First Sunday of 2010

Time flies when you're having fun.  It's hard to believe a new decade has started already!!


Yesterday we concentrated on doing some minor house cleaning and getting Tony some new glasses.  I had to go along for him because the doctor dilated his eyes.  At one point, I joked that I was his "seeing eye wife".  I had to drive for him, which was fine.  We puttered around and walked around a couple of places, then came home to spend the rest of the day doing very little.

I was on a quest to get Miss A a new flute since she walked into the bus in August and bent her existing flute.  I found one her teacher had recommended, but nobody rents it as it's a "professional grade" flute.  We found one down at the local music store in Allen and rented that.  If her teacher says it's not acceptable, then I'll take it back.  The flute is a Yamaha YFL281.   It's a very pretty flute, but the one I wanted to get her was a Yamaha YFL461 or the YFL481.  (Yes, I know it's a lot of babbling about a flute!!)

Today we went to the Don Rodenbaugh Natatorium and went swimming.  I like to go and not splash overly much.  I'm not a good swimmer.  I never took official lessons as a kid.  I "learned" to swim by being tossed off a dock into Lake Washington in Seattle.  It was not a good thing because I panicked and to this day, I can't deal with water up to my neck or over my head.  I do best if I'm sitting at the side of the pool, or in a hot tub.  So, today, we packed everyone up and went to the pool and played.   Mr. A decided to hit up this really huge slide that was very twisty and went down a number of times.  He loves it!  I went up one time--decided that I'd TRY it.  Mr. A went down, then Miss A went down, then Tony went and finally, I decided that I'd try it.  Oh. My.  GOSH!!!  Nobody warned me that it was going to make my go really FAST!!!

I literally FLEW down that slide!  There is a downfall to being large--the more the mass, the higher the velocity, I think is what Tony said! 
I was not quite panicking, but wasn't too comfortable with the "whoosh!" feeling I had as I went toward the bottom.  That slide had twists and turns and finally, I flew out to the pool at the bottom.  I wasn't prepared to pinch my nose closed and as a result, I breathed in water.  I had a hard time finding my feet at the bottom too.  I don't understand how my son can fly down that thing and pops up on his feet in no time flat!  This is another "What was I thinking?!" moment.  I got to meet my daughter's boyfriend's sister, as she was the lifeguard who was trying to help me get up and not choke!  Not a dignified way to meet someone.  OOPS!!  LOL! 

 We spent about an hour there.  My favorite part of the Natatorium, aside from the hot tub, which I spent a lot of time in, was the "Lazy River".  THAT is fun!  The kids and I played "tag" of sorts in there.  It was fun.  We had to be careful not to run over other people since the current would just take us and drive us around on its own.  

We have since spent the rest of the afternoon and evening doing very little.  Tony and the little guy have watched a football game, I've been alternating between reading and playing on the computer.  Of course, there's also the ubiquitous laundry, which never ends. 

I'm making plans to go back to the Natatorium tomorrow.  I'm going to make use of my membership and start using the facilities and working out a bit more.  I gave the family a year's membership to the place and I fully intend to take advantage of it myself.  I have already eyed a spinning class that I want to look into.  Who knows, maybe I'll run myself over again here as well!   Should be fun! 


Tuesday is karate.  I'm looking forward to that!!  Time to get back into a "normal" schedule.  I have let the leader of my son's Scout Pack know that I absolutely can NOT go get the bags at Roundtable for Scouting for Food.  I'm not giving up karate anymore.  I have an agenda--to stay with what I like to do and work hard at it. 

Happy New Year

2010.  Happy New Year.  Happy New Decade!
 

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas, everyone!
I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas Eve and are enjoying Christmas Day with family.  I hope your day is as wonderful as it can be and that wherever you are, you're finding yourselves in good health.

We've had our Christmas decimation of gifts under the tree.  We got a wonderful gift yesterday from Mother Nature--it snowed here!  This was our first snow on Christmas Eve that I know about in a long time.  I don't know if it's ever snowed on Christmas Eve in Texas, but it was beautiful!  Of course, today it's all melting off.  I took some pictures of the front walk...there was snow on our front porch and that was a big surprise.  We're on the second floor, so finding snow out there was a shock.  If I can figure out how to get the pictures off my phone, I'll post them up here.  Right now, I haven't quite figured out how to sync my phone to the computer to download the pictures.

I'll be around a little later.  The cat just jumped up into my lap and it's conflicting with my laptop.

It takes talent

I took a spinning class with a friend last night at the Y. It was a fun class.  I have to admit that I have a rare talent.  I'm the only person in the class who managed to fall off the spinning bike and run over herself in the process!  It's actually rather funny!


Went to the Y, met K there.  She introduced me to the instructor, who helped me set up the bike.  He set the height and the distance from the handlebars, then told me how to ride it so that I didn't kill my knees.  (you use your heels to push and let your knees just come up.)  He also told me how to hold the handlebars so that I wasn't killing my upper body. Then he told me to hop on and we'd ride.
Okay.  I looked at that bike when I got there and thought to myself, "this is gonna kill me!"  I was ready to try it, so try it I did.


We started out riding, just as a warm up.  He had everyone do stretches, which weren't too bad.  I liked the music he was using for the warm up.  He had us get moving a little faster.  No biggie.  I was getting good and warm.  I thought it wasn't all that bad.  When he called a "saddle up" (where you get out of your seat and stand up), I got a bit of a jolt at first because I tried just jumping up.  BIG mistake as it jarred my ankle.  I had to slow down a little.
Made it through that "saddle up", but couldn't do the up and down thing everyone else was doing, so I sat.  Not a big deal, I hope.


I lost my left stirrup (toe clip?) on the pedal and spent about 5 minutes trying to get back into it before I had success.  We did a sprint, then slowed down down to get ready for the "hill" section he promised.  O...kay!  Mind you, I was wincing as I was riding...teeny tiny seats are not comfy!


We started on the hill section and did the first "climb". I was okay, thinking, "I'm doing okay!"  That was a mistake!  At that point, I lost my right stirrup and fell out of that toe clip!  My left foot was still on the pedal, in the clip, and was going full out "zoom!!"  I fell off the right pedal, my left food was behind me under the pedal and I hit the handlebars.  OUCH!  I know I grunted and looked like I was in pain.  K asked me if I was okay and I said, "yes".  Got back up and sat (painfully!) in the seat for the rest of the class.   
We did the cool down, then ended class.  We wiped our bikes down and rolled them to the back of the room.  I felt like hobbling as I walked out of the room with K.  It wasn't a bad thing.   I am highly appreciative of her because she DID get me off my hiney and moving!   She said she'll work out with me again, so I have a new buddy.  YAY!!
"

Today, my legs are extremely sore.  I'll get over it.  I'm still laughing about falling off the bike and "running over myself".  I've told numerous people today.  Makes for a fun tale. 

Sunday before Christmas

It's been a while since I've been in to my blog.  Time flies when you're busy!

Things have been hectic at work.  We *finally* hired a new guy in to replace one who gave notice and left just before Thanksgiving.  We also got the one who had been out due to a motorcycle accident back and that's a major plus as well.  It doesn't mean that things have been great.  I'm supposed to be training the new guy.  Somehow, it seems like the other people don't have much faith in my training methods as they came over and took him off to throw him on the phones on his very first day.  He came back, so that's a plus!

On the home front, things have been chaotic as well.  We're past the marching season for band, but now we're heading into a concert season.  I found out that Miss A earned herself a place in "Second Band".  She's fourth chair.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.  I'm going to *have* to get her a new flute and that's about to drive me bananas because I don't know who is holding the note on the little Jupiter I am buying.  (The company we bought the flute from was bought out and nobody seems to know anything about the note, other than it's a company that handles the rentals.  I wish I knew.  I'm a bit tempted to have them research who took over the notes.  I'm thinking I will, looking at this as I'm writing it.  I need to get that under control because this next year, it's ours 100%.  I don't want to perpetually pay for a flute.

