The Best Gift Ever

I almost never post things about Paul's job online. However, something else happened the other night that I never want to forget, so I'm putting it here.

I can't publish all of the details. Basically, Paul went to a call where a husband was threatening and hurting his young wife and mother to their four very small children. His behavior was atrocious, especially given that he'd basically abandoned them. The four kids - all under the age of five - and their young mother were all living in a camping trailer without electricity or running water, parked in front of a commercial park. Two of the kids had no clothes on and they were all playing in the street (with their mother watching) and sometimes with the transient man who was camped out close to them. Paul handled the domestic abuse part of things, then had a sad situation on his hands from there. Clearly this was not a safe, clean environment for the kids to be living in. They needed something better. However, victims of domestic abuse are often reticent to call for help and no one wanted to take this woman's children away from her after she called for help from the police. She really was doing the best that she could with her limited resources. So they told her that they were going to help her but she had to accept the help or they would be forced to take her kids from her. Naturally, she accepted.

Paul and the victim's rights advocate that he works with found them temporary lodging in a hotel and contacted every shelter in the area to find them a more permanent solution. They found her vouchers for things like diapers and food. They spent hours making sure that this family was getting the best that could be done for them from the community. 

Our tenth anniversary is coming up next month. Paul came home that night and apologized to me. He said, "I've been saving up for a few months to get something special for our anniversary. But today, looking at those four kids, I had to do something. I spent all of the money I'd saved for our anniversary buying gift cards to grocery stores for them. I kept seeing our kids' faces and I felt so grateful that we can afford to give them everything that they need and many of the things that they want. I felt so sad for them and for their mother and I just had to help them any way I could." 

I have never been more proud of him in my life. This is the best anniversary gift he could have given me. We both went upstairs and hugged and kissed our sleeping babies and thanked God for the immense blessings that we enjoy in our lives. I will never meet this woman but I know that she and her little ones will be on my mind for a long time. I pray that she has strength for the trials coming to them and that she will meet many more people like my husband who will help her when they can. I am so proud of Paul and the man that he is. I'm proud that he's the kind of officer who really sees the people that he serves and fights for them. I am one lucky, lucky girl.

Love, Mary

Here we go!

 It's been five years since I've made a blog post. Long enough that I can't remember my password to my old blog and blogger apparently doesn't have a recovery system in place for that. Go figure. So welcome to the new blog!  Looking over the old stuff last night has made me really want to be dedicated to our memories together as a family.

Our little ones currently look like this!

Sam is 7, Lucy 5 and Calvin 15 months. They all get along really well (mostly) and love being together. Favorite activities include snuggling, legos and playing outside. Calvin calls Sam "go" and Lucy is a soft C noise. They call him Calvy most of the time. Or destructo-monster, if we are playing Legos.

Paul and I celebrated 11 years since our first date last month. Crazy! We had happy and we're-old feelings about it haha. It's been a great 11 years!!

I have been good. Three kids is crazy and honestly, gets really overwhelming at least once a day. They are such good kids, though, and most of the time we are great. I have been busy with my two church callings. Initially I was teaching the marriage and family class, which consisted of the same lessons but new students every four weeks. Once I had a good group of lessons and didn't need to tweak things much for the class I volunteered to serve as Cub Scout den leader for Sam's age group who are just starting Scouts. Scouts has always seemed like this huge, overwhelming mess of nitpicky did-you-check-all-of-the-boxes merit badges to me. However, Sarah was giving a stake training for Cub Scouts and practiced her schpeal on me and I saw how fun it was! I really want Sam to have a great experience in Scouts with a leader who does their job and makes it fun, and no primary president on earth is going to pass up a person who volunteers to be a den leader, so here we are! It's a rowdy group of boys so it's been challenging but SO FUN. I love it. For Mother's Day Paul did pretty much the coolest thing he's ever done for me. Earlier that week on Facebook I'd said the following: "Fellas, here's a free tip for you: if you want to know what your wife/girlfriend wants in the romance department, take a look at her favorite movies. Braveheart tops my list in all movie categories. All I want is for Paul to be wicked smart, refined-yet-barbaric, hella romantic, wage a war for me and change history. All with an incredible soundtrack and comic relief. Just don't get racked, drawn and quartered at the end, babe. You're welcome."

Paul had to work all night the Saturday night going into Mother's Day Sunday so he didn't come to church with us, he was sleeping. Coming home, I saw this guy run out of the house shouting, "FREEDOM!!!"

 

It was freaking spectacular. Blue face paint (that almost made him pass out), brown felt kilt and plastic Thundercats sword. I didn't stop laughing for like two days.

