Since I’m fairly new to blogging, I will start by telling you a bit about my family.  It’s me, John, our daughter Maggie, our baby that isn’t born just yet, and our two dogs Lady Jane and Buddy Boy.  I work from home as a real estate agent, but I don’t work a ton, so I don’t make a ton of money, just a little to help us out and Maggie goes to work with me.  John and I agreed before we got pregnant that it was important to both of us that I was able to stay home with our kids instead of putting them in child care.  He works very hard for us, and most of the time, he is working out of state which stinks. 

Now, I will say, normally, this is not a big deal to us anymore because we are used to it.  Not to say it isn’t hard and we don’t wish it was different, but this is the job he has had since he was a teenager.  This last year, we actually got to spend quite a bit of time with him.  Usually he works for anywhere from 1 – 3 weeks at a time out of state and is home for 2-4 days.  His dad passed away in August and he was home for 2 weeks.  Then he was home for a few extra days around Thanksgiving.  He is always laid off right before Christmas and has always been back to work the week after New Year’s.  This year however, he was laid off right before Christmas and still hasn’t been called back to work.  I’m sure you can imagine the stress this puts on our lives when the person making pretty much all of the money isn’t working for two months.  He’s been talking to his work every week, and it’s always the same old story….next week, next week…or we are planning to make you foreman again.  Only, it’s been too long and they are just jerking him around, so he had to do something. 

After talking about it for a few weeks, he decided it would be best for us if he went out to the oil fields in North Dakota and worked.  He’s pretty much guaranteed some work because of his experience, and most likely he will make more money.  He is used to living on the road in hotels all of the time, so that part isn’t much different for him.  We just acquired a 5th wheel and heavy duty truck to pull it from when his dad passed away, so he is taking that out there and him and his buddy will be living in a big camper for who knows how long. 

I’m crying as I write this, which seems ridiculous to me, I’m used to him being gone for weeks at a time and taking care of the munchkin and dogs and house and bills and whatever else by myself, it’s not that big of a deal, but still I’m crying.  Two months of having him home has been so nice.  Stressful, but nice.  Now, I’m sure some of my tears are pregnant girl tears, I get those a lot, but still!  It’s been so nice to get to see him and Maggie bond so much and do many of the things that he doesn’t usually get to do with her.  Usually he comes back and is surprised by how much she has grown and changed, but he’s been able to be here and watch her transformation day by day and we have all loved it.  Maggie wakes up in the morning and says, “Where’s daddy?”  (He falls asleep downstairs a lot).  Or if he leaves the room, she asks, “Where’d he go?”  

Not only are we sad that he won’t be home every day now, he’s never had another job.  He’s been at this job for 12 years or something like that.  He’s very nervous to start a new job, not to mention that it’s costing $2500 just to get out there and set his camper up someplace and get the water and electricity turned on.  The most stressful part is that he doesn’t have a job lined up out there, he’s just been told by everybody he’s talked to that’s out there that he won’t have any trouble getting a job.  Scary!!! 

Today they got out there, and things aren’t going all that well already.  The campsite is in a mobile home park for now because that’s about all they have out there right now.  The place is a huge mudpit!  They can’t get the sewer line and electricity both hooked up because of the way they have the place set up.  Hopefully tomorrow he can find a job and start by the end of the week.  *fingers crossed*

With any luck, he will make the money out there that he’s been told that he will and in two years, he can take the time off and find a job back home.  Right now, the jobs he could find here are too much of a pay cut, that we can’t make it work.  Wish us luck!  When he finds a job, he will know how often he can be home.  Some of them are 2 weeks on and 1 week off, which would work out okay for us.  Only time will tell.  Until then, we will have to readjust to the quiet house and wait to hear the updates from daddy.