First of all, I just have to say that I love a man in uniform! Especially my man. :) This past Friday, Jeff graduated from the Academy and we are all so proud of him. He also received an award for achieving the highest degree of firearms proficiency! He has been working his butt off for the last 4 months studying for academic tests, getting into better shape, learning defensive tactics and more, all while being an awesome husband and father. It has been fun and a little scary sometimes hearing Jeff's stories from work. Some days it was a little unnerving when he'd come home with bruises all over his arms, smelling gross from getting "slimed", or my least favorite was when his eyes were swollen and face red from getting maced. But he also got to have fun shooting guns and stuff, which hopefully made up for some of the not so fun, boring days. The actual graduation ceremony was great! They had some great speakers and it made me feel better about the people Jeff will be working with, or as they refer to them, his correctional family.
It was also awesome because both of our parents were able to come up for his graduation. We had a great weekend with them and wish they could have stayed longer. Jeff's mom made us this cute erase board where you can write "I love you because..." notes for each other. On it, she wrote, "Jeff and Kelly, I love you because you two graduated!" I thought this was funny at first because I didn't graduate. I still have another year before I graduate... But this morning as I was thinking about it, in a way I feel like I did graduate; I graduated to a whole new level of being a wife. Before the graduation, all of the officers' spouses were required to take a class about how life will now be different. It was really eye opening to see how things will probably change in Jeff's psyche and how it'll affect his outlook on life and even our marriage. After this class I felt that I needed to step it up as a wife! I hope that as Jeff continues in this line of work, we can both find the balance we need to support each other. I love Jeff so much and am so proud of what he has accomplished and I know Jackson is too. :)
