Roxanne Modafferi's Blog

Max turned 1, and life is exciting

I hardly have time to update anymore. Maximus turned one! Then 13 months! He’s toddling around. He cruised for quite a long time (walking by holding onto things like furniture) and then took his first steps a number of weeks ago. It was from the sofa, lunging towards me. lol Now he can stand up from a sitting position and walk around the house. Like out the door. I’m chasing him now. It’s great.

We installed a baby gate in the kitchen so I can have him in there and he won’t go into the dining room to play with forbidden items like the trash can.

We had a nice birthday party for him inviting my friends. I’m having lots of fun with him nowadays. I had been taking him to this gymnastics place called ‘Desert Gymcats,’ which has a free baby time. I think I’ll have to stop now that he’s consistently walking.

I’m enjoying him saying “Mama, Mom-mom,” “Dada,” “duck.” lol He also makes cute noises when he eats, like humming and growling to himself. We’ve been going to parks a lot, and I’ve been able to do jiujitsu with a mom-friend who I got into jiujitsu, Amy. I’m really starting to enjoy being a mom now. It would have been easier if I would have been able to train at least a little regularly – I’ll be honest, I’ve been unhappy, but now things feel better. I’ve been doing some jiujitsu. I would like to compete some day again. I feel like that’s not unreasonable.

Max at 11 months old

My husband Chris just had an MMA fight with Fusion Fight League in Montana! He was the main event. That was an honor, and Fusion is such an awesome organization with great events. They treat fighters so well. Unfortunately, he lost the fight. Got rocked early on and couldn’t quite recover. The ref could have let it go a little longer. Meh.

It was awesome seeing my in-laws. My mother-in-law and father-in-law really bent over backwards to help take care of Max. It was so nice. I mean they are grandparents, that’s their job, but they really went above and beyond to make it a wonderful trip.

I hope I can get more training in and maybe do some seminars once I wean Max. He now has two bottom teeth and three top teeth, and let’s just say, he’s chomping down when he shouldn’t be.

This ASUS is on it’s last leg and I got another laptop, but I haven’t even had the time to set it up and transfer data! I’ve had it for a few weeks now…

photo of Brandon Jenkins holding mitts for Chris

I have so much more to say but it’s getting late and I have to wake up Max now.

Maximus is 8 months old!

Our son is sooo cute. He’s babbling and adorable. I’m super biased…however, everyone I meet says the same thing so it must be true. He sleeps in his crib for most of the night, but at 5 AM he tends to not fall asleep unless I cuddle with him, so we set up a pull-out bed in his room. It’s so cute to see him open his eyes, snuggle me and go back to sleep. Then he/we wake up at 7 AM sharp.

He’s our giant baby at 25 lbs, wearing 24 month clothes! He’s 31 inches tall and his head comes up to my upper-thigh. Wth. I can’t carry him with one arm anymore. I don’t consider myself a small woman, but I’m afraid it’s going to be hard for me to carry him around as a toddler! He hasn’t even started toddling yet. Good thing I’m a fighter but this isn’t fair. LOL What do other small women do? I gotta lift more weights. I miss Lorenzo and Prime Time Performance. ;_; I’m trying to work out the best I can but I never really see results with just me. I’m slowly increasing my pull-up count ever since I found that park with workout equipment in it.

Max loves swings.

We put him in the baby one in parks, and we hung one off one of our two trees in our backyard. A neighbor (bless her) gave us this cloth one. Speaking of trees, one of ours isn’t healthy and I hope it survives. Anyway, it’s so cute to hear Max squeal with glee.

Max is eating now. He loves eggs and avocado the most, I think. I’m trying to add variety to his diet. My mom suggested I add a multi-vitamin, so I researched that. I’m part of a “toxin-free living” Facebook group, and one person said that she doesn’t use them because they’re all synthetic. Whole foods is best. Hmmm I could do that. Another friend said that the societal narrative tells us to take vitamins but we often don’t need to if we eat a variety of whole foods. Hmmm

I’m really distrustful of things lately so I’ve been doing lots of research. I want a healthy boy – this is my life right now. So far he’s had one cold, with a runny nose, and that’s it. He’s chunky and strong. I’ve been taking him to baby storytime and I just found a free music class! He loves music. (what baby doesn’t?)

I haven’t had the chance to train, really, except I’m teaching a private lesson out of our backyard shed once a week, which makes me so happy! My husband has started to train a little again, too.

Max: Mother! Give me that milkshake!

Me: Not a chance. No desert until I dunno, probably 4.

