Pure Barre Travels

My Pure Barre fun continues. A week and a half ago I traveled to Denver for a third round of training. It was a quick trip, but this time I had another instructor with me. We had the chance to travel around the downtown city area the first day, and then day two was spent in the studio learning new moves before flying home - I told you it was a quick trip! Coincidentally, my younger brother, Kevin, was also in Denver for work. Sadly our schedules didn't align and we weren't able to meet for dinner or say hi.

Training with the double bands at corporate, in Denver

I'm having a blast teaching classes and my love for the technique seems to be spreading to other family members. My mom says she is hooked, and Jill, my sister-in-law is also increasing the amount of classes she attends each week. Now, if only I can get Drew to a couple of classes... We are hosting a Man Up and Tuck event next week. I'm crossing my fingers our kickball team won't need us and he will participate. The event is basically a regular PB class, but guys are invited to take and will get a Man Up and Tuck t-shirt. The studio also offers beer and wine after class. We're working on partnering up with the bar next door to offer drink specials and appetizers, but nothing is definite yet.

Surprisingly, this summer the studio has seen an influx of clients. We've added a handful of extra classes to the schedule, offering more than 40 each week. More classes = more teaching for me which I am not complaining about. I absolutely love teaching, meeting clients and answering questions. On the other hand, all this PB teaching and marketing projects has left me with very little time to study real estate outside of all the house work. I am really disappointed in myself that I still have not taken the test.  I know I need to just suck it up and study, making it a priority. especially before I forget everything I learned in class.

Military Madness

Yikes! Tomorrow is the last day of July! Where does the time go? I can't say I am surprised though it's been one heck of a month; one busy summer! But, we're embracing it and trying to enjoy every second together.

Rewind back two-and-a-half weeks...  Drew and I had a ball to attend! Our second military ball and I must admit I was excited to get dressed up and go dancing. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of dancing from the two of us, but Drew surprised me and his eldest sister by submitting us for a service award. The two of us, along with about 6 other women were awarded the Molly Pitcher award - "The Honorable Order of Molly Pitcher is bestowed by the U.S. Field Artillery Association and the Air Defense Artillery Association to recognize women who have voluntarily contributed in a significant way to the improvement of the U.S. Field Artillery or Air Defense Artillery Communities. The award is named after Molly Pitcher who distinguished herself during the American revolutionary war."

To wrap up the night Drew and I did a little Pure Barre. The studio is holding a contest throughout the month of July, encouraging clients to post pictures doing Pure Barre moves outside of the studio. We're calling it "tuck around town". There is also a contest between the instructors, and the best picture between instructors gets a special prize. I couldn't let the moment pass by of the two of us dressed up in our formal attire so we did our own tuck around town photo at the ball. God bless my husband for supporting my crazy ideas!

The following day the military events continued. It was the annual family picnic. As commander Drew hosted the event, but had an amazing group of women behind him who had been planning the event for months. The women did a FANTASTIC job organizing the entire day and making sure all the kids had a good time. Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I did get one of the two of us wearing our Army shirts, playing in the whiffle ball tourney, as well as one when the local firefighters showed up to cool off the kids. Considering the heat that day, it was definitely needed! 

Nearly a Washout

Well our 4th of July was definitely a washout, but the entire weekend wasn't a complete loss. We had planned to visit a nearby water park July 4th, but with all of the rain, opted to stay inside, watch a movie and play around in the kitchen. Drew baked cookies and I made a homemade fruit salsa. We packed up our goodies and spent the evening at my parents house for dinner. My older brother was busy, but it was nice having my parents and younger brother around to catch up. I hadn't seen Kevin in a while, and my parents hadn't seen Drew for some time.

The rain continued on into Friday. We both did our own thing in the morning - Drew helped with a military funeral and I worked out and taught at the studio. It was crazy how many road closures there were and how difficult it was to drive from point A to point B. We took advantage of the short break in the rain towards mid afternoon to do some gardening. Drew had been wanting to plant flowers in the front yard for some time and we were finally together at home to do it. I, on the other hand, have no green thumb. I've tried planting flowers in the past and the buds always fall off and the flower dies. I find it frustrating and a waste of money. Drew wouldn't accept that as an answer or excuse and we went out together to add some color to our yard - make it a mature/adult yard. I'm not exactly sure what type of flowers Drew bought other than they are perennials. I've been carefully watering the flowers every morning and crossing my fingers they will at least make it through the month!

