The Job

In case you haven't been on Facebook recently, I posted about James's new job for the fall. It came as a real shock at first when I found out where Vernal is. It's the middle of nowhere. But let me backtrack a few days...

Tuesday morning, James had an interview with Uintah School District via Skype. They had wanted to have him come interview in Vernal, but he told them it just wouldn't be possible because of work. They were okay with doing a Skype interview. I didn't think it'd come to anything, since he couldn't even go there like they wanted. Plus, they wanted to see him teach, so he would have to send them a teaching video later.

Well, the interview must have gone really well, because they offered him a history job (9th grade, at the junior high) right off! He told them he'd need to think about it for a couple of days and talk to me. My emotions went through a roller coaster over the next few days: excited... worried... confident... doubtful... relieved... etc. We were really debating if it was the right thing to do, because housing is pretty scarce in Vernal right now. It's scarce enough that there is hardly anything online, and what's there costs 1,000 dollars a month or more for a 2-bedroom apartment. If we wanted to buy a house, it would be easy to find one. Renting is another story, because the town is going through a "boom" right now. Well, Wednesday rolled around, and James ended up getting 4 rejections, all in the same day. A guy from Rigby called him, but he wasn't qualified for the position the guy was asking about. James even asked the principal of Skyview here in Nampa if there was any possibility of getting a job here. Her answer wasn't too promising.

So here we are about ready to move for the 4th time since our short marriage of not even 3 years. For the first time ever, we will not be moving during Christmas! It's really exciting that we know where we're going. And yes, we are definitely out in the sticks. Vernal is about 30 minutes away from the Colorado border, 3 hours from both SLC and Provo, and 7 hours from Rexburg. Of course, I'm still about 40 hours from my family...

I can honestly say that I have no idea why we're ending up there. It's the right thing to do. I've moved enough times now that it's just not as freaky as it used to be. This is going to test my ability to live off the beaten track, which I've really never done before, unless you count Rexburg! I am really glad that Vernal has a temple. I've really missed that. I'm totally excited about having money, too! A teacher's salary is known for being small, but I know that we can live on it, pay off our little student loan,  start saving for another car, a house, and build up a better emergency fund within just a couple years.

It's amazing how well we have been taken care of. This job starts mid August, and summer school ends August 1st. The gives us just enough time to go to the family reunion and move. Life is good.