Before we moved to Hawaii, Cliff and I had been making plans. Plans for what would happen after Hawaii. You see, we were planning to get out of the Navy. It was a decision we had actually started toying with back when we left Japan. It was kind of scary and exciting, but we felt good about it and as his time in the Navy came to a close he started to search for jobs. We felt discouraged at first when our time was still too far out for companies to really consider us, (they needed him IMMEDIATELY,) and then we felt discouraged when companies that were otherwise interested didn't want to fly him out from Honolulu back to the mainland. It was a really stressful last couple of months in Hawaii. Two weeks before we were set to move, we still had few prospects. Some maybes and some definite NOs. Then came the real heartbreak. Cliff was selected for a job at Marshall Space Flight center with NASA. We were SO incredibly excited - this was his DREAM!!! This selection came on Friday and we were set to start the hiring process/ paperwork on Monday. Actually they really wanted to get the ball rolling that weekend because it was the weekend of the presidential inauguration and there was a rumored hiring freeze coming. The hiring manager didn't want to waste any time getting things going. We tried not to get out hopes up too high, but c'mon! How do you not?? If you have been watching the news even a little bit, you know how this part of the story ends. We were pretty devastated. The folks at NASA were frustrated. They didn't wanted us to lose hope, and set about appealing on Cliff's behalf. They sought waivers and kept us updated, but things didn't look great. The hiring freeze was/is expected to last 90 days and we just weren't sure we could wait that out. Womp womp. *tears*
We made plans to put our things into storage and move in with my parents in GA, figuring the Atlanta area would be a good home base for the continued job hunt. This turned out to be true! We were inundated with interviews upon our return. I say "we" but really this is all Cliff. He flew out to the Bay Area of California just a day after we flew in from Honolulu. After that interview he had another interview just a couple of days later here in Georgia in Duluth. It was a packaging engineer position and he really liked the people and the pace of the work. He came back from San Jose and really liked that atmosphere and job description there as well. Offers came in for both of these jobs and we had some serious decisions to make. After such a dearth of prospects should we jump at one of these? California sounded so awesome, but it was awesomely expensive as well! A new 1,500sqft 3 bedroom townhouse in that area starts at about $850,000!!! !!!!! We crunched the numbers and decided that it just wasn't for us. We wanted a yard. We wanted to breathe. We let that one go.
Duluth sounded good, too, and we came very close to accepting the offer, but the travel time with this job was substantial. 30-40% of the year. Wasn't that one of the reasons we were getting OUT of the military?? With no other immediate interviews or offers on the table, we made the decision to let this one go, too. After much prayer and consideration, we both decided it was Aerospace or bust. We had a soft place to land thanks to my parents and we would buckle down and wait out the freeze WHILE continuing to pursue other aerospace related jobs. Cliff signed himself up for resume improvement classes with his Alumni Association at GA Tech. He worked his connections and made new connections. He spent his days on the phone and his evenings applying for everything and anything aerospace related. He made plans to drive over to Huntsville, AL to meet with the NASA guys and keep that ball rolling. He also made plans to visit a different friend while over that way. This proved to be THE turning point in our search. Cliff drove over to Huntsville on a Friday about a month ago and met with the guys at Marshall Space Flight that morning. They toured the facility and discussed the job Cliff would potentially be doing for them as well as the status of the freeze. They had a great time. They went out to lunch. Cliff still felt so committed to waiting things out. THEN he went to visit a good friend just down the street at the company that he worked for, Torch Technologies. Cliff was introduced to many of the guys there and given a tour of the place. He was very impressed with the work they were doing there and the atmosphere of the work place. He came home and did a little more research on the company and was more impressed with Torch. He came home tired and we went to bed. He didn't check his e-mail messages until the next morning. Apparently, an hour after he left Torch, his friend's boss had expressed interest in giving Cliff an offer!!!!! Just from meeting him that afternoon! Cliff had unbeknownst to him had an interview with Torch and killed it! The official offer came that Monday and he had a week to decide. We weren't sure what to do!! Wait out dream job at NASA that might not be there after the freeze if they continue to cut funding or take this other awesome job that pays a lot more but isn't... NASA... Decisions!! Well to save you the suspense, Cliff accepted the Torch job! We are SOOOOOOOO excited! It's on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville literally right down the street from Marshall Space Flight. It's aerospace related and involves computer programming as well - which Cliff finds exciting. The work/ life balance at this company is everything we were hoping for! Cliff will be home in time to spend afternoons with the kids after they get out of school and he won't be traveling much at all! I haven't seen him this excited about work, since... he was flying in Japan! I'm so glad that he felt inspired to travel over to Huntsville to visit with the guys at NASA. I'm actually really grateful that NASA kept that "carrot" of a job dangling over us. If that door had been completely closed, we might have taken the California or Duluth job and missed the Torch opportunity altogether. He starts work on Monday!!
So that was a slog. If you made it this far, you might as well finish because we have MORE exciting news! We are BUILDING a house! Unlike California, you can buy/ build a house and have a little room to breath in the South. We fell in love with Huntsville when we drove over for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It's hilly and mountainous and there are rivers and streams and ponds everywhere. Rolling hills with horses and farmhouses remind us a lot of Central Virginia. Northern Alabama! Who knew?? We picked out our lot in a planned community that includes a pool/ clubhouse/ nature paths/ bike paths/ a lake/ and a river with kayak docks. Our structural contract was ratified a couple of days ago and they should be breaking ground on the build within a month! I head back over to the design studio in little over a week to pick out the floor, cabinets, hardware, etc. for the house. It's overwhelming and exciting!!
In the meantime, the girls are enrolled in school here in Georgia. They are doing so well. We plan to have them finish out the school year here and then we plan to move over with Cliff this summer. He will be getting a short-term lease apartment while we wait for our house to be built. He will spend the week in Huntsville and stay with us on the weekends.
I guess that's it for now! Anyone that has built before - let me know! I'd love your advice!! Here is a picture of the model of home we chose. Ours will look a little different, (I may choose different brick or trim colors,) but it give you an idea!
