Movin on Up

Chancho is officially an NYPD Sergeant. Yesterday, the memo came down and he was given his new precinct, or um, 2 precincts. He was given a Housing Bureau. Which means he is in between two precincts covering the housing developments. It is a Police Serving Area. So he is part of PSA _. There are several different numbers assigned to the PSA's. So PSA 7 or PSA 11, instead of saying he is from the 50th Precinct, he'll say he is from PSA _. Essentially, these housing developments are known to have high crime rates and are considered the projects. This is why they have their own police force within the precincts.
When Chancho was talking about where he would want to go, not that he is given a choice, but if he did have one, he said he would like to go to Manhattan South. The least likely place he would like to go? PSA. He is not very happy about this transfer and is already talking about the next test so he can get out. From what I've heard, I'm not thrilled either. Like I've said before, we were both extremely spoiled with his last position. Even though he was a domestic violence officer and that is considered to be one of the most dangerous positions, he was behind a desk for the majority of the time. I knew where he was and that he was safe. My mind was usually always at ease, expect for those few times he would be out doing home visits. Now, he will be out on the streets all the time. When we first started dating he was out on the streets and those feelings have returned. The uneasiness. He hasn't even started his first shift and already my stomach is in knots. I can recall all of the crazy stories he would share with me over the phone at 1am as he was getting home and I would sigh a relief each and every time that he was heading home safely. I did it before, I can do it again.
Today was the promotion ceremony at 1 police plaza. It was quick and to the point. I had a good time. They provided the promotee's and families with free food and drinks before hand and the ceremony was only an hour. Actually, it was probably less than that because we were out on the sidewalk by 3pm and it started at 2pm.
This weekend we'll be having a BBQ to celebrate all of his hard work and have one last hoorah before he starts his new position. Lots of family and friends will be joining.

Couple of pictures from today's event:

Just before the ceremony began.

NYPD marching band, which played while we waited.

Commissioner Kelly giving his speech. 

All 76 Sergeants being sworn in.

Had to place their plaques under their seats when they returned.

Wheeling his grandmother back to the car.

On the way home, found a NYPD boat.

Beautiful drive home.

Quote of the Day:

"Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those cards you hold well."

Yale Field

Taking things back to April 14th...We were able to squeeze in some engagement pictures with our fabulous photographer Chris Volpe. Since Chancho proposed to me at Yankee Stadium, I really wanted our engagement photos to reflect that. I wanted to get pictures taken at a baseball stadium, perferrably Yankee Stadium, but once I looked into how expensive that was, we couldn't do it. We definitely put that thought out there for a month going back and forth about how it would be a once in a life time opportunity to have the stadium to ourselves and we could never get that again, but reality knocked on the door and we said we couldn't spend over $2000 for a photo shoot.
So I spoke to Chris and and asked him if he knew of any cool stadiums that we could take pictures at. He loved the idea and automatically suggested we take our pictures at Yale Field, in Connecticut. He has connections there as he is always taking pictures for the school. The date was set and I was beyond excited to have these pictures done.
The morning of the pictures we got a phone call from Chris saying that there might be a slight problem. There was going to be a double header that day between Yale & Harvard. We might not have access to the stadium. I sure as hell was not going to postpone the pictures or settle for a different venue. I stuck my ground and said we'll go and do what we can. I was hoping someone would have a weakness for love and still let us on the field.
When we showed up the teams were already in uniform and roaming the field, but Chris had gotten there before us and was able to speak to someone. The man did have a weakness for love! He gave us the okay to take pictures on the field until the team was ready to start warmups. So thus began our wonderful photo shoot. We were there for about 2 hours. I was in heaven. It turned out to be a perfect day weather wise, we couldn't have gotten anything better.
Here are a few pictures that I can share:

Quote of the Day: "Happiness doesn't belong to those who have everything, but belongs to those who can appreciate what they have."

