Black Belt Living

Mrs. Hogan and Miss Hogan

I haven't posted in a few days because I needed a few days to recover! What an emotional roller coaster it's been since last Saturday.

For so long, I've thought about what it would be like when it was my turn to stand there on that chair, and in reality it was a lot different than I had imagined. For one, I'm sick. At 5pm on Tuesday night, I just wanted to crawl in bed, I felt like crap. But I OD'd on Sudafed and ibuprofin and off we went.

There were 90 students getting new belts and the black belt ceremony is always last, so it was dragging out really long. Very unfortunately, somebody from my family was there and literally made an ass out of herself by complaining and bitching so loudly throught the evening that I could hear her 20 feet behind me. She really embarassed Shannon and I. Because we were running late, my instructor did Shannon and I together, which was fine, but that meant that I couldn't talk about her and she couldn't talk about me. Also because we were running late, he didn't give a talk about any of us who were getting black belts (there were seven of us last night ~ that's a LOT).

But on the very positive side, my husband was SO great and said such cool things that I was losing it up there. Then there was Dominique. He's a seventeen year old who I've done quite a bit of mentoring with for the past two years. He's been on the edge of running with a bad crowd and dropping out of school for a long time and I know that my friendship and influence has really contributed to keeping him on a good path. He spoke up for me and that really made me cry.

Also, before the ceremony, all of the IP girls from the office showed up and one even brought her husband. That really surprised me. I was thrilled! Love my peeps from the office!

Everybody with the exception of that one person was SO great. Some things didn't work out quite like I had visioned but it was also a big love fest and really fun. Black belt dinner afterwords was a blast, even if I was feeling really rotten.

All day Wednesday I was just so emotionally drained. For some reason, I just felt like I needed a good cry and it's not because I was sad. I think I was just so emotionally spent and sick on top of it that I wasn't coping well. It's so weird. This is how I felt the day after my wedding and the day after Shannon was born. In the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of an event, but on the other hand, it really is. I know I put a LOT more effort into reaching this goal than I ever did for my high school graduation! Ha!

Oh, and when my instructor pulled that belt off of me, it cracked loudly! It didn't stick! :-D

Anyhow, that's it. Here are a few pics from our awards night. And yes, I know I need to change my banner now! I'll get there!

May 23, 2006 is Here!

Okay, I was just reading the comments from yesterday's blog and my wise friend Kelly had a really good point...

"Oh man... you have to wait this long to find out whether you are a first degree black belt? Barb, this is killing me. I had to laugh because in the world that is scrapbooking, people anxiously await The Call. But in the world that is TKD, The Call is something to be dreaded. Hmmm, quite the contridiction there."

I hadn't thought about it that way before, she's so right! For a scrapbook contest, I sit around all day practically willing the phone to ring and it's silent. Yesterday I prayed that the phone would not ring and it rang off the freaking HOOK!

Riiiiiing :::::: heart starts pounding ::::::......look at caller ID, it's the dentist's office. Whew.
Riiiiiing :::::: heart starts pounding ::::::......look at caller ID, it's a political survey. Go away.
Riiiiiing :::::: heart starts pounding ::::::......look at caller ID, it's my mom. Mom, love ya, gotta go.
Riiiiiing :::::: heart starts pounding ::::::......look at caller ID, it's my husband. He knows better!

Anyhow, I got a lot of calls. No winning contest call, no "no pass" testing call, so it's all good. That means that today is a pretty big day.

When I started training in taekwondo, I figured out that if I passed all of my tests on schedule and I didn't get injured along the way, I should be "standing on the chair" for my first degree black belt on Tuesday, May 23, 2006. That sounded like a really long time away. But you know how it is, especially when you get older and have kids, time flies. Time has flown and today is Tuesday, May 23, 2006 and tonight Shannon and I will take turns standing on that chair, having our instructor and our family say nice things about us, then get that belt which basically just moves us from the top of a small totem pole to the bottom of a big one! But that's okay. Two years ago when I was hopelessly fat, unfit, and somewhat depressed that totem pole seemed like something impossible. I didn't think it would really happen at the start.

