So the other night Seiuli was out saving the world, my 3 oldest were at the ex’s and I was watching “Titanic” all the while knowing it was going to end badly… Fast-forward an hour. I had fallen asleep in my bed with Taj and Livie squishing me right to the edge. The doors were locked, house alarm was on, Indy, the dog was on guard duty in the living room, bedroom door was locked and gun was within reaching distance (only at night…)

Anyway, I don’t know if I had my eyes opened or if what I saw I saw only in my dream. But I saw a silhouette of a man standing right next to my bed. Holy Hell Y’all! I screamed; Screamed like I have never been able to scream while dreaming. You know how usually a dream-scream gets caught in your throat and you end up sounding totally weird? Welp, not this time. I screamed and I kicked that silhouette with all my might. If it had actually had a crotch it would have been in a lot of pain. But, alas, my foot went right through the “man” and I woke up. OMgosh… I can’t even explain how I was feeling. I looked over to Taj who was now sitting up in bed. I asked him, “Did I scream?” He answered with very wide eyes, “Yes.” “Sorry dude. I had a bad dream.”

It took a second for it to sink in that there was no man by my bed. Then I kinda got a little stoked because my mind and body thought there was a man in my room and I didn’t just lay there or freeze in fear. I freakin’ screamed, kicked and if my foot hadn’t gone thru him I would have kept kicking while grabbing my gun. I was ready to fight!! Yay! I’m not a wimp!! I didn’t really picture myself as a screamer, but I’ll take it.

I called Sei and was trying to sound all normal, but since it was 1am he knew something was up. My hands were shaking so bad. I told him what happened, laughed about my arse-kicking ability and then he says, “Were your eyes closed? Because maybe it was a spirit…” Really Seiuli?? It was the weirdest feeling because even though I now realized and knew there was no man next to my bed, my body and brain didn’t seem to know the difference. They had reacted like there was a man in my room. Just writing that creeps me out… It was really hard to calm down. I didn’t like the dark room anymore and Taj didn’t either. We turned on “Phineus and Ferb,” I set a timer for the tv and eventually we both drifted off to sleep. But last night was again kind of creepy. I knew it was a dream, but man… in my head I’m thinking, “What if there HAD been a man there? What could have happened?” Aaack!!! I took 2 melatonin and eventually fell asleep. But thinking about going to bed tonight is kind of freakin’ me out a little. Isn’t that weird? I’ve had dreams that were freaky at the time, but didn’t linger for days like this one has lingered. I think because this one was SO real I’m having a harder time forgetting it. I will be happy to have my man home all week so he can protect me from the scary silhouettes… or spirits. lol

I can’t sleep. So I am up while everyone else is sleeping.

Remember when I posted about not liking this tag on Sei’s bulletproof vest?

Well, I was going thru his bag of stuff from the hospital and his vest was in there. I had forgotten when I saw what he had written on his vest tag, that I had written this on the other side:

If you’re my friend on Facebook you already know this, but if not, this is the story of a miracle that happened in our family this weekend.

Saturday evening before my husband left for work I grabbed him to take a picture. He just bought me a new iPod Touch and I didn’t have any pics of him on it. I took this picture:

At 12:50am my phone started vibrating. I said hello and this is what I heard on the other end of the line, “Tori? This is Sgt. Jesse Hunter from LPD…”

Yep- it was my nightmare coming true. The police department was calling me in the middle of the night to tell me something had happened to my husband. I am thankful for several things: 1) We say a family prayer every night before Sei leaves for work to pray for his safety. 2) I have run thru so many scenarios in my head over and over just in case I got “the call.” I wanted to make sure I stayed calm so I could get all the facts and information I needed. And I did.

