The Grass is Always Greener on The Other Side

I love my girls. That's why I decided not to pursue the Antarctica gig any further. I couldn't imagine missing that much of Aylin's life — at any stage, really, but especially right now. And I don't think Kristina or I either one would deal very well with being away from one another for an extended period of time. We're just too good a team to risk it for an adventure…

That said, I got an interesting job opportunity in my email box today. I'll be applying, and we'll see where it goes. Here's a couple of pics:

Guesses about where this is?

JM

Our adventure continues...

I [Jeff] finally got a job locally, working for Marrs Electric at the Crystal Bridges Museum construction project. Marrs is a great company to work for, so I'm tickled about that. The Museum is going to be really neat, too, when they're finally done building it.

That said, my job search continues. Kristina would like to be able to be a full-time mom, and work in new construction will never provide the stability or income that we'll need to reach that goal, or many of the others we have -- retirement, paying for Aylin's college, etc. One of the avenues I'm pursuing diligently is federal employment. There are tons of jobs in the electrical field with various government agencies; pay is excellent, as are retirement and health benefits. I'm currently in the running for a pair of pretty cool jobs -- one in Washington, D.C., and one near Denver, CO. I've also just applied for a sweet job near a tiny little town in southern South Dakota, just a few miles from the Nebraska border (and not too far from Iowa and Minnesota). Another really cool job (pun intended) that I'm in the running for is a limited-duration contract posting in Antarctica. Yep, that Antarctica. Of course we don't know if any of these jobs will pan out, but it's exciting for us to have so many nifty possibilities in front of us after such a long dry spell.

I'll not get into a lot of detail about the jobs right now, since I don't have any offers yet. Even if I get an offer for the Antarctica job, we've not yet decided whether I'd go. Rest assured that more detail will be forthcoming should I get a job offer.

Stay or go, we've decided that our long-term goals don't include living in McDonald County, Missouri, so we're putting our place up for sale right away. We don't envision Aylin going to school here, for one thing. For another, our house needs a lot of work. Debt repayment is a much higher priority for us right now than is fixing up the house, and increasing the value of the home won't actually help it sell any quicker in Mac County. Our current income levels won't support rapidly paying off debt and giving the house the attention it needs. Besides all that, if I get a job elsewhere, we're either going to need to move pretty quickly or, if I'm going to Antarctica, Kristina won't be real comfortable out here by herself for that length of time (three months to a year, depending on "business needs"). So one way or another, there should be a For Sale sign out in front of "the old Carter place" pretty soon.

Just a short little update, but I thought y'all might like to know what was happening with the family.