No More Curse of the Blue Shift

Blue shift = sick, puking kids that the exorcist would be proud of
Blue shift = H1N1 and a hospitalization for a sick little toddler that had a "virus" I was "overreacting" to.
Blue shift = our 18 year-old golden having dozens of seizures throughout the night.
Blue shift = our house being broken into and my entire sense of security being shaken. 
Blue shift = kids locking my keys in the trunk of my car.


In short, I am not a fan of the Blue shift.


So, as of yesterday, we are officially on the GREEN shift.


Yes, I know.  The curse of the Blue shift will catch up with us and things will always happen when he is on shift no matter where it falls in the rotation.  But for now, I am content to enjoy the honeymoon period.  And I have to adjust my Cozi calendar.


Last night he had 11 calls by the time I talked to him at 9:45pm and the tones went off as we were chatting. (Of course - dang tones!)  I am not sure what his night was like.  I am certain that his morning was crazy, given this zero visibility fog we have this morning.  I left him a barrage of "don't forget" messages that I did not get to last night, because he has to pick up the kids this afternoon since I have a meeting at the Cousins Center.  Hopefully, he listens and or reads them this morning.


I left him a surprise on his dresser, we'll see if he notices it or if he simply passes out from exhaustion.


Happy Hump Day!  Snuggle your kids and listen to your firefighter's chatter.

Tell Me Again...

that it has nothing to do with the BLUE shift!  UGH!!


Monday, Blue Shift.  10 hours after saying good-bye to my Willow, 3 1/2 hours after the boys wake up with  fevers, after a night of NO sleep...I back out of the parking spot next to the garage.  My FF has been taking my car, saves gas, when he goes to work.  I have been taking his disaster of a Durango.  Used to be my truck, now J drives it and it looks like a tornado touched down.  But, what is best, I take the truck.


So...back to the Blue Shift on Monday.  I back out of the parking slab and the truck dies.  Just dies. Blocking the whole freakin' alley.  Its a Blue Shift, my FF is leaving early, for some reason.  I run inside to see if I can grab him.  My sick, mourning kids tell me that he has already left.  I frantically call his phone, ready to beg him to come back.  He's still in front of the house, no begging needed.  Thank goodness.


So...he drives around the back, he gets the bright idea that we have to push it.  With no power steering, I work to get the wheels to turn and they reluctantly turn.  Come back to help push.  Unfortunately, we are going to hit the garage.  Plan B, my superhero FF is going to push while I fight with the steering wheel.  Plan C. Push the truck with my car.  My poor car.  Now needs touch up paint.  But, we got it out of the alley, around to the front and parked on the correct side of the street for parking restrictions.  Next night our amazing neighbor fixes it - distributor cap.  Yesterday, hubby drives it - no issues.  This AM, it reluctantly starts.  I mention it to my FF as he checks with me.  He kind of condescendingly tells me just to give it some gas as I start it. So, we get to school.  I try, unsuccessfully, to work at my desk, time to get the little stooges over to the other campus, running late, get everyone in their car seats.  No go.  Car won't turn over.  Sigh.


Luckily, the guidance counselor lent me her keys so I could take my kids to school.  Rush back for the Career Fair today.  Now, I just have to figure out how to get home.  We are a party of 5.  Most people I work with have mini-vans for a reason.  Others with cars, simply don't have room for 5.  Luckily, again, my good friend Linda came to the rescue and brought us home.


J tells me I will fuss no matter what shift it is. I say the Blue Shift is cursed.  I am so grateful to be moving into a house next to another fire family, who is on the GREEN Shift.  Someone who gets it will be a nice change of  pace.

One of Those Scary Nights

We all know what can happen to our FFs on the job.  When we think about it, we shove it to the back of our minds.  But, we forget about what can happen at home while our FFs are on shift.  I have talked about the curse of the Blue Shift quite a bit.  It is the holiday shift.  My daughter has had to be taken to the hospital.  You name it, it always seems to happen on a Blue Shift.


But, they are all inconveniences.  Things that annoy us because HE is not here to help deal with the headaches, but they are just that...headaches.


Tonight was different.  I went to bed early, I wasn't feeling good.  I sent a text to my hubby.  When he got back in, I saw that left me a feel better message.


I fell asleep watching last night's  Smash.  I have no idea what time it was.  The next thing I know, there is an all dog alert.  My boys go running and barking like crazy down the stairs.  A key...in the door.  Someone was futzing with the lock and the kitchen door opened.  


My dogs are big, loud and protective and got out the door. My purse from the island is the only loss. AND for some reason my wallet was upstairs.  I think one of the kids may have taken it upstairs to my room when we cleared the table for dinner, it must have fallen out. I let them chase whomever it was out my back door.  They are lucky they got the gate to close, my boys would have followed them forever to protect their flock.  It is the nature of the breed.  I found my phone in the mud, when I went back out just to check to make sure the gate was locked.


So, I am here at 4:23 am.  I called into work, sleeplessness and stress lead to seizures.  I need to get the locks changed and probably talk to the management company about who has keys.  I thought we had them change the locks when we moved in. I need to get the kids off to school with some sense of normalcy. I have every light on downstairs.  Bear is following me everywhere, literally laying across the bathroom door when I have to go potty.  I wish my FF was here.  The kids slept through the chaos.  I have to decide how much to tell them and how much to leave out.  I have to stress not only closing the gate so the boys don't get out, but locking it...all without alarming them.  


And I have to make myself feel safe in my own home again.  How do I do that?  Especially when every 48 hours, I a responsible for keeping my kids safe and secure.

There Was a Reason I Did Not Go Into Elementary Education

And it was science fair projects.  I never had to do one growing up.  I had to judge a Science Fair at J's school one year.  But that was as close as I have actually come - until now.


 My oldest came down last night at 8pm - "MOMMMMMM!!!  I forgot about my science fair project"  My stomach sank.  My FF had work the next day - which leaves it with me.  UGH!  I am a high school history teacher.  I am not made for this.  I don't think like that.  DADDY was the elementary science teacher.  The experiment topic was at DADDY'S suggestion.  I have been bugging Daddy and his eldest to get this started.  I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!!!  I knew there would be a Blue Shift blunder in here somewhere!!!  Ah well, such is life.  Develop a plan and move on, right?!  So, it began.

Last night, we hard boiled the eggs, brewed the coffee and soaked the eggs overnight.  That way we could answer the question that has been on all your minds - Which whitening toothpaste whitens coffee stained eggs the best?  I know it is profound, is it not?


So, here I sit, with my cell phone timer counting down the last 3 minute egg scrubbing - quietly cursing my husband.  Think he can sense it at Engine 2?  I hope so!

Tomorrow morning we'll have to print out and glue on the  pictures when I get to work, hopefully we can get to school a BIT earlier, than usual.  Please wish us luck!