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A Trek Blessing and a BIG Change

In December 2014, Destry and I were asked to be in charge of a trek committee for our you trek that was to take place the following July. I will add the full story of that experience when I complete it. For now I'm going to share a blessing that came because of it. It is not only a blessing, but a big change for me and my family, including our dog :)  

During one of our packing days, Adam Drossart, a member of our committee asked Destry if I worked. He told him that I had gotten my real estate license in December, but that I wasn't very good at marketing myself--my words. As it turns out, Adam is a part owner of a brokerage in American Fork. He asked Destry if he thought I'd be interested in a position they had in their office. Destry and I talked about it and when trek was over I  interviewed with him and a partner, Ned Chidester. 

A few days later they offered me the job. I had about a week and a half before he wanted me to start. I was glad for that. August 5 was the beginning of this new adventure. The position is office administrator. It includes a lot more technology than I am innately comfortable with; however, I am confident that I will develop a new skill. I am replacing an awesome woman named Beth Edwards.

She has a lot of systems and organizations in place. She is kind and patient with my ignorance. I know I can do this and am very grateful that she will be here until the end of September. For the first few days I watched her as she explained things to me. Every other day I would go home feeling alternately excited and inadequate. 

This is new, but I'm not incompetent. For the last few days I have been doing more of the work with her coaching me. I feel better about doing that. It is fairly repetitive and there are checklists and checklists to make sure I do things right. They are great; I love them!  I was not blessed with the computer gene, but I an confident that you can teach an old dog a new trick. Even though I don't feel very confident, really. I have to tell myself over and over that I can do this.

 I have been a stay at home mom for a very long time. I have loved it. I was going to say I have loved every minute of it, but that would be a lie. I have loved more of it than not, but there were frustrating, lonely days too. Mostly I am grateful I got to spend the early years with my kids, teaching them and loving them. I loved being there when they got home from school. When I didn't have four car seats with the same number of people to buckle into them every time we went out, I enjoyed driving them to and from school. In fact; last year I didn't do any carpool and it was awesome. This year I tried not to, but I gave in to a friend and we are carpooling in the mornings. For now my kids are walking home. Spencer gets to drive, lucky boy. He will pick up the kids after school when the weather gets cold. That will cause problems for my neighbor because he won't have room for them too. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. 

 I enjoy being in the school helping out and learning about what my kids are doing and who they are hanging out with at school each day. I will not be in their classrooms as much as I have been, but I am the PTA president at the elementary school this year which will keep me there just a little bit.;) It is a pretty big responsibility, one that I wasn't fully aware of when I agreed to do it. I do feel like it was divinely inspired; however. I feel like this job came as an answer to prayer as well.

The invitation to be the PTA president came at a time I felt inadequate and I didn't have a lot to contribute to society. This happened a year and a half ago. The job came at a time I have been stressed about our finances for about oh, five years now. I have been praying and looking for jobs from time to time. Looking back I see that all of our needs were met, but we have been very tight financially. Insurance premiums, medicine, food, clothing, and raising children in general have gotten progressively more expensive over this time. I was wondering what I should do because my real estate job was costing me money when we really do need the extra income.

This job will allow me to keep my license and still be working in the real estate field. I am grateful for it. I know that the Lord knows everything, so I am currently looking to Him for guidance in fulfilling all of my responsibilities that He has had a hand in giving to me. I do not want my children to suffer or fall by the wayside because I'm not there when they get out of school.

I have given each of them a couple of extra responsibilities to help me get things done that I will not be home to do now, and to help them to be more independent. Adam knows I am a mom and the PTA president. He has been very reassuring that that is just fine. I could not work in a place that didn't have some flexibility. He says it is good to have his employees out in the community. Hooray for that!

In addition, I received another calling; another responsibility the Lord has had a hand in. Joe Hudson, the High Counselor in our ward, asked to meet with me before church last Sunday. Destry mentioned when we finished a successful trek, that he was nervous that now we may be under the stake's radar. I wasn't too worried until I got the email. I still wasn't too worried because Destry didn't have to come with me and it was a high counselor, not a member of the stake presidency. We have a regional conference coming up and I thought that maybe I was being asked to give a prayer.

I wasn't. But I was asked to be on the stake Relief Society Board. I asked if I could keep my ward calling that I love so much. He said that it was up to me. I said yes to both then. I look forward to getting to know other sisters in our stake--before it gets split again in a matter of months. We have a new stake center being built just down the street. As far as I know the stake only does two activities each year, the clothing drive in July and a conference sometime. I think I can handle that. 

So far my kids have done well with my being gone, even though they were home all day because school was out for the summer. They just started yesterday. That went well. I have actually not worked full time hours yet. My training started out at 20 and it will bump up to 30-40 in the coming week. That has been ideal for me. It provided a transition time for my family and for me. 

I am looking forward to much personal growth. My kids and my husband will grow as well. Destry offered to go to work earlier so he can be home earlier and the kids will not be home without a parent for much more than an hour each day. Everyone will have to step up their help at home, that is not a bad thing. I will still do pretty much everything I did before I started working, but I will have a bit of assistance now. We changed scripture reading time to right before dinner rather in the morning because Destry leaves early and Spencer does as well for early morning seminary. 

We are ever changing and growing. I could not be more excited for the blessings that will surely come!

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