BYU Interview and Birthday #33

Jonathon has been extremely busy the last few weeks. While that is a good thing because it means that he is making progress in his career, it was difficult because everything happened at the same time. The second week of March was the annual SDB Conference that Jonathon attends for developmental biologists. This year it was held in Denver, and Jonathon was chosen to give a talk on his research. The whole week leading up to it, he was furiously working to get all of his projects to a good place so he could include the results in his talk. He left Thursday and spent four days at the conference. His talk went well, and he was able to do a lot of networking with important people in the field. It was a success!

Meanwhile, at home, I was cleaning up lots and lots of throw up. All of the boys got sick, and at one point Christian and Hyrum were throwing up at the exact same time. I was standing in the kitchen, covered in vomit, trying to figure out how I was going to clean all three of us up and not knowing where to start. Needless to say, there were a couple of sleepless nights as I was up with at least one of the kids every hour. It was so sad to see them suffer. I cleaned and sanitized everything the best I could, but I was so worried that Jonathon would come home and get sick. Normally, it wouldn't have been as big of a deal, but he had a huge job interview at the end of the week, and I was just sure that he was going to be throwing up and not able to attend it.

Luckily, he came home on Sunday and remained healthy. I was a little extreme and banished him to sleep in the basement so that he wouldn't be surrounded by the germs from all of the little sick boys who had been sleeping in our bed. On Wednesday night, he headed down to Provo to spend the night at his parent's house so that he could be ready bright and early Thursday morning. We are TRUE BLUE, through and through, so the chance to interview at BYU was a huge deal.

I had no idea how rigorous these interviews were going to be. On Thursday, he spent 9 hours interviewing with various members of the Biology department, meeting with a vice president of the University, and giving an hour talk on his research. At 5:30, I dropped all of the kids off with Grandma and went to join him at a dinner with two of the professors. We ate a fun restaurant in Provo called Communal where they serve all of the food family style. We were able to spend an hour and a half discussing the life of a professor, where to live in Provo, the options for elementary schools, etc. The Professors were both fairly young and one brought his wife, who was able to add her input to the discussion as well. One of the professors who hosted us, Perry Ridge, lived in our ward while we attended BYU, so it was fun to see him again. When the evening ended, I was really excited about the possibility of him getting the job. They warned us though that the hiring process was long and tedious and wouldn't be completed for several months. Jonathon was the first one interviewed, and there were 3 more to follow in the next month.

On Friday, Jonathon had another 5 hours of interviews with several more professors in the department. He felt like day two went a lot better because he was meeting with people whose research aligned more closely with his. He got great feedback from the search committee chair, and several of the professors seemed very interested in collaborating if he did get the job. Right after lunch (and a little fender bender in the BYU parking lot.... oops!), Jonathon picked me up so that we could head to Salt Lake City to be interviewed by a General Authority. To work at BYU, you have to go through a rigorous screening process because, in a way, you are representing the church with what you teach.

Jonathon outside the Church office building...
I'm there too in the reflection :)

We arrived at the Church Office Building a couple of minutes late, and quickly wound through the layers and layers of security until we finally found our way to the office of Carlos Godoy, a member of the first quorum of the seventy. We were feeling terrible about being late, but he didn't even seem to notice or care. He greeted us warmly and chatted with Jonathon for a few minutes in Portuguese. Apparently, he had read in Jonathon's file that he had served a mission in Porto Alegre, Brazil and that was the same place where Elder Godoy was born and grew up. They chatted about members that they both knew (specifically Carlos Villanova, a ward mission leader during Jonathon's mission) and reminisced about the chapel where Elder Godoy was baptized and where Jonathon later served. It was nice to have something to talk about to break the tension that we were feeling.

Then the really intense interview began... I can only describe it as a temple recommend interview times ten. After going through all of the worthiness questions, he looked directly at us and asked how often we had attended the temple together in the last year. We responded that it hadn't been very often and that we needed to do better. We explained about the pregnancy, subsequent newborn baby, cancer diagnosis, and two surgeries that resulted in my not being able to even walk for two months. He understood the difficult circumstances, but challenged us to do better and attend more frequently. When you get advice and guidance from a General Authority, you definitely take it to heart. We are determined to do better this year! The rest of the interview was questions about how Jonathon would help his students live the gospel. He wasn't really prepared for those types of questions, but he handled them thoughtfully and did a good job.

After our GA interview

Then it was finally all over...  except the waiting. The stress of the last few days had been pretty brutal, especially for Jonathon, so we were glad that we had planned a fun evening. Jonathon's birthday was that Sunday, so we decided to celebrate a little early. Mom Hill was so kind to babysit Hyrum while we took the boys to Tucanos to get Jonathon's free birthday meal. The kids had never been before, so it was a fun experience. Jonathon told them all about the yummy Brazilian food we ate and how it was cooked and served. At Tucanos, you dish up most of your food at a salad bar area, and then waiters bring around tons of different meats and vegetables to your table. It is all slow cooked and delicious! Andrew was satisfied because he got rice (his favorite food), and Christian, our little carnivore, loved the meat. He even got brave and ate a chicken heart.

 

Bring on the Meat!

After we finished, we headed over to BYU to watch a men's volleyball game vs UC San Diego. BYU is really good this year and we have been following them on television. It was fun to get to see a game in person. When I was a Sophomore in college, I went to almost every men's volleyball game with my roommate Maren. She taught me the rules and really got me hooked. I loved it and was glad that my boys got to enjoy it too. BYU won in three straight.

Cheering on the Cougs!

The next morning, we had a family birthday breakfast for Jonathon. We had cinnamon rolls, yogurt, granola and fruit. Then we headed home to relax a little. We won't know about the job until at least the middle of May, but no matter what happens, we had an enjoyable time and learned a lot about the interviewing process. Jonathon is a great scientist and person, and whoever is lucky enough to hire him will be very happy. I may be a little biased though...

Happy Birthday to my Everything!