Introducing CrossFit Purged

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
– William Faulkner

It’s hard to believe it’s been over 5 years since I found CrossFit and it quickly won my commitment, passion, and love.  Four years ago I started dreaming of living CrossFit full time - opening a box, helping others accomplish new and incredible feats, and nurturing a community of people dedicated to becoming the best they can be.

Some one else shared that dream… though I hadn’t met him yet.  It’s been exactly 2 years since I met Christopher Sheets at the SoCal CrossFit Regionals and in those two short years our lives have been turned upside down in the most amazing ways.

In two years, we met, romanced, exchanged vows, changed jobs, traveled, had two car accidents, endured injury, started brewing a baby, and opened a business together. 

Here we are: Team Sheets is at the helm of CrossFit Purged!

(I know there’s no excuse for a neglected blog, but those are my excuses!)

In the 8 short weeks that our doors have been open, we have poured our hearts, energy, and time into building not just a fitness program, but a community and a place where people can feel at home.  A place they can face their fears and limitations and persevere to overcome them.  A place where they can blow off steam, where they can find camaraderie as they work together, sweat together, and yes, sometimes even bleed together setting new personal records.  

We have been honored and grateful for the amazing people that have come our way, that have supported us and been on the ground floor of creating this new and empowering community.  We love you all and are so excited to see the positive changes in your lives as you make the time, put in the effort, and choose not to settle for just skating by, but to show up each day and give your best… whatever that happens to be at that point in time.  You are destined for greatness and we are thrilled to be a part of the journey.

The changes of the last two years moved me away from the competition floor. Maybe I will return there one day … If I’ve learned anything from CrossFit it’s that you’re never too old and it’s never too late to follow your passions.   In this time, here and now, I have a different dream.  I am so honored to have the gift of growing a new life, to pursue being a fit mama, living well, and living (I hope) as an inspiration and example in different ways.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to coach, to have been mentored and now share with others knowledge gained over the last five years.  Thank you CrossFit Purged for giving me that opportunity. 

Taking the step to open our own CrossFit affiliate did not come without lots of questions, fears, delays, and unknowns.    About that, well Kirkegaard says it best,

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.”

And so, Dear Husband and I are finding ourselves, our new life, and our future in this endeavor.  Life is nothing if not an adventure! If it were something other than an adventure, though the security might be comforting, it would come at the cost of apathy and a dull spirit.  Thank you again to all the adventurers out there, to those seizing the opportunities every day brings for you.  You are our inspiration.

The doors of CrossFit Purged are always open to you!  Stop on by!

Six Pack non-experiment Follow up

This is a bit obnoxious. I'm not a fan of people posting their stomachs and bodies all over social media.
However I suppose this if for the sake of observation... and it's not social media. not really.
But anyway if you don't like that sort of thing, stop here!!

Any way, I came here today to post an effusion of some emotion or other, and then realized that
my Six Pack experiment posts from the VERY early blog days had been viewed recently. And I thought to myself,
"hmph. Self, is your belly any leaner, six packier, after 2 yrs of constant crossfit competition mindedness than it was then... after that 1st 2 months of paleo eating and 'regular' crossfitting?"

(not really. I didn't really say that to myself I just vaguely wondered without words... but whatever.)

SO... I mosied on into the restroom to document and see.

on #4 I stuck my tummy out as far as I could just to compare and be sure that I wasn't  sucking it in or trying to make it look better, because you know, I can sometimes be a LITTLE vain. (I inherited it from my lovely mama) so I might just do stuff like that in the mirror. you never know.  Any way it is what it is. There is clearly still upper ab definition even pretending that I'm preggo and puffing it out. I'm cool with that. 

Compare this to... This Link back to December 2010

I haven't looked at that in 2 yrs so I'll give the follow up.
I never did "go for it" and concert a real effort to achieve a six pack.
Meh. The decision was, "It's not that important to me."

I eat well, I train hard, but I actually am not as good at "sit ups" as I once was.  I can snatch and Clean and Jerk like 30 and 40 pounds more than I could 2 yrs ago. I can back squat 60 pounds more. I can now do muscle ups and handstand push ups ... and those sorts of things are more important to me than being able to do 600 sit ups.

