"Take these dispatches and..."

Well, I'm not particularly awake yet, so forgive the typos, please ladies...

Sometime back (I think before Aria was born), I had offered to dispatch for our local volunteer Fire Department. DH was leutenant at the time and said he'd talk it over with the chief. Long story short, because the chief was in town during the day, we didn't need a dispatcher, he could do it.

Three months ago, our chief was medically retired. DH is now Assistant Chief. The chief came to him and asked if my previous offer was still good.

Well, at this point, I have a two and a half year old, and a one year old, and I'm babysitting a four year old child who is very high needs. I tell DH I will think about it. One night, they get some kind of call right before dinner time, leaving me to deal with kids, walking the dog, and doing the things that are normally his responsibility in the evening, plus cook dinner and bathe the kids etc (you ladies know the drill). My DH is a wonderful helper at home and I'm quite frankly spoiled by that! So that night I "pretend" that I'm also having to handle dispatch, and realize that it's not such a hot idea.

Fast forward to Monday the 23rd. Right now we have fifteen firefighters on our roster. Usually, however, it's the same three or four guys who go out on almost every single call. Most of our guys work traditional day time schedules, so there aren't many people here from about 7ish am to about 6ish pm, cause the jobs are all 30 or more miles away. I get a phone call from the Sheriff (the actual guy, not a deputy or one of his underlings) and he's ticked off. Seems there's a fire in our district, and he's been toning us out for the last hour and no one has responded. He tells me I'm the first live person he's gotten and can I please find him some firefighters and get him an updated call sheet. "Yes, Sir" says I, a little intimidated (to which my husband would be shocked). So I pull the call sheet off the fridge and start calling firefighters and get four on the scene. I tell DH "I guess you better get me a radio."

So he brings me a radio and dashes out the door with a half frozen turkey sandwich. I start listening in but no one calls. No big deal, because I have no idea what in the world I'm doing!!!

So I call our administrative assistant. She does the office work for 2 days a week, and is assistant chief and back up dispatch for the neighboring district. Tell her the Sheriff needs a call sheet and I need dispatch lessons. We agree to talk after she fixes dinner and I get babies down. She gives me a crash course in dispatch.

Now, the entire reason I turned down dispatch is because of my "worst case scenario." Dinner is being cooked, babies are fussy cause they're hungry or whatever, I don't have any bigs here to help, and something major happens.

So Tuesday dawns, and I actually get to get on the radio, to ask the guys who are watching for flare ups from Monday's fire if they are going to need to refill the water trucks, so the town can make the extra water available. I take care of that, and do my normal mommy stuff. Do it more efficiently and at a faster pace because I have no idea what may happen down the road.

DH comes home a little early, so he can get on the scene of the fire and do an assessment, so I put dinner on early-something easy because I don't know what is going to happen with the fire. I made spaghetti sauce earlier in the CP and bread in the machine, all I had to do was deal with the meat and pasta.

Now, Aria, now 15 months old, is teething, so she's been fussy all day. Roan is moderately fussy, mostly due to his being 2 and wanting his way all the time. I'm walking into the kitchen to drain the pasta, and the radio goes off. So I'm in the midst of cooking dinner (and risking icky overcooked pasta with not enough to replace it if I ruin it), dealing with fussy babies, the dog needs to go out, it's raining, and I need to dispatch a smoke report. It's my first darn day on the job and already my worst case scenario has happened!

Well, I did it. Not only did I do it (thankfully it was only a smoke chase, it's hazy cause we have three fires nearby) but I did a pretty good job, according to my DH and the lady who trained me, who called to tell me I was doing an awesome job. The oldest kid I have at home right now, Nikki, who is 7, stepped up and did a great job at helping, too!

So I guess I'm a working mommy. Still home, but working. I'm trying to get things done earlier, because I never know when the radio will take me away from that stuff. But if I have all the dinner prep done early, it will save me time in the evenings. Also planning on double cooking a lot of things and taking a day a month to put some extra food in the freezer so I can just pull stuff out if something happens near dinner time.

There are some benefits-#1 is that with a local dispatcher, my husband will be safer. The other guys as well, but of course, my primary concern lies at home. I'll have life insurance, and we get a small incentive bonus for every call we work on, so every call I dispatch I will get a small amount of money for, paid in one check in December. Plus DH gets a "recruitment bonus" for me "joining" the FD. That will help our family out a lot. Life insurance for me has been a concern in our family-if something happens to me, DH would have to pay childcare so he could work. Now that huge need will be taken care of.

So now to figure out how to juggle all of this LOL.

Cast of Chracters

Above: Front Row of the fully loaded van-Roan, Nikki, Aria

Back Row of the Fully Loaded Van-Aimee, Saren, Jamie

Where to start?

At the beginning, I suppose, with introductions all around.

I’m Keisha, a 35 year old wife and mother. My family and I live in a small town in Southern Colorado with a population of about 650. We are a zero stoplight town, although we do have multiple stop signs. I am chronically tired. Of course, I’m pretty sure that I haven’t slept through until the alarm went off more than three nights in a row for the past three years. I bet, if you’re reading this blog, that you can relate!

My DH is Larry, he’s 42. He’s currently going to school to be a lineman. He’s at the top of his class, and I’m really proud of him. We’re hoping that he’ll get hired locally as a groundsman with the electric co-op when he graduates. He’ll move up to being a lineman after serving an apprenticeship.

Oldest DD is Aimee, she’s 16. She plays lots of sports, dyes her hair burgundy red, paints her fingernails black and only wears jeans. Every single day she is a source of joy for us.

Our oldest DS is Wayne, he’s 14. He’s Larry’s son from his previous marriage, lives with his mom. We don’t get to see him very often, and we miss him and love him every single day.

Next on the list is Saren, our 9 year old DS. He’s a bit of a different breed, but different seems to be the way of things in this family. He’s growing like a weed, up three pants sizes in the last year!

Then we have Nikki, a 7 year old girlie girl to the core! She’ll be the one who’ll take an hour to get ready, once she truly discovers boys. She’s a smart girl, and is learning to give as good as she gets!

Next on our list is Roan, he’s 2. He’s wickedly cute, with eyes that are going to cause some broken hearts someday. He loves Legos and cars, but isn’t averse to playing dolls with the girls.

And last on our list of biologicals is Aria. She just turned 1. She’s an explorer, and despite my efforts to the contrary, very definitely spoiled!

Our cast of characters (and boy, are they characters!) also includes what I call “Add On Kids”. I didn’t birth them, but I feed them, hug them when they cry, yell at them when they screw up, and love them as if they were mine.

First there’s Laura, Aimee’s 15 year old best friend. She’s not around as much as she used to be, but I still love her just the same.

Then there’s Big Jessica, she’s 23 and introduced me at church as her “Other Mom”. She’s a single mom and spends a lot of time hanging out here.

Jamie, 4, is Jessica’s daughter. We babysit her quite a bit. She’s very willful, and I’m hoping that will evolve into a quiet strength as she grows up, instead of going the other way. She’s a source of both frustration and hours of laughter.

Little Jessica is 21 and developmentally delayed. She lives in our apartment complex with her mom, and spends quite a bit of time with us when mom is working or she wants to hang around with the kids. She has a love of life that sometimes leaves me speechless!

Well I think that’s it for our little group. Hope you enjoyed meeting them!