I thought that title would at least draw Alvin in to reading this post.
Actually, his interrogation of where I am and what I'm doing made me realize that I haven't kept you guys up to date on the latest progress (at least I hopes it's progress) in my life.
On Aug 20th I signed the contract for the job in Omaha. We finished
packing and put stuff into storage on August 22nd, visited Omaha from
the 23-26th to look for housing, returned to Columbia and closed on the
sale of our house on the 27th. On Sept. 3 we drove up again to Omaha,
and I deposited Sara and the girls at a hotel and then I drove back down
to Columbia. On the 4th I pulled a couple of mattresses out of storage,
along with some boxes of kitchen stuff and toys, put the items into the
minivan, and again drove up to Omaha. The following morning (the 5th, I
drove out to Curtis, NE for several days of training at the technical
college where the veterinary technology program is housed. The week of
September 10th was essentially my first week on the job in Omaha, though
I took the day off on the 12th when the moving truck finally arrived
with all our furniture and other household items.
Most of my waking hours during the past month have been consumed with preparing
curriculum, visiting other colleges to get to know faculty and
administration while promoting the forthcoming comparative medicine vet tech program, unpacking, and trying to study for the laboratory animal
medicine board exam.Somewhere in there I managed to finish writing my dissertation, which now is sitting on my advisor's desk waiting to be read.
Well, that's about it. Baby Eleanor is doing well, as are the rest of the Jacksons. I hope you are too. Feel free to come visit us sometime.
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2 comments:
As a follow-up to a question that Alvin raised off-line (well, not exactly off-line, just off-blog), our housing situation presents a fun small story.
We started out looking for houses to buy, but the paltry amount we had accumulated during grad school didn't provide much of a down payment, so we didn't find anything in our price range that satisfied our finicky tastes (or that comfortably fit our growing family.
The night before we drove back to Missouri (which was a Saturday night), I decided to have a look at postings on Craigslist for houses for rent. I noticed a 5 bed 4 bath (definitely a perk for a family with 5 girls) home just above the monthly price limit that we had arbitrarily set. I emailed the poster and went to sleep.
The following morning, as the family and I were getting ready to check out of the hotel and stop by a local ward for Sacrament meeting, the phone rang and I was told that we could have a look at the rental property that morning. When we pulled up to the house 30 minutes later, we saw that several other individuals were there having a look at the house as well (our realtor had mentioned to us that good homes for rent don't stay vacant long). The landlord, who met us at the door and was wearing a suit and tie, explained that he and his wife had raised 9 kids in the house, but they had moved a little south of town for some special school opportunities for their kids. Immediately Sara and I started processing the details: suit and tie on a Sunday morning, 9 kids ... hmmm. I explained to him that we were moving to the area in the next couple of weeks and that we were going heading back to Missouri after attending church that morning. He asked if we already belonged to a church in the area, and I said that I went online to find a local congregation. The tour of the house then moved to the basement where he showed us a storage room lined with shelved. I commented that the room would work perfectly for our food storage (which is code for "I'm LDS, are you"). He replied that they had used the storage room to keep their food storage, and then asked us if we are Mormons and confirmed that his family is as well.
After he finished showing us the house he confided in us that he would feel very comfortable renting to someone with a current temple recommend and that we would at the top of his list of applicants.
We then drove across town to a ward in which I had found a connection through LinkedIn. The members were very welcoming and hopeful that we might move into their ward boundaries. I mentioned that we were looking at renting a house in another part of the city, actually from someone in the stake, and I named the home owner. The person that I was talking to said, "Oh, I know that family. They used to be in this ward, in fact, that's her father over there. He's in our bishopric." Small world. Big coincidence. Although I heard a saying, "Coincidence is just God maintaining His anonymity."
We felt very comfortable movign forward with the rental of the house and are enjoying it very much. We will save up some money over the course of the one-year lease and reassess home ownership next year.
Congratulations to you and the whole family on the new job and the serendipitous home rental.
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