Did you watch the Survivor reunion show? The woman who finished fourth, Cirie, was a classic middle aged couch potato who turned her life around by getting off of the couch, getting active and doing Survivor. She lost weight, she felt great, she looked really good. I could relate to her story a LOT. That's how I feel since I started at CTA, although when I signed up, I just wanted to survive from class to class and walk without limping. May 23, 2006 didn't even show up on my radar screen for quite a while.

Finally, it's Diet Deadline Day. About a year ago, when I realized that I would be standing on that chair someday, I had this ooogy feeling. Part of the ceremony involves our instructor untying our senior red belt, pulling it off of us, and making it crack like a whip. Now if you're a ten year old kid and have no hips or body fat, that thing snaps like a firecracker. I, on the other hand, had this vision that our instructor would go to pull my belt off me and it would get stuck. Ugh. I did NOT want that to happen. So for the past year I have been determined to be thin and fit enough that the belt would snap off of me. I didn't totally meet my weight loss number, but I'm fairly close. I'm down three solid dress sizes and I'm pretty confident that that belt will not get stuck tonight. It had better not. Yesterday my friend Karin suggested that I wear some heavy duty control panel undies and I thought that wasn't a bad idea. Perhaps I could find one of those old fashioned corsets and have Shannon "lace me up tight" before getting dressed.

So tonight is our night to celebrate and even eat guilt free pizza. Tomorrow we take our place at the very bottom of a big black totem pole. Yay! Second degree....Tuesday, September 25, 2007!

The Do Not Call List

What a weekend! I need a day off to sleep, that's for sure. Since that's not going to happen, it's time for an update.

Testing went well. I think Shannon and I did just fine, but today is the day that "the calls" go out to those who did not pass. Logically I don't expect a call for either of us, but I always hate the Monday after testing and dread that phone ringing. I mean, you never really know. I'm glad I'll be at work today, so it'll take my mind off of the phone ringing.

I'm relieved that the testing part is over and all that's left is the celebrating. Awards is tomorrow night.

Ginger brought her family to testing and took pictures, so as soon as I get some of those today, I'll make sure to post them. Thanks Gin! Their daughter Maggie started taking taekwondo about two weeks ago at our school, so before you know it, I'll be there watching and judging her testings. We're like one big happy (most of the time!) family over there and it's fun to have them a part of the gang. Now we just need to get S2H all signed up. He wants to, you can see it in his eyes!

A big THANKS to everybody for their love and support to get us to this point.

Finally, a big Happy 40th to TBT! Love ya!

Black is my Signature Color

Back in July and back in my old Blogger days, I posted THIS blog entrty about our ritual that we call "testing toes". At the Cincinnati Taekwondo Academy, the women and girls in the school paint their toes before belt testing in the color of the belt that we're looking to earn.

As you can see in that entry, my toes were a lovely shade of Lap Dancer Blue. Yesterday Shannon and I went out and had our testing toes done again. Here they are (hers are the ones done up all fancy!).

I can't believe that time has gone so quickly and that tomorrow we'll be testing for our black belts. Shannon started before I did, but held back a cycle last summer, so now we're even. It's great that we both get to do this together.

So...it's been 21 months of training, ten belts, two tournaments, over 325 classes, a few injuries, lots of laughs, a few tears, great new friends, regained self confidence, over 35lbs. lost hopefully forever, jeans three sizes smaller, better health, a new passion, and so much more. Signing up to take taekwondo has been probably the best thing I've ever done for myself and believe me, when I signed up not only did other people think I was nuts, but I questioned my own sanity as well.

A big thanks to my family, my instructor, my good friends, and everybody who has supported Shannon and I throughout all of this. While we are moving on from one part of our training, we're really just getting started. I look forward to where all of this will take us in the coming years.

Finally, best wishes to my fellow classmates Traci, Jake, Nick, Joe, David and Sarah who are also going for their black belts tomorrow. The sun is supposed to shine tomorrow for the first time in what feels like MONTHS. I hope that's a good omen.

May Sweeps

May is such a busy month! There's always so much going on and it seems like this May is busier than ever. Weddings, graduation parties, birthday parties, end-of-the-school-year festivities, etc. keep everybody hopping! On top of all of that, Shannon and I will be testing for our black belts in taekwondo this Saturday! I can't believe that we're this close already. Time flies by so quickly!

