God is Good

just dropping in to explain my recent and probably ongoing absence. i am still stopping by other blogs when i get the chance but we have a lot on ministry-wise at the moment and i have an intern to train up and a girl who has just begun her walk with god who needs intensive council and dicipleship as well as a whole group of new christians to teach and leaders to impart into... all in the time im not at work or tending to my own kids... i will stop in from time to time because i do like to write but as is i am very much enjoying this time in the moment rather than taking time to write about it.

We are still here!

so its be a little crazy around here lately! Our big girl turned 4 this weekend just gone and it was lots of fun letting her be a princess for the day.




It was so hot we gave up on all other party activities and set up a slide and a paddling pool at the beach park where we had the party and let the kids go...


Cheeky thingwas already asking what she could do for her next birthday on the way home. In fact nearly everything that comes out of her mouth reminds me that she really isnt my baby anymore.


She is growing to be beutifully mannered, though temperamental at times, clever and good hearted (most of the time). She is definately got the maternal touch and babies her sister like she is her second mama.

looking forward to seeing what this year teaches us about who she is and what she will do.

Not me monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I am not constructing my second post for the day just because I have some great material for NMM this week... nope not me.
Oh and i have not taken nearly a week to actually finish and post the previous post either. I am not that busy and over extended that I couldn't complete one blog post even though I really wanted to... nope, not me.

I did not spot a mysterious object in amongst our 'clean' washing as i was opening the machine only to realise my daughter who happens to put everything the undresses from in the washing basket, apparently had added soiled nappies to that list. If i had though, I most certainly would not have just re washed the load a few times until there was no trace of said 'object' and then rewashed 3 times with napisan and hot water... nope i would not show such blatant disregard for the sanctity of my washing machine! or the environmental cost of so many rewashes. No, not me!

I did not ignore the obvious fact my children were playing instead of sleeping after I put them to bed in hopes they may sleep in a little later that 545am... I was not highly impressed that it worked and considering doing it again even thought my nearly four year old couldn't keep her eyes open and 5 in the afternoon the next day... Nope, not me! i would most certainly put my children's well being ahead of my own never ending desire for more sleep...

I also did not leave my daughters 4th birthday party planning, including invitations until the week of her birthday... NOPE! not me, I am always organised and plan elaborate celebrations with hand crafted invites and matching name cards at the table set with each child's personalised party gift along with matching decor and .... oh, alright, we are having a BBQ at the park... i mean Nope, not ME!

I almost forgot... I did not in below mentioned emergency situation dial '911' when he emergency number in austrlia is 000, even though i have dialed 000 5 or more times before, and had the number drilled in since kindergarten... nope, not me. (luckily, you know, if i had done that, the call would play a friendly little message like "you have dialled emergency assistance, the number is 000, putting you through now" thus making said dialer realise their error.
This would not prove that i spend to much time reading american cops and cops wives' blogs :) and watching american TV... NOpe, certainly not me!

Faith restored

So was going to blog about an experience i had Monday with some local police officers after we assisted a female involved in a D.V. situation while i was at work... i wont go into now but lets just say i was less that impressed with the interpersonal skills displayed by the officers (or lack there-of). Not to mention the lack of assistance in retrieving her young baby who was still in her house, as she had literally fled onto the street to get help and therefore technically left him in custody of the child. Apparently a child cannot be removed from custody of a parent without court order unless there are welfare concerns... i have welfare concerns for a child in house with a violent man who is very angry at the mother of the child... would YOU?

Previous to that day, police could do no wrong my eyes. I know quite a few cops and they are all good people too. I could give you a list of the things these particular officers did do wrong that day but i will just settle for praying my husband is never so busy being a cop he forgets to be a human being, as i am now well aware is possible.


So here the story was to end... except for the fact that I had an unusually dramatic week as by Tuesday I had phone emergency for the second time in as many days. This time a distressed client had attempted suicide just as i was starting my shift... The police arrived FAST (might help that we are 30 seconds from McD's ;) . After the initial drama settled down and the client was physically ok, the Senior officer started taking my statement and the other officer started talking to the young person, showing empathy, listening skills, reassuring body language (moving to eye level, open gestures etc) which I witnessed while I was in and out to check on the client. All in all the client was kept calm and distracted (necessary, for reasons i will spare on the details) for over 45 minutes it took for the ambulance to attend. Comparatively the previous days officers had made no attempt to 'help' or comfort the victim, hardly even assisting with her requests and definitely showing non of the interpersonal skills demonstrated by the following days officers.

We were so impressed by the officers genuine concern for and generosity of time with the young client we wrote a commendation letter to the commissioner.

