Fitness Update

Okay; okay normally any fitness update coming from me would not consist of much, but I've had a pretty descent week (assuming you're easily impressed). Here goes:

Monday 8.25
Taekwondo--good, hard work
my stretching plan
my push up program

Tuesday 8.26
Taekwondo--which included sparring
kickboxing cardio

Wednesday 8.27
off

Thursday 8.28
kickboxing cardio
Taekwondo--a light workout but did include sparring

Friday 8.29
Jogged at a local track
my push up program

Saturday 8.30
kickboxing cardio
my push up program


I'm building up to October 4, which is when Macy and I test for our next Taekwondo belts.

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Bailey visited Macy's Tae Kwon Do class

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Bailey trying on shoes

I don't know how long Bailey was doing this before I noticed, but the girl loves trying to try on shoes.

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My kids are in bed...early.

I just put the kids into bed (after their bath). Yeah, I know it's only 5:30, but it's bed time around here (tonight, at least). Macy's smart enough to know that it's still light outside, so I told here she didn't have to "go to bed," but she had to stay in her bed.

Here's hoping for a good night's sleep and some quiet time.

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Tennessee—We Love You!

We’ve recently completed our trip to Tennessee. To get to Memphis, our trip runs in three legs: first, we travel from home to Cincinnati, Ohio. Second, we travel from Cincinnati to Nashville. Third, we go from Nashville to Memphis. Roughly, each of the 3 legs takes us about 4 hours to complete—for a total drive time of about 12 happy hours with the whole entire family stuck in a mini-van.

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Here’s where we were when.

• We left Michigan on Thursday about 2:30 pm (EST).
• We arrived in Dickson, TN about midnight (CST). Here we stopped for the night.
• After sleeping in a little on Friday, we ate at Cracker Barrel (a restaurant that’s pretty scarce in Michigan).
• We arrived in Memphis about 2:30 pm (CST).
• We stayed with Mimi and Paw Paw Friday and Saturday (until dinner).
• We arrived at the Rameys’ house on Saturday at about 6:45 pm (CST).
• Sunday was our first full day of the Gospel Meeting at Nance. We enjoyed both morning and evening services with a little break (at Chris and Mary’s) in between.
• On Monday, we went to Dyersburg. We did a little shopping and business. We had lunch with some of our friends. We, then, spent the rest of the day at the Golsons’ house, had dinner with the Golsons and Amanda & Ashley Nicks, and went to Monday night’s meeting.
• Tuesday was a bit of slow day--for Dustin and the girls, at least. Julie went shopping, ventured out to Dyersburg (again), and got a flat tire. We had pizza with the Rameys and all went to the meeting.
• On Wednesday, Brenley and Caroline stayed home from school for all of the girls to have a play day. Julie was out again (anyone see a pattern here?!). Dustin kept the kids without losing his mind.
• Wednesday after the final night of the meeting, we went to Memphis to set up a full day of visiting on Thursday.
• We had a nice Thursday and even got to see Rick and David as they passed through Memphis.
• We left Memphis at about 11 am (CST). We stopped in Nashville for a mall break. We, then, pressed on and made it home at about 3 am (EST). Whew!

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Consider the below as filler material for the above.
A favorite place for us to stop is the Florence Mall--in Florence, KY, just outside of Cincinnati. Here’s some cell phone video of the girls at that mall.

The girls were glad to spend time (before the meeting) with Mimi and Paw Paw.

Chris and Mary were very great hosts. They gave us their room, and we filled it up.

The girls had a blast together. Here are some pictures of them in action.

On Wednesday Brenley and Caroline stayed home from school, and I scooped this interview.

Macy and Bailey had a great time at the Gospel Meeting nightly; see for yourselves.

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Chris on TV

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10 Years of Marriage, and I want Sparring Gear

Julie and I recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. I wanted to get some nice Tae Kwon Do sparring gear, so I could match Macy.

Here's some pieces of the cool gift I have coming.

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Redeem Team

Okay, so maybe I backed into the fire hydrant at the end of Donna's driveway, but yesterday I backed down Lisa's long driveway without incident--I'm back! :)

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There's a dog in my van.

The other night, we went to a friend's house and met their dog.

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MISC cell phone pictures

Some are good; some are bad, but all these pictures were on my cell phone, and I wanted to share them here. They are a bit random, so I will add a sentence or two.

Here's Bailey with some of her friends.


