I know that there are many out there that have questions or would like some feedback.  Maybe about your blog, being a firewife or girlfriend.  You can believe that if you have a question then others do as well.  I’d love to help you work through any questions, so please ask them.  I’ve put up a new contact form that you can ask questions.

You can ask anonymously or I’ll give you credit and link to your blog/site when I post the Q & A.  Just add that to the form .  I’m definitely not calling anyone out that doesn’t want to be out there.

Well time is up.  Now that he’s back to work, it’s time for vacation. lol

He has to take it or lose it.  He’s at the gym a lot now and this gives him a place to go in this time.  But we were supposed to be up skiing/boarding during this vacation time and that just sucks.  See unlike the rest of the country, our winter has SUCKED!  It was spring ski conditions up there weeks ago and I can’t imagine what it looks like now.  But we’ll be up there this weekend as Seth Wescott is going to be there and our youngest has decided he wants to get into snowboard cross.  SWEET!  It doesn’t get better than meeting a two time olympic gold medalist.  This is epic for his decision and I so hope and pray he can actually talk to Seth.  I’m going to have him work on questions to ask in the off chance we can get a few in.  YES, I will be a total stage Mom and push and shove to the front if I have to.  lmbo  TMI I’m sure

So this month is a bust with extra expenses already going out and it’s only the 9th.  I don’t think we can start very many of the remodel projects that are planned ahead.  Hopefully we can sit and plan out a couple of them.

Thankfully I have quite a handle on my work load right now.  So I can go off to visit his Mom and stepdad this week and other days.  He’s been awesome in planning things for 10am or later.  This gives me time to work on emails and projects in the morning and then go and play or visit if we’d like

Yes, life is going very, very well at this time.

I know, it’s been almost a month. But good grief, he hasn’t been working!  AHHHH

It was enough to get used to the schedule, but don’t expect me to go backwards and have him home.  He hurt his leg when we went skiing and was off work for 4.5 weeks.  I was actually hoping he could go on days, even leaning on friend that is HR to find him something.  lol

Thankfully, it healed up very well.  It’s always going to look weird, but it’s not causing him pain anymore and he’s back to work.  BUT ONLY 4 SHIFTS!!!

Seriously, that’s it.  Then he’ll be home for another 2 weeks.  He had vacation he had to take or lose it.  We’d figured we’d be in middle of ski season so it would work out.  Well ski season never happened up here as we have El Nino and it’s been freakin’ 60 more days than I can count already this year.  Not normal for Seattle.  So now he’s in spring cleaning and remodeling mode.  Very cool, go with that…hey, NOT ME!  DUDE, I STILL HAVE TO GET WORK DONE!

Sitting here on the computer working makes me feel guilty.  It’s my problem to deal with, but I keep getting up and cleaning something, then back to work.  Then off to train clients or teach class, home to clean or fix up something and back to work.  It’s definitely time for a girl weekend away or just a weekend by myself.  I’m leaning towards the time by myself.  I’m one of those people that really needs space.  Him home for 4.5 weeks and not able to drive or get off the couch much was a lot for me.

So that’s why it’s been quiet.  I’ve also been working hard on some new projects and merging some biz’s.  This has led to a lot of research in many areas and some of it will trickle to here.  You can look forward to some resources I found and definitely some shopping sites

It’s true.  Those with family in fire/ems never call 911, just like those that work in it won’t.   That’s for really sick or really hurt people.  lol

My Mom called me just a couple of hours ago, close to tears.  Phone connection was bad and honestly, I’m not sure what made me answer my phone anyway.  It’s Sunday and we are chilling out, I’d generally screen my calls.  But thankfully I answered.

She’d tripped over the dog and thought she broke her arm, can I take her to the ER.  Yup, on my way.  Hubby’s looking at me like I’m nuts, “why doesn’t she call 911?”  Because she won’t, so I’ll be back.  lol  I get a couple of blocks down the road and call her again.  I wanted to make sure she was ok to wait until I get there and didn’t need to call 911.  She said it was her wrist and she’d prefer a ride.

