Well I've been back for a couple weeks but life has been crazy hectic so I'm just now gettin' on to write about my trip. Colorado was flippin amazing!! The weather was like 65-70 degrees the whole time we were there, and everything was just so beautiful. We went hiking quite a bit and got to hear some elk bugling which was really cool and different. Once I get around to gettin' pictures developed I'll post some up here, I got one of an enormous bull elk like 3 feet away from the walk path just… Continue

Ok so I had been watching the forecast and I knew it was supposed to rain for like the next 3 days straight here in Lawrence, but I had no idea what we were really in store for! After getting repeated pages from Dg. county emerg. management saying we were in a flood warning, I was about to pull my hair out because I was tired of hearing the same thing. Pretty soon though, about 5 min. from the last flood warning page, I hear all the tones drop. It was a weather message, but from dispatch this… Continue

Ok so I was listening to my local Christian radio station a few days ago and out of nowhere they start playing "Jingle Bell Rock." I was a little confused to say the least but I played along, listened for a while, and pretty soon the dj gets on. She says she has a little list to brighten our days, make us laugh a little. Her little list was entitled, "Why Hurricanes are Like Christmas." Now I can't tell you all of the like 10 reasons, but I know a couple of them were.."A hurricane is like… Continue

Ok, so tonight was our monthly meeting/training and tonight was the first time that no matter how intently I listened, I was pretty lost. Our training was on water shuttle, going through tender scenarios and how to correctly jet siphon and recirculate the dump tanks set up. I just felt so stupid tonight because even though I caught the main gist of it, when our chief started putting us on the spot (his favorite thing to do) it's like none of it made enough sense to become practical. I'm not… Continue

Ok, I'm just so fed up with everyone's opinion about me being a firefighter. My aunt actually said that a girl on the fire department was cute. CUTE?! Is cute standing in the middle of a CRP field on fire with flames 10 ft. high trying to keep it from spreading to a farmer's house or crop fields?? Is cute chomping at the bit to go on a call, dreaming of fighting fires and keeping myself and my brothers on the fire dept. safe??? Maybe it shouldn't anger me, but darn it it really does that… Continue

Ok so I know my day job really has nothing to do with firefighting, but there have been some things going on at work that I just need to get off my chest. Please bear with me. Ok so seriously there are only so many things a girl can handle and I'm beginning to feel like I reached the full point a looooong time ago... See I work with severely developmentally and physically disabled adults, so of course privacy and protection are our two biggest concerns at work!! Because of this I'm not going to… Continue

Ok so our township, after lots and lots of pleading and begging finally got the grant we needed and purchased a brand new 3,019 gallon tanker (excuse me, tender as we have to say around here now) So at our last meeting, our training consisted of everybody riding in and driving the new tender so that we could all get a little more familiar with it. I don't know if God blessed me, or if I'm just made for it, but I have never driven anything as big as this truck or anything with air brakes and I… Continue

An ex of mine who is a firefighter at Ft. Riley introduced me to this song and it just hit so hard!! If you ever have the chance I suggest anyone in public service listening to it, because it fits us so well!!!





Here's the lyrics!!



Can you lay your life down, so a stranger can live?

Can you take what you need, but take less than you give?

Could you close every day, without the glory and fame?

Could you hold your head high, when no one knows your… Continue