Last Blog?

Last blog!

It's 2:41 AM, Jae's birthday and no body can sleep. Our black belts are already been wrapped around our waists. I wanted to do one last blog summing everything up. 

The black belt preformance was nevracking and I've never been so grossed out/happy in my entire life except when I first got my white belt. The floors in the dressing room were... Sticky. 

The secret event is really fun so far, but right now not a lot has been happing. 

So guys can you do me a favor and blog once more? I would love to see how you guys felt and reacted at the preformance. 

Did you know?: I have ran of of facts. Sorry. 

Signing off for the last time,

    CGN Serena! 

Recap

Hey guys! Right now I'm in the car to pick up my Grampa from the airport and right now we are stuck in traffic, so I decided it would be a good time to kinda "recap" as I listen to "The Fox" because my family downloaded it and it is on my phone now. 

So first is school; and the thing I want to talk about first in school is that the girl, Kathy as I called her last time, she got the message and stopped talking during class! Woo-hoo! Her friend, (I'm going to call her... Goldie) started a rumor about me saying that I was mean. But it's ok because no body really knows me. Second of all, there is a school dance on the day of the black belt performance and I will not be going to it! My school friends have been BEGGING me to go and now I have an excuse to tell them NO! JK, they already know I'm not going before they knew it was the day of the BB performance. The theme of the dance was "sock hop" and you weren't allowed to wear shoes, so I am thinking it would smell like feet anyways. 

The second thing I wanted to talk about was the black belt test, which was a little nerve racking. The written test day, was probably the most I have ever laughed. I really still can't believe Jae didn't guess what MacKenzie (<- Sorry- I can't spell) was. The "charades" game we played was hilarious, and I could tell the people acting were trying not to laugh their heads off. 

The physical test was the only test where I think I say "um" the most times. The funny thing was, my first class I cried once, and my black belt I cried once too. I guess it's kinda ironic, in my opinion. Congrats to Mike! Like everyone else, you did your best and was awesome! Going hiking was really awesome too. The scenery was amazing... If only I could take a picture with my eyes... Laser tag out of everything, took me by surprise. 

The last thing I want to talk about is Sunday, which is the most relaxing part of my entire weekend. I got to hang with the girls, get a manicure (which you will just have to see for yourself) and go to a candy shop. I swear, I felt like a pigeon finding a French fry and trying it for the first time.

That's all I really have to talk about for now, so yeah. 

Did you know?: You are reading this right now. You realized that was a stupid fact. You're smiling. You are enjoying tihs. You didn't realized I spelled "this" wrong. You're checking. You're smiling again. 

•Serena•

(GO BEAVERS!)

Enjoyed Special BlackBelt Sat

I wanted to say I really enjoyed working out with the team both physically and mentally.

It was also great to have our sister school join us as well....always great to see how others do martial arts.

I thought this years event was especially great because we really kept on track in regards to time and managed to enjoy great physical training and a fantastic bouldering experience.

We topped that off with a wonderful view of my heritage from Japan....the exquisite detail that was applied to the Samurai from their armor, helmets, swords etc....I can see why it was truly considered to be an art....to help create.

I did enjoy performing in the park for the forms and was glad that I didn't have to roll in the mud considering my open is all ground based.

Looking forward to one last week before our big test...keep practicing as the next week will showcase our final test!

School

Lately I've noticed that my attitude has changed in the past month. 

I am happier and also kinda... Moody, I guess.

Ever since school started I saw this as an opportunity to be who be who I really was, and I treat everyone with respect. But some people took my respect and traded it with anger, annoyance, and loss of temper. 

Today was an odd day; we had 2nd period, 4th period, 6th period, all-school lunch, then 8th period. I had already had my 2nd and 4th period, and had to walk halfway across the school to go to my next period. At this point without any brain food, I couldn't really think or concentrate. And basically anything could distract me from learning. 

In 6th period, I am in the back of the class room, with the most talkative girl and her two other friends across and next to her. Let's call the girl who sits next to me Kathy.

Kathy and her friends liked to talk during class and usually I will tell them to be quiet, and shush her once and a while and she would get quieter. Today was an off day apparently for her too because whenever I would shush her or tell her to be quiet she would be a hypocrite and shush me back as she talks to her friends or be all like,"I get it OK? I'm not a little kid and your not the boss of me!" Or say something like,"Ever heard of being nice? I heard you the first time!" At this point, shushing her three times and telling her to politely be quiet so I could focus 10 times, the bomb exploded.

And I snapped.

I called her out kinda of, and told her if to be quiet so I could focus. And this is how the conversation went:

Me: Can you PLEASE just stop your conversation? I can't focus with you guys talking. And we are supposed to be-

Kathy: Why can't you just ignore us and let us talk? I mean, we are talking about something.

Me: Is it related to music because that's what the teacher is talking about.

Kathy: No, because this class is, like, totally boring. And no body at this table really cares about this, rrrrriiiiigggghhhhttt? 

Me: Um, I care about this. But I can't focus with you guys talking so-

Kathy: Whatever. *Goes back to talking with her friends.*

I literally wanted to rip out my hair, so I shot my hand up in the air, and asked to move tables or split the table up. The girls gave me a glare and the teacher said that they need to be quiet, and went back to teaching. I wasent moved, Kathy wasent moved, and everyone was unhappy at my table. Kathy told me that I was such a bully because I told on them and I "never told them to be quiet." 

AHHHHHHHH! 

Ok, wait on moment, I am going to scream in the corner for a minute. 

Ok, I'm back. 

The bell rung, it was lunch time, etc. I passed by there group of friends as I headed to my last class, and I saw Kathy exclaim: "OH! There she is!" And pointed to me. I heard whispers about me and I feel when I go back to school, everyone is going to treat me with unwanted respect. Like treat me as if I was the bully. Well, I hope that doesn't happen.

And if you feel like I'm acting differently, I'm probably having one of my off days. 

It's been awhile since anyone has really blogged, in fact it feels like this website is completly deserted. So don't be shy to blog about school, new thing, martial arts, you could probably blog about your past experiences, memories, or food if you really wanted to. Or you could just rant like I did. : ) 

•Serena•

Binders

Just wanted to say thank you to Aunt Anna for her help last night with my binder and acts of kindness.  Also want to thank my mom and dad as well as all the generations team for everyone's support and setting up the event.

Let's keep up the great work and finish this year strong!

Kaitlyn Gonzales

- Do or Do Not!

Binders

It was fun having a binder get together with some of the team members tonight.  It was very helpful seeing what everybody else is doing with theirs.  I realized how hard of work it actually is meeting all the requirements and putting it all together, especially if you aren't keeping up with it every week.  It was nice to see all the progress that we have made and to reflect on our accomplishments.  I will see everyone at conditioning tomorrow and have my binder prepared.  T-Berg out!!!

Binders

Binders are due tommarow! Make sure that your binder is ready. Those of you who were at aim high today looking at binders are all pretty much organized except the acts of kindness part and you need just a little more. Keep at it and don't give up. Just make sure your binders are up to date and that you have everything you need you can also use your binder expectation sheet for reference. This part of the test may be hard that's why we have to challenge ourselves in going above and beyond. Remember work hard and dream big.

