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A life of leisure...

OK... it's not really a life of leisure when you are looking for a job, getting up to speed on coaching curriculum for your contracting job, stressed about money, and praying constantly that Troy passes all his classes..... BUT - I am enjoying sleeping in! :) Haha!

Getting laid off from any job isn't really any fun, but it especially sucks when it was a job that you loved. I have sort of been in mourning for the last 2 weeks... but I think I am finally snapping out of it.

I am still doing some consulting for the company, and I am working to get up to speed so that I can work as a "Money for Life Coach" when we get back from the holiday. The Money for Life Coaching Program is a program based on the books that I was the Editor for, and all the curriculum is taken from the books or from other articles that I either wrote or helped with so... getting up to speed hasn't been to bad. Haha! Hopefully come January the Coaching will keep me pretty busy, but I am still keeping my options open and looking for other jobs as well.

In fact... Troy and I have both decided that we should look for jobs in Salt Lake, but also in the other cities that we have talked about possibly moving to... so.... we'll see what happens. We are planning to explore all our options and spend lots of time in prayer to see where the Lord wants us to be. Leaving Salt Lake would make me sad in many ways (we would miss Troy's family and all of the work that we are doing in the Arts Community) but at the same time, the idea of moving back to the beach (and being closer to my family and old friends) sounds very appealing... so... we shall see...

Hopefully, in the meantime, I can complete my Non-Profit Academy Certificate Program before I get too busy again!

P.S. TROY WILL BE DONE WITH SCHOOL TOMORROW EVENING!!!!! HOORAY!!!!

work...

In addition to all that I mentioned in the last post... I do also actually work from time to time. Haha! And since I don't talk about work very much on here I just thought I'd mix it up a little bit and share my recent blog post from our corporate blog --

Being Financially Prepared for an Emergency

(By: JenniferStreiff September 10th, 2008)

Last week there was a wild fire on the mountainside not very far from my home. Thankfully we did not need to be evacuated, but it got me thinking about whether or not we would have been prepared to leave our home in a hurry if the fire had headed towards us. Is there really any way to prepare for such a thing? With such little notice, how do you decide what to grab? My first instinct would be to grab my grandmother’s, grandfather’s and mother’s paintings off the walls as we all hurried toward the car. Those are, after all, irreplaceable and completely priceless to me.

Then I started thinking about all that paperwork in my home office… legal and financial documents of all types. It would be impossible to find everything that is important in a hurry! I definitely need to do a better job of organizing those documents that really need to come with me if I need to leave in a hurry. Perhaps I should do what the Red Cross recommends and put the originals in a safety deposit box? On her Money and Happiness blog, Laura Rowley also recently included a list of the documents you should keep safely stored. It is also recommended that you keep copies of these valuable documents in one folder or envelope, relatively close to the front door. Then if there is an emergency when you are at home, you can grab the copies on your way out.

I am happy to say, however, that for the most part I rest easy knowing that our finances will be in order even if we have to evacuate our home. I don’t worry about grabbing copies of our bills, bank statements, etc. Since we handle all our finances online with the Finicity Money Manager (formerly Mvelopes), we have access to everything we need whether we are at home or on the go – I just have to remember to grab my mobile phone!

Most of our bills are handled with automatic payments - such a stress reliever! I honestly don’t know how I ever paid all my bills on time before automatic payments – life is just too busy to sit around paying bills! I like knowing that even if I am distracted with other things, such as evacuating my family or, frankly, even if we are just out of town – our bills will be paid on time!

I hope we are never in that situation of needing to evacuate, or losing our home, but if we are, it’s great to know that we won’t have to worry about our finances!

Does anyone else have any good tips for preparing your finances for an emergency?

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Each department posts something every week or so, and since my department consists of me and my boss, I get the privilege of posting quite frequently.... It's actually kinda fun. (Just don't tell Darren or me may put my name on the list more often... hahaa!)

Luke and Trevor came to visit me! :)

Oh... and their moms came too! :) And their grandma also!

Its so fun to have Shelly, Mandy, Mom, Trevor and Luke over! Its amazing the things that the boys find to be great toys.
Luke remembered that I have a stuffed Huskie that he just loves and he also found the same cow magnet off my fridge to carry around. So cute! (The Huskie's name is Angus, by the way... it was a gift from Steve many years ago when I was really missing Askie)
And Trevor LOVES the fans and lights and the light switches. He also loves the couch cushions and that he can climb around in them. It's adorable!
And they both love the fabulous nesting bowls that my Mom bought for me Christmas a couple years ago... luckily they are quite durable, even when thrown on the tile. Thank you Elliott for helping me figure out what great, durable toys they were last summer when you came to visit! :)

I can't wait to finish work for the day so that I can go play with them some more! :)

And for Mom, Shelly and Mandy... since you didn't get to come in and check out the office... here it is. Not very exciting. Haha!

Forgot two!

Oops.... I forgot Tina and Avery's birthdays! Happy birthday to Tina and Avery too!
I can't believe how much Avery has grown and changed in the year and a half that I have know her. She is turning TWO and is just such a cute, sweet, little girly girl. She loves to read, laugh, jump and wear my shoes.
But really... who doesn't love to wear my shoes?!?! I have so many and they are all so cute... hahaha!

So let's see... what else has been going on...
I got a promotion at work, which I am very excited about. My new title is "Ruler of the Universe". Ok, not really, but that is what my boss calls me. Haha.

Our company has been going through a bit of reorganization over the last two weeks and everyone (except me) got a new boss and a new seat. Haha! I am ok with the fact that I was left out of the re-org though. I already have the best boss for me and we work very well together.

I am excited for the added responsibilities of my new job. And it will be nice to shift some of the other work to some of the other departments.

Anyway... can't wait to see Mom, Shelly, Mandy, Trevor and Luke tonight! And Dad on Saturday! It will be so fun! (but there is some bad news on the 2nd guest bed.... sorry!)