I bought a used Subaru! I really didn’t want to spend any money since I’m not working anymore, but my Honda is 10 years old and the air conditioning didn’t work well. Last year I literally couldn’t leave the house with Max because it would be too dangerous to roast baby in 115 degrees in a car. This 2021 Subaru outback is awesome. I love it’s safety features. It even beeps to warn me if someone is coming in a parking lot while I’m trying to back out! I’ve had so many close calls with that issue so it was nice to be warned by my car. I got a decent deal with trading in my Civic because it was in good shape, so I’m pleased.
I ALSO MATCH CHRIS’ TRUCK, which is also blue! eeeee I love matching him. I’m a big dork. <3 Also…my mom had a Subaru. I have my mom’s car. But I’m a mom so it makes sense. lol I have a mom car.

I love watching Chris play with Max. Obviously men play differently than women. He tickles and pesters Max, and does more violent things like swinging him around and throwing him. lol Max loves it. He giggles and squeals more than I’ve ever been able to make him.

Me: I read that babies’ brains are 20% boosted when playing with fathers.

Chris: Each time I play with Max it boosts his brain development by 20,000%

lol

Max JUST SLEPT through the night for the first time last night!! 9 hours! He prefers to sleep on his side and stomach, which freaks Chris out, but I always check to make sure he’s breathing.

It feels good to write a journal.

I haven’t practiced Japanese in so long. ;_; oh well. I should send a photo of Max to my host mother in Japan.

Thanks for reading, guys!

Baby is 6 months old!

Maximus just turned six months old! I’m not going to say time flies because it didn’t…it’s been really hard! But I love him. His little smile lights up my world. His giggle is music to my ears. His tears almost make my heart stop. He’s scooting around in his walker, not yet even able to crawl. He just started eating solid food. He’s been wanting it so badly! He watches Chris and I eat and we can see his tongue go in and out of his mouth.

I’m not really training. It sucks. I’m not really able to do anything I like. Emotionally, I’ve been better. I don’t feel like myself. I miss my best friend. I played Baldur’s Gate for the first time in months a few weeks ago when I got caught up on housework. I’m almost done!
I have child-raising books I’m supposed to read. I’m trying to unhook myself from social media after I found evidence it hurts your brain and messes with your concentration. I can’t hold a book in one hand and nurse, though, so I think I had a relapse.

I started teaching jiujitsu at Tribe once a week. That’s been really nice. I’m so rusty…that’s been so great.

We tiled our house floors. We are building a shed in our back yard to train. I don’t really like training at home but whatever, I guess I’ll learn to like it. Life changes. I’m trying to deal.

Baby is near the end of his nap so I’m rushing this entry.

We started feeding him solid food last week! It’s so fun and entertaining to watch him experience food! He grabs the spoon or deflects it, making a mess. I think I’m doing a decent job of being a mom so far. I just read a quote on Facebook: “You have someone’s childhood in your hands and there’s no redo.”

I am a new mother!

Holy cow, so much has happened since May, which is when I posted last. Right now I’m typing as fast as I can because two-month-old Max is asleep, probably about to wake up. I hear him stirring.

My pregnancy went well. I did my best to eat well, take my vitamins, and suffer through headaches and pains without medication. I think I took Tylenol two times in the entire 9 months. Docs and literature said you can have caffeine, but if my mom can go cold turkey, I can go cold turkey, so I did. Well, I allowed myself one cup of tea a month if I was having a hard day. Tea is like…. 50 grams of caffeine, though, compared to 90 for a cup of coffee.

I worked at my English school almost the entire time. I was due July 27th, and figured I’d get taken off the schedule the last week of June, since that’s when a term ended, and just substitute teach for a few weeks. I’m glad because it was getting hard to move, and I was tired and mentally slow.

Chris was working in Colorado for a few months….visiting a few times a month. I’m glad he could get traveling work, but I missed him a lot. ;_; We were really stressed about this issue…when should he return for the birth? I wanted him to come home at the beginning of July, but it turned out he’d have to quit the job and then couldn’t get rehired. He suggested the last week of July. Gosh, that was cutting it awfully close, I thought. But it’s work and our livelihood so I guess so?

THEN it turns out a job opened up in Vegas the second week of July, he jumped on that and thank goodness got hired! July 12-13th he came home. We spent the weekend together. He was scheduled for orientation on July 17th (Wed) and pick up his work badge July 18th (Thurs). Okay cool. Wednesday morning at 6 AM, he went to orientation. At 7:30 AM I felt my water break! omg it’s go time! TEN FREAKING DAYS EARLY. I messaged him, “No hurry but my water broke…” and then messaged my sister-in-law and other female family members for advice. Everyone said don’t go to the hospital until you feel contractions. Did I feel contractions? Well…I dunno, I’ve never felt them before. Slight cramping? “Then no,” I was told, “You’d know.” Okay so Chris got home. My doc told me to go to the hospital immediately, but we figured it was just so the hospital could charge us for longer, so I waited. Finally around 3 PM I hadn’t felt contractions, so I asked Chris to take me because I was worried.

