Catching Up

I have tons of stuff to do today, but it seems like that is never ending. I always think I'll sit down and catch up when I've done all my chores, but that will never happen, so I'm doing it now instead of counting the number of batteries I need for Christmas morning or balancing the checkbook like I should be doing!

So. . .a lot has happened since I last posted. Actually, a lot happened before that, and I didn't get a chance to write it down! Let's see. . .Nov. 3rd my little sister got married. I can't believe that it is legal for a 10 or 12 year old to get married! Or. . .maybe she's actually older than that and it is just hard for me to believe that she is a grown up. That's possible. Hmmm. . .

It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding. It was also so perfect for HER. I love when ceremonies are such a reflection of the persons involved. Just to tell you what I mean, here are some things that happened through the day. Right before she walked down the aisle, I went to the hallway to get her and she was sitting on the floor in her wedding dress singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with the flowergirls and ring bearer. Other people would be irritated that the kids couldn't be still. My sister finds joy in children being children, and she loves them for it!

Through the service, the little ones would go back and forth from the front row (with Nana and Pop) to the front (where their moms were!) It didn't bother J. one bit! She loved it. When my sister-in-law tried to make her daughter be still, J. actually waved at her that the kids were fine! She really is so good with kids. It is definitely a special gift that she has.

They had a "sand ceremony" instead of a unity candle. They each had a seperate color of sand that they poured into one bottle. Good for two reasons: 1) the wedding was outside and a unity candle would probably have been blown out--I don't know what that would have said about the future! and 2) they got engaged on the beach, so it was very personalized to their own story.

Two days before the wedding I was telling J and her mom that you have to try not to freak out about the things that go wrong. Everyone wears a dress, says vows, takes pictures, eats cake, does a first dance, etc. Your special stories that make your wedding unique--the things you'll remember and laugh about and tell your grandchildren 50 years from now, are generally the things that go wrong. . .they both just about hyperventilated as I was talking.

So, fast forward to the day of the wedding. C. (mother of the bride) and my dad switch cars so that she can have the one with more room to transport stuff. She takes his golf shoes out of the back of his car and is quite annoyed that he didn't get that stuff out ahead of time so she'd have more room. A couple of hours later they meet up. He says "Where are my tux shoes?" She says "Huh? I don't have your clothes." He says "They were in the back of the car with my tux." Hmmm. . .maybe the golf shoes were actually the tux shoes?? She says "I think they are in the floor of the garage."

No problem. . .we have a good hour before the ceremony starts. C's friend Sheila gets in the car and speeds toward the house. I decide that even though J doesn't want to put on her dress yet, I want to get it out of the bag so I can fluff the petticoat and get it ready. I ask where it is, and J says it is in one of the David's Bridal bags. No. . .it isn't. Those are the bridesmaids dresses. . .who was supposed to get the dress??!!?? It is hanging in C's closet!!! Does J freak out? Only a little! Her mother bursts into hysterical, uncontrollable laughter--probably because her brain has to do that or cry or just plain explode!

No problem. . .Sheila is already on the way to the house! She'll just get the dress too! See how things work out? Good thing the shoes were missing, because that gave Sheila a 20 minute headstart on picking up the dress!! J just kept saying "This is one of my stories, right? The ones that make my wedding different?" Right. My most used saying of the day? "It is fine. It is already taken care of." Total lie in most of the cases, but we got it taken care of before anyone knew better!

Here is a picture of my beautiful 10 year old sister who keeps insisting that she is in fact 26 1/2, and totally a grown up:

What else has happened?

I ran in my first race. It was only a 5K, so not a big deal to most people, but I haven't run competetively since I was a kid. I guess I shouldn't say "competetive" because they didn't adjust the start times, and I wasn't in it to win. . .but it was a timed event with a finish line. I officially came in 11th for my age group, but I didn't get to start for about 45 seconds after the real start time. Next time I'll know to start at the front so I get a more accurate time! I did get a pretty cool Tshirt.

