Whew! What a weekend!

Well, the end of the week turned out to be much more busy than I anticipated. Good busy though as there was lots of time spent with new friends. Both Jeremy and I are really enjoying his time with Newberg Fire Dept. Maybe one of the best perks are the new friends! We have met some amazingly kind people and look forward to continuing to meet people and gaining a support system.

Thursday night Jeremy was at drills. I ended up hanging out with another NFD wife, Elyse, and watched Grey's Anatomy. It was nice to have some company, even if the dogs were crazy excited all night by the presence of a new friend!

Friday night we met up with Elyse and her husband Travis at Abby's and then rented a movie to watch at our place. We were prepared for Jeremy and Travis to have to leave us to help with last minute set-up for the burn-to-learn, but the call never came through the pager. No complaints here!

That brings me to Saturday...the day that Jeremy has been waiting for since he started his training with the fire dept. All day Saturday was the burn to learn. He arrived at the station at 5:45 a.m. I showed up at the duplex at about 10 to 10:00 which ended up being perfect timing because they started just after I arrived. I ended up taking 157 pictures that day and tried to capture everything so that Jeremy would have some great memories from the day to look back on. For those who don't know, a burn-to-learn is when someone in the community donates a building to the fire dept. and they use it as a learning exercise. They spend all day going through different exercises and in the end, they let the building go and burn it to the ground.

Getting ready to start. Jeremy is in the middle, in yellow (because he is a probationary firefighter).

Jeremy's in the middle again.

Taking on the fire.

Me and the husband.

There's not a whole lot that I can say about it besides I don't think I've ever seen Jeremy so happy as he was that day. He had the biggest grin on his face and looked completely in his element.

Happy man.

I will admit that I was nervous at first about watching my best friend run into a burning building. Luckily for me though, our next door neighbor, Ryan, was there (although he was on shift and ended up having to leave for several calls). He talked me through everything that was happening and assured me that it was safe and going exactly as planned. Dan and Libby were also there and it was nice to have them and their experience there...such a comfort! Elyse and I stuck together...trying to get the best view and pictures for the guys. It was very interesting to watch and we had lots of fun together. :)

Letting the fire go...

All the probationary firefighters...Jeremy is bottom middle.

I ended up leaving at about 4:30 and Jeremy got home at 6:00. It was a long, but exciting and fun day. I am so very proud of Jeremy and look forward to many more years of his involvement with the department.

Today is Mother's Day and we met up with Doug and Kay for breakfast at 8:00. Doug and Jeremy have worked together in construction since Jeremy's house-building days and Doug was a huge help with our personal house this past year. After breakfast, we went to Jeremy's parents' church. We came home and Jeremy got to work outside...getting rid of weeds, fixing the back deck etc. I made a run to Target to pick up some more things for the house. My list is getting smaller, but I'm not sure if I'll ever really be done! ;) In just a bit we will be headed to my parents' house for dinner.

What a busy week we've had, but we have enjoyed every minute of it! Next week I am looking forward to working all five days in a different classroom at CV. Jer has Monday off and will do small jobs around the house/sleep a lot. Next weekend is the final weekend of fire academy for Jeremy. YES!! We are both excited for him to get his weekends back, even if it's just for a short time until EMT Basic classes start. Hope your upcoming week goes well!

Lots of Love,

Britt