Hi Team!
Happy three week anniversary!!!
Today was an interesting day. On my walk today, my feet went completely numb. They were so numb I could barely walk at times and had to keep stopping to hold on to something and stomp my feet several time to get the feeling back. I have never experienced this before and when my laps and time were completed, even though I remained standing as Coach Alex and I talked, my feet felt fine. This could be explained by a pinched nerve or misalignment of my spine in some way, but I think this is a spiritual attack. I did not let it stop me, though I nearly gave in and then thought better of it. GOD IS ABLE!! Please pray for no more of this nonsense!
Today Pete tells me I walked 14,364 steps! YAY ME!!!
I drank approx. 60 ounces of fluid.
I did not get enough sleep and I can tell you right now, I will not get enough sleep tonight. That is another issue I would appreciate prayers on. That I would make wise decisions with my time and that I would find/make time to get the rest I need. This is proving to be one of my most difficult mini challenges within my ultimate challenge.
On a positive note, not having to do with my climb but having everything to do with motivation, I had a pen from East Pierce Fire and Rescue that I obtained from the Fire Department Open House I attended last friday. I let a parent use it to sign their child out on Tuesday afternoon and that parent inadvertantly walked off with it. It was a FIRE DEPARTMENT pen, and as such, it was special to me. (insert whininess or pouting or whatever seems appropriate here.) I knew it was silly to dither over a silly little pen, but I LIKED that pen. (Yes, I know I said on a positive note, keep reading!) This morning I was talking to one of my staff about it and how silly it is that I was so attached to it just because it was a fire department pen. She was very sweet and tried to make me feel okay about being whiny about it. This afternoon when she arrived at work she told me she had something for me. It seems that she took it upon herself to visit the U.P. Fire Department and ask them if they had a fire department pen they would be willing to part with. She brought it to me as a gift. (insert sappy tears of happiness here!) MY STAFF ROCKS!!! And God even cares about my pens! I feel so blessed and so loved. Really!
Until next time... Stay safe!!
Hotflash out.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Report From Ladder Company 40 -Day 20
Hi Team!
Whoops! I was supposed to write this last night. I stayed up too late working on another project and forgot to blog :(
So, when I say "today" I really mean yesterday because it is already tomorrow!
Today was a relatively uneventful day. Nothing spectacular occurred in relation to my climb up the ladder. Pete's buttons got pushed, yet again, so I have no accurate pedometer reading to report. My best guess is somewhere around 7,000 steps.
I drank about 60 ounces of fluid. YAY ME!
I didn't get much sleep, but that is normal. I must continue to work on this. God is Able.
I did spend my morning with another huge supporter. My friend Sunny and I went to coffee together to catch up on old times. I haven't spent much time with her at all in the last year and it was very nice to play catch up. She makes an awesome cheerleader and we have decided to meet every tuesday.
Well, that is about it for now. As always, stay safe!
Hotflash out
Whoops! I was supposed to write this last night. I stayed up too late working on another project and forgot to blog :(
So, when I say "today" I really mean yesterday because it is already tomorrow!
Today was a relatively uneventful day. Nothing spectacular occurred in relation to my climb up the ladder. Pete's buttons got pushed, yet again, so I have no accurate pedometer reading to report. My best guess is somewhere around 7,000 steps.
I drank about 60 ounces of fluid. YAY ME!
I didn't get much sleep, but that is normal. I must continue to work on this. God is Able.
I did spend my morning with another huge supporter. My friend Sunny and I went to coffee together to catch up on old times. I haven't spent much time with her at all in the last year and it was very nice to play catch up. She makes an awesome cheerleader and we have decided to meet every tuesday.
Well, that is about it for now. As always, stay safe!
Hotflash out
Monday, September 28, 2009
Report From Ladder Company 40 -Day 19
Hi Team!
Not a lot to report today. Pete said that I walked 11,439 steps today. I drank almost two quarts of fluids today. YAY ME!
