It's been 3 weeks since our last call...blek. Everytime the phone rings my heart jumps hoping that it's from our agency. I really need to get over that but I don't know if that is going to happen.
I'm looking forward to a 3 day weekend this weekend. I'm taking Monday off as I have a lot of comp hours due to being in trials, etc. We're hoping to have a fun weekend...going to Blackhawk, play tennis, go to the movies, and of course errands/cleaning house.
Hmm..what else...not much going on right now..we're boring. =) Hopefully the phone rings soon with a call from our agency
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Waiting...
We're anxiously awaiting our next placement call. I think I jinxed us by saying we get calls every two weeks. It's been two weeks and we haven't had a call. *Sigh* It will eventually happen...we're just hoping it will happen soon!
On Sunday, we went looking at houses...very fun!! We were looking at a new development that is close to where we currently live. We really really like the area that we live in. It's close to a ton of stuff and we are really familiar with the area since our first house was in this area. We decided to go ahead and start looking so we can figure out exactly what we want. We don't qualify for the tax credit since we sold our house almost two years ago. There is a possibility that they may open up the credit to all home buyers for their primary residence. We are keeping our fingers crossed. In the mean time, we'll have fun looking and getting decorating ideas.
In just under two months, we'll be meeting up with my parents and sister in Kansas City. We are so excited and can't wait to see them!!! Andy's mom and Bob are going to be in Dever in August and I believe my mom's sister, Glenda, and her husband will be in Denver in August as well. YEAH! We love seeing family!!!!
On Sunday, we went looking at houses...very fun!! We were looking at a new development that is close to where we currently live. We really really like the area that we live in. It's close to a ton of stuff and we are really familiar with the area since our first house was in this area. We decided to go ahead and start looking so we can figure out exactly what we want. We don't qualify for the tax credit since we sold our house almost two years ago. There is a possibility that they may open up the credit to all home buyers for their primary residence. We are keeping our fingers crossed. In the mean time, we'll have fun looking and getting decorating ideas.
In just under two months, we'll be meeting up with my parents and sister in Kansas City. We are so excited and can't wait to see them!!! Andy's mom and Bob are going to be in Dever in August and I believe my mom's sister, Glenda, and her husband will be in Denver in August as well. YEAH! We love seeing family!!!!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Starting to feel grounded
Wow, it's been awhile since I posted..not alot has been going on but at the same time we've made some decisions that we've been needing to make. The past two weeks have been really rough on Andy as he has had to work an extra shift and had a training day that same week as well. So, his normal schedule of working 3 -12 hour shifts and then having 4 days off turned into working 4-12 hour shifts, having almost 2 days off, had 10 hour training day, then started his "normal" work week the next day. I'm sure he is going to crash soon!
We had another placement call last week. YEAH! That was call number 3..we are averaging a call every two weeks. The call was for a little boy who had quite a few medical issues that were more than what we felt we would be able to handle so we decided to say no on the placement. I am hoping that we get the right placement soon!
As some of you know, we have been hoping to move closer to our families and Andy has been applying to police depts close to our families over the past couple of years. At this point, he has been through 3 hiring processes and has made it really far in each of the processes but hasn't made the hiring list. I am really proud of him as making it as far as he has in each process is amazing!!! Right now not many departments are hiring so he doesn't have any leads right now. We had said that if he didn't make the hiring list of the last place he applied to, that we needed to have a serious conversation and decide what to do next.
So this past weekend and the past few days, we have been talking alot about where do we go from here...do we keep trying to move back or do we stay where we are for a few more years and then try again? We have been really torn as we really want to be closer to both of our parents but we also really like Denver, have great jobs, great friends, and are really excited about the agency we are working with to do foster to adopt. We have always said that if we stay here, it would be good for Andy to try to go to patrol with the department he is working for now or try to get on with another department so he can get to patrol.
On Monday, I looked up one of the departments that is a great police dept and is much closer to where we live. They had posted on their website that they are taking applications for a lateral academy! They don't do this very often so I was really surprised. Basically, if Andy applied and got hired, he wouldn't have to go through their full academy..it would just be a short one for them to train the lateral entries to their dept procedures and other stuff. Also, he would start out at a higher pay rate than those who don't have any experience. We were a little worried that he wouldn't meet some of the requirements but we found out that he did meet all the requirements! YEAH!!!
When we found this out, we realized we need to make a firm decision as to what we were going to do...we decided at this point that the best decision for us is to stay in Denver for next 3-5 years. Andy is going to apply for the lateral academy and I am going to look into possibly starting to work towards getting a Masters Degree in Social Work. Of course, if we get a placement soon, the Masters Degree will probably be put off for awhile longer. We also may starting looking at houses towards the end of the year. For the first time in a long time, it feels like we're grounded..not just living in limbo like we have been for the past few years. We also made a commitment to ourselves that we have to make sure to visit family more often so that we don't go 6 months- a year without seeing our families. Over the past 3-4 weeks it seemed like everything was pointing us towards staying here and I really felt at peace with us staying here. I'm sure we'll still have our moments when we'll wish family was closer but I think that is only natural.
