School This and That...

Oh how we love school, especially when we are nearing the end of another school year. Last term and 2 months from now it will be summer vacation...but not to loose focus...a couple randoms for today. Skye wanted to take a treat for her birthday (which is tomorrow, but there is no school.  I asked her what she wanted and together this is what we came up with...nutella, strawberries, and pretzel rods.  It was a hit as far as she was concerned.  And as far as I was concerned too seeing how I didn't have to bake anything!

she was the queen for the day too!

so do you remember a few months (or maybe it was only weeks) Jacey had a mishap at school involving coats not hung up and balls under the coats?  She fell and got a nice little bruise on her hip.  I told her she should be more careful and she came back with a "No, I will write a persuasive letter to the principle"  Well she did and the principle pulled her out of class to tell her that there would be a new ball box by the lunch room effective immediately.  Well here it is!  Good job sis!

Tonight also brought PTC.  In short I have totally awesome kids!
Skye's teacher said she has a very calming presence, she is often paired up with rowdier kids, or kids that need just a little boost because she can calm and lift them.  She said that Skye really doesn't need her anymore, she is where she needs to be for first grade.  A few weeks a go she wrote me a note that said "i dont want to do my chrs or my homwrk.  I will brush borg.  love skye i love you" I thought that was odd, but loved her inventive/phonetic writing so I saved it.  I was telling Miss Porter about it and she chuckled and said that it was her fault.  They were talking about (I can't remember now) in class and she suggested that if there was ever something they didn't want to do but were afraid to talk about it, maybe they could write about it...hence the I don't want to do my chores, but I will brush Borg instead note.  Skye made her day today when she came in and said "Miss Porter, even though I will be in first grade next year I will still bring you my pictures and books!"

Dax's teach had to start off by saying how much she loved Jacey.  Every Friday Jacey and her friend Jayden go to her room and clean it completely.  They miss the grade school bus and just run to the high school to catch it.  Then she said how much she loves to ask Dax questions because she knows she will never get just the cut and dry answers.  There will always be lots of thought, imagination, and creativity put into his answers, and that they are ALWAYS spot on right!  It really is so true about him.  When we have FHE he never gives the "Sunday School answers" they are always thought out and right on.  He has excelled this term, his focus has improved, and he even passed off a math facts sheet.  AR was not met, but we knew that, and our goal (so he can have his privileges back) is to get them all by the week after Spring Break.  We are reading a GOOD one together and for the first time EVER he looks forward to reading...I got a lovely groan when I got paged out tonight on a call and had to stop reading.

Jacey's teacher thinks Jacey is just the sweetest thing and appreciates her sooooo much.  Jacey has a hard class, all of her teachers have said so from the time she was in kindergarten, yet she very rarely gets drawn into the drama or the distractions.  She said she is good at everything she sets her mind to.  Her teacher LOVES to read her writing assignments, because IR testing will soon be essays they have been doing lots of it.  She is consistently improving and her thoughts are so well organized and expressed.  She had straight A's.  On a non-school note she has been invited to join the Silver Team in gymnastics this summer and she is soooo excited, yet quite nervous as this will mean competitions next winter.  I have no doubt she will give it her all and will be just fine!

Colt...well he is looking forward to the day he gets to go to school, I on the other hand am torn and will enjoy these next 2 years (and a summer)!

And then since Greg and I are also in school here is our update:
Greg has 3 more tests and his final project, goal is to be done by June (he said that with a little hesitation, but I am holding him to it)
My transition has been a little intense lately since I had to unexpectedly renew my NREMT license a year earlier than I thought-dang my "go-get-it-ness" (that is Greg's term) if I had procrastinated 4 months I could have had until NEXT March to get it all done...but alas I am just short 3 hours and they are covered in my ICS-100 course I am finishing up (hopefully tomorrow) then I just need to pass off my skills to Medical Control (aka the ER doctor) and I should be transitioned from an EMT-Basic to an EMT...wahoo!  I am also slowly working on my Spin Instructor Cert. still teaching as a student and once NREMT is done I will take that test...so my goal is the end of April for all of it!  Then I am going straight to the library and READING a book for myself. 

Gotta love education and all the opportunities we have!

I'm Feeling It...

