Sunday, January 26, 2014

Week 4- Guns, teeth and sickness

The nasty bug has been going around... Chris has been sick all week long. I have been trying my hardest to not catch it. Its inevitable I know..but still. Ive been filling up on vitamins, fruits high in antioxidants, vitamin c
Tuesday night we had class
 I was driving to work. My windshield was still partially frosted. My defrost was going and it was 20 something degrees outside. All of a sudden I hear *POP* and a crack goes all across my windshield from the middle of the drivers side clear to the end. I was so mad. I thought maybe the mix between the cold air outside and the warm air from my defrost did it. I got to work and started looking, I had a TINY chip at the very bottom of my windshield.. like in the black below my windshield wiper blade where my hood comes over my windshield so I had no clue it was there and hadnt seen it to get it fixed. 
 Kennedy has two loose teeth. Its been a fight to get her to wiggle them. We had a discussion the other day..
Me: You need to get those two teeth out before we go to the dentist next week. They are going to ask you why you havent gotten them out yet. Your big teeth are coming in sideways because the baby ones arent gone yet. 
K: Well mom I'll tell them Ive just been too busy!

We were on the way home from archery and I hear this gross POP in the backseat. Kennedy says "Mom! I just pushed my tooth and it popped!" I told her thats how you pull out a tooth. You wiggle it back and forth pushing it as far as you can one way and then pulling it back as far as you can the other way and keep doing that over and over. She said it kinda hurts but I'll just work through the pain. Less than 5 minutes after she started wiggling it and a few more pops she had it out in the car! I was completely shocked she got it out that fast because it hadnt been that loose. This is the 3rd tooth she lost and the very first one she has pulled out all by herself. Its a pretty big deal!
Wednesday night we got together and had a study night at Zacks house after archery. Russell, Zack and I got together and Todd and Chris (who are instructors) came over to help us go over our BIG skill for the test. 
          
  Demonstrate proper deployment of a fire shelter.

            REFERENCE:              NFPA 1051, 2002 Edition, 5.1.1, 5.3.2
                                                Firefighter Training S-130, 2003, Unit 4C
                                                Standards for Survival, Your Fire Shelter 2001 Edition

CONDITION:              Wearing P.P.E. including gloves and helmet, practice fire shelter and a scenario.

COMPETENCE:          The following criteria must be verbalized or done prior to deployment of shelter.
                                                • Remain calm.
                                                • Take escape routes to safety zones.
                                                • Pick large clearing.
                                                • Find bare spot, avoid heavy fuels and snags.
• If time permits, scrape away flammable litter or clear an area 4x8 feet (minimum) down to mineral soil.
                                                • Position body so feet are toward oncoming flame front.
                                                • Protect airways and lungs.
• Leave packs and hand tools well away from your fire shelter.
                                                • Take canteen into shelter.
                                                • Toss fusees and gasoline far from the deployment area.
• Stay in shelter until you notice temperatures have cooled significantly or a supervisor tells you its safe to come out.
• Remove shelter from hard case.

                                                The following must be demonstrated as shelter is deployed.
                                                • Full PPE is properly worn.
                                                • Shake out and open folds.
• Step into shelter holding bottom flaps down with feet and top flaps with
  gloved hands.
                                                • Fall to the ground face forward trapping as much clean air as possible.
• Stay in shelter until you notice temperatures have cooled significantly or a supervisor tells you its safe to come out. (Must Verbalize)

            TIME:                          2:00 Minutes to verbalize skill knowledge.
25 Seconds for actual shelter deployment of shelter. Time begins when shelter removed from soft vinyl case.

Each bullet point MUST BE DONE OR VERBALIZED and then you have to deploy the shelter properly. There are 23 skills. You are tested on 3 random ones. However number 6.. this one is a guarantee. We were a little apprehensive so we got together and practiced it. It was really a great thing that we did. We realized we had nothing to worry about and if we just took it slow we would be fine. The 25 seconds to pull out your shelter, open the package, shake it out, get in it and be done seems so stressful. But in all honestly its not!

 Well it never fails.. you cant keep the sickness out.. I had been taking vitamins before Chris even got sick and doubled them while he was. It has been through EVERYONE and I pretty much was the last one to get it. I held it off as long as I possibly could.  By Thursday I wasnt feeling hot. Chris and his dad had been taking this cold medicine thats an old southern recipe. Its full of garlic, onions, horseradish, apple cider vinegar, cayenne etc. Its potent. I really didnt want to try it but was feeling bad enough I figured what the heck. You take ONE teaspoon. Its strong. It burns and it works! I felt a lot better.