I got checked in a waited and waited and still no contractions. To make a long story only a little long, they had to give me pills to start my body’s process, which I didn’t really want, but I also didn’t want to get infected, or stay in the hospital forever. The first two pills didn’t work, and by that time, it was 11 PM Wednesday night. Dang it, I thought, I was so excited my water broke in the morning. I’d hoped I’d be out of there by nightfall. NOPE.

Chris took a nap on the bench until 4 Am, which is when they gave me my third pill. Then he had to go get his work badge! X_x; Pretty soon after I took the third pill, it started working. Then I knew what contractions felt like. Then my new “worst pain ever” scale got upgraded. My curiosity had been sated. It sucked to be laboring by myself, but I wasn’t afraid. Nurses checked on me, and I was hopeful Chris would get back in time. I was so sleepy. I’d start to drift off to sleep only to be awoken a minute or so later by another contraction. It was hard!

Chris ran in around 9AM-ish and started coaching me. Everyone was telling me not to push. “I really feel like I have to push,” I said. “No, not yet, you aren’t dilated enough,” they said. That had been the problem, and why they gave me the pills. I said to Chris, “I really can’t help but push!” I winced in pain and tried to breathe as another one hit me. “Not yet!”

The nurses came in again and said, “I really feel like you’re in too much pain not to be fully dilated..” I started worrying that they might want to do a C-section if my lady parts wouldn’t open up for baby to go through. “Let’s check again,” the nurse said…. “and try not to push yet.”

“I REALLY FEEL LIKE I HAVE TO PUSH,” I kept saying, pushing, and pooping. (that sucked). Nurse checked my cervix and was like, “OH!!!!!!!!! Okay it’s time to push! GET THE DOCTOR!” The doctor happened to be walking in. “Hi, how’s it…..” she ran out, grabbed her gown and gloves, and ran back.

I told you guys. LOL After that, it wasn’t long. I have no idea what it looked like from the other end. I just saw the end of my gown and the tops of the doctor’s heads. I expected to hear a baby cry. I think he did briefly but was pretty quiet when they put him on me. I thought, “Omg this is it! My baby!” It was bizarre. I’d only held a baby once in my life….it hardly felt like mine. 9 lb 2 oz, ten days early. I’m glad he wasn’t on time….

I loved that hospital. The docs and nurses were very efficient and kind. They treated us very well. I’m SO HAPPY Chris was there. If he had come back when we were planning, he would have missed it. Maximus Edwin Roman. He had his eyes open and was calmly looking around. Didn’t even cry when they pricked his foot. Chris said it was because I didn’t take any medication for the pain.

So all this “You’ll know exactly what to do! Mother’s instincts!” bull crap? No. I didn’t know how to do anything. Thank goodness I took classes and read books, but I still needed the lactation specialist to help me insert boob correctly into mouth, show how to burp him, etc. I struggled to hold him. I constantly thought I was gonna drop him. Chris thought I was gonna give him whiplash. Chris was telling me how to do stuff. “There’s no correct way with kids!” No, yes there is and I wasn’t doing anything correctly. It was hard and stressful. “Are you enjoying being a mother?” people asked me after a few weeks. Are you kidding? Is this stress supposed to be joyous? Am I a horrible person for thinking that? An influencer I follow on Instagram just had a baby, too, and she said, “I love my son but the newborn phase isn’t my favorite.” That’s a good way to put it.

NOW I’m getting excited. Max is two months old, smiling at me, looking at me, and he’s cute at all times. He’s cute when eating, when crying, when pooping, when bicycle kicking his legs while I’m trying to wipe poop off his family jewels and replace the diaper, etc.

Chris has been working like a maniac, crazy graveyard hours and overtime. I’m so grateful he can support our family. I miss him, though. Worse than being locked up in the Ultimate Fighter house twice. I’m glad I have the internet and friends who chat and visit with me! FINALLY it’s cool enough ( like 80 degrees) to go for a walk. I couldn’t take him out in 90 degree weather.

Now, behold our adorable son!

It’s been really hard to do basic things like eat food, drink water, do laundry. My goals are to basically feed myself and drink enough. I wash my hair like every other time I take a shower because it adds an extra five minutes to the task. Now at 2 months, he can be put down and not cry immediately. I can’t wait for him to be able to hold his head up. I’ve been singing kids song with him every day and doing tummy time. Not sure how else to entertain him.

