Black Belt Living

What's Up In Your Life?

A few weeks ago, my freshman roommate from college found me on Facebook. She transfered junior year to another university and after graduation, I pretty much lost contact with her. Well she found me again. It was hard to know where to start with the "what are you up to these days?" question.

How do you sum up 25 years of your life in 500 words? That's a challenge right there. Coincidently, that's this week's challenge on the Digi Dares blog. You're supposed to do a journaling-based layout that tells your reader what you're doing right now in your life. I thought the timing was great. Here's my layout:

This is a fun and easy one this week, so I hope you'll join in!  Check it out HERE.

It's nice to be doing some scrapping again. Here are some of my newest creations:

Hmmm...lots of blue there. I wonder why. Blue isn't normally one of my favorite colors.  

Shannon and I are going to do the Newtown 5K race tomorrow. We're going to do the walk/run thing. I hope I can make it, I just started doing yoga at yogahOMe this week and I'm super sore. I've lost all my flexibility since I retired from taekwondo this past spring and I want it back.  Ah, it takes pain to get back there again....feels really good though. So far I love it. We did a lot of yoga-based stretching and conditioning in taekwondo, so it's quite familiar. 

It's amazing how quickly you can fall OUT of shape, isn't it?  Why can't it be the other way around? I guess nothing worthwhile is easy, is it?

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday!  I'll be taking my baby camera to the race, so I should get some interesting pictures (I hope!).

No Time

I thought I'd take this dreary Friday morning to put up some recent layouts. 

I haven't scrapped a whole lot lately, since I've been trying to not only adjust to my new schedule, but also prepare for rank testing at taekwondo. I haven't tested in a year, so I'm overdue!  I'll be glad when it's tomorrow at 1pm and it's all over. Tonight I judge the white and yellow belts and also the really little tykes, and they're always hilarious! They always say and do the funniest things.

I'm going to run.....what are you doing this weekend? Got any fun plans?

Old Girls Can't Jump

With Shannon's broken arm and inability to participate in sports, I admit that I've been slacking off on going to taekwondo practice.  

I don't see it as a bad thing either, for the past nearly five years I had been religious about going to class at least four days/week.  The only time I didn't go this often was when I tore a tendon in the bottom of my foot, but through all my other assorted injuries, including a really dorked up lower back, I continued to train. I never missed a testing, ever.  I just kept trucking along.  

When I was in jury duty this past winter, I had to miss a few weeks and it was actually kind of nice.  I had a bit more time for my family.  Who knew?!  Anyhow, I slowly came to the reality that it was okay to slow it down a bit. I'm a second degree black belt, which is something that I would have never dreamed of achieving in the past.  I'd love to test for fourth degree one day, but I'm in no hurry to get there.  In class we talk about balance, physical, mental, and emotional, and I came to see that my life was a bit out of balance. So I cut back.  Given the price of gas, ten 12-mile round trips also starts adding up money-wise, so I vowed to be better about not doing so much driving back and forth.  

So for about three months now, I've been pretty out of it and I've missed it. As you know, I've put back on a few pounds too, and I need that exercise and stretching on a regular basis.  My back has started acting up on me, and I know it's based in a lack of core strength, so I'm working on that too.  

So this week I'm back in class, and last night I really felt like an old woman. I had bags of frozen peas on my ankle and my knee.  I am black and blue all over again, and I had kind of forgotten about that part. We sparred the entire class yesterday and within about ten seconds, I could see how out of shape I have gotten. UGH!  I hate that!  I felt big and still and slow, like a meatball with feet.  I can NOT jump anymore.  Seriously. I have always been vertically challenged when it comes to getting both feet off of the ground at the same time, but this was ridiculous! 

We had a little "mini tournament" in class because there's a regional tournament in Lexington this weekend (no, I won't be competing!), so we were practicing.  I won the class tourney, but man. I need to get it back together! 

My days of going five days a week are over, but I have to be more consistent. I know it'll probably take a good few months to get my groove back and I want to, because I hate feeling like I'm an old lady, even if I am the third oldest student in the school (our oldest student is 75, by the way, and he's awesome!). Being an aging jock is NO fun!  

Last Day of School!

I know I'm not ready for school to be finished yet, but time marches on, doesn't it?  I just can't believe it's May 30th already.  Where does the time go?  It's going to be Christmas before we know it.  

A big high five to my soon-to-be-a-sixth-grader.  She's had all A's for the second semester, and in the first semester, she missed all A's when she got a 89.02 in science and ended up with a B.  Now I realize the grades in elementary school don't amount to much, but it still sounds really good!  She also started violin this year and is doing well with that (well, she was until she broke her wrist....hopefully she'll be back to normal activities in about a week ~ yay!).  Just think, in a year, it'll be off to middle school.  I can't say I'm looking forward to that.  Fifth grade packed enough "girl drama" to last me for a long time, and I know we're just getting started!

This is testing weekend at the taekwondo school.  Shannon and I were both going to test this cycle, but again, I guess it wasn't meant to be.  With her broken wrist and my bum shoulder, we're going to sit this one out.  I feel like I haven't seen Ginger in forever, but she'll be there this weekend because her Scottie-2-Hottie husband is testing for his black belt ~ go Scott!  Be sure to go over to Ginger's blog and send Scott some good luck (not that he needs it!).  We kick testing off tonight with the little tykes and they're always hilarious! 

That's it for now.....gotta get ready for work.  I leave you with a little Guitar Hero this morning!  I really think we need to get this one of these days......