2019 New Years Goals

Happy New Year!

Every year we create a poster with our goals for the coming year. This is one of my favorite traditions! The rules for the annual poster are A) the goals must be achievable in one year, and B) they must be quantifiable, as in, they have to be things we can measure and check off. 

First, I like to review how we did on our goals for the previous year. To be perfectly honest, we didn't do so hot this year. 2018 was a year of upheaval for us. At New Year's we didn't know where James would be working post graduation, so a lot was up in the air. As things coalesced, some of our goals changed or fell by the wayside. 

James:
Did marvelously with his Duolingo study this year, he's been making great progress in Spanish. He did read (or listen to an audiobook) every day. He did obtain a post-graduation job. He did not practice the piano every day.

Joel:
Learned to read! Of course it's still a developing skill, but we love to hear him read beginning books to us, it's awesome. He's still working on his roundhouse. =)

Xander:
His goals were ones that we neglected this year.

Valerie:
I did not work on my novel "Allspeaker" this year. (Although I did make some progress on "The Seventh Guardian" fortunately.) I did pretty well with my photography challenge. Duolingo totally fell by the wayside for me. I did finish my poomsae challenge in time for my black belt test in October. Bike riding didn't happen as intended. But I definitely got pregnant!

Family goals:
We successfully moved to Utah, a location which meant we didn't need to find a new martial arts school, haha. We went on one of the two camping trips we'd intended. James and I did attend the temple three times. We are still working through the Book of Mormon together. We're terrible about walking our dog, but at least we've been on a date every week!

And now I present our goals for 2019!

James:
-Daily Spanish study
-Daily reading/audiobook
-Settle finances
-Create and follow personal exercise plan
-Weekly video journal
-Bake 12 new recipes

Valerie:
-Earn 5th Dan
-Finish "The Seventh Guardian" revisions
-Project 52 with Clickin Moms (ie weekly photography project)
-Journal weekly
-Read 5 new books
-Finish Duolingo Spanish tree
-Take a yoga class

Family/Couple goals:
-Successfully move to Colorado
-Family camping trip
-Go star gazing
-Find a new martial arts school
-Trip to Tennessee
-Create a family budget
-Attend the temple (number of times to be determined when we know what part of Colorado we're moving to)
-Weekly "Come Follow Me" family study
-Weekly date night

We also want to add "Plant a tree" if we end up buying a house this year. But we'll have to see!

We decided not to set goals for the children this year. We've decided  to wait until they're old enough to set their own goals. We feel like we shouldn't be forcing our ideas of what their progression should be, but should let them discover their own interests. Of course we'll be working on things together, but it's a little different when we're setting up checkboxes on their behalf. So we'll revisit those in later years.

We are excited about this coming year. We've got some big changes ahead for our family. Hopefully our move will go well; we are looking forward to settling down at last and hopefully not moving again for a while! =) 

We wish you a happy New Year and a great 2019!

Spring Break

Last week, James was out of school for spring break, so we ran away to Tennessee! It was a wonderful excursion.

My in-laws moved to Tullahoma last summer, and we just love their house. They have 21 acres in the middle of rolling hills and fields. I took some photos of the property last August when we visited for the first time.

Unfortunately, the weather did not favor us. The temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s for weeks, but for our spring break, they were mostly in the 30s and 40s, and it rained the first two days we were there. Boo! It denied us a few of the outings that Momo and Papa had planned. But we still made the most of our trip!

Monday and Tuesday we did a lot of relaxing. (It was raining, so not much opportunity to go outside.) The boys watched movies with Momo and Papa. James did schoolwork, and I worked on my novel. We got to hang out with James's brother Nicholas and his wife Jo. Joel and Xander spent lots of time playing with Papa. =)

On Tuesday evening, James and I got to go on a date! (Without the kids!!) We went out to dinner and then saw Logan.

Shadow has mixed feelings about visiting Momo and Papa's house. On the one hand, there are more people to snuggle with, which he likes. On the other hand, there are three other dogs there. He does not really love Baron, who is a sweetheart and just wants to play! Joel, on the other hand, loves ALL the dogs very much.

Shadow, Baron, and Liath.

On Wednesday morning, Papa took us and all the grandsons to the local hands-on science museum. It was surprisingly fun! There were tons of interesting things to toy with. Joel absolutely loved spending time with his cousins. Then we all went to Chick-fil-A, and who can complain about that?

The only photo I got at the museum, on my phone. (I was too busy building a miniature train.)

