One step closer...

Okay - it is not official until I see the money, but 233 of our 243 acres is under contract to be sold. That means we can now concentrate on selling our house and 10 acres - a much more appealing prospect both the buyers and bankers. We also decided to make an offer on that little 2 bedroom house in Tucumcari - contingent of course on the land deal closing. Its livable, but needs some love and care and a couple of Engineers living in it with architect relatives to help it realize its full potential. The main attraction really is all the out buildings - we need all the storage we can get. And my favorite - the "bunkhouse" which will be my training room. Anyway its cheap which will help our transition from two steady incomes to one steady income and one smaller seasonal income - plus I really am going to find a way to get out of this line of work as much as I can and find something more fulfilling once we get settled in - so a small house with a small payment is very attractive to me.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is still uphill. SD is going to be making trips to the big Tuc every weekend for a while, possibly until we are completely moved, He's taking a load of his stuff and working on the farm equipment. He's hoping to bale one crop of grass hay this year, which should be sufficient for the winter and maybe have a few extra bales to sell - he's hoping to cut in two weeks.

Meanwhile between him being gone every weekend, not having any races to shoot for, getting used to being a soccer mom - my training has fallen all to pieces - which is not good for my mental health. I haven't been to the pool in a month - partly because of work, and soccer and partly because it seems to be closed a bunch - don't get me started on that one. I also have not been on my bike either - due to soccer - SD being gone until late Sunday evenings (no baby sitter). Its set up in the trainer, but I just haven't been real thrilled to do the indoor thing when the weather is so great, although days are getting shorter. But I have been running in fits and spurts. I was on a pretty good role, then got one of my allergy induced colds, and fell off the wagon - and have been trying to get back on that wagon for two weeks.

Anyway - I'm not going to fret over this lack of training issue. There is too much other stuff to fret about. I'm going to do my best to run at least 3 times a week, and try to get back into the pool once or twice - and the trainer. I'm sure that I'll take a trip or two with SD when I can - but there is a lot of soccer between now and the end of October - he is only 5 and doesn't really get it yet - but we made a commitment and we must stay true to that commitment - he may not learn much about being competitive yet, but we will learn about what it means to be on a team. Besides its really fun watching a bunch of 5 year olds kick a ball around. I am planning on spending the last weekend of the Balloon Fiesta with my folks next month, I hope that I can do that - as I miss them and I need a break from all of this. Plus even though my training is really not training at this point, when this rural gal goes to the big city - she likes to go and drool over all the cool gear that she doesn't need, but Geek Girl probably already has...

As I realize that I'm posting this on 9/11 - It is interesting to think back. That day - I was playing hookie from a job I hated. Jeff was in New York State. After locating me still at home sleeping in - he informed me what was happening and that he was going to try and find a way to get home - He was able to rent a car before everything closed and drove 36 hours straight to get home. We were living in Carlsbad and he was still working for a consulting company out of Houston and travelling a lot. We were trying to start a family, but it was proving to be difficult because he was never home. Family has always been most important to us, and that day helped solidify mine. He walked in the door after driving over 2000 miles in 2 days and said that he doesn't know what he's going to end up settling for, but he's quitting his job and staying home. So here we are 6 years later, with two small children (5 and 3.5) and living and working in small town America - soon to be living in even smaller town America in a smaller house. That was a terrible day and the world as we knew it changed forever. I'm not trying to say that I'm glad that it happened, because I believe that Jeff would have eventually made that decision. I guess I'm just thinking about how memorializing something like this helps us remember those we lost - of course and those whose lives have been greatly affected, but also all the little good things that has come out of such tragedy.