I live for the weekends...

Being a nurse for over 4 and 1/2 years now has gotten me pretty immune to what a "weekend" really consists of. When I first graduated, I was working day/night rotations. Let me tell you, those are awful. Basically, you could be working three 12 hour day shifts in a row, have a few days off, work three 12 hour night shifts in a row, a few days off, then back to day shifts. It was so draining mentally and physically, and needless to say, I never saw Eric. After being on that unit for awhile, my seniority as a nurse there made it to where I could work straight day shifts. Although that was wonderful as well, I still worked every third weekend, holidays, etc. We've been down here five years and I've still yet to be able to go home at Christmas because I've been working on or around the holiday every year.

As nurses, we all know this going into the profession, especially working in a hospital setting... obviously the hospital can't close it's doors on weekends or holidays like most other professions. After we had Alli, I knew that going back to the set weekends, the holidays, etc. was going to be much too difficult. I love my family (a lot), and cherish the time I get to spend with them. Yes, working 3 days a week is great, but it's not so great when I'm off a random Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and have to work Saturday and Sunday when Dad-E is off. It means nothing to me to have those three days off during the week if I can't spend it with him. Sure, we could probably even make it work so we wouldn't have to put Alli in daycare if I chose to work every weekend, but we'd never see each other! Taking this new Meduflex RN position meant that I can choose when I want to work, only have to work one weekend shift a month (so, one random Sunday a month sure is better than an entire weekend!), and one major/one minor holiday. We get cancelled so often too that the holidays are more than likely going to be just a formality of signing up for it, not actually working it. The getting cancelled thing has been a real downer lately, but I'm working hard to get oriented in the adult hospital as well so my chances of getting cancelled will decrease dramatically. I absolutely love getting to spend time with Alli and Eric (and Scarlett too of course!) as a family, not just seeing each other in passing while one of us is off to work. Sure, we could be making a lot more money if I worked weekends, or night shifts... but we could also both be making a lot more money if we lived somewhere other than Charleston...

But, do you get to go to the beach every weekend?

The lifestyle is worth it. We had to make that choice five years ago when we moved down here... knowing we could make more money elsewhere, but choosing the lifestyle over the money. So, here's where we have to live it up, not be so caught up on money issues, and cherish the weekends and time together. Not having a set weekend to work means we can have visitors whenever too, and I can just change my schedule around that. Last weekend was Dallas, Tiffany and Izabella, this weekend is Gena, Rob, Anneliese & Wallace.

We live for the weekends... especially when we're at the beach and can say, "It's not vacation. It's just the weekend."