THANK YOU to everyone who bought something off my registry! Everything is super useful and appreciated!

Life is exciting and progressing: pregnancy, friendship, adventures

Well, I’m still pregnant! It’s a boy! We haven’t decided on a name yet. I’m excited for a boy! I’m more of a tomboy myself, so I think I’ll be a good boy’s mom. He’s moving around a lot now. At first, it just felt like gas. Then I realized it was happening at the same times of the day, and in the same places, so I thought, wow, it’s the baby! Now, it’s happening after I eat and especially when I recline. I’m 7 out of 9 months pregnant. (30 weeks).

I have lots of essential items thanks to our family, friends, fans, and students. I’m so grateful for everyone’s support. It blows my mind. Thank you thank you thank you. I rented a PO box to attach to the Amazon baby registry and I have it for another month, so if anybody wants to take a look, I have a few more things on the registry to get.

link to Baby registry

Work has been getting harder because my brain is feeling slower and less creative (not to mention zero caffeine). The doctors, people, websites, etc say that two cups of coffee a day are fine. They also say caffeine goes through the placental barrier and babies don’t process it well. What does that mean? I dunno, but my mom went cold turkey so I figured if she can do it, I can do it.

Here’s a picture of me from last week in work clothes.

In preparation for being what I call “super pregnant,” I reduced my hours at work (my English school) from 4.5 hours to 3 hours every morning. I almost feel like a wimp because 4.5 doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s non-stop running around on my feet high-focus the entire time. Getting off at 11 AM seemed easy. Then I speed-walked to the post office and found my speed was actually pretty slow. lol For me. So yeah, I think I’m doing the right things. It’s my last month before I quit! I’m sad to quit. I love this school and company, but my husband and I agreed I’ll be a stay-at-home mom. Hopefully things continue going well with his job and we can afford it. As of now, we’ll be okay.

I’m still teaching kids jiujitsu, although that’s harder as well. I can no longer do bottom guard techniques. I can’t do sit ups and I don’t want to squish Baby Roman. I can still do some stuff, though, and it’s fun to be around jiujitsu. I can’t practice anymore at all right now. I’ve been lifting weights a lot! Three times a week is a lot. Walking every day.

Today I dropped a notebook in my English class, and I squatted down to quickly pick it up. One of my students who hadn’t seen me for a while, practically shouted, “Oh my gosh, teacher, did you guys see that? She doesn’t look pregnant! Did you see how she moved?” Well, I can’t do jiujitsu anymore, so what do you think I’m doing every day? I’m squatting with dumbbells. LOL I guess the average pregnant woman doesn’t work out as much as me.

Man, I haven’t been writing OR taking as many pictures as I used to. Let’s see, here’s a random picture of me and Chris eating sushi last month. Well, I had rolls that were cooked because bad sushi is supposed to be deadly for fetuses. Husband! Oh I love him so much.

Let’s see, OH! I cornered Serena for her fight in March! It was still safe for me to travel, so I ended up going and I also got to visit my dad who lived within driving distance. YAY! What a good time. Serena ended up winning by TKO.

Chris and I are also getting into Dungeons and Dragons, a table-top role-playing game. We got Serena to play with us! Chris is the dungeon master. I love his ideas, and I love his Kobald voice! It’s so …kind of cute, kind of creative, super awesome. I’m a dwarven monk. Serena is a half-elf half-human barbarian.

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Big news! I’m pregnant!

Well, I’m pregnant! I’m so excited! My husband and I are excited. We’ve been wanting a child but, in the sense of the Idiocracy movie, wanted to wait until our jobs were stabled, we got a house, etc. Well, we got those things for the most part. I was kind of worried about my age, thinking, Oh gosh, I’m 41 now, if another year goes by, maybe I should just give up and consider adoption or something. Or maybe just not have kids. And that made me sad. So I tried not to think about it.

Then we decided to go ahead and try for kids, and I realized I was pregnant pretty quickly! In October 2023! (That means he’ll be born at the end of July). I realized I missed my menstrual cycle and started feeling queasy. I didn’t tell anyone other than my best friends and family for a while. I got three big pregnancy books from the library and read them in a few weeks. Note: It was the first time I’d been to the library in 9 years. Anyway, they said that the first trimester is the most risky, so after I safely got out of the first trimester, I told my boss and gym members. I could scarcely believe I was going to be a mom! I didn’t want to count my chick before it hatched, you know…

Then I wanted to get a pic with Chris and I in Bulma-Vegeta clothes. I finally told the world a month ago.

Vegeta is strict and always seems angry, but the whole DBZ universe agrees he’s a better parent than Goku. lol and Bulma is a good mom.

