14.2%

my mathematically-inclined husband came home for thanksgiving and w/in the first few minutes, informed me that we were 14.2% through the academy. as he got ready to leave today, we discussed whether christmas would be closer to 1/3 or 1/4 of the way through...and he decided 3/8 would be the most accurate.

we had 3 entire days together...plus a little on each end. it was so good to see him! he's trimmed down and now officially weighs less than he did when we got married. we never thought we'd see the day :)....and i'm pretty sure our grocery bill's goin up, b/c he's eatin like a horse! we had a great time - we slept in, ate a wonderful thanksgivin meal, got caught up on ufc and greys, went deer huntin, saw lots of family, spent an evenin w/some dear friends, and i even managed to sneak behind a corner and scare him one nite! (one of our favorite past times - haha)

he told several funny stories...everything from game warden jokes to practicing handcuffing technique on one of the lieutenants and havin him holler "somebody get this rookie off of me!" he's lovin it - learnin all there is to learn about wildlife and game law...bein in better shape and feelin better physically...learnin various defense techniques....and the countless toys he's bein issued (fancy flashlights, nifty gps systems, brand new handcuffs, just to name a couple). he brought a few pictures home, but we're waitin on clarification re: what all we can post publicly. as soon as we get that news, i'll get some pictures here for yall to see.

i just got off the phone w/him...he made it back to the academy okay and is already workin hard studyin and gettin some paperwork done. i'm still not used to him bein gone...and yet, it took no time at all to get used to him bein home again. in light of his latest departure, i haven't many creative words....just miss him like crazy. once this wave eases up some, i'll write again.

Queen Amoung Women

This is Josh. First I want to say that I have so much that I want to share with everyone about my first two weeks in the academy. However, this post is not going to be about me and my time here. This post is going to be about my wife.

If you don't know it, it takes a very special and deep woman to be the wife of a game warden. And I don't say that just becuase I grew up with one. From the very beginning it is extremely tough. Seven months of being home alone wondering what and where your husband is, wondering is he missing me like I am missing him. My wife sleeps in a bed all by herself, leaves in the morning to an empty house and comes home in the evening to an empty house. She does all of the household chores (although I know she would say "and that's different how") I don't know where she gets the courage or the strenght to maintain this type of lifestyle, much less for seven months. I don't want to talk down all of the other wives that are out there, because after living with 48 guys I have much respect for all the women out there that are wives. You have my sympathies!!!

So we make it through seven months and then what? We start a new life in places like Vider, Jasper, Pecos, Kerrville, Star....what a wife it is that is still here with me. You see...GW wives not only are wives, but they are the receipient of all the major war stories. I will get to come home and tell my wife about the guy who didn't want to be arrested, or the car chase that ended in the corn field, or why I came home with a shiner on my eye. See GW wives spend alot of time at home worring about their man in the field. Is he in a fight, is he asleep on a hill, is he on a lake? I couldn't picture a wife I would rather travel this life with other than Lindsey. GW wives get woken up in the middle of the night by phone calls meant for their husband, they have to deal with animals brought home by their husband, they host GW's in their house constantly. What a wife....

The courage it takes for lindsey to let me chase this dream, with the risks that are so apparent. Amazing! I know the pain that she has felt as of late with me being gone, the lonliness while I am down here. Such sacrifice!! But such a deep place is being built between us. A place of trust and deep longing. GW's consider their wives the most important partner they will ever have. Although she is not the person in the field with the gun that is backing you up, she is playing a much more powerful and meaningful role. She is the keeper of the GW's heart. She loves the game warden, she holds the game warden. So much of our time is spent in a place where emotions will get you killed. But a game warden can come home and be a husband, or a father, and I beleive they are a deeper form of these two because of the occupation the do every day. The wife is the cornerstone of that bond and energy.

To my wife, There isn't another woman in the world I would trust as my partner than you. I may be on a lake or in a fight, but you are my life and my dreams. I couldn't be a game warden if I couldn't come home to you every night. Seven months will be over before we know it and I smile at the fact that you will be waiting for me to smile at my stories and my adventures.

You are indeed a Queen amoung Women.....

caught red-handed

while josh and his cohorts were "working" on their "chores" last week (remember, this means they were playin w/and cleanin the various guns on site), they discovered two important tools: the training batons and the "red-man" suits.

side note: game wardens carry batons just like city police officers, so a training version of these batons is kept at the academy. also, for various training exercises, they have to wear protective gear. this gear is compiled of several pieces of padding they strap on (knee pads, elbow pads, helmet, etc). the gear is red, thus the nickname "red-man" suit.

back to the story....so josh and the guys find the training batons and red-man suits. bein full-blooded boys, what did they do? well, they strapped on the red-man suits and went after each other w/the trainin batons, of course! let's all enjoy a chuckle as we picture this.... now for the best part. they get caught! yep - their lieutenant walks in and sees these boys disguised as full grown men, dressed from head to toe in the red-man suits, w/the trainin batons in hand. seriously, is there ANYthing to be done in this situation? no excuse, no explanation, no far-fetched story could get them out of this one. can you imagine? now i'm laughin!!! fortunately, their lieutenant was probably just like them 20 years ago...he simply shook his head and reprimanded them w/an exasperated, "boys, boys..."

