BIG Changes for our family...

6 YEARS IN ARKANSAS….and NOW, time to move on….AGAIN!

So, we have now been in Arkansas for a little over SIX years! Who would have EVER thought we’d stay in one place that long?! It’s been a good 6 years, and we’ve really enjoyed Bentonville, and Neil’s job with the Walmart Corporate office has been great for his career, and we are VERY grateful for the time here & the opportunities that it’s given Neil and our family, but…now it’s time to move on to our next adventure. :) After all the craziness of last year, leaving and then coming back, we thought we’d be staying in Bentonville for a long time, but things change….

Soooo…. we are VERY excited about our next big adventure! We have been VERY blessed, and after a few months of interviews, assessments, phone calls, flights to interview in person, more assessments, more interviews, more traveling, etc…., Neil was offered the position of Vice President of National Food Safety for Sobeys, (the 2nd largest grocery retailer in all of CANADA--and NO, Walmart is NOT the first—they don’t have a very strong presence in Canada). Anyway, we are VERY excited about the opportunity & SO excited for our next adventure!

So, here’s the LONG version of the story….
It all started the end of May. The recruiter contacted Neil, and mentioned that they were very interested in talking with him. They scheduled a phone interview, which went really well, and then within a couple days, they called Neil back to schedule 2 more interviews via Skype, over the next couple weeks. It was a bit crazy, because he had to fit the interviews in during his lunch breaks, at home, and part of this time was while we were on vacation in Utah, at the Grand Canyon, but we figured it all out & he was still able to make it work. After his second Skype interview (with the Vice President of Compliance and the HR Director), they called him back within an HOUR, wanting to schedule a time to fly him out for an in-person interview. We were shocked that they called back so quickly, and we were very excited about the possibilities. They wanted to fly him out within the next couple days, but since we were still on vacation and Neil didn’t have his passport with him, we had to wait until we got back home.

Once we got back from our vacation on Monday, June 20th, we did all the laundry & Neil re-packed & flew out for his interviews in Canada on that Friday 24th, after work. They wanted to meet with him so much, and understood his busy schedule, so decided to interview him on Saturday the 25th, which worked out great for us too. He was interviewed once again by the HR Director, and then spent the rest of the day with the VP, touring stores, the corporate office, going to lunch, and talking about the company, the position that Neil would have, and the area. It all went very well, and they were still very excited about the possibility of Neil joining their company. The next morning, he got up & went to church at one of the LDS wards in the area, and then flew home.

Three days later, they flew Neil to Dallas, TX to do a big Professional Development International (PDI) assessment (it’s often used to assess leadership skills, IQ, management style, etc.) It’s used for high-level positions, and takes an entire day—10 hours (8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) to complete, in addition to several hours of online assessments that he had to complete BEFORE flying to Dallas. Neil has done this assessment twice before, once for Walmart & once for another company, so he knew what to expect. Unfortunately, the night before his assessment, his flight was delayed, he got in very late, and then during the night, the hotel’s fire alarm went off, so everyone had to evacuate the building, so Neil was exhausted the next day & had a migraine, but even despite all of that, he still did GREAT on his assessment, and they were all very pleased.

THEN….three days later, on July 3rd, Neil flew back out to Canada AGAIN, for his last round of interviews the next day. He ran into MORE flight delays and problems along the way. The airplane had to make an emergency landing at a small airport about 3 hours outside of Chicago, because of engine problems. The airline arranged a different flight for him (as well as many others), and then they took a group of people by limo to the Chicago airport, where Neil’s next flight was ALSO delayed. Oh, the joys of traveling! :) By the time he FINALLY got into Toronto, and got to his hotel, it was about midnight. The next morning (Monday, July 4th), Neil met with several more people from Sobeys, including the National Director of Occupational Health & Safety, the Chief Financial Officer, and the President & CEO. The interviews went from 9 a.m. until about 1 p.m. They all went extremely well, and Neil felt really good about everything-- the company, the area, those he would be working with and working for, and the opportunity it would give him and our family.

His flights home also had a few delays, and he finally made it back home around 1 a.m., and had to be back up again the next morning by 6:30, to get to work by about 7:15. The day he got back, he also had to do an additional assessment by phone for an hour (during his lunch break), with a consultant, to specifically assess his food safety knowledge & skills. Needless to say, after several weeks of running non-stop with his current jobs, church calling as executive secretary, and many interviews, assessments, and travels, he was just a little bit tired! But he did GREAT and the recruiter said that everyone that Neil interviewed with was very pleased & excited about him joining their company!

