A little update on us. When we lost our second nanny after Carter was born we decided that managing two kids and finding consistent, affordable childcare was too much and made a goal for me to stay home. We didn't have the money to make it happen right away so we hired someone else. And she quit for personal reasons. After four days. That affirmed the goal for us. Obviously. We hired someone else who we knew could only stay until the end of the year hoping that we could find a cheaper place to live (in our out of VA) to do it on one income or that Cory could find a better job. Over the summer Cory's former boss at Nat Geo got a job for a company in Nashville and told Cory he should come out. They talked back and forth and Cory ended up interviewing a bunch of times. We went out there over conference weekend and really liked it. Nice people, beautiful scenery, you can get a big house for the price of a tiny condo in the ghetto here, etc. Plus when you go to restaurants they give you to go cups of diet coke without you even asking (obviously this is huge when deciding where to live, right??). Score. Cory had an in person interview while we were there and things went well. It was pretty much a sure thing, just a matter of when they wanted us to move and whether they would meet our requested salary. We came back and impatiently waited for the job offer......
After some more back and forth this week they came back and said that because the position they were considering Cory for wasn't number one on their priority hiring list they can't hire him right now. So basically now we're looking at next year, if at all. Bummer. In this whole process over the last few months I've certainly had reservations about leaving our friends, our fantastic neighborhood, Harrison's great preschool, the ward where I don't have a calling in primary (KIDDING :) I loved all four years of being a primary teacher...), and all that the DC area has to offer for kids. I've contemplated where the best place to raise a family is. This area is a rat race in so many ways and you have to make a ton more money then we do to be really "comfortable" here, but it has lots of diversity, educated people, excellent schools, history, and proximity to a lot of fun stuff. Cory also felt some sadness at the prospect of leaving a job he loves that allows him to do important work in his field (but that just doesn't pay him quite what he's worth). Despite all of this though we thought Nashville was a good idea because it would allow me to be at home. I'm not happy at my job (it's easy, it's flexible, it's very stable and I'm grateful for it, it's just not FUN). I miss the kids (they're CUTE) and I want to be in the details of their day to day lives and activities. I'm very lucky to get to spend much more time with my kids then working parents but that also means I get up WAY too early and have to cram a whole lot of cleaning and "household management" into those few hours as well.