Mother Nature didn't forget about Saturday either. It rained ALL MORNING! Thankfully, the rain tapered off into the evening and we were able to enjoy the night out at the casino. We bought tickets to the Barenaked Ladies concert and it was held outdoors at the casino. It was my first time seeing BNL in concert and visiting the casino.. or any casino for that matter. I was a little underwhelmed when we first entered the casino. I think I was expecting an extremely GRAND building inside. It definitely seemed smaller than I imagined. We played a few slot machines and I even came out as the big winner between Drew, Jill and myself. I won a whopping $6.25! WOO HOO! lol. I would have kept playing but I really didn't like the game so I cashed out for a voucher.

The concert was a lot of fun too. I was shocked by how long the two opening acts played. Maybe because we had been hanging around at the casino for hours before the concert, and it seemed as though we waited FOREVER, but it didn't seem as though BNL played for very long. Regardless, we had a lot of fun and it was nice to get out and do something while we were both not busy. All of the bands were really entertaining and interacted with the crowd a lot.

Overall, it was a fun, eventful weekend. It felt like an even longer one too despite the usual time together. I'm looking forward to this upcoming weekend. We have a lot on our calendar including a military dance and military picnic! Let the fun begin :)

10 Years Later

Amplatzer Device

It's hard to believe this year/month marks 10 years since I had my heart surgery. I had my 10 year check-up this afternoon and everything looks good. My heart is still going strong and the Amplatzer Device is still in place and doing its job. For those of you who may not know my story, in June 2003 I had heart surgery to fix an Atrial Septal defect (ASD) AKA a hole between two chambers in my heart. I found out about the hole thanks to my Primary Care Doctor. It was my first check-up with him, a required sports physical to play volleyball. During my physical he heard a murmur which I never knew about. The murmur led to more tests and consultations, which eventually lead to repairing the ASD. The crazy thing about the Amplatzer device is that it's a relatively knew device - doctors have been using the device less than 50 years. However, the awesome thing is doctors were able to fix my whole without cracking my ribs or doing anything invasive. The device gets as small as a pencil lead. It's put through a vein in the leg and snaked up to the heart where it is put in place. One side of the mess sits up against one side of the heart wall. The second side of mess expands on the other and bam!, the hole is filled. (Originally they thought my hole was the size of a dime, once inside it was about the size of a nickel.)

For the first time I got to see the device working while the nurse took my ECHO. Normally I don't pay much attention; they do their thing and I watch TV, but this nurse took time out to point out the device on the screen, which is now covered a little with tissue.

It's amazing the things people come up with and are able execute when it comes to medicine. I will always be grateful to my Primary Care Doctor for finding the murmur and my doctor who performed my surgery.

Compliment Gone Bad

It's no secret Drew and I spend time apart, but we never go a day without talking on the phone. And, occasionally there are text messages in between. Texts are easy ways we let each other know we are thinking of the other. At some point in our relationship (I don't know when it started) Drew randomly sent me a text that said, "you look pretty today". Of course, he had no idea what I looked like, but it was a sweet thought and it has continued to randomly pop up on my phone screen over the last few years. We usually have fun with it and it turns into a big joke between us. After working out and teaching on Friday I grabbed my things to leave and found "You look nice today!" on my phone. At the time I was a hot mess - literally - from sweating all morning, but it definitely made me smile. I found out later that another Soldier, one of Drew's friends, heard what Drew wrote and decided to send one to his wife.... Unfortunately, she did not smile when she read it. Their conversation wasn't as humorous/playful.
Soldier: You look nice today!
Wife: Who was that for?
Solider: You
Wife: WTF. Why the h*ll would you write that?
The Soldier then had to CALL his wife and smooth everything out, explaining that he got the idea from Drew and it wasn't meant for anyone else - just her. Drew and I, of course, got a huge kick out of it. The poor guy was just trying to send a compliment to his wife, letting her know he was thinking of her, and she was not buying it. Needless to say he will never do that again. He even commented while I was talking to Drew that he will never make that mistake again. I suppose it just goes to show that every couple is different.

Sadly, I think that is the highlight from my weekend. I did spend some time with our neighbors on Saturday and a new family moved into the home behind us. I've heard through the grape vine that the family has a 10 and 14 year old. Honestly, I didn't know the former family too well. They did have a Great Dane, Fenway, who would get all wound up when Lexi came outside. They would stare and growl at each other from their sides of the fence. Fenway is a lot older and larger than Lexi. He even knocked part of the fence down a couple of times from jumping up on to it so much.

The weekend wrapped up with a dinner to celebrate Matt's birthday. Kevin couldn't make it, but it was still nice having the four of us together. I have a feeling down the road it's going to get even harder trying to get everyone together. Matt just moved into his own house, Kevin has his own place and I/we have our own. I hope we continue to find time to get together every now and then and not use an excuse that someone is too far, out of the way, etc. Family is too important not to make time for one another.