Miss A also has another piece of news...she's got her first boyfriend.  He's another kid from Band.  He plays the trumpet.  He's a nice boy.  The girls all called him "the Teddy Bear" because he gave them all hugs last year at school.
I haven't met him yet, but the hubby took Miss A and T to the movies today.  They're seeing Avatar.  I haven't gone because I don't believe it's age appropriate for the nine year old.



I've had major car issues in the past two months as well.  I had to get the hubby's car repaired (it's here if you want to read about it.)  I just had to put another chunk of money into my own car because I had a flat tire on Thursday and had to buy four new tires.  They were all in bad shape.  The good news?  I'm driving safely again!  Yippee.

I've been cleaning up my apartment today in preparation for Yule/Christmas.  I've not sent out any Christmas cards yet.  I have the box beside the couch, but haven't made the time to write them.  With me training the new guy at work, plus things going on after work almost every day, I've made excuse after excuse not to start them.  I WILL write them out tonight.  I have to!  I want my cards to get to my friends.  My very first card of the year was from Guatemala, from my good friend, Claus.  Thank you!!  You made my day!  

So, on that note, I have to go back and clean some more.  I have too much to do today and not enough time to do it.  

Christmas parade

The band marched in the Christmas parade.  Here is one of the pictures I snagged off the site of the flutes.  My daughter is in this picture...

 

Winter dreaming...

Winter is one of my favorite seasons of the year.  I love the coolness of the air, the crispness I feel on a chilly, frosty morning.  I love seeing my breath as I walk to my car.  I have fun with my daughter, seeing who can catch sight of their breath first.  Unfortunately, those times are few and far between down here in Texas.  It never really gets cold anymore.  I remember a few years ago, when there was ice on Thanksgiving Day.  I remember watching a football game with my husband and seeing one of the Dallas Cowboys fumble the ball and touch it in the "ice bowl".  I miss that type of weather.


We have had a lovely, misty-type of day for the past couple of days.  The band marched in the Christmas parade in this mist.   I went home in the mist yesterday and came to work in it this morning.  It's the perfect kind of weather to enjoy sitting by a fireplace, doing some needlework or reading.     I won't be doing that any time soon!  Ah well.  I can dream, right?

I hear tell on the news that the weather is going to be more of the same this week.  I've heard that there will be a "warm front" that pulls through (NO!!!!) today or tonight. It's *supposed* to get cool again though.  I really would like to see it get COLD and stay that way for a while.  I love cold weather.  I know, I'm odd.  What can I say?  I have friends in Idaho and New Hampshire who are getting snow.  One of my Sales Managers, who lives in NH, said he forgot to bring me my snow when he came down here for a sales meeting.  He was going to take a picture of it just for me!  He'll send it to me when he gets back home.


What I wouldn't give for just a little bit (6 feet!) of snow, something to enjoy for Christmas.  That's a dream, I know.  It's MY dream.   I guess if I want that, I'll have to move elsewhere.  




 

The Allen Eagle Escadrille

I'm a little bit proud of this band.  Here is the Allen Eagle Escadrille, performing at the playoff game between Irving Nimitz and Allen High School.  This was the game from November 14th.  We won this game, 35-0.  It was a great game.  Of course, I live for the halftime show, mainly because I highly respect the director who got 600+ kids together to produce this show.

When all is said and done...

There is something to be said for being a band mom.  I have had the pleasure of meeting my daughter's new friends, of associating more with people I would normally be intimidated by and of experiencing first hand the fun a High School football game can be.

We had a heartbreaking loss last night which ended our football season for the home team.  It was a 35-34 double overtime loss to the Southlake Carroll Dragons.  They just seemed to want the game a little more than we did.  One of our broadcasters said that the team (the Eagles) was like a "wind up toy.  They feed off the emotions of the crowd."  We were loud and raucous last night for sure.  I am working on a diminished voice myself from all the screaming and yelling I did.  

The game started late--it was supposed to have started at 8:00 but in actuality, it started at 9:00.  We didn't get on the field for half time until after 10:00.  We left the stadium after 1:00 am. Got to the school at 2:00 and everyone headed home.  The band was dejected.  The football players, from what I observed, were thoroughly disheartened.  One of the guys was so disappointed, he hunched down on the 30 yard line and hid his face in his hands.  It was a heartbreaking end to a fantastic season.  The only game they lost this year was to the Longview Lobos.  Oh well.  We're going to try again next year!  We will have new players on the team, a new quarterback and we will have a renewed sense of determination.

The band parents in the stadium were there, offering support for our kids.  We ran "potty patrol" (to make sure we didn't have people loitering in the restrooms), we cleaned up after the game and we did what we could to make the experience a good one for our kids.  It was definitely a neat experience.  A lot of our band are Freshmen, so this means another three years for them if they choose to stay in Band.  I can feel bad for the Senior parents who wanted to see their kids get to go to a second State championship, but it wasn't meant to happen this year.  We just move on.


Since we got home so late, we didn't get moving until nearly 11am.  That's a bit late, even for me, but I'm glad I was able to sleep that long.  


I'm proud of the Escadrille and the football team for all the hard work they put in this Fall.  They worked hard.  I know it was a disappointment last night, but it was a team effort.  One man would not have won or lost the game alone.  It was a team.  The team is still there.  It's just time to work hard and prepare for next year.




 

One down

Last night was incredible!  Our football team went out and played their hearts out!  They won the game, 35-0.  It was a lot of fun to be there.  
We pulled into the parking lot and saw literally dozens of cars parked in the lot.  There were tailgate parties going on *everywhere*.  It was one of those "catch your breath" moments.  I know I sound sappy, but I truly enjoy this.  I'm having so much fun being included in this!!

We offloaded the kids and fed them dinner (and ourselves), then had them go back to the busses and get their uniforms on.  Then we volunteers went off to the stadium to see about cleaning the stands (we do that before every game).
After the stands were cleaned up (we mainly just policed for trash since there had been a game prior to ours!), the kids came in and started up into the stands.  Miss A is calling the stands the "nosebleed" stands, but in actuality, I think they should be called 'cardio' stands for the sheer fact that they were steep and there were a LOT of stairs to climb!! 

This is a small gathering of the band---it's the flute section.  You can see Miss A talking to her friends--they were trading glasses.  She wasn't aware that I took the picture!  

We're in the white uniform for the duration of our playoffs.  It's going to be an incredible thing for the next several weeks.  Hopefully they're going to continue on past next weekend.  We play a very tough team. We're playing at Cowboys' Stadium in Arlington, Texas.  Should be lots of fun.  I've heard from my husband that he's going to go to the game.  The more support for the team, the better.  

 

 

 At the end of our halftime show, our band spelled out "Eagles".  It's really impressive to see, especially given the size of the band.  

You can tell how high up we were from these pictures...

Playoff Bound

Our football team is heading to the playoffs.   Tonight is our first playoff game.  We'll be playing Irving Nimitz.  I don't know anything about them, but I do know that our kids are ready for this.  It should be quite fun.  I'm going to the game with Miss A.  We're going to be leaving in about an hour or so to go run some errands and head off to the school.  We have to be at the school at 2:30.  The kids will run through a dress rehearsal until 3:15, then we're loading up the busses and heading out to Standridge Stadium in Carrollton.  We offload and have dinner at 4:30, enter the stadium at 5:00-5:30.  Game starts at 6:00.  We'll be there until at least 10:00.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I've been waiting to be a part of something like this for a while.  I'm glad that I'll be able to share it with my daughter!!

