Today is FireDad’s birthday. It’s rainy and nasty out so we’ll go with a picture I took of us on Mother’s Day.
Unfortunately, one of his presents didn’t arrive on time (but happily I’ll be getting a refund on shipping if it doesn’t arrive today). I’d talk about his presents but one of his gifts was getting to sleep in this morning and I’m then taking the kids with me so he has some alonequiet time this morning. So he won’t open anything until probably after he reads the blog. And he won’t open the big present until after I get home from dress rehearsal tonight. Ahem.
All the same, I am wishing him a wonderful birthday. I’m excited to be married to a man who is now only a year younger than me again. It makes me feel less old.
This morning, FireDad gave me a kiss at his usual departure time when he’s working his normal shift day. Except he won’t return until Friday evening. And then he’ll leave again on Monday morning, coming home again the following Friday night. That’s right. I’m solo parenting for ten days thanks to the fire department. Whoopee!
FireDad is off at the Fire Academy learning all there is to know about being a Fire Investigator. The Fire Investigator is the one who gets to poke around the scene of a fire after it has been safely extinguished and determine what caused the initial spark. Was it an electrical issue? Did someone fall asleep in bed with a cigarette? Did someone leave a candle lit when they left the house? Or was it something a bit more sinister? There are signs and clues to all of these, of course, and I know absolutely none of them. I do know that if i was to leave a candle burning when I left the house, my firefighter husband would not be pleased. That’s about all I know.
I’m thrilled that FireDad is off learning new things. I believe this is a great move for his career. But, man, I already miss him. Okay, well, maybe not quite yet. I’m used to being alone with the boys for 24 hours at a time. In fact, I can even handle 36 hours on my own. By tomorrow night, after the boys are in bed, it will likely hit me that I have no partner in parenting crime this week. During the holidays, no less, and leading right up to our anniversary. This proves my point, though, that it is better to do your holiday shopping early. Can you imagine me attempting to hit stores with two children all by my lonesome? No thanks.
The good news is that FireDad’s hotel offers free WiFi. I set him up with Skype last night so that we can have a video conference with the boys in the evening. He hasn’t left us for two weeks since BigBrother was not-quite-two (his last year in the Army). They don’t remember their daddy being gone for a long time. And I’ve never been alone with two children for such a long time either. We thought the ability to see each other and for the boys to see him would benefit the lot of us. I think we’ll probably do a conference tonight before bath and we’ll try after bath tomorrow for story time to see which works best. I love living in this technological age. It makes our time apart a little bit easier to handle. (I also wrote about video conferencing with family members over at BlogHer today. Go chime in!)
The next two weeks are rather busy. Take for example today when I tried to take BigBrother to preschool only to remember that he has today off. That’s my first fail of this experiment in solo parenting. Next on our agenda will be to visit the library and pay the fine(s). I’m also insane enough to be taking them to visit Santa tomorrow, complete in their Christmas outfits, for pictures. By myself. Add in actual school days (not fake ones), various conference calls this week and next, deadlines, job assignments, wrapping presents, a fun conference thing that involves driving, mailing things, addressing the Christmas cards and remembering to mail them as well, friends, cleaning, eating, and maybe even sleeping and I’m tired already. And that’s not the half of it. But, even still, I’m confident everything will be okay. It’s just ten days.
Thankfully I’ll get to see this face in between thanks to the wonders of the Interwebz.
I may tackle him when he comes in the door. Especially if he has coffee.
I should probably wrap his Christmas presents while he’s gone… no? Just in case this experience is so horrific that I want to return his Christmas presents by the end of the ten day time period. You know. Let me just add that to my lengthy list of things to do between now and then. Check!
One of my friends called me on the phone today to make sure I was okay. You know, since I haven’t updated the blog since Tuesday. At least I know that if I ever am kidnapped, people will start to notice that the blog is neglected after three days time.
It’s been a crazy week. Since the announcement of FireDad’s running in Redbook’s Hottest Husband contest, we’ve been kind of busy. I mean, with the normal stuff (school, chorale, church, friends and work for both of us) and with some, well, other things as well.
