A Funny from Saturday

 

I realized I didn't say how Mattie did on the rest of her divisions at the Texas Heat Wave Tournament on Saturday.

She received first 3rd in Self Defense.

She did not place in Traditional Kata or Open Kata.

She received first 3rd in sparring also.

YAY Mattie!!

You did great!

After the tournament, we were starving.

We headed home and stopped in Weatherford at On the Boarder.

Love this place. Just haven't had the chance to eat there in a while.

Aimee and her kiddos met us there.

It took forever for the waitress to come get our drink orders.

After she took the orders, we waited even longer for her to come back.

When she finally did come back, she didn't have any drinks. She explained to us how she had written them down and misplaced the paper.

So she took the order again.

Again we waited.

When she finally brought them, a couple of them were wrong.

But she was very prompt in fixing that.

It took a while, not as long as we had been waiting, for her to come back and take our food order.

I will admit, Mattie was playing a game on her iPad, so she didn't hear the part where she said she was taking our food order.

All she heard was when she asked her "what would you like."

At that point Mattie looked at her with those big baby blues and said...

"What! Did you loose the order again!?!?"

Oh My!!!

It took everything in all the adults powers to not laugh out loud!!

I didn't complain to management because in the end we had a good meal and a lot of laughs. And I know that everyone has an off day or are just learning a new job. And in the end, she did get everything right and didn't charge us for our drinks and also gave us a queso.

And I do have so much more to be thankful for than most...

Until next time,

God bless.

This is not the ALDC

No reason to try to back up and say what all has been going on so I am just starting fresh for what all went on today.

Today was Mattie's first AOK tournament of the year, Texas Karate Heat Wave in Duncanville. She was ready.

OK.

Well...

I do need to back up a little,

but just to Tuesday.

As we were getting ready to leave, she asked me if she could to Self D a the tournament on Saturday.

Whaaaaat???

I've already signed you up!

You've never done Self D before!

Do you realize you only have like one day to practice?

No I didn't say any of those things to her, I said I would talk to Shihan and see what he said.

Well of course he said he would get her ready.

Wednesday night we left early to watch the Harlem Globetrotters (fantastic as usual!)

Thursday, her dad picks her up so she would have to be done at 6:00PM, but they will get it done.

At 5:45PM I remind him she is leaving in 15 minutes. So he get Drake to help her.

It's going great, but by the time they get organize it only leaves 10 minutes?!?!

Thank goodness, Buddy said he had an errand to run and he could leave her for another 20 minutes!

YAY! A little more time! So a total of 3 minutes to practice! Goody!!!

Sparring practice on Friday runs long and we have got to get out of town for the tournament on Saturday, so still just the 30 minutes from the day before.

We all get to the tournament and Drake grabs Mattie and her helpers and they go through it two more times!! WOW! This should be good!

I don't like going into a competition unprepared but that was happening today.

It's Junior Self Defense which means She will not only be competing against some older kids, some are literally twice her age!!

They call names to make sure everyone is there and she will be the last to go! YAY! Such a huge benefit!!

Once she goes, she does great! Not very smooth, but she remembered everything she was supposed to do.

We had talked with her about having to compete about the older kids, so not to get her hopes up about winning. And also that the others had much more practice time than she did.

So imagine how excited we all were when they called her for first 3rd!!!

What does this have to do with the Abby Lee Dance Club (ALDC)? A lot!!!

"Dance Moms" is one of my guilty pleasures. I don't know why, but I love to watch.

It's like a watching a car crash. It's awful, but you just can't look away.

Those people do more yelling in one hour than all the competitors did combined today. But I just love it! Abby Lee Miller is the dance instructor and the girls are competitive dancers. Each week they learn new routines to perform the following weekend. And the girls are very good. I just don't understand why they have to learn something new each week. The ice skaters in the Olympics this past week have been performing those routines for probably a year. It takes time for perfection.

