Our New Home

I am so thankful we finalized an apartment tonight! It was a little stressful knowing we needed to find a place but there was no availability. The other problem was units just becoming available for rent wouldn't be ready for move in until after Mark started at his new office. It was very important to me that Mark had enough time between gradutaion and day 1 as an officer to learn the new city. Now I admit I am picky when it comes to apartments. Our previous apartment was in a wonderful neighborhood but was very old and needed to be renovated. I was set on having a more updated space for our first home after Mark starts his career. So here are some pictures I took with my phone when we toured the apartment last week. The quality is poor because they are iPhone pictures. I didn't have a camera.

This is the great kitchen! There is so much cabinet space! The best part it Mark and I can actually fit in the kitchen at the same time so we can finally cook together again.

This is a very blurry picture of the island. This model was a 2 bedroom. The only difference in the one bedroom is there is a wall against the near side of the island (it will be a peninsula not an island).

A little shot of the living room and dining room.

Master bedroom. I like all of the windows.

Walk in closet :)

Bathroom. Again, great cabinet storage.

Bath tub. Now if you have ever seen the "tub" at the Selby Ranch apartment you know why this makes my day.

We are very excited to start this new chapter. We will move into this place April 16th. I am now constantly searching for more modern decor pictures to inspire this new space. More on that later...

~Hannah

San Jose Trip

Our trip to San Jose was a lot of fun! We had a few hiccups leaving town on Friday but once we were on the road, all was well. Mark did pass his tests last week, which was a HUGE relief. He still has some smaller tests before graduation, but nothing as stressful or demanding as what he went through last week. It is hard to believe he graduates one month from today!

Friday I was super excited to tour the apartment complex we were hoping to rent from. The complex was originally built as condo's and is very modern. The unit we wanted was a one bedroom with an upstairs loft. It was on the penthouse level. I loved the floor plan because the living room ceiling opened up to the second level (17 feet high!) The loft was not enclosed but was big enough for a guest bed and our office. Now the Bay area is very interesting when it comes to apartment shopping. Most places are over 95% occupied and it is very hard to find a one bedroom. You have to watch for units to become available and jump on them. It can be very frustrating. Unfortunately by the time we got to the complex we were hoping to sign a lease at someone else had already rented the unit. Major bummer. So the apartment search continues.

Friday night we decided to have dinner on Santana Row. We ate at a yummy French place called Left Bank Brasserie. The food was delicious! Mark had a steak (of course) and I had Coq Au Vin. It was so nice taking a few hours to eat and unwind from the whirlwind week we had before. In case you don't know, Friday nights are our "thing." Mark is gone at the academy all week and I usually only talk to him on the phone briefly before he goes to bed each night. Fridays are the time we get to see each other, tell stories of our weeks, and finally relax!

After dinner we stopped to get our favorite cupcakes: Kara's Cupcakes. We are like moths to a flame when it comes to this place. If you haven't tried these, you should. It is the best cupcake I've ever had and most of you know i am very picky when it comes to bakery products. The Sweet Vanilla flavor is my favorite. It is moist and sweet but not overpowering. The sprinkles they put on top give it a little crunch. It is divine! The locations are limited but there is one in Santana Row and another in Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco.

Saturday night Mark had his ride along. It started at 5:30 pm and lasted until 3:30 am! He loved it. His office is very big with a lot of officers. Many of the guys he met were in their twenties as well. Mark also found that he likes the night shift. He likes looking for DUI's and likes having a partner. They were able to book a DUI that night. It was neat for Mark to see because he just finished his DUI testing two weeks ago. Overall it was a good trip. Mark and I looked at another apartment complex that we love. I am hesitant to post pictures in case we don't get a unit there! Hopefully we will nail down a place to live VERY soon.

~Hannah


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Wear & Tear

Yesterday was a tough Monday. It started with an extra long work day filled with a lot of frustration. When I left work I felt exhausted and a little beat up. All day I had a very uneasy feeling about Mark's intense testing this week. This is scenario week. Scenarios test the cadets by having them act out real life situations. For example, they have to respond to an armed robbery or a domestic violence. They are intense tests because they combine everything the cadets have learned up to this point. Not only do they need to know how to handle each scenario, they need to know what penal code they are arresting any suspect for, and if it is a misdemeanor or felony, etc. This is a very good test because I think everyone would agree that a new cop can't go into his first armed robbery having never practiced or experienced anything close to it! Scenarios are a big deal because they are typically the last thing cadets fail. A cadet gets two chances to pass each scenario. If they fail their second attempt they are out of the academy. Even though Mark had spent the past few weeks (and weekends) preparing for this, I still couldn't help but worry.

