Fighting Fires and Saving Lives

This post might sound a bit cynical and please understand I know there are many jobs that fall under this same category and know this is just my opinion!!!

If you don't know me in real life or if you haven't seen EK's newborn pics (see posts below) than you might not realize that The Hubs is a firefighter. I absolutely HATE the fact that my husband is a firefighter!!! Yet I am insanely proud of him and what he and all firefighters do!!! The reason I hate his job is because he is way overworked, underpaid and stressed to the max! When my husband leaves in the morning to go to work I have to face the harsh reality that I might not talk to him or see him again. There are days I don't even get to talk to him at all because he has one call after another after another. We have a deal that before he goes on a call (where he will actually be fighting a fire) he texts me "I love you". The worst part of that is getting that text and having to wait it out for another text or phone call from him making sure he made it out okay. The longest I have had to wait was 5 hours and let me tell you it was excruciating.

My husband works 24 hours on and 48 hours off; he has to be at the station at 6:30am and gets off the next morning at 6:30am. Most days when he gets off from the station he has to head to his other job where he is co-owner of a lawn care business. He has to have that business and work his bootay off in the hot bootay sun so we can eat and live because firefighting is not a high paying job! To me that's another soap box for another day!!! In my opinion firemen, policemen and teachers should be three of the highest paying jobs in America along with doctors. Okay, so doctors are high paying so why aren't the other three???? Anywho, back to the lawn care business. When my husband goes to cut grass for the day we usually don't see him until that night. Which means he leaves our house at 6:00am on day one and we don't see him until 6:00pm on day 2! People that's crazy hard!!!! Working the schedule he does also means missing major holidays, birthdays and functions for the kids! He has worked Christmas, school parties and lots of other holidays and birthdays. Imagine explaining to your kids why daddy isn't there when he's the only daddy not there.

My husband is a fireman but he doesn't just fight fires! His department runs all 911 medical calls. So if someone stops breathing or if there is a wreck he gets called. There's a lot of other reasons too - just giving you examples. Last week The Hubs came home and I could tell he was exhausted. I asked if they had a call and he said yes but it was a different yes than normal. Come to find out he ran a call where a man was unresponsive and once they arrived he had no pulse and was not breathing. The Hubs had to do chest compressions for over two hours on the man. From the mans house then walking to the ambulance then he had to ride in with the ambulance and continue all the way to the hospital and inside the hospital where the doctors and nurses took over. Now I have never done CPR but if I had to I'm sure I could but I know there is no way possible I could for over two hours while riding in a car and walking. This isn't hard for my husband though and he never ever complains or says I'm tired!

I'm writing this post hoping to open someone's eyes to what all a "fireman" does. And like I said before its not just firemen, it's also policemen, teachers, etc. In spite of what all these heroes do on a daily basis there are talks of pay cuts, benefit cuts and layoffs to try to save money for the economy! Seriously?!?!!! Well me personally, I don't want to cut out any of that because I want the best fireman there if my house catches on fire or if my daughter is in a wreck! I want the best policeman there if someone breaks in to my house or tries to hurt anyone in my family. I also want my kids to have the best teachers so they can learn and become great business women.

So that's why hate my husbands job! Don't get me wrong; I wouldn't want him doing anything else. He LOVES his job and he is an amazing fireman! I am insanely proud of him and the fact that I am his wife!!!