SEPT. 28. 2013

I AM SOOOOO EXCITED BECAUSE IN 1 DAY I AM 12!!!!!!!!!! but at the same time i kind of am not because first i have Saturday training and i feel confident about my binder except for my PROFILES AND LEADERSHIP PROJECTS  than KJN still has. okay, so after training we have to get home quick because one of my volleyball friend's mom is going to take me to our volleyball game in Vancouver. i wanted to ask KJN  if i could take it a little easy tomorrow because i am going to be sore from my legs. i though sometimes feel overwhelmed because i don't know if any of you remember one of my first posts that i was overwhelmed about my sports, yeah well we are back to there again. on Mondays i have volleyball and right after that finishes i have martial arts. on Tuesdays i have nothing. on Wednesdays i have volleyball and right after martial arts. on Thursdays i have nothing. on Fridays i have volleyball. on Saturdays i have Saturdays training and after that is done, i have a volleyball game. on Sundays i have OGA. then back to Monday again. i hope you guys can understand that if i am not at black belt training or if i look tired that i am really tired from all of my sports.

JOG-A-THON

Today i had a run called the jog-a-thon. the whole point was to run s many laps as you could in 40 minutes. last year i ran 19.5 so this year i determined to get at least 20 laps. I DID GET 20 LAPS!! usually this boy from my class get more than me, but this year we tied!! oh yeah! i forgot to say that the boy and girl from each class who runs the most laps, usually gets a prize. last year and i think this year we just get a certificate. the class from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, got to go to sky high if their class had the highest average. honestly, i think we are going to sky high!!! :) i kept asking every body what number of laps we did and the lowest number someone told me was 12. i think that is pretty good!! i am sooo tired though because it was cold and one of my friend's dad timed how long we were going per lap and he said that for most of the laps we were going 2 minutes per lap. today i also have volleyball practice!!! i am going to be tired for tomorrow.

My school jog a thon

This morning I had my school jog a thon. My goal was to run 12 laps which was three miles. When I ran with my class I ran 14 laps, when I ran with my first grade buddy I ran 5 laps, when I ran with Lorenzo I ran 3 laps, when I ran with Giovanni I ran 2 laps which in total today I ran 24 laps which is 6 miles. I feel like I did much better this year than last year. All the training we have been doing is helping a lot!
~Annmarie :)

LAST WEEK'S GAME

Last week i had my first volleyball game!!!! I was really excited, but at the same time I was nervous(always happens to me in volleyball games). Once we got there, some other teams were playing each other, and after they finished it was my team to play. Our coaches got everything ready. Before we knew it, it was time to play!
The other team had to serve before us so we were in a position called serve/ receive. Well...Let me just tell you that after the first serve... BUMP,SET.HIT.(point) After that, we just kept serving, and serving, and serving. The only way we would lose a point, was by missing our serve, but then the other team missed the first serve so it was our turn again. The first set we won like 25 to like 5. The last set we won 25 to like 7!!! I am really glad to be back to volleyball. last year, we got 5th place, this year we are going to be 1st!!!!!!  :)   :)  :)

docter visit

I know I haven't been on here nearly as much as I should have but it's taken some getting used to blogging. sorry I wasn't there Sunday, I injured my foot couple weeks ago and it was still hurting so I went into the doctor. we took x rays to make sure it was not a fracture. thank goodness it wasn't! but I did end up with a pretty nasty sprain and a torn ligament :(  I wont stop testing but I will have some more challenges to face but I plan to do my best and not give up! will see you al Wednesday.

Proactive Attitude

proactive: serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an expected occurrence or situation

“I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …. just wait.”
“That doesn't have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged, it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. ..."  (Full story: http://www.karenstan.net/2013/09/24/each-day-is-a-gift/)

So many times we react to situations and remind ourselves what our attitude should be.  We focus on the 10% / 90% life / reaction portion and often forget that we have a choice to make regarding our attitude that we embrace for the day.  Instead of reacting to events, face life by proactively deciding that nothing is going to get you down.  Then when people act in a certain way or the inevitable happens, you are already prepared for it.  You know that there is nothing you could do to change it and you will already have your one string strung and will be ready to attack the situation head on with your positive attitude.

Getting close

Team,

It's rally time...by that I mean every class/workout should be a mini test....seeing that we flush out all the areas we may not know or what we need to fine tune....

Help each other out!  It really is the only way that you and your teammates can get better!

I have been quite ill for the last five days, so now the Doctor is putting me on medication. I haven't worked out during my stent as a prisoner to my illness, so I am starting to go a little stir crazy, especially with the end of our test coming up. I hate playing catch up. I should be better soon. I guess the bright side is that I may have needed some rest, but I am definitely ready to get back to it.

I have given KJN a few pictures for the graduation slide show. I keep many photos in my binder as I did during my last test. One of them is BSBN Girl Sam, CGN Darius and myself after passing our poom belt test. The last picture is my Dad, my Sister and myself after my high school graduation ceremony, and as to the year, I won't say;) CGN Devon has also been kind enough to supply the instructors with photos of training and testing throughout the year. I love these photos because when I look at them I remember exactly what I was feeling at that moment in time.

I like to keep pictures in my binder because it helps me remember why we do what we do and the motivation to keep fighting. I also like to look at the different generations of people that have come through our school. Take a step back in these next few weeks to reflect on all the things that you have accomplished this year, on and off the mat. Maybe think about what your fondest memories will be or anything that you will do differently in the future. Grow and learn from this year, and feel good about what you have been through. Have faith that you will finish the race.

"Faith literally means 'to give up, surrender, or commit.' Faith is complete confidence." --Billy Graham

Trying to get caught up

Hello everyone,
I woke up at 6:30 am thinking about my binder and all the pages of it that I've been procrastinating on filling in this year -- which led me to the Generations blog, which made me think it's time to write an entry. So here I am ....

Every once in a while, I let the basic, everyday housekeeping tasks in my life pile up to a tipping point. These last six weeks have been that way for me. I've put a lot of my time into keeping up with job responsibilities, and as a result I've slacked off on my blogging and my binder updates. I know this part of our black belt preparation is just as important as our conditioning workouts and our physical curriculum. It's easier to put on the back burner -- which is how I got into this situation.

But no excuses -- I'm going to fill in the gaps and get my binder ready to turn in at the end of this week. It's my priority and my focus. Whoop whoop!!!

- Michael

Today's Saturday Morning Workout

For todays Saturday morning workout we ran about 3 1/2 miles. I was able to run without stopping which is a big improvement with me. I ran it in 30-40 minutes, a personal record. I believe part of the reason I did so well is because I had a great group of people that I ran with to motivate me. I hope everyone else had a great time too.

