Geez, two weeks without a post??

Well, I don't know where I've been, mentally. Actually, I do. I've had a rough couple of days recently. Last Friday, I had to put my old cat to sleep and ever since then, I've fought with being depressed over that decision. He was 13 years old (just turned 13) and had some mental issues. I feel bad that I made the decision, but at the same time, I know he's much better off. It doesn't mean I have to LIKE the choice! I do miss him though. He had some idiosyncrasies that were fun--like beating on my arm with his paw when he thought I'd had enough sleep! Waking up that way was always a trip. I miss that. I miss his loud "roaring" purr in the middle of the night as he slept on my pillow. I miss his cheerful "purrrsonality". He was a great cat.

I totally skipped out of CIT and all martial arts classes this week. I haven't been to WW in over a month either. That's all going to change. I'm sick and tired of being tired. I'm tired of feeling down. I am re-starting a lot of things as of Saturday. I know, don't put things off. I weighed myself this morning and got good and disgusted with myself. Well, no more. I WILL be healthier and happier. It's all in my hands to make the changes. I'm going to attack it with a healthier attitude come Monday.

I covered for my boss today at work; that's always a fun experience. We had the other woman in the department retire last week, so things have been a bit difficult. We've all had to make huge adjustments to compensate for her not being there. I took almost 40 calls even with doing his work. Pretty busy...I had installations to set up, calls to close, updates to gather, etc. Plus approving defective consumable requests, service exchanges, etc. I was busy!

So, tomorrow's Friday. The boss will be back. I'll be ready to go to work and be productive. Saturday I'm taking the fat cat (Skeeter, my "youngster") to the vet to get HIS checkup. We know he's healthy. I'll be traumatizing him so he'll be hateful to me. He already doesn't like me (He's my hubby's cat...he just avoids me like the plague, but will sleep at my feet at night. Go figure!). May as well make him even more unhappy with me!

Aidan is writing a story about a T-Rex named "Aidan". He had hair, which made him different from the other dinosaurs. It's a project for school. He made a leaf dinosaur to go with the story.

Wednesday

I taught class again tonight. This time, Mr. M was in the building. He held a mandatory meeting with the other instructors. I was left out because he needed me to run the class. Okay...I can handle it. I'm feeling pretty good about it, all things considered.

When I got to the dojang, I got locked out by one of the instructors--she said it was my "rite of passage". I got revenge--she left her belt on the front desk and went back to the locker room. She told me to watch her belt. When she came back, it wasn't there. At my suggestion, we hid it (Ms. L, Mr. B and I, that is). haha! Okay, so it's kind of silly, but you know what? I felt like I belonged. I got a seriously good giggle out of it. She got her belt back and forgave me. I took the blame for it anyway.

Anyway, they all had a meeting and I got the class. Wahoo! I enjoyed that. I got Mrs. W tonight. Last Wednesday, it was her hubby who took the class. She's my friend Jason's neighbor. Mr. M grabbed me and told me I was teaching tonight's class, then ran everyone else into the little room. Lucky me! I had the big room (and the loudmouthed younger brother of the one guy I have issues with--it's in the family because I don't like his brother either!) all to myself, with my class. There were three black belts--one's a loud kid (teenager!!) and the other two, while they're also teens, they're more respectful, but goofier. They like to play all sorts of tricks on each other. They were goofing off together.

I ran the class through a not overly strenuous warm up, then we did some stretches. After that, I ran them through some quick techniques (kicking and punching), then we did forms, then played with a Wavemaster to practice kicks. I enjoyed that. Then we sparred. I like being able to make it different. They don't know what I'm going to do. I enjoyed it. I didn't freak out---just went in and said to myself, "Okay, I'm expected to run this class, run it I shall! I OWN the class!" I did. *I* think I did, anyway!

Hopefully Mr. M will be told by the attendees what they thought of me teaching. I'd like them to feel free to tell him that either I totally suck or I'm a good teacher.

If it's the second Saturday, it's CIT...

