Stephanie & Matt

Hi everyone. Despite the fact that I'm really diligent about my blogging, I have not been good at updating the extended family. There's enough going on right now that I need to catch up.

Matt graduated from law school in January. Like most of the economy in general, the legal market has been depressed, and there has not been an abundance of job opportunities. We feel blessed that he did his schooling part-time and has been able to maintain a good job at US Bank.

I've stayed busy with the normal routines of mothering young children, serving in our Stake YW, and participating in the PTO at my boys' school. I also taught at one session of EFY this summer, and had a great experience doing that. Grant and Clark finished 1st grade and kindergarten, and Natalie (3) is my full-time errand buddy. We took a couple camping trips to start off the summer and basically felt full-scale relief from surviving another Minnesota winter and finally feeling some warm weather.

Over a year ago, Matt went to an IT Security conference (RSA) in San Francisco, where he ran into the CISO for the Church. They went to dinner together and have been in loose contact since then. After what I would call the world's longest, most-sporadic, and drawn-out job interview, they offered him a job about a month ago to come work for the Church in a capacity that is part-legal-part-information-security. Matt was very excited about the job, and I had a few apprehensions about a move to Utah, so we made it a matter of prayer and accepted the job offer contingent upon selling our house. I figured/bargained that if God really wanted us in Utah, He'd figure out a way to sell our house despite a really lame real estate market. After a lot of grueling work trying to get the house ready, we listed the house two weeks ago, and I immediately loaded up the children and went to Atlanta. I decided it would be a lot easier to spend the rest of the summer playing at my parents' house than to keep the house clean for showings. Well, the house sold in seven days. We were shocked.

So, I'm actually in Utah right now (I got here last night) to look for houses. I left my children with my parents (Thank you Mom and Dad!) and Matt will meet me here this weekend. He will work at the Church's new data center in Riverton, so we're looking for a home in the Draper-Riverton-Herriman-South Jordan area. Our house closing in Minnesota will be at the end of August, so we're hoping to make a transition that will correspond well with the new school year for the kids.

So that's our news. For those of you who live in Utah, we're expecting at least one dinner invitation from all of you once we get moved in. Just kidding, but one benefit of this move is the opportunity to be closer and see more of you more often.

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