So the other night, Abby Lee had a duet that she only spent 15 minutes with and when they performed, they placed 2nd. She was livid!!! Why??? They had 15 minutes of practice and placed 2nd! I think that's pretty good. I can't imagine not congratulating a child on an accomplishment, especially if they haven't practiced it for very long!

I was ecstatic over Mattie's 3rd place win!!!

So happy for her and all our kids that were in that division. There were 8 competitors, 4 from AMMA and AMMA took the top four spots!!!! WOW!!

Congrats to everyone that competed today!!!!

And I promise to be better at posting!!

So until next time,
God Bless.

It Has Been A Busy Summer

WOW! July 24 already!!

This summer is flying by!

And we have been enjoying every bit of it!

June 29 we left on our two week vacation. We always plan our vacation time around the US Open Karate Championships in Orlando, FL and this year was no different.

We just took more time off than normal.

Frank and I wanted to see some of the sites between Abilene and Orlando that none of us had seen before. Originally we had planned to leave on Monday July 1, but if we left a day earlier we would have a little bit more time to play.

We didn't drive very far the first day, partly because we didn't think we were going to be able to leave as early as we did and secondly because I didn't measure our distances between stops very well. It all worked out ok though. Terrell, TX was our first stop and we got there early enough that Mattie got to swim for a long time.

This kid loves to swim!!



 

We got up pretty early to make it to our first stop. West Monroe, LA. We were headed to Duck Commander Headquarters. It was a surprise for Mattie. We love watching Duck Dynasty. The Robertson's are an amazing family that have held to their Christian values. We need more people like them on TV.

Looks just like it does on TV!

 

Then we headed on down the road. We had not planned to make any other site seeing stops but we missed a turn and while our GPS was getting us back on track, we passed this...

We all agreed we had time to stop!

 





We all love BPS and even though we didn't buy anything, we used the stop to eat lunch. And of course it was really good!

 

After we got back on course, we headed on to our Day 2 stop in Magee, MS. Again we got there early enough for Mattie to spend some time at the pool. And I needed to pick some things up at Walmart and it was just a stop light away, so very convenient for Katie and I to go by ourselves and not get lost.

 

We didn't have any stops planned for Day 3 because we needed to get on to Orlando and get in the hotel. It is about a six hour drive from Pensacola to Orlando with not much to see other than trees. But this time we got into some rain. And I mean it rained!!!!

Boy! Would we like to have this stuff back home!!!

 

It took us just a little longer than normal to get to Orlando because of the rain. There were some points when Frank was going about 50MPH because visibility was so bad! But we got there safely and all in one piece, checked in the hotel, ate at Joe's Crab Shack, Mattie and Katie hit the pool, then we settled in for the night. I had a lot of work to do and we had to be at the tournament site at 3:00PM to start getting things set up.

 

On Day 4 we had a yummy breakfast at the hotel, then I had to get to work. I had to turn two balloons covered in plaster of Paris into glitter filled coconuts and make a sign for each of Mattie's stations in her creative open. We packed Katie's Cricut and even though I had never used it, it didn't take me long to figure out how to get all my letters cut out. and Frank helped me get them glued on to the signs. We finished just in time to get to Coronado Springs and start unloading equipment. Well, I didn't unload anything, but everyone else did!!

All the material has to be unloaded off the trailer...

then unloaded again inside the building. It takes much more muscle and energy than I have these days.

 

After all this was done, it was time to find food, swim for a minute, the get to bed for another busy day.

 

 

Getting the tournament site ready for competition is always done on Day 5. It is always held at Disney's Coronado Springs resort. It is a great facility. When we walk in this is what it looks like...

 

And we have to get it ready for breaking (protecting the facility from the boards and bricks) 

 

And we also have to separate all the breaking material that everyone has ordered and get it ready for the competitors to pick it up.  

 All these bricks and boards will leave this building tomorrow in bits and pieces!!

 

 

We got finished early enough that we had some time to play, so we headed to Down Town Disney!

