Pockets and Little Sis

It has been several weeks since I have written anything and I am sorry about that but like always, time is short. I have been working almost a full time schedule with ECI and I have picked up a few private therapy kids too. Ryan has been working from home while the kids are at Parent's Day Out and being a wonderful Stay at Home Daddy the remainder of the week. Plus then you add soccer games on Saturday and all the chores for the house and that just doesn't leave a lot of time for relaxation.

Hopefully though, I will have more time at home soon and Ryan will be fulfilled by his work. That right Ryan got a job!

When we moved here, Ryan felt that he really wanted to make a career change, but knew that getting into something that he had no experience with would be difficult. We decided to look into both civil engineering firms (what he has done for ten years) and commercial construction companies (what he really wants to do). We made a budget and determined what amount of money we would need to pay the bills and determined our minimal salary we would accept. Right away when we moved here he got an offer from engineering firm #1 but the salary was significantly lower than we needed. Soon after that Ryan got an offer from construction firm #1 and the salary was only slightly below so we thought long and hard about and accepted their offer hoping that there would be a chance for salary adjustment in the near future. When Ryan called to accept the offer (only two days) they said that they had changed their mind. Month after month passed and no offers from from anyone. All the construction firms (#3, #4, #5, #6) in town kept saying the same thing "if we win this next project you are who we will be calling" but apparently it was never the right timing. Somewhere in early 2012 we got an offer from engineering firm #2 but again the salary was significantly low. What Ryan was making in 12 hours a week at home was what he would be making working 40-50 hours at this firm.

At this point we feel like idiots! We had two houses at that time, two kids, only two part time jobs and yet we were turning down jobs for full time work here in town. We just have to say that we felt very strongly that we were living God's plan for us at that time. We were not pleased with the circumstances, but knew we were following in obedience.

Well, now for the exciting news. Last Wednesday construction firm #4 who Ryan had interviewed with almost 2 months earlier called and asked if he could come in for a second interview. Luckily Ryan was available that same day and they scheduled for that afternoon. During the interview, they talked about his responsibilities and such and then offered him the job and quoted a salary above the number we had in our budget! They then asked if he could start that coming Monday. With huge excitement Ryan accepted the offer. He is now a Project Engineer for Minnex Commercial Construction. He assists the Project manager with paperwork tasks, getting submitals, and watching timelines but he also works on site to assist the Superintendent in work orders, changes in the plans, etc. He is soooooooooo excited. Although he would have accepted almost any job with a construction firm, this job is exactly what he wanted.

As for the rest of the family, I turned in a request to my company to decrease my hours but this will not be effective till Nov. 1st so we found a college student here in town to watch the kids after school two days a week and worked with both kids teachers to have them take the kids home the remaining days. This first week was an adjustment, but well worth it!

Not the best picture, but this was taken first thing in the morning before I went to work at ECI and the last day that Ryan would be a stay at home daddy!