What Next?

So then the wheels starting rolling, gears were shifting and life became crazy!  Even though he didn’t officially start his new position until June 1, he began transitioning the plant GM role to his replacement and making travel plans to visit the 8 locations he would now be in charge of in his CFD President role.  We snuck off for a short 2-nights where we spent time enjoying the beautiful California wine country and planning the next couple of months.  After that he started travelling, I began telling my clients L and the kids their friends.  It was kind of surreal since we knew we wouldn’t be leaving for another couple of months – mid-July.  I mean, we had things to do!  Like…

A basketball tournament in Reno, NV for the boys! We took Jermal and Nate with us so we had a full boat – but had an absolute blast.  We squeezed in a birthday supper for Hillary since we were there over her special day, and surprised her with finding an ice cream place in the afternoon for a treat.  The best part of that day was when Dad forgot he had written “honk – it’s Hillary’s birthday” on the suburban window and got irritated later when someone honked and he thought they were telling him to get out of the way!  We all laughed pretty hard when, after he commented on their rudeness, Hillary said, “well you know dad, you did write honk – it’s my birthday on the window”!  The trip home took a bit longer than the trip out there since we had to stop at Cabela’s…a long stop but a fun one too.  Being in the car with 4 boys who had played 2 games each that day made it a pretty stinky ride home too! 

The Offer...

It’s amazing how quickly things can change…and did they ever for the Niemann’s!  Everything was going along in normal fashion in Fresno this spring – school activities, kids’ sports, church, my trainings and John’s variety of activities at the plant.  We had hosted a wedding in March and were actually enjoying a lot of the work we had done to prepare the yard for that event. Then came April 2…

We were hosting a Cargill dinner event at the house with the leadership team and a variety of people who were in town, including Bill Buckner.  The first time he came to town was just after we moved to Fresno and he walked into the house and had to maneuver around the moving boxes to get to the kitchen!  Anyway, after the event John sat down and said, “well, Bill asked to ride over here with me this evening.” His tone and demeanor gave it away…Bill had also mentioned the position of CFD President had opened up and he wanted John to consider moving back to Wichita to help take that business unit into a new direction.  And so the indecision began…

For a month we wrestled with the decision…and finally after praying, talking, more praying, more talking…we decided it was best to stay put in Fresno.  There were some intriguing factors about the job for John, but he just wasn’t sure if there were enough factors to make it worth us moving. So we spent the next week getting back in the groove of staying in Fresno and making plans for the summer.

Then the phone call came…a second offer that had more to it than the first.  So here we went again…praying, talking, praying, talking…Casey was in town for a few days and had to endure our back-and-forth conversations and mind-changing!  Finally after another couple weeks of wrestling with the decision, we realized it was right and in mid-May John accepted the position.