S. ran with me, and I had made him promise for DAYS that he wouldn't go off and leave me. About 100 meters into it, I could tell he was going nuts. I told him to go on, that I would be fine. And I was! I actually had quite a nice talk with myself about not always needing someone around to accomplish something. I am perfectly capable of finishing a race by myself and being alone for a while.

Toward the end, I wanted to walk for a while. I was running a LOT faster than I usually do, so I was kind of tired, but I think I was actually just accustomed to walking--it wasn't that I actually needed to. Because, just as I decided to start to walk, a Marine unit in formation came up along side me. They were calling cadence and had their guidon in front. Well, how can you quit running when that is right next to you? I told myself not to be such a wimp! These guys are running and singing (yelling) and they kept taking turns grabbing the guidon and sprinting around the formation. I decided that as long as I didn't let the WHOLE formation get past me, I would be ok. So, I turned off my Ipod and ran to their cadence. I stayed with the front frow the whole time and finished at a personal record! I ran 9 minute miles. Not a great time, but better than normal (although I am usually pushing 110 pounds worth of kids and stroller. . .)

I did learn why it is good to train for an even though! You definitely work harder during your workouts when you know you have something to get ready for! I only decided to run about a week before the race, so I only had 4 days of workouts, but I ran a lot harder in those than I had been before that--and I hadn't even realized that I wasn't work as hard as I could!

Next event. . .

The boys finished up the soccer season. Sadly, R. never did score a goal. I was really praying for that, but he seems fine with it. He and J are going to play in the spring on base and they can be on the same team. This time it will be a 3-5 year old league, so R will be one of the oldest. I hope that will give him some time to shine!

N. finished the season as truly one of the most amazing goalies ever. As I'm typing this, I feel like I have posted it before, so if that's the case--sorry. Anyway--his coach talked about him at the team party and said "I have been watching soccer since I was a little kid and I have NEVER seen someone play this position at this age with the skill and talent that N has." I, of course, already knew he was amazing, but I thought it was because I was his misguided, biased mother. Turns out, he actually is good. Coaches of other teams were even telling us how great he was. Everyone was talking about him playing up a league next year and going to the competitive league, but S and I have definitely decided against that for now. We want him playing a variety of sports because you learn different physical skills and different life lessons in different sports. There will come a time when he'll have to "specialize" but for now. . .he plays everything. In fact, basketball practices started 2 weeks ago!

What's next?

For Thanksgiving, we went to Fresno to visit the sisters' families. My mom and G met us there, so it was almost a complete family reunion. My brother and his family weren't able to make it. We planned to take a picture of all the kids and photoshop their kids into it. . .but we weren't able to corral all the kids at one time to do that. . .maybe individual shots and photoshop those. . .

We really had a good time. It was so fun to watch the kids play together, and to get to hang out and talk to the grown ups! We also went to Yosemite which was beautiful! I can't wait to go back in the spring when the waterfalls are running fast and we have more daylight to be able to hike through the giant sequoias. They are just amazing to me. It was too dark by the time we got to them to get any good photos--but I will next time we're there!

The kids did a couple of cooking projects with the grandparents. The little ones lost interest pretty quick, but N and K hung in there. They made fudge and helped with cheese logs with Oma. Then a couple of days later they made cupcakes in ice cream cones with Opa. They loved that!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at J's (different J than the wedding story above!) house. They haven't lived there long, so we hadn't seen the house before. It is really pretty and they had big tables for everyone to be able to sit together. We did manage to set the timers on the cameras and get a few shots of everyone in front of the fireplace!

We had dessert at B's in laws house. They are really fun and S always enjoys talking to Bob (B's father in law.) They went to the same military school (42 years apart!) and have a great time talking about the "traditions" (read HAZING!) that are still the same! I'm going to send the photo to the alumni magazine!B and I got up at 3:30 the day after Thanksgiving and went shopping. We got some amazing deals and we totally filled up her SUV--not even thinking about the fact that I would then have to get everything in my van, with my kids, and get it home. Not to worry, though, my husband--the packing genius--made it happen with almost no effort. He's awesome.

I finished almost all of the Xmas shopping that day, so I've only had to hunt for a few things since then. I completed all of the shopping Sunday when I got that one last gift!!