It's the second Saturday of the month, so you know that means CIT class.
Today's class was very informative. One of the changes Mr. M has implemented involved one of the lead instructors flying out to visit another studio. It was pretty neat to hear how excited he was this morning when he came back. We talked about the culture we're developing in our school, what we want our students to get from us when they walk in the door. We talked about presentation--your presentation is going to make a difference in whether your students are interested or not interested.
He led us through a warm up that was quick and very high-tempo. We did 20 jumping jacks and counted them out loud. We jogged in place, then did front falls, did pushups (10), got back up, jogged in place, turned and did a back fall, then did crunches with no count until he told us to get back up, then we did more jogging in place. Then he had us turn to the left into a good guarding stance and do left jabs. We had to repeat that multiple times as we were entirely too slow in several instances. Then he decided that we'd have a little competition and try to outdo Mr. Todd and Ms. Jackson. The point was to be a faster and better than either of them.

After that, he had a couple of instructors lead us in techniques and kicking drills so that we could get used to his teaching style. He then pointed out where the individuals could have made improvements. Our MMA teacher was also there and he led us in jab and cross combinations. I enjoyed that part of it because that's something I know I need work on.

We did an old Tae Kwan Do form today. It's an ITF form and we learned it in the CIT class. Transitioning from TSD to TKD is a bit of a challenge if you're used to doing things one way. I learned TSD to begin with, so this is a little bit of a change. My best friend was an old TKD person, so this form will be nothing new to him. He remembers his TKD training.

I made sure Mr. M knew that the instructor who led the Black Belt class on Thursday did a great job. I told her that she did a great job too. I have since found my butt, which I didn't realize was missing until yesterday, when it showed up again. That was as a result of her lunge drills.

Black belt class

I attended the black belt class last night. I normally do not attend these classes just because I'm up at the dojang almost every night and like to spend a *little* time with my family, but since it was Mrs. T's birthday, I decided to stay around after the Little Ninja/Young Warriors class. I had brought her some brownies and ate 2 of them, so I HAD to work out!

Ms. F taught the class last night. She's a pretty tough teacher. I liked the warm ups. She's a soccer player and she had us doing some of the warm ups they use in soccer--alternating lunges, squats and then "I'm a stars". An "I'm a star" is where you get into a squat position, burst up in the air, spread your arms and legs out and say "I'm a star!!" loudly. I skipped those because I was feeling my leg.
I did the three sprints, to the end of the room and back. I don't usually run, or at least, not fast. I was trying to keep up with an 11 year old and that's not a good idea for a 42 year old. LOL!!

Wednesday night class

I taught my class last night. I just made up my mind that I was NOT going to let the fact that I train with these people intimidate me. I went in with the feeling that I was going to do well in class and that I was going to make it fun, but a good workout and I think I accomplished that goal.
We started out with the basics--bowing in, etc. Then I had everyone move to the end of the room and we started our warm up drills. They ran from one end to the other, then they bunny hopped back. I had them do lunges with a front snap kick, then they did crunches and push ups. I also had them revisit some of our *old* material--the combinations I first learned when I was starting out three years ago. Those were fun. I found myself demonstrating the combinations and when I did, I noticed that my front stance was a bit better. Yippee!

Since Wednesday is a sparring night, I had everyone work on front leg front snap kicks, round house kicks, side kicks and hook kicks. We worked with a Wavemaster and had fun knocking it down. After that, we went to actual sparring. I tried to make sure the sparring was fun but worked well so that everyone felt that they accomplished something.

I decided to go in with the attitude that I was going to take charge of that class and own it last night, which I think I did. I am still pretty pleased about how it went. I feel like I can do this again. I would like to think that Mr. M will give me the responsibility of doing this whenever he's out of the office and when other people are busy. That way it's a good use of me and allows me to get in more teaching time. Now I need to go look at my calendar and see if that qualifies as a credit toward my teaching certificate...

Golf

Hubby's watching golf and talking about what the pro golfers take home for second place. I said "Can I go learn to play golf and turn pro?" He said "sure, but you'll have to play in the Seniors." GEE, Dear!! Thank you for that!! I'm not a senior citizen yet!!

