A fast one

Steph's family pulled a fast one on her! Her mom had told her a couple of months ago she might come visit in April. She had planned for the end of the month. A couple of days ago she told her she was going to try and come this Saturday. Steph had been trying to get hold of her BFF and cousin Giannina for a couple of days but her Aunt kept saying she was in school or away and to call back later. On Saturday she called and her Aunt told her she was at school and to call back after 6. Steph and AJ went to the airport at 6 to pick up her mom. Steph was hugging her mom and crying. Her mom kept looking behind her and when Steph turned to see what she was looking at it was her cousin!!! I have to mention that her cousins were also her neighbors growing up so they are more like sisters than cousins.

Giannina and Steph. If you could explode with happiness Steph would have been on the ceiling.

Steph and her mom Fanny. We went to the tube park to slide on what little snow there is. It was so warm I was hot. Giannina hadn't seen snow so we had to give it our best shot. She's been to the US once and that was Florida.

Sean loved tubing. The first time down he was scared but I was hanging on to his tube and I kept yelling "Isn't this fun!" The whole time going holy crap this is fast. He looked so scared but as soon as we stopped he said "I want to do it again." Then he wanted to go down the "fastest hill."

Look hard but in the middle in front of AJ is a tiny little snowman with a hat.  Giannina's first snow mand:)

How do you wipe out in that? I don't know. They were trying to belly flop the rest of the way.
Fun day!

Little boys

Ethan's mom is pregnant so Ethan and Sean have taken to sticking things up their shirts, boots, shoes, stuffed toys, pillows, clothes and then giving birth by letting them fall out. This throws them into fits of giggles.

Yesterday Sean and Ethan came in the house with Li Li (Liam) in tow. I asked Ethan if his parents knew he was here and Ethan said yes. Sean said "no they don't." AJ was sitting in the living room and said "how do parents lose a baby?" Ahh, when he has a two year old he will understand. I said "don't worry, his parents will be here soon and right on key there is an extra loud pounding on the door followed by the door opening and Jamie yelling "Is Liam here?" Liam stayed and played for awhile. He helped us clean out the fish tank. Sean and Ethan actually tormented the fish by catching and releasing while I cleaned.

Alex and Loreal wedding day

Alex and Loreal wanted to get married today because it is the anniversary of their first date five years ago. Ah, how cute is that. Loreal always wanted to get married in Hawaii and Alex wanted a more formal ceremony so next month they will have a ceremony in Hawaii. Today they got married at the courthouse. It was a nice ceremony in a very small room. I think the ocean will be larger:)

So happy!

The new in-laws

Loreal's mom and Dad, Mark and Sue

It was a small room and lots of people were working so everyone was not there.

The wedding party.

It's official

The rings.

Dinner later that evening after Don, Steph and Alika got home.

Our Week in a minute or 2

I'll start with an update of the continuing saga of Sean's birth parents.

Ryan is in a "new relationship." That is not surprising but what is surprising is who the relationship is with. The girls last name is "Shurtleff." Sound familiar? Yep, one in the same, Ryan is now involved with the state of Utah Attorney Generals daughter. Kind of funny. He's traded up. He found a new woman to support him. And this one has a car with insurance and all kinds of things cause daddy supplies them. I'm sure your asking "how can this be?" If you look up his daughter on the Internet she was adopted as a heroin baby and has fetal alcohol syndrome and has been in and out of rehab since she was 13. She's a train wreck too but with better connections than Jenny. So, if Ryan gets her pregnant it's the Shurtleff's problem:)

I met Ryan at the jail on Wed to visit Jenny. He got a ride from his new squeeze. When he got out of her car and met me he said "that's my new friend and her dad is attorney general." (Lucky for me I'd already figured that out from Facebook so I wasn't surprised.) I just asked, "does her dad know your dating her?" He said "yes, Mark and I hung out last night." Nice. I gotta respect a woman that goes with her boyfriend for his final DCFS visit and then takes him to visit his wife in the slammer. I don't know what it is about Ryan that gets such devotion from women.

Ryan and I were sitting in the jail waiting room talking and I told him Jenny was balking at signing custody of Sean over and that I was going to tell her she had to, He said he tried to tell her that the state wasn't going to take two of her kids and let her keep one.  He asked me not to mention his "friend." Ryan really looked happy. I don't think I've ever seen him look so happy. I even told him that and he just said "I had a really good day." We went back to see Jenny together. I only stayed 15 minutes so they could have some time alone. Jenny was pretty low. I told her she had to sign Sean over and she started crying that neither of us knew what it was like to sign her girls away and then have to come back to the jail alone. I told her she was right I didn't know what that felt like. She is also upset because she's going to be homeless when she gets out of jail and she's lost everything. I told her I'd put her in a hostel for a month when she gets out so she has time to figure out what her next step is. I told her she was being served termination papers for Sean soon. She said "I didn't say I wasn't going to sign I just said I needed some time."

