All is Well

After months of transition we are settling into life. We made it to Pennsylvania safely and have hit the road running. I started my new job and I love it. I am doing a lot of the accounting and admin stuff. I am the direct assistant to the owner of the company so I have lots to keep me busy. Rick started school last week and he is really enjoying his classes. He has already determined some things about what he does and doesn't want to do after school.

Since it has been a while since I have posted anything I thought I would back track a little. We spend Easter with Rick's family. We visited his grandparents and had an egg hunt at his sister's house. I was also asked to sing a solo in church a week after we moved into the ward. I guess word gets around fast in a small town about talent. But it was really nice to be able to do that again and hopefully I will get more oportunities.


Madi wasn't sure what all the fuss was when we were showing her the eggs and told her to pick them up. So Rick had so show her what was in them. After she discovered that she filled up her basket pretty quick.


She also hid a few of her own eggs. If she saw her basket was getting full she would put an egg from her basket next to an egg that was hiding.

She was also a very good sharer. She would open an egg and then eat a piece of candy and then give one to me or Rick. She liked her basket so much she still carries it around on her shoulder like a purse. We also had to get her some bigger eggs that she couldn't put in her mouth to play with after Easter. She loves to put all sorts of treasures in her eggs. This weekend she was putting plastic animals in them from her friend's house.

We have done some other fun things but I will put it in a different post so this one isn't too long.

Leap of Faith

Rick and I have thought long and hard about where we want to end up in life and what matters most. We have goals that we want to achieve and things we want to do for our family and for ourselves. The past few years we have been so blessed with work and being able to have everything we need and a little extra. But as far as the future hold, we didn't see much there. So we are taking a leap of faith. Rick is leaving his job at the Police Department and pursuing a Master's Degree in Geoenvironmental Science at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

I am also quiting my part time job and going full time to provide for Rick and Madi while Rick completes his education. I have been blessed to find a job quickly that is only 10 minutes from where we are going to be living. Rick's parents have offered a rental that they have available to us at a very reduced rate along with helping us watch Madi when Rick needs to be in class. Things are falling into place quickly and smoothly. We will be moving from the urban DC metro to the quiet rural Pennsylvania mountains at the end of this month. I think we are looking forward to the quiet more than anything. I start work in April and Rick starts class the beginning of June. Hopefully I can keep you updated on how things progress the next few months but with how crazy things are going to be, no promises...but I will try.

An Update at Last!!!!

Wow! It has been forever since I updated this, hasn’t it?!?!? Sorry! Life has been so crazy that I haven’t even had time to think about it let alone anything else. I actually forgot that I even had it until my cousin asked me when I was going to update it. Then I was like, oh yeah! So, even though it has been a while I am going to try and get everyone up to speed with what Rick and I have been up to and where we are in life. But I am going to warn you in advance, this is going to be a long post, so if you need to take a break and get a snack and come back and finish reading this later it’s ok. I’ll understand. J So I think the best way to do this and the easiest is to make a list. (I am good at that) Plus Rick says that I am a list maker and I live by my lists. So why not live up to that. So here we go:

-So, Rick and I packed up and moved to Virginia the middle of August. I know a great way to spend our first anniversary. But life doesn’t slow down for things like that. But that’s ok. We had plenty of time in the car together. After 2,300 miles of road we have decided that we never, ever want to make a trip like that again. That was a long way to drive in just three days. But we made it and that was the important thing.

-So we actually had never been to Virginia before we rolled into town with the moving van. So we had to unload everything into a storage unit and then drive two hours back up to Rick’s parent’s house for the night. Then we spend a week going back and forth between their house and Manassas Park, VA until we found a place to live. But we weren’t able to move in for a few weeks so it was nice to take a break from life and stay with his family for a little while.

-Rick started his new City Planning job on Sep 2nd. We were really excited until we found out that same day he started that the city was having financial problems and there was a chance of lay-offs. Which we had just gone through in Utah in Saratoga Springs and that is why we ended up having to move in the first place. So we were pretty worried about everything. Then things started getting pretty bad with the situation at work and we didn’t know how much longer he would have a job. And in the mean time I was having a really hard time finding a job. I was applying for jobs like crazy but I wasn’t getting any response at all from any of them. So we were both pretty frustrated and worried.

-Around Thanksgiving I finally had my first interview and I got the job so that was a huge relief. But we were still worried about Rick’s job. Things had dramatically worsened and we were started to considering other alternatives and looking into moving again even though that would put us into debt and then we would have to start over at square one again with my job and with his job. But we knew that things weren’t going to work out where he was and that if he stayed he would loose his job.

-Right before Christmas, the City Manager came to Rick and told him that he really liked him and he wanted to keep him but he wouldn’t be able to stay in the position that he was in now because of complications within the city and with the budget crisis. But they didn’t want to loose him. So they were going to move him to the police department in their communications department. He would get them same pay and benefits and he would be guaranteed a job through all the layoffs. And then the City Manager said that after the economy settles down he wants to bring him back as the City’s Planner. So that was a huge relief! And we actually ended up making more with the new position that Rick is in now so it ended up being a blessing. And if the economy doesn’t turn around soon then he has certifications in this job for the future that he can use as well as his degree in planning. The Lord does work in mysterious ways, we just have to be patient and wait for him to show us his plan.

-So after everything with work settled down we were able to focus on life outside of work. Rick is the 1st counselor in the Young Mens and I am the Beehive Advisor. We really enjoy our callings! We don’t have time during the week to do all the activities because Rick is on shift work but we enjoy teaching on Sunday. We have a lot to keep us busy but we enjoy living here. There are a few things we would change, like the traffic. If you think Utah is bad you should move here. Utah during rush hour is a walk in the park compared to here. You think I’m kidding. It takes me 30 minutes during normal time to go the same distance that it used to take 5-10 minutes in Utah during rush hour in Utah. Yeah it’s pretty bad. But overall, it is a good experience, but we don’t want to live in the city, especially 45 minutes from DC, the rest of our life. But it is always nice to have a change.

I will try and get some pictures up on here for you and try and keep you all a little more informed about what is going on in our life. Sorry it has taken so long. I hope everyone is doing well! Let us know.

Virginia, Here We Come

The past few months Rick and I have been hunting for a new job for Rick. We first looked for jobs around Utah or Colorado but didn't have any luck. So we expanded our search to anywhere in the contry. The past few weeks Rick has had several interviews with several cities but we finally settled on one. We are going to be moving to Manassas Park, Virginia the middle to end of August. We are really looking forward to moving out there. We both are very excited to start an adventure together outside of Utah. Manassas Park is about 45 minuted for Washington DC, a little under 4 hours from the beach and about an hour and 40 minutes from Rick's parents and sister in Pennsylvania. We are really happy that we were able to find a better job with a lot better opportunities for both Rick and I. We are sad to leave our friends and family that live around this area but we are happy to be moving closer to family out there too. We are also excited about living in an area that has real thunder and lightning storms and real rain storms but is far enough away from the ocean we won't have to worry about hurricans. We will give you an update on more specifices as soon as we know. And Virginia, ready or not here we come! :)