Bits and Pieces of my life

My husband and I had a long talk. Not just hours, but over the course of several days, we talked and talked about where we were, and where we had hoped to be. We also had to deal with the rumor mill concerning my husband’s job. It was pretty certain that his current boss was going to retire in the next year, but there were also lots of rumors that the Center would be moving. Some said St. Cloud, some said Hinckley, but no one had a good answer. That was normal for that operation, disinformation ran rampant. But we knew there was a core of truth. Plans had been in the works for a long time to relocate the Center, as they were on leased land, and continually having disagreements with the landlord. We finally decided that maybe the best thing to do was sell the place and move. Move away from the Twin Cities, move away from family (they didn’t have much to do with us anyway) move away from the home that we’d thought God wanted us to have.

The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, BLESSED BE THE LORD. The decision was not that easy. We’d convinced ourselves that this place was our dream, that it was where we would spend our retirement years, that it was where our Grandchildren (when we had them) would come and learn about country life. We’d made friends in the community, and felt we fit in well. But in the end, it seemed like we were fighting an uphill battle, and it was time to wake up and smell the toast. We had to deal with the whole “selling is admitting failure” routine. It was a grieving process, and in some ways writing this story is still a part of that. It wasn’t the selling the house that was so hard, it was that decided to leave felt like we giving up what we had worked so hard for, and gone through so much difficulty to obtain.

We really didn’t know what was going to happen, where we would end up, and maybe selling the place would not happen anyway. But we put it all in the Lord’s hands, and I starting looking for jobs in other areas. In our situation, we felt it would be best for me to land a decent job, and once we moved, my husband could find work. He’s got experience in a wide range of blue collar occupations, I’m just an accountant. At least just about every company needs an accountant. We decided that I would look between the Mississippi and the Mountains, and no farther south than Nebraska.

I also started working at the CPA firm. I’ve worked in CPA firms before, so once I got familiar with the software, I was on my own. I enjoyed the work; it felt so good to be back doing what I was good at.

I’m not going to go way into the detail here, but by mid February things were looking much better. Things had settled down where my husband works, and we knew that even though they did want to move the Center, they had so much work to do first; it would be a few years before anything happened. And I was starting to get calls from recruiters, and I got a call from a company in South Dakota that I had sent my resume too.

That call caught me off guard. The HR rep called and said they wanted me to come out for an interview. I’m thinking – you are 500 miles away, I can’t just “stop in”. I told them I would prefer to do a phone interview first, and then if both sides were still interested, I’d come out there. I have to laugh at myself; it wasn’t until after the interview that I realized they intended to pay my expenses so I could come there. The HR person called me back and said that would be fine, and we set up a time for the supervisor to call me on Tuesday the next week. I thought about it, and realized that I actually COULD make it out there the following Friday. I talked with my husband, and he was willing to take a day off work and we’d drive out there together. I hate traveling, unless it’s a road trip with my husband, then I love to go.

I called the HR person back the next day, and we set up for an interview on that next Friday, pending the outcome of the phone interview. I was excited and nervous. Up until now the whole idea of moving to another state was just an idea. This made it more of a possibility. But I knew an interview was a long way from a job offer.

The phone interview went well, and we made the trip the next week. This place was a lot bigger than I thought, and I realized this job would be right up my alley. It was so strange, if I had to “design” my ideal job, this was closer to being it than anything I’d ever come across before. I thought the interview went well - I answered all the accounting questions on the current Finance Director asked me. He actually did give each applicant an oral exam. I hate to even say that, there are too many jokes out there about having to pass the “oral exam” to get a job. But in this case, he had prepared about 30 questions that he read to me, and I had to answer them. I though some were downright silly, but I was told months later that I was the only one who actually answered all the questions correctly.

I was told it would probably be a few weeks before they made a final decision, said my goodbyes and I went back to the hotel. We had the whole afternoon ahead of us, and planned on seeing what the area had to offer in the way of real estate. In my dreams, I’d have a nice short commute to work, but in reality, we found that there wasn’t anything affordable in the local area. Housing was pretty steep, and farms with small acreage were few and far between. Now, if we wanted 1000 acres, that was available, but we were NOT going to get into that trap of spending more than we wanted to again. We left that town somewhat depressed, feeling like we could not afford to move out into this area and live the rural life we wanted. We headed about 60 miles east, and stopped in Mitchell to see what the realtors in that area had to say. We found a good one, and she showed us some properties that had sold recently, and even though they didn’t have anything on the market at the time, it was obvious that we could afford what we wanted, as long as I was willing to drive a bit farther than I’d planned.

We left South Dakota, and discussed our options all the way home. I spent time during the next week deciding what we’d need to sell the house for, and what salary I’d have to get in order to accept the job, IF it was offered. Two weeks went by, and I was starting to think I’d been passed over. I was working with a recruiter on another possible job, and was going scheduled to go in for my second interview when I got a message.

My daughter, 18 and a senior in high school, called out to me as I came in the door.

”Hey Mom, some guy called, he said they were going to send you a job offer in the mail. I don’t remember his name, but he said he’d email you too”

Don’t you just love the way kids take messages . . .

I’m going to take a jump here, and just say that within a short period of time, I had the job offer from the place in South Dakota, one from the second company in Minnesota, and an offer of a permanent position with the CPA firm in Wisconsin. I wasn’t really interested in staying at the CPA firm; I prefer to work for one company. But the other two jobs had a lot of similarities. Now we had a choice. I could take the SD job and move, or take the MN job and stay in our current house. The bid IF in the whole mix was if we could sell our house for enough to pay off the debt.

And this is where I made a big mistake. I asked a coworker that I had grown to trust if they could recommend any realtors in that area. Based on our previous experience, I didn’t have a real high opinion of WI realtors, but he recommended someone quite strongly, and I gave that realtor a call. I found out some time later that she was the wife of a personal friend of his, and he’d actually never had any experience dealing with her concerning realty. Then I made my second big mistake, I explained my situation to her. I told her flat out that I had to make up my mind on a job offer out of state, and that if we could not sell the house for at least XXXX, then I would not take the job, and I needed to give them an answer in quickly. I though by telling her the seriousness of my situation, it would motivate her to provide me with a realistic number. If someone had come to me and said “based on the information you provide me, I’m going to make a life altering decision” I’d make darn certain I provided them with the most accurate information I could. The last thing we wanted was for me to take a job in South Dakota, and then not be able to sell our house in Wisconsin.

She sounded capable, she sounded competent, and she sounded like she could do what ever it took to get the job done. In a few days, she met with us and showed us the comps. I was skeptical, I thought she was reaching a bit, but even considering that, she had come up with a selling price range well over our minimum. Since we had set the price on our first house, and sold it in four hours, we felt it would be better to have a Realtor help us set the price for this house. We were hoping for a quick sell, but we didn’t want to sell it at a deep discount either.

My hubby and I had already decided that if we could sell the house for over a certain amount, that is what we would do. So I accepted the job, and we signed the papers with the realtor to put our house on the market. And I started making plans to do something I’d never done before in my life. I was actually going to be completely on my own.

I packed up my car, and we waved goodbye. I would be 500 miles away, in a place I’d only been to once before. I knew no one, had no family in the area. To many this may seem like an adventure, but for me this was a big scary thing to do. It took a lot of trust in God to get me headed down the highway on my way to the great unknown. Our realtor was confident our house would sell that spring, so we had visions of only being apart 4 or 5 months at the most. My daughter had plans to be moving into an apartment soon, and my husband would stay in WI and at his current job until the house sold and he could join me as we started our new life in South Dakota.