My Home's In....

Well Christmas is all over and we are back in Wyoming, nose to the grindstone. I really enjoyed being home with our family and getting so much time with them, but I am so glad to be done with it. It can be extremely exhausting to have to go back and forth between two families and feel like you've spent adequate time with both. Too much of it can drive you nuts. Plus the eight to nine hour drive to actually get home is just as exhausting. I can't even imagine what next year is going to be like with a six month old. If we are still here next Christmas, I think it might be worth putting our puppy in doggy daycare. That way we can at least alleviate the need to take our pup. 

There is a good chance that we may be moving back to Montana in the next month or so. Well a slight chance anyway. Chris got an interview up in Missoula for a great job. He's one of five candidates for this job that I think he would really enjoy. He has an interview on the 17th of January in Missoula. I wish it wasn't so far off though. His boss at the company we are at currently actually just quit a couple weeks ago, so they are looking at restructuring the position. Most likely he will be receiving a promotion here as well. So if he doesn't get the job in Missoula, we will at least get a bigger place and bump in pay here. 

I have really mixed feelings about both positions. Missoula would be awesome because we would only be three hours from home, we'd be near civilization again and so we could actually get involved in our community and a church and various other activities. But we would have a lot more bills to pay. We don't pay for housing or utilities here. We also don't really pay for groceries in the summer because we can eat in the employee dining room and various restaurants. And even more tantalizing is the fact that we have cut our student loan total in half in the past year. If we were to stay here just a year more, we could really get those student loans knocked out to a small chunk. We could also afford an upgrade on our vehicle, which is going to be something that we really need to do here soon, one way or the other. 

If we moved to Missoula, Chris would probably get about the same salary as he will here once his position is restructured, but we'll have to pay for rent, groceries and utilities. Plus with a baby, my career options are pretty limited, so it's not like I could significantly contribute to the paycheck. But even with all of that, I do think we could cut back quite a bit and make it work. There are people who make less than Chris would who make it work too. It would be hard at times, but I don't think it would be awful. And being so close to home is such a big selling point. We only get to go home about four times a year, if we are lucky. And now that a baby is coming, it just seems like it would be so much easier to drive three hours rather than eight or nine to see our family. 

If it doesn't work out that Chris gets this job, we are going to continue to look for opportunities near home. I feel like in another year or so we will be that much more prepared to move onto something else. We'll have had more time to save and continue to pay off our student debt. We'll also have had time to get a new vehicle and start making payments on it. And the baby will have arrived and we would hopefully be into somewhat of a routine. If we do get offered the job in Missoula, we are going to go for it and get outta here, but I don't think it would be bad thing either if we do end up staying here. We do like it here after all, it's just the whole driving nine hours to get home that we are a little bit tired of. We will see. Only time can tell!