NEW JOB FOR EMMETT!!!

Congratulations to my wonderful husband on his new job!

We are so excited. It has been a VERY challenging 8+ months that he was either not working or working sparsely and if it hadn't been for UCSF, student loans and some small contracting gigs that seemed to materialize out of thin air when we were down to our last dollars, I just don't want to think about it - suffice to say, God is good. And we are stronger as a couple and as a family for managing these challenges and finding our way through them.

I know it was a bit disappointing for Emmett to have to turn away from the idea of self-employment, but I think that for now it was the right decision. Part of growing up I guess is realizing what is best for you in reality, which may be very different than what you think will be best for you in your daydreams. However - I still hope to be able to support him to get to law school at some point. I do think he would be happy with that and would do very well. However, I also think he would do very well if he could advance to sales management. I could see him being a wonderful sales manager mentoring other people in their sales career - he has a great deal of empathy and is outstanding at walking that line between the best interest of the company and the best interest of the employees.

Okay - but I've talked so much about what we're NOT doing, but so far not much on what we are. Emmett is going to work as an account executive at a company called parature (http://www.parature.com). I know it's a CRM software/service, but not a whole lot more at this point. I also know that the salary is more than the last job and that it pays commission which should in theory double the salary - what a coup that would be for us!!! It seems like the product will be saleable and that the commission structure makes this very manageable, so we are keeping are fingers crossed but are incredibly optimistic about 2007. Please send good wished and good luck our way as he embarks on this new career. It's a start up so there are some stock options (you never know!) - not enough to get rich, but maybe someday a nice nest egg. More relevantly to me is the idea that working for a start up may allow him to achieve and move up faster than he would in a larger, more bureaucratic environment.

So - congratulations to Emmett - I love you, baby.

He starts on December 28 - the greatest Christmas present our family could have gotten.


Love to all of you,
Melissa