It'e Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

So the last time I posted was around Halloween and now it's a few weeks before Christmas. Only, it's also an entire year later...

A few things have happened in the last year. Let me think:

-I worked at Scheels as a receptionist for just under a year. The last day of August was my last day there. I loved the other receptionist girls and it was fun to work a such a huge company because I'd never done that before. There were so many employees I never even met or learned their names, it was very different than I was used to at pretty much every job I've ever worked. It was fun though.

-I also got another job, as a Social Media Specialist for the company Two Little Hands, in May, and quit that in August as well. I really liked working for the company itself because they make videos that teach ASL (American Sign Language) to children, but I didn't love posting new things on social media everyday for 3 hours. It was kind of hard and more time consuming than I was prepared for.

-We applied last October (in 2014) for a Facility Manager job with the Foreign Service. The job includes Garrett doing the same job he's doing for the church, only instead of taking care of church and seminary buildings, he will be taking care of Embassies and Consulates all over the world and moving to a new post approximately every two years.

-We figured Garrett had a good chance of getting the job so we decided we should sell our house in West Jordan so that if we did get the job, we wouldn't have to worry about selling our house while also moving across the country and totally changing our lifestyle. We listed the house in January or February, and after a few offers that fell through, it ended up selling in March. We loved that house and the ward and our neighbors so it was sad to leave, but we were giving it up in hopes of a different bright future (this crazy FS job). And our house appreciated so we ended up selling it for a profit which we figured wasn't a bad deal even if the job didn't pan out. (We made over $50,000, woohoo!)

-So we moved into a little duplex in Midvale right near Garrett's office. It's been really nice because we are so close to a ton of shops and restaurants and stuff and we feel like we never drive more than 5-10 minutes to get anywhere. It's awesome. Also, the ward is so sweet. They are definitely a smaller ward than the one we came from, with a lot less kids, but we are really liking it. We feel really needed and that's a nice feeling, considering that in our previous ward, everyone was a young family like us so it was sometimes hard to feel like we were contributing anything unique.

-After waiting several months and hearing nothing, we finally followed up with the FS job only to find out that they actually did try contacting us in June to invite Garrett out for an Oral Assessment in DC only the email went to his spam folder so he never got it. So on August 2nd, they gave him a new option and that was to go out on August 12th. Which he did. It was kind of nice because instead of having several months to stress about going out for that assessment, we only had 10 days to even prepare. It was kind of a whirlwind. So Garrett went out for the assessment while I waited anxiously here.

-The assessment was kind of an interview but not in the typical way you think of a job interview. It was more like a series of tests with scores and then also an interview, also with a score, and if you get a certain score, than you get a job offer. And they don't tell you very much about the scoring or how you did on each portion. So they just told Garrett he got 6.0 out of 7.0 and they gave him a conditional job offer, meaning, he would get the job as long as he passed the medical and security clearances. I had just finished taking my girls to swim lessons (Side note: Kailyn took 3 sets of 2-week lessons, at level 3, then 1, then 3 again. Harlie took level 1. They both passed and were making progress but I pulled them out because life got hectic. So both girls can kind of swim, but not all the way yet. We'll have to pick that up again sometime. Maybe next spring or summer).

-So when Garrett got back we figured life was about to change because we assumed we pretty much had the job and all of it might happen quickly. We each went to the doctor's like a million times. This is when I quit both my jobs. It turns out the medical clearances are intense. We kinda expected that but the doctors were even surprised how many invasive types of tests we'd need and we had to go back and forth like 20 times a week, no joke. So eventually the 4 of us all got our medical clearances, except Garrett.

-Garrett learned during this process that he has a super rare kidney condition called C3 Nephropathy, where his kidneys are enflamed and letting too many of the good things pass through when they should be holding onto them. So the only symptoms were protein and blood in his urine. He ended up getting a biopsy and they were able to diagnose him. The only thing is, it's so rare (only 2-3 people have it out of every million) that no one is quite sure what the prognosis is. His nephrologist said that it's possible nothing will ever go wrong with it, but we'd better monitor it forever just to be safe (because the worst case scenarios are dialysis or a kidney transplant, which are both intense). So he just has to go to a kidney specialist every 3 months for the first 2 years, and as long as he's stable, then he can go every 6 months for the rest of his life. So Garrett turned that information in to the Medical Review Panel with the Foreign Services and their response was this: We don't know enough about your condition since it's rare and you were just barely diagnosed, so we'd like you to wait 6 more months before we can get the Class 1 Worldwide clearance. That answer was kinda sad to us, given that we've been waiting like a year already, but I guess it's fine because when we've been waiting this long, what's a few more months? Honestly, it's a perfect situation because our house is sold and we are renting here. We told our landlady our situation when we first moved in so she's been fine with us needing to move whenever, which is awesome.