As an example, FireDad had to get his hair cut (he was looking, as BigBrother says, shaggy) because the local newspaper called. Why? They wanted to do a photoshoot and an article for the paper. After FireDad convinced the photographer that the shirtless look was not appropriate due to the older people who support our department, the final result was quite nice. You can view the article on our newspaper’s site. And, yes, I’ll be honest. I purchased ten additional copies to the one that we receive. To be fair, the majority of these are being sent to parents and grandparents. But two or three will stay in house. One to keep whole in the hope chest, one to cut up for the fridge and one to cut up for the scrapbook. Also? Above the fold, front page news? He’s so handsome. (Have you voted: http://tinyurl.com/vote4JoshuaH)
We’ve been dealing with some illness (colds, random puking). And end of the month deadlines on my part. And, to be honest, this post has taken me all day to write due to random interruptions and parenting and general craziness. Now that the children are finally in bed, my plans are to clean, finish up laundry, finish up work and play some video games. Oh, and sleep.
We’re here. We’re well. We’re alive. More next week. I promise.
I should provide some back story. It started last year when I was reading Redbook’s Hottest Husband results for 2008. Only a few of the top 10 were under 30. This upset FireDad greatly (or, to some degree) so, to rectify the situation, I threw together an entry, picked some photographs and sent them into the contest. I may have mentioned that time he won an award for saving some guy’s life. Months passed. A new year began. And on the day that I returned home from a trip to the mountains, an email was waiting in my inbox. From Redbook. They wanted to talk to me for a phone interview and they needed some more face shots of my (hot) husband. Amused, I made the phone call and then told him the news. He laughed, saying that would be the end of it.
Weeks passed. We figured it was a bust. And then, last Thursday, I got another email informing me that he is, in fact, in the Top 25 Finalists. And, the kicker for us, that online voting would begin on February 24, 2009 (today, folks). Now if you know anything about me, you might know that I have a large internet footprint. And so FireDad and I are hoping that you’ll vote for him. Why? Well, we could win…
You could win an eight-day, seven-night trip for two to the Westin Casuarina Resort and Spa in Grand Cayman.
Doesn’t that make your toes tingle with glee?
And so, I’m imploring my readers to please go vote for FireDad (otherwise known to the rest of the world as Josh Hatfield). His individual finalist page can be found here. I’m sure he’ll love the stories I told. To be fair, I was nervous and rambling. In case you don’t know or remember what he looks like, I’ve thrown this video together. As an added bonus, you get to see how much LittleBrother really looks like his Daddy.
And, if you’re not the video viewing type, here are a few of my all time favorite pictures of my Husband thrown together in a quick collage. He really is quite handsome, no?
But more than handsome, he is an amazing, awesome husband. He has supported me through some of the most difficult days of my life. He loves me unconditionally, even when I leave the coffee pot on all night or spill things on a burner on the stove and accidentally attempt to burn down the house. That’s enough to drive any firefighter insane. He has supported my writing and working from home. He makes me laugh. He dries my tears. He tells me he loves my post-baby body. And the list goes on. Furthermore, he is an amazing, hands-on dad to those two brothers. I never have to nag about spending time with the boys. I don’t have to worry about leaving the kids with him as he takes on his fair share of the parenting duties and knows exactly how to handle them… and their moods. I’ve seen him melt into a puddle of goo when given a hug, kiss and nose kisses or just simple cuddles. I know the love he has for his boys and our family in general. He’s not just a hot husband. He’s one heckuva husband.
While I don’t normally ask for something on the blog without offering something in return, I don’t really want to bribe people for their votes. So, very simply, I am asking people to head on over to the Redbook online voting page and vote for Joshua Hatfield (listed as Joshua H. on the actual voting page). I can promise that if we win, we’ll be vlogging the entire trip. While that may not be the same as relaxing on the beach yourselves, I can tell you that the two of us will soak up enough sun, fun and relaxation to share with the entire blogosphere. I promise.
If you feel so inclined, I’d love if you’d help spread word about this little contest. Again, I don’t have anything to offer in return but my extreme gratitude. Some places you could share the voting link ( http://tinyurl.com/vote4JoshuaH ) would be Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or your own blog. You can also link to the video ( http://tinyurl.com/firedadvideo ) and this post ( http://tinyurl.com/sdbvotepost ) so people know who they’re voting for. You can also embed the video if you feel so inclined! You can only vote once per IP address so I will need the help of the blogosphere and my internet friends to keep word going about this contest. While our families are big, I’m hoping the help of online friends will give us a shot!
I’m sure the 24 other finalists are attractive, great husbands. But I’d love to give my hot, awesome husband a real, relaxing vacation for all of the hardwork that he has done and continues to do for our family. If you could help me achieve that by voting for him, I’d be forever grateful.
I'm handling reviews differently now. Please visit my review page for a chronological look at recent, non-fire-related reviews. If you have a product you'd like us to review, please contact me.
Subscribe to Our Feed!
