$M: Tips from our house to yours. And we know a little bit about this now.

Would you believe, Jim was laid off again?

We enjoyed five years of steady employment before the first layoff, which was actually a complete shutdown of the company, last summer. You can read about that here. And we still look back on that as a really, really wonderful time.

Between then and now... See, then, that company was a part of the beginning... all those companies several months ago that just couldn't hold on any longer, and then they all started falling...you know how last fall the news just got very cluttered with stories of companies filing, failing, bailing, etc. and then The Man who gets to decide, decided that we really were in a recession?

So the last time he was laid off, it was new for us, but the economy wasn't quite where it is right now. Things just looked a little sunnier back then. And Jim had several options for new jobs in his field (mechanical design engineering). And he got one, in short order. It meant a commute, but really was a great job.

Then after a few months, it was announced that they were putting the kibosh on regular pay increases, then a little later, layoffs began, and Jim survived several. He was given much more responsibility, and made very important to the team (meaning, job security, as much as he could have it, with so little tenure to speak of). Then the pay decreases started- every salaried worker was cut 8.5%, and then a couple weeks later it was changed to 15%. Which, when coupled with a 2.5 hour daily commute... well, things were going to get dicey for us anyway.

And then last week, Jim was let go- with great reluctance, and a promise that he'd be asked back the moment they could afford him. We know they mean it, but are of course not holding our breath.

And so, here we are again.

And you know, at first it was of course not great news, but we'd been trying to decide what to do anyway, with the commute and the pay decrease.

But we know Who's we are. And we are in good hands. And we're not forgotten.

And we've done this before. So we knew what to expect, and what to do next.

We knew there was a chance this could happen, but of course it's still, you know, not what we wanted to happen. But we're sure, we'll be OK.

I know of at least a few of you who have been through this in the past year along with us. And there are some common threads we all shared.

I wanted to write a little about the practical things we've learned, and so I'm hoping to return later this week, after an important picture post tomorrow, ahem, with some things we've learned and experienced in the last 2 job losses. And so perhaps, if you end up in these same shoes, you'll at least know someone else has been there too.

So if you're fearing our same fate, or if you're cruising on the same ship with us and we didn't even know it, these posts might be for you.

Step one is just me letting you all know what we're going through, so if you felt alone, you'd know you weren't.

Losing your job used to sound so negative, something to be ashamed of. Now, it's almost chic. Everyone's doing it. It's the new black. Or whatever. You are not alone.

I may even get Jim to guest post. What do you think? Can I get him to do it?