Fast forward to a few hours later. I got a call from Mark that he passed all of the day's scenarios but one. My heart sank. The mistake he made was something he could easily correct when he retested but knowing he had only one more chance to pass or his career was over sent me over the edge. Of course I couldn't let him know this. That is the hardest part of him being in the academy. I know I need to stay positive and not tell him about the little problems that come up in daily life. My goal is to minimize his stress so he can focus on graduating. Mark has been in this position once before. He had to retest on one thing a couple of months ago and it was all or nothing. That did not affect me like last night did. I was a wreck.

I was happy my sister called me to talk me through it. She gave me a verse that helped calm me down:

I knew I needed to put this into practice, but that is often easier said then done. I knew in my head that Mark had a very good chance at passing his second time around. He is always good under that sort of pressure. But for some reason I couldn't let my feelings go. I think part of it is the long haul of this academy. In one sense we only have 5 more weeks after this Friday!! I can definitely see the finish line. On the other hand, we have been at this for 22 weeks. The daily grind and stress just wears on us and our family. It drains us physically and mentally. I think last night was my low. Maybe it was the fact that I am so tired. Maybe it was that this obstacle pushed that once visible finish line just out of view. Maybe it was a combination of both. Whatever it was, I went to bed last night deflated and very upset.

This morning I didn't feel too much better. It took a lot of effort to hold it together as I talked with my dad this morning. I knew I needed to give this to God. I had no control over the situation. I kept praying and thinking about the verse my sister gave me. It wasn't until about 9am that I finally felt peace. A good coworker came into work at that time and I was able to explain the situation to her. When I heard myself say it out loud I somehow recognized that God has a plan and knows what is best for Mark and me. My worrying does nothing for the situation but make it worse. I felt I could finally give up control and be at rest. It's amazing the peace God can give you in the most stressful situations. It was like a blanket of calm that came over me.

So as of this evening, Mark had passed the additional five scenarios he had today. All he has left to do is retest on that one scenario Thursday. He will be staying at the academy Wednesday night with no liberty so he can practice with the instructors. Thursday will be a big day, but I finally have peace that God's plan will prevail.

This weekend Mark has his ride along in San Jose. We have two nights booked in a hotel down there. I am confident we will be heading down there Friday. Let me tell you, I am going to love climbing into a comfy bed and getting a good night's rest after this week!

~Hannah

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Starting New

After a few good conversations with a close friend, we decided cutting back on Facebook use would be a good thing. I always held on to my profile with the excuse that I liked to keep in contact with high school or college friends I would never see otherwise. I kept catching myself looking at these people's pages and pictures but I never called them, never sent them an email, never tried to contact them at all. So I asked myself what is the point of spending so much time "catching up" with these old friends when I have never taken the time to call them or have a real conversation? It even got to the point where I would feel like I didn't need to call my sister away at school in Washington because I would see her Facebook page and pictures and know she was okay. This had to change. The close friends and family I have, I see on a regular basis. I need to get in the habit of making phone calls or lunch dates rather than liking a status or writing on a virtual wall.

Come May 1st, Mark and I will be living in San Jose: a new city, a few hours away from our current home. It is very important to me that I break the habit of the "Facebook Friend" before this move. That is where I got the idea for this blog! I actually started this project a few months ago but had trouble figuring out how to make my blog header (lame excuse i know). So I kept putting off getting started. Finally, my friend who knew I was working on the blog asked me why I hadn't gotten it up. (a gentle kick in the behind telling me to get a move on!) I didn't have a good answer to her question besides "I can't figure out how to make my header into a picture." It turns out that all I needed was a $3.00 photo editing iPad app! After that it was a breeze. So here we go. I hope this blog will be a place to post pictures so my family and friends can see what I'm doing in San Jose. I also want space to post pretty things that inspire me. Things like a beautiful picnic set in my favorite place, the Napa Valley:

After going back and forth, I decided I will keep my Facebook page but will not be posting on it anymore. There are some great aspects of that website. I can search for people if I lose their phone number. I have a group page for all of the wives of cadets in Mark's class that I don't want to lose touch with. So you can still reach me there if you need to, but I invite you to come along and follow me here! (or send me an e-mail or give me a call) Please bear with me as I figure out this new blogging world. I need to figure out how to do things like links and special fonts.

~Hannah


1. Image from here