Self Portrait Tuesday

There's a small group of bloggers who publish self-portraits on Tuesdays including Gerrie's daughters Stephanie and Lisa (who have super fantastic blogs). I thought I'd join in and show you my new jewelry.



I'm calling it my "job interview jewelry." Not because I'm re-entering the work force. (The horrors!) But, my husband is. He resigned from the US Navy and his last day of active duty will be September 30. This is an exciting, stressful and scary adventure -- and for enduring this excitement, stress and adventure, I decided Jeff needed to buy me some jewelry. He happily obliged. He also bought me sushi and a new scarf. (Of course he bought himself two suits, three shirts, three ties, two pair of shoes, two belts, one blazer, one pair of khaki pants and two pairs of socks. Plus he's bought lots of new athletic gear lately, but that isn't necessarily job-hunt related.)

Jeff has an interview on Thursday and Friday for a really promising position. It's not the direction we long thought we were headed in... but lots of patience, prayer and consideration have led us to this opportunity.

As we began this job hunt, we considered several factors which we thought were important to us.

• the location of the job
• proximity to family
• money
• long-term stability
• number of hours/travel required

As it turns out, only one of these things is really really really important. It's the last one. What is important to us is that we are a family and we live daily with that as a priority. We intend to eat dinner as a family at the table as often as we can (paper plates or straight out of the pizza box is fine with me). We intend to spend both quality and quantity time with our children. (reading, coaching soccer, going to church, watching and discussing movies, making home-made birthday cakes...) We intend to be present for each other in all the everyday decisions -- the big stuff and the little stuff. I intend to support my husband and my kids in every way I can, knowing that he is doing the same.

The point is that this can be accomplished no matter where we live and without knowing exactly what the future holds. (And we can drive or fly to see family.)

We've always know this stuff. In fact, that's why we're job hunting in the first place. The Navy needed Jeff to do a one-year job in Bahrain as his next assignment. That's a "no dependents" job, meaning me and the kids stay here. Luckily, he was at a point in his career where he could make the decision to resign. And here we are. I am glad he will continue to make a positive impact and use his skills to serve our country as a reservist, but a "full time paying" job is still in order.

The one other factor that is pretty important -- but not on the above list -- is job satisfaction. And of course, money is a serious consideration, but I'm confident all that stuff will fall into place.

There you have it. That's a self portrait in pictures and words... my life at the moment.