Updating...

I am totally going to give myself credit here and say: "Heck yes, I kept my pregnancy off the internet for over two months! GO ME!" I am not secrative in nature. And frankly, overall I pretty much failed at keeping my pregnancy a secret, period. But I did keep it off the internet, and for that I am so darn proud of myself! GO ME! Let me tell you, it was HARD. I wanted to complain how sick I was SO BADLY! I wanted to whine and document every weird food craving and keep everyone update on my minute to minute emotional roller-coaster. Of course, many of you out there are saying, "Oh man, thank goodness Amanda kept it a secret! We didn't want to hear any of that anyway..." which is so true. But here I am, and no worries, friends, you will soon know how much I have deplored these first few months of pregnancy... ;^)

Oh, and BTW, someone has already asked me, this is not an April Fools joke! Honestly, I've been dying to tell for weeks, and just yesterday happened to be the day we heard the heartbeats, and I was away from a computer most of the day, so yes, most of you are hearing on April 1st. I have over two months of morning sickness to prove my not-joking position.

Anyway, I've been super lame about posting Hull goings-on because, honestly, I've been waiting for some good news. That sounds so sad... it's really not that sad, March has just been, overall, a disappointing month. Jordan went to Minneapolis and we heard back the next week that Allianz had turned us down. We also got a big fat no from The Hartford (that wasn't fun...), and we were kinda at a loss of what to do next. It's a tough game to play when you're just waiting to hear from people about your application. There's just not a lot you can do.

So we were in a weird place: what do we do for the summer? What if we still don't have a job after the summer? Do we move home? How are we going to pay for stuff? Where are we going to live? What if it's a whole year before we get a job? It's an awkward place. We're both graduating in April, so the relative safety and assurance of school will be gone... we even considered Jordan NOT graduating and... well, what, we're not sure.

The truth is that officially, we're still in that place. The good news is that Jordan's current job now with Dr. Tolley can go through the summer, so I think if we continue to get a limited response on jobs, we'll stay in Provo at least through June. Jordan has some excellent connection and support through Dr. Tolley, who has been so great through this job seeking process! He went through Jordan's resume and fixed things up, gave a really great connection to Allianz, and continues to tell Jordan that it's just a tough economy, that he is a good actuary and that a lot of times these companies will hire in the middle of summer.

The great news right now is that we HAVE heard back from someone else! Tuesday Jordan did an interview with a company, SelectHealth, just over in Salt Lake City! We got a call this morning that they want a face to face interview on Monday, and that they hope to have decisions made by next Thursday. While at first we were adverse to the idea of staying in Utah for another couple of years, it really has grown on us. It would be an excellent opportunity, and so Jordan plans to wow them Monday morning!

Overall, what we've learned through this experience is that there comes a point where there's not a lot you can do, and you really have to rely on Faith. There's a plan, and that plan may not mean it will be easy. We might have a really rough year ahead of us, but that doesn't mean the Lord has forgotten us. :)

So... Minneapolis, huh?

Minneapolis has been word around our house. After spending the last two months filling out applications and no one contacting us, Jordan's employer finally hooked us up! Jordan does some actuarial work for a professor here at BYU, and he meets with him regularly. One day Jordan goes in, and Dr. Tolley explains that a VP from the insurance company Allianz will be comign to BYU to give an info session, and that he wanted to a list of a couple really great students to give a short interview to afterwards. Dr. Tolley picked two students, one of them being Jordan!

So last Thursday after the info session this guy pulls Jordan aside and gives him a short, informal interview and then explains that he'll forward Jordan's resume on to HR who will interview him, and if that goes well they'll fly him into Minneapolis for further interviewing and to get a feel for the company! Basically, the VP said that he would make sure that Jordan's resume gets pushed along. The NEXT DAY we got an email from HR at Allianz who scheduled an interview for a week later.

Well, yesterday was his HR interview and it certainly went well enough that Jordan's been scheduled for two more phone interviews NEXT Thursday with various team leaders. We both thought he'd be flown to Minneapolis at this point, but hey, we're definatey not complaining! Two more interviews! This is a such a great opprotunity for Jordan, and for our family.

We're pretty sad about not hearing anything from Hartford yet. We were so looking forward to living near Kelly and Braden. However, since hearing about Minneapolis things have just felt right. It really does sound like a great place for us. We were really worried that we'd be sent somewhere unbearably hot, and there isn't a place much colder than Minnesoda (excluding Alaska, of course). They have a moderately sized opera company, which would be great for me to explore. Jordan really seems to like the company and the work looks interesting to him.

Of course, nothing is for sure yet. We're still in the interview process, and it might actually be pretty early to hear from the other companies we've put applications into. If nothing else, I think it's exciting and important that Jordan goes through this process.

So cross you fingers, we hope that in the next month we'll have more good news about jobs!!!