Fire Season 2014… Lessons learned early on!

If you don’t know, my boyfriend is a hot shot firefighter (wildland firefighter). Let me give you the quick run down…

1. Seasonal work… roughly April through October
2. Works about 3 weeks on, may or may not have cell service where he is at. Or electricity, which means no charged phone.
3. Sleeps on the ground, hotels if they are lucky and depending on the assignment.
4. The areas where he goes can be extremely dangerous.
5. Gets 2 days off to be with friends and family.

This weekend Carl’s first R&R days occurred and luckily they landed when I had time off too! Biggest lesson learned? Enjoy the time you have. Don’t worry about the small details. He is here when he is here, and I want to love him and squeeze him as much as I can before he goes back.

For some reason I cried – a lot – which I wasn’t anticipating. I was fine when he left the first time, I didn’t cry while he was gone, but it all seemed to hit me once I saw him! I was in such a tizzy! There was so much to fit into so little time. Somehow, I landed this guy who is as understanding and as patient as they come. He didn’t make me feel bad for crying, instead he held me, calmed me, and helped me realize that he is here NOW so let’s make the most of it instead of stressing about when the time is going to be over.

Next time he has his days off, you bet I am just going to go with it. Which I said I would this time, but I wasn’t anticipating or expecting all the feels! And no use worrying about what did or didn’t get to happen or how things went this last weekend… Like I said, it was a lesson learned. And we will get better with time 🙂

Just a tip for those of you ladies, if you are dating a hot shot… be kind to him. They have long hours, hard work, and they need their wits about them when they are out on the job or it could make a dangerous situation even worse. Meaning, when that opportunity arises to talk to them on the phone? Don’t ream them with petty bullshit. Love them, hug them when they are home, support them, and make an effort to learn what is REALLY worth bringing up and what you can learn to let go. You know they wouldn’t risk getting their hearts broken over just anybody, so be kind to him and respect his choices as he respects yours.

That’s all ❤

Week 1 Day 4 and a Slightly Sassy Rant

You know what amazes me? The level of exhaustion that I physically feel sometimes, especially after putting my body through the ringer.

Last night, the only thing that happened at home (productively) was a MASSIVE cleaning session with Stephie Poo. Oh boy! Now our kitchen is spotless 🙂 Usually I clean the kitchen pretty well every other day (this body building habit creates a lot of dish pile up) but once in a while we do wait a few days, collectively, to get things taken care of. I really do think we should be on the commercial for Finish Jet Dry… We thought the dishwasher was broke. Nope, we just had crappy detergent. Who knew?

I did get ONE load of Carl’s laundry dry and ONE load of mine washed, and tonight I am so excited to clean my room and grill some food… I got some medallion steaks from Fry’s while waiting for Pearl to be done at the car wash and they look YUMMY. Mmm!

About 9pm last night I started to feel my leg workout from Tuesday. And do I ever feel it today – thank goodness today is a jean day at school. I ate a HUGE breakfast full of lots of good macros, had some coffee, and am now chugging water. I think the foam roller will be a must after today’s workout. Yoga did not happen last night either. I fell asleep on the couch around 10pm and was OUT like a light. Clearly my body was telling me I needed sleep more than I needed to do yoga.

Anyone else out there have hay fever? If you don’t know what hay fever is, you probably don’t have it… but in case you don’t it is the worst kind of allergy problem you could possibly have! Ugh! I refuse to take allergy medicine because of it’s affect on my voice and vocal chords, so I suffer through with an itchy nose. Staying hydrated helps with the drainage so I don’t cough or clear my throat but I can’t stand goopy eyes and sneezing every five seconds. Grr. I can’t WAIT until the 110 degree weather hits and kills everything that makes me sneeze.

This morning when I weighed myself (and I do every morning so I can see how my body reacts to certain foods/supplements/etc) I realized I have shot right back up! I am thinking maybe it is because the last few days I have been consciously drinking 96oz of water every day. Now, I attempted to be sincere about hydration prior to this, but I can’t tell you if before this week I was having more or less. This could merely be stored water weight that will drop back off in a couple days. Still, I frantically e-mailed Coach this morning going “OMG OMG OMG I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!!” In truth, I have been very meticulous about my macros and consistent for a while so the fact that my body isn’t reacting the way it should is slightly alarming. Ok, now I can breath (whoa that was a long sentence). Anyway, I will keep you updated on what Coach says and how my weight progresses this week. Grr.

Plus side, today is my Friday! Since this week we have standardized testing, tomorrow we have the day off from school (called the April Testing Break) but we all know this day is given off to us since it is Good Friday. Hah. Take that political correctness!!! I am not one to be super religious or over zealous or anything like that but let’s be honest – the real reason tomorrow is off for all schools IS Good Friday, and everyone including Corporate America will be celebrating Easter this weekend. Even Stephie Poo has a half day at work! Hmm.

If you don’t celebrate Easter, and have some other celebration that has or will happen over the next week, I hope you thoroughly enjoy – or don’t enjoy if you aren’t doing a damn thing and that is OK too!

Also, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the “somewhat sassy” in this post… I don’t think the coffee has kicked in yet 😛

TGIT

Carl <3

While I’m thinking about him, I really do need to take a minute and GUSH about the man in my life: Carl!!! 🙂

We met when I was 18-years-old, lost touch, and got back in touch when I moved back home after graduation.

Let me tell you something… He wins. He just does.

The respect, care, consideration, and effort he puts into his life and into us astounds me and makes me want to be the best version of me. He truly is a partner – in the sense that we have learned to recognize what the other needs, step up when we need to, and be for each other what we need when we need it. I feel truly blessed.

Right now he is at work – he is a hot shot – and he is camped out (has been and will be for a while) on the side of a nasty mountain, on the ground, and works all day outside trying to stop and contain a wildfire. How bad ass is that? Even so, he still takes care to text me when he can. Oh my goodness. My heart just melts thinking about him. ❤