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2/25/2012

Boise, Idaho!

Well twist after twist of divine intervention, Boise, Idaho it is! Jared gave the big "Ok" to the company yesterday, and we put in an application on a town home 5 miles outside of Boise, in the Garden City area.
Divine intervention you ask? Well read along...
About 6 weeks ago, as Jared had been furiously applying for jobs, and not having much luck, he asked my brother to give him a blessing (his first! so proud!). In this blessing Skyler said something along the lines of "When the right job presents itself, be humble enough to take it". After the blessing, Skyler said he had no idea where those words came from (uh...duh), and we concluded that meant The Man Upstairs had some plans we weren't in on yet.
We had been concentrating our job efforts in Miami, Florida, a place where we both agreed would be wonderfully different from here, and we could forge a brand new trail just the two of us. Jared also was in contact with many people back in North Carolina who were trying their best to find opportunities for us.
He sent out hundreds of resumes, cover letters and applications, and it was just crickets! Now you all have to understand, my husband has such a good GPA he is on a full ride academic scholarship. He is also in one of the hardest majors here at BYU-I. To accomplish practically perfect grades in this major is near impossible. He has an impeccable resume, and a ton of connections and has networked with dozens of bigwigs, he is the perfect candidate for so many of these jobs he applied for! So the fact that we heard basically nothing was very surprising, and super stressful. And poor Jared! He has worked so so hard in school and dreamed about his future job, and while others in his program were hearing back from these big companies, us? Nothin. (sounds like the same experience I had that sent both me  AND Jared to BYU-I in the first place...)
Anyway, two weeks ago this guy at church came up to us before it started. He had been in the same internship program that Jared was in last semester. He knew this guy from his wife's home ward who started this financial firm in Boise. The guy had offered Jared's friend a job at this company, but he had gotten a few offers, and chose a different one instead. But rather than just saying no to the employer and moving on, for some reason Jared's name kept popping into this guy's head. Jared and this guy weren't really close, they just knew of each other, and ended up being in the same ward, so this is sorta bizarre. That's what made him come up to us at church, and ask if Jared was interested. Jared said he was sort of interested, and I honestly didn't even think about it. Living in Idaho? Bleck. No way. I wanted the beaches of Miami, not just a bigger slightly less-mormoned Rexburg.
Well the next day Jared called the guy in Boise and things took off. This is a financial wealth management company with this big algorithm for hedging money (I don't really get it, but it's a big deal). The company is just a year old, and Jared would be the first in his position, and only 1 of 2 people in the office to receive a salary as well as a commission for the clients he brings in. They talked on and off kind of all day, and the guy straight up offered Jared the job, without meeting him. At that point I was just thrilled for an offer, something real and tangible that I could start planning towards!
So that's why this past weekend we went to Boise, neither of us has spent a lot of time there, we wanted to get a feel for it, and Jared wanted to meet the guy and see the office.
What's great is that it isn't just a bigger, less-mormoned Rexburg. Boise reminds me of Denver a little. Kind of nestled next to some mountains, with lots of restaurants and businesses, and the city is soooo clean! Jared's office is in the US Bank Building, the tallest one downtown (heck probably in all of Idaho), and there's so much stuff to do down there.
Before we went down I had found a lot of apartments we wanted to look at right downtown, but after looking at all of them we were really disappointed. They were all so cramped, and just had people stacked 3 apartments high, and we want to get away from noisy neighbors who stomp around at all hours of the night. So we widened our search to outside of downtown. About 5 miles away from the office we found amazingly inexpensive town-home style apartments. 2 story, each one has their own little yard and patio, 2 bedroom 2 full bathrooms, washer/dryer, dishwasher, microwave. No upstairs or downstairs neighbors, oh and they allow pets under 25 pounds, and the deal is if we graduate without kids then I get my dream puppy, so that was a must. So this place was basically heaven. We fell in love!
So we came home Monday (fastest trip ever) and told the potential employer we'd give him an answer by the end of the week. We prayed and prayed all week, asking for guidance and help, and asking that if there were any offers to let us know by Friday! But nothing. So we took it, and we applied for these townhomes yesterday.
I cannot believe it! In 41 days (yup, counting and not ashamed of it) we will be done, DONE!!! and starting real grown up life. I am so glad we have a plan, and a place to go. We are still forging a new trail (even to get to Denver it's a 15 hour drive!), just in a different way than we expected.
Thanks for all the prayers that were said for us. Heavenly Father definitely heard them, it is so funny how life works out. I am so grateful that we have the guidance of the Lord in our lives, because there is obviously some reason why we need to go there, and we would have never gotten there on our own that is for sure!
I'll make sure to keep everyone updated!
there's the US bank building, the tall brown one on the right! Ahh and look at all the trees! Jared loves that =]

2/17/2012

Whirlwind.

Life is absolutely crazy right now! This is the busiest semester I have ever had! I am loving my job as a TA, but that on top of 16 credits is working me to the bone for sure!
This past month has absolutely flown by. I feel like the last time I could relax was when Jared's parents were here! I have class and work every day until 5, and fitting in cooking dinner and doing laundry and cleaning the house and making group meetings and primary presidency meetings (oh ya, I'm the new 2nd counselor and chorister for Primary and nursery, hooray!) and homework and working out I am just exhausted, physically and mentally!
This past week was valentine's day though, (obviously) and my sweetheart took care of me, like always. A couple weeks ago I got my "gift" when Jared said "I know it's early but here's $$ to go shopping. Happy Valentine's day!" Yup, I will take it! Then the day of, I got beautiful flowers (that I got to arrange, that's the most fun!) and we went out to a fabulous sushi dinner at the White Water Grill in Idaho Falls. Then we came home and watched our movie "The Time Traveler's Wife" like we always do on Valentine's day. I can't believe this is the 3rd Valentine's we've been together, and 2 years ago Jared proposed! Life is moving just so fast!
Speaking of life moving fast, Jared has been furiously applying for jobs all over the country, and FINALLY we got an offer. A financial wealth management company in downtown Boise has offered a job to Jared! Wahooooo! Though Boise, ID is definitely not where either of us dreamed of ending up, we are just grateful for a real live career opportunity with a salary and benefits! We haven't said yes yet, because we are waiting to see if we get any more offers, but what's great about Boise is this weekend we are going over there to check out a few apartment complexes, and Jared has a meeting with his potential new boss. There aren't a lot of places we can do that, and it's exciting!
When we got out apartment now, Jared picked it out because I was in Colorado, and even picking one out was really just finding something available. Now we've ended up loving our big, open apartment, but I am so excited about specifically picking out a place to live, and touring empty apartments, and having a choice. This is so fun!
So I will definitely update next week after we get back from Boise, with pictures and more info. Pray for us so we know what to do!