Matt Just Left for Pittsburgh

Well, Matt just left to go to the airport to head home to Pittsburgh. He will be attending his 21-year old nephew's funeral. Zach was a great kid - but got wrapped in drugs and alcohol early on in life. Zach died of an overdose.
So, Matt is going by himself to this service in memory of Zach. I really wish I could be going with him - to say goodbye to Zachary one last time & to support Matt and hug the family, but I have so much going on at home right now with work. Plus, I would rather not leave the kids behind & certainly, this would not be something for them to be involved with.
I wish things didn't have to end this way for Zachary and our family. How sad that he'll never get to finish out his life -- to grow up, to get married, have kids of his own. It's just so frustrating to think that this all could have been so different. And, what could we have done as his Aunt and Uncle to help make it different. Could we have been more diligent to keep in touch with Zach. Should we have tried harder to convince him to stop taking the drugs. All of those what if's. But, of course, it is too late now to worry about those.
So anyway, it has been a pretty rough 2 weeks in our family - as Zach slipped away slowly in the hospital after the overdose. The emotional rollercoaster was really hard and intense. I pray for Matt -- that God would protect Him physically and emotionally as he makes this trip. I pray for our family, too -- that we would never again have to lose another young person to drugs.

I've Realized....

I am not a writer. I always think about blogging about things that happen everyday, but by the time I get to the computer, I've either forgotten what I wanted to write (aka: mommy-brain) or I am too lazy.
I did want to add these pictures of Ella taken the other day, though. They are just too cute NOT to share. She was such a ham for the camera and really enjoyed having curly hair (thanks to foam curlers!).
So without further ado, Ella's photo shoot:

This is what it looked like after we took the curlers out first thing in the morning.
The back.


After a little styling:

Little Miss Bright Eyes:

Posin'

More:







Isn't she so sweet?!?!
Anyway, not much else new here...Jonah is doing well & happy to be done with school and be on summer vacation.
I did my 3rd triathlon of this season this past Sunday & did pretty good -- come in 80th place out of almost 2600 women. And came in 16th place out of over 400 women in my age group. It was a fun time!

Busy, Busy

So here I go again not blogging regularly like I said I would. Some days it's just hard to get my thoughts processed, let alone written out.
I do have a couple of updates to share, though:
1) I have attended 2 births in less than as many weeks. The first birth about 12 days ago, was incredible. A completely unmedicated birth for mom, with no interventions at all. Thankfully, the natural process unfolded really smoothly and baby was even born in the bag of waters! That was the first time I have seen that in person. Mom did a really great job and coach was equally as wonderful.
The 2nd birth was just last night. First of all & most importantly, mom gave birth to a really cute & healthy (9lb, 3oz!!!!!) baby girl. I am very thankful for that.
I was out of there by 8pm, picking up my babies from Laura's house.
I have more to write about my first triathlon of the season last Saturday, but I will come back & do that later.

WOOT! It is Official!!

So, after about 6 months of home study & 4 days of training/learning & a 3-hour exam in Dallas, TX at the Cooper Institute....I am now an official Certified Personal Trainer! YAY!! I got my exam results this past Saturday and passed with a 91%!!!!

I was thrilled to have passed, to have done well on the exam and I am thrilled to be done with that whole process. It did take quite a bit of energy & time, but it was worth it, I believe & it feels great to have accomplished the goal.

Thanks to my new friend Trish (who sort of motivated me to get the studying done sooner and go up to Dallas for the training and the exam sooner) for all her studying help and friendship through the whole process. Congrats to Trish, who also passed the exam! I also want to thank my friend & coach Rebekah, who helped both Trish & me study over the last 6 weeks before the exam and who also encouraged me to go for this personal training certification to begin with. Well, I had actually had this in my heart for the last couple years, but was really not doing anything about it to make it a reality. Looking on the internet for certifying bodies and programs does not qualify as taking necessary steps to acheive a goal!! So, it really was Rebekah that helped me to solidify my plans and my goal.

So, for now I plan on just continuing to help out the ladies in my church in our fitness ministry called Temple Foundations. I also have a neighbor that has hired me to help her as a personal trainer & I will eventually work with Rebekah as we do Boot Camps around the area.

For now, I am happy to have more initials to put behind my name:
Christina Barkley, BS, AAHCC, CI-CPT

Day # 2 of class @ The Cooper Institute

Ok, so things are going well so far this week with this Personal Trainer certification course. Yesterday's lectures and material was doable, but I still have a bit to memorize before Friday's test.

Today should be slightly more challenging because we will be going over anatomy. But, even still I am feeling good about it.

Later today, we actually do some of the fitness assessments where we will be doing running, walking, strength & flexibility testing. Should be interesting.

I also got in a 3 mile tempo run last night & then did a short interval workout.

Ahhh.....in Dallas for the week.

So, I am here in Dallas right now -the night before- the start of my week-long Personal Training seminar at the Cooper Institute. I admit I am nervous about everything, especially the certification exam on Friday...but, I know that I will do well and pass the test. Plus, I gave God my worry & anxiety & I know He will carry it for me. My prayer is that He would enable me to absorb what I need to absorb and that I will retain all I need to.

Pics from Spring Break @ Grandpas!

Grandpa with Jonah & Ella


Me & my dad


Me & the kids in Rockefeller Center


Kids in front of the apple store


The train ride back to Grandpa's house