10 Fun Facts About Me

Happy New Year!! I have lots of fun things planned for 2022 in my little world of painting and drawing, and I cannot wait to see how they evolve in the coming months.

My oldest son is 12 and he has aspirations to be a YouTube content creator someday… like many kids his age. He occasionally watches videos that give advice on social media marketing and asked me if I’d ever written a “Fun Facts” post. I haven’t, but figured I’d start the new year with a blog post and see how many I could come up with.

So here goes…

1. My son and I both tested for a Kukkiwon 1st degree black belt in taekwondo in October of 2021 and we both PASSED! It was really, really hard; both physically and mentally, but I’m so proud of both of us. I wrote much longer posts about my taekwondo journey and the test itself that you can read if you’re interested. We’ll get our black belts and certificates some time in early 2022 since they come from Korea.

2. I never developed a taste for coffee; not even coffee ice cream, and it took me until my 40s before I could enjoy a Frappuccino without cringing at the coffee flavor that most don’t even notice. I do enjoy a Frappuccino now and then and actually like the tiny coffee flavor now, so I wonder if I will eventually like coffee?

3. I hate roller coasters. They are not fun or exhilarating for me and I hate the feeling of falling or being dizzy. I will never skydive or bungee jump willingly. I even get a little anxiety when I fly if there’s any turbulence, but I love to travel, so I don’t let it stop me from exploring when I can.

4. I took the class to become a soccer referee when I was 15 in an effort to earn a little money and maybe give me an edge as a player. I ended up being pretty good at it and the year I turned 17, I earned the title of Region IV Youth Referee of the Year; one of the top 4 female referees in the US under age 24. I got to travel to some big tournaments as a result; including the US Youth Soccer National Championships as a guest. I got to referee games with FIFA referees Brian Hall and Kari Seitz. Two years later, my brother earned the same honor and went a step further being chosen as National Youth Referee of the Year.

5. I spent 30+ years hating avocados; gross texture and flavor. It wasn't until I was pregnant with my youngest in 2014 that I started to like them and now I love them. Weird!

Goofy camp counselors. Made some amazing friends.

6. When I was 18, I had a job at a Girl Scout camp where I lived there all summer curating the arts & crafts program. My camp name was Batty; named after the cartoon bat from the movie Fern Gully. I have no recollection why I chose that name. I do remembering thinking bats were cool (still do) and maybe I couldn’t think of any other camp name, so it stuck. I had so much fun at that job that I dream of getting to do it again someday.... even though I would be 15-25 years older than ALL of the other staff members and the pay is pretty terrible. I even remember the words to most of the Girl Scout songs I learned growing up.

7. My maiden name is Tebow and my family is supposedly, distantly, related to the NFL player with the same last name. Not sure how we’re related, but his fame helped the rest of the country learn how to say Tebow correctly.

8. My husband and I dated for almost 10 years before we got married and it was mostly due to economics. When we both were in college, rent was already getting crazy in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we both stayed living at home well into our 20s. Neither of us wanted to spend a bunch on rent and have it keep us from being able to buy a house. Also, in 2001 we had 6 weddings to either attend or be part of, so we were OVER weddings for a long time. We finally got married in the fall of 2007.

Selfie in Lake Tahoe BEFORE there was even a word for a selfie… with a regular camera too!!

9. I am mostly left-handed, but ambidextrous with my feet; which comes in handy when playing soccer and in martial arts. I write, draw, paint, and eat with my left hand, but I brush my teeth and use scissors with only my right hand. I use tools like a screwdriver or hammer with both hands. I have never met anyone who has similar ambidextrous quirks.

