Just when you think the day can't get worse...

A photo essay...

My FFW neighbor's front steps.  Thank God for her!

When I finally got to the ER...

And he is on shift...

Tomorrow is a new day, I just have to get through today...

My Camera Bag

Glue alleviates the need
for removing uneeded
"stitches" from my hand!

My parts and pieces of the camera bag to be came in pretty quickly.  I was Pinspired by a post on TheFrugalGirls.com, if you recall from my post the other day.  I was going to put it together Friday, but then the boys had a friends over from the other side of the Fire Wife Compound.  By the time I walked him home it was 9:30pm, by the time I got done chatting with my FFW gal pal, it was 10:30pm.  Saturday and Sunday was more birthday celebrations.  But Sunday - later afternoon, I decided I was going to get started and complete it.  


And I did.  I made some modifications as I went.  I used fabric glue, in lieu of stitching my hand together.  I used funky flannel for my lining.  I did not use Velcro, although I had it on hand.  The nice thing is that the lack of Velcro makes it easier to adjust as I see fit, regardless of where the Velcro strips are attached.  I used memory foam for the bottom, regular foam for the end caps and dividers and quilt batting to cushion the long sides.  Instead of three main sections, I have one for my camera (with lens) and divided the other to hold 2 lenses.  

Chargers and extra batteries

My original purse has two side pockets like the original post, for holding memory cards, flash drives, batteries and chargers, and various other miscellaneous parts and pieces.   

 

Memory cards, flash drives and lens caps

How do you purse carriers carry such monster purses??

But I do have a question for you ladies who are purse carriers.  I have only carried a purse for the last few years.  It is roughly 4" high and maybe 9 or 10" long.  This is a MONSTER purse.  How do you carry this on a day to day basis?  Aye!



Anyway.  The New Year is a few weeks into her reign.  The POTUS is officially into his 2nd term.  My FF is sleeping after his shift and my people want to be fed.  So, enjoy your day.  Hang out with your muppets and see how their days have gone.  Hug your FFs and tell them how much you love them.  AND don't quit on your New Year's Resolutions...get back on them if you have slipped up.

Happy Monday!

A New Fire Wife Blog

So, no internet for a week and a half, kinda takes you out of the loop on things.  I have missed out on some of the post of my favorite blogs, and I am not sure when there will be enough peace for me to get to all of them.  Ah, well. Such is life in the big city. (Dang!  My mother comes out of my mouth, even in cyber space!)  

T-shirt available at firefighter.com - just click the image if
you are interested.

BUT, while I was gone, a new fire wife blogger left a comment on one of posts from last week.  So, in between load of laundry, I kicked the muppets outside and sat down and read her blog.  Her name is Brandi and her blog is Life Between the Tones.  She is a Volunteer Fire Wife, which is hands down the hardest job in the world.  At least I know, even if I don't see my husband this whole week because he is playing FF/PM at the race track during nearly all of his off days, vacation days and PO days over the last two weeks while we moved and got the new house settled, he will be there for D's belated birthday party tomorrow. (Yeah, a bit passive-aggressive, but I am allowed.  Better here than when he comes home, so I am okay with it. ;-) )  As a volunteer fire wife - that pager goes off, all bets are off as well.  THAT is a crazy world.  Talk about needing all of the support possible.


Brandi has been at this for about as long as I have, experienced enough that you can manage, new enough to still keep you on your toes.) So, give her some love, if you have not already started following her blog.  

A Wife on a Mission

I was sent on a mission.  We live in a city famous for its kringle.  My FF's last shift for a few months is tomorrow.  After that, we are on a 9-5 schedule, which my fire wife friends have told me I will hate after the first week.  Aside from that I was sent for treats for the firehouse simple mission - Kringle for the AM and pies for after dinner.  How hard can it be?  I got pies in no time flat.  Kringle was another story.  Every one I picked up was a NUT Kringle  - Almond, Walnut, Pecan.  No fruit, no chocolate.  I was afraid I was going to come home a failure.  It has been a crazy week  - teaching through an afro and beard, tug-o-wars, powder puff football, boys who have no idea how to play volleyball, float building - just a LOONEY week.  I couldn't come home a failure.  I found some strip kringles, never knew they existed, in other flavors and snatched them up.  I grabbed the few other things I went for and headed home.

