Week Three Complete

Well week 3 of the academy is complete! I am gearing up for week 4 here but wanted to share with you some exciting accomplishments with week 3. Instead of doing it in a chronological order this time I would just share with you highlights. First off for some reason I must be a retard or something because this is the week that it finally hit me! I am going to be a firefighter after this training is complete I am done! I am going to start my career the very thing that I have been working hard for the past 6 years is here. For some reason this week it really clicked for me.

I passed my written exam with a 91 so that is good, and passed my practical exams as well. Still have a tough time doing the knots. I can tie all the knots but can not really get the hang of actually dressing them correctly. I need to practice more on this because before i know it; it will be a requirement of me to have these knots ready and dressed.

I was so excited because I actually got to run a 5K! I have never run a 5K before in my life so I was able to do it with the academy. Even though that I might of been in very last place I made a snail pace of a time of 34:47 which for a guy who does not like running and has never run any longer than a mile I thought this was pretty good and so did the RTOs.

This week will be interesting, I notice that alot of the things that we are learning in the academy are building blocks. You know and we all do it when we go to school we learn something master it for the test and then forget it. Here we can not do this because it could cost someone their life! The training we are getting is required for us not only to master once but to keep working on training over and over and over again.

The workouts are getting more intense but with that being said I am not as sore so that is good. I think this weekend I even went for a run, weird and did some pushups etc. The physical fitness side of this things like stated before is getting more intense, we are doing parallettes  , which allow us to hold our body up right, and work on our core. Eventually we will be doing handstand pushups etc.

This will be the last week I will have to drive out to Tucson from Gilbert so that is good. This weekend we are moving and pretty excited about this. I will have more time to study and spend with my family with this move. We have had a couple of great garage sales etc. God has been good to our family that is for sure.

Next week I will get to climb the aerial ladder, like running a 5K I have never been up on the high high. I would say that I am not afraid of heights but have more of a difficulty trusting the equipment. A good friend of mine told me something that I will have to remember for tomorrow. 90% of this academy is mental. I again will hold on to this when I get up on the high high! I also have my test number 3. Would like to do better on the tests and also on the quizzes.

I will keep you updated on the events of week 4. I am sure I missed some items but I wanted to share with you some of the highlights. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support it has been much appreciated.

Week Two Complete

Academy 2010-01 week 2 is complete. This week has been a tough week for me but a good week. I will break down what happen by the day. Remember while at the academy Adriana is at home working with the kids doing school, packing and trying to get everything ready. Adriana also has been diligent in getting me ready for the next day in the academy. This week the workouts were harder, the studying was more intense and the work required was more! My body is not use to being beat up like this. Something my friend CJ said to me that he had to do during his academy and that I need to adopt for myself is to "grow up" during this academy. Our Team #3 was promoted to being the lead team for a couple of reasons. From a firefighter skills perspective we are the fastest team throwing our SCBA packs and PPE drills. We also have the best team unity and team spirit. We wait for each other and encourage each other during our fitness and firefighting drilling activities.

Monday:
No real highlights for this day except for the fact that our team was promoted to the lead team. For the academy we did 25 sledges for each arm and then 50 birbees! Birbees are really hard. We learned about water supply and hose lays this day. We did some drilling in the evening where we worked on getting our skills for the fire department.

Tuesday:
Another great day where the workout was our Tabata Masher which was a farmers carry where one arm had 75lbs and the other arm had 65lbs. Then push ups after this. So 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest and then 20 seconds of work we did this for 10 minutes. We did more fire hose drilling during this day.

Wednesday:
This workout day was though for me I do not like to run at all. Thank God this academy is not a running academy but nevertheless this academy is tough physically so far. We did a 400 meter run, then did thrusters and slamballs. We did this 3 times. 400 meter run, 21 thrusters and then 21 slamballs, then 400 meter run, then 15 thrusters and slamballs, and finally 400 meter run again 9 thrusters and 9 slamballs. This day we worked on our knots in the academy and hoisting equipment.

Thursday:
This day for our workout we went to Golder Ranch Headquarters, for the workout we did the Tire Pull, 10 birbees, tire flip, 10 birbees and then flip the tire back in a relay race type of events. Again like I stated before physically this academy is really though on me. I have been really sore and tired. We spent all day in our turnouts doing drilling. I think I went thru 9 water bottles this day then drank a whole gallon of water on the way home.

The drive out to the academy each day is robbing me of my time. Plus sitting in the car for an hour and a half there and then back has been recking havoc on my body. So today as I write this I have been pretty sore. Your prayers and thoughts are always considered. I have been learning alot of things in this academy more so than the skill levels. I have been pushed pretty far beyond my limits. I am excited about how I feel when I get done during the day knowing that I did what I can do and tried my hardest. My RTOs have conveyed the same thing to me about my efforts. That I have been working really hard and that they know that I have been giving my 100% effort.

