AWWWWW...So we finally got a night OUT of the house ... together! We were celebrating.

My talented, smart, motivated hubby took his California State Licensing test to become a Tile Contractor and passed the first time! From what I understand, that is a tough thing to do. But he did it!

This is something he has wanted since before I even knew him. But because of the costs and time and motivation, he never went for it, until now.

I knew he would pass. In fact, it never even crossed my mind that he wouldn't. I called my mom a few days earlier to watch the kids and told her what was going on. She said she would love to watch them, but to be prepared because these state licensing exams are VERY difficult to pass and that we could go out and comisserate if nothing else. I told her "Oh no, he'll pass, we'll be celebrating for sure" ... and we did!

OMG, we went to the Elephant Bar and they make a MEAN rasberry lemon drop you guys ... not to mention the mai-tini I am modeling for you here :-D

Hahahaha, now while I was taking pics of my totally girly-foo-foo drinks, DH kept saying "well how come you don't wanna take a pic of mine :-(" But he just had some regular no-frills thing, so next he ordered some crazy looking concoction here JUST so I would take a pic of him holding it!

So that was a great night.

Well, about two weeks later as we were waiting for his license process to finish, we got some unexpected news.

No ... I'm not pregnant. But it was just as bad as THAT would have been ;-)

With no warning, and not so much as a word from his own boss, my DH was laid off.

He called me Feb. 22nd at about noon and said "When can you come pick me up?". He had a company vehicle and they met him out at a job site and said "We'll drive with you to unload your truck", handed him his last paycheck, and that was that. No 'thank you for your hard work and sometimes 14 hour days', just a paycheck and kick in the ass.

And the REALLY shitting thing was, it was ONE FREAKIN DAY short of his ONE YEAR anni with that company. So he didn't get his full vacation pay. He barely got more than a normal paycheck!

Now, I think I handled this WAY better than the last time. Mostly because I knew we had a contingency plan in place. He had his Tile Installers license coming, and that was good, but then we found out it would take WEEKS to get his numbers and be able to work.

And I don't know if you all know what's going on out here in Cali, but the housing market is in a slump. It's a normal part of this cycle and won't last forever, but STIIIIIILL...

So we are holding up as well as can be expected, but we are back to a family of 6 with no income. It's not the end of the world, but to an OCD FREAK like me, it ain't pertty when I start wondering whats going to happen when the bills are due next month.

*I* have however, decided to do something about it! More on THAT tomorrow in my TAT!