This after just 6 weeks ago my MIL fell and shattered here ankle.  Didn’t call 911, crawled to the car and my step-FIL drove her to the hospital.  THEY DIDN”T KNOW WHERE THE HOSPITAL WAS!!!  Thankfully their neighbor answered the phone and told them.  I mean, her ankle was a mess too, she really should have called.

However, I also have to remember that many won’t call because they don’t want the bill.  Especially those on a fixed income, like retirement.  Now my Mom doesn’t have that excuse, she lives in our district, so it’s a free ride.  But we have no idea about my MIL’s district.  So I try to remember that money is in people’s choices not to call.

But the biggest reason honestly is because it’s for those that really need it and they don’t want to be a bother.  I mean we all know the horrible calls that hubby goes on.  A sprained or broken wrist isn’t worth calling about right?  They have more important calls they need to be available for.  lol  OIY, I hope I call when if I ever need it and don’t make the same poor decision.  Better go grab my phone for Dad to call me and tell me how she is.

If you are a fire wife then you probably know how difficult it is to work with their schedule.  Especially if you have kids.  One thing that makes it even more difficult for me is vacations.

Before getting hired on full-time we didn’t go on vacations.  When you work construction if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.  There was no vacation pay or time.  So taking the loss of pay and also paying for vacation was out of the picture with little one’s to feed and clothe.

Now not only do we finally get the vacation time he so deserves and worked so hard for, but we have those 4 days off between sets to run off on little mini-vacations.  Needless to say there have been a lot of mini-vacations.  How’s a girl supposed to work around a chaotic schedule that we may run off at the drop of a hat?  I can’t! lol  Thankfully I work for myself so I’m able to rearrange things as needed.

For example, we are in McCall, Idaho right now and the plan was to leave early Sunday.  We’d be sure to miss the super-bowl because it’s at least an 8 hour drive back home.  I was bummed because I can’t ever remember missing a game, but it’s been a blast so I can suck it up.  Well over a few beers it was decided that the guys could all rearrange their schedules so we could stay another day.  lol  Gotta love the fact that there are always guys at the department that will do shift trades.

So that just leaves me and the millions of calls I’ll have to make tomorrow for canceling my seniors fitness class.  I feel like a little kid, I don’t wanna make the calls.  Quite a few of them will be really disappointed because I already canceled class on Friday.  But oh well, these are such great memories with the kids.  We went skiing at Brundage and it was AMAZING!  So much powder.

If I held a 9-5 I’d have been fired many times in the last 3 years.  So while hubby bitches about paying my bills, how can it be any other way and have me be ready to runaway on mini-vacations whenever we want?

I would never be complete without my firefamily.  When I answer women on other boards it’s truly hard to answer because I understand that I live in a tight-nit group.  Our class of guys graduated and went seperate ways, but then one of them came to our side the end of this year.  OMG, best thing EVER.  I love him, I love his wife, I LOVE HIS DAUGHTER. lol  His little (3) girl loves to wrestle and annoy our (11) boy. lol It’s awesome.

But most of all, I truly will never get over how much love I get.  They know me, they accept me for my faults that are many and they want to spend more time with me.  It’s not just because they love  my husband and they truly do, but the wives do come and hang with me as well.  That is a sign and unfortunately I’m a well read reader of signs.  But everyone we TRULY hang with is so awesome.

I wish a big, huge, merry Chrismas to those in my life. I wish extra strength to those with family staying with them. I also wish a huge amount of strength to those that have family that is so different than they are. My kids understand. I’m so different than grandma and grandpa. We love them, but I’m so different.  I am so much LIKE my aunt. lol  It’s how the apple falls and thankfully I am surrounded by many that love me for who I am, let alone what shift I am.

I’m ready to plan a shift wives vaca, cause we need to start small somewhere.

