This past week was agonizing as we finished out the school year, completing reports and projects and wrapping up all the loose ends. I can't believe that ANOTHER year of school is behind us. Bethany will be going into SIXTH grade next year...gesh, I remember sixth grade...what a fun year (please note the sarcasm bleeding through those letters)

Wednesday night we made our final trip up to Royal Rangers and Stars in Gilbert. The kids finished out their year. Bethany had her recognition ceremony with all the girls. We are so proud of her for making Honor Stars this year. It was a lot of hard work and studying, but she's always up for a challenge.

By Thursday, the week was pretty much a blur. When Mike got home that night, we all headed for Chipolte to have dinner with all the other recruits and their familias. It was fun talking to all the wife-ies again. I hadn't seen most of them since the family night before the academy started. So we all kind of overtook the whole place and had ourselves a real good time :) Seriously, it was a great night.

Saturday night we got together with some friends and played cards until midnight. "Hand and Foot" take a looong time to finish. But it was a blast and had many great laughs...

Yesterday, we relaxed some more-swam, ran errands, swam some more.

We went to the track and park a couple times this weekend, played basketball, took adventure walks through the brush looking for animals, played football, ran around, read our books...fun stuff like that.

So tomorrow we begin routine again. It was a fabulous vacation weekend. Mike has a quiz AND a test tomorrow and they're picking up right where they left off on Thursday (which seems like so long ago) So tonight, we got pumped up for this next week. Got the head back in the game. And-hopefully-he/we are ready!

It's going to be a good week!

Week 8 Complete - Live Fire Training

This week was a success overall! This week was the week where we did some live fire training and it was awesome! For some reason I am very comfortable in my turnouts sitting in front of an inferno! I really do not feel the heat anywhere except for my big ears and that is about it. Just to keep it all well rounded let me tell you about this week. This week let’s mix it up a bit and do things chronologically.

Monday:
This Monday we had our written exam/ test on HazMAT, WMD, Loss Control and High Rise Fires. I studied like a madman all weekend but ended up with an 86% on the written exam. Not too bad but not that great either. From here on out I will send you a link to the exercise examples of what we are doing for CrossFIT at the end of this message. For the workout we had a great workout to start off Monday it was 1 min of work doing Wall Balls with a 25 lbs, Thrusters with 20 lbs, Jump Boxes and then Situps Max Reps for 1 Min then we rest for a minute after doing one set. We did this 3 times. We also worked on our gymnastic ring workouts with our dips and holding our C pattern. We did some classroom time and learned about protecting evidence in the fire service and also communications in the fire service. We ended the day going to City Communications where dispatch and 911 calls are taken. It was a great day!

Tuesday:
We ended up starting off our workout a little bit different where we did a Team Relay. Myself and another older guy who is 40 years of age were paired up and we pretty much split the workout down the middle. This workout was crazy glad we got to work together with someone on it. It was 50 pull ups, 75 push ups, 400M farmers carry, 100 Squats, 125 Situps with the Medicine Ball, 200M Walking Lunges, 100 Burpees, 75 Box Jumps, and then a 800 M Run. Crazy workout felt really good after doing it both myself and my partner kept pretty good pace. I ended up doing more box jumps but pretty much split the workout down the middle. Felt good to accomplish so much in a short period of time. The rest of the day we spent some time working on our Leadership Skills. We did a conference call with Chief Laskey who wrote a book “Pride & Ownership” During this time we had a question and answer session with him on leadership in the fire service. Then we went thru our own RTO’s hand written manual on Followership to Leadership. It talked about the fact that we are leaders in the community and some day we are going to become company officers, and we need to lead like we follow. It spurred on some great conversation with the RTOs and some Chiefs of NW Fire who were present.