Thursday may have been the highlight--we went to the Nashville Zoo! It's just over an hour from my in-laws' house. Many of the animals weren't out, because of the cold, but we still had fun. I took loads of pictures. (My version of fun!)

Our last day was St. Patrick's Day. I completely neglected to pack anything green. Oops! That evening, James and I made dinner. It was quite a party! Momo and Papa, Nick and Jo, Victoria and her three boys, plus the missionaries! James made burritos, and I made a traditional Irish apple tart. I even had a (somewhat misshapen) shamrock on top!

What an excellent trip! We can't wait to visit Tennessee again in May. Hopefully it will be much warmer!

Summer plans

Last week, James was offered and accepted an internship for the summer with the Wrongful Convictions Clinic at Duke. He will be assisting accredited lawyers as they investigate claims of innocence from convicted felons, and pursue the freedom of those they believe were wrongfully convicted. James is very excited about the work he'll be doing!

*I* am also very excited about this internship. I am happy that James is interested in the work he'll be doing. I'm also thrilled that it's local--James has been applying for a number of internships, and not all of them would have been as ideal for our family. For instance, another offer that he received was from a public defender about two and a half hours from Durham. While he would have enjoyed the work, the location would definitely have made things challenging! Plus, the internship at Duke is paid, which is a big plus for a first-summer internship!

James starts work on the 24th of May. That gives us a few weeks after his finals, and we're planning a trip out to Utah. We'll be driving, and we're taking a circuitous route to visit family in Louisiana and Texas, which will be really nice. 

We'll get to Utah the second week of May. James gets to stay for about a week and a half, and then he's going to fly back to NC. But I'm in need of a good long visit, so I'm going to stay in Utah for another couple of weeks with the kids before heading back. James is going to take Shadow with him on the plane. I'm nervous enough about driving by myself from Utah to North Carolina with two small children, let alone a dog!

Then we'll have the rest of the summer to spend with our friends here in Durham. We're also hoping to take a little camping trip to the Smokies, which we passed through on our move out here last summer. The mountain forests were so beautiful, we've been determined to visit ever since. We'll probably just take a little weekend trip sometime in June. 

It promises to be a great summer!

Bring on 2016

We are a little late this year with our traditional New Year's poster. What with our trip to Utah and then getting settled back in afterward, we waited until tonight's FHE to assemble our goals for the year.

Each year, James and I set individual goals, and we set goals for our family. We require our goals to be quantifiable--they have to be things that we can check off. We also try to create a mixture of mental, physical, and spiritual goals.

First, let's review the past year. Unfortunately, I threw out our 2015 poster before remembering to photograph it with the accomplishments checked off. But here's the photo from the beginning of our year:

We were about halfsies on our goals this year. James started law school, earned his 3rd Dan, and read 6 out of his intended 10 new books. As a family, we moved to Durham and went on a family camping trip. James and I went on a date every week, and met our temple attendance goal. As for me, I earned my 4th Dan, read 5 new books (+started a sixth) and learned to make sushi (simple rolls, at least). Plus had a baby!!

This year, I feel like our goals (mine, at least) are a bit more modest, and at the same time, a bit more realistic. I present our 2016 poster:

For James:

• Obtain a 1L job (aka legal internship this summer)
• Obtain a 2L job (for next summer)
• Read 10 new books
• Change oil in car
• Read the Book of Mormon
• Join a legal journal

For Valerie:

• Referee at the NC State Championships
• Read 5 new books
• Create a photography portfolio, utilizing monthly blog posts
• Read the Book of Mormon
• Teach Joel the alphabet
• Win NaNoWriMo (aka write 50,000 words)

For our family:

• Family camping trip
• Washington D.C. trip 
• Donate 4 handmade blankets to a charity
• Take Joel & Xander to the zoo
• Go on a date every week
•  Attend the temple at least thrice

It promises to be an interesting year! Candidly, the main focus of my life right now is my children. Mothering is a full-time job for me, so anything else I get done on the side is a major accomplishment. Still, I look forward to 2016. I can't wait to see what it offers us.

We're Here!!!

We're here!!

It's been a pretty crazy week. Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent packing and cleaning. I hate packing. I would so much rather unpack. Unpacking is fun for me, finding all the new homes for things. But packing is torture. So I was very grateful to my husband, and my awesome parents who came over and helped with those Augean tasks.

Tuesday evening we were joined by many wonderful friends, family, and ward members to pack our moving van.

