One Test Down

My hubby passed his Paramedic Final this morning!!! YEAH!!  


So, we have his Practical Exam done, his final for the class done, that leaves us with the written for his National Boards next month.  Graduation is less than a month away.  Then, I get to hope that we are on the Red shift instead of the Blue, but I am not going to hold my breath.  He will be on the Red at Truck 1 until his results come in and then he is off to a Med Unit, still to be determined.


Happy Day!

The End is in Sight

Paramedic school is over.  My hubby is taking the practical portion of his National Boards today.  After a week of going through the stations and practicing for today, it is here.  He is confident and ready to go.  And I am so excited.  I called to be sure I wished him luck.  I couldn’t remember if I had before he left or not.  So, after he rocks his exam today, he begins 9 weeks in the field (on the BLUE shift, again, UGH!) before the written in April.  After the written portion of his boards, he goes back to Truck 1, until the results come in and he is assigned to a med house. 

It has been a long haul here.  Since he took the test to be admitted into the Paramedic program, he has taken some heat.  Some superiors have given him some flack for not being a “real” firefighter.  He took that very personally.  He questioned, and might still continue now to question if he has had enough experience in the fire world to come out of it.  Others above him, however, have really encouraged him to take this route.  Paramedics can make Lt. a year earlier than their peers.  He has really been pulled in two different directions. But, he made it.  Some of it was hard, but my FF pushed through.  I can’t imagine such an intensive program with four kids and a out-going wife.  He did great.

©2009-2012 ~vonStrago

And now we move on to the next portion of our journey.  I have to adjust to sleeping alone, again.  Mornings when J is on shift are actually easier, as odd as that sounds.  I am less tempted to stay in bed for that extra snooze.  I tend to get everything set up the night before and we get out of the house earlier, than when I have my FF to help me. But, I have to get used to sleeping alone.  Not that I ever sleep alone.  The pyrs always join me when he is gone.  Being out of his cub year will make it easier on the kids.  Easier for J to help with homework through Skype.  Easier for the kids to be able to tell Daddy about their day when he’s on a 48.   J has to adjust to the idea that he will not be fighting fires for a while, that is hard.  He knows that this is best for his career.  But, I remember how much he loved his time in his ride alongs while in EMT school.  I am hoping that he finds that excitement again.  We will have to adjust, again.

There will still be more studying as we make our way to the exam.  But, it can be while the kids and I are at school. When he is home, he can be home with us.  He can pick up the kids when I have a meeting after school, so I am not terrified that my muppets are running wild or killing each other up in my classroom.  I can go to mass before school, without having to watch the clock to see about taking the 3 stooges to the lower campus.  I can breathe again.  I am looking forward to it. 

Wish my FF  luck as he goes through the first part of his boards.  Wish us all luck as we find our way back to normal.

Can you see the light??

It is coming from the end of the tunnel.  Eleven more days until the end of Med classes.  I will have time to correct papers, meet with students in my classroom without the 3 stooges bothering each other over the 47 blue colored pencils that are not worthy of their drawings — they all must have access to the sacred ONE, update my blog, run to the bathroom…all those luxuries I must have taken for granted. 


February 12th, please come fast!

Not Sure if I’ll Survive

My loverly husband will probably shoot me if he reads this post.  So if you don’t hear from me again, you’ll know what happened.  


Paramedic school is almost over.  We have 26 days left.  We are almost there.  At that point, he’ll go back on schedule and begin his field training.  I think he will have a love/hate thing going on that point.  Having to be in an engine house, but locked in a box, might just be the death of him.  But, he will love having the down time available to him to work out.  


PM school has taken its toll.  He no longer works out with the boys.  He spends a ton of time studying.  He is home everyday and therefore roped into homework questions and belly rubs.  I think he also snacks more at home, he is a snacker.  I often find empty boxes laying around.


Not long ago, he looked in the mirror and saw his dad.  He did not like that.  So, time to find an answer.  A few summers ago, the Atkins worked really well for him.  But that was the summer and I was home to be his conscience.  He won’t have this luxury AND every 48 hours he is under the influence of a crew of guys who don’t ALWAYS have his best interest at heart.  So we needed to find something.  He decided to try the Weight Watchers software.  He really doesn’t want to do the meetings, although I have heard that they help TREMENDOUSLY, so we paid for the on-line access to see if that will help.


So, I started looking at myself in the mirror.  Four babies later, I am not certain this is my best place.  After babies 1 and 2, I went right back to where I was.  Baby number 3 came at 31, yeah…there was a difference. Besides I never totally lost that weight because when surprise Baby number 4 came, I was totally unprepared, AND she was a C-Section baby.  Never totally lost the baby weight.