Wednesday:
We met at the park near Golder Ranch Fire Headquarters were we usually train. We were about ready to embark on the workout of doing Crossfit Dodgeball but ended up taking a boot camp instructors workout area on the basketball court. So we ended up before playing Dodgeball; doing Browns Boot Camp Workout for Wednesday. I have to say it was different and it was a butt kicker. After doing this tough workout we got in about 30 minutes of Crossfit Dodgeball. We finished up some lectures and some classroom time in our Class A uniforms. Then we got right to our Live Burns with the fire simulator. This simulator has been known to scare some guys on the job with what it can do. Our team was one of the first teams to get into the fire. It was great we got to put out a simulated propane based couch fire, then crawl further into the darkness, swing open a door and see a stove on fire, then with the simulator the instructors can make the conditions rollover which is pre-flashover conditions. The rollover is where the fire rolls on top of the ceiling and then fingers down the wall of the otherside of the room. The combustibles, then throw fire in your face practically I know that some of us ducked or moved out of the way from the fire being thrusted towards us. It was really cool. My ears where kind of tingling which usually means I am around 400 degrees or so. When we got out of the simulator, I told my RTO that man that was pretty hot fire, and my Captain said that this was not hot at all and pretty telling us all that we were a bunch of wimps on our team. Then the firefighter who was controlling the simulator came out and said man I had that pretty hot around 700 degrees at the ceiling; we also noticed the Captains flashlight was melted also. So I guess it was hot pretty cool. Overall it was hot outside too about 100 degrees, and all of our fluid was running out of us. We had a great day it was an awesome experience with the team; we got to go in the simulator twice.

Thursday:
For the workout in the morning we ended up pulling a Tire across the pavement, 10 burpees, doing a Tire Flip, then 10 burpees, the Tire Flip again, and then 10 burpees did this twice. I actually felt pretty good. We went to the Air Force Base again to do a Class A Live Fire burn. This fire burn we ended up burning pallets and cardboard boxes in a burn room with the doors and windows shut, we were able to see a fire started from the incipient stage and watch the fire burn. As it burns we can start seeing the thermal layering of the fire, and the blacken smoke, as it starts to get lower, and lower. I can see how you can literally see nothing with the smoke, then we were told to stand up in the heat, and it got hot not going to lie here it was warm. We then got down and started to hydraulically ventilate the smoke and the combustibles out the building. We really got to spend a couple of times in the burn room putting out the fire. I felt that it was a great day. There were some mistakes made but like one of the RTOs said the best place to make mistakes is here while training not in the fire ground.

After we got home we got to spend time at Chipotle and Baskin Robins, meeting the other recruits families. I think one of the recruits called it family night at Chipotle. We had a nice time where we got to meet the kids, wives etc. It was fun and cool to laugh about some of the things that happened at the academy.

4 Day Weekend:
This weekend is a 4 day weekend of rest from the academy. I have a lot of studying to do for sure. Need to get some homework done for next week, need to study and need to workout a bit as well. Have to rehydrate because the past two days took alot out of me as I was in the sun the whole time and working really hard. This weekend should be nice I am sure we will spend time with the kiddos, swimming, playing at the park etc, and I am sure I will get some stuff done as well in those 4 days.

Next Week:
Another busy week of work it is only a 3 day week next week so we start on Tuesday at the Academy. Week 9 will be here and gone before I know it. During next week we are going to be doing a day of classroom and then a couple of days of outside activities. We will be doing Building Construction, Forcible Entry and Ventilation. So with these next 3 days should be interesting to see what happens.

I am feeling pretty good, notice that the more I rest the better I feel. I think the key here is to hydrate, eat and rest to make myself the best and the most efficient for the academy. I also need to do well on the test next week as well. Thanks for reading this blog hope you enjoy it.

CrossFit Workouts Mentioned:
Wall Balls
Trusters
Box Jumps
Burpees
Ring Dips
Tire Flips

So here's the update for the rest of the fam.

Last weekend was a great weekend visiting great people back at 'home'.

Saturday night we went to a retirement party for Phx Fire Fighter, Harold 'Pooney' Pickering (sp?) It was a great night visiting with good friends and celebrating Pooney's years of service to the department.

