I buckled down and finally made picassa albums for october, september, and yes…the wedding way back in June. I’m ridiculous, I know. For what it’s worth, my excuse, at least with California and the wedding, is that I wanted to post our claymation, “super strong”, we made at Zeum but it took forever to get it to work on my computer.
 |
| California 09 |
 |
| Super Strong |
 |
| September 09 |
 |
| October 09 |
This is Kyle’s new “puppy”, Blue! Kyle’s been the best owner, taking him for walks and to the park and swimming, feeding him breakfast and giving him naps. I think this is my all time favorite pretend game of his, especially when he sticks his lego in my face and says, “how cute!” and waits for me to cuddle it.
So Brad getting laid off has been kind of a non-trial. I don’t know if Brad will ever call it a blessing since he loved his job so much but there is no doubt that we have been blessed in pretty much every other way!
By two weeks after Brad received notification of being laid off he had 2 job offers and another one coming. He accepted an offer today with a higher salary (but worse benefits….that was kind of a given though) and he’ll start a new job on Dec. 1, the day after he’s officially done at Intuit! So we have a month and a half to just spend together as a family- awesome!
Here’s Kyle in his ninja costume for halloween
Brad got laid off yesterday and I feel….well, cautiously optimistic…for now.
Intuit’s been really good to us. I know Brad loved loved loved his boss and coworkers. I know I loved loved loved the bonuses, the insurance, and the yearly snowmobiling trips/lunches on the company (Brad did too). We always agreed when lists of the best companies to work for came out and Intuit was near the top. They’ve left us with a pretty good severance package too. What we’re looking at now is…
1. Great: Brad could get a job sometime in the next two months while he’s still on Intuit payroll and we could double our savings with his severance. Yay!
2. Super Great: Brad could get a job sometime int he next two months while he’s still on Intuit payroll and we could double our savings with his severance….and then I could win $75,000 with the HGTV Great Fall Fix Up Sweepstakes. Woot. 
3. Really Crappy: Brad can’t find a job and we have enough savings and severance to last us sometime through next july or august (including COBRA and hospital bills for the baby…I think) and then we’re screwed.
4. Meh: Brad doesn’t get a job until around Feb, Mar and we’ve used the severance and we’re kind of just left where we were before. (made better or worse by a pay increase/decrease in the new job and/or the need to move)
In any case, we’re sad, but we aren’t freaking out just yet. Brad’s working on his references and resume already and trading recommendations on linkedIn with his coworkers. I believe there are two jobs that are a perfect fit for him that he’ll try to get his stuff into by the end of the day (I hope). and several other possibilities that he’ll be looking into. I’m proud of him for being proactive. And I’m looking forward to the extra time we get to spend together in the meantime. My sister-in-law Tracy, can I just say has been awesome! She has been so caring and looking for job possibilities on Brad’s behalf. It makes me love her even more.
Looking back on life, there are some things I’m super thankful for along with a couple of regrets now that he’s laid off. First of all, despite the fall in equity, I’m really thankful we bought this house in Lehi as opposed to the ones we were looking at in Provo and Orem. It makes Brad’s commute to jobs all along the Wasatch more reasonable. Second, I’m thankful I’m a weird early Christmas shopper. All of our Christmas shopping with the exception of two gifts are bought and paid for. A good Christmas for everyone without having to worry about our budget. Third, I’m thankful for a great trip to park city with Karon where I got great deals on most of the things we need for Kyle this winter. Fourth, I’m thankful we’re having a boy and already have almost everything we need for him. Fifth, we’ve been really blessed recently because we’ve had several unforeseen expenses (a new tire, a trip to the Dr. for Kyle splitting his lip) that we were able to fit into our budget inexplicably without digging into our savings. Sixth, it’s a new fiscal year at Intuit and Brad’s still on payroll until the end of November which means we’re totally going to use the $350 fitness incentive before he leaves to buy ourselves exercise equipment or bikes, and we still have our Legacy Center membership from last fiscal year until May I think. Seventh, when it came time to get new phones on Verizon, we never found any we liked better than our present ones which means we never renewed our two year contract and can pull out anytime without a penalty. I really only have one regret and that’s the fact that I was feeling really prompted to get pregnant around Jan or Feb. Brad and I talked it over and decided to stick to our original plan of May. If I’d followed through on my prompting, we could be having the baby while still on our insurance without having to worry about COBRA just yet, or worse insurance from another company (goodbye $100 babies. 
) Lesson learned, hopefully.
The End.
