Back again...

Well 2009 has turned out to be a strange and interesting year for me.

Looks like the last time I posted was in June, mid-deck refinishing...will have to dig up some "finished" pics to show off in a future post. But it looks amazing, and Elphaba and I have enjoyed spending time on the deck knitting, reading, eating, and just enjoying the summer weather.

Other summer projects included painting the kitchen finally to match the rest of my house, cleaning out the garage, cleaning out the basement, lots of knitting, a little sewing, loading up stuff on our etsy store (Like Mother Like Daughter), and spending a GREAT deal of time outside walking. Our average daily walk is between 4 and 5 miles. I also started teaching some knitting classes at my LYS, Village Stitches. I've taught 2 sock classes, both DPN and magic loop, and a tulip sweater class. Just started another sock class last night. Jennifer, the owner, has been great about working around my crazy schedule.... speaking of which....

So I spent the summer posting for jobs. I knew I could get to around October on my savings, before having to go to my dad for some help. In mid-late July I got a call that I was being brought in to interview for a job in as different part of my company than I'd ever been in before. Apparently they had 3 open jobs and were only interviewing like 4 people, so my odds were pretty good. He said it might be a few weeks before I actually got the call and got to come in, but that the call was coming. Fast forward another couple of weeks, and I woke up one morning to several calls that the person who did my OLD job, but based in our Hartford, CT office, had left the company. Within a few hours of my phone ringing, my old boss from PA (who also covered the Hartford office) was calling to see if I was interested. I told him I was, but remained skeptical that anything would materialize. More time passes, finally get interview for job number 1 set up. Don't hear anything back on job number 2. Go in for my interview on job 1, nail it. Get out to the car to a call from my old boss that job number 2 has been posted and to go apply for it. From there...everything happened pretty quickly. I got offers for 3 jobs total (2 from job 1, and 1 from job 2). In what is somewhat rare in my company, I got advance warning that multiple offers were coming, allowing me to actually CHOOSE what job I wanted to go back to work in after my summer being laid off. Job(s) number 1 would have meant staying in IL, but changing my career path and lots of uncertainty. Job number 2 means leaving IL to relocate to CT, but doing a job I have loads of experience with, working with people I love, and having a boss I know will be looking out for me. I wasn't prepared to be leaving home again so quickly so it really was a hard decision, but after some long talks with some of my old bosses and my parents, I decided to go with job number 2.

So, I went back to work on Aug 31. Immediately the next day I was on an airplane out to CT for the week. Things have been a whirlwind since then. The company is still being very conservative spending wise, so we haven't started the relocation process yet. Which means since I went back to work I've been spending half my time in CT and half my time in IL. The nice thing is my boss is cool with me working from home on the weeks I'm in IL. I do go into the office occasionally, but most of the week I stay home because it saves me on the time, gas money, daycare money, and I get to see my animals. The travel is getting a little tiring, but I'm building up those frequent flier miles again, along with hotel reward points, so its not all bad. Plus, we don't normally get to spend much time in the areas we move to before moving, so its allowed me to do some research on where I might want to live, and I think I've narrowed my preference down to West Hartford.

Anyway, so life is good. Still worried about money, since my savings are basically gone and I need to buy another house next year when I move, but I've also gotten smarter about where/how I spend my money after my experience this summer so that helps put things in persepective for me.

Thats about it for now...really will try to get better at this regular posting.... :)