Mourning the Loss of My HouseHusband...

For about three years my husband worked in Fort McMurray as an electrician. His schedule sucked, varying from:

-4-10's (four days at 10 hours each, then three days off, repeat), to

-10 & 3's (10 ten hour days in a row, then 3 days off, repeat), to

-18 & 3's (18 ten hour days in a row, then 3 days off, repeat).

Basically it boiled down to he spent WAY more time in Fort McMurray with his co-workers then with me his wife (well I was a girlfriend for part of that time but you know what I mean). During that time I basically felt like a single mom to our 4 pets. I worked during the week, ran errands during the evenings and his weekends away, then had to adjust to his return every other weekend or so. The money was great, but the strain on our relationship was pretty hard. Especially when you factor in overbearing in-laws who seem to forget that you only see your husband 4 days a month and feel the need to intrude on those four days. Plus by the time Tyler got home I would always have this huge to-do list for him or both of us so our weekends were eaten up pretty fast (not to mention the 7 hour drive there and back).

So as of May 3rd or so this year he came home with the intention of looking for local work, building our fence and working on our yard. For the last three months he has basically acted as a House Husband since he wasn't working and I was. I took pretty much full advantage of this, getting him to cook meals, clean the house, look after the pets, help me with my side business, etc. It was nice to go from zero help to someone who could help full time. However, the lack of income he was producing meant our money levels were dwindling...so I helped him build his resume and he made some calls and today he was asked to meet a guy first thing this morning.

He was off to work before 7:30am...(which I'm sure came really early as he was in Calgary last night picking up our new patio set - hmm, I wonder why we have no money now?). Which meant that I had to put out the dogs this morning before I left...and I didn't realized this until I had already gotten out of bed later than usual. So I was extra late this morning. After I got back from lunch (which was not made for me as he wasn't there) I realized that I am going to have to adjust all over again. Hopefully this time it'll be a little more 50/50 (depending on his hours) but I will have to pitch in a lot more than I've had to for three months. Scary. And kind of lonely.

Don't get me wrong, it's very good that he has a job, it'll just be weird getting used to this change again. But, fingers crossed, at least this job is local and not 7 hours away so maybe we can be more of a "normal" family now...