Tag Archives: changes

When it all falls in place

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Back to the epic tale of Tracy.

There are times in my life when I have KNOWN without the shadow of a doubt that God is working and I am merely following His lead. I recognize it (not always right away—-which would be soooooo much easier) when my life seems to take an unexpected turn and wild ideas pop into my head WITH SOLUTIONS to the unexpected turns. My/our current job change is one of those times. And it is still in progress, so it is absolutely terrifying and fascinating to experience.

Once I recognized that my job wasn’t mine to keep and that we were being called to New England (it appears—remember, this is still in progress, we aren’t there yet!) I remembered that a former co-worker/friend and his wife had traveled years ago as X-ray techs and that seemed to be an interesting idea to pursue as well as a great way to figure out where we want to live and work—a kind of “try before we buy”. I talked with my friend who gave me good insight on travel life and I found a couple of helpful Facebook groups which had a ton of information and with that combination of guidance and direction everything snowballed very quickly. Much faster than the original thought of “two years from now”.

After narrowing down travel companies and figuring out a start date for a my first travel assignment (with a very generous resignation timeframe from my job), I resigned from my position and vaulted into the travel world. I was able to stay on PRN with my company since I have quite a wide range of abilities within the company, so it worked out well for them and I keep a foot in the door and pick up extra shifts when convenient. Win-win.

Ironically enough, since I had been out of clinical for the last 3 years and had no travel experience, I was not the hot commodity I thought I should be. Apparently 30 years of experience means nothing. Enter humble pie. Somehow though, I ended up with an interview and offer for a job 2 hours away with the hospital I worked at straight out of X-ray school—-it seems they would be my “first” again. Side note: Conveniently, this job is located in the same town our youngest son attends college. Bonus!!

The next step was to find housing since it’s not practical to make a 4 hour commute daily. After reviewing a few options of a “room for rent in a house”, I was able to find a studio apartment for a reasonable rate and super convenient location. It provides exactly what I need: bed, shower, coffee pot and a mostly quiet neighborhood and most importantly—-NOT in someone’s house. I sleep “ok”—not great, not horrible, but it’s fine. As soon as I finish my last shift each week, I drive home. It usually takes me a couple of hours to wind down after each shift, so it’s nice to do that in the car and be back in my own bed that night.

The actual job is busy. No surprise. It is a fast-paced 12 hours, but the ER team is great to work with and time flies. 13 weeks will be up before I know it. In fact, I am already at the point where I am reviewing positions for my next assignment which is wild to me!

The downside of the job is the shifts are on the weekend. The upside is I am home all week. My weekdays are finding a new rhythm and this new freedom has provided an enormous blessing…..to be continued

New job Jazz

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Last week I told y’all I am leaving my current job to start with a new company.  Now, I’ll give you some background.  It’s all very God-lead, in my opinion, and I’m just standing back amazed as it all unfolds.

I’ve been intermittently keeping an eye on a local hospital for job openings for some fill-in work on weekends for quite some time now and have barely gotten a bite; talk about your ego bruising.  Once again, a PRN (fill in position) came open, my friend let me know and so I said to the Hubs, “this is the last time I put in and then I’m done.”.  A week later he encouraged me to send the follow-up email to the director, to which I grudgingly did so, lo and flippin’ behold, she emailed me back and followed up with a phone call to set up an interview the following Monday.  The interesting part on the phone call was that she was giving me a pretty detailed time-line of interview, decision, orientation, 2 weeks notice, yada, yada, yada.  I hung up with an appointment and totally confused as to why on earth I’d need to give notice for a PRN position.

Obviously I went home that night and scoured the website for other openings that maybe I missed.  Sure enough, a full-time position at a new facility of the hospital’s was posted.  What?  Full-time?  Not even on my radar.  This was going to be interesting.  Now I was just curious as to where this could go and IF I would follow through.  If it was meant to be….it would.

I had my interview, which felt comfortable and easy and AN HOUR LONG!!!  Waited a whole week and finally, FINALLY got the call.  They picked ME!!!  The Hubs and I had some decisions to make, and I had a feeling that this might be God’s timing and I would be best suited to follow Samuel’s lead and follow along.  I also had a deja vu moment from when I bought the house…read HERE   and that worked out beyond my wildest dreams, so yes, I was absolutely curious.

And so, in the end, I leave a job that has been very good to me for the last 10 years and step out into a company that can offer me more opportunity for future growth.  The craziest thing is that both the Hubs and I are completely and totally at peace with this decision.  It will require some schedule shifting and kid-compliance, probably multiple times over the next several months as the center opens and hits its stride, but everyone is on board.

