How to tell if your Cop is really sick:

1.       He actually uses sick time!

2.       He turns off his radio, and cell phone

3.       When sirens go off he doesn’t care

4.       He stops acting like a baby

5.       The man flu would be an improvement

6.       He is willing to loss a court case because he doesn’t feel well enough to go

T-rex took sick time for the first time in 5 years!  I don’t know if I should be happy he took my advice for once or worry that he is so sick.

He's on nights, he knows nothing.

There is actually a lot going on right now.  Just none of it really “blog worthy.”  Or maybe I don’t want to take the energy to type it all out?  I don’t really know. 

I think life gets like that for all of us.  It takes energy to give a darn, and well I just don’t wana anymore!

T-rex is also on his last week of night.  .. I hope!  I forget. Nights are great weeks 2-4 but too much after that and I start to want my husband back!  I am a lucky one our guys change shifts about every 6 weeks.  I am one of the unlucky ones, our guys change shifts about every 6 weeks.  There is good and bad in it.  I like that for 6 weeks I get to have dinner with him, for 6 weeks he is home to help send the kids off to school, for another 6 weeks we are going to bed around the same time!  I like that he is not stuck on night for a year or more at a time, that would not be fun.

But there is a very big issue with him changing hours every 6 weeks.  Every 6 weeks everyone has to readjust. Dino usually ends up sleep walking during the first week of the change, Rae whines a lot more, and Lilly turns into nasty Diva (Yeah she is at that age, but I am still going to say it’s because of the change in hours).  Everyone’s sleep is also affected. Then we get into our grove and it changes again, which isn’t so bad because by the time we are really in our grove I am sick of it. I am sick of feeling like a single parent all the time, I am sick of seeing my husband in passing moments, I am sick of not being able to wash the sheets because someone is always sleeping! 

Yesterday we talked about some of this, not the sheets, but the other stuff.

T-rex is mostly a laid back kind of guy, which helps a lot.  He doesn’t get to really be a part of the household most of the time.  Mostly when he is on night he can go a week without seeing the kids for more than 5 minutes, he often times has no clue what is going on when I change everything in the house, and I don’t even think he knows what time dance is for the girls.  It is just how it is. I hate to say it but often times I do things that a couple would do without him.  Like sign our daughter up for preschool. Or get the girls a new bed. I do try and let him know what is going on.  But truly if we didn’t make a real effort he wouldn’t know anything!

I do have to say when T-rex is home (no matter how rare) he makes the effort to know what is going on. If he didn’t I might not know what to tell him because I am so used to him not being around.  I don’t plan things with him, or around him, we just go and do it. If he can make it great, if not oh well. I have to live like that; he has gotten calls out with no more than a 30 second warning. Things would be far harder if I put everything on hold for him.

Still I like to think he knows what is going on around the house, and when I can I seek his thoughts. Like with the new beds, I went down town to look at them, picked them out, had the guy ring me up and then called T-rex to come pay for them!  See he knows what’s up!

Some things are just not normal. . . . .

Like my children.

I mean they fit in at home, and that might not be the best of things.

Take Rae for instance.   . . .

Last week we saw a small aquarium. The turtle looked dead.  She announced it very loud, the other little girl started to cry, her father gave me dirty looks as I laughed.

She asked her father yesterday if he had to shoot anyone, like this was a normal question to ask.

We went to story time where they were reading “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.”  First I have to say that story is a little morbid for 3 year olds . . .Or at least it seems that way now.  Rae assured everyone the lady did die. When the teacher said the old lady still had her mouth open so she was asleep Rae informed everyone that she does not sleep with her mouth open, but she dies that way.

I am sure some of this is normal 3 year old wonders.  Yet I can’t help but feel that some of this is because we face the dangers, the bad, and death every day.  We girls standby ready to support T-rex in all he does, and with that we get a small glimpse at the ugly in the world.

Although we do our best to protect our children from many of the dangers in the world it is hard to kiss daddy goodbye without noticing the gun at his side.  Part of me worries the girls see the danger and icky stuff to much.  Another, bigger part of me thinks that the world is turning into a bunch of PC babies. The girls brought home the book “Little Red Riding Hood”  Did you know in the end the wood cutter guy does not kill the wolf with his ax? They don’t all have a nice BBQ later anymore?! 

Okay the BBQ part might never have been in there, but it was in my mind.  I do know in the story I read as a child the wolf got cut up, died, and everyone was happy!  Now he gets shipped off to a wildlife preserve where he is feed a nice vegan meal three times a day. (Or something just as silly)

So the girls are not big softies, (unless there is a bug.  .I mean eww) But that is okay. I like it this way. I would rather they grow up knowing that there are dangers, death, and bad guys than for them to be so afraid of anything and everything that is not nice. Life is not nice.

haha they will make fun of you! cause now you are one of the guys.

So T-rex has a “2011 taco” that he drives for work .. . Okay it’s not really a taco but that’s what the girls call it so I am going with that. 

He has not even had the thing for a year!  And yet he has already had his first accident.  The way he tells it the pole just jumped out of nowhere and ran right into him! 

Okay even he doesn’t tell it like that. I guess he was back-up on the interstate and had to flip around to get to town. When he did he side swiped a pole.  He almost made it a year without any damage to a vehicle I think he is doing good!

He had to do the whole, write a report, and hide it on the boss’s desk behind other papers so no one woud see it.  Then he spent some time in the garage cleaning it up, and making it look like nothing happened.  So far I think he has been safe and no one has made fun of him too much.  Well until I post this!

But to be fair he does drive a lot more than I do, and it was dark, and the pole was painted green.  And well he is still a rookie. .. . Or he was until he just made ranks with all the other guys who have ran into things with their vehicles.