Take Your Kid to Work Day

One of the things that made me think I could handle homeschooling was that Jack would be attending a program at the Y once a week. Yesterday we found out that the participation was too low and the program was cancelled.

I was pretty bummed, but I felt really bad for Jack. So Daniel and I talked it over and decided this week would be a great week for Jack to visit Daniel at work on Tuesday (to help us transition out of the loss of the Y day).

This turned out to be a really cool day for Jack.

I dropped him for lunch with Daniel. When I picked him up, I got to hear all of the interesting things about daddy’s work. Lots of use of the phrase, “Guess what, mommy?!??” 
 

He was especially excited to tell me about the “fancy door” that he needed his own badge to walk through. He told me about the impressive floor-to-ceiling art and the fountains in the atrium. He loved the tunnels and walkway over the street between the buildings that make up TVA. And he thought it was pretty cool that they got to buy their food in one room and eat in another. 

They ran into some of Daniel's co-workers that knew him since he was a baby, and also one of his Sunday School teacher's from church. Daniel said he was a little shy and spoke really quietly, but they had a really great experience together. Jack thinks they need to go back and take Isaac with them. I'm sure we can arrange that.

On a happy note, I  followed up with a Y that is across town and begged for a spot for Jack. I was in luck –– they were able to squeeze him in. We know several kids in this program so I know Jack will have no problem transitioning to the new program. It is on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays, so we will have to rearrange our schedule a bit and do our hikes on Tuesday instead of Thursday, but that is no biggie.

A Quick Trip to Visit Family

Last week was Daniel's first week to be on travel status at Watts Bar (he will be in travel status through December unless he accepts a full-time position within the company before then). Travel status basically means that he/we live in temporary housing (hotel/rental house/camper/etc.) during the week and then come home on the weekends. 

To kick off this fun new style of living (cue sarcasm), Daniel stayed for a hotel all week while Jack, Sophie and I headed to Nashville to spend a little time with family.

On the way to Nashville we made a quick stop in Manchester to visit with Jack's Great Grandmother and Great, Great Aunt Thula. I think they adored getting to see my little guy. He loved that Grandmother gave him ice cream and they got a big kick when Jack discovered how to work Grandmother's candy dispenser. Jack was pretty pleased when he discovered he could access unlimited M&Ms.

After Grandmother's house, we went on to Smyrna where we stopped at Jack's Aunt Emily's house for dinner. Jack's Nana came over as well to enjoy a little visiting and loving on my boy. He had a blast wandering around Emily's yard and was especially happy when his Nana showed him how to work the foot lever on the trash can to make it open and close.

After dinner and visiting, we proceeded on to Hermitage to my sister's house where we crashed for the rest of the week.

Jack had a blast with his cousins. Our first day of visiting, cousin Izzy went to VBS and we took the boys to the park. Jack and Levi had fun with photobooth props when we popped in to pick Miss Izzy up.

The kids all had a blast playing together. We just had to do a little bit of supervising. Jack is not a big fan of sharing, so while this exposure is good for him, I have to referee and help him learn how to share.

Our second day in Hermitage, we took the kids to a little splash pool in Lebanon. Jack was a lot more timid around the water than his cousins. Izzy and Levi are pretty much fearless about everything. Jack takes his time figuring things out – which is OK by me.

Our last day visiting cousins, my sister took the kids to Chick-fil-a to play while I drove around to a bunch of different shops trying to find brown dress shoes for Jack to wear in his Grandpa Moore's wedding.

We had such a great time visiting family. I wish we could have squeezed in more visits, but we were all ready to get back home to Daniel by Friday morning!

We like to move it, move it.

Not really, but in order for Daniel to stay employed, a move is in our near future... 

 
If you live in the Tennessee Valley (anywhere from Knoxville down to the Huntsville area), you may have seen the news about Bellefonte on Wednesday.

"The Tennessee Valley Authority said [Wednesday], it will slow down work at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site near Scottsboro, cut 400 positions, and reassess the need for the plant's completion."

