So this week I sent out most of our "we've moved" cards. I'm assuming we have some newcomers to the blog, and some friends who are shocked at the city and state indicated on the "we've moved" card. For those of you wondering what in the world is going on and why we'd move to Arkansas, here's the Reader's Digest version of the story. For those of you who already know, I'll put some "what we've been up to" info in the next section and then you can skip the rest.
What we've been up to
This week has flown by. I was in St. Louis visiting Karen, Dave and baby Donato on Monday and Tuesday. Beau started gymnastics at Aspire on Thursday, and our long-lost friend Ginnie Monnington (now Solomon) came over for a visit on Friday night. I've posted a picture of Ginnie and her lovely family here. For those of you out there who know and love Ginnie, she's doing well and has three beautiful girls and a very nice husband. She's living back in Bentonville and staying home with Alexis (3) and twins Bradie and Brooklyn (1). I had to nearly force her to take this picture. For those of you who don't know Ginnie, she was Nate's cheerleading partner at SMS.
And I want to welcome the Moore family's newest addition - Madelyn Grace Moore. Sarah, Ben, Hannah and Lauren met their new daughter and sister on Thursday.
Ok, so Beau LOVED gymnastics, and I really like this gym. They have a good program for the little ones, and if you check out the preschool portion of the Web site, you'll see the "jungle room" that is his favorite room.
Brayden had a football game today, and he's still loving it. This morning he said, "I'm not going to tackle anyone because I don't want to get kicked out of football. [Editor's note: It's flag football until he's in the second grade.] But when we play real football, you know those four guys who tackled me last time? I'm going to tackle them and get them back." And I believe he will do this. That kid has a memory like an elephant.
Those of you who know why we're in Arkansas can stop reading now. I'll post something new and oh-so-intersting again later this week.
And why we're learning to call the Hogs. . .
Back in April, I (Jen) was pecking around on the Internet and found a job at Wal-Mart's Home Office that looked pretty interesting. It's a job much like what I had done for years at Sprint, I was about ready to think about leaving Sprint, and we'd always wanted to move further South.
So, I applied online and nearly immediately got a response that the Wal-Mart recruiter would like to interview me. I went back and forth with interviews through April, May and early June. In the meantime, Nate was loving his job as the academic and behavior specialist at an elementary school in Grain Valley. It was essentially an assistant principal job without the pay or title. In mid- to late-May, he started the process of applying for his licensure in Arkansas and applying for jobs down here "just in case."
In mid-June, I was offered a job to work as a senior manager of Marketing & Communications at the world's largest company. And Nate hadn't heard anything about any of the positions he'd applied for. Both the Bentonville and Rogers' school district Web sites said strictly not to contact the principals, as all applications were handled through the district offices. And although we found it strange that he never received a call even though there seemed to be an assistant principal in every elementary school and probably half-a-dozen of those were open while he was looking, it was what it was. We'd nearly resigned to him getting Brayden settled in Kindergarten and finding a preschool for Beau and maybe he'd do some substitute teaching.
So we came to Bentonville, Arkansas (two of Beau's favorite words these days) for our Wal-Mart coordinated pre-move visit the week after July 4. And we stopped by the Bentonville administration building after we signed papers to lease our house so that we could register Brayden for school. When we did, the secretary wouldn't let Nate talk to the HR director, but she told him that there were still two assistant jobs open and gave him the principals' contact info. He immediately sent them resumes. I think the next day he got a call to schedule an interview. He drove down here from Blue Springs the next week to interview, we went to the Bahamas to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary July 13-20, he drove back down here on Monday, July 21 for an interview with the Superintendent, he was offered a position on Tuesday, and he started work on Thursday - without having yet signed a contract. And now he is the assistant principal at Centerton Gamble Elementary in Centerton, Ark. This is a part of the Bentonville School District.
There are two funny pieces of information related to the above story: 1) He scheduled the interview for July 21 from a telephone at Nipper's Bar and Grill on Great Guana Cay, Bahamas. We had to ask the bartender to turn down the music at 9:30 a.m. so that he could hear. You have to check out the Web site to really enjoy what I'm talking about here. What a life :-) 2) NEVER believe a Web site that says not to contact the principals. Apparently, that's the only way to get a job down here, we now know.
So that's about it. I started working at Wal-Mart's Home Office on July 7, and Nate officially started the job that he's been waiting for on July 24. And the moving truck arrived with (almost) all of our stuff on July 27. We're loving the small town, the weather, the beauty of the land, the proximity to the lake (1 hour and 40 minutes to my dad's place at Table Rock), the cost of living, etc. Oh, and the in-ground pool in the backyard hasn't hurt anything, either.
Please drop us a note or give us a call to let us know how you're doing. It's been a wild summer, and we still have a lot to do to get settled, but we've all adjusted amazingly. The boys never missed a beat, and although they really miss their Friday's with Grandma Zellers (Nate's mom), I think they appreciate her, Grandpa and Granny that much more when they see them now.