When Im sick there are two things I always crave. 
One is these cookies
and two spicy chinese food (which we ate that Friday night lol!)
 Mom had been craving a good salad bar. The only place locally (Brigham) that really had one was the hospital. So for lunch one day we went there for salads. Kennedy couldnt quite figure out why we were going there to eat. She told my Mom "I cant go there to eat. Only really old ladies go there" 
 Thursday night was back in class again. We did our fire shelters and it was really nice because we felt confident enough with our abilities we were able to help those around us. One of the hardest things is with the practice shelters folding it back up properly so its ready for the next person. These are only practice shelters to simulate real ones. Real ones arent reusable once the seal is broken.
 Zack and I trade off driving each class day. It was my turn to drive Thursday. As we were leaving class I was packing up my things and Zack asked for my keys so he could take his stuff out to the car. When I walked outside he had backed my car up the ramp and was waiting for me. He was in the drivers seat. I teased him about just wanting to drive my car (hes been thinking about buying one) and we headed for home. We hopped on the freeway and he had the cruise control set. Its now 80 mph out there (class was in Fielding this week) We werent on the freeway long when we hit the river bottoms and passed a trooper. Next thing we know we see him pull out. Zack was doing 87 in an 80.
Russell and I were laughing pretty hard when Zack got pulled over. The trooper was super awesome though. We had both windows rolled down when he came up. Inside light on so he could see inside. He told us right away he was just going to write him a warning. Said with the speed limit increased out there they want people to know they cant do 85 in an 80. They need to be doing 80 mph or they are going to pull them over. 
Friday Chris cut up a bunch of pallets and things out back. We got some more wood and he worked on stacking it. It was a nice warm spring day.. in January. I slept til 1130. He was great and got Kennedy up and ready for school. Even blow dryed her hair. 

 We ended up going to the store. There has been one thing Ive been wanting for a while now. I NEEDED a new gun. Yes NEEDED. You see nothing I really own is very small. Theyre all kinda bigger. I needed a smaller carry gun. Ive been looking at all different kinds. We just so happened to stop into Smith and Edwards and they had one on sale.. a really good sale.  Its a KelTec P11 9mm subcompact (which means its really small) and still holds a 10 round clip. Its a single action with an internal hammer. So theres less chance of getting it hung up. I havent been able to go shoot it yet but I cant wait!


Sunday, January 19, 2014

Nitro Circus Double Date

A while ago Zack ended up buying 4 tickets to Nitro Circus. Two of the people who were going to go weren't able to and so he asked us to go with him and his date for the night. Chris and I were pretty excited!

It was on Friday night. Kennedy had a sleepover at Todd and Janas. We had a real big people date. We first went to WingNutz and stuffed ourselves til it hurt. Chris has been a bottomless pit lately.. I think hes hitting another growth spurt too.. and needed ice cream after we were done. Well walking to our car we happened to pass an ice cream place called Sub Zero. None of us had ever been there before and thought we would try it. It was very different to say the least! You pick a cream..whether you want regular ice cream type, greek yogurt, frozen yogurt etc.. they squirt it into a bowl. Add some flavorings of whatever you choose.. add your toppings into it and then hit it with liquid nitrogen and stir it up so it turns into ice cream. It was kinda cool to watch but I didnt think it had a very good flavor to it.
 Zack and Amanda
 From there we headed to the Energy Solutions arena. Our seats were actually pretty good. We were on the first section but at the back so we had no one behind us. 
Chris, Me, Zack and Amanda
 The set up was pretty neat. We had never been to one before. Basically they do all kinds of crazy things off those jumps.
Skateboards, snowboards, skiis, scooters, toy cars, love seats, modified bicycles, dirt bikes etc.
 Amanda and I
 Dirt bikes in the air

 This was a love seat flying off the jump
 See the little pink car at left side of the picture on the ramp
 and there it goes through the air
 They had one person in a wheel barrow being pushed by someone on roller blades jumping through the air off the jump
 3 people, two were volunteers from the audience, on a dirt bike and they ride around for a minute and then do a backflip
and they nailed it!
 With all the crazy jumps and things they did off the ramps they landed almost all of them! It was pretty impressive. Of course the dirt bikes were one of my favorite parts







 This kid here is awesome. They call him wheels. Hes in a wheel chair. He went off the BIG ramp and did a front flip. His wheelchair spit out flames while he did it. Hes the ball of light by the arrow
It was a pretty good date night! We had fun and it was a good show!

