The Jacob & Shayla Bentley Family: The Name of the Game (for now)

Monday, June 23^rd, 2013

My dearest brother,

Well… I’m not going to start out saying that I don’t have much to say because we know how that turns out every.single.week. We’ll just jump right in, shall we?

School school school! That is the name of the game right now. My classes are in full swing this week and listing is the easiest way to update you on what is going on so here we go:

FLEXIBILITY FOR FITNESS: Love it! We actually got to stretch and strengthen this week and it has felt so good. I don’t feel like I am learning anything knew but I am giving my body a chance to loosen up and that is something that I desperately need!

PRINCIPLES OF CARDIORESPIRATORY TRAINING: This is a brand new class so my instructor is still trying to figure out exactly how he wants this to go. We have gotten a lot of good information but I would’ve liked more hands on action. We are supposed to be doing some cardio testing tomorrow and I am looking forward to that.

NUTRITION FOR FITNESS AND SPORTS: We talked about the importance of carbohydrates this week and how vital they are to our bodies and our performance. We talked about the proper ways to carb-load and what alterations athletes should make to their diets to optimize performance. My instructor is very much into carbohydrates as the most important fuel instead of protein which gets most of the hype. He was a competition cyclist and currently works with the elite cyclists. We are very lucky to have such experienced instructors!

EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY: LOTS of technical information in this class. I am trying to digest it all but I don’t know how well I am doing at this point. I guess we will see as the first test rolls around! We have been talking specifically about neuromuscular function in the muscles. Lots of neurons, axons, dendrites, and the processes that they are involved in are being thrown around!

PRINCIPLES OF WEIGHT TRAINING: LOVE! Still. It is an awesome class. We did upper back and chest on Tuesday and my upper body was hammered for most of the week. Chad (my instructor) even helped me to work into some modified chin ups. Maybe by the end of the semester I will be able to do at least one unassisted chin-up. LOL! We are also doing 10 and 1 rep max testing. The result so far? I have a serious lack of upper body strength. Lower body is not too bad… there is lots of room for improvement though!

KINESIOLOGY: Oh boy. This class took up most of my week this week. We had our first test on Thursday and I had to memorize the names and locations of 59 of the muscles in the body, the process of endochondral ossification (how bones form), and over 150 terms and definitions. It was INTENSE amounts of studying. I think I studied harder for this test than any other test before. I really really really wanted to do well because Chad also teaches this class and if I can make a good impression on him he can help me to get better opportunities through my schooling and my internship. The results? I pulled off an 87.8%. It wasn’t as great as I was hoping for but the class average was 82.4% and my grade tied for the 3^rd highest in the class. Not too bad, right? If I can perform at least that well in each of my tests I should be able to pull an A in this class – which is the ultimate goal.

RUNNING: Okay, not a class again but it must be updated on since it is supposed to be a big part of my life right now. The half marathon is LESS than ONE month away!!!! And guess how much I ran this week? Oh yeah…. Not at all. EEEK!!! Soo bad!!! School has been keeping me on my toes like crazy and wearing me out beyond belief. The last thing I wanted to do was to get up at 5:30 am to go running. So I didn’t, but I should have. I did get out on Saturday. I was supposed to do 8 miles but knew that that would be a major mistake and I had time to do 6 miles so that is what I did. It was hot and hard but I think my slowest mile was 9:30 min/mile and most of my miles were right around 9:00 min/mile. Those are the kinds of times that I need to pull if I am going to meet my goal of finishing the half in 2 hours. The idea this week is to do two 5 mile runs and then I am going to aim for 8 miles this Saturday. Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers!

Maybe I should just continue on in my list. I am in a list mood this week:

JAKE: After passing his last class he has started working on another one. I honestly haven’t heard much about it but he seems to be more confident with it then he was with the last one so that is something. The ward council begged and pleaded with him to get to the missionary correlation meeting on Tuesday nights (he is still the Ward Mission Leader). I have always had class on Tuesday evenings this year and will continue to all year long so we are going to have to figure out what to do with the kids. We have had some people in the ward offer to help us out and so I am sure things will be okay – even if he has to take the kids with him.

Jake is also trying to work on his home teaching and made appointments to get out this week. He will have to take the kids with him (silly school) but hopefully they will bring their lovely spirits to the lesson and not be too much of a distraction/detraction.

We were able to sell the Nexus 4 that we bought for him. He decided that he can’t live without a removable battery. I actually bought a Note 2 for him off of Ebay and we were really excited for him to get it but when it came and he put in his SIM card the data didn’t work – BAD sign. Turns out the phone has been reported stolen to T-mobile so they locked the IMEI. Oh brother. We opened a case with Ebay and so far the seller is cooperating fully with us. We mailed the phone back on Saturday and should be getting our money totally refunded this week plus the return shipping reimbursed. If the seller doesn’t cooperate then we can continue the case with Ebay and they will return our money through their buyer protection program. Thank goodness for that!

At this point we aren’t sure what we are going to do with his phone. We have his Note 1 listed and he would still like to purchase a Note 2 but we’ll have to see how things go. We have a bunch of accessories for the Note 2 now so most likely we will end up getting it for him at some point.

ABRIELLE: Not much new to report on her end. She continues to improve and be a joy to us. She says a lot of funny things and still generally likes to keep to herself. Today we were eating spicy popcorn (my specialty) and she said to me, “Mom, when this spicy makes me die I’m going to need my water.” I can’t wait for you to get to know her better when you get back. Although I can guarantee that she will want nothing to do with you for a while. Don’t be offended when that is the case – she is very skeptical of men in general. She is pretty comfortable with dad now and, of course, she is very comfortable with Jake but that is about the extent of her openness. She seems to be more open with her uncles in general so hopefully that will be the case with you as well.

NATHAN: He is definitely a rough and tumble little boy. He loves to wrestle and get dirty and is completely fascinated by cars and trucks and balls and swords! Sometimes I wonder why I ever bathe him because I turn around and he is covered in something again. He continues to be a delight though and brings lots of happiness and smiles to our lives. The other day Jake took his shoes without being aware that Nathan was actually trying to put them on. After throwing a big fit Nathan got his shoes back and in broken toddler talk said, “Dad! Never take my shoes! That’s a no no!”

Overall things continue to go well. The house is still clean and we took a whole carload of stuff to donate yesterday. We are having someone come tomorrow to give us a bid for replacing the ugly brown carpet in our basement. If we decide that we can afford it we will be remodeling our basement. I hope that we can!

I love you so much and I hope that you are taking care. Keep up the good work and know that I love you!

Love, Shayla