Fire Prevention Week

October 5-11 is Fire Prevention Week. I got to interview our local Fire Prevention Specialist, who was promoted to Fire Inspector after faithfully serving at her post for four years. Mrs. Fickert has been the local inspector since 2000 and still teaches fire prevention. My mom and I were able to meet with Mrs. Fickert over an afternoon java and I had some interesting questions to ask her.


What are fires most commonly started by?
Mrs. F: Unattended cooking and electrical appliances.


What does a Fire Prevention Specialist do?
Mrs. F: Fire Prevention Specialist means stopping people from doing accidental fires by teaching them.

How do you know if a fire is started by a candle or a cigarette?
Origin and Cause Investigation

Origin-location, a place
Cause- what started it

Mrs. F: When I walk into a home that has been burned I find the place that has the most damage. When a fire burns it forms a V shape then continues to burn from there. I interview the people who were there or neighbors who saw it happen. Sometimes I'll ask people to draw a layout of what their home looked like. I ask questions about what items were on tables and shelves. Soon I'm able to find out if it as a candle or a cigarette.

How often should you change the battery in your smoke detector?
Mrs. F: Every six months. A tip is to change the batteries when you turn your clocks for day light savings.

And how often should we test them?
Mrs. F: Monthly. When you buy your calendar take a few minutes to write on the first of every month that you should test your batteries. Make it a habit.

How do we test them?
Mrs. F: Push the test button. If it's too high to reach you can use a broom handle. One more thing Miss Monica! Fire Detectors have a shelf life of only seven to ten years. If you live in an older home you should replace them.


How do you put out a kitchen fire?
Mrs. F: Grease Fires are put out in two steps.
1. Turn off the heat source.
2. With a hand mitt, slowly place the pan's lid over the fire.

This puts out the oxygen and the fire can't breathe anymore. It needs oxygen to burn. Never use water or any type of liquid in a grease fire.


What is your favorite part of your job?
Mrs. F: Everything! My motto is do what you love and love what you do.


How do you help children in your community?
Mrs. F: Education and going to schools. We have 'field trips' each year and the children can come to our location and learn about fire safety. We also teach for large groups.

Where do you send children when they are badly burned?
The Burn Center UC Davis and Shriners Hospital

How can a family establish a fire escape route?
Mrs. F: There are two acronyms:
E.D.I.T.H.
E.xit

D.rills

I.n

T.he

H.ome


and

D.A.N.

D.rill

A.t

N.ight

Plan to have drills both in the day time and at night. Plan to meet in one location such as across the street or at a neighbor's house. If you wake up and smell smoke crawl on the floor to the door. Do NOT touch the door handle, until you first feel the door. If the door is hot do not touch the handle and exit through the window.


How often should a family have a fire drill?
Mrs. F: Twice a year, you can do it during the week of day light savings.


What size fire extinguisher should a single family home have and where should they place it?
Mrs. F: They should place it in their bedroom(your parent's room) and in a garage. You can also have a dry chemical extinguisher in the kitchen.

What other ways can a family enjoy candles without a flame?
Mrs. F: By using a Candle Warmer or Electric candle. Costco has battery operated candles that appear to have a flame in them.

What does your community do for Fire Prevention Week?
Fire and health safety expo every year. We have one this Wednesday.

Do most fire departments give tours of their facility?
Mrs. F: All facilities do! Just give them a call.

How can kids get involved in helping their community for fire prevention week?
Mrs. F: We have what we call Fire Pals. These are young people like you who volunteer to help us with our Expo. Just like how you're going to do for us on Wednesday.

Is it safe to run appliances when you’re not home? (ie:washing machine, dishwasher, etc?
Mrs. F: No, it is not safe. Don't even run them when you are asleep.

Should we turn off space heaters before going to bed or can we leave them on to stay warm?
Mrs. F: Turn them off. When you are using them make sure that there is 5 ft. of space around the space heater at all times. Also, you should unplug it for nighttime.

Thank you Mrs. Fickert for meeting with us for
this interview. Here are some links that she said we could share with you.

National Fire Prevention Association
Sparky the Dog
Smokey Bear

My family is going to prepare a fire escape plan for our home and practice some fire drills. Mrs. Fickert suggested that the night time drill be done spontaneously, which means without notice. She also said do it once the children are already asleep. This gives them some practice on what to do when they aren't ready for it, which is what would happen if your home was on fire.

Now I have some questions for you:
When was the last time you checked your fire detectors batteries?
Do your detectors need new batteries? If so let us know when you've replaced them.
Do you have an escape route planned?
Do your children know what to do in a fire?
Will you commit yourself to having some of your own fire drills?

Mother Cat

One day our cat Fiona started getting larger. We thought she was eating too much food, so we cut down. Every day she fatter than usual, we realized, “Well, it is not the food, because she was getting fatter without as much food.” What is happening to Fiona?



