E-5 promotable!!!

Thomas passed the E-6 board this morning!!!! That means he's promotable and will be getting promoted to E-6 as soon as he meets the point requirements. It will be very soon I'm sure :) He's movin' on up!!!!!

I'm not allowed to post pictures of me in uniform, so you'll just have to imagine what I looked like at the pinning ceremony. I looked pretty cool ;) I've been on the streets for two weeks now and it's AWESOME!!! I LOVE it. The poor people of Savannah have been getting tickets like CRAZY!!! Hahahaha. If I have to pay the outrageous $330 every year for the Mazda's car tag, then SO DO THEY!!! I HATE seeing people with expired tags. I know, everyone has a story (excuse) but if you can't afford it then DON'T DRIVE. Sympathy isn't my strong point obviously.
Anyways, just a tip if you ever decide to drive in Savannah..........I have one PTO that hates expired tags as much as I do and another that will write her own grandma a ticket for not wearing a seat belt! She says if she has to wear one then so do they. So don't get caught without your seat belt on here! She had me pull someone over for no seat belt and you better believe he got a ticket! I asked him why he wasn't wearing it when I pulled him over (because of course he had it on when I walked up to his car) and he said he was just going a couple blocks. He didn't argue though, he knew he was busted.
For those that don't know already, I work downtown. And for those that came to visit, that's where River Street is and where all the fountains are.
I wish I could say Thomas is enjoying his job as much as I'm enjoying mine, but I'm pretty sure I'd be lying. I actually don't have a clue what they've been doing all day since most of his unit's gone.
Well, today's my last day off and our fridge is empty so it's time for me to go shopping!
Hope everyone is having fun and I'll try to show Thomas how to log in so he can start writing posts. I have showed him before but I think he needs written directions ;)

Hopefully most of you have heard by now that Thomas is still here! He found out about a week before he was scheduled to that he was one of the lucky few selected to stay behind because they had too many people deploying. He's on standby so he could deploy at any time during the next year, but hopefully it doesn't come to that.

I have two more weeks of patrol school and then I hit the streets. After I find out where I'll be working we plan on looking for a house to buy!!! Our lease is up this November and we would LOVE to be out of here by Christmas. We'll see if we can get things done that fast. When I sit down and think about it that's not much time to find, buy, and move into a house.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July. We are going to spend time with this cute pup.

last weekend

We don't have too many pics from last weekend because we were having too much fun. Thank you Mom, Dad, Gordon, Cliff, Nick, Joy, Caryn, big Richard, and my handsome husband for a great weekend. I had so much fun and I hope we can do it again soon....at our house.

catching up

Little Richard came to visit two weekends ago and I am just now getting around to posting pictures. Richard-we had tons of fun and we're so glad you could make it out.
They golfed while I went to study group. This was the weekend before my last week at the acadamy so I had to study for my final.
Ana of course loved the extra attention.

Even though Thomas crashed 5 minutes into our beach trip, we had lots of fun.

He was proud of that wound ;)

The Crab Shack

Gators at The Crab Shack

Maybe one too many.

Kristen and I downtown. I think she's hiding her drink.....don't let her fool you ;)

Thanks for the fun weekend. Hopefully next time Sara and the girls can come! Maybe we'll have a house with a big yard by then. See you soon!

just a start

Couldn't have done it without you handsome!
We did it!!! If you ever make it to Savannah you'll have the pleasure of meeting Kristen. Lt. Hill swore we were attached at the hip.

Thank you

Wow, I had no idea so many people read this thing. Apparently there are some pretty cranky people out there expecting posts.

Thank you to all who came out for graduation. I had so much fun! It's official now, I did it! Today is my first day of patrol school and I leave in 20 minutes.

We have tons of pictures to post so hopefully Thomas uploads those today. He's busy making airport runs today so I don't know if he'll get around to it.

It has been a very busy three months and I'm sure my husband is glad it's over....even though he'll be leaving next week :( I've managed to stay so busy I haven't thought about him leaving. It still doesn't seem real that he could already be going back.

There will be no more 16 hour study groups on the weekend so I should have plenty of time to post on the weekends. I can't wait for you guys to see some pictures of what's been going on over the past few months.

We now have a SGT. Clendening and an Officer Clendening....watch out!

updates

Life is busy....very busy. Thomas is finally home, I passed firearms, we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary, and Thomas is already starting his pre-deployment stuff. It's been crazy around here.

If I'm not sleeping I'm either at school or studying for a test. I'm in the 7th week, so only 5 to go.

Thomas has been home for a couple weeks now and it's been wonderful. He's been getting off early and helping out SOOO much around the house. He made dinner for our anniversary and it was delicious.

