Rock and a Hard Place

So we've moved into our new flat in Prague. By all accounts it's a fantastic little place with one exception, no Internet. We will get internet soon. Hopefully. Actually, I don't care terribly but I have teenage children and we're not working this week due to national holidays and the entire country going in vacation.  So we are all here. In the house with five seasons of Castle to keep us company. I love Castle but after two and a half weeks of my oldest playing it non stop, I'm beginning to hate Castle.
The younger of the twos laptop fried it's processor about two weeks ago. He's handling it pretty well for the most part probably because I've left him use my Surface when I'm at home.

Mirror mirror on the wall

Mirror mirror on the wall whose the fairest of them all. Not me?  Good. I'm okay with that. Although I would've like to have been taller by about two inches, I like me. I'm not saying I don't need to improve because I do. What I'm saying is I never want to be a size two. I have never been a size two. I've been an 8. I would like to be an eight again.
To be a size eight. The size I was pre husband pre kids.

In a perfect world

In a perfect world...we wouldn't worry about money because we'd make enough and only make good decisions.
Presidential candidates wouldn't  make us cringe.
You could provide for your family.
You had time for your family.
Life wasn't measured by facebook posts, tweets, or social media.

Italy or Bust

It's been nearly three months since I posted here. But we've been all kinds of busy. Crazy stressful busy. My DH found employment in December and we've worked and prayed and worked some more. Around the same time we started working to survive we received possible good news. The previous spring my husband's beloved grandmother passed away. She led an amazing life that lasted nearly 97 years. In fact she was an incredible beautiful talented lady. She will be missed.

With this news we started thinking about our future. Hard work would always be part of our future but we might have the ability to change our lives. We had always played with the idea of travel and Italy. But we'd recently also tossed around the idea of owning a restaurant. Owning a restaurant is a safe idea. But owning a restaurant is also really hard work and hard on a marriage. Sixty plus hour work weeks  and my marriage suffering due to lack of attention is not something I'm willing to run head first into knowingly.

So after investigating the restaurant idea for six weeks we decided to go with a totally different option. Thus the Italian dream was reborn. The questions of how, what, when were needing to be answered. Teaching English seemed like the most likely choice of things that we can do effectively. Both of us being college educated and native speakers of English, it would be the most straight forward transition. We have a blog, fb page, Twitter feed and instagram as well. Www.chasingItaly.com
DH has high hopes of writing a book or something. Eventually we'd like to travel and blog and get paid to do so. Until that comes to fruition we'll teach English, learn Italian, and experience life outside of America.

New normal

Two months ago my dear husband was released from job without further ado. Since then we've been in survival mode. After the initial shock and the feeling of despair and wanting to cry I became calm. Weird but true. Then I needed continue trying to figure out what my new normal was going to be when it finally unveiled itself.
So I the first thing I did was make sure my family had food. My husband made sure we had a roof over our heads. These actions took quit a swallowing of pride which can be very bitter. I called the local food bank and looked into food stamps. My husband contacted relatives to secure our home. 
Secondly we began to look for employment. Oddly enough, because of the season, I got a job fairly quickly. Not great job but a job. And we continue to look for better more sustainable positions.
Survival mode is a strange way of being. You act as if everything is normal and its not. You cut all the things you can and wish the holidays weren't just around the corner. But as I stated earlier I have a odd sense of calm. I have hope. I don't have answers but I have hope.

I think we're gonna need...

So the economy has not been on its best behavior for years. It seems that no matter what is done it keeps spiralling the drain. In the last six years I've seen long term employees cut loose to restart their lives. We were blessed for a while (we've been blessed always but that's not where I'm going right now) to not only keep my husband's career going at the same company but he even got promoted. This promotion moved us across the states and it was good. In all actuality it was too good to be true. Both my husband and I though truly thankful for the opportunity felt as if the bottom was going to fall out at any moment. Then it did. He was laid off and given a severance package. Stressed out over the previous 18 months of work he needed a change. That change came two fold, first he trained and became an over the road truck driver and then we moved back to Colorado. These decisions were filled with difficulty. First DH would be away for long periods of time leaving me to parent alone. Secondly the monetary compensation wasn't going to be enough although trucking companies brag that it's great and wonderful and rewarding.
The biggest issue with changing fields for a time is getting back into the previous career once your blood pressure has resumed regular levels. Plus the economy isn't what it used to be in Denver. Although DH began looking into IT jobs in Denver about nine months into trucking nothing came to fruition. Nothing. No calls. No interviews. Nothing. Then he changed trucking jobs and came home. On many very important levels this was fabulous. I had my husband back. My boys had their father. We were together again. The biggest problem with the new job is to get paid the most money for his time he is on call six days a week. A tough life even with having him a home. Thus we continue the search.
Recently we decided to cast a wider net for jobs. We started looking in Seattle. So far we've had better results than the previous 15 months. Nothing in life is certain. I hear the weather is much more damp and even wet in the Northwest. I think we're gonna need better shoes. Rainboots....

In the meantime

Whether you're waiting for the second coming of Christ or the zombie apocalypse, what are you doing in the meantime? How are you spending your days and how are you preparing for the future?