Random Photos (from May and June).

Laying in my hammock in the front yard reading a book while the kids play. The weather is beautiful and I feel peaceful and life is just good!

Duh, duh, duh! Super Stetson!!!

Water park!

Sonnet made an "airplane" in the playroom. She gave us tickets and served us drinks and flew us to Alaska! :)

Don't bug me, I'm eating!

Neighborhood pool party.

He picked these sunglasses out himself. He says they're "sweet!" Green is his very favorite color.

We went to the movies! This show was adorable.

Um, nude bootie!

Memorial Day.

The kids started gymnastics. Stetson is a stud.

 

Sonnet is obsessed.

 

I said, "Come over here and let me kiss your face." He said, "No way! You have to wait until next Friday!" Huh?!

Little monkey. :)

"Jr. H" Reunion.

My oldest best friend Jenae and I decided to meet up in St. George for a little Mama's Getaway. We got ourselves a fancy hotel room for a night and spent two days eating, talking, and laughing. We slept in, sat in the hot tub, got massages, did a little shopping, watched a movie, ate the best French toast on the planet, and relaxed in the "quiet room" at the spa. Haha. It was super fun and relaxing! Jenae is hilarious and smart and self-assured... and she knows all my history... it's just easy and sort of life-affirming to hang out with her. I'm grateful for the husbands who watched the babies so we could have some girl time. It was good for my soul. We're already planning to make this an annual (maybe semi-annual!) tradition. :)

 

Promoted!

Nate got promoted to Engineer today!!!

 

On the Clark County Fire Department, there are 5 main positions: fire fighter, engineer (the guy who drives the trucks and is responsible for their maintenance), captain (the guy at each station who is in charge of all incidents and responsible for all the people on his crew), battalion chief (responsible for all the crews at several different stations), chief (the one guy who's in charge of everybody).

 

You have to have been a fire fighter for 5 years before you can test for Engineer and 10 years before you can test for Captain. The tests are only administered every other year. They're really hard, they require months of study time, and a lot of guys don't pass them. Those who do are ranked by final score and put on a promotional list. The list is good for two years. When the department needs to fill a position, they go to that list and start with the first guy and work their way down. Some years, they end up promoting all the guys on the list. Some years, they only promote a handful.

 

Nate tested for Engineer a couple years ago and placed pretty well. They've promoted a few off his list over the last two years, but not many. As of January, Nate was sitting in the number one spot on the list and we were just waiting...

 

But the list was about to expire (it did on July 1st of this year) and he hadn't been promoted. For the last few months, we've been hearing all sorts of rumors... so and so is retiring (which opens up a spot), so and so is getting promoted to captain (which could open another spot), such and such engine is going to be shut down (which deletes a spot), budget cuts mean no one is getting promoted, budget cuts don't take effect until end of fiscal year, old captain is leaving and no one will get promoted by July, new captain is being hired and he wants to promote before July...

 

Basically, it was a roller coaster of emotions and we had no idea what was going to happen. The exam for the new list (good for the next two years), was offered last month and Nate took it so he could be on the list again, if the current one didn't pan out for us.

 

But luckily it did! Just three weeks before the end of July, he got a call that he was being promoted! They ended up promoting 4 captains and 5 engineers. They had a little ceremony in the garage at one of the stations. It was SO fun to see Nate in his fancy uniform! I got to pin his new badge on him. He got a new helmet and a new title and I am just SO proud of him! It's big deal to qualify for a promotion and I am so happy it worked out this time around. It was a special, happy (special! happy!) day!

 

His schedule is the same, but now he is "roving" to all different stations where he can get lots of experience driving with different crews. He loves it so far and I feel so blessed that he got this opportunity. He works so hard and he is a good man and I am happy that he loves his job so much. Way to go Hot N8!

 

The Chief made a joke about "cutting it close." :)