Thanks to everyone who came to help! Loading up went super fast, and it was nice to be able to visit with everyone before we left.

Wednesday was Travel Day 1. James and his brother Matthew drove the moving van. I had the car with my mother-in-law Charmaine, Joel and Shadow. The plan was for James and Matthew to drive nonstop, switching off driving/sleeping, while Mom and I followed more slowly. We actually stayed pretty close together Wednesday--over the mountains into Colorado, the van wasn't able to go very fast, so Mom and I were able to make up for our extra stops. We all had lunch and dinner together, which was nice.

Mom and I drove until about 2:30am before calling it a night, while James and Matthew pressed onward. We spent the night at a hotel in WaKeeney, Kansas.

So, I have decided that traveling with a baby (Joel-baby, at any rate) isn't so bad. But traveling with a dog is not so fun. First of all, pit stops take SO much longer, because of Shadow's needs, and because we had to take turns going to the restroom and whatnot, because one of us had to stay with the dog. Secondly, we decided to sneak Shadow into the hotels we stayed in, and that was super stressful! Fortunately, Shadow was an angel, and spent the nights quietly in his kennel. And we did our best to make our pit stops pleasant for all.

Thursday and Friday were travel days. Mom and I took turns driving. We made good time, all things considered. Thursday night we stayed in Paducah, Kentucky. When we got up on Friday morning, it was to the news that James and Matthew had arrived at the house in Durham. They crashed for a few hours. My father-in-law was already on a flight to Raleigh, and when he got there late in the morning, they started unloading the moving van. Meanwhile, Mom and I got to enjoy a scenic drive across Tennessee. The Smokey Mountains are beautiful!!

Close to midnight on Friday, Mom and I finally made it to Durham. We put Joel straight to bed. Shadow, on the other hand, ran crazy circles around the house and yard for awhile! He was clearly ecstatic. The guys had gotten everything into the house and returned the van. The furniture was more or less in place, and the beds were all set up. Shortly after Mom and I arrived, we all crashed for the night.

My in-laws left at about 1:00pm this afternoon for the airport. We are sooooooo grateful for all their help and company!

Shortly after the family left, James and I were treated to lunch by our new next-door neighbor Eileen. Talk about Southern hospitality! She came over this morning to say hello and invite us out. For lunch she took us to this fantastic Mexican place attached to a Mexican market. It was delightful, and we were so impressed by her generosity and welcome.

From there we went shopping. After Home Depot, we went to Costco and purchased our first membership! We're going to try it out for a year and see if it's worth it for us. I love Costco, we'll just have to make sure we don't waste too much.

The rest of the day we spent unpacking. Joel enjoyed collecting the plastic bags we'd used to cushion dishes and things as we worked, it was super cute. We finished unpacking and organizing the kitchen, yay! We also got most of Joel's room set up, we'll finish that tomorrow. There's still TONS to do, but it feels good to have made this much progress.

Tomorrow we get to go to our new ward for the first time, and we're very excited. The next few days have a lot of unpacking, plus getting other things settled from moving. On Tuesday I have my first appointment at the birth center where I'll be delivering in September. There will be lots to keep us busy!

Much love to you all!

House hunting (and more) in Durham!

This weekend has been SUCH an adventure!

We flew out on Wednesday. The plan had been to explore Duke's campus on Wednesday evening, but the flight was a lot harder on me than expected (as I mentioned on fb, airplanes + pregnancy = swollen everything). So we just had some dinner and crashed at the hotel. Which meant lots of HGTV for me, and computer games for James.

(Side bar: Have I ever mentioned that I absolutely love HGTV? I never ever watch TV, except when I stay in hotels. For some reason, watching stupid TV shows is something that I equate with being on vacation. Like how when James and I went to NYC right after we were married, and our last night there we were tired from everything we'd been doing, so we spent the evening eating New York pizza and watching the Food Network? Yeah...)

Thursday morning starting at 9am we met with our real estate agent, Maggie Considine. Incidentally, we really really like Maggie. She had little booklets printed up for each of us with all the houses we were going to see, and a map showing where they all were located in relation to Duke. We soon got on the road to start looking at houses. As I'll talk about momentarily, we had some other appointments on Thursday, so we had to work around those.

We saw six houses on Thursday morning. James and I were pleasantly surprised to be presented with several pretty solid options. By the time Maggie dropped us off, we had eliminated three of the six, and as we drove over to Chapel Hill, we discussed through the three remaining choices. One had a gorgeous property, but so-so interior, plus was pretty far out from Duke. One had a stunning interior, but a crappy yard, and was pretty far out from conveniences like grocery stores and whatnot. The third was a middle ground--a decent yard, a good interior, and a reasonable location. We decided to go through our appointment, then return to the hotel and pray about the choice before making a decision.

Our other appointments on Thursday were at the two local birth centers. Home birth is essentially illegal in North Carolina, which was pretty heartbreaking to me when I first learned of it. But as I considered our situation--away from all family and support system, with James in school--I came to feel much more at peace with having Baby X at a birth center. So a major to-do item for this trip was to check out the two birth centers convenient to Durham to determine where I'll be giving birth this fall.

Post-birth center tour, we returned briefly to our hotel. After prayer and consideration, James and I decided to make an offer on the middle-ground, "Woodside Park" house. After meeting with our loan officer and then with Maggie, we decided to go back and look at it one more time.

From there, we drove down to Cary for our second birth center tour. I have to tell you, this second birth center was the most impersonal place! You don't really think of birth centers of being sterile and cold--especially the people! Fortunately, I had really liked the first place, so it made the decision easy!!

We waited and waited on Thursday night to hear back on our offer...in vain. Maggie went ahead and set up appointments for us to see more houses on Friday morning, in the event of us needing a backup. We met at her office this morning, and she had news--the Woodside Park seller had countered our offer--he wanted us to pay all the closing costs. We countered back asking him to pay half, and then took off with Maggie to see more houses.

This morning, we looked at five more houses. The first one was small, but a decent prospect. The second and third were immediate rejects. The fourth house was interesting--it was enormous, with huge vaulted ceilings and some other nice features that we liked. But no yard to speak of, and over budget. So that was no.

The last house we looked at today--"Stoney Drive"--was darling. It's in a great neighborhood. It has a .22-acre lot, backed by trees. (Not fenced, unfortunately.) The interior was lovely. The kitchen wasn't super up-to-date, but it's in good shape and looks nice. The bedrooms were all decent, and the master was great. Besides the fence, there really wasn't anything we'd need to do, no painting or anything, which is super nice. We immediately declared it to be our back-up house.

At that point, we returned to Maggie's office and parted ways. James took me to Duke for my tour. PS guys--Duke University has the most gorgeous campus imaginable.

While there, we got a call from Maggie--the seller of the Woodside Park house had accepted another offer. James and I were both remarkably unruffled by this news. We told Maggie right then that we wanted to make an offer on the Stoney Drive house, while remaining a backup offer on Woodside Park. And then the waiting game began again!

We spent more time on campus, then returned to our hotel for awhile (I was pooped!) We couldn't bear it any longer, so texted Maggie, but she still hadn't heard anything. We went out to dinner, and had some quick back-and-forths between us, Maggie, and the seller's agent over little details of the offer. We decided to go to the movies, unable to deal with the pins and needles. But just as we were about to walk into the movie, we got good news--the seller was going to accept our offer! I was a bad movie-goer and left my phone on vibrate. Halfway through Pitch Perfect 2, we got the official signed contract back in our email. HUZZAH!

So tomorrow morning we're going to go walk through OUR HOUSE one more time, then we're headed home! It's been a whirlwind trip. I can't even tell you how relieved I am to have these things settled. Now time to get back to our Smush!

Summer Happenings

It's been a busy summer so far, and whenever I think it's going to slow down for awhile, more things come along to keep us hopping!

The summer kicked off with Joel's baby blessing on June 1st. We finished our deck project just in time to have our family and friends over after the blessing. It was a beautiful day! The blessing that James gave to our son was perfect. And it was a delight to have so many loved ones join us at our home.

The second week in June, we went camping with my parents and cousin Ben. We went to Payson Lake. My parents have a canoe, and we all enjoyed paddling around the lake (except maybe Shadow). We played games at the campground, and enjoyed being outdoors. Baby J did awesome. We took his pack 'n play, which fit remarkably well in our tent, and his little swing for him to hang out in. It was a blast!

The week after that was perhaps the most stressful of the summer thus far. At our taekwondo studio, we have a daycamp each summer where students can earn their next belt in a week (Belt Jump Camp). It falls the same week as our regular Color Belt Testing, which takes place in the evenings during that week. But this year, these took place the same week as the Utah Summer Games, a tournament down in Cedar City. That meant that in addition to everything else we were doing, we had an additional 6 hours of demo team practice that week. We were at the studio 10+ hours almost every day leading up to the tournament, and then headed straight down to Cedar City for the event--where we were busy the entire time. Poor Joel didn't get to see much of his parents that week, though he made lots of new friends!

Then it was our "week off"--from the studio, at least. James started Summer Term that week, so he didn't really get a break at all. I keep busy too, with meetings with my coauthor and editor about our third book, with cleaning our poor neglected house, and with prep for the following week. That weekend, James ran in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with his father, brother Matthew, and the rest of the "Ragnar Ruh Roh" team. James was totally beat by the end of it, but had a great time. He's trying to talk me into doing it with him next year!

James and I took on a big responsibility this year of planning our studio's Leadership Conference. We took our Leadership Team to Bear Lake, where in addition to camping, swimming, and playing, they received 8+ hours of instruction on a variety of leadership and life skills. We had a great time, and learned a lot.

We had a day at home, during which we celebrated Independence Day (James almost set our fence on fire with a stray firework) before I took off to San Jose, California for the USA Taekwondo National Championships, where I worked as a referee for three days. I'll admit, I had a really hard time leaving James & Joel. (And trying to pump while refereeing was nightmarish.) But I also had a great time refereeing. I got to meet new people, see old friends, and see some excellent martial arts. 

James did great with the baby while I was gone. Though he does say that he appreciates me more, he kept up very well--he took care of the baby and the dog, watered the plants, did the laundry, bathed the baby, and kept up with his homework. He said it was "excellent father-son bonding time."

 

And here we are! We have lots more fun things planned for the summer, including some more camping, a family reunion, play tickets, and our Black Belt Overnighter that will launch us into our testing cycle for my 4th and James's 3rd degree Black Belts, which we'll be testing for in January. We're looking forward to having a great time!

Tournaments, Seminars, and Vehicular Adventures

Well, it was an adventurous weekend.

Saturday morning we went up to West Jordan for the Friendship Open, where I competed with our demonstration team. James is still out because of his internship (which finishes this week...wow, time flies!) but I was grateful for his morale support! This was our first performance following the latest round of auditions, and it was definitely trial-by-fire for the newbies. Sans a few mishaps, the demo went well, although I was feeling VERY pregnant! James is planning to start back up in April. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to the team relatively quickly after Baby J is born. We'll see how it goes!

 

We left the tournament immediately following the demo team competition, and made our preparations. Saturday afternoon we drove to Colorado so that I could attend a USAT referee seminar there. We arrived in CO around 12:30 and settled in for the night. We had decided to try sleeping out in our car, and it turned out way better than we expected. We had taken the seats out of my car, and piled the back with couch cushions, camping pads, sleeping bags, pillows and blankets. We were very comfortable (which was a concern, considering my prego state).

The referee seminar was great. I attended the CO seminar last year, and enjoyed the experience, so I was glad it worked out for me to go again this year. The seminar was taught by Master Bob McKenna and Master Linda Kimmich, both of whom I had met previously at Nationals, and whom I respect a great deal. I was glad to get updated information, and spend time with some great referees.

We left for home after the seminar. It's an 8-hour trip, and we took turns driving for about two hours at a time. We were only about 50 miles from home, down Spanish Fork canyon, when a couple of deer darted out in front of us. James was asleep at the time. I was able to dodge the first deer, but the second smacked right into us, and then went under the car. It scared the living daylights out of me, and James woke in a panic, not knowing what had happened. I pulled over, my adrenaline going like crazy. Some guys behind us swerved around the deer and stopped; they came back to check on us, then moved the deer out of the road. Once my heart had stopped pounding, we continued on our way, but only for a few more miles before the car gave out. The radiator had clearly been damaged, and was leaking fluid.

We called for roadside assistance. (Thank goodness for cell phones!) It took ages for the insurance company to coordinate. Thankfully we had all those blankets in the car with us! But because we were in such a remote area, the cost of towing was prohibitively expensive. James ended up calling his family. To our extreme relief and gratitude, James's brother Matthew was able and willing to come get us. When he arrived, he was able to tow us a few miles down the canyon to a rest stop (those few miles were pretty terrifying, not going to lie!) and then drove us home. It was about 4:30am by the time we finally made it! James got about an hour of sleep before he had to be up again to get to work in Salt Lake.

This afternoon was spent dealing with the car. James's brothers, bless them!, rented a truck and went back down the canyon for my car. They picked me up and we took it to the auto shop. Fortunately our insurance covers a rental car, so I was picked up at the shop by the rental company. We're still waiting for our insurance appraiser to evaluate the estimate from the auto shop, but we're hopeful that the car is not totaled, and we'll be getting Roxanne back soon. Fortunately, I also had a prenatal appointment this morning, and everything was fine with me and Baby J.

