Some belated photos

For some reason I couldnt get these to download the other night so i had to save copies elsewhere on my harddrive and it worked.
These photos where taken by an officer who goes to our church(the uniformed officer in the group pic below), who happens to do a bit of photography on the side. Many thanks to him as my camera had nither the zoom or resolution to get good shots where we could actully pic D from the crowd.

I have not included some shots as too many other officers where visable. I have also blurred any other officers in close view and some details for obvious privacy reasons as although you would really need to be directed to find this blog it is technically a public forum.

Funnily enough in our fairly small church there are 4 regularly attending cops, i am yet to decide whether our church is appealing to a particular personality type that includes alot of cops or if there are just alot of christian cops out there.

Academy days are over...

I cant believe about 2 years ago my husband, then a qualified tradie started throwing around some talk about joining the police. 6 months of think about it, more than a year of tests, exams and qualifying, appointments and tryouts, and 6 months of academy you think i would be used to it right...well no, i still cant believe he just went and became a cop...

The Gradution was great...although the newly appointed constables were very hot out on that parade ground. Our girls watched their daddy march and even tried a bit of marching themselves much to the amusement of those seated around us. A few guys from church turned out too which I think D really appreciated.






We had the celebration ball that night which was nice...

we landed up on a fairly quiet table, but the table next to us, the younger recruits more than made up for our table. D made a great speech for his squad and the high ranking officers and supervisors made a point of coming over to tell him their table were placing bets on how long (or not) it was going to to take him to be promoted to their ranks.
While i am on a boasting role, D picked up 2 out of 10 awards distributed over the 2 squads, the good samaritan award and the professional conduct award.

So we were stuffed and so keen to get home at the end of the night and we pulled into our drive way and D slows down to make sure a couple who are fighting, shouting and pushing and shoving each other are Ok, and because we were driving slowly (thank God) i noticed something on the road. It took me a second or two to realise it was a girl face down in the road. So the couple are really screaming it out at this stage and the girl is sounding very frantic so Duncan and I quickly figure the girl is passed out, get her to respond and move out of the road and he heads over to check if the girl who is screaming needs assistance and i do my best to keep the girl, who is absolutly tonked, off the road. Long story short the two things were unrelated, everyone on our street just had a bad night at once.
I just praise God we had slowed down because of the couple because we would have otherwise probable turned into our garage just short of where the girl was lying, leaving her exposed to anyone driving down our street.

Oh and my apologies to the call centre, as i had dialed 000 when i noticed the girl in the road and we had trouble waking her, but once i was talking to the dispatcher she had responded and was adamant about not wanting an ambulance, but at this point i though the female screaming may need assistance, so i started to outline that situation, and then things there calmed down and they went their separate ways so i sort of had to explain that while i had half described two potentially emergency situations, i actually didn't need anyone to respond. I wonder what she thought, maybe that i was just reporting things for my own entertainment or something, at least that was what her tone of voice suggested.

I am pretty sure D enjoyed "having" to tell the girl that he was an off duty police officer and couldn't just leave her in the street as she suggested we do. (not that he would have left her regardless of his occupation).

a bright spark

Just an amusing story D told me some of his academy mates told him recently, since i havnt shared for a while.

Background necessary info- police recruits are ranked officers from day one of academy and while issued with badge and authority that comes with it, recruits are required to change out of uniform before leaving academy as they have not got the experience or training to deal with a situation as a uniformed officer.

After training a group of recruits from D's squad had changed out of uniform and were walking over the car park. they noticed a vehicle travelling at considerable speed and one told D he thought to himself "that guy isn't gonna make it round that roundabout". Turns out he was quite correct and the male driver crashed over the roundabout, veering up onto a post. The recruits ran over to assist the guy who stumbled out of his vehicle, at which point one asked "are you ok, are you hurt" to which he replied "yeah, yeah, just help me get this off here before the cops get here" wish i could have seen his face when the whole lot of them told him 'mate, we are all cops!'

Walking a while in my shoes...

not quite a mile, if i disappeared somewhere and there was noone else to cook and clean then maybe he might have to walk a mile but for now i will settle for a little while... I will explain.

These last 3 weeks D has been doing weapons training at the academy and as all the police a required to retrain once a year, the training facility is booked up during day hours when fewer officers are working so the recruits train in the evening. So for three weeks D has been hanging out at home during the day until 3 with us and then off to work until 11, much the same as I do on my non overnighter week at work. I think he kind of gets it now. You see who ever is on the afternoon "shift" at home has 3 hours with the kids until they go to bed then 4 hours down time. being at home with the family until 3 (when said family is made up of preschooler and toddler) is pretty full on, and then with no break off to work.

