Girl Scouts

Last weekend Emily had her closing ceremony for her Brownie troop. In her hands are all the patches that she earned this year. I think it is a total of 16. She is also wearing the hat, skort and belt that she bought that morning at the Girl Scout shop using her cookie credits that she earned while selling cookies this year. She has such a good time and loved girl scouts so much. So much in fact that becasue her troop leader is moving and the assist. troop leasder was turned in for bad behaviour that I stepped up and volunteered to take over the troop. So now, Josh and I are troop leaders, to a troop of 2. But we were told we would get any new girls that signed up, so at least we are confident that our troop will grow. I am excited about being the troop leader, I wanted to volunteer to be the assistnant leader, but crazy lady jumped on it before I could. So, now I am it.

We are proud of our girl, and that she has finally found somethign she likes to do, for more than 2 or 3 months. Now Jacob wants to be in Boy Scouts, but he has to wait until 1st grade.

A new family member

We have been looking to add another member to our family and last week we finally found someone who seems to have fit the description. He is playful, and rambuncous, but lovable and snuggly as well. He has a bit of a cold as you can tell from the pictures, but none the less we love him. Weclome Brownie to our family.


He is fairly potty trained, we still have accidents, but 90% of the time we go outside or on the training pad, which is amazing as neither other dog ever would use the pads. He gets along with ALL family members. He chews on Oreo and Biscuit a bit, but otherwise we fell like he is a nice, and final addition to our family.

The CLAW

Pictures, for my Dad, of the CLAW. The CLAW has taken over our home. The CLAW is used to eat dinner, to put things away, and to attaxk the animals in our home. I do not know where the CLAW came from or when he will be leaving, but for now, he keeps life interesting.

They found the jerk not guilty.

February 2003

Today Josh is in New Mexico. He is there to testify in the trial of the man who assaulted him over three years ago. This person already has a life sentence plus ninety years, meaning the absolute earliest he could be released would be after he served 93 years. I don’t think he is going anywhere, but the DA needs to make a statement that it is NOT ok to assault officers. We have been down this road before, this trial has almost happened half a dozen times, but it appears that it is actually going to happen today. I truly am thankful to God that it is finally going to be over. We can finally close this chapter in our lives. This assault is the reason we live in Austin, it is why we moved.

I was getting dressed, applying my make-up (ironically enough, Mary Kay) and attempting to dress my two children for Sunday school. Emily had just turned 4 and Jacob was only 18 months old. My phone rang downstairs and I did not hear it. I was probably drying my hair. The phone rang another time, again I did not hear it. It rang a third time and I ran downstairs to answer it. Something already told me something was wrong, because nobody calls on Sunday morning at 7:30. When I saw that it was my mom my heart relaxed. I though to myself she probably want to know when we will be to Burger Time for our weekly tradition of burritos and donuts. She loved to see those kids and was probably anxious for us to arrive. But when I answer her breath is short and her words are sharp. “We will be at your house in five minutes, get ready to go, Josh is at the hospital” My heart felt like it might explode. I think I am going to be sick. I really did not know what to think. I don’t remember who came to the house, or if I dropped my kids off at my parent’s house, the next thing I remember is driving into the hospital parking lot and my phone ringing again. I answer it this time. It is the prison, the person on the other end says, “Susan?” I say, “Yes, that’s me” He says, “ Your husband has been assaulted, you need to go to the hospital.” I then tell him I am already there. As I drive around the parking lot I see the prisons big white van. My heart stops again. I take a deep breath and park my car. I get out and walk inside. I try to talk to the person at the reception desk, but she doesn’t seem to understand the urgency I have in my voice. How did she not understand, I had received THE call. The call I had feared receiving since the day Josh took that job. I feared for him as he drove to work everyday. How could she not understand? I finally calmed down enough to ask my question slowly enough for the lady to understand and the big, wide doors to the emergency room buzzed opened and I walked through. I turned left and walked down the hall and found my husband.

He was sitting on the hospital bed, looking like I have never seen a man look before. His eyes where black and red and he was visibly shaken to the core. There were two or three other officers in the room, all doing their best to raise his spirits, calm him down and just be there for support. I knew at that moment our lives had changed. Our lives changed when my husband got up early that February morning and went into work. Our lives changed when a convicted murderer decided to pound on my husbands face for no apparent reason, other than it might be a fun Sunday morning activity. Our lives changed as I was changing my son’s diaper that Sunday morning. Our lives changed when I received that frantic call from my mother. Our lives would never be the same again.

And they weren’t. Josh had been changed. He did not return to work for several weeks, maybe even months. He dropped his classes at NMSU, he had nightmares, he was not the same person anymore. He was not the funny, goofy man I had married. I tried to be upbeat and cheerful. He did finally return to the prison, he was put on light duty. Which meant he had no inmate contact. That was probably for the best. He struggled with the job, he was told horrible things to his face and horrible things were said behind his back. He struggled for a long time with what to do. He loved his job. He was striving for excellence. He wanted to be the best officer they had. But then this happened. I really just tried to be a loving and supportive wife.