We stayed Saturday night with Mike's dad and visited with them briefly in the morning. Then it was off to church. Then we stopped by some other close friends on the way home. Being with such good friends recharged us, it got us ready for the week to come. It was refreshing and invigorating.

So then began the week come Monday morning.

This week was pretty much consumed by school work. The kids last week is this coming week. They will be done by Friday. We put in some long days though getting our lessons done. We are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

Even with all the school though, we made it a point to take our breaks and go for a walk or, more often than not, go swimming. The weather cooperated quite nicely for that.

Wednesday night we made the trek to Gilbert for the kids to wrap up their Royal Rangers/Stars activities. They have one more closing ceremonies this week. We have yet to decide if we'll be making it up to it.

Yesterday we headed for the school track and did some family relays. It was a blast. We did a bit of dynamic warm ups, lapping the track, stadium/bleachers, running backwards, jumping around, throwing football, tackling each other....you get the idea. FUn times.

This morning we welcomed a new nephew into the family. Baby boy Washburn was born to Mike's brother, Clint, and his wife, Heidi at 6:45 this morning. This is their first baby and we are so happy for them. He's a keeper for sure! They are going to be awesome parents in this adventure ahead of them.

2 Person Oriented Search

HazMAT & WMD - Week 7

This week was a week of brotherhood and love as we entered into being trained First Responder's HAZMAT and Weapons of Mass Destruction of WMD. The week started off with a bang our Mid Term Test. I got a 93%, noticed that since I have moved down here and been settled that life has gotten better. Adriana and I are working better together which is important, and the kids are getting settled in as well. This week was a really good week. I have been worried because my body has been pretty fatigued and tired, sore and beaten up.

But this week ended being a good physical and mental week for me. No more walls! With the mid term out of the way we spent this week a (5 day week) working on skills all voluntary in the morning. Monday morning I started off the morning working on throwing some ladders and doing some leg locks. I was pretty disappointed at how many people showed up early to get some extra practice in, but nevertheless I think everyday I practiced I learned how to do something better and learned how to be more proactive in getting things done and in an efficient manner. It was beneficial showing up early and getting the much needed practice in. Tuesday I worked on hoisting and knots. We are going to be skilled again on doing knots. I worked on tying knots which I have been getting pretty good at. One day in the class I was pointed out as the only recruit who had my knot right :) All that work is starting to pay off. Wednesday deployed some hose lays, flaked them out and then prepped for taking entry in a building with a hoseline. And then Thursday was me getting in line with others who needed to finish their VO2 Max for their fit test.

I mentioned before that this week was about brotherhood and love because it was Union week. Both of the locals IAFF came in and BBQ us burgers and dogs on Wednesday and talked about the unions. The instructors were from NW FIre but one was a captain from a HazMAT truck and the other was a Battalion Chief from NW Fire who works on HazMAT stuff. This week was a laid back week as we were not as strict during the day. It was long class room days but fun days. 5 days a week 3 days of HazMAT and 2 days of WMDs.

The fitness portion of this week was pretty good as well. We did PT for this week all 5 days this week. Monday we did an AMRAP of 10 minutes, 10 burbies, and a relay race to 3 different spaced cones, Tuesday did another AMRAP of 10 minutes of doing 10 Ring Pull ups or reverse pull-ups and 10 Push Ups. The next day is the FitTest I will talk about that next. Thursday was a 400M run, 25 Situps, 25 PushUps doing that 3 times. Friday we had a choice of swimming, doing a total body workout thing on a sled or a spin class. I went for the Swimming at the YMCA. Got an excellent workout mixing in Crossfit style lunges outside the pool and then swimming laps in various methods. Lucky enough I was the fastest in swimming :)

The FitTest is our midterm fittest to see how we have progressed. My VO2MAX from before the academy was 43 now it is 55. My Body Fat % went down about 6 or 7 points. My strength and flexibility went up a bit and my push ups went up by 6 or 7 push ups. So I was pretty happy with these results. This week overall was a really good week.

