As you may have noticed, the economy of the nation is kinda not doing so well. As a result, many cities are cutting budgets, and trying to see where they can cut current expenses as well. So do you think that any of them care about hiring new firefighters? No... So when you have a very qualified firefighter like Eddie looking for a job ANYWHERE, but the only possibilities left are for Paramedic Firefighters, he didn't stand a chance. Being the sweetheart he is, he just couldn't go to school AND work full time to support his family, but refused to let me get even a part time job because he knows how important it is to me to stay home with our kids. So what do you do? You take a deep breath and look at more options.
After some deep consideration (and T-Mobile's lack of paying him what he was worth), Eddie looked into the US Air Force. He intended to stay with fire fighting, but since everyone and their dog wants to be a firefighter*, even the air force didn't have any openings.
*Small Tangent: In the past 3 years that Ed's been a firefighter, I've seen alot of the career staff and it just blows me away that my husband can't get on somewhere, yet some overweight guy who drinks excessively and smokes, tells crude jokes,and has the mouth of a sailor has a secure firefighting job...the men and women who are suppose to be the model citizens....What!? Personally, I think they should stick to the stereotypes - strong, good looking, and clean cut AKA my husband...ok, back to the blog...So Eddie proceeded to do everything necessary to join the Air Force, and managed to get everything in order within 6 weeks...basically unheard of for someone who has to get as many approvals from higher sources as he did. He also scored a 97 on his ASVAB...which is killer awesome for those who don't know. The average is like 50 something. So basically, he can do whatever he wants. He's going Mechanical this time around, and if he likes it, he'll stay with it.
Alas, he leaves on September 22 and I will suddenly be husband-less for about 6 months (2 months basic training, then tech training after that). I will be staying during this temporary time with my folks, which should help out with the girls. It's just hard moving back when you are used to running your own home, so that will be an adjustment as well.
This will be a long period for all of us. Ed has since resigned his volunteer firefighting position to spend more time at home, which is nice. He's able to help more because he's not so overbooked between pulling so many hours for the department that go unpaid, in addition to a full time job. I had a hard time initially, but that also could've been due to my pregnant, fragile state at the time. If this would have happened in our first year of marriage, it wouldn't be so hard since we pretty much had no friends. Sad, but essentially true. Half our ward didn't even know who we were when we left. Since then, we've made great friends, live in a great ward, and have lived in very convienient places for our needs. Heck, it's beautiful Colorado! I hope we end up here again some day. There are 3 Air Force bases (ok, one's the academy, sue me) right here in the Springs, so it could happen, right?
I guess this is just the kind of change that we have to deal with. Life just can't be simple, can it?
(Please note: during Ed's extended leave, I hope to travel to visit friends and family to kill some time with my girls during October or maybe January/February. So if you fall under that category, I will most likely be contacting you to go out and have some jolly fun while I'm nearby. Let me know if you would like to join in on said jolly fun.)