I am still having some trouble with my right knee wanting to give out on me when stepping up or down as from a curb or stairs. I will have to overcome this somehow and strengthen that knee. God is able!
I am not doing very well at consistant sleep times. I got about 5 1/2 hours last night. I must improve on this, although, considering the time of night I am posting this, tomorrows post wont be reporting any better sleep times!
I need to seriously consider adding something to my week as far as exercise and conditioning goes. I knew this would be a big commitment, but the reality is starting to hit. I have a hard time committing to more time for anything. I know I will have to give up some free time to add conditioning and strength training to my routine. I am considering returning to the YMCA's 12 week program. It is a program that gets people started in regular exercise including cardio, weights and flexibility exercises. It is a supervised program designed to establish healthy habits and to teach participants hoow to use equipment and establish routines. Since my husband is a full time YMCA employee, I have a free membership. Silly not to use it!
Well, that is it for now. Stay Safe!!
Hotflash out.
Not a lot to report today. Pete said that I walked 11,439 steps today. I drank almost two quarts of fluids today. YAY ME!
I am still having some trouble with my right knee wanting to give out on me when stepping up or down as from a curb or stairs. I will have to overcome this somehow and strengthen that knee. God is able!
I am not doing very well at consistant sleep times. I got about 5 1/2 hours last night. I must improve on this, although, considering the time of night I am posting this, tomorrows post wont be reporting any better sleep times!
I need to seriously consider adding something to my week as far as exercise and conditioning goes. I knew this would be a big commitment, but the reality is starting to hit. I have a hard time committing to more time for anything. I know I will have to give up some free time to add conditioning and strength training to my routine. I am considering returning to the YMCA's 12 week program. It is a program that gets people started in regular exercise including cardio, weights and flexibility exercises. It is a supervised program designed to establish healthy habits and to teach participants hoow to use equipment and establish routines. Since my husband is a full time YMCA employee, I have a free membership. Silly not to use it!
Well, that is it for now. Stay Safe!!
Hotflash out.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Report From Ladder Company 40 -Day 18
Hi Team!
I hope the weekend was good to you. It definitely was to me. Today was another busy day with Sunday school, church service, choir practice and quiz team practice! All of those obligations involved an awful lot of sitting so when I finished with quiz practice, I came home and took the dog for a walk. YAY ME!!
According to Pete I walked 6,098 steps today. NOt too bad. I would have preferred at least 8,000, but not too bad.
I had seven hours of sleep last night. That was great!
I have had about 60 ounces of fluid today.
Tomorrow I will be adding more stairs to my work out. Currently I walk three miles and do 10 sets of steps. I will begin doing 12 sets of steps tomorrow and if I am still breathing reasonably at the end of my workout on Friday, I will go for 15 sets next week. That is my goal anyway.
I have a challenge for anyone who is interested. I am looking for ideas on how to get my exercise in, in a fun way with little or no exercise equipment, while in Washougal at my brother's home/fire station. It has to be fun because my Coach will not be around to kick my butt and hold me accountable. She won't even be able to reach me online as I will not have online capability while I am gone. I don't want to go out walking because my brother lives in the sticks! I would prefer not to do my walking on gravel roads, or narrow roads along the Washougal River where the drivers routinely go 40-50 miles an hour! If you have any ideas, please send them my way. I have over a month to figure this out. Thanks.
Until later, Stay SAFE!
Hotflash out
I hope the weekend was good to you. It definitely was to me. Today was another busy day with Sunday school, church service, choir practice and quiz team practice! All of those obligations involved an awful lot of sitting so when I finished with quiz practice, I came home and took the dog for a walk. YAY ME!!
According to Pete I walked 6,098 steps today. NOt too bad. I would have preferred at least 8,000, but not too bad.
I had seven hours of sleep last night. That was great!
I have had about 60 ounces of fluid today.
