And after 7 months.....

We finally are employed again (almost)! Wow!! What a ride the last few months have been. Luckily, life is settling down to a new normal that looks pretty promising.

Here is a quick snapshot of the changes we've gone through:

July 15, 2009--Carl is laid off! Boy, isn't unemployment fun! Actually, I really enjoyed him being home more. That was a totally unexpected benefit.
July 16, 2009--Lisa goes to work full time! Good thing Carl is home more!!
August 24, 2009--Kids go back to school!! Unfortunately, not a good experience for everybody.
October 5, 2009--Carl starts as a contract engineer with BD Medical! Whew!!
October 7, 2009--Carl's severance package runs out! Called that a bit close didn't we?
October 17 & 18, 2009--Caitlin competes at Regionals as an Intermediate skater. She was happy with her skate which was her goal.
October 23, 2009--Spencer leaves the public school system which has been a awful experience for two years and finds a new home at Realms of Inquiry!! After a bit of a rocky start, he's settling in nicely.
November & December--The holidays! 'Nuf said!!!
January 1, 2010--I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad to be out of 2009!!!! Terrible year!!!
January 7, 2010--Spencer leaves for Israel for 28 days with his school. Mom was a bit of a basket case worrying about how he was going to cope until he actually walked through the security line and then Mom figured there wasn't anything else she could do.
January 15, 2010--Spencer sends best friend an email. Does NOT send anything to his mother!!! Good thing he's 9 time zones away!!!!
January 17, 2010--Spencer redeems himself and sends an email. Yeah!! He's having a terrific time.
February 4, 2010--Spencer arrives home safely after 19 hours in the air and two layovers.
February 4, 2010--Carl receives a job offer.
February 5, 2010--Carl receives a second job offer. Wouldn't you think that was great? It was--except this was a really hard decision. We wavered nearly hourly all weekend long.
February 8, 2010--Decision made--just need to finalize the paperwork!!!

Wow!! What a year. Those are the highlights! Now, if we could only get some snow.......