This week is going to present new challenges. I have test number 2 passed test number 1 with either a 92% or an 85% I do not know which because there was some miscommunication either way I passed. Test number 2 is going to be Monday and we are going to have a test on Ropes and Knots, Water Supply and Fire Hose. I am hoping that I will do better with this test then the previous test.

This week we are going to go over Fire Behavior, Fire Streams, Ground Ladders and then going to Golder Ranch Fire Headquarters to perform our practical skills. This will be the first practical skills test for us. We will be working on doing our PPE drills, SCBA pack throwing, getting a hydrant water supply, deploying a fire hose and the squirting water and then finally doing all of our ropes and knots. Just want to make sure that I get enough rest and ready for these skills. The skills test will be Thursday.

Something I thought was interesting that the academy went thru is that when a new person gets a job they are required to learn 8 skills typically for an entry level job. These 8 skills are essential to be successful with work. With being a firefighter it is required to learn 265 new skills for this entry level job. Amazing enough this is one of the reasons why this job is a very difficult job. There is a lot of things we have to learn and perfect in a short period of time.

This weekend Friday we had our garage sale and it was good we sold alot of our stuff. During the day though I started throwing my SCBA pack and doing my PPE drilling. Niko was timing me with my stopwatch. Did pretty good and made my times consistently. This weekend I will continue to work on my knots. My RTOs told me that I need to work on my push ups, pull ups and run intervals during the weekend. I will do this today. I have been really sore but need to push through the pain.

This is it for the update now on the week 3 of the academy. Thanks again for reading my blog.

More packing today...Garage sale on friday will be here before we know it. \All the pictures came off the walls...curtains are next.

Bethany and Niko had AIMS testing again today-Math and Reading. They are doing good at not stressing out too bad-not easy though.

Had a nice visit with my good friend who has been driving us to the testing. Nice to have coffee with her while we're waiting for the kids and catch up. Love her!

Also went to the super duper Ranch Market after the kids were done. Got some awesome deals on our produce. Gonna miss that place.

Mike had a real good day yesterday, just tiering for him. He'll fill you in this weekend, but let's just say that his team is stellar! The other teams will catch up eventually, but only as while his team is perfecting and mastering (got to throw the competition in there sometimes) They received a promotion of sorts yesterday, so that was an honor for them. Everyone should have their chance to shine and I guess that time is now for them. Really impressed by the entire recruit class.

Tonight, I whisk the kids away to the library when he gets home. That gives him a quiet time to study and wind down.

Now back to packing...

My turn :)

Well, Mike's been the busy bee writing up a storm here, doing a good job updating his end of this journey.

Here on the home front, the week before the academy started was spent anxiously wondering, anticipating life after that week-what would change, what would stay the same, just not knowing a lot of stuff.

We prepared that week as best as we could. I think the biggest thing was finding a place in Tucson to move to. When Mike had lost his job in January, we paid our rent through the end of April. When Mike got the job offer and we discovered what the pay in the academy was going to be, we knew that we had to move come May 1st so that our rent could fit our budget. The question was where? Tucson, or another place in Gilbert? After much weighing in of all the factors, we decided to find a place down south and get a start on the transition. So we found a place that worked with the budget in Morana. And as Mike said, we'll be there for sure for the next 6 mos as we get aquatinted with our new community.

That week we also celebrated Bethany's 11th birthday! Can you believe it? She spent the day getting her hair cut, going shopping, and playing with her friends and then she celebrated with her Stars group that night also. She had a good day. Friday night, we had family over to celebrate with brownie sundaes. She is growing up into quite a beautiful young lady. Exciting to watch, but sad and scary at the same time. Makes me wonder if we've done and are doing enough to prepare her for the life that lies ahead of her.

Then the weekend we spent getting all the details prepared for Mike's first day and then having a relaxing, fun day celebrating Easter as a family and with family.

Monday came, only a week ago, and thus began the next 14 weeks...Mike has been leaving at 345 in the morning and getting home about 630 at night. Then he studies and is in bed as soon as he can get in it...Mentally I've been prepared for this academy for the past 6 years, knowing the sacrifices we as a family would make with our time and our needs. The extent of my preparation was put to the test and the first week went pretty well. After a busy weekend this past weekend with packing and organizing, I'm feeling a bit disconnected from Mike after the first day of the second week back. But I'm sure we'll figure that disconnect out soon enough. I think it's my drive to wan tot experience every detail of what he's going through so I can rejoice with him in his successes and help him through the challenges and today he's just so tiered that he didn't have the gump to get it out. And I respect that....today :)

The two older kids have their state testing this week. So I am taking them into Mesa each day to the testing site to get that done with the rest of the students from their school. Even though it's a virtual home school, they are still required to follow state guidelines such as the testing and attendance requirements. So they are excited to get out of the house.

