Jon got a new job!

Two weeks ago (Monday), Jon had an interview at Community Housing Partners (CHP) for a construction project superintendent position.  That Friday he got a call letting him know he got the job!  So, Monday morning he let his old boss know he had accepted an offer with a different employer, and Jon had his last day of work this past Friday, November 5th.  He has this whole next week off and will start his new job on November 15th.  I'm really looking forward to spending time with him!

The catch?

The new job is a traveling position.  The project Jon is working on is in Kilmarnock, VA, five hours from here.  He'll be gone Monday-Friday every week until the project is completed (estimated to be July, 2011).  After that, he'll be on a new project that could be up to five hours away again. 

Surprisingly (or not, which you'll see why in a sec), Jon and I didn't give the distance factor much thought when the job was offered -- he immediately accepted.  He had really been struggling to remain content at his former job as a roofing contractor.  It was never what he wanted, but after graduating in May of 2009 and remaining unemployed until that November, a job was a job.  Jon was traveling all over the place, always up on a roof doing manual labor -- all for minimum wage (or less).  He was never compensated for his traveling expenses and the more and more he worked there, the more and more I felt he was severely taken advantage of.

But, hey, that's over now!  Community Housing Partners is an awesome company that treats their employees really well.  For those of you who don't know, CHP is a non-profit organization that focuses on providing affordable housing for low-income families.  In fact, they built the duplex that we currently live in -- which we love! 

Unlike his old job, Jon will be compensated for the traveling he does each week.  In fact, he'll have a company vehicle and the gas paid for!  Yay!  A HUGE change from his last job, and super awesome because we were tired of all of the miles he was putting on my car.  He'll also have a housing allowance and daily food stipend.  And even better...he'll have BENEFITS!  We had ZERO benefits from his previous employer.  Finally having health insurance and a retirement plan is SUPER awesome!

Being away from each other will be difficult, especially now that we're parents.  I'll be a single, married mom during the weeks.  But, I've got great friends that can help support me when I need it during the week.  Plus, Keziah is now in daycare, so I'll be able to get things done during the day.  Once this semester is over, I'm going to go out to live with Jon until the spring semester starts.  Then I'll go stay with him over spring break and at the the end of the spring semester until he completes the job in July.  So, while we'll be away from each other a lot, there will be lots of time that we're able to live together.  Jon will also be coming home every weekend.  According the CHP guy that interviewed him, it will be rare, if at all, that Jon has to work weekends.  So, he should be able to come home the majority of the time.

A HUGE burden has been lifted off of Jon.  I'm so happy that he'll finally be able to enjoy going to work each day. 

It feels good! =)