Hug a Cop today

Probably more than half of my friends don't know that I was married to a police officer for fourteen years until six years ago, and even now I still have a lot of friends and their family who are in public safety. Being in law enforcement changes some things about your personal relationships, and I thought I would write a little about it here.

It is difficult for a civilian to understand the life of a police officer or other types of law enforcement. The hours are tough, and your days begin to run together with the stress of going home and having to find a way to relax and rest before dressing and doing it all again. Your life becomes fully invested in your work.

Many cops don't have family at home to go to, and those that do have to face people at home who can't grasp how they feel, facing the type of danger they do. You never really leave the law enforcement mindset once you have lived in it for 14 years. I was fully immersed in it as a cop's wife, and there wasn't a single day that went by that I didn't stop and gasp to myself and think quickly to where he would be at that moment - was he at home sleeping, out for a run, or was he walking up to a car full of drug dealers with guns hidden under the seat? I was committed to him, and I made a conscious decision to sacrifice myself and the comforts of family for the sake of public safety.

When you have lived with that sort of stress, you always weigh the danger of a situation the people you love are faced with. You always consider what the possibilities are, but you stick with the probabilities. You can't afford to fear the worst. You have to stick with what is most likely. You also can't afford to delude yourself, either. You know what sort of temptations law enforcement officers face, if you are a smart person. You know that there are a lot of things he must deal with in his job that you don't want to know the details about.

You also learn how to give people space, and that space becomes a comfortable buffer zone between you and others, as well. It took me some time to learn to be reserved in my thinking and in my conversation. That is a requirement in Midwestern culture and in police work, too. It leaves a place holder between what you know, what you think, what you think might be and what could be the best and worst case in a situation, and you learn that deep conversation doesn't allow for all of the unknowns.

Law enforcement officers have an extremely high divorce rate compared to most other vocations. It takes a tremendous amount of encouragement and understanding to develop a good relationship with anyone who works on the street in this fashion, and cops typically cannot offer it back. So hug your police officer and spouse today, and tell him or her you read about the challenges they face. Trust me, they'll love you for it!

Rated G Shower Story

There is a music festival I used to attend in Willmar, Minnesota several years ago that hosts about 20,000 teenagers. The first time I went, I heard that it gets a little crazy on site, so I booked a campsite a few miles from the civic center. It was a great camping resort with kayaks, bicycles, etc… We all loved it. The shower was a small out-house type structure in the middle of the campground with exactly one toilet and one shower stall. Since there wasn't a lock on the door, I wasn't sure what would happen if anyone else in the campground had to use the bathroom, so I hurried in and started the water.

About the time I got my hair sudsed up, I heard a step behind me in the stall. I was already a little concerned about someone coming into the shower shack, so I jumped a little and looked around, but I didn't see anything or anyone, so I continued with my shower. Again I heard something like someone stepping in a puddle right behind me. I looked around more carefully this time and saw there was a HUGE ugly frog sitting right behind my heels. This thing was the size of a small chicken, and the stall was the size of a typical stand up shower stall. I resisted the urge to scream loudly. I was afraid of what the frog might do if I scared him, so instead I invented a nice little scream-song that went something like "help, help, help, omg, there's a frog taking a bath in here. Why me, God?"

Now since I was in the shower, I couldn't just run out the door, although I had to force myself to resist this natural tendency. I did a little hopping dance, kept my screaming down to squeaking with my little sing-song type prayer and expedited my shower. I was proud of my self-control. At some point during all of this the frog slipped out of the shower and back under the rock he called home.

Now it may seem like I don't like wild critters very well, especially after you read this story. I actually love being out in God's creation, and watching things in the wild is something I take great pleasure in, but as much as I like to be at one with nature, I don't very much appreciate the critters returning the favor.

Yes, the truth is I have a double standard. I can visit them, but I don't like it when they come to visit me. Maybe you read my story about my squirrel-house squatter. He was a lot of fun to watch in the tree by the deck, but I didn't care for him in my bathtub. I couldn't help but laugh when I realized he is not the only critter I know who decided to take a bath inside!

Squirrel Story

[previously posted elsewhere]

I have been thinking about writing this story down for a long time. Even before I turned on the computer, I asked my sister if it was too embarrassing. Of course she said no. So I'll start by telling you that every word of this is true. This really did happen.

It all started early one beautiful summer day at 6 am. The sun had been up an hour (it was Duluth, Minnesota, after all), and I was still dreaming about the fun I'd have sleeping late. But something woke me up. It was the clumsy sound of something in my bathtub. Through the open bathroom door I could see the plant I have sitting by the tub, but there was a furry animal head looking around the ivy leaves.