We took family pictures at the beach for the Christmas cards. . .I got a lot of good ones of the kids--

The one that makes me misty eyed:

The one that makes me proud of their friendship with each other (when they aren't trying to kill each other!) See all the rocks at the same time??

The one we used for the card: (aren't they beautiful--and big!)

And the one of all of us:

I'm sure there are a million more things to write about, and hopefully I'll do that as I think of them, but for now, I have only one more interesting (sort of) thing to say. About a week ago, I took a test to be certified as a personal trainer. I'm sure that some of you don't think that is a big deal, or it might seem kind of flighty, but it was quite a challenge for me.

For one thing, I haven't been tested on ANYTHING since May of 1996. And, I'm not even sure I had to take any finals then. . .it may have been as long as December of 1995!! So, that made me nervous.

Secondly, I was the oldest in my class--by a lot. There were only 3 of us, but that just made the differences more obvious. Also, they both had more experience than me. One of them is getting a degree in sports medicine, and is currently an intern as the assistant trainer for the football team at her college. The other girl is a kickboxing instructor, and has already completed the certification for group exercise instruction.

What they did NOT have was the experience of having spent 2 years on Weight Watchers and 2 years working out with a trainer. So, a lot of the information was stuff that I have absorbed over the last 2 years as I've incorporated it into my life.

The technical anatomy stuff was quite a challenge. I never figured I'd need to learn that stuff--names of muscles, joint actions, cardiopulmonary systems, rish factors for cardiopulmonary disease etc. Why should I learn it? I have parents who are a nurse, a nurse practitioner, and a trained coach. I have a best friend who is a physical therapist, her husband who is a PA, and my own husband who is a soldier. Why would I need to learn that stuff when I have all the resources to just ask when I have a question??!!

Anyway--I did learn it. I could rattle it all off to you right now! That's not to say I learned all the stuff they know. The first thing they talk about in the class is to know your limitations and know when to refer someone to a medical professional. But, I know enough to know that there's a whole LOT involved to working out!

So, I know I did well on the written test. I took it twice and compared my answers. Even if I missed all of the ones that I wasn't certain on, I still made an 88 or so. But, I came home and looked up the ones I could remember, and I know I got at least 6 of those right, so I did ok. The practical part, I'm not sure of.

The grader said that she would stop you when you had covered everything that you needed to. While I was teaching my "client" I asked her to do 2 more reps. As she started the second, the grader said to move on to the stretches. I'm not sure if she stopped me because I had covered everything, or because I had painted myself into a corner by saying to do 2 more.

After that, she said to two progressional more difficult exercises for the opposing muscle group. That would be hamstrings. I did hamstring curl machine first. Obviously, that is correct. But, I woke up in the middle of the night and thought that the second exercise I did was for gluts--not hamstrings!! CRAP!

I went to my gym and talked to the manager (the one who encouraged me to do this in the first place!) and she assured me that it WAS a hamstring exercise, because they are worked isometrically. Great. She also said that I didn't mess up with the first thing, because all the time you hear trainers say "Do 2 more." and they do 2 and then the trainer says "Do 2 more." So she is certain that the grader stopped me because I had covered everything.

She also said that it has always been her experience that if you failed the practical part, they told you right then. So. . .if she's right, I probably passed. You have to get a 90% on the practical. We'll see in about 4 to 6 weeks. Which really sucks--she's sitting RIGHT THERE! She knows my score as soon as I finish, so why couldn't she just TELL me?

Who knows. But, I did hear her telling another girl that she should go and retake the practical as soon as possible. So, she must have failed.

The gym said they would hire me as soon as I get the certification. That would be great experience, and then hopefully the next place we live will be hiring trainers on post! While we are here, it would be good money--if I can just get some clients. Doing group training, it would be about $64 and hour, and I wouldn't have to pay for child care! Keep your fingers crossed!!

So--I'm done for now. Off to help with N's class walking field trip to Christmas Card Lane. I'll have to post about that soon. One of my favorite parts of living in this neighborhood!