Next week I know we have some more classroom time. We have a test on Loss Control, High Rise Fires, WMD, and HazMat. So I hope and pray I will do well on this. My grade point avg is on the rise would like to continue that trend. I know we have a quiz on the next couple of chapters as well. This week is a 4 day week then we have a 4 days off because Monday is Memorial Day. This week we are going to be learning about Fire Evidence and Communications. Sprinkler systems, Reading Smoke and then Thursday we are in the Burn Room at the Air Force Base.

I HIT a WALL! - Week 6

I want to preface this message by saying that things are on it way quickly to being better now! But like my beautiful and wonderful wife stated week 6 was a tough week for me. You have to understand and I am not one to try to make excuses but to capture the whole picture, this move and transition has been ruff on our family. With the whole noise thing within the apartment (not an issue anymore) and other items I have to say that there is a tremendous amount of peace in our home currently. I have had friends and family pray for our family after this horrific week. Sometimes we need to get beat up and get to the point of breakdown before we can be molded into something better. I believe that week 6 was about this. I have been very tired, emotionally, physically and spiritually exhausted. It has come to my attention that during week 6 I my head was not in the game and I literally checked out!

I passed my re-take exam with a 93%, and took my quiz for that week and got 100% on it. Again like I stated before though I have been in some serious pain and it has irritated me, including when I come home and I can not relax within my new home surroundings kind of drives me up a wall. Again like I stated before things have changed but it has been really keeping me edgy, my wife and kids have been edgy was well.

The physical fitness side has really been getting tough. I notice that my RTOs have been on my butt about keeping the momentum going I guess they noticed that I was out of the game as well. But have to admit that i am pretty impressed with these numbers in regards to my workouts. Monday we did ANGIE which is 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 situps and 100 squats for time. My time was 40:07 about double of everyone elses, we did the 5K again, yes I ran another 5K and did it shorter this time about a minute and 4 seconds shorter. Wednesday we did MINDY amrap, where we did 5 pull ups, 10 pushups and 15 squats I did about 6 rounds this time in my 10 minutes. This was doubled what I did last time. Thursday we did the 1 ton workout 2000 lbs of lifting so 80 times I lifted a 25lb ball. CrossFit is great but when I look at the workouts they have a crazy workout and then a day of rest. We get no rest unless it is the weekends. But my body was hurting really bad.

This week was pretty cool as we got to practice high rise fires, and do some stuff with vehicle fires. We did alot of search and rescue at the Air Force Base location around here. It was good to be on the base love watching the airplanes take off and do their maneuvers mostly at lunch time or during breaks. Did a great job at taking that vehicle fire out! Did a great job at rescuing the 185 lb dummys also when doing search and rescue. My body size has alot to do with this but with that being said it was great to do some skills at a 100%.

With all that being said being mentally and physically exhausted my head was not in the game this week and it cost me. This next week is going to be all about repair and maintenance. I know that this next week is going to be a week (5 days) of HazMAT and Weapons of Mass Destruction. During the week in the morning I will be taking up on the opportunity to get some more practice time in with my RTOs on skills. Also next week is my Mid-Term test. There should be no excuse to fail any station and not be confident. Thanks again for your support and prayers. I will let you know how next week goes.

Week 6 via 'The Wife'

Time ran out this weekend and Mike didn't get to update for week 6.

Hopefully he can go more into detail this weekend before he updates for week 7. Briefly, I can tell you second hand that it was a tough week-for him personally.

He hit a stooper. Lost some of his focus and drive. Was letting the challenges he was facing get him down a bit and it really affected his performance. The little things that he was off on kept adding up and came to a head on Thursday. His RTO's sat him down and they had a heart to heart. They wanted the old Mike back.

This weekend, he got his head back in the game. He renewed his focus and his confidence. His passion and determination reignited. He wasn't going to get this far and then not see himself succeed (kind of like the whole hiring process over the past 6 years) He studied this weekend for his mid-term and got his A-game on.

Yesterday he returned and was noticeably changed. Things are turning around...

