Warning: Angry rant below....

I need to vent. Our school has had a "dress code" forever which is T-shirts (instead of gi tops) are allowed on saturdays(all year) and every day during the summer months only (June thru September). And they have to be karate-related t-shirts. The rest of the year, full gi is what you wear. I don't think thats unreasonable. But lately at the dojo, I've been noticing some students wearing t-shirts instead of their gi top. So I asked one of the instructors what was going on. Apparently, there are some students who complained that they wanted to wear t-shirts all year. They didn't think it was "fair" that they could not. They even went so far as to threaten to leave the dojo if they couldn't be accommodated. So the policy was changed. Now, certain "winter" t-shirts are allowed all year.
You will NOT see me or my son wearing a freakin t-shirt during the winter months . I would love to know who the whiney babies are that caused this to be an issue. Why?? Is the gi top too hot? Too cumbersome? Too uniform-y? well suck it up! its Karate, for crying out loud! The gi is part of the whole experience. It just blows my mind that people have the you-know-whats to complain about these things. I couldn't imagine owning a business like this. Maybe I wouldn't have many students. I don't think I could stand all the whiney babycriers. "What? you don't want to wear your gi top? Then GO HOME!" There's no whining in karate. If you want to join a dojo, then follow their rules! don't try to change them for your own selfish reasons! Grow up!
Ok, stepping down off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Spar Wars

So, Saturday was Spar Wars. My son and I were signed up for the 1pm time slot. We got there in time to watch some other matches and we stayed for a while after to watch some more. I had never seen Kyoshi spar seriously before yesterday. He is a big man. He is also very fast and very powerful. He teaches while he spars and if you're paying attention you can learn a lot. If you're not paying attention you will hurt a lot. Now, it is also important to note, that he only goes as hard (or a little harder) as you do. So if you go into the match in full attack mode, expect to get taken down a notch or 2. There were all ages sparring him. Some of his opponents only came up to his waist. I love watching those matches. One of these kids was doing back to back spinning hook kicks. Not even coming within 2 feet of landing any of them. But Kyoshi would pretend to dodge them all and praised the boy for his efforts. There were lots of cute little kid matches. Kyoshi is known for his powerful spinning hook kick. He got everyone with at least one. His speed and force depended on the size and skill level of his opponent. For the little kids he was slow motion, ending with a tap to the kid's head with his foot. I did pretty well in my 2 minutes. I took a decent hit to the head , (I'm thinking that was because I hit him in his head) but all in all I dodged his kicks pretty well and he was obviously very kind. Next came my son, C. C is 15 years old. He has been going thru a rough time. Those of you who have teenagers know what I mean. They want to make their own decisions and sometimes you have to let them. He stopped going to karate a couple months ago - I said he could take a break but not quit. This is his freshman year in HS. He has ADHD. He's having a hard time making the right decisions. Anyway, long story short-Saturday was his first day back at karate. Kyoshi has missed him and knew about what he was going thru. They bowed in, shook hands and sparred HARD. The first spinning hook kick Kyoshi threw landed squarely on C's jaw-POW! Knocked him off balance, and then Kyoshi got him in a headlock and took him down to the floor. My friend M is looking at me saying "are you okay mom? are you worried?" I was fine, I knew he wasn't going to end up at the hospital or anything like that and frankly, he needed this. C could not get out of the headlock. Kids watching were yelling "Elbow him!" but Kyoshi also had his arm trapped. After a bit, Kyoshi released him. Finally, they were up on their feet again sparring and Kyoshi executed 2 more speed-of-light spinning hook kicks and C ducked under both of them. Good thing to, because they would have sent him flying. But he learns fast and is quick and agile. Finally the 2 minutes were up and the bell went off. They bowed, shook hands and Kyoshi gave him a HUGE hug, told him he was glad to see him back and that he had missed him. C walked out of the ring with a bloody lip and a big smile on his face. It was great to see. Now, that is tough love!

Nunchucks and Spar Wars

So I went to 2 classes on saturday. First was weapons. I brought my big girl nunchucks and had some refresher training on Nunchuku Dai Ich. By the end of the class I could get through the kata without help so that means...next week is Kama!!! I'm very excited. I have to say, though, I'm really enjoying the nunchucks. Anyway, after that class I had regular class, where we did a lot of partner work with focus pads. We went thru several combos (jab, cross, hook, upper cut) while staying in motion. I swear, the hardest part is holding the pads and remembering which way to turn them to receive the next punch. I worked with B, a brown belt who works her a** off. She is one of the group of parents who started training a couple years ago. They are all brown belts now and I can't wait to see them all get their black belts. They are so cool. Its going to be a huge group testing in about a year. So after skinning my knuckles on pads (ouchie), we worked on focus kicks-double roundhouse kicks (to the stomach , then to the head) and then hook kick/round kick combo.