But then I decided enough was enough. The prison did not want to pay his workers comp claims and they kept “loosing” his paperwork. That can only happen for so long. We decided that we needed to leave. He needed to leave his work at the prison, and he was never going to find a good a paying job with no college degree in Las Cruces and we couldn’t afford to have him take a lower paying job. So we closed our eyes and leapt. We allowed God to make a way for us. We decided to move to Austin, I knew my friend Amy lived here and it was a big city with lots of opportunity.
Josh is back in corrections now, and sometimes it is hard for me. I still worry when he goes to work, but he has a passion for his work that I don’t have. I am glad to see that he has healed enough to do the job he loved so much in New Mexico. But now he is back in New Mexico facing the person who decided to have fun with his face, his ego and his manhood. I think I might hate that man. He changed our lives forever.

What I learned in Sunday school

So, Sunday school blew my mind yesterday. I am still trying to wrap my brain around the whole idea.

We are studying the book of John. In John chapter 8:56-58, Jesus tells the crowd, “Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born.”

Now how could he? It is a new way of thinking. I have always known the trinity, father/son/holy spirit, but to think that it was Jesus who talked with Moses and Jesus who caused the flood and Jesus who was the stern God in the Old Testament and the loving, tender Lord in the New Testament. It was amazing, to see how the Bible says it, and how I truly knew it all along, but in my human brain believed it to be that Jesus did not exist until he was born from Mary. But he was alive and walking with his father before the world was in existence. And that angels do exist. I mean, I knew they did, but that they always did, the devil is a fallen angel, for goodness sake. Angels also walked in the time with God and Jesus before the world was created. WOW, a world does actually exist that is not our own, and I would love to be there walking next to Jesus, holding his hand.
I know my thoughts may be jumbled, but… there they are.

Biopsy

I went to the dermatologist this morning and she looked at my moles and the spot on my back. She said my moles are fine, nothing to worry about. She was more than happy to remove them, if they were bothering me, but they don’t. One itches every so often, but I told her that and she said unless it becomes an issue, no big deal.

However, she did say that even though the spot on my back has gone down in size and isn’t nearly as scary looking as it was, that because it has changes so much so quickly that she is going to do a biopsy. So I have an appointment in three weeks to have a sliver of my back removed and sent off to a lab somewhere.

She did also look at all my back, face and arms to see if anything else was funny looking, but nothing else seemed to bother her. So I get to have my teeth filled and have a biopsy on my back on the same day. That will be fun.

So Josh has to return to New Mexico next week to attend the trial of the jerk that assaulted him while working the prison over three years ago. This just sucks. This is worse than when he did not get promoted because every time we seem to be moving on from this horrible event and the effect it has had on him during the last three years this happens. Now it could come to be that the trial is cancelled. He has had flights booked before and been told the day before that the trial has been postponed. I really hope that doesn’t happen. I wish I could go and be with him, but I know that is not possible on so many levels. I hope this thing actually happens this time so that it can be done with. Now don’t think that this is happening because Josh is pushing for it. The ONLY reason he is going is because he has been subpoenaed and HAS to go. He would be happy never to deal with this stuff again, but you have got to love how the DA in Las Cruces wants to waste money trying a trial for a man who already has 3 life sentences. What a waste.

This week we had Emily's parent teacher conference. I love mrs. O'Nan. She is such a good teacher. Emily is 1 level above grade level in reading now! She will go to the second grade!!! We are so excited. If only we could get her to loose the attitude we would be doing great. She is just about crazy!! I am about to pull all of her toys and give her three outfits and hide the rest of it. She is so disrespectful of everythign she owns. We can't find any of the new summer clothes we bought her becasue she stuffs them in her closet, and they are never to be seen again. She has one last chance, this weekend she has to clean, and clean good.

This week has been non stop. I can not wait until it is over. Last night was the only night I did not have something going on, and that is because I chose not to go to church. I wanted to go, but I needed an earlynight.

Reunion stuff is in high gear. So much to do, only a little over a month to do it! ACK!

Josh might try to go a different direction with his job. There is a greivence officer position opening up. It would be 8-5. M-F with high visablility, which is what he needs right now. Not the hurry up and wait routine we are getting with the training officer position. We shall see what happens.

Thats it. So busy, busy...

We are boring

I ahve nothing exciting to report. I went to the dentist and I have 2 cavities. My very first cavities. I have to get them filled next week. But they said for not having been to the dentisit in forever, I had pretty ok teeth. So there Mom! But also thank you for always making me go growing up, thus ensuring I have some decent habits. I have to start flossing, but otherwise I am ok.

This weekend was our last boring one for a while. We have something planned for almost every waking hour this week and every weekend for the entire month of May. Plus work is full, I am procrastinanting like a pro right now, but I believe I do better under pressure, so here's to pressure.

We are in the process of trying to get our cousin on Josh's side to come out for the summer. SHe is a great girl who needs some positive attention and a positive, unbaised enviroment for a while. AWe have talked her mom into a couple of weeks, but we were working for the whole summer. You see her parents are in the middle of a NASTY divorce and she is going to be a sophmore in high school and she is having an abnormally difficult time with her mom. I am a bit suprosed that her dad was all for it, but her mom was the hesitant one. I really thought it would be the other way around. I would love to bring her out here and just show her how and average family runs. We have very little drama and I know she would love being with the kids and Emily still talks about her. They were great frinds when we were out in California last year.

Sorry for the run-on sentance.

So keep this situation in your prayers. I want the very best for this young girl, I hope maybe we can provide it for her a little bit this summer.