This past summer and first part of the fall brought A LOT of stress and uncertainty. Nate and I had many sleepless nights, long conversations, and even some tears. September 2018 (just one year earlier), Nate left his own Northwestern Mutual business and joined practices with a guy named Zach Burton, who worked up in the Farmington office. Nate was going to merge with Zach and run their investment book to grow the business. Zach promised a great base salary and benefits and the chance to earn a percentage of the growth his business produced. Nate was getting tired of the rat race of building his own insurance and investment business and so he accepted the job. He only accepted after we had prayed and felt good about the decision. Shortly after, we moved up to South Weber to be closer to the Farmington office and a new chapter begun for our family. We quickly fell in love with our new home and neighborhood and friends and almost everything was great up there. But after just a couple months, Nate saw Zach's true colors and it became really hard to work for him. Zach was incredibly moody and would often take his anger out on Nate. He would blow up at Nate for the smallest things and blame him for anything that went wrong. He also was a shady saleman and would sell investments and insurance to anyone in any situation - just to make the sale. He was notorious for telling white lies or omitting some of the truth. And most frustrating of all, he promised to pay Nate a certain amount and pay for benefits, but he went back on his word and wouldn't help with benefits and kept trying to lower anything he was supposed to pay us. Basically he was just greedy. And Nate didn't want to be in business with someone like that. So the entire year up there, Nate was miserable at work and knew he needed a change. But it was complicated to start his own practice again because he had already "merged" his clients with Zach's and he didn't necessarily want to go back to that.
So for a little while, Nate didn't know what to do. Sadly, word got back to Zach that Nate wanted to quit and all heck broke lose. To sum up the drama between the two of them - Zach fired him, then hired him back, then begged him to come back and said sorry, then upped Nate's salary to make him stay, then Nate quit, then Zach begged him back, then Zach talked to me trying to convince me to convince Nate to stay, and then Nate finally knew he had to get away from the toxic environment and he made the final decision to leave. Whew. It was a roller coaster of emotions for a few weeks while Zach wouldn't let him go.
Once Nate decided to leave Zach, and after a lot of prayer and discussions and research, Nate decided to apply to some of the big tech companies in Utah. With his background in sales and his work ethic, he knew he could be successful. He had a lot of connections in that world and felt confident that's what he was supposed to do. But at first, nothing was panning out and no company was offering him a compensation package that was enticing. The two companies he really wanted to work for were Qualtrics and Pluralsight. But Pluralsight wasn't going to offer him a decent amount to start there because they wanted more tech experience. So he eventually sent in his resume to Qualtrics. At first he didn't apply to there because Qualtrics was down in Provo and I really didn't want to move our family again so soon (and commuting between South Weber and Qualtrics was near impossible). But it was at the top of his list (it's at the top of a lot of people's list because it's a great company to work for.) So he sent in his resume and had a few interviews. They were challenging interviews and it was a long few days waiting to hear back from them. But...they offered him the job! And even a better job than he could have hoped for. He was to start as an account executive in the middle of October!
We were ecstatic! The biggest piece of the puzzle was solved. But we were unsure if we should move or not. I really didn't want to change my kids schools again (especially in the middle of the school year!) and we didn't know if we'd be able to sell our house and find a new house in Utah County. House prices were at an all time high and we didn't know how it would all work out. But after a week or so of knowing Nate would be commuting so far each day (at least 1 1/2 hours if there was NO traffic...and there was always some traffic) we knew we needed to be closer. As hard as it was to leave our new life up there, we knew we we were supposed to be back to Utah County - whatever that might take.
So we put our house up for sale a couple days after deciding to move. We used Homie to save on real estate fees and it ended up being a huge blessing for us. Our house went under contract shortly after listing it and it ended up making a good return on it. For only living there a year that was a big blessing. It was really hard to tell some of our good friends that we were moving, after only being there for 12 months, and a few tears were shed. But ultimately, it still felt right and we moved forward.
We started looking for houses all over Utah County not knowing where we wanted to settle. And since we didn't want to move again (for years and years), we wanted to really like our area. We looked in south Utah County and fell in love with the beauty down there but it didn't feel right for us and ultimately we wanted to live up in North Utah County, closer to family and friends and everything familiar. And luckily, after only a couple weeks of looking, we found the perfect house for our family. It fit all the requirements we had (like a 3-car garage, at least 4 bedrooms, at least a quarter acre lot, and a great open room to entertain). It was located in Lehi - only 15 minutes from Nate's parents, 15 from mine, 5 minutes from Steve, 3 minutes from the Brewers, and close to all of the same stores and places we are used to. When I first walked through it, I knew we were supposed to move there.
Packing is exhausting and especially packing up a house that we just unpacked a year prior. But Nate and I are ultimate organizers so luckily it went pretty smooth. The only tricky thing was we sold the house before we signed papers on the new one...meaning we had no home for 2 weeks. So my parents were kind enough to let us crash in their basement for that time. But it also meant two moves - moving out of our house and into a storage unit and then moving out of the storage unit and into the house. It was al ot of work so once we finally closed on our new house on October 30th and moved in that weekend - it felt so good to be settled again!
So here we are - we've lived in our house just over a month and we are starting to feel settled. I was SO worried about changing the kids school again but a few weeks ago they started school at River Rock Elementary and instantly made friends. Their first day there they didn't even seem too nervous or scared. Kids are resilient and moving twice in the past year has only made them stronger and more confident in change. Nate is loving his new job at Qualtrics and works long hours there as he is learning the new products and job requirements there. He is excited for his future there and so grateful they saw the potential in him and gave him a job! (Because they turn down hundreds of applicants each week!)
Although this past year (and especially the past few months) have been difficult and stressful, we know the Lord is aware of us and has helped along the way. I am SO grateful we had the experience in South Weber for a year but I feel so blessed to be back. I've gone out to lunch with old friends and seen my parents and Nate's parents more and it feels right to be back "home."
This was super long...and maybe I shared too many details...but I wanted to record this entire job saga to remember that God answers prayers. And He is in the details of our lives.
For the year we lived up here we put our heart and soul into this house. We fixed up the yard a ton, planted a garden, fixed paint in the basement, cleaned it up, and decorated it so it felt like "home" so it was hard to leave. I snapped this picture just before we drove away forever and it felt surreal that this chapter was over so soon.
The only thing that helped leaving our house not as hard was knowing we were moving into a new beautiful home - complete with the white kitchen I always wanted :)
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