It’s feels like a warm winter, maybe it’s an early spring ahead.

For New Year’s Day my brother Joel and Ashley, Mom, Dad and I had a turkey dinner in the late afternoon and we played Yahtzee together.

As you already know I got purple dye from Janelle for Christmas! So, the next Saturday I dyed my hair purple in the morning. My friend Nicole and I went for nails and went out for coffee in the afternoon. I got snowflakes, snow man,  snow balls and blue trim on my fingernails.  My friend Nicole got her favourite colour purple nail polish.  It was very nice little spa day!

On the following weekend I got to use my birthday certificate from the bowling alley. I guess when I went bowling with my family, the bowling alley had some issues, so they gave me a little birthday present. A certificate to a free bowling for an hour. I invited team three to go bowling on Saturday evening.  Everyone seemed like they had a wonderful time.

On Friday afternoon while I was talking to my friend Mary, She showed me her baby boy Joshua Junior and he enjoys his book that I gave him. She said he wouldn’t stop fussing until she gave him the book, I gave him.  Mary decorated his wall with my rainbow picture that I painted for Joshua Junior! On Friday evening we went to the Cheesecake Burlesque, and we enjoyed the outfits, music and there was lots of laughter in the room. 

On Saturday morning we went out for brunch at Smitty’s and I got ice tea and blueberry cheesecake with whip cream on top. I needed some floss sticks so Anna and I went to Walmart. Mary showed me Joshua Junior in the moccasins that my mom made for him. 

Sunday my Dad and Grandpa were helping me decorate a collage of pictures for my blog.  

Friday morning, I had a chiropractor appointment as my back and hips were bothering me. My Chiropractor told me that my hips were out of line. So thankfully he fixed it. Then Mom and I made sourdough cookies and sourdough brownies.  Friday evening was birthday bash for birthdays in January. We danced and Rebecca bought a spider man piñata so everyone got an turn to hit it.  

Saturday afternoon Kelsey and Melissa took me out for coffee at Starbucks for an hour and a half visit. We have decided we should do a photo shoot in our prom dresses.  We even got to FaceTime with Mary on the way to Starbucks.  I coloured some of my colouring monthly calendar from an Rose Club prize from bingo or name that tune or something along those lines.

On Sunday afternoon I tried out the keyboard from my Great Gramma Josie. I was in charge of keeping everyone entertained and happy while my mom was making BBQ chicken pizza for supper and then we played the dice game from Christmas. 

My friend Emily showed me her baby girl Brielle in the yellow and white dress that I brought her last spring!

Every evening I have started to use a machine that helps my hand that I don’t use that often. It helps it not be too tight! I feel it’s less tight and stiff, I enjoy the feeling in my hand while I use it. It’s like those Doctor Ho’s machines. I get a feeling in my hand and It feels like its tingly. 

On Tuesday afternoon I coloured more in the calendar and talked with Mary and baby junior!

On Friday afternoon I cross stitched some of the flowers in the heart. We had Rose Club meeting and Valentine’s Day bingo! We decided on events and activities that should we do for the Rose Club’s March calendar! 

On Saturday afternoon we went to Walmart and superstore I needed a iPad charger, new kinds of teas, a mix of hot chocolates which were different kinds of chocolate bars flavours, and some Reinforcements!  We bought picture frames for the cross stitches, but they didn’t fit. After shopping, Kathleen, Elyse, Anna and I went out for coffee before baby comes! It was a great afternoon hearing how Elyse got engaged and what the wedding colours are going to be, and of course Kathleen was talking about her baby and her niece Isabel Grace and her issues with sleeping while being pregnant!   

On Sunday afternoon My dad found some picture frames on Amazon for my cross stitch hearts and flowers! So, he nicely ordered them. Mom and I bought a baby gift for my friend Skyler’s baby girl Sutton!

On Thursday afternoon the pictures frames arrived. The cross-stitch fits in the picture frames.

On Friday afternoon I finished my colouring monthly calendar from an prize from Rose Club!  There are colouring pictures of some flowers and then it’s an calendar on the next page.  I also did some word searches. On Friday evening we had birthday bash for the month of February! When you’re comfortable in your brown chair with your comfortable cozy blanket, and just don’t want to move, you can do birthday bash on zoom,  but we can still dance and listen to music with our friends. 

On Saturday afternoon I wanted to go and shop for Theresa’s birthday presents for her birthday, so Nia and I went to Walmart.  I bought her a new mug that’s says   *there’s so many reasons to be happy *, hot chocolate and French Vanilla coffee. We put everything in a basket with white paper!  Then we drop off the birthday presents at home and went for matching Valentine’s fingernails with Christina.

On Sunday afternoon I took Grandpa and my Dad out for coffee while my Mom took Coco on a walk.  My mom was babysitting Coco from Saturday to Wednesday night, as Joel and Ashley went to Arizona for a few days with other couples.

For Valentine’s Day I went to Centra Cam and we had an Valentine’s Day party. We played Valentine’s Day bingo in the morning, then Victoria and I met with Cherilyn and went though the school presentation and how to set up. Unfortunately we found out that the table doesn’t fit with my new power wheelchair so Victoria and I measured my wheelchair for an new table. Then, I danced and coloured some Valentine’s Day colouring pages. In the afternoon I did my fire hall interview blog!  Anna and I drove over to my senior Sharon’s apartment and took her an adult colouring calendar book that I coloured and a big book of word searches just in time for an long airplane trip to New Brunswick! 

We celebrated our roommate Theresa’s 54th birthday on the next day after Valentine’s Day .

