CHP Academy Days 144-148/187, Week 22 and New Years Eve!!

Week 22!  Less than 40 days left of the academy experience!  Then it is on to the experience of "break-in".  This weekend we had Brian home for both days!  It was nice, especially since it will be the last full weekend for Brian until the weekend before graduation. So we stayed home most of the weekend.  One last relaxing weekend.  :)

On Friday, Brian earned back his CHP shirt, so he is no longer wearing his shirts with his name written in small marshmallow letters.  When I asked Brian -jokingly- what took him so long, he said he is really good at flying under the radar.  :) At the academy that is a blessing. Today at the academy things were pretty quiet.  Classes and written tests.  They did lose two more cadets to high speed, such a bummer this late in the game.  :( 

So tonight is New Year's Eve and I am allowing the girls to stay up.  I am not too sure I thought this through... I might regret my decision soon.  :)  Right now they are being good, but I am not sure they will all make it to midnight.  M is currently trying to climb into my lap and is demanding my attention.  So I am cutting this one short.  Happy New Year!  May your year be blessed!  Good-bye 2012 and Hello 2013!! 

Blessings,
Cara

CHP Academy Days 135-143, Christmas Whirlwind and Four Day Weekend!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  It was great to have Brian home for four days, but it flew by a little too quickly.  Saturday, we had Christmas with Brian's whole family.  The girls ended up spending the night with Papa and Vava (Brian's parents), giving Brian and I a chance to see a movie with my BFF.  The plan was to see This is 40 but we ended up seeing The Hobbit. It was good, even with out Legolas. ;)  I guess we will just have to wait for The Hobbit- There and Back Again.  ;)

Sunday, we went to church and was joined by my mom and niece.  After church my dad stopped by our house and we had a quick gift exchange.  It was nice getting to visit with him.  After the visit Brian took Thing 1 and Thing 2 and went out in the pouring rain to do some Christmas shopping for my gift.  They came home hair dripping!  The rest of the evening was spent wrapping the presents for the girls and watching Christmas movies. 

Monday, our friends came over to spend some time with us.  The kids did some crafts while us moms got caught up.  We plan on going up to visit them while the girls are out of school.  :)  We had Christmas dinner at Brian's parents house followed by a gift exchange.  The girls were spoiled big time and had a blast!  Tuesday, we stayed home and had a nice quiet family Christmas.  We got up early, opened presents then had an awesome breakfast of ebelskivers.  We watched each of the movies the girls received; Tinker Bell- The Secret of the Wings, Brave, The Lorax, followed by a round of Just Dance.  I had a really great picture of Brian shaking his groove thing, but it mysteriously disappeared off the camera.  It was like someone knew I was so going to post it on Facebook.  :)  Before dinner I cut Brian's hair- cannot have him looking like "a Hippie" when he got back to the academy.  :)  After dinner he said his good-byes and left for his really short week at the academy.

Today my mom watched the girls while my niece and I ran a few errands and did some lite shopping.  I had to stock up on batteries and I was in desperate need of new socks.  It was Target, so of course I ended up getting a dozen other things.  :)

Brian's day at the academy started off with an early dose of PT.  Surprisingly early.  Brian also got to show off his mad skills during a DUI review session-Jeopardy style.  Brian was voted the smartest from his team and was sent into the final Jeopardy round.  Brian needed to know the name and maker of the instructor's favorite beer.  The question really could not have been easier for Brian with him being a beer connoisseur.  :)  In other news, he was given a memo today with information he needs for his ride along at the office he will be working out of after the academy.  (San Jose!  No moving for us!)  They also had another fitting for their uniforms today.  I received a picture, but I am not allowed to show it to anyone.  However, I can tell you, he is a hottie-patottie!  :)   

Well it is late, and I have a date with the gym tomorrow morning.  So it is time to call it a night!

Blessings,
~Cara 

CHP Academy Days 130-134/187, Tragedy and Blessings

Like most of you my heart was broken Friday.  I sat at home Friday morning sobbing and fighting the urge to grab my keys and drive straight to the school to get my girls.  As it was, they had a minimum day and I was still there 45 minutes early.  I was not the only parent to get there early. I was not the only one who asked the people in the office about what is being done to keep our children safe.  I was definitely not the only one who was holding on to their children extra tight.

I sat at home and watched the news, where it was repeatedly said that there can not be an armed guard at every school.  But that schools are targeted because they are unprotected.  I am not one to push my political views on to others and I am not looking for a debate, but I will say this:  Why?  Why can't we have a trained professional stand watch over our innocent children and their teachers?  A sheepdog watching over the sheep.  Would we send our children to a school that did not have fire sprinklers or fire alarms?  No, because what if there is a fire?  Sadly, bad guys are bad guys.  Evil is obviously out there.  And they don't care about what rules and laws we make.  I want to be clear and say that I am not saying that we should give teachers guns.  I just don't want our schools to be unprotected.  My rant is done now.

