Wow, this post didn't end like I planned...

I have something great for you guys! Here's my first animated gif:


Hahahahaha. I love it. Autumn's been trying to hula hoop for a long time and she finally kind of got the hang of it. She can't do it for a long time but when she gets going a little it is SO FUNNY. Plus that little under armour shirt Stephan got her for Christmas is crazy cute!

Last month I think I mentioned that I started teaching aikido at a new location. I like the kids there a lot and Autumn's had a good time getting to know them all. She's been in the big kids class! Penny came out a couple of weeks ago to take some pictures of the class.


She's fun to have in class. Autumn enjoys aikido a lot and I am really glad. I was hoping that by keeping class attendance casual and fun, that she might actually want to do martial arts. I've watched different parents use different approaches to allowing their kids to train. Some wait until the kids are interested but then they never seem to get interested. And of course there are the dojo equivalent of stage parents but those kids usually end up good but miserable. So this in the middle path is the one I want to take. We'll see how it goes!


How funny is this? She looks really into it!


***breaking news***

Oh, my gosh, you guys would laugh so hard. If only I had a gif of this. I was sitting here, typing and minding my own business when the BIGGEST BUG IN THE WORLD showed up on the wall on front of me. I didn't scream but I went calmly for the vacuum because there was NO WAY I was going to smash it. But just as I got the vacuum hose up to it, it skittered to the top of the wall.

So of course I went and woke Mike up.

For real, you guys. It was that bad. I went in and urgently stage whispered, so he wouldn't be afraid we were under attack or something, that THERE IS A HUGE BUG AND I DON'T WANT TO SMASH IT BECAUSE IT'S HUGE BUT I CAN'T REACH IT WITH THE VACUUM AND IT'S TOO HIGH SO I NEED YOU TO BE TALL AND GET IT FOR ME AND I AM SORRY TO WAKE YOU UP BUT IT'S A REALLY BIG DEAL. Mike was kind of bleary but he saw the bug and was like WHAT IS THAT THAT BUG IS HUGE WE NEED BUG SPRAY.

So he got the bug spray. He sprayed the heck out of the bug and then it started flying. When it landed and we stopped screaming and ducking, Mike went at it with the spray until it fell down and started running on the floor so Mike is all GET IT GET IT BEFORE IT GETS AWAY THIS IS SO GROSS. And I'm squealing and going I'M TRYING THE HOSE IS STUCK.

And then I sucked it up. Mike sighed. I said, "I told you it was huge." And then he shook his head and went back to bed.

Autumn?

Asleep the whole time.


/shudder