Weekend Plans (and beyond)

We have a busy weekend ahead of us with a lot of loose ends to wrap up before the big move.  Here's how life plays out for us over the next few weeks

Friday:  Gym, packing clothes, supplies, hair stuff, books, everything I'll need for two weeks in MI while starting a new job, grocery store, dinner date with B

Sat:  Haircut at 9 (1st since May!!), UM/OSU game at 11, baking all afternoon for Friend Thanksgiving on Sunday,ensure packing is complete

Sunday:  Drive to Milwaukee to have lunch with my aunt and pick up a piece of furniture for our new house, drive home, make sure desserts are ready to go, Friend Thanksgiving dinner at 5 p.m. (this involves a VFW hall, 45 people, amazing food, tons of alcohol, and a pie in the face for one of the guests.  Definitely one of the bests nights of the year).

Monday:  Wake up super early and hit the road for Grand Rapids.  I have to have a drug screen and a physical for the hospital in order to start on Monday.  Could they have told me this earlier so that I could have scheduled it for the same day as the house inspection??  Apparently not.  So, another 6 hours in the car for a 45 minute apt.  Joy.  That night I'm meeting a bunch of my co-workers out for a going away dinner.  That will definitely be the redeeming point of the day!

Tues and Wed:  Work full days

Thursday: Say my official good-bye to Chi-town as I drive out of the city for the last time as a resident (this is sad now that I'm writing it!!)  Drive to Toledo to celebrate Thanksgiving with B's family where we'll stay until Sunday.  B will then drive back to the city with Junebug as I drive to GR to start in orientation on Monday.  It's going to be a crazy two weeks living apart, starting a new job, closing on the house, and trying to organize moving from afar.  However, I know it is SO worth it in the long run!!

So, that's my life in a nutshell.  There are going to be lists galore going on over at my house.........

Today I am thankful for.........the stress associated with moving because it means that a new adventure is coming our way.  And diet sierra mist because it's the most exciting drink I can currently partake in. 

Big News and Future Changes!

Last year, B started looking for a new job, and we had focused our search not only on the midwest, but even more specifically in Michigan.  Yes, it makes a lot of sense to move in the middle of an economic downturn to the financially worst state in the country (doesn't it?)................................    Unfortunately nothing really panned out, and he ended up taking a new job in the Chicago suburbs in early July.  After awhile, he realized that his job was something that could be done from home- few meetings, everything done on the phone or via email, his boss lives and works in Dallas, etc.  He encouraged me to apply for my dream job in Michigan figuring that if the interviews went well, he would talk to his boss and see what would progress from there.  Well, the great news is that I had two interviews for this job and was offered the position at the beginning of this month!!!!!!!  It's an awesome job, one that I'm quite knowledgable in, and the others in the practice are wonderful.  I cannot wait to start!  I am currently waiting for licensure and then have to go through hospital credentialing, so, if all goes well, I'll start in December (though it could be January). 

The discouraging news is that B's company "restructured" last week and his job is not as secure as we thought.  We will be okay for awhile, but we're definitely looking into other options asap.  The new boss he would have had in the restructuring isn't wonderful (at best!), so even had we stayed in Chi-town, he would have been looking for something else anyway.  We've decided just to go for the new and not look back on other possibilities.  We both REALLY want to be in Michigan, and we'll just have to figure things out as we go along.  I'm so glad we are good with money and saving because we know we have a huge cushion to work with which makes this whole thing a lot less intimidating.  This makes not buying all the frivolous purchases that I've dreamt of over the years truly worth it.

We're heading up there on Friday night to house hunt for the weekend.  We've got two main school districts we're looking into and quite a list of houses to go through on Sat and Sunday.  Our realtor said no more than 8 houses per day- that's 5 hours each day of house "shopping" as B likes to call it.  I think that will be plenty!!  We're also going to see his wonderful cousin and a friend of mine who just got her dossier on her new TWIN baby boys that they are adopting from Africa!  It should be a wonderful weekend in our soon to be new hometown!