The other day HD came home from work with a big envelope in his hands and he didn't look grumpy so I thought to myself "It must be good news!" and got excited. He handed the envelope to me and I looked inside and there was a certificate stating that HD is know off of probation and is a certified correctional officer. The reason why this was a surprise for me was because they have a pretty firm rule that you can't be taken off of probation until you've been an officer for at least a year, and HD was more than 3 months away from that.
I guess what had happened was that he was called in earlier that day to the work camp (he had been out in the middle of nowhere with inmates doing work for Idaho Fish and Game) and when he got there there were a bunch of people in the conference room including the warden, the Director of the Idaho Department of Corrections and many others, and HD asked Lieutenant Nagel (who had asked for him) what he wanted and he said "We all want to see you Harvey, come on in." He walked into the conference room (covered in mud to his waist) and they said, "Congratulations Harvey, you've completed all of the requirements and are now off probation" (or something to that extent). HD then said, "Um, I haven't completed 1 year yet. I'm still about 3 months out." and then the Director said, "There are ways around that Harvey."
So apparently they really like HD over there and they don't want him to be laid off, because once he's off of probation he can't be laid off anymore. I was SO excited and proud of my husband. So now instead of being a correctional officer (C.O.) now HD is a C.O. II. With his promotion he also gets a 10% raise, which is surprising because the state had previously said that they were not allowed to give any raises to state employees because of the recession. So all of HD's hard work is paying off! Congratulations HD! I'm so proud.