So how does this affect us? Here is the scoop from our perspective. Those affected by the cuts were given the following options: 1) stay at Bellefonte (they will be keeping some people onsite); 2) go to another TVA site; or 3) retire. In most cases the only option is really #2, so Daniel (and many of the others) are going to Watts Bar for the time being. 

The last two days have been a flourish of phone calls and decisions about our future being made on the fly. To be honest, the news was not completely unexpected, but it is still a lot to process. We knew there would be a big announcement on Wednesday and that the changes could be swift, but we are still wrapping our minds around the fact that Daniel will start his training next week and then will go to Watts Bar the week after that.

We have a house to sell and are sad at the possibility of leaving all of the friends we have made. We were just starting to feel settled and now we will be starting over. Again. We know that moving on is the right thing at this time, but it is still sad and a little unsettling. Long-term, Daniel has some time to decide where he wants to be within the TVA organization (location and career-wise). Given the circumstance, it is actually a really good opportunity for him to find something he enjoys doing. And with a company this large, he can always move on to working somewhere else, doing something different if he has the mind to do so.

Mostly, we are incredibly grateful that Daniel still has a job and that TVA is taking care of a lot of the details. In 2009, we weren't so lucky when Daniel went through a layoff with another company, and subsequent 12 months of unemployment which led to us living apart for 5 months. That was a really stressful period in our lives. This time around should be a much easier transition, but that doesn't make it easy.

As soon as we can, we will get our house on the market and start the process of finding a new, temporary residence in Tennessee (most likely somewhere between Chattanooga and Knoxville). We aren't sure where we will be long term, so we are going to take our time making decisions like buying a new house. Please keep us in your prayers as we make this transition.

Project 52 Date Nights: House Hunting

We didn't have a "real" date this week, per se. But if you count spending time together {just the two of us}, then I would have to say this week was the first of many House Hunting dates.

We just began our fourth week of living in a 170-sf camper. We chose to live in a camper while we waited for TVA to make a decision on funding for the Bellefonte plant {where Daniel works}. August 20 was the decision day and we found out that instead of fully-funding the project at this time, they are going to fund it for a year. They will reevaluate the decision in June of 2011.

This was not an unexpected decision, but it is not a particularly helpful one. We are ready to live in a house again, but are unsure of where we should buy. We could buy in Chattanooga and Daniel can commute {1 hour each way to Bellefonte} OR we could buy closer to the plant {but if they pull funding next year, we will own property that may be difficult to sell if we end up having to move}. 

And then there is decision of whether to buy 1) our dream house; 2) a smaller property to use as rental property in the future; or 3) land on which to build a house. 

Monday night we decided to drive by a couple of properties on Lookout Mountain and grab dinner at Guthries while we were there. We are also considering downtown Chattanooga, Signal Mountain, areas around Nickajack Lake as well as land in Alabama. 

Cute house. On the upper end of our budget. 

Yard would need to be fenced for Sophie.

{via}

The main things we cannot live without is a garage {for Daniel}, a dishwasher {for me} and a fenced yard {for Sophie}. Beyond those things, we can renovate or build to our heart's content. It will be interesting to see what we end up with...

Great price for Lookout Mountain. Great winter views.

No yard and an HOA is a negative.

{via}

Two Roads Diverged in a Wood

Have you ever chosen a path in life and then wondered what your life would have been like if you had taken another route? I think it is natural to be curious and have moments of "what if" that cross your mind.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the path you had once considered, turned out to the be the path you were on, just 10 years later?

That is exactly what my husband is experiencing right now.

When Daniel was in high school, he seriously considered entering the sub-nuke program with the Navy. After much contemplation, he decided he didn't want to commit the time to the Navy and he opted to go to college {where he met me}.

This path led him into civil engineering and a 4-year post-college stint in land development {which came to a screeching halt when the economy and real estate market went bust}.

So one year of unemployment later, he finds himself in a nuke program that is a ridiculously good fit for him. Not only that, after a week of orientation, he realized that he will be working with a lot of ex-Navy guys. So... if he had taken the original Navy path, he might have ended up with this job at TVA anyway. How's that for providence?

I am personally thankful that instead of the navy, he chose to go to college and we had the opportunity to meet. Which led to getting married. And now I get to be a part of his journey.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.