Since this seems to be the major goal in our lives right now, I figured I would post about it. Aaron left on July 26 to go to a forest fire in Oregon. He ended up in Washington state though and was gone 20 days. He just got home last Thursday night.
It was a long 20 days, but we were so blessed that he was able to go. We have been praying that he would get to go on a fire because he gets paid a lot more than usual. Even better, normally with a fire you get about 12 hrs a day of work for 14 days straight. That adds up to lots of overtime. Plus, on the days you are on a fire you get hazard pay. Well, this time it took 4 days for him to get to Washington and while he gets paid for travel time, those days don't count as work days, so his 14 days doesn't start until he is actually on the fire. They ended up only having 13 work days, but once he was on the fire, he got 16 hour days in every one of those 13 days! Awesome!
So we got a HUGE check on Saturday and will get a Larger than normal check next payday. God always seems to take care of us this way...
Up until this weekend, I hadn't worked for the past 3 weeks. One week, I couldn't work and the other two weeks, they kept cancelling me every day I had signed up for because of low census. I got a very low paycheck two payperiods ago, and I got a big ole NOTHING last week. So if Aaron had not gone on this fire, we would have been in a world of hurt.
I was able to work this weekend and will work 2 more days this week ...hopefully.
However, when I do get cancelled, all is not lost, I normally prepare for a school day and we get another one in the books. We are already on day 31 for this year.
The dad of my best friend growing up passed away and we went to his funeral last Thursday. Let me tell you, the last thing you should do on day 20 of your husband being out of town is spend 7 hours in the car with 5 kids...
Whew! was I ready for a break. We knew Aaron was probably going to get to Montgomery in time Thursday afternoon to be able to drive back to the work center. I had dropped him off, so I was going to have to pick him up too.
We left at 7:30 Thursday morning. Got to the church building for the funeral around 10:30. The funeral lasted from 11-12:15. Then we drove about 10 min. towards home for the burial. Then another 20 min. towards home to eat lunch with the family at a different church. We left the church between 2-3, I can't remember.
I had a blessed, blessed 1 hour in the car on the way home where all 5 kids slept. Wonderful time. Then they woke up. We stopped for a very quick potty break for 2 of them. Then drove the other 1hr 15 min. home. Got gas in our town because we were fixing to be running on fumes. Stopped by our house for a 5 min. potty break and immediately left to drive 30 min. to Aaron's work to pick him up.
Ethan said "I'm Angry!" when I told him to go back to the car. He didn't NOT want to drive anymore and I don't blame him. Aaron drove the way home and I was so excited to see him again. I love him so much.
Since I worked Sat and Sun. I wasn't able to sit down with the budget to write checks. However, I did yesterday and am excited to say that since last July 2013, we have paid off approx. $20,000 in debt. That is 14 months I guess, since you count 2 Julys and 2 Augusts. Approx. $18,000 to go.
So this month of August, we paid off 2 small credit cards and our last adoption loan. All we have left is one credit card, our van loan, and our Air Conditioner loan.