Sgt. Hunter went on to tell me Seiuli was involved in a “pretty significant accident” but was going to be “ok.” He didn’t know his injuries yet, definitely a hurt arm and possibly a busted nose “from the airbag.” I just tried to pay attention to all he was telling me, think clearly and figure out what to do. I called my dad who called my brother. When I called my dad that was the 1st time I had to say out loud “Seiuli was in an accident…” The words caught in my throat. I think it was a mixture of being relieved that the call wasn’t that he was dead and also because I hadn’t had to speak about it yet. It was weird.

My brother came to stay with Taj and Liv (the older kids were with the ex in Galveston.) My dad drove me to the PD where another officer escorted us to the hospital in another town. It seemed to take forever to get there. When we arrived it was kind of surreal. He was in the ER and as I walked in there were probably 8 fellow officers who weren’t even on shift who had crawled out of their beds to come check on their “brother in blue.” That was awesome. One of them gave me the low down on his condition so far. He had lung contusions and his arm was in pretty bad shape. By the time the dr saw him again and all the xrays were back, etc… he was diagnosed with a concussion, 2 lung contusions, 6 stitches in his elbow, bruising all up his arm, cuts and scrapes, busted lips, bit tongue and an imprint of his computer keyboard on his head.

He had to stay in the hospital until Monday around noon for observation. He is super sore and tired. But he is ALIVE. Apparently what happened was he was running lights and sirens to catch up with a car without any tail lights. He was going about 60mph. He had a green light at an intersection. A 62 yr old woman with 2 kids with her was going the opposite direction and turned left into him. She T-boned his driver side and threw the car into a pole. This is the 1st pic I saw from the scene:

The woman and kids were not injured. She also did not to run to the aid of the unconscious police officer packed inside his squad car. She was more worried about figuring out how to make the City pay.   Anyway, 6 or 7 witnesses placed her at fault. They were all looking because they heard the sirens. Apparently she wasn’t as observant as every one else. She received a ticket and she still hasn’t made any contact to see if she killed a man that night. Nice. Some people suck.

Anyway, I knew we were blessed that he wasn’t injured extensively. But when I actually went to see the car in person… Wow. Angels were watching over my husband and our family. How he came thru this mess with only the injuries he did is nothing short of a miracle.

I am still waiting for it to “hit me.” I haven’t even cried. I think I’m afraid if I let it all sink in that I will be a mess. My defense mechanisms have taken over. I am glad I wasn’t a total loony spaz when Sgt. Hunter called. I know that is because I had prepared myself. I could tell the officers I saw and spoke with were stressin’ it. I am thankful for all their help in getting me to the hospital and checkin’ in on Sei, me and the kids. I am grateful for the paramedics and fire fighters on the scene who used the jaws of life to get my husband out of his sardine can and took good care of him.  I am thankful for the LPD Family Association setting up meals and my church setting up play dates for Taj and Liv for the entire week. We were suppose to be going to see my sister’s family this week– Taj and Liv have been counting down the days. The playdates will help make their spring break fun.  My little sister, Ali, watched Taj and Liv all day Sunday and cleaned my kitchen. That’s not an easy task. Our family has been blessed in so many ways. I know my Heavenly Father sent guardian angels to surround my husband that night. There is no real explanation as to why only the small section of the driver’s area was left unharmed. It’s like the metal was bent around him to protect him. I will be forever grateful for all the many blessings. Most of all, I am so thankful my husband is home with me tonight.

I brag on my husband all the time. He is an incredibly awesome man. But I’ve been holding in a secret for almost a month… and I am NOT good at that!!! I mean, if it’s a secret that’s gonna get me in trouble, I can hold it in forever. But when it’s something A.MA.ZING it’s HARD!!! So now I can finally spill it– even though I already spilled it on Facebook.

My husband was awarded OFFICER OF THE YEAR for 2010 at his police department. There’s almost 200 officers and MY MAN won!! Woot woot!! I am so proud of him. I’m always proud of him, but this is super exciting because this means others are noticing how wonderful he is.

Congratulations Babe!!! You are such a stunningly beautiful person and it still amazes me that you picked me. I love you.

