The Ladies Monday Night Tennis Team needs a lady to play singles for our team of ladies who play on the NHTA league, Monday nights. League stars in September and the format is 1 line of singles and 4 lines of doubles. You must be out of high school and live in Memorial Northwest. Please contact Sandy Brassard at sandybrassard@att.net
For over thirty years now, the Memorial Northwest Ladybugs Garden Club has been consistently judging Yard of the Month for several strong reasons. The award promotes excellent landscaping, colorful gardening, and the subdivision’s remarkable curb appeal. The promotion of the award has remained as steady as the purposes have remained. Often, the Ladybugs publish in the Memorial Northwest Newsletter the special criteria for earning the Yard of the Month award. You will find those careful, longstanding guidelines listed below along with their point values.
Reminders: A yard cannot win more than once per year. A house with a “For Sale” sign is not eligible to win. A house cannot win with a boat or R.V. in the driveway. (This is a deed restriction. Those items have to be hidden behind a fence.)
Each judge uses this list every time she takes her turn in judging. With about 25 women in the Garden club, you can see why each member has to take two turns in the judging of over 2000 homes in our neighborhood. This year the Ladybugs have decided to judge the months of September, October, and November, and then the months of March, April, and May of next year. December is in a class by itself because the club does not use these same criteria for judging the Christmas award. As you know, the neighborhood yards are too dimly lighted to judge the grass and flower beds, so the judges for the Christmas Award are primarily looking at lights and theme decorations that the judges can see from their cars.
Each month of the September to May Garden Club year, the members sign up for the months that they can serve as YOM judges. This judging system insures that the same people will not do the judging every month. The system also spreads the responsibility for choices around to help eliminate any biases that could possibly exist. The subdivision is always divided into three separate sections for judging YOM, so that no team has to judge all 2000 homes in one day. The two-member teams have five days to do the judging, starting on the first day of each month going to the fifth day, giving the ladies flexibility with their personal schedules. On judging day, the Ladybugs teams drive down each and every street of their assigned section first selecting the strongest competitors and writing those addresses down. Then, the judges make a second sweep, comparing those three or four strong contenders more carefully. At this time, when the selected houses are so impressive, the judges take a harder look to see if any one of the limited selections is a clear winner. Really, when all the criteria have been met by all of the potential “winners,” the subject of “color” usually comes up. Most often, the addition or “color” to the already excellent yards will decide the final YOM winner.
Remember, this same judging system is being used in all three sections so that each month three first-place awards are actually given, and three equally stunning yards are photographed for our MNW Newsletter. Most of the time, the competition is severe because there are so many high quality landscaped yards in our neighborhood. When you win this coveted award, your household is not eligible to win until one year later. This “fairness” rule has been a longstanding one in the club. The reason for it is that we want to pass the praises out to as many different homes as possible to accomplish our mission of encouragement. The whole point of Yard of the Month awarding is to compliment you for maintaining such wonderfully groomed front yards. When you win this award, you will receive a $25.00 gift card from Plants for All Seasons on Louetta. You will also stand as a shining example to every house on your street. By looking at your award winning yard, your neighbors will see clearly for themselves what it take to win Yard of the Month in Memorial Northwest.
By: Brandon Ivey
IFA Certified Trainer
Main Muscle: Triceps
1. Grab a dumbbell and either sit on a military press bench or a utility bench that has a back support on it
2. Bring the dumbbell over your head so that the whole arm is perpendicular to the floor and next to your head. The dumbbell should be above you. The other hand can be kept fully extended to the side, by the waist, supporting the upper arm that has the dumbbell or grabbing a fixed surface.
3. Slowly lower the dumbbell behind your head as you hold the upper arm stationary. Inhale as you perform this movement and pause when your triceps are fully stretched.
4 Return to the starting position by flexing your triceps as you breathe out. Tip: It is important that only the forearm moves. The upper arm should remain still at all times stationary next to your head.
Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions and switch arms.
As a personal trainer one of the most frustrating things I deal with is the overwhelming emphasis on exercise to lose weight. When it comes to reaching a healthy weight, how you eat is much, much more important. While physical activity is useful in reducing the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it does not promote weight loss like people think. Many people are drowned by unhelpful messages about maintaining a healthy weight through calorie counting and exercise. These same people believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise. This is the false perception that the food industry would like you to believe.