Here's some watch stuff I gave away.

Here is some crazy good ice cream I recently had. :)
These few are from my Chicago trip.



I took the girls to CiCi's Pizza a while back. Mommy could really get used to the time alone.


Bailey was so cute at American Girl.


Macy and her church friends are happy together.

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Girls Graduate Swim School

They're not Michael Phelp--yet, but the girls scored high marks on their skills.

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Pizza with girls

On the eve of going to Tennessee, I took the girls out to lunch and gave Julie some without kid time.

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Kid Warrior

Well, today Macy got her Tae Kwon Do sparring gear. She has really been looking forward to this day.

Not only did she get her gear today, but she also got to use it. Here's some of Macy in action--this is her very first match.

Macy sparred other folks, too (including Master Roger). Here's another clip of her.

Here's some that I shot of the bigger kids.

Don't let the pink shirt and pretty eyes fool you; this girl is one tough cutie.


Here's a recent video of Macy's form.

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Pizza and Chips

Here's a recent picture of the girls and some church friends eating pizza and chips (and some apples).

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A little soccer in the yard.

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Church Lectureship

We had a great time at the 2008 Michigan Bible Lectureship.


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Macy takes swimming lessons.

We learned of a good, close, and inexpensive swim program. We enrolled Macy, and she has done very well.


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Nice Weather Ahead

I just wanted to share the perfect weather we've been enjoying. The next couple of days look especially comfortable. There does look to be a heat advisory coming up--after all, that will be the third straight day in the 80s. ;)
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Bailey Looking

Bailey's just looking. I wonder who she gets that from. :)

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The Windy City

When we decided to move to Michigan (just outside of Detroit), we had an interest in what our new surroundings would be. We were excited in how (relatively) closely located we would be to Chicago. Macy had been asking for an American Girl doll for some time, and we were trying to make our move to Michigan something she would look forward to, so we told Macy that soon after moving to Michigan we would go to Chicago and let her get her American Girl doll.

Day 1

We arrived in Chicago in the mid morning and were greeted by the cool skyline.

After we parked, the first stop was the American Girl store (located at Michigan and Chicago Avenues). Macy was very excited. Bailey picked up on the hype and began saying, "Me buy Bitty Baby too." We attempted to explain to her that we would come back for Bailey's trip when she gets a little older.

After much study, Macy decided that she wanted to get Mia, the 2008 doll of the year.

Bailey had fun looking at the Bitty Baby stuff. With everything she saw and played with, she would say, "Buy it." :) She gave the sweetest hugs to every available Bitty Baby and enjoyed playing with the displays.

Of course, Macy enjoyed looking, too.

After a lot of looking, buying, and crowd dodging, we sat down for a while to rest and open some of our goodies.

It was during the rest, that we realized that had more babies than we thought. (Bailey did this first, then we had to get everyone else to do it).

Macy and I, then, took Mia around the store and let her visit with her doll friends.

We had dinner reservations, but thought we might try to walk in for lunch. We added our names to the list and killed a bit more time hoping we could get in. Good news! We got seated for lunch.

Daddy had chicken and apples.

Macy had pizza.

Bailey had a baby picnic.

Mommy had a chicken sandwich.

During lunch, the girls played with their dolls. Macy was nice and loaned her Bitty to Bailey for the trip.

We captured Macy's thoughts on this video.

After lunch and a very busy first half of the day, we left the American Girl store (feeling very satisfied) and went to our hotel.

Julie loved the room; Macy was scared of how high up we were; Bailey looked out of the window and said, "look castles."

After some rest, we went out to some other shops.

This was the girls first cab ride.

Where was the taxi taking us? The Disney Store, of course.

After the Disney Store, we walked around and enjoyed some other shops. Macy always gets a kick out of seeing this store. :)

We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, dessert at the Hershey's shop, and returned to our hotel to end day 1.

Day 2

After sleeping in and eating breakfast at the hotel, we checked out of our castle (as Bailey called it) and went to Navy Pier. Macy and Mia were dressed for the day. :)

There were some carnival-type rides that the kids enjoyed.


The granddaddy of all the rides was this 15-story ferris wheel.

We rode it, but we were a little freaked out (except for Julie who claims she liked it).

After rides, we went indoors, ate a late lunch, laughed hard at some guy's old VHS video recorder, and headed home! We had a great trip. Of course, Julie's thinking about when we go back.


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