Race for the cure

  Haven't blogged in a while. So this last week we did the Komen Tace for the Cure. It helps find a cure for breast cancer.
  We got there some time at 7:00 by Tri-Met for my mom's 8k, and we stretched and waited for another hour for our race. We set a good pace at first, and it was good for about a mile, but then my sister's ankle started hurting, so we slowed our pace. We were doing on and off running just about the whole time, but me and Jae walked a block and SPRINTED a block. We often competed to see who could get to the next block first. It was really fun, and I had a great time. It was a lot like the shamrock run. I had a really great time, and I finished really strong.
   I was doing this for a family friend who is battling cancer. I'm really glad I did it because it was a great experience and it's just good to help treatment for breast cancer. I can't wait until my next 5k.


Brandon‼️

Blogger, My Nemesis

OK, so I haven't been blogging as I should.  After all, I am a very talkative person.  People have difficulties getting a word in edgewise while I'm around, everyone knows that about me, so why is blogging so difficult?

I think it has to do with the adrenaline rush of typing.  I get so excited to sit down and communicate more that my mind goes blank and I can't think of anything to write.

Balancing sports

This year I didn't play soccer and that's really been hiting me hard. Don't get me wrong I LOVE martial arts. It's just soccer has been a big part of my life since the second grade! I tried to do both last year but it just didn't work out. That's why I had to stop playing this season. Before this test I had made the classic team as keeper. They wanted me to try out for the fall team but I knew I couldnt balance it all.So I didn't end up trying out. I know how much my black belt means to me. I've been doing this for seven years. I can't give up now. It's been a rough road but hopefully it will have a smoothe ending.
-Annmarie :)

Empathy at school

At school my class has a wheelchair. We use it for empathy training. We each get a half day in the chair and we have to stay in there until our time is up. Today was my turn in the chair and I still played teather ball at recess. It was a little hard but luckliey I have good friends to help. I had fun playing teather ball in the chair even if it was not easy. Being in the chair is not just fun and games. One of the hardest parts for me was going up the slope our school has. Now keep in mind that we are suppose to do as much as we can by ourselves meaning without any help unless we really need it. Being in the chair is both fun and difficult but we did it for empathy. Empathy means understanding the emotions that others might expierencing or in other words stepping into someone else's shoes.

Sick, at home, with a fever

  I'm lying down on the couch, 101degrees F, trying to sleep. My body feels like pudding, my voice is so hourse sometimes I can't even speak above a whisper, and I have an aching head ache everytime I move. Most important is I have to miss school, meaning I will have no idea if anything important happened and having twice as much homework. 

I think I should be sleeping but my brain is telling me to stay awake and do nothing. I feel absolutely useless right now, not doing anything productive for myself. I barely have any energy to go from lying down to sitting up. My little ball of energy named my sister isn't helping me either, as of right now she's pulling at my blanket telling me to play with her an dance with her. And right now I'm not in the mood to play. I feel tired, sick, and hot. 

I wish I had enough strength to just get up, get the knowledge base, walk upstairs in my quiet room. I don't think yesterday was a good idea, but yet I'm still here, lying down on the couch, 101 degrees F, trying to sleep. 

Did you know?: a sneeze travels 100 miles per hour. 

•A sick Serena•

When I walk off the stage on Oct. 25

Hi all,
Sorry to say that I haven't been on the blog in a while -- it's been on my mind, but I've let work and other things crowd this out of my life over the last few weeks.

I've been pondering one of the questions KJN Jeremy asked us to blog about this summer: How do I want to feel at the end of our black belt experience? After we've been through the final judging, the conditioning day, and the meetings?

I want to know that I earned my belt 110 percent and have no doubts about whether or not I was prepared. I want to look back on these past years of preparation and feel a huge sense of accomplishment. I want to reflect on how my commitment to Aim High and this black belt test has changed me -- helped me mature, become stronger, and gain confidence.

These next four weeks are going to go by so fast -- I feel like I still have some big work left to do to really be ready.

-- Michael

"Form a mental picture of the goal you wish to attain and another picture of that goal as being already achieved, and you have put wings under the hard toil of trying."

— Norman Vincent Peale

Open Forms

I wanted to say I enjoyed everyones interpretation of martial arts as it relates to their open forms!

I can't believe that these are the final weeks until the test!

Keep up the good work everyone!

Race for the cure

Today was race for the cure. It was in downtown Portland. The event was for raising breast cancer awareness. At the race for the cure event it was packed and cold. I ran with my dad Brandon and Hailey. I ran the 3 mile option (aka) 5k. This run I think I did pretty good. I did not  feel tired and I did not want to stop,instead I felt energized and fully awake. I had a lot of fun doing another run this time me Taylor, hailey and I had pink tutus. Doing runs throughout the year has helped me become better at stamina and endurance. I hope I can see all of you guys at another run again soon. Running was hard for me at first but now running is a fun activity that I can do with friends.

Missing class Wednesday

Last Wednesday I wasn't at class because my dad felt that it was too hot for me to train. So I trained at home by doing forms, watching kickboxing video tutorials, practicing knowledge base, and balancing on the ball. I hope I didn't miss anything too major at class. I did all the forms. I also practiced my kickboxing combos in the air. I practice my knowledge base and checked my binder for everything. My top time on the ball I have at home is 1:18. I'm hoping to get 1:30 soon.
-Annmarie

The beach workout

The beach workout was a lot of fun! We went to Pacific city beach. The first thing we did was run for 10 min in one direction. Once 10 min passed we got our garbage bags out and started to pick up trash along the beach. Once we got back to base camp we had go in the water and do some forms. Next we had to do sticks we did 6 count redondo and blocks and counters. Then we did some self defense and we were still in the water. It was starting to get cold but we had to toughen up and deal with. Next we had a slight break so me and Andrea were talking about how much fun we were having. After our short break we had to climb this giant sand dune at the beach we picked a partner and we raced our partner to the top of the dune once we made it to the top of the dune I realized that the workout was a blast and that we should do that more often. Sorry I had to repost it the first time it did not post sorry

Run on Sunday

On Sunday I will be doing the annual Race For The Cure which is a 5k,10k timed and non timed run. This run is in downtown Portland. This will be another chance to work on my stamina and endurance. I will be running with Hailey, Brandon and my sister. Also we should all be running regularly outside of aim high and filling out and keeping up to date on our training log. I am so excited to be doing another run and I hope I can do more the future. Even though running is hard for me I love running when I am with other people.  So I am excited to do another run with some friends.  Happy runners!

working out at home

 Sorry I couldn't make it in tonight, tanner got sick at school and we took him to the doctor. sounds like he caught a virus. but since I missed tonight I did a work out of my own. I started off practicing my forms, then I did one hundred pushups, one hundred sit ups, then I did ten minutes of an abb workout  and after that I took my dog on a run. this workout took me about an hour and fifteen minutes.

