Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Where in the world is that crazy Estes family?

I know I've left you all hanging but things have been quite crazy for about the last month. We just got internet service hooked up so I can finally give you all an update. To answer every one's question, yes, we did move to Utah (I'm sure most of you have probably figured that out by now). I know what you're thinking "didn't they just move to Las Vegas?" Yes we did, we were only there for about 4 months. What can I say? It's in our blood. Jared & I both moved around a lot as kids, so I guess we just can't quite quit the habit. =) Seriously though, I can't really give a great answer that will make complete sense to everyone seeing as how I'm a bit confused myself. All I can say is that we're just doing the best we can with the information we're given. When we moved from Phoenix, Jared & I both felt like Las Vegas was the place to go. Jared had two promising job opportunities that unfortunately both fell through once the move was already in progress. He must have filled out hundreds of applications and gone on dozens of interviews, but nothing ever came of any of it. And we all know about my experience, I'll spare you all from mentioning it again. So not quite sure what to do, Jared called a different branch of the company he worked for in Phoenix that is located in Ogden, Utah. The guy seemed very interested in hiring Jared but had to talk to a couple of different people and wait for some test results Jared had taken to come in before hiring him. This took several weeks and we were getting very frustrated and worried. After all we had been without income for 4 months now and had sold our car, furniture, and many other things just to get by. We were running out of stuff, next it was going to have to be the children! FINALLY we got the phone call we had been waiting and hoping for. Jared got the job...in Utah! This was great news, but we only had 5 days to pack and get up there. Now the Lord definitely works in mysterious ways because I was not on board with moving to Utah until after my interview incident. It wasn't until after that happened that I finally told Jared that I would completely support his decision to do whatever he thought would be best for our family, even if that meant moving to Utah. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't necessarily hate the idea of moving to Utah (although I am worried about the winter, I've never lived in snow) I just felt that we were supposed to be in Vegas for some reason. We both felt prompted to move to Vegas, but nothing seemed to work out once we were there. Except that is for our wonderful ward. We absolutely LOVED our ward. I'm so grateful to have been a part of it even if it was for only a short time. Who knows, maybe that's the whole reason we were there. Maybe we needed that ward and maybe I needed to learn to trust my husband a little more (I must say I'm very ashamed to admit that. I never realized I had a problem in that area...I guess I have control issues). We may never know exactly, and really it doesn't even matter. What does matter is that we kept our faith, we stuck together as a family and now we are in Utah and we are really enjoying it. The weather is great, it's beautiful, we live in a great neighborhood and have wonderful neighbors, I love being by Heather & the kids (although I miss everyone else) and Jared absolutely loves his job & co-workers and has great opportunity for advancement. We even have friends here already. One of Jared's friends that he grew up with in Alaska lives here, a couple that we went to temple prep classes with in Vegas lives here with their kids and one of my good friends who helped me make it through a Vegas singles ward also lives here. So to make a short story way too long, (sorry about that) that's what's been going on with us crazy Estes'! I've got a lot of catching up to do on everyone else's blogs. I can't wait to read about what you've all been up to. I'll try to post some pictures of the kids soon.