Long story short... faith restored, maybe not to believing that all cops are saintly superheros, but at least that there are some that are.

God is Big

So a little bit of background. We have this family in our church, all involved in our music team and very talented, non more so that the middle child (not quite a child now, hes like 16 or something). We will call him B, so B is very talented guitarist and used to play in our youth band and the church band. long story short, a few things lead to B disconnecting from church life about a year or so ago, although he still calls in occasionally he is lost in some pretty dodgy stuff at this point. So we have a new(ish) leader in our team who after B called into church one day really felt called to pray and interceed for B regularly so he did.(even though he had only breifly met him)
A couple of weeks go by and that particular leader is driving and stops to pick up a guy who was hitchhiking, and the guy turns out to be B. Odds of that in a city of 1.4 million, not like they both live near each other or anything because they dont. Totally Gods divine appointment. God is amazing.

Not me monday

I am not doing my second post of the day in spite of a full laundry basket and dishes on my countertop... nope not me.

I did not eat 2 tubs of chocolate moose and chips for dinner, nope, not me. I am watching what i eat.

I was not late for dropping my little girls off at school on only her 3rd day, nope not me, i am far more organised than that.

I did not let my girls play in the bath for close to 45 minutes because they were nether arguing nor messing up the house...
Nope not me, my children get along fine all the time and tidy after themselves so i would never worry about those things.



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

A Blog award

Thank you Mrs Fuzz over at "a police wife" for the blog award. Here are the rules for accepting:

• Copy the award image into a post
• List 10 things that make you happy
• Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day
• Put a link to their blogs
• Notify the award receivers
• Recipients should link back to the sender's blog

my 10 happy things:

1. family time...you know whan all the members of our family are in the same place at the same time
   
2. a clean and organized home (i second that Mrs Fuzz!)
   
3. chocolate
   
4. Singing (on stage, in the car, anywhere really)
   
5. My youth group
   
6. getting out wit my husband
   
7. the beach
   
8. bargains and sale shopping- oh and ebay
   
9. painting
10. all things baby related- i was shopping for baby furninture years before i was even married
    

Here's some(it supposed to be 10 but most of the people i interact with in blog land have got this one already i think) people I'm giving it out to. No pressure if it's not your thing.

Carly- wat she does over at to write thier names in the sand brings a little happiness to each of the women/families in what might be their darkest hours

Cop Mama

Momma Val

and a couple of blogs i have recently found...

Pennie at Mom Thoughts

A new mom

and to round it out, Amanda at confessions of a wannabe supermom, just coz her crazy life reminds me a little of mine and it makes me happy to know that other people survive life at this pace

Black and White Wednesday

Found this over at Cop Mama's blog... started by The long road to China and decided to join in with this shot i took last weekend.

first day at school... public v private?

One happy little kindy kid... She has been counting the sleeps until she could go to school


She absolutely loves getting dressed in her 'nuniform'...

Unleashing the poser with in!


One more bonus of havin a shift workin cop daddy is he gets to come for our first day of school!
And pick up too! (In the background is mrs groves who i am trying to teach grace to stop calling Mrs gross, but i think the whole class has got her name wrong as i have heard others doing it too)



I made the decision a long time ago to send y kids to public schol at least for primary school (first seven years). Finances has a little to do with it (about $60 a year vs $4000) but mostly it comes down to the options available. The best performing schools in our state are the private catholic schools, but I cant stand the religious factor. I mean i am a Christian and i love going to church but there are so many rules and regulations and routines in catholicism that i dont feel bring us any closer to God, but anyway that is a whole differet topic. Digressing... for that reason idont want to send my girls to a catholic school.
The Christian schools in our state whos beliefs are most aligned to ours are all strictly christian enrolments only by pastoral reference and i dont feel that segregating my children from the world they will evenually have to interact with will benifit them. I truly belive when our beliefs are challenged we are sharpened and grow, and the opportunity to share Christ and our testimony with friends is paramount in our walk with God.
There are baptist schools who's doctrine is good and enrol all students but the ones in our area don't fare much better academically than the public schools and i just cant justify so much extra money when i feel i can teach Christian values and lead my children in finding a relationship with God at home...

So we have done our research and got grace into a great schol in our area, and i plan to chec out their teachers each year and keep up with the programming so i can make sure we discuss any conflicting things that come up values and beliefs wise and plan to make a decision about highschool a bit further down the track. that said, If being in that environment has a negative impact on the girls we will find the money to send them to a Christian school.

I would love to hear what you all think/what your experiences have been

Tom boy toddler

Jaeda...

The ultrasound tech couldnt tell me if whe was a boy or girl, and sometimes i wonder still...

Unlike her sister J is loud, more than mildly destructive, hard hitting and resiliant and more often than not referred to as the animal of the family.


