Missing...Missing...

I am missing my cord that enables me to download my pictures from my camera to the computer. So...if you see a cord with legs walking around...it might be mine! :) I've had the last three days off of work (enjoying family time with Chris' side of the family, his grandparents are here visiting from New York), cleaning, unpacking, painting, organizing, and enjoying the beautiful (but hot) weather. Hopefully I will find my cord soon and can share with you all the work that has been going on! Happy Weekend!

Trying new things

The Crosby household is trying to be healthier.

Moving into our new home spurred us onto sorting through our pantry and throw out unhealthy items. I've been making sure to buy fresh produce at the store and I'm getting better at planning meals in advance.

I recently saw a commercial for a new type of yogurt:

We enjoy yogurt and I thought that this would be a good, new item to try.

Boy was I wrong! I didn't even get one entire bite in my mouth before I realized that I did not like this!! I have no doubt that my face made the same expression as when I tried raw oysters!

I guess their advertising was good, because it sure influenced me to buy it! Unfortunately, the taste won't make me a repeat customer!

Have you tried anything new lately?

Prayer

Growing up, we went to church...then we stopped.

In high school, I went to church...then I stopped.

After we got married...we began going to church...then our schedules got in the way and we haven't been attending as much as I hoped.

I love attending church: the worship, the connections and friendship that is formed over a common belief, the peacefulness that comes from a sermon that fits into my life, the values that are taught (be good, respect elders, put others before yourself, etc.).

Throughout all of my time going to church, I wasn't much of a "pray-er". Sure, I did it in church, when I was around other friends who prayed, and when something bad happened. I can't remember feeling the connection that others talked about, the feeling that they were talking to a friend who was always listening.

I felt thankful that I could offer up my worries, stresses, concerns to "someone" but I never felt that connection and I didn't feel that I had the correct words to speak. I would shy away from praying out loud, just in case someone heard my words and thought they were too child-like or not holy enough. I dutifully bowed my head and followed along in the prayer during groups and prayed with my heart.

1 Thessalonians 5:17: pray without ceasing

I would say a prayer to myself, I would finish my prayer and then remember this verse. I wondered if I should never conclude my prayer because then I would not have followed this verse. Oftentimes, once I had said "Amen!" I would think of another thing to bring up to Him and felt silly adding a "P.S" when talking to God.

I have so much to be grateful for: I am healthy, I have an AMAZING support system of family and friends, I have a great job, and really, I want for nothing.

Lately, I have been beginning and ending my days with prayer. It is such a sweet time of contemplation, thankfulness, and bestowing my worries on Him. While it doesn't always erase my stresses and worries, it does lighten my load and help me face the day and get ready to rest my head on my pillow.

Last night Chris and I babysat the daughter of a dear friend and as I was rocking the babe to sleep, I realized it was the perfect time to spend in prayer. It was a peaceful time to spend reflecting on our day and reminding myself to be thankful for all that I have.

Hopefully, if we are blessed (one day) with children of our own, I will include this as a time of quiet and prayer in our family.

Home away from home...

I haven't posted much about my work (other than I am here a lot and keeps me away from Chris), but I finally uploaded some pictures to share with you my home away from home, while I give you a little info about VCFD FCC (Ventura County Fire Department Fire Communications Center).

We work 24 hour shifts (meaning I get to work at 7am and do not go home until 7am the next day, if I'm lucky - sometimes I'm at work for 36 or 48 straight hours). There are times that I work over 100 hours a week due to others being on vacation, fires, or other unforeseen events.

We have a scheduled six hour sleep break every shift and sometimes that means that I go to bed at 6pm and have to be working again at 1am. While it is hard to fall asleep at 6pm sometimes, it does enable us to experience some beautiful sunrises.

We are often talking to people on the worst day of their life...they, themselves are in trouble; a family member has stopped breathing; or their house is on fire (to name a few of our common issues). We deal with so much pain/turmoil/stress in our work, that we try to enjoy the good parts of our job. The most celebrated one is when we are able to give CPR instructions to someone over the phone (when they have found someone unconscious and not breathing) and the patient survives. The dispatcher and responding emergency crew are made breakfast and dessert, receive certificates, and CPR pins to proudly wear on our uniforms.

