Good News Bad News

It's kind of a good news bad news week. 3 weeks ago, I started a job at National City Mortgage, the company that recently re-financed our home.  During the conversation, he mentioned how slammed his office is with all the refi's happening due to the lowered interest rates, and I asked if he needed help.  He asked for my resume, gave me their employment agency's data, and within 10 days I was hired. I just finished my 3rd week and it's been a much more positive experience than working for the university was. They're even paying me not only more than the university, they are paying me about 20% more/hr than I requested.  I'm learning how to fund loans in order to fill in for the woman training me who is pregnant, and due in June.  They're giving me plenty of time to learn all those tiny little details.

Not so great news is that it's mostly part time as of yet.

Pretty good news is that the girls and I are not on COBRA anymore, and are paying only $300/mo for Aetna insurance.  Not the best insurance, but definitely cheaper than COBRA. Unfortunately Scott is still on COBRA until he can drop some weight and get off his blood pressure med. However, we have gone from a total of $1450 to $700/month for health care premiums. That plus what we are saving with the refi monthly is a nice little bit of monetary savings each month.

Scary news is that Scott is pretty sure that his last day at Boeing is this coming Tuesday, 2/3.  Scott seems to think it's a temporary "furlough," that a new project will come up soon, and he'll be called back in March. I'm shaking in my boots wondering what we'll do if they don't call him back.

Good news about Sarah though; she has qualified to take a test for an academic honors school. It's Oxford, and it's 7th through 12th grades. It's been ranked by US News & World Report as the second best school in the nation.  We've learned that it's not only good academically, it has some great extracurricular clubs, plus championship intramural sports activities.  She takes the test in March.

Great news about Emily, Sarah and me: we all got parts in a production of Little Women (same company as Alice last fall), I'm Marmee (the mom)!  I finally get to say I'm an actress! (ok, sort of.)