Morning sickness wasn’t fun, but it also wasn’t as bad as some. I just felt queasy all the time all day. I never threw up, though. I had food aversions to everything. Couldn’t eat steak, and 50% of the food I liked. However, I could always find something. I had friends who couldn’t keep any food or water down and needed IVs.

Chris was telling me constantly to drink a gallon of water, but it was really hard for me because anything other than a small sip made me queasy. Then I forgot to take small sips because it didn’t feel natural. That was a hard issue for me, for us. I tried really hard but could only get down a gallon after the morning sickness went away by the end of January.

I quit caffeine. All the books and the doctors said that I didn’t have to – limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day, or 200 mg or something like that. Still…it’s a drug. And kids are coming out with more neurological problems than they used to have generations ago, and most authorities aren’t admitting anything. After I talked to my mom and finding out that SHE quit, I decided to suffer and do the same. I came out stable, and if she could do it, I can do it. I mean, it is a drug and passes through the placental barrier. Who knows what it’s actually doing to the kid? Docs say it’s fine, but docs are saying a lot of things I’ve been distrusting lately.

To be honest, ever since I stopped fighting, I tried to reduce my caffeine thinking I wanted to be pregnant. I didn’t have to be alert to fight for my life every morning. I used to take a caffeine pill of 100 or 150 mgs, and then tea, which had like 60 mg, so that’s about two strong cups of coffee (210 mgs). Upon retiring from fighting, I cut the pill into fourths and took 50 mgs, plus tea was 100 total, so reducing by half. Then when I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t get any headaches when I dropped all caffeine completely.

I do feel less energetic and alert. I hate going into my day feeling drowsy, but oh well. That’s the sacrifice. I’ll allow myself half a cup or a full cup of black tea once a month if I wake up feeling really bad so that I can get through work in the morning. I think my hubby is unhappy about that, but I think I’m being reasonable. I get to choose one day a month where I feel like crap, and tea only helps a little. I miss tea btw! My research shows that lots of herbal tea-research is inconclusive, and there were a lot of contradicting things said. For example, one website recommended drinking chamomile for morning sickness, while every other site said that chamomile can induce miscarriages. What?! Also ginger was good for nausea, said one site, but another site said it could have negative effects on the fetus! So what tea could I drink?

I made sure to get at least three sources before deciding on things. And the verdict is:

Peppermint. Peppermint is the ONLY TEA that had ZERO websites saying there was a negative effect. ALL other herbal teas had contradictory information. Example, one site said, “Oh it’s great!” Another said, “Actually it blocks this process or inhibits the development of XYZ but actually we aren’t sure because nobody wants to do studies on pregnant mothers and their babies.” So Celestial Seasonings has a tea with the only ingredient being peppermint and no other additive. A website even had something to say about ginger. Like five other sources including mothers and my doctor said it was good, so I decided to have it maybe once a month or something. I’m still suspicious. I’m turning really paranoid lately, gosh. Hey, no chances.

I stopped training jiujitsu! Well, I drilled with partners I trusted until the middle of February (a few weeks ago). Then, when my abdomen really started to stick out, and I started feeling out of breath trying to sit up, I thought, gee, I probably shouldn’t be squishing the little guy anymore with my movements, even if we weren’t putting any pressure down on him from above. It’s okay, I was mentally ready for it. I’ve been doing physical training, although no more jogging. I have to sleep on my side at night now because docs say the weight of the baby will disrupt blood flow to my vena cava arteries in my spine. -_-; Hmm I dunno….I’m a back sleeper and am not sleeping well on my side. But am I going to argue and complain? What if they’re right? I can’t take that chance, so I’ll just suffer for the next five months. It’s not like it’s forever. Lots of women have it worse.

I really don’t think any physical discomfort I’ll have can be worse than any pain I’ve already experienced in my life of fighting, so I’m trying not to complain at all. I’m still working and teaching at Tribe and Nomad. I have to get the kids to help me demonstrate moves sometimes, but that’s fine! I’m going to retire from teaching English in July and be a stay-at-home mom.

Let’s see, what else. I’ve still been enjoying Baldur’s Gate a little bit. Chris and I are trying to get an actual DnD game going. The only problem is he wants to do it ASAP and I don’t know what I’m doing, so I’m trying to read up. I need silence to study, and he needs noise, so I can’t study when we’re together, which reduces my study time. I try to do it in the morning before work, but lately, work has required me to do a lot of extra prep (school teachers, right?) so I haven’t had the time. We’ve been watching Reacher and Vox Machina on Amazon Prime.

Chris is being very caring, and protective of me and us. *_* He’s so sweet. I love being married to him.