As our test comes to a close, I have really been reflecting on what we have all accomplished this year. The things that we have done, on and off the mat, are amazing. But now we face one of the most important and crucial parts of the test that really focuses on endurance and if you have been pushing and training all year, you should be looking forward to it and if not, you really need to pull out all of the stops to finish. As another year comes to an end, it really makes me look back on  the concept of time and how we have used it. I hope that you have done everything you want to this year because it is never too late to try something new or make a change. "Once a minute passes it can never be reclaimed." --Billy Graham

Car Seat Recycling

Last Saturday I had a car seat recycling scheduled. It was a big success. We recycled 46 seats. That's about 690 pounds of seats that's not gonna be in the landfill. Everyone who came worked really hard! We were busy the whole time. Thanks for all your help! Since Saturday I have two family's who are still gonna bring me seats. Hope everyone who came had a good time. Thanks again.
-Annmarie :0)

MY WEEK

this week was less tiring than i thought because i didn't go to martial arts on Monday but on Tuesday was  my first day of middle school. unlike Serena i stayed at the same school. my school (St.Matthew Catholic School) goes from pre-k to 8 grade. the only thing i didn't like about middle school was that our lockers are like high school lockers but in half. the 6 grade gets the bottom half an the 8 graders get the top half. our teacher is really nice and lets us sometimes go to get our materials ready  for our next class. on the first day of school i felt so organized because we have a schedule that my homeroom teacher gave our class. almost at every class,never mind at EVERY class we got a syllabus. i was soooo happy though because we have math EVERYDAY!!! and i got into accelerated math class. on Wednesday we had our phase 4 test. on Thursday i got a day off (day off #2, 1st one is Tuesday). on Friday was when i had my first volleyball practice, which is explained in another blog. OH YEAH!! i forgot to mention that i have an awesome Spanish class...we usually have a normal teacher but this year i got ROSETTA STONE!! it is really fun and my teacher said that we have to start out with Spanish and we will take a test at the end of the trimester and if i pass on Spanish i get to learn a different language!!!!!:) i am planning on French, still don't know yet. on Saturday i had my 3 day off which i normally don't have because we have Saturday morning training. today i had gymnastics and it was fun. this week went by really fast. i am excited to see how next week goes.

see you tomorrow!! (hopefully)
~Aneli

This Week

This week was the first week being a 6th grader, phase 4 testing, the first time recycling car seats, and hosting a two hour study group at my house.

Tuesday, Wensday, Thursday, and Friday were the toughest days of my week. I went to a new school knowing no one, waking up really early (which I really don't like,) and carrying around a ten pound bag with me everywhere. And the fact that my school is huge and is also a high school doesn't make anything better. Now don't get me wrong, I love my new school, but having so many classes with homework due in two days is a little too much and overwhelming for me. And having to met totally new people is scary. But I at least made two friends during this week and I have nice teachers. So if you look at the pros instead of the cons, I had a good week. A tiring one, but good. 

Wensday was Phase 4 Testing and I felt as if I let myself and others down because I wasn't at my best. I tried not to be or look tired, but it turns out, I had no real energy left and I am terrible at acting. Phase 4 came so fast to me and I just didn't know how to react. I felt terrible when my mom said in the car she could have done better than me and I wasn't trying my best. But trust me, it isn't going to be like that on testing day. I am going to try my hardest to not be or feel like that ever again. 

Saturday, I was at my happiest when I woke up at 7:00 in the morning instead of 5:00. I felt more refreshed knowing I didn't have to hurry and get dressed and catch my bus, but relax and watch an episode of The Legend of Korra, (Love that show!) then get dressed and go to Aim High to help out with Annmarie's car seat recycling. We strip down the padding of the car seat, took out any metal or styrofoam, and cut out anything that could be cut and thrown away from the expired car seats. We did 45 (I think) expired car seats and put the car seats in the other building. It was fun to be able to cut things and throw away three bags of padding and anything "throwaway-able" into the dumpster. 

At around 2:30-2:55, Jae, Brandon, Taylor, and Kaitlyn arrived at my house for a study group to review the physical stuff like the kickboxing pattern, sticks, etc. and we were going to have some of my mom's cream puffs (which some people have not tasted yet) but the frosting for it wasn't ready so we ended up not having any. :( 

That was pretty much my week. How was yours? 

Did you know: About one-quarter of the bones in your body are in the foot—that's 52 out of more than 200! 

•Serena•

Progress #4

 GOAL: My goal is to have my acts of kindness and environmental acts (minor and major), Leadership project, food journals, black belt events, empathy training, fitness evaluations, and fast defense training logs done and ready to present by October 1st, 2013.

It's been about five days since I've changed my morning routine and started getting up earlier and getting more work done. I've already seen many improvements in my attitude, numbers, and my fitness level. I will continue to log my minor acts of kindness and environmental acts every day. I will continue looking for ways to fill the slots in my major environmental acts. My last major act of kindness will be when I go to the fair for four to five days and help my girlfriend take care of her livestock while she competes in her showing divisions. After I am done writing this entry I will lay out the entire plan for my leadership project and set a date for sometime in the next week. Starting tomorrow I will be starting week 1 of my food journal entries. Empathy training is something that puzzles me a bit. Tomorrow morning I plan on sitting down for about thirty minutes and researching the possibilities for this activity. My last fitness evaluation is going to be in the beginning of October. Since I wont have a time limit that I will have to adhere to I plan on doing sit ups until my muscles wont let me continue. My goal is to break 500. Fast defense is coming up and I will be participating in this event. The test requires two fast defense training sessions. I hope there is a way I can still fulfill that section of my test. One step closer to black belt.

Discipline

Definition: Discipline is a course of actions leading to a greater goal than the satisfaction of the immediate. A disciplined person is one that has established a goal and is willing to achieve that goal at the expense of his or her immediate comfort.

I am a person with very lazy habits. I would rather sit in front of the tv and eat whatever junk food I pleased than actually do any form of work. This is not a reaction to anything. Or at least I don't think it is. I will have to think further on that. But it's a habit I have and it's a non-constructive habit and possibly even self-destructive. I have always heard people in movies and even in life say to certaiin people that they need discipline. I need discipline. I need to stop relaxing all the time and stop relying on being comfortable and do something that makes my body hurt and my mind think and build better habits then the ones I have now. Starting tomorrow I'm waking up at seven every morning instead of sleeping in. I'm setting my alarm now. When I wake up every morning I workout and work on black belt training until noon and then go from there. When I feel the need to relax, I wont. When I feel like playing games, I'll get something done. And when I feel like taking a nap in the afternoon, I go for a run. Since I reduced my hours at Aim High I have a lot of free time to do as I please. I've wasted enough time already. Time to get to work.

