Whoo-whoo! Congratulations, Jill!!!

My lovely wife got a promotion today! And with it, a much appreciated raise that gives us a little breathing room in that post-baby very tight budget. :) :) :)

Jill works incredibly hard at her job, and she’s a total rock star. It’s so nice to see her being recognized and appreciated for that, a big change from the job she had when we first met.

It came at the perfect time, too. We had a long talk on the drive to and from the beach, about what we want next, both as a family and as individuals.

What we created out of that conversation, was a commitment that over the next ~2 years, we will set ourselves on track to be complete, fulfilled, and prosperous as a family.

That means Jill starts trying to concieve later this year (henceforth "TTC" — for those of you not in the hopefully-baby-making section of the blogosphere), with the hope of being pregnant by Noah’s 1st birthday, and on a career path that is intellectually engaging and fulfilling no more than 2 years from now.

And it means that I dive into the new job head first, getting certified as a privacy professional, and publishing an article on a privacy/law enforcement/4th Amendment topic in the next year. I want to develop additional breadth in my area of expertise. I’m also looking at ways for us to live on my salary alone for some period of time if it turns out that Jill needs some further education or training for her next major career move.

It would be great if that looked like big honkin’ promotions and/or raises for me, but it also might look like moving to a less expensive location. (We met like 5 families this weekend who all moved to the same slightly-further-out suburb when they had or decided to have baby #2. A third of the other babies in Noah’s class live there too. It must be the place where liberals with babies move when they outgrow the reasonably priced homes in our suburb.) Or it might look like some combination thereof. Or like something we haven’t imagined yet. The lottery?

In any event, it’s an exciting time here in Casa Booski!

(I can hardly even contain my excitement that Jill is ready to start the pre-TTC prep work we want to do — prenatal vitamins, tracking her ovulation for a couple of cycles, setting up doctor’s appointments — so that in a few months we can start trying to make Noah a big brother!)