Got one room 99% completely packed up today. By tonight it will be DONE-yeay.

Week One Done!

Week one of the Fire Academy is done! Wow kind of interesting to just say that for some reason again it is just not real yet for me? I am sure when I get my tail kicked Monday again it will hit me again. So what is new! Well the Academy is Monday - Thursday from 0600 - 1600. I get up about 0315 and get to the academy at 0520. Which means I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to recover and catch up! I will run down some of the highlights for the first week by day.

Monday:
Well Monday was the day we were in our business attire because we have not received our red shirts or our uniforms completely. With this in mind we did not get our turnouts or SCBAs yet either. Which means we did some light PT in our nice dress clothes. One of the first things we learned to do is line up. Stand at attention and become motionless. We also learned how to put up the colors (the AZ state flag and the USA flag) and how to present arms. We also received a ton of information about the academy, the recruit expectations and the syllabus. We also received a ton of information from HR. We did not do too much PT and there was a ton of classroom time. Then it was time to go home.

Tuesday:
The next day it was a little bit more intense I will tell you that each day has been more and more intense for sure. Our Academy is filled with some interesting people 22 in all. 9 of us are from Golder Ranch Fire, 1 from Casa Grande Fire and the rest from Northwest Fire District. The Academy is run primarily by the Northwest Fire District but some of the RTOs (or the Recruit Training Officers) are from Golder Ranch. This academy day is broken up like this.

0600 - 0800 - PT
0800 - 1000 - Classroom Time
1000 - 1200 - Manipulative Skills
1300 - 1600 - Manipulative Skills

Our PT is CrossFIT. We are doing a dynamic stretch routine, CrossFIT and then working on our form with squatting for right now. A CrossFIT example like "MINDY" is 5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups and 15 Squats in 10 mins. Do as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes. While the average is about 6 to 8, mine was 4 I did 4 rounds and was pretty proud of this.'

Classroom time is about learning about what we are going to be performing out in the grinder. In Class A uniforms we learn from our instructors this week about Firefighter Orientation, Health and Wellness and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)

Finally the Manipulative skills are the skills we learn in the class room we get plenty of practice out there doing it on the grinder or the concrete cement area where firefighting skills are performed.

Tuesday was another day of PT and doing administrative duties and uniform handout.

Wednesday:
Wednesday was the first day we really got it! We did our MINDY workout for CrossFIT, we did some dynamic stretching routines and then worked on our squatting with a PVC pipe and focusing on good form and making a quality movement. We had a couple of quizzes. So far I have done a 20 question quiz with an 85%, and a 10 question quiz with a 90%. We learned about our PPE and SCBAs.

Thursday:
Thursday typically is a full day or working on our skills. We do PT in the morning, This morning PT was a 800 Meter Run, 25 Push Ups and 25 Sit-ups and then do it again! It was tough for me and with the second round I ended up finishing almost last but made up a bunch of time tried to show the RTOs that I have heart! I gave it my all and in the end shocked my body with vomiting in the bathroom. We then worked on our PVC pipe squatting techniques. Afterwards we worked on SCBA stations.

The first station for our Team "Team 3" was to learn about getting the SCBA off the truck, getting turned out in our gear, get our SCBA on and then get seat belted and enroute to the fire. We practiced this many times including putting on our mask in the cab of the truck.

The second station was our PPE inspection station where we learned to look for flaws in our PPE, and how to work with the system of refilling our bottles for our compressed air for our SCBA.

After lunch we had to do some punishment for someone who did not follow the chain of command the results was the whole class performing lunges down a dirt path to a bell, yelling out our name and then lunging back. It was challenging for some people but not necessarily for me.

Finally the third station was the SCBA pack throwing station. Our team was awesome we ended up having our whole team all 5 of us throwing our pack under the 60 seconds required for the test. The RTOs I believe were pretty impressed with this.

Then the final station we worked on buddy breathing off of each others SCBA. Mind you we were in the PPE and carrying our SCBA for about 8 hours this day which was a lot of work especially after the rigorous PT. We were ended up blindfolded and then performing the same drill but touch and feel. We again Team 3 did an awesome job.

Finally we had to clean up and get things ready for the end of the day. We line up, take down the colors, and clean up the academy grounds. Including vacuuming and doing the bathrooms. We all pitch in and check off each others work. This has been about the excitement of week one! I have a written exam on Monday and about ready to get to bed but before I do this I wanted to let you know what is going on!

Prepared!
My thought is being ready for this academy is being prepared plain and simple! This weekend I got all the homework done for this next week, I read all of my chapters and reviewed my stuff for this week that I might need to get done. This way when I get home after a long drive and a long day I can just enjoy my family and go to bed!