Thankful and blessed

After seven months of strictly regimented training and eight years in the making, my husband graduated last Friday and is now officially a firefighter for the City and County of Honolulu!

It's tradition that a loved one be the one to pin their badge on them. With tear-filled eyes, I got to pin my husband's badge. It's a moment I will never forget and cherish always.

We are so thankful that we got to share this moment with our friends from FL, Jose and Tracy. Jose also happens to be Chuck's old lieutenant from his FD back home. 

Our Hawaii ohana got to share with us as well. They've been and continue to be a wonderful support system and amazing stewards of aloha.

Congratulations to the 98th Recruit Class! I know all of us out there are grateful for each and every one of you!

And from the Weas, Happy and blessed Thanksgiving to all of you! 

Into the Fire [Academy]

It's finally here! The hubs finished his first week of training. He will be the first to tell you that It's not going to be an easy seven (yes, SEVEN) months. It's a grueling 28 weeks broken up into EMT and then Fire training. The class is large enough that they have to split, one half does EMT first, the other Fire and they switch midway through.

The hubs knew that this would be different from the Central Florida Fire Academy that he attended years ago, but neither one of us was prepared for just how drastically different HFD conducts their training. 

HFD definitely runs a tight ship. There's only one rule: Do what you're told to do. It's like my husband signed up for the Army. He's got to come in every day clean shaven, his head shaved, boots shiny, and address his recruit training officers (RTOs) properly. They have to do physical trainig (PT) three times a week which is on top of the drills they do during the Fire side of the training. PT consists of doing as many sit ups you can in one minute, followed by as many pull ups in one minute, push-ups in one minute, a mile and a half run, and Crossfit. All under the midday sun. Oh. My. God.

HFD doesn't play. But it's definitely a good way of weeding out those that don't really want it.

Here's my hubs, ready for his first day. It's going be an interesting and eventful seven months. November 16, here Wea come!