CROSSFIT OBSESSION

I started crossfit in early May. Crossfit is essentially an intense workout with a focus on personalized attention. The trainers there are there to push you and they do. Most workouts appear managable when reading them on the board but sometimes I feel like they are truly designed to kill you. I've been working out doing the classes at Gold's Gym for about 5 years and just wanted a change. I have several friends doing Crossfit so I thought I would try it as a change. And it's fun working out with friends. When summer started I wasn't sure what I was going to do with Colson when Calli was gone but figured I'd just have him sit in the waiting room with his buddies. Luckily after 2 days they decided to start a class for kids at the same time my class is going on.

So I signed him up, tried to convince him that he'd like this workout better than his trainer that he had last year at Gold's (and went 3 times) and drug him up there the first day. I had to bribe him with donuts afterwards to get him to go. And his friends were going to but he still didn't want to go. I've decided he must get anxious in new settings, environments. I don't think he likes the initial feeling of not knowing how things will go and the meeting of new people.

The first day I quit making eye contact with him because he gave me a look like he was ready to kill me. I didn't even ask him any questions in the car because I didn't want to hear his whining and complaining. Halfway to Shipley's he spoke up with this conversation...

Colson: Does a Cinnamon twist have lots of sugar?
Me: well yes
Colson: (under his breath) dang it! What about donut holes?
Me: Well yes...all donuts are made of bread and lots of sugar.
Colson: Ugh. Just get me a kolache
Me: Are you not supposed to eat a lot of sugar?
Colson: NO! It's not good for you.
Me: (wondering how I have told him that for the last 9 years of his life and it hasn't mattered and suddently some buff twenty something tells him and 1 hour later he's bought into it hook, line and sinker)
Colson: (as we approach the order window) Just get me a Cinnamon twist. I'll just do the treadmill when we get home.

And he did! Not only after he ate the donut but after he ate a whole bag of carrots, an apple, a brownie, a Popsicle and whatever we had for dinner. He spent all day either eating or working out. Then he had Presley, our 7 year old neighbor that is his pal around partner, come over and he led her through whatever workout they had done that day. You could hear him from the other end of the house directing her with "high knees, side to side, high knees, side to side". That night he was whining because he couldn't go 7 days a week.

The next day when I went to get him up he had NO issues and popped right out of bed ready to go. For about 2 weeks he'd give away his food that wasn't good for him. Even though he usually had already eaten half of it before he remembered he shouldn't be eating it, he still made an effort to get rid of it.
He spent that first week giving his own class to Presley and teaching her everything he learned about eating right.

And he's still on the crossfit bandwagon. I wouldn't say he's obsessed anymore but he still enjoys going to his class and doesn't complain. None of his friends are going anymore and he still doesn't complain. Now he's comfortable with the trainers so he doesn't need his buddies.

I told the trainers he may not make an addict out of me, but they've got a really good shot of making Colson one.

DID YOU KNOW?

Calli loves cheerleading? She lives, eats and breaths all things cheerleading...stunting, tumbling, jumps...she spends most of her free time watching routines, making up routines, recruiting little girls (or boys if we can't find girls) to use as her flyers and teach them all the moves so they can then become part of her routines.

Bailey & Calli day 1 of school cheer camp!

Calli does school cheer and Woodlands Elite competitive cheer. The first week of summer, she had her school cheer clinic AT Woodlands Elite. I think they hire a lot of college cheerleaders or former high school cheer leaders to staff these school clinics so she only had 2 of her coaches from Woodlands Elite that knew her. During the 3 days they teach them 2 dances, several cheers and work on their jumps, stunting and tumbling. They also give out awards and do a show off on the last day for parents to come and see what all they learned. Calli and 3 of her teammates was nominated as an All American cheerleader on Tuesday. On Wednesday she had to do a dance, cheer and tumbling run in front of judges and peers. I think they said there were 200 kids at the camp and 50 or so were nominated. They named 14 as "All American" and Calli was one of them. Her and her friend Brooke, the Co-Captain were the only ones from her team that were. Congrats to both of them.

Calli, Bailey, Coach Luke and Brooke

 

Calli also won the only "Best Tumbler" award for the week. She was excited because she beat out a girl who did a full. While she has her full, she's still nervous to do it without a coach standing there.











It's going to be a great year of school cheer. Her 8th grade girls all get along and it seems that the new group of 7th graders are so sweet (and tiny)!

The next week Calli attended a stunt clinic put on by a cheer magazine but hosted at Woodlands Elite. They brought in a staff of college male stunters and spent the entire day stunting those that could fly doing one mans and all kinds of really cool flips and throws that big strong college guys can do to small 85 pound girls. Those that don't fly, they helped teach basing skills.