I feel like a juggler lately with too many balls in the air. The scary thing is that I know some are dropping, but I won't realize it until later, I'm sure.

I finished another photo shoot for the Junior League of Cincinnati this past week. I've been spending a lot of time doing post-production of over 400 photos, which is why there has been no blogging for a week! Taking photos for these great women is truly a pleasure. Not only are they great to work with, but they're beautiful as well. They make it easy to capture beautiful photographs.

On the work front, I've been working on a new newsletter for Imagination Project. There will be two versions, one for our retail customers and one for consumers. Be looking for that very soon. I'm putting the final touches on them right now and I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. Learning InDesign by Adobe in basically a week was quite the challenge. Thank goodness that it's a close cousin of Photoshop, because I already knew that backwards and forwards.

No progress on the bathroom remodeling. We still don't know what to do. Our estimates are so far apart, that it's hard to decide which way to go. The high one, we're totally certain of the quality, but the price way exceeds our budget. The low one is so low in comparison to the high one that I question the quality. Ah, what to do!! Right now I can't even deal with it, so we're doing nothing.

Sad news on the family front....my dear uncle that I love so dearly was diagnosed with malignant myeloma last fall. He had been doing pretty well in his treatment, well, as well as you can do when you're battling cancer, but took a turn for the worst this past week. It breaks my heart. He's only 57, which is quite young to have the type of cancer that he's got. Life sure can be unfair.

Gardening season is gearing up and I can't stand it! I really don't like gardening, so each year I strive for a more low-maintenance landscape. Knock-out roses are my friends. I put two new ones in this year only to get up one day last week and find that the two new ones were eaten DOWN TO THE GROUND by deer. Bambi and I are NOT friends.

Well, for those of you who emailed me and wanted an update, you got it! I hope you were able to stomach this post all of the way to the end. I promise to update again very soon. Now it's off to get my "testing toes" done!

It's one of THOSE Weeks!

Wrong!

Wrong!

Wrong!

Typical Idol ~ the best singer won't win again this year. Maybe one of these years they'll get it right.

Get some Action!

I had another photo shoot for the Junior League of Cincinnati this past weekend (oh, and if you click on the JLC link, the photo right at the top of the website with the woman and girl peeking out of the door is mine!) and it really motivated me to "put a little action" into my photo processing. So I jumped over to Itty Bitty Actions and picked up a little something. I also decided to invest in the pro version of Neat Image so that I can get those crow's feet off my face!

Needless to say, I'm officially hooked. I spent mont of last night surfing the web for more free downloadable actions. Some are really cool, some...not so much.

Here's what I did with some different style photos. I still have some learning to do, but it's really fun so far. What do you think?

Lost

Yes, I know I'm overdue for an update, but when you're stuck at home with a really sick kid, there just isn't that much to chat about, really.

Shannon is home for day #4 from school. Sigh. She's still complaining about a really red hot throat to the point where she'll cry uncontrollably because it hurts so badly. We've tried just about every medication and home remedy out there but nothing is working. Her strep tests have both come back negative, so I guess it's just one big bad virus that we're going to have to suffer through. I hate the thought of all of the schoolwork that she's behind on.

So, since there hasnt' been much to do but work, do housework, and watch television, did you see Idol this week? Good choice, I thought. I think I'm the only person in America who liked both of Chris's songs. Love him! Glad Paris is gone, she bugged me from day one.

Then there's Lost. Holy cow! I didn't see that ending coming. And that scene with Anna Lucia and Sawyer...well, let's just say what a way to go!

Down and Out

Yesterday S started complaining that she wasn't feeling well. By last night, she had a really hot fever that I couldn't get down, not even combining ibuprofen and tylenol. I hate that. She's miserable and there's nothing I can really do to make her feel better.

It's the pits when your family is sick and I know that my turn must be right down the road. Ugh.

There's a lot of strep throat going around, so we've got an appointment this afternoon to rule that either in or out. In the meantime, I'm working from home today writing my class instructions for CKU. I hope you all got registered for CKU-A in Atlanta!

I finished this layout for Coordinates Collections this weekend at a crop on Friday night ~ had a great time with Laura, Jamie and Miss T!

Weekend update: Shirt - found in S's laundry pile! Tournament - I took first place in both traditional forms and in sparring. S got a spirit award. It was a really good day!