It’s 6:30pm here on the west coast and Mother’s Day is coming to an end.  It’s been a decent one even if he has worked it.  I love my kids.  They’ve cleaned a little and the other one will clean tomorrow, I can’t get her up from a nap. lol  She was at a slumber party last night and is uber tired.

I’m not sure why it didn’t dawn on me until I’d picked up my take-and-bake pizza’s that we should have set up a special BBQ for us B shift Mom’s.  WTH?  All of us just met for how many of the boys bdays this week?  Yet we didn’t think of putting together our own event while they are at work? Weird and telling.

This is the last holiday they work that I don’t work to plan something.  Yes, I have loved my day today.  Low key, watching movies and blogging.  I had serious catching up to do.  But I look to how much fun we girls and the kids could have had while the boys worked.  K, I look to how the guys would have worried about what all of us girls were doing while they worked. lmao  We all talk a lot daily, we facebook and we run off to little things here and there together.  But it’s about time we start planning our holidays together when we know they won’t be there.  I think the 4th is the next one.  Oh wait, I know they work memorial day is one  for sure   Off to send messages off about that now!

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?

When you are having fun they just fly by don’t they?  The holiday season must be in full swing.  But this 4 day was so needed.  We spent a lot of time with friends and our family.  There was dinner at a friends house to watch football on Thursday night, then Friday night a friend had a party to thank those that helped with their remodeling.  We haven’t all gotten together like that in many months so it was just awesome.  Especially to add in a few of the new guys/wives that just got hired or just got off probation.  Then Friday night was a retirement party for one of my clients Dad’s actually.  lol  See it’s a damn small world   She and I didn’t know a thing about each other when she first hired me to train her.  Then our lives just showed a huge intersecting.

Anyway, the retirement party went really well.  He’s been in fire service since 1962 and it was very rural out here for many years.  They roasted the hell out of him.  lol  Good times!  Sunday we spent up on the slopes just the 4 of us.  It snowed like crazy half the day and it wasn’t supposed to.  So it was AWESOME!

Today hubby started his set and it’s trying to have record cold.  I’m hoping all their calls are inside if they get any at all.

I’m posting all of this happiness because I need to pull the happy moments of the last week to the front of my mind.  Tomorrow is the memorial for the murdered Lakewood Police Officers.  Unless hubby has something else planned, I won’t be able to not watch.  I’ve had a headache for the last few hours from watching them get ready for this huge event.  I just ache with the tears I already know will be spilled tomorrow.

Anyway, I will post again tomorrow I’m sure.  But I wanted to get this happy post of the last few days in here first.  I want to remember what I do live for before I’m reminded how dangerous all of their jobs are.

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!

Well, I’m toasting a long week ahead with a bottle of wine now. Man it’s going to be rough. BUT, alas, I have also started coming up with some solutions and I’m looking forward to some time with hubby to talk things over.

I’m very tired of trying to juggle it all. I understand now why other firewives in our department don’t normally work. I just can’t work outside the home. Case in point: he works tonight and goes immediately into 5 days of classes. So I won’t see him until late Monday evening when I get home from my appointment. Yes, I know this is the norm in some families, but not ours. We have sacrificed a lot over the years so our kids would always have someone at home and I want to talk to him about the fact that it’s not the priority now like it used to be. The kids are 11 and 14, now it’s more important to be in their lives than ever. They need a safe zone from the uproar that is their teenage life.

Things are in a major change again. I’m running for office and that will change things in some way. I’m making just about enough money from my online biz’s to pay my bills and my offline biz has really died down because of this economy.

Call me a sap, but with him gone all next week until at least 6pm, I want to be here to kiss him hello and have dinner ready. I know, I’m old school, but I really do love that and miss it tremendously. I know by my working we are able to do a lot more, but I want my work to be on my terms and not so tied down.

UGH, where did this post ramble off to? lol Anyway, he has to go to training and it’s all week. This is something that happens a lot because he does and always wants to be the top in his profession. It won’t change and I don’t want it to, it makes him who he is. But I want someone here to take care of things as well. It’s almost like we are going backwards to when the kids were itty-bitty. Seriously, it’s like that. WEIRD!

I have always been a night owl. Mornings suck and I’ve tried to become a morning person but I can only do it for a few weeks before I fall out of whack. lol It became even worse when I went to school.

I got up around 5:30 to pack hubby’s lunch so I could see him for at least a few minutes in the day. Back to bed for couple of hours if I was lucky and up with the kids. Then quickly to work. Lunch and crashing into a nap if I didn’t have to study for a test. Then off to school and home around 11:30pm. Of course at that time I am jacked up from class and my brain overloaded. I became one with watching movies, studying and writing papers after midnight.