we all know whose idea this was... even the rigors of the academy can't subdue his playfulness!

this was just one of the many stories josh's folks and i got to hear this weekend. we laughed and laughed. he's learned so much already. his regularly used vocabulary is changing, as he's delving into penal codes and wildlife law. he's slightly more organized, as he's responsible for all sorts of coding and time keeping. and he's havin a ball...he's just eatin it up.

although, i don't know that he's actually eatin enough food. i don't know how much weight he's technically lost, but it's more than enough to make his pants baggy...even straight out of the dryer!

it was such sweet time w/him for those couple days. probably won't see him again until thanksgiving, but he'll have several days off then. we're already lookin forward to it.

he's doin so well...

no creative title available

these first few days w/o josh have been....okay. i have a few folks checkin on me regularly, which i dearly appreciate. and fortunately, i've been able to connect w/josh several times. mostly, we're textin back and forth....some of you more cell phone-savvy folks might understand why one cannot complete a call but can send and receive texts w/o difficulty and can feel free to explain it to me later. anyway...we've texted quite a bit, which has been good for both of us. i had a real treat tonite and had the chance to talk to him for about 20 minutes! so good to hear his sweet voice....

he seems good. exhausted, wiped out, and really tired...but good. especially good tonite. the instructor they had teachin them today helped to put lots of things in perspective. he explained the reason behind why they're learnin and doin a lot of what they're learnin and doin. this really helped josh....as the work doesn't seem so much like work for work's sake....and it helped remind him of the adventure of bein a game warden come june. he sounded drained....but motivated and encouraged.

latest scheduling updates: graduation will be june 7th...which is a good 3 weeks earlier than we thought it was gonna be. there are rumors circulating about thanksgivin and christmas breaks. however, i don't think i'll leak that information just yet.....in case there's a change. and maybe the best news of the week -- he gets this weekend off! so i'm headin south after work on friday.

now for the news that will make you shake your head -- every cadet is given a work-duty. this basically means everyone has an assignment for an area they are responsible for keepin clean. some get kitchen duty, some have to clean the classroom, etc. anyone like to take a guess at what josh's "duty" is? seriously, yall, this is nuts.... he's on the "firearms and tactical" work group. so this means that whenever they go out to the range, josh is one of the guys responsible for gettin the targets and other gear. they're also the ones responsible for checkin out and checkin back in all the guns to the cadets on mondays and friday. seriously?? seriously. so while one guy's scrubbin toilets every day, josh gets to play w/guns. life is definitely NOT fair!

i think that's about all for tonite..... i miss him like crazy . . . there's somethin about bein married and then bein apart that doesn't fit quite right....but it'll be worth it. oh - if any of yall are interested in emailin him or sendin him somethin via real mail, holler at me, and i'll get you his address. (though i wouldn't expect very timely response via email....he doesn't have much internet time at all)

p.s. i just realized i actually used "text" as a verb....not sure how i feel about that

the first day of school...

...was yesterday (saturday, november 1st). 

after a yummy lunch of sams' pizza and homemade chocolate cake at josh's office, we set out for hamilton friday afternoon. we stayed in a lovely little mom and pop motel....it was very clean and had completely mismatched decor. perfect. i slept like a rock...and josh maybe got 2 hrs of sleep all nite. if you're not familiar w/my husband's sleeping patterns, here's a quick summary: he requires a minimum of 8.5 hrs of sleep a nite...unless he's wakin up the next mornin to go huntin or fishin, and then he tosses and turns ALL nite b/c he's so excited. needless to say, startin the game warden academy was the equivalent of loadin the pickup w/guns and his buddies and headin out. 

saturday mornin was the only time i would be allowed on the facility grounds, so i went w/him. he was issued a big black duffle bag full of a few clothes and...well...toys: binoculars, handcuffs, a radio...just to name a few. we unpacked a few of his things into his locker, put his food in the freezer, and tried to make his bed. an extra-long, vinyl, twin mattress....oh the comforts of home! after we did as much as we could do, he took me back into town. i headed home....and he headed back out. he had to change into his cadet uniform and be in class by 1:00. 

we didn't have a chance to talk last nite, but i did receive this text: "worn plum-ass out!!! i just polished my first boot and made my first military bed!!!" two things became apparent - they're gonna work them really hard...and he and i did a pretty shoddy job of makin his bed :)

i did get the chance to talk to him tonite for a few minutes. he still sounded incredibly excited and glad to be doin what he's doin. he said that the workload of grad school won't have anything on the amt of readin and studyin he'll be doin the next few months. the amt of material they'll cover in the next 34 weeks has been compared to the amt of material covered in 2 years of undergrad studies....but they're only in class 1/2 the day and have only a few hours every evenin to study. i think it'll be a pretty intense, consistently stressful environment...and i'm convinced he'll do well.

on a slightly different note.... we apologize for the delay in postings since our last one. the last couple weeks were full of gettin both of us ready for josh to leave... the house is a wreck, the fridge is empty, my satchel has become an abyss for receipts, and i've lost my watch....so our blog is only one of many things neglected :)

we haven't made any further decisions about adoption, either. i think it'll take us a few weeks to get into a sort of rhythm, and then we'll be able to talk and think and explore a little more.

i'll be updating as often as i can....and learnin how to post pictures here is on my list of things to do this week.