Skydiving: Part Two

The whole week before skydiving I was getting pretty nervous. I even had my parents over for dinner on Saturday night for what we were jokingly calling (sort of) our last supper. We (Leah, Grant, Zach and I) set out early Sunday morning to make the six hour drive to Fort Atkinson, WI and made it with time to spare.

The second we got out of the car we spotted skydivers coming down and I immediately just felt more peaceful. Actually seeing people accomplish (and live through) what I was about to do was a great calming thing for me. As we went through the training and got suited up I only became more and more excited and less and less afraid.

Zach practicing

 My tandem professional's name was Patrick and he was absolutely wonderful. I was his 794th dive! Zach and I went up first in the plane and I was actually the first one to jump. The plane ride to altitude takes about 20-30 minutes but it did NOT feel that long. Despite being in a rickety prop plane that didn't even have seats and ascending to over 11,000 feet, it just really wasn't near as frightening as I expected. It felt completely unreal and I was just so pumped to jump! As soon as you jump out of the plane you are just free-falling for a full minute- just spiraling towards earth and it is so exhilarating. It was the perfect day to jump too, perfectly blue skies and nice warm weather. After that minute of free-fall the parachute was pulled and slowed our descent by far allowing me to just see for miles and miles and miles and take everything else in. I even got to steer! Patrick showed me how by pulling one arm down and raising another you could turn and if you keep holding it in this position you start doing spirals, very fun :) The absolute best part though was pulling both arms down at the same time and you just stop. Just stop falling, stop moving, stop everything and you are just hanging there in the sky. Breathtaking.

The landing was smooth and just like that we were skydivers!

This is definitely an experience I would love to repeat. I really have a strong desire to jump in a tropical location where I can jump over the ocean, I think that would be so spectacular.

"DON'T LET FEAR CONTROL YOUR LIFE, YOU CONTROL YOUR FEAR! DON'T LET ANYTHING OR ANYONE (ESPECIALLY YOURSELF) ALLOW YOU TO MISS OUT ON AN OPPORTUNITY OR YOU MAY REGRET IT THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. DON'T THINK-JUST DO IT!" - Jordan Rabenstein ;)

JORDAN

Skydiving: Part One

Well I am still working on getting all my pictures uploaded and the same with the video, but once they are (hopefully by tomorrow) I will give you a full sky-diving report. For now I thought I should let you all know that I am still alive and we all jumped and all made it without a scratch! It was an absolutely incredible, breathtaking experience the likes of which can not be equaled. It was like flying :) We had an amazing time and I am so grateful for the opportunity I got to do this with my husband and two of our best friends. I hope that I have many more opportunities over the years to do it again and again!
Stay tuned for the in depth post tomorrow...

JORDAN

T minus 17 hours...

Though I don't really have a lot to say, I feel the need to post SOMEthing since tomorrow is....SKYDIVING DAY!!!!!!!!!!! Ack! Tomorrow Zach, Grant, Leah and I are leaving at 6:30 sharp to make our way to Fort Atkinson, WI. By one o' clock (WI time) we will be officially enrolled in skydiving class for the next two to three hours. Then, it is time. We will be tandem skydiving with a professional and I sure hope my professional doesn't have a random heart attack or something while we are in mid-flight because I am telling you what, these short arms will NOT be able to reach the rip cord! (Well and also I just don't want the poor person to have a heart attack.) So hopefully by Monday I will be posting an incredible video of my dive and telling you all about it. If not, please pay your respects by attending my funeral and for goodness sakes, someone feed my cats!!!!!!!!!

"FEED US!!!"

JORDAN

Friday's Feelings

I can remember when recess lasted forever, when it took AGES for Christmas to arrive, and when it seemed like a birthday would never ever come. Well gone are those days because time positively flies by at an alarming rate! I cannot believe we are already into May with vacation just 28 (?) days away. I am trying to live in the present though, and I am looking forward to being off of work and taking my mom here

for dinner tonight! The menu looks phenomenal and I, in usual fashion, have already picked out what I am ordering :) It should be a lovely girl's evening, something we don't get to do nearly enough of!

The fiesta was a success yesterday! Margaritas were enjoyed, home-made guacamole and taco dips were wiped out, Charlie our pinata was clobbered to death, hide-and-seek in the pitch dark ensued (a favorite game among my crew), the roof was of course visited (more than once), and lots of socializing with great friends made for a wonderful night! I will leave you with some pictures of our evening...

The girls in our Mexican inspired outfits

Unsuccessfully trying to hit Charlie

  JORDAN  

Remember to Breathe

Is anyone else's life absolutely crazy right now?! It's been so busy and my days have been so full that I have been neglecting my blogging... After our Cinco de Mayo fiesta on Thursday I will definitely have to do a catch up post on life, but for the moment I find my mind running in too many separate directions to even write a coherent post! I find my mind continuously packing and re-packing suitcases for our vacation that is a mere 31 days away. I am trying to reassure myself that not all that many people have been killed skydiving. I keep re-working our party list for which people are bringing what Mexican items. I'm working on narrowing down Indy restaurants to find the perfect one to take Mom to for her Mother's Day get-away. Currently I'm in the process of working on a picture project for all of the states we have visited thus far. Then on top of it all I must fit time in for the gym and home-cooked meals and spending quality (since we definitely don't get quantity) time with my incredible husband who puts up with all of this madness :) Maybe by tomorrow I will have found something useful to share with you all!

JORDAN