Friday

What a week this has been!
My daughter had an assignment to do for Sa Bu Nim that she not only did, she finished it by Wednesday. It was turned in yesterday. Unfortunately, she "didn't feel like going to class" which she needed. She won't be going to class on Saturday because she's going to be out with me at the Scouting for Food drive. We're doing that as part of Cub Scouts. Hopefully the weather is going to cooperate...it's expected to be rainy and very cold tomorrow.

I don't have a black belt prep class tomorrow which is good! I need the time off to keep resting my leg. It has been bugging me more than normal this week. I think it may have been aggravated by the kicks we did on Wednesday. We practiced our recoil from the kick. One of the instructors had us go up and down the big room doing front kicks, then round kicks, then side kicks and finally back kicks. The final drill was a combination of front, round, back kicks. The transition from front to round is not that hard, but if you don't put your foot down just right, you'll wind up falling on your face. We also did rolls. Rolls are NOT my strong point. I truly hate rolling and falling. Part of it is an excuse--I wear glasses and cannot see without them, so if I want to see what I'm doing, have to have my glasses on. I also don't want to accidentally roll on them and break them because I don't have a back up pair. I truly hate not being able to see. Another reason I don't like falling is a fear of pain. I don't want to be hurt. It sounds weird--I'm involved in a sport that involves throws and falls and I'm not excited about either one. Need to work on that.

(9:55 am)
We just got back from the doctor's office with the little guy. He has pneumonia and is doing MUCH better. This entire thing started on Tuesday evening when I picked him up from school. He was complaining of a headache. By 10:00 pm Tuesday night, he was running a fever of 101.7. It didn't go away, in fact, it actually got worse by Wednesday. His fever at its highest was 103.8. Tony and I traded out work hours on Wednesday so that one of us was at work and one was home with him. I worked the "first shift" for 5 hours, then he went to work until 6:30-7:00. Took him to the doctor's office, where the flu was ruled out. They did a chest x-ray and determined that he has pneumonia. He got a shot (not a happy camper with that!), the doctor gave us Albuterol and sent us home with a couple of prescriptions and instructions to keep him home.
The fever broke overnight. Mr. A had been sleeping as much as possible Wednesday--pretty much all day long. By 6:30 yesterday morning, he was up and awake. He asked to play on the Wii yesterday, so I obliged. :) (shhh, I'm a bad mommy!)
Today we had a follow up appointment. He's doing better--still out of school. Still on meds. The antibiotics will be finished on Monday so he's good there.

He has an awesome teacher who followed up with an email to me, asking about the little guy. She is fabulous! She caught the need for intervention early in the school year and has been very supportive of him during this year. I wrote her back and told her what was going on. He'll be back at school and just as ornery as ever on Monday. That means that he'll also go back to martial arts and WILL participate in class or I will know why!!!!

Prep class review and random thoughts

If you THINK you're working hard, you probably aren't. How do I know this? Because after the workout yesterday, almost every part of me aches. I only *thought* I was working out hard in class!!!
Yesterday was the first of my black belt prep classes. Yes, I've already achieved the rank of black belt, but I have to re-certify for the Federation, so I have to take classes to make sure that I know the forms and the one steps and do them correctly. The importance of doing the forms correctly is emphasized here. Plus, this time around, they've added physical fitness test to the mix, so you have more work to do.

The morning started out with a minute's worth of jumping jacks. I am happy to say that this old lady can knock out 70 jumping jacks in a minute. (While that may not be overly spectacular, given my impression of jumping jacks, I think it's actually rather good!!) After that, he made us do 30 (I think) push ups, then we did another 50 jumping jacks. We also did one legged squats. There was also an exercise where we got into a push up position and brought first one leg, then the other up between our hands. It's like a split, but not quite. Those I can't do, courtesy of my left quad. (note to self--get thee to the doctor to have that checked out ASAP!) The one legged squats were the hardest, I think. You have to basically go into crane stance, but keep your hands up by your face. The foot you are NOT balancing on cannot touch the ground. Sound fun? Yep. Try maintaining your balance being still 50+ pounds overweight! I digress...

I was fairly pleased with my performance on MOST of the forms. I still have issues with joon be on Bassai, Nahainchi Cho Dan and Sip Soo. I know that Bassai is left foot raised, Nahainchi Cho Dan is right foot raised and Sip Soo is left foot raised. Then you have to add in your hands as well. It looks really neat when it's done correctly by someone who isn't balance challenged. I stood next to a 14 year old from my belting class and watched him out of the corner of my eye. It's obvious, even to me, that he practices. I see major differences between him and myself. I need to work more on practicing on my off days from class. (Off days? What off days? I practically live up there--classes four days a week plus the prep class on Saturdays.)

This morning I feel older than my 42, almost 43 years. I'm stiff and sore in places I didn't think would be stiff and sore!! I don't mind it though. It reminds me that I got an excellent work out in yesterday. I decided this morning that I'm taking the family to one of the local parks and I'll work on Bong Hyung Il Bu since that's something I want to nail. I am determined to go to the next class having my forms look better than I think they look now.

