Well we have reached a huge shift in our lives recently. I know I've kind of hinted about it in past posts, but back in May? June? Sometime around there, Larry got an interesting job offer. It was for a big defense company and it would require him to get a secret security clearance. The pay was amazing, and it sounded like it was something he'd really enjoy doing. The only issue (we saw): the job was in Roy and was NOT remote. So about an hour up North. When he told me he had someone reach out to him about it, I told him he could at least go for it and if he got it we could discuss what we wanted to do. The pay was enough to cover my income so I could leave my job and become a Stay at Home Mom. While this isn't something I'm actively looking to become, it is a nice incentive, for sure.
He applied, went through the interview, and found out he got the job (his first non-remote job in about a decade!). This became very real and we discussed our options. We talked about how this clearly meant we needed to move. Having him drive an hour each way was just a silly thing to even think about (right?). So we knew we wanted to build again and found a few builders to go check out. I mentioned to Larry a couple days before we went up that all that time he saw the billboards showing the mortgage interest rates and he'd comment "who'd be stupid enough to pay that?" that we were now one of those people. It was something we didn't love, but we couldn't have him driving an hour each way for work....right? Right?
So we took that weekend and went up to go visit as many builders as we could. We only were able to talk to about 3 of them (such a disappointing fact, you make appointments with 5+ companies, you'll only actually see 2-3 of them). We found a builder that we liked the models they had. The lots weren't great, but they had some that were bigger than what we currently had AND were on a cul-de-sac (a huge win for us, we always talk about how we'd love to live on one). The only downside: no basement. We'd have to seriously re-arrange how we live. BUT We could have it so all the kids had their own rooms AND we'd have two bathrooms on their level. I figured we could finally add the 3rd car garage and have the gym out there. The lot would be big enough we could add a shed and use that for the storage space we'd lose, and there was this amazing open play area upstairs we could turn into our movie room (or just leave it as the play area and just use our living room as the theater area...like most normal people do). After MUCH back and forth with the builders about getting pricing I told Larry that I was just feeling more and more anxious. I knew we had to make this move, and I was sure it would feel fine once we actually started it, but the thought of leaving our current home, this area we have loved living in so much, and going from a 2% interest rate to a 7% PLUS all the changes coming was just.so much! He mentioned "what if we didn't move?" I kind of scoffed, like that wasn't a realistic idea. We talked back and forth and he said he also didn't love the idea of moving, paying SO much more, and could see it was stressing me out (another issue is we talked about I'd have to keep working throughout this school year to meet some savings goals we had and moving and dealing with the new school schedules up there wasn't as easy as it is down here. I had NO idea how I was going to make it work with working full time, taking care of the kids, and dealing with the scheduling shifts of their school). We told the builders that we were sorry for so much time wasted, but we'd have to put a pin in building for now (they were extremely nice and understanding about it).
Flash forward, we thought Larry would be starting in October, but October came and went. November almost came and went. Finally at the end of the month, they said he passed the Security Clearance check and could finally have him pick a start date. He chose December 4th. We went out shopping for some new business clothes for him, we got everything set up, ready for him to start this new job. This week has been...harder than I expected. I knew it would be a change (and I am NOT great with changes, historically), but it's been hard not having him here to talk to every day. The kids seem to miss having him home too. AND taking all the kids out for pick up and drop off has been SO much more work. I lost one of Pierce's shoes one day so I clearly need to get used to this still. It's also hard that he doesn't get as much time with the kids as he's used to (and forget working out as often as he was). Once he gets home it's rush to eat dinner then it's just about time to get the kids ready for bed. I bombard him with all my stories that it just all feels rushed. I think we'll have to adjust what time he works to make that part easier. Luckily, we have a good first month adjustment schedule. He has the week of Christmas off and then a few days the first week of January off. He has every other Friday off AND his boss said he could work from home next week (since he's just watching videos for training right now). So the second week of January will probably be tough (he'll actually HAVE to go in office at that point and have to work the whole week), but I'm hoping this slow adjustment period will help me get used to it. Before he started I kept telling him "I love you, but I don't think I'll miss [X, Y, Z things]", but I do miss them, I miss them all. I guess we're one of those couples that work better being around each other all day long...who would have thought?
Anyways, wish us luck, because this could be a really great change for us, we just need to get used to it. Keep you posted!
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