Moving to SLC

Grandpa Hooper with sleepy Mr C

Last year a former co-worker of Zak's contacted him several times to recruit him to work at a new company. They made an initial offer earlier in the year, but it didn't work for our family, so Zak continued at his current job. Later, they gave another offer, which they had managed by rearranging some responsibilities and roles. This time it seemed like a welcome change for Zak that would allow our family to stay where we were.

His second day at the new job shortly after New Year's, I returned home from play group with the kids and found out the main owner and investor at the company had not approved the hire, and so they laid him off. Day two. At least we hadn't relocated for this job. His previous employers had told him he would be welcomed back if he ever wanted to return to Aquamira, but Zak thought he should look at other opportunities.

He spent some time on his personal portfolio website, zporter.com, and applied for several positions. Because he has about ten years of experience in his field, as well as being amazing, many of the jobs around Cache Valley were for lower level positions that wouldn't pay what he deserves. We decided he should apply for jobs around Salt Lake and Provo. After a few phone, video, and in-person interviews two companies seemed interested, and one ended up making an offer. We discussed it and prayed about the decision, and decided to accept the offer. He had a start date at Master Control for March 5 in Cottonwood Heights.

Last morning in our old house. The kids were good sports and slept on foam pads because we'd packed up their beds.

During the two months between paychecks blessings poured on us. We had our 3-6 month emergency savings mostly funded, and Zak had some freelance work already started, so he could focus on that instead of worrying.

It took several trips down to Salt Lake before we found an apartment we liked at a reasonable price that had a decent school, since Miss V will be starting kindergarten in the fall. And then that apartment went to someone else. So...another trip later we found one at a slightly better price and quickly applied for the basement apartment of a home in an established neighborhood. During these trips, the kids were very good sports, and we had some fun together at restaurants and the mall.

Because of the housing delay, we didn't end up signing for the apartment until the Saturday night before Zak started, and my parents watched the kids while we signed papers and went on a date. Zak pulled one load of stuff in our little trailer Sunday evening, and the kids and I were left to finish packing and cleaning until he returned Friday after work. Besides scout camps and girls' camps, we haven't been apart much in our marriage. Fortunately, I could still call him and send videos, but he left the wifi with us, so he didn't have much internet, and I had limited myself on phone minutes.

I did feel overwhelmed after writing a to-do list and realizing how much I had left to do. So many of our friends, family, and neighbors offered to help with the kids, cleaning, packing, and moving. My young women gave me a farewell card and orchid! Even though we had to give our goodbyes to friends from church, play group, and preschool, we felt so loved. Our financial needs were met, and I got the emotional and physical help I needed throughout the process. Saturday morning and afternoon we had people in pretty much every room of our house scrubbing walls, windows, and vacuuming.

We gave away several pieces of furniture (most were items given to us for free), and sold a few pieces online. Because our housing dimensions were going from 1700 square feet to about 950 square feet, seeing the furniture go to their new homes brought waves of relief. I'd admired tiny house living for a while, and we wanted to be responsible with money and save for a house downpayment, so I think we've picked a good place. It took another load in our little utility trailer, Grandpa's large utility trailer, Dad Porter's truck, Dad Hooper's Tahoe, my minivan, and the 4Runner, but we managed to fit everything. I still have a dishwasher, my washer and dryer, and room for some food storage.

Our new basement apartment

Three weeks in we've unpacked and found places for most items. Because of some family events, we've only made it to our new church congregation one time, but we're looking forward to getting to know our neighbors.

I unpacked and cleaned the kitchen. The rest of the family room still has boxes.

Return to Utah

A couple months ago Husband and I decided to switch from doing full-time independent work from home to finding a position with a small company, and continuing doing some independent web design on the side. He was offered a position with a company that is just beginning its own in-house design team, so he's able to help build the team, website, and marketing strategies from the ground up to help produce and market products that can really make a difference.

We're also excited because we're close to family again. Little Miss V even got to celebrate her first birthday surrounded by Grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We miss our Idaho Falls church congregation and the friends we made there, but it's good to be home.