...I was scheduled to teach 8 fitness classes this week. I just finished #6 and 7, 1 more tomorrow and then it is back to 5 next week. Skye was not feeling good today so she had to miss another gymnastics class (makes us so sad, she was in tears!) but in one way it was kinda nice to send the other kids in and to just sit at home and chill out! Jacey was invited to join the "Silver Program" I think that is what they called it. It is a program that takes girls that started at a later age and helps them accelerate into the higher levels and then even into the competitions teams. She is so excited. The other day she told me her goal is to compete in gymnastics one day...it might be closer that she thinks! Skye told me that when she grows up she wants to be a gymnastics teacher...she would make a cute teacher! Dax has a new teacher, a boy, that will hopefully be able to help push him and be a good role model for that wild class of boys! If Colt could count down more than 10 numbers he would be counting down to the day he gets to start.

Playlists and Profiles...

...since a good portion of my week involves working at the gym (this week I get to teach EIGHT classes...I am already tired-good thing I like it!), and then another good portion getting ready to work at the gym, browsing songs, making playlists and profiles (putting together the actual ride) I am going to share some more of my recent downloads, and BEG for your favorites!

FUN: All the Pretty Girls
MY Chemical Romance: Sing
Matt Hires: Restless Heart
Of Monsters and Men: Slow and Steady (for a cool down)
DB Sound: Don't You Worry Child (this is a remix of an original)
Billy Joel: We Didn't Start the Fire
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Proud Mary
John Mellencamp: Hurts So Good (this is often a theme song...ha!)
Survivor: Eye of the Tiger
Disturbed: Indestructible (this is Greg's workout song, I have yet to use it)
Green Day: Oh Love
Linkin Park: Burn it Down
P!nk: Try
Europe: The Final Countdown
August Rush: Rhapsody
Bon Jovi: Because We Can
Rihanna: Shut Up and Drive (this was dedicated to those chatter boxes that miraculously can spin and talk...not working HARD enough!)
Lady Gaga: The Edge of Glory

I think that catches us up from the last list...
As for profiles my favorites lately have been
The Pyramid Climb: we do every step for 3 min. sprinting the last 15 seconds of every minute.  The first half of the climb we increase with every stand.  Seated flat, Standing flat, Seated medium hill, Standing medium hill, Seated heavy hill, Standing heavy hill, Seated (rest or intense hill).  Then we slowly come back down the other side, decreasing our resistance with every seated.  Standing hard hill, Seated hard hill, Standing medium hill, Seated medium hill, Standing flat, Seated flat...sprint to the end and cool down!

3:1 ratio: Work for 3 minutes hard recover for 1 minute

1:1 ratio: Start out with 1 minute work 1 minute rest/recover then 2 minute work 2 minute rest/recovery 3 minute work 3 minute recovery and back up again.  The trick with this one is to work so hard during the work phase that the rest phase is NEEDED!

The one I did today, and the one I am doing Wednesday (you all should come!) is
1 song seated flat, 1 song standing run, 1 song seated hill increasing every minute, 1 song heavy hill 15 seconds standing building cadence, 45 seconds seated maintaining cadence.  Then we repeat...it's a good one!  My legs are nice and tired today!


So what are the kids up to?!  Just getting ready to finish their third term...WHOA!  Dax is trying hard (okay really he couldn't care much less) to get 11 AR points.  The silly thing is he has read enough books he just hasn't taken tests or written reports on them...grrr!  Don't know what I am going to do with that kid!  Jacey is gearing up for her ski trip on Friday.  She has been talking about this trip since last year.  Skye got to go on her first out of city field trip today.  They went to Cal Ranch to see the new chicks and ducks...only in the country!  Colt is challenging me in every way possible.  It is a daily event that I find a treasure in the toilet and sadly it is not a bodily surprise, more along the lines of my makeup, toothbrushes, plungers...seriously!  He is stealthily quiet about it all too.  He is also finding everything possible to take apart. He hardly ever plays with his nice little TOY tool set we got, but hourly I have to get him out of the tool drawer, find ALL the parts to the flashlights, and today he brought me his blocks showing me that the reason one of the parts turns is because of a screw...oh he will "fix" that soon enough no doubt!

LOVE IT!

Looking For Music...

...one of the most rewarding, yet challenging part of teaching Spin is finding the right music.  It has to be fast enough to sprint to and to slow way down and climb hills to.  Half that class is pure mental, and so you have to be able to turn to the music to pull yourself through.  The best feeling in the world is to be sweating from every pore, and getting chills because the music is just right...no pressure right?!
Here are my 45 minute playlists that I used this month, thought it would be fun to share! (the instructions are more for my benefit for next round)