Going to the gym to hit your goal weight is not good and may be dangerous. Not just physically but also mentally. If your main concern was your looks and you got the ones you wanted, your desire to maintain them and continue with an exercise program may actually decrease. This leads you to gain your weight again and that’s where the yo-yo dieting cycle begins.
People wrongly believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise. I am not saying don’t exercise. Exercise is vital for overall good health. The benefits of exercise are well documented, the fact is that most people exercise for vanity reasons, not primarily for health. Weight control and looks top the list of almost every person working out in the gym these days. Sure, everyone doing it says they are doing it to be healthier, but most people secretly just want that six-pack. It’s difficult to seriously change the way you look through exercise alone. If exercising alone could produce weight loss, we’d be a whole lot skinnier as a nation and those success stories would be far more common. Exercise is a good way to keep weight off; however, it’s not a good way to lose it.
Lets bust the myth of physical activity and obesity and prove you cannot outrun a bad diet. One pound of fat is 3,500 calories so to burn 1lb of fat you’d need to run about 38 miles!! That’s more than the Chevron Houston Marathon. Also think about it this way: If an overweight person is consuming 1,000 more calories than he is burning and wants to be in an energy balance, he can do it by exercising. Thirty minutes of jogging or swimming might burn off 350 calories. Many people, fat or fit, can’t keep up a strenuous 30-minute exercise regimen, day in and day out. They might exercise a few times a week, if that. Or they could achieve the same calorie reduction by eliminating two sodas each day. Of course, both together would be even better.
Research has proven that exercise increases one’s appetite. After all, when you burn off calories being active, your body will often signal you to replace them. Therefore over time people who exercise also increasing their calorie intake. People also have a tendency to reward themselves with treats after exercise. They have the “I’ve been to the gym, so I can eat what I want” mentality.
Fitness is marketed toward young people; however, older people move into nursing homes because they cannot do a half rep of a body weight squat. So they have to have someone take care of them. If you want a healthy body then it needs to be maintained. If you don’t maintain your car, there is an increased possibility that it will stop working. Similarly, if you don’t exercise your body, it will slowly stop working the way that you want it to. So when someone says they are too old to do something the reason why they cannot is only because they are not strong and fit enough to do it. Their inactive life style has decreased their ability to do so. It is not age that stops you. It’s the inability to use your muscles properly. Exercise will help you maintain the function of your muscles. Staying strong and maintaining muscle and following proper nutrition is going to help you live better and longer. Especially as you get older.
The definition of physical perfection doesn’t exist. When a person goes to the gym they need to go seeking personal excellence. Personal excellence has nothing to do with vanity. There are countless men and women who don’t look “perfect” but are faster, tougher, stronger and fitter than some of these more vain and thinner exercisers could ever hope to be. Since they have better fitness they can do things in life like rock wall climbing, skiing, 5Ks, and most importantly play with their kids
People who are obsessive about fitness are chasing that look. Fitness is seen as abs, chest, nice derriere, and for that perfect picture to post on social media. Fitness is seen from a vanity standpoint. However, that is not what really matters. That is not what fitness and exercise is for. Exercise and fitness is for building and using your muscle to keep your body moving for years to come. It is so people can enjoy life, get around, and do things on their own. It should be about improving your daily life so that you are able to climb the stairs in your own house, go grocery shopping all by your self, and open that jar of olives. Most importantly, so when you get older you do not have to live in a nursing home and not just be alive but still being able to live and enjoy your life.
1. In the eight game of a set you lead 4 games to 3, apply pressure on the big point(s) to win the game.
2. Then speed up the tempo of the match .
In step one , you capitalize on the pressure inherent in the moment with pressure tactics . The elements of surprise and uncertainty create pressure . So this is a good time to do something unusual . Aggression creates pressure . So this is the strategic time to show it. Which pressure tactics you use depends on your game .
Keep that increase momentum going four to five straight points.
Why? Because in less than a minute , a 4-3 set has been running neck to neck for 45 min . Can suddenly be history at 6-3. It happens before the opposition feels like they’re loosing . That’s because it happens during a letdown.
It happens so fast that the losing team invariably seems surprised by the loss of the set . They literally blink with jaw-droops that seem to say , ” How did that happen?”
Mentally , yes they had known the score , but that knowledge lacked the appropriate emotional impact so, they didn’t yet appreciate their imminent danger of losing the set. It’s like you stole it while they slept.
Try it . It works!
Good luck!
Tennis Pro
Gilberto Arcay
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