I wish I had this at my house!!!

 

 

We had time to go to a movie while we were there. Mattie wanted to see The Lone Ranger but it was all sold out so we saw Despicable Me 2. Just as good as the first and the most comfortable movie seats I have ever sat in!! Then it was back to the tournament to check in, get kinks worked out before the morning, the off to bed to get ready for competition.

 

Day 6 is what this vacation is all about, competing at the US Open Karate Championships. The WORLD'S largest karate competition. We have mad so many friends in the few years we have been going and that held true for this year as well. I must say, my family did very well this year. This was Katie's first year to compete and she was in two divisions and won them both!!! Frank won 3 firsts and one third. Mattie won 4 firsts and 1 second. She was so focused this year and her creative open stole the show. She had several of the masters tell her how much they enjoyed her performance. My family is amazing!!!

 

Competition took up the entire day, but Katie and Mattie did get out in time to go find some fireworks. It was Independence day after all!! It was a great day and we were ready to finish off with the ISKA competition on Saturday.

 

ISKA is by invitation only and is so much fun to watch. It is the Masters that we all love to watch. Frank helps on stage, helping to set up and to hold for the breakers, so he spends a lot more time there then the girls and I do. We headed down to the pool after Larry and Don did their creative,  then when Frank was finished he joined up. We decided to do a little bus hopping and went over to the Art of Animation resort. Frank and Mattie had never seen it and we had dinner there.

Then we headed back to the hotel to get ready to leave for Tampa on Sunday.

 

The drive to Tampa was nice. We got checked into the hotel, then headed over to Clearwater Beach to meet up with everyone else, spend some time in the ocean and have a cookout. Its what we do every year. It is a day to not have a real schedule because we all need a rest from all the rush of the competition. We had a lot of fun on Day 8 spending most of the day at the beach.

 

Day 9 was park day. We choose to go to Busch Gardens and it was a great decision!! We had a blast!! Great rides, beautiful park, and fantastic food!!!

Our visit was over come Tuesday morning, Day 10. We were headed to New Orleans. None of us had ever been there and decided to take a different route home so we could make a stop. It was a long drive and we arrived just in time to get checked into the hotel, find some supper and take a swim before it was bed time. We had some great food at a location recommended to us by the hotel. We were all very full. The child's hamburger that Mattie ordered could have fed three kids her size and Katie and I were so glad we decided to split something! It was more than enough for both of us!

Yummy!!!!

 

 

I had told Frank there was only one place that I really wanted to go while we were in New Orleans, and he kept his promise and we had breakfast there on Day 11

Café Du Monde, a must stop in NOLA!!

 

After a little site seeing and some shopping, we got back on the road and headed to my cousin's house in Kingwood. We stayed the night there and had a great time visiting, it just wasn't long enough!!!

 

On Day 12 we headed for home. It was a relaxed drive, well for us anyway! Frank won't let anyone else drive but he doesn't seem to mind!!

 

It was so nice to get home, but we are ready to do it all over again next year!!

 

We had a couple of days to relax before Frank had to go back to work and I was ready for my next surgery. I hope to have my video of our travels ready and posted in the next few days.

 

I will also have a post ready for you about my surgery.

 

In all this time away from home and seeing more of God's great creation that we have seen, it more evident than ever that,

 

Everything is going to be ok!!!

 

Until next time,

God Bless 





Memorial Monday

Monday was Memorial Day.

We are so thankful for the members of our families that served in the armed forces. Our US Military is awesome.

Ernest Mixon served in the US Army

Bill Merkel served in the US Air Force

Albert Zbendin served in the US Air Force

Thank you so much.

It was a busy day for us.

AMMA Karate was asked to participate in the Memorial Day festivities at the Abilene Bombers Arena Football half time show.

We started out the day with practice. Eighteen members participated in the show. Well that's to say "performed". That doesn't include all the behind the scenes people that helped. Someone has to set up, hold boards, bricks, bats and coconuts, take video and pictures, and clean up. We could not do this with out help.

