Unplanned Unpaid Vacay

So, after almost 3 years of working more than 64 hours a week, 6-7 nights a week, from home I decided to find another job.  I loved answering the after hours calls for Pediatric offices from Arizona to Maine, however, my contract seemed to be in danger of being canceled by my boss about every 3 months or so and that many hours just flat gets old even when you enjoy what you do. 

So I found another job, going back to the hospital, back to adults.  Doing inpatient Med/Surg Rehab. (helping folks get moving again after knee and hip replacements mostly).  It's not my favorite type of work, but it's 36 hours a week with a $20,000/year raise! 

The saddest thing is that when I gave my boss of 3 years the standard 2 weeks notice she fired me!  Took all 13 shifts I had left away.  She even stated "increased absences lately" as her reason for firing me....since I worked 6 or 7 nights a week for over 2 1/2 years and in that ENTIRE time called in less than TEN SHIFTS TOTAL, this is ridiculous.

So I suddenly found myself with an Unplanned Unpaid 2 week Vacation!!

I decided to actually take it as a vacation and focus on spending time with my family before the stress of the new job set in.  I have kept track of the fun stuff I'm doing throughout the vacation so that at the end I don't feel like I wasn't PRODUCTIVE.......sometimes God gives us these moments to remember that being PRODUCTIVE doesn't necessarily mean we have "something to show" for how we spent our time.  

So, here you go!   How I spent my Unplanned Unpaid Vacation, I'll let you readers decide whether or not it was PRODUCTIVE.

Day 1 I taught the family to play Slap Jack. It was a real HIT!

Day 2 my now 10 yr old and I started reading A Christmas Carol together. Best part was when he asked if he could do different voices for the different speakers

Day 3 kids and I put up all indoor decorations but the tree

Day 4 drove to Dallas to get all the HR stuff done for my job.
 Day 5 EXERCISE!!  Walked 3 miles with our dog Makky, danced, lifted weights! It's been too long.

Day 6 Icepocalypse! 12 hours without power! Taught the kids to play Go Fish! Started our family Christmas puzzle, we worked on it till doing a puzzle by flashlight got too hard!

Day 7 taught kids to play Sorry! Gave the dog a bath....she's a dog of a different color now! Assembled and decorated the Christmas tree. Began the Christmas movie marathon!!!!!! (see the Movie Marathon post for the list of what we saw)

Day 8 Sunday and we're still iced in. Church was closed today and school is closed again tomorrow.  We spent the day snuggled in watching movies and playing Sorry!  So much fun! I was able to take the doggie for one of her walks today.  First time in 4 days! Felt great to stretch my legs, could have done without being pulled by my 77lb dog over the ice though.....wheeeeeeeeee. 

Day 9 STILL iced in!  praying for school to start back tomorrow!  Still watching movies and all the games they've learned this week are being played.  Also, having the kids draw and make picture ornaments for our tree and decorations for the house. I now have a Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come ornament and a Scrooge and Marley's Ghost ornament! 

Day 10  Started addressing Christmas cards...this is REALLY early for me!  Played more go fish and Sorry! with the kids, and rode the DART train for the first time!  It's kinda cool.  This will be my primary transportation to and from work since it saves the worst part to drive, the last 15 miles (in Dallas) off my trip.  I found out that my CPR isn't the right one for the hospital, so I will have to retake a CPR class before the 16th!  yikes.

Day 11 The kids and I finished stuffing, addressing and mailed A Hundred and One Christmas cards.  seriously!  We counted them twice! They had a lot of fun getting the labels and stamps on them...hope no one minds the placement!  Ha ha.

Day 12 Today I tried to figure out what I wanted for Christmas.  Not an easy thing for me to do, but hubby asked for suggestions so I came up with a few.  We also managed to squeeze a couple games of go fish in after homework and before bedtime! 

Day 13 Friday!  It's be a great and productive day.  Hard to believe this vacation is drawing to a close.  I was able to get my CPR redone in record time! I was also able to go to Dallas and turn everything in as well as get a Christmas present off in the mail.  Now time to relax with the kids in front of yet MORE Christmas movies!! 

Day 14 I cut 8 inches off my hair today!  wow!!  It's still down below my shoulders, it'd started almost waist length.  I also made it to Saturday night Mass for the first time in forever!  I can't wait to start my new work schedule and am able to rejoin this choir on a regular basis!

Day 15 Decorated OUTSIDE!!  yippee!  ALL decorating is done!  shew.  Is it any wonder I wait AWHILE before I take all this stuff down?  I mean really, if we just left the lights up yearround there'd be a lot less to do every December......or maybe I'm just a Redneck....

Day 16 Today I staredt hospital orientation and am going to be working daily 8-5 for a couple weeks. 

So what do you consider being PRODUCTIVE?

I have to say that I'm very glad I started keeping this record of my vacation activities.  I found that if I waited a day or two to log them in I had a hard time remembering what I'd done.  Now it's all a blur of activity.  But I feel like I enjoyed this vacation MORE than the planned one I had in October, probably because it came without warning and therefore I didn't have time to over plan my time.  This was a great break spent with the family.  Hmmmm, makes me wonder about God's plan, not only for this unscheduled break from work, but also for His return "like a thief in the night".  

Lesson?  Sometimes the best things in our lives are surprises and times left unplanned!

(although it would have been nice if it had been paid.....)
:-)
Have a great day folks.  I'll be around when I get some time off from work.....