She really seems broken. I've seen her broken before but she's really dug herself a hole this time and I don't know how she's going to crawl out of it. If Ryan really moves on she will be alone. She has a rotten tooth that has been causing her pain for months. I put some money on her jail account so she can get it pulled next week. She might as well make the best use of her jail time.

The jail certainly doesn't make visiting comfortable. You have to be checked in 45 minutes before the visit. There's a line to check in which means you have to be there an hour before the visit. If you check in one minute late then you are bumped to the next visit so you wait an hour and 45 minutes. You sit in an ugly room on benches with no backs. The only thing I can figure is they want you to sit in the lobby and think about why you are visiting someone in jail. If you are a parent of an adult child it's time to reflect on what you did wrong as a parent. If you have a spouse there, you can reflect on bad decisions and if you're there to visit a friend then you can reflect on why you choose friends who end up in jail. And, if you keep going back to visit then you haven't learned anything so they must think you need more time to reflect on who you associate with:)

And on to our Saturday adventure

We took the Frontrunner to the train museum in Ogden but on the way we stopped to visit with a couple of horses. They were very friendly.

Yes, we brought Ethan along. He'd never been to the train museum. His parents were busy painting their house. With another baby on the way they want to move to a bigger house. GASP! What, they can't move and take Sean's BFF! They want to buy a house in Kaysville. First they have to sell the one their in. Not that I don't want them to have what they want but we sure would miss them. besides Ethan doesn't need a room he spends most of his time at our house:)

I got a new cell phone, an android. It takes pretty cool pictures. It is an awesome phone. I can do all kinds of stuff that I couldn't do before.

Ethan in constant motion and sound. That is one loud child! People on the Frontrunner were happy when we got off the train.

We had lunch at Union Station. They have excellent food. Even their kids meals are good. They come with a beautiful fruit side instead of fries.



Self portrait with cell phone, that was a feat!



The snow is melting.....

Yesterday was Ryan's "final visit" with the girls. Lanette said it was at a park. There were three police officers, two DCFS workers and they insisted Lanette stay as well. The DCFS workers, one police officer and Lanette watched the girls at all times and the other two officers circled the park on their motorcycles. Apparently Josh Powell murdering his boys had DCFS on edge.
I'm still stressing about Jenny, but I haven't talked to her. I'm just ignoring her for awhile. Catherine hasn't served her yet so I'm just holding off on any correspondence. One other funny note: Ryan brought his girlfriend to the park. What kind of date is that? "Hey DCFS is taking my kids, you want to come along and meet them before I never see them again. Then maybe when we're done you can come back to my dad's with me and we'll make another one."
Also, Jenny is telling DCFS she will be out of jail in 30 days. They told her if she's not out in 90 she doesn't get a final visit. I guess she's thinking since she screwed up probation so well that there are lots of other programs just chomping at the bit to try and help her.

On to pictures

Sean and Ethan were in the lodge going down the stairs with their boots on and there were some teenagers behind them and I could just see those two as teenagers. Blink and they will be. Note, the cookies in Ethan's hand. Yes, he will be skiing with cookies as a teenager I have no doubt.

Ethan was funny. Sean took off skiing and Don was having Ethan hold on to his poles to teach him how to ski. Ethan said he didn't need help and just followed Sean down. There was no teaching that boy to ski, he just did it.

Snack break. It was that warm, no jacket. By the time we were done the snow was so slushy you could hardly ski in it. Wolf Mountain closes next week. If there is no more snow this week it will be pretty slim skiing by next weekend.

And on it goes

I'm actually too disgusted to write, but write I shall. Yesterday Ryan signed the papers so we can adopt Sean! Yeah, that is fabulous news. I was happy, but still did not feel relieved. We met over at Trolley and Catherine had an attorney come out so Ryan could sign. We did it at Trolley because Ryan lives across the street and can walk there without much effort. After he signed we were talking about Jenny and he wanted to go see her so I said let's drive out there. We got almost to the jail when I said "what time is their dinner?" We realized we had missed the last visit before dinner and we didn't want to wait two and a half hours so I drove Ryan back to his house and he said he would get a ride with a friend.

I came home and checked my jailmail. Jenny sent me a letter saying she was too stressed and didn't want to "deal with Sean" and wanted to wait on his adoption. She said she hadn't eaten or slept since the girls hearing. She then asked me for money. OK, I was mad, really mad. I talked to Catherine and she said chill, we will still file and Jenny will have to appeal and she has no grounds. Then I remembered she did the same thing the night before she signed Ryder's papers. I wanted to go down to the jail and have a talk with her but Catherine said let it go. So I am just doing nothing for awhile and letting her calm down then I will have a heart to heart with her. In the mean time Catherine is having her served at the jail with adoption papers. She said she wanted to wait four months or at least until she talked to Ryan. Hm, wonder what she'll say when she finds out he already signed. I am trying to remain calm. I said it's two steps forward one step backward and Don pointed out that we've had some big steps lately. I kind of feel like it's a four year pregnancy and am ready to have this baby signed, sealed and delivered!