I really gave up on measurements and weighing myself, much to at all, not long after that picture.
Like really I hate it.
None of that is a friend to me.
And and I think that's sort of the point of the Whole 9, Active, "Paleo", Crossfit life.
The point just about being healthy and functional and it's generally a side effect to feel like you look good.

I generally feel indifferent now to actresses and models about appearance, where as I think in past times I was more longing to look that way.
I don't envy them. I don't feel inferior.
I might even feel slightly smug and superior at moments I confess,  and think "Hey I could be on that magazine" ;) not exactly, but
because I love my body and what it can do.  I love that I can run and play and drive and push myself.
I thank God for it almost daily and that makes me keep going when it's hard.
Because I know it's worth it.
I know I am taking care of myself.
AND while injury and illness can strike anyone at any time, even the most fit,
I have peace and confidence in knowing I'm doing my part to be a good steward.
The body is the channel through which we experience all things in the world. The body is a channel of our souls, and the only way through which we can communicate to the world
We can't change that we are composite beings of body and soul.
And I feel  I need to care for my whole self.

All of that to come back the the belly and say. Hmm. Interesting.
I think it's more six-packyish but then maybe not. maybe it's just the same and that's the way I'm made whether I'm training one or three hours a day... Maybe a tighter diet would change it. who knows?

What do you think??

The cool part is that ultimately it doesn't really matter :)

Crossfit Goals 2012: October Update

This is definitely not the most ascetically pleasing post.  Sorry! Guess it's more for my own comparison of where I started and where I'm at with my goals so far. 
For the passerby, just check out all the lines and see how much I have crossed off my list. Fun!
Only TWO of my original goals from January remain!
I have 13 goals still remaining for the next almost 3 months, but I'm getting excitingly close to several of them :)

A Few to Get Started: Set in January2012 Shoulder Press 100# Deadlift 265# Back Squat 235# Squat Clean 160#, but if I can power clean it, I'll take that too! Jerk 155# Snatch 115# 400m run 1:10 500m row 1:50 2 Handstand Pushups full ROM 1:20 Hanstand Hold (wall) 1 Muscle up on rings 4 Bar Muscle ups 25 hand release pushups Max pullups 35 Max ringdips 15 Hanstand Walk 5 ft. 500m row 1:45 Handstand walk 3yds Max L sit 45 sec Max L sit 60 sec Top 60 in SoCal for the Crossfit Open *red ones added by March

Mid Year 2012 Crossfit Goals:  This is where I'd hope to be by the end of the year.  Press 105# Deadlift 300# Back Squat 250# Clean & Jerk 165# Snatch 135#   400m run 1:10 Max pull ups 35 Get Rhythm of Butterfly kipping Max ringdips 20 Max L sit 60 sec (gah! I'm only 3 sec short!) Complete Mini Amanda: 7-5-3 Muscle Ups, 95# Squat Snatches 1 Mile run sub 7:01 21 kipping Hand Stand Pushups 5 strict Hand stand pushups 3 consecutive muscle ups 2 strict chest to bar pull ups (palms forward)

It’s the October Update: Look at everything already accomplished!  3 months to go! Shoulder press 100#  Deadlift 285# Back Squat 250# Squat Clean 170.5# Jerk 163# Snatch - 132.5# Yes!  400m run 1:20 hmph!          Max Pullups 35       The 1st 20 were butterfly J Max ringdips 15 Max L-sit – not tested since mid year which was 57 sec. Mini Amanda – not yet attempted but totally possible on a good muscle up day 1 Mile – not getting there 7:38 most recently 2 strict HSPU's 2 muscle ups in a row… close! I have yet to test the rest!

Analysis:  4 months of a strength program by Casey is totally paying off!! I've made very satisfactory gains on my lifts this year so far.  With the strength & extra body weight though I'm not getting faster, but I haven't really lost much ground there, and trust it will come back to balance. Metcon's are pukeworthy lately, but I'm happy to get reacquainted with being comfortable being uncomfortable there.
My next training cycle will focus on gymnastics and I'll get to train and test more of these goals - I'm excited to see the fruits of a concentrated program in that area as well!

I'm grateful to see the hard work paying off.  I'm grateful for all the progress I still get to see at age 33.   

I'm also thankful for all the people that get negative about what's possible as we "get older" and with injuries, or who size up my limits based on my lack of lifelong athletic ability and development. 