Looking ahead

My best friend usually teaches the adult classes on Mondays and Wednesdays but he broke his wrist last Saturday so he can't do it. Our instructor is going to a meeting in Colorado this week and is taking the other two lead instructors, so there won't be anyone to teach the adult class. There ME!!
I'm not teaching tomorrow but I DO need to have a workable game plan put together for my class on Wednesday. This means that I have to watch 3 videos (which I haven't looked at YET) and then write out what I'm planning. I really want to do the best job I can possibly do because I don't want the students to hate the class. I also don't want to get off the curriculum. I'm really looking forward to it. I won't have anyone to back me up. This should be interesting. I can do it. I know I can. Just need to make sure I plan appropriately. I have to get an adequate warm up. With adults, it's a lot easier to keep their interest than it is with the Little Ninjas and Young Warriors. The kids are anywhere from 4-6 and it's hard to keep their attention span longer than 1-2 minutes up to 5-6 minutes at a time. The adults are putting the effort in because they see the results faster and it means a lot to them.

Wednesday is a sparring day. I have to teach sparring and do drills. I need to incorporate that into my warm up, I think. I do not want to spend the entire class sparring. Sparring isn't my personal favorite thing, but it'll be good to teach it just because. Hopefully it'll be a good class. I'm not overly nervous about it, amazingly. I know I can teach it. I just have to be prepared. I'll be meeting with Mr. M tomorrow to go over the lesson plan.

CIT

Our instructor moved our CIT classes to every other Saturday at 8:00 am. It's actually pretty cool to be up there for two hours, working on our materials and learning HOW to teach. You can show someone what to do, but if you don't actually learn how to present it, you'll inevitably wind up boring someone.
Mr. M had us work on a phone script after talking to us about some of the changes he's making to the school. Inevitably everyone will wind up answering the phone at some point or another. It helps to have everyone on the same page, literally, when it comes to answering the phone.
We also worked on our presentation of the materials we're teaching. Instead of showing the kids what we want them to do, we are supposed to show them and then if we see someone who is doing the technique exactly as we want them to be doing it, he recommended that we pull them out of the group and have them demonstrate the technique. Then you ask the kids "who can do this better?" and have a mini-competition. It really gets the energy levels up and makes everyone think that they CAN do better than the person who's been called up. Makes sense. Of course, the person who got called out is pretty well pleased because they're being used as an example and they know that they did well.

Another thing he was recommending to watch out for was the parents' reactions to your teaching. If you have a parent who is sitting there with his or her arms crossed, looking irritated, you know you're not teaching the way they expect their kids to be taught. Mr. M says that if the parents are sitting there, talking to each other, laughing and having a good time together while their children are learning, then you're teaching correctly. If they're watching you and glowering, you're doing something wrong. We want parent involvement. That's what makes our school work. If we have unhappy parents, they're likely to pull their kids out of the school.
He demonstrated to us the way he wants to see us addressing the kids and their parents. After doing techniques and forms, then he wants to have us call the kids over to him--he stood on the red mat and faced where the parents would have been sitting if we'd been in a regular class. He talked to us, explained why we're facing that way--he asks a question or tells what he wants done and then emphasizes that to the parent by saying "You need to practice your back falls 20 times this week. Is that a problem, Mr. Smith?" At this point, he's looking at the parent and getting the parent's involvement as well. This is something we'll all need to work on. In a lot of ways, I think it's actually easier to work with an adult class rather than a children's class because you don't have parents to talk to.

Another Tuesday

Last night's class was most interesting. We started out with an obstacle/endurance/?? course. I don't like some of the things we did but I did them anyway. We had 5 cones set out in a box pattern--one on each corner, one in the middle. Started out running from one cone down the side, then run *backwards* to the middle, forwards to the next cone, backwards up the long side, forwards to the middle again (but don't go AROUND it, just go up TO it!), then backwards to the beginning. I don't run fast backwards, so I got caught up in the crowd.
The next step of the obstacle course was to do a bear crawl to the one cone, flip around ("on the fly"), crab walk to the middle, bear crawl to the next one and so forth. Then we had to lunge, then an "alligator walk" and "Inch worm" and finally bunny hops and hopping on one leg. It was an interesting series of exercises. The black belt who ran this warm up told all of us that we should be able to change from a bear crawl to a crab walk without stopping. He was going to make us practice it at the end of the evening, but we got out of that because Mr. B came in and took over the class.

