Friday 24 March 2017

First Half of December 2016

The chalk pen fun continued into December, with Jack adding Nigel Farage of the UKIP party on 1st December! Suffice to say he didn't last long...
Harry came home from school at lunchtime feeling sick. Lucy collected him for me.
I got on with Fire Service studying. I had to get all my personal studies up to date before my 12 month assessment in January, and there's a lot to get through.

Scott looking interesting on 2nd December!
Harry was off school again, and Jack was ill too in the evening. I studied and got things ready for Harry's birthday the next day.

In spite of looking miserable here, Harry had a lovely 11th birthday and went to bed very happy!
Scott took Harry, Joseph Wade and Aled Guy to Lazerzone in Peterborough, followed by McDonalds, while I went to a Fire Craft training course in Huntingdon, which went fine. A couple of people were there from my original training course, plus a nice guy I'd met at the big fire in Bedford, so I had people to chat to. I spent a lot of time on the portable pump, which was useful.
I was wrecked by the time I got home and had a nap, then we had a lovely evening. I decorated Harry's cake, we had pizza for tea, finished putting up Christmas decorations and watched a Harry Potter film together.
Harry had asked for his cake to be decorated with Jolly Rancher lollipops, so I'd bought some on Amazon!

Harry at the end of his birthday.

On Lucy's Instagram that day.

Lucy's response to me Snapchatting her, later that evening!

My new journal, which I combine with a daily To Do list helped me get loads of stuff done in December, such as exercising, studying and getting things ready for a card class and Christmas.

On Monday 5th December Jack went to London with his Politics class, and they saw a Brexit debate in the Houses of Parliament! Lucy dropped him off at the train station. It's been useful having her drive, and also have her own bank card now! (She and Jack opened their first current accounts when they got their Tesco jobs.)
In the evening I had a water training exercise in Huntingdon with a couple of other crews. It was a freezing night (though I was fine in my fire kit) and I spent most the evening standing near some bushes watching a moorhen with a Thermal Imaging camera! (I was 'Upstream Safety'!) I also spoke to Martin Ockenden, the guy who did my suitability interview the very first time I went to the fire station to look into the possibility of joining. I hadn't seen him since.

On Tuesday 6th December, I had a call-out to be on Standby at Huntingdon station with Andy, Darren and Tony. Saw Martin Ockenden again, who was having a meeting about changes to the Breathing Apparatus Entry Control board. We saw the prototype and were asked for our opinions.
We spent the rest of the time in the wholetime fire fighters' lounge in their big comfy reclining leather armchairs, chatting. We stayed a couple of hours and on the way out Darren asked if I wanted to go down the fireman's pole... err... YES!!! It was great - my first time!

On Wednesday 7th, Donna, Jo, Lisa and I went to St.Ives. We had fun getting breakfast, then going round the charity shops etc. (I got a lovely red wool jumper).

 I liked Lucy's testimony on Instagram.



The 8th December was Jack's 17th birthday. We got up early so that Jack could open his presents before Seminary.

Trying out his virtual reality headset from Ali and Pete Turner!


Lucy's picture for the day! She blessed us with many interesting anniversaries/days throughout December!


I finally wrote up my chalk marker review on my craft blog! I also held a card class in the morning.

Jack had requested a chocolate cake for his birthday!

On Saturday 10th December we had our Ward Christmas party. Veda Morley, one of the church farm service missionaries took these pictures for me!

On Sunday 11th, I finished making up the left over Christmas card kits from my card classes, and wrote out cards to our whole ward.
At church in the afternoon, we watched the Christmas Devotional broadcast, and had a nice Munch and Mingle afterwards.

On Monday 12th at training in the evening, I made some daft mistakes again (I feel like I do at every training), and we got shown a video of the new fitness test being introduced. It looked horrible and I doubted I'd be able to do it, never mind in the time given. I went home feeling extremely discouraged and tearful. My 12 month assessment was really hanging over me too.

The next day I felt a bit better. I decided to just get done what I needed to study each day, and get through my 12 month assessment before worrying about anything else.

Lucy working on the Mona Lisa, to celebrate some anniversary associated with it!

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