Life in the I.F.

It's been a few week since our last post, and I'm here to remedy that. At least for the short term. No promises on when you'll hear from us next :) (brace yourself for some major word vomit)

So, I'd love to tell you that we've been up to crazy things and busy as ever, but that would be one elaborately thought up fairy tale. We have been busy, but with the boring things like work and church callings (we're both working with the youth - Darren as Deacon's quorum advisor/Asst. Scoutmaster and me as the secretary in Young Women's).

Other than that, we've been doing a lot of thinking about our future and where exactly we'll be come August/September. Going into this month we were pretty confident Darren's job was not only secure, but that he would be getting a few more classes that would bump him up to actually being full-time (he's only 1/2 time now). We had previously decided that since our lease is up at the end of June, we'd stick around here until my family reunion the first weekend in July. Then we'd head out to California until mid-August to see all of the lovely family we have out there.

Well, doesn't it always seem that when you've got a really good plan something happens to shake it up a bit?...A few weeks ago Darren heard that his position at his school was up for elimination due to budget cuts. We freaked out, went to Cafe Rio for dinner, and then tried to figure out a Plan B. We decided that we'd go out to California for June instead and then head to our reunion and then head out to Virginia with my parents and look for a job out there. We thought about staying here and having Darren substitute, but why sub somewhere you don't really want to live when he could sub in Virginia too? While I was and am thrilled with this plan I hate the idea of taking Darren so far away from all of his family, and moving without the guarantee of a job.

We knew the situation at Darren's school wasn't a for sure thing yet, so we decided to wait a few weeks (the board meeting for the official decision is this Wednesday, the 18th) and go from there. Just a week ago Sunday (Mother's Day to be exact) we had another wrench thrown in our plans. We were called into the bishop's office and I was asked to accept a new calling. It's not official so I won't discuss it yet, but let's just say it's something we'd have to be around a while for. We told the bishop about our situation and were suprised to know what he already knew (the executive secretary is the chairman of Darren's school board). I accepted with the stipulation that we would wait until after the school board meeting to make it official. Many tears have been shed since that Sunday. Part of me feels that I wouldn't have been extended this calling if we were supposed to leave, while the other part feels I would be letting our ward down if we do move.

I talked to a member of the bishopric yesterday to get some more info and he told me that he "unofficially" knows that Darren's job will still be around for next year. While this was good news on the job front, I was immediately heart broken about being so far from my family for another year. I had tried hard to not get my hopes up about moving to Virginia, but somehow it snuck in there anyway. After talking things over with Darren we decided that we still needed to wait until Wednesday to hear the official verdict, and then we needed to find out if his job will be anywhere close to full-time.

He had hopes it would be at least 3/4 when his superintendent pulled him into his office last week and asked him if he'd teach a PE/Health class in addition to his three Spanish classes. That all changed today when he was called in again and shown his schedule for next year. This year he had three 1/2 hour middle school classes and two 1 1/2 hour high school classes (on alternating days). As it stands now he would have a 1 hour PE/Health class, two 1/2 hour middle school classes and one 1 hour high school class. According to the superintendent that would put Darren at .37 time. How that works I will never know, but that would mean we'd be taking a 13% pay cut. Darren was a little surprised that his status was decreasing and asked about it. The superintendent said he'd do what he could to try and bring Darren up to the .5 he's at now, but no guarantees.

SO...what do we do now? Darren is planning on signing his contract for next year anyway (as a semi back-up plan), but is it really worth it? I have to work two full weeks a month to have us just break even right now. We had plans to start our family next year but staying here with this situation makes that seem extremely difficult/impossible. Do we go out to Virginia anyway? We're not sure, but we know we have to make a decision soon. For one thing, I can't keep our bishopric wondering, and we'd be heading to California in just 3 weeks if we go with Plan B!

This post is mostly to get all my/our thoughts out, but feel free to let us know what you think! We'll be sure to keep you updated on everything.

Next up: Something actually fun! We're heading to Yellowstone to camp Memorial Day weekend. Can't wait to get out!