Physical Agility Test!

Jeff's physical agility test for the Fire District 9 was on Feb 21st. I have not posted anything about the test because I was waiting until I got pictures of all the torture Jeff had to endure.

When Jeff first arrived, Lieutenant Michelle (something) showed all the candidates the course.

After the tour of the course, Jeff's first event was the "Black out maze" event where he put on his SCBA (mask) and put his hood over the top to simulate being blind. He then had to crawl around on his hands and knees following a wall to get out of the maze.

Chad, a volunteer firefighter hooking all the candidates up to the safety rope for the aerial ladder climb which was Jeff's second event.
My stud of a husband doing the aerial ladder climb which was 65 feet.

Standing around at the beginning of the combat course. First he had to do a stair climb with a high rise hose pack (40lbs), 5 flights up and 5 flights down. Then he did a unrack/rack roof ladder.

The "Simulated extension ladder raise" event was next. The weight of the bag was 60lbs and Jeff had to use a hand-over-hand motion to raise the bag 35 feet.

The "Forcible entry" event came after the ladder extension. Here he had to use an 8lb. sledge hammer to drive the I-Beam five feet to his rear (He said no matter how hard you hit it, it would only move a couple inches at the max).
After the I-beam he had to weave through a set of cones to a charged hose line and drag it out 75' and spray the water.
The last event was the "Victim rescue" event and he had to drag a 165lb dummy a distance of 100ft.


At the end of the combat course exhausted and felling like he wanted to puke. Just for reference his turnouts weigh around 10lbs, the air pack weighs about 30-40lbs. So at the max when he was doing the dummy drag he was having to carry 215lbs, basically his own body weight.


On the following Monday (Feb 23) he received his acceptance letter for the Fire District 9 Volunteer Recruit Academy. Great job bubba! I am so proud of you for making it one more step toward your goal. (The only thing I am not excited for is that starting in a week Jeff will be gone Monday nights, Wednesday nights, and Saturday all day for the next six weeks at the Volunteer Recruit Academy, so I will once again feel like a single Mom, but I know it will all be worth the sacrifice in the end.)

Read any good books lately?

I have never been much of a reader, never really liked to read actually. But after we got a library card, I thought I should start reading more. I am currently reading The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer and will be done with that today or tomorrow. I need suggestions for what to read next. Keep in mind, I have a very simple mind, so please don't suggest something I would have to read each paragraph three times just to get the gist of what the author is saying. I don't really have a preference on the type of book, so suggest away please!

Arrrrrrr matey

Mason has been really into pirates lately. This morning Jeff made him a pirate costume complete with a bandanna made out of a kitchen towel, a crockett club for a sword and some toy rings for pirate jewelry. Mason has been going around the house saying "Arrrrr matey, walk the plank".

Excuses

I just read a post my friend wrote about her little girl saying a prayer all by herself, and how it made her proud. It reminded me of how proud I was of Mason the first time he said a prayer all by himself. Then I had to laugh to myself because now Mason won't say any prayers and I thought I would share it with you all. He has become, shall I dare to say, a bit lazy and does not want to do several things, and he has a different excuse for everything that he doesn't want to do. When we ask him to say the prayer, he always responds with, "No, I said it last week". Seriously? What a wild imagination he has. (And this is just one of the many excuses he has.)

Visiting the Petersons

Saturday we took a trip to Richland to see Justin, DeAnne, and Katelyn. It was really nice to leave our snowy, 32 degree weather-Spokane and go to sunny, 45 degree weather-Richland. Our trip down was really good and the boys did really well in the car. We weren't sure how Cooper would do, as he had never gone for a long car ride before. It was really nice to see the Petersons and their new place. Justin took us down to his police station and gave us a tour. It was nice to see how proud Justin is of his job. DeAnne told us about an awards banquet they went to the previous night. She said it was really nice to hear some of Justin's fellow officers speak so highly of one another and to see the respect and concern they have for each other. This was really nice to hear because if Jeff is able to get on with one of our local fire departments I know he will have (and receive) this same respect concern for (and from) his fellow firefighters.

In the car all ready to go.

Cooper, Mason, and Katelyn playing in her bed.

Good job Connor!

This past Wednesday night my nephew Connor received a Character Counts award at his school. Great Job Connor!

Connor got a Character Counts t-shirt and a juice drink.

Mason wasn't very excited to be there.

Cooper was happy as could be with his tounge out.

Love chain

Monday morning Jeff and I woke up to find this on our front door. Jared and Michelle "heart attacked"us. They also left some yummy cookies and an envelope with instructions to "heart attack" another member of our family.

Later that afternoon Mason, Cooper, and I set off to Britany's house and "heart attacked" her and her roommate Abby. We also left them some cookies! I asked Mason to hold the screen door open so I could get a picture. Just as I got ready to snap the picture, Mason cried out "I have to go potty" while grabbing himself and jumping up and down.

