DAY 1703... The Next Big Thing

Everything happens for a reason.

I have said it before,

and I know I will say it again.

It seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life.

But this situation,

our current future,

 is one of the most obvious stories of my life that prove that everything happens for a reason.

On October 5th,

Spencer and I attended a Construction Management Dinner/Career Fair put on by the Construction Management department.

This wasn't just any dinner.

The CM Department had gotten 13 big named construction companies to attend which had never happened before.

It was an event to hand out resumes,

be interviewed,

and to make lasting connections with these companies.

It was such an AMAZING opportunity!!!

We were pretty excited  for this event because it's finally that time for us to be looking towards our future!

FINALLY!!!

Spencer will be graduating in April,

and so after 5 long years in Rexburg,

it's time for us to move on.

We are ready to move on.

We are ready for real life.

We researched all the companies weeks ahead of time.

Okay,

I researched the companies,

wrote out a paper for each company with as much information as I could find,

including projects they had worked on,

where they were located,

and important company information.

Then together we spent a week reviewing all the information and organizing the companies into categories and prioritizing them all.

We found out that we could pick the company that we wanted to have dinner with,

which would give us more time to talk to them,

learn about them,

and basically get ahead of the competition.

We picked our company and were ready for the dinner.

The day leading up to the dinner was pretty crazy.

We were both anxious and incredibly nervous.

Before the dinner Spencer broke my heart and said,

"None of these companies will even want me. 

I don't know anything."

It broke my heart because I know how talented and capable that he truly is,

and because I grew up in the construction world,

I knew that it's not always what you know,

if fact I personally think companies prefer to have you come as clean as possible so that they can mold you and teach you how to do it their way,

but who you know and who you are.

Companies don't expect you to come and know everything,

they just want to hire someone who fits in with their company and is capable of working hard.

I knew he was going to be great.

I knew that this night was going to change our lives.

I knew it.

When we got to the dinner,

early of course because I'm crazy like that,

we started looking around at the tables to find the table with the company that we had chosen to sit with.

We couldn't find the table anywhere.

Not on any of the 20 or so tables.

We found my Dad 

(seriously, so lucky he works in the CM department),

and discovered that the company that we had chosen,

the 1 out of 13 companies,

pulled out at the last minute and decide not to attend.

Spencer was super bummed.

I was bummed.

We had worked really hard to know this company and prepare for this dinner,

and it was a company that we wanted to be with.

It was incredibly disappointing.

We asked my Dad where we were suppose to sit,

and he informed us that we would be sitting at 1 of many of the Big D Construction tables.

We were annoyed that our plans had changed,

and we felt completely unprepared,

but we found a friend and his wife at one of the Big D Construction tables and sat with them.

2 of the employees from Big D Construction sat with us at our table,

to get to know the students better.

They asked questions,

answered questions,

and were really nice to sit with and have a conversation with.

They were easy to talk to and super chill.

As dinner continued,

Spencer and I quickly realized that this was an amazing company.

The values and the lifestyle that Big D Construction provided,

plus their location,

were everything we were looking for.

We were able to make personal connections with both of the employees which was incredible.

We felt comfortable and confident talking to the Big D employees.

Spencer gave them a resume after dinner,

and then we began to make our rounds with the other companies.

After an hour Spencer ended up with 7 job interviews and back at the Big D Construction table.

We said good night to everyone,

made my Dad take a picture of us,

and headed home to the kids.

We talked a lot that night about how much we really liked Big D Construction.

Of course,

there were several other companies that we also had high interest in,

but Big D just seemed like a good fit to us.

The next day was the big career fair on campus,

so we packed up the kids and headed to BYU Idaho.

We decided to go by the Big D Construction table first.

One of the employees who had sat with us the night before recognized us immediately.

He remembered our names,

and he remembered the names of our kids who weren't even at the dinner the night before.

Seriously,

who talks to 100 CM students and remembers the names of my kids who weren't even there who I probably only mentioned by name once?

That blew my mind!

He told us that they had gone back to the hotel the night before and talked about Spencer.

He said that they felt like he would be a great fit at their company.

We were thrilled that it wasn't one sided and that we weren't just crazy thinking it would be an amazing fit.

We made plans to head to Utah the next weekend so that Spencer could go visit their Salt Lake location and meet everyone and get to know the company better.

I was suppose to be heading to Utah anyway with the young women from church for a temple trip,

but both kids ended up crazy sick and I got stuck at home while Spencer headed down to Utah.

The meeting turned into an interview.

And Spencer loved every second of it.

He left feeling on top of the world.

We spent the next few weeks waiting for an offer,

and Spencer spent it travelling for other interviews out of state.

We received additional offers,

and just held on to the hope that they would send us the offer.

Because of a lot of miscommunication,

and people being out of the office,

we didn't get our official offer until 4 weeks later.

WORTH.

THE.

WAIT.

It was exactly what we wanted,

where we wanted,

and we couldn't be more excited to announce that after 5 years in Idaho,

WE 

ARE 

MOVING 

BACK 

TO 

SALT LAKE CITY

this April!!!!

We feel incredibly blessed,

and at peace with our decision to sign the offer with Big D Construction.

Spencer had other offers and other opportunities,

but none of them felt quite right.

This one felt perfect.

I am so proud of Spencer for working so hard during the past 5 years.

I was lucky enough to have my undergrad before we were married,

so I only did grad school with 1 child.

But he has done his entire undergrad,

plus 2 internships with a family and working the entire time.

We fought his homework for his attention every day.

We made it difficult for him to study.

We suffered a little having our Daddy away.

But because of those sacrifices,

and because he worked so hard,

he is bring rewarded now.

We are seeing the reward and the blessings as a family now.

I think he is surprised that such an amazing and big company wants him to work for them,

but I'm not.

I knew that he was capable of great things,

and I'm so glad that he is getting everything he wanted because of his hard work.

The best part is that he did this on his own.

My Dad has a pretty heavy influence in the CM world,

but Spencer did this by himself!!!

We know it won't always be perfect,

and we definitely don't expect it to be perfect.

It's real life.

It's work.

But we are so excited to be going back to Utah,

close to Spencer's family,

which is great since his Dad suffers from Parkinson's and now we can spend more time with him,

still close to my family,

and near so many of our good friends!

I'm scared to death to be a stay at home mom.

I've never been a stay at home mom only.

I have always worked.

Since Aniston was 9 days old I have had a job.

I'll still be doing medical transcription editing for a couple hours at night,

but during the day I will just be a Mom.

No office hours,

no time away for work meetings.

I'm so scared.

But I am also really excited!

We would like to thank everyone,

from everywhere who reached out to help us.

We had so many new friends,

family,

and people we really didn't know offer us help.

So many people used their connections to get Spencer interviews.

We didn't expect that at all!

We feel so blessed that so many people care enough about our family to reach out and help us in that way.

This entire process has been such a blessing.

Everything really does happen for a reason.

We were devastated when we learned that the company we wanted to eat with backed out,

but we weren't suppose to be with them.

We can see that now.

We ended up at the table that we were meant to be at,

with a company that I know will bless our lives!

Can you tell that I'm super excited?
Like really really excited!!!!

April cannot come fast enough!!!