Changes

Life has been full of changes for our family since Feb. I attribute it all to subscribing to Direct TV in Feb. Since then, it's been one change after the other! For years, having cable out here where we reside was not even an option. Then it became an option, but we held the line. Kids needed to be reading and studying, not wasting time on television! This past Feb. we finally decided that Discover, History, and all those other channels would be good for the last kid's education, who was very much missing all the action of siblings who had flown the nest. That was the beginning of changes. First of all , the older kids were absolutely incredulous that we were finally doing this. Then, our supplementary job ended....a week or so after we subscribed to that Direct TV thing! We decided I would go back to direct patient care with my nursing degree a year early. We had previously decided we would wait till last kid was done with his high school courses. Since he still needed supervision, plus company, we agreed June would be my month to start looking and go back. By July 6, I was in orientation at a new job.

That was a big change for all of us. No one could just get me at the drop of a hat anymore on the phone. Sometimes, they had to wait for hours now to speak to me. I was very fatigued and on knowledge overload for a month, so I wasn't as much fun to speak to as I had been. After my first 12 hour day shift on orientation, I came in the door and literally said to my family,"Don't anyone speak to me. I have no energy left."! Then the change of switching to night shift started in July. Thank goodness it is only 2 shifts a week, because my body is still wondering about this change and what I am doing to it.

Then, we needed to get a car for the youngest kid to drive to community college classes, in addition to seminary. But the car died that had been faithful to two daughters through nursing school. So now, we needed two new vehicles. After driving very old Toyota vans around for 21 years (not the same ones, just old ones replacing older ones), we went for two old, but new to us, Honda CRV's. Our time was running out to get everyone situated with a vehicle, so these were actually both bought in one day! All four kids were astounded! I think they thought we were losing it at about this point. Two younger kids inherited current old Toyota vans.

In December, our first grandchild will be born! I am trying to keep a schedule that will allow me to keep her one day a week for her parents. In March, our third child will be getting married! A few months later, our last child will be graduating from high school. This will definitely be a couple of very eventful years in the life of our family!

Another time, I will blog about going back into my nursing career after being with my kids for so many years. I am still pinching myself. I am thrilled to be back involved with direct patient care again. I always liked my nursing career, but wanted to be with my kids while they were growing and learning more. I do not regret doing it this way. Staging was a good thing for our whole family.

But I think Direct TV should come with an advisory warning: Subscribing to this service may set off a series of serious changes in your life!