Practice went great, but of course there were last minute changes. One thing about this team, they can work on the fly. Shihan is good about seeing things at the last minute that could make the show better. So our team is trained, from the littlest at 5 to the oldest at 52, to make changes just minutes before the show.

After practice, we had some lunch and rest time. Katie got Mattie bathed and hair washed so we didn't have to do it when we got home after the ball game. And Mattie wanted her hair curled so it had to be washed first.

We had to be back at the dojo for one last run through and to load everything in the trailer. Some day I'm going to remember to take a picture of the loaded trailer. You just can't imagine how much stuff it takes to do a 12 minute demo!!!

We got to watch the football game until about 12 minutes left in the second quarter, then the team had to head down to get ready.

 

Savanna, Mattie & Rayven getting ready!

 

 

It is always surprising to me how quickly a show goes.

 

Even practice seems slower than the actual event.

 



 

On the field ready to go!

 

 

Littles doing their thing!

 

Elbow done, ready for foot,

 

Weird picture!

She is actually just going into her front roll!

 

Mattie and Rayven starting their self defense skit.

 

Really?! Those big kids are going to mess with these girls?!

 

OK! We're ready!

 

Take that big guys!

 

Really?! You want more?!

LOL

 

Sai Kata

She had not done it in over a year and she did

very well!

 

Katie & Frank broke too,

I just couldn't get to that end of the field

to get a picture.

Don't remember the mascot's name.

Sorry!

Mattie and Rayven rockin' out to some Michael Jackson

after halftime!

 

Noah and Mattie enjoying a bird's eye view of the game.

 

We had a lot of fun at the game.

 

We even stayed until Mattie got tired even though it was a school night. There are , after all, only 3 1/2 days left!

 

So it was a busy, but memorable Memorial Day, and it reminds us, as always,

No matter what happens, what we are handed in this life,

 

Everything is going to be OK.

 

Until next time,

God bless. 

Super Sunday

Today was just a nice relaxed Sunday.

I love when we get to have those.

Frank and I started our morning with my B12 injection.

He is still doing a great job.

We went to church, out to mom's to check out her house after the terrible winds we've had this past week, then a quick lunch.

After lunch, we got to relax for just a bit before we had to head out to the dojo for a birthday party and some breaking practice.

Our team is doing a breaking demo at the Abilene Bombers Arena Football game or we wouldn't have had a practice on a holiday weekend.

We were hungry after practice and Frank was ready to cookout.

I didn't want to go to the grocery store, so I started digging in the freezer to see what we had to cook.

There was not enough of any one thing, so we made a smorgasbord of food. Bonus! I now have a clean freezer with room for more food!!

Mattie stayed the night at Rayven's so it's just a really quiet night around here.

We have to be back to practice in the morning at 9:00, so it will be an early night for us.

Yes, we know it is a holiday weekend.

I am so thankful for all the service men and women who have protected, are protecting and will continue to protect this wonderful country we live in. I hope everyone remembers to say a prayer for these awesome people tomorrow.

As we enjoy the rest of our weekend, no matter what is going on in your life, please remember...

Everything is going to be OK.

Until next time, God bless.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

October 24, 2012

I've heard it said all my life "Everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame."

Tonight it was my turn.

Well... mine and everyone at AMMA Karate.

KRBC/KTAB came out and did a story on AMMA's efforts to bring awareness to the fight for a cure for breast cancer.

More specifically, my fight.

It was a great report. Click here to see it.

I know I am behind on my post, but nothing really has changed, other than I have lost my hair. I promise to do a post on that and post some pictures. I have to. I have to keep record.

But one thing has remained steadily the same.

I have a great support group.

They are fighting for me.

Through prayer.

That is so much more than I ever expected.

I have prayer warriors everywhere, literally world wide.

