Aerobic update!

Funny Funny times! Half of the time I had a brain and sometimes I would say something (over the microphone in front of 50 people) and the girls on the floor would stop in mid-step as they had no idea what I was asking them to do! Aerobics have changed! The last time I taught, was 7 years ago and 2 babies agao, and the music was called "Cardio-Country" and it was on a tape instead of cd!!! Anyway, good thing one of the other instructors let me borrow her music. Hey, have you done a 30 minute ab class before? I mean that is tough! I cannot sit up right now, but I am sure to be feeling better tomorrow!
Okay so there are a lot of African American (PC, this is what we are teaching Kennedy!) (even though people down here, say a lot worse things!!!) people who work out at this gym, and not too many are into country music, if you know what I mean! Also when I took Kennedy into the nursey care place, she was the only white child (out of 15) and she looked at me and said "Mama there are a lot of African American kids in here" and I said yes, is that okay with you? To which she shrugged her shoulders and said "Sure, I don't care" and ran off to play with the kids! Yea, for her, color is not an issue!
Alright I decided to add this email that I had sent to my family, because it makes me laugh! So, enjoy! My husband's sister's husband (Jeff) and his family have had a cabin in the woods on a lake in Northern Wisconsin, and we have been going for 8 years. It has no electricity or indoor plumbing!
Well, it is great to be back in the land of electricity and indoor plumbing!!! Actually I could probably survive without the electricity part (however we did smuggle in 2 DVDs and a portable player this year!!) but the plumbing, really. I am feeling great after having a nice, warm, shower without any flies, fish or 30 lb snapping turtles (yes, I did say 30lbs) bugging me in the lake. Bathing in the lake isn't that bad, it is just all the other things that go on in the lake that are hard to not think of while being exposed/vulnerable. Same feeling in the outhouse, I mean you have it hanging out there and you can feel the wind (?) blowing by and it is an intense feeling of vulnerability.Anyway here are the highlights:
#1 As mentioned before, the 30lb turtle...Corey and Jeff caught, killed and de-shelled it! (note the following description is rated "G" for GROSS!!!) Corey and Jeff are out fishing and they are catching nothing. Earlier in the day Jeff had caught a little bass and it didn't live to see the hook removed, so they threw it back in. Well, something bigger came right up and gobbled up the whole fish! And thus the turtle hunt was on. So, as we (everyone else except Corey and Jeff) went into town to get ice cream (a nice civilized thing to do) Corey and Jeff were the hunters!! It wasn't long before Corey had a bite on his fishing line that proved to be Mr. Turtle, so he began pulling it in to the boat, at which point Jeff wanted to know the plan of attack, and Corey said, "Let's bring it on board and I will stab it until it is dead" Okay, sounds like a good plan, until you see the 1" claws on each leg and the enormous size of the turtle!! So Corey picks it up by the tail and hauls it overboard and the stabbing begins. It is here that there is some descrepency, Jeff says 30 stabs Corey says not that many, maybe 29!! So now they have this dead(?) turtle in he boat and they get to shore. Enter the rest of the family, and 6 children... Corey is still holding it by the tail and all the kids are looking, taking pictures etc...as they do not know the poor future of this turtle! We take the kids to camp[fire, trying to ignore what was going on by the shed which was Corey holding the turtle (by the tail) next to a tree while Jeff tries to axe it's head off! Then they take the turtle to the table and Dr. Jeff Mathisen (turtle surgeon extrodanaire) performs an autopsy, surgery of the most serious kind (for which he will probably lose his license) the de-shelling of the turtle. As we sit by the fire we hear "let's loosen the spine..." "oh look in the stomach, here is the fish I threw back" etc... And why are we de-shelling????? Because Hunter Corey decides he needs to have this shell as a ??? somewhat like the deer antler? I guess. So they finish, Marlin bags up the actual turtle body to take to a friend in Warsaw (double gross), and we now have a shell in Mississippi!!!! Wonderful!!!
#2 Macguires first experience in the outhouse! We go in and he looks in the first seat (yes it does accomodate 3) and says "this one is disgusting and full of poopy mama!" and then he of course slams the lid and moves to seat #2, in which he finds the same thing and therefore is even more upset to find the third seat has again the same thing. (Imagine, an outhouse full of poopy!) Anyway, he decides he will sit in the middle seat and says "mama, this is my seat, I will always sit in the middle because it is better than the others." So okay, I guess maybe. Luckily for Macky, he is a boy, therefore "watering" the bushes in Bass Lake is allowed, and he only had to make one trip per day to the outhouse! We did get a very cute picture of him sitting in the outhouse, doing his thing, and he was there forever and he would say "you can wait outside mama, it is stinky in here" or "the flies are on me" or making up a song while sitting on seat
#3 Kennedy had a great time playing with her cousins and she said the best part for her was driving the motorized go-carts! We went into town and let the kids (and some bigger kids!!) drive the carts and she was afraid to drive by herself, but then she did and she loved it! She also tried skiing, or should I say lake drinking!!! She didn't quite make it above the water!!! and the bad parents we are, we made her try it again and again...she is done with that for awhile!! Oh, this is funny, one day after Connor went (and drank the lake) I said okay who wants to go next Kennedy? NO Kellen? NO Macguire? He shrugs his cute little shoulders and says Sure. So Jen and I put him on the skis and held him in the water and off he went...well drinking some water and then almost standing a bit and then wipe out. But he tried and he is only 4 so that was very brave of him. (side note Connor did get up twice and skied around the lake and had fun, of course this only made Kennedy more frustrated!!!)
#4 Emy had fun just wandering around playing, she loves the water and also the sand pile in the back! She did not like sleeping at night!!!! and it was cold (one night I think Bob said 46!) so it was very trying!
#5 I had fun skiing, of course now I may have to re-think being in the lake at all, after the turtle experience! That same day I had decided to swim the lake for exercise, so I am sure that I have been in close proximity to Mr. Turtle! But skiing was great and I was able to get up on 2 and drop one and that is a blast!
So, overall, a great time of fun and memories with family!!! It is always an adventure!