Empire State

You know how you try and get a hold of your husband or other person you love while they're at work and then they don't answer you in a suitable time frame? Well, that happened to me today.
I had my lunch break at 10:30am and as I was going through my usual routine of checking the social networking sites, I read the news about the shooting in front of the Empire State Building. I cringed and ran a few thoughts quickly through my head. Chancho is in training right now. Does that mean he will be out of harms way? Does that mean they will take this opportunity to give him a "hands on" training day? How close is he to the Empire State Building and what would the real possibility be that they would send him to the seen? I quickly sent him a text. I got back to the break room and ate my lunch. Every so often checking my phone, even though it was sitting there on the table. It was close to an hour later and still no response back from Chancho. My fears were starting to creep up in my head. I kept saying over and over that there wasn't anything wrong, trying to win over the negative thoughts. However, there was the main thought that all through out training he has always responded back right away. It didn't help that the discussion at the break room table was all about the shootings. One coworker was giving up to the minute details on what was happening, even playing a video from an eye witness. Of course I scanned all the faces in the video, but no Chancho. A disgruntled employee decided he needed to shoot a coworker and then turn the gun on innocent people. I went back to work with still no word.
Around 12:30ish I got a text saying he was sorry he didn't answer, but the Lt was teaching a lesson and he couldn't respond. The wave of relief washed over me knowing that he was okay. My mind was at peace. But then it quickly rushed into a panic of hoping every other cop was okay. Luckily, out of all the horrific nonsense that happened this morning, no NYPD were killed. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those who were injured or killed. My heart aches as I hear of these stories.

Quote of the Day:  

"An hour, one hour, can change everything forever. An hour can save your life. An hour can change your life. Sometimes an hour is a gift we give ourselves. For some, an hour can mean almost nothing. For others, an hour makes all the difference in the world. But in the end, it's still just an hour. One of many. Many more to come. Sixty minutes. Thirty-six hundred seconds. That's it. Then it starts all over again. And who knows what the next hour might hold." -Grey's Anatomy

Hello Out There....

Wow! I am married. I am a cop's wife. July 7th became the happiest day of my life so far. We were surrounded by family and friends who were just as happy to be there and to help us celebrate. All the worries and crazy nightmares all came to a halt that morning. It went as smoothly as a wedding could go. We are thrilled with how it all turned out. I can't stop looking at the pictures and reliving all of the moments. We haven't received our photographer's pictures yet (still anxiously waiting for those to arrive in September) so the guest pictures will have to do.
And let me tell you, I have never felt more involved with a Police Officer more than I do now. Chancho took the Sergeants test wayyyy back in October of 2011. The results came back and he passed. He passed with flying colors (in my eyes at least). The NYPD started promoting people off of the list in January of 2012. Apparently, you don't just get picked off of the list based on your score. There are some things they take into consideration, such as, your score, college credits, open investigations, seniority and so on. So basically, even if you scored a perfect score and you don't have enough college credits or you have an open investigation against you, you aren't being picked. So Chancho had to wait his turn for the numbers to be gone through to get to him. He was number 292 out of 1650 people. He didn't have to wait long before his list number was picked. He got the notification on August 4th. He's been in the academy training for this entire month.
He has to get all of his uniforms changed. He now has to have the chevrons put onto all of his shirts and a new stripe on his pants. He also has to switch out his badges to a Sergeants badge and that includes a new hat. And of course that means new boots and a new bag to hold all of his items because god forbid he gets caught carrying around his bag from the academy when he first started! I am currently trying to find a new mini shield wallet for a woman. Most frustrating thing to find. I saw a fellow cop wife who had one, but can't seem to find it anywhere. I have never been surrounded by all of his police stuff. He had 3 lockers at work. It all stayed there. Our guest bedroom aka Tommy's room, is filled with all of his stuff. It is just overwhelming. But I am so intrigued by it all at the same time. I finally am able to see the items he's talked about and finally understand why it's so heavy or itchy.
He was set to graduate on August 31st, but as predictable as the NYPD is, it was changed. I have a party planned for his graduation for family and friends, which I am super excited about. Not only do we get to celebrate this wonderful promotion, but it is also our first party as a married couple.
As excited as I am to have him become a Sergeant, I must say that I am a bit nervous as to how this is going to effect us. I have been incredibly lucky with his schedule as a Domestic Violence Officer. He was able to make his own schedule AND he had Fridays and Saturdays off. HEAVEN! Now, he will be transferred from his precinct, which means it will be further commute and he will not be on a schedule (most likely) that is convenient for any human. I was so spoiled. I knew it had to end, and I have to look at the bright side, that he is getting this part out of the way now, when we don't have kids. We will be able to deal with a crazy schedule now, when it's just the 2 of us and Tommy.
That's us in a nutshell for now. We have a new laptop FINALLY. I hope to get back into the swing of writing. We'll see how it goes.

Quote of the day:

"You can't cling to the side your whole life. If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim." -Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle