A Short Summary of the last Few Months

So, with good intentions I last wrote that I hoped I could write more often. Here it is, late April, and I haven’t even sent Holiday letters I thought I would write back at Christmas, let alone write something my neglected, old, underwhelmingly-designed blog.
Hoping to not bore too much, by writing all the gory details, here is a synopsis of our lives since the first of this year.

January—
Looking up! While infected with some sinus, coughy, sneezy, awful illness of some kind, I got a job!! When we decided to refinance our home mortgage, I got into a conversation with our loan officer who basically offered me a job at his mortgage company. I started on the 15th of January and really enjoyed my re-entry to the work world. The mortgage industry is now filled with all kinds of regulations and policies designed to keep those bad mortgages from crashing our economy again, and it was a lot to learn. But I was happy—we were a two income family again and had good child care for before/after school care, and I could begin making plans to get my shower repaired!

February—
Rehearsals for Little Women continue in earnest, preparing for our March performances. Scott gets an offer from Boeing to travel to Warner-Robbins Georgia to work at the Air Force Base on their software for the C-17, and leaves for his first week away from us. Meanwhile, I barely managed the girls’ schedules, working full time, still being sick, shopping for medical insurance, blah blah blah, but we made it through the week and we were very happy to see Scott come home that Friday night! Lots of other “stuff” happened that month, but I’d rather go on to March.

March—
Performance time for Little Women!! Two weeks of stress, late night rehearsals, full time work, exhaustion, still ill, but oddly, energizing. I loved performing! The cast was great, fun, hilarious and really good at ad-lib. Plus, at the end of the month, my manager told me that my contract was extended for 4 months! It’s a good life. Scott spends two more weeks in Georgia, we girls dealt with it a little better than that first week, and the night he returned home, I spent a good part of my paycheck on dinner at a terrific restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport called the Proud Bird. Everyone was entertained. We got a window seat, and watched planes coming in for landing, plus got to see the stationary display of old war birds. All four of us loved it, and the 5 cats who moved from plane to plane playing in the grass and catching bugs. The food and service were fabulous!
Emily gets a goal in soccer; Sarah takes the entrance exam for the nearby academy that is rated the #2 school in the nation for academics. It’s a 7th through 12th grade school, is only a few blocks from our house, and is a public school. She is excited; she feels really good about how she did on the exam.

April--
So, after these two weeks in Georgia, Scott now looks forward to two more work days at Boeing, when he says he’s 85% sure he’ll get let go. Fortunately for him, DreamWorks SKG Animation called him while he was in Georgia, held a phone interview with him and hired him to start the week after he returned home from Georgia. Yippee!! Animation means he gets to return to his dream of working in computer animation again! Salary? ½ of what he makes at Boeing. But I’m working, we’re getting a decent Income Tax refund, and he’ll get benefits!! Paid days off soon, instant health insurance, free breakfasts and lunches at the DreamWorks cafeteria. Yippee again! Ok, so it will mean 11.5 hours every day away from us, no assistant coaching for Emily’s soccer team, getting home after 7:00 pm every night of the week, very little weekly time with the family. But Yippee, he’s happy again! So, he starts work at DreamWorks the week of April 6th, driving 40 miles each way to work every day. But he love sit and that counts for a lot. We’ll make it financially after some adjustments to our budget. With my job, we’ll make it. The girls are ecstatic; they’ll get to go with Daddy to work on Take your Kids to Work day, April 23rd. They’ll have “cool” rights with their dad working in the movie industry. He’ll be working on Shrek 4 (so far titled, “Shrek Goes Fourth”), and they’ll probably get to see it before all their school buddies.

The weekend of my birthday (April 13th) was great. Scott and I got a beautiful date night that weekend. Sunday was very pleasant and Monday on my actual birthday, the folks at my job sang to me and brought me a beautiful delicious cake.

April 14th, we get a letter in the mail from Oxford Academy, telling us that Sarah did not make it into the school. She wasn’t one of the 200 top scorers to gain acceptance to this prestigious school. I think I was more disappointed than she was.

Enter Wednesday April 15th. Tax Day! In the afternoon, my manager wanted to speak with me privately. I felt as if I was going to the Principal’s office for some kind of discipline. She told me she’d have to lay me off as of right then. I couldn’t even finish out the day. I was to pack my things and go, but I’d be paid for that day. Part time working wasn’t even an option. The “new sheriff in town” as she called the company that recently purchased our company, had decided that they were going to centralize all mortgage loan processing, and as I was a contract worker, I was to be let go first. In a weird twist of logic, and on one hand, I’d never been #1 before, and now I am! (um, yippee). On the other hand, where we had thought we’d be at least at 75% of Scott’s Boeing salary, now we’d be less than half of his salary. My pay would no longer make up for any part of his lost salary by going to DreamWorks from Boeing. It’s a good thing we did refinance; at least Scott’s salary will now cover the mortgage. Not anything more, but at least we’ll make our house payment.

I’m 51 years old plus a week. I’ve been out of the workforce, except for this past three months, for over 12 years. In this economy I’m going to find another job? Yes. I have to do just that. It’s going to be hard. So, if you hear of any administrative job openings, pass them my way…

Other than that, everything’s just peachy! I’ve stayed up tonight way too late to write this, and I’m not feeling too great (the cough that started in January has not gone away yet, plus I’m having some trouble with my foot and left leg), so I’d better try to get some sleep. After all, tomorrow is another day, and I need to be fresh to face it!

My love to all.