She's currently practicing some music.  I'm getting my own private concert.  This is good.  She's playing a Christmas selection.  The band is marching in the annual Holiday parade for our city, so she has to learn this song.  After that, it's concert season.  The school has two concert bands, Concert 1 and Concert 2.  I'm not sure how they are arranged, but she thinks she's done well enough on her tryout to attain Concert 1.  If so, she'll have to drop her Geography class because 8th period will be over at the high school (she's still at the freshman center).  We will see how that works out.  Right now, let's get ourselves through the playoffs.

I'm not excited about the game or anything, but I'm posting the link to the broadcast of our game.  It's at Allen Eagles Radio.   I sure hope I can convince people to tune in and listen.  It's always fun to share things like this.

First Sunday in November

Last night, I went to a Dan promotion dinner.  We just had five people test for first and second Dan, and they've achieved it.  I found the dinner a lot of fun.  We had all the Dans from the school there to celebrate their achievements. 
It was a fun evening.  


This week, in addition to karate, I'll be participating in a Veteran's Day parade with my son's Cub Scout pack.  That will be fun!  This is the first year I've gotten to participate.  I am looking forward to it.  


We have a family campout next weekend, but again, I won't be attending it because of the football game.  The game starts at 6:00 on Saturday.  We'll be out at the stadium where the kids had their UIL competition in early October.  At least this time, it'll be dark, not full sunlight!  

Boo Bowl, continued

So...here's what we looked like last night in the stands:

The stars of this picture are Miss A, her friend J and then I'm in the background.  Makes me happy that I got a picture of the girls when I was there!

"Boo Bowl" and football

Last night was our "Boo Bowl". The kids in the band wore costumes instead of their normal uniforms. It was funny! There were a pair of seniors who were Neo and Trinity from The Matrix, there were duct tape people (I didn't see them), Gumby (check YouTube...it may be something that is unfamiliar to some of you, but it's funny!) There was a Sumo wrestler (a senior), Little Bo Peep and her "lost sheep". (Incidentally, that 'sheep' was shedding his costume everywhere!) Someone came as Russell from "UP". We had Carmen, several Zorro-like people, football players (not sure how they played their instruments with the helmets on!) and of course, several people being Mariachi players. They had serapes and the sombreros. It was fun! There were a whole lot more than I can possibly describe. I can't remember all 600+ kids.

It was funny to see them play Carmen on the field in costume.  Gumby played the trumpet solo in the first movement of Carmen (during the "taco plate", as the kids call it, when they're moving into a specific formation).  The drumline was dressed up as bananas and Energizer bunnies.  It's amusing as all get-out to see, but it was really fun.  I think last night was more fun than I've had all year. I have fun every game, but seeing all the kids go silly for one night was just perfect!

Speaking of 600+ kids, the Dallas Morning News (the local newspaper), ran an article about the band. It was an incredible article. They also have several nice pictures and a neat video on the band there as well!!  If you get a chance to look at it, please do.  You'll see what we've been doing lately.

Leader of the Den

I'm now officially trained as a Cub Scout Webelos leader!! I had my full day of Den Leader Outdoors training yesterday. It was COLD!! Considering that we've had 90% humidity on top of 75-80 degree days up until Thursday, then a cool front blew in and temps dropped into the upper 60s to low 70s, it was really chilly! The wind blew a lot, which didn't help as we were under a pavilion most of the day. It was warm in the direct sun, but we weren't out there much--only for the campfire/cooking section of our training.

We made foil packets for lunch. It really doesn't take that long to do. You only need a square of foil, plus your ingredients (which hopefully have been pre-chopped for you!). Layer your ingredients in whatever way you want. They offered us potatoes, hamburgers, onions, green beans and carrots, plus a "cream of" soup to use. I put potato slices on the bottom, my burger on top of that, then onion, green beans, carrots and finally, the soup. I should add that I also used garlic salt and paprika to flavor it. You wrap your packet up to make a square, then put it on HOT coals. It needs to be turned at least once, but that's it. Very nice meal. Hot and quite tasty!

We talked about campfires yesterday as well. There was much discussion about fire rings. You don't want to create a fire ring...use an existing one as it's less invasive and easier on the environment. They did mention not to pull dead branches off trees. For the kindling, gather only small pieces of twigs and whatnot. You'll probably have a firestarter with you, so you'll use that to start your fires.
In a lot of ways, it's a scary thought that you'll have 9 and 10 year olds around fires, but that's the first step toward being Boy Scouts. They have to know how to build a fire *safely* and how to tend to said fire as Boy Scouts. That's a lot of what I was learning yesterday.
oh
We talked about conservation a little, plus Leave NO Trace. I seriously would like to take my boys up to visit a friend who is a Forester. I believe she could train them much better than anyone else. It's also a pity I can't bring her down here for a Den Meeting. That would be soooo beneficial!! Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do that yet...and taking 7 boys across state lines and into another country requires a thousand pieces of paper in the form of permits that I don't want to even THINK about!

I'm now going to jump into planning my next Den Meeting. I'll have to push it back a week since I'm going to another meeting this coming Wednesday. Ah, the fun of planning. They emphasized making plans and sticking with them, so I'll have to work on that. I've not been a planner. Now I have to start. Yikes.

Marching band

For the better part of the last few months, the high school marching band has been playing Bizet's Carmen, which they are performing at a UIL (Urban Interscholastic League) competition. They had a competition on September 26th, one yesterday and one next week. They'll be finished with UIL after next week.

Busy Saturday

Today has been fun-filled and different. I didn't have a football game last night, so that was a bit of a nice change for a Friday night. We all sat around the house together, doing very little last night.

Today, Miss A had a marching competition in Plano to attend. I had to take her to the school, to get warmed up at 11:00. They didn't leave for the competition until noon, but they had to get in a last minute rehearsal. This is in anticipation of the actual UIL competition *next* weekend.

After dropping her off, I had to come back home and get hubby and the little boy. We went to the BTK picnic today. That was fun too. It was chilly...the temperature hovered in the mid to upper 50s all day. We had a pavilion at the park that was near the pond and caught the breeze blowing off that. It was a tad bit nippy!! They had games for the kids, but most of them spent time at the playground, so they kept themselves occupied. Mine spent time laying down in the gravel on the playground, which I STILL don't understand! At one point, I saw him laying down, turned away from the gentleman I was talking to and yelled my son's name. He heard me, got up and came over to me. Why he was down, I don't think I'll ever know.

Toward the end of the picnic, they had a drawing for some prizes. I was hoping to get my number drawn for that, but instead, I wound up with a "BOB". "BOB", for those who aren't familiar with martial arts, is a punching dummy that is a life-like torso on a stand. Getting him home in a tiny Saturn Ion was a bit of a challenge, but we made it. The stand rode in the backseat with Mr. A, the "head" of BOB was in the trunk. Mrs. MG was kind enough to offer us the use of her truck to bring him home. My friend, Ms. S, also offered the use of her minivan. It was funny.

This evening, we met up with a friend from F*Bk, who happens to have been in school with me back in Washington State. We're talking over 30 years ago!! It was a fun evening meeting up with him, his wife and daughter. We spent a bit of time getting to know each other, sharing our life stories We'll probably get together again at some point. It was fun.

Now we're home, waiting for time to go pick up Miss A at school. She won't be back until 10:30, so I've got a bit of time. I think I'm going to go read my new Funakoshi book that my friend, Ms. S, gave me. Her daughter got the prize with the book and picture frame and didn't want the book as they already had it. It is now in my possession. Thank you, Ms. S!

