Sixth Week!!! and counting

The sixth week was National Police Memorial Week and was a blur!  I met my family in Roanoke VA which is half way on Sunday, Mother's Day!! I did not make it home that week end because of the DC 5K!  It was nice to spend time with my children and I am lucky that they wanted to meet me half way! They took me to the Olive Garden for lunch!  Courtney brought me some beautiful tulips which she knows is my favorite flowers!!!!

Whitney made me a cake and I took it back with me.  Britney and Ken were happy to see me and they all took me shopping!  It was hard to leave them but I was happy that they drove to meet me! 

Monday night, the entire NA class, (253) was put on a bus and driven to Washington DC for the National Police Memorial Candle Light Vigil. It was awesome and an experience that I will never forget! 

Notice the "Thin Blue Line" in the sky in the above photo!!!

I got cold and woke up the next morning with a head cold that kicked my rear end for about three days.  I wanted to nap all the time, during lunch, on class breaks, and any free time!  It made the week's PT challenge that much more difficult.  It was a cardio mixer. There was about two miles of running with different exercise stations mixed in (lunges, push-ups, etc). I found the down hill bear crawl the most challenging and lost most of my time on that event because my nose continually ran. I'm feeling much better now and my cold was no big deal compared to some others. Several people have been sick.  One classmate, Tony (from Knoxville, who is a friend) got pneumonia during week six and was in the hospital for a few days.  He has returned to class now.

The silent auction was Wednesday night! It was a lot of fun! The group raised over $11,000 for charity. Thursday was "Cop's Kids" Day! This is a great organization that offers support to children of fallen officers across the country.  A group of kids who had a law enforcement parent killed in the line of duty came to the FBI Academy for a day of fun!!! There were several activities for them and we spent the entire day spending time with them.  

Class has been going well. I have learned a lot.  I still have a few papers and projects to finish up but hope to stay on track with that.  I was given permission to miss class on Friday! My middle daughter, Whitney graduated from High School on Friday afternoon, so I drove home after the Cop's Kids event on Thursday.  I am at home now and enjoying a long weekend with my family.  It's hard to believe that Monday is the beginning of week seven.  There are only four weeks left to go and really only three weeks left of classes and PT.  We will wrap up the "Yellow Brick Road" challenge during week nine!

The Graduate: Whitney 

All three of my girls, Courtney, Whitney, and Britney!!!

Courtney the oldest, and Whitney!

Britney!

Fifth week

Everyone says that around the fifth week things start moving fast. As slow as things went the first two weeks, I really found that hard to believe. The fact is that it is now the beginning of the seventh week and I have been so busy that I am way behind with my updates.  During the fifth week we had a very interesting speaker, General Henry Hugh Shelton. He was one of the best so far.  

Our PT challenge during week five was a 5k run around the FBI Academy campus.  I was happy with my time, 35:27.  I know that is a little slow but it was my best time so far.  I did beat that time, however on that following Saturday when a group of us signed up and ran the National Police Week 5K in Washington DC. My time in that run was 34:07. It was awesome. We started at the Police Officer's Memorial and ran through the streets of DC. We ran in front of the Capital Building and it was a very fun event. 

This is a photo of the NA team:

This is a photo of me and my room mate prior to the run, she ran off and left me during the race by the way!  She is very fast.

This me right after the race. I had a lot of fun and would love to take my daughter, Whitney up there next year to run it again! She wanted to be there so bad! She is my running buddy and I missed her!

Fourth Week!!!

The fourth week is well on its way to being over! Yesterday was challenge day. The fourth week physical challenge was called "The Cyclone". It was a circuit challenge where all 218 people moved from station to station as the bell sounded. There were five stations in total. For example there was a push-up with knee touches station then a lunge station etc. We had to do each exercise for 45 sec and move to the next station. The challenge only lasted for 20 minutes but I was sweat soaked by the end of it. I would rather run!!!!

We had another enrichment speaker yesterday afternoon. The day flew by. Some of the other girls and I escaped for a couple of hours during our free time yesterday. We did some shopping and had some Chick Fil a!! It was a nice change of pace.

I am still working on a couple of major projects. Hope to have all of that finished soon. About 115 people are taking the New York City trip this week end. I did not sign up for it mostly because I have been to the city before and the trip was $600. I could not bring myself to spend that kind of money. I know that it will be a wonderful opportunity for those that are going.