So, guess what's happened to us over (literally) only the last 3 ½ weeks? We’re moving to Pennsylvania! I’ve been waiting to say anything until we knew for sure. Well, we know for sure! (The photo above was taken from a bridge in a small town near Clarks Summit - and it really does look like that almost everywhere! At least, this time of year!)
Here's how it happened........John has had his name on the list to relocate to the Pennsylvania office of his company for over a year. They have been putting it off – needing someone with John's skill set but not really ready to hire a 'whole person' for the position......
January 18th: An employee at the Arkansas offices of John’s company quits all of a sudden. On January 21st, John told his boss that he was interested in the position. He also sent an email to the person in AR in charge of filling the position. She emailed John right back that they wanted to fly him up on Thursday, Jan 24th, to interview for the position.
January 24th: He takes the corporate jet (sounds more impressive than just saying the ‘company’ jet) to the AR office and has 3 total interviews that day. On the way back to Houston that afternoon, John’s boss tells him basically, ‘Choose’ Arkansas or Pennsylvania. It was a euphoric evening – really, he just hadsto choose?!! We’ve never been at a place where John got to choose what position he wanted!
We decided that if AR was available (it hadn’t even been on the table before) then we would choose AR because it is more centrally located to our family – at least for the next year or so: Katie has a few months left of grad school and then she’ll be working somewhere – btw, she’s doing AMAZINGLY – 4.0!! You couldn’t have found a more perfect fit for her than grad school at Baylor!! Peter is a junior Mechanical Engineering major at Baylor – he’s also doing great – 4.0!! So, AR looked good.
Well, the next day was his Friday off. He called his boss and told him that if AR was available that we would relocate there. Later that day his boss called him back and told him that after talking with all the ‘higher ups’ of Houston, AR and PA, they believed that his skills were more necessary in PA. Would he still be interested/ willing to go to PA??
Well……..yes, we were! He talked with the VP of the PA office – who told John that he believes John is a perfect fit for that office - and a visit to the PA office was scheduled February 5th-7th. In the meantime, John’s current boss had already announced to the department that John was being relocated and moving to the PA office.
Monday, February 4th, John called me and asked if I wanted to go to PA – WOW – I wasn’t scheduled to go on the trip, but there was room for me on the corporate jet :), if I wanted. Well, sure!! I’ll just scramble and get ready to fly to PA in the morning!!
It was a great 3 days getting to see the area – it’s all mountains! Everywhere! The houses/ businesses/ apartment complexes, etc are all built in the mountains – and the roads are up and down and around big curves. The company is in the town of Tunkhannock, PA – most of the people there live in either Clarks Summit/ Scranton or Wilkes-Barre, PA.
So, we’re moving to PA! We went from John's name just being on the list of interested parties (a very small list:) to setting up appointments with inspectors so that our house can be relisted as a new property for sale! We’ve gotten communications from the Relocation department of the company – and man, do they do relocation well! Basically, they do whatever it takes to make relocating as easy as possible!
Our current time frame: John will be working for the PA office (here in Houston) beginning next Monday. However, they want him in PA ASAP - Yikes!!! It's all moving WAAAY fast!! It's possible he could be in the PA office in the next 2 - 3 weeks - Yikes!!! Yikes!! ("Yikes", of course, in a totally cool, really impossible dream, 'holy crack this is happening fast' way!!) It's probably a good thing that it's all coming down so fast - that way I don't over think things. Not that I EVER do that, amiright? Right?? :*p I don’t know how long I’ll still be here – at least a couple of months probably. But everything has been happening so fast – who knows!
We’re excited and a little anxious – we’ve been here 23 years – despite not realizing it, we’ve got some roots here. (duh? Right? :p) However, it’s a great time in our lives to be embarking on a new ‘adventure’!! We’ll be only 6 hours from John’s mom, 2 hours from one of John’s brother’s and his wife, only 8 hours from Josh and Lynette!!
And since Katie and Peter are both in transition periods of their lives and will probably not end up living in Texas permanently, we're a little more 'okay' leaving them here for awhile.......Besides, we know that no matter where our family is, we can always travel to see them!!! (That sound you just heard was our kids groaning that they can't ever get away from us!! :p) Unfortunately, I’ll be 17 hours from my favorite Aunt – but, heh!, I love to fly and drive!!!
We'll - well, probably just me because John will already be there - I will probably be headed up there in a couple of weeks to begin looking for housing…..oh, and the company helps with that too!! (Of course, they do!!) They provide housing for a family for up to 90 days if you need it. It looks like John could be 'batching' it for a while...........good thing he knows how to cook!!!
So, it was a long read but you totally loved it and raced through reading it, didn't you, riding the wave of excitement at the prospect of this new 'journey' for John and I??................And..................you're welcome!! :)
