Caleb is home from his mission

Caleb's missionary picture taken in Anaheim, CA

The sign we all made him.  At the airport was Lance and Nancy and their family of three children.  Jason, Me, Daniel, Alyssa, Scott and Caleb's best friend in the whole world, Jacob.

Caleb and I after the HUGE first hug.  So great to see him.

First hug with Dad.

Caleb and Jacob.  Jacob is blurry.  Sorry about that.

 Today he will speak in church at around 12ish  noon to talk about his mission. Our Sacrament portion of church that he will be speaking in is from 11:30 to 12:-35.  Caleb will be speaking near the end of the service. Then we will have an open house from 3-5 p.m. with some small snacks to Welcome him home.  You are welcome to come to either thing.  Contact me for the address if you want to go to our church or our home.

Traveling back to Iowa

I keep forgetting to post this last post about our Utah trip. This day is the one we traveled back to Iowa.

Brenden on his way to school.  I'm sure going to miss him.

Brenden and Ammon.

BYU stadium in Provo, UT.  We were driving right by on our way home.

Adding a new temple in Provo, UT

Beautiful scenery as we drove out of Utah.

I saw this at a rest area in Wyoming and thought it was cool.

Passing right through Jared's mission boundries.

Cool sign at a gas station in Nebraska.

Cool statue on the hill.

Sign at a rest area.  Made me grateful I was traveling by car.

Funny license plate

New opportunity

About 3 weeks ago I saw a job posting at work and I thought, "That sounds like something I could do and I really think I would do a good job at that." So on a whim I applied. A few days later I had an interview. The interview went really well at first, but then near the end it was just okay. I was so sure by the end of the interview that I wouldn't be picked for the job. I wasn't asked the "typical" questions you usually get asked so I thought it didn't go well. I was told that by the next Friday I would know. I sent a nice interview thank you note to both interviewers and waited. 

On Wednesday, two days earlier than expected I got a phone call asking me to come down to a conference room. To my shock and pure amazement I was offered the job. I said, "Really!!!!" The person offering me the job said, "Well don't look so shocked! You were my first pick. I must have done a little happy jump in my seat and gasped and he said, "You look so surprised and shocked!" The details were discussed and I was told that I had 24 hours to make a decision. Since I had already given much thought to this new opportunity in my life, I already knew the answer I would give if it was offered. I accepted the job and will be starting the new job as the Loss Mitigation Specialist on the 20th of October. I am excited for this new opportunity in my life to learn more about the banking world.

I will still be at Hills Bank.  I'll just be in a different department than I am in now.  Currently I'm a Document Imaging Specialist.  I look at loans all day.  First I code them, sometimes scan them, check them.  Then I sort the codes to match each loan document, then count all of them.  The job keeps me super busy but it's not what I want to be doing my entire life and since I have to work full time I might as well really love what I'm doing, so it's time to move up, so I've been looking for another position at the bank for the last couple months.  I found this job and thought, "I can do that!"

If you are wondering what a Loss Mitigation Specialist is, basically it is the negotiator employed by a bank to represent their interests in a short sale transaction.  A definition online says this:

loss mitigation is the act of lessening the mortgage holder’s risk of foreclosure. A loss mitigation specialist can propose several plans or strategies to the bank or lender to put the loan back in good graces. Many banks and lenders want to avoid the foreclosure process since, on average, both homeowner and lender stand to lose tens of thousands of dollars. It’s much more equitable if a “meeting of the minds” can occur to agree on a repayment strategy in which both homeowner and lender can benefit.


Anyway, I'm excited and I hope I do well.