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Ashley and Brad

Since Ashley is part of a competitive dance company she is required to take a Summer Intensive Dance Camp. And when they say intensive they mean it, it's 5 hours of dance non stop. I wasn't sure Ashley would last through 5 hours of dance a night but she has. With this camp she takes Ballet, Lyrical, Jazz, Tap, Modern and Hip Hop. Ashley has never taken a Modern class before but she loves it. She told me that she would love to incorporate a Modern class into her regular dance schedule. That would mean 9 hours of dance classes a week. Not sure about that but it certainly would be cheaper for her to take more classes.

Ashley loves Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical and Modern. She likes Hip Hop to but unfortunately she is a white girl with really no rhythm to keep up with the fast paced Hip Hop choreography. She says Hip Hop is fun and is a release of energy. Her least favorite class of all time is tap. If Ashley had it her way she would never ever take Tap again.

Ashley has one more week of her Intensive Dance Camp and then we are off to her National Dance Competition with Hall of Fame in Orlando. Originally we were told that Ashley would only be competing in one number, we are really happy that she will compete both her Jazz numbers; Follow the Leader and Arrazando.

Brad has tip testing in his Martial Arts class last night. He was a brown belt black stripe with a white tip, now he is officially a brown belt black stripe with a yellow tip. Brad did great during his testing, even though he has not been attending as many classes as he would like. After testing was over, he was full of that nasty stuff called sweat. I mean when this boy focuses, he gives 110% blood, sweat and guts. However, he did give us a scare last night. Half way through testing he was having trouble breathing and wheezing. It took him a little while to recover. Both the Head Sensei(instructor) and I tried to get Brad to quit. But my son is no quitter, he kept on kicking, punching and blocking his way through the testing.

We did learn yesterday that Brad will be testing for his black belt in November. Now Brad is determines to get fit. He wants to work out with me at the gym, do crunches every day, work on his upper body strength, etc. We were also approached about having Brad volunteer at the Dojo(Martial Arts School) one day a week to help with tuition costs, etc. Brad just smiles when asked, so hopefully we can fit this into his already busy schedule. However, during the summer his time is less constricted so maybe he can volunteer more during the summer months. I guess I need to talk more about this with the Sensei's at the Dojo.

Since Brad has trouble breathing last night, I am going to take him to the doctor. He did tell me that this has happened once before during Karate so it's possible he may have allergy induced Asthma. Brad has severe environmental allergies and last night he forgot to take his allergy pill. And since I am going to the doctor, I am taking Ashley in as well. She came home from dance last night complaining of a sore throat.

Life as a mom, it doesn't get any better than this!
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