Year in review (so far)

Ok so to fully understand why we moved to Murrieta I think I need to back up a bit and give you a break down of this whole year.

New Year's Eve-Kevin's magazine closes. Which means he is out of a job without ANY warning or severance pay. Not to mention the fact that they screwed him out of any and all vacation pay they owed him. Oh and we had a 3 week old daughter. Yep, that was awesome.

March-I take Kevin to the ER to find out that he had some MAJOR gallstones and he had to have surgery to have his gallbladder removed. (Don't worry we were paying for insurance through COBRA so we were covered :) Thank goodness!

Around the same time Kevin started interviewing for this company called PowerTV. They have five different car publications that they run online. That seemed to us right up his alley. He was apparently, interviewing at the same time as two other guys and it kind of felt like they had him jumping through all sorts of unnecessary hoops, BUT Kevin is a hard worker and wanted to get back to work as soon as possible.He was willing to do what was asked of him. After about three different hour and a half drives (both ways) to take personality tests and written tests they came back to him and said that they would not be offering him the job. Kevin was pretty crushed because we thought this job was an answer to our prayers. I mean, he would be back writing about and working on cars!

Kevin wanted to know why they felt he wasn't a "good fit" for the job so he asked the owner. He replied that he didn't feel comfortable writing about that over an email, but that he would be happy to meet up with him for dinner if he liked. We both thought that is a little unconventional, but Kevin needed to know for future job interviews so he agreed to meet up. Come to find out James (the owner of the company) said that half of Kevin's references were good and half were "bad". Basically, everyone said that he is a really hard worker and he always gets the job done fast, but that he may not get along with everyone. I don't know how, but after that dinner meeting James offered Kevin a temporary contractor position for three months. He wanted to see if he could handle the demanding nature of the job and also to see if he works well with the rest of the team. After three months if everything went well he would then offer him a permanent position.

From May to August (the trial period) Kevin had to work in the office Mon-Wed. He would stay over at his parents house on those nights because it was only 25 mins away. He would work from home Thursday and Friday. So for three months I was a single mom three full days a week and let me tell you-I have so much respect  for full time single mothers. That is a HARD job.

Fast forward three months and they offered Kevin the full time job. Kevin and I had a lot to consider and we weren't quite sure whether he should take it or not. Kevin loves writing about cars, but it is a HUGE pay cut for a lot more work  Kevin isn't able to be added to their insurance until December and even then it looks like Morgan and I will have to get our own separate insurance, but the biggest was moving out here to Murrieta. Not because it isn't a nice area. It is. Mostly, because it is a big deal to pack up and move for a job you aren't sure you like completely yet. Aside from that Kevin seems to get along with his co-workers and he is still able to be creative everyday.

It has been a hard year for the Shaw family so far, but we are so glad to be back together every day. We know that a lot of people are struggling right now and we feel blessed knowing that we are going to be ok. We are looking forward to this new adventure and seeing what this next year will bring.