Archive for the ‘Karate’ Category

So last night I took Kevin to his single stick and double stick clinic for karate. Afterwards we went back over to my parents and hung out there for a little while before heading home. What was wonderful is when I got home I noticed there was a message on our answering machine. Here I just assumed it was Paul wondering how Kevin’s clinics went, but instead it was the computer place letting me know my laptop was fixed and ready to be picked up!! Needless to say I did the happy dance and couldn’t wait until this morning so I could go pick it up! The only sad thing is as soon as I picked it up, I guess I didn’t HAVE to, but I wanted to really badly take Kevin to the black belt test at his karate school as he had never seen a test before. So it wasn’t until we got home, that I was able to jump online to make sure everything was working.

All I can say it feel so good to be able to be online again upstairs during the day in the living room versus in the basement once the kids are finally asleep. The only thing was I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do first. Of course check my emails as I admit I wasn’t doing the best at keeping up with them. Then I just had to check Facebook to see what was new there and then I thought I better start blogging again. (Now you know what I haven’t been around much)

What I want to do next though is check Craigslist to see if anyone posted a wavemaster (punching bag) in my price range or a Mulan costume for Katie. (That’s what she wants to be for Halloween this year) I’ve been trying to keep my eye open on there for those items, but unfortuantly haven’t found them yet. I did find a wavemaster that was like new for cheaper than what I was willing to pay for it, but since I wasn’t checking it all the time it was already sold. All I know is you can sure tell college is back in session because it seems like there are quite a few people trying to sell textbooks on there.  Oh how I wish Craigslist was around when I was in college.  It seemed like no matter what class it was, after I took the class they always decided that they would switch school books so they no longer had any use for the book I had just paid full price for and was hoping to get a decent price back for it.   I can’t imagine what it will be like when the kids are in college.  Will they even have school books?  Or will all their books be online?   Now wouldn’t that be nice?

So that’s what’s new over here.  How has things been going for you?  Have you done anything exciting the last couple weeks?

Kevin and I had a fun day today as we were able to go to a ceremony to watch his Karate instructor earn his 7th degree black belt today! I don’t know to much about karate yet except for punching, kicking, and their a couple of the forms, but I do know that earning a belt like that is a big deal! So I wanted to make a shout out a CONGRATULATIONS to Master Rick and let him know how proud and honored Kevin is to be his student.

While looking for a Sunday Meme to do.. I ended up coming across Straight Out Of the Camera from Murrieta 365. It’s actually quite fun because it’s another picture meme where you can show off what pictures you have taken. The only thing is you can’t do any tweaking or altering, but that’s ok with me as I usually don’t do that anyways. 

I ended up getting a new camera this week and have had so much fun taking pictures with it, I hope you don’t mind that I have more than 2 picture.  

I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!!

Here is a picture of Kevin with Mr Joe & Jake while they were sizing up the competition at their competition last Saturday.  Unfortunately even though Jake & Kevin both fought great matches, they were out in the first round and both lost by 1 point.  At least they still had fun.. that’s truely what matters.

but I also wanted to share a picture from the competition he competed in this past January.   This photo was taken by Kickpics.net

Today was a sports day in our household.   It all started with us waking up and getting ready to head to Kevin’s 2nd sparring competition at Kenowa Hills.   We got there around 10:30am and left a little after 3pm.. so needless to say it was a long day.  Especially since Kevin’s match only lasted 2 minutes.   While we could of left after his division was done, we decided to stay to see how the rest of Team Rade would do.   Out of 8 Team Rade members going, 4 of them ended up placing and winning either a trophy or a medal!  

Even though Kevin wasn’t one of them team members who ended up placing, I was still really proud of him for doing as well as he did since Thursday he stayed home from school with an ear ache & sore throat.  His ear was still bothering him a little today, but not bad enough where he couldn’t go and fight.

Then tonight Kevin and I hung out together and watched some basketball together.  Since I played on the varsity team when I was in high school at least I could teach him about that sport.  It was fun at the end seeing him remember that a free throw was worth one point and a basket before the 3 pt line is worth 2 points and a basket behind the line is 3 points!   Who knows, maybe that will be the next sport he will want to play?

I am so proud to say that my little scrapper (Kevin) ended up competing in his first ever Karate (sparring) competition Saturday!

We ended up driving over to Madison Heights Friday night so we wouldn’t have to drive that 2 1/2 hours Saturday morning.  Kevin woke up bright and early Saturday morning.  I’m not sure if it was due to us sleeping some place different or because he was excited/nervous for the unknown.

I got the kids dressed and went downstairs and had breakfast.  (We stayed at the Hampton Inn and highly recommend them, before staying though check out Room Saver as we ended up saving $12 by using a coupon off there!)   After breakfast we went back upstairs and I told Kevin to start changing into his uniform and he started crying saying he didn’t want to go.  (I knew it was only the nerves talking so I let him just be for awhile)   Paul ended up waking up and took Katie back downstairs so he could have breakfast and while they were gone Mr. Joe called to say they were 25 minutes away.     At that point Kevin was willing to get into his uniform.  While he got ready, I got everything packed so when Paul came back up we could take off. 

We got to the competition and it was quite busy.  Thankfully someone had welcomed us when we walked in and showed us where we needed to go.  I’m so glad we pre-registered as it was a long line to get in otherwise.   We ended up finding Team Rade no problem (thankfully they called us to tell us which ring they were by) and the kids each got a package of crayons and coloring book to keep them busy while we waited for their turn to spar.   We got there at 10am and I should of looked at the time when they finally sparred, but it was quite awhile after lunch as they did forms and weapons first.   It was way to much for Katie so Paul ended up taking her away for awhile.  They ended up finding a target to shop at so life was good for her.     Thankfully they made it back in time to watch Kevin spar.  

There ended up being 12 kids in the 6 yr old novice divsion and I had no clue how Kevin was going to do.  I had watched Jessie & Jake give what they had, but it ended up being not enough.  So I honestly thought the same would happen to Kevin since he had never done this before and they had.   Then they called his name and my heart started pounded.  I told him it was his turn and he started walking out in the ring while I quick hurried to the other side so I could get a good video.  

This is his first match

All I was hoping for was that he would be able to at least score.  If he scored, then I would of felt like he won.  It turned out that he actually won the match!  So then he was going to be able to fight again.  Once again all I was wishing for was for him to score and low and behold, he ended up winning again and then was going to be fighting for the 1st or 2nd place!  GULP!!  My little boy?!?  Fighting in the “champion round” for the 6 yr olds!  I couldn’t believe it.

Kevin’s 2nd match

Once again I was wishing for just one point, but unfortantly that didn’t happen this time and he ended up loosing 0-5, but I was still proud as a peacock for my son since he had never done this before.   They called his name for 2nd place and he went out there and then the top 4 walked over to the trophy table where they handed him his REAL trophy. 

Kevin with his first ever trohpy for sparring!

Kevin & Katie.  (She was so proud of her big brother)

Jessie, Kevin & Jake after their matches. 

What was really funny was the next morning when Kevin woke up and went running to his trophy and just sat with it on the couch looking at it and saying…  “It’s real mom!  It’s a real trophy!”. 

Needless to say he is excited to go to class tonight as his instructors told him to bring his trophy!  He also can’t wait until his sound sharing day (like show & tell) for the letter T as he wants to bring this as well.  I told him he could, but Momma will be bringing it for him as I would rather him not carry it on the bus.  (I’m sure you know why)

So that was our exciting weekend!  One I know we will never forget!