Options

Alan had a lot of contacts today after posting his qualifications to his industry's job email list (some kind of forum that sends email to people who are signed up as having to do with that industry). Most everything would be consulting or contract work, as we suspected, and a lot of it is in the DC area (I think a couple of people asked if he was willing to relocate to DC). We're not quite ready to make that move, but he doesn't want to travel full time again right now... He did get an inquiry from the UK, so London might be in our future (just kidding!). However, since our dollar is so weak against their pound, Alan said he might consider it if they pay him his salary equivalent in pounds and let him come home on weekends ;) When he went to England last year, apparently items were selling for the same amount of pounds as compared to dollars - i.e. a $50 item here cost 50 pounds there, which for us would end up costing $100 if we bought it in pounds. Sorry if that's confusing - I'm rambling, so I'll move on...

An interesting opportunity came up in Tuscaloosa, which is about 1 to 1.5 hours from our house. He says he would rather make that commute than travel full time. He really meant it when he said he was sick of traveling! He said the 1 hour or so a night he would have with the kids would be worth the drive. He is having dinner tomorrow night with the person hiring for the job, so fingers crossed! Obviously he doesn't have an offer from them yet, but if all goes well (and we hope it does), we will consider what to do next. We are considering the possibility of moving a little closer (just to the other side of Birmingham, ironically to the area that we first wanted to move when we ended up building/buying this house). The housing market is terrible, so it would be an awful time to sell, but at the same time it would be a great time to buy - so it might even out. I think we would also have to consider buying him a 2nd vehicle (some kind of clown car), since his truck wouldn't be the best option for a long commute.

Another option he has to consider with this potential company is to either be an employee or be a contract worker (on a 2 year contract, w/ option to renew after that)... They told us the salaries for both, and of course contract work pays more, but you don't get benefits. We're going to pull out our handy dandy calculators tonight and do some math... If anyone has any experience with contract work (I belive it's called 1099 vs W2), please let us know! This would be completely new to us and we have lots of questions!

Ok, enough with the job search stuff. Today was such nice weather - my car read 70 degrees today! That's a sharp contrast to yesterday, when the high was somewhere around 40. The rain came in tonight, and I think it's supposed to cool off again, so we spent all afternoon playing outside, after Carter got home from school. We rode bicycles, big wheels, played on the playset, played soccer, basketball, etc. One of the highlights though was playing in the leaves! We showed Carter how to rake the leaves into a big pile and then jump in them. He liked throwing them up in the air too!

I'm logging off for the night - hope to get some house cleaning done before settling down. I'll update again when I know more info. Thanks for the continued prayers and support!