Hi, this is Ben. Sarah's other husband. I've been asked to post a blog so Sarah could blog about what I am going to blog about right now.
Things have been crazy in the house the last few weeks. As Sarah has suggested we have had a stressful few weeks. So, I felt like it was my responsibility to share with all of you what happened.
As many of you know, I loved my job. Loved it. I loved the creativity, innovation, and freedom my job offered. However, as many of you also know, that passion slowly changed as the organization grew and my role changed significantly. So for the past few months (even in the terrible economy) I’ve been looking for other options. Well, the week before Thanksgiving I left my job. I didn’t really have any guaranteed prospects in my rearview mirror, or, you know, in front of me either.
This, of course made for a stressful (to say the least) household. We had a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty. There was about a week of utter panic (primarily from Sarah) As calm as she may come across (SARCASM), she was a little freaked out that I wasn’t working any longer.
You know that scene in Office Space when he’s sitting on the couch with his next- door neighbor discussing what they’d do with a million dollars? Well I don’t have a million dollars and currently just one wife (thus the two chicks things ain’t happening – right sweetie?) I did have a sense of relief like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. The idea of doing nothing sounded pretty, pretty good.
For the first time since graduating from college I could do whatever I wanted. I’ve never really had that option. I’ve always had to take the best job available because we’ve needed me to work. Now Sarah is a doctor (not like one that heals the ill but a doctor, you know) so my options were open. I really wanted to get away from the stresses of the corporate world – horribly long hours, not family friendly, and just the goal stresses of sales and marketing. So what did I want to do? Did I want to stay at home with the kids? That sounded pretty sweet. I could play Wii (with the kids of course), look at the internet - a lot (with the kids of course), watch Patriot Games, Good Will Hunting, Risky Business, The Karate Kid, or really whatever was on the premium channels (with the kids of course). I could get another job (starting to sound kinda blah (see above). I could even go back to school. So, we decided that I would apply for jobs but we would keep an open mind. I would only take something that made sense for our family, something I’d love to do. If I couldn’t do that by an arbitrary date that we decided (mid 2011) I would stay home next year (did I mention my kids go to school 3 days a week?)
I’ve turned down a bunch of jobs over the last few months because they weren’t necessary the right fit. I’ve been networking and applying for a ton of jobs; I even have an interview scheduled for Thursday. But there was one job that I wanted. I of course didn’t think I would get because, you know, I wanted it. I had an interview last week. I felt like I was a good fit and the interview went well, but I just wasn’t sure. When Sarah asked how things went I was wishy-washy to say the least. I didn’t want to get my hopes up because they were interviewing a bunch of people. It’s a tough economy and there are a lot of people that are over-qualified for positions.
Well, I am happy to report that today I accepted a job that I am terribly excited to start and that is going to be great for our family. I will be a communication instructor at a local community college. A great opportunity for me, I’ve been teaching college students for the past nine years and love it. Now I can do it as my job, job. Also a great opportunity for our family- super-amazing hours, crazy-awesome benefits, winter break, and summer vacation.
So the last five weeks have been a little hectic. But they’ve allowed us to put things into perspective. We’ve realized that we spend money like total ass-bags. So we’ve started to budget a little. We’ve realized that our parents are pretty great, super supportive. We’ve also realized that we are a great team. This was probably one of the most stressful times that Sarah and I could have faced in our marriage. But it wasn’t. In fact, I think we only had one fight (one day the kids were a school and I was kickin’ it at home doing important work like watching Good Will Hunting, Minority Report, and half of Bounty Hunter- which wasn’t as bad as the reviews, Sarah was a little pissed that I did nothing while she was at work - you know didn’t get the trash cans from the street, fold laundry, pick up my lunch from the couch - I did apply for jobs and have a phone interview…I know). We worked together and Sarah was nothing but supportive, totally positive. A great partner.
So ya, that pretty much sums it up and probably explains some of the vagueness of some of Sarah’s recent posts.