Because of packing, storing our things while we're in a temporary home with family, a the near move to our permanent address, I've gotten behind with my photos and posts. Miss V and I are excited to bring our activities from the past few months to light in the coming weeks. Thanks for your patience.

Moving to Idaho

Zak graduated in December with is Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, so it was time to look for another job.  He sent out his portfolio and resume to a few places (http://zporter.com/), and got a call back from Melaleuca, Inc. We drove up to Idaho together, and I canvased the town while he had a full day of interviews with various people in the Web Design Department and corporate. We heard back a short time later that they intended to make an offer, and when it finally came, we accepted. Husband is officially a Jr. Web Designer. The company booked and covered a hotel stay and cost of meals so we could go a-house-hunting.  I'd been browsing Craigslist, and found a few in our price range to see. Most were pretty small, in areas we didn't like as much, or lacked some of the amenities we wanted. We eventually met with Steve, who showed us some 4-plex housing. The street was pretty busy, but he showed us some others with the same floor plan in another neighborhood.  I liked the washer/dryer hookups, room in the kitchen for a table, and dishwasher, and Zak liked the garage and larger rooms. That week we packed, scrubbed walls, and shampooed our carpet.  My wonderful home teaching companion brought us a meal, our home teacher and my parents and siblings helped us haul our ample boxes of stuff into the 14-foot U-haul Zak was so excited to drive, and we said good-bye to our friends and family. Lots of friends offered help and love. Thank you. A week after our hotel stay and house-hunt, we moved to Idaho. Sort of. My parents did drive us back to Utah to visit with family when cousin Troy spoke in church after coming home from his mission, and when the Johnson side celebrated Daxin's birthday.  It was a great opportunity to see most of the Hoopers and Johnsons.  I'm still adjusting to living in a place where neighbors walk right past my windows, but I  crave the light and can't seem to shut my curtains when the sun is shining. Also "I have a [dishwasher], I have a [dishwasher], I have a [dishwasher], hey hey hey hey!" What a month.

Houses and Homes

Apartment

My parents had been married just a few years before I was born, so my first home was in a four-plex apartment building, upstairs.  It featured two bedrooms and Mom’s favorite view of the tropical foliage.

Double Wide

With an expanding family, my parents bought a double-wide trailer, where we lived when my younger sister was born.  I tease my Mom sometimes by crowning her with the song, “She’s the queen of my double-wide trailer with the polyester curtains and a redwood deck.”  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICDCj-qOEU).  She mentions, “Well, I don’t think we had a redwood deck, but that’s pretty close.”  Our cousins made the long trek to visit us, and everyone bought souvenir shirts.

Nicole on the porch of the double-wide

The Yellow House

In 1989 my parents moved us closer to the grandparents, and built a four-level split we know as The Yellow House.  We stayed with the grandparents, which they probably regretted, while my parents had a house built.  Aaron was nearly born at the yellow house, because Mom was trying to wait until Dad got home from a Jazz game she’d told him to go see, but she ended up going to the hospital with Grandma J.  We only got our heads stuck between the kitchen railings a few times in the four-level split, although I do remember getting my foot stuck in a couch, from which Dad had a hard time physically and emotionally removing it.  He doesn't like to cause more pain.  (This goes for pushing earrings through your ear when they start to close over, too.)  He got a little embarrassed about an incorrectly patched leak, when he recently came across the man who bought the house, through his work.  Mom and our aunts would take us to the free school lunch program during the summer, and always lit up when Great Aunt Dixie, the best lunchlady ever, would come to our table.  We had the only yellow house on the block, and then a couple of years before we moved, someone built a light yellow one next door.  We pulled into the wrong driveway so many times.

Apartment
Dad eventually got his “dream job," and commuted an hour each way until we moved into an apartment and started looking for another house.  He wanted to build, so we stayed in the apartment for about eight months.  Ammon was born shortly after we moved to the apartment, the day before we started at our new schools.  Dad was so impressed with the central air over the old swamp cooler and maintenance, that central air wound up in our new house.  We kids were excited to have cable (the Disney channel!) for the first time.

