not so hot with the pictures and other random news

Well. I keep forgetting my camera for fun events. Sorry. I guess that happens when your only access to internet is at a temporary job. :)

We have had a very enjoyable christmas break! :) Cody finished this semester and got a 4.0!!! I am so proud of him. He is enjoying his time off. He's been really helpful around the house, cleaning and such. Its great to see him doing stuff and not worrying about homework.

We were planning on going to both Washington and Boise Christmas week, but we didn't end up getting to WA due to the weather and time. Dispatch needed someone to cover Christmas eve and christmas day due to a quick change of schedule, so they asked me to. Thats fine by me because its double pay and real easy! :) So we ended up leaving on the only good travel days of that week. Friday the roads were great to Boise, then saturday sunday and monday it was cold and snowy, then we left Tuesday, and the roads were great except in Pocatello, but all went well. We spent time with Cody's fam which was really fun. I met their new cat, "Precious". She was quite the fun cat :) We watched movies, ate cheese balls, had turkey, and coke of course. We had a hot tub party which was really fun. Cody and his sisters are crazy - they played rock paper scissors to see who would have to do snow angels in the snow - in their bathing suits. I'm glad noone got sick. I did not want to get out of the hot tub because even though it was lower than it was supposed to be temperature wise, it obviously was warmer than outside. If you know me, you know I hate being cold. For christmas this year I got awesome facial lotions and cleansers, snow boots (I needed those really bad), a Muppet Christmas Carol, ALL of the Harry Potter movies!, a christmas story, Beef sticks & cheese, gift cards, Chocolate, a wedding picture which my hair is photo shopped so I don't look bald!, and a wedding video (I think we accidentally left that there ...we need to get it back...its beautiful!) :) Anyway - so I was spoiled :) Cody got a new paintball gun, movies (iron man, the dark night..), PJ's, candy, and a bunch of random school/office supplies. :) Lots of fun!
Christmas eve I worked 6-6, christmas day 6-6, then the next night 6-6, and now 24 hours later i'm working another 6-6. So, these hours are a blessing :) really they are. PSR is going ok. I once again got my hopes up to get to full time hours......that I fear will never be a reality. I am sure i'd be better off looking for morning/day job to make up for my lack of full time hours. Cody hasn't found a job yet. Job searching is slow and kind of a let down most of the time up here in Rexburg. Oh well. such is life.

I have a sad cat story. So there is this Cat - I think i've mentioned it before- anyway our whole appartment complex has adopted it. It has several names, curly sue, stupid cat, that dang cat, ect...but ours is Cali Cat. Anyway so we really like having Cali cat around, we feed her and give her water and we gave her a coller and she has a special blanket that she has to lay on. Anyway - so its a joke with Cody and some of the guys from our ward that I take care of a nasty diseased stray cat - (she's sort of smelly somtimes but that other stuff is not true :P ) anyway so its pretty known I dont care that its stray. Well the other day I was working on campus and Cody called up and he was so sad over the phone. Keep in mind this was the day after we came back from a 4 day tHe said that some girl came knocking on our door and said that there was as cat that was under her car and she thought it was dying. Well - Cody thought it was Cali cat so he went with her to her car and found it lying on the ground crying. It wasn't Cali though. it was some other cat. Apperently the elderly people that live upstairs from us know we take care of that cat (which they hate). The elderly people are the Presidents of the club which the entire complex is operated under, so the girl asked them first thing...and they told the girl that we take care of the cats around there. So back to Cody by the car with the cat. Cody's first reactionw as - well we don't "own" Cali cat...and that cat certainly isn't ours - but even as he said that she picked up the cat and handed it to Cody. Cody brought it inside our house, which is a million times warmer - even if its freezing - than it is outside. On the phone he said the cat was really skinny and crying and in pain and he wasn't sure what to do. Well - since it was Christmas eve, noone was on call for animal control, Cody didn't want to drive out in the middle of noowhere to put it out of its missery because the roads were so bad he would get stuck - no doubt. I was going to get off work in 30 minutes so I told him to see if he could get it to drink any water until I got home. Well - Cody came to pick me up and he was sooo sad.....I tried to cheer him up and told him all the stuff I read in the twilight book which we've been kind of reading together on the trip. We walked into our home....and the cat was on the cat bed..........and i walked over to it and it didnt respond. The cat passed away from the ten minutes time it took for Cody to pick me up and take me home. Cody was SO so sad. So....i had him go in a different room...while I delt with the poor thing....and disinfected the couch and bed of the cat. After that we were so worried that Cali Cat was stuck somewhere in the feet of snow. Luckily though for us - just the next day or the day after she came up to our door just as healthy as ever!!!!! :) That other cat must have gotten very sick or something, because Cali was her fat happy self.

Well - if anyone read this - hopefully your mind has been blissfully numb for the past 5 minutes or so :)

Shop with a Cop

I love this program, they have it in many cities, I don't know if they have it back home in Walla Walla, but here in Rexburg it's pretty well known with many of my clients. Right now i'm workin dispatch and i'm listening, its 6am, and officers have been signing on since 5:30 a.m. to take kids, who's families really struggle, to go shopping for Christmas with money that has been raised and donated for this event. My clients that have gone have LOVED this holiday program. They felt really special to be shopping with a police officer. It's great to see what light it sheds on the officers to the kids, they know that they don't have to fear them. There is an interesting perception about Cops. A lot of people first think - well - this Cop thinks they're a.....jerk...for lack of an appropriate term. Or - they don't really care about people - or they just like to have power. Unfortunately - for some cops - as for anyone with any power position in ANY job (helping people or not) - that can be true. But for the majority of the time - the MAJOR majority of officers I have worked with and encountered, they're just dudes and gals like you and me. Just with a job to do. The shop with a cop program helps the kids to see that. They don't have to be intimidating. They're friendly. Sometimes I think if kids don't have to fear something, they wont fight it - or even challenge it as much. When you fear something - its usually because you don't understand it, or know whats behind it. Adults, role models, movies, TV, teach us what we "should" fear. Its cool to see when kids learn what is behind that fear, if its the thing itself that they're scared of, or if it is what comes of it that scares them. This opportunity to go shopping with a police officer just gives them another view - a new perception of police work - and the men and women in the uniforms. Its just so cool to know that this happens.

BE-E-A-UTIFUL!!!

I've been really stoked about holiday decorating :) Cody has been tolerating me well, and my day dreams about having wonderful decorations, ect. Well - We got a REAL tree (YES) its HUGE and BEAUTIFUL! :) It took me forever to decide what colors I should use for decorations. First I wanted plum purple and light gold. Then, there was dark red and white. Then red berries and yellow flowers. But finally we ended up with olive green, baby blue, off white, and dark navy blue! We have clear ice sicles, white and blue lights, sparkely pine cones I've made with my clients, and a silver star on top! :) Oh and little swirlley sticks with glitter on them. It is beautiful, and it smells even better! :) Cody was very patient with me and he helped me with the tree! :) Funny story though, neither of us have used fake snow before...and we thought we would try to spray the tips of the tree......luckily we only sprayed one side of the tree tips, it was not as pretty as we wanted it to be. I spent a good hour and a half to two hours trying to wash off the fake snow off that half of the tree....so we finally decided to just turn it around, becuase it was brighter green on the otherside anyway. Both sides of the tree are beautiful so it works perfect! :) We've learned our lesson though! I will post pictures on here. We still don't have internet so I get on here when I work night shift at dispatch.

Just FYI I love reading everyones blogs. :) Everyone is coming along beautifully! I'm very proud of all of my friends and family members :) You guys are AWESOME! :)