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Thanksgiving, Baldur’s Gate, family, various!

Hello guys! It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving and I’m doing well. Chris and I smoked a turkey overnight and ate together, just the two of us. A few weekends ago I traveled to upstate New York to visit my Aunt Mary, Uncle Steve, and Mom. I also got to see Cousin Alison on my dad’s side. That was nice. I hadn’t been there in two years, and in that particular week I was able to finish my grading of tests on Wednesday so I could use Thursday to travel.

Cousins!

Chris and I had our 1st wedding anniversary in October! He dressed up in a suit and cooked me dinner! It was fabulous! Very nice. ^_^

I still love my English-teaching job. I get to meet great people who appreciate what I’m teaching them.

I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 a ton, basically once a day if possible. It’s funny how I saw it in a Southpark Episode, where one of the characters “just wanted to get home and play Baldur’s Gate 3.” XD That’s me! It’s interesting how my game is different from Chris’ because he’s doing an evil playthrough and I’m doing a goody-two-shoes playthrough. I just discovered the Nightsong.

My party – Orchid, Shadowheart, Gale, and Karlack is not shown, and my summon the fire elemental guy.

I have yardwork projects in my backyard that I never asked for but am doing my best at it now. Trying to dig up a big fountain the former owners had so that we can put a shed there to make a new training room. That will free up one of our three bedrooms. Serena is helping me dig.

I’ve been able to consistently train, which is nice. It’s not as much as I would prefer but it’s enough. I enjoy coming home to Chris, spending some time with him, and then go teach teens and sometimes get a few rounds in. On weekends, I try and train while he sleeps in.

I still love being sponsored by Xmartial.com and they have a lot of cool stuff! I just entered into a second partnership deal with a clothing company called “Animeape.” They have a lot of designs from anime that aren’t quite as mainstream as usual. Like Full Metal Alchemist, Hunter X Hunter, Evangelion, etc. I got a Blue Ranger rash guard!

Tribe’s kids fought in a jiujitsu tournament and I helped coach. I’m proud of them! They trained hard in preparation and fought hard.

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Life, my birthday, new house, new computer game

Holy moly, I can’t believe my last blog was in May! I just don’t set aside time to write anymore, despite loving it. Actually, I’ve had this grammar class that I’ve been stressing about for the past several months. If I’m not working, cleaning, teaching jiujitsu, or hanging out with Chris, I’m trying to figure out interesting activities for this class. The book is so dry and boring! I don’t even think I’m doing as good a job as possible.

Haha every time I write a sentence here, I consider which tense and grammatical structure I’m using. “Gosh, I just used present perfect, that’s always a challenge to teach.” @_@ Did you know that a phrase set off by commas to add more information is called an “appositive?” I learned that recently. For example: Our grammar book, which is a little dry, is called “Grammar and Beyond 4.” “Which is a little dry” is the appositive.

You guys don’t care, I’m sure.

Anyway, life is good. Except for whatever the heck is biting my ankles at night. That is SO not cool, as the hip kids say.

Chris and I bought a house! It was quite the feat to find one we liked for the price we wanted in a good area!

The market is really awful… the interest rate was between 7.1% and 7.5%. I managed to negotiate it down to 7.1. And now we’re finding all sorts of issues that would have been impossible to find previously. For example, he pulled off an electrical outlet cover and found live wires just poking out. Then, I noticed a screw poking up out of the front yard, and upon digging, we found some wires, bolts, and some concrete slab that we still can’t identify. Our internet won’t work. Etc. But oh well. I guess that’s part of being a home owner? :/

I’m looking at it as one huge life adventure I get to have with my husband! Otherwise, life would be boring!

I love my English teaching job! I love teaching pre-teens and teens at Tribe! That’s my favorite age group. I stopped teaching the younger class due to time conflicts. I was sad for a few weeks, but then I reminded myself that teens are my favorite, and I still get to teach them. I had a record number in my new class last night: 12! How cool! This is like a step-up for my personal goals.

Photos of preparing for our wedding are popping up in my Timehop. I can’t believe we’re approaching our 1-year anniversary.

I turned 41 years old! I went bowling and invited some friends! I enjoyed seeing some former Syndicate training partners, and Charlie has been my friend for years. I told my mom who I was inviting. She said, “Oh! All couples!” I laughed as I realized that when we first met, we were all single.

It sucks that I can’t train jiujitsu as much as I want. However, I realized that from the very beginning that my periods as a fighter would be a special one where I would train the most I’ve ever trained in my life. Nowadays, I get to be free on Fri, Sat, and Sun.

I’m grateful Hannah is my Friday leg-lock buddy!

My outfit is Xmartial.

