The Whole Family

Well here we are the whole family. This picture was taken at the Union Station in Nashville, Tennessee. We had a blast at the Flying Saucer located around the corner from the Station. The Flying Saucer has about 70 beers on tap and another 100 or so bottled beers. I recommend (Rhett Speaking not Preston) this place to anyone who enjoys beer. We all had a great time in Nashville and we were able to build a bridge and deck at the Fleitz homestead. Next month we will be building a deck at Vanessa's house in Atlanta.

Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER. Gammy and Gampy got us a lot of neat gifts and the Easter Bunny left us a lot of candy also.

Choo Choo

Choo Choo. Gampy set this Choo Choo up for me. I love it and I cannot wait to go back down to Nashville and play Choo Choo again. Thanks Gampy. Sorry I broke one of your Choo Choo's.

Yawn...

Please Please Please Aunt Nessa... I do not want to hear one more word about Paul. I mean he isn't all that. So what he is from Connecticut, It isn't like he has any skills. Take daddy for example he is excellent with a bowstaff, or Uncle Royce he is good with a harmonica, Papa is good at Aikido. Face it Paul doesn't have any skills. When was the last time he baked you a cake or drew you a picture. Ha Ha.

Thirsty...Have to keep going...

Boy I sure do need a drink after a hard days work. This whole deck building thing is a lot of work. I bet those guys are still waiting for me to make another decision on the architecture of this bridge. Maybe Paul will start listening to me. I think it is a no brainer that the whole Italian short dark and handsome is out. Now women are only looking for me.

Hmmmmmm

Hmm....I wonder what I will be doing in 20 years?
Hmm....I wonder what I will be when I grow up?
Hmm....I wonder if Uncle Royce will ever let go of the 80's?
Hmm....I wonder if Mommy is going to stop taking pictures of me every second?

TRACTOR....Yeah

Watch out Gampy. I don't know where the break is and I'm aiming for Daddy.WWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Flash from the past

Quick call the authorities. Uncle Royce has a clone who has come back from the 80's. Please make him go away.

Here is Daddy (second from right) marching in the Colorguard for Roanoke Fire-EMS. There are other firefighers marching behind them followed by the new Ladder 2.

Here is Preston and Jade at the Roanoke St. Patrick's Day Parade in Downtown Roanoke. They really enjoyed watching daddy march with the Roanoke Fire-EMS Colorguard. Jade liked watching the girls twirl their batons.

Preston and Heather at Kabuki

This is Heather, Marian's sister and Preston and Jade's other babysitter. Heather babysits more since she is still in high school and Marian is in college. Preston loves his babysitters.

Preston and Marian at Kabuki

Preston and Marian. This is one of Preston and Jade's babysitters Marian. Preston had fun at Kabuki a Japanese Steak house like Kabuto in Richmond. We celebrated Christina's birthday there who is Marian's mom. Harold, Christina, Marian, and Heather are our neighbors and Harold works with Becky at Provox.

Preston and Jade at snack time

Preston and Jade eating snacks together. Jade is usually so entertained watching Preston and Preston enjoys showing Jade new things. Here they sat and ate a snack together.

Royce in the Navy

This is a video of what Royce did while in the Navy and later at Flight Safety. I am sure that Paul would look something like this if he had a little rhythm.

http://www.glumbert.com/media/dancewhiteboy.html


Hey Royce, Valicia, and Vanessa here is proof that we were cool before our time. All those years driving that dodge Aries around and I thought I would never be cool.

http://www.glumbert.com/media/dodgearies.html

Gammy's Sweatshop

Hey look here I am at Grammy Stewart's sweatshop. Just look at the look on her face. Now that she knows that I can carry two rocks she will be strapping a cart full of rocks to my back and making me bring them up the hill from the creek. Oh don't think that Daddy and Uncle Woyce haven't told me about the rock path you made them build. What ever happened to writing "I will not.... ever again" 1000 times. I think I might just hang out with the GUYS and BUILD. Mommy and Jade can hang out with the rest of the GURLS. Love you Gammy.

Pop Quiz from Preston

1. Did you know that Vee (Valicia) is a Fiance. Yeah Vee and Carwos are getting married.

2. Royce is afraid of heights. And he often keeps his eyes closed during entire flights.

3. Don't laugh Paw (Paul). You couldn't find water in a pond. At least that is what Daddy said.

4. Oh yeah and Mess (Vanessa) good luck with that deck that Daddy and Paw are going to build onto your house. Cause they couldn't draw a straight line with a pencil and ruler, they think that plumb is a fruit, and that Bob Vila knew what he was talking about.

5. Oh yeah and Carwos I could take you in bowling...Blindfolded....With my hands tied behind my back....Asleep. So you better step up your game.

6. And last but not least, I bet you didn't know that I am up right now and eating chocolate, drinking soda, and my parents think I'm about to go to bed. Ha Ha.

Love you all.

Rhett's Promotion

This is a picture of Becky and I on the day of my promotion to Lieutenant. Roanoke Fire-EMS station 3 is in the background.

Preston's Tractor

Here I am on my tractor that I got from Nonny and Papa for Christmas. I love driving around until I run into something and then I have to get daddy to back me up. Sometimes I drive into things on purpose just to give daddy something to do. Ha Ha.

