Things have been going well for Tyler and I as we continue on through the DPS Training Academy. Tyler has continued to do extremely well in all of his classes, passing all of his test with high A's. We are always proud of him, but really never expected to see anything less! He did go through the OC Pepper Spray test this past week. He had to run through an obstacle course after having been sprayed with the pepper spray directly in the eyes. He has to fight off an instructor with his asp baton and he had to make an official arrest before he was able to call for "back up". He did very well, and some irritation but it did not last too terribly long. He will now be able to carry the pepper spray upon graduation. We are in week 11 of the Academy. Which means there are 15 weeks left. We are making great progress and doing well in the meantime. Life is just continuing on as normal here in Abilene for me. I have been able to see my friends often, and my parents as well...which has all be great and I am so thankful for everyone trying to keep me busy during the day while Tyler is gone. We are almost half way, and I am looking forward to the downward slope towards his graduation day (September 26th).
We had the opportunity to take some photos I thought I would share over a weekend a few weekends past. We had a great time, and we had a good friend take them. Her name is Stephanie Ellison and we were really pleased with her work.
We had such a blast taking these pictures. We took most of them at HSU, were we met. Its such a beautiful campus and it has sentimental value for us, so it was the perfect place to start off. I thought the blogspot might be a good place to show off our pictures! So here are a few more!
Tyler forgot to shave for the pictures, so we did have a minor discussion about that, but he apologized and said that in our next session he promised he would. I just thought it was funny that he had forgotten to shave considering being clean shaven is part of his lifestyle for sure up at the Academy. 
I thought the pink flowers in this pictures to the right were gorgeous. I loved how Stephanie was able to bring out the colors when she was editing the pictures. Stephanie really would like to get started in a photography studio, running her own business someday, and I really think she has the potential to do great things with photography. It was fun to have her be the one to take our pictures. She loves HSU like we do! We also took some down by the train station here in Abilene, and I thought those turned out pretty cool too.
I really loved how she was able to do the shading around the edges. I loved her work! Its so funny to think that my hair has changed so drastically since we took these photos. Tyler made the comment that it was weird to see these pictures, becuase he has already gotten so used to my hair being 6 and a half inches shorter than it is seen in the pictures!
We did actually sit down in the middle of the train tracks for this picture, and Tyler was so worried that a train might come, and he must have some sort of 6th sense, becuase one sure did come and we did have to hurry off, but luckily we were still able to get a pictue like this one on the right. I love pictures on train tracks! I think they always turn out really neat looking. So here is ours I guess! We did actually get a picture with the train coming up behind us too....
It really was cool to be able to snag a picture with the lights of the train coming toward us, but it was kind of scary when Tyler made mention of the fact that the train could kick up any kind of debris on the tracks that could easily hit us, so we moved quickly after we snapped the photo and headed off downtown. Stephanie had all kinds of places she wanted to go. We are actually going to go out again for another session with her, because a storm came through and caused the lighting to be off that night so we had to cut our time short.
I love this picture, not that is is really visible to the eye on this blog, but it is our picture with the words of 1 Corinthians 13 behind us. Of course that is the Love verse that the pastor at our wedding read aloud to our friends and our families, and to us as we were about to be married. I love that verse becuase its a very simple reminder about what love is and it also reminds us what love is not. This picture can actually be printed out in a an 8x10 size with the words being seen perfectly. I was so glad that Tyler agreed to let us have these pictures taken. I look at them as an investment, and something we will always want to keep and of course share with our families. We might even be able to use one of these for a Christmas cards this year. I know thats forever away, but it never hurts to start preparation for things like that! Well I hope this LONG blog has made up for the last month or so that I have failed to update. Besides Tyler doing FANTASTIC in his studies, physical health, and everything emotional, there is really no more news for now.
We appreciate all the prayers and support from our wonderful friends and family!