Mrs. T and I worked with the S brothers on our Pyung Ahn forms. It was good to review and refresh our memories on the older forms. I truly miss practicing forms. I feel like I need a lot of work to refine the forms I know.
I did have fun before I headed out to class yesterday. I talked to my son and asked him if he really was enjoying classes. He says yes, so he's staying in. My daughter is another story. She earned her green belt, but she's telling me she's "disinterested". I'm afraid she'll just stop trying. Need to talk to Sa Bu Nim and see what he says. Her heart just isn't in it and I don't want her to feel like she's being forced. Tony and I need to talk about it with her and tell her WHY she should stay in (self esteem, focus) and see if she's interested in it at all. If not, we need to talk to Sa Bu Nim about getting her off the contract. At least one of the kids enjoys it, so that's fine.

New day, new week

We went to Shreveport yesterday to meet some friends. It was fun! We were under cloudy skies until just before we crossed the border into Louisiana. Then the sun came out. We met our friends at what used to be the Isle of Capri but has since been changed to "Diamond Jacks". Interesting place. Very loud, very crowded, but fun. B and I played the one armed bandits (which, incidentally, still have one arm but are now computerized!) while our hubbies played table games upstairs. We looked for the penny slots. That was interesting, to say the least. I did fairly well...had an amount given to me by my hubby and I managed to double it. I wasn't complaining at all.
When we got tired of the games, we went to dinner, then found our way to another casino, the Horseshoe. Very ritzy, very big, also noisy. I think they all are! Anyway, when we walked in, we saw a BMW in the hotel lobby. They were having a drawing for it at 10:00, so we registered for it. Of course, you had to be present to win. We left early, so we knew we weren't going to win. LOL!!
That casino wasn't friendly to any of us--we lost money, so we left. On our way out, we talked about the fact that the casinos are all on boats. There's some weird law that Louisiana has that says their casinos have to be off land. Don't know why, but that's it. When we walked into Diamond Jacks, we walked up a ramp and then onto the boat itself. You could feel it move a little when we got in there. Of course, the boats are permanently docked and aren't anything more than for show. It's how they get around the 'can't be on on land' thing.

Coming home, we saw a lot of lightning in the sky to the southwest. We first thought it was just heat lightning, but it kept getting more and more pronounced. We didn't have any way to check radar, so we winged it and just watched the sky. At about Marshall, the skies simply opened up and a LOT of torrential rain poured out. There was a lot of hail and it was too hard to see for the combination of lightning, rain and hail. There wasn't a lot we could do--we went from driving 85 miles an hour down to 30. Anyone on the highway last night was taking cover under whatever overpasses they could find. We got off the road and found ourselves under a garage awning...sat there for about 30 minutes, just talking, until we thought we'd be able to make it out again. The rain was still pelting the cars, but it wasn't as bad as it had been. We didn't get up to 80 again until just before we got to Dallas.

When we got to our friends' house (their kids, who are teenagers, watched number one son. Number one daughter was at HER friend's house last night!), it was 11:00. Number one son was STILL awake although the assorted parents were exhausted! We packed him up (had to collect video games, memory card and book and clean up his mess--games and game systems all over the living room floor!) and came on home. Got in around midnight. The storm decided to follow us and found us around 1-2 am. Good thing we weren't driving!! I know I didn't like that at all! I'm glad I wasn't behind the wheel.

We're going to have to plan on going out there again sometime soon. I truly enjoyed myself.

Saturday catch up

Real quick "fly by" catch up.
Last night was the gup test at the dojang. It was a pretty good test. We've got two new Cho Dan Bo's and a couple of kids who are moving up in the ranks toward that goal.
My kids also tested last night. My son needs a lot of work on his forms--he had some issues with Pyung Ahn Oh Dan...I could see that and I wasn't on the board!!
He needs to learn the co-ordination between his hands and feet. I'll work with him on that. I think he'll be learning Pyung Ahn Sah Dan for his next form. I'll have to really work with him. If he won't work with me, he'll have to work with another one of the black belts because I want him to be as good as he can possibly be. He's trying out for the competition team next weekend (that was his idea, not mine!), so I have to help him get ready for that.
I didn't see Miss A's test as she was hidden in the crowd, but hubby says she did pretty well. I did see her do Pyung Ahn Cho Dan. Other than a habit of doing a backfist that is WAY higher than I think it should have been, it looked good.