Today I received a Christmas card from none other than… NKOTB. Yes, Danny, Donnie, Jon, Jordan and Joe love me. It’s appropriate they sent me this since I am getting concert tickets from my man for their NKOTB + Backstreet Boys tour (NKOTBSB). I am takin’ a road trip (Holla Stacy and Nancy!) to Houston to see them since, once again, they are coming to Dallas on a Sunday. I don’t do concerts (or much of anything else) on Sunday. Every time I have seen them I have traveled to do so because they have come here on a Sunday (Oklahoma City and Kansas City– shout out Sara!!). So, yeah… I’m famous.

Isabel did a powerpoint presentation for a class about herself. One the part about “THE PEOPLE I ADMIRE” she wrote:

The people I admire the most are my parents! They do EVERYTHING for me. They are the best. My parents have 5 and sometimes 7 kids. The reason I said 5 to 7 is because my 2 step sisters live in Canada, and they visit sometimes. My parents treat us all equally they love us all equally! Even though we can be a handful sometimes, but they can handle us! They are the people I admire most.

Awwwwww!!! And she had pics of me and her and her and Sei.

The other part I loved was from MY FAMILY:

My family is AMAZING!!!!!! My family has 9 people in it and that is a lot. My family from youngest to oldest and age is……. Livie or Liv is 4 almost 5, Taj is 7, Isabel aka MEEE is 11, Karlea is 12, Kelsea is 12, Alec is 14, Tristan is 15, Tori aka MOM, and then Seiuli aka DAD! My family is the best in the whole entire world! I LOVE THEM ALL!!!

It made me feel awesome. I thought it was cute she put Karlea as younger than Kelsea. They are 18 minutes apart. haha

Seiuli is nominated for the 2nd quarter in a row for OFFICER OF THE QUARTER.  In the letter the chief wrote to him these are of few of the things that supervisors and/or peers made the following comments about him:

• “He has been an outstanding influence on our shift.”
• “He comes to work every day with a great attitude, and his reports and investigations are accurate and detailed.”
• “His ability to translate Spanish has proven invaluable.”
• “He also has made tremendous impact on our DWI enforcement. Again he will either take the lead on these investigations or assist in providing translation.”
• “He has a true passion for his job, and is a leader among our people.”

There was more, but you get the jist… He is awesome. I am proud of him. And I sleep with him. Just sayin’…

Seiuli was getting dressed for work tonite… a regular weekend thing. But this time as I watched him (heh- I watched him get dressed. Jealous??) I noticed a few things that I DO NOT like.

Exhibit #1:  A tourniquet that is carried “on his person” in the event one is needed for him or even for another fellow officer.

Exhibit #2: 1st of all, ignore the background. Note the black band across his badge? Yes, that is because yet another officer in Texas was killed in the line of duty. They wear the black until after the funeral. Today an officer in San Antonio died after being hit by a drunk driver 2 weeks ago. He had been out of the academy for 7 weeks. That’s the 14th fallen officer in Texas this year and the 3rd in October.

Exhibit #3: The tag on Seiuli’s bullet proof vest lists his blood type (O-Neg) and the fact that he has no allergies.

However, I DO like this (if you don’t look at the messy closet background…)

We’ve been busy here with football, gymnastics, scouts,… life.

Here’s a quick update:

Tristan and Alec are both playing football. They are having equally good seasons. Tristan plays starting right guard and is the kicker/punter. Basically if a kick is needed, he’s the one doing it. He really is great at it. One game they won 32 to 6 and he scored NINE of those points. He had 2 field goals and 3 points after touchdown. One of those field goals was about 40 yards. His name was even in the paper for it. I was so proud.