My mom called the vet, to ask how we know for sure if she is really going to have kittens. They said it will be hard to tell if she is really pregnant, until closer to delivery. They said to look for increased weight gain. A couple of weeks before she delivered, we noticed her belly getting bigger. We cleared out underneath my mom’s bathroom sink, so it was safe and harmful things were out of reach. Fiona climbed in there all the time to be alone and to relax.

One morning around three in the morning, my mom heard pounding on her bathroom door, my mom figured Fiona was just playing around. A little while later my mom heard a teeny tiny *meow*. She knew that the first kitten had been born. She jumped up out of bed and raced to the bathroom. When she opened the door, Fiona was standing on the bathroom counter facing the door with a kitten in her mouth, and it looked like she did not know what to do, it was her first time. My mom showed Fiona underneath the bathroom sink. Fiona then knew that is where she is supposed to go. My mom raced to the living room and got the camera. She raced backed to the bathroom and stayed by Fiona’s side till all of the kittens were delivered, I bet Fiona felt safe.

My mom called us all in there to see the kittens. I was so proud of Fiona I gave her a big hug, of course I did not touch the kittens or else Fiona would not take care of them. My mom took lots of pictures and showed us them, they were so cute!! I love those kittens so much they are so cute!!!!!!!!

1. Make sure to find a safe quiet place where the kittens would be bothered by other animals or small children.

2. Put a small box on the floor and put an old blanket inside to make her feel safe to have her kittens in it. Make sure the mother cat is capable to get in and out of the box

3. Show the mother cat where the box is and put some cat food and a water bowl next to it so she will go in and feel comfortable there. Bring your mother cat back to the box everyday and sit there for a while. Stroke her for a while so she will become very protected, she should get back into the box when she is about to have her kittens.

4. When the mother cat has her kittens, make sure everything is quiet, or else the kittens will get frightened.

5. Have a litter box close by so the mother can train her kittens to use the box. Be sure the sides are low enough for them to get into it. While they are little, the mother cat will cleanse them until they can follow her into the littler box.

~Don't put the kittens bed in a loud area.

~If you have other pets, keep them away from the mother cat!!

~Make sure you love the mother cat and give her lots of attention.

~Don’t pick up, hug tightly, or do anything that will make the mother cat insecure.




Sometimes there is a smaller kitten and the mother might not give it the same attention as the other kittens. The stronger kittens might crowd out the little one from feeding time. You can observe them and try to help the little kitten to get a spot to feed. If the kitten does not seem to be growing at the same rate as the other kittens you can buy cat formula from your local pet store.

~Spiritual Mother’s Day Present~

On a Wednesday night church service, after the message, the Pastor asked if anyone hadn’t trusted Christ as their Savior. I was thinking if I had or not, and I didn’t know! That next morning, I told my mom, with tears in my eyes, that I just didn’t know where I would go. She said, “Well that would be a good thing to know wouldn’t it?” So she told the plan of Salvation to me and I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior! After the prayer my mom said to me, “You know what, I got saved on this same day 10 years ago!” I was so excited that we could share that day as our “Spiritual Birthday!”

M&M Pancakes

This last summer my grandparents came to visit us in their motor home. Each of the children get to have a night with them in their motor home. when it got to my turn, I asked if we could make "Chocolate Chip Pancakes." They said they did not have chocolate chips, but they did say they had M&M's.


So that night we were watching a movie and I realized that to make the M&M pancakes I needed to crush them. So I got them out of the bag and set them in a bowl in the freezer over night, then we went back to the movie. After the movie they went to bed and I was laying on their fold-out couch, and I could not wait until' morning for the pancakes. So I went to sleep right away so the night would get over with and so we could make pancakes!
That morning, we took out the frozen M&M's and chopped them up.

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 Tbsp. of sugar

2 tsp. of baking powder

1/4 tsp. of salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup of milk

2 Tbsp. of cooking oil

In a medium size bowl stir together sugar, flour, salt and baking powder. In a small mixing bowl combine egg, milk and cooking oil. Add that to the flour mixture and stir together or blend until slightly lumpy.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet for each standard- size pancake or about 1 Tbsp. batter for each dollar-size pancake.

Cook till pancakes are golden brown, turning to cook second sides when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and slightly dry edges.

Makes about 8 to 10 standard size or 36 dollar-size pancakes.


I hope you like them I do!!!

That Roaring Lion

(1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (KJV))

A while back our teen group went on a teen winter safari to the Sacramento Zoo. After the zoo, we went to the Old Spaghetti Museum. The people there were very kind workers. The chandeliers were beautiful, they had crystals hanging from them and they had beautiful decorations too!

