (thanks again Kristol. You are the best!!) that was much appreciated. Being close to them is one of the benefits of this change of plans. On Sunday night we drove down to Tucson and have been here this past week. We are now in a rental condo but will be moving into a rental home at the first of March. We have started looking for a house, a van, cell phones, you name it we are in the market right now. It is a bit overwhelming when you need them all at once. Someone from HR went to Mexico last week to cancel all of the contracts that they had for us (house, van, schools, etc), and also brought back all of the stuff that we had already moved down, mostly Shane's stuff, and our laptop. We got that back on Friday night, so life is much better for me now that I have a computer again. Anyway, this is a lot of rambling, but now the news is out...WE ARE BACK IN TUCSON.

Japan v Mexico

Anna and the kids are in Utah while I am a bachelor in Mexico. The result: I think I have more time on my hands right now than I have had for the past 3 years combined, especially on the weekends. It has been interesting coming directly from Japan to Mexico because of the cultural contrast. I can't imagine 2 cultures which would be more different. Here are the top differences I have noticed so far.

1. Japanese are always 5 to 10 minutes early, Mexicans are at least 10 minutes late
2. At work, Japan starts with a morning roll call at 8:15 sharp. In Mexico people arrive at work anywhere from 8:00 to 9:00, then take a 2 hour lunch
3. In Japan, everyone does up the top button of the Polo shirt, in the US we leave 1 button undone and in Mexico, they leave them all undone!
4. In Mexico, you greet someone with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. In Japan, just a bow (no physical contact whatsoever).
5. During Sunday School at church in Japan, no one will make any comments. In Mexico, they won't stop making comments

PS. Sorry no pics...our camera is still in Utah.