BIG news

Soooooooo.....we received some BIG news from Joacim's employer today.  They're relocating.  To Minnesota.  By the end of the year.

Yep, that's BIG news.  And we don't know what we're going to do yet.  They're offering a severance package for those that chose not to relocate, which would be nice, but the chances of Joacim finding a job that he likes around here aren't exactly HUGE right now.  Whatever we decide to do, we have to do it by April 4th.  In the packet of info we received, it mentioned that they're going to have this office closed by August 1 (I think).  It all seems so fast..so sudden.  But I guess not really...I mean..it is a decent amount of time to make a decision.

As far as we can figure we've got one of 3 choices:
1.  Move to Minnesota
2.  Move to Sweden
3.  Stay here

So, we've got a lot of thinking to do...a lot of pros/cons lists to be made.  Many, many things to think about (Izzy, my kidneys, another kid?, job happiness, WINTER, international move?,  how much $???).  The list is long and potentially endless.

Oddly enough, I'm feeling pretty even-keel about this.  Of course, that could be the happy pills talking too.  But for some reason, I see this as an opportunity..a different opportunity, but an opportunity nevertheless.  Maybe I'm romanticizing it all, but I hope not.  I'm thinking that this is a chance to live out in the country, have some land and a barn and get this photography thing going, have a garden, have room for Izzy to run.  Minneapolis is always highly ranked in places to live surveys, so that's gotta say something, right?

I dunno...I'm kinda of rambling here, but I'm not scared.  I'm worried about how difficult a decision this will be for our family, no doubt.  These next few weeks will be painful..constant analyzing and worrying and wondering if we're doing the right thing, but I think that's only natural, really.

And even stranger..Joacim's boss turned in his resignation this week, effective next Friday.  Soooooo, for the time being, Joacim is now the engineering manager.  All I know this means is that he'll be working A LOT, and stressing A LOT.  This was a completely unexpected curveball...let's just see how well it's handled.