I beat Skyrim! Rather, the main storyline. It was amazingly fun! Hilariously, I almost quit five or more times, but kept going because I enjoyed playing with Chris guiding me. Now he’s gotten me to start Baulder’s Gate 3. I’ve almost quit three times. lol I made a druid who I named Orchid.

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I love my new job! Skyrim, jiujitsu, house hunting

Hi guys! Life is good!
I LOVE MY NEW JOB! Everybody is asking me what ages I teach, but it’s not a public school. It’s a private school for English as a second language for immigrants or new citizens. Some have student visas so they have permission to come in order to study English for a set period of time. I teach adults between the ages of 18 and 65. It’s great. This is what I have the most experience doing, actually, so it’s comfortable. I’m good at it. You can read all about my past adventures teaching in Japan in my book!

https://bit.ly/3Huml4e

I’m liking my new schedule!
I work from 8 AM to 12 PM. Then I eat lunch and hope it digests in time for my next activity. I’ve been doing one of several things: going over my jiujitsu friend Charlie’s house and drilling, going over Lorenzo and Preston’s house (Primetime Performance) to do physical training, going home to rest, or teach a private lesson.

It feels good to be developing a regular routine. Taking a step back, after my afternoon activities, I’m home by 3 PM, which is when my darling husband gets home. I hang out for a few hours and then I’m off to teach the kids class at Tribe. I don’t work on Friday or weekends. Friday morning is cleaning day – I vacuum, sweep, dust, do laundry, and Swiffer the floor. Then, I have my private jiujitsu lesson with Guns and go to Methods. I go to open mat at Tribe Fitness and Martial Arts on Saturday. Sometimes I meet a training partner on Sunday to drill. A few weekends ago I visited Cascao jiujitsu where they had a Sunday open mat. That went really well.

Tribe just added a pre-teen/teens class after the kids class! I really love teaching that age group, and it’s just as fun as I had hoped. I get home later in the evening, though, but that’s alright.

I’ve had this schedule for about a month and I like it. It’s the balance I’d been hoping for. I have regular work but some freedom to get stuff done in the middle of the day, train a little, see Chris, and still teach kids. Actually I’ve been feeling a little over-worked lately. I think I forgot to plan resting into my schedule. lol

I’m still waiting to see how my bank account looks after a while. I’ve had a bunch of irregular expenses lately so my output was large. According to my calculations, I’ll be able to break even with my spending and earnings. Not yet, though. My credit card bill looks good for this month so far! (edit – it took me so long to post this entry that I got all my calculations done! I earned more than I planned by a few hundred dollars thanks to teaching private lesson! Yay! I’ll put that towards buying a house!)

I had been playing Skyrim obsessively for the past 5 months or so.

This is Rhyanna. I named her after one of my jiujitsu students. She’s a nord and level 60 right now. I use a health-sapping two-handed Dragonbone axe as my favorite weapon. I finally beat the main quest lines. I know it took other people years but I don’t have that kind of patience anymore. I did when I used to play Tomb Raider in high school. I got close to quitting Skyrim multiple times. I’d rather look up a puzzle on the internet than throw the controller down and never play again. shrug Man I miss Tomb Raider. Actually, Skyrim very much reminded me of it! Maybe that’s one reason I liked it so much. I didn’t really enjoy doing battle. Chris started teasing me about my body count. “You and your thousand kills!” I don’t have a thousand kills!” I protested. Then he starts laughing at me. I mean, he’s a Dark Brotherhood guy and I refuse to join the Thieves Guild. I really enjoyed the Companions arch! I tried becoming a Werewolf! For some reason I have an extra Guilmore witch head than is supposed to exist…..

Anyway, Serena’ been bugging me to watch the latest season of My Hero Academia but I couldn’t focus with Skyrim unbeaten. I finally saw an eps the other day and OMG it’s a non-stop battle! Holy crap, I found myself holding my breath! Sooooo exciting and exhilarating! Also Dr. Stone has a new season. Thank you Crunchyroll advertisement.

I signed in to watch My Hero, and popup “New Eps of Dr. Stone available now!”
Me: omg what? click

I realized I had some unbeaten quests in Skyrim so I went back and I’m trying to collect all the Dragon Priests’ masks. After beating Hevnoraak relatively easily, I upped my difficulty from Master to Legendary. Phew. Wish me luck!

For those of you curious, this was the real Rhyanna then….

…and this is her now, as a 17-year-old!

I promoted my student Stefan to gray-white belt! He’s probably underpromoted because I’m strict. I want to make sure they’re pretty good before gray-white. He followed me from Syndicate!

He thought the belt was too long so he tied it three times. XD hahah that’s funny to me.

