I'm officially working this coming week at a new place

So now I'm officially an employee at the Meridian Martial Arts studio (aka Karate for Kids). I will be working on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights as their official Zumba instructor!! The owner just informed me though that every 9 weeks, they'll be testing and will have to figure out what to do once the Zumba classes grow--meaning, we'll have to be cancelled every 9 weeks so as not to disturb the Martial Arts testing. Bummer but at least it's every 9 weeks and not every other or every 2 weeks. That would get old fast. :) So, right away, she told me the week of April 6-8th, there's testing going on which kinda stinks because that's the first official week after the introductory period next week. I will be starting next week on Wednesday and we'll go through Friday but the following week is testing so we'll have to not have class then. I hope that doesn't make attendance die right away...Probably not though. They have a pretty large customer base of parents that would understand that and I have friends that would like to do it there and I'll just relay the message.


Anyway, the testing I've been doing has finally come to a close. Yesterday was the last day of testing and WE ARE DONE!!!! I was so happy to be finished. And it was a beautiful day, to boot! I came home, plopped down and chilled out the rest of the day. We had hamburgers for dinner to celebrate. It was delicious! I spent the last few days at my old stomping grounds (Caldwell High School). Every once in awhile, while walking down the halls or seeing some of my students, I got reminiscent and kinda sad. I miss that place and (most) everybody in it. I miss my kids especially. I really want to be there for them and cheer the seniors on to graduation but sadly, I won't see that, unless I manage to make it to the graduation ceremony in May. I might try and make it. Some of the kids really want me to be there that day. *Sigh* I miss them terribly. :(


I guess that's about it for updating right now. I'll let ya'll know about the new place after I get it started.

Agony and irritation is finally over!

And I'm not only talking about past physical ailments... ha! I'm talking about that dang Karate studio that I did a demo class for last week and they just wouldn't call back and I was beginning to get majorly irritated BUT!! they called me this afternoon and told me that they wanted me to come in on Monday for a finalizing of scheduling Zumba at their studio! I'm so excited!!!!!

Only I know the truth.

Went to weigh in today at WW and was deeply disappointed. I am determined now that those scales are definitely rigged!! I've been working my butt off lately with working the test and also practicing Zumba and doing auditions and holding class. I've been eating like a bird lately (not very full meals) and my scale at home has weighed me the lightest I've been since last summer. My clothes have been fitting me really well to the point of some jeans fitting looser. My scale told me that I have dropped at least 3 pounds since last month when I weighed in at WW. Yet, I go into WW this morning and it says that I've gained 0.2lbs!!! What the flapjack??? That doesn't make sense to me AT ALL. It almost made me feel as if I never wanted to step foot in there ever again. I can see why people lose interest in that program simply because of the weighing in aspect!! I love the new plan though with the free fresh fruit and veggies (0 point values)...BUT THE SCALE HAS GOT TO GO! I was almost tempted when I got to the doctor's office to have them weigh me there so I could prove that the scale was off. Kinda crazy when you're tempted to have the doctor weigh you, huh?? HA! Anyway, I'm not going back to WW until next month when I absolutely have to do my monthly weigh in.

Guilty...

I haven't been tracking my food intake the past couple of weeks. I've been bad about that. However, I've been doing tons of activity with all this Zumba. I've been getting plenty of activity!! I've actually been keeping an eye on the scale though and not eating actually that much. I've actually lost a couple of pounds though. :) This morning I weighed myself this morning and it's the lowest it's been for a while--probably since early last summer. I'm satisfied.


Tomorrow's my first official class at The Studio in Nampa. We'll see if anybody shows. So far nobody's registered but it's just the beginning. We'll see what happens in the near future.

New employment and new blog!!

I just auditioned to work at a studio in Nampa, ID. It's called NampaFit Studio. They hired me on!! I will now have a busy schedule of Zumba!! I will be teaching Thursday nights (8-9pm), Saturday afternoons (1:30-2:30pm)!! Wow, I'm gonna get a lot of exercise whether I like it or not... ha! In an effort to spread the news about my new classes, I made a new blog: www.zumbawithjen.blogspot.com. You can take a look at it and see how it's progressing. I'm so excited to get started with my new classes!!

A continuation

As I was saying, Saturday's training was extremely exciting and overwhelming at the same time!! We did Zumba for a little over an hour first thing and then had a break for awhile and came back to a lecture from the ZES (Zumba Education Specialist) Madalene Aponte. She is such an excellent speaker and teacher! She has an awesome personality and told great stories about her experiences with the founder of Zumba, Beto Perez. She showed us how to break down a song and put it with choreography. Then we all got a chance to come up with choreography for a song. We broke up into 4 groups and put choreo to a song. I'm actually gonna use that choreo for my future classes!! :) We had lunch and then the afternoon was a solid 2.5 hours of dancing and learning the first 4 basic Zumba rhythms: Merengue, Cumbia, Salsa and Reggaeton. The other 4 will be learned at my next Zumba training whenever I decide to go.

I joined ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network) so that I could be privy to new choreo when it's released and new music! It'll give me that extra boost for my classes that I will be teaching eventually.

Other cool news: I made my business cards and started giving them out. I've already gotten calls from 2 places wanting to get to know me and see what I've got to offer!! :) :) Tuesday night will be my first demonstration class for a place that hasn't started Zumba yet and is trying to see if it's for them. I hope I can convince them!! On Friday, I will stop by another studio to get to know the owner and see what she's offering me too. She really wants to meet me and have me do a little audition for her. Guess I better bring my music and ZUMBAWEAR just in case she wants me to perform...

I will let ya'll know what happens with my new endeavors!

A quick update

I'm kinda limited on time right now to write more but here's the quick version:

Friday: we went to the airport to catch our flight to Spokane for my training.
Saturday: I was dropped off at the fitness facility for my Zumba training at about 8am. The training went from 8:30 til about 5 or so. It was so much fun! I will explain more about what we did during the day when I have more time this afternoon.
Sunday: spent a leisurely morning in the hotel before we had to get our stuff together to come home in the afternoon.

Now it's the workweek and I'm still plugging along at that dumb exam I've been proctoring for the last week or so. We have about 3 weeks left in the process. I swear my brain is going to smooth over after having to read the same stories over and over and over again, only to have some kids say, "I don't know" to the question I've asked. Wish I could just know what they're going to answer before I even have to read those horridly boring short stories.

Anyway, it's time for me to finish getting ready so I can go get some coffee before having to report to the next school. Later!