Tomorrow I will be adding more stairs to my work out. Currently I walk three miles and do 10 sets of steps. I will begin doing 12 sets of steps tomorrow and if I am still breathing reasonably at the end of my workout on Friday, I will go for 15 sets next week. That is my goal anyway.
I have a challenge for anyone who is interested. I am looking for ideas on how to get my exercise in, in a fun way with little or no exercise equipment, while in Washougal at my brother's home/fire station. It has to be fun because my Coach will not be around to kick my butt and hold me accountable. She won't even be able to reach me online as I will not have online capability while I am gone. I don't want to go out walking because my brother lives in the sticks! I would prefer not to do my walking on gravel roads, or narrow roads along the Washougal River where the drivers routinely go 40-50 miles an hour! If you have any ideas, please send them my way. I have over a month to figure this out. Thanks.
Until later, Stay SAFE!
Hotflash out
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Flashpointz -East Pierce Fire and Rescue Open House
Hi everyone! Today was a very fun day. My neice, Amanda and her two year old son, Jermaine came to my house this morning. Shortly after their arrival we headed out to Bonney Lake to the East County Fire and Rescue 16th Annual Open House. It was scheduled from 1:00-4:00. We arrived at about 1:10 pm and were very glad we came when we did. If we had been late it would have been a mad house for parking and as it was, we did not do everything there was to do!
I had no idea the event would be so big or so well attended. There were people every where! The fire department really did a great job with this event. There were several interactive booths, including but not limited to the Firefighter Challenge, Spot the Tot, Interactive Rope Rescue, Spin the Safety Wheel game, Interactive Firefighter, and lots more. There was a bounce house designed to look like a fire station, Jaws of Life Demonstrations, lots of rescue rigs to look at and get pictures in and around, free popcorn, cotton candy and ice cream and plenty more I have not mentioned. They also had low cost bike helmets and life jackets for sale, custom fittings included.
The firefighter challenge is the one I wish I could have participated in. THey might have even let me but I was too shy to ask. NOne of the other adults were doing it except the occasional firefighter when there wasn't a partner for a child wanting to participate. The participants had to wear a bunker coat, run a short distance and grab onto a "victim" (a dummy in turnout gear with a pull strap attached) and drag the victim back to the starting point (a firefighter assisted kids with that part as needed). Then they had to pick up a charged hose and drag it back to where the victim had been, open the nozzle and spray it at a sign on a stand, knocking it over to "put out the fire."s It looked SO fun. And watching it it suddenly dawned on me, I have not had the opportunity to use a fire hose yet!! Bro- you will have to help remedy that (please??!!)
Jermaine was really cute. He was really enjoying all the action going on around him. He was too short to participate in many of the interactive activities, but the firefighters there were as accommodating as could be. They talked to him, gave him a hat, shared high fives, and gave him the prizes he would have been able to have if he had participated. At the Interactive firefighter booth the kids got to put on boots, bunker pants and coat. Jermaine is so tiny that we stepped him into the boots with the pants tucked down around the bottoms and we couldn't even pull the pants up a little bit. So we put his hat on him and took a picture any way.
At one booth the prizes included a choice of pencils, rulers or fire related erasers. Jermaine got a fire engine eraser. He chose yellow. (He's only two so he doesn't know any better!) We tried to convince him to trade for red but he was having nothing to do with that! Walking away from that booth, Jermaine kept stooping down to the ground and trying to "drive" his yellow fire engine around. He loved it!
We got pictures of Jermaine by the pump panel of a fire engine, standing on a front bumper of a rig, on the tail board of a fire engine with bright orange and yellow reflective paint across the back, and with Sparky the fire dog and Smokey the bear. That yellow and orange reflective paint on the back of the fire engine was brighter than all get out! I don't think I've ever seen anything so bright on a rescue rig before.
At the Spot the Tot booth we discovered that Jermaine could not be seen from the driver's seat behind the "firefighter SUV" (lol, inside joke)until he was 14 feet back! That is a long distance away. I think it was a real eye opener to Amanda.
