The Move-How it came to be

Well Hello Friends, Family and loved ones,



I got to thinking that I haven't really done a great job of keeping everyone up to day on what has been happening with our family. So here goes :)



Jim had been working for the city of Pleasant Grove as a Paramedic, at first it was going really well and he was loving it. As Mark Sanderson the fire chief continued to grow the department things started to drastically change. Jim could no longer respond from home and was now having to sleep at the station on his shifts. The job wasn't a full time position and there was no guarantee of how many hours he would get in any given month. Over time his shifts got cut down more and more as the department hired more Paramedics, this really became frustrating to Jim. At the same time he was putting in applications at every department in Utah that had an open position. I have to say I am quite proud of him as he got pretty high in the interview process, however did not get any offers from them.



I had been thinking about how Jim told me how much he enjoyed working for the Forest Service and fighting wildland fire fires. So I asked him if he would want to ever go back and do it again, he replied by saying of course I would love to but now that we have such a big family it would be hard to do considering he could be gone for up to 21 days in a row on a fire any where in Utah. So I got to thinking that since Jim was having such a hard time getting on full time with a department, that maybe we should look into the possibility of him getting back on with the Forest Service. He immediately said no way I am not going to have you guys all up here and me spending so much time down in Monticello and away from you guys not to mention the long drive back home. This is where his shock came in....I said to him who said we were going to stay up here. He was literally floored that me the big city girl would even be considering moving to the sticks. Jim got excited about it and really felt me supporting him and what makes him happy. But before we made the decision he felt that it was very important we went down to Monticello and checked it out, just to make sure I could handle living in such a small town. So the second week of February we headed down to the "sticks" (my nickname for Monticello) We drove around looking at the homes, the people, the lack of shopping (which mind you is the worst part...at least for me hahah) After that weekend we decided that we wanted to move to Monticello if he could get back on with the Forest Service. So Jim got in touch with his old boss and asked about the possibility of getting back on with them, the good news was that there were plenty of openings and that he could easily get on with all of his experience. So Jim put in his application and a week later got an offer from them. :0) Of course he excepted!!



So the weekend of the 17th (which was also our 2 year wedding anniversary) we planned another trip down to see some houses with a realtor that was referred to us by an old friend of Jim's. On Saturday we started out at the cute ranch style home that I fell in love with... of course it was the most expensive house in our price range. So we continued on we must have looked at 20 homes between Monticello and Blanding. By the end of the day on Sunday I was pretty much depressed because we hadn't found anything else that I could even imagine living in. So on our way back from Blanding we called the realtor and asked him to set up another appointment for the first house we saw. So bright and early Monday morning we went to the house and met Lew Martin the homeowner. The minute I walked in for the second time my mind was made up I was going for the one that I fell in love with even though it was smaller. The funny thing was Jim and I weren't even standing together. Jim was off talking to Lew about the wood burning hot tub and I was standing back with our realtor, I don't even know where it came from but I looked at Jim and saw his smile and happiness and how I felt, so I told the realtor we were going to make an offer :) By the time we left the house I had thoughts of where I would put all of our stuff and how much fun it would be to live in the country and in a home that I LOVE! So we made the offer and they accepted!!! wooooo hooo



Well the next part was not so much fun....We went to get the loan stuff done and went thru a broker..Can I just recommend to everyone don't go thru a broker go directly to a mortgage company. We made the offer on Presidents Day..The brokers told us they could have it all done in 2 weeks. Well it didn't turn out to be so good....So we were pretty much at our wits end and then Mom (Kathie Jim's mom and now I claim her :) recommended us going to Axiom and can I just tell you they were literally amazing!!! They got everything done in 1 week!!!! We finally were able to close on April 4th and we moved Easter weekend! We had so much help with packing, cleaning etc and I can't even begin to thank everyone that helped enough. For the move Mom & Dad pulled one trailer. Dad was pretty excited because he had just recently gotten his new truck and finally got to pull something (mind you really heavy :) Our friends Cindy and Troy Larkin pulled the Cox's enclosed trailer. Jim drove his truck and towed Dad's little green trailer. Me well I drove the van LOL oh and I forgot to mention to get into the house we had to make some huge sacrifices. We sold the Galant (Jim's car), we also cashed out on some flexible spending and other benefits I had from work, we also had a huge yard sale. We were able to come up w/all we needed which was awesome. I can't thank Mom & Dad and Cindy & Troy enough for there help! We couldn't have done it without everyone that helped from the beginning to end!!!



We arrived at our new house in the afternoon on Saturday. It had been a long trip and everyone was pretty tired from the drive, but we started unloading all the "crap" we have accumulated ok ok I HAVE accumulated over the years...Shortly after starting unloading we were greeted by a sweet little lady named Ms. Randal, she brought us some home made smoothies and cups. Ms. Randal and her husband are lifetime Monticello residents, and their backyard and ours meet, there is even a little gate that we can go thru. The Randal's are really sweet people they are always waving and stopping to make small talk with us, not to mention they are total green thumbs so they have been giving us advice on our garden.

So far we are really enjoying our home and living down here. I know this post is getting long so I will start another one that will give you more updates on everything.

Lots of Love,

Nat