Friday Flashback

This Friday Flashback was taken December 24, 2010.  We had gone over to our neighbors house for Christmas Eve dinner.  Theresa made an awesome lasagna and we had a great night with our friends and neighbors.  Landon's helicopter went down in the Red Sea this past Sunday, September 22.  He was never found.  My heart aches for Theresa and their sweet little boys.  I can't stop thinking of them and the hard, hard road ahead. 

Brenalee, Tyler & Anthony (with Little Kitty photobombing)

One thing that makes me really sad is that for a few years now I've been really, really lazy about taking pictures, and blogging.  I don't have any pictures of Theresa and Landon - just Anthony.  We had all our Thanksgiving dinners together while we lived there next to them and this Christmas Eve dinner and saw each other nearly every day - and I don't have a single picture.  How is that possible?!  I'm going to be better about taking pictures. 

7 Months!

This little girl is 7 months old today!  She loves going on walks in her stroller, bath time, her brother and sister, and eating.  She does not like to have her nose wiped, or when mommy walks out of her sight.  She is trying to start crawling - she does a backwards scoot.  She is working on getting her upper teeth, which I think is making her a little grumpy.  This week she all of a sudden has stopped her long naps that she normally takes.  I hope we can get back to those nice naps soon!

Love this little angel to pieces!

Pack Meeting

Tyler had a pack meeting at church.  The theme was cooperation.  They had a spaghetti dinner.  The trick was that they had to have their hands all tied to their neighbors and try to eat!  It was funny watching them.  Some kids just gave up and put their face in their plate and started eating that way.

We started out with cooperation games to keep them entertained for a bit until dinner.

 Then it was dinner time!

Soccer

I missed Tyler's first soccer game because I was at Bodypump training.  We drove out to Christiansburg Middle School for his second game.  As soon as the game started Tyler kicked in a goal!  I was so excited I got to see it!  I always miss his goals for some reason.  It was also a Hokie game day in Blacksburg, so we were dressed in our Hokie gear.  We had tickets to the game because it was military appreciation day.  But, we ended up not going because it was pouring rain all afternoon.  We watched it on TV instead.

 Tyler is #8

 Bristol loving the outdoors

 She really liked picking the grass.  She even has her Hokie in!  (that's her pacifier - we call it Hokie because it's a Virginia Tech paci)

 Ready for the VT vs. Marshall game!  Go HOKIES!

Bodypump 87 Training

I have taken bodypump for years - I love it.  I have never seen muscle definition in my body until I started doing bodypump.  I've wanted to be an instructor for a long time.  I was thinking about it a lot when Tj was last deployed, but it's an all weekend long thing and I didn't want to have to burden someone with the kids for that long.  When Tj came home I was looking into it, but then I found out I was pregnant.  I could have still gone through the training, but I just didn't feel well.  I was always so nauseous.   Well, finally I found a time that would work for me.  I signed up back in July for training the weekend of September 14 & 15.  I was so excited.  I would be training on BP 87!  About a week and a half before the training I received my release and the tracks I was to learn so I could teach them at training.  I had the chest and back tracks.  I looked at that stuff and thought - man, how am I supposed to learn this stuff?!  I thought it was so easy!  Well, it's not as easy as my instructors always make it look!  But, I studied, practiced, listened to the songs over and over, and over again and finally had it memorized.  I felt pretty good about it.  Training weekend came and I headed out early for training - it was about a 45 minute drive.  There were 15 people in my training - 13 women & 2 men.  Some had experience in being instructors in other programs already.  Some, like me, didn't.  It was a great weekend.  I learned so much.  It was hard!  We presented our first track on the first afternoon - I did the chest track first.  I did good - no mess ups at all.  I was a little nervous getting up there in front of everyone for the first time with the microphone on.  The second day we presented our track again, then presented our second track later in the day.  It went well too, I just rushed a little.  We had a small run, for about 15 minutes, then came back to the gym for a pump challenge.  It was so hard.  The trainer set up 8 stations we had to rotate through.  He set the weight for those stations - and it was A LOT of weight.  Way more then you would ever normally use.  It was just to show us how strong we really are and how much our bodies are really capable of.  I was with two other girls in my group - one was great.  The other drove me nuts.  She was one of those who didn't really try all that hard.  She would stand there doing nothing while the instructor was turned the other way, then work only when he was watching her.  She complained and complained and complained some more.  She drove me INSANE!  At the end of the second day we received our feedback and found out if we had passed or not.  There are three different kinds of passes - I got the highest pass - yay!  All that hard work paid off.  I was so happy.  The instructor winked at me and told me to get started on learning the rest of the release and get ready to film.  I have 60 days to send in my film to Les Mills so I can be fully qualified to teach by myself.  I've been working hard and have 5 of the 10 tracks learned now.  I'm hoping to have everything memorized and ready to film on Oct. 9...it's scary!

I've taught in my gym now about 6 times.  Again, I was really nervous the first time.  But, everyone is so nice and supportive, I'm no longer worried.  I even messed up the first time I taught I was so nervous, but I didn't tell anyone and I kept going like nothing was wrong.  No one but the other instructor knew.

Got my release!  Now to study, study, study!!!

 Off to training the first morning!

 YAY!  I PASSED!!!

 At the gym, with my name on a poster telling me I was TEACHING!

What a great experience! 

First day of school 2013!

After a really long summer, school has started again.  I had such mixed emotions.  I was excited for them to get back to school and get back into a regular routine, but at the same time I miss them.  They are a HUGE help with Bristol!  It was very quiet without them today. 

Tyler is in 5th grade!  His teacher is Mrs. Henderson.  He said his favorite part of the day was playing sign-o - a get to know you game.

Brenalee is in 3rd grade!  Her teacher is Mrs. Mullins.  Her favorite part of the day was when the teacher read to them. 

Here's to a great year!