Thanks for reading! Wish us luck finding a house because we’re picky and have looked at what’s available at the moment!

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Trip to Japan, new teaching job

Hi, guys!

Lots of stuff has been going on lately!
I had about 8-10 sources of minor income last year. But it was better than nothing. Besides my UFC fight purse, I gathered like ten 1099s. I paid a lot of money to my accountant to do our taxes this year, which makes me sad, but I’ve got good news. I found a new job so hopefully in 2023 I don’t have to hustle so hard! No more subbing or dog walking. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to sub, and I loved petting doggies, but it was tiring. I got hired as a teacher of English as a second language at a school in Vegas. I am SO impressed and excited with how they’re treating me so far. The wages aren’t horrible and they’ll reimburse me for a certain amount of necessary prep-time. The reasons I didn’t want to settle into a teaching career were the fact that I’d be doing lots of unpaid overtime to do a good job, and winging it for certain aspects of teaching and testing.

I think that won’t happen here.

I’m teaching a morning shift so I’ll still be able to teach kids in the evenings at Tribe, and Nomad on Wednesdays. At Tribe, things are going well. I have a few former students training with me now, which makes me really happy. I know distance to the gym is a factor, and also cost, but it’s nice when the parents of my students are loyal to me. Casey and I are opening up a pre-teen/teens class at Tribe on Thursday at 6:15 PM. We have a bunch of kids who are too big for my “big kids class” and too small and young for the adult’s class. We’ll probably switch to two days soon, but I wanted to start with one day to encourage people to come to that day.

“Big kids” class at 5:30. 7-10 years old

I’m trying to figure out training. I have a few friends/ teachers/trainers who can probably meet me in the mid-afternoon. Then, I can do classes on Friday and weekends.

Welcome to the non-fighter life, Roxanne. I haven’t been able to train much this past month, with being sick for a week, work, and traveling. It feels…unpleasant.

Chris and I just came back from our trip to Japan! I couldn’t see all my friends, but I enjoyed seeing a few people! I got to introduce Chris to my host mother from college, who is basically my grandmother. She just turned 89 but still took the train to meet us for sushi. She was sharp and strong. Didn’t seem like she aged at all over the three years I wasn’t able to visit her!! She’s been asking me every time, “Are you married yet?” I got to finally say, “Yes, ma’am, here he is!” *hand gesture* She then said, “Oh good, now are you going to have kids?” lol

The first place I took Chris to was Kawasaki Daishi (temple) in Kawasaki, relatively near our hotel. I go here every year.

At Kawasaki Daishi temple Sakura took us to sushi and an owl cafe Ben!

We traveled to Kobe after a week and went to Awaji Island where there was a Naruto Village, and Godzilla park.

Kurama Jiraiya

We ziplined into young Godzilla’s mouth! It was exciting! I’ve only ziplined once or twice before. I enjoyed the Godzilla museum, too! I’m glad Chris suggested it or I might not have done it.

The Naruto activities were kind of hard. I had to make ninja hand signs in front of a computer screen, it had to read it to see if I was doing them properly, and then unlock a door to an obstacle course I was trying to get through. IT WAS DIFFICULT! I kept forgetting how to make the signs and didn’t want to stand there practicing. I felt VERY proud of myself when I made it through. I was supposed to meet up with a Naruto Statue at the top. I whooped out loud when I got there.

I couldn’t open Sakura’s dang door. A recording of her said, “up up down up down up up.” There were four doorknobs that just spun endlessly. I stood there for like fifteen minutes frustrated. Then a Chinese family who had entered around the same time as us came over. A little 9 year-old-ish girl spoke English and came over, so I asked her about it. lol She and her mom couldn’t figure it out either, so I felt better. But also sad. Then the girl said, “You can just go upstairs that way!” Oh, thanks, kid. lol so I progressed without getting through.

There was another activity where the directions said, “Choose which symbol is the correct one!” only I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to determine which one was correct. I looked for any kind of directions explaining and couldn’t find it, so I just randomly chose one of two symbols every time I came across the market. It was still fun.

Chris really loved Zen Steahouse where the chef cooked us lobster and Kobe beef teppanyaki style! Super fancy restaurant!

This was the second steakhouse we went to. Chris’ cut of the meat was so heavenly it wouldn’t show up in the picture. lol Sorry, guys.

I made it to Groundslam a few times. I only really knew Kimura-san. Didn’t see any of my former pro training partners, but that’s alright. Everything’s changed after ten years. Everyone is old, retired, and has families. lol I wanted to show off my husband, though. ;-; Look, guys, I finally found a man! Oh well.

Well, now we’re home and I’m trying to focus on my new job which starts next week.

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