Cooper's 18 month check up

Cooper had his 18 month check up this morning. He weighs 29 pounds!!! (which is over the 95 percentile mark.) and he is 34 inches tall. (which is right at the 95 percentile mark) Cooper did not have to have any shots today which made us both happy. :) Here is a cute picture of our boys. They really do love each other!

My Man in Uniform

Jeff got word today that he did pass his EMT exam! Now he can sign his name: Jeffery Dean Borders RRT, EMT-B (yeah he's cool! and picture in your head... me saying his name and credentials in a smart-al-lick "wow! you are SO cool" kind of way) Even though I know he would never sign his name with his full credentials because he is not a cocky person, it is still fun to joke about. No really, I am very excited that he has finished one more step and is on his way to becoming a volunteer firefighter and then hopefully some day becoming a career firefighter. Jeff got all his firefighter gear (or bunker gear, or turn outs) today that he will need for Volunteer Recruit Academy, which starts on Feb. 21st. Of course he had to get all dressed up when he got home to show Mason that his Daddy is a cool firefighter.

The helmet strap was a little tight around his chin and so it made Jeff's face look really chubby.

Cooper was saying "Daddy what are you wearing?"

Yeah! My man in uniform.... what every girls dreams of!

And of course, Mason had to try on the helmet.

He's just not that into you

So my parents got me some movie tickets for my birthday, thanks Dad and Debbie! Usually when they get Jeff or me movie tickets (or something like that), we use the gift to go on a date. Well, this time I wanted to see "He's just not that into you". Of course, Jeff did not, but my friend Corrine wanted to go and suggested we go see it together. So I gave her my extra ticket and we saw the movie last night. It was a good movie-full of laughter and romance. So if you like romantic comedies, this would be a good one for you!

Our first Library visit

Mason LOVES to read. He especially loves to read Dr. Seuss books! Yesterday morning we all went to the Public Library and got a Library card. Mason and I went to the kids section, while Jeff and Cooper took off to the Adult section (and NO not the dirty "Adult" section). At first Mason didn't quite understand how the whole "checking out a book" process worked, he just wondered around looking at all the books wondering what he was suppose to do. But once he saw the large Dr. Seuss collection they had, he had no problem just taking each one that he doesn't already own. I was able to persuade him to check out a few others as well.

All the books he checked out!



Jeff checked out a book he has been wanting to read. I can't remember the title, but it's by the same author of the book I got him for our anniversary. I'm sure he will have a review of this new one on his blog once he finishes.

I didn't check out any books, as I am not much of a reader, but I would like to start reading more.

Twins!

I got Cooper dressed yesterday, then after getting Cooper dressed Mason picked out his outfit of the day. He had not seen what Cooper was wearing, so it was a little crazy that he picked out an outfit that was very similar to what Cooper was already wearing. Mason ALWAYS has a reason for why he picks out what he picks. Usually his clothes have to match in one way or another. Whether by color or theme, they HAVE to match. Yesterday for example, he wanted to wear Spider Man underwear, so he needed a red shirt to match Spider Man (usually he needs to wear his Spider Man shirt with those underwear). Then he was playing with his khaki colored belt that morning, so he needed to wear his khaki colored pants. It is cute to have the boys in matching outfits, but this won't become a common occurrence My sister (who is only a year older than me) and I were dressed a like often, and I did not like that as a kid.

Hiding spot

The little cupboard in our entertainment stand has always been one of Mason's favorite hiding spots. Now Mason and Cooper have discovered that they can both fit in the cupboard. They had a lot of fun one morning playing in there together.

Our 6th Anniversary

First I would like to wish my husband a happy anniversary! I really am married to a wonderful man. He is a great husband and father.

Thanks to my parents who were willing to watch our boys two weekends in a row (last weekend so we could go to the Temple), we were able to go out to celebrate Friday night. We went to Azteca for dinner. Then we were going to go to a movie, but nothing really jumped out at us that we just HAD to see. So instead we went to Lowe's and picked out some storage stuff for our garage. I know romantic, right? Oh well, it was just great to get out together without the boys tagging along.

Jeff got this book for our anniversary, I have to admit, I didn't actually go pick it out for him, we went to Borders book store and he picked it out himself. I really didn't have a chance to get out, this past week was really crazy. Jeff got me a gift certificate to a scrapbook store.

Garage Organization

Our garage has bugged me since we moved in. None of the tools were organized, we would trip over our bikes, the lawn mower or snow blower when we would try to get in the right side of Jeff's car, and we couldn't get out a snow shovel without something else falling over. Yesterday morning we put up a rack to hold shovels, brooms, rakes, and other misc. yard tools, some bike racks, and a garage utility cabinet.

Cooper chillin' in his stroller.

Jeff putting together the garage utility cabinet.

All finished! And now we can walk on that far side of the garage without tripping over everything. Thanks Jeff for all your hard work!