Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Chapter 2 -- 12/16/09


If anything, you have to admit that we have had a really interesting life so far. This year is probably better termed as “stressful” than interesting though. You remember that day in July…we got that unusual email from the VP of HR at Covidien telling us to be available for a call that morning. Not good. It was exactly as I had feared; we were going to be laid off. It turned out that my entire division was getting dissolved.

I wrote this next part while on the plane ride back from Atlanta after interviewing with Kimberly Clark.

It is December 16th and today marks the end of a long – LONG run of interviewing. Here’s the quick recap of a really packed 5 months. This is going to seem like a make believe story and quite crazy. The writing style should, however match how wild this ride has been.

It started out with a hundred phone calls with companies and recruiters. The US Surgical Manager opportunity was one of the first. (Interviewing against my boss, Keith Williams—bad luck) Intuitive interviews in Portland, Washington, Tampa, 10 phone interviews, and then we cancelled the final interviews at corporate because there were 3 other interviews that landed on the SAME DAY! That was a mess. Montana or Oregon just weren’t in the cards for us I guess, much to your Dad and Rita’s dismay. That brought us back to interview one more time with US Surgical, the Monitoring and OR position at Covidien and the Energy Device Region manager spot in Colorado. I cancelled an interview with Navilyst in Colorado to work out these other spots. (And for our sanity) Then we had a phone interview with Interventional Oncology – Covidien. How can I forget the first trip out to Utah in August to interview with Salient Surgical and back to St Louis for another round. My second trip to Utah was for a job with the surgical implant division of Coloplast. When I think of that one I have to wonder, what was I thinking? (Given that selling penile implants just seems a bit odd.) You were encouraging though, despite the job. A phone interview with Smith and Nephew – still to this day the strangest interview I have ever had. Felt like I was getting interviewed by a teenage girl to work at the Gap.

Oh, there’s more: a second interview back in Utah with Gyrus. I went to Little Rock Arkansas to interview with Advanced tissue. Can you believe I went to Little Rock? Then I got started with Boston Scientific – great job, no real promise of an actual position though. So I interviewed there twice and did a field ride. As far as I know, they still think I am in the hunt for that job still. Keith offered us a job in Arizona or Nevada with Coloplast as a rep. That just didn’t feel right so we pushed on, but with a good feeling in the back of our mind that if it all went south we would have a job somewhere. Vince asked us to come back East to Ohio or Kentucky and work for him. That started a whole process of interviews at Kimberly-Clark. Then Coloplast came calling for us to enter the running for a region manager job in Atlanta! Are you kidding me? Why again were we considering a move to Atlanta? Oh ya, we like the idea of being closer to the beach. At the same time, we were really getting excited about the possible adventure of living in Kentucky or Ohio. You know, green acres, rolling hills, the picked white fence and the lab sitting on the front porch. I know that even as you read this you are thinking, “That sounds so great!” Well, we have to decide in the next 48 hours if we are going to make that move.

So I went to Minnesota last week and finished off in Ft Lauderdale in a beach resort hotel interviewing with Keith Johnson at Coloplast. We got a really good offer here! (Really far from home!) Then at the same time, US Surgical calls to offer the Salt Lake North job. After sensing my frustration with their first offer they came back this morning with a better offer. A way back to Utah! (I think) In the midst of all this I did another interview with Ohio Medical for their sales director position. We have created so many spreadsheets to help us make these decisions. Making the decision should be a breeze after all of that, right? I don’t even think I got it all yet….nope. I went swinging to create a position at my old division. I even made a business plan for them. Speaking of business plans, I have one written for our recruiting business now in case we ever go down that road.

At this point I just want for us to pray about these opportunities and make a decision we feel best about. We’ll pray that the Lord will help us along this path. By the time you read this we will have already made that decision. I hope it was a good one and that we feel good about it. Not repeating the back half of this year just seems like a good idea.

You and I have had SO MANY discussions about this. Exhausting! What a great lesson we have learned. Did I say lesson? I meant to say lessons. Numerous lessons! What a miracle this year has been! At the start of this year we had the strong feeling that we needed to prepare and sell the 4plex. Remember, I flew home in February to paint and gut a couple of the units? That was fun! Let’s see, how do we start this topic and do it any justice? We fire the Froerers for their complete failure of management. We hire Jer, who did a great job filling the two units that we fixed up. Then we hired Marty to sell it. Lucy announced her vacancy. How can I forget the boiler unit emergency at her place in the middle of the night that boiled the skin off of my fingers? As painful as that was, I still view it as a miracle that I was there to fix it and avoid flooding two apartments. Then the windows got broken by someone and the gutters clogged and drained down into the stairwell (which just happened to have a clogged drain) and nearly flooded the basement. Again, good thing Marty and Jer came to the rescue on that one. Amazing as this still sounds, someone gave an offer and was somehow able to qualify to get a loan in the midst of this impossible mortgage meltdown. I can still remember like it was two minutes ago that call that came to us at 1am. The guy next door was high and kicked in the back door to the 4 plex and got into the tenants apartment. That was it. We thought for sure that would destroy the deal. Another miracle, they still wanted the place! All of this just weeks before the announced layoff!

