Family Fun

So the past 2 weeksmonth has been crazy busy for us.  I started back to work the last week in February.  My shift is assigned to night shift right now, and as you can imagine, I was pretty much dreading going back to work on nightshift.  I ended up starting back part-time, though, so it wasn’t too bad – I only worked half shifts (6pm-midnight) for the first two weeks.

Then, I was in training classes for the next two weeks, which meant my schedule was 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday (except that it was really more like 8am-6, or 6:30pm, plus homework!).  That was an eye opener.  I had been so dreading working nightshift, and I was convinced that an 8-5 Monday-Friday schedule would be the best and easiest way to spend as much time as possible with my family.  I was wrong.  It was HARD, y’all, and I give kudos to families with more than 1 kid who have both parents working the 8-5 schedule.  By the time we got home, picked up the kids from their respective daycares/preschool, fixed and served dinner, fed the baby, washed the bottles and prepared them again for the next day, bathed the boys, did their respective bedtime routines, etc, etc, etc…  it was after 9pm before I could even catch my breath and THEN I had to start on my homework!  Usually, while James cleaned up the kitchen and made Logan’s lunch for the next day.  I’d pretty much do homework until midnight or 12:30, or until whenever I couldn’t hold my eyes open anymore, then shuffle off to bed, only to wake at 05:30 and do it all over again.

Lesson learned:  the grass is really not greener anywhere, and the only way to spend the most time with all my boyz is to not work.  But, that’s not in the cards for us right now since I’m so darn close to retirement from the City that I can taste it.  It would be just plain dumb to give up now.

Which brings me to:  the training classes I was in.  Thankfully, they seem to have somewhat renewed my spirit and my enthusiasm for my job, and hopefully will continue to do so until I reach that 20-year mark (in just three short years) and beyond.  I am now certified to be an instructor, and can now teach any number of law enforcement training classes and continuing education classes.  In addition, I was certified to instruct the Alive at 25 Defensive Driving program, which I L-O-V-E.  Love, love, love, and any of you with teenaged drivers, and teenaged about-to-be drivers, I CANNOT recommend this program enough for your young driver.  Look it up, find a class near you, or request a class be offered, and send your kid to it.  It will more than likely save their life.  I’m serious.  Do it.

So anyway.  The past two weeks have been intense and exhausting, but the good news is that we’ve had lots of fun together on the weekends!  One rainy weekend, we decided to go bowling.  We’d never taken Logan bowling before, and even though it ended up being lunch/naptime by the time we even started, he was a great sport and we all had a great time!  And Dawson was lulled to sleep by the hustle and bustle of the bowling alley noise.

Here’s a little play-by-play:

This is my favorite!

That same weekend we took both boyz to the “fancy” movies and saw The Lorax in 3D.  The fancy movies is Flix Brewhouse – a movie theater-slash-brewery, with a full-service menu and dozens of beers on tap and in bottles.  Since we went to the first matinee, Logan got to have pancakes with his movie!  It was plenty of fun and we thought the movie was super cute!   Oh and Dawson did great through the movie, too – he mostly slept.

This past weekend was flat out GORGEOUS here in Central Texas.  We took advantage and road-tripped North about an hour and spent the day at the Cameron Park Zoo, and exploring Cameron Park itself in Waco.  What a great time we had, and we were all thoroughly impressed by the zoo!  It was beautiful, clean, the animals seemed happy and healthy and we were all on our best behavior and having the time of our lives!

Say Cheese, Mr. Tortouise

Flamingos

Rhino

Still hungry

All done, time to go!

Oh, there were tons more animals, these are just the highlights (I only have so much time, people!!).  That about wrapped up our fun weekend.  On Sunday we went to church and did our errands and chores and life pretty much got back to normal for the week.  So that’s it, until next time!