And if I keep telling myself, if I can just touch one person's life

Everything is going to be OK.

Until next time, God Bless.

Only Eight Days Left

I just don't know where the time goes. It seems like it was just yesterday I was typing this post about Mattie starting kindergarten and now there are only eight days left of the school year. She has done some amazing things this year. She is, for the most part, a good student. She has her normal six year old days where she ends up having to move her pin to yellow or worse, but she has mastered everything she was supposed to this year. On her iStation test she is reading at a 1.8. What that means - if she were in the first grade she would be ready to go on to second!

She still loves to help me around the house, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry of all things. She makes Frank and I laugh on a daily basis just from being herself. She is improving in her karate which she loves and is looking forward to karate camp this summer. She told us last week it was her favorite part of karate! I so glad she loves karate so much. It keeps her constantly moving.

Tournaments are still a high priority on her list but she is not going to as many as she did last year. It was just too much. They are fun, but by the end of the year we were just worn out!

We are not quite sure what the summer has in store for us yet. She will be going to karate camp and she has a huge ready list waiting for her including a new series of chapter books and we'll be doing some swimming too. We may go on some new adventures, take our usual trip to the beach or just hang out around the house. Whatever we choose this year, I know it will be great.


Until next time,

God Bless

Wild Wild West Texas Championships - My Turn

I have not competed since last July when we went to the US Open in Orlando, I have not even worked out since then. Because of the lapse of post on my little bloggy here, you don't know about my arm injury. Long story short - I fell, got a shot, burst two bursa sacks in my right arm, had extremely limited usage for several months. A good reason not to go around breaking things with my hand huh?! But I'm better now, so I competed.

I didn't have any competition so I decided to try for some records, but I chickened out when it came to my arm. For concrete elbow and hand (which I had never tried) I just tried to break one brick. Elbow - I succeeded, hand - I did not! Don't know that I will be trying either of those anymore. I have a really nice bruise on my arm and palm. I need to rethink the technique I use for my hand if I do decide to try that again, but I'm thinking I will leave the concrete breaks to my foot!

For power wood hand I also decided not to try for the record, because now I have a bruise on my palm! I stacked 6 and broke 3. Not the best success but I will keep trying, maybe. That downward strike left some pain in my arm that I am not two happy with and I really don't want to end up back in the doctor's office and PT!

Last year at the US Open, I didn't know what the record was until after I broke. I missed the record by 2. I was not a happy camper and that record has changed since then. It is now 10 and I was ready to break it. But I guess not ready enough! I stacked 11 and broke 7, one less than what I broke last year. I will continue to work on that before July when we head back to Florida.

My final event was power wood foot and the record for it was also standing at 10, so I stacked 11. Funny, it seemed such a small stack to me after stacking those 11 bricks!

 Yes I did it! I was so excited! Now we just need to keep working on Frank so he can hold a record with me!

We are probably going to Houston next weekend to participate in the Houston International. That's the tournament where Mattie won a bicycle last year. So hopefully I can get that concrete record then!

Until next time:

God Bless.

Wild Wild West Texas Karate Championships - Frank's Turn

Frank did some breaking Friday night during the breaking portion of the tournament. He didn't win anything thing, but he had some personal accomplishments that are just as important. He didn't think he could break concrete! Don't ask me why he thought this, I break concrete after all! If I can do it I knew he could.

His first attempt was the Power Concrete Foot, or as we call it foot stomp concrete. He stacked eleven bricks and only broke eight. But for his first time that was great and just that he did it made me happy.

So proud of you! Love you Honey!

 Until next time

God Bless!

Not Even Going To Try To Play Catch Up!

It's been way to long, seven months, since I have posted on my little blog page. I have missed it, but have been wrapped up in life. Since it has been so long I am going to only go forward. I am not going to try to go back and play catch up. I do have some things (Mattie's tournaments and school) that I will post about when I have nothing else to say, but until then, Forward HO!