We are looking forward to seeing where this path may lead us!
We had another placement call last week. YEAH! That was call number 3..we are averaging a call every two weeks. The call was for a little boy who had quite a few medical issues that were more than what we felt we would be able to handle so we decided to say no on the placement. I am hoping that we get the right placement soon!
As some of you know, we have been hoping to move closer to our families and Andy has been applying to police depts close to our families over the past couple of years. At this point, he has been through 3 hiring processes and has made it really far in each of the processes but hasn't made the hiring list. I am really proud of him as making it as far as he has in each process is amazing!!! Right now not many departments are hiring so he doesn't have any leads right now. We had said that if he didn't make the hiring list of the last place he applied to, that we needed to have a serious conversation and decide what to do next.
So this past weekend and the past few days, we have been talking alot about where do we go from here...do we keep trying to move back or do we stay where we are for a few more years and then try again? We have been really torn as we really want to be closer to both of our parents but we also really like Denver, have great jobs, great friends, and are really excited about the agency we are working with to do foster to adopt. We have always said that if we stay here, it would be good for Andy to try to go to patrol with the department he is working for now or try to get on with another department so he can get to patrol.
On Monday, I looked up one of the departments that is a great police dept and is much closer to where we live. They had posted on their website that they are taking applications for a lateral academy! They don't do this very often so I was really surprised. Basically, if Andy applied and got hired, he wouldn't have to go through their full academy..it would just be a short one for them to train the lateral entries to their dept procedures and other stuff. Also, he would start out at a higher pay rate than those who don't have any experience. We were a little worried that he wouldn't meet some of the requirements but we found out that he did meet all the requirements! YEAH!!!
When we found this out, we realized we need to make a firm decision as to what we were going to do...we decided at this point that the best decision for us is to stay in Denver for next 3-5 years. Andy is going to apply for the lateral academy and I am going to look into possibly starting to work towards getting a Masters Degree in Social Work. Of course, if we get a placement soon, the Masters Degree will probably be put off for awhile longer. We also may starting looking at houses towards the end of the year. For the first time in a long time, it feels like we're grounded..not just living in limbo like we have been for the past few years. We also made a commitment to ourselves that we have to make sure to visit family more often so that we don't go 6 months- a year without seeing our families. Over the past 3-4 weeks it seemed like everything was pointing us towards staying here and I really felt at peace with us staying here. I'm sure we'll still have our moments when we'll wish family was closer but I think that is only natural.
We are looking forward to seeing where this path may lead us!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Vacation is over...boo!
After having last week off, I am kind of dreading going back to work tomorrow..UGH! I already know that it is going to be a crazy week due to some of the work e-mails that I have received. Oh well...I shouldn't complain as I am lucky to have a job that I really like!
This past week flew by!!!! On Monday, we had a meeting with our case manager and then we met Andy's brother, Matt, downtown at the Rock Bottom Brewery for lunch. Our meeting was a good one! We went through the paperwork that we'll need for when we get a placement as well as signed off officially on our homestudy. YEAH! Once the meeting was over, we headed to the lightrail and took it downtown to meet Matt. I couldn't believe how many people were downtown walking along the 16th St. Mall!!! It was really busy but I guess everyone was out over their lunch hour. We really enjoyed meeting up with Matt! We sat outside on the patio and had fun people watching while we chatted. After lunch, Matt came back with us to our house. We all drove up to Westminster to meet their Aunt Barbara and cousin Teresa, for dinner! It was great to see both of them!!!
The rest of the week wasn't nearly as busy as Monday but it was still a great week! Andy was actually off on the 4th so we went to the Cherry Creek Art Festival which was really crowded but fun. Our plan was to go somewhere and watch fireworks that night but Andy was super tired since he had worked Friday night and only had a couple of hours of sleep before we went to the Art Festival. We still were able to watch fireworks from our house. Our neighbors set off some that shook our house and all the pieces fell onto our deck. Lovely! I took the dogs out and one of the ones they shot off came right at me and exploded about 10 feet above me. Ali freaked out! Poor thing was shaking and didn't know what to do...she kept trying to hide from the sounds but couldn't find anywhere in the house that made her feel "safe". I ended up sitting on the floor and holding her for quite awhile. Once the neighbors were done we were able to watch some fireworks that were going off downtown out our windows. We didn't go outside to watch as there was a ton of smoke floating by our house as well as Ali refused to go outside. We had a great view from our windows so it worked out pretty well.