So, change is a comin’ and even though I don’t love change, I’m ready to embrace what the future holds.

As a bonus, I get some catch up time with friends across the state in the interim, so #WINNING!!

 

Changes. Challenges.

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Door challenge

Door challenge

I absolutely won’t be trying this #doorchallenge anytime soon….my aching back just watching these girls get into this position and then reverse and then again.  But they did it.  And grammed it.  Challenge: complete.

My own challenge comes in form of a new job.  Sort of.  What?  Yup.  After a decade with the same company and my degree just sitting on its haunches, I happened into a position with the competition (also a far larger organization).  While, the initial position is essentially a lateral move, the potential for growth is better and with a large, well-run organization there are countless other benefits.

I can’t explain it, but there is a tremendous sense of peace in this decision both with myself and with the Hubs.  The peace, I am certain, lies in the job itself opening to a Full-time position when I wasn’t even looking.  Good friends, old friends, who unknown to me at the time, were background cheerleaders to the powers that be before and after my interview.  The timing is quick, with little time to second-guess and drag it out.  Basically, knock, open, go in.   God is in control.  Fully.  With no doubt.  And I’ve been here before, when He opened the door to our house.  Sometimes, those prayers of “Please….God….I am dense and thick and need you to make this clear as day”, really DO get answered.  Not always right away, not always the way I think I want them to be answered, but it does happen.  And it’s just WOW.  Really.  Wow.

I mean, I know NO one at this office.  It’s brand new, Opening day is September 8.  My 7 minute drive and 5 mile world just opened up to about a 30-ish minute commute and a 20-something mile world.  What.  The.  Heck.  It’s all good though and clearly I’ll have more time for phone calls and podcasts with additional time in the car.

It will be an interesting year ahead and I’m excited to see what lies ahead.  It’s time.  And I’m up for the challenge!  So, here’s hoping I’m hopping from the fire to the pan and not vice versa!

 

Seasons of friendship

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I am blessed with friends.  So very, very rich in friendships going all the way back to early elementary where I still keep in touch with friends from the old neighborhood.  I collect friends along the way.  Cherish them.  Keep in touch.  It’s why I send so many Christmas cards and the dang post office sure keeps me saving my pennies so I can continue to do so.

Friendships have many seasons though.

Right now I am in a dry season.  We are in a dry season.  Not to say we are out of friends, but merely because life is so busy.  Everyone.  So. Busy.  We are just in a season in our life where our kids keep us rockin’ and rollin’ and that’s not going to stop anytime soon and guess what?  Our friends.   They’re in the same season.  With their kids.

Of course, we live 4-7 hours from our dearest friends and so I think sometimes we just feel it more acutely.  The friends we have here are nice, but so very different in beliefs and seasons in life than we are and so it puts us in a weird place.

Someone once told me that the friends you make when your children are very young are friends for life.  I agree.  I just wish we weren’t so dang spread out.  That we would get more visitors.  That money wasn’t always an issue and we could go nilly willy and visit whoever and whenever we pleased.  That life would slow down a little.  But then, that IS life isn’t it?  Always ebb and flow. Change and change again.  It’s the way it is.

I’ll likely take a trip north in a couple of weeks to visit friends and hope to get in a maximum number of hugs and chats in my always too short trip.  I’m scheduled to shoot across to the state another weekend to have some one-on-one with an old friend.  It’s all good.  I’ll take what I can get, when I can get it and soak it in.

School situations and changes..

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Homeschool? Private? Suck it up at sucky public school?  All options we will be likely weighing over the next few weeks or months.  I know, “Do not worry about tomorrow….”.  Got it.  BUT…..what’s the difference between worry and pre-planning?  There is a good chance that due to a house sale our kids will lose the address that keeps them all in schools we have been happy and lucky with.  Except for our rising 9th grader who will keep his school due to the academy  he is in next year.

So our choices are:

  • suck it up for the schools we will be zoned for.  even though the middle school is NUMBERO UNO on the “Top 25 Incidents” in our area and the ONLY one with gang related activity (reported anyway).
  • find the funds for private.  right.  let me run out and check the garden to see if that lettuce is growing some Benjamins.
  • homeschool.  at this level.  I don’t even know if I’m capable.

So.  Just pray.  Chime in if you got some ideas.  I’m allllllllllll ears!