VOLLEYBALL

Today I had my first practice in volleyball and man does it feel good to be back!! J I normally have practices on Wednesday and Friday, but since I have Black Belt training and it is almost over I figured to focus on Black belt training then focus on volleyball. My dad also put me in a volleyball group that is on Wednesdays and is going to be only for 5 weeks. That group starts before black belt training so it will take me a week or two to get used to doing two sports in a day. L I thought that since I haven’t practiced in a long time, I wouldn’t do so well. But I actually feel pretty confident about my first practice. Last year for club volleyball I was setter the whole season and I never got to hit the ball unless I got a set to the back and was nice, but whenever I tried to hit it my coach would say to pass from back row. My coach from last year said she would talk to my coach now to see if I could hit this year but today I was setter again and I ask if I could hit and she said “maybe later in the season when we find another setter.” I guess I can think of hitting the ball with the serve for now because I get to jump serve later. JJJ Hopefully I won’t be so sore because my weekly schedule for now is: Monday-Martial Arts, Tuesday-rest day #1, Wednesday-volleyball then martial arts, Thursday-Rest day #2, Friday-volleyball, Saturday-Saturday training , Sunday-Gymnastics. Then the cycle over again!LLL  I am kind of happy that we don’t have Saturday training tomorrow because I got three days of rest!!!! JJJ

~Aneli

How would I want to feel when I got that black belt

I would want to feel like I did the best that    I could . I want to feel like I pushed my self to the limit and like I went above and beyond. Getting a black belt is not the end but a new beginning. I don't want stop at first degree I want to continue and I hope you want to also. Standing on that stage I want to know that I gave it my all. Not just giving it my all on testing day but through the entire test.I hope you guys feel the same way and I hope we can  all continue together as a team

HOW I WANNA FEEL WITH MY NEW BELT AROUND MY WAIST AND WITH MY OLD BELT AROUND MY HEAD. AND MY JOURNEY

i wanna feel proud that i have accomplished this journey. i wanna know that i gave it my ALL in the test. whenever i have gotten a new belt in the past few years i have felt like i have gone to another level but when i get earn my Black Belt, i wanna feel like it is a whole new start to an adventure!!!! in this time that we have been training i have actually met another person in me and i do things that i actually didn't think that i could accomplish! i can do more than i thought i could do. Aim High has changed my life in so many ways because i have had some good times but also some bad ones. when we went on the Beach Workout i don't think i would have ever climbed up the dune. but i am happy i did because it felt really good when i looked at the dune and said "i climbed up this dune!" being a martial artist i have learned how to do more things i have ever imagined of doing. i just wanna thank everybody for helping me in everything i know, but i mostly wanna thank KJN Jeremy because  he has helped me with allot hard times. :):)

Walking off the stage after receiving your black belt is almost indescribable. At the end of my last graduation ceremony I wasn't thinking of any regrets or that I didn't put in a thousand percent the whole year, because I felt that I had done my absolute best and that I was going to continue to push and strive to be even better. I only thought of how amazing it was that I have so much family around me. Aside from my friends and family filling up a whole section of the audience, I looked around at all of my fellow testers and instructors who gave up so much of their time to help me and who wouldn't let me quit. As the last two years have passed since my last test, I continue to be overwhelmed  by the people around me who refuse to let me give up and take so much of their time to see me through until I reach my goal. I also had the wonderful opportunity to really coach, mentor and give my time to help my fellow testers this year, and I will always be humbled by that. Getting your black belt is absolutely one of the coolest, most unbelievable things that will ever happen to you, but remember its just the beginning. You still need to live like you are training, especially with how you act outside of the studio. And remember, you wouldn't be standing here today without your parents and your Aim High family. Don't ever forget that. I hope that this time around when I get to step off the stage with my second degree tied around my waist that I will once again have no regrets about this year's test, continue to strive to be that much better and do my best to be a good example when I go back out into the world. Here's to phase 4 and the big day. Finish with the same thing that made you start.

Hey team. I would want to feel tired and proud that I tried my hardest after the test. After the test a want to know that I tried my best and earned my belt. Well I just wanted to share that.

P.S my first time writing about kjn suggested blog.

I am in awe of all of you!

Team,

You are all amazing and I have missed being there with you all during training.

Some of you might know that I started college again (developing myself mentally) and I have been struggling with some of my responsibilities. I knew it was going to be difficult starting school again, because I haven't had to study and take test (besides Aim High) in a long time. The work was challenging, but I worked very hard and received an A in writing and a B in women's studies. I will also finish my art class this week and I feel confident that I will earn another A.

All you young testers, you are incredible! You all go to school and train at Aim High, ad I'm sure a lot of you do other sports and activities. You do all that and still train so hard and perform so well. I didn't do as well as I could when I skipped the #3 evaluation this Saturday. I haven't made training a priority after I started school this summer, and I feel ashamed when I make excuses. You guys haven't made excuses.

To the testers parents, you guys are so hard core. You guys and girls all work, cook, volunteer, drive your kids to train and support them in so many ways. I would love to have advice and guidance from any one of you. I'm feeling overwhelmed by school, training, coaching my son's soccer team, cooking and making time to practice my martial arts on my own.

Thanks for reading. I'll be with you as often as I can before the big test. Thanks for letting me be a part of your team.

Jeremy

How I want to feel walking off-stage with a new belt wrapped around my waist and my old belt around my neck, is happy and proud of myself, thinking that I did the best of my abilities. I want to feel happy that everyone knows that feeling as they walk off-stage with me. I want to feel victorious. And even though everyone went though so many tiring situations, I want to have that little burst of energy that gives everyone the strength to walk off-stage, heads held high, to smile ear to ear, and the strength to be high-fiving left and right. And the last feeling I want to have is depression, or sadness from not earning that belt. I hope you guys feel the same way too. : )

Did you know: There are 32,556,926 seconds in a year. 

•Serena•

Progress #3

GOAL:  My goal is to have my acts of kindness and environmental acts (minor and major), Leadership project, food journals, black belt events, empathy training, fitness evaluations, and fast defense training logs done and ready to present by October 1st, 2013.

Things I've achieved in the last week:
- +1 more black belt event log. (2/3)
- First full poom belt class.
- +10 minor acts of kindness. (120/200)
- +10 minor environmental acts. (115/200)
- A plan to help at the fair with cows. (Major act of kindness 2/3)
- Fitness evaluation! (2/3) (350 sit-ups!)
-  A plan to research for major environmental acts. (0/3)

Things I have yet to achieve:
- Empathy training.
- Catch up my training logs.
- Food journals.
- Leadership project.
- Fitness Evaluation #3
- Fast defense.
- Type up my last 2 interviews.

KJN Jeremy once told me that getting behind is not what's important. The important thing is how you plan to catch back up. I've made my plan, I'm sticking to it, and I'm making time for it. My only worry is that I didn't make this plan soon enough and wasted too much time. I plan on setting up a meeting with KJN Jeremy for next week.

Balancing on the ball

During the fitness evaluation I struggled balancing on the ball, so I went home and I found an old yoga ball in my moms closet so I blew it up and I worked on it. Now science then I went from 35 seconds to 1:18. I am proud of my improvements and I have been working every day and will be till the test.
-Annmarie

Fitness Evaluation

Fitness evaluation #3... as always its a oppurtunity to push my self to get better.  I feel like I made some very good improvements this fitness evaluation. I also learned there is a thing of two I need to improve on.   Burpees...I'm not very fast but I try to focus on form as much as I can. Even though I did better this time around I still see room for improvement. Push-ups are challenging too.  I also improved with these but I'm still don't feel like I'm at a black belt level. To push myself I will try to do more at one time and do them with better form. This black belt test has been challenging but it's worth it.

-Annmarie

Beach Event

I have to say I was dreading the beach event because of what I thought it might contain!

After doing it, I am happy to say I was very tired but felt much better for the most part.

My technique continues to drive me nuts....I feel pretty good when it comes to the fitness aspect of our workouts, but I feel like I have plateaued when it comes to getting better.