10. I am a recipient of the Girl Scout Gold Award; the highest award someone can get in Girl Scouting as a youth. It’s the equivalent of the Eagle in Boy Scouting. My Gold Award Project involved painting a few murals in the hallways of my high school and polling the student body on whether they thought it could prevent vandalism and graffiti. I am also a Lifetime Member. These photos here show two of the first small wall paintings I did in the hallways of my high school. On the left I painted my friend Jamila and just across that hallway, she painted me. Then I did a version of Picasso’s Three Musicians. For my Gold Award Project I painted a really large piece of masonite (maybe 4x6 feet? I can’t remember) that ended up being hung in the main office. It had an earth in the middle and a bunch of faces of teenagers of different ethnicities around it. I'm kinda bummed I don’t have a photo of it finished… but also not that sad, because I’ve always been a better landscape painter, ha!

If you know me, were any of these new info to you??

Black Belt Testing - What the Heck am I Doing?!

It’s the end of September. In a little more than one week, I’ll be testing for a Kukkiwon black belt in taekwondo. To say I’m apprehensive is an understatement.

Like seriously, how did I get here?!

I am fully aware that every martial arts studio and program has its own testing methods; no two are alike. Even within taekwondo studios, every studio does its belt ranking differently.

My oldest son, T started taekwondo when he was three. He has always been naturally agile when it comes to physical activity, so he took to taekwondo quickly. The discipline has been great for his ADHD brain and he competed in his first sparring tournament when he was six. He’s been training for eight years and he will be testing for his black belt with me next week.

His instructor, Master Amely, goaded me into attending a “Mom’s Class” one morning when T was almost four. She assured me that I would have fun and I really did. The class kicked my butt and I was unbelievably sore for days afterward. A week later, when it was time to go to the next class, I found out I was pregnant with my youngest son after more than two years of unexplained infertility. I was already feeling fatigue and I didn’t have it in me to attend another class. Master Amely seemed to understand and didn’t push. She also seemed to think she cured my infertility. Maybe??

My youngest son, M started attending classes at 22 months old. His first word was “ay-ya!” and he competed in his first sparring tournament when he was only four. Now, at age seven he takes it very seriously and joined the Extreme Team this year where he gets to learn extra tricking, board breaking, tumbling, and performs choreographed routines at belt graduations and events.

M was four years old before I had the courage and could scrape together enough confidence to attend a taekwondo class again. I was approaching my 40th birthday and struggling with serious body-image issues. Around the time M turned two, I gained about forty pounds and I still don’t know why. I’m fairly certain hormones are to blame, but it was tremendously frustrating to get used to my body at 2-3 sizes bigger than what has always been normal for me. Even after three years of taekwondo training, I am still working on getting used to it.

I’ve watched bits and pieces of the black belt test in years past. It’s two days long. It looks exhausting both physically and mentally. I’ve seen candidates fail who were younger and more fit than me. There are physical challenges that I know will push me past the boundaries of my abilities. There’s a grueling physical fitness test, a written test, a Poomsae test, a sparring test, self defense (5 vs 1), a 5k run, and we have to create and execute a board breaking routine. We have to assist in teaching classes for 80 hours and do 20 hours of community service. We have to get letters of recommendation from teachers and parents (for those under 18). We have to write eight different essays beforehand and we have to create a 1-minute video with photos and voiceover talking about our black belt journey.

There’s a reason they only have black belt testing once or twice a year.

My body is so tired and my brain is fried. My left hip and IT band are giving me issues and there’s a spot behind my right knee that aches. I have almost-constant foot pain and my neck and shoulders are screaming to take a break from holding up my boobs. To be honest, I have had more and more thoughts about quitting this week than ever.

But this close and I know I can’t quit. I need to do this both for my kids and for myself. I need to be able to show them how practice, patience, and hard work can pay off and that even at my age, I can do things that are both physically and mentally challenging. 

I stuck with taekwondo because I loved the workouts. I never had any intention of belt testing or even considering a black belt. I finally did my first color belt test just to show my kids that I could.