Nicole riding in front of the apartment building

Winifred

Grandma and Grandpa J had given us a full-size stand up piano, a hand-me-down from when Grandma was a kid.  Getting it into the new house was barely possible with the ten or so people helping.  Dad vowed to never move it again.  He installed by hand Pergo wood laminate flooring in the great room, which became His floor for many years, which the piano had affected.  We were all pretty spoiled at the new house, with enough rooms for all of us (although some were unfinished basement rooms).

Winifred

After living in our new house for a few years, I decided that it needed a Gone With the Wind or Pride and Prejudice type name.  I told the family the house would be named Winifred until someone could come up with a better name.  I guess no one else felt the need to ponder further, so it stuck.  Mom plants wildflowers in the garden, and she, Dad, and Ammon have spent many family nights working hard in the yard removing rocks and terracing the backyard.  Hence, Dad's "love" of rocks.  The driveway is pretty steep, contributing to quite a few dents and scratches in cars, but that's what happens when you build a house on the side of a mountain, and have lots of drivers and cars.  During winter months, no one can park on the road overnight, so there's a lot of maneuvering in the garage, driveway, and side cement slab.  My first dating experiences started and ended at this house, so the porch has some wonderfully awkward and awkwardly wonderful experiences associated.  After Grandma and Grandpa Hooper had both passed away and their house sold, Dad built a small observatory in the backyard for his telescope, with an automated roll-away roof.  When an appraiser came to our house, he classified it as "a very expensive shed."

Dorms
During the summer of 2006, when they hosted the World Cup, I studied in Freiburg, Germany at the Goethe Institut.  Like Mom, I loved to gaze out the window, and saw the woman on a hammok, and the family eating on their corner porch.  I shared the room and bathroom with a girl, but she and her boyfriend spent most of their time together, so it was kind of like my own room.  It came with desks, some shelves for food, and a minifridge for each of us.

Mission Apartments
I served a full-time religious mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Ohio Cincinnati Mission, which has since been dissolved.  I spent three months in Ashland, Kentucky in a very nice three story apartment (the bottom level was the garage).  The next six months were in a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton, Ohio, until I went to Montgomery, Ohio.  Montgomery is a township of Cincinnati, where three freeways overlap, so this is the only time I actually lived in Cincinnati.

Ashland         Hamilton

  Fairfield              Montgomery

My last area was Fairfield, Ohio, which is sandwiched between Hamilton and Montgomery.  In an Urban Sociology class I found out that the middle section of the Fairfield area, Greenhills, with its winding streets and alphabetized names in sections, was actually designed by the government during the Great Depression.  It’s one of three “Greenbelt Communities,” meant to have a belt of woodland and natural landscaping.  We talked to some fascinating people in the C-section. See 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhills,_Ohio

B-L Sections of Greenhills, Ohio

The Cottage

I moved out just for the summer of 2010 into a dream apartment.  It’s just across the street from the Logan LDS Temple, and it started at $150 a month plus $30 utilities. My friend, Alina, was in charge of collecting rent and getting roommates, so I was very happy, with the light, open four-person apartment.  I had my own room and no school.  I didn't get a car after donating my last one to the Lung Association, so I appreciated the short 4-block distance from the grocery store and bus station.  Conveniently, Zak had just moved into an apartment three blocks away, so we walked at 6:15 every weekday morning, as he was able to work at 8:00 during the summer.  Alina had a projector, so sometimes we’d watch movies on the covered back deck, sitting on couches.  A few times Zak had to tap on my window because I didn’t wake up for our walks or I didn’t hear him knock on the front door.  We fit Taylor Swift’s “Our Song” fairly closely.  Zak proposed before the county fireworks, at the beginning of July, and then I moved back to Winifred when school started, engaged.

Harriet

We searched for a married couple apartment available through ksl.com, and found the delightful two-bedroom apartment with a large open living room and bright kitchen.  We call her Harriet, and Husband and I have very much enjoyed having her as our first home together. 

 

Our happy home, Harriet

I'm sure many people have moved more often than I have, but going over everything, it seems like a lot.  Thanks, Mom and Dad for always providing a roof over our heads, and for Zak, who helps me create a home.  Our contract ends this August.  Move or stay?