The Jaws of Life Demonstration was my favorite part of the day. We watched as the four man team of firefighters assessed the scene first then planned how to extricate the "victim". We saw them use several cool power tools to do the job including a ram and the jaws of life. The tool they use to remove the windshield is really cool. It shatters glass if needed, it breaks a small hole in the glass to get another part of the tool into to saw laminated glass and they basically saw all the way around the windshield then lift it out in one pieces. Then they cut the top off of the car and remove the whole thing making it resemble a convertable. Of course, they were sure to tell us that if the doors are removable they would use that route to extricate before going so far as to remove the top. It was a neat demonstration and I took lots of pictures. The men worked together like a well oiled machine, as they should. THey did make one obvious mistake that the crowd did notice. The air hoses to their ram and jaws of life ended up under the front of the car and the extication process could have caused the broken car to cut of their air supply for the tools. When the crowd started murmurning about it, a firefighter who was not involved with the demonstration brought it to the attention of the chief, who was narrating the event. OOPS! The chief moved the hoses without comment and the demonstration continued. LOL Nobody's perfect.
We left the event at about ten to four, and there was still plenty more we would have liked to have participated in, but the event was over and the firefighters were ready to clean up and go back to business as usual. All in all it was a very fun day and I am so glad that Amanda happened to be in town and agreed to go. I'm looking forward to future Open Houses, when Jermaine is a bit bigger.
The only real disappointment was that they were not selling t-shirts or firemen calendars! They did have some cool afghans but they were 40 dollars and I couldn't swing that. Maybe next time!
Thanks a bunch to my assistant at work, Nondre', who let me know about this event.
One more bit of news before I sign off:
In November, during the week of Veteran's Day, I get to take some of my vaction and go back to Washougal, to my brother's house and Fire Station!
I hope that THIS time I actually get to ride along on something!! I'll be counting down the days until my vacation now. I can hardly wait!
Have a good night everyone! Stay safe.
Hotflash
I had no idea the event would be so big or so well attended. There were people every where! The fire department really did a great job with this event. There were several interactive booths, including but not limited to the Firefighter Challenge, Spot the Tot, Interactive Rope Rescue, Spin the Safety Wheel game, Interactive Firefighter, and lots more. There was a bounce house designed to look like a fire station, Jaws of Life Demonstrations, lots of rescue rigs to look at and get pictures in and around, free popcorn, cotton candy and ice cream and plenty more I have not mentioned. They also had low cost bike helmets and life jackets for sale, custom fittings included.
The firefighter challenge is the one I wish I could have participated in. THey might have even let me but I was too shy to ask. NOne of the other adults were doing it except the occasional firefighter when there wasn't a partner for a child wanting to participate. The participants had to wear a bunker coat, run a short distance and grab onto a "victim" (a dummy in turnout gear with a pull strap attached) and drag the victim back to the starting point (a firefighter assisted kids with that part as needed). Then they had to pick up a charged hose and drag it back to where the victim had been, open the nozzle and spray it at a sign on a stand, knocking it over to "put out the fire."s It looked SO fun. And watching it it suddenly dawned on me, I have not had the opportunity to use a fire hose yet!! Bro- you will have to help remedy that (please??!!)
Jermaine was really cute. He was really enjoying all the action going on around him. He was too short to participate in many of the interactive activities, but the firefighters there were as accommodating as could be. They talked to him, gave him a hat, shared high fives, and gave him the prizes he would have been able to have if he had participated. At the Interactive firefighter booth the kids got to put on boots, bunker pants and coat. Jermaine is so tiny that we stepped him into the boots with the pants tucked down around the bottoms and we couldn't even pull the pants up a little bit. So we put his hat on him and took a picture any way.
At one booth the prizes included a choice of pencils, rulers or fire related erasers. Jermaine got a fire engine eraser. He chose yellow. (He's only two so he doesn't know any better!) We tried to convince him to trade for red but he was having nothing to do with that! Walking away from that booth, Jermaine kept stooping down to the ground and trying to "drive" his yellow fire engine around. He loved it!
