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!

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[/end NaBloPoMo. I WIN!]

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.

If you follow me on twitter, you already know the news. But I’ll officially share the news with everyone here:

FireDad is a Top 25 Finalist for Redbook’s Hottest Husband contest.

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 have some fabulous rants coming up next week but I wanted to end the week on a good note. Yesterday was a very productive day. But, at the same time, all the running and doing and finishing and fixing threw LittleBrother off of his nap schedule. Instead of a morning and an afternoon nap, he napped from late morning into early afternoon, thus making the stretch from waking until bedtime a rather long one. I kept coming up with things to do to keep him entertained but by 5:00, as we finished supper early, I knew what needed to be done.

I packed both boys up and we headed to the Fire Department to visit FireDad.

It’s one of the perks of being a Fire Family. It really, really is. What kid doesn’t like fire trucks? They’re big! They’re bright red! (Well, real fire trucks are bright red. Ask FireDad.) They make noise! There’s lots of bells, whistles and buttons! Okay, and that’s just my excitement. Yes, that’s right. I love the fire trucks just as much as the kids. What’s not to like?

More over, I love the look of amazement on BigBrother’s face as he is lifted into the driver’s seat (or, as happened yesterday, as he climbs up by himself for the very first time ever into one of the trucks). I also love the fact that he runs off all of his energy as he races back and forth between trucks, thus making for an easy bedtime.

And so, last night we went and visited FireDad and let BigBrother run off some energy. This was our first visit since LittleBrother learned to crawl. And so, despite the floors being dirty, LittleBrother crawled off some energy as well. I followed along with my camera and snapped the discoveries that he made along the way.

The wheels were vastly interesting. Perhaps he was able to read the word “good” and realized that his diaper, a Goodmama, said the same. Doubtful, of course, but it made for some cute photo ops. He was infatuated with the wheels and the shiny things for quite some time.

Then he found something shiny. BigBrother, for the record, also loves the bell on the front of this truck. He rings it and rings it and even after he is told to stop ringing it, he rings it again. This is thanks to one of FireDad’s coworkers who taught him how to ring it. Previously he had been just happy to bang on it with his hands. LittleBrother, it seems, is starting the same infatuation. Now if we could only keep people from teaching him how to ring it.

Then I brought over FireDad’s helmet and had him look at it. He seems unsure of what to do which I assume is because its so honkin’ heavy. Also, FireDad’s head is insanely smaller than my large cranium. The thing doesn’t fit me! Which is further proof that BigBrother has a majority of my genes (his head is in the 85th percentile) while LittleBrother takes after FireDad in that respect (right around 50%). This picture makes me kind of weepy. Probably blowing it up and framing it for both parties.

And before the critics come out and ask me why we’re ignoring our older son, I give you the reason, which is twofold, as to why there are so few pictures of him from yesterday. 1. Remember that BigBrother has had two years of photo opportunities at the Fire Department by himself. LittleBrother deserved some lens time! 2. BigBrother is nothing but a blur as of late. Constant motion. Constant talking. Constant constant constant! But, for this picture, he climbed up on the back of a truck all by himself and said, “Cheese!” And so, he got one great picture.

We’re pretty lucky. These boys have access to fire trucks any time they so desire. Except for that one time when we weren’t at our own Fire Department and BigBrother didn’t understand the reason that he had to wait in line to see the fire trucks. But, all the same, we’re incredibly lucky. These children will know, unlike a friend of ours in his youth, that fire fighters are their friends. There won’t be any fear. It’s a good thing, let me tell you.

Plus, really, bed time was a breeze for both of them! That makes for a happy FireMom!

Next week, in addition to my rants, I’ll let you know how to get some good pictures of your children with the fire trucks. We’re off to spend a weekend in our own city for the first time in weeks and weeks!