I got home, my FF hubby shook his head and said, "Ehh, I didn't care what kind you got."  Why was I worried again?

So, tomorrow, King and Queen are announced.  Papa takes the toddler.  The other 3 muppets and drive the Juniors "Peace, Love and Rock n Roll" float.  A tailgate party, a football game and a dance the next night.  Sunday to rest?  HA - not even close.

Happy Homecoming!

A Memory Frozen in My Mind

We all remember where we were, what we were doing, how our breath was taken away.  That moment is forever frozen in our minds.

Please, take a moment from your busy lives to remember

Those who lost their lives.

Those who gave their lives. 

Those whose lives will never be the same.

We remember.

We will NEVER forget!

Your sacrifices will never be forgotten. 

A Funk

No reason, nothing bad or inconvenient has happened (except for when I knocked my beloved Rosie the Riveter bookend off my desk yesterday, watching it shatter - in slow motion none-the-less -  into a million pieces in front of my desk - but my firefighter is a wiz with Super Glue & a Sharpie - made her good as new!) - just one of those days.  I think that is what today is.  Just one of those days.  I tried breakfast with my hubby before he left for work, but all that did was remind me he was going to work.  Tried a donut party with the Muppets, all that did was leave me with a ton of crumbs and a cute little video of my girls quietly bopping along to Under Pressure.  Should be enough to  bump me out of this funk, right?  Nope. So finally watching this week's musical Grey's Anatomy will do it, right?  Yeah, all that did was remind of how many hours, months I sat in front of that isolette in 2008.  <sigh>  Not even watching said baby flitter by in a nightgown and tutu has helped.  Ah well.  I am hoping a shower might help, but I have to find a way to quiet my crew and pray NOT to have 74 knocks at the door.  Maybe I should have skipped breakfast and taken the shower.









Oh yeah, and that stack of papers I have been neglecting just called my name...<sigh> Spring and sunshine need to come NOW!!!!  I am probably simply needing a dose of sunlight that is NOT coming through my classroom blinds, that I have to darken in order to see the whiteboard.   June 1st will be here before I know it.  J will not have EMT classes as he did in '09 or the fire academy that swallowed our summer whole last year.  I might actually get to see him this summer.  There's a novel concept.  Okay.  I am taking my crabby butt into the shower.  I think the idiot box might contain the muppets for a bit.  Maybe some steam to clear the head and hot water to get the juice flowing might fix this funk.

Happy Saturday? Maybe?

Craig A. Birkholz - Army Sgt., Police Officer, Husband, Hero

Craig A. Birkholz  He survived two tours in the big sand box just to be lost trying to save a fellow officer in Fond du Lac?  Really?  It is a tragic story.  It is a tale of two soldiers and their stories after returning home.  I have been writing this post in my head for days.  Trying to figure out what to say, what to focus on, how to handle it. It has been on my mind - constantly.  I listened to the feed as it all went down - I was just captured by the surrealism of the whole situation.  My heart broke when the news mentioned his wife.  I am a teacher in Kenosha and the parish that was taking care of the funeral mass is attached to our lower campus.  LITERALLY the signs of this tragic loss were everywhere!  There are pink signs reminding us that there is a police funeral surrounding the entire school and church.  Throughout Kenosha there are signs - at union halls and scrolling at banks.  Kenosha is feeling the loss of one of their own.