It's been four years already. How can that be possible? It feels like just yesterday that I was living at home and going to Green River.

Boy am I glad to be done with firearms though. My hands and right arm were so sore by day 3. We were out there for over a week. I have a heck of a farmer's tan and a few blisters on my right hand, but it was fun. This week is defensive tactics. Oh ya, and Friday is when we get pepper sprayed. Needless to say.....I'm scared.

Normally I wouldn't have time to get on the computer on a work night, but Thomas just got called back to base. Apparently some equipment came up missing so they did a 100% recall of all the soldiers and no one can leave until the equipment is found. Last time this happened I heard soldiers were out there for TWO days!!! Hopefully it doesn't come to that. He was less than thrilled to get that text.

We are very excited to see everyone next month. I will send out an email about the specifics (to those coming) but I'll throw a few "warnings" out now. First of all, please don't wear shorts and flip flops to graduation. It's not a black tie event, but it is a professional setting. Slacks and a button up shirt/blouse will be fine. The ceremony is indoors so you don't have to worry about the heat. Second, it's already beyond hot....so bring COOL clothes. We plan on walking around downtown and on Tybee Island a lot, so if you can't walk in flip flops I would bring tennis shoes. Third, we plan to have a BBQ at the pool after graduation so if you want to swim bring a swimming suit! Those are the three big things that I can remember. If you have any specific questions just email or text us.

We have lots of new pictures from our trip to the beach this weekend but I'm too lazy to find the camera right now. I'll ask Thomas to download them so I can make another post.

EVOC

I passed EVOC! One big hurdle down. Evoc is the driving portion of the police academy. It was intense but I killed it. There is a written and three driving tests. You get four attempts at each driving event and I passed on the first go around :) We had to do skids, braking, and a cone course. For skids we had to get up speed and drive through a pad that had tons of sprinklers and then they locked the back brakes to induces skids and we had to recover. To pass you had to recover 8/10 skids. I got all 8 without skidding out once. For the brake portion you had a very short "runway" to get up to 35 miles per hour, then once you were THREE feet from the orange cones a red light would come on, you had to SLAM on the brakes like your life dependened on it, steer to the left around the cones and pull it back in and park in a parking spot. It was something straight out of a movie! I can now be a stunt driver ;) The cone course (which failed two people) was an insane obstacle course that had parking, backing down switch backs, figure eights, and all that junk. You had to do it between 2:45 and 3:45 minutes and you couldn't hit a single cone. I did it in about 3:15 and was the first one to pass (because I was the second person to go on each event). We lost one of our own yesterday from Metro :( He couldn't get the cone course down. It was a sad ride home. Two additional people failed the written so the class is slowly getting smaller. Monday we start firearms. I'm WAY more nervous for that then I was for EVOC. We did a lot more at EVOC but I have to get to class so I'll write about that later.

MY HUBBY COMES HOME TODAY. He'll be home when I get home from class. Ana and I are SUPER excited!!!!

P.S. My spell checker is snoozing right now, so please excuse the mistakes. Thanks she says.

leaving.....

I sure do miss this sexy man. He is supposed to come home on the 6th!

I leave for EVOC tomorrow. I have to kennel Ana, which is going to be really sad. I won't be back until Wednesday night, so I probably won't be able to pick her up until Thursday after class. EVOC is the driving portion of the academy. We have to pass skids/spin outs, breaking, a cone course, and a written test. If you fail....you're done. We stay in dorms because the training facility we use is a few hours from here. It's on a prison campus so everything is done by prisoners. They clean the dorms (we have a locker for our stuff), they pick up the cones we knock over, they do the cooking/cleaning, and all the other crappy jobs. It should be pretty interesting.

Thomas got his phone back last night so we've been texting like usual this morning :)

So far I've passed 2/8 written tests and 1/8 practical tests. The practical test was yesterday and we had to process a crime scene. I won't get into detail about that....but our crime scene just so happened to be a sexual assault scene...which was a little gross.

Well, I better get going. I have a lot to do today. Cleaning, laundry, packing, cleaning Thomas' car for him, and everything else that needs to get done before he comes home.

20 days until our 4 year wedding anniversary!

He's leaving me :(

Thomas leaves for his month of training in California this Saturday. I will be getting up at 3:15AM on my first day off to drop him off. I think Ana's going to miss him the most. All of this week he's been getting off right after morning PT, so she hasn't had to be home alone for more than an hour all week.