Nee-ner-nee-ner-nee-ner! I beat Mike this weekend in posting :)

This was a good week for me and the kids, but not so much for Mike :( I'm sure he'll get you up to speed with his posts. In a word- challenging.

After Monday, the remainder of the week was filled with routine. And to be able to use the word 'routine' is an accomplishment in itself. The kids and I worked on school, cleaned the home, did laundry, made dinner, went swimming everyday, hit the library and got some great books...It was a great week.

The weather has been fantastic. Nice cool mornings where we can open the windows and doors; and then warming up in the afternoon enough to play in the pool. A bit windy on days, but beautiful nonetheless.

Here's another funny story from this week-

The boys called me in their room at about 7 am. 'There's a huge cat in the bushes!" (Their 2nd story window overlooks a wash full of brush and trees with a walking path by it) Sure enough I saw a big cougar-like cat prowling around in the bushes and a teenager was standing there with her dog just feet away not knowing why the dog was starting to get excited. I opened the window and gave her the heads up and she says, "Thank you" as she is walking away...And then the other cat came out. A cute little grey fluffy kitty...and...IT WAS THE SAME SIZE!

Gosh, I'm such a dork. I just scared the bageevies out of a 14-ish year old girl who was just trying to take her dog out to do her business and now thinks she almost got attacked by a wild animal and will probably be afraid to go out there again.

Obviously, for some reason, that first cat looked a LOT bigger than it really was from our point of view...until it was put into perspective for us.

Matthew was supposed to have a weekend with grandma and grandpa, but on the way down yesterday, the engine on their car blew. The car has served them well, being faithful for a very long time and many miles. I can only imagine though the frustration; things like that are never in the plan.

Bethany and I were talking the other day about starting to do relays in the morning over at the school track across the street. So we came up with some fun courses that involve somer-saults, log-rolling, running backwards, kicking balls, twirling in circles, hopping, jumping jacks, push-ups, and "towel-wrestling". And then Mike brought to my attention that they have a Crossfit for kids. So we'll get ideas from that too. We'll have to let you know how it goes.

We have a retirement party ad church this weekend and then starts another week.

Have fun everyone!

Missed a couple things-

Never living in an apartment-or on a second floor for that matter-the first night at the apartment, tucking the boys into bed, Niko shares his concerns, "How do you know our bed wont fall through the floor when we're sleeping?"

We also found the cheap theater here last week. It's actually pretty cool-huge screens, good sound. We saw The Lightning Thief, which was a bit intense for matthew. He made me cover his eyes about 85% of the movie. He would peak out around my fingers to watch it and then when it got intense again, he would tell me, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" I told him I would sit with him outside, but he insisted on watching the whole thing...He's just like his dad!

The adventure continues...

Well, again, I'm slacking on my end of things with updating this blog. Mike's vigilant about it, but I just get so wrapped up in my spare time that i completely forget about getting on here to write about things...Oh, wait, did I say "spare time"?...yeeeaah, right.

So was this past weekend the end of the 1st or 2nd week in Tucson? Hmmm, I guess it completed the first week here. I've already lost track.

We cleared out the boxes in the front room early last week, but the bed rooms are still needing a lot of attention. Slowly but surely we're getting our "stuff" settled in, but it's going to take quite a while to get our 'hearts' to settle in. It is so hard to leave the familiarity of a place you've spent the past 10 years at. You go to the market to get something and all the faces are familiar. Even the other customers-you may not know them personally, but I'm sure you've passed them somewhere around town before and not even realized it-driving, getting the kids from school, at a different store, in your neighborhood, out on their morning run,, somewhere-that's what makes them familiar. You know faces, people, streets, traffic patterns, what's normal, what's not...

So we're here though, in Marana, AZ. Last week we found the library. The kids were thrilled to explore it and find some fun books. It's a bit odd, but in a cool way, to get info on the summer programs and see that there are a couple events that Golder Ranch Fire will be participating in...Hey, wait a minute, my kids' daddy is a fire fighter for that department. That's OUR department. Hard to explain those moments where the reality of all this sinks in.