"That is not a furry animal head," I mumbled to myself, and I closed my eyes and started to doze off. Then I realized I don't have any stuffed animals by the bathtub, and no small children to leave stuffed animals lying around. I screamed very loudly, jumped up and ran around on top of my bed. He jumped when he saw me do this, and I ran screaming out of the room to the other end of the house to my living room.

I spent a few seconds trying to decide if I could manage to perch on the back of the couch or would I be as safe cowering in the seat cushions? Would that be good enough? I grabbed a pillow and decided I preferred to sleep. I was safe for the moment, but what could I do? Which of my friends should I call? My boss was out of town, although I knew he would have some way to trap the critter. As I ran down the list, I couldn't think of anyone. Then I looked back towards the kitchen and there he was!! He had followed me into the living room. OK, so maybe I can perch on the top of the couch. He began running around the couch, and I screamed loudly several times before throwing the pillow at him and running into the kitchen, but where should I go from here?

I decided to grab my phone from the table and run out the door onto the deck (in my pj's, of course). So there I was, sitting on the edge of my deck at 6:10 am. I thanked God that it was June since almost any other month could mean several feet of snow. I called a friend on the east coast. "I have a squirrel in my house!"

I could almost hear him rolling his eyes. "Um, I would love to chat, but I have a meeting with some architects, he told me in the most understanding way. Corey can probably help you." Well, what did I expect? He lives in Florida. He laughed loudly as I explained and he even shared it with his business partner.

I looked in the storm door and I couldn't believe it. The squirrel was sitting on his haunches looking at me through the window in the door. My friend laughed loudly and said he'd catch up with me later. I told him thanks for the moral support, anyway. Great. Very funny. Now what do I do? I decided to scream at the squirrel again to see if he would just run away. The neighbors can't sleep all day anyway. I guess he decided to stay away from me and ran further into the house. I got up my nerve and dashed into the kitchen and jumped up on the table.

By the time the kids got home that afternoon I had climbed down from the table, but the squirrel was still loose in the house. I told them the story and explained that they should look out for a small squirrel running around, but he didn't show up that evening.

The next morning we woke to hear something moving behind the clothesdryer, and my younger son, Stewart ran out of his room. He was twelve at the time and my older son was 14. The squirrel ran out from behind the dryer, jumped up on the hanging rack I had filled with damp clothes the day before and ran up to the top, where he stopped for a moment to get a good look at us. We were surprised and a little amused because we didn't know what to do. He was small and auburn colored - a red squirrel. They are infamously aggressive.

I had to go to work, and the boys went to school. When I got home from work a few hours after they arrived from school, they raced to tell me the story. Jeffry got home first and heard the squirrel under his dresser. He decided to try to get him out so he used different things including a piece of cheese on a string and a microphone stand. I commended him for his efforts but asked him "What would you have done if he ran out?"

"He did run out and into your room to hide in your closet," he told me.

Then Stewart told me the rest. Later he had arrived home and fixed a snack in the kitchen. When he walked down the hall he heard splashing in my bathroom. He looked in and there was the squirrel swimming in the toilet!

"Actually drowning is a better word. He was stuck," Stewart told me.

I was surprised he wasn't soaking in the tub with bubbles. When they saw the squirrel's predicament, my kindhearted young men ran for the broom and a bucket. They extended the broom to the little squirrel and he clutched it for his life. He climbed onto it and they put him in the bucket and covered it with a towel. They gave him some cheerios and took him outside. With the bucket on its side eventually the little squirrel crawled out and laid in the sun. After he rested a bit he ran off.

Bless the Earth

I know that many people scoff at the mere mention of Bible and science in the same sentence, but do you think the first people to write down Genesis knew about the importance of light to the rest of the world? Could they have guessed that space was a vacuum? I wonder if they did. Is it coincidence that the days of creation revealed the priority creation events?

The order of the events is one of the things that people scoff at more than any other, but look carefully - Day one is Light, which might also be considered the beginning of all energy. Day two is the dividing of the atmosphere, which is "the water above," and the earth, which is the "water below." Day three is the dry ground and plants. Day four is the sun, moon and stars. Day five is birds and the sea creatures. Day six the earth produced the animals, and God fashioned humans by his own hand out of the earth.

Not only are these days in the exact same order as evolution's representation of the events, each day's product is a necessary ingredient for the following days. I am not suggesting to you that we should push religious beliefs as science, but if you study the Bible at all, you will notice the people who wrote it were observant of the world around them, and they knew the significance of God's blessings on it. The earth is a rich and beautiful place, but we don't want to be the spoiled rich kids who won't clean up after they wreck the nice sports car and trash the nice apartment our Father gave us.

ok, here goes.

I am finally trying out blog utilities to use with my profile... Hmmm...