Victorious!

I feel like things in our life are in the upswing right now. First, the Ellison bowling team took 2nd and 3rd at a High School Invitational. The Ellison girls took 2nd. They bowled their butts off and bowled great. The boys took 3rd. We had a few of our heavy hitters ineligible and had they not been I have no doubt they would have been first. I am going to miss coaching next year. Yes. That means that we won't be here. We heard from Shane's branch manager and they have released Shane from his blackhawk duties. He no longer has to go to Korea. We were given the option of Ft. Belvoir, Ft. Lewis, Ft. Knox and Germany. Our first choice is Germany. We are taking it and have already accepted. Shane leaves for school in July and immediately following we head to Germany. Not only did they let Shane out of the helicopter they've given him the coosh assignment of flying VIPs. It's everything we could have ever dreamed for I really, really, really didn't want him going to Korea. Enough is enough on the deployments. This time next year we'll be anticipating a white Christmas and planning for a ski trip in the Alps.

Work is fabulous. I'm out of the Comm section and on the front desk taking reports. I love it. It's my favorite so far. I didn't think it would be and I LOVE my trainer. I have a girl crush. She's cool and excellent. I asked to stay with her my entire six weeks and they agreed! I think I'll be staying on the 630-230 shift too cos they like me. I'm hopeful but if not owell. It is painful to wake up at 5am every morning and on the weekends I want to sleep in but at 430 I'm wide awake.

We have all of Dev's videos ready for colleges. Mailing those to the east coast this week. We'll know the end of March which school she'll be going to. Shortly after my house will be going up for sale. We'll be selling our boat and vehicles. I'm gonna leave my Lexus with Dev for I want her to have a safe car to travel with. I'm making arrangements to go see my Aunt Lynda in a few months and I'm expecting to see some of my friends over the summer. I'm gonna get back to my beer and celebrating with my man. Next photos will be of my new Xmas tree. It's SmurfTastic Blue and it's beautiful!

November already!

Every week just seems to fly by! My goodness. We've been busy with the start of High School bowling. We've been getting everything we need to do with Dev done. I can't believe that in less than one year she will be in college. We are sending off applications next week. I wish I knew what we were going to be doing before she has to have the applications in. Here are the schools I want her to attend in the order I want her to attend:

• Farleigh Dickerson-its in Jersey, my Aunt Lyda attended for a class or two there and they have a great women's bowling team
• Delaware State-another top 5 bowling team in the country
• Maryland-Eastern Shores-top 5 bowling team
• Arkansas State
• Univ of Arizona
• Central Missouri

The whole application thing depends on bowling. She's going to be offered, if not a full ride, close to it. I want her to go to the school in Jersey because she can get to my Aunt Lynda's or Aunt Marilyn's house easily if we are in Germany. In case of emergency. It's on the East Coast so a flight home is not far OR we can come see her. Right now we are just waiting on her senior pics to come in to mail off with her bowling video, her recommendation letters and her bowling resume.

Wanna see her senior pics?? I love them. Go to www.shop.prestigeportraits.com user name is aloharev1 and password is seniorpics

Work is going good. I'm in my last two days in communication. I have Mondays and Tuesdays off right now but that could change come Thursday when I finish up my 2nd phase of training. This training has been tougher. It's major multi tasking. Answering emergency calls, dispatching, printing criminal history's for detectives, entering stolen guns or missing persons into a nationwide database. My trainer is hard. She's to the point, abrupt and not so soft and while I appreciate it because I'm learing how to do my job the right way it's difficult because she makes me nervous and when she's not there I do my job with ease and when she's there I feel like a deer in the headlights. I have two more days with her. I just hope I can get through okay. I'm moving to the front desk next. It's a lot of report writing. Not looking forward to it.

What I do enjoy is on my day off going for a ride with Shane. I tried being stubborn and refusing to ride because I didn't want him to have a bike. BUT I ended up loving it. I love the vibration, the wind, the sun, the open air, and holding on tight to my man. One thing my job has done is put more pressure on us as a couple. It's the adjusting period. I think if I came home tomorrow and said that I was quitting he would thank his lucky stars. He misses me being home. He does do most the daily cleaning and I still cook dinner. I do the laundry, he folds it. I do the deep cleanings on my days off and he does touch ups that need to be done to a home you've lived in for a few years. When I start working the 2pm-10pm schedule we will be on the same schedule but in the meantime I get up at 5 and go to bed early. He gets home late and sleeps in. I've never slept so soundly since working. My job has affected all my relationships. I never hear from those I love. Weird how that worked. I just never thought it would affect that. Was willing to retire in a place not home to me just to be near and now it seems that idea is not so good anymore. Sad. Miss it but no matter how I try I can't change it. And I know I need to be a better niece. Flying to NH in April to be a better one.

Well, I'm going to curl up with a bowl of ice cream and cheer on Drew Brees to pull me ahead in Fantasy Football. I need to scrap too.

OCTOBER!

Cooler weather, pea soup, bike rides, pumpkin patches, pumpkin seeds and a big bowl of banana flavored laffy taffy. Good stuff. So I turned 38. Weird cos I still feel 20 except I look a tad different. Drake turned 16 and goodness I can't for the life of me stay calm when he drives. I try. I try to let him drive "his way". It's hard people. He cuts corners so fast. He takes chances. I'm hoping he lasts a while before his first fender bender.

Bowling news. Last weekend the kids had a tournament and all three of them won. Dev beat everyone with her scores. Luckily for the boys she was in the girls division cos she stomped all the boys too. Dev took first, Drake took 1st and Justin took third. The tournament was not in our town. I heard people say, "who are all these Killeen bowlers?" It was cool and we walked away with 1200+ in scholarship money. Dev had senior pics that day. OMG. Heart breaking. She looked so grown up. So. Grown. Up. and adorable. They won't be in for 4 weeks but I cannot wait.

Work. I'm still on the 6-2 shift with weekends off. Normally you have to go to a new trainer every three weeks but I managed to stay with mine for 6 weeks. Comms is something not my fave. I probably answer 300 phone calls a day. I dispatch probably 25 of them. I transfer 175 of them. I listen to stupid people on 100 of them. People who take Viagra and then can't get out of their vehicle cos IT won't go down. Or someone wanting to report a wreckless driver and at the end of the call stating that the she "may have been in the drivers blind spot." I've had two where a person was threatening suicide and another who had just been beat up by her sister and was hysterical.

We've started HS bowling tryouts. We've narrowed down schools that WE want Dev to apply to. Saw the movie Law Abiding Citizen and loved it. Damn clever movie. Drake's dating a girl. He took her to lunch the other day. Coped a feel of her boob. He didn't buy her lunch. I've arranged for a few officers to pull him over and give him the business about it. Life is good.