Ok, so let's Blog!

Well, it is day one of my new Blog, but it has taken seven frustrating months to arrive at this place. So, I say, let's start at the beginning of this little adventure.

On February 2nd of this year my husband, Sheldon, and for those of you that don't know him, is an incredibly  loyal, hard working and dedicated man, was laid off from his job at Adidas.  There was no real warning, oh sure we knew that it could happen, but he was assured by his "boss" that he had nothing to worry about and that his job was secure, even though the company was doing a company wide re-structure. Famous last words!

So at about noon, on that life altering day, he arrived home and the "what now" planning began! At first Sheldon worked with HR at Adidas, or so he thought, to try and secure another position within the company, although it was soon pretty evident that wasn't going to happen! Human Resources, with the exception of my Mother-in-law, whom I love very much, is full of beings that are only less human than they are resourceful!

While Sheldon was unknowingly wasting his time with the interested, yet hand cuffed, management teams of what once was a major contender in the sports footwear and apparel business, I set up an account with the state unemployment office. What a shock when we found out what unemployment pays, or rather, what it doesn't pay. The amount of unemployment barely covered the cost of our mortgage!  With me, having stayed at home with our kids for the past 2 years, things weren't looking good for our short term economic health! We were in a better position than a lot of people who have faced unemployment recently. Sheldon was, at least, paid a severance and we had some savings. So we could make it for a while, but getting a job, we knew, wasn't exactly easy these days and Portland had, and still has, one of the highest unemployment rates in the country! Crap!

So, we then started to do all the things that unemployed people do. We updated, and re-wrote and re-designed, and re-wrote and re-designed and re-wrote and re-designed and re-wrote and re-designed yet again, the ever necessary resume. We then took to the internet and either set-up or updated Sheldon's profile on what we thought were the best options for professional and social networking. And a networking we went!

For the next three months, I became Sheldon's new “administrative assistant” and his new full time job was… CEO of Job Hunting! We started with local companies in the hope that we could stay in our house, in our neighborhood, in our schools, and with our extended family and friends. It was futile; there were so few jobs available and even fewer that were even remotely interesting. I know, selfish and unreasonable to have interesting as requirement for employment!

So off we went, full charge ahead, looking for a job, not just any job but a good job; one with potential, one that paid a living wage and yes, even one that was interesting, regardless of where it was located.  We, okay…Sheldon, talked to just about everyone he knew in the industry and slowly began getting contacted by recruiters looking to fill positions within the industry. I am making it sound so much easier than it was, we were sweatin’ it! We, yes, me too, were working overtime! I mean we were on the phone, on the computer, sending resumes, writing cover letters, reconnecting with previous colleagues, talking to our neighbors, networking with other parents at Peyton’s school, frankly, we were talking to anyone who would listen! Oh yeah and Sheldon even met with one ridiculously useless “career counselor”! Which suggests that there is such thing as a useful career counselor; and I am not convinced there is.  Short of hiring a sky writer, we did everything we knew how to do to get the word out that Sheldon was looking for a job.

Of course, I should mention that Sheldon is well known, well respected and well liked in his industry, not to mention great at what he does, the best in the business, if I do say so myself.  This obviously gave us an edge and we were happy to have one! So it wasn’t long before Sheldon was interviewing a couple of times a week and then the conversations started with Under Armour.  They weren’t quite ready to hire for the positions Sheldon was interested in when the talks first started, but after about two months… or was it two years? No, it just seemed like two years; the email finally came in for the proverbial phone interview, which went great…hallelujah, not that I am a religious woman, but I was that day, and on the morning they called and wanted to fly him out to meet in person, I think I saw the image of Jesus on my toast, or was it in the froth of my latte? In any case, I knew we were finally getting someplace and someplace worth going!  That interview, no surprise, since you know the outcome, went great as well. So great, in fact, that by the time Sheldon arrived home from his trip to Baltimore for the interview; they were calling to offer him a job! Just about that time, PUMA called wanting to set up interviews with him also, and I, was starting to speak in tongues! Well suffices to say, PUMA wanted him too and the negotiations began.

To be brief, as if that were even possible, Sheldon and Under Armour worked it out and he began “Protecting That House” on the 7^th of July, (“Protect This House” is Under Armour’s motto, for those of you out of the loop) which brings us a little closer to where we are today. Well, sort of, first we went to Disneyland with the kids (all three of them), put our house on the market, I went to Newport, OR with the girls to see my Grandfather whom, I haven’t seen in over thirty years and my Pop, whom I have only now seen twice in the same amount of time, sold our house, moved in with my parents, put in a offer on a house in Ellicott City, MD (for the second time) and had the house inspected, only to find that it needs even more work than we thought it did.

Ok, now we have arrived at where we are today! Not bad for a 1^st day of blogging!

So if you want to know what happens …tune in next time for more of the exciting saga of “The Donnell Family’s Coast to Coast Adventure” or “What Happens When a Workaholic, Sneaker Head, His ADHD Inflicted Wife and Two of Their Slightly Ill-adjusted, but Really Cute Kids Take on Baltimore, While Their Eldest Child Follows Her Calling to Lead  In the Fight to Keep Portland Weird”.