meet tanner

i am blessed to be the auntie of this cutie pie. welcome to the world tanner! my arms are aching to hold you! congrats to korey & greg (aka aunt kant & uncle g) on their 9 lb, 1 oz. bundle of joy. we love you!

now we're cooking...

mason loves to cook. after the horrendous pancake experience, we've severely limited his kitchen time, but he hasn't stopped loving it. so the natural choice for his birthday present was his very own kitchen. a manly kitchen. (and you wouldn't believe all the eyebrow raises we've received for buying him a kitchen - which we clearly ignored).

it arrived on a tuesday and after a quick scan of the directions (which required emptying the entire box to find them), mommy wisely decided to wait until daddy was home to attempt assembly. surprisingly, little tikes instructions are relatively easy to follow and we finished the job within an hour on friday night.

mason was so surprised when he saw it saturday morning. he looked at it, then at daddy, and asked, "i play?" before running toward it.

in a nutshell, he loves it. and mommy has been the recipient of unlimited "coffee" refills and quite a few interesting culinary treats. here's to many more happy meals - and we don't mean the golden-arch kind!

the box. 

it managed to arrive the same day 

the last hurricane did... thus the 

slightly damp & dented box!

the master assembler

peek a boo

ta-da!

checking out the goods

order up!

1/2 way point!!!

We achieved a milestone today, the halfway point of the academy. It is amazing how fast these first 9 weeks have gone by and to think in 9 more weeks we will be walking across the stage wearing Texas Tan and we will be able to proudly call ourselves Texas State Troopers. Now it seems like our academics are really starting to pick up and we are hitting some harder subjects. The classes are longer, the tests are a little tougher, but we are all hanging strong and we did not lose anyone this week.

This week we wrapped up CCP, TTC, and started on Arrest, Search and Seizure. All the classes are really starting to gel together and, at least to me, it seems like I am learning everything easier now and everything is starting to sound repetitive. This week in ACT we started handcuffing and it is safe to say that my wrists and fingers are sore and I have come to the conclusion that I never want to get in trouble with the law because handcuffs really hurt, especially when they are either too tight or someone applies the "goose" to your wrist a little too hard. That's alright, because I got to apply a "goose" also, so we took care of that problem.

Fun times start next week, our Transportation Code test is on Sunday and we get to stay next weekend, not looking forward to that but I know it is the price I have to pay.

unexpected

it's been a week of unexpected events for me. among the surprises - a new washer and dryer. mason is impressed. mommy's still figuring out how the child lock feature works.

Week 8 Update

This week turned out to be a pretty good week. We finished up our Penal Code and what a relief, but in its place we now have to start on Transportation Code. The instructor for Transportation Code is AWESOME! He will keep you laughing the entire time, has lots of pictures/examples/stories and if you aren't paying attention and decide to start looking at the back of your eye lids you will be introduced to some "chubby chubbies," as a little wake-up call.

It was pretty amazing driving home last night to see all the people breaking the law on little things that, before this week, I had no clue of or just never paid attention to. After going through this class, I can't wait to learn more about it and then finally get to put it to use come December. We also covered Crisis Intervention Training all week, I finally qualified shooting, and practiced our fighting skills with ACT drills. We started working on the ground techniques and everyone is pretty bruised up again from everything we did. I am starting to feel more confident in my abilities. I have been picking some of the bigger guys in the class to work with and it is paying off - except for the guy that threw me like a rag doll and I landed on my knee and got a really nice bump and a deep bruise! I toughed it out and finished the night out, but it hurt like crazy.

We did end up losing 4 guys this week, so we are now at 39. I'm almost to the downhill stretch, and it's been a fun ride so far.

on a roll

ride the pony...

i think all kids want a pony at one point or another. but not everyone's grammy delivers. check out this awesome horsey...

party time!

with daddy out of town for all but 36 hours a week, we opted to outsource mason's 2nd birthday party. and we found the perfect place! mason attends the little gym on saturday mornings and LOVES it. we figured he wouldn't mind if we had a double dose this past saturday & planned his party for 4 pm.

how do you spell fun?

 P-A-R-T-Y!

we sang.

and danced!

played with the parachute...

jumped on the air-track,

and generally hung around.

mason blew out his candles

(really, he did!)

and licked some icing.

we all ate cupcakes.

it was a great day, especially because of the friends 

and family who helped make it so special!

happy birthday mason!

i can't believe it's been TWO years since our world was blessed with mason! it's funny to think back to the "festivities" of september 4 & 5, 2008. last year, each moment was so vivid - all 19.5 hours of labor, the arguments with the nurses, every hour filled with its own part of the story. this year, i just seem to remember the sweet arrival of our little man. the look on his face as he looked around the bright operating room and the look on brad's as he showed me the first pictures he took while i was still strapped to the table.

my how far we've come in two years.

mason, we love you more than words can describe and treasure every moment as we watch you become the person God intended you to be. happy birthday sweet boy!

Week 7 Recap

Man this week really flew by, not that I am complaining or anything but things are moving along really fast. We had Family Violence, Victims Rights, Crisis Intervention, and Civil Process this week. Pretty interesting stuff and it is amazing some of the stuff people do to their families and friends. We also had a little ACT this week and started on our ground defense. On top of this and getting smoked during PT on Tuesday and Thursday, needless to say every muscle in my body is hurting yet again. Sure will be nice when my muscles get used to all these workouts we are doing, but I don't see that happening in the near future. The workouts are great and I may have to ask the counselors for a new sam brown and under belt next week seeing how I have no more notches in my belt. Hopefully I won't lose any more inches or pounds seeing how I don't have much more to lose. It is a great feeling to know that I am getting in the shape I am in, and hope that I can continue this workout program if time allows after graduation.

That is about it for this week, we wrap up Penal Code next week, thank GOD, and then we will start hitting Transportation Code more which I hear is pretty tough to.

We did lose one recruit this week, but this loss will do nothing but make the class stronger and hopefully keep us out of trouble.

where's mason?

mason loves to hide. lately he's become quite adept at it.

hmm... something looks odd here...

where's mason?

a little peek...

there he is!!