Yippee!! good news

I got word during a staff meeting this afternoon that I get to reduce my work hours to 90% starting September 1!  I've been waiting for this since, what, January?  Our new therapist is doing well and finally was able to get in for her computer training today so now she can officially start writing notes on patients.
My reduced hours will equate to one day off every two weeks.  As a group, we decided that Mondays would be the easiest day for someone else to cover for me.  That works fine by me- that means that I'll get an extra day to my weekend. Since the first Monday in September is Labor Day, my first official day off will be the following Monday, the 12th.  And it will be every other Monday after that.  The only exceptions are if other people are needing to be off on Mondays.  I can be flexible and am willing to take a different day. So after the 12th, my next day won't be until the 30th. Of course, I get a three day weekend in the middle anyway since I work a Saturday so get the following Friday off. All clear as mud, right??
Anyway, I know my schedule and I'm really excited to get my reduced hours started.  Yes, it will reduce my income by a bit- but I did get a little bit of a raise this July.  Actually, with the raises I got last year and this, my reduction in pay for my reduced time should average out to about what I was making 2 or so years ago.  And even though prices on some things are higher now, we know we can live off that money.  Plus, V is working more these days and bringing in a few more $$.  We'll have to see how the finances start rolling out in October (the first month with decreased pay) but I'm not worried about it.  Of course, maybe I should be with J17 looking at college next year.
In other eggciting news: this afternoon I found two lovely little brown eggs nestled in one of the nest boxes.  The first time both girls have used the same nest box- and the first time we had both in the same day. This is Micah's 10th egg and Buffy's second.  So that brings us up to a full dozen in two weeks.  Now we're just waiting for the others to start... then we'll be swimming in eggs... I'm going to have to have someone save cartons.
We had a huge storm blow through just to the north of us this morning.  The sky was really dark and ominous and we got less than .01 inches of rain.  sigh...  So I was out this evening watering the baby corn and the squash.  I also picked some more tomatoes.  I'm going to let them all ripen a bit overnight and then tomorrow I'll can some sauce.
School activities are picking up and getting back into full swing.  J17 tried out for the school play and will know on Thursday if she got a part- they're doing Peter Pan. I14 has band rehearsal tomorrow night and then the first football game is on Friday- the nice thing is that J17 will take him.  She is senior editor of the yearbook and will be photographing the game.  K11, not to be left out of school excitement is on the school Safety Patrol and has his first week of duty this week, monitoring younger kids getting onto the buses.  Busy, busy times.
Other good news.  All family and friends out East are well after the big earthquake.  I talked to my sister outside DC and she said it was amazing.  Evidently even V's Mom felt it all the way in Reading, PA.  Now, everyone is battening down the hatches for Irene's arrival.  Ah, you've gotta love Mother Nature. Of course, with quakes to the East in VA and to the West in CO. I'm waiting the the New Madrid fault to rumble here in the midwest since it's overdue.  Now THAT would be interesting.