Erik Comes to Visit

  This weekend Erik came to visit. he hasn't been here in many years. We couldn't drum up snow for him, at least not yet but we did have a full house: We had Walker and Cameron, Erik, friends Hannah & Grace, Jake and girlfriend Sara and at one point, Mark Clarke. Having all that girl-energy made for rarely a dull moment. Here's most of us: From L-R: Cameron, Hannah, Erik, Walker, Mark, Jake, Sara and Susan in the front. Grace is taking the photo and Franklin got cut out of the picture.
  Here we are with our three sons and the girlfriends of two of them: L-R: Erik, Walker, Cameron, Susan, Franklin, Jake, Sara
  It's a rare gift for Susan to have her three sons in the same place.
  Cameron, Grace and Hannah co-authoring a crumble topping.

Erik Passes Paramedic Test

Erik is my 31-year-old oldest son. I've begged him for months for something for the blog and he's just now found enough breathing room to humor me. My father, his father, his uncles, great-uncles, brother and cousin are all on the force or are about to be so he comes by it naturally. Your mom's over-the-top proud of you, Son.

 

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In Erik's own words: Well, after 8 months of grueling hell, I have passed my paramedic classes. Overall, it was very difficult to manage with work and additional study time, forcing me to make many hard sacrifices. Suffice to say, the last month was particularly challenging. In the last few weeks of class, I was working close to 60 hours a week (not including additinal management of students), in addition to 14 hours of class, 24 hours of ride times, and additional 8 hours of clinicals (per week). All in all, I was lucky to get 6 hours of sleep a night (4.5 was nice when it happened too).

Regardless, I now have my certificate and will be sitting down to take the state test after the state of Florida approves me to sit for it.
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Erik Passes State Accreditation Test

 

, My oldest son, Erik (31) has just passed his State Assessment Exam to be a paramedic / EMT / Firefighter after much hard work and wringing of the hands. He still has more studying and tests to go but if he passes the next set of tests he should be hirable in October. He has a long tradition of this line of work with his Grandfather (my dad), his father, uncle and now a cousin and brother in the same profession. This photo was taken a few years ago at Morikami Japanese Gardens in Florida. I'm waiting impatiently for him to send me a current photo and eventually, a photo with him in uniform. This post has "Proud Parent" written all over it !!!