He came and ate lunch with us today. He showed up just as I was finishing up our first PT test. I came in 3rd place :) 2 guys in front of me and 3 guys and 1 girl behind me. I came in 2nd on both the push-ups and sit-ups. Things are lookin' good for me! I ran a 13:02 mile and half and I want to be at an 11:59 or better by the time I graduate the academy. That minute is a lot because I already feel like I could pass out :) It's SOOOOOOOOO hot here.

Well, I have to shower and get my swanky suit back on because we have "family night" tonight. There is only one other person with a spouse so it will just be Thomas and that guys wife. All the recruits have to go though because the Captain's coming to talk to us. We have to be there in an hour.

So far things are going great. Things I've learned.....

1) I do not like shining boots. It's HARD work. My arms get way too tired.

2) Marine's shine the heck out of their boots (we have a Marine recruit). I think I could see myself in his boots.

3) My stomach growls so loud the people sitting next to me can hear it.


As my fellow recruits learned today, I may be the smallest but I can hold my own. They don't have to worry about me!

culture shock

I'm in a bit of "culture shock" right now. I have not had an alarm wake me up for a couple years now and let me tell you, I had it gooooooooood. 5AM comes WAY too fast. How do you guys do it? Seriously! Granted, my days are extra long right now because we're trying to get set up, but I'm exhausted!

Today is my third day and although I LOVE it, I'm ready for the weekend ;)

I would not think that after only two days I could have hit so many road blocks. There are 6 other new recruits (from this police department) going to the academy with me and I am the only one that has had "issues" so far. Allow me to explain.

Yesterday we were issued our gear. We arrive at the Police station, go down to the basement, and are handed boots to try on. They take one look at me and say, "wow, you're kinda small." That was the beginning of what would be a LONG day of hearing that. End result, 6 recruits get new boots, 1 doesn't.

Next stop, the uniform place to get fitted for our pants. Similar story. 6 recruits get pants, 1 can't fit any :(

Employee: What size are you?

Me: I don't know, I don't buy men's clothes.

Employee: Try these (30 inch waste).

Me: I think these are too big, but OK.

I walk out of the dressing room looking ridiculous. By this time I'm the last one trying on pants so everyone is lined up watching me.

Employee (plus my two training officers): Hmmmmm.....

Training officer 1: Will they stay up?

Me: If I don't have to run, jump fences, or for the most part do any police duties.

Training officer 2: Lets try women's pants. Are you a 6 or an 8?

Me: Try a 2 or a 4.

Training officer 2: Damn. Forget that.

All of this would have been pretty funny if I wasn't STARVING hungry (aka.....getting even smaller) and if I didn't NEED these pants THAT day. We have to wear our uniforms today, no exceptions.

So, they finally found one pair of 28's and they had to order two more. So, I'll just be doing a lot of laundry until my other pants come in. I also got boots at that store, but they had to be authorized by the department because they were more money since they weren't issued by the departments stock room.

Don't even get me started on the vest!!!

I made it though.

She loved it!

We found an island an hour and a half from our house that allows dogs, so we loaded up the car and hit the road. Ana ran straight for the water and went all the way in! She conquered those waves like a pro!!! She loved the water, especially since it was over 80.

She looks so cute :)

Beach rules state that dogs must remain on a leash. Besides, we wouldn't have been able to catch her if she had been set free.

So refreshed.

I don't love the water as much, so this was the only time I held her leash.

We even got to watch dolphins! A few got really close to shore. If Thomas had been in the water he could have almost touched them. It was so much fun. This beach was a hit......although....my poor husband looks like a tomato :( He's so red it hurts just looking at him. We even slathered the sun block on. Our beach outings are on hold until his sun burn goes away.

coming soon

Our new camera arrived! Thanks Dad. Pictures of our afternoon at the beach will be up soon. It's so wonderful living only 30 miles from the beach. It was 90 here in Savannah and 80 at the beach. Perfect weather.

I made a bet with Thomas (silly me). If he jumped in the water, and went all the way under, I would make him breakfast and secret kiss cookies tomorrow. I REALLY didn't think he'd do it because even though it was warm out the water felt cold. Well....I was wrong and as a result I'll be making his favorite sausage/egg/cheese on english muffins and cookies tomorrow.

We're also taking Ana to the beach tomorrow. There's a beach an hour from here that allows dogs so we're going to see how she likes it. I'm sure my slightly retarded daughter will not be too fond of water that chases her, but we'll have fun laughing at her. We'll be sure to take the camera. She may or may not hate us after tomorrow's trip ;)

not a joke

I realize that this is the worst day of the year to post any kind of news, but we found out today that the Army is not going to honor Thomas' dwell time. This means that he will be going back to Iraq in July, instead of October. Long story short, the Army reads it's rules to benefit themselves and even though it states in Thomas' contract that he did NOT sign a waiver (to waive his 12 months of dwell time) they don't care. He's NOT a happy camper. He leaves next week for a month of training in California so I have two months with him before he leaves again. I would NOT joke about this, but I'll post again tomorrow to assure you I'm dead serious. He will be leaving the first week in July. He should receive orders when he gets back from California.