This past weekend, was the Wild Wild West Texas Karate Tournament. This is our tournament to host, well, our dojo's anyway. This year I took on some of the registration and tracking jobs. Let's just say the things that need to be done on the computer. Did I take on more than I should have? No, just took me a bit of time to get them done because I was learning at the same time. Will I do this next year if asked? Of course. If Larry and Terry think I did a good enough job and ask me to do it again I will. I still have some things to learn but I also learned some things to do differently to make the process flow a bit better.

Frank, Mattie, and myself all participated in the tournament. We tried to get Katie to do some breaking but she didn't. But she did run those long legs of hers all weekend. And I mean run. She was at our beck and call all weekend and she did a great job. But she needs to learn to delegate a bit more, but I think that also comes with experience (age) and it will be easier for her next year.

We had some great personal accomplishments for all of us. But I want to focus on what I believe was Mattie's personal best accomplishment this weekend.

A few weeks ago, Larry asked her if she would sing the National Anthem to kick off our tournament. That little toot didn't even take a breath before she answered "Of course I will Shihan!" So we began practicing. First with clips from Youtube with either the words or a person or persons singing. Then we just found some instrumental pieces for her to practice with. She never got discouraged while she was practicing, but most of her practice sessions took place in the car between home, school and the dojo. Time is very limited around tournament time as I'm sure most of you know.

One day she told me she really didn't want to sing with music, so she started practicing without it. And she was doing great. The Star Spangled Banner (National Anthem) is not an easy piece of music to sing for an adult that has been singing it forever, much less a six year old child that has only a couple of weeks to learn it. But she was determined she was not going to let Shihan down. My biggest fear for her was not remembering the words, but getting a case of stage fright. She would be performing in front of 365 competitors and their families/spectators after all, probably about 600 people in all. Yes, this grandma was a bit nervous!

Friday night, she did get to practice in front of a smaller crowd during the breaking/grappling/continuous sparring part of the tournament, but that was at the dojo in front of mostly our own families and friends, not many strangers.

How did she do? Well watch the following Youtube and you judge for yourself.

WOW! I love the crowd's reaction! She had a few mistakes, but I think she did great. Her placing her hand over her heart, she did that herself! We had concentrated so much on learning the song we forgot to remind her of that. But like any proud American, she remembered and did exactly what she was supposed to do! The child has no fear! I know she will go on to accomplish great things.

Until next time:

God Bless

US Open Orlando 07-01 & 02-11

Yes!

We went to Florida!
Again!
Just seven short months after we were there for the first time!

But this time was for fun of a different kind.
We (and I mean Mattie May, Frank, and I)
all competed in the US Open Karate World Championships!
Yes, Frank and I really did compete!
When we first started planning for this,
we were going for Mattie May to compete.
But Larry said he needed some more warm bodies on his team,
so just three short weeks before we left,
Frank and I started learning to break!
Most of Team Abilene traveled together,
in a 16 passenger van and
Don took his truck to pull the trailer
with all the breaking supplies on them.
HERE WE GO!

We followed the truck most of the way.

One of the longest stretches of the trip finally over!
I love my Texas home,
but it sure takes a long time to cross the border!We drove straight through the night all the way to Orlando.
Not any pictures of the night travel,
no flash on my iPhone!
The next morning the girls are still doing good.
They did very well traveling for such a long time!We finally made it to Orlando,
and we had to travel all the way to the Sunshine state
to see rain!
The skies opened up just as we pulled into Orlando
and we began to wonder if we would ever see the sun while we were there! After dinner together at Cici's,
we all went and checked into our rooms to get some
much needed rest.
Later that evening,
Frank and I took the girls in our room to
Downtown Disney.
We weren't going to make it to any of the parks this trip,
but we wanted them to have at least a taste of
Disney while we were there.

I fell in love with this fountain!
I want to do this in my back yard!

It didn't take long for Mattie May to find the
girl with the pixie dust!