Now i am the one who gets the 4 hours down time to chill with no one else requiring attention or entertaining, and I get why he asks what i did all day. that is soooo much time to have nothing occupying your time. I dont think he will ever ask again "what have you done today", with a look that says why is there still dishes on the bench.

disclaimer- i do have to say as much as he is still male, i have to be honest and say i really dont have a leg to stand on when complaining about my husband. He has praobably changed nearly as many nappies as me, often is the first to get up for the kids, feeds, baths and dresses them after he gets home from work and will help around the house if I ask.(He does have that inate male quality of not knowing what needs to be done even when the washing pile is a metre high and there are no dishes left in the drawers or cupboards) He opens any door for me and is very willing provider of back rubs, foot rubs, gifts,encouragement and compliments, cute messages, prayer and Godly direction and even cups of tea recently. So even if he 'forgets' to take out the rubbish or conveniently 'cant' remember how to use the washing machine or dishwasher (even though he can operate machinery, power tools and model aircraft), I guess I have to admit i am absolutely blessed beyond measure in the husband department.

peaches- part II

As much as leaving is pretty much tearing me up inside, going somewhere new, well sounds pretty peachy to me. The PRO's

• outdoor living in the country, and a (pretty nice from what my cop friends tell me)house with a yard (rent free thank you very much).
• A break from the crazyness of late that has decended on my life/schedule.
• Not having to work(because of the extra pay for country cops and other perks) but having the oppertunity to look for and only take a job i really want to do, like the rehab centre that is in one of the country towns we are considering.
• Days at the beach
• A new community to discover
• New oppertunties to serve a small country church/youth ministry if they have one.
• (our senior pastors are thinking about church planting wherever we go, that would rule out my nice little break theory but if that is Gods plan i will make it through i am sure.
• fresh country food- maybe growing a vegie garden or fruit tree or two.
• Catching up with country friends we know down south (where we are mostly looking at posts)

Among other things, it is all quite exciting. One of my favorite things to do is setting up house so moving doesnt really faze me particulary when the police are provided with all expenses payed removalists when going country!

Also, Mrs Fuzz was asking a bit about how police employment/academy etc works here. Conditions and perks for police here are very good and even the hours are very flexible in what shifts you work, whether you do 4 x 10s or 5 x 8s, where you are stationed etc(all within reason of course), you even have the option of being payed 80% wage and taking the 5th year off payed at 80% wage. 6 weeks annual leave ,unlimited sick leave and that is all before country perks. Anyway my point is that it is incredibly competive to become an officer in Western Australia and you are subjected to more than a year on and off of intense testing, scrutiny, phsycological evaluations, physical challenges etc at your own expense before joining the academy. You are employed the day of beginning academy and are fully sworn in, given badge and everything, and officers even begin doing event policing/security towards the end of thier 6 month academy time.
Duncan is due to finish on the 6th of January.

I hope that all makes sense :)

Not-not me monday

I dont much feel like a funny Not Me Monday post. There really have been a lot of things i have not done which i probably should have (or definitely) so in the spirit of not me Monday, i did not...

not take out the rubbish all week resulting in a bin unable to be seen under the rubbish pile covering it...

not turn off the kids dvd after it finished resulting in it playing over again and them watching it over again...

not cook dinner on at least 3 nights this week...

not give sick hubby any sympathy, seeing as he has been sick for the last 6 weeks on and off and if not sick, tired and sore from the acadamy physical training, either way he cant take out the rubbish for me

not plan games for youth until the last minute or tell hubby it was his turn to preach this week until say... that afternoon,

not leave the spilled weetbix on the kids table and conceed that it is in fact cement with brown food colouring therefore I should not waste my time cleaning it now that it is dry...

and not write a blog post for like 2 weeks!

I AM tired, emotional, a little overstretched and i think my eye has a permanant twitch at the moment like one of those cartoon women about to snap...*cue extreme eye closeup and scary music*.

i assure all though I (probably) wont go off the deep end just yet. I am greatful for my family who are with me to cause stress, thankful for the provision of my (time consuming) job, prayerful my husband will be on the mend for real this time, hopeful for our future and excited about the growth of our ministry. Most of the time...

a little time out in the country might be very necessary by the end of this year though!