AR-3

This is a picture of the same type of truck that is located at the airport where Rhett works. It's identification is AR-3. I will take some pictures of the exact vehicles I work on and replace these with them. The Captain and another Lieutenant operate this truck while I am on AR-2 alone. This truck is 4 wheel drive and carries 1500 gallons of water. AR-3 has 3 seats and the driver sits in the middle.

AR-2

This is the type of truck that Rhett drives on the Airport. There are some differences in his truck. The truck that Rhett operates has an articulating boom on the top of it with a piercing nozzle and fog nozzle on it. The truck that Rhett drives is AR-2 and is scheduled to be replaced in the next year. The articulating boom can flow 750 gallons per minute and the turret nozzle on the front bumper can flow 350 gpm's. The truck carries 1500 gallons of water and enough foam for 3000 gallons of water. The truck also carries Purple K which is a dry chemical used for certain fires where water or foam won't be as effective. The truck is 6 wheel drive. and is built to scale an 18 inch wall.

Hello from Preston

Hello my name is Preston. I saw that daddy had put this blog together and I figured I would help him out. I know I haven't been emailing everyone very often however I do want everyone to know that I think of them. I will tell you some of the names that I have down pat right now. There's Gammy and Gampy (Fleitz), Nonny (sp?) and Papa (Price), Grandma and Papa (Waldron), Vee (Valicia), Mess ( supposed to be Ness for Vanessa), Woyce (Royce), Trace (Tracy), Mil (Uncle Mil), Jeremy (Rhett's friend), Caleb (Jeremy's son who is my age), Gina, Paul (Mess's boyfriend), Carwos (Vee's Fiance), Cat (Cathleen Royce's girlfriend), as well as some neighbor's. If I have left anyone out then leave a comment on this post or sign the guestbook and I can work on pronouncing your name. I add several words to my vocabulary each day.

Firefighting

Firefighting has been part of my life since 1994 when he was a Senior in high school. Eric Campbell who drove me to school sometimes told me I should apply to the Midlothian Volunteer Fire Department where he volunteered. I said ok not knowing exactly what it meant. Ever since becoming a member it has been in my blood. Midlothian Volunteer Fire Department http://www.midlothianfire.org/pages/399124/ is a station located in Chesterfield county, Virginia. I volunteered there until being hired by Roanoke Fire-EMS in Roanoke City, Virginia March of 1999. For a year up until being hired I worked for American Medical Response who was contracted to The Richmond Ambulance Authority http://www.raaems.org/. This gave me a lot of experience in EMS in a short time. I really enjoyed working there because of the constant adrenaline running through my blood because of all of the different medical calls. However I knew I had to be a paid Firefighter. Which as most people know that Firefighting includes EMS. I am now a Lieutenant on the Airport Rescue Firefighting (ARFF) crew at Roanoke Regional Airport. I look forward to the day when I am returned to the suppression companies in our department. Until then I will learn everything I can about ARFF response. Just to show the difference between me being a firefighter and now a Lt. on the ARFF crew I went from an Engine (1400 calls a year) and Ladder company (800 calls a year) station to the ARFF (54 calls last year). Not exactly the place for a very go get 'em type A personality who has 20 years left before I can retire. I hope it is a short assignment, but I guess life could be worse. I will be travelling to Salt lake City, Utah in May to complete my ARFF training.

The Fleitz Family

Well I guess I should fill everyone in who might be just visiting. Our names are Rhett and Becky Fleitz we have two children Preston and Jade, and a dog named Tate. I will be adding pictures for everyone to enjoy. Rhett is a Lieutenant with Roanoke Fire-EMS department in Roanoke Virginia. Becky works for a Provox Technologies which is a software company downtown Roanoke. Preson is two years four months old and Jade is 11 months old. The pictures in the past posts are current and only taken a couple of days ago.

Tate

Here is the family dog Tate. He is a Chihuahua. As you can see he is not very heavy and is walking on top of the frozen snow.

Jade Catherine

Jade Catherine just scooting around on the floor. She will be walking in the next months. But for now she just scoots around on the floor.

Largest snowman

This is the largest snowman in the neighborhood.

The Fleitz blog beginnings

Hello from the Fleitz family. I decided I might try this blog idea to send pictures and keep everyone informed of the family happenings. I am still trying to figure out the picture posting, so hopefully I will have that up and running soon. I will be posting info on our hobbies which includes our genealogy. That includes both sides of the family, The Fleitz/Bloom/Branco and the King/Waldron. I have learned a lot and have almost 4000 names incorporated in our family tree. So we will see where this blog goes and what we and you are able to get out of it. Please feel free to contact us as well as post comments if you have any questions.

I learned about blogging and got interested in it from Mark Noble who was an Olympia Washington Firefighter who died of brain cancer. You can see his blog at http://nobleview.com/tumororlater/. He made an online journal of his fight with brain cancer and his enjoyment of his life as he continued to live after his diagnosis. He was a true hero that other Firefighters looked up to. He has done a lot to provide the facts to firefighters everywhere on the increased chances of developing cancers. You can see his video at http://www.ergometrics.org/firefighter_test.htm .