I'm going to Shreveport today with my hubby. We're celebrating our anniversary a week late. Some friends of his from work invited him to go and asked if I'd go along, so we decided to make a day of it. The kids are going to friends' houses and we're gone. It'll be fun. It's just a day trip, so it'll be a quick out and back.

What a fun evening!!

Okay, color me crazy, but tonight I had one of the BEST workouts I have *ever* had since I joined martial arts in 2004! We went back to the old stuff--we did old combinations we haven't done in absolutely forever (well, since 2006!). We did a combination of stepping out with your left foot, downblock, reverse inside/outside block, front snap kick, reverse punch.
We did front snap kick, roundhouse, back kicks. Inside/outside kick, roundhouse, reverse ridge-hand...no, wait, that was just a plain ridge-hand,. I love doing the "old" things! I like it much better than the Ho Sin Sul!! I really enjoy it. I am not a spar-er. I don't like sparring and will be the first to admit to it. I know it has a purpose, so I will do it without complaint. I actually enjoy it if it's with a good partner who gives a good dialog/return on my punches, kicks, whatever. I had that on Wednesday with Mr. T. We worked very hard on sparring--every time I hit him with my right hand (I'm severely right-handed!), he blocked it easily. I know I have to work on that, so that's on the agenda. (I should also work on adding in some weight lifting to work my triceps, but that's another thing I have on the books...)

After the combinations, we moved into doing our forms. We did the Kee-cho forms one after another, then did Pyung Ahn Cho Dan (which Amanda now tells me she "remembers" finally!), then Pyung Ahn, Ee Dan, Sam Dan, Oh Dan, Sah Dan, Bassai, Nahainchi Cho Dan and then Sip Soo. I didn't work on Nahainchi Ee Dan because my memory of the form is fuzzy at best. We'll look at practicing that hopefully next class.

Friday night is the test and I'm looking forward to that. I'm working at it. I have to be there as an instructor, because I'm working with the Little Ninja and Young Warrior class with Mrs. T. It's going to be fun. My kids are both testing at that test. I hope they do well. I just want to make sure they know their material and can do it well enough to pass the test.

Morning Light

I have to admit that my favorite time of day is when the sun is just barely peeking over the horizon. It's that time just before full sunrise, when it's neither dark nor light, but kind of a "twilight" if you will. It's usually coolest at that time of day and if there's a breeze blowing, it's the softest breeze of the day. I enjoy being able to get up early and go out on the patio to watch the sunrise. We're lucky in that our apartment faces East--I see the sunrise every day that I'm home, when the sun is shining. I can take a cup of coffee (if I get it made early enough!) out on the porch and just stand at the rail, watching the colors play across the sky. It's somehow soothing and invigorating at the same time. My little garden is my companion at this time of day. I like to go out and sit out there and just enjoy the sun rise.

Tomorrow's Easter Sunday. It's also our 17th anniversary. We've been together as a couple for 19 years. We're not really planning anything. With our luck, we'll both sit on the couch and enjoy being "old" together--he'll be on his computer playing a game and I'll be surfing the Internet on mine. LOL!! The cats will probably find any available patch of sunlight to lounge around in and the kids will play Wii or something else. They like to do that. Amanda wants to go to her friend's house today and spend the night. I told her that if her friend's mother said it was okay, that's fine with me. I WILL, however, get into her room and toss out all the old clothes she's not wearing, plus pick up everything on the floor. I'm tired of looking at it (again!). She says "It's fine to me!" whenever I mention it to her. She's not quite figured out that if Mom says the room is annoying, ya better LISTEN!! hahaha!!

Thursday

Wednesday was a lot drier than Tuesday was. It was a better day, work-wise...or it was up until later in the afternoon when we were short handed (more so than normal!)
I got to martial arts and took out a LOT of frustration on a few bags. It's amazing how well you can kick a bag if you're stressed out and need the release!! I was supposed to go into the 6:00 class and work with them (helping out) but there were a lot of instructors there, so I didn't bother with it. I went in where Mr. T was instructing someone on Pyung Ahn Oh Dan and I started beating on the bags. I figured it would be good to practice kicking and work out some aggression. I actually threw some good roundhouse kicks and front snap kicks. I didn't do a lot of side kicks, but I definitely got in a few good round kicks!