Apparently Calli has some pretty good co-ed skills. Look what she was able to do....

I was floored and a slight bit jealous! How fun would that be? Scary at age 39 but super fun at age 13.

LIFE IN THE COUNTRY

I love our new place because we are about 5 minutes from I-45 which connects you to most places quickly yet we feel somewhat secluded on 15 acres with not much around us. Life in the country consists of a lot of time outdoors, even in the summer months, driving the golf cart or 4 wheeler around,  riding horses (usually at night), playing ping pong or basketball on the back porch and whatever else they come up with. One of their favorite things to do is swim in the pond. You coudn't pay me enough to get in that pond with them...at least to swim but the kids see no issues in it. Colson bought a kayak with his birthday money which I thought was a great idea and he likes to ride his kayak and fish out of it. We really need some rain to fill the pond up so we can stock it full of fish. The McDonalds pond has some fish in it that he's caught.

Another common scene is to see the horses in the yard eating our grass.

I walked outside one day and found this horse peeking through the window behind him like he was a peeping Tom. By the time I came back with my camera he had gotten bored and hungry and turned to the grass.

And that's life in the country!

WES HAS A NEW JOB

Colson attended his last function at PDS this summer when he went to Summer Fun! They had a small group of 4th graders and he really loved it. Colson is my homebody. Sometimes I have a hard time getting him up and going to things because he'd really rather just stay home....or so he thinks. But that week of summer fun, he was up early almost every day ready to go. 

There theme was cooking. One day they spent a few hours baking cookies and brownies and then had a bake sale that afternoon. As they were discussing how the bake sale would go and who would be in charge of certain things, the teacher brought up the money box. One of the little girls in the class said "I think I would be good at handling the money because my dad is a financial planner". Colson piped up and said, "I think I would be good at handling the money because my dad does taxidermy"  Maybe you didn't know that it's important to be able to count money when you are dealing with dead animals. And for those that don't know Wes, he doesn't do taxidermy, he does TAXES. 

THE DAY FINALLY CAME

Someone asked me today how the new house is....I replied very dramatically "It's so.....(pause)...much work!" She laughed saying she thought I was going to say it's so wonderful. Honestly that's what I was trying to say but it just wouldn't come out. Don't get me wrong, it is fabulous! I love everything about it, except the work it takes to get it set up just like I want it. It will all come together and really why the rush?

We moved out of our house on Lake Conroe Drive on the first day of school. We moved into our new house on Farrell Road on the last day of school. In a weird way, I thought that was kind of cool. As if there isn't a lot of things to do on the last day of school, we just thought we'd add MOVING DAY to the list.

Wes got the movers started at the storage unit early in the morning while I was watching Calli perform at the student/faculty basketball game. I went to the house to do some bossing  directing, something I'm really good at, of the movers. Then I headed up to get Calli early from school so we could make it to Colson's class picnic and final few hours of 3rd grade.

A couple of days prior we had 3rd grade awards where we found out Colson passed 3rd grade! Ha....we had not doubts but it's always fun to give him a little anxiety. It was comedic because Colson would foretell what would happen. When they started announcing the top readers in the third grade, Colson gave it away by pointing to Carlos (he ALWAYS would tell me how many AR points he had and the over the top grades he would make). When they started giving the awards out for good behavior he starts shaking his head and crossing his neck in an effort to tell us it wasn't him getting it.

Colson's teacher, Mrs. Cooper (who was also Calli's 3rd grade teacher), retired this year after 40 years. It's sad to see such a great teacher leave a school you love and a district but I was selfishly thankful that Colson got to have her. She touched a lot of lives over the 40 years. My favorite thing about her was how laid back she was. And how she was never annoyed (or appeared to be) by her students. She would just laugh and realize that kids really do say and do the darndest things.

From left to right....Mrs Szymschack, Mrs. McCrorey, Mrs. Cooper

Calli had a great year this year too. She thinks she changed alot this year over last year. She says people like her alot better. She says last year she hardly ever talked or did anything because she was worried about getting in trouble. I'm not so sure about all of that. I think last year she was not with any of her friends and this year she was. But if I'm wrong, I hope we aren't starting a trend of increased talking every year. Her teachers may not like that and my ears might fall off. Just kidding Calli!

We finished a great year in the 3rd and 7th grade and we are now enjoying summer in our fabulous new house! Life is good and God has blessed us! And I didn't really fall off the face of the earth, I just got lost amongst all these boxes for a few weeks.