Cats out of the bag....

Many of you who interact with me directly might have noticed that there seems to be a distinct lack of packing or concern about moving lately in my house. You might have written it off to pregnancy exhaustion (which I seem to have a LOT of. For example: The past 4 days I have been exhausted, even if I got a nap. I just couldn't seem to shake it no matter what time I went to bed, woke up, or what I did during the day. Today I took a nap while Eloise was sleeping and Evelynn was watching a movie. I woke up 2 HOURS LATER much to my dismay since we had shopping plans for this afternoon. Eloise was still sleeping, Evelynn was adeptly navigating netflix movies, and here I was asleep at 2:40 in the afternoon. I got up, got ready, made my list, woke up Eloise at 3:30 [you know there's going to be repercussions for that tonight], went shopping, made dinner, sat down and announced that I was still exhausted! Dear me. Only 9 1/2 more weeks till this baby comes out [I have it on good authority with my OB that this child WILL be on time, end of story] and then maybe I can get some more restful rest.....) which is partially true. But the real reason there has not been much packing going on, except for the de-junking for the yard sale on Saturday, is because we're not moving anymore! Yes, you read that right. Now, before you all start panicking about Doug's rejection to the school or some huge disaster or whatever, rest assured that we are now staying in Provo for the next 3-5 years for a very good reason attached to a very big blessing. Let me explain.

Doug graduated from BYU with his BS in Political Science and a minor in Landscape Management a year ago. His current job at BYU had kind of implied that when this happened he would get a pay raise since he would have an honest to goodness degree in something, where as before he did not. He's being doing the work of someone who was being paid more than him, so we figured he'd be a shoe in for a raise, which we would then be able to save towards grad school the next year. Well, this never happened. Things got complicated at the library for a number of reasons I won't go into, but to say the least I felt like we kind of got pushed to the sidelines in favor of bigger issues. It made our decision to leave the comfort of Provo and strike out into the unknown of Kansas much easier for us, and so we applied, got into, and started to make the preparations needed for grad school in August. About mid June Doug's boss walked into his office with his co-worker Janet and handed him a slip of paper. Doug asked him what it was and he said it was the pay raise the administration was going to give Doug. I will not tell you how much it was, but lets just say it was shocking enough that Janet was stunned, as was his boss which did not know this was coming down the pipe. Doug, as you can imagine, was also floored. It amounted to about the same amount of money that Doug would have been making after his grad program in three years, minus the debt. Doug called to tell me the news, and my first response (right after I could grasp the concept) was anger. Call me weird, but it was! I felt like I had been yanked around, manipulated, and then handed this offer that threw all my plans and hard work out the window in 3 minutes flat! As you can imagine, I soon got over this feeling and fell into one of sorrow and regret, because this meant we would probably not be moving to Kansas as planned. I had been excited to be closer to my family, to start a new adventure, and for Doug to start his career in something he really liked. But it seemed silly to leave the paycheck, insurance, and comforts of Provo to go into debt, poverty, and uncertainty in Kansas. Plus, BYU employees are offered the chance of having free schooling, even for Masters programs, if they do them through BYU. So our options now included education with debt, or education without debt. Hmm.....

Bottom line is we're now staying in Provo for at least 3 years, maybe 5 depending on what program Doug decides to do. It was sad to say goodbye to the Landscape Architecture degree, at least for now, but maybe we'll be back someday, or maybe we'll get there another way. A lot of things that almost happened and didn't have manifest themselves to us as amazing blessings. For example, I did not apply to several subsidized housing complexes in Kansas like I was going to do that very week we got the raise, thereby saving us several hundred dollars. I also did not yet call the moving van company and get a van, saving more money. Doug was also delayed a few times from getting the laptop and equipment he needed to buy, saving us a few thousand dollars. We now can keep our insurance plan for the baby, our dental plan for the family, our flex spending for medical expenses, all that jazz, which will save us thousands of dollars in debt. It has been a blessing in so many ways it's amazing. Plus we get to stay with our lovely ward and amazing neighbors, and all the wonderful family we love and enjoy in Utah. My parents got over the disappointment of us not moving closer faster than expected, and Doug's parent's are overjoyed we're staying within driving distance. Doug's sister Kristen is starting school this fall and it'll be nice for her and for us to be close during the transition. It all seems to have worked out so perfectly, almost too perfectly, aside from the fact that we won't be getting the degree we originally wanted. It's a good thing Doug is talented in so many ways that this won't set him back much at all. :) I can not tell you how blessed I feel. The Lord really does watch over our family, and I don't always think we deserve all the blessings we receive from Him. So for all of you Utah folk, it seems you'll have the joy of interacting with me for a while longer, so lucky you!