I was still finding Pixie dust in her hair earlier this week!

Then we found the Lego store!

Wow! Recognize this guy?!
LOL

It amazes me what they do with Legos!

As we were walking around,
the girls found this little guy at
World of Disney.

I don't know about you,
but we love Stitch at our house,
and this one spits at you!
The kids loved it.

We ate supper at the
Earl of Sandwich.
It was really yummy
or I was just really hungry!
I wolfed mine down like I hadn't
eaten in a day or two!
Then we just walked around for awhile.

Mattie May found a place to play with
Mr. Potatohead for a bit,

and of course we had to find the child some ice cream,

and Lolo thought she deserved a little something special
for traveling so well the past two days.
And I'm a sucker for Tinker Belle!

I also couldn't let her leave the Disney area
without a pair of Independence Day Ears!

Waiting for our taxi.

Thursday was a day of work!
We found a place to keep the doodle bugs resting for a while,
even if we did have to use a table cloth as a blanket!

It was time to get that trailer unloaded,and start stacking everything in the building.
Larry and Don found some fans to start drying out all the bricks.
Love the rain, but it sure made for some extra work.

This is what it looked like as we first walked in,

but it didn't take long for us to fill our area!

We spent the rest of Thursday setting up and
getting everything ready for Friday.
Late that evening we had the little girls go through
their creative programs,
just run through,
no breaking.
Then it was off to get these kids fed
and into bed.
Friday was going to be a long day!

Back to Coronado Springs Resort at
7:30 Friday morning.
I don't have a lot of pictures of this day,
I just can't explain how busy
we were.

Frank giving Mattie May a pep talk before her Tiny Tots creative.

Now I have to do some explaining here. We (the adults) didn't read the rules quite right and thought that the Tiny Tots was a power division, so neither Mattie May or Rayven had a creative routine for this division. It took Don about two minutes to get our team together, tell them what break they would be holding for and run through it with Mattie May. So for something done on the fly, I must admit, I was very proud of her.

Tiny Tots Creative, Wood only

What can I say? Not bad to win 4Th place!

Don explaining to the girls what happened and
how proud we are of them for doing their best.
That's all we ever ask!

Then it was Frank's turn.
Mattie May giving some encouragement to Grumpy
before his first break.

Frank's first event was Power Side Kick Wood.
He had practiced for this,
oh,
let me think,

THE NIGHT BEFORE!
That's right! The first time he had ever tried this technique was
on Thursday night!
Getting set up

He really didn't want me to show this, but when have I ever listened to what he said!

His first attempt

Yes ouch! He hit the bar that was holding the boards!
But I am so proud of him! He won second place in this events.

As with any tournament we go to,
there is a lot of waiting.
Mattie May passes the time playing games on my iPhone,
or listening to music,

and if we are really lucky,
we get her to take a nap!

It will eventually take more than two chairs for her,
but she slept here for about two hours!
Never moved!
Even with all the noise around her!
Wish I could sleep like that!

Frank and I had to wait too!

We didn't think we were ever going to get to our events.

Finally it was time for Mattie May's creative open.
Again, I don't have many pictures.
Why?
Because it takes the entire team to set up,
then I walk Mattie May through and we check all
her stations to make sure they're right,
then when she starts,
I get excited and end up with fuzzy pictures!
What can I say?
I want her to do good!

Double Hammer Fist

with a great horse stance I might add!

The remains of her skull!

I'm telling ya!
The boys better watch out!

She only missed one break to put her in second place!

So proud!

Here's a shot that's not quite as blurry!

Now to keep her occupied while Frank and I compete.

My first event was Power Concrete Foot.
Before this competition,
I had only broken concrete once,

at the dojo,

about two weeks earlier,

and I broke three.

I really didn't think Larry had entered me in any foot breaks,
but he did,
in wood,
but he changed me when we got there
because he liked the bricks.
He said they were "sweet"!
Yeah,
OK,
You're the boss Shihan!

