So, much to my surprise, Mike comes home yesterday at 1230 in the afternoon as I'm heading into the shower. I'm mid-email, so I turn around and say, "Hey, what's up? How come you're home?" I hear him say something about "laid" and say, "Um, ok?" and then I say,"Wait a minute. What?" And he says quietly, "I got laid off."

He's worked there 8 years. He was their boy wonder the first couple years, and then the company hit difficult times and the past couple raises have sucked. When he didn't even get one this year, I wondered if we were in trouble.

We're in trouble.

His severance package should get us through March.

We're terrified. We're going to start making house repairs and clean it within an inch of its life so we can sell it, if he finds a job elsewhere. In this economy, we have already faced that possibility.

Horrifyingly enough, I had a dream about this in the summer. I don't know why, but I dreamt he got laid off and I had that prickly stuff on the back of my neck that made me feel like it was deja vu.

He asked me if he could mope for a day and I said no. I know him. He'll disappear into his computer and never come back. I said,"You do what Mark does. You reverse your schedule and you live attached to your computer and you won't come back. We cannot afford you to do that." He agreed. Later, when we talked more, he said that watching Mark did scare him and he realized how much alike they are.

We also agreed that we'd work together to get healthier during this time of transition. We're setting the alarm for ourselves, getting up early each morning and working on the house.

Her shortness was freaked. She cried on and off during waking hours and then had a hard time sleeping. Russell started to ride her butt and I called him out and said,"Hey, dude, she's freaked and she's little and she's working it out. Give her a break." He grumbled and grudgingly stumped backed to bed. We just kept hugging her and finally got stern and groused,"Get to BED!"

Today, we hit the livingroom and kitchen. I've got my boxes out there of winter clothes. I'm working on getting my summer clothes transitioned into those. I'm kind of waiting on laundry to process through, so I can get all the summer stuff out. I'll be working on that today.