I have been fortunate to assist two people survive by providing CPR instructions over the phone. The first: a two day old infant (click on the word infant to ready a news article about the event) and the second: an eighty-seven year old man. Those are definitely the highlights of my career, so far!

We have 18 different consoles to sit at during our shift (they are positioned in rows of 4).

Here is our dispatch floor (pictures taken from the corner of the room). The big screens in the right picture are tuned to news, local and international, so that we are aware of what is going on in the world.

Here is my console from one of my shifts. We have five computer screens that we use at all times to answer phones, talk on the radio, dispatch help, maps of the county, see the status of our units (ambulances, fire engines, etc), the Internet to get exact addresses for businesses, etc.

Sometimes, there are days where it seems that every caller is yelling and cursing at us when we are trying to get needed information to get them the correct help, so my supervisor decided that we needed a snuggie when those days happen. Here is my friend, Mark, on one of those days.

We have really nice accommodations at work. We are assigned a dorm, have lockers, showers, a gym, a big kitchen (with viking stoves and large fridges), and a day room with a TV to relax in on our breaks.

Here is my dorm and locker. We have extra-long twin-sized beds, a window, and lockers to keep our uniforms and other needed items. Two dorms are connected by a bathroom and shower and we have ten dorms in all.

Most people think we wear jeans and whatever we want to work...Nope, we wear the same uniform that the firefighters wear (dark blue shirt, dark blue pants, leather shoes/boots, badges, etc). We even have an after-hours and weekend uniform consisting of sweats or shorts, and t-shirts.

While most days, I really do love my job, there are days I feel like this:

"you called 9-1-1 for what??"

Yes, we get funny, annoying, frustrating, and saddening calls every day, but we all love our jobs and try to give our callers the best help that we can.

Here are a few of our "normal" stats:

Our average 9-1-1 calls per day: 102

(recently we had a day with major storms and our calls number went up to 276)

(a brush fire recently increased that number to 149 in one single hour!)

I have some tips to share with you about 9-1-1 and CPR (TAKE A CLASS AND LEARN HOW TO DO IT!), but that will have to wait for another post because another emergency phone line is ringing and I need to get back to work!

I'm going to be an Aunt!

Congratulations to Elizabeth and Mario!

Chris' sister and her Fiance are going to be parents in October!

I can't wait to help spoil the new addition to our family and we are all anxiously awaiting the ultrasound where we find out the gender.

Congratulations to my Sister-in-law and soon to be Brother-in-law!

Cha...Cha...Changes!

I'm working on updating my blog: new background, adding a few fun things, etc. Since I'm not really sure what I'm doing, there will be lots of trial and error. There may be lots of changes in the next few days/weeks/who knows how long. Let me know if you don't like something (or something isn't showing up correctly)and I will try to fix it! Happy reading!

Giveaway

Lisa Leonard is having another giveaway!

A little visitor

I came home the other day while on break at work to help Chris unpack a few more boxes. We've had a carpet on top of the hose reel next to the front door and we when moved it to add to the pile of trash to take to the dump, we found a visitor hiding underneath it.

I didn't mind it until it curved it's body and became snake-like. It was one of the biggest lizards I had ever seen and I will surely be wearing my gloves from now on when working in the yard!

Maybe we should name this guy...any suggestions???

Slow and Steady

Slowly, slowly we are making progress settling into our new home and finding places for all of our belongings. Today my focus was on the cupboard doors in the kitchen. We loved how the red drawers came out, but they took a long time because it took four coats of paint to cover them evenly (2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint).
Mom and Dad (have I mentioned how wonderful they are??) left us with their paint sprayer and today I tried it out. It was a little daunting at first, but it covered the cupboards in one pass of the sprayer, so I think I will soon love it!