We got pictures of Jermaine by the pump panel of a fire engine, standing on a front bumper of a rig, on the tail board of a fire engine with bright orange and yellow reflective paint across the back, and with Sparky the fire dog and Smokey the bear. That yellow and orange reflective paint on the back of the fire engine was brighter than all get out! I don't think I've ever seen anything so bright on a rescue rig before.
At the Spot the Tot booth we discovered that Jermaine could not be seen from the driver's seat behind the "firefighter SUV" (lol, inside joke)until he was 14 feet back! That is a long distance away. I think it was a real eye opener to Amanda.
The Jaws of Life Demonstration was my favorite part of the day. We watched as the four man team of firefighters assessed the scene first then planned how to extricate the "victim". We saw them use several cool power tools to do the job including a ram and the jaws of life. The tool they use to remove the windshield is really cool. It shatters glass if needed, it breaks a small hole in the glass to get another part of the tool into to saw laminated glass and they basically saw all the way around the windshield then lift it out in one pieces. Then they cut the top off of the car and remove the whole thing making it resemble a convertable. Of course, they were sure to tell us that if the doors are removable they would use that route to extricate before going so far as to remove the top. It was a neat demonstration and I took lots of pictures. The men worked together like a well oiled machine, as they should. THey did make one obvious mistake that the crowd did notice. The air hoses to their ram and jaws of life ended up under the front of the car and the extication process could have caused the broken car to cut of their air supply for the tools. When the crowd started murmurning about it, a firefighter who was not involved with the demonstration brought it to the attention of the chief, who was narrating the event. OOPS! The chief moved the hoses without comment and the demonstration continued. LOL Nobody's perfect.
We left the event at about ten to four, and there was still plenty more we would have liked to have participated in, but the event was over and the firefighters were ready to clean up and go back to business as usual. All in all it was a very fun day and I am so glad that Amanda happened to be in town and agreed to go. I'm looking forward to future Open Houses, when Jermaine is a bit bigger.
The only real disappointment was that they were not selling t-shirts or firemen calendars! They did have some cool afghans but they were 40 dollars and I couldn't swing that. Maybe next time!
Thanks a bunch to my assistant at work, Nondre', who let me know about this event.
One more bit of news before I sign off:
In November, during the week of Veteran's Day, I get to take some of my vaction and go back to Washougal, to my brother's house and Fire Station!
I hope that THIS time I actually get to ride along on something!! I'll be counting down the days until my vacation now. I can hardly wait!
Have a good night everyone! Stay safe.
Hotflash
Report From Ladder Company 40 -Day 18
Hi Team!
Welcome to my Bro! Today was a pretty decent day. I forgot to clip Pete n until almost noon, but even so, I still clocked 6,472 steps. I am sure I did close to 7,500 or so if you count what Pete did not. Most of my walking today was at the 16th annual East Pierce Fire and Rescue Open House, which I will discuss in more detail in my Flashpointz entry after I finish this one.
My fluid intake today was only about 48 oz, but that isn't too bad. And I haven't given up. I have approximately two more hours to get the fluids down.
I slept about 8 hours last night. YAY ME!!
Today my neice and I took several pictures at the EPF&R open house. I had them processed right away and looking at my pictures even I can see an improvement. My face looks thinner and I thought younger (but maybe that was just me), and my blouse fit better too. I must confess that I weighed myself on a scale I found at the office where I work on Friday. I was extremely disappointed to note not one pound difference from the weight I started this blog with. However, I do not believe what that scale says. Either it or the one I weighed on to begin with lies, or I have replaced fat with muscle from the walking. (I have noticed definite shape to my calves that wasn't there before.) I can see a difference and others, who were not aware that I was working on it, noticed too. Therefore, I am not going to let it discourage me. GOD is ABLE! I will weigh again after day 28.
Well, that's about it for now. Thanks for continuing to encourage me and for reading this. Stay Safe!!!
