Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

To all are friends and family Janelle and I want to wish you the best 2009!  Take what you learned from 2008 and put use to it but put the past behind you, this is your new start and we wish you the best!

It has only been 3 days of the Academy and it feels like its been 3 weeks.  There are 26 of us and I am lucky to have the classmates I have, I look forward to growing with them through the good and the tough.  It was a great first week, though we still have Friday left.  There is a military feeling to the academy and rightly so.  You feel a sense of pride and honor in class and out!  I know we will all be highly prepared to step into the the Law Enforcement fields for National Parks as well as in good shape too.  I don't believe I can say to much about the training so I will keep it a little vague for my own safety :). As we were warned about what we put on the web.  I can tell you I am am doing great!  I am so excited to learn and grow in this field.  We are committed to 9 hours a day at the academy as well as most of our night working out, doing homework, studying and re-typing 9 hours worth of notes.  I, like many of the other cadets, have added more classes above just the academy.  I will be taking Hazardous Material as well as Wildland Fires which will take up a few of my nights and 3 full Sundays, some have added EMT which is 8-5 on every Saturday.  I passed because I really want to focus on kicking butt in the academy.  Things will be getting much tougher and stressful and I am up for the challenge.  Our first big test will be Monday (120-135 questions) as well as the physical fitness test too.

Janelle came up to Mt. Vernon last night and will stay till Friday morning when I go back to class.  It was great to see her since she has been in Minnesota for the last week.  Last night we had some cadets over for New Years.  We had a good time, we haven't gotten to much time to get to know each other yet so this was a nice builder, plus Janelle got a chance to meet some of my new brothers and sisters.  One of them ran 3 miles UP Little Mountain this morning and then 3 miles back down it.  I passed on the offer to join her..... of course only because Janelle was in town :)

My host family (the Thor family, Gary , Jenny and Kerry) are great, its so nice to have a family up here when 95% of my life is the academy, eating and sleeping.  I look forward to getting to know them all better.  They are so kind and we have a lot in common!

This will be tough for Janelle and I but the Lord's strength and support from family and friends will help.  Janelle is busy with her residency and loving it.  She shares with me all the new stuff she gets to do or teach.  It's amazing to see her passion and dedication to her field.  These next 9 months will be a time consuming and hard time for the two of us because we wont get much time together.  Unfortunately it is a commitment we both need to make for our careers.  It should help us for our future in our careers as well as having more time to "live" with each other and enjoy life!  A little sacrifice at the start to get us both on our feet and moving forward.

Life is good! God Bless and Happy New Year!

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