Fishing Friday

Friday we had a mommy sluff day. When I was younger and in school if I was doing well on my school work my dad would let me have a Daddy Sluff day. We usually would go fishing or out west rabbit hunting or something together during a school day. Me, Chris, Kennedy, Mom and Dad all went ice fishing. Orignally Todd and Jana were supposed to go with us too so it was a big event but Jana's been sick and Todd had something happen at work that he couldnt leave. So the 5 of us packed up, had to stop in Morgan for some cheese sticks and jalapeno poppers for breakfast and we headed to the ice. We walked a LONG ways out. We had debated on taking a wheeler or not and last minute we decided not to. Dad swears he will never do that again. The sled had to be loaded with at least 100 lbs of gear and him and Chris pulled it all across the ice.
Our set up
 Kennedy started getting cold so I let her run back and forth to the buoyes. 

 Mom and Dad bought these new things called Jaw Jackers and were trying them out. Basically its set up like a trap and it sets your pole for you.

 Kennedy and Chris having some snacks waiting for some fish. Fishing was SOOOOOO slow. We werent getting any bites or anything.
 Moms JawJacker finally hooked one for her!
She brought in a nice trout

 We really had nothing else bite. I finally had a GOOD HARD bite. I set my pole and started trying to reel in. It was bending my tip into the water and it was really hard to turn my reel. I had it about halfway in and the fish got off the line. I was so bummed. I knew it was a BIG fish and wanted see it. 
The next one I caught wasnt so big.. BUT I did need Kennedys help to bring it in. 
Look at the nice trout she caught.
These were the only fish we caught at all. We turned Kennedys back.

Week 3- Fire & Wood

Last week Chris and his dad bought a log splitter. Chris has been vigilantly searching for one. Finally they found one at an acceptable deal and went and bought it. Of course they had to try it out! It was a neighborhood event. Dad, Mom and Zack were all there
Miss Kennedy was the splitter runner. I was at work and Chris kept me updated with pictures :)
Shes so grown up now. Big 6 year old
After celebrating Kennedys birthday at dinner on Sunday we had a project to do. Hunters truck had broke down while he was up here for the weekend. We needed to take it back down to SLC for him. We went and got a trailer, loaded up the truck, tied it down and Richards Towing Service headed to Salt Lake to meet JaNeale and drop off the truck.
This week I also started my Wildland class to get my Red Card. Its only a 3 week class. 2 nights a week and full Saturdays. This is our study material. The white book under all that is also full of handouts, tests, study guides etc. PLUS we get one more book. We have to learn everything in 3 weeks. Pass a written state test, pass off 3 random skills out of 25 possible skills and do a 3 mile walk with a 40lb vest on in 45 minutes.. or you can opt out and run a mile and a half in 11 minutes.
Ive been a little busy to say the least. Kennedys not been very happy about it either. Shes been super clingy and keeps asking if I can just not go to class or call in sick to work so we can hang out. 
 Miss K started her second class of archery last week and did really good shooting on this week. She has a new bff Ashlynn who is her age (and I actually went to school with her mom). They are so cute they shoot together and do the whole girl thing..  hug, dance around, girl talk. 
 Kennedy had her 6 year old check up this week
Shes 45 inches and 45 lbs lol! She FINALLY is right in her weight mark of where she needs to be. Only took us 6 years and her eating like crazy this last week or two. Im pretty sure we have another growth spurt coming on so its a good thing she got in before that hit.
 Kini bean got a horse for Christmas from Liz and Kyle. They got a really good deal on it and hes such a nice well broke horse. Kinlie has been in love. Shes spent as much time riding as she can lately. Doesnt let the cold slow her down.
Zack and I were driving out to class. Hes in my Wildland class too and we take turns driving
Zack and I were headed out to class one night. Hes in my wildland class too and we take turns driving. Somehow we started discussing motors on a late 60's VW bug and how a lot of the parts or all are made of magnesium. Magnesium when it catches on fire makes its on oxygen and adding water only makes it spread faster. So we were talking about how we would put one out if we didnt have a class D fire extinguisher.. super important things here haha. So I Googled it to see what was recommended... and apparently Google had other thoughts...  

 And in case you are dying to know the answer.. Sand. Sand puts it out the best. But since it still creates its own oxygen you cant really smother it out well with the sand. It just helps slow it down.