As I earned higher belts and the curriculum got more challenging, I realized that I needed to do this for myself as well. Making my family and friends proud is one thing, but I need to be proud of myself. I have never set a goal quite like this before. I spent most of my 30s caring for my kids and never really making time to take care of myself; both mentally and physically.  A large part of me is hoping that reaching this massive goal will help boost my confidence and body image. I have struggled with accepting my body since pregnancies resulted in drastic changes. Perhaps this accomplishment can help me love and accept the body I am in. If anything, I will be proud of all of my hard work and how it all has paid off.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Yesterday was our 11th wedding anniversary. We ran errands, visited a friend to pick up a bicycle, my oldest had a taekwondo sparring class, we all took a naps…. kind of a typical Saturday for us. Then my husband got on a plane heading to the east coast for a few days of work while I tried not to rage-clean our house since we have family coming to visit this week.

We rarely do much to celebrate our anniversary, it happens to fall during a busy time of year, and a week before our oldest son’s birthday. We don’t take much time to do something special that would likely require a babysitter. Sometimes we’ll go out to dinner, but usually all the celebrating that happens is when we both change our FB profile pictures to a fond memory from our wedding day. As silly as that is, it’s fun to reminisce.

Instead, we try our damnedest to take those dinners out when we DO have the chance, it’s just rarely ON our anniversary. If anything, we have Parent’s Night Out once a month when our kids spend four hours at our taekwondo studio and we go out do dinner and usually do some grocery shopping sans kids.

Yesterday I showed our boys this photo from our wedding and at least they recognized us. We had Chinese lion dancers at our wedding; my husband’s request. They were so awesome!! When my youngest son saw the lion dancer, he thought it was Santa Claus.

I chatted with a friend a while back and we discussed how much has changed in the wedding planning world since we got married 10+ years ago. If we were getting married again (hypothetical, of course), would we do anything different?? For me, not a ton. Although the awesome Chinese restaurant where we had our reception is no longer there. Aside from that, I still love most of what my husband and I planned for our wedding.

• I’d wear more interesting jewelry. I think what I wore barely shows up in photos and I would have liked something with a little more bling. Even more so with the jewelry I wore with my Chinese reception gown. The necklace was an heirloom from my husband’s late grandma (I’d still wear that), but I wish I’d worn some rad, chandelier earrings.

• I’d ditch the veil. It got snagged on a rose bush as my dad and I were walking toward the aisle and popped right off my head. I didn’t wear it at all at the reception, so it was kind of a waste.

• Spend more money on photography and communicate better with the photographer. We have lots of good photos, but also lots that are missing because our photographer insisted on a photojournalistic style (no pics of my mom and me, no pics of my siblings and me, stuff like that). I kept my photography budget very small, but we ended up saving money elsewhere and we could’ve spent more on another photographer.

• Skip the videography.

• Choose different bridesmaids. Two of them are no longer part of my life, so I’d obviously have different ones now. But two would still be there.

• I’d design my invitations only a little differently… not the pocketfold construction or the Chinese portion, but I’d use different fonts and make it less wordy on the English side. I still love the Chinese brocade pattern I created for the paper and the colors.

That’s it. I wouldn’t change anything else. I still love the colors, I still love both of my wedding gowns (although, I’m certain that my post-baby boobs won’t rock my JCrew wedding gown again). I love what my bridesmaids and the dudes wore. I love that we had an American ceremony and a Chinese banquet; allowing lots of our American friends and family to try Chinese banquet food for the first time. I love that we got to share the day with so many friends and family; many of whom had flown in from different states and different countries.

If you were getting married again, would you do anything differently?

Last year we did do more celebrating than usual for our 10th anniversary. We spent a weekend in Las Vegas and renewed our wedding vows at the Graceland Wedding Chapel. Elvis himself preformed the ceremony. It was cheesy and silly, but also lots of fun. You can see the invitation I created for the little event here. After the short ceremony (that included a few songs sung by Elvis), we all had dinner at The Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. We only had a few friends there, but it was seriously so much fun. It’s so rare for my husband and me to do something that’s just for us.

Photo by Cari Hollis

Any ideas on what we should do for our 20th anniversary?? Our boys will be 17 and 13 (oh geez, that’s terrifying to consider). By then maybe we can leave them home without a babysitter, right??