Anyone notice....

...how "Thankful Thursday" really doesn't work for me?!?! I haven't posted ONCE on a thursday about my thankfulness. :( boohiss. I'm contemplating changing it to another day which will totally NOT have a nice ring to it or keeping it Thankful Thursday and posting whenever the heck I feel like it so that.... um... so that I can be thankful for the freedom and flexibility I've given myself (which is usually nonexistent). We'll see.

I feel like The Man at DH's dept is really socking it to the pee-ons. I'm not exactly sure how you spell "pee-on" but for today, spelling it this way makes sense. As in, The Man is peeing on all the people below Him, making them pee-ons. Ok, ok, I digress. Who is The Man you ask? I'm not really sure. It seems like it is always someone different. Or it's a conspiracy. Who knows. It's everyone who has drunk the departmental kool-aid and is going with the flow to screw over everyone -- although of course in truth I hear the most about how it's happening to DH and the other officers.

This has been making home life miserable for me. What other things can I complain about? The list is long. I kind of feel like, having read several other police wife blogs lately, that I don't even need to enumerate the ways I could complain because you all already know. :) So instead I will go with my....

THANKFUL THURSDAY topic. I am thankful that:

• My children are now 5, 3, and 4.5 months.
  
• I watched video of my two olders from about 15 months ago. Dallas didn't exist..... Charlotte was wearing diapers, Austin had a squeaky voice (not that it's dropped all that low or anything!), and I was so kind to them. (It must have been that I knew I was being taped for all eternity.) All three of these things seemed so significant!! I almost cried. Life was so different then. No matter how much I hate a lot about my life at this exact moment, looking at that video was precious, precious, precious. It reminded me that we all start out like this and we are ruined in one way or another. NO, I do not think we are innately good. Have a baby who cries for no stinking reason (I have one of those!!) and you will know this is not true. I have not taught either Austin or Charlotte to be selfish, mean, and rude, and yet somehow this comes out of their little selves. Every one of those criminals DH deals with started out like this. Precious, sweet, trusting... and pretty quickly or somewhere along the line or who knows when, something went horribly wrong for them and their lives. Each one of them has a mom, dad, brother, sister, or someone out there that holds some memory of their precious sweetness. I can think of a perfect, publicized example but I can't bring myself to mention it. Anyway! In watching this one, three minute video I am grateful for the reminder of the innocence of my children and the renewed desire to protect that in them and not be the reason for it's demise.
• Bible study has started back up again. We are studying the book of Genesis and right from the beginning I am getting walloped with marriage, the meaning of life, and all sorts of things that I have wanted to go my own way on recently. Thankful for the compass to be renewed and set on course.
• And to finish on a lighter note... I'm thankful that DH's football team won today (but not mine!!)
  

That's all for now. Time for resting my weariness!

Thoughts on jobs

Yes, we're talking about jobs today. You may have noticed I've been posting more sporadically for a while now. Kindergarten is kicking my butt! I crack myself up when I say that, but it's true. We are trying a homeschool approach to K this year since Austin would be a very young Kindergartner... anyway, we have some class days too and between all that and the I-will-sleep-and-eat-when-I-want-to-and-you-won't-make-me-do-it-your-way #3 child, well, Kindergarten along with life in general has been kicking my butt.

So, that has meant a lot more "prepared" foods and more eating out than I would like. I wouldn't mind it if it was healthy and cheap but it seems you can only do either healthy (and expensive) OR cheap (and inexpensive). sigh. It also wouldn't be so bad if my husband's love language wasn't food!! :(

Oh, yes, the husband. The Job has been on my mind lately. There are lots of personnel changes afoot at the dept and unfortunately Hubs has been seeing the true, not flattering side of many of the people he works with/for. It makes me so sad for him ~ it's like a whole other "job" on top of the regular "job" to muck through the politics and give people the opportunity to do the right thing. Of course lately it has seemed that most of the time they choose not to do the right thing and that really makes me sad for the work environment over there!!

Recently I had the opportunity to drive Hubs to work and drop him off. It was a surreal feeling having him get out of the car and say goodbye. I don't know why that is?!?! It felt wrong, almost like a premonition that something was going to go terribly wrong that shift. Of course, one of his superiors royally screwed him over that day so maybe that's what I was foreseeing. NOT! I'm not into all that gobbledy-gook. I think it was just a difference in driving him myself vs. him walking out our front door and driving himself. Weird. Do you ever get a weird "sense" that something wrong is up with your spouse??

Even weirder was the zillion-hour shift he pulled recently. Saying goodbye after lunch and "I'll see you tomorrow" is just bizarre.

Finally, a little poll on your department's "work rules."

• Does your department have rules that require a minimum number of hours off between shifts?
  
• Is there a maximum number of hours allowed to be worked in a 24 period or shift?
  
• Of course, my favorite question: Do the powers that be actually abide by these rules?!?!? :)

Book giveaway...

One thing you may not know about me yet is that I am a book addict. Good thing there's no law against it 'cuz I'd be in the slammer if there were. Husband loves to read too, but not quite a ferociously as I do so I think it gets under his skin a bit too much.

I recently found a blog through a blog through a blog (you know the web is a complete rabbit trail!) and Krista is giving away a copy of Sarah Reinertsen's new book, In a Single Bound: Losing My Leg, Finding Myself, and Training for Life. I entered to win but since I'm such an addict I am blogging about it so I can get a second entry. :D I'm still skeptical about all these blog giveaways. The ONE time I was told I won something... I never got it in the mail!! boo hiss!

Go enter to win it yourself! But hurry, only open until Sunday.

Thankful Thursday (on Friday)

This week I am thankful that...

• husband has a job
• I have a mini vacation at hand
  
• my friend took all three kids to the park so I could tackle my massive to-do list
• we had burgers for dinner and I went "AB" on mine -- "absolutely bare" just like the good old days
• my brother got his cast off (after 10 weeks or some such unthinkable length of time!)
• the weather thinks it's still summer here
• the fan didn't break when I knocked it over -- twice
  

That should be good for now. :) How about you?

Thankful "Thursday"

Many Thankful Thursdays have come and gone since I declared I would start the tradition. No time like the present. The good thing about that declaration is that I've been consciously looking for things I could be thankful for throughout the week. Some of the good stuff in recent memory includes:

• insight/wisdom into my husband's addled brain: after a 48 hour period where he had maybe 5 hours of sleep, we were at the grocery store and he was acting like a zombie. NO JOKE! Instead of getting irritated I realized what was going on and took charge. ah. much better.
• husband cooking lots of good food for some great friends at our place. Fun, yummy times.
• friends who take my kids places and leave me in peace for a bit
• a new school year
• kindergarten!!
• husband *has* a job (no matter how crappy it might seem at times ~ for him AND me!)
• I'm in love with Dallas. He steals my heart every day at some point even when I'm not-so-happy with him.