my life, my words.

Hey there

One thing I didn’t mention in my last post was any update on my job.

As of May 10th, I advised P3 that I accepted another job at another firm.

Everyone was nicer than I thought they would be, they all said that they assumed I was looking for another job and didn’t blame me for taking a better situation elsewhere.

That confirmed to me that I had made the right choice.

Wait, what am I talking about? I haven’t even mentioned anything about this since my March post.

Good question.

So it has been a trip, all over the place and back again.

I was surprised to learn (back in the beginning of April) that there was a firm that was looking for a Product Manager role and wanted me to interview for it. I went, and it was an easy interview. I met the 2nd time with some people in the company and they said they wanted to hire me and would be tendering an offer.

I was torn, because at this same time Barney (from the Microsoft role) contacted me and let me know he was going to try and get me back with Microsoft sooner than later.

So, what do I do? Stay with the company that over the last 5 years had made me feel all sorts of horrible, but had some silver linings? The main silver lining was with Microsoft – all other roles I didn’t enjoy that much.

I talked with Barney “off the record” and let him know that I was expecting a job offer and just wanted him to have a heads up so that he didn’t reflect poorly on him (when I left).

He said, let me see what I can do. Called me back and said they would match the pay that I was offered, plus beat it by 10,000 a year.

I was floored. What?! All of the negatives seemed to fade away. I trusted Barney – but also wanted to ensure that this would happen before I turned down this other job that really would propel me in the direction I wanted to go in my career.

He called me back the next day and in a nutshell informed me that what he offered would not happen. HR had rules against this type of thing and it wasn’t going to be a thing – but perhaps he could make it happen over the next year or so.

Not long after that I told him that I was learning to the other role (trying to be transparent).

The next day I was invited on a call with HR and Barney. They said “Hey, so you have another job offer that you accepted? We want your resignation today.” I said uh.. no. That’s not what I said at all. I am not looking to leave my job. They pushed for me to quit, then said “You can continue to work here, but if you do… there is no assumption that you will have any sort of pay raises in the future”

I got off that meeting and knew that any choice I had – was just made for me during that 30-minute call.

I told the new company I’d accept their offer, and let P3 know shortly thereafter. I did thank Barney for all he tried to do… and maybe in the future, our paths will cross again. Until then – on to new places and hopefully better outcomes.

ANOTHER CHANGE?

They just seem to keep coming! I start my new role tomorrow.

just Pray

Hey there,

So have some cool photos to share.

On the night of May 10th (leading to the 11th), we were delighted to find out that the Aurora Borealis would be reaching down much further south than it had in many years.

How far south?

Well, there are photos of people from Sacramento seeing it.

Heck – even as far south as some desert areas in Arizona! (although I’m sure they had to have an expensive camera to capture it)

We kept the kids up late and went driving down a road not more than 5 minutes from the house (just enough to get away from the streetlights and into some darker areas).

It was b-e-a-utiful. Check it out:

It amazes me that I can take photos like that with my iPhone. Wow, how much technology has changed in the last few years? I remember at one point taking a photo of the moon would look like you were taking a picture of a flashlight. Yet now we can capture stars in the night sky along with these beautiful colors.

It is amazing the display that God puts on for all to see. Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be 100 times more intense if you flew to Alaska or some other areas where they are known for seeing it all the time.. but this little glimpse was great.

Anyway – I hope you didn’t miss out on seeing it. It was great.

It happened the next night too, but it wasn’t forecast to be as strong so we only went the first night.

We took the next day to have a cookout (pictured above) and took the kids to a local park in Sandy.

That wrapped up our adventures with the Borealis.

just Pray

Mayday!

I feel like this.

It’s been beautiful outside – Mt. Hood has been putting on a show for all to take in.

Also, for the first time since we have lived in Oregon, we switched up our eye doctor. We picked someplace that was closer to us and that had better availability. The old doctor’s office was over an hour away and would take the whole day to do everyone’s eye checkup.

The new place? Close to where we live, and we were able to get in, out, and select glasses in probably 2 hours give or take a little.

That is pretty good, especially when you have to wrangle as many kids as we do. Every minute makes a difference. Plus we don’t have an extended hour+ drive each way.

What else?

As you can see the Peets coffee machine (it tasted nasty) however, we went to this dealership so that they would buy our car. I know, another change. Right?! How many changes are we looking at here? We wanted to sell our car outright to a dealer because when we were looking to trade her in, everyone was offering 3 or 4 thousand dollars less. That’s worth going without a car for a little bit of time. As of May 5th, we no longer own the Explorer.

We called the dealership that had the Tesla that we were interested in. They said since we didn’t have a car and were looking to buy the Tesla, they would loan us a car until the Tesla was ready (they were getting something fixed on the car at Tesla and some parts were on backorder). I took a trip down to Salem (thanks Louis for giving me a ride) and picked up the Subaru. We picked it up on the 8th – so it was only a few days between vehicles. Even if it is a Subaru…

Nothing that I ever thought I’d drive. This sucker gets a good 19 to 20 miles per gallon. A little better than the Explorer but pretty horrendous considering it’s a car. With that being said, we aren’t complaining too much because it’s a free loaner from the dealership!

So we are without a car until they get it fixed, then we will go down (and hopefully nothing else will be wrong) and we can go on a test drive and have a vehicle.

The kids are pretty excited about the prospect of getting a Tesla, especially one with doors like the DeLorean on Back to the Future. Luca especially. Now all of the kids keep pointing out Teslas when we drive anywhere.

until next time

Just Pray