I know I have this issue. But my body has been adapting to very little sleep. Unfortunately, I’m seeing a huge pattern on the nights that hubby is working. It’s 3am right now and I really wanted to be up around 6:30 to go jogging before we take off on a road trip. Plus I want to make breakfast and wash the dishes. UGH, I am not tired. I get to this point and I don’t know whether to go to bed or just hang in and stay up a few more hours.

My problem is, if I stay up then I know hubby will have gotten no sleep either and we’ll have the choice of two people on the roads who may be tired. Since hubby hasn’t texted me back after someone walked into the station I can bet that he has gotten his butt kicked like predicted. He was worried because they had 1 call all day. That usually means a horrid night.

Anyway, I’m up still and I shouldn’t be. My dog even just glared at me, huffed and went to our room to sleep. lol I’ll go follow her now. I know I’ll be getting lots of sleep this weekend at my FIL’s. It’s laid back there, so I’m sure I can even take naps and not get grief. OH WAIT! It’s my FIL’s, I’ll get grief no matter what. lol We have a pretend love/hate relationship. He calls me “what’s her name” after 19 years. If you have seen Gran Turino then you met my FIL. Thankfully his racial slurs are not that prominent, but yes, they are there.

In my last post I talked about how I hoped we’d all be getting together more often. Thankfully it has. Of course, my waistline is under some serious damage from all the BBQ’s, but the laughs are totally worth it!

We’ve gotten together and had no big issues, which you know can happen in any family. lol But now we’ll be doing it a lot more since our good buddy just broke up with his girlfriend. Hubby texted me our buddy was coming to dinner because “he’s sad”. awww, poor guy. So we’ll swarm around the wounded even though every one of us wants to tell him “we told you so!”

We’re only half way through the Summer. Our next big party is our daughter’s bday next week. We’ve invited half our shift and told them no presents. lol They won’t listen, so we’ll just have to have a big party for the youngest in Feb as well. Not fair how much loot she’s going to come away with from this.

This is a suggestion, but it is a very major one.

I know that I am a “newbie” to the paid fire family, only 2.5 years in. But he has been in the service for a total of almost 10 years and he and I have been together for 19 and married for 15 of those!

So while I’m newbie to fire service, I am old hat at relationship/marriage. YOU MUST BE A PART OF HIS MAJOR LIFE.

This goes with anything in a relationship. If something is major in your life, your partner must play a part in it. I would love to partake in any study about it and push others to do the same.

I’m 200% in my hubbies fire family and fire life. HELL, the other night I went down to the station for 2 hours and helped him with his OT work so I could hang out with him.

But that wasn’t what prompted this post. The total awesomeness of the baby shower we went to is the reason for this post. They had guys and gals showers and the friends live next door to each other. It was easy for it all to merge into 1 party by the afternoon. We all knew it would that’s how it works

The beer flowed. I know that surprises everyone. A few shots of course, as well as 2 giant BBQ’s and a smoker rocking out food non-stop. I ended up chatting with someone that I’m sure hubby would have preferred I didn’t. BUT, alas it is my part in life. I talked to this guy and his wife NEVER comes to any events or parties. They don’t live in district, which is another post on my list, but she just doesn’t want to be a part of it.

To me, this is truly sad. She has no comprehension of how much of his life this is. She doesn’t understand how much he needs this party to unwind with everyone. But she also doesn’t have the option to vent and chat with all of the guys and their wives and girlfriends. I get to vent with people that understand. I get to yell at the guys for being asses on a call if hubby has said it’s ok to. I get to make fun of the guys I’m good friends with about anything on the face of the earth and I most importantly get to chat and hug my girls that live this same life I do.

It had been way too long since our last big get together and I hope it doesn’t go as long this time. But even though hubby may kill me, this guy really wants me to meet his wife. WELL DUH! Of course he does. I’ve run into very few guys that didn’t tell me they want a wife like me

Happy Father’s Day to all the Fire Dads out there. Hubby is home and we are ready to spoil him. As soon as he decides what he wants to do. Right now we are just watching tv and if that is what he wants to do then that’s cool. That’s how I spent Mother’s Day. lol

Well he just decided he wants to stay home. We just remembered we have lobster tails in the fridge we can eat for dinner. We may go play put-put golf, guess we’ll just have to see. He’s going jogging and to the gym and we’ll see after that how the day goes. Good grief, like pulling teeth to get him to choose what he wants to do and eat today.