The Jon Wadley Fam

BriAnne being called into the young women’s presidency, Katelyn in 2nd grade and Ethan in preschool….and me working two jobs + being in the elder’s quorum presidency, we’re not worried about dying of boredom anytime soon.

That’s about it, we’ll add something more as time permits

At least they are a changin’ at our house.  After almost 5 years of working at the ‘OS’, an opportunity fell into my lap recently that I just couldn’t turn down.  And it would have to be good to get me to leave! It has definitely been a tough decision on me to make; I’ve worked with a lot of the same people for not only the past 5 years but almost 5 years previous at Enhance. I went from being a part time sales person at ah-ha/Enhance through various other positions that taught me new things and ultimately led to where I am now, a DBA/database developer.  It’s turned into a career and the way that I’ve chosen to support my family. And the best part is that I love what I do.

The new opportunity happens to be about 2 blocks down from OS, at a company called:

I won’t bother getting into the details of the position, but I’ll sum it up by saying it will allow me to reach the next level in my career, which I’m very excited about!

Even though I am basically ending one chapter and opening another, I’m still keeping my finger in a previous page.  I’m not totally leaving OS…I’ve got an opportunity to remain on the workforce albeit part time.  In the end, I’ll be a pretty busy guy but it’s really the best of both worlds for me.

Yesterday was my 29th birthday.  I have to tell you, it feels wonderful to be 29!  Thanks to so many people it was a really special day.  My birthday celebrations have actually been going for a few days and will continue this weekend with two family parties!  Woohoo, I’m one lucky lady!  Here’s some of my favorite birthday treasures:

Pedicure, dinner and a movie from my sis

Lunch, a super sweet card and some spending $$ from my dear mother in law

Lunch brought home from my hubby

Dinner from hubby

Super sweet comments on Facebook from great friends

Loving phone calls and voicemails all day from awesome family

Great big bear hugs from my 3 adorable children

And last but not least a birthday scavenger hunt from my amazing husband consisting of things like this:

Hoola-hooping together in the park, sweet, funny and romantic poems, pulled-pork sandwiches at the Smoking Apple, snow cones at the Hawaiian Snow Cone Shack, reminiscing together at the temple, and getting tickets to Hawaii…

did you catch that?  Yes, you read it right!  Hawaii!!!  Our big 10 year anniversary is coming up on February 15, and Jon has gone all out!  He’s been planning a dream anniversary trip for months and surprised me with it for my birthday.  We’ll be spending a week in Maui starting on Valentines day!!!!!!!!!  I know, you’re asking if he’s  actually human or secretly an angel in disguise.  Yes.  And yes.  So needless to say I’m extremely shocked, excited and overwhelmed with gratitude.  Thanks Jon, you completely surprised me, you’re amazing and I love you.

The world lost a wonderful woman today, Grandma Helen Wadley.  Her passing wasn’t unexpected – she reached her 98th birthday just two days ago and has spent the last 3 weeks in intensive care/rehabilitation/hospice environments following an operation to remove her gall bladder.  But even knowing she was near the end couldn’t fully prepare me for how it would feel to lose one of my favorite people on the earth, someone who has been an anchor in my life for something at least close to the 31 years I’ve been alive. It’s hard to explain, but I always felt ‘at home’ whenever I was with Grandma, regardless of where we actually were.  Which is significant if you know a bit about her background – the fact that she lost her mom when she was 5 and grew up moving around from relative to relative and never really had a home to call her own or ever ‘felt at home’ as she once described to me. It became clear to me over the last few years that she lived her life in such a way that everyone around her was always made to feel at home, to feel important.

Having grown up less than a mile away from Grandma and Grandpa Wadley, I could write pages and pages of stories and memories – all of them cherished…a few of them funny.  But suffice it to say, I consider myself extremely lucky to be her grandson, and that she was a part of my life for as long as she was. In the last few years we visited her as often as we could, but it was never enough.  Which we were reminded of, and that we were missed when we’d have stretches of busy-ness that kept us away.

We’ll miss you Grandma, but we know you’re in a better place with relatives that you have missed greatly for much of your life. We love you.

Grandma didn’t like getting her picture taken, so they are hard to come by.  This is a few years old but a good one of her nonetheless.

Found a few more: