Black Belt Testing

Step Defense

Holds and Soles

Fitness Test (100 jump ropes then 2 laps-x5)

200 Step Ups (+200 burpees+200 push ups+200 air squats)

Review

Hopefully Chloe will get her board breaking stripe this week and then we are done! Four times a week since kindergarten! This kiddo has some perseverance.

Stitches and Teachers

I was supposed to go do a photo shoot yesterday evening for a company, but it got postponed and it was a good thing, because I spent the evening in Urgent Care. (Which should have been more accurately named Take Your Time Care, or Forget About The Patient and Gossip About Your Neighbor Care.) Aidan came home from school covered in blood from a gaping gash in his chin compliments of a post school bike crash. I'm not really squeamish, but I did have to avert my eyes while they were sewing it closed. Some things are better left unseen. Instead, I stared at the walls, but they were such an ugly depressing brown color, with hideous pictures that looked as if someone had pulled them out of the trash in the seventies, that I settled on staring at the white sheet instead. At least it was white with a comforting worn look. Unlike the rest of the room that looked worn, but in a way that made you feel like you might either be really sick or want to hurt someone, it was a toss up for me.



Sunset from the top of the ski run in Telluride

Aidan has this group of friends at school, and often I spend the last few minutes of evening sitting on the edge of his bed as he describes stories of the day's antics. I laugh because I think they are witty and clever and funny. Sometimes teachers call me and share stories in their grown up teacher language which makes everything sound more stern and serious. Sometimes, I still laugh, just a little bit, because it still sounds funny, and then I remember that I'm a responsible grown up and try to think what would my sister do? and respond accordingly. 



Sunset over Telluride





Clint Eastwood was our doctor at the non Urgent Care. He even talked with a sort of drawl, and carried his scissors in a quick draw little holster in the small of his back. I'm also sure he had a horse tied up out back.


They asked Aidan if he might be allergic to anything in the salve and he said, "No, just cats, so I'm pretty sure we are okay, unless that's a cat you are rubbing on my face", which seemed to confuse the nurse who launched into an explanation about it's really the protein in the cat hair that he was allergic to, not the cat. So if they were rubbing a hairless cat on his face, it would be ok?

A 12 Minute Fight

I know every year I go on and on about how much I love Fall. But I can't help myself, really. It's like a weeks long sunset, the earth preparing for a season of rest, and a master Artist has splashed everything in hues of colors that bathe me in joy. I keep hearing whispers to "Stop and Rest...Breathe". And I try. I leave dishes in the sink, and clean laundry waiting on the couch, and I go outside. But then the days strap me in and take me for another ride, and sometimes it's all I can do to keep up.  A few weeks ago, I took the kids out of school and we took an epic road trip to Telluride,  (14+ hours of driving in two days!) because we just needed to.


Yesterday, Chloe had her black belt sparring test. She's only ten, the youngest in her group of candidates, and skinny. Chloe dislikes sparring, and has been so nervous about her testing that she's crawled in bed with me at night to gather warmth and comfort like a blanket. She looked small and vulnerable on the mat, her only protection headgear and gloves. The rules were that she had to fight for 12 minutes straight, facing fresh opponents every couple of minutes, and at the end, two attackers at a time. The opponents were all boys, and two men. The boys danced on the side, chomping at the bit in eagerness, all of them towering over Chloe, wearing full safety gear, and obviously enjoying the idea of sanctioned fighting. And then they started, the boys in turn rushing out onto the mat, all swinging arms and kicking legs.


The two other girls fighting for their black belts took the onslaughts by backing away, and by the end, their nervous grins had turned into unshed tears, and we were all clapping and cheering, and straining for them to finish, to not give up, to keep fighting, whether they were our child or not.


I saw Chloe whispering to her instructor to please let her take her turn early, before I had to leave to get Aidan from cello. Chloe met the boys with a fierce rush of her own. She began spinning and dancing out of the way, dodging their flailing arms, then darting in to counterattack. Twice she nearly knocked a boy down with a hard kick to the chest, and their unbridled enthusiasm turned into a more cautious advance. My baby girl is a fierce little warrior. Her headgear was knocked off multiple times, and her loose hair began to cover her face like a screen, but she kept going, taking shots to the head and ribs, over and over again, but giving it all right back. She would dodge out and then come back in with a spinning back sweep to their legs.