I had a talk with Sa Bu Nim McGee a few weeks ago and mentioned to him that I felt like my stances had gotten better. I said I was seeing improvement in myself. He said that it's possible that I'm seeing where people are making their mistakes and that I've been making the same ones, but now I'm correcting my mistakes automatically. Must be because I'm learning how to spot the mistakes and correct them in others, so I can correct them in myself.


Sa Bu Nim told us in class yesterday that we needed to keep a practice record and have our parents sign it. Well, I'm the parent, so I have no one to sign mine. I asked Mrs. T if she'd sign mine for me. She's my 'boss' in the LN/YW class and is one of my best friends. We had a good giggle about that.

Looking forward, I know what I need to do to make improvements. Next week is the first of three pre-tests for this belt test. It's on forms and I'm going to have a good pre-test.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! May you have a year full of success and happiness in every endeavor you undertake!

Tomorrow is my first class after the Christmas break. I'm really excited about it. I want to get in and work really hard. Unfortunately, with my left leg acting weird, I'm not sure how well I'll be able to do the kicks and such. My daughter body-slammed me on Sunday and it's been acting up again. I went out walking today to try to get an idea of how it feels. I'm still thinking of going for another walk this evening. That's just a thought. Mr. M told me a week ago Saturday to rest it and not worry too much about it. Rest it I have, but...it's still bothering me.
I can't let it bother me since I have to get busy and work on my re-certification.

After gaining six tenths of a pound last week, I've been really conscious about my eating habits. I don't want to be overly paranoid, but...I HAVE to eat "clean" and stay on plan if I intend to get another twenty pounds off. I haven't set a time frame for that twenty, but...that's another ten percent and I am determined to make it. I still haven't figured out the logistics of Saturdays...get up and dressed, get to McKinney for weigh in, then attend at least 15 minutes of the meeting (meetings are 30 minutes long. They start at 7:30 and I have to be at the dojang at 8:00). I'll have to sprint out, get to the car and zip down to Allen to the dojang by 8:00 to attend the training classes for two hours. Hubby will bring the kids up to the dojang for their classes, which I'll probably assist with. Then it's clean the dojang and head for home. Somewhere in that time, I'll have to eat too. Haven't figured THAT out yet. I'm going to work on it...I usually don't eat before weigh in because I'm paranoid. I think I'll take something with me to eat during the meeting (peanut butter sandwich and an apple??) or in the car on the way to class. Just have to figure it out.

So, right out of the box, I go to work, then to teach and then to my class. Thursday, I have to teach. I'm probably going to skip Thursday's class and help the kids with homework. They'll be back at school that day and will need to have the help with getting back into the swing of things.
It'll work out.

Sunday

Ahh, Sunday. It's a day to relax. I had my Black Belt Prep class yesterday for two hours. I have to say, I popped out one of my absolute BEST round-house kicks with my left leg EVER yesterday! My left leg is not my best kicking leg. I have more power and strength on my right side for some silly reason. Well, he had us kicking pads. We had to stand exactly in front of the person holding the pad, raise our knees, then turn our hips over and kick. It was all very controlled, but I could definitely see a HUGE difference over just throwing my leg out there. Now if I can just do this during the test! LOL!! I will. I know I will. Control is the name of the game. I'm learning it.

Here's a bit of amusement for you...out of this black belt class, there are only FOUR girls/women. Two of them already have their black belts and only one is an adult. I find that amusing. I think we'll have a rather large group when we test as there are only around 15 CDB's and then we have the three or four Black Belts who are testing or recertifying for third Dan. I think some of the newest Cho Dan Bo's will be in the test too. Should be fun. It's only 39 days away now!

The kids are down at one of Tony's cousins' house this weekend. They left Friday night. The house is just quieter than quiet with them gone. I miss them. It's nice to not have them stomping and scuffing around on the floor, but man is it QUIET!! I had to turn on a CD to listen to because of it.

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Friday night. It was GOOD! I was surprised by the ending, but that's probably what Rowling wanted when she wrote the book. I would recommend it to anyone! Really, I would. I truly enjoyed the series and am going to re-read it at some point.

Not a whole lot is planned for today. I'm currently downloading mail and planning on what I can do to surprise Tony when he gets home from work. I think I'll just go in and make something he likes for dinner. I have a recipe I call "Hubby's Favorite" that uses hamburger (browned) with tomato sauce and elbows, topped with cheese and baked until the cheese is all melty. That's probably his dinner tonight. Then he can take it for lunch tomorrow too. IF it lasts that long. He likes it a lot, so it could disappear rather quickly. We shall see.

Well, the washer has stopped, so I need to do a little maintenance in that area. I may hang some clothes out on on the back porch on hangars. It's hot enough that they'll dry very quickly!! LOL!!