Family Y Hikes

It is starting to set in that our stay in Provo will soon come to an end.  With the "Y" on the mountain so close to us Nate is even more prone to suggest hiking up that trail.  Homecoming night, Nate and George ventured up the mountain to see the lights on the Y (Ollie and I stayed home and watched The Proposal).  Nate may not ever clean the toilet but he is a fantastic dad.  Nate is so interested in creating memories with George and Ollie- in the world we live in today it seems a rare quality.  Here are a few pictures from their hike.  

                      

Trail Head

Half way up (the golden hour)

Sitting on the lit up "Y" with George on Homecoming night 2012

After seeing these pictures Ollie and I were pretty jealous so we hiked the Y as a family two days later.

At the trail head with my boys!

We made it!

Not everyone can say they nursed a baby on the Y!

Job Hunt Update

I thought this school year would be a little less stressful, what with a job offer from Goodyear in hand and all, however I decided to do some more looking and asked that Goodyear extend my acceptance date twice. In the last three weeks I have done a lot of company research, flown to San Jose to look at tech companies, applied to close to 15 jobs, interviewed at 7, and have walked away with 1 fly back from Kellogg. I really enjoy Kellogg products (please see the size of my stomach for proof), and I am hopeful at the prospect of working there for several reasons: they have locations in both the Midwest and the west coast so Gill and I could potentially have the opportunity to live close to family; next I've been told that their compensation is very competitive-- so maybe someday we'll be home owners and not renters only. Hooray!

Gill and I are the kind of people who really hate getting our hopes up for fear they'll be dashed to a million pieces . . . wait, I guess most people are like that . . . but I have to remind myself that anything could happen as I look on zillow.com at the potential locations we could be 'stationed' at next and dream of maybe, just maybe upgrading to a  3 bedroom 1.5 bath home, somewhere larger than 900 sq ft. Ah, one can dream.

My deadline to get back to Goodyear on their offer is the end of the month (Halloween . . . oooooooooh) and my fly back to Kellogg is the 26th of this month so I'm cutting it close with this, but we have been praying that we can find the best opportunity for our family and so far these are two doors that remain open, and they're both great options, as far as I can tell.

I'll keep you all apprised as the situation unfolds. Love you - Nate

It must just be that your body is so bad...

When Nate first applied to BYU they gave him an interview, during which they told him that he had an impressive resume but his GMAT score was just too low.  At that point Nate was not accepted into the MBA program and we felt pretty bad about ourselves.  The reasoning for not accepting Nate into the program reminded me of one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits where Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze try out for Chippendales.  The judges pick Patrick Swayze to be their new dancer and explain to Chris Farley that although he has really sexy moves...his body is just too bad.

The video is hilarious so please click on this link to watch:  Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze

Nate decided to give the GMAT one last try (making it the 4th time) and scored in the 90th percentile.  Upon calling BYU back (with his new sexy body...a high GMAT score) they not only accepted him but offered him a scholarship as well.  

The first semester of school was so stressful.  Nate interviewed with countless companies who again thought he did well in interviews (he practiced non-stop with EVERYONE and even wore out two sherpas) but thought he lacked the corporate experience they were looking for ("it's just that your body is so bad").  Finally after several months of searching and interviewing Nate was offered an internship at Goodyear.  The internship was perfect for us and Nate was able to get some experience under his belt and was given an offer for a full-time job when he graduates.  

With less than a couple weeks left before we make the decision to accept the offer, Nate is interviewing with some other companies.  Since it is such a big commitment we really want to search out all the opportunities and be able to make the best decision for our family.  

We are now in the middle of a pretty "exciting" week.  Nate has five interviews and three corporate dinners to attend.  The interview with Hewlett Packard (HP) was on Tuesday and by dinner that night we had received the dreaded email.  We joked about the contents of the email (all emails of this sort talk about how difficult the decision was to make...bla bla bla) since they were able to give their decision within a couple hours of the interview we laughed about how hard it was for them to make a decision and how they stewed over it for 30 seconds and then picked! :)  After receiving that email it was hard for us to be excited about going to a business dinner and have our game faces on again...it is much like getting dumped (over and over)...but we have to remember that nobody likes rejection and this process is difficult for everyone (bla bla bla).  A short pep talk later we were off to dinner at La Jolla at the Riverwoods which has fantastic food!  I may have drank 5 gallons of lemonade and nearly licked my plate clean, Nate was even on his second dinner (he also had a main course in his class right beforehand) and left no evidence of his salmon and orange creme brulee. One of the big wigs from the company came to our table to say hello and he talked about how difficult it is going to be to make a decision on who to hire because there are so many good choices (bla bla bla) so I piped in and told him if he needed any help with the decision making he could give me a call (they all laughed...but I was serious:).

Although this process has been difficult (by process I mean the last few years) at the end it feels good to have really fought for our victories and although we often looked heavenward and wondered what the plan was...(and still do) it has certainly been a refining process and as we look back at the challenges (of course) we can see blessings that have come as a result.  It has given us the "700" philosophy (Nate's GMAT score), which for us means that we do not give up...we are a scrappy bunch and will fight for the "right thing."  We have learned that the easy way is not necessarily the right way and if something is difficult or discouraging, it doesn't mean it is the wrong choice, in the words of George, you just have to "Keep trying"...and praying.  

So to this week I say BRING IT ON!

Who could say "No" to this face?!

Conversations with Georgie

Everyday George and I have hilarious conversations so I thought I would share a few:

(While driving in the car)
George: How do you fall in love?
Me: Hmmm...well you feel it in your heart...
George: Where is my heart?
Me: It is in your chest.
George: Does it talk?
Me: No but it beats.
George: Well isn't that like talking? (In an "Im right" tone)
Me: I suppose so.

(Later in the car)
George: Are we on Earth?
Me: Yep.
George: Why am I on Earth?
Me: You made the right choice to be born on Earth to learn and grow and have experiences...
George: Well, I want to make the wrong choice and go to outer space.
Me: (trying not to laugh) When you grow up you can be an astronaut and go to outerspace.
George: When I'm a grown up daddy?
Me: Yeah when you have kids of your own...do you think that will be fun?
George: What's a kid?
Me: You and Ollie are kids.
George: I'm a little boy. (not a kid)
Me: Do you want to have little boys of your own?
George: Yeah.
Me: How many?
George: 10 or 12 little boys.
Me: Wow that's a lot.  What are you going to do with them?
George:  Play with them and go to outer space.  I wish I could go to outer space in this car right now.
(Then I pretended to press the outer space button and we flew through space all the way home).

(In the bathroom)
George: Moooooooooom (yelling for me from the toilet).
Me: yes George...
George: Come here I want to talk to you while I poop.
Me: (smiling) ooook...(I sit down on the rim of the tub)
George: Soooo...what do you know about poop?

The Giving Tree

Tonight as a part of the bed time routine (George already exhausted and sick) George asked me to read him "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.  Oliver sat babbling and chasing his pacifier around the floor.  When I got to the page where the tree said she had no more to give, George began to sob.   George explained through his tears that he wanted the tree to have a tall trunk and branches and that he was sad that she had no more to give.  For a moment I tried to cheer him up by telling him that the boy sat on her tree trunk and she was happy again.  He cried and cried and as I held him in my arms I wanted to cry as well and I agreed that I wanted the tree to be tall again too.   Later that evening as I related that event to Nate, both Nate and I fought back tears.