On a good note, I decided to price match and coupon my stress away and saved over $160 on groceries. On a negative, I have an external in internal otitis and feel like the side of my head, ear and brain are going to explode. I went to the doctor yesterday and got antibiotics and pain meds. I am only taking pain meds and night but they wear off at 4 am and I have to put in numbing drops and take more Lortab. Man, I feel sorry for little kids with ear infections, no wonder they scream.

A couple more pictures from the girls sleep over. Lanette is an amazing woman. How she handles all those kids I will never know.

Thinking about sleeping

Talking to each other on the house and cell phone.

Kangaroo Zoo where three hours feels like six:) I asked the kids when they would be ready to leave and Sean said NEVERRRRRR.

Today

I know I should feel relieved but mostly I am numb and still anxious.
Jenny and Ryan both terminated their rights to Kylie and Brie today. Yeah!!! Lanette and Troy will be adopting them ASAP.
Jenny had asked me to be there and I was but they never let me see her. She was handcuffed, shackled and they only brought her into the court while they terminated. She was obviously quite distraught. I did talk to Ryan, even gave him a ride home. (After Catherine had him served.) When I first saw him I told him Jenny was terminating Sean's rights and he looked like I had slapped him.  Later though he said he was OK with it but wanted to Sean to keep his last name. Not sure how that's going to work. Maybe we can add it to his middle name. I don't know why that is stressing me so much. We're down to that sort of details. Catherine is working on getting a court date and having Jenny transferred to Farmington for her relinquishment hearing. I'm going to try and get Ryan to sign on Wed. I want to meet up with him and give him some money so he can buy the girls a nice necklace or something for their final visit.
Fun times tonight though. Kylie and Brie are spending the night for the first time in almost two years. Sean is beside himself with excitement and the girls are so happy. Lanette's dad died last week and they are having another viewing and graveside service tomorrow so the girls are staying with us. They went to the service in St George. 

ABC like you've never heard

I don't even know what to say about this picture other than they are seriously happy. I told Sean a surprise was coming today and when Kylie and Brie got out of the car and said they were spending the night he was seriously surprised!



Ski Day:)

Sean learned to ski today! It's amazing the difference a year will make. Last year when we took him sking there was lots of whining and very little skiing. (The weather was perfect today, warm and lots of fresh new snow) The first few times he held on to Don's pole but at some point he got the hang of it and was on his own. What a big four year old. I'm not quite sure why we teach our children how to do things that will just cost lots of money in the future. I guess it's because we live in Utah and that's what people in Utah do.

Coming up the magic carpet ride.

At first he hung on to his dad's ski poles.

Ski bum

We finished it off with lunch. Fun day. Well, it was all fun until Don got a speeding ticket on the way home. At least the police officer was nice about it. I wonder why they ask "Is there a reason why you were going so fast?" Is there an answer that will keep you from getting a ticket?

One more time: Update with picture prelude

Sean got this fire station "doll house" for Christmas a couple of years ago. He's never really played with it. He and Ethan dragged it out and started playing but I don't think it is the intended use. Oh well. Last week Sean was going to Dairy Queen with  Ethan and came running in the house yelling "I need your plastic card, Mom!" Gee, he's starting young with that.

Sean's new school pictures.

Saga update: Jenny got sentenced to a year in jail beginning immediately for her parole violations. She gets credit for the 30 days she's served so she only has 335 left.

The trial for the girls starts Monday. Jenny asked me to be there for support when she terminates her rights to the girls. She is "hoping" Ryan does the right thing. We are all hoping Ryan does the right thing. She still has a lot of court dates coming up so I don't know if all her sentences will end up being consecutive or if they are going to get stacked. I'm guessing they will be consecutive as they really don't have room in the prison system. Honestly, after she signs termination papers I won't care anymore. Sad life she's lived and I don't see it getting any better. She's never utilized the opportunities she's been given and just keeps digging herself a deeper hole. It's going to be really hard to get a job when she gets out with her new charges.

It's weird to know I won't see her for a long time, or have her calling. I'll still send her letters but I don't plan to visit. Sean hasn't asked about her. The girls know she's in jail. The other day Sean got mad at me and said "I will put you in Jay El and then my momma will be in Jay El". (He and Ethan put the bad guys in jail a lot). I had to laugh. He has no concept of what jail really is but he's already got Mommy Jenny there;( I don't see any reason to tell him.