I'm hoping this week will be a productive one. I have not been able to get as much done over the last few days as I would have like.

Men In My Life

I feel very lucky to have four very important guys in my life; my husband, dad, and brothers. While I love my brothers, this post will center more around my dad and Drew. I might be a few days behind (even more today since I started this days ago and fell asleep typing), but Happy Fathers Day to my wonderful father! I feel so blessed and lucky to grow up and learn from such a hard working man. He's taught me a lot over the last 27 years and I know I can ask him for his help or advice whenever I need it. Every Fathers Day my dad's family holds a picnic at a nearby park. I unfortunately had to sit this year's out due to allergies. They came on out of nowhere and are still driving me crazy! I taught this morning and my voice kept cracking because it's so dry and irritated. At least I was able to sleep a little bit better last night.

I can't say for certain, but I think my allergies were heightened following my trip up north for Drew's promotion. Drew finally had his promotion to Commander. I am so proud of him for being promoted to the Commander of Bravo Battery. Drew was in Bravo, as the Executive Officer (XO), when he was deployed so I think it has a soft place in his heart. I've learned over the last couple of weeks that it's very rare for an XO to become a Commander of the same battery due to respect issues. Higher ups feel that a former XO of a battery won't receive respect as a Commander. I think it tells a lot about Drew's relationship with other Soldiers that he is taking Command of the same Battery he was an XO. It's going to be a lot of extra work and responsibility for him, but I know he will do an amazing job and handle the role with pride!

As you may recall, Drew was originally going to take Command last month, but due to various paperwork reasons, etc. it was pushed back to this month. Well, I had planned ahead and ordered a special cake for him when I ordered our anniversary cake. I told one of the Majors who broke the news to Drew and me about the change in date that he owed me a cake. I even took him in a piece of the cake I ordered to indicate just how good of a cake he owed me. While I don't have a picture of it he delivered! He picked up a Reece Cup ice cream cake to celebrate. The poor guy called dozens of shops near Camp Perry trying to find a bakery that had a gluten free cake I could enjoy! Not only was I able to enjoy the ice cream cake he brought, but I was also presented with a bouquet of beautiful roses. It's the Army's way of thanking wives/significant others for their continued support.

Overall it was a wonderful trip - well worth the drive. I am so glad I was able to take part in this exciting chapter of Drew's career!

Queen Bee Lands

10-15,000 bees landed in our yard Saturday! Yes, I did mean to write thousands!
I unfortunately was not around to witness the phenomenon of the honeybees, but Drew handled it with flying bees colors! I was taking my last real estate class up when he sent me a text telling me we had bees. I think he eventually said there were probably hundreds. I, on the other hand, imagined 20 or so buzzing around a bush. In that case, when he said he called a bee keeper I thought he was being a bit extreme. Not to mention I wondered how he even thought to call a bee keeper, much less get a hold of one. Then, these pictures started showing up on my phone:

Holy cow! I practically gasped out loud in class! These pictures don't even do it justice. I saw some other pictures on his phone that he didn't send me which are even more clear and astonishing. The whole situation was crazy. As I mentioned, I originally thought he was over exaggerating and when he asked what to do I told him to bomb the bees with some spray we had from last summer. Thank heavens he was smarter than that and didn't bomb the bees. The bees would have been pi$$ed off and probably stung him to death. Instead, the bee keeper came and shook them off the tree into the box and took them home in his station wagon. Yes, he took them home in his car. 

The whole situation has turned into an educational experience. The bee keeper explained it like this... the queen bee happened to land on our branch so ALL 10-15,000 bees followed her. This happens between 10am and 2pm. Drew noticed the bees around 1:30. While the queen waits, a few 'scout' bees fly around looking for the bee's permanent home. That's what was happening in our backyard. The bees were waiting to hear where the permanent home was going to be, which is where they would start making honey. We, of course, did/do not want that permanent home in our backyard so close to our house and Lexi. According to some of the information we found, honeybees love to live in houses. We had no qualms about giving up our swarm of bees to the bee keeper, especially since it only takes the bees 24 to 48 hours to find their home. We needed to act fast. I am happy to say that the bee keeper was able to show up Saturday and take the bees away. Of course, it took me until yesterday (Monday) to actually cut the grass in the back yard near that tree. Even after we had some rain I was still nervous to go near the tree. I made no effort to actually walk under that tree to get the grass like I had done in the past.
The funny thing about the whole situation is that if it were the other way around, Drew would never have believed me either if I said there were hundreds of bees outside. He would have responded the exact same way, telling me to just spray them. I just can't say that I would have been thoughtful enough (ok "smart enough") to call a bee keeper. I would have probably freaked out and locked myself inside.
Thankfully, no one got hurt/stung in any of the process above.