I know the choreography, but I continue to nit pick at my form....I guess that it shows that we can always continue to improve/fine tune for the rest of our lives.

I hope everyone continues to strive to continuing to do martial arts at Aim High...I havent seen very many of the graduates for the last couple of years....if you get a chance please bug them because it is much harder to come back after you have been gone a long time!

Attitude and the brain

Hi all,
When I get stressed out or nervous about some situation in my day-to-day life, I've been reciting the "Attitude" paragraph to myself while taking deep breaths. It works well to calm me down and help me turn the page mentally -- to think past the thing that's worrying me and remind me that "... life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it."

Our brains want to please us. So, what we tell ourselves about ourselves is what our brains seek to make happen. If I keep thinking counter-productive thoughts like, "Man, I can't figure this out," "I'll never catch up on my homework (or my work projects)," "I always forget where I put my keys," etc., my brain is going to say, "Oh -- is that how you want it to be? OK, I'll go along."

The same goes if instead, we feed our brain positive messages:
-- I'm smart
-- I'm capable
-- I can figure this out
-- I like doing pushups =0)

Give it a try!

- Michael

Out of the Dojo and into the World: My Week as KJN Jeremy

Out of the Dojo and into the World: My Week as KJN Jeremy

            I know that not everyone who reads this may not be a Christian, but I felt that if I didn’t share the whole story it just wouldn’t be the same because for me my faith is deeply connected to my martial arts career. And no matter what you believe we should all live a life that helps someone else beyond our own wants or needs.

The children’s director at my church came to me a few months ago and asked me if I was planning on sending my daughter to Christian camp this year. I was a little hesitant because aside from visiting family, my daughter has never been away from my husband and me, so naturally I wanted to make an excuse as to why she couldn’t go so I wouldn’t worry about her all week.

            Instead of saying no right away I felt like I was supposed to think about it. I prayed that God would somehow take away any excuses that I had and a very short time later my children’s director came back to me and said “I forgot to tell you that the camp director asked if I knew anyone with a skill that they could teach to the kids at camp, and I told her that my pastor’s wife is a black belt. She was very excited and wanted me to ask you to come and teach some classes.” Well, it could not have been any clearer that I was supposed to go. And keep in my mind that I don’t like camping, sleeping away from home or being completely out of all of my routines.

            I started to wonder if I could count this trip as my community project, so I went to KJN and asked him. KJN said that I would be taking a whole week at my own expense to go and teach martial arts classes, so it definitely counted. (Even if it didn’t count for testing, I still would have gone anyway). KJN was even gracious enough to help me plan my curriculum.So I took a week off of work and a loss in pay to travel two hours to Mt. Hood and settled in to “camp”. I thought that I would get to hang with my daughter, teach some classes and take it easy. Not even close. I was up at 7am every morning and didn’t sit until bed time at about midnight every day. I also didn’t realize that I was supposed to come up with curriculum for six classes, not three. So I planned new curriculum every night, ran, swam, hiked and walked everywhere. And the most important thing to me was reaching the kids in my classes. The director had to put a cap on how many kids I would have because so many of them wanted to be in my classes, especially after my students started practicing in their free time and bowing to me every time they saw me around camp. Most of the kids came from broken homes touched by death or divorce and there were many foster children. My students were excited every day and wanted to work hard even though I had them warm up by taking the long way around every time we walked back and forth from the gym where we trained. I even took pool noodles, called them “ninja sticks” and played freeze tag with them. I took quite some time talking about bullying and ways to handle it. It turns out that most of them had experience with this subject and I am hoping that they are now feeling some renewed self-confidence.

            They asked me endless questions about my experiences, so I shared my struggles and my victories and by the end of the week I had barely even scratched the surface with the knowledge that I have been lucky enough to have bestowed upon me. They asked me to promise to come back next year and teach and they even made me sign their shirts. As my daughter and I walked around the camp during the week and all my students and their friends wanted to hang out with me so much that my daughter said, “Wow Mom, you’re famous.” It made me feel pretty good, but it certainly didn’t compare to what I hope the kids that I taught got out of it.

            Christian or not, I was called out into the world personally and by my instructors to share what I have learned. My experiences as a martial artist go hand in hand with my relationship with God and my calling in life. I am certainly going to always try to be the best that I can, even if the situation requires endurance for doing things that I might not want to do.

I know that in the end I need to give up my comfort for something that is bigger than me. And luckily right now at this moment in time that calling goes along with the opportunity to join this year’s “Generations” black belt test. And at the very least, I got to be KJN Jeremy Smith for a week and that is just fine.

The Most Tiresome Weekend YET

My weekend was all about waking up early, and staying up kinda late. 

Saturday was the busiest out of the two. Saturday was the beach workout and the highlights of the training was running (and walking) up the huge sand dune and also going in for a little dip in the water. I'm kinda disappointed in myself for stopping at certain points when I was just building up speed and for letting Brandon get ahead. ( :P ) Going up that thing felt like I was climbing a tiny Mount Everest covered in sand.  KJN went up the dune and I saw him stop a few times. I went back down to cheer him on and went back up. I figured out the trick of getting up there, by digging my feet in the sand making steps for myself. When I ran down I felt as if I was jumping down the dune instead of running down it. After the workout most people went to play in the not-so-freezing water and I got Brandon back by splashing him in the water and getting the last laugh. After some time in the saltwater it was time to go home, which took the longest time. I took a short nap and when I woke up I was home. 

We had what felt like thirty minutes to shower, change, an get back in the car to meet Jae, Taylor, Brandon, Kaitlyn, KJN, and other friends of my parents at Big Al's (bowling and arcade place) for a surprise birthday party for Jae's father. It was a lot of fun, I got a milkshake, I scored 105 (like Haliey) , and beat Brandon at air hockey by one point! I was happy to play with all my friends and score so many tickets there. But we left everyone after air hockey because I had to wake up early that Sunday. Even though I would only get 8 hours of sleep.

Sunday was the Intel Picnic and we stayed there until 2:30 in the afternoon. I went down the giant slip 'n slide twice and it was so much fun! There was a hula hooping contest and I participated. I got third place, winning a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods. When we went home, my parents had to leave for a birthday party leaving me with Cayden, Kira, and my Grandma. I thought it would be a good time to clean my phone and relax for a bit, so I took my phone out of my case, cleaned it, and put it on the charger. When I came back to it, it was off the charger, so I grabbed it and checked it. It seemed fine, so I watched some YouTube. The screen froze for several minutes then went to black. I tried turning it on. Nothing. I put it on the charger for an hour then turned it back on. Still nothing. It was broken. My mom and dad went to go fix it today but they couldn't. So we had someone switch out the Sim Cards and transferred it to an old phone my mom used to own. This isn't good because now I have lost all my photos, contacts, stories and my numbers for martial arts. We might have to send the phones to Apple to have the memory of my old phone to the phone I'm using now. And that might take a long time. But that was in the past and I don't know what's gonna happen next, so I'll just have to bear with this. 

The weekend is over and I have a full week this week so I'm sure I'll have something to take my mind off of it. Right? Oh well, at least I'll have a little fun. 