At night we went to West Valley Baptist Church. The guest preacher, Bro. Kobernat, preached about, how sin can attack at any moment in our lives. In the San Francisco zoo a tiger escaped and attacked three men. That is a perfect example how sin can do the same thing, attack at any moment of our lives. We should always be ready for anything to happen in our lives.

1.) Destruction- the enemy is seeking to destroy our lives.
My main verse at the top, talks about the roaring lion and how he is seeking whom he may devour, he is the enemy in our lives seeking to destroy it.
2.) Death- is so much closer than you think.
That means, death is so much closer when you do wrong.
3.) Decisions- that you and I make are so much closer than they appear.
That means, if you make a wrong decision the consequences are so much closer than they appear.
4.) Deliverance- is so much closer than it appears.
Just how God delivered Daniel from the lions den, he can deliver us from our every day sin.

I used my definitions over and over again, if you were wondering that at all. It doesn’t matter if they are the same; it is because I am trying to get the word out to you.

My Prayer for today:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Please help me make wise decisions and have me to stay away from the 'lion'. Help me to obey your word, and have me to listen to whatever you have for me in my life.

Ponder It:

Are you living your life the way God wants to be lived?

Can you ask God to help you in your every day sin?

Are you going to let the lion, (sin) to get you?


Fulfill It:

Stay in God’s will for your life.

Have God guard you from the lion, (sin).

Ask God to help you in any situation.


Memory Verses:

(James 4:14, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”(KJV))

(James4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”(KJV))

(Daniel 6:22, “My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.”(KJV))

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Pet Dental Care

Pet Dental care

I do not know about you, but my dog's teeth stink! In order to fix that problem you should brush your dog's teeth at least once a month. There are certain ways to clean your pet’s teeth.

1. Make sure your pet is relaxed in a good position.

2. Choose a brush that is appropriate for your pet’s mouth, and be sure the brush is a soft brush, or your pet will get hurt.

3.Make sure your pet is in either a cleared out sink or a cleared tub. If your pet is too big for the sink, I would go for the tub. Some people put their pet on the floor in a towel.

4.Apply toothpaste to the toothbrush, make sure the toothpaste is not human toothpaste, or your pet will get sick.

5.Slow strokes up and down the gum line move the brush up, down, side to side. Apply toothpaste every few seconds.

6.Massage the gum line and work on the bottom stroke.

7. Love your pet and show affection to your pet and give it a treat for a good job.

I hope that this article will help your pet to have clean teeth, and make sure that you get the right toothpaste. If you can not find the right kind, just use baking soda.

An IMPORTANT Question

An IMPORTANT question

Every summer, my friend Nate comes to visit his grandmother. Two boys live right across the street from him, and he plays with them all the time. The two boy’s names are Frankie and Tommy. They come to my house a lot and ask if I can play, of course supervised. When I go outside to play with them I often wonder if they knew if they died that day where they would go. So as I wondered that inside, I decided to bring a Bible tract out and talk about it with them. I started out just with a normal conversation, for example: “Do you go to a church, which church do you go to.” After that, I got into the important conversation.

I said, “If anyone of you guys died today, where would you go?” Nate said with an, I do not care attitude, “I don’t really care where I go.” Tommy had the same attitude. Frankie was into what I was saying. He acted like he really wanted to know. Frankie said, “I don’t know where I would go.” He asked if I could tell him, I said “Sure.” I gave him a Bible tract and I read off the back to him that told about the Romans Road, and John 3:16 and other verses that had to do with the sort. He said that he wanted to know for sure where he would go. I said, “Would you like to kneel with me and ask for Jesus to save you?” He said, “Yes!”


Frankie knelt with me in a word of pray. After I prayed with him, I told him that if he didn’t mean that pray he will not go. He said he meant it! I was so excited for Frankie! I knew that the Angels and God were all singing for joy and praising! But as they left, I realized that the other two were not saved. I went inside my house crying so hard. My mom asked what was wrong, and I told her about Nate and Tommy didn’t want to get saved and were not into it. She told me, that they will have to think about that the rest of there lives about if they did die were they would go. I told her that I would pray for Nate and Tommy, to accept Jesus as there Savior.

I am still praying for them today, and I hope you will pray for them too. I am also praying for Nate to talk to his brother, Tommy and Nate and for him to keep asking them that question, “Where would you go if you died today?”


*Boys’ names are not their real names, for safety reasons.

April Birth Month

April Birth Month

I found out online that April’s Birth month flowers are the Daisy or the Sweet Pea. I love those flowers a lot so I think this is a great opportunity for me to experience the meanings of them and the beauty that is inside of them.


The Daisy and the Sweet Pea are both very delicate flowers and are very exquisite. They both have such beautiful colors and different ones at that. Their colors are usually, yellow, red and are sometimes colorless. A Daisy means tenderness, virtue, loyal love, and fragility. Sweet Peas means “Thanks for a lovely time.” A Sweet pea also means delicacy, lasting pleasure, and remembers me. These flowers mean more than just a cluster of beauty, it means love, purity, delicacy, long lasting love and forever remembering you.