In a couple weeks we have Spar Wars. This started a couple of years ago when one of the student's house burned down. Kyoshi set aside one saturday and had people sign up to spar him. The cost - $5 for 2 minutes in the ring with Kyoshi and all the money collected was given to the student's family. This year, the proceeds go to the KIAI fund which is a scholarship program for students who want to learn karate but cannot afford the tuition. So, there is a 3 page sign up sheet, you can choose the timeslot you want to get your hiney whooped that day. I have never sparred Kyoshi. It will be amusing. I'm sure he'll be smiling the whole time. That same smile he gets when he watches the adult students practice "coffee grinder's" ( a breakdancing move also) or like at Thanksgiving cardio kickboxing , at the end of class,when he had us do partner sit-ups where we lined up in 2 lines across, facing each other -in sit up position , ankles locked with your partner, do 10 situps, making sure you do "high tens" with your partner each time,then after 10, rotate to the right and do the same with your new partner. and over and over and over...that twisted, evil smile he gets watching his students suffer like that.
I'm looking forward to it! :)

still here

Sorry its been a while. Not much to talk about, Thanksgiving was good, started out at 6am with the annual Thanksgiving Cardio Kickbox "so you can have extra pie" class. It lasted for over an hour and was pure torture..I loved it. There was no class that weekend because of a inner school Tourney. I didn't participate in that one. I really need to get to class tonite.

QQS 2-5pm

so QQS was fun. I came home feeling pretty good about things. Sore and exhausted, but good. The run went fine. We had to run for 1/2 hour on the bike path across from the dojo. I almost did 3 miles. Its weird how even if you haven't run for almost a year, your body doesn't forget how to do it. Not like I had forgotten how to actually run, but the pace and the breathing just fell into place. I also know enough about myself to know that I have to stretch my calves out for a good 15 minutes before running. If not, shin splints will ruin it for me. I have to stretch my calves until I can't feel them stretching anymore. Its the only way. So after the run, we went back in the dojo and changed up for sparring. Sparring was great. We all line up in 2 rows facing our partner, then spar for a while, then stop, bow, shake, and rotate to the right. I was paired up with people who I knew wouldn't go to rough, including many little jr blackbelts. Now some of them are half my size. Some have super control and are excellent at sparring. Some of them were trying to be extra tough and going full force. And some of the newer bb's were OUT OF CONTROL. There was this one kid next to me. The one kid who wore his blue gi top when we're all supposed to wear white. He had something to prove, I think. He was all over the place, even punching a couple teen Nidans in the face. (they had EXCEPTIONAL self control and just let it roll off their backs) But the weird thing was, that this little guy was on the verge of tears the whole time.
So after sparring we did kata for the rest of the time. It was excellent. AND B (who got his black belt with me) and I had some time to learn Gojushiho. Cool!

QQS

QQS is on saturday. I need to go. QQS is 3-4 times/year and is for black belts only. I think I've mentioned it before, it lasts about 3 hours, starts with a 3 mile run, then sparring and kata and weapons. QQS means Quality, Quantity and Spirit testing. I am so out of shape right now the run will probably wipe me out, but its important to go and do your best regardless. It is fun, too. Sometimes Kyoshi will have other events count as QQS...this year, the St Patricks day tournament and summer camp both counted as a QQS for black belts. I did both. Last November was my first QQS and it was held outside at the HS track. We lucked out as it was a beautiful and unseasonably warm day. Not sure where this one will be. If it is in the dojo, we're gonna be packed in like sardines. We'll probably smell just as bad by the end of it too.

There's a 4th day of November too?

Well, I've already blown the NaBloPoMo daily blogging thingy. Why? cause I forgot, thats why. I have no good reason. But, I will continue to blog daily thru the month just because I said I would. DOH!

Noel

We're getting the remnants of Hurricane Noel today. Its incredibly windy and rainy. My kids and I stayed in our pajamas all day. My husband had to go to work so he had to get dressed and face the storm.
But the rest of us lurked around the house all day. I watched HGTV and crocheted. It was excellent.

