This post goes out to my Uncle Timmy, who is a hoss among men. Yesterday, he graduated as a member of class 06-02 from the Oklahoma City Fire Department training. 1300 men applied in December of 2005. In November of 2006, the 25 of them who were selected started a 16 week training course. They were challenged mentally and physically. 200 situps, 200 pushups, miles of running, 40 pull-ups...that's all in ONE day's PFT workout. Even the day of graduation they had PFT. If he looks tired in these pictures, it's because their last run was two miles. He said wasn't a big deal- he finished the training able to run that in under 10 minutes. The kicker was that they had to run those two miles in a creek. They also learned how to put out fires (obviously), break down doors, tear apart cars, drag people from burning buildings, do CPR, climb ladders, get OUT of burning buildings...the training video was very impressive. My uncle is 43 years old- he made it in right under the age cut-off. He was hanging with guys 20 years younger, some former Marines and police officers. He was a bank vice-president until he decided that he wanted to do something different, something where he would be serving. So he sold the shiny silver SUV and bought a 1995 teal Saturn that required you to travel everywhere with quarts of oil in the backseat. It was a huge risk and a huge leap of faith- and he did it! We are all so, so very proud of him. It takes a certain kind of intestinal fortitude to leave something that's secure when you realize that you want something better. He now has his first duty assignment and will start on Tuesday.

It was exciting to get to see all the things that they had accomplished. We had a good family turn-out, especially for 3:00 in the afternoon. Granny and Pappy were there (Pappy pinned Uncle Timmy's badge on), as were Mom and Sam, Ash and Abbey, and Kyle and me. Noah was at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but he came for the after-party. All in all, a very cool and special day. Congratulations again, Uncle Timmy!