I'm Back!

Well, I made it. I got back from fire academy Friday night and was pretty tired. I learned a lot about how a fire is started and how much the weather affects the fire activity. We never got to fight an actual fire due to the wind but we did go out into the field and dig a control line so we could get an idea of what we would be doing in real life. At night we were able to go to the local gym for free so we did that almost every night. Of course I had to stay in Thur. night so I could catch Grey's Anatomy (my favorite show EVER). I actually met someone there who resembles Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy) from Grey's but who is much better looking. I also met some other very interesting people while I was there. Let's see, there was the stare bear who always had this crazy wide eyed look on his face accompanied with a weird smile and would just sit and stare at you. Then there was Memphis who had never been to Alabama before and was suffering from culture shock. Oh and there was a guy there who worked at the Westin hotel in the Virgin Islands which I had stayed at before so that was neat. But the best one of all was our instructor named Jeremy. He works out of our office but I had never really talked to him before. He is the ruler of redneck philosophy. My favorite quote of his was when he was showing us all the different tools we would be using and introduced the "Pulaski". He said, "This tool was named after some guy, I can't remember his name but anyway this is the Pulaski". Classic. I learned a lot about the people I work with and got to be good friends with one in particular, Nikka. We found on the way home that we have a lot in common and our lives so far have been very similar. So that is a little insight to my last week, not very interesting for those who weren't there but it was fun for me.

Firefighter

Hey Guys, I'm going down south to learn how to fight forest fires!! I'm sure I will have plenty to blog about when I return. Lizzy, keep it real till I get back.
I'll holla' at you cats later.

Hooray!!

It's Clean! It's Clean! The 6th floor potty is clean!

Clothes and Confidence

Sit back and think.....think about the last time you felt really good about yourself. What were you wearing? Was your outfit a new suit, maybe a form fitting dress or perhaps a pair of "hot" pants that made your butt look really good? Now think about the last time you went out in public and you did whatever it was you had to do as fast as you could in hopes that you wouldn't see anyone you knew. What were you wearing then? A pair of your "fat" jeans, an old tee-shirt, oh I know, it was the pair of overalls that you only wear when doing housework. Its funny how clothes make us feel and how certain clothes contort our whole personality. Where do you think this mindset comes from? It could be the TV, we see all these beautiful men and women and think we have to look like those aliens all the time. It could possibly be the floods of magazines that have the hottest heartthrob on the front. I tell ya', there is nothing like having a grocery cart full of food pulling up to the check out counter and begin to drown in the amount of model covered magazines. It makes you want to put every Debbie Cake back on the shelf. Perhaps we have confidence disorder because we compare ourselves to each other, or could I go as far to say that we actually dress for each other? Whenever I get ready to go somewhere, one thought always crosses my mind, "I want to dress to impress!"
There is no way around it and no way to stop it. We will always be judged by what we wear, so we should dress to impress ourselves. And if for some reason you have to go out in public in what you think is a horrendous outfit, work those clothes with confidence. Don't let the clothes control you.

Hmmmm

I wonder, will they ever clean the toilet on the 6th floor of the Amsouth building?

I Heart Meth

What a day, what a day. I went to work with Elizabeth today which turned out to be quite an adventure. She received an email yesterday from a woman whose son was in a motorcycle accident and wanted an interview to get some exposure to raise money for medical bills. We show up at the house and see a driveway full of cars and a family with no teeth. We meet the boy's mother as she comes out of the garage only to find that she has obviously been doing a little more than house work. The woman had two-toned hair, three teeth and such dark circles around her eyes she looked like she had a flashlight up under her chin. Can we say meth addict? She shows us into the house where her son Joshua was in a hospital bed in the living room. So we thought the mom was bad enough until we met the bedridden son. He could barely talk and was so high he never even blinked his eyes. I think they were mixing in a little sumtin' sumtin' with his prescription pills. So Elizabeth starts the interview and asks Joshua how the wreck happened, "I traded in my car for a motorcycle but had never driven one before so I was on my way to Huntsville to show my buddies when I started down a mountain and lost control." he says. The brilliant fella' hit a guard rail and flew ninety feet in the air and landed between a tree and a boulder. I can just imagine a guy coming down the mountain losing control of a bike wobbling from side to side and crashing into the dirt. The whole family was so stuck on meth I don't even think they knew what a shower was anymore. I am constantly amazed at the kind of people that live in this world. I thank the Lord everyday for common sense.

First Timers

To all who care to listen.
So this is my first blog of any kind and you know when you do something for the first time it always takes you a little bit longer because your not so sure as to what to do, that's called First Timers. Or I was thinking maybe they should call it Blocker rather than Blogger because I have a bit of writer's Block. So I'll just start from the top.
My name is Emily Dean, I am originally from Hsv., AL but now live in the "not so happening" town of Moulton. I have been married to my unbelievable husband Jason for a little over two years with our dog Rocky. The first month of our marriage was spent apart because Jason had just received a transfer from Greene Co. AL to Lawrence Co. but was not effective until July (we got married in June). He was living in the teacher's quarters on an old plantation where there was barely enough room for the small amount of things he had much less all of my goo, as he calls it. So finally July came and we bought a little house in the middle of a corn field on a dirt road in Danville, AL. We fixed up the house with some paint and new shutters and flipped it a year later making about $15,000. It's amazing what people will pay for a little tender, love and care. From there we moved to a brand new house in Moulton, AL. It was a beautiful home in the "city", which was better than the corn field, just down the street from the local grocery, post office and hardware store. We were there for about 6 months when we received an opportunity to buy ten and a half acres in Bankhead National Forest. This was Jason's dream come true. So we put the house up for sale and sold it about 6 months later. We were faced with the dilemma on whether to rent a house or find a way to live on the land temporarily while the new house was being built. It was hard to find a rental house that allowed pets and we couldn't leave Rocky behind so we bought a thirty foot camper and moved it up to the land. I have grown to love life in a camper. It doesn't take long to clean and you can pretty much cook, eat, and sleep all in the same room while watching TV! Elizabeth can attest to the fact that it is cozy, a.k.a. small. I just keep reminding myself how lucky I will be once I have a new house in the woods.
So that is a little bit about my life the past two years. This should be an interesting blog full of funny stories considering my living situation, so I hope you come back to visit.