New Black Belts

This saturday is Black Belt Spectacular-(graduation to BB). It was a pretty large group this time going up in rank and most of them are going to 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree. I heard the practical exam was challanging. After their 3 mile run, they came back to the dojo, got in their gi's and began to spar. Not challenging enough for Kyoshi just "as is" though, and he turned off all the lights. And thats how they sparred for 2 hours. In the dark. No one broke anything, there were no injuries. Big congratulations to G. She's the only adult going for Shodan and she deserves it. She's an awesome student. Always a good attitude, never whiney, always tries her best. And-she's excellent at sparring. I'm so proud of her.

every day for a month

I'm taking on the NaBloPoMo challange. Thanks for the invite BBM! I'm certainly not a daily blogger but I am up for the challange. Yikes! who knows what I'll be talking about...

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Please click the link every day to help!

yep, I did miss a lot

I knew I was going to fall behind. Apparantly, its been all about bunkai the past couple months. Kyoshi has been teaching Passai Sho bunkai. I've only seen this done a couple times, never actually did it myself, though. There are a couple really vicious takedowns in this bunkai-one of which you end up flat on your face. We've also been working more on Pinan Sandan bunkai. I've only done this one a couple times. I hate being behind. I went to class on Wednesday and we did bunkai for most of the class-(not passai sho, though) It was good to review these. We did the bunkai for Naihanchi Shodan oyo, Pinan Shodan oyo, Pinan Yondan oyo, and Pinan Shodan (non-oyo) and then a bit of Pinan Sandan.
sigh. I'll catch up, right?

finally

So I finally got back to class on Saturday. It felt great. I went to weapons class and reviewed the 5 bo kata I knew, then to regular class at noon. The warm up alone almost knocked me on my butt. We did mostly kata after that which was fine by me. We did all 5 kihon kata as a group then broke into smaller groups by rank to work on whatever kata we needed to. I worked with another shodan who has come back after several years hiatus. I remember her from when my son was a little white belt and she was on the STORM team. So we worked on Kusanku Dai. I know this kata pretty well now and soon I'll be starting Gojushiho. That one looks really complicated to me, but I will need it for Nidan. Lots of weird angles and new moves and its really long (54 count, which is what the name translates to...eek!)
My muscles were so sore on sunday but a good sore. I've missed that. :)

i'm it!-7 random facts

So, I've been tagged..by Supergroup7..Here are 7 random facts about me...

1. I have 9 1/2 toes

2. I used to be a hair colorist on Newbury St in Boston

3. I hate asparagus.

4. Both of my children have ADHD (without the hyperactivity)

5. My favorite things to occupy my time are karate (no, really?) gardening, and crocheting.

6. I love power tools

7. My birthday is on Halloween (turning 40 this year! eeek)

Tagging you P-Fist!!

Karate movies

I saw a cool movie last night. It was called Karate Bullfighter and it starred Sonny Chiba. I love Sonny Chiba movies. I have a collection of them. Streetfighter, Return of Streetfighter, even Streetfighters last Revenge (horrible movie) Also, Sister Streetfighter which stars Sue Shiomi and Sonny Chiba. That one is my favorite. Shiomi is amazing. One of the best things about these movies is the fake blood. So hilarious! That and the sound effects.
I love that Chiba was in Kill Bill, too. Anyway, in Karate Bullfighter, it was really cool to see Chiba and his student in the film doing Paipuren (or a variation) which is the White Crane kata I learned in association camp this summer. So there I am, all by myself, watching this movie and totally giddy saying out loud...I KNOW THAT!! I LEARNED THAT!!
so there you go...that is a brief snapshot of my sunday evening. If you ever get a chance to watch some of these, especially the Streetfighter series, I highly recommend them. Not only to see the expertise of these martial artists, but to have a good laugh at the same time.

I have been away from the dojo for about a month. Its killing me. Because of family issues and the need for me to be a presence at home I've had to prioritize. And of course family comes first. However, things are getting better, and Frotoe needs some karate in a major way. I feel like a blob. Mentally and physically. I haven't even been practicing much at home until this past week. (although I think about karate constantly) I feel like I've lost so much learning time. Uck.

the "and stuff"

I know I haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy. But for your viewing pleasure, here are some things I'm crocheting.


here's my first (successful) hat. its crocheted out of some sort of shoelace type ribbony stuff.

here's another one.

and another one. I think I should get someone to model these for me next time..

ear warmer..

a (very lopsided) scarf. Although I think i hid the lopsided part in this picture.

