Tuesday, April 27, 2010

one year into police life

Alright, alright. I'm ready to come back to blog land. It's been a nice break. Do you want to know the real reason I haven't been blogging? The 18 month old is into everything, the 4 year old, like the t-shirt says, is hungry ALL THE TIME, and the 7 year old has just begun this odd phase of thinking there are germs and bugs in her food and water and I actually have a picture to prove it! Please tell me this is a phase and she's not going to be like Bill Murray in What About Bob?

What else have I been doing? I planted 6 boxes of strawberries on our balcony. Our co-op garden is huge. It's in a friend's backyard. They are a family of 6, our family of 5, and one other couple. We had a lot of success last year so we are doing it again this year. Right now we have spinach, broccoli, peas, lettuce, and one other thing I can't remember. That has already been planted. Next we will be planting our tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, carrots and herbs. I am really looking forward to it. We also have a strawberry patch there, but we decided to do our own as well since you can never have enough strawberries.

I've been reading, reading, and reading. I've also been watching a lot of movies and tv shows. Anything to occupy my mind from other stresses such as cleaning my house. And let me tell ya, it is a major pig sty right now. The other night HF came running down the stairs in a hurry to get out the door to work, and he kept tripping and stumbling over the messes in the living room. He looked at me in disbelief (since I'm usually quite OCD about cleaning) and I said, "what are you looking at?" It's so overwhelming I don't even know where to begin to clean. To aid in avoiding my household duties, I spent the entire day outside with a bunch of ladies in the neighborhood, some with kids and others single. It was a blast. We let the kids play while we looked at smutty gossip magazines like US weekly, and I got a sunburn! I have a purplish hue to my skin. That's how sunburned I got. And after dinner yesterday, the kids and I headed to a dia de los ninos fiesta and enjoyed some dancing and crafts. I have so far successfully avoided all household responsibilites for 3 days now.

This week marked the one year anniversary that HF began FTO. He also had another shift change this week. We are back to 10 pm to 6 am. Much better than the 7 pm to 3 am. He didn't get home until 5 or 6 anyway on that shift. This morning he didn't get home until 8 because he went out to breakfast with friends. Then I kept him up for another couple of hours after that. He also has some out of state training coming up, a new R.A.D. class he'll be teaching soon, and 2 full days of weapons training this week. Do you want to know the real reason I love 10p-6a? Get this. HF comes home in the morning and stays up. He'll make breakfast for the kids and get their clothes ready. He'll also get the treadmill ready. Then at 7:30 he'll wake us all up, he'll feed the kids and keep them out of my hair so I can work out. Then from 8-8:15 we'll have family scripture study, and then he takes daughter to school. I get showered, he gets home and goes to bed by 8:30 and voila! Day is off to a perfect start. But this only works in theory. He has to be home by 7 am or so. But you get the picture. Also, this kind of helpfulness kind of makes up for a lot of the sacrifices I make each day with the unpredictability of his work. I'm not always happy, but I have come a long way from being the dependent and needy gal I once was. We have also gone out on a couple of dates recently. And hopefully we can continue to do so on this shift.

HF is still doing really well. He still gets teased a lot by the other officers, he gets lots of compliments too. He's made a lot of good friends, he's had to buy a lot of gear. I no longer enjoy driving with him. I think he is the worst driver ever. Sorry HF if you're reading this. CCW sums it up just about right in this post. I'm assuming that it is another one of those rookie things. Fingers crossed. We continue to transition pretty smoothly for the most part into police life. We still fight about the same things. Mostly time management issues. I want him to stop sleeping, he wants to keep sleeping, etc. He will try and cheer me up by wearing his shoulder holster around the house-Bruce Willis style. I try not to show it, but it almost works! I will have more stories and updates next post. For those of you who still think about CJ, she is up to the same ol' same ol'. Still updating her facebook status that she is still working as a cop and will be promoting to investigations soon.

