Leaving.....on a jet plane......

Vacation, here we come! I am very excited. Tomorrow we depart for lovely, WARM, sunny Florida. And just in the nick of time. Literally. The temperature here today is 28. Tomorrow, it's not supposed to get above 20. Brrrrrrr!!!! We are spending 2 1/2 days in Disney World with my parents, who are currently vacationing down there. Friday night we will head over to my in-laws house. We'll do a trip to Miami early next week to see the rest of the in-laws, but spend most of our time at what Thea refers to as "the beautiful house in the forest". My mother and father-in-law have the most beautiful home in southern central Florida. It sits on 60 acres of land that is mostly wildlife refuge. The house was custom built and is gorgeous. Its best feature, though, is its residents. I adore my in-laws. They are two of the most wonderful people on the planet. I must admit that I was incredibly intimidated to meet them, as he's a psychiatrist and she's a psychologist. I was certain I would tick and twitch as I extended my hand and uttered my name upon first meeting and be forever classified as "the spastic one". However, they put me immediately at ease during that first meeting and have become as much parents to me as my own. I wish they lived closer so that we could spend time and share Thea with them more often. The trip is also just in the nick of time for my husband. He is very close with his father and misses him terribly in between visits. His dad came up here for a weekend in late May, so it’s been a while. My husband also battles depression. Most of the time, he does very well, but of late, it’s been very hard for him. His job is terrible and his boss is worse. To make it even more annoying, his boss is one of those people about whom you often say, “He means well, but….” His boss is in over his head and despite being a nice guy, he just really makes life difficult for my sweet husband. I think we’ve all, at one point or another had a job that we absolutely despised. And it consumes you. Every waking minute is filled with thoughts of being at, having to return to, or just having left “that awful place”. I am lucky enough that once I found my career, I fell in love with it. However, even in a position that I loved, a new boss came in and made me absolutely miserable. There was one memorable afternoon at home that was interrupted by a spectacular breakdown by yours truly, during which I stuttered out (in between hiccup crying) “I’m going to quit my job and become a waitress and go back to school, okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay????” My wonderful husband just held me and let me cry and told me I could do whatever I wanted. His job is much like that now. It makes him miserable, which makes living with him at times challenging. His propensity for depression certainly doesn’t help. Yesterday, I rescued him from work and took him to lunch. We had a long talk. He *knows* that the biggest factor in his depression is his job, but he doesn’t see a way to fix it. There’s little permanent work out there and the market is flush with cheaper, less-experienced worker-bees who are willing to take on contract positions that make their future fraught with uncertainty. As long as I am a stay-at-home mom, we can’t afford to live without the security of a permanent position. Although, in this day and age of lay-offs, the definition of “permanent” is changing, too. I told him that if I had to, I would find a full time job and go back to work. If my choice is living with him like this, or working full time, it is an easy decision. He has been told that he is going to be moved into a different department after the New Year. Please keep your fingers crossed that it happens, or there are going to have to be some big changes around here. We both agree that we don’t want Thea in daycare any more than 3 full days a week, so we’d both need the flexibility to work from home one day a week. The logistics could be very challenging, but we both refuse to compromise when it comes to our Princess.