My boys have taken it so much to heart that they wanted to attend.  I thought about trying to make it happen.  But we had a family college graduation and I wanted to be sure there was enough space for those who were closest to him to mourn the loss of a hero.  And...I was not sure if I could handle it, personally.  There are no words, none.  As wives to servicemen, police officers and firefighters - we all know this is a reality of our world.  My husband is at work as we speak and I could be the one getting that call.  But we always put it to the side.  This loss, I have not been able to do that with - I was not even part of his world. But I feel for his wife - they have only been married since 2009.  They had so many plans, the future was waiting for them.  Now, I am certain, her future is moment by moment as she tries to grasp the reality of the whole situation. At the graduation yesterday, there was an MPD officer behind us, his badge was a reminder of the loss.  Craig Birkholz was a hero - at home and in the bigger world.  The world is a better place because of him.  There are no words.  Nothing I can write or say can bring him back.  Nothing I can write or say can take the pain away.  THERE ARE NO WORDS.

Photos by Brian Passino













War: Through Their Eyes is a multi media project completed by UW-Oshkosh - including a photo exhibit, a series of podcasts and a book, about the experiences of the soldiers, UWO students and alum, in the modern war campaigns.The interviews are conducted by Grace Lim's Spring 2009 Writing for the Media class.  Sgt. Birkholz story is among those stories preserved in this piece.  Please take a moment to take a look at the site.


Please say a prayer for the wife, family, friends and Fond du Lac PD that are all feeling this loss.  May God grant them peace, acceptance and healing through this most difficult and tragic part of their lives.  Please say a prayer for your firefighters as they leave for work, to keep them say.  Most of all I will be saying a prayer of thanks that we have these most brave and honorable men and women, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep us safe - at home, in the community and throughout the world.


Sgt. Craig A. Birkholz - we thank you.  May you rest in peace.   

I LOVED Thursday

I have to admit it, I only pay attention to College Basketball throughout the season so I can make an educated bracket come March. I LOVE March Madness.  And, for the first time in my educational career, I was not sick on Thursday!  ;)  Spring Break came at the PERFECT time.  St. Paddy's Day on opening day of the Big Dance - who could ask for anything more.

Breakfast at Kelly's - not quite Tiffany's

So, Thursday we started with breakfast at one of the Irish bars - one of many.  After Jeff's horrible premixed bloody mary - the bartender in me CRINGED to see her pull out a can of Bloody Mary MIX.  Really - you can't figure out how to use celery salt, tabasco and salt/pepper.  There is not some big secret to it.  Ah well.  We parked at E2 - one of the perks of being stationed downtown and headed off to Water Street.  It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day - light breeze, full sun, 67 degrees.  I did not mind walking through downtown at all.  We hit a few bars - one, even with 3 bartenders and 10 people total, I could not get drinks for us.  Next one  - we were a bit on the older side, but it made for fun people watching.  A pair of guys, who had probably NOT stopped drinking from the night before, we on the prowl for cougars - that was awkward.  J ran into a guy from his EMT class that was in the previous FF class; it made him smile.   There is something to that brotherly bond.  And then we met up with the firefighters.

The afternoon was perfect, good burgers, live music in the background, big screen TVs for me and J had firefighters to talk to while I cussed not so silently over some sad performances on opening day.  There was only one moment where my femaleness and my obsession with the Dance caused a scene.  Or maybe it was the green beer flowing through his veins at that moment.  Eventually the guys will get used to the fact that the SI comes in my name, you don't bother me on Sundays from August until February and it have a Twitter account just to keep up with the sports gossip of the day. Either way, it was still a great day.  We headed back to my dad's for pizza and UW's win over Belmont and rescued him from the girls.  Yesterday we grabbed the boys from my in-laws and the end of Spring Break is upon us.  But Thursday - Thursday I could not have planned to be any better!

After 2 rounds, I am 24-8.  Not too bad, I guess. I should scan my brackets and get them on here.

My Final Four - OSU, UCONN (Yup over Duke), Kansas and Florida.  Kansas takes it all.

Sign number 364 that you are cub

When there is a massive snow storm hitting the city....

and everyone else's car looks like this...

and this...

and your car looks like this...

    while you are doing this.