I've failed to mention in my update posts how proud and impressed I am with Chris for working so much and so hard lately. We've been largely absent from a lot of weekend things/random funtivities because of his INSANE work schedule right now. He let me know that a lot of people have tried to get in touch with him lately and he feels so so so bad he hasn't been able to give people the attention and love they deserve!

So here's the situation-Chris normally will have a very very dreamy nurse's schedule of 3 twelve hour shifts a week with four days off. His days off are NOT regular. They will always be sporadic. So he doesn't necessarily always have weekends off, in fact..he has to work two weekends of every month. So when we say we can't always commit to weekly schedules, that's why. The reason I try and stick with him on his schedules is that his "12 hour" shifts are never really 12 hour shifts, they are ALWAYS 12.5 if not 13 or 14. So if I were to leave without him to attend things or hang out with friends, he would have to come home and cook and eat alone after his super long work day. We try to stick together in that so I can serve that hard working man on those long days. When he gets home, dinner is usually ready or almost ready, and we eat and then he literally has to get his stuff ready for the next day and go to sleep so he has enough energy to make it through those shifts. We're usually done eating dinner around 9pm! (Or later if he had a crazy day and can't get home that soon.)

A couple months ago, Chris agreed to sign up to help with the hospital wide switch to a new electronic medical records program. This was a big stinking deal in this hospital! It takes a lot of work, time, training, and HELP. He offered to be that help at the sacrifice of a lot lot lot LOT of free time. So basically, instead of 3 days a week of crazy long hours, he works 5 of them. He gets into the hospital at 7am and leaves anywhere around 8pm for five days out of the week, and again, the weeks are not Monday through Friday, which makes for tricky work weeks. For instance-he recently worked EIGHT of these shifts in a row, because of how the two weeks fell together. So, you see, if you find that Chris has been MIA--I can attest to the fact that he HAS been MIA working his booty off. Eight of those shifts in a row is killer.

This obviously makes getting in touch with people problematic. We don't want to call friends/family late at night, and Chris is all about calling friends and family when he has enough time to offer them--something he can't do when he has to get to sleep.

I know there are people out there who DO work crazy hours Monday through Friday all the time, all year long, and don't necessarily get payed for all those long days, and I applaud you. There are sometimes when I wish that his schedule was more solid so that we could commit to more weekend and mid-week things, but you get the point.

The great news is that the insane schedule ends THIS WEEK! Yes! That's right! We're in the home stretch. And then he'll go back to having a social life!

So thank you for being patient with him/us in this season of working overtime. Text that man and tell him he's a stud. He is really the most hard working and disciplined man I've ever met, and he is SO eager to serve and he is SO sad when he misses out with friends and family. So send him some love and celebrate the end of this time with us. :)