In class last night we did some serious sparring. I sparred with Ms. F and Mr. T tonight as well as B and S. I couldn't spar a lot with B because she'd had some stitches in her leg and S hasn't been through enough classes to get into sparring. Plus, if we spar with her, we have to be very careful. She's super tiny. It wouldn't take much of a hit to knock her down or hurt her which we don't want to do!

I've got bruised knuckles on my right hand after the sparring. I have a tendency to throw punches with my right hand exclusively. Mr. T figured me out and kept hitting my arm with his hand. I have to learn and he's one who can teach me. I WILL learn or will be taken down if I'm not careful!

One more day of work. I'll get through it. I just have to hope like crazy that everyone shows up and that it'll be a quiet day!

How does your garden grow?

Today was my "first" gardening day. Here in Texas, temperatures have been changing and winter is no more. Officially on Friday, it'll be Spring anyway. We've seen our last frost with the snow twice in the first week of this month.
Today my hubby took me out and let me get some plants and planter boxes. I'm now the proud cultivator of patio tomatoes, peppers (yellow banana), two different kinds of basils, a catnip, two strawberries, a citronella (mosquito plant) and sugar snap pea seeds. I've been on a snow pea pod kick lately. I enjoy eating those darned things! Hopefully they'll grow for me!

Saturday morning

This morning despite not going to WW, I had a 1.6 pound loss! I'll take it!! I need to work harder on getting more water in, but I'm on the right track! I went to the doctor this week for my yearly visit and chat. He told me that I'm 15 pounds lighter than I was this time last year (great!!) and that I am healthier than ever. He said that my cholesterol levels were great and all my other lab work looked good. I did talk to him about the pain in my hip and he said that if I felt that I needed to see a specialist, he'd refer me. For now, I'm living with the pain. I don't care about it and will modify my movements in karate to compensate for it. My instructor has already reminded me this on numerous occasions.

Sunday was the black belt banquet. I'm pretty happy. I am now officially a Cho Dan, which is, for those who are unfamiliar with Tang Soo Do, a first degree black belt. I feel pretty good about it. I think I have a lot of work to do to bring myself up to a higher level to become an Ee Dan, but that will happen over the next several months.

During the black belt test, for example, I did a second Dan form that I had no business doing. I was out of sync with the Ee Dans, but I HOPE I managed to hold my own. I don't think Kwan Jang Nim St. James was looking at me, but you never know! I performed Nahainchi Ee Dan, which I had just learned a week or so before the test. I practiced it a number of times outside of class, which may have been a plus. Now I have to keep practicing.

This week is Spring Break for our school district and several others. Classes should be interesting because we don't know how many people are going to be there. I have the munchkin class on Thursday--I work Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. I'm happy about that. I may get to break off with Kyoshi and help some of the adult class learn their lower forms.

Sunday morning coffee

I received a neat little surprise in the mail yesterday. I received a packet of "Jamaican Me Crazy" coffee from Joffrey's Coffee and Tea. It was GOOD! I made it yesterday and inhaled the entire pot of coffee. I think I'll have to look seriously at ordering some. Need to tell hubby that it's going to be in my head for a while.
Seriously, it was good! The house smelled great--that was a plus! Another plus was the fact that it was something warm in the middle of the afternoon. I had been outside in the wind yesterday for almost an hour and was chilled to the bone when I got home. The coffee helped me get warm again. Yay!!

Tonight's the Black Belt Banquet. It'll be held over at the dojang. After all the searching I did, I couldn't find a nice dress that I thought would be appropriate for wearing tonight. I couldn't justify buying a dress that was dressier than most, so I didn't get anything. I'm considering just wearing a nice pair of dress slacks and a red blouse I have in my closet. It'll be "business casual" but not overly casual. I don't know. I may drag hubby out for a minute or three this morning. Number one son is supposed to have company over today and number one daughter is going to a friend's house for the afternoon, so I'll have to go early.

Daylight Savings started last night/this morning. How the stupid government thinks it's saving us money, I don't know, but...I did hear on the news last night that there wasn't a huge savings. People used more energy for heating and cooling their homes. Maybe less energy was used for lights, but they still had a lot of output to heat and air conditioning. I am not a fan of DST and would like to see them just decide to leave things alone.