I'm grateful for all that, because that is fuel to me!  I'm fueled and strengthened also by all the people who believe in me and tell me every day how much I CAN!  I love learning to take all of it and use it for gain.

So much of all of this sport... and life too... is a mental game!  Stronger today than yesterday!

What if it's hard?



Sometimes I don't think I give credit to the "hardness" of "what I do"...

all this training nonsense ya know?  It doesn't seem like such a big deal.
I just do it. There is no other way.  I have a fire burning that drives me.

sometimes.

Not so much with the fire and 2nd nature business today.

I 'hurt' my neck last week. Of course, I have been kicking so much crossfit booty lately my brain had no problem accepting that I must be invincible and destined to climb and climb to the heights of my lofty goals... Long story short I pushed it until it was in-ignorable, leading to 5 full rest days... 5 FULL REST DAYS.
Chump change right?  When many people may not even remember the last time they 'worked out'.

For me, for the goals I have, the progress I've made, the volume I've been training... 5 days is kind of a big deal.  I get ONE, one day a week that I do nothing related to training, MAYBE two if I'm totally smoked.

That is what my program allows.  Breaking from the program to rest and recover I felt broken and defeated. I felt sad. I feared the loss of the momentum I had gained.
But I rested and then became reluctant to return, timid about my limits and recovery,
And down right FATIGUED as I tried to get back to the routine.

As I got moving again, my brain immediately processed the following message:

"This sucks. It hurts. I'm tired. It's uncomfortable."

This is why I didn't want a break. I was afraid it would come to this. 

And I realized, "gosh, this is why people DON'T work out."  (it may be one reason anyway.)
They show up and it's hard, it's all of those things I said and more.

And the will just screams, I DON'T WANT TO! 

Doesn't it?

Mine does. I really don't want to, I don't "feel" like it.  I'm embarassed and sad that I'm only doing half of what I "should" be doing (PS. BRILLIANT POST BY FOLLOWHOLLY ON THIS POINT & more).... but there are things I want more than I don't want to expose myself to this yucky feeling.  Things I want more than listening to the voice that whispers, "there's really no need for this, now is there?"

Don't you have those things too?

More than you hate the current discomfort,
          and how much you want to convince yourself that it's not really that important,
                   or isn't going to make that much of a difference,
                               or you are just not made for exercise, 
                                          or you have to much to do,
                                                          or you'll do it tomorrow,
                                                                   or you are destined to fail any way,
or what ever the excuse (and they really are all excuses).

More than all those things... there's a reason you DO want to follow through.

Don't your kids (or future kids) deserve to have a healthy mom/dad?  Who will be there with them for the long run?   What about your spouse or significant other? What would you like to be for them?

Don't YOU deserve to feel better, more energetic, more confident, happier with your accomplishments, that You didn't give up?? 



well. and there you have it from the poet himself.
I don't know where this came from, but I don't make any $ here. so...
It's fine right?



As I sat on the rower, counting down the meters,

I was thinking about all these things, remembering how hard it was in the beginning, how hard it is RIGHT NOW, and negotiating with myself to find the will.

I AM WORTH IT.
Having goals and fighting for them is worth it.  
It DOES matter.
AND it matters so much more when it takes a sacrifice.


One day at a time, I'll show up. I'll work my way back.
I'll choose to be patient with myself, while calling myself out and fighting not to make excuses for what I could do because I am afraid it will suck (not injure me, just suck).  I'll choose not to compare myself with others and where they are.  Not to compare myself with myself and where I have been, or where I feel I should be. (Thanks again Holly. Seriously read her post if you want some jedi mind tricks).

We all face these kind of days.  These kinds of hurdles.
You all motivate me not to give up.
This isn't just about picking up from little set backs.
It's about also being courageous to make a change if you need one.
Because It will be hard... some times more than others.
But without a doubt,
You are worth it!

Victory and the Fire



C.A.L. Saturday Night Lights 
Crossfit Temecula South Aug 4, 2012



I post so much about the fight. the journey. the path. I suppose there are victories in there too - My muscle up. Qualifying for Regionals. Finishing the Whole 30. and today standing on a podium.

It was a small competition.  In fact I only had two competitors in the advanced female division - my beloved training partners, Natalie and Kim. Sharing this competition with them was really special. I love them. We dig for our best together all the time, while 100% encouraging and helping one another.  Everyday they are with me in this journey.  Saturday, we just took it outside the box.  Competing with your support system beside you is very different from competing beside girls that have no vested interest in you whatsoever, except to finish ahead of you. I am so very grateful for these girls.

