empty nest and new adventures

 I'll have to give a  history with not a lot of details.  Unfortunately, I quit blogging  during my radiation and chemotherapy treatments for brain cancer.   dealing with those events as well as therapy for stroke recovery was too overwhelming for me at the time.   and so I recorded no family history event for many years.   I will provide a couple of very short quick highlights to get up to speed.   

I'll begin with Garrett- Garrett extended his mission for one transfer in Peru- so returned home in December 2018.   He then began college inOrem at UVU in January 2019.   his first semester was difficult due to the outbreak of Covid-19.    partway into his first semester, many of his classes were switched to 

on-line learning( which everyone found very difficult- including the professors.   when his first semester of classes ended, Garrett began working for cut co selling kitchen knives.  It was a sales job that required an aggressive personality which Garrett does not have.   He liked it  fine, enjoyed his co-workers,  but  did not make much money for the amount of time he worked.    lesson learned.    he took the next semester off school in hopes that the covid restrictions would be eliminated and students could attend classes in person once again.   He met and began Dating Cescily Madsen.   During Spring Break in March of 2021 during a family vacation to Mexico, Garrett proposed to Cescily.   And we began planning a wedding for the upcoming summer.   Garrett and Cescily were married in the Payson,UT temple on July 7,2021. That evening they had a reception in the back yard of Cescily's parents home in South Jordan,UT.  Ten days later on 7/17/21 we hosted a wedding reception in St.George at the Bloomington country Club.  We had it catered by Alumni Creamery( a spin-off of the  BYU creamery ) .   It was a lovely occasion all around.    We loved Cescily instantly and feel blessed to have her join our family.   Garrett and Cescily are currently renting  a basement apartment in Orem,UT.   Garrett is still taking classes at UVU and working for UCCU(Utah community Credit union).   Cecsily works from home for Life vantage.   They are happy and compliment each other well.

Now Grant-

Grant was brought home from his mission 4 months early due to the CO-vid 19 pandemic.   he got home on March 29,2019.   He secured a summer job at Straight Stripe (painting the lines on roads and highways.   he spent most of the summer working in Colorado (ridgeway and Ouray).   that fall he began the Pre-dental program at SUU.   He was given a nice scholarship that paid  half of his tuition each semester.   his classes consisted  mostly of chemistry and Biology (he too had some in-person and some on-line).    after completing his first year of classes he returned to work for Straight Stripe- spending much of the summer again in Colorado.   In Fall he was back up at SUU taking Advanced Spanish, Organic Chemistry, and more Biology.   The greatest part of this school year is they have started a club Lacrosse Team.   Grant is in the leadership of the program, is one of the captains and is helping coach the Cedar City High school LAX team.   He has made wonderful friends because of this and is so happy to be playing regularly once again.

Now onto Russ and I-

We are sadly empty-nesters with all of the kids out of the house.   slight backtrack-when we still had 2 kids at home in high school- upper management at ALSCO began encouraging Russ to enter their GM training program (the training program would have  required us to move out of state-with 2 kids still in high school we couldn't commit to do that).    Russ has continued to work as the service manager here at the  St. George plant.   We have liked it here are are very comfortable.   However at the end of September a GM position opened up in Blackfoot, ID and Medford, OR.   Russ was encouraged to apply for the position.  He did and was asked to interview with the owner's son, Andrew Steiner, on Friday,October first at the GO in SLC,UT.    Andrew said he would make a decision that week and get back to Russ.   The following Friday Andrew sent Russ an e-mail asking for his phone number so he could call him.   Russ emailed him back his cell number an a short time later Andrew called.   He told Russ they had offered the GM position to someone with more experience in Production, but that he had another offer for Russ that would springboard him into any position he wanted in the future.   They promoted Russ to an assistantGM in Eugene, OR.   They gave him a 50 %  salary increase with the same vacation time and new company vehicle.    So Russ and I are now in the process of moving to Eugene,OR.   WHAT?!!!   WE ARE EXCITED AND Totally nervous.  We have lived in this home for 16 years.   We have wonderful friends and the best ward and neighbors ever.  However we have struggled with the debt from my cancer treatments and at our current rate Russ will have to work every day of his life.  this move and promotion will allow Russ to retire at an age where he can still enjoy retirement.   The adventure begins.. more updates coming soon. 

 The interview went well