Big News: New Job and New House

Last week Tuesday, I was offered and accepted a job with Bradley University Athletics as the Assistant Director of Marketing. Its actually a very odd story as to how this job came about but here is the short version. A few weeks ago I was a finalist for a job doing marketing for the Bradley Alumni Association and part of my interview was to meet with the university president. She is a wonderful woman and we discovered we both had many Purdue/athletics ties so we spent a lot of time talking about those things. She asked if she could give me resume to the athletics director and I said sure not really thinking anything of it. Turns out she did that day and the next day his secretary called to schedule a time for us to talk. I had a brief phone conversation with him a week ago Friday, came to campus again last Monday to talk with him and a few other staff members and then he offered me a job on Tuesday. Right now its a temporary title until some of the restructuring the AD is doing is finished but it is a great opportunity with a lot of growth potential and creative freedom. Bradley has 12 division one sports (no football) and are in the Missouri Valley Conference. I will be responsible for all game day elements, ticket sales efforts, marketing, advertising, etc... of their most valuable sport which is men's basketball and I will also be creating and implementing a sales strategy and a branding campaign for the department. Big responsibilities but the athletics director feels like I am the right person for the job! I will start on November 1 and my first game will be the following Saturday. And now my brother and I work for rival schools... who would ever have thought that would happen?

With a job in Peoria and Karl in Springfield, we decided to look for houses in East Peoria which will be about 45 minutes for Karl and about 15 for me. We saw a lot of options and decided to put an offer in on a two story 4 bedroom/2.5 bath new construction on Friday. Because of the number of long hours and events I have to work right away we really need something fast, and our lease is up in November as well. The house is still being finished and we have the opportunity to pick carpeting, appliances and counter tops which is very exciting. The most important factor for us in moving was to find a really good neighborhood with families and people we could be friends with since we aren't near any friends or family and we think we found a great place for a great price. The house is set to be move in ready on November 12 so that is our closing date.

We found Ally a very nice day care in East Peoria and she will start there full time on November 1 as well. There weren't too many options for places with immediate openings but I think this place will work out well for her. She is still going to be in an "infant room" until she is 15 months but there are 3 other babies close to her in age in the room. They will continue to help her with table food and drinking milk from a cup and she already fell in love with all of the fantastic toys to climb on in the room. The rooms are also equipped with web cams so we can check in on her anytime but I'm not sure if I want to take advantage of that- once I start I probably wont get any work done. Until our house is finished, Ally and I will make the drive to and from Peoria together so its going to be a big adjustment for all of us. I wont be working many week night events until we get moved in so this plan should work out great for us once we get a handle on waking up much earlier.

We are so excited and will have more information to share soon! We are making some trips to the house this week so maybe I can get some pictures to post of the current progress.