We are grateful that we were not hurt at all, and we are so grateful to James's family for their help and generosity, and we are grateful for insurance, and we are grateful to be home. Ironically, we're headed back to Colorado this weekend for their state championship. You can be assured that we'll be praying for an uneventful trip!!

Honeymoon Caribbean Cruise

First of all, red-eye flights suck. At least James got some sleep. In between feeling like my legs were going to fall off and various cricks in my neck, I got maybe an hour of sleep through our entire journey from SLC to Atlanta to Miami. No bueno.

Arriving in Miami was a relief. Arriving at the Port of Miami and seeing our enormous cruise ship was even better.

But then the waiting began. We arrived in Miami at about 9am, and had intended to grab some breakfast at the airport before heading over, but that didn't happen. So as we sat waiting at the docking area, I was getting hungrier and hungrier, crankier and crankier. (Not doing so well going without food these days.) It was about 1:30pm or so before they started boarding (about 2 hours late). Fortunately boarding didn't take too long. After stopping by our stateroom, our first mission was to find the buffet!

Let me make first mention here of the food. If you know me and James, you know that we like to eat. I've always said that one of the reasons I do Taekwondo is so that I can eat whatever I want. :) The food was one of the top things both of us were looking forward to on the cruise. And we were not disappointed!

There's pretty much food whenever you want it. Breakfast options include a breakfast buffet or room service delivered to your stateroom. Lunch is the buffet, which has everything from Chinese to  burgers to Mexican to fish & chips to carved meats, plus a dessert buffet and an endless ice cream machine that's open 24/7. Dinner we had every night in the formal dining room, and frankly, it was one of the highlights of every day.

Day 1, after settling in (and the mandatory awful safety briefing) we went topside to bid farewell to Miami. It was pretty cool, watching the ocean open up in front of us. Of course, we then took a nap in a comfy deck lounge.

That evening, we enjoyed a couple of shows onboard, including a really fun magician/comedian. Ask me sometime about the Grapefruit Guy. Hilarious.

Day 2 was one of my favorites. We visited our first island: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. It was seriously the most paradisaical place I have ever been. When you see a movie with those white sand beaches, palm trees, and turquoise water, they could've been at Half Moon Cay.

Day 3 was a Sea Day, which were definitely not my favorite parts of the cruise. While we found some entertainment aboard (comedy shows, swimming, etc) we also just spent time reading and watching movies in our cabin. The highlight of the day was Elegant Evening, where everyone dressed up for dinner, and they served one of my favorite meals of the trip: Lobster!

Day 4 was our day in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. It was overcast most of the day, though fortunately we did not get rained on. We started out by walking into downtown St. Thomas, did some souvenir shopping at a local bazaar, then had lunch at a Jamaican restaurant. Then it was time to walk back for our excursion.

We boarded a sailboat with about 15 other people, and set sail for a private island called Buck Island, which was about an hour's sail from St. Thomas. There, we snorkeled in the bay with sea turtles. It was so amazing! I wish we could've gotten pictures of the turtles, they were so close to us! We also swam through a coral reef, and the fish were incredible, I loved seeing all the different varieties. But the sea turtles were absolutely the best part.

Day 5 we spent in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There we enjoyed a 2-hour private walking tour of Old San Juan. (It was truly private--the tour was me, James and Victor, our local guide.) It was fantastic. I loved San Juan--the statues, the architecture, the history, the ambiance. After our tour, we had lunch in San Juan and did a little shopping before heading back to the Liberty.

Day 6 we visited Grand Turk Island, of Turks & Caicos. It was another beach day, which we enjoyed. If I'm being honest, though, I much preferred the beach at Half Moon Cay. The beach at Grand Turk, while beautiful to look at, was much rougher, rocky and uneven. We spent a little time in the water, but mostly we hung out on the beach and in town.

Day 7 was a Sea Day. We did a few fun things that day, but the big event came that evening. They had an exhibit of Thomas Kinkade's artwork in the art gallery on board. We both enjoy his artwork, so we went to the exhibit. We were informed that they'd later be having a brief seminar, followed by a raffle for a Kinkade. So we came back that evening for the seminar and entered the raffle. To our surprise and delight, James won the raffle! We were ecstatic to win the Kinkade.

