when it rains, it pours

FEBRUARY 2010

While Carl was out of a job, he sent out countless resumes to prospective employers. When he accepted the job offer from Silla Automitive, he was still waiting for word from 2 other companies. One was a healthcare company in Los Angeles, and the other one was from The Corporation of the President, LDS Church. The latter one was a one-year internship that has promising IT training for Carl, but something that would require us to move to Riverton, Utah. On his 1^st week with Silla, Carl received a call from the Church Headquarters asking him when he will be available for a video conference interview. What's gonna happen after that interview was something we would have never expected after all that we've been through.

One night, after we've said our prayers, Carl asked me... “are you ready to move to Utah?” I thought at first he was talking about my application to BYU Graduate School. It didn't quite sink in to me that he was referring to his internship with the church. I was speechless there lying in our bed. He began by telling me how they asked him to start by April 15^th or earlier. It hasn't been a month yet since he started with Silla, and he's just about to quit...and we have a month and a half to pack up. Our kind of good rain pour has literally started...especially because Carl received a request from his future boss for him to start as early as March 1^st. Now we had barely 3 weeks to pack up and move 700 miles north of California.

We spent Valentine's weekend with friends. We watched Valentine's Day on the 13^th in Glendale, with Aprilon, Mhar and Liezel and later had dinner at Pho Citi. Mhar and Liezel stayed for the night. It was kind of our last couple of weeks together. They went to church with us, and later went on their own Valentine's day date at Kincaid. Carl and I on the other hand, bought a bouquet of flowers for Joyce. I received a gorgeous bouquet too, and we had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast earlier that day. Carl and I had dinner at Hokkaido's Seafood Buffet in Long Beach. It was awesome – better than Honolulu's Makino Chaya. Carl bought me a silver necklace for Valentine's. This was way better than last years...

A week later, Lui visited us from Salt Lake and Mhar came down again to interview for Carl's position with Silla. It was our last weekend in California. Almost all our friends from SoCal got together that weekend – to see Lui, to welcome Mhar to SoCal, and to send us off to Utah. We had dinner at Hokkaido's on Friday night, on Saturday night ate dinner at Home Town Buffet and later hit Santa Monica and walked down 3^rd Street Promenade and watched Leo DiCaprio's Shutter Island. It was another good weekend. It would have been nicer if the Pascuals were able to join us, but they were busy with getting into their new home (which was another good thing to celebrate actually!).

The week that followed was all excited, sad, rushed, but glad. We finished packing the rest of our stuff. Our bed was donated to a new family in the ward. I said goodbye to my kids Brent, Chase, and Kaylie. We had family dinner with Joyce, Jen and her kids, the missionaries, and Lei and Ricky. Jasmine gave birth to a healthy 6.9-pound baby Keana Leirose and will be home from the hospital when we arrive later that week. Carl prepped our car, and we were all set to move by Thursday night...

At the beginning of the year, Liezel told me 2010's gotta be a good year. Well, for one, Carl and I have finally found a better deal with the US economy. As for our friends, the Pascuals finally bought a home for themselves, Mhar has found a job in Southern California and can now live closer to Liezel, Becky's almost done with school, Jennifer has found a family friend company and now has more time with her kids, and Joyce can help another family when an opportunity comes up just like the way she helped us get back on our tracks. I guess Liezel's vision of a better 2010 is pretty accurate...

Now its time for a new adventure...