Paul has had a busy couple of months! He took the department detective test, passed, and moved on to take the oral interview. He's feeling hopeful about the results and really, really happy that it's all over and he doesn't have to study anymore. He is working the domestic violence (DART) car right now and is soaking up all he can from the opportunity to work with detectives. He's learned a lot and has done a lot of good. He works hard to connect with the community and those in need. He will be mad at me for saying this, but one day he called and asked me to put together all of Calvin's old clothes from 3 months and up, along with any toys, jumpers, etc. that we weren't using anymore. He had a really young DV victim who was working hard to make a life for herself and her 3 month old baby after ditching her drug-and-girlfriend-abusing boyfriend. Lots of victims, unfortunately, go right back into an abusive situation. This girl saw that it was bad for her tiny son and committed herself to a better life for him. The jerk boyfriend, after she initially left, took all of the baby's things to Goodwill and donated them, so she had practically nothing for him - not that she had had much to begin with. Paul took all of our stuff down to her, along with some gift cards we had, and checks in on them from time to time to see what they need. Paul does many quiet acts like this as a police officer (and father, and husband) that mean a lot to people and make me so proud of him. The DV car isn't a glamorous position to have and sometimes his buddies razz him about it, but he likes it because of the good he is able to do - despite all of the paperwork.

Ironically, the department sent him to detective school before he has become a detective. I don't understand it, either, but we'll take it! Any of these "schools" within the department are difficult to get into and take a lot of work to pass. He passed detective school and went on the next week to pass rifle school, which he loved. He now gets to carry a rifle in his patrol car with him and respond to any crazy situations that need officers with rifles. He bought himself a 60-round magazine to celebrate (only cops can have them). He loves it haha. Lucy wanted to practice some rifle manipulations with daddy. 

Calvin hasn't been sleeping so well lately due to two molars and another tooth coming in. He's very opinionated these days and we are working on redirecting his communication from tantrums/screaming to words. His #1 phrase is "uh-peesh," which means "up, please," "help, please," and pretty much anything else he wants to say. He also says "mo" (more), "yay," "hi," "momma," "da-deee," "Ai-nan," (Aidan - his cousin & favorite person on the planet), "Ra-ra," (Sarah - his aunt & favorite woman. Always chosen over mommy if available) "bah-byee," "Nigh-Nigh," (he's actually good about telling us when he wants to go to sleep) "guk," (milk, his preferred food) and "ka-kuh" (cracker). He also loves to make fun of us by mimicking things like sneezes and laughs. He is not a good eater; he pretty much just wants milk at all times. Most carbs and a few raw veggies (carrots, broccoli, celery, salads) are also acceptable. He hates fruit of any kind. He adores the tubbie and we have to close the bathroom door so he won't pitch himself headlong into the empty bathtub. Well, that and because he's learned how "fun" toilets are. So far I feel like he's going to go Lucy's route in toddlerhood - can't be bothered to wait for me to get what he needs and thinks himself capable of doing everything.

Lucy is as sweet as ever. She graduated preschool and was loving that tassel in her face. She loved preschool but I think she got too bored halfway through this year. She is happy to have graduated and is looking forward eagerly to Kindergarten. When she grows up she wants to be a police officer or an astronaut. She is doing really well on her reading, when she is patient enough to stop and look at the words instead of choose one letter and guess from there. She loves books, art and building things out of any sort of block handy. She's constantly creating forts, pictures and many creative things. She thinks dolls are creepy (thanks, Paul, for telling her that her first doll had "creepy hair" and ruining that for us) and plays outside as much as possible. She is eager to please and to help and asks me at least once a day how she can help me. She particularly likes helping to cook and clean. Weird, but I'll definitely take it. She is loving tagging along for scouts and showed up all of the boys when she found a cool looking bug on our hike that they wouldn't touch but she did. Here she is digging in the bushes to find it while the boys watch.

Sam just finished second grade and actually cried on the last day of school because he'd miss his friends and learning over the summer. I suspect he will get over this after the first couple of hours. His grades are excellent and his test scores are all on fifth-grade levels. I want to bump him up a grade but his dad doesn't love the idea (neither does he, much) so he will probably stay where he is. His favorite thing in the world is reading - I have to take his reading time away as a punishment he cares about. He just finished spring volleyball, which he enjoyed. He especially loves underhand serving, which he is great at - here's a picture. 

He's going to do swim team again this summer and is really looking forward to it. He is also loving scouts! We finally bought his uniform this week and he feels so awesomely official. He can't wait to earn all of his belt loops.

 

This week Officer Lamas came and talked to the wolves and the bears about being a police officer. He brought a patrol car and handcuffed the boys, let them run the lights and took them for a ride. It was so fun!

 

Sam is very into building and science. He loves his science sets, particularly his circuit set. He's always building things, his specialty is large castles or ships with secret compartments for his Lego guys. He also loves video games but it almost never allowed to play - his mom is a real killjoy. He is super, super helpful, especially with Calvin. He is the best at making Calvin laugh and calm down. 

Another highlight of our month was a visit from Aunt Leah!! We pretty much played games and talked all weekend and it was awesome. She is so fun and we miss her around here!! She even treated us to ice cream cake. She may have best aunt status after that haha. 

 

Lastly, This post is dedicated to Maren, who has been telling me for years that I should get back to blogging. She is right! Maren's family is moving at the end of the month and we are so sad to lose them! We have had a great time with them this year. Last time we were together - I took about 20 pics and this is the best we got:

Hopefully I will remember how to do all of the bloggy stuff like formatting soon and this blog won't be a hot mess next time haha. 

Love, Mary