Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Fire & Ice

This has been a really good week! We had our Rummage Sale at work on Saturday so I was working that from 10 am to 4 pm. We did really well though, so our hard work paid off. Sunday I took a vacation day because Teresa, Mom, and I were wanting to see a movie but we hadn't had any time off together so I took off. We went and saw Nights of Rodanthe and it was soooo good. A tear jerker, but good. We knew it would be though, because it was based on the Nicholas Sparks book. We laughed. We cried. It was definitely good though.


Steve and Jennie came out for dinner Sunday night. It was yummy. Gene and I put on a pot of beans that morning, and I made cracker crumb pork steaks, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. Jennie and the boys don't eat beans so that's why we made so much other food. It was scrumptious!! Jennie brought dessert so we were all stuffed by the time it was all said and done!

Grace has been sleeping soooo much better this week. She is going to bed at decent hours and sleeping through the night again. Thank the Lord!!


Monday I had to go in to work at 10 am and work a 12 hour shift, because someone on dayshift was off work so they were shorthanded. It made for a long day, but it wasn't too bad. I had to go get Grace after work from Mom and Dad's so it was almost 11 before we made it home. I gave Grace a quick bath and she was in bed by midnight. I followed right behind her because I had to be up at 6 am yesterday morning for my fire refresher course.

As I've mentioned before, we dispatch for police, fire, and ambulance. Our dispatch center is at the police department and technically we're under the police department "umbrella" but the fire department has become a lot more involved with dispatch as of late. They put together a 2 day class for the dispatchers who have been there a while so we could become re-acquainted with their policies and procedures. It was a great class. Yesterday was spent going over dispatch's policies and then in the afternoon Assistant Fire Chief McDonald took us on a tour of all of our fire stations. Chief McDonald was the one who put on our class and he did a great job. I learned a lot of valuable information that will help me better do my job.

Julia 100 feet in the air!!

Today was the BEST day. Most of you are probably not aware (I certainly was not) that this week is Fire Safety Week. Every year during this week the fire department visit all the elementary schools in Springdale to teach the kids (K-3rd) about fire safety. So, this morning we all loaded back up into Chief McDonald's truck and he drove us over to the Springdale Municipal Airport and showed us all the fire department entrances in the case of either an aircraft emergency or a fire at the airport. It was really cool because I'd never really seen the airport up close and personal. He even took us inside one of the gates and we got to see some of the smaller hangars that people can rent for their personal planes. He also drove us out to the edge of the tarmack to show us where the fire apparatus set up for emergencies. We also got to go up in the air traffic control tower. It was soooo neat. You're up in the air abover everything and we even got to watch/listen to the Air Traffic Controller clear a plane for take off while we were up there. Super neat!! After that, we drove to Turnbow Elementary to watch the guys from Station 5 do their demonstration with the engine and the Fire Safety House. The Safety House was once a travel trailer, but it's now divided into 3 rooms that are set up like a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom. The kids went in and a different firefighter talked to the kids about fire safety. It was so cute to watch all the kids oooh and aaah over the fire engine and all the firemen!

After we left the school we went back to the station and continued going over policies until lunchtime. After lunch it was more policies and then we got to go outside and play! The guys pulled our brand new Ladder Truck out of the bay and set up the out rigging so we could go up in the ladder bucket. We've only had our new truck for about a year, and the ladder extends 100 feet into the air. That is HIGH! Little Julia went first, and she went all the way up. Michael went next and he went all the way up. Teresa and I went together, and I am completely afraid of heights. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go very high before I freaked out. I did better than Teresa! She started freaking a little, but not real bad. We ended up about 75 feet up. It wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. We had a blast getting to see all the neat tools (toys) they have to use in any kind of emergency.

Here's Teresa and I climbing up to the bucket. Here we go!!!

Securing our safety belts to the hooks in the bucket.

Julia was taking pictures of us, and she didn't get one of us up in the air, but this is Captain Miller putting it down to the ground so we can get out. It was a really cool experience! The whole fire class was great and I'm glad we had the opportunity to participate. I've got some more to catch up on, but Grace is getting sleepy and I'm tired of typing!! Hope everyone has had a good week so far!
Oh, and I was also going to say that yesterday afternoon and this morning I was wearing jeans and SWEATSHIRT. Yay! I am loving the cold weather!!!







1 comments:

Stephanie. said...

Aww...I wish I could have been there. I was so bummed when the doctor told me I couldn't go back! I'm glad you guys had fun though!

Sorry, had to delete the first comment I left because there was a typo and it was bugging me. =)