On a happy note too, I talked with my instructor about my situation and why I've not been in classes. I told him that I had an agenda--to get healthier and improve myself. He told me "get to class. You have no excuse not to go." Well, with that being said, I'm going to be in class on Tuesday!

A picture speaks more than I care to hear

I'm overweight. I don't deny it. I have some serious issues with my weight and have been battling it for over forty years. It's enough to make me feel like crawling under a rock at times.

Tonight was no different. We had our first Cub Scout Pack meeting of the year tonight. This was our "meet the boys and parents" meeting where we discussed what we are doing this year. At the end of the meeting, we had a presentation of a slide show from last year of our Pack doings. This is a fun thing to watch as our Historian puts it together with music.

It was fun (although noisy as 80 some odd boys can really SCREAM when they want to!) and amusing to watch it. I enjoyed it right up until I saw a few shots I was included in. Then I got disgusted. If I think I looked bad in the pictures, there's no telling what other people think of how I look. I just cringed when I saw them. It wasn't fun for me. I don't like seeing how big I am. In a lot of ways, it's just reinforcing what I heard last week..that I've ballooned up and have gained back my weight I lost in 2006-2007.

Definitely not what I wanted to see tonight. Of course, I'm pretty hard on myself anyway, but those pictures tonight made me feel like I need to make an enormous change.

Marching Band

In Texas, football is a *big* thing. In our city, it is no different. In the past month, my daughter has attended 4 football games. Here are some pictures of the band from game 1 (Longview, TX); game 2 against Monterrey, Mexico; and game 3 against Rockwall (HOMECOMING). Two of these games were rain delayed (Monterrey and Rockwall), but we managed to win them just the same.



This is the first game against the Longview Lobos. The band was coming into the stadium.

More of the band. They were paused in front of the stands.

Miss A is the one in the glasses, looking up.

Miss A and her friend, Jo. Jo is an upperclassman who "adopted" her for the year. It's a tradition. The Freshmen (also known as "fish") are adopted by the the upperclassmen.

Miss A, her friend JJ and I don't remember the names of the other two. This was taken at the Rockwall game.

I've attended two out of four games as a volunteer. I'm enjoying it because I get to help the kids, which is good, plus I'm getting to hear our band and see the football games. It's a win-win situation. Last night was a game against Euless-Trinity, which we won. I spent a LOT of time in the stands after my duties as a stand cleaner (we clean the stands so those white uniforms won't be too horribly dirty!) and "Potty patrol". (we hold the jackets for the girls when they need to go in to freshen up.)

I'm really excited about this. It has been a great start to the year. The only downside is that my co-workers are being snippy to me about leaving early for games, so I may not be able to attend any more of the away games.

Busy schedule

This should be a busy year for us. I'm now volunteering to chaperone at the football games, plus I have Cub Scouts. The Cub Scouts is really only 2 times a month--the Den Meeting and the bigger PACK meeting. I haven't figured out where to fit in my martial arts either.

I am sure that I'm a bit on the overwhelmed side at the amount of things the boys have to do to earn the various badges and whatnot they have to work on. I definitely have to plan more than I did last year. I hope the boys will assume enough responsibility to do their own things without me standing over them. We also have to go camping many times this year. That's a chore for the husband. I'm doing band with our daughter, HE gets to go out in "the wild" with the boy.

With the classes Miss A is taking, too, we have many projects going at once. She had to make ratatouille for her French class to work on learning the culture aspect of things. Then there's a "questionable topic" she has to work on for English. She has the topic of the War in Iraq. NOT my idea of a fun research project, but I didn't like her other topics (thankfully one was already taken...*I* had issues with it!). There's Biology, Health, Geography...you name it. This girl has a full plate. I'm exhausted thinking about it and it's not MY schedule (although I'm doing my bit to help her, so that does take a little time in and of itself.)

Mr. A just has the normal fourth grade things to work on--the reading, writing, etc. I've currently got him sitting down, reading his Webelos book to familiarize himself with the requirements for Citizen. Once he finishes that, he's going out with the hubby to go watch football at a local restaurant with his friends.

High school football

If you follow me on Twitter (yes, I tweet, therefore, I'm a "twit"!), you know that I've gone totally nuts about High School Football. I don't know why. I don't really care for professional American football that much. I prefer to ignore it. Given the choice of watching it or something else, I'll choose something else, every time!
I never went to a single game when *I* was in high school. I certainly wasn't involved in Band or anything like that. However...now that my daughter is involved, I find myself being very drawn to the game. It could be because the announcers of the game make it interesting. It could be because I like the band. Since my daughter is in band, that might be why!! I have gone totally crazy with the football thing.

The school sent out a notifier about the activities for Homecoming week and one of the things was to "Paint the town blue" and to have a "blue-out" on Friday night. Painting the town blue involved getting your car windows painted by the school's cheerleaders. I went for that because I'm excited to be a part of this. They're trying to make a second run at the State Championship, so it's worth supporting.

On Wednesday, I went to Lowes and got the cheerleaders to paint my car windows blue. Well, specifically, they are red, white and blue. It matches my car nicely. :) Tomorrow is the actual game and I'm planning on wearing my band polo shirt to work and then to the game tomorrow night. I've volunteered to help at the game and will be reporting to the band hall at 5:30 to get my orders. That's pretty exciting too!! This town is big on supporting their football team and their school, so I'm sure everyone there will be wearing blue. The band will be in blue and white. It's going to be very fun to be there. This will be my first football game (ever) and I'm looking forward to it. I guess I'm just a big kid at heart!!

Views from the inside of my mind...

*Note: this was posted originally at a different blog site about 3 years ago. I'm actually glad I saved it and have decided to re-post it because it ties in with where my mind is at present.**

Okay, so you’ll get really tired of this picture before it’s all said and done! LOL!
I am proud of this picture. I looked at the one picture of me and my friend, Ram, and I realize that I was *very* happy! I looked so happy and relaxed in that picture, despite being at work! LOL! That was a good thing. I didn’t win anything. No big deal. I didn’t expect to win anything. I just had fun because I got to step outside of my usual box. I thought past “safe”. I liked it. I truly enjoyed myself. Part of it was because I was happy being different. I didn’t dress the conventional part. I let my personality out for a short time. I let the mask down.
How often can we say that we’ve stepped out of the box? How many different masks do you wear? This is something that I have been thinking about since Saturday (in fact, it was the subject of my WW meeting). You are a mom/daughter/sister/cousin/best friend/lover/teacher/mentor/Betty Crocker/June Cleaver/Wonder Woman/Super Girl/Ms. Marvel/Spiderman/Superman/whatever. You’re a mother/friend/wife/lover. You’re an artist/teacher/leader/follower/employer/employee. All the masks we wear contribute to who we are or at least the public facade we present. Do we know who we really are? We tell ourselves we do, but when do you let the masks down?
When do you allow yourself to be the *real* you? When do you admit that you’re not better than anyone else, that you CAN say NO to someone? When do you say “ENOUGH!” and start treating yourself better?

Who do you think you are?

Me? I’m still finding out.

Reviewing books

Reading is something I do because I enjoy it. I don't like the stress associated with reviewing books, so I don't read books for review very often. At one time, I belonged to a reviewing website that was all romance books. I'm more of a contemporary fiction reader, but I also read non fiction. The book I'm currently reading is a book I received in exchange for a review.

I'm reading Sang H. Kim's Complete Kicking for review. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I think it's got some sort of subliminal message in it because I have been visualizing kicks and I've had the urge to practice kicking.

I'm going to have this book finished by the end of the week and will write a review to post up at Amazon.

