A few months ago, some dear friends of ours, The Hughes Family and the Mask Family announced that they were both moving to Utah. Both husbands had work opportunities there and they felt it was right for their families to move. They are incredibly sharp families and will be terribly missed in our Vintage Ranch Ward. It sparked a major discussion between Tom and me because we had always planed on moving to Utah in about 6 years or so, after Hailey graduated from High School. That's why we bought a home in a semi-retired area with no lawn care or maintenance needed because we thought we would be there full-time eventually. Well, about the second week of February, Tom went out to lunch with our associate, Dr. Aubrey Young. She has been working with Tom for about 3 years now and our staff absolutely loves her. They get along really well. Aubrey talked to Tom about possibly becoming a "partner" in the practice where she wouldn't be paid a daily amount anymore but would receive a percentage of the production every month, more like a second owner of the practice. However, Tom didn't feel like the practice was large enough to have two complete owners but it did spark a conversation with her to see how she would feel about completely taking over as owner. Tom expressed to Aubrey our desire to move to Utah and she was completely blown away. It took her a little while during that lunch to wrap her head around that possibility . . . but Tom said he could see the wheels start to turn. More and more conversations ensued after that and Aubrey decided that taking over the practice was something she wanted and felt very honored to do. So, we began working with our attorney, Scott Gillette, and he began to draft up a contract.
Meanwhile, that same week, I had a phone call with Ed Austin, my folk dance director from years ago who is still employed at BYU as World Dance Department Chair. I am the alumni president and had some things to talk to him about. One was the possibility of me coming back to BYU and teaching as dance faculty. That has been a DREAM of mine for 20 years now. Back in 1997 there were 3 of us who received our Master of Arts Degree in Dance: Jeanette Geslison, Amy Jex, and myself. We were all graduate students together and we taught several classes in the department. It was such a happy time of life for me. However, Tom got accepted to OHSU for Dental School and we moved to Portland, while Amy and Jeanette stayed in Utah. I was always sad that I wasn't able to stay on and continue teaching, but I knew we had big plans ahead of us and a new adventure was ahead. Now, fast forwarding to 2018----I'm on the phone with Ed and he begins to tell me that he is retiring this July 1st. His position needed to be filled and Amy Jex was a candidate. If Amy got the position, then her spot in the folk dance department as a teacher would be available. I was super nervous but I just felt like I should "open my mouth" and I began to tell Ed what was happening in my family. When I told him we had the opportunity to move to Utah, I asked him if he would ever hire me back as a teacher. He couldn't believe it! He got so excited and we talked for about 30 minutes on that subject. He told me because I had a Master's Degree I was completely qualified and because he knew me I was more than capable. My heart began to race as we spoke because never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have the opportunity to teach at BYU again. I thought that ship had sailed because we pretty much had our feet planted in Arizona and by the time I moved to Utah, I would be older and all the directors that knew me would be retired and no longer in the dance dept.
I mustered the courage to email my dear friend, Jeanette and asked if she would ever consider hiring me. She said the same thing---that I was qualified and capable and she wanted to talk to me as soon as I could come up here. Today is the day for me---I am meeting with Ed and Jeanette for lunch at Brick Oven and we are going to discuss the possibility of me coming back to teach. I told Tom last night (he's in AZ working right now) that it would break my heart if they didn't offer me a position. But he reminded me that the Lord is handling this . . . all the way. I just need to trust in Him. After this week of house hunting, my testimony is even more strong that my Father in Heaven is watching out for us and He is completely in the details of our lives.
Now, about the house . . .about a year ago, Tom and I flew up to Utah to go to the Parade of Homes. We love going to that and it was such a fun weekend. The very first home we walked through was a GORGEOUS home up on Deer Crest circle in Alpine. It had the most glorious views of the mountains, valley, and Utah Lake that I had ever seen. It was breathtaking!!! Although the floor plan was not my absolute favorite (no guest room on the main floor, a really small master bedroom, no room for my grand piano, no dining room, etc.) it was still a home I would consider moving into because of the location. So, back again to February 2018 . . . we are looking at lots to build a home on because we love Alpine. Tom and I searched for hours and hours trying to find lots that would have the same sort of view but everything we found was either sold or the owners weren't willing to sell. Tom even found a plat map from the cit of Alpine and we found who owned what properties and we would cold contact them and ask if the would be willing to sell their land to us. Still . . . no luck.
Then, on Tom's birthday, March 7th, Tom flew to Utah for a fun ski trip with some friends. I was planning on driving up there a few days later with the kids for Spring Break. But that night I couldn't sleep very well. I actually haven't slept well for weeks now because this decision to move to Utah is a huge one for me . . . we love Arizona. It's been SO good to us. We have made a name for ourselves in our ward, our stake, in the community as Chamberlain Orthodontics . . . it's super hard to just walk away from all of that. But we feel a foot in our back pushing us there and we need to act on these promptings. Anyway, I couldn't sleep so I went to the computer and began a search AGAIN for homes or lots available. This time, for some reason, I increased my search budget to a larger amount than Tom and I had talked about AND I scrolled with my mouse to head south down to Provo. In my head I thought, "Why are you looking in Provo? We want to live in Alpine . . . we always have wanted to live in Alpine . . . why Provo?" Then, as I grabbed a hold of that thought, I wondered if I would really get a teaching job in Provo--and if I did, how great it would be to live really close to BYU. Then I thought of all the times we are driving to Provo because so many events are there, BYU musical things, EFY, sports camps, etc. We just seem to be driving down there a lot. Plus, Tom and I love to go to Midway and Park City and being near the Provo Canyon would be so convenient. Well, a home popped up that I had never seen before. It was on 3323 Cottonwood Lane in the River bottoms of Provo. As I clicked on each picture, I began to see my family living in that house. I saw things that I loved as far as color choices and layout of the home. Then when I saw the backyard, tears filled my eyes. The home was ON the Provo River. The river literally was in the backyard!!! Never in my life did I ever think we could live on a river. The sound of a river is one of my most favorite sounds in the entire world. But we had looked at riverfront property before and the lots alone were well over a million dollars so we just put that thought out of our minds for good. Well, I sent the link to Tom and asked him to take a look at the home. I loved it so much, that I kept Spencer home from school (it was a half day anyway ha ha!) and I took him to Los Favoritos to get a breakfast burrito--we looked at all the photos of the home and Spencer fell in love with it too. When Hailey got home from school, I showed her and she couldn't believe it either. She said it was the perfect home! Now--we just needed to convince Tom because it was a little higher than we thought we wanted to pay.
As we prayed and looked more into the home, we made an offer on the house but the owner came back and didn't want to lower the price that much. The house needed a new roof to the tune of $125,000 and that worried us! Also, every time we looked at the house there was something not working--the fountain pump, the jacuzzi, etc. and all Tom could hear was the cash register singing cha-ching! Our home in Draper hadn't sold yet either so we decided we would just pull out of the house and buy a lot that we just happened to find in the same neighborhood. When it became available I told Tom to put money down on the lot without us even flying up there to see it because we knew EXACTLY where the lot was and we LOVED that neighborhood. That way we could sit on the lot until our Draper home sold and then build exactly what we wanted for maybe the same price. This was our plan and we were sticking to it! :) God is leading us to Utah and we cannot deny it.
