Kip and I have been married for 4 months, but we have been together for over 8 years. He began his LEO journey 3 years ago in 2011 when he became a member of the sheriff's office reserve unit. It was strictly a "volunteer" job, which means he did not get paid for working. I struggled with that a little bit at first, but realized that it took someone very special to work a job like that and not get paid for it. He mainly worked security for special events in the county and occasionally worked with a friend of his who is an investigator at the county. He was working his actual money making job as a pharmacy tech at the time. He moved on to one of the city police departments working in the records department just to get him by until he graduated college. This job was considered a seasonal position, so he had to take 1 whole month off without pay each year. It worked out good for us that he took his month in February, so he was able to be off the few days before our wedding and then for our honeymoon. He was also able to be home and help train our new puppy during that month, too. But...we knew we would not be able to afford for him to continue to work there with no benefits. (I do not have benefits at my job either!) He had applied for a job at the county as an SRO (school resource officer) but could not take the job, because he would have to go to the academy in January - April which would interfere with our wedding (and mostly honeymoon) plans.
The week of our wedding, Kip got a text from someone at the SO that another SRO position would be open soon and that they wanted Kip to come back and talk to them again. He went 2 days before our wedding for an "interview". They said they had a few more people to interview and it may be next week before Kip heard anything. He told them he would be on his honeymoon, but if they called to leave a message and he would call them back. (We had a no cell phone policy on our honeymoon-haha!) I told him I would let that one slide if he needed to call them! Honeymoon week came and went with no phone call. The next week came and went...no phone call either....until that Friday night (Feb 21). Chief text Kip and asked if he would come in Monday to talk. We spent all weekend wondering what would happen in that meeting Monday.
Kip went in Monday morning at 9am. He showed up at my office about 9:30....and said he got the job! He would be training in the office until he went to the academy in May. He worked a Monday-Friday 8:00-4:00 shift. It wasn't until late April that he started working a little bit different shift. A tornado came through a small portion of our county, so Kip worked in that area everyday. At first he was working 8:00-4:00, but then it changed at 6:00am-2:00pm. Until he was put on an actual shift to ride his last 2 days before the academy....he worked 2 days 6am-6pm. That was it for working with the SO until August. He headed to the academy May 12th...one of he he hardest days of my life!
Until Next Time,
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