Okay, so for anyone who is reading this post-this is a totally random, rambling post. I am staying up late tonight as I always do when Taylor is in the Academy just sharing my random thoughts from my new crazy life.
California is good. We moved to this city called Rancho Cordova which is approximately 12 miles from Taylor's Academy, 20 miles from Taylor's parents and 10 miles away from Folsom which is a really nice area-This is where I do most of my shopping. Rancho Cordova is nice, but our neighborhood scared me at first glance. We found our apartment on the internet. When we were driving up to our apartment, I thought that we were going to live in a getto (no idea if that is spelled right). But it got better as we drove along, and our apartment complex is really nice. It is a gated apartment complex and every apartment has a built-in alarm system. There is also a security gaurd on site from 8pm to 4am every night. This makes me feel so much better regardless of the neighborhood, because I am alone with my girls 4-5 nights of the week. I really like our complex. There is a fitness center on site open 24 hours a day. I can't really utilize this given that my husband is never home and I have two kids, but still nice. They also have lots of free stuff, like free movie rentals, business center, cookies in the office, and every couple weeks they give you free subs or pizza by the pool. There is also a playground. Anyway, overall I am very pleased with the apartments considering we found them on the internet last minute.
Surprisingly, Cali doesn't seem that expensive so far, besides rent-which is pretty spendy. The only groceries that seem more expensive so far is milk. Everything else, including gas is the same price as Idaho. Our internet is more expensive, but we just got a rockin deal on auto insurance for our cars because Taylor is CHP now. I love perks. By the way, we just got a 2nd car too! We got a 2008 Nissan Sentra with only 43,000 miles for 10,000 out the door including taxes and registration (registration is very expensive in cali). It is weird to own two cars again.
Speaking of perks...we have the best benefits! Taylor just signed our whole family up for full health benefits, including dental and vision for $80.00 a month!! The medical insurance is insane. We have NO DEDUCTIBLE, $15 co-pays and 10% out of pocket! Oh my goodness. This is such a blessing for us! This job will be so wonderful just for the vacation time and benefits alone. Our previous insurance cost us over $600 every month, had a $1000 deductible per person and then went to 80/20. Anyway, I am very excited and relieved.
On to the negative... I miss Taylor so much! Not to be sappy, but I truly miss him. I have learned how much I truly depend on him in every way. The hard thing about Taylor being in the Academy isn't just that I don't see him for 3 days or sometimes 5 days, its that he sometimes can't even call home at night and when he does, you're lucky to talk to him for 5 minutes. It's not like you can call him on his cell and say, I miss ya or I have a question about this or that. It's been very hard. I am now in charge of all of our bills and money, which he previously took care of and I have to be in charge of finding new insurance, mortgage company, realators, etc. Anyway, I just miss him and then I have to entertain my two little girls in a place that is completely new and unfamiliar to me. I have to try to keep their minds off the fact that Daddy isn't coming home for awhile, and that they might not see their friends or our house in Kuna again. Taylen seems to be adjusting better than I thought she would, but it's just hard to keep them entertained when I am just trying to get things figured out down here. It's hard to be positive for them when at times I feel like breaking down.
Taylor said the Academy is 10 times worse than he thought it would be and he expected the worst. At the orientation, I found out the CHP Academy is the toughest law enforcement academy in the nation! One of the other cadets was previously in the military and said that the Academy was way worse than boot camp. These are some of the things that he has to deal with: a maximum of 5 hours of sleep/night, swallowing his food whole because they don't give you time to eat, but make you clean your plate, constant yelling in his ears during work-outs and throughout the day-all demeaning, horrible things, workouts so hard that one guy passed out and went to the hospital, knuckle pushups on asphalt for more than 10 minutes.... They also ruin their clothing. Taylor had to buy all of these workout shirts from them and stencil his own name on them and then they ruined them and made him buy another one and then they keep doing that over and over... We're gonna go broke buying work-out shirts:).... It is a place where there is no free time, if you do have time you study or polish your boots. It is a place of constant harrassment and public humilitation. It is crazy. I don't know how he is doing it, but I am very proud of him. I pray for him constantly. He is such a great guy and I know that he will get through it. We will both get through this and then 6 months from now, he will have an awesome job and things will be better. But for now, our life is crazy and even though it's crazy, I love it. It is a trial and a challenge, but I know that Heavenly Father would not have sent us here if we couldn't handle it.