This past week, the kids also worked to catch up with school. Their teachers said that even with getting behind with the move, they are still right on track for completing the school year. So we just keep right at it. And make sure we squeeze in enough time for swimming of course.

Matthew went to school on Monday in Gilbert. Throughout the week I had multiple conversations with his teacher, the principle, and the administrators with them trying to convince me that he was ready to be done with the year. They thought it ridiculous that we were planning to drive him up to finish the school year. So after much debate, I agreed to pull him out early and they passed him onto first grade. So, today was his last day of Kindergarten. He brought in cookies for his class and he got a special star today too. He had a good last day of Kindergarten.

Last week I ended up having to write my 3 page HazMat paper the night before it was due. I really had NOT planned on procrastinating it like I did. That's just not what I'm in the habit of doing when it comes to my school stuff. But alas, with the move and everything, excuses aside, I did. So it was submitted after 11:00 pm last Sunday night. To my complete surprise, I got an email from my instructor on wed stating that it was a very well thought out and articulated paper! (oh, yeah, I've always been good at BSing papers) imagine what it could have been if I had the time to step away from it and refine it...And then today I had my final in that class and passed it as well. My final grade for that class was 423 points out of a possible 400-so I guess that would be an A? :) I love CGCC. I love the Fire Science Program there. I love the instructors. I love the group of students (for the most part)-again, the familiar. It will be hard to transition to Pima.

Ah, and Cinco de Mayo was last week. We walked over to a taco shop across the way and had tacos. Mmmm. Nothing compares to Maria's on Baseline and Higley, but Nico's Taco Shop is pretty darn good.

So Saturday we were invited to a birthday party of the son of one of the fire fighter's that Mike has been talking to for a couple months. We finally got to meet him and his family. They have six kids and live on an acre of land with goats and ducks and dogs and fish and birds...and kids!! Our kiddos had such a great time playing and sharing time with them. Mike and I were glad to get to know Walter and Debbie and spend time with them. Great people!

Sunday was Mother's Day. We drove up to Gilbert to go to church. Then we had a picnic at Freestone park and got nearly blown away. I shared my very embarrassing story on facebook, but I'll share it here too. I went ot use the restroom at the park. I went right for the stall, did my business and headed out of the stall only to see three 6-7 year old boys standing there looking kind of confused trying to get their dad's attention who was washing a 4th boys hands in the sink. My initial reaction was that I was kind of startled and thinking, What the HECK is a MAN doing in the bathroom!!!?!...But then I turned my head and then wondered, How the HECk did I miss that wall of urinals??!!??...Yep, I did. I went to the bathroom in the men's restroom-UGH!

So, mother's day was relaxing and overall a great day. I loved spending time with the people who make me 'Mom'. Although they bicker and whine and complain and are disobedient, they also love and adore and have hearts to please and give me reasons to smile every day. My arms ache to snuggle them when I think of how fast they're growing up.

So this begins another week of adjusting and unpacking...

Week 5 of the Academy is Complete

A Pastor friend of mine today said hey we have not received an update on how things are going and what to pray for, I said oh I update the blog and he told me that he likes it when I email. So I guess I will update the blog and email out the updates at the same time. We live in crazy times, starting tomorrow morning while most of you will be sleeping I will be starting WEEK 6. I am still recovering from the previous week after you see the activities you will know why exactly I am still sore, bruised and kind of tired.

As you know we moved into our apartment and us Clesceri’s are not used to apartment living because in 3 days we received a noise ordinance on our doorstep that we were too loud. Kind of crazy but the biggest complaint was us walking upstairs. I have to say that I was pretty frustrated because we have been working hard with the kids and ourselves to walk quieter, be quieter but we got an ordinance notice anyways. After this incident my wife talked to the lady downstairs and I think we have some things figured out. Pretty much you are going to have to live with the fact that we are going to live in our upstairs apartment and you are going to have to deal with the walking.

