Change is good.

A big change took place on Monday. I put my notice in at my current job. It was a hard decision, as you will see why. I traded in my full-time, regular employment status position for a contract position at another company. What this means is that I will not have any benefits with my new job- no vacation time, no health insurance. And the contract only runs through the end of the year. It was something I thought over very very carefully. I made the decision in order to improve my financial situation. You see, although I am frugal and have "gotten by"at my last job, things have been VERY tight and I've had to cut many things out of my life that I enjoy in order to "get by." When I took my current job, I did so after a period of unemployment and needed income and insurance. However, it was a very very large cut in pay from what I have previously been making. It was a fine job, working for nice people, but I discovered it was too low skill and sort of very boring, along with low pay. I missed the challenge of my previous work. This new contract position I accepted is making a substantially higher income; in the same range as I am used to making. The trade off is that I will have to pay for COBRA continuation of benefits at the hefty price of $600/month. There is a very good chance there will be an opportunity to turn this into a regular employee status position by the end of the year, which I will work hard to do.

Now as a person with T1 diabetes, celiac disease, grave's disease, allergies and recovering from a spinal cord injury, it is terrifying to take a job that does not have health insurance OR vacation/sick days (or days off for dr appointments). COBRA is only available for 18 months, which means I will have to work my TAIL off to turn this position into something permanent, or find something else within the company that is permanent. The biggest risk would be coming to the end of the contract without having an opportunity for either another contract or a permanent position- I would not be able to afford the COBRA if I had no employment. This is a very scary thing for an unmarried chica like myself who does not have a spouse's insurance plan (or income) as backup. The other risk of course is that I NEED to maintain perfect health for the next 5 months, or at least plan on going into work sick if I do get sick.

Sometimes you have to take a gamble in life in order to get ahead. I realized that there wasn't opportunity for growth in my current position. I don't want to struggle financially or have things always be "tight." I don't want to always carry medical debt. I just simply need to make more money.

I am a person who has a lot of faith and I believe this situation WILL work. I have faith in myself that I will have a full time employment offer by the end of the year.

It's a big decision, a little scary if I think too much into it because of the risks, but I need to just focus on the positive. I hope you all will be praying for me!

Everything has been pretty good this week. Blood sugars are hanging steady, allergies are sort of in check (except tonight when I had the crazy idea to bear hug my dog, rubbing my whole face and neck in her face and ending up with hives all over my neck, face, and arms). I know better than that. Nothing that a bath and a Benadryl can't fix.

Tonight I made a quick dinner- flash fried some organic chicken breasts in coconut oil with salt, pepper and garlic powder and then splashed on just a little Bragg's Liquid Aminos (it's a gluten free soy sauce) on top. I ate that with a side of green beans and then snacked on a few organic corn tortilla chips with bean dip. Dessert is strawberries sliced up in a bowl and some brewed iced herbal (decaf) tea from Teavana.

Tomorrow after work I have a friend coming over who wants some assistance in meal planning for the week. I've been working on a take-home instruction list for him tonight. He likes the idea of doing all the weekly cooking on Sunday so your weeknights after work are freed up. His criteria is that it needs to be simple, quick recipes that are also very healthy and cover all the food groups. No problem at all; I do that every week anyway. I'm making him a sample meal to try as well.

Time to call it a night. I've been go go going all day and it's time to put my feet up. :)