Thursday night football

This is what my daughter is doing tonight...

Martial arts Saturday

This has been a sleepless Saturday. I slept very little Thursday night to Friday morning. Then, last night I woke up at 1:00 am. Miss A was due in around 2:00 am from Longview and I guess I didn't want to miss getting there to pick her up.
She called around 1:20 and told me they were in, so I went out to pick her up. THAT was a huge parking lot!! All of the parents were out to get their kids. I parked, got out and walked up to the band hall. Got her and her gear, then went back to the car. She had to go back in to get a hair ribbon someone gave her. It has her name and graduation year on it. That was neat. She's going to wear it every game.

After getting Ms. Sleepy (she tried to sleep on the 3 hour trip home but one of the obnoxious boys who I suspect likes her but won't admit to it, woke her up) home, we all crashed out at 2:30. I had to get up this morning to get ready to go out to the dojang. I was helping at the Gup (colored belt) test today and needed to be there at 10:00. My young shadow came in and climbed on me, which ensured that I got up. I didn't have time to get myself any coffee. I grabbed a diet coke and ran out the door. That is not my recommendation of morning caffeine, believe me!

I don't have anything planned for tomorrow, except writing letters. I've decided that I am going to work on letters for a little while so that my daughter can research French recipes. She's got a homework assignment for French class. She has to introduce something from French culture to the class. She has to have food, watch a movie and review it for class or something else. I'm a bit fuzzy on what she needs to do. I'll review that tomorrow.

I am thinking that I'm going to drag out my kicking shield tomorrow and work on my own kicking with my husband. I need him to at least hold it. That way, I'm not going back to class in a complete funk. I'll be working on things I need to work on. I told Master G today that I can see the standard we're holding the gups to. I can do my best to work myself to that standard and then some. I've got to improve my overall technique, etc.

I did get to spar today with a young lady who was testing for her first Gup. I was part of a "two on one" sparring round. I had fun with it and actually remembered NOT to lean in to my opponent! I thanked Master A for allowing me to spar. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I learned a lot about the grading system of the gups. I sat as a trainee at Mr. B's side, listening, observing and learning. I need to temper my assessments with understanding. Testing isn't all about "you showed up, here's your belt." It is a test of the candidate's physical and mental abilities. I watched one young man get extremely frustrated during his sparring session. I could see him thinking "what the heck am I doing?!" I noticed that he started out his testing by looking down, but by the end of that test, he was looking more confident, as if he was relaxing. The young lady involved in the testing looked up at the examiners, but it was very hard to hear her. Her kihaps were very quiet...but she got the job done!!

I'm finding myself thinking about a lot again. I deliberately didn't think on the way home tonight, only turned my radio up and sang, loudly (and off key but who cares, right? I was in my car, alone!). I am sure my sub-conscious will sort out all I have learned today and will put it to good use. I learned some sneaky things for working on abs which makes me want to race out tomorrow and buy a medicine ball. I have more things in my head than I know what to do with right ow. First of all, I need to sleep, so that's number one on the agenda.

Football Friday

Today kicks off the start of Football season in Texas. It's the first game for many of the schools. Allen is playing Longview, IN Longview. The band is going to be going too. I am proud of all the kids for the hours of hard work they put in. I really would like to be going there with them, but this is probably for the best. I can now just hope that everything works out for everyone and that there are no obvious blunders, no lost uniforms, no drama.

If you live in the state of Texas, High School football is a big deal. We're talking HUGE! For example: My daughter's high school won the State 5A Championship last year, so this year, season tickets are sold out. SOLD. OUT. I found this out a week before school started!!! I was stunned. I don't know why, but I was kind of expecting to have the opportunity to get tickets and see the games. You have to get an early start if you want your season tickets. A friend in another school district has the same issue. She couldn't get season tickets either.

It's going to be an exciting several weeks. We have a game tonight, a game next Thursday (that I am going to TRY to get to!) and on and on....the calendar is packed. It will be a lot of fun this year!!!

Fly-by

I am around. Really, I'm not just a figment of anyone's imagination. I've been kind of busy with band. I was trying to insert a picture here but can't seem to get it to load. Nice.

From Marching Band

From Marching Band

Work, of course, has been busy as well. This is a good thing, especially in a "down economy". I'm fortunate that I'm not a victim of the economy. I may have many grumbles to make about things, but not that.

I've also been working on my attitude and my training. I kind of slacked off again in the exercise department. I can't work out in the morning anymore unless I get up at 4:30 am to exercise. I'm having to take my daughter to school by 6:55. I'm now at work a little after 7:00. Makes for a VERY long day, especially when I work from 9:30-6:30 one day a week. I can't work that shift this next week because we have a "meet the teacher" thing going on. I want to attend that because it's good to get to know your student's teachers.

I fixed it!!

I work in Technical Support for a fax machine manufacturer. I am one of the "Digital Support Specialists". All this means is that I can troubleshoot problems and fix them (mostly).
Today, I took my laptop to work in the hopes of fixing the problem with it locking up. I think I can say that I was successful. I ran a number of things, including "scan disk", "Windows cleaner" and "disk check". I also asked one of the guys in the repair center to blow out the exhaust fans on the underside of the laptop. He did and dislodged a feral dust bunny herd. However, the computer has been on *all day* since the removal of the bunnies and it's working beautifully. It's COOL to the touch! The keyboard hasn't gotten warm. The back of the laptop is cool. I'm impressed! I managed to fix a problem and I wasn't even considering that as a problem!! Makes me feel pretty good, all things considered.

Computer issues

I've been having issues and fighting with my computer. It has a tendency to lock up while I'm looking around the Internet. I decided to take matters into my own hands and cleaned off an email client program that had been giving me fits--it wouldn't load properly when I first opened it, so I had to stop the IMAP process on the computer. Then it might load, but would crash while I was doing things. I finally gave up and deleted the program. I figured the pretty stationery wasn't worth the pain in my neck from the other issues.

I still had problems, so in the past two weeks, I've run software programs designed to knock out malicious software (none were found at all!), spy programs (only 9 on that scan) and of course, my anti-virus program. I'm thinking that at the end of my av term, I'll switch to a free program that my husband uses so that I don't have to fight with Symantec's product. It's rather large too. We'll see.

Anyway, during a scan for malicious software last night (clean and that was before the seven hour scan!!), I found a folder that was from the old email client. It had 1,000,000 kilobytes of data!! I was shocked to see it still hiding out in the application data on my computer, so I deleted it. Let me tell you, that was not fast! Then I emptied my recycle bin and THAT was not fast either! The good thing is, that program is gone from my computer completely now. I've deleted it out of the registry and hopefully I'm good.

I feel positive that I've managed to do good things. We can always keep our fingers crossed. My computer at work hasn't had these issues and it's run slow (it's 7+ years old). All I can do is hope that I've resolved the problems. I guess it's now a matter of "keep your fingers crossed."

Saturday is for rest...or is it??

Another week has snuck by me without my knowing it. Well, I DID know it...but I've had meetings this week that have tied me up. Monday night we had a Cub Scout meeting--the first one of the year. Miss A had her schedule pick up on Thursday. She's taking all pre-AP or pre Advance Placement classes, with the exception of math. She's taking Algebra I. I'm glad...I'll get a chance to review with her! She's changing her Biology to a Pre-AP class. I was surprised to hear that from her, but pleased nonetheless. She's a smart girl. Yes, I AM saying that because I'm her mom, but also because I know she can do anything she puts her mind to.