This week in the Academy there was not too much cognitive (classroom) time, actually one day which was Monday. Tuesday we went to the PSA (Tucson’s Public Safety Fire Burn Building) and did a new drill not even out yet by the IFCA, IAFF and NFPA called the Firefighter Survival Skills Drills or Surviving the MayDay. With this drill we were training on what it would be like if we had to get ourselves out of a sticky situation. One of the first drills we did was being blacked out going into a building with our SCBA PASS device activated and searching for it in the building untangling it, putting it on, and then getting back out of the building. The second drill was jumping out of a second story building onto a ladder two different ways. The first one was jumping out head first, and then putting one hand on the second rung, and sliding the other hand down the beam of the ladder and swinging your body off of the window and flipping yourself around so that you go down the ladder feet first. Pretty fun did it multiple times, with SCBA on and off. Then we did a drill where we went off the building again onto the ladder head first and continue down the ladder head first and crawl down the ladder to the bottom rung. Again did this many times with SCBA on and off. The third drill was the interior wall breach. We had to get into an interior wall check it for heat and then in a tight spot get our ourselves and our pack thru this little narrow opening. It was pretty cool can not believe I made it thru, we did some additional drills where we had to take off our SCBA, and manipulate thru the prop as well. The next drill was an entanglement prop where we had to get ourselves thru a box full of wires with our SCBA on and blacked out. Another drill was hanging from a window with our SCBA on and off. And finally following a hoseline out of a building. After lunch we all did the confidence maze. The confidence maze put us in a blacked out blindfolded situation breathing air with our SCBA and there was some spots where we were in a tight confined situations. We all made it out but it was not my favorite thing to do.

Wednesday and Thursday was extrication days. We got to cut up about 20 cars. We learned all kinds of techniques to make the car cutting safe for us and effective for patient packaging. It was 3 long days of being in our turnouts all day and doing work. But well worth it. We got to use different tools, cut different types of cars and learned some tips and tricks in using tools like our haligan tool to help us get the job done. Extrication is so important and with airbag deployment and placements, and with hybrid cars it is so important to make sure we are safe when doing extrication. We did blow an airbag to see how fast and how powerful they are, it was pretty impressive. We tore up those cars pretty good.

This week I did not do well on my written exam for Test 4. I studied for it but for some reason and with the quizzes I seem to study the wrong things. I have a make up on Monday at lunch time. If you can say a prayer that I do well there is a great weight riding on it.

The workouts this week were pretty intense. We did a run for 200M and then did 15 box jumps (5 times) This was pretty good cardio, then the next day we did towers because we were at the PSA (5 stories) and then lunges in front of the tower and did that 4 times. Wednesday we did GRIFF again which is a HERO WOD from CrossFit. 800 M running forward, 400 M running backwards, 800 M running forwards, 400 M running backwards. Thursday we did a benchmark WOD 800 M run, 25 Pushups and then 25 Situps twice. I did this workout before and ended up this time shaving off 51 seconds from my time last time. Afterwards we played soccer for about an hour and a half.

This week is going to be another busy week. We have classroom time and skills on Monday getting ready for our practical test #2 on Thursday. I might stay afterwards to get more drill time in. Tuesday we are meeting later in the afternoon, and staying till 10pm doing a Night Drill at the Air Force Base, and then the next day we are back at the Air Force Base working drilling for High Rise Fires, and Vehicle Fires. Thursday we are at Golder Ranch Headquarters working on our Practical Skill Test #2. Search and Rescue, Extinguishers, Hoses and Ladders. Please pray that I do well on these skills as well as my test. This is my update for right now. My back is hurting a little bit but I should hopefully be good for the next day. Thank you again for your support and for partnering with our family on this Clesceri Adventure.

I am now off to bed!

Week 4 Complete

This week is the last week where i have to drive back and forth from Tucson to Gilbert (1.5 Hrs there and 1.5 Hrs back) Monday - Thursday. I do not have to get up at 3am anymore. After this week I will be closer to the community that I will be serving. It is kind of bitter sweet considering that fact that my wife and I and our children will be leaving everything we know and essentially starting over from a new location.