Today was a beautiful day, perfect for painting in the backyard. The backyard needs some work, but that will be in the distant future and for now, it looks nice and green.

Mom helped us prune our tree last time she was here (she and Dad went to a pruning class so I know that our tree was in good hands). Our green waste barrel has been full every week and this week will be no different as it is full of our trimmings.

The cupboard doors were a really dark brown and most of them were REALLY sticky and grungy. We TSP'd them to get them ready for painting and I put two coats of primer on them this morning.

Next step: using the sprayer!

I was pretty impressed with myself for my first time using the sprayer. It made quick work of the cabinets and went on smoothly, but we will see how they look when they dry and how even I actually got the paint.

It's been awhile since I posted a picture of myself, so here is one before I started spraying. I do have a new pair of painting clothes after spraying and priming.

Here is the kitchen with the drawers and oven in! I was surprised at how the oven makes the kitchen look so much bigger...probably due to it being white.

I was really excited to use the new stove and cook dinner for Chris. Our first meal using the new stove/oven was: Steak, green beans, and garlic new potatoes. I think Chris is excited that we have the stove working too, he was pretty happy coming home to a hot meal!

Hopefully the cupboard doors will dry soon and I will have more pictures to share. (our internet is supposed to be installed on Tuesday, so it will be easier to keep you updated with our progress!).

Happy weekend.

Lisa Leonard giveaway!

Lisa Leonard is having another giveaway! Head on over to her blog to enter!

Blogging from the coffee shop!

I ventured out to our favorite coffee shop because I couldn't wait to share new pictures with you! We have been staying at our home (such a wonderful word!) since Saturday night and are really enjoying it, despite the chaos we have with boxes everywhere. Welcome to our HOME!





Living/Dining room:

We still have the stove in the living room because we have to change out the outlet for it (it is for an electric range, but we have a gas one). We will be getting new furniture for the living room, but we are still trying to decide how we want to set it up and figuring how it will work best for us.

The beautiful wood floors that are in the living/dining rooms, laundry room, the kitchen and entryway.

The Den:

This is going to be our tv/cozy room. We have a lot of boxes in here now, but they are slowly dwindling.

The hallway:

Looking from both ends of the house, from the den and from the bedrooms.

The office:

aka the tornado room (for now). I am really happy because we have some new storage compartments and I am really liking how this room is coming together.

The Guest Room:

This room will be changing a bit when we get a new bed in the master and replace the guest bed (full sized) with our current bed (a queen). I'm glad to have separate office and guest bedroom so they are less cramped than our last one. I found a shower curtain that matched the wall color with a white overlay (I'm finding joy in the little things!).

Our Room:

We finally found the perfect color for the top half of our bedroom walls (we realized that we could get the same color as the bottom walls and have the hardware store lighten it by 50% and it was perfect!) I wish we had thought of that earlier, but that's ok.

We will be putting some artwork on the walls, but for now we are enjoying our new bedding and bedside lamps. I'm enjoying my walk-in closet!!!

The Kitchen (purposely saved for last):

What a HUGE difference painting the cabinets white made! I am loving how bright the kitchen feels now. (I'm hoping to do a before/after post soon with better comparison pictures). We are slowly painting the drawers and cupboard doors red.

Our huge new fridge. It has a lot of room inside the fridge...guess I should go to the store soon!

I mistakenly ordered our new sink an inch too large. It was a tough time making it fit (Dad had to cut the existing tile, re-grout, and redesign the underneath plumbing), not to mention the sink weighed over 100 pounds! Here is my Father-in-law helping Dad put the sink in.

It is in!

How many people does it take to install a microwave? Approximately 6 in the Crosby household!


I was finally able to place some of our glasses and dishes in the cupboards and I'm slowly finding the right cupboards to house our kitchen items.

If you need any supervisors for any projects...Mom and I would gladly help out!

Chris and I are so very blessed by the family and friends that we have, people were helping out all weekend and my parents especially sacrificed time working on their own house (and muscles) to come help us out. We are eternally grateful for all of the help we received and I'm glad that I get to share our new home with you!