We decided to share with our girls about the shooting.  They would have heard about it anyways, and we felt it was important that they heard it from us.  We explained that there is evil in the world, but that does not mean God has forsaken us.  That is why we have a savior and one day all will be made right.  We prayed for each of the victims (now in Heaven) and for the loved ones left behind.  We prayed for all those who survived, for all those on the scene, those who helped.  All whose lives will be forever changed.  We prayed for those brave people who risk their own lives everyday to keep us safe.  "Like Daddy when he is done with school," said A.  The girls handled everything pretty well.  They understood that their school leaders are doing their best to keep them safe.  And no matter what God is in control, even when we cannot understand and are heart broken. 

At the Academy, week 20 is under way.  Today Brian had three out of the nine scenarios.  He is pretty sure he passed all three.  It is not all good news at the academy.  Last week they lost ten cadets!  Today they lost at least one, and he was the husband of my friend.  I met her at the orientation and have kept in contact with her since.  We have prayed and cheered for each other since the beginning.  I am saddened that he will not be graduating in February.  When we started this I had no idea that I would be so anxious to see the other cadets do well.      

Sometimes it is easy to forget what blessings God has given.  Tonight I am listing off my blessings again.  I have my three beautiful talented girls that can make me want to pull my hair out, but also make my heart smile with joy.  All of them are happy and healthy.  At some point tonight one of them will get in bed with me and hog my pillow, but I am okay with that.  I also have an awesome husband who puts up with me and loves me.  He is hard working, God fearing, faithful, extremely smart, he makes me laugh, he is my best friend, and he is pretty darn good looking (bonus!).  I grew up in a crazy but loving family that never say good-bye without a kiss, a hug, and an "I love you."  I married into a great family and now have a great extended family.  I have friends that are more like family and are real true friends.  The biggest blessing I have is HOPE.  No matter how crazy this world gets, I know where I will be when it is all said and done. To sum it up Love, Joy, and Hope are pretty good blessings.

Blessings,
~Cara

CHP Academy Day 129/187

Today for me was a day of maintenance.  I had two different maintenance men working in our home.  One was for the dishwasher, that is still letting me down.  Turns out there was something wrong with the valve, so now we are waiting for the part.  The second maintenance guy fixed the toilet that has been running 95% of the time.  He also looked at the gate and confirmed it needs to be replaced.  I guess Daisy is not a Houdini after all, she was just taking advantage of the dying gate.  He also sent the word out to the correct people about the small swamp forming in the front yard.  So, hopefully, all the problems will be fixed by next week.  :)    I also had some time to work on a few crafts and wrap a few presents.  The girls and I ended the day with homemade pizza and The Grinch.  Overall a good productive day.

Brian's day was very full of activities.  They had their first graduation practice!  Talk about motivation!  He said it was a very basic run down of things will go, but still...wow!  He also had four hours of Spanish- DUI practice.  Then he had fountain ceremony practice.  In the afternoon they had the DUI scenario, during which Brian got to wear beer goggles.  :)  The cadets also got together and worked through a system to try and figure out where everyone is going after graduation.  Nothing is official but it looks like San Jose may be where Brian is going.  San Jose would mean a long commute, but no moving.  It was our second pick but it also had eleven openings.  I am not going to get too excited until we get the official word, but it is some nice motivation! 

Only two days left of week 19!  Brian just told me tonight that he is planning on coming home Friday night!  We might actually get to have him home two nights this weekend!  Which is good since I promised the girls we would make our gingerbread house this weekend.  :) 

Well it is getting late and I still have a lot of work to do.  :)

Blessings,
~Cara

CHP Academy Day 128/187

 

Hello Everyone!  I picked up the item I won!  As you can see, by the picture, it counts down to Christmas and it is pretty big.  It has a button on the front that makes the screen glow super bright red.  The girls love it!  So much so that I already had to get on them for pressing the button too many times. :)  Before our trip to pick up the Santa, M and I had MOPs.  The MOPs meeting ended with a performance by the 3-5 year olds, including M.  It was adorable!  Some of the bigger kids stood right in front of M, so she was a little difficult to see.  She kept leaning around them and waving -princess style- at me.  She was so proud of herself.  :)

Not all of today was fun and games.  Daisy, who looks like a cute and innocent Boston Terrier, escaped today.  TWICE.  The first time was while we were at MOPs.  I blocked off the gate that she escaped from and felt pretty confident in the finished job.  Well, I was wrong.  When we came home from picking up the girls from school, there was Daisy, running down the street to greet us.  Happy as can be!  She must not have been able to see the death-to-you look I was giving her.  Of course, she looked like she took a bath in a mud puddle, so I had to give her a bath.  When I was finished, I cleaned up the bath tub, gathered up the towels, turned around and there was Hans getting into the bath tub for his bath.  So both dogs got baths, the bath tub was cleaned twice, and then the girls got their baths.  In the end I felt pretty productive, even if I did smell like wet dog.  :)

