While Mom's Away, the Kids Will Play

Here are some cute pictures of the girls playing cub scout dress up while I was away on my Girlie Weekend. I don't even know how they found the uniforms! LOL Thanks to Gerry for being such a fun dad & for taking pics of the chitlins!

They also worked on Austen's Family Tree project for his Living Arts class. I love the spring sun shining in and Max chilling out with all of them.

Girlie Weekend

Whew!~ time is flying by & life is crazy, busy! It seems like my ginormous soap order is on hold for now. I'm a big believer in things happening for a reason, and I know great things will come from my clients' interest in a bulk order. Not yet, though.

Meanwhile, March has been non~stop busy for us. Each weekend has been filled with tons of activity and the weeks seem to fly by. Last weekend, I had such a blast! I caught up with girlfriends who I went to school with. East Junior High School, to be exact! Six of us with super~sweet spouses were sent off to spend the weekend at my friend Peggy's family lake house in at Lake Sunapee, NH. Five of us went all the way through high school together. Liz moved after Jr. High. sad! Luckily we all live in New England, so this won't be the last partay...

We all arrived with stacks of pictures & year books, tons of food, bottle after bottle of wine & a cake that was like none that I have ever seen before! We laughed, drank, ate & even teared up once or twice. I was reminded again how blessed I am to have the most amazing people in my life!

Don't you love the pic?! We were cracking up because Kim was working so hard to set the timer on the camera... and we'd had a lot of wine! ;) Back row left to right~Kim, Liz, Shari & Maribeth
front row~ me & Peggy. Love you, girls!

And, lucky me, I came home to an adorable flock of kids and the sweetest, most handsome husband in the world! (thanks Gerry!)

Hurts So Good

We just got back from Blue Wave TaeKwonDo Association's 2009 TaeKwonDo Winter Camp. It was the first year that all of us participated in all of the workshops. It was extra exciting this year for a lot of different reasons. Firstly, Grand Master Lee came over from Korea. He is a 9th Dan (9th Degree Black Belt) and the head instructor of our organization. We all had the opportunity to join in one of his workouts. Here's a brief list of what we did with Grand Master Lee and the other instructors:

Crunches, push ups, planks, lunges, kicks & strikes by the hundreds, poomse practice, paddle drills & sparring.

I can't tell you how blissfully sore I am! It was the hardest, most satisfying workout I've done in a long time!

We also had the chance to watch our instructor, Master Tom Chase, test for his 6th Dan and Miss Buckholts test for her 2nd Dan. In the wings was Gerry. Having just earned his Black Stripe, he is hoping to test for his Black Belt in August. He got to hold boards for the High Dan Testing, including for Master Chase. He was so excited and honored. Watching Master Chase test was really exciting for all of us. He was great!


The boys are right behind Gerry. They are waiting to be invited to test for their Black Stripe. Hopefully, they'll be testing for their Black Belt at Winter Camp 2010. All Black Belt testings take place in front of the whole Blue Wave group, so it's pretty daunting. It didn't look daunting for Master Anthony, though. Check out the board breaking sequence he rocked while testing for 7th Dan! ~



All of the Black Belt testings were so inspiring. They are the perfect demonstration of what we can achieve if we practice discipline, perseverance, strength, determination & courage.
We feel so lucky to have found this sport as a family. It makes us a better, more solid clan. We share fun, goals and muscle aches. Here are some pics for you to enjoy!

ps. in the category of "no news is good news", I haven't heard on the big order, yet. The anticipation is killing me! :)