Alec is on the kick-off return team and starting safety. He has grown so much in the last year. He doesn’t look so tiny in the his uniform anymore. He is playing great and I don’t find myself stressing as much when he’s hitting someone. He also has straight A’s this 6 weeks. His grades have actually ROCKED ever since he had mono last school year and missed 3 weeks of school. Weird…

Isabel is in gymnastics again. She isn’t competing. She’s just doing tumbling and loving it. She just goes once a week for fun. There’s no 15 hours of training, no pressure. She’s doing back tucks and lay outs. It’s a lot of fun to watch her. She says she misses gymnastics- except for vault- but isn’t ready to dedicate her life to it again. I just want her to have fun. She will be playing basketball again this winter. She is in middle school this year which is still crazy to me…

Taj is also taking gymnastics. He just moved up from the beginner class to intermediate after 4 classes. I don’t know if he’ll stay with gymnastics because he’s mentioned the desire to take karate as well. Whichever he chooses we will let him do. He needs something for him, that HE enjoys, since the rest of his life is school and being dragged from football game to football game. He’s loving 1st grade and is our dog’s best friend. Indy whines at the door when he leaves.

Livie is our mini-gymnast as well. She loves picking out which one of Isabel’s old leotards she wants to wear. We have about 10 of them, so she hasn’t worn the same one twice. She is also in pre-k every day in the afternoon. I picked the afternoon session because there was no way I could get her to her school by 7:50 am and Taj’s to his at the same time. I am so thankful they will be in the same school next year. She LOVES pre-k and won’t even let me walk her to the pre-k door anymore. I have to watch from my car! Holy 4 going on 14!!

Seiuli is doing great. He loves his job which makes me so happy. He had the most DWI arrests last month. Have I mentioned he looks hot in his uniform? He just interviewed for a part time job during the week because he works weekends so he’s home ALL week which usually leads to him and me sitting on the couch watching HBO. Such a friggin’ waste of time!! He’s been wanting to get a PT gig, and this one kinda fell in his lap. PLEASE say a prayer that he gets the job!! We need this!! In our spare time we like to talk about our 10 year anniversary vacation we are going on next year. We are hoping for a cruise, but will probably end up in San Antonio. haha

I am doing the same ole, same ole. I play basketball a couple of times a week. I think I’m playing better than I was when I started up with these ladies. At least I HOPE I am!! I’m a little more confident. I have a hard time driving the lane because I’ve always been so short I was always an outside shot. I also always led in assists, so driving wasn’t my thing. I wish I could get over my fear of having the ball crammed down my throat. haha I am still a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. That is a lot of fun and a great way to earn extra money.  I enjoy it a lot! And it’s nice to make money even when I’m not doing anything. Oh- and I found out today that I have been accepted to return to Texas Women’s University in the Spring ’11. I’m not sure if I will start in Spring or wait until Livie is in kindergarten in the Fall, but either way I will be going back to school!! I am excited and nervous and… I need a new backpack. I put dental hygiene and secondary education as my 2 majors of choice. I need to meet with a counselor to go over my 106 hours I’ve already earned to figure out which direction to head in. I’m thinking education…

So, that’s what we’ve been up to around here. Busy as usual, but I like it that way.

Like my title? I think this may become a regular post…

Last nite my husband was on a call. He had to go to a gross motel where people were doing meth. The meth-heads let him and another cop into their room. There was baggies of meth everywhere. The male meth addict was sitting on the bed when out of no where he says, “Can I wipe my a$$?“  Sei was like, “WTH?” The guy repeated himself, “I was taking a sh** before you got here, so can I wipe my a$$?” Seiuli told him, “Too bad. Just stay there.”

The guy stands up, pulls his pants down, grabs a napkin off the table, bends over and wipes his friggin’ butt right there in front of 2 cops and a female meth-head. Then he tosses the napkin back on the table. OH.MY.HELL Y’all.  When Sei was telling me this I nearly threw up. How nasty is that? Sei was like, “Did you seriously just do that? You are such a meth addict. You’re a 45 year old man and you just wiped your butt in front of people...”

