Chicago/Dallas/SoCal

And so a new chapter of my life begins.

Last fall, in early September, a friend passed my name along for consideration at the company where she works. Not long after, I found out they were hiring, and now here I am nearly 9-months later beginning the job.

I am excited about and feel like it is a good fit. For one thing, it is an independent contractor position (just like my writing and meeting planning work from home jobs). For another, I only work when I go on "studies" and I can completely turn it off in between work trips. This is a big deal to me. My current position with Catholic CEO Healthcare Connection is always on my mind even though I only work part-time. I am constantly checking my CCHC email, ready to drop everything at a moments notice to do whatever needs to be done. It does take a certain mental toll that I can't really account for when I turn in my hours. But, overall, it is an excellent job.

Regardless, I am excited to start my new job with PEGUS Research because it will not add to my mental workload every single day. The job sounds pretty straight forward and involves interviewing people. The company is based in Salt Lake and the interviews need to be conducted all over the U.S., so they fly the interviewers to the individual sites to stay for 5-day stints.

It just so happened that I already had a 4-day work trip booked to Chicago in June with my CCHC job when I found out PEGUS wants me to start my training by taking two back-to-back trips also in June. It is exciting, but I am a little nervous to leave my family for 14 out of the 30 days in June!

That is why this is a new chapter. Save for an occasional (usually 2-day) work trip here and there with CCHC, I am always the one who does everything for my family from cooking to cleaning to buying everything, running the kids everywhere they need to go, and tucking them into bed every night. It's going to be a huge shift for everyone.

I know it's going to be O.K. Sophie is 16 now and Katie just turned 8, Isaac will be 12 at the end of the summer and Ian is 15 in the fall. Everyone is growing up! They can do a lot more for themselves than they could a few years ago. I am actually glad the job took 9-months to materialize so everyone could have that much more time to grow up. Eight sounds a lot more mature than seven and in just over a year I could have two teenage drivers to help out (so far, Sophie has shown no interest in driving but I am hoping she and Ian will both get behind the wheel and start learning when Ian gets his learner's permit in November).

The best part is that Brian's employer--Did I mention he started working full-time as a marketing guy for Mountain Luxury in February?--said he can work from home for most of the days I am gone. That is a HUGE relief. I know he will need to still put in his 8-hours, so it's not like he will be the full-time party director, but at least I know he will be here to make sure everyone is safe and fed and to be able to run the kids around if there is somewhere they need to go.

I just finished booking all of my travel. I am excited to go to Chicago. I have been to Illinois many times (I was even born there), but I have never visited Chicago. The first three days (until about 3pm on the 3rd day) will be work, work, work. Then I will have about 24-hours to relax before I head to the airport, so that is a very nice perk. I get to be home with my family for five days, then it is off to Dallas (my first time traveling to TX) for my first PEGUS study. I will barely have a 24-hour period of time at home to do laundry, re-pack and see my kids for a minute before I am off to Moreno Valley in Southern California for another PEGUS study. It's going to be extra hard to leave on the 3rd trip, I can already tell. But, I am trying to remain positive about all the benefits my family will gain from learning to be more independent, connect more to Brian, etc. Excited to see how this new chapter pans out for us!

Katie Turned Eight

Katie turned eight on Tuesday. On Monday (her birthday eve), my mom took her to Salt Lake for the whole day. They went to Build-A-Bear and she picked out an adorable, soft, lop-eared bunny with a rainbow skirt, sparkly rainbow shoes, a happy birthday shirt, sparkly pink bows on both ears, a cupcake and a cellphone and named her Emily.

They had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Oreo cheesecake for dessert and then bought more stuffed animals at the Disney Store. Katie was given "Happy Birthday" buttons and sang to everywhere they went.

On her Birthday, she took cupcakes to share with her art class and as soon as she and Isaac got out of school at noon, I took them both to Boondocks where they rode bumper boats and go-carts and played video games, bowled and ate build-your-own sundaes. She also got a Magic 8 ball and a set of "girl" Legos. We stayed up late putting "Stephanie's House" together.

Wednesday was Katie and Isaac's last day of school. She got to take cupcakes again (since Wednesday is the day she has class with the kids her age). They had parties all day and yearbook signing at the end and I even brought our bunny Carmel for her and Isaac to show off to their friends. After school, she attended her first Activity Days, which was a lovely backyard swim party and the girls gave her a really fun basket full of Birthday surprises.

Thursday was her Birthday party. A bounce house was delivered in the morning and Katie, Isaac and Jase played on it all day. In the afternoon, a dozen of her friends showed up to bounce, play tag, eat treats including Oreo cake and ice-cream and open lots more presents.

Friday was Ian's last day of school. He had an end of year party that night with twenty friends, night games, one of those giant pizzas from The Pie and tons of treats. Sophie also had a friend over so they could work on a video for a contest. Ian's friends left around 11 p.m. and I turned my attention to the next task at hand -- Katie's baptism at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

On Saturday, Katie arrived at the church in a beautiful white dress. Ian played the prelude music and "I Am A Child Of God" for the opening hymn while Sophie led the music. We had a lovely program and Brian baptized her. It was extra special because it was Grandma Nicholson's birthday. As I was preparing my talk on baptism for the big day, I pulled out the journal my Grandma gave to me on the day of my baptism and started reading through it and I was reminded that when I was Katie's age my favorite baby doll was named Katie! I remember that doll well, but I had forgotten her name. I love that I had a babydoll Katie then and I have a real Katie now.

After the baptism, our friends and family came to the house for brunch. I was tired when everyone left, but we needed to clean up the backyard. Sadly, our favorite pine tree died and during this crazy busy week, Brian rented a lift and cut the whole thing down, but we needed to haul away all the branches. We got it mostly cleaned up and now we need to figure out how to make the space awesome so we don't miss our beautiful tree so much.

Saturday evening, Sophie worked her first shift at her new job at Waffle Love in downtown Ogden on 25th Street. Brian and I stayed up late to pick her up (she gets off at midnight).

Today at church, Katie was recognized for being baptized and the Primary Presidency gave her a soft, warm blanket to represent the gift of the Holy Ghost. My goodness. What a lovely Birthday/Baptism week this girl has had.