Regular posting has been difficult for me.  I don't get much time with the kids so I tend to remain inactive when they are up.  But by the time they go to bed I just want to relax.  B-baby is sitting contentedly next to me so now seems the perfect time.

As of yesterday we are one step closer to allowing parents to remain completely inactive in their children's lives.  I watched the screen dumbfounded (more so then on 11 September 2001) as school officials allowed the distribution of pill form of contraceptives for middle school kids.

Yes, middle school kids.

This policy allows for the health center to issue contraception to the students with out notifying the parents.  The parents do, however, have to sign a consent form for this to happen.  Why not just sign away your parental rights and continue on with your life.  Just one step closer I guess.

Along with having an increased risk of blood clots  (though usually in older women) and heart attacks, there are sore breasts, weight gain and, what every juvenile female needs, mood changes!

Just code them as ADHD and Dyslexic so you can mix more meds with a growing brain.  Don't worry, that glazed look is not a side effect of all the drugs.  There just must be something else wrong.

OK I'm done. 

Every time the fair or or apple picking come around I become very apprehensive about going.  I'm not sure if something had happened in the past and I just blocked it out or its just the idea of it. 

But when the time come for me to go to I actually have fun. 

The kids love the animals and the wife and I love the food.  We usually visit the bunnies and baby animals at the end.  The girls love the little animals and always want to bring one home with us.  I'm glad we visit the little animals last sine we pretty much spend all the money on all the good food.  This way I don't fall for the sad faces when I have to tell them we can't bring one (or three) home with us.

The wife allows me some good time to look at all the old tools and farming equipment.  We never see the races or the tractor pulls, which is a good thing, because none of us like it that much.

In the end I realize all my fears were for nothing and I always have a fun time.  So for once I am going to look forward to going to the fair this year and not work my self up for nothing.

Ive been meaning to post this video for a while now.  When the wife showed it to me it was like he was singing about my life. 

Today started the end of my short weekend and the start to an extra day of work.  I have two work related two-day classes to attend along with a normal 10 hr day squeezed in between them.

It seams as though just as I am relaxed enough from work and I am able to enjoy the children I have to go back to work.  I would love to have just a few days devoted just to the kids with out phone calls, places to be, or responsibilities to worry about.  Just being the kids friend for a day or so would be nice. 

Since that is not possible, I guess I need to learn how to come home (with a very short commute), switch gears and get in the groove of things.

After spending 10 + hours of dealing with other peoples problems, paying attention to your surroundings so you don't get caught off guard and get killed it is impossible to take off the police hat and put on the 'worlds greatest dad' hat.  In law enforcement you find yourself in cop mode 24 hrs a day.   This doesn't mean I'm looking for parking violators, speeders, or registration plates that have expired (or wrongfully attached).  But I find myself constantly watching my surroundings, visually checking people for concealed weapons, making sure I'm not being followed, or that no one is just outside the house waiting to kidnap one of the kids or jump me when they think I'm not expecting it.  I find my stress meter goes through the roof when I'm out with the family.  My gun is hidden meaning longer response time, no radio, and my immediate back up isn't another officer, it's my wife or my 9 year old daughter to 6 month old son.  I'm not just looking after myself and I can't make a quick 'tactical retreat' and leave them alone to face the danger. 

What I have been trying to do is keep the police hat on, but I've been covering it with the 'world greatest dad' hat.  It seams to work well until the 3year old comes out in full force from B-3.  With that sweet face he really knows how to push your buttons. 

A-unit said something to one of the girls on Sunday when they started to complain about going grocery shopping after church.  "Find some joy."  It's simple enough but she is right.  I need to find more joy in things.  Well hopefully my dad hat will stay on and I can enjoy the kids for the few hours I have with them tonight until bed time.  I find the bedtime routine is stressful for me for some reason so I'll keep repeating A-unit's comment to the girls, "Find some joy, find some joy, find some joy." 

Hay, you never know, maybe I'll be able to find my 'worlds greatest husband' hat!

Other things have happened to me since the last time I wrote, but only one thing has stood out in my mind.  Recently we were driving through one of the neighboring towns and discovered the main road blocked off.  Police cars were blocking the road and fire trucks could be seen beyond.

Since most of the activity was on the side of the street the elementary school was on we figured the school had some type of problem. 

For the 6 o'clock news we learned it was in fact the school and apparently an appliance had caught fire during the off hours.  The specific room involved had severe damage and the surrounding rooms had smoke damage as well.

The news caster stated it was lucky the fire happened in the new wing because the rest  of the school does not have any smoke alarms.  None of the sections have sprinklers.  The school wasn't mandated to put in the smoke detectors due to a grandfather clause because the building is so old.  According to the news anchor the towns school department didn't want to spend the money on smoke detectors. 

I'm sure the town folk will now demand the smoke detectors installed and a sprinkler system set up.  So they end up having to put them in any way and repair the new wing.  Good thing they wanted to save money!

The next day the Fire Marshall was on the news saying he had conducted an annual inspection last year and had told the school department that smoke detectors and a sprinkler system would be a good idea.  Since the elementary school was too old and had been grandfathered the Fire Marshall couldn't make it mandatory.   He also stated the damage would be only a fraction of what it is now if sprinklers were in place. 

Come on!  Of all the buildings to have grandfathered and not have it mandatory for smoke detectors and sprinkler systems.

Talk about being ignorant.  It's the 'it will never happen to me' attitude.  I see it all the time during work.  People know bad things  can happen but no one wants to believe some thing bad can happen to them.  From reading some of the blogs on this server, it seams many of you are dealing with quite a bit and probably know what I am talking about.  I count my blessing every morning when we all wake up and are all still healthy.

That's all for my ranting about fire safety and some rules not making sense.  My prayers go out to all of you and your children with sickness.

It was bound to happen when you have four kids.  One of them takes on your sarcastic ability but, being a child, has little restraint.  After all when a good comment comes to you its a shame really to let it go to waste.

Two recently were quite good. 

The wife and I were attempting to justify staying at home instead of going to a function.  We don't lie to people so the conversation wasn't going very far.  That is until B-2 put her two cents in.  I believe the exact phrase was "How about you say 'Surprise!  We're not going!'" just as happy as could be.  She really thought it was a good way to break the news.  Needless to say her comment made us realize we had to go and we went.  We had a good time but sometimes we just like staying home as a family.  OK, most of the time we like staying home as a family.

Recently the wife told the kids they were going to Tar-jay (TARGET).  The girls were confused and asked what that was.  The wife explained if Target was pronounced in french that would be what it sounded like.  B-2 promptly came out with "We are not in French, are we."  This is especially funny with some back story.

Shortly after getting on to the police force I was sent to Auger Street.  What was said was O-jay Street.  I had of course never seen O-jay street before so I got the general location and set out to find it.  I should make it clear this was not a priority call.  After consulting the map several times, and asking on the radio to confirm the cross street I had given up and told dispatch the only street in the area was Auger Street.  After some chuckles at my expense I was told I now live in a very French town.

I did not find it funny and was adamant Auger was pronounced Auger not O-jay.

                                                   AUGER

I read an interesting and refreshing article about homeschooling today.  It was in one of those free weekly news papers that reports on local issues.  It was titled Home-schooled by Andrea Rose.

The article showed the actual benefits of home schooling such as catering to special needs, more one on one teaching, and having a closer relationship within the family to name a few listed.

A section on the reasons for homeschooling being as varied as there are homeschoolers along with showing the dedication needed to keep up with the lifestyle.

A list of the number of home-schooled students to public / private school enrolments were given as well.  In my local area it gave almost 100 home-school students for this past year. 

The second page contained the contact information for a TEACH support group and what the group is about.  It also have three different web sites for people to look at, one for the states rules and the other two for resources and support.

The surprising part was it was a full page and a half long.  There was only one picture so there was a full 5 columns on the second page.

It's nice to have something in a news paper so the "normal" people can see what we do isn't so out there.

The past couple of days have sped by yet again. 

Work became a small drama show during a union meeting.  The union members actually laid out what topics to cover and we stayed on track for the most part.  Near the end however like most union meetings they descended into rumor speculation and a string of solutions for made up political decisions based on rumors.

The next day I was talking with someone at work about homeschooling.  Surprisingly he was supportive.  Almost with out any type of debate he agreed that just because there are students around you all day doesn't mean they are able to or supposed to be talking to them.  Or approve of what the other kids are saying.  Now I'm all for making sure my kids are prepared when they are on their own, but when they are young other children bring with them their parents baggage.  Picking on someone because they are different, due to race, clothing, intelligence or popularity is uncalled for in the real world so I don't tolerate it around my kids.  Teachers, though I'm sure they try, are unable to listen in on every conversation.  They have also been restricted, not by law, but by the Superintendent of schools.  Getting back to my original thought, it was a refreshing conversation. 

The Administrative Major had been on vacation for the past two weeks and comes back on Monday.  He needed some work done on his motorcycle and instead of hanging out in the shop for a few hours he decided to ride around with one of us.   Since I'm talking about it you can guess it was with me.  About 40 minutes into it he asked me to be on a new review board to determine and change the Standard Operating Procedures for the department.  After establishing it wouldn't interfere with my family time, I decided to do it.  I know if I leave it to someone else I would be complaining about it, wanting to have done it myself and kicking myself for not doing it.

We had a yard sale today and raked in some cash.  I can't believe what some people will buy.  As the old saying goes "one mans trash is another's treasure" really applies.  Almost everything that didn't see went to Goodwill.  Somethings we kept for next year.  Though I despise the process of the yard sale its good to get rid of the stuff you don't use and gain some money in the process.  Who knows maybe next year I'll enjoy it.

The kids were all great with each other and with their cousin during the day.  There were a few times B-3 and cousin T argued but they are three, so it's nothing I would not expect any other day with any other kid.  After getting wet in the sprinkler in the back yard everyone got dried off and dressed again.  Cousin T said "you looks hamsum" to B-3 as he was dressed in his shorts and t-shirt heading for his sneakers.  After I had B-3 stop and hear what T was saying he said thank you.  Kids amaze me still. 

Yesterday was a good day I think.

We started out by going to church.  It wasn't to stressful trying to get out.  Next week will be the test since it is the first day of CCD (Sunday School) and both B-1 and B-2 are going to class.  Instead of leaving the house at 0900 we will have to be at church at 0800.  So, we will see.

After church we ran home, changed and went to a family party.  My brother was putting it on so I was confident everyone would enjoy themselves.  They put on a new 3/4 covered porch on the back of the house that was about the size of their dining room.  They plan to screen in the covered portion but for right now he had only installed the screened door.  My dad and I had some good fun teasing him about that.

The kids had a blast and so did I.  We arrived just after 1:30 and before I knew it it was almost six and we were talking about dinner. 

The kids rolled down the hill next to the house, chased eachother, played "daycare", chased eachother, played on the swings and in the end B-2 and 1 had one sparkler each along with thier cousin.  The girls both promplty dropped theirs when one of the sparks hit their hand.  After that my brother had a good idea and had the kids just stick them in the ground and then light them.

At 8:00 the kids went into the living room and watched the new animated TMNT.  B-2 had seen it before but B-1 had not.

Just before 9:00 we pulled the kids away from their fun and went home.

About 10 minutes into the ride we had to pull over into a parking lot so we could feed B-baby.  About 2 minutes into the feeding, a Buxton officer pulled up.  She inquired as to what we were doing in a parking lot with a closed business.  We explained that we stopped to feed the baby.  She started to suggest for us to move along right then but didn't finish her thought.  It appeared she wanted me to finish the sentence for her and just go.  I know this game too well.  She then just asked how long we would be.  She left after we said we were going to be about 5 more minutes.

That she checked on us didn't bother me a bit and that she wanted us to move along was what I was expecting her to say anyway.  What did amaze me is that she didn't get out of her car at anypoint during the conversation.  She deemed our silver Grand Caravan, smack dab in the middle of a well light parking lot, worthy of attention but never took any steps to protect herself.  Crazy.  I'm sure I will talk more heavily on Law enforcement complacency at another time.

By the time we arrived home everyone was sleeping.  Even the biggest kid and she never falls asleep in the car anymore.  I guess it was a testament to how much fun they all had.

After a stressful day at work, I was looking forward to a nice quiet night at home.  After all what could be more stressful than the things I deal with at work?  Having to get into the house when a one year old somehow locked the grandmother out of the house, securing an accident scene while waiting for the fire department to arrive because the car is engulfed in fire, chasing down a flasher across from a bank and other such things.

So when I came home today I was able to get changed in peace since everyone was at B-2's martial arts class.  A-unit came home early and my stress meter went through the roof.  Apparently B-3 had fallen and nailed his head against a cement curb.  Everything else seems small when it is happening to people you love.  With the uniform on you need to quickly compartmentalize what you are dealing with and just move on.

We quickly picked up B-2 and went off to the hospital.  When we pulled into the parking lot B-Baby was asleep so A-unit brought B-3 in alone.  B-1 was cute.  As they went into the building she said "I hope he is going to be ok."  I think its great the other kids are concerned for their siblings.

Well I put on a movie for them so B-1 and 2 wouldn't dwell on the fact that their oldest youngest brother was in the hospital having his head looked at.  That left me to sit there staring at the ER entrance.  Some how my looking for something to read turned into me cleaing the entire van.  When I sorted out everything and put the cocunut bra, lei and deodorant in the pile to come inside the rest of my family emerged from the hospital. 

I had a huge sigh of relief to see that B-3 didn't have his head wrapped.   The abundance of stickers on his leg helped calm me a bit too.

We are supposed to wake him up before we go to bed but I think he is going to be fine, since he's been coming down stairs on his own for the past hour and a half.

I'm just glad everyone is still safe at the end of the day, and I literaly am grateful when we all wake up in the morning.