I can't believe how time flies! A lot happened during my third and final week in Utah, and now I am back in Illinois. It seems like I just left for Utah! We did sure have a fun week though. Last Tuesday, May 10, Mom and I had a fun lunch with our friend Yevon at Brick Oven. On Thursday Mom and I had a fun little trip up to Gardner Village where we had lunch and checked out the furniture. And on Friday we had a fun girls (and little guys) lunch at the Blue Lemon. Here are Leo and Ben enjoying the festivities.
Sid and Eliza especially enjoyed their orange soda and green quesadillas! Unfortunately on Friday night I found out that I didn't get the Exhibit Curator job at BYU I had so been hoping for. I was pretty crushed. I had told myself not to get my hopes up, but with the job interview process taking over one month, and with it coming down to just me and one other candidate, it was hard not to start thinking along the lines of if I got the job. It's been hard for me to live so far away from everyone, so I was counting on this as Greg's and my chance to come back to Utah . . . but I guess the timing wasn't quite right. I am still really, really disappointed and sad about it, but there have been some new developments on the job front, which I will explain shortly.
On Saturday we did some house cleaning to get ready for a realtor to come through, and then Mom, Dad, Rich and I had some yummy Thai food at our favorite Thai Village that evening. We had a nice day together on Sunday, and then on Monday Mom and I spent part of the day watching Eliza and Leo while Sarah was teaching. That afternoon we had a little outing to our favorite restaurant, Marley's (at the Timpanogos Harley Davidson shop) and took our picture before having some yummy raspberry frozen custard there. My favorite part about being home was just being able to spend time with my family and go on fun outings together.Yesterday Mom and Dad took me to the airport, and they got to see Elder Jay E. Jensen, a member of the LDS Quorum of the Seventy and a childhood friend of Dad's, who was with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. I was already in the security line, so I was just watching their exchange, but the next thing I know, Elder Holland is squeezing Dad's face! :-) I asked Mom about it on the phone later, and she said that Elder Jensen said to Elder Holland, "You know Hal Taylor? This is his son, Steve." Elder Holland then said, "Yes," squoze Dad's face and said, "You do look like your dad." So that was kind of a funny encounter Mom and Dad had at the airport. I was really sad to leave my family and Utah, but it's been nice to be back with Greg and the animal children. Lily slept on my head all night last night :-)
Something interesting happened literally right after I landed in Springfield last night. Greg had been talking to his friend who works at the Illinois State Military Museum, and his friend said that they might be needing a new Assistant Curator there. Then while I was in Chicago on my layover, the Curator from the museum called Greg and asked him to have me call him when I got home. So I gave him a call after returning to Springfield and he basically offered me the job on the spot! It's funny to think of all I went through for the BYU job, which didn't work out, and then I didn't even do anything and ended up with this other job. I'm going to go meet with the Curator today and I might start working there next week! It's a pretty cool museum--they even have Santa Anna's wooden leg in their collection, which is kind of interesting. They do a lot of Civil War stuff there, so I think it could be a good fit for me--and it would be some good experience. I'll post details when I find out more.