Openly defiant but quick to repent, miss J is less focused that her sister but far more headstrong.

Given the option at the aqaurium of about 15 animals to colour in including all the pretty ones like dolphins and seahorses J choose the shark, then as she takes 10secs to cover the pic in blue crayon she goes back to select...the shark again... not once but 3 times. When suggesting the pretty coral scene I was met with a determined "No, i donnn liiiyyyke it!"

Jaeda's favourite game is hiding in her closet and jumping out at people "roaring".She is pretty convincing too. :D

She loves dinosaurs (and ocasionally ballerinas), racing cars and iggle piggle.

She is a jumping,climbing, running, water baby and she loves sleep, her sister and puzzles and FOOD!!!


Most recently she made off with Graces toy baking set only to use the "electic beater" by removing one beater and putting it on the wall like an electric drill, saying "fix it".

I guess there had to be one considering their mother was a skateboarding, baggy pants wearing, owner of only one solitary pair of shoes (skate shoes) with not a skirt or dress to be found until a wedding dress made its way into the closet...

Grace-isms

a few from the files

"Mum its raining out...do you have an under-brella"

"no its not a tramp-olene mum its a Jumpolene" well yes that would make more sense

"Mum where is Jesus"... "does that mean he is riding in the back of our car right now"

and after hearing alot that Jesus is in our heart and not know the difference between her heart and other insides
"But i Neeeeed more food because when i eat my food then Jesus can get it and he might be hungry"

An the latest one....When about to call our friend who has just had another baby...
"mum, Aunty Carly has 3 babies...(me well kind of)...We need another one too. Me:you will have to talk to you dad about that one Grace: NO, we can just borrow another mummy to grow one coz i dont want you to go to the hospital again and then we can have another brother or sister and the other mummy can go home.
Nice Plan Grace :)

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.

I am not such a hopeless blogger as to not have even posted some christmas photos...










And i most definately would not have neglected to post some pics from Grace's first ballet recital.


Nope...not me!
.

I Did not laugh out loud when my 3 year olds first comment when i pointed out a 7 year old amazingly talented piano player on morning TV was "he doesnt have any friends does he". Nope, i am far more responsible and woul most definately have told my daughter immediately that that was an inappropriate and not very nice thing to say. (I actually decided she probably just meant because he was all alone on a big stage)


Oh and i did not just realise that those are sideways and simply ignore that fact as i cant be bothered reloading them...nope, not me

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).

Success...

Success comes in many forms to our household recently... jaeda is all but completely potty/toilet trained...SUCCESS!, both girls are now swimming freely around the deep end of the pool, under supervision of course...Success,(photos to come when i get home). D enjoyed his first night out for real on the job, even though it was in our states most notorious entertainment precinct... Success. I slept until 10 am yesterday as the kids slept at their Grannys house, now that i promise you that is a success!

My only lack of success has been in making new years eve plans. D is working and all of our frinds have travelled (as we all did last year) 8 hours south of here to an awesome little holiday town for the summer break. Both our parents have plans and althe other babysitters went with the crew south, although i wouldnt have much to do even if i could find a baby sitter. Maybe I will go hire some movies (TV is notoriously bad on weekend nights and holidays) and do my usual, resulting in me feeling about 2 decades older than i really am.

Thanks wa police!

...so D spoke to his squad supervisor and he has organised for duncan to work monday at a station instead of on saturday night so he can come to Graces concert... I cant believe how much effort they are willing to go to. Today i am very glad the WA police promote and actually live up to being a family friendly career choice.

Today i am not so stoked to be a cops wife...

The first real downfall to being a cops wife strikes. We have just realised that Duncans squad have been assigned to an event on the 19th of this month, which is the same night as our (nearly) 4-year-old's first dance recital/ballet concert, which the whole family has already bought tickets for. She is so excited and dances around the house after every saturday practice.
How are we going to explain the empty seat where her Daddy should be. "Daddy has to work so we have money to buy all the things we need" just isnt gonna cut it on this one :(

umm... huh? did that just happen?

So we made a decision. We applied for Duncan to be posted at the town that is just 45 minutes out of town. Started making plans and all. Duncan heard a perfectly timed post for a probationary constable (what the recruits are) was available just as their squad finished training. Only one other guy from his squad applied, and as squad leader Duncan knew this guy has only done average in his assessments and didn't pass the driver training so wasn't even qualified to do high priority and pursuit driving so we were totally sure we would get the spot.
One week passes... so the other guy got the spot. Come again...how does that happen.

So here we are, at plan B. Knowing God is in control and its not his plan B.

So i will sign off with a few photos from our suprise trip to Sydney