I am 99% sure that my academy graduation is going to be June 25Th (Friday) and that is the weekend that a lot of family is going to come and visit. If you would like to see Thomas before he leaves I highly recommend that weekend because he's going to try to get a four day pass. That means if you flew in Thursday night, you could stay through Monday and he should have it off. We thought we had a lot more time than we do, but it's the Army.

I have an email with a list of hotels that are right across the street, so if you'd like that list just let me know and I can forward it to you.

Hopefully he's not too cranky to enjoy his last couple months with me. He tends to get understandably moody when they screw him like this. Maybe lots of days at the beach will cure the blues :)

On a much happier note: Happy day late birthday to Sara and happy birthday to my mom today!

my trip to the orthodontist

Have you ever felt out of place? Like really out of place? This morning as I'm heading back to the waiting area at the orthodontist I realized I was at least 10-15 years older than every single patient in there. When did I become the old person in the room? Once I got over the "I'm the elephant in the room" awkwardness I then faced much more serious problems.

My mouth is WAY too small for my teeth. Duh....that's why they're crooked. I was supposed to have 8 metal spacers put over my back molars and only 3 would fit. Not good. And to make matters worse, those 3 spacers took over an hour to get on. They pounded and pulled while I bit and cringed, but nothing worked. Finally after three hours of holding my tongue to the roof of my mouth they said they would just have to wait for my teeth to start shifting before they added the other ones. THREE hours for them to figure this out. How long were they in college? I could have told them all this before I even sat in the chair.

By the time they finish I'm the last patient in there and my other ortho peeps were off to 2nd period. I was given instructions on when and how often to clean my teeth and what and how to eat. I am only supposed to use my right back side to eat (my left molars aren't secure yet) and I can't eat anything hard or sticky. I also can't bite into anything with my front teeth. She said if I wanted a hamburger I'd have to cut it into bite sized pieces. What? Who does that? That ruins the whole concept of a hamburger.

My list of foods to avoid...

ice (at least ice cream wasn't on this list...I would have died)
nuts (WHAT? I live off of these things for snacks)
popcorn (torture when Thomas eats a HUGE bowl of it)
bagels (??? don't get this one)
celery (no loss here)
finger nails (EWWWWWWW....really? This is FOOD?)
raw carrots (oh well, I'll live ;)
hard and chewy candy (the ONLY kind I love)
gum (I've never cared for it before but now that I'm told NO I want it...go figure)
pens and pencils (is this really a problem? I've never been that hungry!)

So, there you have it, braces are not the greatest idea I've ever had. Not to mention my teeth don't touch because one in the front catches on the bottom brace so I can't chew my food. I choked on a tomato at lunch and trying to eat lettuce is a joke. It took me half an hour to eat 15 crackers simply because I couldn't chew them. It's going to be so fun.

new car!

We actually did it! We bought a new Mazda CX7 today. This is just a picture off the internet to give you an idea until we have a good camera to take pictures with. We are having a roof rack put on but they had to order one. It has tan leather seats and it's a perfect travel car for us. So much more room for Ana. More pictures coming soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Ana turns THREE!!!! Happy birthday to the cutest pup in the world. On the agenda for the birthday girl?

1) A run with mom and dad.

2) Treats

3) A trip to PetSmart to pick out a new toy.

4) Lots of beauty sleep.

5) Scrambled eggs with dinner.

6) Ice cream from PetSmart for dessert.

7) Lots of belly scratching.

8) More sleep, it's hard bein' a cute pup.

dreams are coming true

I passed my psychological evaluation. It only took three hours of testing and interviewing but they cleared me. I had no idea there were so many ways to ask the same dang questions over and over and over and over again.

I was sick, running on two hours of sleep, had to get up at 2AM, and we didn't get back until almost 10PM. It was a rough day. I'm surprised I didn't fall asleep during the interview.....the couch was so comfy.

I was picked up by a handsome guy with flowers and a sweet card and one VERY excited dog. I got the greeting that Thomas always gets when he's been gone for what feels like days (to a dog).

I meet for my final interview with the Captain on Friday and should be signing then. Then as long as I pass the Academy I'll be an officer :) This time school will not only be paid for, but I'll be getting PAID to go! What a concept.

I will soon have a job!!!