See ya.

•Serena

my experience

Last Monday Kjn Jeremy talked about how we are on our last phase and basically "shape up or ship out!"

Last year it was after the third phase when I was cut from the Forged Team.  I know how it feels.  It is disappointing.  This was done not to punish me but to make me stronger.   I don't want to get cut again this year!  So I keep up my training, attend class each week, and attend as many events as I can.  I also gave up competitive soccer this season because as I learned from last year, I cant commit to my black belt training and have the energy or time to do both.  Last year when I was cut I decided to continue train and finish the test along with my brother and my Forged Teammates.  Completing it was AMAZING!  I was rewarded by getting permission to test for a full curriculum black belt with Generations and I was very proud of myself.  I was the first to sign the Generations banner and go the whole way to the end with my Forged team until they received their black belts on the beach.  In the end, the situation I was faced with made me stronger. If it is decided that you will need to wait to get your black belt be strong and overcome the situation it will make you better.
~Annmarie :0)

The beach workout

The beach workout was a lot of fun! We went to Pacific city beach. The first thing we did was run for 10 min in one direction. Once 10 min passed we got our garbage bags out and started to pick up trash along the beach. Once we got back to base camp we had go in the water and do some forms. Next we had to do sticks we did 6 count redondo and blocks and counters. Then we did some self defense and we were still in the water. It was starting to get cold but we had to toughen up and deal with. Next we had a slight break so me and Andrea were talking about how much fun we were having. After our short break we had to climb this giant sand dune at the beach we picked a partner and we raced our partner to the top of the dune once we made it to the top of the dune I realized that the workout was a blast and that we should do that more often.

Beach training

This Saturday's beach workout was hard, fun, and long. We started off the workout with running along the shoreline for a while , then turning around and picking up garbage along the way.  One of the groups were pretty far back while the other was far forward. It was strange, just walking down the beach picking up trash. Not something we do everyday.
  Then, we went into the water, and did our forms. We did palgwe 2, 7, and 4 I think . I don't remember much about that except that we did forms in freezing water. We then got our sticks and did    the 3, 4 ,6 and radon-do the water actually got pretty nice by then, and I kinda liked it. We put 1 stick down on the beach and did blocks and counters. That was fun , and then we did the water kicking excersize. We kicked a bunch in the water, one foot after the other. It was hard, and I nearly fell over a couple times. Then we did the best part of the workout.
The dune. We ran up the biggest sand dune I've seen and it was a first for probably all the Black belt (1st degree) testers. It was really fun, and challenging, and I ended up beating Sebastian and Serena ( I were racing them). I ran up twice and KJN walked the dune for the first time( yayz ). This beach workout was awesome and I hope we do more special conditionings like that.

-Brandon M.

Sitting down while writing this blog I find myself very excited to be taking my daughter to camp early tomorrow morning. She has been waiting about four years to be able to be old enough to go. So needless to stay that she hasn't stop talking about it all summer. And all of the money was provided by my wonderful church members who sponsored all the kids and the adults that are going to.
This will be the start of my summer break since I am done with school until the end of September. I took a week off of work as well to be able to go. So I get to swim, run, workout, have all my wonderful meals prepared for me (and I don't have to feed anyone but myself). I get to sleep in the main building (not in the dank cabins with no bathrooms) with a bed, my own room. I get to do any activity that I so choose. So this is basically my personal, very own vacation. I don't have to clean, do laundry, work, and I don't have to take care of anybody but myself. I also had the privilege of the people in charge ask me to come and teach martial arts classes to the kids. It is going to be so awesome and I can count it as my community / leadership project for testing requirements. Have a fantastic week everyone. Train hard and get ready for phase 4 because its around the corner...

Progress #2

GOAL:  My goal is to have my acts of kindness and environmental acts (minor and major), Leadership project, food journals, black belt events, empathy training, fitness evaluations, and fast defense training logs done and ready to present by October 1st, 2013.

OK! So far I've completed another black belt event (Beach workout 8/17), and will be recording it tonight. I've filled out another five of both my minor acts of kindness and environmental acts. And I'm now filling out another blog. Soon I'll have enough to print out ten and put them in my testing binder. PLUS! Tomorrow evening will be my first of two fast defense trainings and this Saturday will be my second fitness evaluation. I plan on doing my third on October 1st. It should be the last piece of my binder.

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places... seemed relevant.

Breaking Bad

This post has nothing to do with the TV show.  It also has nothing to do with the upcoming board breaking seminar by Master Null on Saturday.  It has to do with learning.

Wednesday training wasn't very good for me.  My body wanted to react to the kickboxing "4" attacks instinctively rather than doing what the drill required.  My focus was definitely not where it needed to be.

Ultimately it is good that I have the automated reaction to kicks and punches coming at me.  That is what we drill for.  But that isn't a focused reaction.  In order to learn new styles and techniques, you must be able to break habits (good or bad) in order to train your body to do something different.  It is that focus and discipline that allows us to learn.  Without it, you aren't helping your partner learn and when you react differently than what is expected, one or the other of you is more likely to get hurt.

Out of the dojo into the world:  this applies to everything in life.  Whether it is learning a new language, changing eating/behavior habits, or getting back into a school routine from summer break, focus of mind is very important.  It is how we undo what we know in order to bring in new things.

Progress

We're almost done with our test. our last phase test is around the corner and our graduation is about two months away. I find myself looking at my binder and the stuff I've done and I honestly wish I did more of the requirements earlier because I'm slightly behind and in need of pushing myself a little harder... in hindsight, I should've kept to the schedule I set for myself early on but I got lazy and slacked off. Now i'm paying for it at the end of my test. If I had to give any advice to next years testers it would be to make a plan and stick to it no matter what gets thrown at you.

Even though I'm behind, and even though it makes me mad to know I'm the only one to blame for that, there's still work to be done. I already took the first step down the road of this black belt test and I will not throw in the towel. My goal is to have my acts of kindness and environmental acts (minor and major), Leadership project, food journals, black belt events, empathy training, fitness evaluations, and fast defense training logs done and ready to present by October 1st, 2013. I will be updating my progress every three days via this blog. I'd say wish me luck but I don't need luck. I just need to get it done.

Car Seat Recycling

For my leadership project I decided to do a car seat recycling event. This event can occur at the same time as a car seat clinic at Kohl's Hillsboro on September 21st as well as at aim high that week.  I will need volunteers for this event if anyone would like to help please respond or tell me during class. If someone also has a truck for us to move the recyclable parts to Legacy health in NW portland, that would be really helpful.

Did you know that car seats expire? An expired car seat can cause a child to be seriously injured or even die if in a crash. By recycling these seats we save them from the landfill. One car seat weighs about 17 pounds so my goal is to recycle about 40 so if we meet the goal we could save about 680 pounds of metal and plastic from the landfill. Again if you can help please contact me.
-Annmarie

Feeling Good

I'm so happy to be able to do things again without having to stop due to lack of fitness!  I'm still not back to my fighting form, but I'm working towards it.  I didn't stop being fit in a day, I don't expect it to reverse itself in a day either - no matter how frustrating it is.

