One Week and Counting

It has been one week since James left for the Wallow fire. It's been a crazy week, a sleep deprived week, a stressful week and yet somehow I still feel like I am holding it together.

Last Friday James was on overtime at the lake and called me at 1:00pm to tell me he had just gotten the call to go to a wildfire near Alpine. It had started just a couple days ago and was growing fast, but since his longest deployment to date was four days, I told him it was a great opportunity and to go for it. He came home, got his stuff together, said goodbye and was gone by 3:00pm. That night I waited up for his call until 1:00am when he finally pulled into base camp and I felt like he was safe enough that I could sleep. That was day 1.

Day 2 was the day we had planned to celebrate Dawson's birthday with the family. I didn't want it to be any more apparent to the boys that dad was gone (or that he was more than likely going to miss Dawson's birthday) so we tried to maintain normalcy. The day was great. We went and saw Kung Fu Panda 2, barbecued, had cake and opened presents. Later that night, the boys and I went to church and everyone was doing good.

Day 3 was the day I stopped watching the news. The fire was growing quickly. The governor had visited and decided to use words like devastating and frightening. It was a long day (Sunday's are always long when James is on shift too) but I heard from James late that night, so I was good.

Day 4 was busy, but was only just the beginning. It was my first day of summer tutoring. I am working with 29 kids for 13 hours a week to help them with reading and math over the summer. Colton was also in basketball camp in the morning, so I had to beg my mom to hang out with Dawson while I was gone. I am definitely blessed to have family and friends around that are willing to help. That afternoon when I got home, one of the battalion chiefs called to check on us and also to ask me if I would consider talking to a news reporter about what life is like for the families at home while the firefighters are deployed. For some crazy reason, I said yes and cleaned the house the rest of the night.

Day 5 was tutoring and basketball camp, then I raced home for my 5 minutes of fame interview with Channel 5 and after we had some friends over to play on the water slide and have dinner for Dawson's birthday. The day wouldn't have been complete without throwing in a late night basketball practice for Colton though, so we made sure to squeeze that in too.

Day 6 was Dawson's actual birthday. Colton did a great job making him feel special in the morning and James was able to call and wish him "Happy Birthday." After tutoring and basketball, we met some friends at Peter Piper and they were sweet enough to get him a little gift bag which made his day. He told Colton all night, "Thanks so much for planning the surprise party for me!" I was just thankful he was focusing on that and not that dad was gone. Later that night, we went to dinner with my mom so overall he was busy and happy and he knew he was getting an extra celebration when dad got home. I, however, had a rough day. I started watching the news again that day and they were evacuating two more towns and pulling firefighters out of areas for their safety. The magnitude of what James was doing became more real and I just felt unsettled. Thankfully he was able to call that night and really reassure me that he was being safe and I was able to sleep good.

Day 7 was a blur. Basketball camp, four hours of tutoring, Dawson's speech therapy and both boys basketball games that night. Whew! We were all exhausted by time we got home.

Today is Day 8 and it's been good so far. We went to the summer movies this morning, had friends come visit from Prescott and my mom is coming over to have dinner with us.

I have learned a couple things so far while James is gone. The first is how much I depend on him. I love him because he is my husband and count on him as the man of the house and my kid's dad, but he is so much more. He makes me laugh, feel safe, and is just the person I want to be around. The second how much I appreciate single and military moms. My two weeks looks like a joke to them and my hats are off to them and all they have to do. The third is that I can do all the "man stuff" around the house if I have to, but I still don't like it.

The next week seems like an eternity right now, but I am sure I will blink my eyes and my family will be together again, just like it should be.