Towards the end, Chris and I were standing, not caring that we were yelling loud enough to hear in Texas, only that we were loud enough for her to hear. As the final countdown began, Chloe ducked and weaved between the two attackers, then grabbed the boy's arm and used him as a shield to absorb the punches from the man. When she finished, standing there red faced and sweaty, she had earned the respect of everyone in the room and high praise from her instructors, who were proud both of her courage, and her physical conditioning. That's my girl.

Open Spaces

Wide open spaces speak to me. A few years ago when we moved to Texas, I was so excited for the Texas I imagined-huge yards, cowboy hats and horses. Only it didn't end up that way, Katy was urban sprawl on concrete. Ginormous houses on postage stamp sized lots and strip malls lining the congested streets. I used to take a round about way to the library through back roads because it led me through emptiness. The view wasn't spectacular, just wide open spaces with overgrown grass, and the occasional barbed wire, but it helped me breathe.


 Now, home in Colorado, just beyond my house lies a trail that winds through trees, alongside fields, and over the creek. I can see the mountains in the distance, and a few days ago, baby cows with their mothers in the pasture next to me.  Roscoe occasionally startles a rabbit and they quickly high tail it out of his lumbering reach. At night we can hear the coyotes calling and sometimes the low mooing of cows.  It smells like earth, and grass, and freedom.



simplicity

Home

Home,
let me come home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Home, let me come home
Home is wherever I'm with you
 (Edward Sharpe)

Home

A Picture a Day

Hey there. I've given myself the lofty goal of taking a picture a day. Mostly because I like goals. And lists. And keeping the goal, or finishing the list, is not nearly as important to me as having one. I know that's weird, but so is the fact that I like to turn almost any surface into a chalkboard so that it will be ready for brilliant ideas or thoughts or lists, at any time. I rarely write on them, but I have them. Just in case.


I took this photo yesterday, so I guess I'm behind already. Hmm, maybe I should just try and post a picture a day. See, that's the good thing about giving yourself goals, you can modify them at any time if they're not working out so great.


Anyway, here is a view of a sea of sunflowers. I hiked through waist high spiky plants in my cowboy boots with my tripod slung over my shoulder to take this photo. My socks were slipping off in my boots and ended up in a little puddle by my toes, and the spiky plants kept depositing little spiky seeds conveniently into the top of my boots. But it's technically impossible to feel irritated in a field of sunflowers.

Happy Thursday.

Jericho

Jericho



We had a brief sojourn in Jericho on the way to the Dead Sea. Someone had to use the bathroom. Our jelly bean mint green rental car stuck out, well, like a mint green jelly bean in a dusty brown landscape. We came out of the store, after politely disentangling from the gentleman who was earnestly trying to sell me the $500 Hebron glass set, to find our rental surrounded by a gaggle of Palestinian teenagers taking selfies. Aidan's appearance set off a flurry of whispering and giggling, and shy smiles beneath headscarves. But Chloe had eyes for one thing only. Because there, next to the man in the hut brewing Chris an exceptional cup of Arabic cardamom coffee- over an open flame, was, The camel.

I sent Aidan over to ask how much a ride was-15 Shekels, they said. Chloe was seized with immediate camel-shyness though, and wanted Aidan to ride with her. So I trotted over to ask how much for the two kids. The guy looked me over and quickly replied- 50 Shekels. Chris was still happily discussing coffee with the guy in the hut, so I did what any good mom would do and forked over the extra shekels so my daughter could get her life's dream of a slow turn around the parking lot on a grumpy dromedary. 

Elisha's Well

And the water is still good

There was an archeological dig going on across the street. We didn't go in, but we bought some dates from a snazzily dressed young man at the gate. When he opened his wallet to give the change, it was stuffed with large bills in all currencies. Chris doesn't like to carry coins in his pocket, so I held out my hand for the change. At this, he sweetly chastised me telling me "No No no, the man should be the one to hold the money." And then he proceeded to see us safely across the (empty) street by standing in the middle of the road and grandly ushering us over.

The archeological site

Shepherd Boy and Aidan

Jericho

Jericho

PS, the dates weren't very good, but the coffee was extraordinary, the hospitality was lovely, and the camel ride was bumpy.