At Home in Utah!

Really so much to say, but do you really want to read my 5-page journal entry of the saga that has been, well, the last year and a half of our lives?  Didn't think so.  So here's the bulleted version so you can get up to speed.

• November 2010--Kris came home from work with a new "assignment" that would begin January 2011.  He had concerns going in, but after the first couple weeks, he knew it wouldn't be a good fit long term.  Concurrently, we had been feeling the pull to move closer to family, after many years out on our own.  So we actively began our search for something out west.

• 2011--Fast forward through an entire year of difficult work days, 5 bosses, watching others be laid off, not finding much that would fit in a new job, and waiting, praying, and exercising great amounts of faith and patience in the Lord.

• February 2012--A call from a new (10-year young), little (at least by the Wells Fargo/AIG standard of business) online home furnishings company based in Boston with a new call center in Ogden, UT in need of someone to whip up a training program for a growing workforce.  Hmmm, the location was right, the timing was right (seriously at the end of our rope), and the job sounded refreshing after a heavily regulated financial industry for too long.  So we pursued it.  And thanks to a loving Heavenly Father, it worked out.  Check out all our new job has to offer YOU!!! It's really a great site--the Amazon.com of the home furnishings world.

                                                                      Wayfair.com

• Easter Sunday (April) 2012--We spoke in church Sunday morning and then Kris loaded up his trusty little Corolla with all he needed to live with his Brother's family and headed to Utah.  Good bye Iowa for him.  The rest of us stayed in Iowa to finish out the school year and sell the house.

• April, May, June, 2012--The waiting game begins.  Keep the house spotless.  Be a single mom of 4 kids.  Teach early morning seminary every day.  Keep up my choir job.  Help prepare for a choir fundraiser.  Keep up with school activities.  Show the house (with fresh baked cookies) often with no offers.  Frustration. Tears.  Blessings and council from Priesthood leaders.  Faith. Patience.  Encouragement from family and friends (which I COULD NOT have done without!)

• June 8, 2012--Pack up the kids and leave the house in the hands of the Lord (fully furnished except for our clothes) to find a buyer while we travel to move in with my parents in Idaho indefinitely.  Still not together with Kris (who has been living with his brother's family for a long time--how grateful we are for them), but at least within driving distance.

A goodbye party that turned out to be for Emily too as the McKellars followed us west.

• July 4, 2012--National holiday, 20th anniversary of our first date, and we got an offer on our house.  It was an excruciating day as the offer was very low.  But at the end of the day and much back and forth, we decided to take it, trust the Lord, and move forward.  We couldn't be together and get settled in Utah without selling our house in Iowa.  Oh, and they wanted a close date of July 30th, so we had less than a month to figure out where to land with our family.

Mid-July, 2012--A week of looking at many, many houses in many, many areas of Davis County and finding nothing that fit with house, price, schools, neighborhoods, etc.  So we decide to take the scary route and build a house in the schools we like. So ONE day to find a rental home that would work for the next 6 months.  Seriously led by Heavenly Father to find somewhere that would work for less than a year lease and be clean and close.

• Mid-July 2012--Because we didn't have enough going on, Josh started and finished his Eagle Project and Eagle Board of Review.  Way to go Josh!!!  Now you can drive.

• Mid-July 2012--Head back to Iowa (with all 4 kids) to pack up the house, get Josh's driver's license, take Emmie to girls' camp, and close out our time in Iowa.  And hear from Kris that we lost the lot for our house and now nowhere to build.

• End of July 2012--Close on our house, find a new lot in a different neighborhood with new elementary school and ward, and follow our moving truck to our rental house.  At last our family is back together.  We are going to be living in West Layton, Utah--a good half way mark between Ogden and SLC and super close to two of Kris's brothers' families.  

•  August 2012--Lots of time getting adjusting to our new surroundings--doctors, dentists, orthodontists, schools, band, ward, mutual, school shopping, unpacking, filling our garage to the brim with unpacked boxes, internet, phone, TV, all while supporting Kris in his new job and helping the kids adjust to all new everything.  Whew, I'm tired.

Josh in the band--a little smaller than Waukee

• August 20, 2012 (tomorrow morning)--Kris heads to Boston for a week and we continue to settle in.  In a couple weeks school starts for the kids and Kris heads to Ireland for a week. 

Well, I guess I did add a 5-page journal entry as it was.  Now I am going to be better keeping this blog updated.