FREE February 2003 - March 2003

FAMILY Happy Birthday! Sarah turned 18 on February 20th. So far she hasn't gone wild. (knock on wood) Wonder what happened to all those threats over the years about how when she's 18 she'll do whatever she wants? Instead, she's working and making Straight A's in school. Funny how your perspective changes as you mature. Either that or she's an alien imposter and the real Sarah is on the mothership headed back to planet-X. Alan is still working and attending Olympic College. He plans to spend another year there then move one to Evergreen State College. Jackson is on the go all the time. He wears out his daycare lady then comes home and wears us out. More photos Alexander is doing so well that they are going to integrate him back into the public school system. He'll be in a special class consisting of 4th, 5th and 6th grade kids with disabilities. Laura has been rehearsing for a talent show at school in April. She and a girlfriend are doing a comedy act.

NEWS Jobs in Jeopardy The EDS contractors officially took over most of the Information Technology jobs on Mar 3rd. Several fellow civil service workers resigned and went to work for EDS. Those of us who are left are seeing our everyday jobs slowly disappear. Some people will get the chance to move into new jobs in other areas that won't be affected in the immediate future. The contract doesn't cover every aspect of IT so everyone who is left still has work to do maintaining legacy systems. They keep telling everyone that there is plenty of work to be done and that no one should worry about being laid off but at the present time, no funding has been approved for the next fiscal year. So, nobody really knows what will happen come Oct 1st. Looking for Work Needless to say, we've been scanning the want ads regularly. We've applied for several jobs in the southeast but so far no luck. In the event that we don't find anything before Oct and funding dries up and people are laid off, we would be put on priority placement for jobs elsewhere. The problem with that is you don't get to choose where you go. Though we're GS-11s, we've been Applying for 9-12 level jobs. We'll take whatever we can get. If we take a lesser grade job, they will match the pay we make now so we won't be hurting financially. Unfortunately, most of the jobs don't pay relocation expenses...and that will hurt! We've done a lot of self-evaluating lately and we both agree we're tired of working in the computer field. Once we get settled elsewhere, we plan to enroll in a Real Estate course.

HASSLES Moving As if worrying about our jobs weren't enough, the owners of the house we're renting have decided to put it up for sale again. There's been a steady stream of people coming to look at the house but so far no one has made an offer. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we find work elsewhere before it sells. It would be a major pain to have to move somewhere else then turn around and move again when we find jobs. Sarah hasn't made up her mind whether she will come with us or not when we move east. She doesn't want to live with her Mom but she can't afford to live on her own. She doesn't really like it in Washington but she also doesn't like hot weather. She wants to go to college here but again she can't afford it on her own. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out. MISC Sarah's car died on the way home one night. She got it at an auction earlier in the year and we had hoped that it would last until she graduated but it just couldn't go another mile. We traded it in for a 94 Pontiac Sunbird. EVENTS / OUTINGS The last two months have been boring and depressing. Between the weather being nasty this time of year and worrying about the future, we haven't had a chance to get out and do much of anything besides the occasional movie or dining out. ARCHIVES Did you miss last month's edition? GAZETTE ARCHIVES