fire house station tours

things have been slow around the ol fire house lately. the most action i've had has been when i put on all my fire clothes to power wash all the showers in the station (i got soaked, which is why i wore my fire clothes. imagine washing your shower out with a fire hose). today was we gave a tour, which we commonly do, to an 18 year old boy with down syndrome and his grandpa. it was by far my favorite tour we'd done yet. this boy was so excited to see the fire truck, and his face lit right up when we let him get in. he honked the horn (not so bad inside the fire engine, deafening standing next to it) and turned on the lights and he sprayed some water from the hose. his grandpa said he'd never seen him so happy and excited. his grandpa was really funny to, so we all had a great time.

birthday presents!

i had a great pre birthday party with my sweet wife and family. we had my annual spice cake (which i recently found out was cheap enough i can have it whenever i want) and some iced cream, followed up by presents! linds got me a neoprene life jacket to enhance my waterskiing abilites and my siblings and sibling in laws got me madden 09 to hold me over thru the winter until i can use my chafe-proof life jacket. thanks again to all of them! i was so excited that when everyone left i tried both of them out together

moody dog

daisy has been going thru alot of phases lately. there was a long independant phase, where she didnt want us unless she wanted a belly rub. then there was eating things she knows she shouldnt such as half a bag of oatmeal cookies and a phone book. but now she is in the needy/cuddly phase. which is much better than eating phone books

Ultrasound Pictures!

I'm a little late for my post deadline (sorry Arlene!), but I figured better late than never! I'm finally posting the pictures we got from our ultrasound, hmmm.... almost a month ago? We found out we're having a boy, as most of you already know by now. I was a little shocked when we first found out, but Jason called it on the way over so I don't think he was surprised at all! It's so great knowing what we're having now, it makes it seem so much more real. I think that's the reason I was shocked, not to find out that it was a boy but to finally realize I'm really having a baby!! Well I'm 23 weeks along now, about 5 1/2 months, and a few people have been requesting another belly picture so that will be soon to come, and I think you'll all be more than a little surprised. I've grown a ton since the 4 month picture! But for now...Ultrasound!

This one confirms that we're having a boy! He was hiding for most of the ultrasound-the tech was getting kind of frustrated when she was looking for his organs, but as soon as it was time for this shot, he wasn't shy at all!

Here's a spooky Halloween shot. He looks like an alien or something, it's kind of frightening at first, until you look closer and you can see his little belly and he has his knees pulled up to his chest. I think this one is probably my favorite!

The rest are not quite as clear. Like I said before, he was being a little camera shy, but here is his little foot, and the next one is a profile. I'm a little jealous of Michelle's ultrasound because she got some 3D pictures, but I guess I'll find out what he looks like soon enough! Hopefully not an alien... but I'm sure I'll love him no matter what!

Boy or girl - place your bets!

Well here is my first official (and long awaited) blog post. I'm still learning how to use this thing, and I'll be honest - it's a little hard! But I can't rely on my husband to be the blogger of the family anymore because he's already passed the torch to me, so I thought that we should probably make an official announcement about our new little addition! We're having a baby in March, on the 2nd to be exact, but we don't know what it is yet. We find out on Oct 7th - 7 days from now!! So I'm posting a poll to see what everyone thinks we're going to have (boy or girl, because we already know it's a baby!). We've discovered that neither Jason nor I have any parental intuition and have no idea what it is, so that's why we're requesting your input. We sure are excited though!! I bought a crib on Saturday, so now we just have to clean out the spare bedroom, which will be no easy task.

Here are some shots of my growing belly! The first one is at about 3 months, the second is at 4 months. It may not look like a lot now, but just you wait!

fire station excitement

the last two shifts have been pretty slow, even for station 10. today started with some excitement, a small (very small) fire at a local high school. it was a full alarm so 3 fire engines, a fire truck, the battalion chief, and me in my utility (water boy) truck. when i got out and walked over to meet my crew i was greeted by a group of high school students asking "hey, who ordered a stripper?" kids are so clever. i told them to stay in school and say no to drugs. other than that, i spent my day reading my text books and examining the fire stations sprinkler system. in the afternoon the my captain brought us out to practice throwing ladders up onto a building which was really a trick to get me to wash the windows. so not only did i sharpen my skills our windows look great now. so i will probably head to bed now, so i can get some sleep before the next elderly person falls out of bed.

state fair 08

last night we went on our annual trip to the state fair with our good friend jeff jackson. we had a great time as expected, fun you can only have at the fair. we saw a giant sculpture of cows made from butter, the great clips nascar, a bunch of captive tigers, many interesting fair going people, and countless animals. i had funnel cake for dinner, with dippin dots for dessert. while i was in line to buy my dinner, linds and jeff made their guesses what i would come back with. linds guessed it right on, including the kinds i was debating between. my girl knows me so good. the night was bitter sweet though, bitter for linds, sweet for me. due to being pregnant linds could not ride the zipper, which is what she looks forward to all year. i on the other hand get the night off from feeling nausious. all in all, a great night