Updates

So much has been going on that I haven't had the energy or inclination to post, but now it's returning.

First of all, my friend Michele's youngest son, Austin, just had brain surgery. It kind of puts your whole life in perspective. Austin's surgery was a huge success and he is recovering nicely. I am humbled by my dear friend Michele's strength and perseverance. Go to http://www.fourtimesthefun.blogspot.com/ to read more about Michele and her incredible family.

Now that I am not worrying about that nearly as much, I have the energy for personal updates. I was in Birmingham for 2 1/2 weeks. There was a slight scheduling snafu so I didn't teach as much as I planned with the Alabama Ballet School. So I took advantage of my free time and took a boat load of Pilates classes in between jetting Junior off to various fun activities.

There is a science museum for kids called the McWane Center and Ryan and I took Zachary there several times. Currently they have a Bob the Builder exhibit that Zachary loved.

He had fun destroying the arch that we worked so hard to build! I have tons of photos from subsequent visits, even one with Bob the Builder himself, but alas they are still in the camera and it's not with me at the moment! :( I'll add them later.

For the 4th of July we had our annual family reunion (Ryan's side). As usual it was a blast. Here's the whole family:

We are, in the back row from left to right, Aunt Linda (the hostess), Elise (Michael's girlfriend), me, Zachary, Denise, and Kurt. Front row Carolyn, Tony (Grandpa), Ryan, cousin Wendy, cousin Michael, and Uncle Mike (the host). I'm not sure why we have the noodles in the pictures, but we do silly things (as evidenced below).

All the guys, pretending to be serious:

The girls, on the other hand, would NEVER pretend to be serious!

All of us had such a good time, but I think the grand winner in the fun department was Zachary. All is right in the world, don't you think? Zachary had grand adventures in the pool. Here he is with Daddy and our dog, Julie. Awww, my sweet family!!

Learning to kick with Daddy:

Playing "Magic Carpet" with Uncle Kurt:

And jumping into Daddy's arms:

He did this 3,965 times. It was so cute. Oh, and Julie had a fun time too. Uncle Mike and Aunt Linda are great hosts, we are already looking forward to next year!

As I write this I am in Orlando. Today starts the first session of my Pilates certification. I'll be here until Monday. I am quite excited, but a bit nervous/anxious. Here's the thing, I have to get Matwork certified first, then Reformer certified. I am not so good at the matwork, but I can do the Reformer exercises. I should probably be really good at the matwork before becoming certified to teach it, right? I'm hoping they won't decide that I have no business being certified to teach matwork. Teaching and understanding it is quite different from actually doing the exercises. But I have been teaching ballet steps that I long ago stopped doing (as most of my teachers did) so I don't really think it's necessary to demonstrate if I can accurately describe it. At least that's my argument for the moment. I hope I don't get booted from the program.

Okay, well I am off to review and practice the exercises I suck at, then I must review the planes of movement. I have to admit I never quite grasped that concept (saggital plane, transverse plane, etc.) in graduate school. However, I graduated with a 4.0 and was selected as Outstanding Graduate Student in my department, so planes of movement cannot be THAT important, can they? I have yet to actually apply those concepts while instructing, but nonetheless I will review them. I don't want to be uneducated and unable to do the exercises!