-So Monday (3 days ago) was a big day for us because Garrett was finding out his results for the first time since being diagnosed to see how stable his condition is. This is what the FS email said when they asked him to wait another 6 months: they said his something ratio was like 500 something, then a week later it rose to 900 something, then another week later it rose to 1000 something. They wanted to know if his condition was worsening for real or if those numbers are just random and not actually indicating deterioration. So he went in Monday and it was kind of like, if his results were the same as last time or less, we'd probably get the job. And if they were higher, we probably wouldn't and we could start dreaming a little more of our different back-up plan options, which could also be fun. So it was a big day that was sort of going to determine our future (feels like we've had a lot of those kinds of days). So, it turns out, we got good news, yay! Some of his levels were the same as last time and some were even lower, because apparently his body is responding to the medication, woohoo! So his doctor is feeling confident that his condition is not worsening, and it's actually likely that he's had this condition for several years and just not known it. We think that is great news because it means he's probably stable and will probably get the clearance. Then we would just have to wait on the security clearance and then maybe next year sometime we'll actually be officially hired and be able to head out to training in DC. So that's the deal with this job.

-In other areas of life, the kids took swim lessons, which I mentioned before.

-Also we went to Florida at the beginning of November. It was the perfect trip. We stayed at a house near my family's through AirBnb and it was so great to have our own space and our own rooms and still be really close to my family. We went to Disney World with my dad and minus River, and it was so great. After riding a few rides and the girls realized it wasn't just a crowded, boring sweatfest, we ended up having an awesome time. We also went on the glass bottom boat ride at Silver Springs, and had a birthday party for miss Kailyn (6!) where I got to see some friends and family. We also had a date day, where Sunni watched our kids while we went to Panera Bread and to see the movie Burnt (is that what it was called? It's a cooking movie with Bradley Cooper), and then we watched her kids while they went out on a date to dinner and a movie that night. We took the kids to Checkers and then to get a Redbox movie only to find out the DVD player didn't work at our house and then it was too late so everyone just went home and we went to bed. I also got to go Disney Springs twice, once with Tiffany and Elizabeth (who randomly happened to be in town helping her grandmother move) and then again with my family on the last day we were there so Garrett could go build his own custom light saber. Anyway, it was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad JetBlue has cheap non-stop redeye flights so we could enjoy seeing my family. It was great.

-I also decided to homeschool my girls because I figured I could give them more attention than a public school teacher because I wouldn't have 20 other kids at 20 different levels to worry about. It was going pretty well until I got lazy and pretty much just didn't really homeschool them anymore. So it only lasted like a month and a half. I still believe in homeschool but I also believe I'd have to be more self-disciplined than I apparently am to do it, so I stopped.

-Kailyn is now in Kindergarten at Midvalley Elementary School with a teacher named Ms. Bell.

-I tried signing Harlie up for preschool but I had a really hard time getting any option recommendations (it's very different in this area than it was in West Jordan where there were 100,000 kids and just as many preschools). So I signed her up at a school only to find out on the first day that it's a school for kids with special needs. And since Harlie doesn't have special needs, I decided to pull her out. So for now she is just doing Upstart (a computer preschool that teaches her to read, Kailyn did it last year too).

-Also, at church, River is in nursery like a big boy. He does well because I don't think he cries when we drop him off and they never particularly mention that he's a troublemaker so I assume he isn't. Harlie and Kailyn are in primary and they sometimes get grumpy about going but I think they usually end up having a fun time. I am a teacher for the 8-9 year olds and I am loving it. I do miss going to Relief Society and getting to know people in the ward, but I think the kids I teach are so fun, as is primary. Garrett is the Executive Secretary, which keeps him way busy, but I think he's liking it because he's getting to know a lot of the people in the ward.

In conclusion, life is pretty good. We have done a lot in the last year and I assume we'll do more in the year to come as well.

Maybe next time I'll post with pictures but I figure this is better than nothing.

Anyway, goodbye. :)