On the road again

February has been a busy month!  Somewhere around the end of of January, when things were looking so bleak, S and I kind of threw in the towel and decided it might be a good idea to think about moving nearer to my family and somewhere cheaper.  Our initial thoughts were to get somewhere in the one easy day's driving range of Kentucky so that travel for holidays and emergencies would be more doable and perhaps family would be tempted to visit us more often to lend a helping hand with the twins.  We figured it would take several months to land a new job which put us moving somewhere in the late spring/ early summer right before the boys' 1st birthday.

With marching orders in hand, I spent the first weekend in February putting together my resume and portfolio of work examples.  Over the first week of February, I sent out some e-mails to my friends in the profession and started scouring the job postings.  Mid-week a friend from college wrote me back to let me know her company was hiring for their office only an hour or so away from my parent's house!  I sent off my stuff and got an immediate call back.  A week later I was flying down to interview and now, only 19 days after starting my job search, I have officially accepted a position with them and start on March 17!

My head is still spinning with this sudden change but I have such an optimistic feeling about the move.  It seems serendipitous that just when we have reached our breaking point, an opportunity presents itself.  The move means we will be within arms reach of my entire family and most of my closest friends, a whole battalion of helping hands for when things get a little too much to handle on our own.  The move also means a much cheaper cost of living, and with a comparable salary to what I have now, equates to roughly a 30% raise!  Lastly, the move puts me in a job that I believe is much more in line with what I enjoy professionally so I'm hoping there will be a level of job satisfaction I don't currently have.

Fortunately, I did our taxes as early as possible and we have already received our mega return (since we didn't adjust our withholdings after the babies came last year).  I had initially thought it would go towards debt, which would have been nice, but now it looks like it will help us make this unexpected transition!  So many things to get done in a very short amount of time!