There was some bad news from Brian tonight.  His room mate did not pass high speed today.  Week nineteen and he is headed home.  Brian was pretty down tonight.  Which is not a surprise, since in the last 18 weeks he has spent more time with his room mates than he has his family.  Brian and his remaining room mate do not really have time to dwell on it though.  Tomorrow, they have their DUI scenario that they need to focus on.  Not to mention the preparations for next weeks scenarios!  Tomorrow, they also are turning in the dream sheets with all the openings in order of preference.  So tomorrow is another full day!

Well, I think that covers everything from today.  I should probably go to bed now since I have to be able to entertain a three year old tomorrow. 

Blessings,

~Cara  

CHP Academy Days 124-127/187; A Short Weekend

So this weekend was another short one.  Brian came home Saturday afternoon and left early Sunday evening.  I know we are lucky to see him for even that short amount time.  There are a lot of families that have not seen their cadet since Thanksgiving.  This coming weekend will not be any better.  He doesn't have class, but he will getting ready for scenarios and needs to be at the academy.  

While he was home this weekend, he wanted to show off some new moves he had learned.  The girls loved watching Daddy toss me around and beat up on me.  Hans; however, did not.  First, let me be clear:  Brian was not hurting me.  He was very careful.  Hans did not know this and was very upset. He growled at Brian!  Not the playful kind of growl, but the "I am warning you, back off" kind of growl.  He tried to keep Brian from getting close to me.  Needless to say he was happy when the demonstration was done.  The other thing that happened is H woke us up Sunday morning because she swallowed a dime sized ladybug necklace pendant.  She wanted to clean it...and the bathroom sink was not good enough.  So now we are on "ladybug-in-the-poo-watch".  Apparently, she did not think the lecture I gave M the day before applied to her. The lecture I gave her about NOT putting objects into the holes in her head after she stuck a bead up her nose.  So that was our weekend.

Today was pretty uneventful.  Dropped the girls off, went to the post office, then I tried to get some work done at home.  I did not get much accomplished since M was being so rambunctious, so I gave up and decided to talk a walk instead.  I made M walk most of the way since she had so much energy and the stroller had another flat.  It ended up being more then 1.5 miles, but she took a great nap afterwards!  I went all pampered chef today and made M a small batch of homemade (healthy) potato chips to go with her lunch, and she actually liked them!   So that was my day.

Brian's day at the academy was a long one.  He didn't get back to his room until after 10:30.  He sounded exhausted.  He had his first day of EVOC- Code 3 and passed.  They also had the Physical Fitness Test again.  He didn't make it back on the training table (Yay!) and he increased his score by eleven points!  They had their Wet Lab for DUI which means they had a bunch of drunk junior cadets walking around.  Company B also had the remediation for the pistol today, both of Brian's roommates passed!  Sadly, they did lose three cadets today.  The day ended with a night shoot, which is fun but makes for a long day.  Tomorrow is another long day for Brian.  One of his roommates is facing his last chance on high speed and could use some prayers.  Brian and his roommates have bonded, it would be extremely hard on them if one failed out.  All the cadets, and their loved ones, could use a boatload of prayers.  The next couple weeks are full of very stressful, do or die, situations. 

Tomorrow I am taking M to MOPs.  :)  Our MOPs group is collecting toys for CHiPs for Kids.  :)  Brian took a toy to the academy this week and now I get to take a toy!  I might make a trip to Hallmark to pick up an item I won.  That's right! I won something!  Now I cannot say I NEVER win anything.  I am a loser no more!  It is slightly creepy Santa thing, but it still counts as winning.  The girls will love it, and that makes me happy.  Now it is time for lights out.

Blessings,
~Cara

CHP Academy Day 123/187, A GOOD Day! :)

Brian passed high speed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  THANK THE LORD!!  WOO-HOO!  Such a relief!  Can you tell?  :)  Thank you to everyone who said a prayer and sent encouraging words. 

