Big News

At the end of this year, I was planning on cutting down my hours at work. It's been a bit of a hard year; the oncology is finally getting me down at times.

So it's finally done! I've spoken with the boss, and cut back my hours. Woo hoo!

To zero! I actually resigned!! Aaagh!

It was Nathan's idea, and he wanted me to resign almost more than I did. He's looking forward to having a wife that he sees sometimes ;-)

I'm really looking forward to trying out this "housewife" thing. I won't have to get up early. I'll have time for hobbies. I won't have to think about sick people. I'll only have to go to the hospital to donate blood. I'll always be able to go to family birthday teas. I can invite the kids to our place more often. I can waste a day at the library. The house will be neat. The guinea pigs will know me. The garden can get weeded. I'll be off for the Summer!

So I finish on December 18, which is a little cheeky, as it was my turn to work Christmas this year!

Getting used to one wage will be difficult, and I can't help feeling guilty for not contributing. I've worked full-time almost all my 6 years of marriage, and now I'm slacking off for a few months. Oh well. I think I can live with it!

If I get bored (very bored!) I plan to rejoin the nurse bank and work a few shifts a week. The boss said she'd give me work whenever I wanted to come back, which is nice. But I'm sure I'll find plenty of things I'd rather do at home...

Everyone at work knows, and they've been very nice! Telling me they'll miss me, telling me I'm doing the right thing, and (most of all) telling me what a fantastic husband I have!! When they ask me why I'm resigning, I tell them I'm having a rest while I can.

I am very sick of people saying "You won't be back; you'll get pregnant" and "So you're having kids next year?" and "Are you pregnant?"...you have no idea. It's nobody's business. Nobody's but mine, and it's really irritating when people are so nosy. That's my little whinge of the day, and I feel much better! I should be used to it by now, because people have been asking me about that for years. But it's annoying. It's one of the reasons I'm resigning instead of cutting down my hours. I can't go a week without someone asking if I'm pregnant yet (no exaggeration) and I don't want to be put in a position (when I am pregnant) of having to say so before I'm ready, or lying. Last year one of the nurses on our ward had an early miscarriage (one of the reasons you don't tell everyone too soon) and everyone on our ward knew. And this year we all knew about Coll's pregnancy before she'd told her family. I don't want that. And it would be horrible if you knew you couldn't have kids, but people kept bringing it up all the time.

Well, I have about 87 sleeps till I resign. How wierd will it be? Being a nurse has been part of my identity for seven years!

I have given up my holidays. I had 4 weeks off in November, but I didn't think it was worth having such a long holiday. So I gave them up, and now I get paid for them instead. So I'll resign before Christmas with 5 weeks of holiday pay. Nathan thinks we might get a couch. Woo hoo! I've been after a new couch for years!