Move closer to stepkids...or further away?

My husband and I are tentatively talking about moving back to the state where my stepkids live.  We moved away ten years ago when hubby's employer closed their doors.  There weren't any jobs in the area that would meet our financial needs (our household plus child support) so we moved 2-1/2 hours away, across the stateline, for a job.  My husband continued to drive five hours round trip on Friday, and again on Sunday, to get his kids every other weekend for six years (that was hard since he also worked about 60 hours/week).  When that company was sold and the old team let go, we were out of a job again.  We ended up moving another two hours south for a secure job.  After four years of this, the urge to move back closer to family has grown. 

Problem is his current job is secure.  It's a job he could retire from.  He hates it though.  He's 3rd shift and after four years, he still hasn't adjusted to being awake all night and sleeping during the day.  He's having repetitive motion pain through his arms from the job too.  With the economy so bad still, leaving a very secure job has its risks. We have four other younger children, besides the stepkids, to take care of.

I put out feelers with some of my old contacts about the job market in our homestate and ended up with ANOTHER very secure possibility - further away - in the area we wanted to retire to (the mountains).  Hubby is ready to pack up and go, lol.  I'm not even though its in the area that has always touched my soul.  It's further away.  We wouldn't see my stepkids any less than we do now because they don't (won't) leave their mother alone (she hasn't dated in over 15 years!) but we'd be further away from the rest of our family.  The point was to get closer, not further away.

If we can't find a job in our homestate, should hubby just deal with his current job that he hates and is causing health problems for him or should we move our kids further away from family?  This is hard.

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Pulled Ourselves Out of the Fire

Looks like we are pulling ourselves out of the fire.  Just when I was wondering if I should be sending resumes out, knowing I probably wouldn't make much more in our rural area than I do now working from home, if I had to pay child care to work outside the home, it looks like if we sign on all the right dotted lines, we'll be able to get out house out of foreclosure. 

We tried to refinance for a lower interest rate before we were late but Bank of America required way too many thousands to close the loan so behind we fell. When we were three months behind, we sent them three months' worth of payments to catch us up but Bank of America returned them to us! They said it was too late.  Looks like they wanted it to go into foreclosure.

With hours cut at my husband's work since last Fall, paying all the past due school taxes that we didn't know were required here to be paid when we moved here a few years ago (imagine the penalty fees on those...yikes!), the trip to our homestate and then unexpected family here for Easter and then more unexpected family the week after, the money was flying out the windows, plus shelling out a ton on propane over the winter to keep us from turning into popsicles, it's been a financial storm for us for months. 

We talked to a debt consolidation place but get this - we don't make enough money for their help.  Huh?  They gave us suggestions - no phone service, spend less on clothing (with all our kids...we already shop at Walmart and Goodwill), and see about getting child support lowered.  They didn't give us any suggestions that were actually doable!

Now that the foreclosure process has moved to the courts, they are willing to refinance for that lower interest rate without taking our firstborn with the new mortgage papers.  Knowing how the economy is, how the automotive industry is (which my husband is in) and with foreclosures everywhere, why didn't they just do that last Fall when we asked them to begin with?  Geez!

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Dallas Jobs

If you need a job and live in the Dallas area (or want to relocate to the area), there is a job site just for you called DallasJobSite.com. If you are an employer and want to review the talent in your area, there are Dallas resumes waiting for you here.

I loved Texas when we vacationed there. I didn't care for the red ant hills we almost stepped in, or the poisonous snake that was scaring the horses away from the pond, but the rest was all good. We saw a rodeo while we were there when we went with family from Dallas. We swam in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a nice place to visit with friendly people.

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Job Search

The industry in some areas is hurting, leaving people searching for jobs to replace a job they lost or to leave a job to better themselves elsewhere. There is now a great place to do this.

If you are on the hunt for that great job that is going to meet your needs financially and also fulfill your ambitions, Salesjobs.net can help. SalesJobs is the first source for professionals in sales. Right now as I type this, they have close to 31,000 jobs available with over 12,000 new jobs added within the past two weeks.

If you are looking for positions such as sales manager jobs in various industries, you can post your resume, search their jobs database, and sign up for alerts to be notified when that perfect job hits the web. Go see what they have for you!

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