Well, although no CEO has been named, today DH is meeting with the OD people on the OM budget to answer any questions that may exist with the model and numbers as they stand. DH has a meeting with them from 12:30 to 5:00 - a very long meeting. His old boss has alluded to a not-so-favorable outcome for the OM folks, though the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. It has been rumored that there is an offer for folks to stay on until March, increasing their severance from two weeks a year to three weeks a year. My thoughts are that if that offer is made to DH that he not consider it.

The decision to take this present position is definitely not worth the additional money. We lost the freedom of evenings and weekends to scrambling to carve out blocks of two or three hours of family time. DH is stressed and crabby beyond belief. The single-parenting thing, well, I am getting the hang of that. Everything (including dinner and volunteer work) needs to be done by 2:30 when the kids start getting home. Clipboards and pencils and snacks in the car are essential so busy schoolwork can be done. Audiobooks on CD in the car are also helpful. The kids are having more work to do, so there is an increase in self-sufficiency. So I imagine that there are definite benefits to the increased structure. I've covered DH's volunteer work (with the Knights of Columbus) pretty easily, running the youth programs that have been in place for awhile. Our Cubmaster for Scouts has done a good job of covering things that DH can't attend. So life is running without him, but it is sad that he is missing out on the quality of life. He has at least started talking again about life after OM and a return to school and his original plans for career change. He was definitely underqualified to be in the present position without any training at all, while still helping out with his old job.

So I've updated DH's resume to include the new job description. He's been working with a temp at OM who speaks highly of his agency and can put DH in touch with a recruiter right away. I don't know how long it takes for the final severance check to be deposited, once this all goes down, so I'm only paying what needs to be paid and squirreling away the rest.

I have looked at the budget and played with the numbers, but it is difficult when I don't know the cost of COBRA, the amount of unemployment, etc. etc. Makes me a bit tired, though I'm not so worried as in the past.

Made chili and corn muffins for dinner. Made the taco filling for tomorrow's dinner. The boys are home for five days (two teacher's institute days, weekend, then Columbus Days). So we'll use coupons for free mini golf on Friday and see a $4 per person movie. Soccer games this weekend, so not a high spend one.

Finally managed to upload the pictures from Homecoming to the computer. I didn't format the disk and it wouldn't read in the computer or printer. Glad I found the cable to connect the camera directly. To replace it would have cost $20 at Radio Shack!

Tried this before and it turned out sideways, hopefully it will work this time!