So that about sums everything up.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cute Pics! Congrats on the One year mark :)

Anonymous said...

Oh being a rookie and the dreams that will come for him over the next 3 years, watch out. My wife even after 10 years taps and runs because I come up swinging.

Momma Fargo said...

Cute kids! And congrats on the anniversary!

Sister Copinherhair said...

Glad to have you back! :)

Slamdunk said...

Happy 1 year. We are ready to pick some Strawberries in a few weeks.

Dori said...

Wow...it's been a year already?! Sounds like you guys are adjusting just fine!

Our little urban garden is growing too...so exciting!

April E. :) said...

Yeah! You hit the one year mark and you did it with a smile...or at least a semi-smile!! :P

Hannah said...

My hubby is almost at the one-year mark, too, and I have to say that I 100% agree with the whole driving thing. He used to be a good driver, and now I have white knuckles every time I ride with him. AHHHH!

CM said...

Congrats on the 1 year anniversary! The teasing...well honestly, that never goes away. That's just what cops do!

Your kiddos are adorable! Love the one of your daughter inspecting the glass of water! OH and the diapers and boots, way cute!

MrsMonicaLB said...

wow you have been busy,great pics of the kids,so darn cute!
Congrats to the HF!
I hate driving with my dh,I sometimes will sit in the back and wonder why doesnt he like his blinker anymore!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Mrs. Fuzz! Good to "see" you. I took a break too. Was so sick. Still coughing but feeling better. Glad you took a break and let the housework go for a while. Everyone needs to do that once in a while. And your time with the gals sounds so fun! Good for you.

You should know before I got sick I made some mini-quiches similar to yours, with slight modifications, and took pics. Those will be the stuff of a post soon. Thanks for the yummy idea!

Simply Complicated said...

coming up on 5 years... and the driving does not get better :-(
sure would hate to miss something tho... so watch everything except the road! ;-)

Rebecca said...

Congrats on the one year mark. Goes by quick right!? The Mr. is an FTO in addition to patrol. I like it when he trains b/c he gets to tell me about all the funny stories with the new guys. My guy never wears his gear on the home front. I think it's funny. Maybe I should mention it to him. Though we laugh b/c I just made a separate hamper for his Cop Clothing. Started to grose me out that his uniform gets washed with my undies, ewww. LOL he's adjusting ~ lol.
Thanks for the update. Glad things are going well. A break is always nice though I missed reading. Love the pics. Your kids are cute :-)
Best,
Rebecca

Jenney said...

I've been MIA for 2 weeks! Congrats to HF for his 1 year...dont blink it will be 5!

TOLIVER FAMILY said...

congrats on one year...this july will mark 7 for my husband...that is hard to believe...it goes by fast. i so understand being to busy to blog...me 2!

Natalie said...

Yay for your transitions into leo family life!

It sounds so me like someone needs to think in Baby Steps (get it for your daughter! hee, hee) and have a psychiatrist that looks just like Richard Dreyfuss to help them with their housework woes. Once the weather turns nice I don't want to do anything either. ;)

You have some super cute kiddies!

Jillian said...

Your kids are gorgeous!! Thanks for the great pictures.

My husband (a cop of over 4 years) has spent the majority of his career on nights and it works AWESOME for our family. If he can't get days, nights are almost as good. It's hard to transition to that shift because he doesn't sleep well in the early days of adjustments but now that he's settled, it's perfect. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

oh what beautiful distractions you have!!

lol! i had to laugh when you said you don't like riding with HF. i drive when hubby and i go out. i think he is waaaay too hard on our vehicles! (and this is particularly funny because he used to complain and complain about my driving. i brake too hard, i drive too fast, ect, ect.)

i totally understand about the sleep issue. hubby is pretty much always tired because he can't get on a good sleeping schedule. and when he gets home at 3am, he wakes me up, sometimes to talk and sometimes for other reasons... all the while forgetting that i have to get up at 7:00am to get the boys to school! sigh... adjustments adjustments...