Mr. A's not 100% interested in Cub Scouts..YET. He hasn't gotten into the swing of things yet. I have to get him fired up for it. We did have an interesting talk about martial arts forms as we were walking home from the store this morning. We were talking about him reviewing Kee Cho Hyung Il Bu, because he needs the practice. Just because we're out of class this month doesn't mean that we have to let everything flop. We will practice and work on our techniques and forms.

Next week we have a full week of Band related activities. They start practices in the evenings, so no more "two a days"...instead, they'll practice from 4-8, so I MIGHT get to hear them this week. No practice on Wednesday. Thursday there's a Pep Rally, plus it's "Meet the teacher" night at the Elementary school. I hope we'll know who the little guy is getting for his teacher soon! We want to know more than 1 day before we meet the teacher!! Friday is the "Watermelon bust" at the high school, then Saturday is March A Thon. I've got to help with that. Need to find out what I need to do for that.

Busy, busy

I am here but have been sidelined by the goings on at the house. Number one daughter started Band on Monday. Every day has been a lot of fun. I had a parents' meeting on Tuesday at 7:00...I didn't leave the school until 8:30. There was just a LOT of information to be gleaned from the director of the bands. I'm thinking this year is going to be just jam packed, what with Band and Cub Scouts. Somewhere in that time frame, I am going to HAVE to take time for me and do my martial arts. I prefer to have my time to train. I'm going to make Dan Training on Saturday before we go to Escadrille Registration. I WILL NOT miss that! I have already missed two classes this week. I'm supposed to take Ms. A to the cafeteria on Tuesday at 7:00. Can I sneak in a class on Tuesday? I'm not sure. I have to figure that out. My class is 7:45-9:00. I want to hang out with MY friends too!!
(yes, that's a whine there!)

I haven't even gotten a schedule for Cub Scouts yet, but I'm going to have to get my assistant Den Leader to attend some of the Pack meetings so that I don't have to keep missing karate. I need the stability and the structure of the karate. It's become so much a part of who I am that I feel very...OFF if I don't get to go to class. I'm going to class tonight after Cub Scouts. I won't be in uniform, but I will be there! Might learn SOMETHING! It definitely does wonders for my mental state!

I have an idea for an essay that I've been fumbling with. I need to find someone who would not mind proofing it for me. I have a whole bunch of things in my head but need to put it to some format. I think the subject is going to be an interesting one. I have had it in my mind for a while, so I think it's going to happen soon. Just as soon as I find the time...

Do I need my head examined?

It's August 2nd. That means that tomorrow is August 3, the first day of BAND MOM for me! I get to be a band mom for the next three years (or more if number one son decides to get into band). Tomorrow, Miss A is starting "Fish Camp". That means that she's now a Freshman in high school. I can't believe it. She's in high school now!! I'm excited for her. I'm actually excited for me too, because I will be going to some of the football games at school. I have never been to a single high school football game in my life. I'll be making up for it this year.

This week will be jam packed with stuff. We have the start of camp, a Freshman Parent meeting on Tuesday, nothing Wednesday that I know of, Thursday is Roundtable (Scouts) AND karate, Friday is nothing and then Saturday, I have Dan Training AND Band Registration. Then next week, there's a lot going on...I think I'm free for karate on Tuesday, but there's something Thursday. I have to take Miss A to get her school schedule on Thursday the 13th too. I'm wishing I was an atom at this point...I need to be able to break off into multiple little particles!!

The entire month is going to be crazy. Click here for the band calendar and you'll see what I mean!

Sunday, August 2

I must have mis-timed myself yesterday. I went out and walked the track at the high school again today. Today's time was 19 minutes, 21 seconds. I didn't take my son with me today, so that might have something to do with it. I also worked on my breathing. I walked most of that first lap fairly slowly, but then started walking faster by the last end of the track. My husband was with me and all I heard was "goodbye" as I pulled away from him. I wasn't out to race him, I was out to walk. I didn't have my MP3 player with me, so I wasn't regulating my steps to music. I was just out to walk. I did work on my breathing. I tried to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth as I was walking. It seemed to be the thing to do. That is something I can do on a regular basis. You THINK you know how to breathe, but sometimes it turns out, you don't really know.

Anyway, I feel successful, so I'll be working on maintaining this time at the recommendation of a couple of friends. As long as I hold this pace for the next few weeks, I'll be in good shape. I can then strive to decrease the time by a minute or two. By the end of the month, I should be walking a mile in 17 minutes. By the end of September, I can aim for 15 minutes and by the end of October, I can aim for 13 minutes. My goal will be to strengthen myself to the point where I'm shaving off a few minutes every two weeks. I think it's a reachable goal.

Run number 1

I did my first run today. I didn't do so well, as I had at least expected to run the mile in in 15 minutes. Instead, I ran it in 25 minutes. Oh well. I'm disgusted with myself, but it gives me something to work toward. I WILL get my time down!!
I spent the first lap just walking. Laps 2-4, I walked and ran. I ran the straightaways and walked the ends. I noticed that I was huffing and puffing a LOT when I finished running, so I figure that I've got a lot of work to do in that regard. I know I'm not breathing right. I've got to work on breathing from my diaphragm, not from my upper chest. I know it sounds goofy, but another running friend told me that I need to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. You'd think that after 44 years, I'd know how to breathe, but that's not the case when it comes to running! I will work on that.

I need to work on stretches that will help me not be stiff and sore afterwards. I have experienced pain in the back of my right ankle in the past and I don't want to have it continue, so that is a point of research today.

Fitness obsession...

I haven't worked out this week, other than a martial arts class on Tuesday. I missed last night because I wasn't feeling well. I'm actually a bit bummed that I didn't make it. I feel better when I work out!
I can tell I haven't done anything because I don't feel as "sharp". I'm a bit more tired and am dragging. It's amazing how well your body responds to physical activity!

I'm taking my son to the track tomorrow morning. We're going to start working on running together. Both of us have to run a mile. It's great about being "old"...I have the same requirement as him!! While I'm not looking forward to the run, I AM looking forward to the activity first thing. I have missed it this week!

I let a friend borrow my Wii Fit, balance board and EA Sports Active, so I haven't been doing them this week. I'll get them tonight and will start back in on them tomorrow or Sunday. Probably tomorrow, AFTER I run. I have no excuses. One of my co-workers told me that for weight loss, running was probably the best thing I could do for myself. He recommended that I start running first and *then* start doing pushups. I don't quite agree with that...but I know I have to work on my core and get it strong enough to support my weight. Part of that will happen from doing crunches, the other part will come from improving my overall fitness.

I guess I need to restart my fitness goals. It's the beginning of a new month, a new 30 day Challenge to address. It's going to be a fun month!!

Training accountability

Last night, I talked to one of my instructors and asked her to help me start running and training myself to get into better shape and get ready for the possibility of testing in the future. She's in school full time and probably won't have that much time, but she suggested something really good to help motivate me. She suggested that I start posting my workouts on my blog. I'll be putting it over at my training blog (Martialartsmusings). That way, I'll have public accountability for what I'm doing.

I can do pretty much everything they ask of me in class, although in my eyes, it's not quite up to the standards I think it needs to be at. I need to step up further and do more. For example--last night, Ms. M had the kids in her Beginner's class do Roman Chairs. You put your back against the wall and slide down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Then you HOLD it for a period of time. Ms. M is super athletic and had no problems with it. I did it with the kids as I was waiting for their class to end. I could NOT go down until my thighs were parallel to the floor. A green belt pointed that out to me. I started to go down and felt a "ping!" in my right knee, so I stopped. Of course, I need to either get that "ping" looked at or work through it. What I should have done last night was to work through it. That would have been better than just doing that halfway. I have work to do to get to that point again. I WILL do it.