I am going to update you kind of out of order again. I am writing this blog in the apartment here at Crescent Ridge. The move went smooth. Getting stuff out of the house of Gilbert went really smooth thanks to the help of (2) great guys from Firefighters for Christ who are good friends; and another good friend of mine who is a Gilbert Firefighter and has been kind of involved in this academy experience. We literally loaded the truck up in about 2 hours. We went to Subway to share and just talk about things. One of the hot topics was working on a ladder company. My friend from Gilbert Fire works on a ladder. Then after our feast at Subway Adriana and I started cleaning the house out! I went to bed early and Adriana was up all night till about midnight cleaning the house. We spent the night for the last time in our home as a family.

The next day with the truck loaded, we did some odds and ends and then headed out and drove to our new apartment home in Tucson. The drive was not that bad and when we got there had to sign some paperwork. We were greeted with one of the academy members who brought his friends to help us move from their church. We also had 3 other academy members show up, my Dad was there, our good friends from 2=1 marriage ministry was there, and the leaders of the Tucson ministry for 2=1 marriage ministry was there, and another couple. It was awesome we got the truck unloaded upstairs in our apartment done in less than an hour and a half. Thanks to all who helped us out.

For the Academy the workouts I noticed are getting harder. For Monday we had to do 400M, 25 Push Ups, 25 Sit Ups, 4 times. The next day on Tuesday we had to do 25 Jump Ropes, 10 Dips, and 10 Ball Slams in 10 minutes how many rounds can you do. For Wednesday we did a Tabata 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 10 times per exercise. We did Pylo-boxes, Squats, Pull Ups, and then Knee Ups where we are in a pull up position hanging, and then we bring our knees to the inside of our elbows bending our body in half! Good stuff. Thursday we had to do a bottle breathe down, and then our max sit-ups….I could of kept going but I did 309 sit-ups. The workouts are going to get more intense next week I am sure.

This week was also a week of accomplishments, besides making it past week 3 as an accomplishment itself, we did lose one of our academy recruits and he is no longer with us. Our Captains did say that we need to evaluate why we are here and if we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be successful. I did get to climb that 105 aerial ladder and was pretty nervous about it but ended up really enjoying it. It was an 105 aerial stick, where we get on top of the stick, clip in, stand on some platforms, and then lean back letting go of the rungs. No big deal actually enjoyed it. Another accomplishment is that last week I could not do a leg lock, kind of frustrating because it is a required function when working with ladders is to lock yourself in. There were some other recruits who have big feet and are taller like me who had struggles with this as well. But actually got to leg lock this week. It was tricky but got it done.

We received our evaluations also in the academy. There are some areas I need to work in which is being a better listener in regards to instructions and not let my mind wander or jump ahead of what the task at hand is. Or try to figure out what I am going to do. Need to work on my skills this whole ropes and knot thing really was a challenge for me and will continue to work on my ropes and knots to make it perfected. Oh yeah need to need to follow the chain of command better. But there were some positives also. For anything regards to character, attitude, initiative, etc I received high marks. My RTO said that he can tell that I am just a nice guy, genuine, and have a huge heart!

This week we learned some ladder operation, did some HR paperwork for our benefits finally that will be effective June 1st, search and rescue and lifesaving drills. We learned about extrication as well. Next week we are going to have a couple of field trips. Monday will be like any other day, Tuesday we are going to the Tucson Public Safety Building to do some Firefighter Life Safety and Save your Own Drills, Wednesday and Thursday we are going to some location to cut up 20 cars.

Finally, because I moved here to Tucson now I can focus more on the academy, being closer about 15 minutes away I will not have to get up as early, I will have more time to spend with the family, I will have more time to study, and finally I will be able to engage in study groups etc with my academy members. Very exciting stuff. I will report on how this week goes. Thank you again for reading my posts.