NOTE: I am working towards it.  As we talked about at the end of special training, it requires work to get anything done.

I continued my work towards that goal this past week outside of class with lifting weights 2 mornings, running on the treadmill one morning for 30 minutes, and then ran 3 miles today before church.  Paula and I made use of some floor space this afternoon to work on kickboxing for 45 minutes as well.

I'm feeling full of energy right now.  As with anything new, it takes the body some time to adjust to doing things differently - just as KJN about how his juice diet is going.  The first few days of anything is going to shock the system.  Ask him that same question after a week and see how he is doing.  I bet you get a happier response :-)

Stick with training and it will stick with you.

Feeling foolish -- I blew it this morning

Hello team,

I fouled up this morning by not recognizing that we had a conditioning workout scheduled. I should have been there -- I have no excuses, other than forgetting to look at my calendar. I feel embarrassed and disappointed in myself, because I know our team workouts are important and everyone who did participate today is giving 110 percent to preparing for our black belt test.

Please forgive me -- and hold me extra accountable for working my hardest for the rest of the way to our testing day. I am committed to playing the game full out, which I intend to prove through my actions and not just these words.

Thanks,
Michael

Conditioning 8/10/13

Today we had conditioning. First we did a walk around the aim high building. Then we ran to sunset. After that we did a cool down by walking in a circle. Then we did bear crawls 5 times down and ran back. After we had a drink then we lined up in a circle and did a dash kind of thing. After one lap of that we did a caterpillar run. Then we went to the benches and did triceps dips and push ups. Then we huddled and ran back to sunset.

~Annmarie :03)

Camping (Warning: Longest Blog?)

So this is pretty late, but it is pretty important (and long). And what it is, is about camping last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Jae, Kaitlin, Brandon, Grayson, and other families and friends. 

Friday was the day we got there at the Lost Lake camping sight where ironically my family got lost trying to get there. When we got there, my job was to help Jae with a cake she was going to present to all the people with August birthdays.  We had trouble trying to make the wood catch fire but a camper near by helped us by giving us dry wood, which was really nice of him. 

Saturday, the black belts, black belt candidates, and other people who wanted to just tag along with us, went on a run to Lost Lake, stopping for little ones to catch up; at Lost Lake we did planks on planks, bench dips (I think that's what they are called), group squats, some other stuff that I couldn't remember; then had a choice to either walk then sprint to my dad or to run the whole way, I choose to run the whole way. 

We got a chance to stretch afterwards, eat a little bit, and relax before going on a two mile hike loop (which turned out to be more than two miles and was NOT a loop) where the 3/4 of the black belt testing team (one had to stay behind to help watch the tiny, crazy kids not coming) went hiking and the view was AMAZING! I took a photo on my dad's phone and the photo turned out great. We went back down and the descent was really steep and I slipped once or twice (ok, actually I slipped at least five times) but I'm fine, and even though it was hot, I was looking forward to going to the lake and wading my feet in. 

Which I did. Too bad I couldn't go swimming. I didn't have a bathing suit and my mom didn't want me to get wet for certain reasons. Yet she packed Cayden's and Kira's... We rented some boats and got to boat across the lake, which was really nice. I liked afterwards we got to go to the Lost Lake General Store and everyone got some ice cream. I got a ice cream cookie sandwich (Brandon did too) , and it was good on a hot day. 

We went back to the campsite and when we were gonna make the fire, the same man came over to our campsite and gave us dry wood and newspaper again. We were very thankful that someone was willing to help is a second time without being asked. Everyone, with the fire high, roasted some marshmallows to make some s'mores, but all I really wanted was to roast some marshmallows. I was proud of myself when I got a second marshmallow and I got it golden brown. The whole day seemed to go by really fast. I didn't feel tired when everyone went back to their campsites, so I watch a movie and my dad offered me a piggyback ride to see the stars outside. The stars were beautiful, and I have a mental picture of the many stars in the night sky.

Sunday, everyone packed up and got ready to go. I was in charge of my brother, Jordan, and my little sister, while my mom and dad packed up. We went to a restaurant and ate lunch together, then parted. 

The camping trip was really fun, and I wish to go again as soon as possible. : )

(BTW, sorry this is so long! A lot happened and I wanted people to know what we did!)

Did you know?:  The longest Monopoly game ever played in a bathtub lasted 99 hours, which is equivalent to 4 days and 12 hours.

•Serena•

Oregon Food Bank

 Hey, guys. I haven't been blogging much, but today I went to the Oregon Food Bank and remembered to blog about it. For two hours, we (Me and my dad) and five other people at the table took almond cereal and bagged them, weighed them at one-and-a-half pounds, and tied them and put them in a bag. Then, we took the bags and put them into boxes, four or six in a box. Those were to be shipped off to different "pantries" in specific counties in Oregon. The pantries were a store that people poor or in need of food would go to and pick up food in bags, boxes, and cans. This is all for free. All the food that goes bad gets composted, so nothing is really wasted. They also take in things like dented cans, things past sell-by-dates (not expiration date!) and put them in a separate room where they would be repacked, rebagged, and put into different containers with different labels.This was a really cool leadership project, and I would like to do it again sometime, but with a different part of the Food Bank. The Oregon Food Bank also teaches people how to Garden to save money, and how to cook for their families. The results in the end were bigger than expected. We bagged 4788 pounds of almond cereal, which is 3990 meals, or 40 meals per person. That's about 100 people that volunteered! It felt really good doing something like this forpeople in need, and I hope to do it again sometime.

-Brandon M.
P.S- I'm volunteering at testing tomorrow.

                                                     ☺☺☺

New Mexico!

Sorry team that I have not been blogging a lot. I am with my family. The people here don't use electronics unless  they have to. I am visiting my family in the Navajo reservation!! This environment is very different than what I am used to. The people on the reservation are very old fashion. They give you firm hand shakes and say hello in Navajo and the introduce them selfs to see how they are related to you. The kids are very out doors. JD is getting used to being in the sun all day. And the kids have chores to do. My aunties and uncles are very strict. My cousins know better that to disobey. I realized than my family on the Rez is a huge military family and work with in the law enforcement. There is not much electricity in their houses as I cook out side like we were camping. Living on the Rez is a a hard life. There is no fast food and water is your best friend!! The kids that train for sports here don't have the luxury as we do. I don't run on a track I run on dirt road early in the morning when it's not as hot. They have no AC and the kids don't compline that its hot and the gym is not in good condition. But the one thing I like is that the community works together! I am training like karate kid. I am doing my forms in the sand. And doing house stances as low as the fence. I am working hard every day doing chores and black veld training. T-Berg out!!   

Leading the BlackBelt Sat Training

I have to say I really enjoyed applying the good ole days of FitBlast towards a core focused workout....honestly I was sore from doing so much core focused exercises.

Sometimes we don't realize how much of our movement and power comes from our core.....these exercises were really focused on making sure our entire base is built upon a solid core.

I really appreciated everyones willingness to try something and work extremely hard.

Thank you for letting me teach a training!

I hope everyone learned something and had a great time working out!