Profile #1

• David Guetta & Usher "Without You"warms us up
• OneRepublic "Good Life" is an increasing hill!
• Of Monsters and Men "Little Talks" is our sprints and jumps
• Lifehouse "All In" takes us to a standing hill and then a sitting hill keeping the resistance the same
• Peter Hollens "Some Nights" (this song is originally done by FUN, but this version is more clean) we continued with our standing/sitting hill and ended with flat
• The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction" this is our free ride/halfway point we recover if we need it, or we close our eyes and ride to the music
•  Katy Perry "The One That Got Away" alternating hill up and down
• Brandi Carlile "The Story" is a flat sprinting to the music
• Plain White T's "Figure It Out" we endure the entire song on a heavy hill
• Jason Mraz/Colbie Caillat "Lucky"

Profile #2 (was more a flashback-it wasn't my most favorite, but it could have been just the day.  I will have to tweak it a little more and add some faster songs in the mix)

• Simon &Garfunkel "Feelin Grovy"
• Huey Lewis & The News "Hear of Rock and Roll"
• Journey "Separate Ways"
• Bon Jovi "You Give Love A Bad Name"
• Aerosmith "Fly Away From Here"
• Jewel "Standing Still" this was our halfway song
• Bon Jovi "Somday I'll Be Saturday Night"
• Aerosmith "Living On the Edge"
• Coldplay "Fix You"
• Allison Krause "When You Say Nothing at All"

Profile #3 this was all about the rollers, working one leg at a time, and focusing on the pull up and the push down

• Philip Phillips "Home" This was our warmup
•  Train "Drive By" flats with rollers
• Van Halen "Jump" and yes we did jumps
• The Lumineers "Ho Hey" rollers on an increasing hill
• Nickelback "When We Stand Together" rolling flat
• Train "Mermaid" increasing hill
• The Sun Goes Down "Glad You Came-Radio Edit) continued with our increasing hill
• Mumford & Sons "I will Wait" was our freestyle song
• Starlet "What Doesn't Kill You" Sprints on a sitting hill
• Train "50 Ways to Say Goodbye" went to a standing hill
• Churchill "Change" rolling flat
• Russell Brand & Catherine Zeta Jones "We Built This City/We're Not Gonna Take It" (LOVE this song from the movie-haven't seen it, but almost want to for this song alone!) we sprinted the entire song....ah!!
• Adele "Skyfall" for our cool down!

(funny story about Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" we were driving to the gym and this song came on and the first line says "There's a fire starting in my heart" Skye asked me "Mom, can a fire really start in your heart" I said "Sure, it starts when you get really excited about something" She said "Oh, I have a fire in my heart because I can't wait for our 100 days of school party on Friday"  Goes to show it isn't just about the beat, the lyrics are heard!) 

Profile #4 this was a fun one-I burned over 800 calories in 45 minutes we started out on a flat road for our warm up and then every 3 minutes we climbed a little steeper until we reached a hard standing hill.  Then we had the option to take everything off and recover or sit down with the same resistance.  After that we went back to our standing heavy hill and every 3 minutes decreased back down to a sprint of the last song.  We also sprinted the last 15 seconds of every minute...talk about SWEAT!

• Katy Perry "Wide Awake"
• Young The Giant "Cough Syrup" I woke up very congested and thought this song was quite fitting, but really yeah it is a song about cough syrup...it is a pretty good one though!
• Mumford & Sons "The Cave"
• Youngblood Hawke "We come Running"
• Green Day "Holiday"
• Natasha Bedingfield "Pocketful of Sunshine"
• Cobra Starship "You Make Me Feel"
• Lady Gaga "The Edge of Glory"
• FUN "Carry On"
• Survivor "Eye of the Tiger" (this was our sprint)
• Gotye "Somebody that I Used to Know" for our cool down and stretching

Alright so now it is your turn!  What songs are on your workout playlist...share with me please!  I am hoping that the more of a collection I get the easier it will be to put the classes together, for now I spend probably 3 hours a week putting the list together and then another hour tweaking and practicing it.  So rewarding when it all comes together well enough to give you chills!

Unofficially, Officially...

...I am a Spinning® instructor. Unofficially because I am still in the "learning" phase and wont take the test until the end of this month (hopefully). But officially because as a student I can teach and starting today I have my own class.  So excited! I think it went well, but the answer to that question will come next week when hopefully they all come back :)  I also teach water on Wednesdays right after.  Yay for 2 hours of good hard sweaty exercise...never thought I would love it so much. 
In other news, I figured out why you couldn't see my videos.  I had them set to private, so feel free to scroll back down to see them. 
On the headache front, I did get my cluster headaches (wishfull thinking that I wouldn't) if we follow patterns today should be the last of them.  Gotta make some serious changes to my diet, request my neck massages from my husband and Jacey (she is getting pretty dang good) more often and sleep more regularly!!