Not my normal Saturday routine

This morning I started my workouts earlier than normal for a Saturday. I got up at 5:30 and knocked out two workouts--the 30 day challenge workout and one of my own devising. I'm a bit tired, but feel like it's worth it. I actually got a chance to sit here without anyone else up for an hour and a few after the workouts, so that's a plus. I rather like being able to sit quietly and not have to worry about what time any certain cartoon is on or whatever. Currently Mr. A is watching some weird cartoon on television. It's a huge change from when I was a kid. Then, Bugs Bunny was the thing to catch on Saturday morning.

I have to talk about Mr. A for a minute too. On Thursday, he and Ms. M had a talk about his progress. They reviewed his progress sheet and she set a couple of goals for him to achieve this next week--like not talking out of turn during class. If he makes that goal by Thursday, then he will move up from the Beginner class to the Advanced Beginner class. I have warned him that the instructor of the AB class is not going to take any nonsense off him as she's a teacher outside of the school too. That will make him settle in and concentrate a little bit, I hope!!

He sat through my class on Thursday fairly well. For a while, I know he was playing with my cell phone, then he put it into my bag and just watched as we ran through our One Steps and Ho Sin Sul. Then he watched as we moved into the other room and worked on our Bunkai. That was a refreshing thing! He was complimented and told that people forgot that he was in there because he was so quiet. I was very proud of him. I told him that too.

We have Open Training today at 11:30. I'm taking Mr. A with me because he can work on his form and on techniques. I'm going to work with my friend, K, on forms, One Steps and Ho Sin Sul. She'll be testing at our next test and I want to help her brush up. Plus, it helps me out because I can brush up on the White through Green belt one steps too. I also have to concentrate on learning the Red Belt one steps, so that's on my list to practice too.

Movies and letter writing

We went and saw Harry Potter today. It was the first movie I have actually gone to a theater to see since Ratatouiile came out years ago. Needless to say, I was thoroughly impressed by the movie. Did it follow the book? No, not 100%, but since I've read the books, I do understand the parts that were skipped and the parts that were combined. I'm looking forward to the next two. They're making Deathly Hallows into two movies, one to come out in November of 2010 and one to come out in July of 2011.

My son is going to sit down and write his first letter on the computer tonight. He has to write a thank you letter to a friend who has helped him out with information on conservation. He *has* to write the letter and it must be 1. Legible, hence the writing on the computer; and 2. It must make sense and not reference video games (which he would do if he was allowed to!). I will proof his letter, but I'm going to let him do the writing. I am not going to lurk at all. Okay, not going to lurk much!!

I'm going to start in on another letter myself. I *FINALLY* finished writing a letter to a friend in Europe on Friday and it went out in the mail on Friday too!! I'm not carrying it around in my bag anymore. Now hopefully I can get my next letter written and mailed in a timely fashion. I've not been a great pen friend but am going to make a concerted effort to do better.

Letter writing is an art form, one which I need to improve. I like to write, but at times, I feel like I'm writing stupid, inane things. I don't want my readers to think that I'm a class a geek or anything. I just want to convey how things are going on my end. A letter should be, in my opinion, more than just an exchange of information. It's a snippet of someone's life. I want to share my experiences with my friends, but I don't want them to be bored. I guess it's a case of being hyper critical of myself.

Exercise

Thursday night in class, Mr. L gave us a new workout for our glutes that he got from his physical therapist. You stand on one foot, such as your left. Raise your right foot out behind you. As you do, you hinge forward from your hips and reach with your right hand. If you can get down a little lower, that's a good thing.. Keep reaching. It's an incredibly good stretch for the glutes. He had us do this several times during the warm up. I am going to work on that here too because I liked the stretch. There's another stretch we do for the glutes where you are on the floor with one leg bent at an angle. The opposite leg is straight back. You lean forward over the one leg and get the stretch in your glutes that way. I actually enjoy that exercise. I like the stretch. I really should stretch daily but don't. I make excuses about "not having the time" but I know I can make it. I just have to get my lazy butt up and moving.

Today was my 14th out of 20 exercises on the Active. I had boxing today, which I enjoy, as well as baseball and tennis. The tennis was pretty good. I was able to hit a good forehand swing. I'll never play at Wimbledon, but it was a good exercise. I'm practicing using my hips more. I've got to work on that because it translates to karate as well as every day things. In the boxing, I'm working on getting the stances down and the foot positions.

I'm turning into an exercise junkie, I think. I don't run (yet), but I definitely think that I'm getting somewhere with exercising. Once this 30 day challenge is finished, I think I might just go ahead and start another one. I really like the feeling I get from the exercise.