Well, here we are...

Today on the news, the anchorwoman flashed her white teeth as she declared in an upbeat voice that underemployment is becoming the new normal. There's nothing new about it to us. We have been either underemployed or unemployed for over five years.

When we moved to Utah, 5 1/2 years ago, we knew we were leaving a nice life behind. Mike was General Manager at an 80+ room motel that was owned by his parents. We had all sorts of little perks in lieu of larger numbers on our paycheck. Free rent, free cable, free use of snowmobiles, tour vans and dude ranch accessf, free gas, free movies. Sometimes we would get a loan taken care of instead of a raise on paper- so we could avoid taxes. We lived at the door of the national park and it was a great life.

Yet paradise had it's downside. A small town, the challenges of a family business, the desire to give birth to my kids at a hospital closer than 90 miles. Then we discovered our oldest child had a disability. A disability that needed intensive therapy, therapy we couldn't access in a remote town of less than a thousand people. We left that great life behind to start a new one in the shadow of our college alma mater in Utah.

The first job Mike took was to get his foot into the Salt Lake valley door. It payed only 38,000/ year but it would do. Soon it was apparent he had been hired onto a sinking ship; the hotel was in bankrupcy.

"Onto bigger and better things," we told ourselves. His next job was at a high- end resort in the moutains of Utah. He was shortly given the old heave-ho when the owner's brother expressed an interest in running the property. Job after job, Mike had to take pay-cut from the previous postion. Now he just finished a term at UVU, working as an adjunct professor for a measly $1000 a month.

If there's one thing we know, is how live underemployed or unemployed. We hope to share our exeriences of the good, the bad and the funny. You can have a great life in our position and it will make you a stronger family and person.