Today, we were gone all day running errands. A quick shopping trip turned into being gone for about 5 hours. We went shopping for a new bed and found one that I absolutely love. In fact, I was ready to take a nap on it at the store!!!! We also bought some tennis rackets as there are some courts about 6 blocks from out house. Woo hoo! We can't wait to go play...hopefully tomorrow night. I may even sigh up to take lessons through the Parks Dept. Andy is polishing up his skills so he can challenge Laura to a game. I told him he better work hard as she's pretty good. =) This evening some other neighbors started setting off some more fireworks and once again we had a freaked out Ali. I really hope the fireworks are done for the year!!!
This past week flew by!!!! On Monday, we had a meeting with our case manager and then we met Andy's brother, Matt, downtown at the Rock Bottom Brewery for lunch. Our meeting was a good one! We went through the paperwork that we'll need for when we get a placement as well as signed off officially on our homestudy. YEAH! Once the meeting was over, we headed to the lightrail and took it downtown to meet Matt. I couldn't believe how many people were downtown walking along the 16th St. Mall!!! It was really busy but I guess everyone was out over their lunch hour. We really enjoyed meeting up with Matt! We sat outside on the patio and had fun people watching while we chatted. After lunch, Matt came back with us to our house. We all drove up to Westminster to meet their Aunt Barbara and cousin Teresa, for dinner! It was great to see both of them!!!
The rest of the week wasn't nearly as busy as Monday but it was still a great week! Andy was actually off on the 4th so we went to the Cherry Creek Art Festival which was really crowded but fun. Our plan was to go somewhere and watch fireworks that night but Andy was super tired since he had worked Friday night and only had a couple of hours of sleep before we went to the Art Festival. We still were able to watch fireworks from our house. Our neighbors set off some that shook our house and all the pieces fell onto our deck. Lovely! I took the dogs out and one of the ones they shot off came right at me and exploded about 10 feet above me. Ali freaked out! Poor thing was shaking and didn't know what to do...she kept trying to hide from the sounds but couldn't find anywhere in the house that made her feel "safe". I ended up sitting on the floor and holding her for quite awhile. Once the neighbors were done we were able to watch some fireworks that were going off downtown out our windows. We didn't go outside to watch as there was a ton of smoke floating by our house as well as Ali refused to go outside. We had a great view from our windows so it worked out pretty well.
Today, we were gone all day running errands. A quick shopping trip turned into being gone for about 5 hours. We went shopping for a new bed and found one that I absolutely love. In fact, I was ready to take a nap on it at the store!!!! We also bought some tennis rackets as there are some courts about 6 blocks from out house. Woo hoo! We can't wait to go play...hopefully tomorrow night. I may even sigh up to take lessons through the Parks Dept. Andy is polishing up his skills so he can challenge Laura to a game. I told him he better work hard as she's pretty good. =) This evening some other neighbors started setting off some more fireworks and once again we had a freaked out Ali. I really hope the fireworks are done for the year!!!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Lovin' Summertime...
Ahhhhh...I love summer! I think being off this week as well as being off two weeks ago has really helped me remember what summer is all about. It made me think back to when we'd have summer break and all the fun we'd have as kids. There are certain songs that when I hear them make me think of summers from years past. For example, I can remember laying out at the city pool all lathered up with "oil" with my friends and singing along to "Cruel Summer" and "The boys of Summer". I remember riding out to Lincoln City to go swimming and singing "Fishing in the Dark" with my friend, Julie. "Kokomo" was not one of my favorites songs but I remember being "tortured" by my sister and having to listen to it over and over and over. Ah...the memories.
I know there are more songs that will come to me but I made a short playlist with a few of the songs that came to mind. Some are oldies, some I can't believe I ever liked, and some are still just great songs. So now, I'm doing something I haven't done before...asking for some reader participation. What are some songs that make you think of "summer"? Any fun memories that you want to share?
Alright now I'm going to go listen to my list, bust out some Aquanet, tease the hair to get some big bangs, and enjoy the memories. OR maybe I'll just wait to hear about some of your favorite summer songs since Aquanet will destroy another layer of the Ozone.
I know there are more songs that will come to me but I made a short playlist with a few of the songs that came to mind. Some are oldies, some I can't believe I ever liked, and some are still just great songs. So now, I'm doing something I haven't done before...asking for some reader participation. What are some songs that make you think of "summer"? Any fun memories that you want to share?
Alright now I'm going to go listen to my list, bust out some Aquanet, tease the hair to get some big bangs, and enjoy the memories. OR maybe I'll just wait to hear about some of your favorite summer songs since Aquanet will destroy another layer of the Ozone.
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