i can't hear you!

mason loves daddy's new "toys" as much as i love this photo!

DPS Week 6

we are officially 1/3 of the way through the academy, my how time flies by.  it has been very challenging so far and i can't wait for what is still to come.  we are all still holding strong, and everyone is working hard during our PT and ACT sessions and as for PT, they are getting progressively harder each day.  pretty amazing how just working out with a jump rope and a 18 lbs medicine ball can really make you hurt the next morning.  but the hurt will all be worth it in 12 more weeks when i walk across the stage wearing my texas tan and becoming a part of this awesome organization.  

this week we really didn't have a lot of classes due to us being at EVOC monday through wednesday driving and shooting, and then followed up a couple of these nights with act and transportation code.  the sgt. that instructed transportation code is an amazing instructor and really makes this subject very interesting and keeps everyone involved.  we also had emergency communications and did some in car computer training, so i now officially know how to issue a ticket.  the part that blew my mind away with the transportation code is that we spent 2 hours just going over license plates, who knew there were so many laws on this.

i finally passed my ten general orders test, which is basically the guidelines that all troopers follow, passed the first half of our first major exam which was penal code with an 86.  i think things are about to get really busy in the coming weeks so i have a lot of studying that i will have to do coming up.

workin' at the carwash...

mason decided his cozy coupe needed a bath...

wanna do mommy's car next?!

DPS Week 5

Another fun but very challenging week in is the books for us. Well it was probably more challenging for the rest of the class than me seeing how I caught a 24 hour bug and got confined to my room from Tuesday around 4:30 pm until I was released on Thursday at 8:00 am. Little concerned about the class I missed but I am sure I will eventually make it up somehow.

We are still holding strong at 44, this week there were a lot of bumps and bruises from the ACT drills we did and we have a few guys limping around but they are all sucking up the pain and moving forward, Good Job guys! We had 2 full days of Penal Code and have finished up the material, now we just have our first major exam on it this Sunday and not sure when the second one is. For the time being I am concentrating on the first exam and then I will start the second half of the material. We had firearm orientation again and interpersonal communication and then the fun stuff all day Thursday and Friday. We were at EVOC all day long driving and shooting. At first the driving courses look very overwhelming, but once you get your practice run in they were not that bad at all. I only killed a few "kids" while out there, and need to add some speed to my backing up but all in all I did very well. As for the shooting, that was a blast (no pun intended) and I did really good here also except for the shooting on the knee drill, which was the last round of shooting we did. All I have to say is if I ever have to shoot from my knees, the guy I am shooting at will be castrated because that is the general area all my shots went. I have to improve on that.

Very fun week, other than me getting sick, and looking forward to getting the 1st Penal Code over with and getting back to EVOC.

let's pretend!

mason has really started to play pretend lately. whether it's racing his cars and trains, tucking in his stuffed animals (night, night!), or preparing delicious meals, his imagination is alive and well.

"while mommy's cooking, i think i'll whip up my own dish!"

"i better taste it first."

"not quite ready. more stirring."

"you try! mmmmm..."

"must. lick. bowl."

silly boy!

balancing act

dear mason,

i promise my intent is not to embarrass you; however, you are too adorable when you clunk around in my heels. i love you to pieces and know that these days will be over far too quickly. i just don't want to forget these little moments. to be fair, you love daddy's shoes just as much as mine, but his shoes haven't been around for a few weeks...

love,

mommy

p.s. despite the two posts this week indicating otherwise, we do have a pretty strict rule in our house about wearing clothes.

plum delicious

this boy loves plums

trouble on a trike

i seem to get this look on a regular basis... 

it's the official "you've got to be kidding me, mom" look

something tells me it will be perfected over the next 18 years!

and i occasionally get the "ok, i'll humor you with a fake smile" face.

i take what i can get...

single parenthood

while brad is thriving at the academy, mason and i have been adjusting to life without daddy. let the record show that we really like daily daddy time. however, we've managed pretty well the last 4 weeks. a few lessons learned:

1. the morning routine is rushed, no matter how early i wake up.
2. fully dressing mason while he's temporarily pinned down for the morning diaper change is the only way to go. otherwise, i spend 15 minutes chasing him around the house trying to put various pieces of clothing on him.
3. drop-off at school will always result in clinging to mommy and tears. maybe one day it won't break my heart so much.
4. i still haven't mastered the art of leaving work at 5 pm - meaning a mad dash to pick up mason and get dinner ready.
5. meals requiring more than 15 minutes preparation are not practical for weeknight dinners.
6. preparation is key - and so is taking advantage of every lunch break to run errands.
7. caring for mason, working full-time, and maintaining a household is exhausting.
8. blogging takes a backseat to number 7.
9. taking photographs while running after an extremely active, almost-two-year-old is nearly impossible.
10. the terrible-twos (or whatever this phase that mason's entering) is a two parent job - even if there's only one parent available.