During all this time of interviews, assessments, etc., I was doing LOTS and LOTS of research about the Toronto area. Neil’s Corporate Office is located in Mississauga, Ontario (just outside of Toronto). We looked at several areas, including Oakville, Brampton, Milton, and Burlington. THANK GOODNESS for the internet, the church website (to get phone numbers of those in the area), and for cell phones!!! I looked up info. about the schools, demographics, crime rates, cost of living, etc. I also looked at homes in the various areas, school boundaries, etc. I called a couple bishops, a Stake President, the temple, some missionaries, the school district, and a couple members in the various areas to find out about the LDS Wards in the area, if they have a lot of primary kids & youth, etc. The people were all VERY helpful, in telling us about the climate, the health care in Canada, taxes, demographics, the culture, commuting, etc. So, after all of that….we finally decided on Burlington for the place we will live. It seems like it will be the best place for our family. It is rated #2 on the list of best places to live in all of Canada, it’s safe, nice & clean, good schools, low crime, and plenty to offer, and everything we’ve heard & read about that area is all very positive. And the funny thing is, there are a few other families that just moved into that ward recently from the US—and one is from Brigham City, Utah, of all places! That is where Neil is from & his family still lives there! Crazy!

Finally….after some negotiations, Neil was given a great offer, which we gladly accepted! (However, we couldn’t say anything until Neil’s work visa was processed & approved by the Canadian Government, before everything was finalized, which felt like FOREVER (it was actually about 3-1/2 weeks), waiting & waiting, and trying to keep it quiet in a small town where everyone has a connection to Walmart in one way or another). During the few weeks that we were waiting for Neil’s work visa to be processed & accepted, we flew out to Canada to look for homes. We found a home that we will lease for a couple of years, and then decide if we want to buy a home at that point. It’s an older home (about 20 years old), but it’s nice & a good size, close to schools, our church, parks, and shopping, and it’s a great neighborhood. We were also VERY busy scheduling a moving company to move us, getting information about all the little details of various things we will need to take care of once we are in Canada, such as getting the kids registered for school, hooking up utilities, getting Canadian drivers licenses, etc., as well as all the miscellaneous things that we have to get done here before we leave. We also sold Neil’s truck (since Neil will have a company car), and we are hoping & praying to get an offer on our home soon. We feel so incredibly blessed in so many ways!

So, now Neil is officially the Vice President of National Food Safety for Sobeys Corporate Office! We are SO excited about the opportunity & look forward to some exciting changes & the next adventure for our family.

SOOOO….that is what’s going on with us! SURPRISE! We’ll be leaving next week. SO….OFF WE GO! :)

p.s. That being said….my plans to go back to school to get my nursing degree have been put on hold indefinitely. Luckily, I hadn’t paid for my classes yet, so it was easy to drop them, and I won’t have to worry about trying to get a refund. Part of me is really disappointed, because I was really excited about going back to school to become a nurse, but I’m excited about our next adventure in Canada & the incredible opportunities that it is for Neil’s career & for our family too. I’ve looked into the nursing programs in Canada & found out that the requirements & programs for nursing school in Canada are different (they only accept a 4-year Bachelors of Nursing (BSN) in Canada, instead of a 2-year (RN) degree), and if I did get my degree, I’d have to try to get a work visa to work there, since I’m not a Canadian citizen (and because it has to be approved by the government, proving that they couldn’t find a Canadian citizen for the job, which is highly unlikely in something like nursing, I most likely wouldn’t be able to work there anyway). And I’d have to find out if I got my nursing degree in Canada, if it would be accepted in the U.S. if we moved back at some point, and what I’d have to do to get it transferred, etc. So, it’s all very complicated. For now, I’ll continue just focusing on my most important job--being the best mom & wife I can. And I’ll volunteer more at the schools, since it will all be new there & I’d like to be able to get a feel for things in the schools, and be involved & get to know the teachers & staff there as well. Like I’ve said before, with us things are always changing, and that’s okay. We are excited about this next adventure, and look forward to the future! :)

This was the HUGE welcome basket that Sobeys sent to our hotel room. How COOL is that?!! It had all sorts of delicious goodies for our enjoyment. :)


Neil & I at our hotel on Lake Ontario.

A beautiful view of Lake Ontario. The weather was Perfect!

Mississauga--the city where Neil's office is.

Neil's new office.

We'll only be a half-hour from the Toronto Temple--Yahoo!! :) Neil & I attended a session while we were there. It was beautiful!

The gorgeous temple gardens

Our new home...

Diet Coke in french

The milk in Canada comes in BAGS! You have to buy a pitcher to put it in. And everything is on the metric system--meters, milliliters, kilometers, celsius...we'll have to get used to all that!

This was at the Toronto Airport. I thought it was hilarious that they had Tylenol, Tampons, and TEMPORARY LOONEY TUNES TATTOOS?! Huh?! I guess you just never know when you might have a temporary tattoo emergency & run out when you need them most...