I won this one. I wanted to win it. We train to win. But I know these girls, I know where their strengths and weaknesses are. I knew where I could gain and where I might lose ground with them. I know what their training setbacks have been. They've each a few setbacks and they still made me fight for it. They were right on my heels. They are phenomenal athletes and any one of us could have taken it Saturday.  But in circumstance and drive, I was positioned to succeed this time. 

Now, for the road ahead, how do I take that to the next level? How do I come off a victory, celebrating it, but thirsty to be better?  Just by being honest and real and remembering my goals.
I guarantee if I took this opportunity to sit and bask in self satisfaction, and to ease up a little on my training, because "Hey I'm doing great", and then face this competition again next month... the outcome would be different. I wouldn't be positioned to win, because I wouldn't be as hungry for it, because I would miss valuable training time, because the little things we do and sacrifice EVERY DAY add up and count in the end.

I listen to all sorts of crazy motivational youtube clips.  Everyday. It feels silly to share with people, but I know it works for me. Every day on my way to the gym I have to stoke and fan the flames of desire and fight in my heart in order to get the most out of the training session.  At the competition, I sat off to the side with my head phones getting my self pumped up and hungry to start in the lead and stay in the lead. hungry NOT to quit. Not to slow down. Because once that timer starts and the weights start moving... it will get heavy, it will get hard, my lungs will burn, my legs and back will ache, and there will be a point that I want to just stop, before it's over.  Always.

I have to have my head fixed harder than my muscles.
This was fun :) I have only ever been on the podium in my life ONE time, and that was as part of a team.

As small as this competition was, it was a victory for me. I need to celebrate that.  I need to let it reach my heart and hold it there. The podium is possible. I am capable of suceeding at this when I work for it.  These months of focus, and consistent drive, have been working. 

Oh, yeah, I don't do this just to fight every day. I DO have an end, a goal I want to achieve.
And one rest day later, I need to move forward from this experience determined to be even better and stronger and faster next week and the next and the next.
Back to the box.

Tough and Dusty

Ok, so it is a "Tough Mudder" I'm reporting on.


I did my first Tough Mudder!!
It was tough. And a little muddy. But mostly dusty (seriously, breathing in all sorts of dust and at times not even being able to see 5ft in front of me for the stampede of people through the dirt), AND a Heck a lot of steepness to climb and descend.

one of the many motivational signs along the way...

The course was at Snow Valley near Big Bear, CA. 

It was 10.5 miles-ish. Ranging from 6000-8000ft.

with about 13 obstacles, while in between them

we traversed up and down ski runs, sans snow.

It could have been much worse. Can't it ALWAYS be worse?

But I think was more than satisfied with the toughness of the day.

Will I do another?  Umm... not sure about that yet.

BUT. It is so cool to have been done.

There are some things about this challenge (it's not a race, they say) that are different to me.
1) It lasted forever.
2) It was a team effort, which is part of why it lasted forever.
3) It may have been the biggest, longest challenge in one stretch that I have ever faced.


By forever, I mean 4 hours. 
If I had done this on my own I think it would have taken about 2.5ish.
The super spartan had nothing on this course.  It was a very different experience, though for appearances I would think it should be very similar.
Actually the guys that brought our team together had done a tough mudder in February, at the same location I had done the Super Spartan last year -Vale Lake near Temecula.  I asked them how this one compared to their last.  They responded that in terms of difficulty, "If this is a 10, then February's was a 5".  Well that makes us all pretty bad@ss don't you think?


Secondly, team effort.  I have never really run a race as a team, but again "it wasn't a race, but a challenge." 
Years ago, I was always behind the group in our 5K runs. We all just went at our own pace and regrouped at the end. In the last few years, I've generally been ahead of my comrades.  I've felt a little guilty about this. Like a Jerk really. Guilty about leaving them behind.  But then I never felt guilty or resented my friends when I was the one left behind.  So maybe I need to just lighten up on myself.  We all owe it to ourselves to be our best.  Not to hold back from what we can accomplish for fear of making others feel bad.

