Thursday, May 24, 2012

This is for Aunt Susie, who says she gets upset about long lags in posting.

And for Melissa, who, I'm sure, is wondering what we've decided.

There are pictures, but they may not make the writing.  We'll see how much time I get.

Charlie is outside riding the plasma car.  He just finished eating a cheese stick Joseph found outside.  By the time I was aware of that, it was mostly gone.  What was left felt relatively cool, so I hope Charlie brought it out with him and dropped it before Joseph found it.  I hope.

Nathan, Mary, and Joseph are at the kitchen table working on puzzles.  I wonder how long before they start screaming about their space being invaded and no longer having enough room.

Okay, so what's new....

First the big stuff:

The house is done.  All done.  We got our deposit back and I shredded all the paperwork related to the offer, all the extensions, and everything.  (What a pile of stuff that was!  Holy cow!  And we didn't even get to sign the "big" mortgage commitment, which our broker promised us was about the size of a dictionary.)  How did it all end?  Well, we told the mortgage broker Nathan would be leaving his job and we were going out of state if that's where the new job took us.  They halted the paperwork and denied the mortgage.  We even got our appraisal fee refunded, which means they hadn't even done that yet.  So had we not killed the whole thing it could have continued for another month or more!  (Remember, we first bid in January!)

So now for the job...

Nathan turned down a job in Anchorage, Alaska.  Everyone I spoke to (thank you, Melissa!) about it made it sound so wonderful, but the company required him to sign a non-compete contract.  A brutal one.  If he ever left them, he couldn't work within a 150 mi radius for 2 years.  That's extreme.  The guy has been looking for at least 3 years (we saw his ads when we were in Chicago) for help.  He blames the climate, but I think I can guess at another source of his difficulty.

But all is not lost, not by any means.

Nathan's last day with his current employer will be on the 31st.  They certainly haven't taken well to his resignation, though he did it very nicely and didn't blast anyone.  And actually, that turns out to be part of the problem.  They see him as a valuable cog in their money machine and they want a reason for his departure and a fall-guy to blame.  He won't give them either.  He told them only that he needs an "accelerated professional growth trajectory" and that he found a place with "a master violinist."  The other reason for their fury is that he won't tell them where he is going.  It's driving them crazy.  The president of the company also asked him straight out, "How did you get the money to pay off your contract?"  They really thought they had him tied up and at their mercy for the next 3 1/2 years. (His diplomatic answer, "I raised the capital."  He wanted to tell him it was none of his darn business.)  Ahh, the problems of upper management and their spidery ways.

He starts his new job on June 4th.  We are very, very excited about it.  It's in MA, just about 15 mi north of here.

We were looking for housing closer to Nathan's work, but with the coming of the baby (7 weeks left), we thought we might be pushing our luck.  We spoke with our landlords and they have no problem with us staying as long as we need to (won't even accept more in rent!) and also with our leaving when we find what we need.  They are very flexible.  (And Jim even hinted that he wants to replace the tile counter-top if that's okay with us.  If it's okay?  Are you kidding?  I've always hated that thing!  Come today!)  We have decided, for now, to wait and see how Nathan's commute is before deciding what we are doing.  As he's going against traffic, it shouldn't be horrible, but we are in a pocket and that may make no difference.  Our family size (and number of boys!) prevents us from renting many of the offerings.  (A second floor apartment in a 3 family building?  Are you kidding me?  I don't need both upstairs and downstairs neighbors pounding for us to be quiet!)  We really need to go from here to a house, not an apartment (and I'm not using coin-op laundry again!) and houses are expensive.  (Duh.)  Even to rent.  We are currently in a duplex, in a nice neighborhood, have wonderful landlords, and our direct neighbor (who shares a wall with us) is patient, quiet, nice, and hardly ever home.  That's all a little tough to let go of for another rental.  Maybe for our own house.  A house we like and want.  (Key factor there.)

In other news.... 

Nathan's parents were called on a mission to the Church Ranch in Florida, to start in September.  The mission president (also their former stake president) called them last week and asked if they could be there in June instead.  Then he called back and upped the date again by two weeks.  So, now they are on their way from CA to FL.  They hope to arrive this weekend and spend a few days with Brian and Audrey in Melbourne before reporting to their mission home on June 2nd.  They didn't have time for the Senior MTC.


Okay, I've been yelling at the kids for a while now... and I need to go make dinner.  I'll be back with more.  And with pictures.  So many pictures:  wool festival, Charlie and the construction crew, and more.













1 comment:

Becca said...

Thanks for the update!