Going Back to School...

I can honestly say I never thought I would go back to school after receiving my Business Degree from Northwest Iowa Community College about three years ago, but little did I know that God had other plans for me.  At my annual review this January my bosses presented me with the idea/option of going to school to become a Paralegal.  Wow...this was quite an idea I thought... I think I was a little taken by the idea.  I was quite the "studyholic" in junior high/high school and when I graduated from NCC I remember being pretty excited to finally be done and move on to starting the "real world."  I was ready to get married to the love of my life, get a job that I would hopefully love, come home and not have homework to do (for once) but instead have supper to make, laundry to do, and time to just spend with my husband.  Well not that I love doing laundry necessarily, but I would take it any day over homework.  Anyways, like I said God had other plans for me.  I thought about the idea for quite awhile, talked to Charlie about it and got his thoughts, as well as my parents and some of my sisters.  And after all the thinking and discussing, I have decided that this is too good of an opportunity to pass up.  Am I excited about the many nights of endless studying, the long hours of text reading and lectures, and of course the many papers and exams that come along with college courses?  No, but I am excited to be learning something that really interests me.  I am excited that hopefully after receiving my degree I will be a better employee.  I am excited about the idea of better understanding the work that I do and why I do what I do.  Sure I am nervous that I may not be smart enough, or may not get as good of grades as the next person, and that I may not understand everything that I learn, but all I can expect out of myself is "my best".  Besides the many thoughts that have been running through my head, at the same time I am just excited and ready to get started.  I am looking at starting classes May 9 already (if we can get everything lined up in time) and I will most likely be able to complete my degree by sometime in 2013, which I thought was pretty good.  So as I start school in the next couple weeks I'm sure I'll update you as to how things are going and how I am enjoying the classes.

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the evening!

~Jamie~

Charlie's first week on as a full-time deputy

Charlie just wrapped up his first, six day shift as a full-time deputy.  He really seems to be enjoying the work that he does so far.  Being that so much of what he does is confidential he can't share specifics with me, but has seems to be keeping fairly busy and seems to be learning new things every day.

According to Charlie, many of his employees/employers have been asking him how I feel about his schedule so far, and how I am handling it.  I'm not so excited about all the night shifts that he will be working, but to be honest with you, things have been pretty good so far.  I am not good at just chilling by myself, it's just to quiet and lonely, so I usually enjoy spending time hanging out with my family over at my parents house.  I have now managed to receive the nickname "mooch" -they like to tease me that I come over to mooch supper off them, but you can ask my mom, she usually calls and invites me over...right mom? I do have to say that I have learned to be quite the night owl though.  I usually have a hard time falling asleep until Char gets home, so I often find myself keeping busy until 1-1:30 in the morning or so.  I can get quite a bit done in a day when I stay up that late (or early I guess).  I've been able to clean my house often, do some baking, enjoy going on long runs, and catching up chatting and spending time with my family.  So anyways, things are going well for us so far. 

Charlie's 2nd day on as a full-time deputy.  He had the honor of supporting a fellow employee (Deputy Waylon Pollema) as he willingly was tased for a fundraiser and training exercise.  I think Charlie was just happy the guy on the ground was not him :)

Here's a link to the video in case you're intersted in hearing about the fundraiser and to see the tasing exercise: http://www.kcautv.com/global/category.asp?c=190185&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5716270

Nephew's Coyer & Kedren stopped by and suprised Uncle Charlie over his lunch break one day!

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to our newly created Blog page.  I have really enjoyed keeping up with family & friends by reading their blogs, so I thought maybe I'd give it a shot too.  I hope you enjoy keeping up with what is going on in our lives, and we look foward to keeping up with all of you too!

~Charlie & Jamie~
Zomermaand