The good, the bad and the cut finger

Hubs works in a small town, they have a small department. This is over all a good thing.  They have 1 shift officer on either working 530 am to 530 pm or vice verse, one split officer that works noon to midnight, and the Sgt works 8-2 or 8-7 depending on if it is his day to pick up kids or not (that would be hubs) and the Chief.  The last two are Monday to Friday guys unless the poo hits the fan.  Then there is the secretary, let me just say that this lady is a SAINT.  She and I have gotten to be really good friends over the last 9 years.  We talk daily.  We have kids at the same school that play on the same baseball team, and are just generally a lot a like. 

I get a text from her earlier this week telling me hubs had cut his finger and it had been bleeding for about 10 minutes and just would not stop.  Now let me just say, 1) I am a worst case scenario type of person when it comes to accident or injuries 2) I work 30 minutes from him so I can't just swing by and check on him and 3) he is stubborn-his finger could have been have hanging half off and he wouldn't have done much more than apply pressure and use skin glue. 

I of course start worrying, and finally I get word from hubs that he is ok, and he of course sends me a picture (I am a mom of boys so no I am not squeamish) and thankfully it is not bad.  It does however make you realize that the only reason your husband ever goes to have stitches or staples is because you make him.

We are all aware that there are dangers int he job, however you don't ever think one of those dangers will be your own pocket knife.

Welcome to my world

We were laying in bed the other night, going over the week ahead and Hubs looks at me and says "How do you do it?"  Of course I was clueless as to what he meant so I ask.  He said "How do you get used to only having Saturday and Sunday to do stuff?"  That is when I impart words of wisdom on him that every man should remember...I do what I can and leave the rest and dare someone to fuss because it's not exactly how they want it.  If you think something else needs to be done or done differently, do it yourself.  I think I kind of shocked him.

I do believe dear Hubs is finally seeing that all these years of me working Monday to Friday is not nearly as easy as he thought it was.  That made me feel a lot better.  All the years of being a married single parent, having little time together as a family was not nearly as easy as he thought. 

I must say as much as I am liking all these new changes I think this is the best one of all. 

Valentine's Day

We are not romantic people.  After being together 12 years and married almost 10 years, throw in 2 kids and just life in general we seriously fail in the romance department.  So I thought with today being Valentine's Day I figured I would make the effort to actually do something today.

 I worked hard to keep his stuff a surprise, after all he is a detective and can usually tell when I am up to something.  I called the secretary at the  PD and asked if she would help me sneak his stuff in so that it was on his desk when he gets in to the office.  In his little goody bag is a ton of Hershey kisses and Hershey bars, chewing gum, 3 cans of Copenhagen (again yes we are southern, he dips, that is the dip he only buys on special occasions cause well it's expensive), and after a trip to a local bakery a personal pineapple upside down cake, 2 lip shaped cookies, and oatmeal sandwich cookies.

  My favorite part of the bag though was the framed picture of our family for his desk, and the cards-one from me, one from the kids.  My card was mushy and sweet and had a little note to go with the money I put in there.  The little note said, since I can't eat lunch with you today, lunch is on me :).

Hopefully he enjoys his little goodies today, and maybe he will bring some chocolate home and share. :)

Sharing a bathroom

Because of the new schedule, all 4 of us are trying to get out the door at once.  Three of us leave at one time, because I am driving the kids to school.  In my house, there are some things not many people can adjust to unless you have to. One of those is I have only one bathroom.  This seldom poses a problem unless you are not a fan of sharing a bathroom with three other people while you are handeling the business a bathroom is for. 

There is no privacy in my house.  That is just how it is.  You don't go to the bathroom alone, you don't sleep alone, you just don't do anything by yourself.

Hubs has always been used to having his time to get ready on his own with no one in the way.  Now he is having to get used to us being there moving around-me having to often times get a little loud and fussy after the boys.  It has been an eye opener for him. 

I think he is realizing that maybe the alarm clock is there for a reason :)

I'm kinda liking this

As I mentioned earlier hubs schedule has changed.  I am kinda liking this being home every night...especially nights when little boys (Aka THing 1 and Thing 2) don't go to bed like they should.  I will however admit that I don't like having to get 4 (myself would be number 4 in the house) not so great morning people out of the bed.  Ya see, no one in my house is a rise and shine kinda person.  I am the first one up obviously, but then I have to rattle everyone out of their own personal sleep comas.  Hubs is the last one, this is simply because the kids and i have to be gone by 745.  He doesn't have to check on till 8 and we live 2 miles from his PD. 

What I am really liking is that he is home every single weekend.  Even better is that he has started going to church with us.  This makes all of us happy.

I am fairly certain we will have times that he has to work the old schedule but for the most part we are all loving him being home.

Schedule changes

We are in the midst of some changes at the PD Hubs works at.  Our chief is retiring so that means a new chief and a new schedule.  Our schedule is currently a 2 on-2 off 3-on 2-off 3-on schedule.  Meaning if he works Monday/Tuesday he is off Wednesday/Thursday and works the weekend, then the next week is the opposite.  This proves handy for us having kids in school that are still too young to come home by themselves.  He picks them up the days he is off and the days he works a very dear friend of ours that works at the school takes them home with her.  Hubs normal hours were noon to midnight.

As you can imagine I was either awake or woken up when he came home on that schedule.  Well starting today he will be working a schedule that is entirely new to us as a family.  He will be working Monday to Friday.  Yep that's right, we finally get to have a few normal weekends.  He will be working a rotation in the week that will have him home every night before bedtime, and will have him getting off other days in time to pick the kids up from school. 

This is going to be a huge adjustment for me as a wife.  I am thrilled to get to have some sort of normal life, but in the 9 years we have been married we have never both worked Monday to Friday.  The kids and I were adjusted to the workings of every other weekend, and holidays, birthdays and the like being celebrated on days adjusted around his schedule.  That was life we managed.  Now we get to be somewhat normal. 

This is going to be an even bigger adjustment to Hubs who is a night owl.  He functions best between the hours of sundown to sun up.  Hopefully he will be able to wear himself out enough on the days he gets off early to make him tired.  I feel sure he will once the days are getting longer and more can be done outside.

So maybe the changes ahead for us will be great and we will adjust well.  I can say I am pretty excited about him being there in the mornings to help get the kids out the door.  The kids may not be so excited about dad being up when they are being hard headed.  :) 

Only in a small town...

There are some signs that a woman is married to a cop in a small southern town.  Some may apply to other parts of the country but I don't have first hand experience with that. 
1) Officers get calls because people are riding 4wheelers "on the power lines" (this is an area in my community that has bigger mud puddles)
2)While out directing traffic in July's scorching heat people stop and give you bottles of water to help keep you cool.
3) People ask about something they heard on the scanner
4) You spend the bulk of your shift chasing a lose cow and then have to deal with an accident from said bovine meeting a car.  While on the traffic call you realize that the cow is expecting and attempt to save the baby.

All of these have happened to Hubs, number 4 happened last night actually.  I just have to laugh.  Not very often does your spouse come home talking about chasing hefers while on patrol.