I sent an email to the Masters last night (and copied in a couple of people I know can also push me), asking them to please help me stay accountable for my work outs. I have a certain number of pushups and crunches that I have to do, plus I have to run a mile in ten minutes. I'm going to start working the mile aspect because I'm afraid that my years of inactivity have caught up to me. I'm severely a couch potato. I'm not afraid to do most things, but I've never seen myself as a runner. Time to break out of that mold.

If you are a reader here and you want to go over to Martialartsmusings and give a nudge or a push there as well, please feel free. There's a link in my sidebar under Martial arts blogs. If not, please nudge me here. At this point, I'm taking all the help I can get.

Honest Blog

I was tagged/awarded by Claus to list 10 honest things about me. This is a bit of a challenge, but I'm going to have fun with it. Sooo...here goes:

1. I love the rain. I like to listen to it falling outside. It's relaxing and soothing.
   


2. I don't have an artistic bone in my body, unless it's an ability to write.
   


3. I'm afraid of falling down. You'd think that with my karate training, I wouldn't be so afraid, but I am.
   


4. I am not a natural athlete. I have just recently reversed my apathy toward working out and am enjoying it more and more.
   


5. My favorite thing to do on the weekend is to sit on the couch with a cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise. I prefer to be alone durin gthis time.
   


6. I have never been across either of the borders of the United States. I used to live in Washington state, but never made it across the border to Canada. Never made it to Mexico either.
   


7. I'm afraid of bridges.
   


8. I am a book hoarder. My apartment is packed with bookshelves and books.
   


9. I envy my daughter her talent for art and music. I wish I was able to draw like she does and I'd dearly LOVE to have a scrap of musical talent to lay claim to.


10. I have a tendency to be hyper critical of myself. I'm working on trying to fix that, but it's hard to break a habit of so many years.
    

Five people are supposed to play along. I'm not sure I know of five people who aren't on other lists who might want to do this. I would duplicate people from Claus' list: Vessie, I Pity the Rhino, Gal Friday, and Cessie, but I'll have to add in Go West as well. No pressure though. If you don't wish to list your unknown facts - if you still have any - don't even sweat it. Just grab the award.

Putting a plan into motion

I think I've decided to run myself through another 30 day challenge using the Wii Active. I enjoyed that and *I* see results, even if my husband does not! 99.9% of your success is mental anyway, or so I think, sooo...that's my plan. It feels really good to workout in the mornings before work anyway!!

I talked to my instructor on Saturday for a brief moment. At some point or another, we are going to get together and choose a weapon for me to start training with. In case you're interested in it, go here and read "Choosing your Weapon".

I'm currently listening to the whispers of the men on the other side of the wall from me. I'm at work earlier than normal. I can't stand being late, so I generally get to work on Mondays at least 30 minutes early. It gives me time to get my first (and possibly second!) cup of coffee, have breakfast and read my mail.
Plus I can pull myself together and get organized--as organized as I can be--before the calls start rolling in. The only downfall is, people know I'm in my cube and come over to ask me LOADS of questions!

I was tagged by a friend to do an honest blog, and I will do that in a bit. For now, I'm about to go get myself another cup of coffee, find an address and mail a card for the little man. He wrote a thank you card to a friend, plus he wrote her a letter too, and I promised to mail it for him. It'll go out today and arrive...well, we don't know when it'll arrive. Hopefully she'll enjoy receiving it!

30 Day Challenge completed!!

My first 30 Day Challenge on the Wii Active by EA Sports is over as of this morning. There were 20 workouts in the challenge. I did all 20 of them. I enjoyed the challenge. I actually changed up my intensity about halfway through. I changed it from the easy intensity to the medium intensity. I will go ahead and go foward with the next 30 Day Challenge and do it on the medium to hard intensity setting. Of course, I've also made my own workouts and will work on those as well. I'm going to give myself tomorrow off as it would be a normal rest day anyway. I'll start again on Tuesday morning.

I've gotten into a routine. I think I've posted before that it takes 21 days of repetition to make a habit. I love the fact that my habit is one that breaks my 'couch potato' habit. I like the feeling of empowerment I'm feeling by taking control of my life. I've given myself the permission to workout, to feel good. It's wonderful!!

Yesterday was Open Training at the dojang. I got a chance to work on falling. I'm not the best person for falling, but I worked with Ms. S. She's a great teacher for the falls. I did back falls slowly--you have to work up to the confidence to fall better. We also worked on front falls from a kneeling position. I'm glad we did that because I'd be worried about falling from a standing position (for now). I have to work on falls though because going forward, I have Ho Sin Sul and One Steps that require falls. There is one One Step (#18) that requires the defender to fall and execute a side kick to the attacker's groin/inner thigh. I need to work on that one. The fall first, not the kick!! That'll come over time.

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.

The halfway point

As I've mentioned before, I'm doing the Wii Active 30 Day Challenge. Today was the halfway point for me. I bumped up my intensity level to "medium' because I felt that I wasn't working hard enough on the "easy". It's a nice little program. I rather like it. I totally feel like I'm seeing results, even if my husband does tell me "it's only cellulite". I will NOT let him get me down. If I want to think I'm seeing results, then I'm going to see results! There is a LOT to be said for the power of positive thinking. I've gone so far as to condition myself to *not* get unhappy about about the running and lunges. In fact, I actually like the lunges. Okay, if I'm 100% honest, I don't like the running and the lunges, but I won't be negative about them because I feel like it'll go against what I'm trying to train.

After my workout, I went into my closet to find a shirt that I wanted to wear to karate today and decided to try on a pair of pants that I haven't been able to wear for a while. They FIT! Even better was the pair of jeans (size 18, yes, I'll mention it) that fit!! They were not comfortable, but I could get them on AND I could button them up. That, to me, is progress. I'm happy about that! It was a welcome thing to find out! I'm not ready to wear the jeans, but I can be happy that the exercise routine seems to be working out!!

I reached the halfway point today. I have two weeks to go until the finish of the "game". Once I hit that month mark, I'm going to start another 30 days. I am really happy about it. It's giving me an ego boost and I feel immensely better about myself.

One year ago

One year ago, I made a decision that changed my life in a good way. I left my old martial arts school. For a month or so, I floated, not doing anything, not part of a group of anything. Then I found BTK, attended a Dan Training, then showed up for a few classes and now I'm here and I'm not going away.

I am celebrating my one year anniversary. I'm a part of a bigger whole, a part of a family with BTK. I have friends who respect me. I have friends too, who are more than willing to give me a swift kick in the butt for being a whiny butt (and you know who you are!). I appreciate you, even if I don't tell you!!

I'm totally over myself and my ego. I had a huge case of "this is how things have to be." when I came into this school. Thanks to a few people who took the time to *care*, I have learned to let go of my pre-set conceptions about what I should or shouldn't be able to do. If I don't do things the way they're done in BTK, I can modify what I know to move forward and learn how to do things in this school. You need to check your ego at the door here. Nobody is better or worse than anyone else. Yes, there are people with much experience, but you know, that's because of their training, not because they're better or worse than anyone else. THAT is something I like! It's a nice feeling to know that if someone is demonstrating something to you, it's not for a "shock and awe" factor, but rather from the fact that they *know* the technique to demonstrate to the class.

Who would have thought that one year ago, I would have considered changing things? I'm glad I did.

Vacation doings

We're having a "staycation" this year, but it's turning out to be fairly pleasant. Yesterday, we did very little, just hung out at home, watched movies and played games on the Wii. Today, we went to the National Boy Scout Museum in Irving and had a lot of fun, walking around. We looked at many paintings by Norman Rockwell and some of the other paintings and drawings by his successors. That was very impressive. For a while, we were the only ones in the painting gallery, so the docent came over and talked to us. He explained the paintings to us and helped the kids find the "problem" with one of Rockwell's paintings. It wasn't a problem, per se, but it was an unusual one for two reasons: 1. Rockwell painted himself in it and 2, one of the Scouts shown was painted with only one leg. It was really a neat painting. Rockwell had some serious talent.