Now, truth and honesty.  I can’t fuss much.  I am still an 8/10.  But on my shorter frame, there really isn’t anywhere to put the extra pounds.  When I stepped on the scale in the hospital, I was at baby number 2 weight and NOT HAPPY to see that number.  So, I decide to jump on board with my husband. I have a target number in mind.  I have a date in mind.  I found sites to help me get there.  I am hoping this will help.  Once we get my husband back in an engine house, I will also be able to find time to exercise.  That will be half my battle.  Until then, Wii’s  Let’s Dance and portion control will have to do.


So, I figured out my points and thought, “Oh, this will be easy.”  Yeah lasted until last night.  Two Special K bars and 2 bananas later I was starving.  Grabbed an applesauce cup.  (Snuck a donut when a frosh brought them in for my class for her b-day, that was 7 points shot to heck) And I was left with 4 points for dinner.  Sigh.  So, I decided to feed the muppets and wait for my hubby to come home. (I think I must make more trips to the fridge in the afternoon than I thought. If nothing else, WW is making me think.)  He has SIGNIFICANTLY more points than I do, so he had room to spare.  Me??  Yeah – that would be a bowl of Special K (teeny tiny, too I might add) and an apple.  But, I made it with a couple of points to spare.  But…there was so much food calling my name…you should have heard it.


Not sure I will survive this experiment.  Today, I made sure I left room to eat a real dinner.

Back to Square One

Or that’s how it feels anyway.

We have been in PM classes for 3 weeks.  That’s it.  And yet, it feels like it has been FOREVER!!  I feel like everything that can go wrong has.  O’s hair had to be treated again from the cooties and so it started coming out is clumps.  We have to shave her down in back because it looked so bad. So, now she looks like a cutey pootey with short hair (we saved as much of her bangs as would stay).  And she woke up this morning missing her ponytail.  It broke my heart! I had to take 8 loads of laundry to my dad’s house yesterday, which meant my whole day was shot.  In theory, Maytag is coming today, after 3:30pm which means I have to zoom out of class to get home and meet them.  But, I will believe that when I see it.  The list goes on and on and on.

I forgot how much I HATE this single mom gig.  Yes, my husband comes home every night.  Yes, I get to sleep with him every night.  But that is it.  It is night after night of studying and study groups and more studying.  Which is good.  But that leaves me to fend for myself, again, until at least January, again.  And I am just not cut out for this single mommy gig.  It is not my thang!  When J and I started dating, kids were not on my radar.  Funny, now that I have 4.  I just put so much pressure on myself that it makes me nuts.  Kids get sick, I have to miss multiple days.  Laundry repairman comes, I have to fly home, after picking up four kids.  We need groceries, I need to get the groceries. Yes, I know, “Just don’t put all that on yourself.”  “Make J do some of that.”  “Just give yourself a break, the house doesn’t need to be perfect.” I know, have heard it all.  But, how else will it get done?  It won’t which means I have to do it. My house was a mess, my in-laws were over while I was at my dad’s and I had to just push it out of my mind.  I did not have a Saturday to clean.  It sucked.  I hate it.  Single moms who pull this off 24/7/365 so ROCK!!

I am becoming miserable.  SO…today I am going back to what I did last year at this time, when I was going through the same thing.  I was miserable a year ago and I am finding my way back to that again…and I HATE it.

So, five things every post that I am grateful for.  I can vent about what is driving me crazy, but I have to remember the good things.

1) I stink you, Momma – something that started with the muppets and Daddy that O has invited me into.  Is there a better expression of love?
2) My Giovanni  – the resiliency of dog’s amazes me.  How well G has adapted to life as a tripawed and to our crazy clan is amaizng.
3)Watching my K9s frolic and play – Ignore me yapping to the FF on the phone in the background!  😀

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fv9.nonxt6.googlevideo.com%2Fvideoplayback%3Fid%3D1c7529b909c1008e%26itag%3D18%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1318889440%26sparams%3Did%2Citag%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Cexpire%26signature%3D8ACE34D8AA21359B53DD8ACDDA348F9A85A1F803.2695376E85AD646BCA39BC7F69643EAFA02F4D86%26key%3Dlh1

4)The Maytag Man FINALLY came today I will have the parts sent to my house this week and they will be here next week Tuesday to install them and I will have my washer back!

5)High school kids who think I must make the coolest mom ever Now, if only my own will think that in a few years.  It is nice to have them want to come with good news and bad.  One was so sweet, he gathered up 6 tickets for me to take my friends to Six Flags this weekend.  I do love my job!