I only set up six caps,
thinking if I could break
half of them I would be OK.

Drake giving me a few tips.
I had not used a step before.
Thanks, Drake!

Rachel went before me,
and broke 7 of 7.
I would have to break 8 to win.

Frank and I decided when we agreed to this,
that we were going to win.
Why try for anything else?
I think some of his competitiveness is finally rubbing off on me!
So I added two caps,
got a wink from Frank,
and went for it!

Sorry, but this is the best photo I can give you!
Frank got a bit excited when I broke
EIGHT OF EIGHT!

That's right!
I won a world title!
Never in my wildest dreams was this one of them!
Not for breaking anyway!

Then it was on to
Power Wood Hand.
Again,
Rachel went in front of me and broke
5 of 5.
That meant I had to break
6 of 6.

Thanks Candy for the great shot of my break,

just wish I would have broken them all.
5 of 6.
Second place.

Then I had power wood elbow and I think I broke
5 of 6 again.
I just don't remember.
Rachel again won 1st and I won 2ND.
Not bad for my first time!
Then we got to concentrate on Frank.
Power Wood Hand

All set and ready to break

In mid break
(Yes, I know it's fuzzy!)

and the results

Six of Six
for 1st place and a
World Title
of his own!

Then he had
Power Wood Elbow
He had to break
9 of 9 for the win.

8 of 9 for
second place!

Not bad for a days work!
For our house
Two World Titles
Five Seconds
One Forth!
We are ready to start working towards next year!

Saturday was all about Larry.
His competition started early Saturday morning
and went to about the middle of the afternoon.

Setting up one of his concrete breaks.

Multi Directional Break - Wood

Larry did great himself!
First Place Power Concrete Elbow
Won the Ultimate Breaker
Set record for most baseball bats broken with elbow in 10 seconds

Total
Team Abilene brought home 23 World Titles
and numerous other trophies.
We have just over a year to get ready for next years open!

The rest of the trip was all about relaxing!
Sunday we headed to Cocoa Beach and Melbourne.
Frank and "all his girls"
stayed in Melbourne.

Not a bad view to have made the reservation just
five minutes before we arrived!

Everyone enjoyed our time at the beach.

I think Mattie May really enjoyed having others there to play with
besides Grumpy and Lolo!

Making sand angles!

They are growling at me for some reason!
LOL

We really blew Katie away
when we told her Mattie May was
playing with the jellyfish!

I'm sure this guy is who she had pictured in her head.

He is a big no no to touch.
You can tell by the red!

But she was just playing with these little guys.

Harmless.
They have no tentacles.
I don't know why.
If you do,
please,
do tell!

Monday morning,
I got up early to do something I have always
wanted to do.
I made my way down to the beach
by myself
and took some pictures of the sunrise.

God is so gracious to allow me
to enjoy His handiwork!
Stunning!

We then headed to Cocoa Beach to meet up with
the others for a breakfast cooked by Shihan!
Very yummy!

Frank, the man of my dreams!

Mattie May ready to hang ten!

Grumpy and Mattie May enjoying the waves.

And Frank's trophy wife!

We could not get her out of the water as usual!

This kid loves the beach!

Back at the hotel,
the girls and I watched fireworks from
the balcony in our room.
They were great and went on for hours.
Some professional,
others amateur,
but all were fantastic!

Tuesday was time to head back to Texas!
We loved the trip,
But just like Dorthy says
"There is no place like home!"

Mattie May traveled like this for quite a bit of the trip.

She deserved it.
Both the doodle bugs were troopers
on this long trip.

But when she was awake,
She was her normal silly self!

Showing me her milk mustache!

When we pulled into the dojo
this was my GPS!

Notice the totals of moving and stopped time!
Long trip!

It was a great trip.
We had some fantastic times,
learned a lot,
and are ready to do it all again next year,
with a few changes!
Next year I'm flying!

Until next time, God Bless!