Questions and Answers

I love that I finally have a topic that's generating questions for me to answer! Maybe I should start a question feed and then do a giant post with all the answers.

Hmm...Someday. For now, my questions and answers about moving.

Will your husband get a job at another church?
Technically, he doesn't have a "job" with the church we're at now. Officially, we're co-volunteer heads of youth ministry. It's completely volunteer, 3 hours of a ministry time, plus prep and interaction with the kids all week, making sure things are ready for youth group, reminding kids to come and bring friends, making sure our rotating parent volunteers remember to come, planning events, etc... It varies week to week, but we probably average putting in 6-8 hours a week between the two of us. I do all the background admin stuff and communicating info to teens, and he's up front and center running youth group and actual events and doing all the teaching. We have a great third semi-head (would be head if she could commit weekly) and parents who rotate in and out who can hopefully step up a little and fill in some gaps when we leave.

In Houston, he's actually looking into getting full time employment through a photography studio chain down there, that has phenomenal schedules and benefits, and then working either part time in an existing youth ministry on the side. It's something he has a huge passion for, but at the moment, we need jobs that will pay a bit more than your average ministry and with having our own small photography business up here, this seems like a really good balance to shoot for.

Have you ever lived in the south?
I lived in the south seasonally (December through April) growing up, but the husband never has. We've both traveled down south during all seasons though, and close to half of my family it down there.

Who is breaking the news to mil?
The husband already did, and she handled it without crying, at least instantly in front of him. I left all of the telling his family the news up to him. Though, I've already gotten some backlash from them as we'll be living with my family at first, and they think I'm "making" him move there because I "have to" be close to my family. Big misconception on their parts, but I don't really care right now.

So excited for your big move is it to a house or an apt?
At first, we'll be living with my parents to pay off a bunch of debt, then hopefully signing a one year lease on an apartment or hopefully townhome, before moving out of Houston (I don't want to start a family in such a large city, and near my grandmother) and then hopefully buying a house wherever we end up then. The plan is to live rent free with my parents (their idea) for 6 months and pay off everything but the school loans and one car payment, then get our own place and have a fresh start.

You see, we got hit by a bank fiasco 6 months into our marriage. They changed a policy, only posted it on their online banking page (which we didn't even have our account registered to use) and it ended up costing us $1500 in fees, along with draining our checking account and bouncing almost $1000 worth of bills. $3100 later, we had no savings, two maxed out credit cards, and our credit score had dropped from 710 to 500. We're slowly working our way up the credit score ladder, and paying down debt 10% over min payment at a time, but it will take us years to get to a place where we feel financially secure enough to consider a family. Rochester is not currently the best place for jobs, so we're kind of stuck with what we make right now. We've been wanting to leave the area for almost two years now, but without any real savings couldn't make the move. With all the in-law problems we just got desperate to make a change, and this just sort of all fell together.

So, this was long and newsy, happy reading if you bothered. I'll answer anything else that trickles in later. Right now I need to take advantage of the fact that little kid is napping and get some work done!