(And this is when I get all introspective)

But then where is Christian charity and compassion in that? 
I suppose there is a time and a place, and a competition is not the place?
But then, I feel like I am competing everyday, and in that,
I fear I am becoming self centered.
But I also feel I do owe it to myself, and to others who would be inspired, to TRY to be my best.  After all isn't the glory of God man fully alive?  Isn't holiness being the best version of ourselves - journeying with Him to discover what that is?

Somehow, there must be a marriage of these two callings.  Being free to drive and strive and shine, and being free to serve and humble oneself, sacrificing my own desires for others.
I just don't know how that is to be. yet.

So a team effort this was, at least in the sense that we left no man behind.  We regrouped at every obstacle and water station.  Since of course I felt I needed to prove I could hang with the toughest of the boys and to prove somehow to my coach that this was a worthy challenge, I stayed pretty near the front of the group, and just got more rest while we waited to regroup.  Other than this, the boys helped me over the walls, and we rallied and encouraged each other, and we finished together. 
This was different for me.  It was a little weird too, since I had just met 12 of my 13 teammates that morning. Still it's cool to be a part of a whole. And it must be good for me to lay aside my drive to just go go go on my own - 
To try to be a little more cooperative and play well with others :)

The truth is in all things I need to know I have a crew of support behind me, to lean on, to pray for me, to believe in me, and to catch me when I fall.  And I love being that for others.  But in our own ways, in our own battles, generally we're not side by side but the support is no less real. 
In all this long journey of life, I still don't really know how to be with people and be true to myself at the same time. What's the trick? 

I think I'm learning, and yet, I clearly still have some lies in my head that need to be knocked out.

Final observation: biggest longest challenge yet... hmm... well I've hiked mountains before, for longer distances, and greater heights.  I've also walked 500miles across a whole country before. But all of those seemed to be at a much more casual pace with more reflection along the way, more of a retreat than a challenge, so it's different I suppose.

With every adventure I'm growing more comfortable with being uncomfortable.  More resilient to muscle fatigue. And I have more experience of victory to combat my belief system from youth that says "I'm not an athlete, I don't win anything, I just blend into mediocrity."  I've said this many times and probably will have to repeat it many more, but it's about time I started believing in myself.

All in all, this was another step to challenge my will, and to do it in solidarity with thousands around me.
Pretty cool stuff.
OH, and I came down full blown strep throat within 3 days of this adventure... so Hey, either the germs were already building within as I conquered this challenge, or I picked them up along the way.  ewwww.

Oh so many more thoughts and insights to the experience but these are the biggest musings in the last few days. What adventures are you having these days?

Break out of that Box

Last weekend I ran in the San Diego Diva Dash - 5K obstacle fun run.
It was colorful. It was girl time - get out and move fun!  It was beautiful to see so many ladies encouraging each other and uniting to help each other through this accomplishment.

And it IS an accomplishment. Getting up and running 3.1 miles is something most Americans probably don't even try to do.  So way to go Divas, getting your dash on!

The size of our goals isn't so important. 

It's that we have them, and that we keep striving for them.

For me, I wanted to win. I'm not a runner - I'm a crossfitter.  But I believe crossfit equips me pretty well for most other athletic endeavors.  There was certainly some draw to just running with my friend and enjoying moving on a Saturday morning... But I just can't do it.  It's a race. If I pay for a race, If I have a chip timer, I must at least try to see how fast I can do it. 

I didn't win, but I finished in the top 2%.  That really is stellar.

What is really stellar also is that I had the courage to hope - to say - I want to win.
I never win, but I never will either if I don't set my sights on it.

We hear that sort of motivational talk from athletes all the time.  How often do we just dismiss it. just a little bit. with the notion, that there is something about them that we don't have, and never will?

3 years ago I ran a 5K in Daphne, AL.  I remember during the last mile seeing the "top finishers" jogging their "cool down" back our direction.   I was incredulous, questioning their sanity and humanity.
For me, a race had always just been the insurance that I would actually finish the distance, but by this point in my journey, I had completed a sprint triathlon.  I was on the the up, starting to feel like more is possible, but seeing those "real runners" seemed to negate my journey at the time - but no doubt they have a journey of their own.

I have a bad habit of thinking that people who are elite at what they do, were pretty much genetically programmed and nurtured to be that way.  Therefore I have no chance.   Lie.  What lies are you telling yourself?