We went into a different gallery and watched a quick movie on Scouting. They had a mannequin of Lord Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting that was so lifelike, it wasn't even funny! It watched us, literally. We found out that a lot of famous people had been Scouts. People like Presidents Gerald Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter; Buzz Aldrin, Bill Gates, Neil Armstrong (he was an Eagle Scout), the late Robert McNamara. It was a good learning experience.

After the museum, we came home and worked on the little man's requirements for Weebelos. He described to me what three of the parts of his uniform are (the kerchief, slide and hat), plus told me when and where he could wear his uniform and where he couldn't wear it. We also looked at the requirement for his "Forester" Badge and his "Handyman" badge. He's on the verge of earning the Handyman and on the verge of earning a science and math belt loop. I didn't know how much was involved in Boy Scouts!!

Tomorrow I have a visit to my dentist to fix a broken filling. That should be loads of fun (NOT!). I'm highly fussy about my mouth and can't stand things like shots and whatnot. I won't be in a good mood because I suspect I won't be able to have my morning coffee. I think I'll just make sure I drink a ton of water before I go.

Note: Today was a "rest" day, so I don't have a workout to talk about today.

Day 6 of the 30 Day Challenge

Since we bought the Wii Active, I've been faithful to the program. I AM working out every day, even if I'm not blogging about it here. I've noticed a few minor changes. The changes I'm seeing not everyone else will see right away as they don't see me as I do. I'm pretty happy about it though. I'm noticing that I am getting smaller and it looks like my arms are gaining definition. I'm going to stick with it because it's a lot of fun. I can only imagine what my poor downstairs neighbors think though...there's an "inline skating" thing that has me jumping to do "tricks". I haven't quite mastered that yet. I hate jumping, but I'm getting better.
Tony pointed out to me today that I have a tendency to land hard on my heels when I'm running, so I need to work on that. It may be the cause of some of my foot pain. I'm not sure yet. I'm going to practice running on a track tomorrow, not on the carpet in the living room. It's a "rest" day for me on the Active, so I CAN go to the track. I am noticing now that I'm happier when I'm exercising daily. Must be that endorphin high I keep hearing about!!

I have 20 more workouts to do on this 30 day challenge thing. I'm happy to keep at it. Once that challenge is over, I might just start a second one. I'm not sure yet. We shall have to see. I know I need to start working on pushups and crunches too. Those are important to my martial arts studies, so I'm going to work on them too.

Day 5

Sunday we broke down and bought the Wii Active. Since then, I've been using it regularly, as part of my "normal" exercise routine. I feel pretty good about it. I'm not the best at some of the exercises, but they will come to me. They will also help me with my martial arts. Today, for example, I had lunges (oh, ick!) and boxing. The lunges are a necessary evil, I believe, because I need to build the strength in my legs and Master M told me that they were a way to do just that.
I also had some "boxing" today. This is nothing like the rhythmic boxing that the Wii Fit has. This is aiming at actual targets. If you "break" the target, that's good, but if you at least make the attempt to hit it, that's good too. I definitely will have to learn to use my hips as I'm doing the game. It's a good plan of attack because it'll help me improve my kicking skills too. Kicking=use of hips. Boxing=use of hips. See the correlation?

Anyway, this was day 5 of the Wii Active 30 day challenge that I'm doing. I'm pretty pleased. I've managed to keep up with it so far. I'm not getting discouraged. I'm actually laughing because it has "inline skating" that makes you first crouch way down (to gain speed), then JUMP really high. It's to do a "trick", but that depends on when you jump. If you don't jump at the beginning of the ramp, your avatar lands very hard. (If a person landed the way that avatar does, they'd have broken ankles!!)

I'm on vacation now. I won't be at work until the 15th of this month. I don't know what the guys are going to think. I don't know if I'm even going to worry about it. I've stressed out over doing a good job for so long, it's good to just let someone else worry about it. Of course, in the back of my mind is a small "what if they don't do it the way I want it done?", but...I'm not going to let it bother me. I'm going to enjoy myself. We're going to do home stuff and hang out here. We MIGHT go to Houston for a day, just to see Tony's Grandmother and uncle. That is a "might". We could also go to Oklahoma and also to Shreveport. I'm considering all of those things.

Forms

Tonight I think I FINALLY got my head wrapped around forms again! I practiced Pyung Ahn Ee Dan, Pyung Ahn Sam Dan and Pyung Ahn Sa Dan tonight and was able to do them. Ms. M corrected something I was doing incorrectly on Sa Dan, and I was able to pick it back up and keep going. That made me very happy with myself. So after class, I talked to Master G and was talking about how I "couldn't remember" Pyung ahn Oh Dan. Well, guess what? Not only did I apparently lie about that, I managed to do the *entire* form in front of him and did it all the way through, correctly!

Bear in mind, I've been fighting myself for the past 9 months to convince myself that I did know Pyung ahn Oh Dan. I hadn't actually TRIED to do the form, just reviewed it mentally. That wasn't enough. I figured that since I've been working on trying to reclaim my forms, I'd go ahead and brush up on them and get them back. After all, I am a Dan and need to remember them. I'd been setting myself up for failure by saying "I can't". Well, I CAN!
I was literally jumping up and down and getting excited in front of Master G because I DID!!! It was so exciting to see that I DID remember that particular form!!! YAY!!

Ms. M made the recommendation that I just pick a form and drill it over and over. I'm so glad that she made that recommendation! It felt really good to hear Master G call out a form, which I had been doing and I was able to do it and do it RIGHT!!! My next step is to keep working on Pyung ah Sa Dan this week, plus review of Sam Dan and Ee Dan.

Methods of training

I talked the hubby into going out and letting me get the Wii Active today. One of my FB friends recommended it. I tried it as soon as I got it home. I went through a hard 20 minute workout, but I'm not complaining! I enjoyed that workout and feel like I accomplished something. I need to make sure I warn my downstairs neighbors that I'll be doing some running, in addition to other things. I need to be careful, however, since I've somehow managed to hurt my right heel. I don't know if it's Achilles tendonitis (which is what hubby thinks) or if it's Plantar fascitis, but whatever, I don't plan on aggravating it too much! If necessary, I'll talk to the Masters on Tuesday and ask to be excused from running...or I'll just walk. We shall see. I don't want special dispensation from anyone. I just want to do my best and work hard. They expect hard work, I expect to give it.

In Open Training yesterday, I worked with Mr. D about a rear choke hold grab. It was interesting. It's a matter of someone grabs you, then you smack them in a highly vulnerable spot, twist, elbow them in the ribs, on either side of their body. It worked very well for me. Of course, he was about my height. I haven't tried it with someone taller than me...YET. I need to make hubby practice with me. I worked with the little boy on wrist grabs. I needed the practice and he can help. It was a good thing. He's learning (somewhat by osmosis, maybe) how to get away from someone who grabs him by the wrist. I'm going to keep working with him and also with Ms. A on the wrist grabs. They're good for both kids to know. I talked to Master G about working on them with little A. MG said that it was okay for him to work with me. I have a goal to learn the Ho Sin Sul by the end of the year. I need to get all of the Ho Sin Sul learned. I have no excuses. It's a reasonable goal. I even let the cat out of the bag and told Master G that I have set myself this goal. I WILL make it happen! I know at least 3 of the Ho Sin Sul by memory--they're all wrist grabs, but still, I can do them.