Then at last, we arrived back in Miami. We had one last breakfast aboard before heading off to Miami International Airport. Of course, it took us all day to finally get home, and boy was a relief when we finally pulled up to our Holley house.

We loved our cruise. It was fantastic, a truly unforgettable experience. I'm so glad we were able to have this vacation at this point in our life together!

This Mad Month of August

James and I realized during the first week in August that we would not be going to our ward again until my birthday. Our weekends in August look like this:

Weekend 1: Baby blessing for friends Ellen and Justin's new little baby Reed (who is adorable).
Weekend 2: Mission farewell for friend Kristen, who leaves tomorrow.
Weekends 3 & 4: Honeymoon cruise.
Weekend 5: Camping with birthdad & fam.

Hopefully our ward doesn't forget who we are. It would be ironic to come back on the eighth of September and have to be introduced all over again. Ironic, but entirely possible.

In addition to our full weekends, there's just been a lot going on! Some of them include:

-Coaching at our studio's Black Belt Overnighter (also over the first weekend in August).
-Purchasing and planting a peach tree in our backyard (after first ripping out a dead tree).
-Having various family members over for dinner during several evenings.
-Getting our piano tuned.
-Sealings at the temple. (We were going to do an endowment session, but we decided to let the fervor over the new video die down a little first, instead of waiting 2+ hours to make it into a session.)
-Regular date nights. (So far this month: seeing The Wolverine, which was decent, having lunch at The Pizza Factory--mm!, and seeing The Scarlet Pimpernel at the Scera Shell with my parents).
-Camping at Payson Lakes with my family last weekend.
-Installing new blinds on our front room window after the old ones collapsed in spectacular fashion.
-And of course all the regular stuff like teaching and attending taekwondo classes, grocery shopping, and making goo-goo eyes at each other on a regular basis.

Of course, the big exciting things are yet to come! The greatest of which is our HONEYMOON CRUISE coming in just a few short days! We leave late Friday night, and our cruise begins on Saturday. I couldn't be more excited. This is my first time leaving North America, my first time on a cruise, and probably my last for a long time to come! We have stops in the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk Island. Not to mention all the fun things to do ON the boat. We'll be gone for a week, and I'm sure it won't be nearly long enough. Can't. Wait.

When we get back, I will 1) be changing my name legally at last. We waited so as to avoid the purchase of a new passport, but with the cruise behind us, I will be officially becoming a Holley. And 2) we will be getting a dog. We're planning to rescue a dog from the pound, so we have no idea what we will end up with. We're agreed on size and temperament, but other than that, it will be interesting to see what we end up with! Regardless, we are both very excited to be adding to our little family. Doggie will be going through trial by fire, as he/she will probably be going camping with us and my birth family that weekend. It will be an adventure, right?

I love my crazy life. I would much rather be busy than bored. Of course, one needs balance, and I do try to find it. James and I make lots of time for R&R, and just for one another's company, which is most important. He is seriously the best husband in the world--for me. Blessings abound, and I am incredibly grateful!!!

Nationals Recap

Last week James and I went to Chicago for the USA Taekwondo National Championships. The two of us left Monday afternoon and drove straight through--a trip which ended up lasting about 26 hours, due to the awesome traffic in downtown Chicago. Of course, upon arriving we had time for a quick shower before jumping right back into the car to get me to a referee meeting that night at McCormick Place. Needless to say, we were pretty sick of being in the car by the time we finally got to bed that night!

Thursday, July 3rd was the first day of competition. Of our team of 8 (not counting coaches and parents), only Lexi competed that day, in board breaking. I spent the day refereeing, one of my most favorite pursuits. Although I did not get to spend much time in the center, I still learned a lot and met some great people.

On the Fourth of July, I got to be solely an athlete. We had a couple of competitors that day - Cade competed in board breaking and weapons, and Lexi in sparring. We had planned to go out to the Navy Pier that night for fireworks, but never had the chance. The Demonstration Team competition was that night, and despite a 5pm call time, we did not end up competing until about 10:30pm. We watched the tiny bit of fireworks we could see out the window of McCormick Place before setting up for our demo.

Demo Team was, in a word, disappointing. Don't get me wrong, we had a great performance, one of our best. Our energy was great, and though we had a few flubs, we felt great about what we accomplished. But we took last place. Fifth out of five.

