What a great day in my life. I have been waiting a long time to test with a fire fighting agency whether it is full time or even volunteer. With a lot of help from the Lord, family and friends I was able to start training for the big day. My friend, Rick Pitcher, was able to help me get ready by sending me through a mini physical test out at the Ivins fire station. I was able to do that in 9 mins and 39 seconds. He said if I did that I could do the real test. The next time he had me go to the Hansen stadium and run the stairs and pull a car tire attached to a rope up to the top of the stadium. Boy was I exhausted and ready to die. Tiffany and Emily even helped me get ready. Emily was my little coach every time I was getting ready to go running she would say "Can I come?" and of course I could not pass it up. One time I had my weighted back pack on and took Emily with me. I put her on my shoulders for more weight and ran around the block. It was so much fun having her cheer me on as I did sprints up and down the street. A month of training and lots of running lead me up to this day.
The testing process for St. George city is really picky. They make sure that you have everything they ask and make sure that people are on time, if not you cannot test. So I made sure that I got there early and had all the things they asked for. The test started out with me putting on a turn out coat, a helmet, and a SCBA or an O2 tank. I thought the SCBA was a lot lighter than my pack at home which made me excited. From the picture above, the first part was an untimed ladder climb of 75ft at a 70 degree angle. I had to make sure that I had three points of contact on the ladder rungs or I failed. I could not have both feet or hands on the same rung at the same time. At the top I had to look down and identify two pieces of fire tools on the ground and of course after that descend the ladder. What a climb, I thought. I wanted to look up and down, but I did not want to get distracted on how much I have left so I consecrated on climbing up and climbing down.
The rest was a timed event that had to be accomplished in under 9 mins and 30 seconds. The first event was a stair climb of five flights of stairs with a 100ft 1 3/4" fire hose on your shoulder while climbing the stairs. At the top there was a rope with a hose connected to it, and I had to go hand over hand to get it to the top of the tower. After that I put the hose back on my shoulder, and went down the stairs. The second event was a ladder extension of 24' using hand over hand and if you slipped or did not use hand over hand you had to start over. I was so over whelmed and thinking too hard I went the wrong way to find the third event. After the fire guys saw that I was lost they showed me the way. I felt stupid at first, but I sucked it up and went back as fast as I could to make up for lost time. I had to connect two hoses to a connector on the building and then clap my hands before I disconnected the hoses. Before I moved on to the fourth event, I dragged the hoses back and had to make sure that all the hose was behind the line. The fourth event was dragging a 2 1/2" hose with a fire nozzel about 100 feet and going back pick up the first coupling and putting the nozzle and the coupling behind the line without dropping them. I kicked myself for a minute because I dropped the coupling about 5 inches. I waited to see if they were going to say anything and they didn't so I moved on to the fifth event.
The fifth event was taking four 2 1/2" rolled hoses and caring them one by one to the back of the fire truck. When the fourth one was on the tail gate, I raised my hands to signal I was done. Then I reversed to process. I asked the fire fighter what my time was before starting this event and he said 6 minutes and I asked again after getting done and he said 7 minutes. I thought "Sweet I have a good cushion for the last event," which I heard gets a lot of people. The last event was a dummy drag. The dummy AKA Rescue Randy weighed about 175 lbs. I got to him and did as I was taught and trained and bent him clear forward till his head almost hit the ground in front of him. I put my arms around him and locked my wrists together and stood up. I told myself this is where I give it my all and get it done here and now and do not put that dummy down or drop him. I gave it my 110% and more. I made it to the end with the dummy with out stopping. I passed with a time of 7 mins and 44 seconds. I was so excited that wanted to jump for joy but I held it in until later. I went in with confidence knowing that I could do this and I have prepared well for it. Thank goodness for answered prayers and doing my part so that the Lord could do His. Now I get to wait for a letter that will tell me a time to go to an oral board. Wish me luck.
This is the second time Emily got to go horse back riding. The first time she rode by her self with me at her side holding her, but this is the first time she was able to ride with me. I was so excited to have her come and go with me and have fun. I love having daddy daughter time together. 
Emily had a blast coloring the eggs. She liked coloring on the eggs with the crayons then dropping them in the color. She would then stir the egg with the spoon causing the dye to spill all over the counter. Needless to say, my counter top was all different colors by the time we were done. Luckily our bleach cleaner was able to take all of the colors away. 
Of course we got some yummy candy and bubbles. We also got some sidewalk chalk, Emily got Strawberry Shortcake lip gloss, a kick ball and they both got patio chairs so we can sit outside when our back yard is finished. Emily has taken her chair everywhere so she can have her own personal chair. I can't believe how big Colby looks compared to Emily in this picture! He is half her size though. He weighs 13 lbs and she only weighs 26!