life is a little more complicated, but mason and i have still managed to have lots of smiles and laughs along the way. unfortunately, there's limited time to share the memories on the blog and zero photos to show for them! but we only have 14 more weeks to go!

academy update - week 4

4 down and 14 to go - so i am officially a month into the academy and things are still going well. my grade average is around a 95, so obviously i have passed all my tests so far, doing good still in all the PT, and still trying to stay awake in class for the first 2 hours of class. for some reason from 8 am to 10 am i have a hard time staying awake. sure would be nice if i got more than 6 hours of sleep a night, but that will change in about 14 more weeks.

this week we started the good PT. 2 days were at the track running pretty much the entire time and the other 3 days we were doing weights and a lot of pushups, sit ups, and pull ups. my body is holding up still for the most part, but my left knee is starting to hurt a little. it usually does this after i run, so i will just take some ibuprofen, ice it, and put some bengay on it and i will be good to go.

as for classes this week we had one more full day of Penal Code, then covered Juvenile Delinquents, Gangs, First-Aid, and began learning about driving. lots of material covered again this week, and we are having one of our first major exams on Thursday which will be Penal Code. everyone is pretty stressed out about this because it will be over 15 chapters. i am familiar with most of the material and should do fine, but i like to stress on issues for some reason.

next week should be very fun. we will be doing more fighting techniques and we are going to learn to drive fast! i'm looking forward to getting out of the classroom for a couple of days and doing something fun!

we are still holding strong at 44 recruits and we shouldn't lose any more unless it comes down to injury.

hope everyone has a good week! recruit reece will bring you your weekly update again next week.

DPS Academy Week 3

Week 3 is officially over and only 15 more to go. We had 3 straight 8 hour days of Penal Code and we only made it through about 375 slides of 1200. So needless to say we still have a long way to go on this class. We will take our first test on this in a couple of weeks so I have plenty of time to study. We also went over first aid every night for about 2 hours per day, had a weapons of mass destruction class and got out kits for this, received my official DPS rain jacket, and we also did some more of our fighting and started to engage with one another. Needless to say I am learning some good moves and starting to become a mean fighting machine. On Friday, DPS celebrated its 75th anniversary and we got to participate in it for about an hour and a half. This is where I made perhaps my biggest mistake of the academy. There was a dunking boothand our Capt was in it. So about 10 of us recruits went to watch and I decided to make a donation and try to dunk him. Needless to say I achieved my goal and dunked him, as he came up he pretty much came up and said I owed him 10 push ups, so I started pushing in front of about 75 people but he told me to stop with a smile. Sure I will pay for it come Monday morning during PT. As for PT I am still holding strong and no injuries to report except for a few scratches and bruises. On a plus note we did move hotels and it is much better than wher we were before. I am having to stay in Austin this weekend due to Kammy and Mason leaving for vacation Saturday with her family. They will have a great time, just hope Mason is a good little traveler for mommy. It stinks that I don't get to see them for 2 weeks but we will survive.

which one of these doesn't belong?

the shoe monster strikes again!

sponsored by the letter p(ee)

last night special k and her friend bonnie ventured up to the woodlands area in search of classroom accessories and managed to end their excursion right around dinner time. mason and i met them at lupe's (of course - where else did you think we'd go?!) for a delicious bite to eat.

i'm not sure if we're entering the dreaded "terrible two's," if we're still adjusting to daddy not being here during the week, if he's picking up bad habits at the new school, or a combination of everything, but mason has done his share of fit-pitching this week. last night was no exception.

so, mason and i took a quick trip to the restroom to discuss his poor behavioral decisions. it's probably worth mentioning that he is beginning to show interest in "all things potty," so while i was emphasizing the finer points of good behavior, mason was quite distracted by the potty. we finished our chat, agreed that he would be a good boy, and headed back to the table.

we weren't 3 steps outside of the restroom when i suddenly felt a warm gush around my waist. yep, apparently all the talk around the potty reminded mason that he needed to go and as luck would have it, the diaper leaked. oh the irony. part of me was frustrated, but the other part was mildly proud that he made the association between the restroom and using it. i'll just chalk that up to mommy logic, i guess!

anyway, we quickly finished up dinner and mason and i headed home for baths. special k insisted that this was blog-worthy material and i agreed - after all, it's all fun and games until mommy gets peed on!