Hotflash out.
Welcome to my Bro! Today was a pretty decent day. I forgot to clip Pete n until almost noon, but even so, I still clocked 6,472 steps. I am sure I did close to 7,500 or so if you count what Pete did not. Most of my walking today was at the 16th annual East Pierce Fire and Rescue Open House, which I will discuss in more detail in my Flashpointz entry after I finish this one.
My fluid intake today was only about 48 oz, but that isn't too bad. And I haven't given up. I have approximately two more hours to get the fluids down.
I slept about 8 hours last night. YAY ME!!
Today my neice and I took several pictures at the EPF&R open house. I had them processed right away and looking at my pictures even I can see an improvement. My face looks thinner and I thought younger (but maybe that was just me), and my blouse fit better too. I must confess that I weighed myself on a scale I found at the office where I work on Friday. I was extremely disappointed to note not one pound difference from the weight I started this blog with. However, I do not believe what that scale says. Either it or the one I weighed on to begin with lies, or I have replaced fat with muscle from the walking. (I have noticed definite shape to my calves that wasn't there before.) I can see a difference and others, who were not aware that I was working on it, noticed too. Therefore, I am not going to let it discourage me. GOD is ABLE! I will weigh again after day 28.
Well, that's about it for now. Thanks for continuing to encourage me and for reading this. Stay Safe!!!
Hotflash out.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Flashpointz -weekend plans
Last week at work, my assistant, Nondre' came up to me and told me she had a surprise for me. She said she was sorry it was not a fireman but it was the closest she could come to one. (Before any of you worry, I joke about wanting my own fireman with some regularity, but my husband is still the hottest man I know and I wouldn't trade him for all the firemen in the world!) Anyway, Nondre' produced a large postcard with fire apparatus on the front. The back was an advertisement for the East Pierce Fire and Rescue (Bonney Lake Fire Department)'s 16th annual open house, which is tomorrow (Saturday Sept. 26th).
If all goes as planned, I am going to attend this event. I do NOT want to attend by myself because my shyness kicks in at events like that. (Yeah, REALLY! I really AM shy at times. I KNOW you don't believe me, but it's TRUE!) My neice, Amanda, is supposed to meet up with me tomorrow and she and I will take her little boy and have good time. That is the plan anyway. We will see if it actually happens. I am expecially interested in the "Jaws of Life" demonstrations and the Interactive Rope Rescue. (and admiring the apparatus and firemen (-okay fire fighters).
Firemen is used the same way firetruck is used. It is all encompassing. Many of what we call fire trucks are fire engines (and vice versa- there IS a difference)and often times firemen are actually female! It's kind of like "bandaid,""jello," and "kleenex."
If I do attend this event as I hope to, I will take pictures and will report back on any highlights in a future blog.
Remember, have an exit plan adn meeting place in case of fire. Know it and practice it regularly. Test your smoke detectors and change the batteries at least twice a year! Stay Safe.
If all goes as planned, I am going to attend this event. I do NOT want to attend by myself because my shyness kicks in at events like that. (Yeah, REALLY! I really AM shy at times. I KNOW you don't believe me, but it's TRUE!) My neice, Amanda, is supposed to meet up with me tomorrow and she and I will take her little boy and have good time. That is the plan anyway. We will see if it actually happens. I am expecially interested in the "Jaws of Life" demonstrations and the Interactive Rope Rescue. (and admiring the apparatus and firemen (-okay fire fighters).
Firemen is used the same way firetruck is used. It is all encompassing. Many of what we call fire trucks are fire engines (and vice versa- there IS a difference)and often times firemen are actually female! It's kind of like "bandaid,""jello," and "kleenex."
If I do attend this event as I hope to, I will take pictures and will report back on any highlights in a future blog.
Remember, have an exit plan adn meeting place in case of fire. Know it and practice it regularly. Test your smoke detectors and change the batteries at least twice a year! Stay Safe.
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