ZACH HAS A NEW JOB! (Sorry for the extremely long title... and post!

Alright... so many of you know... but many of you didn't know that Zach got laid off back in December. And up until now has been unemployed (he had a small part time job... but still we considered him unemployed) his first day of work was June 1st... he lost his last job December 9th 2008 which means we were one week shy of being jobless for 6 MONTHS! Crazy, I know.  

Can you believe that? He got laid off right before Christmas... when I was 6 months pregnant! I didn't ever blog about it then just because it was a sensitive issue, but now that it's over I think the story should be told for those who care anyways,

Okay once upon a time... (hahaha) In April of 2008 Zach and Natalie graduated BYU-Idaho and moved to Denver for Zach's job. He had gotten a job at the Denver Newspaper Agency as a sales rep with the intention of moving in the direction of marketing, which is what his degree is in. After about a month Zach told me that the job sucked... but was definitely going to stick it out because after all, we moved here for it. But after just a short time there, his boss, his bosses boss, and the Senior VP of Marketing (which is who hired him) all got laid off! So very quickly we realized that there was absolutely NO future with this job. All sales reps were in a union which meant that Zach's job was safe. However... even if they wanted to promote him he wouldn't want to be promoted because then he would just get laid off (which is exactly what happened to his boss). Anyways,

After his boss found a new job he called up Zach and convinced him to meet up with him because he thought Zach would be a good fit and they were hiring. After a lot of talking/praying and thinking about it (especially because I was 5 months pregnant at this point) Zach decided to change jobs. What's really funny is that the Rocky Mountain News had just been posted for sale. Which was half of the Denver Newspaper Agency... and we laughed and said stuff like: "good thing you left that job! hahah" And what happens next you ask? Well, the company closed their doors just one month after Zach started.  They called everyone in a room at about 3pm one day and pretty much said: WELP YOUR SH*T OUT OF A JOB (mom try not to be offended... by the S bomb). Dang. When Zach picked me up from work that day I just had a feeling, I looked at him and said: "do you still have a job?" and the answer was "No". Dang again. At first I was okay and then about half way home I totally broke down. 

So... here we are it's December 9th and Zach doesn't have a job and I'm 6 months pregnant. HMM...  Of course no one is hiring at the end of the year. So Zach starts applying every where with no luck because to do what he wanted, you have to have experience and how do you get experience if you can't get hired? SO SILLY. So instead of settling for another sales job which he didn't want... we decided to stick it out and hope for the best. Zach found an internship downtown for a Search Engine Optimization Agency (this is what kind of work he was wanting to do all along) and worked there 2 days a week for free.  Then three days a week he had a part time job. We decided that once we have a bunch of kids, we wouldn't be able to reinvest time very easily. So, it was now or never for Zach to get experience in what he really wanted. And lo and behold... IT PAID OFF!

A few weeks ago Zach started getting all sorts of calls for phone interviews and then those turned into human interviews (haha). He was applying to anything that sounded good and he applied to a job on Craigslist that didn't say what the company was. Well, they called him and did a phone interview and it was CROCS! Yep, that's right, the shoe company. Then he went in for an interview, and then a second interview and then they offered him a job! (And... the next day Zach had another interview with an agency downtown and they offered him a job too! Two job offers in two days... awesome.) We are so excited I can't even tell you how grateful we are. The pay is great, the benefits are great... and best of all Zach loves what he is doing. Today was only Zach's second day and he loves it. 

Zach is a GLOBAL SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING ANALYST. Awesome huh? It's him and about two other people who do all the internet marketing for the company. It is a very entrepreneurial atmosphere, and they will consider any ideas Zach has... which is RAD. Not only that but Zach gets a pair of free shoes! haha and I get a great discount WOO WOO! 

Anyways, I think this is the longest I've ever blogged. Which is precisely why I didn't write about it until I had several minutes to do so.

We are SO grateful that Zach found a job and that he really enjoys it (yes, only two days in but he loves the work and it's an awesome atmosphere). I feel like we moved here for a very good reason, when he got laid off we felt confused and maybe a little upset, but I feel like we needed to have that experience. I don't think Zach will ever take a job for granted. And I don't think I will ever complain that Zach has to go into work. We have been truly blessed, 10 fold. 

And for those of you who think Crocs only makes ugly shoes... I totally want these ones:

And they have a lot of other cute shoes. A lot of ugly ones too, but a lot of cute ones. They even have high heels!?  So you should check out their website so you stop thinking they don't have cute stuff! (EMILY!) 

Seriously, can you believe these heels are Crocs?
And these are the pair Zach picked out to get for free.

Anyways, check out there site! You'll see...  just click here and look at all the variety! Okay, and finally I'm out!