NOOOOOOO!!!

'NO!' is what we are told to yell when being attacked, along with any other noise we can come up with.  Act crazy is what we were told!

This past Saturday morning, a group of women from work took a self defense class together.  This class is put on by the T.A.K.E Foundation, which was formed by Roger Kemp after his 19-year-old daughter Ali was attacked and killed back in 2002.  You can read a brief story about it here.  We learned quite a bit, and we'll most likely take it again.    

 This is Roger Kemp speaking before we got started.  The organization has had over 50,000 women and girls attend their events.  Mr. Kemp does his best to speak before each class begins.

This is Jill.  She and her husband Bob instruct the class, and Jill is also Executive Director of the foundation.  Jill and Bob have both been world champions in karate multiple times.

Jill and Bob explaining how to get out of a choke-hold attack

This photo I found on T.A.K.E Foundation's Facebook page.  It's our group!  The woman in the foreground in the maroon shirt is Von.  The crazy-looking pregnant woman in the purple is Ashley, the woman in blue that she's choking is Laura, I'm behind them in the yellow with the ponytail, Sarah is in front of me in the gray, the older woman in purple past me is Lanee's mom, and Lanee is in front of her, blocked by me.  Michelle and Kimberly were with us too, but they aren't in the shot.