We even went to Special Olympics bowling and everyone sang happy birthday to Theresa. Everyone had Theresa’s favourite birthday cake Black Forest cake for dessert. I got Mini Key Lime Pie.  For the birthday presents she got some sweaters from her sister, hot chocolate, French vanilla, and coffee with a mug from me, and some hair stuff from Janelle.  She got to FaceTime with her sister and a special friend Maryann on her birthday! We’re looking forward to seeing Rock Of Ages this weekend that Craig and I got her tickets for her birthday! 

On Friday afternoon I got to visit my childhood best friend Skyler, meet her baby girl and I gave her baby girl Sutton an outfit for summer.  Which my friend Skyler loved. It was a wonderful afternoon to finally get to meet and hold her baby girl Sutton, being able to visit with Skyler and her mom Trina was wonderful too!  On Friday evening Theresa and I made Valentine’s Day ‘s crafts a girl and boy gnomes with Rose Club on zoom! Rebecca gave everyone a no sew Valentine craft gnomes craft materials in a bag. And a paper that told you what we needed to make those: we got two Styrofoam cones, felt ( one sheet of red, two light grey and one black craft fur, two gnomes noses which was wood beads and two jewel hearts.  We used a hot glue gun, and we needed some scissors! It was super duper fun to make and they’re really cute.  It was perfect Valentine’s Day craft! 

On Saturday afternoon we went to The Jeanne And Peter Lougheed Center to watch Churchmice presents Rock Of Ages. This was the birthday present from Craig and I for Theresa’s birthday. We all enjoyed the play Rock Of Ages. Everyone had very nice costumes, lovey makeup and the acting was really good!

For Family Day which was Monday my Auntie Gail and Uncle Wayne from Lloydminster came to see us for the afternoon. We went to the Bowling Alley and played a game. Then we went to my parent’s house and made Homemade Bath Bombs that I got from Joel and Ashley for a Christmas present.   I got Grandpa to make some Bath Bombs! While we were making bath bombs, my Uncle Wayne and my Dad were playing crib.  It was lot of fun, almost perfect day but we missed my cousins Eric and Ian, my brother Joel , sister in law Ashley and brother Luke!

Fire Hall Interview

At Centra Cam one of the things I do is informational posters to teach people about different things. I started on this poster a long time ago, and then COVID happened. SO I kind of forgot about it. It was very interesting to learn about the fire hall because I shred paper every week at the Fire Hall. So I wanted to learn about it. I learned a lot on their website. I got to interview G. Parnall a firefighter. I like to color pictures for my poster and make it fancy. It was really neat to learn about the Dalmatian’s at the fire hall and some of the Dalmatians are deaf. I hope people can learn about my poster. I really enjoyed doing it.

Questions for Lieutenant G. Parnall

Kelsey: How many fire calls on average do you get per year?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: It varies from year to year. Right now, we have had about 250 calls.

Kelsey: How many volunteer fire fighters are there?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: About 44 members

Kelsey: How did you get into this job?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: My Dad was a fire fighter, and my best friend is a fire fighter.

Kelsey: What did you do before this job?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: I work as manager at Crystal Glass.

Kelsey: Did you have to go to school for this job?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: I had training in Camrose and other places as well as school.

Kelsey: When holding the hose can it push you over?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: Yes, it can! So, we prepare for that.

Kelsey: What is your favorite part of your job?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: Investigations and finding out how things happened.

Kelsey: How many years have you been a fire fighter?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: Fifteen years

Kelsey: What are your daily activities at work?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: Making sure that trucks are ready for accidents, fires, and medical calls.

 Kelsey: What are you most proud of in your job?

Lieutenant G. Parnall: I get to go the children’s hospital to visit. I also get to visit with folks as well as I hope my sons see me as a hero. I enjoy driving red trucks!

All About the Fire Hall

Regularly inspect and clean equipment and vehicles in preparation for fires and practice fire drills. 

Fire departments have administration services, training and operations 

Administration – Does supervision, budgets, policy and human resources.

Service – Offers protection, safety and education to the public.

Training – Prepares people by educating them to do their jobs.  

Operations – Perform tasks to minimize harm to people, property and environment 

Fire stations exist in most jurisdictions and have many volunteers to make it function well.

 

Within the fire department we have :

  • Fire Chief
  • Deputy Fire Chief
  • Captains
  • Lieutenants
  • Firefighters
  • Admin support

The fire department issues fire bans when there is a risk of setting fires.

The city of Camrose pays the fire department to operate.

The service department provides education on:

  • Carbon monoxide alarms
  • Fire pit permits
  • Holiday safety
  • Home fire escape plan
  • National fire protection association
  • Potting soil fire awareness
  • Safe at home report card
  • Safe smoking

The service department also provides code enforcement and investigation of complaints, answers questions and helps with fire safety training.

They help with fire by laws and setting fees and fines  .

Training department:

The training department does in house training weekly though out the year

They train volunteer fire fighters there are three steps to become a volunteer

Step one – they need a physical evaluation

Step two – medical and applicant checks

Step three – fill out the general information application

They always ask the question “Why do you want to be a fire fighter?”

Just for your information Camrose volunteer fire fighters get paid for the calls they go on plus for weekly training and then at tax time they have a deduction applied.

Dalmations

Interesting information Dalmatians aren’t all deaf. Their association with fire hall was originally because they could keep up with horses now they serve as a mascot.

How do firefighters get involved in our community?

They do pancake breakfasts for charity organizations, MS bike tours, Walk for life, Stollery Children’s hospital, and they speak to kids in schools.