In highschool I ran cross country for a season, my senior year.  Our races were only about 2 miles, so no time for numb feet, but do you know that I would actually WALK. yes, in the RACES.  as soon as I was behind the cover of some trees or something, I walked.  15 years later, I'll pick up and run 2miles just to relax and recover.

It's all relative. Today, if I set out to do a race longer than 5 miles, you better bet, my goal would be just to finish, and/or to not walk. Depending on the distance.  But given time I know I could be prepared.

What's the difference between me then and me now?  Time. Training. Patience. Desire. Determination. and Choosing not to let any one define what I will be capable of... starting with myself.

Stats & Goals

Friends, I've put on some pounds... which is part of why you don't see my tummy much these days ;)
The quest for raw leanness really takes second place to my quest for crossfit super star performance.  And while I have added some lbs to the body... I've added even more to the barbell!  So I'll deal with it. Meanwhile, here's an update.

goof off striving for athleticism
Height:   5'4" 
Weight:  142

Clean & Jerk:      140

Snatch:              100
Deadlift:            245

Back Squat:        200

Bench Press:       135

Thruster 130#

100 unbroken doubles unders

Fran 4:07 rx

30 unbroken pullups

Some goals to be practiced and mastered:

Handstand walk 10ft

1 muscle up

250# deadlift

sub 6:30 mile

10 handstand pushups to abmat

1 Handstand pushup to full depth

Wallballs & boxjumps (because I suck at them. really.)

What is the point of all this?

"Sport, properly directed, develops character, makes a man courageous, a generous loser, and a gracious victor; it refines the senses, gives intellectual penetration, and steels the will to endurance. It is not merely a physical development then. Sport, rightly understood, is an occupation of the whole man, and while perfecting the body as an instrument of the mind, it also makes the mind itself a more refined instrument for the search and communication of truth and helps man to achieve that end to which all others must be subservient, the service and praise of his Creator."

– Pope Pius XII,
Sport at the Service of the Spirit
July 29, 1945

I never considered myself an 'athlete' - I've always loved to play, but I've never been noteworthy at anything. 

BUT I do spend and extraordinary amount of time training and now competing, though I am not 'elite',  I am not a professional.  Crossfit started for me as just another fitness program, but I am awakening to discover myself as a respectable athlete within a fitness community.  No, this is not the NFL or Major Leagues, or the Olympics.  But this is my life.   My life has been revolving in an increasing way around the sport of crossfit. 

Competing with 760 - Socal Regionals

Last weekend, I had the honor to compete with the team from Crossfit 760 at the Southern California Crossfit regionals.  Here's a snap shot of the top ten.

that's us... pulling up 8th place. holla.

So a few things about the weekend:

1) Prayer is a powerful thing - the personal and emotional implications of this competition probably deserve their own post. so that's coming next.

2) Competing is fun. Training to compete is hard.  

Almost immediately after our last workout, when we knew we did not do as well as we'd hoped. I began to get stoked for getting ready for next year.  Ha!  A dear friend remarked how funny it was that 2 weeks ago all I could do was moan about how tired I was of all this and what a difference it was to hear me so quickly want to start all over again.  It's true the daily grind of training and what it took to get to where we are was exhausting and painful. But competing was the Resurrection moment after the Calvary of training. 

3) Free stuff is fun.  I got a couple tshirts, water bottle, some protein shakers/powder, a massage!, and food - hello Steve's paleo crunch and paleo kits... love those! 

4) It was so cool to be a part of this, and I am so grateful for everyone who came out to support us.  It was a huge encouragement to walk out in the competition area and see our crowd of blue shirts, and hear them yelling for us.  And boy did they spoil me - what a testimony to "ask and you shall receive."  Everyone was there to support the team, and I definitely am grateful to have been on the receiving end.  Our crew kept me competition ready with massages and stretching and bringing me lots of water... (I drank 6 liters of water in the first day alone.) 

5) What a treat to have full days dedicated to crossfit and not have to make it fit into my real life!  I only competed one workout a day, and the a lot of the rest of the time I could spectate, chillax, rest, ice and work on mobility and recovery.   Having so much time to work on my 'junkie tissue' made me realize how important is and how much it helps!  

6) It was an inspiring event... I don't have words for this.  Pictures speak best. And speak more. And more... this one is my amazing teammate, Natalie. 

7) My team is amazing.