Besides being awesome and passing high speed, Brian had a full day.  They had a couple of guest speakers that came and spoke to the cadets.  Brian said both were very interesting.  Then Brian explained how he got a few new bruises.  Would like to tell you how, but I didn't get that cleared.  He found out that the class he was supposed to have Saturday 1-5 pm was moved to 8 am-12 pm.  Which means he will be home earlier!  :)  Still nothing on the dream sheets, except that they are not ready yet.  :)

Besides praying a million times, I also had a pretty busy day.  A good thing when you are trying not to think about something.  I got the the girls to school on time!  (We were running a little late this morning because I almost forgot to put dinner in the crock-pot.)  Then M and I headed over to the church for growth group.  Today was the last day of the semester and that means party!  There was a ton of delicious food, Christmas music, communion, good conversation, and even a gift exchange.  I received a very cute travel mug!  I needed a cute travel mug.  The one I usually use was free from the dentist office.  Not cute.  :)  After group, I took M to my mom's and went to the pregnancy center.  I was pretty busy today at the center so time went by pretty fast.  I didn't have time to stress out over high speed.  Once I left the center time slowed down.  I cleaned the kitchen, made cookie dough, put dinner on the table, and cleaned the kitchen again.  I was just about to start rolling out the cookie dough when Brian called.

The girls were actually pretty good today! Minimal fighting.  It was nice.  They were pretty excited when Brian called and said he had passed.  Well, A and H were excited, M only jumped up and down because her sisters were jumping.  :)

Well the cookies are done, boxed up, and ready to be delivered, so now I can go to bed.  I am pooped.  Thank you again for all the prayers, love, and support!

Blessings,
~Cara

CHP Academy Day 122, Prayers for High Speed Needed!

Hello everyone!  Some of you already know that Brian has his last chance at high speed tomorrow, 1 pm to 3 pm.  LAST CHANCE!!!  It is crazy to think that if he doesn't pass he could be out after 17 1/2 weeks.  Kind of a bummer!  I was freaking out, so I sent out a mass text message asking friends and loved ones to pray for Brian.  My phone went crazy.  I received SO many responses!  I got a response even before my phone was done sending the message.  Friends posted the request on Facebook so people we don't even know are praying for Brian!  Brian received so much love and support I had to tell him.  He was very grateful!  He is feeling pretty confident, but he was happy to have all the extra prayers.  I would be lying if I said I am as confident, but I am much more calm about it after sending out the prayer request.  :)  Since he is testing later in the day, it is very likely I will not know how it went until after dinner. 

Brian had a good day at the academy today.  He did not lose any blue cards during inspection.  He really enjoyed PMA today.  Learned some useful moves.  He found out that on this coming Monday- assuming he will be there- he has the PFT (Physical Fitness Test) again.  He is not worried about it, but said it would be a bummer if he had to go back on the training table.  :)

My day was spent making salt dough cookie ornaments for A and H to give their classmates.  It was my first time making salt dough and half the batch got really dark.  In the end they turned out pretty cute!  They just need to be painted.  I made an ornament with M's hand print!  Super cute!  I also spent a large amount of time on Pinterest today.  Apparently I pin more when I am stressed.  FYI, the salt dough was idea from Pinterest.  :)  M was pretty well behaved today.  Her sisters, however, were not so well behaved.  The drama queens strike again!  Bed time was a blessing.

Well tomorrow is a big day.  I should probably go to bed.

Blessings,
~Cara

CHP Academy Days 116-121, Week 18!

Week 18!  God willing, at the end of this week Brian will be two-thirds of the way done! Last week, there was rumor that the dream sheets were going to be passed out, but that did not happen.  Brian was home for only one night this weekend.  I didn't think it would make much of a difference, but it was much harder on all of us Sunday night.  He differently procrastinated when it was time to go back to the academy.  Yesterday, Brian finally had his third chance at high speed.  He did not pass.  He has one more chance and he assured me that he will pass. The instructor said he has nothing to worry about, he will pass next time. I am trying my hardest not to freak out.  I keep telling myself it really doesn't do any good, it is not like I have any control over what happens.  I just really hope Brian doesn't have to wait another three weeks for his next chance.  I'll end up with an ulcer.  :)

Today, the staff officers reminded the cadets that they still own them.  :)  Brian lost a few blue cards, spent extra time on his knuckles, had his boots tossed around his room, and was left with a dusty pillow. (If they find dust they leave it on your pillow, kind of gross.)  On the plus side, he certified in Spanish PMA, so he is good to go there.  He also got to do some night shooting tonight.  Overall, today was a long day.

The last week for me has not been anything special.  The majority of the last week has been spent:

• Preparing for Christmas while keeping a budget.
• Trying to keep the Christmas decorations safe from little hands and paws.  (And teeth.)
• Breaking up fights between my girls and fights between the cats.
• Trying to reason with a three year old.  Which, by the way, is not possible.
• Trying to keep the above mentioned three year old entertained. 
• Trying to ignore the whining, tattling, and overall typical drama queen behavior. Seriously, girls are such drama queens! I am a girl -an emotional girl- and even I am left confused by the drama! :)
• Plus the normal everyday stuff.  :)

 Alright, enough blabber, time for bed.

Blessings,
~Cara