Saying Goodbye Is Hard To Do

This week has been pretty emotional for me thinking about leaving my work family. I was a sobbing mess from Wednesday to Friday. It is a bittersweet feeling that I'm dealing with. I have that of excitement, but also a lot of anxiety and sadness. It is hard leaving people you have been with for six years... some of them even longer than that. 

My co-workers were nice enough to not only arrange a party for me, but two parties to send me off in style. The first one was held on campus for people to attend and then we also had a "happy hour" send off for those that wanted to go. Even though I'm not really into things focused around me, I enjoyed myself very much!

Seriously, how blessed am I to have spent these past years with such amazing people. I will miss them all more than they will ever know! They have all impacted my life and made me a better person both personally and professionally. But let's face it, they probably can't get rid of me that easily... I'll be back to visit whether they like it or not! See you all sooner than later :)

Photo a Day Challenge - April Recap

Here are all the photos from the month of April! Thank goodness we are finally into springtime!

Enjoy the month of May!

30 Before 30 - Grow my Hair Long

My hair grows slow... very slow. Probably for the past two years I have been trying to grow it out and this is all the longer it has gotten...

 

This is in fact pretty long for me... truly the longest my hair has ever been!

But after a long discussion with my fabulous hair stylist, we decided it was time to chop it off! She cut about 4-5 inches off my hair... HOLY COW!

Before...

After!!!

Awwwww... it feels so good and healthy now :)

Time to check "grow my hair longer than it has ever been" off my 30 Before 30 List!

30 Before 30 - Advance in my Career

As I'm sure some of you have noticed... I haven't been doing great with my 30 Before 30. Cooking, reading for fun, running... they haven't been happening. The demands of life have literally taken over. But, the list is never far from my mind as I continue to strive toward some of my biggest goals. Two of those are intimately connected... getting my Masters in Gerontology degree and advancing in my career. I always figured that the degree would come first and then a new job, but life is full of surprises. 

I am happy to announce that I have accepted the position as Life Enrichment Director of Assisted Living at Aspen Trace, a new senior living facility in the area. I will be in charge of carrying out programs and therapeutic activities designed to meet the needs and interests of the residents in assisted living and enhance their functional abilities and self-esteem.

After being in my current position for almost six years this is an exciting change, but I have to admit that I'm extremely nervous about leaving everything I have known... my friends, co-workers, students, etc. However, this change is what I have been working toward for so long and what I'm most passionate about. Also, I'll have the opportunity to bring Remington to work with me... and you just can't beat that!

Time to check "advance in my career" off my 30 Before 30 List!

NRA Convention Weekend

This weekend was the National Rifle Association Convention in Indianapolis and over 70,000 NRA members were expected to attend. My husband, being a police officer, is a huge gun enthusiast so of course this was an exciting weekend for him. Because of this, him and my Dad made plans to have an entire weekend playing with guns.

The first stop was Dad and Dan going to a private range to do a little shooting.

Dad shooting Dan's Glock 19

Here is the AR15

I swear they are two peas in a pod!

The next day we all went down to the Convention to check things out. I really cannot even begin to tell you the huge amount of people that were down there. It was crazy! And there were so many exhibits that you could have spent a full three days and not seen everything. I didn't understand what a lot of stuff was, but it was an interesting experience.

The pictures I took were kind of random. Like I said, I had no clue what a lot of stuff was, so I just took pictures of stuff I thought were cool.

Shotgun that fires 7 rounds at a time...

A giant safe! This would be like Dan's dream safe, but we would have to purchase it and then build a house around it because it was literally HUGE!

A professional gun engraver... pretty cool.

It was a pretty busy weekend, but I feel like Dan and my Dad enjoyed it. Mom and I were just kind of along for the ride, but it was still fun.

Photo a Day Challenge : Week #16

Day 20 - Egg

Day 21 - Close (they are the closest of friends)

Day 22 - Four Things

Day 23 - Entrance

Day 24 - A Pop of Color (4500 pound safe for $15,000)

Day 25 - Remember (my 10 pound puppy)

Day 26 - Enjoy the Little Things (I love the relationship my Dad and Dan have)

Life @ LPD - SWAT Training

The second big event that was going on during the month of April was SWAT Training. Yes, my husband decided to schedule two weeks of training back to back. The nerve :) So once again I was scrambling around that week with all the crazy things he had going on.

Here is a play by play of how his week went...

Monday: They worked on manual door breaching and room/building clearing techniques.

Tuesday: They were at several different shooting ranges at Camp Atterbury. They shot both their handguns and patrol rifles and also stationary and pop up targets.

Wednesday: They did less lethal munitions and chemical agent munitions.

Thursday: They did more techniques of building and room clearing then went to an abandoned building and did breaching, room clearings, and mock scenarios.

Friday: They has ballistic shield training and learned several different shooting positions and shot from behind the shield with their handguns and rifles. Also, they practiced officer down rescues with two shields and a rescue team.

Unfortunately this training was pretty intense and there was not time for him to take pictures for my blog! Again... what was he thinking :) I'll leave you instead with a group picture from his Sniper Training the week before. You can click on the pic for a larger view :)

Thankfully, I think we are finished up with all his craziness for a while!

Now that SWAT Training is over with Dan is able to be on full active duty for the team. It's a good thing too, because the week after this training they had an unexpected call out. Being married to Dan sure makes life interesting.