Atleast, we’ve already hit some of the set I hate the most. I hate it when they hit on M,W,Fr. BUT this also means we have two weekends that are open to get with family and do more things with the kids while they are home from school. So it’s a love/hate relationship. lol

But this week is the beginning of the month so today (tuesday) was mostly spent at Tech Rescue drill and then tonight has been union meeting. We’re having issues with how shift & stations bids are going down for yet a second year and also coming up very quick is scheduling K days and vacations. So this meeting was important. It’s been almost 3 hours though so I’m sure a bunch of them went to the bar next door to bitch and complain to each other over beers. lol

Since he has to work in the morning I know I won’t be getting a call to come pick him up. He doesn’t go to work hungover like that. Makes it real difficult to have patience on calls.

So where was I going with this rambling post? Oh, trying to balance it all when he is gone on this set is not easy. Right now my work is slow so that helps. But I still have to get everyone fixed up, fed, out the door and dinners done. Along with the regular housework. Just your typical single mom lifestyle I know. But I’m still going to whine about it, cause I’m NOT A SINGLE MOM!

I am not going to recap 9/11 with hubby. He was home and new stuff surfaced and it was good in my house, but it was eye opening.

Have you had a moment that you hit “wow, really, I need to explain this to how many?” I think I had that epiphany tonight.

See I know there are many like me that are here, supportive, partying with them and they really don’t know how their job effects us. Because damn it, we have to be tough as nails like they are in order to help them.

I’m not going to go into detail because unfortunately I’ve been online a good long while and understand how ideas on here work. But I think I have something here. I can’t figure out yet if it’s a book or a dvd. Hmm, maybe it’s both and that’s the difference. K, off to write part of the book and see what happens! OMG, wow, seriously minutes just happened and this hit of what I needed to do.

I’ve already started it, so let let me know your tips. I’ve already started two books because of it. lol

Wow, I’ve almost made it through the week of hell. It started out really rough, but now it’s just long. Most things have straightened themselves out and I did get a few loose ends tied up that I’d been meaning to get to.

But mostly, it’s just long and long and long. He has one more day of class and thankfully he had a K day today so he comes home after class. I’m looking forward to him back on regular schedule next week. These week long classes on top of shifts is just too much. Of course, it wouldn’t have been quite as rough if there wasn’t so much going on this week.

Even though he was home last night I still slept like crap. I have gotten up at 6am for 3 days now and barely had any sleep. Last night we had a huge thunder and lightening storm come through at 2am. It was HUGE and right over the house. So you know that didn’t help my sleep. lol Oh well, it sounded cool and lit up the bedroom with the lightening.

I grabbed OTC sleep pills for tonight. Tomorrow I will call the docs and make an appointment. I need to get a prescription so I don’t have this problem any more and also just get it on my records how bad it’s gotten. I should be crashing at night and I could just stay up if I wanted to. Sleeping so bad last night while he’s home really capped it. Time to fix me.

For those of you readers that know, I’ve posted about a really bad recent Ped’s Call and then again how I was ready to kick some serious ass if people didn’t stop asking him about it. Sorry, I know I work hard at keeping my language down on here (which is work for me) so I can stay more family friendly. But this call has been horrid.

Last night while laying in bed, hubby blurts out “so that kid didn’t die afterall”. Unfortunately, this doesn’t let me know what he is talking about. Our district is busy and sadly we have a lot of kids calls because it is so busy. But I am a girl so I immediatetly assumed it was this call. I said, “Oh you mean the call that everyone seems to need to hear about over and over again?” See I haven’t talked to him about how pissed I got at everyone, but that let him know. lol 19 years of being together we can communicate sometimes like that.

Anyway, he had been told the baby had died after falling out of the window. It is sadly not the first time he’s held a kid he thought was gone and still worked hard at getting them to the hospital. But another shift went on a call to their house for the baby. Of course, with any brain injury there is the worry of seizure and that was why they were called out. I’m so thankful that they told hubby they went on the call. It means someone is looking out for him.

So long story shorter. I’m happy to report that the baby did not die and is doing awesome with no brain issues and very little delay. VERY little delay. Having our friends kid be handicapped I of course asked about that as well. lol I’m happy to report that my hubby and his partner saved a baby that day.