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 Karate Championship - My Failed Record attempt

As I stated in my previous post, I tried for the record in power concrete foot. I didn't succeed, but I hope to try again soon. Here is the video of my attempt.

Well, I'll keep practicing and hopefully I will get it soon!!!

Until next time:

Gob 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

Where Have I Been?

WOW! I have been MIA from my little bloggy for almost a month. Didn't mean too, just haven't had enough time lately! We have been busy bee's around here. I promise to get some good post up soon. I have several karate tournaments to tell you about, the fair, and an injury. 


But all is well and we are all happy. 


Until next time, God Bless. 

First Day of Kindergarten 08.22.11

Seriously! Where has the summer gone?! It has been over a month since I posted about our trip the US Open and I am not sure where that month went.

Whatever happened to it, it's gone, and today was the first day of school for our Mattie May. Oops! I forgot! She's just Mattie now! Anyway, it seems to me as if this is the child that should be starting school, not her daughter.

Last night we did well and got to bed at a decent hour, knowing we had to get Mattie up about 45 minutes earlier than what she is used to. Slept well and ready to get the day started.

Some where in this bed is a five year old ready to start school.

Still not sure where she is, but this is where I left her last night.

That kind of looks like a child snuggled up there!

There she is, under all that hair! Oh My!

I know a lot of people have special things they fix for breakfast for the first day of school, but I just leave it up to her. I was ready for just about everything, but all she wanted were chocolate muffins, a banana, and milk. Not the best breakfast ever, but what she wanted. I'll insist on a little better in the morning.

We finally got teeth brushed, clothes on, and all that hair tamed!

She is ready to go.

She choose this outfit, even the knee socks. This child loves knee socks!!

And those things are hard to find for those little legs!

She wanted dog ears!

So I did the best I could with the hair she had!

A pose for Grumpy and Mommie.

Posing at school for Mommie to take her picture.

One last picture with Mommie.

My two favorite girls in the world!

Miss Cagle, her teacher.

She found her locker and her desk and was ready to go.

She said she had a great day today, and she even had homework!

She loves having homework!

How long will that last.

As best we can tell,

the most exciting thing they did today was make gingerbread man

(and women)

cookies,

And they disappeared out of the oven just like in the book!

They looked all over the school campus and couldn't find them!

I took me awhile

(with a little help from my cousin)

to see what the teachers were doing.

Isn't that a cute way to teach these kids

their way around the new to them campus?!

I can't wait to see if they find those cookies tomorrow!

And this kid...

this is how she looked after a full day at school

and an afternoon at karate!

That poor white shirt may never be the same!

I hope all of you had a great first day of school. I know not all of you still have students at home, but in some way or another, we are all connected to someone starting school!

God Bless you all!