J-O-B

Update: Ryan is doing fine overseas.  He's working out every single day, which means I will have a very in shape, even more handsome & buff husband when he gets home.  Yesssss.

I, on the other hand, haven't been working out nearly as much as I planned.  I don't have a gym membership, so I bought some cold running gear online and used that to not give me an excuse to go running outside in 30 degree weather.  This hasn't worked as well as I was hoping.  I'm still running and I'm more in shape now than I was 2 months ago, butttt it's just. so. hard. to go running in freezing weather!!

Enough of that.  I'm getting distracted already and I just started the post.

My main purpose of updating my blog is to inform (all 6 of) you that Ryan is pretty much giving up on the hope that his work will allow him to transfer him to the Charlottesville, VA office.  I don't know if I really posted on here our plan of attack, so let me do that first.

Back in October of last year, Ryan and I were faced with lots of decisions.  I wasn't very happy in Kansas City.  Not because of the city itself, but because I didn't know what to do with myself being SO far away from friends and family.  I was hoping I could adjust,  but I knew and Ryan knew that this isn't where we (I) was supposed to be.  Sucks, but it is a nice city, great place to raise kids, and awesome cost of living.

So, Ryan found out in October that his work wanted him to deploy in December for 4 months.  This left us lots of decision.  We had to decide if a) he was going to deploy in December or wait b)what I was going to do if he did get deployed and c)what were we going to do when he got home from his deployment.

Just so I don't make this post a million pages long, we decided to a)have him deploy in December (duh) b)I come home and hopefully transition into a job in Cville once he gets the okay to transfer and c)Ryan transfers to Cville when he gets back, he has a job, I have a job, we buy a house and live happily ever after.

SO, with Ryan not hearing from work yet as to whether he can transfer has put a huge damper on his plans.  We knew that this could happen, but I think we were both thinking in our good hearts of ours that there wouldn't be a way for work to NOT transfer him.  I mean come on...if I do say so myself, Ryan is a genius.  He worked very hard to make straight A's through undergrad and grad school (gag, I know.).  Ryan contributes sooo much to his company as far as networking and knowledge is concerned.  Ryan can do that EXACT same work that he does in Kansas City in Charlottesville.  The Cville office should be happy to have Ryan at that office.

But noooo.  Everytime Ryan brings up the transfer with his bosses and others, he doesn't get a direct answer.  He gets lots of "I'm all for it" and "I'm definitely an advocate for this".  But no. real. answers.  We can't wait around for a yes or a no, so we're both looking for jobs anywhere in Virginia now.

Worst Case Scenario: Ryan finds out he can't transfer and he can't find a job anywhere else.  I search and search and search for jobs that I think I will love, and I find nothing.  Ryan comes back, we're both homeless and jobless.

Best Case Scenario:  Ryan hears like, today, that he can transfer.  I find a dream job in Cville and our dream house in Cville.  Ryan comes back to his beautiful new home and new life in beautiful, mountainous Virginia full of good friends and family and we're both happy.

As you can imagine, these are two very different scenarios.  We're wishing and hoping and praying that the dice falls on the Best Case Scenario, but we all know life isn't perfect.

This leads me to my frustrations with job searching.  I search and search and find a job I think I would love.  I eagerly click on the job posting to see what the requirements are, then slowly my dreams are crushed when I see "10+ years experience in something you have no clue about" or "Requires ABC certification that you don't have, so don't even think about wasting 30 minutes applying, only to receive a denial email (if you're lucky enough to even get one of those)".

I now have 6 years of experience outside of college and I feel like it's still not even close to being good enough.

I know that I have a lot to be thankful for, but sometimes a girl just needs to rant and complain and get it out of her system.  I promise to have a happy post full of the beautiful babies I'm lucky enough to have in my life very soon!!