Take care, and check back here periodically if you're interested in my ramblings. I update about once or twice a week, depending on what I have to say.
What we've been up to
This week has flown by. I was in St. Louis visiting Karen, Dave and baby Donato on Monday and Tuesday. Beau started gymnastics at Aspire on Thursday, and our long-lost friend Ginnie Monnington (now Solomon) came over for a visit on Friday night. I've posted a picture of Ginnie and her lovely family here. For those of you out there who know and love Ginnie, she's doing well and has three beautiful girls and a very nice husband. She's living back in Bentonville and staying home with Alexis (3) and twins Bradie and Brooklyn (1). I had to nearly force her to take this picture. For those of you who don't know Ginnie, she was Nate's cheerleading partner at SMS.
And I want to welcome the Moore family's newest addition - Madelyn Grace Moore. Sarah, Ben, Hannah and Lauren met their new daughter and sister on Thursday.
Ok, so Beau LOVED gymnastics, and I really like this gym. They have a good program for the little ones, and if you check out the preschool portion of the Web site, you'll see the "jungle room" that is his favorite room.
Brayden had a football game today, and he's still loving it. This morning he said, "I'm not going to tackle anyone because I don't want to get kicked out of football. [Editor's note: It's flag football until he's in the second grade.] But when we play real football, you know those four guys who tackled me last time? I'm going to tackle them and get them back." And I believe he will do this. That kid has a memory like an elephant.
Those of you who know why we're in Arkansas can stop reading now. I'll post something new and oh-so-intersting again later this week.
And why we're learning to call the Hogs. . .
Back in April, I (Jen) was pecking around on the Internet and found a job at Wal-Mart's Home Office that looked pretty interesting. It's a job much like what I had done for years at Sprint, I was about ready to think about leaving Sprint, and we'd always wanted to move further South.
So, I applied online and nearly immediately got a response that the Wal-Mart recruiter would like to interview me. I went back and forth with interviews through April, May and early June. In the meantime, Nate was loving his job as the academic and behavior specialist at an elementary school in Grain Valley. It was essentially an assistant principal job without the pay or title. In mid- to late-May, he started the process of applying for his licensure in Arkansas and applying for jobs down here "just in case."
In mid-June, I was offered a job to work as a senior manager of Marketing & Communications at the world's largest company. And Nate hadn't heard anything about any of the positions he'd applied for. Both the Bentonville and Rogers' school district Web sites said strictly not to contact the principals, as all applications were handled through the district offices. And although we found it strange that he never received a call even though there seemed to be an assistant principal in every elementary school and probably half-a-dozen of those were open while he was looking, it was what it was. We'd nearly resigned to him getting Brayden settled in Kindergarten and finding a preschool for Beau and maybe he'd do some substitute teaching.
So we came to Bentonville, Arkansas (two of Beau's favorite words these days) for our Wal-Mart coordinated pre-move visit the week after July 4. And we stopped by the Bentonville administration building after we signed papers to lease our house so that we could register Brayden for school. When we did, the secretary wouldn't let Nate talk to the HR director, but she told him that there were still two assistant jobs open and gave him the principals' contact info. He immediately sent them resumes. I think the next day he got a call to schedule an interview. He drove down here from Blue Springs the next week to interview, we went to the Bahamas to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary July 13-20, he drove back down here on Monday, July 21 for an interview with the Superintendent, he was offered a position on Tuesday, and he started work on Thursday - without having yet signed a contract. And now he is the assistant principal at Centerton Gamble Elementary in Centerton, Ark. This is a part of the Bentonville School District.
There are two funny pieces of information related to the above story: 1) He scheduled the interview for July 21 from a telephone at Nipper's Bar and Grill on Great Guana Cay, Bahamas. We had to ask the bartender to turn down the music at 9:30 a.m. so that he could hear. You have to check out the Web site to really enjoy what I'm talking about here. What a life :-) 2) NEVER believe a Web site that says not to contact the principals. Apparently, that's the only way to get a job down here, we now know.
So that's about it. I started working at Wal-Mart's Home Office on July 7, and Nate officially started the job that he's been waiting for on July 24. And the moving truck arrived with (almost) all of our stuff on July 27. We're loving the small town, the weather, the beauty of the land, the proximity to the lake (1 hour and 40 minutes to my dad's place at Table Rock), the cost of living, etc. Oh, and the in-ground pool in the backyard hasn't hurt anything, either.
Please drop us a note or give us a call to let us know how you're doing. It's been a wild summer, and we still have a lot to do to get settled, but we've all adjusted amazingly. The boys never missed a beat, and although they really miss their Friday's with Grandma Zellers (Nate's mom), I think they appreciate her, Grandpa and Granny that much more when they see them now.
Take care, and check back here periodically if you're interested in my ramblings. I update about once or twice a week, depending on what I have to say.
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