Hello all. It's a lazy Sunday afternoon here in the Barnes household after a productive day working in the yard. The grass is mowed and the bushes are trimmed now, woohoo! We're just glad we can wind down this evening a little while because the last week has been a little crazy for us. As Jill's previous blog mentioned, we headed back home on Tuesday from our Memorial Weekend in Tampa, and made a stop in Fayetteville to check on Valerie who was in the hospital. We spent the afternoon with her and Justin, and thankfully she was given her release to go home that same evening after seeing that her contractions had calmed down. We helped them load up the cars and followed them back to Newnan for dinner. After making sure all was cool at the Daniel home, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Marietta. For Valerie, she's currently on bed rest until week 35, which is next Sunday. Little Gavin is doing fine, but we all want him to grow and develop a little more in his mommy's tummy before meeting all of us. His due date is July 12th, although we all think he's more likely to be a June baby. Of course, having a June birthday would be fine because he would join his mother, grandmother, and uncle. ;-)
On to other news. So, some of you may have heard news about my job situation with Philips Design, and for those who don't know please let me share. This past Wednesday I returned back to work after the nice 5 day vacation, and while waiting for my morning coffee was asked to go meet with our Sr. Director in his office. With fresh coffee in hand, I walked in and sat down thinking we were about to talk about more potential opportunities like we had the previous week. Unfortunately, I was greeted with rather shocking news when he told me that our superiors in Europe were looking to make more job cuts in the coming months due to continuously falling sales, and that among those listed to be cut from our office in Atlanta was me. I guess I can't even begin to explain my reaction, mostly because it was neither "sky is falling" or understanding. Probably somewhere between is where my mind is right now as I consider what the ramifications of this news means to my career, and most importantly my family. With a 5 month old and Jill at home, and us closing on a home after waiting 6 months to sale our Nashville home, and being so close to my side of the family...there are plenty of reasons why it is inherently important to try to stay put in Atlanta. I just don't know what opportunities will pop up until my job search really gets rolling along. I've already made some headway in the search, though. Updated my resume/portfolio. Contacted a slew of recruiters/headhunters. And have actually applied for a similar job in Alpharetta, which seems to be my best option for right now.
For this upcoming week I plan to keep my search going while also balancing out my continued job duties at work. Despite the outlook of my job, I do plan to travel to Charleston at the end of the week to meet with a client of ours. I may be approaching this trip as both an opportunity to create work for me while my days at Philips count down, as well as look at potential freelance/consulting after my time is up at Philips. I've thought about consulting for some time now, so considering my situation and need to stay in Atlanta, this may be a good time to consider that route for my career. I guess only time will tell, right. Wish me luck!
