Day 1

I swear I'll take a break from this monotonous kind of blogging soon, but I like getting things out of my head. It helps me focus on what I need to do now.

So today is Jim's first day of orientation.  He is orientation all week, 1 day at the corporate headquarters for the hospital system, 1 day back at the college of nursing in the auditorium space, and 3 days of computer system training back at corporate.  Next week he'll move into working 3 12-hr shifts on the floor per week.  I am SO jealous of this schedule.  But also really glad for us as a family.  During his training he has no night shifts and I don't think he has to work weekends either.  So that should make for a nice summer with lots of time for family outings.  Everything we've been missing for the past 3 years.  Trips to the zoo, park, beach, pool....

I can't wait to catch up tonight and hear how it went.  Although I have a feeling this week probably won't be all that exciting... paperwork for benefits, payroll info, getting his new badge etc.  Kind of like the first day of class where you get your syllabus and find your seat but don't really get into anything interesting yet.

Being a numbers nerd I have been running the numbers like crazy trying to figure out what our new budget will look like, and tackling the "to do" list of items around the house that need to be repaired, fixed, updated, etc.  Emily's college fund to be reactivated and his 403B to be activated.  All the things we put on hold for the last 4 years have to get back up and rolling. Oh, and don't forgot that student loan repayment starts this month.  But if I have the numbers crunched right and we keep our lifestyle similar to what it is now, we should be able to pay off his student loans completely in the next 12-months, 6-months if we go nuts and do nothing else but put the extra income towards student loans. Yay for paying off debt!