HONOR FLIGHT....

Above- LT Tongol, USCG and Homer "Mac" McCown, 92, ARMY AIR CORPS group engineering, Middle/East/North Africa/Italy Jan 12, 1942-July 31st, 1945.

11APRIL2009
On 11apr2009, a group of 32 Ohio Veterans were flown to Washington D.C. after my hometown high school raised money for their travel on what is now know as the "Honor Flight."

The Honor Flight Network, flies veterans to see their memorials at no cost. This particular flight flew WWII veterans from central Ohio to see the memorial of which none had seen before.

After my mother forwarded me the article and information of the group coming from my home town, I knew I had to be there at the memorial when they arrived. On the morning of the Honor Flight, it was nothing but thunderstorms and pouring rain, but I put on my uniform and walked from my DC apt to the WWII memorial and waited in the rain to meet the Veterans, as you can see the rain did nothing to our spirits, it was all smiles and joy when they arrived. It was a humbling experience to watch them all see the memorial for the first time, and it was definitely a reminder of why I joined the service myself...

Above is a picture of me with the oldest of the Veterans...

I was also told that when the Veterans returned home to Ohio, there was a large crowd awaiting their return to welcome them home as they deserve! God Bless them all... we all should take a little time to honor those that served before us, for this Country.

We love you Frankie...

A sad day in the lindy hop world today... the legend, the inspiration, the one and only Frankie Manning Passed away...
We will never forget you Frankie...

Time for a change...

Who's that girl???

yep... that's me ;)

Congrats Erika and Kevin

My best friend growing up found out that her 2nd child is going to be a baby girl!

Congrats Erika! So happy for you!
I love you!!

Making Choices...

So over the past couple years, my list of hobbies grew substantially from only skydiving... to skydiving, dancing, working out, triathlons/racing... and wanting to compete in all three...

With being a full time Coast Guard Officer, I really was stretching myself thin... but I thought I could do it all. The truth is, I was half-assing all three... not being able to focus 100% on competing in either, I was "good" at all of them, but not in the top like I want.

I raced, and while in 1 triathlon I was 1 second out of first for my age group, that was the closest I got... and in dancing I am just staying at the solid int/adv level, (which is still awesome and a lot of fun) but not devoting time to go to enough events to get better. Skydivng I was able compete locally and do well, but again not at the level I dreamed of...

So really, I would LOVE to be able to be incredible at all three and compete Nationally at all three and do well, it is just NOT possible, so something's gotta give... I gotta choose...

SO... this year, as most of you probably already guessed, I am choosing skydiving. No more dance wkds, no more racing... this year I'm focusing on skydiving. I want to go to nationals and I want that next level. It's hard, because I LOVE dancing, but I've decided that I can be ok with just social dancing weekly. And racing, while I love the feeling of finishing a race, I can't keep a training schedule that is feasible with the classes I already teach... so... choice made...

Lindy Hop, Racing-->back burner for now...
Skydiving is it...

and I'm thankful Michael now is involved and loves the sport too...

5-way video...

So Jason passed along a video of a 5-way we did a few weeks ago at sunset =)
I'm the one that comes down to the formation after everyone (because I dove out after them)... not bad.... a little shaky at times... but not bad

For the Record...

It sucks being stuck in your own car with your car keys and not being able to start the car bec some random alarm that you didn't even know the car had starts going off and doesn't let your own car key start the car!!!

OMG!!!!! seriously

other than that.. pretty awesome wkd.

Why I do what I do...

Today after I taught my POWER class at VIDA, one of the girls who has been taking my class regularly came up to me in the locker room and said, "Hey, I just want you to know that I love your class! It's my favorite part of the week, I look forward to it all day long!"

She also was excited that she was seeing results from taking the class.

It made me feel so good to hear that. It gives me such a boost of energy and motivation to keep teaching when students come up and tell me they enjoy my teaching and classes.

So thanks guys! I keep teaching because you guys are awesome!