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!

Working out

hey guys! sorry I missed tonight, just got done making up the workout. I did forms, kickboxing, I tried out some of the ab workouts Chris showed us in class and I also did some push ups and sit-ups.  Will see you guys on Wednesday!

For those of you who were lucky enough to be at Saturday morning training this week know how awesome it was and for those who weren't there missed out. BSBN Cory took us through core work and Jiu Jitsu drills. It was a nice change up to the different work outs that we have had so far. I am so glad that we are having these trainings together because this is what makes us close as a team, and summer is coming to end so there won't be as many opportunities for stress free times just to enjoy life. School is around the corner, and for most of you that comes with homework and  life changes once again. For us lucky few, the beginning of your school year is the only break from my institution of higher learning that I get, so essentially I am just now getting to experience my version of a summer break:) I hope that we can continue the momentum that we have created for this test so far. We only have a few short months left, so let's hit it hard and remember: finish the test with the same thing that made you start.

Biking, 5K, and fast defense

Yay! Today I can REST MY LEGS! [ But not for long : (  ] My legs are really sore from everything, because I have been pretty active all week.

Starting from Tuesday, I went shopping with my grandma, which took longer than expected; and after thirty minutes at home, I packed the car and went to Jae's house to meet with her. After a quick bathroom break, we got into our cars and drove for a long time to Banks, where the biking trail starts. We started the trail and the scenery of the forest, the farms, the wide-open fields, and the view was amazing. Total the miles we biked from point A to point B to point A again; it was 14 miles, 7 miles getting to point B. We arrived home at 5:45, my little brother, my dad and I exhausted.

Wednesday, I went to the Intel run, which is where I met Caroline Sunshine and got her to sign something. I ran 5K with my mom, getting around 45 minutes. I ran into Andrea, Jordan, Matthew (<- sorry if I spelled it wrong!) and BKJN Dan, who was running a booth there. I wasn't tired at first after the run, but then all the tiredness hit me at once and I felt SUPER tired. I got home at 4:00, meaning an hour to rest, eat, and relax; but at 5:00, I got dressed, ready, and packed into the van so my mom could drive me there.

The bullet man suit now that I think of it I would have been really scared if I really thought of it. But really I was relaxed, I don't know if it was because I was tired or because I've done it before, but I was relaxed. Anyway, when I did it, I was a little confused because after watching everyone else, mine was kinda different. Like I was picked up, my arms were tangled, he grabbed my foot, etc. Still, I wasn't as scared when it happened. I don't know. I'm just happy I can rest now.

Did you know?: humans have AT LEAST 9 senses.

•Serena•