My poor husband. How the heck does he get images like that out of his head? I wasn’t there and I’m disgusted. This is why my husband tells gross jokes. You have to joke about crap otherwise it’ll eat you up. So, right after putting the image of a meth addict wiping his butt into my head, he told me a meth-head joke. I won’t repeat it here, but… eew.

On a more serious note… Meth is so bad. I’ve seen before and after pics from mugshots Sei would bring home in Utah. But here’s a video. It’s pretty unreal.

1. Roller Derby looks awesome. But I would suck at it. Why?  I’m tough enough. I’m definitely competitive enough. But I’m too nice. I can’t just take someone out for the heck of it. Even in basketball when I’d elbow a chick in the face I would apologize- not until after the game, but still... Heck, I apologized for saying mean things to that mom that was mean to me- and I wasn’t even mean!! I talk trash, but when it comes down to it I’m a really nice person and don’t like to hurt people.
2. Motocross. I would sooooo have done this before I had kids, but now I’m like, “Crap, if I break my neck who’s gonna take care of my kids?” Same with bungie jumping and skydiving. I’m no fun. So, I just watch the X-games.
3. Playing the drums. I would love it, but I think I have like adult-onset ADD or something. I’d totally forget I was keeping the beat and just space out. Rick Allen (Def Leppard) can jam with one arm and I don’t think I could do it with 4. I tried to start practicing on the guitar but I suck at that too. It’s the practicing that kills me. I lose interest too quickly. If I was like Sei and could just play without learning then I’d be awesome. I was not blessed with a musical gene in my body- although I rock at remembering the words to songs and we all know how handy that can be… if I’m ever on a game show or something.
4. Being a cop. The biggest thing that would make me suck at this is… I think guys should protect girls. lol I do. I’m a reversed feminist. I totally think there are some jobs that are for girls and some that are for guys. For the record- that male nurse I had after giving birth to Liv kinda wigged me out.  Say I’m a cop and there was a bad guy and I was right there and then a male back up came… I’d totally be like, “Yeah, you got it. I’ll wait back here...”  And can you see me trying to cuff some 6’4″ 300 lb guy? What I would LOVE is the detective work. I can’t wait for Sei to do criminal investigations so I can solve all his cases at home. I’m an expert ya know, because I watch Investigation Discovery… haha

My husband started at the LPD Dec. 2007. He was a sheriff’s deputy in Utah County for 6 years before moving to Texas and joining the PD. He was on SWAT and all that good stuff that makes a wife worry more. He’s been tased, maced,  and he’s married to me. He is TOUGH. So, needless to say I feel safe with this hot, tough man.

But he’s leaving me.

For nite shift that is.

Yep, that’s right. He’s going back to his old shift. He’s been on weekday-DAY shift for 6 months and I hated it when he started because I was used to having him gone WEEKEND nites and home during the day. But now I’ve been spoiled with him in bed with me and weekend dates… Idk what I’m gonna do.

I’m NOT a chicken. I don’t mind being home at nite without him. I mean, hello, I have a GUN. (Hear that bad guys? I have a gun and even though I’m married to a cop I still believe in: 9 mm, then 9-1-1.) Anyway… moving on. I’m not scared, but sleeping alone at nite (not counting a kid or 2 who may end up in my bed) sucks. I have trouble. I feel kinda uneasy. I end up having conversations with myself. Thankfully, Sei listened to me when I told him I wanted a home security system  so when we bought our house Sei called up ADT and they hooked us up! It makes me feel better to know that I have a security system installed.  And it works well. I’ve set it off on numerous occasions. Once when Sei and I weren’t home Tristan set it off and didn’t know the code to turn it off.  ADT called the house to make sure everything was ok. Niiiice.

Anyway… I know NOTHING is gonna take the place of Sei and his guns (biceps) being there at nite, but I do feel better knowing my alarm is set and on.

Again… BAD GUYS: I have a gun and I will use it. Just sayin’…