Also Diamonds are so beautiful and once I found out that a diamond was April’s Birth Stone, I was so surprised! I love Diamonds they are so exquisite and remarkably beautiful! They are often clear but they can be either, white or clear. Diamonds are the world’s most precious gems. They are the hardest natural material. Each parcel is worth around, $42,500 there are many parcels in a diamond a lot isn’t it! They are very expensive doing to its beauty and hardness and parcels.


So remember the next time someone gives you flowers, don’t think about how much they were, but think about the love and enjoyable things that, that person went through to get you that bouquet of flowers or even one flower. Or if you get the flowers for that person or one flower think about the meaning behind it and make sure that, that person will know what you mean.

History of the Auntie Anne's Pretzel

History of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Auntie Anne’s started back in 1988, when Anne Beiler and her husband his name is Jonas, sold snacks that included, hand-made soft pretzels. They were both trying to make different varieties of ingredients to make different pretzels. Then it struck them, they created a new kind of pretzel that was beyond delicious! Their corporation grew to 940 positions. They are now making their one billionth pretzel!

My mom, my younger sister, and I went to Auntie Anne’s and I purchased an original pretzel with salt, my mom purchased a raisin pretzel with cinnamon and sugar, and my sister purchased a cinnamon and sugar pretzel. While we were waiting in line, my sister and I walked over and talked to a worker whose name was Jonathon. He told me that the most popular pretzel is the original; they sell about 400 original pretzels a day! Auntie Anne's has a reading program too. If you read 5 books you get a free pretzel! Check with your local store for more details.

National Pretzel Day is full of excitement and fun. Everyone makes different types of pretzels and taste them. Share your favorite home-made pretzel with us! In celebration of National Pretzel day, we are giving away this free $5 gift card to Auntie Anne's so you can get your free pretzel. Simply reply to this message to enter. Leave a link where you can be contacted. If you link to this article and talk about this on your blog we'll enter your name TWICE into the contest!

Salvation, It's Elementary

Each week I have an opportunity to go on an outreach in my community to invite people to my church. Sometimes I get to tell them how they can know for sure they can get to heaven. Some people call this evangelism. One very important thing to know before doing this is if YOU have trusted Jesus as your Savior yet. This month I would like to share with you how Lady Olivia made her decision. In her story you'll learn how easy it is to teach a young girl how to accept Jesus as their Savior. It's a wonderful way to share His love with those who may be too young to even read yet.

I have always known about Jesus. My mom says that His name was actually
one of my first words! When I was a toddler, or so, my mom would sing songs to me like "Jesus Loves Me" or she and dad would tell me all kinds of stories about Him. But there was definitely a time in my life when I
really wanted to know God, not just know about Him.
I wanted to know Him personally, but first I had to:

1. Admit I was a sinner and was in need of God.
2. Believe that Jesus died and rose again for my sins.
3. Confess Jesus as Lord of my life.

It was as easy as ABC and because I was only six and learning my
alphabet and how to read, this was an easy way to understand how to be
saved. Now, I pray to Him every day by just talking to Him. I praise Him every
night which means I like to sing to Him before I go to bed.
He is always there when I need Him, like when I have problems at school
with friends. He also helps me when I take a test or have to make a
speech. Jesus is real to me. I am sure glad I know Him. You can get
to know Him too. ~Lady Olivia

If this was your first time learning about how to trust Jesus as your Savior and you have just believed in Him as you read this, please let us know.

Now for a giveaway!! We have a small New Testament Bible with God's Precious Promises especially highlighted from the publisher. It's a handy tool for leading a person to the Lord and it's free to one person who would like to have it. Simply have your mom e-mail our moderator to submit your name for the drawing.

Just Washin' Up

Just last night I had my dog, Lady, hop in the shower and I gave her a good washin'! Her coat is always so much prettier when it's clean. Here are some quick bathing tips for dogs and cats.

Dogs- Brush dog at least twice a week. Check with your vet on your specific breed, because some dogs require more baths than others. Don't bathe your dog to often, or there skin will get dry.

Did you know that baking soda will clean your dog or cat? Just rub the baking soda on and be sure to rub into the coat. Let set a few minutes and brush off! The doggy smells will be all gone, and you don't need to get all wet Cooking Time: 30 minutesMakes: 8 cups (approx. 2 liters)

Cats- Cats generally bathe themselves by liking them. But if they are short haired cats you can brush them once a week. If your cat has long hair then you can brush there hair every other day.

Don't ever brush a cat's hair the opposite way, going the wrong way can irritate there skin and would make her/him want to leave the scene when she sees you pull out the grooming supplies next time.