Post belt test/post seminar

Last night was the belt test. We held it in a church fellowship hall rather than our dojang and I think it worked out very well. It was a bit crowded, but nothing worse than what we routinely go through every time we get all the people who are testing for their next belts or re-certifying.
It was chilly last night but not too terribly bad. Since we were in a church, we could control the temperature with little to no difficulty. We did have to move a piano and some of their props out of the way, but that was done before most of the students showed up. We lined up according to belt rank order and waited for Kwan Jang Nim and Bu Sa Nim. They came in and we did the bow in. It was not that much different from the first black belt test I participated in. I found it interesting that I was less stressed and panicked over this one than I was for the first one. It may be because I was only re-certing. I wasn't actually moving up in the ranks.

After the technique (which I goofed up on multiple times), we did forms, then moved into Ho Sin Sul (self defense), then one steps and sparring. After the sparring, we did the board breaking for our Cho Dan Bo's. It was really neat to see all the family participation. Several of the kids had their parents/grand parents holding boards for them. The really neat thing was that my friend S got to test with her son, A. That was really cool! Our friend, DB was also there, working on his re-cert for his Ee Dan, getting ready for his Sam Dan. Sa Bu Nim's oldest son tested for his Sam Dan last night too. His youngest received HIS Cho Dan last night too. It was really cool! We had twin brothers and another pair of brothers testing last night too. We had a lot of families there!

My boss and a friend from work came out to see the test. They got there in time for the sparring and the board breaking. I didn't personally break any boards last night, but that's fine with me. I wasn't feeling completely "on" last night. I DID do Nahainchi Ee Dan with the second and third Dans. I should have sat down but...I didn't. When they did JinDo, I DID sit out. We broke the bong form into three different groups. That way we could all do the form and not run the risk of hitting each other in the head!! It was also a good way to showcase the Cho Dan Bo's.

This morning we had a sword seminar with Kwan Jang Nim. It was interesting. He taught us two forms--the beginner sword for and the intermediate sword form. He told us that the Master form is 120 moves long. Everything we learned today will go toward learning the Master form. We learned strikes and blocks. Kwan Jang Nim (that means Master in Korean) taught us 8 cuts. There's a center cut, inside high, outside high, inside low, outside low, inside middle, outside middle and I've now blanked out on the last one. EEP!

Tomorrow night is the banquet where they'll hand out the belts for the new Cho Dans, Mr. M the younger is going to get his Sam Dan belt (YAY!!) and the Cho Dans who recertified will get their "official" belts with their names on them. Should be a lot of fun!!

I was asked if there would be pictures from this test. I won't have any because I didn't have anyone except for two people from work there. Hubby was working and the kids were elsewhere. I will TRY to get a copy of the group photo from someone who was there and post it when I get a chance.

Belt test

Today's the day! The black belt test starts in 4 1/2 hours. Am I ready? YOU BET!!
Am I nervous? Yeah! Am I going to work through it? Oh yes!!! When all is said and done, I'll feel like I accomplished something very major.
I'm ready for it!!

CIT class

Tonight was CIT class. The CIT class is the certified instructor training class. I'm actually honored to be considered a part of this class. It's most beneficial to me to learn more about how to teach classes. It also betters me, I think, in my quest to be a better person overall.

Sa Bu Nim made a comment about "old black belts", meaning people who have achieved their belts and have been in the school for a long time. One of the other students in the class looked over at me. Sa Bu Nim caught the look and started laughing, which made the rest of the class realize there was a joke there. That led to a discussion of age (I'm the "senior citizen" in this group as I'm 42, going on 43!). Sa Bu Nim said he meant black belts who had been in the school for a long time, NOT "aged" black belts. LOL!!! I was in stitches. I'm still laughing about it even now!!

I was talking to one of my friends tonight about practicing forms and things. We discussed the black belt camp called Kodanja that is usually held by our Federation in the summer. I would LOVE to attend a Kodanja but I can't do it this year. I told him that I'd like to save up for the Black belt general camp in Aruba. Now THAT would be nice. It's in December! I think it would be wicked cool!!