sit-shi-a-shun

Here's the deal... lately, we have truly been sucking in the employment department. So much that uhh...it doesn't exactly exist. Like, not at all. Zippo.
Without giving out too many personal details for the innernets, I wanted to at least touch on the subject because it's been buggin' me. Actually, it's buggin' both of us. And hey, uh, yeah working helps pay bills, feed babies, and stuff.
Ricky works in the construction business for a company that he's stuck with for about 8 years now. A company that snatched him up when he first entered the union. Last September was the beginning of the hell that is Ricky's company because they laid him off. Now, the thing is it would happen once in a while before he and I ever had kids so it was a setback but something we could bounce back from. I guess me working full-time helped, but even once James was born and it would happen once in a while it wasn't that bad. It would be a week off and hey, a week off was a week of rest for him. So, last September he was off for about 2 weeks and it hurt. Mostly because we were already freaking out about Natalie's surgery, when it would be, cardiologist visits, the "cath" being switched without us knowing, Natalie's more prominent purple and blue spells happening..etc etc ETC. It was alot to deal with but we got through it with a few bills behind but we caught up and all was well again. And we thank someone up there for that because it was just in time for the surgery.
Then on Halloween poor Ricky injured his back at work and was laid off but (I refuse to say "luckily" because crap, he was injured and sore..but hey he had a very sore vacation I guess) ..but at least WC was paying our bills. He went back to work in mid-December working way out of the way. Like, really out of the way where the cost of the gas alone was killing us. And as soon as that project was done, he was laid off AGAIN a few days before Christmas. But, we were pretty optimistic that in a week things would pick up. And that brings me to the next thing- his boss has a tendency to overuse the phrase "things'll pick up in a week".
And things didn't pick up in a week.
With the crappy economy and other "issues" with uhmm..how should I say.."illegal workers" literally talking over his job and being paid half what he makes and yes, literally they weren't citizens of anywhere close by..Ricky is STILL out of work. He went back for about a week or two about a month ago, but he's been laid off since. And everyone asks us what will we do and we kept saying for so long "Ricky's boss said it'll pick up in a week" and it never does. His union is responsible for job placement and even they can't help him.
Well, that's what they say. We have a pretty good idea as to what is really going on but what can ya do. Right? And we also face this one MAIN positive aspect of it all-
this gives Ricky and I the opportunity to re-think our work situation and start over. Since he's been upset with is company for a long time anyway, he has been given the chance to find a job that he may actually like. Or love. So, our goal is to keep truckin' along to capture that goal.
Me working part-time is always an option. Full-time, nope. Unless we can find some good free daycare somewhere it won't happen. But if me working evenings and weekends can happen then great. But, we both also know things will fall apart at home millions of things: laundry, cleaning, keeping things sort of organized, keeping things scheduled correctly like the millions of appts. we could have in a week, keeping the kids happy, there are so many more things.
If we can help it we would like to have family time and not a family life where one of the parents is working ALL.THE.TIME. Maybe I'm fantasizing about something that's not true..but I hope it's possible. Plus, one parent + two kids = outnumbered. It's tough handling a baby and toddler where soon both will be toddling along.
So, Ricky is looking into the whole EMT/Firefighting career and it has to pay right off. Volunteering is an option to get his foot in the door and get his classes started, but it doesn't pay right away.
We found an area that does pay right off the bat and that's awesome. If he decided to that I'll still be able to stay home full-time but it's still better if I can get some sort of income coming in on my part. Not only would the money I could bring in help pay bills, but it would be money we could save. It's a tough decision with the pros and cons weighing on each side. Because staying home full time is great too. And let's face it, the kids will be school age in a few years where there will be no issue with me working during the day and everyone would home in the evenings...together.
Every mom can dream, right?