Details

For those interested, here is a brief (maybe not so brief) sketch of our new five-year plan:

Nov-Dec 2009

Chris will be graduting on December 12, not quite a month from now. He is currently working still for Pearson Publishing, programming poptropica.com. He will continue working there up through the beginning of January until he starts at L3.

I will still be teaching, and the girls both go to day care all day.

January 2010

This is the bittersweet time in the plan, but hopefully it will all work out for the best in the end. Chris will be working in Salt Lake, but I need to stay in Logan to finish out the school year. The reason I'm staying is because I want to get my Level 2 educator's license. I plan to quit teaching after this year, but I want to go back to it once all of our kids are in school. If I have my Level 2 license, it will be much much easier for me to get a job, without worrying quite as much about new licensing or degree requirements. Part of the requirements to receive the level 2 license is teaching for three years--this is my third year. So I need to finish.

Chris, however, will still start his new job on January 11. His options: 1-commute daily, 2-live in Salt Lake during the week and come home on weekends, or 3-some combination of the above. I guess he could just move to Salt Lake for 5 months, but that's not really an option.

Our choice: He is going to live in Salt Lake during the week and come home on weekends.

My dad had various driving and commuting jobs while I was growing up, and I know that driving that much can be quite exhausting. Even when Dad was home, he wasn't always "there" just because he was so worn out from driving. I know that if Chris were to be commuting every day, he would be exhausted every night when he came home. Pretty much all he would do while home would be to sleep and maybe veg on the couch. I don't blame him--that's all I would want to do, too.

I also know that if I am solely responsible for the care of two small children, I would rather know that I have to do everything myself. I believe that I would get much more frustrated having to do everything myself if Chris was home but not in a position to provide much help. If he was gone, I would just do what had to be done. Make sense?

So, even though it seems on the surface that it would be better to have him home every night, we have decided otherwise. He will be working four 10-hour days per week. From early Monday morning until sometime Thursday evening, I will be a single parent with a full time job and two kids. Wish me luck. At least we know that it will only last for five months.

June 2010

As soon as my school year ends, we will all officially move to Salt Lake Valley. We are looking into the possibility of buying a house and taking advantage of the extended tax credit for first-time homebuyers. If the numbers work out, that's what we'll do. If they don't, we'll get an apartment for a year or so until we can maybe build up a bigger downpayment and have a longer work history with L3.

After that

Chris wants to get his Masters' degree, and L3 does provide tuition reimbursement that we want to take advantage of. He will have to be working while taking classes, so it will take a few years for him to get his degree. Around 2015, we are open to the possibility of again looking for a new job, this time having a masters and five years' work experience. If we love the job he has and where we are living, we'll stay put.

And now you know.