We are moving to Dallas, Texas this summer!
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We are moving to Dallas, Texas this summer! ~
…Well, everyone but Jackson, that is! He’s staying in Indiana to go to college!
Jackson is a senior this year at Avon High School.
He finished up four years of tennis team this fall (hasn’t touched his racket since) and is currently looking for a job to help pay for college next year! In tangent with the typical school curriculum, he’s been doing a Cyber Security program at a Career Center called “Area 31” and will have an Associate’s Degree graduating high school this summer! Jackson was 1 of 8 in his senior class of about 1,000 students who received a National Merit Commendation for his SAT scores and is on the Honor Roll…yada yada yada…he’s a smarty pants and we are proud of him.
He will be staying in Indiana and hopes to get a dual major in Cyber Security & Foreign Language from Purdue University or Indiana Tech. (We will hear back from Purdue in January!)
Eliza is a sophomore this year at Avon High School.
She was nominated JV Cross Country MVP and loved her season (even though asthma got the better of her on a couple of races) and is currently doing winter training for pole vaulting this spring with Track & Field. She is also on the high school Debate team, Laurels (or whatever they call it now) President in Young Women’s and volunteers for the community Junior Runners Club.
She is my Content Creative Assistant and frequently has the final say on everything I put out for my business and is often by my side filming teen yoga for my website…(basically I can’t live without her.)
Eliza is constantly creating a creative mess about the house with sewing projects, playing pretend with her beloved little sister, trying on a hundred different outfits or leaving a trail of the numerous books she reads.
She and I also had an epic adventure in Prince Edward Island for a Mother Daughter Retreat I got to do yoga at. Walking Green Gables, cliff jumping off the red rocks of Darnley, sea kayaking, hiking, cooking fresh lobster and clams in a Dutch oven on the beach at sunset…all with my best friend…such a fun trip!
Bear is a 5th grader this year at Avon Intermediate West.
He is crushing swim this season and is close to getting qualifying Divisional or State times in all the events. When he isn’t stinking of chlorine, he’s got his nose in a book, his eyes on YouTube video game tutorials, his hands on his latest Crunch Labs kit, his fingers plucking away at the piano, his voice singing in the ward choir or his feet climbing on my walls!
Bear’s also involved with his school’s 3D Printing Club and will compete on their Math Bowl team this spring. And he manages to still find time to get our family playing games every week; which I am so grateful for. He is the cutest, snuggliest younger brother and best older brother a mom could ask for.
Maren is a 1st grader this year at Hickory Elementary School.
As you can tell from the amount of pictures the photographer took of her versus the rest of us, she’s obviously the cutest of the Louthain clan and luckily, she stills lets us all hug and kiss her face off.
Mares can sit for hours drawing and creating books at the kitchen table. Her latest edition is about dragons…a genre she’s been inspired by for several months after her encounter with the “How To Train your Dragons” series last year. MareMare is the newest member of the Avon Community Swim Team and has even had a meet where she didn’t DQ her event! Maren is my Bestie (not Eliza’s no matter what she might tell you) and is the first Louthain ever to love BOTH math and art; an accomplishment in itself.
I volunteer in her class with reading groups and doing yoga and I look forward to our weekly One on One lunch dates tucked away in her classroom (I finally convinced her it was cooler than eating in the chaotic cafeteria!)
Andy is the reason we are moving.
He got a job as a Senior Director at the BIG 12 Conference in Irving, Texas and has been loving it since he started in September! Our whole family has been rooting for him to find a job that truly valued his worth and even though it is breaking our hearts to move from the Hoosier State we have called home for the last 20 years, we know that it is the right move and the right time.
Andy loves cycling (and the incredible friends he has who are insane enough to cycle with him!) He plans to be back in Indiana this summer to do the 160 mile RAIN (Ride Across Indiana) Ride again because he enjoyed it so much last year (despite literally biking in pouring rain for most of it…like I said “insane”, I mean incredible!!)
Andy has been splitting his time between Indy and Texas this school year; which is really just a reminder to me of how much I can’t live without him…Usually everything stops working or breaks while he is gone and he comes home and makes everything right again, including my sanity.
I’m a worldwide podcaster and founder of Isha Warriors: Yoga for Teens.
Two and a half years ago I took a leap of faith to pursue a decade old dream of taking my beloved yoga to a bigger audience online. I signed up for a business course and prayed to know who I should specifically teach yoga to…a week later, God called me to be the Stake Young Women’s president (youth leader who oversees all the church youth programs in the area) and I just knew that that was the niche I was being called to. (I mean who wouldn’t want to work with teens?!)
To say that this has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life would be an understatement! Going from zero tech knowledge to creating content/running a business completely run by tech; the pain has been real and I am proud of myself for hanging in there! I’m coming up to my hundredth podcast episode. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing teens sharing their raw stories for the first time to veteran news reporters, NFL players and CEO’s of international companies, as well as the chance to share my own insights on creating a thriving mindset along the way! I’ve done yoga with teens who have been expelled from school to teens who are the stars on their football team and everything in between! Currently, I’ve partnered with three schools to work with their teens and have members online across the U.S. My goal is to reach teens across the globe…let’s just say, I have a looooonnng way to go!! I could not have done any of what I have done without Andy by my side (holding my hand/drying my tears/fixing my tech issues/reminding me to be patient), my kids supporting me and my closest friends cheering me on. This is the first year in a long time I have felt like I could pull off getting out a Christmas card…and y’all are probably going to get it after Christmas! Ah well. Such is life!