If you remember, the tenant at the Gateway had just told us that they were out in June. Did I mention that this was a really crazy year? So we sell the gateway and list our home. (Easy to write that in one sentence--a lot harder to do!) It would seem that the gateway was a smarter purchase than our home. (And our lot and 4 plex)

This chapter was not written to bring back all of the stresses of the past year; although, just writing them has been a bit humbling again. All this has been a good reminder that if we have faith we can weather through the tough times. We have fasted so many times through this process. In fact, the more we strived to draw closer to the Lord, the more we realized the areas that we could improve. You have been incredibly supportive through all of this. I can’t count all of the notes you left for me to cheer me on before and interview. There were more notes than interviews so that should tell you how many there were.

You know now that we rolled with the Kimberly Clark job. The story is so much more complicated as you remember all of the back and forth with these offers over the holiday. At the end of the day, it all came down to the feeling that we need to go back to Utah. So despite the offers outside of Utah, the ones that gave us that window made the most sense. From here on out I would say that we are pretty certain that we won’t be moving from Utah for another job. The only thing that could change that is if we felt really impressed to go that way. Who knows…?

One thing we do know, the adventure has barely just begun. We still have a move back to Utah and a new job to look forward to. You and I both know how fun that is. Like I said at the beginning, we’re just barely getting out of the frying pan. After being in there so long, this fire actually feels pretty comfortable. It seems that we have moved enough now. It would be nice to settle down, what do you think?

Magic of Christmas

K ADORES Christmas this year--and I'm not just talking about the whole Santa/toy part. He was positively giddy about decorating this year. He was very involved w/ decorating the tree and putting up all of the lights. Every morning, one of the first things he does is come downstairs and plug in the lights. Every night when it gets dark, he plugs the lights outside. Both boys love helping w/ the advent calendar.
I love Christmas traditions. A fellow blogger/friend wrote an entry that resonates with me. Every season as we open the Christmas boxes up to decorate, memories dance in my head. One of our traditions is to listen to the Forgotten Carols as we decorate. It brings me to my teenage years of doing the same thing. It takes me back to when Jas and I went to the Forgotten Carols while we were dating, the next year engaged and like 5 years in a row (until we moved here.) The music touches my soul.
While decorating, the ornaments sing out other memories. I don't have one of those gorgeously decorated themed tree. We have the memory tree because each decoration evokes sweet memories.
*the bitten ballerina--a decoration I made as a little girl and that my childhood dog, Toffy, got a hold of
*the candy cane horse--my Grandma Evie made this and every year we put in a new candy cane. It means a lot because she passed away when I was a little girl.
*K and little J's first Christmas ornaments--how Christmas means that much more when you get to share it with your children.
*Our honeymoon knitted beanie--J and I got this on our honeymoon in Jackson Hole.
*a few teacher ornaments--from my students when I taught 3rd grade.
*Our Wright Family ornament--so beautiful (thanks Cherilyn! K broke it and she made another one for us. It now is on the top of the tree!)
*My favorite ornament ever--J gave this to me on our first Christmas married. It's a heart shaped ornament w/ a lock and key and a pic of us on our wedding day. It says "true love is our love." I cried when he gave it to me.
I love the smells, the sounds and the sights of Christmas. I look forward to adding to our memory tree.

Those Small Moments

Here's a few moments that I've been meaning to record:
* A month or so ago K had a few rough nights and wet the bed again. One night I went in there and took him to the bathroom since he was wet. I asked him, "Why didn't you go in the potty?" His response, "I need a big potty in my room." "You have a potty in the bathroom next to your room. Why didn't you go there?" K's response, "I was busy." My response, "Busy doing what?" His, "I was busy sleeping." I had to laugh!
* In the last week or two K has become very independent. "I want to do it meself" is what he says. He now wants to get dressed by himself--big step kiddo!
* Little J can now officially say K's full name! I love to hear him say it over and over.
* J and I noticed something magical has happened in the last few days!! We are absolutely thrilled about it! Both the boys are playing so much better together. They are growing up so quickly--I can't believe it! Just yesterday morning, they went downstairs and played pretend.