Just Real Quick.....

I Love Spring...

...There are beautiful flowers popping up all around me.



I Hate Spring...

...The stupid pollen is making my head want to explode.

I Am The Winner!

I think this is my first post about Taekwondo. I competed yesterday in poomsae. The best way I can explain poomsae to all my non-taekwondo friends is like a pattern dance. There is a sequence of moves that has kicks and hand strikes in it. They are really easy to do but very hard to perfect. I have been on a high performance team for 2 years now and I still have a way to go before my poomsae are "perfected" (if it will ever happen).

Anyways yesterday I competed in a tournament, and I got 1st!! Yay me! The only downside is that I was the only one in the division. So I guess I could be a pessimist and say that I got last place. But this is a good opportunity for some self reflection. I performed 4 poomsae. The first 2 I will confidently say I rocked them. I had alot of power yet it was graceful enough. But the 2nd two weren't as hot. The 3rd poomsae I did really knocked my score down. It involves standing on one leg for about 5 seconds. Well that doesn't sound too difficult, except when you try to turn your body to your back 90 degrees with alot of snap and then FREEZE! and then try not to wobble. Well... I wobbled. Actually my balance was so bad I put my foot down early which got me a .5 deduction from each judge. After that poomsae I was flustered so the next poomsae didn't go so well either. BUT now I know what I need to work on. Luckily this wasn't a National competition. I think I left with an average score of 7.6. Which is pretty good comparatively.

Our pairs division did good also. I wasn't able to look at our scores, but we got gold. Of course, again, we were the only ones in the division (i'm beginning to think I smell funny). We were pretty much in sync. We still have alot to work on with our technique in the next 3 1/2 months until the National Team Trials.

Tomorrow I start my new training schedule, it isn't too bad. I train 6-7 days a week but 6 of the 7 are only a hour training a day:

Monday: Weight lift/Strength train - 1hr. Poomsae Class - 1 hr
Tuesday: Poomsae - 30 min, Aerobic - 30 min
Wednesday: Strength train - 1hr
Thursday: Poomsae - 30 min, Aerobic - 30 min
Friday: Strength train - 1hr
Saturday: Aerobic - 30 min
Sunday: High Performance Team - 3 hrs

It's 10am and all is quiet

I am still in bed. It is awesome. The reason I am still in bed? It's because Annika is still sleeping. Some mornings she gets a wild hair and decides to sleep until I wake her up.. usually around 10 or 10:30. But since Daylight Savings just happened, it's really 9am, and that is her normal wake up time. So any second now I should hear................................ Nope no screaming yet.

But we had somewhat of an interesting day yesterday, we are potty training.We are doing a modified "3 day and-we-promise-your-kid-will-shit-in-the-toilet" program. Basically Annika runs around all day wearing panties. I make a HUGE emphasis on her panties being dry, like I ask her every 5 seconds if her panties are dry. When she says yes, we jump and shout and say that Annika if the best person in the world, blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. I'm also supposed to wait until Annika tells me that she has to go potty. So here's how the day goes:

"Annika, are your panties still dry?"
"ummmm... Yup!"
"OH YAY! THAT MAKES ME SO PROUD!! YOU ARE-(I'll spare you the rest of it)"
"yaaaay!"
"Annika, make sure to tell mama when you need to go potty ok? that way we can keep our panties dry"
::No response::
"OK Annika?"
::No response::
*******45 Min later*********
"Annika you look like you are doing the pee pee dance. Do you need to go potty?"
"Nope not yet!"
"Ok make sure you tell mama when you need to go potty, ok?"
::No response::

Now I start hovering over the child because I know she has to pee, She knows she has to pee, but she refuses to sit on the potty.

******2 hours later*********
"Annika are your panties still dry?"
"yup!"
"oh good, do you need to go potty? You look like you need to."
"Nope not yet"
"Annika I think we should go sit on the potty"
"Nope I don't need ----- uh oh"
"RUN TO THE POTTY!!!"

Luckily she has started to get the idea that pee goes in the potty. She has hardly any accidents anymore... if I stay on top of her. But I can't stay on top of her until she is 25! Today we go to work.. and we're going in panties... i'll keep my fingers crossed that this works.

Null and Void

Today I had to go to a special class/orientation thing so some people could tell me how to use a job search engine that I used to work when I was a recruiter. I show up to the 2 hour class and we start by reading the hand out information for about 30 min. After that we needed to login to the system so the lady up front could walk us through how to update our resumes, do a search, etc.

When I get to the front page I noticed that they upgraded the system into a super cool flash page, one that I have never been to. When I put in my information, they system said it was not accepted. One of the women came by and assisted me by clicking some buttons on her computer and assured me that it would work. Buuuuuuut it didn't. So another lady comes by, sees I am having issues, clicks some buttons on her computer and says it will work. Ummmmmm no. So after those 2 attempts both ladies start hovering over me, at the small and getting smaller computer desk, trying to figure out what could be the issue. There was a phrase posted on the computer screen that neither of them knew what it meant. "The value cannot be null". After awhile I told them, "My last name is Null. Often computer programs don't accept my last name because it thinks there's a blank value" Both of the ladies stared at each other and started busting up laughing and sent me home because they couldn't do shit for me. I was told to call the Employment office when I get home, as I leave a man looks at me and says "Make sure you have a spare 3 hours to wait on hold" and as I close the door the entire class bursts into laughter behind me.

I hate people.

SUCCESSFUL!!

Annika came home in the same diaper I sent her over to Grandma's with. I am so proud of her! I hope this keeps up, soon we will be rid of diapers!!! Well until Jim gets older :)

I might be jinxing myself...

But we are on Day #3 of successful potty training. Granted this is our third attempt at this whole thing, but she seems to be catching on. I was scared that she would regress so far from our last attempt that it would just be holy hell trying to potty train again.

Monday was pantie day and Annika wore nothing but panties. We had 3 accidents and 3 pee's in the potty! All in all I think that is pretty good. My poor carpet didn't appreciate it, but whatever. I think the hardest part was that she was watching cartoons and she would space out and pee herself. Once I turned the tv off she did better, for the most part.

On Tuesday, we were at Taekwondo. I didn't have high hopes because she is always on the move with friends or while watching class and the bathroom is dark and.. well it's basically a public bathroom and no one likes spending time in public bathrooms. We changed her first diaper of the day and (here's the cool part) she stayed in that SAME DIAPER ALL DAY!!! No Accidents!!! We made sure to do the pee pee dance after each potty break. Annika really likes that.

Now today she is at her grandmas, so I am not able to watch her.. Hopefully grandma will stay on top of it and we will have another successful day!!!! Wish us luck! Hopefully the next post will be a successful one!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

And Annika celebrated in her own special way...



Note the book in her hand :)

And this also gives me an opportunity to use the best quote in the world:

“Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you”

Doesn't that just give you the warm and fuzzies??

Where'd all my friends go?

Blogger somehow deleted my list of blogs I was following. I had like 10 or 15 blogs on there. This is the second time they have done it to me too. Maybe Blogger is trying to tell me to get off the internet and do something productive with my life. Now I have to go on a great search because there is no way in hell I remembered all the addresses.

If you have any good Blogs, let me know. I'm always looking for another thing to do while attached to the couch.