We still don't know why. Watching the other teams, it frankly doesn't make sense. We should have placed, at least. We had strong technique, great energy, good team unity. The only thing we can figure is that perhaps we got docked for something. We learned later that we weren't supposed to use a chair in our demonstration--even though I had asked one of the Vice Chairs this question specifically earlier that day, and he said we were fine. It's possible we were deducted for it. We don't know for sure. Maybe the judges just really didn't like our demo. Who knows. It was a huge disappointment for all of us. Still, we feel proud of our performance. We all worked very hard to achieve what we did, and if I do say so myself, we looked great out there.

Friday and Saturday I was back as a referee. I have to say, it was a lot harder this year, with my team there. In the past, I have gone alone, and have been able to focus entirely upon refereeing. But this year, I kept checking my phone, to see who was fighting or how somebody scored. My five-minute breaks were usually spent dashing over to wherever my team was, to spend those few minutes with my husband and the group. The hardest part was when they all went out without me--to the aquarium, to the Navy Pier. Alas. But I enjoyed refereeing, as I always do, and it was still more enjoyable to have my team to go home to in the evenings.

All in all, our little team of 8 took home 3 medals: Brennon, my student, won the bronze medal in a large sparring division of 28 red belts, which made me very proud. Renee, one of our adult students, took home a bronze in board breaking (it was super fun to watch her with her baby bump--Renee is due in October!). And our friend Kristen won the silver medal in her weapons division, which was very exciting.

And after a loooong drive back to Utah (only 24 hours, but it seemed like much longer!), it feels so good to be home.

The Utah Summer Games

This past weekend, James and I competed at the Utah Summer Games, in Cedar City. As a side note, one could potentially argue that mine and James' romance began at the Summer Games a year ago. With and without that, it remains one of my top favorite tournaments, a highlight of my summer each year.

We drove down to Cedar City early on Friday morning, joined in our car by the fabulous Ruth Bartholomew, who regaled us with tales of hilarity and woe (but even those were hilarious--that's Ruth!) Our group was a little more scattered this year than it usually is--normally the whole team goes down early on Friday to go hiking before the evening events. But only a few of us went down early this year, so we nixed the hike in favor of extra swimming and play. At 5pm, we went over to the tournament venue to get set up, attend the referee seminar for black belts, and practice with the demonstration team. Then, we all went out to dinner, went swimming at the hotel, and played a few rounds of Werewolf before heading to bed. Well, some of us went to bed. I'm told the young girls on our team stayed up half the night giggling.

Saturday morning we had a walk-through of our demo at 8am, followed by a meeting at 8:30am for all the black belts in attendance. The tournament started at 9am, with the bow-in, national anthem, and announcements. The Demonstration Team competition was the first event, so we got booted out into the hall--Miss Whitnee, our coach, does not allow us to watch other teams perform, firm in her belief that we'll wig ourselves out. So we stayed out in the hall, warming up, meditating, and working away nerves.

Our performance was good, though there were several issues, the most significant being the failure of the sound system--our music cut out a couple of times, sometimes continuing to play, sometimes stopping, both of which threw us off. Lame sauce. Nonetheless, we were proud of our performance, which you can watch here:



The teams were called up for the presentations of medals, and we were in some suspense, particularly because we hadn't been allowed to watch the other teams, and so we had no way to know how we compared. The third place team was announced, and we waited with baited breath until second was announced, and we knew we had won. Hip hip hooray!
After Demonstration Teams came the Poomsae (forms) competition. They started with black belts, and mine was the very first division. I was in a group of five, one of whom was my teammate and student Kristen. I performed Shipjin, and though it was not my best, it was still strong, and I was delighted to receive the gold medal for my division.

James' division was up shortly thereafter, and he too was in a group of five. He performed Keumgang, and did an excellent job. As it turned out, he tied for 2nd, and so he got to perform again, side-by-side with the guy he tied with. He did a great job, and received the unanimous vote from all five judges. James definitely earned his silver medal!!

After Poomsae, I became a referee for the rest of the day. James spent most of the afternoon corner judging; he also got to be a center referee for the first time. (He says he was petrified; I watched most of the match, and he did just fine.) James also competed in weapons, but started his performance with his routine from the demo team, rather than his solo form, and it really messed him up. He was not surprised, but also not upset, when he did not place, and is determined to win in his division at Nationals in two weeks.

We had a great time at the Utah Summer Games. James and I both love to compete, and we especially love being on the demo team together. One of the best parts of our relationship is our mutual love for Taekwondo; it means we always have a lot to talk about and we get to spend a lot of time together that we wouldn't otherwise have. Life is great!