We are going to Utah!
Oh. My. Goodness. I am beyond excited for this trip and the possibilities that it holds for our family, but I have been somewhat hesitant to actually write about it here.
Casey has been interviewing via telephone and email for what feels like forever with a company in Woods Cross, Utah that seems great. They seem to be hard working, honest and genuinely kind people – things we have desperately been trying to find in an employer throughout our search. It is not easy to impress my husband, but they seem to have done it. They have extended us an offer to fly up to Utah during the first week of March so that we can see the area over the weekend together, and then so that Casey can go to their office and shop for two week days. I am so grateful and honored to be included in that invite. They have purchased me a plane ticket, hotel room and rental car for our time there – my heart is so heavy and full of thanks.
As most of you already know, Casey has been interviewing all over the country this past year and this is the very first time that he has committed to actually flying out to visit a potential employer. He just has that good of feeling about these guys. After accepting the position he currently holds with this other company who has immoral, illegal and unprofessional practices, he is being much more cautious in his search for a new employer. Wherever we go now is where we want to stay forever, or as close to it as we can. Casey takes his commitments and his work seriously. It is important to us that it be a good company filled with good people who have a similar work ethic as Casey. This company seems to be it.
I have several concerns, though, and so I am trying very hard not to get overly excited. At this point, i guess, anything can still happen. My biggest concern is financial. This move would require us to walk away from the new house we just started building – obviously resulting in a loss. It would require a huge relocation expense, a deposit on a rental property and then a large downpayment on a permanent home – something we are totally unprepared for. While the homes there are beautiful (and they have basements! wow!) but they also seem to be much much much more expensive than their Texas counterparts. Remember how I bought my first house here when I was a teenager? It took alot of hard work, but, really, homes are just honestly affordable here. Also, Utah has a state tax, where Texans don’t. I’m also concerned about being so far away from our friends and family – our support system. Neither of us have ever lived outside of Texas. Our children not having their grandparents 5 minutes away or an uncle who is a professional mechanic within walking distance that can fix my car, or play dates with cousins just a short drive away… Scarey.
With any move I think those concerns are standard, and that is really why we haven’t seriously considered any of the other companies that Casey has interviewed with – we knew they wouldn’t at least match his current salary and offer a big enough relocation package and/or sign on bonus to make it do-able. We are not at all greedy people and I think our financial expectations are reasonable – ALL we really want a safe and comfortable life for our small children. Casey will do anything for us to have that.
I think if it is the right opportunity for our family ALL of the details will work out in the way that we need them too. So, i’m trying to let go of any fear or hesitation I have. In fact, I have already scheduled an appointment with a realtor, a brother of a friend of mine from the Wheatstone ward, for one of the days I am in town. It is so hard not to get excited. My oldest child is even thrilled at the idea of having four real seasons instead of warm, hot, hotter and hunker-down-its-hurricane-time. ;)
The more I look at photos of Utah, and speak to my friends who have lived there the more I actually WANT to go. Casey’s current job is unappreciative of his skillset and is tied to some very bad practices… It just seems like the right thing to do in this season of our lifes. As strange as it feels to admit this, I think it is actually perfect timing. Even with all of the reasons *not* to go, it just feels right.
I have said it before and I will say it again, I know I am part of a bigger purpose and a greater plan and I know that it can take me anywhere… Maybe even Woods Cross, Utah!
test Filed under Financial Peace, OUR CRAZY LIFE CHANGING JOURNEY!, being a mother, family, fast and testimony, hope, how it started, photos, prayer requests, scarey stuff!, time change, what i'm doing... | Comments (4)4 Responses to “We are going to Utah!”
Leave a Reply
Taylor…Hi, there! Hadn’t talked with you or seen your site for a while so decided to look it up and see what you’re up to and…WOW! Yo’ve been busy and on the move. And going to Utah, possiblly to move!?!
I think you’ll have a wonderful trip. I hope Casey will be willing to visit Temple Square with you. If nothing else, it’s very beautiful, but I think you’ll both enjoy much of what you learn, too.
If you have time, you’ll also want to do a drive called “the Alpine Loop.” It’s a very beautiful drive through the mountains, including Robert Redford’s Sundance resort. If you don’t have time for that, a drive up to Park City from SLC is only 45 minutes, and a lot of fun. Do the Alpine Slide there, if you have the time (and can afford it), it’s a blast.
Both of our sons live in Utah, one in Logan (although he’s finishing med school and will be moving to Virginia in June) and one in Springville, down by Provo and the BYU campus. My sister, Christi, lives in the south SLC area, too. She’d love you. If you want someone to show you guys around who knows the area, let me know and I’ll arrange something with one of them.
Also, I’ve been thinking about you and Casey lately (mostly Casey–no offence, but it will be obvious in a minute why), and have been meaning to send you a website to show him when you deem the timing right. The site is: bookofmormonevidence.org.
This is a site about all kinds of new information coming out recently that has some very compelling evidence for the Book of Mormon: DNA, archeological, anthropologincal, scriptural, etc. Given our discussion with Casey and Bishop Pruitt, this could be a very helpful website, if you can present it to Casey at the right time–when he’s in the right frame of mind. I’ll leave that up to you, of course, but hopefully it will be of use and interest to him.
Please give a juicy, detailed account of your trip when you get back. I’d love to hear.
Take care.
Carter
Carter! Hi! Thank you for the suggestions – i will definitely look into all those things to do while we are there. I am getting more and more excited each day. We don’t have an official salary/relocation offer yet, so it may still be too low for us to reasonably accept… this makes me try, at least, to control my excitement. ;)
The way i currently understand it – Monday, March the 4th, will be ‘my day’ to do things in the area alone since Casey will be checking out the office and shop. I need to look at rental properties (and the realtor i had lined up informed me that realtors in UT don’t do rentals like they do in TX – you have to go alone) and I would like to also try and go to at least one of the temples in the area, too. I think I can get Casey to take me to Temple Square, and i look forward to that, but I would also like to spend some time inside one of the local ones. And if Casey can’t or isn’t willing to spend time at Temple Square I would like to go there too. If your sister would be interested in doing one of these things with me, or something different altogether, maybe a Monday meeting would be good. I would certainly not want to inconvenience her, or anyone else for that matter, but since I am unfamiliar with the area I would love to have company while out and about. I will have a rental car, but I am not sure how comfortable I will be willing to go in it – since i so easily get lost. Heh.
Casey looked up some of the other activities you mentioned and we are really excited to try and do them. It seems as though there are lots of great things in Utah… Its going to be hard to narrow it down! On paper it looks like we will have lots of time there, but really, I don’t think we will have time to do too much.
I hope to see you soon. Thanks for the reply. I always love hearing from you.
Taylor
Talked with my sister, Christi. She is excited to have the opportunity to show you around. She said there’s a slight chance she’ll be here in Houston on March 4th for business, but not probable. She should know for sure within a week. If that doesn’t work we’ll come up with a backup plan. Cheers.
Carter
ok. thank you! no worries either way. I totally understand if something comes up.