Times are changing...

My sister in law Miranda told me on a Facebook comment...7th times the charm! And I suppose she was completely right! As most people reading this know- Ben got the 7th major job he applied for!!! This is after getting down to the top two for some huge jobs all over the country. We could have ended up in Connecticut, New Mexico, Tennessee, and other places in Utah.  But after all is said and done we are going to be starting over in California! I feel like our lives are picking up where we left off 5 years ago... 2 1/2 kids and a whole lot of patience later...we are heading back to the life we sorta knew.

This all started long before the job even came available.  In June I went to Cali with my mom and sisters and was talking my sister Desi into moving down there...how there are so many different places to live/work/play and she would LOVE it. I realized how sad it made me that I don't have that option to just move down there and have an adventure. I never considered I could move back there ever. And for some reason even though we only lived there 9 months together, it felt like HOME when we'd visit. It was just where our story began and I missed that story!

So in August Ben saw this job for the PR and Marketing Director at Casa Romantica and was pretty intrigued. We'd been having some talks about maybe not trying to make Utah work anymore. When Ben didn't get a job in Salt Lake we were beyond frustrated and felt like we HAD to do something. I mean we've felt that way for years but this was just different. I am pregnant and we did NOT want to have another baby living with parents! That following weekend I really wanted to get AWAY. I had been craving the ocean and a beach trip so on a whim we packed up and drove to California to see the ocean and Ben's family.  We stayed for about 4 days. On Saturday we took the train to San Clemente. At the time I really didn't think much of it...we had talked about going all the way to Oceanside but didn't know if the kids would last quite that long on the train (they wouldn't have) so we saw that San Clemente had a nice pier. I realized somewhere along the way that Ben wanted to go there so he could scope it out...for the job haha. He could see the building from the beach and we didn't have time to walk up to it but it was pretty! And we loved the beach..it was so pretty and blue and honestly one of the prettier beaches I've seen down there.

We got back to Utah and for a while Ben toyed around with the idea of applying thinking maybe he shouldn't, he wasn't sure it was worth all the time he'd put into it- if he was completely qualified. The title of Director scared him I think. But by then I had a fire in my eyes as I practically beat him into submission with my words...haha.  I told him I didn't care how many jobs he had to apply for- one was going to work out and if he didn't even apply nobody was going to be knocking at the door to just give him a job. I also said nobody was coming to his pity party so it was time to GET GOING! Mind you...we have pursued many dreams over the past two years...restaurant ownership, our photography business, the Opera etc. We hadn't applied for anything outside of Utah in over a year. After looking at the job boards here one night...40+ pages of job postings and nothing paid over 12 an hour unless you had a VERY specific degree. I realized right then we were DONE here. We had given it our all--but this was not home anymore. We needed to be a family and go be brave and sacrifice and be on our own again. Even if that meant being poor in a different way...getting entry level type jobs etc. SO I was pretty insistent he apply.

He did...and we didn't think much about it for 2-3 weeks. Then he noticed the posting had closed. We didn't expect much cuz at the end of the process it had said "Only accepting local applicants". AFTER HE HAD FINISHED A LONG SURVEY! Grr....anyway...two days after it closed he got an email. The rest is history. It was one of those things where I didn't "just know" cuz I had given up on those instincts years ago haha...but I wasn't afraid to get invested emotionally. I wasn't afraid to post it online...to tell the world we were going for another job. And it made a huge difference.

The process wasn't gruesome...no more than any other job process. It was great and actually really quick from start to finish. And by Friday I did KNOW it was going to happen. I felt it in my gut. I realized how all that longing for months to live by the ocean and to move on from this life was maybe my heart trying to reconcile with my brain...I knew where we belonged. I didn't have any firework moments when we were at that beach in September. In fact it was stressful as all get out with the kids and the long train ride and I had morning sickness...so honestly I have no idea if I'll love living there. But I think I will! And I have faith that the Lord will provide for all our earthly needs...we'll make it work even if it's tight in the beginning (it's NOT cheap to live there folks). And Ben will be himself again...working for a place he loves. Doing what he's educated to do. Making big kid money again. And we'll be a family. Just us...and it'll be scary and lonely and hard. But I'm so ready for it! Bring on the new trials..these ones lasted WAY TOO LONG! :)

So this is where he'll be working:

Really hard huh??? Poor guy will have an awful view....

And we'll get to live somewhere close by! :) And heaven willing I'll keep up on this blog more since I won't be living with my parents and they'll wanna see what we're up to! 

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and love and excitement and enthusiasm and SUPPORT! We are so blessed and SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!