(My main purpose in writing this is for record keeping. I use this blog as my journal and this is one of those occasions where I wanted to include some details.)
So this past year and a half have probably been one of the hardest (if not THE hardest) since Rob and I were married. He started working at Frito Lay in December 2011 and we felt really good about it. He knew he didn't want to be a framer forever and he was feeling a little burdensome to my brothers in a tough economical time. So, he was able to get an interview and was offered a job working as a vacation specialist for Frito Lay. It started out okay. He knew right off the bat that he wasn't going to like the early mornings (waking up at 3 or 4 most days), but if he could get his own route in the Layton area then he could work it out. We kept hearing that it would be a possibility to get his own route in 3, 6 or maybe 9 months, but never more than a year. There were some routes that opened up, but they were in the Salt Lake area working on Sundays. Which would mean he would never make it to church and that was just not something we were okay with. So we soon figured out that being at the bottom of the totem pole as he was, he was basically given last choice of any openings, so to have a position not working on Sundays in a nearby area was pretty much impossible. He wasn't willing to give up at least a year of missing Sundays for the hopes of getting a position "someday" that wasn't on Sundays. So that was pretty discouraging.
About eight months into it, he made the decision to quit. I'm not going to say that didn't make me nervous, mostly because he didn't have any other job lined up, but once he made the decision he felt so much better so we knew it was going to work out. And to be honest, it kind of did. They wouldn't let him quit. He had one of the main supervisors in Salt Lake who makes the vacation specialists schedules call him and ask him to stick around for a while longer. He said he'd make his schedule closer to home and less out of town if he'd stay. He was hoping to give him more time until a route opened up. They were actually being really generous about it and gave Rob the hope he needed that he'd be able to move up into a better position someday, so he agreed to stay on. That was in August 2012. The next four months really weren't bad, just as they'd promised. He still had to go out of town on occasion, but that was manageable. There was still the inconsistency of not knowing exactly what his schedule was until the two days before, but he was able to work routes close to home a lot and that was nice. Some routes opened up, but there was the same issue with all of them, working on Sundays.
So, come January, they asked if he'd be willing to be put back into the regular schedule again. Rob agreed, just because there was no other option. And that is when the nightmare began. He had to work out of town every other week!! Every once in a while he'd be able to be somewhat close to home for two weeks in a row, but then he'd have to go to Nevada or Vernal again. It was horrible. Most of the time his weeks were 55+ hour weeks. Apparently they fired a bunch of people in these remote areas and so all the vacation guys were having pick up the slack until they hired someone new. I can honestly say that I've never seen Rob that way. He was so not himself. Even on his days off he wasn't happy because he knew that he'd have to go back to a job that he absolutely hated. He'd come home and search the internet for jobs and we'd tell everyone we knew that he was looking for something new. In March he got an interview with a company in Kaysville called TimeShare Ware. They sold software to resorts that had time shares. He felt really good about the interview and had high hopes that we'd hear back from them soon. Well, a month went by and they said that they needed some more time and they'd let him know in six weeks. That time went by and they said once again that they needed more time and to contact them in another 30 days. We kept getting our hopes up and thinking, okay, just a few more weeks and then they'd tell us they weren't ready. It was so frustrating. Definitely one of the harder times in our lives. I'd try to stay as positive as I could and we prayed all the time for a new job to come up.
Finally, after Rob had taken the merchandiser position starting in July 2013, he was searching through the classifieds on KSL and saw one for a sales position at a company he was familiar with from his framing days, CFC. They sell construction supplies and he actually remembered their salesman. Well he had apparently quit and they were looking to fill his position. Rob applied and felt confident that he would at least get an interview. My dad happened to work with the owner's sister in law and he made sure to put in a good word for Rob. About a week later, he got a call to come in for an interview. He went and felt good about it once again. He was still hoping for the TimeShare Ware job, just because it seemed to be more steady and the CFC job was paid by commission only. But anything was better than where he was at Frito-Lay, so we had something else to hope for. A week went by and he didn't hear anything from either, so he emailed CFC to ask what was going on. We again got the reply that they were still in the screening process. So the waiting continued.
Finally, on July 19, a year and a half after starting at Frito Lay, he got an email from Gene at CFC asking if he could speak with him again. Rob went in that very day and was offered the job. I cried. I am not kidding you, I was beyond ecstatic. Gene told Rob to go home and think about it and then get back to him. With the position, he'd be given a truck that could be used as a personal vehicle and all gas would be paid for by CFC, he'd be given an iphone and an ipad and he'd be paid at least $3000 a month for the first six months until he built up his clientele (unless he sold more than that and he'd of course be paid more). When Rob heard all of this, he said, honestly I don't know why I'd say no. The answer to all our prayers had finally come and what a blessing!
All along the way we knew that there could've been worse things to deal with and we were grateful that it wasn't worse. It certainly was a trial for our family, but we were able to learn from it and become better, stronger people for having gone through it. I'm so glad Rob never caved in and took a route to work on Sundays. That was one area he would not budge in and I'm grateful for his strength. I truly did see changes take place in him during this process and he is a great example to me. He endured much more than the rest of us. It wasn't easy to be left alone with the kids all the time, but I know it was even harder on his side of things. After Rob came home from getting offered the job, our whole family knelt down and thanked Heavenly Father for answering our prayers and granting us this blessing. It was a great testimony builder for all of us. We know that it doesn't mean the road is going to be easy from here on out. Rob is still going to have to work hard, but the conditions are much more livable. Probably the biggest thing I have learned from all of this is to trust in the Lord. Trust in His timing and trust in His love. We are so blessed, happy and grateful.
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