Announcements II

We are moving to Utah. This has been an incredibly difficult decision. Chris turned down offers from Hogwarts and The Barrow Institute, and finally chose to join the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute at the University of Utah.

We are excited about the move but also sad to leave Wauwatosa. As we have said many times, we love it here and don’t want to move.

When we tell people that we are moving to Utah we get very mixed reactions. Utah has an image problem that it just can’t seem to shake: most of the time when the state is in the national news it is for reasons that, at least to outsiders, sound crazy. This is a little curious because there is plenty of crazy news that comes out of nearby states such as Arizona as well, but they don’t seem to have the same image problem. Anyway, we feel it’s best to get some things out in the open from the start:
-Yes, we are moving to a red state. It is extraordinarily unlikely that we will register as Republicans (though Independent might be an option).
-We don’t plan to join the NRA unless they change the R to rutabaga.
-We are not becoming teetotalers. Contrary to popular perceptions, alcoholic drinks are available in Utah. Honestly, the liquor laws in Montgomery County, Maryland where Chris grew up are more restrictive than the laws in Utah.
-Chris will not be seeking additional wives to add to the family. It just seems messy and complicated, and Melissa probably wouldn’t allow it anyway.
-We are not Mormon, and we don’t plan to convert to Mormonism. There is nothing wrong with being Mormon – Chris has several Mormon friends and colleagues who don’t fit the outdated stereotypes that are applied to the members of that church.

Now that we got those things out of the way, here are things we are excited about:
-We get to buy a new house. This is something we would need to do even if we stayed in Wauwatosa because with the arrival of the twins we have outgrown our existing house. We are looking forward to finding something that has more bedrooms and more space for children.
-We are moving to an area with mountains and spectacular scenery.
-Chris is starting a new job with an excellent group of colleagues.

We recently took the entire family to Salt Lake CIty to look at schools and houses. It was tricky to pull this off with the three children in tow, but we had a great realtor who was very accommodating and as a result we were able to see about 30 houses over five days. Everett was very cooperative for the first couple days. His job was to count bathrooms and tell us what he liked about each house such as areas that seemed to have good roughhousing potential. He was also patient as we took him to look at a couple of schools. However, by about day 4 his patience was running out. He woke up that morning and said “I am done looking at houses. I am done looking at schools. I am just done!” So we minimized the amount of time he had to spend with us and took him to the home of one of Chris’ new colleagues who has three children who were also on spring break. The babies had similar ups and downs as their nap schedule was pretty disrupted, but we were able to make it work by having one adult in the car while they slept while the other two went into the houses.

The next few months are likely to be very challenging as we move our family and Chris moves his lab. We will do our best to keep the blog up to date as we make progress…

Comments (3)

3 thoughts on “Announcements II

  1. My happiness for your new and exciting life overshadows my sadness of you all living farther away. Waiting for all details!
    HOGWARTS???…seems an attractive choice too.

  2. Pardon my ignorance (never even took chemistry in high school…..) but is “Hogwarts” really the name of…… what? where? I thought it was trademarked by the Harry Potter series!!!!

    Congratulations! Come to Mexico……..!

    Martha

  3. Seems a big move, but we have faith in your decisions and capabilities. Think you will look back on this as a true blessing. Don’t know where you are looking, but it is a beautiful area. What a great place for the kiddos to grow up. I think Ogden north is a wonderland. Love and best wishes, Aunt Linda and Uncle Boy

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Powered by WordPress
Natural World RapidWeaver theme by ThemeFlood