I've got some more, too. I'll post them later.

enjoy! (but be kind :)

Comments

You may have noticed that I have deleted my last post about nunchucku. That is because an "anonymous" idiot left this long, rude, freakish comment that has NOTHING to do with martial arts and somehow made it impossible for me to delete. So that no one else would have to read the crap that he posted, I felt I needed to just delete the whole post. I have also turned back on the comment moderation at least for the time being. some people just have nothing better to do than sabotage a person's blog.

Black Belt Challange

This is the 2nd year for the Black Belt Challange, my first one. We have one month and these are Kyoshi's challanges.

Run- 50 miles
Kata-practice 1 either Naihanchi kata or Chinto or Jion~ 100 times. I don't know Jion, so I'm doing Naihanchi Sandan.
Weapons- practice any weapons kata~ 100 times
Crunches- 3000
Spar- 20 rounds-2 minutes each
Power kicks- (must be against a pad or target) Front kicks, side kicks, rearleg roundhouse, back kicks~ 500 each leg (total 4000)
Teaching- teach an underbelt a kata/kumite/or bunkai so that they can do it on their own.
Bunkai- Pinan Godan or Pinan Sandan ~ practice 20 times in a han
Cardio- take 4 cardio kickboxing classes
Wellness- take 2 budokan and 1 tai-chi class
Grappling- learn grappling drill #1
Do 3 things in your home to "go green"
Refer a student
Read- either Weaponless Warriors or You don't need a title to be a Leader.
Atomic pushups- no particular number, get a baseline, set a goal and try to meet it. These are done with your legs in a type of stirrup-off the ground. Sensei T has set the record at 62. I'll be lucky if I can do 5. I can't even describe how these pushups look. they are evil.

So, this challange lasts only for the month of August. AND~ these challanges must be done on your own time. So any sparring that you do in class.....DOESN'T COUNT! same with crunches, kata, etc. WAH! I don't know how I'm going to spar 20 rounds on my own time..but I will do all that I can do.

Sparring

We had sparring on wednesday. We also have it for the next couple weeks. I'm kind of glad. I need to get myself back and comfortable with sparring. I need to get my cardio level back up to where it should be. I would also like to get rid of these arm guards. I love them, I feel safe wearing them, but they also retain a lot of heat. I think this week, I'll bring them but leave them to the side. Most of the people who I'm sparring now will not break my arm. (a rib, maybe...heh heh). Anyway, I don't spar armbreaker anymore, he is never in the class I go to. It was a unique incident and probably will never happen again. right? right.

Summer Camp 2007

Ok, its been a week and I finally have time to post about this. First of all, it was my first Association summer camp and I am hooked.

Friday, classes started at 2pm for the local students-class was out on the quad at the university. We started with basics, moving basics, blocking drills etc while waiting for the students from out of town to arrive. The usual dojo stuff. Next it was a bo class. We learned Kubo no kun- lots of 'temple-groin-collarbone' series as well as some twirling. Very cool, and very challanging. After that was White Crane class. What a cool style. We learned a kata called Paipuren from one of the NJ upper dan students. He was fantastic. It was a really fun kata to learn, really vicious moves too..heehee.
The last class of the day was held on the beach. No getting wet or sandy, though. We did all the naihanchi kata in the sand, then moved up onto the grass for the others. The sand was very lumpy and loose and not good for people with knee problems. We did a kata, then saw demonstrations by the kyoshis for the application, then did the kata again. I love learning this stuff. It helps it all to make sense and flow better, and mostly it makes me happy in a sort of twisted way to know the deadliness of some of these moves. heehee. After that, we had a bbq catered by a local place. We had BBQ chicken, ribs, corn on the cob, salad, potatoes..deelish and very messy.

Saturday started very early for some. The black belt candidates had to attend a 7:15am thai kickboxing workout, then go to the track to run 4 miles and do their pushups and crunches. Then at nine am we all bowed in (still on the quad) and started the day of training. We learned 2 person Pinan Shodan bunkai-and worked on that for the first class. After that, I attended a ground defense class. This class was held inside so that our gi's wouldn't get all grass stained. It was excellent~ Everyone should learn this stuff. It was amazing to learn how easy it is to throw off someone who has you on your back and sitting on top of you.
After lunch and some more kata training we went to Newport and watched the Taiko Drums presentation. These people were amazing, usually performing at Epcot and Disney. After that was dinner. We got home around 10:45pm.
Sunday was the last day, starting at 9am with Iri Kumi- (dojo sparring) I really liked this. It was kind of cool (and a bit painful) to spar with no gear on. As long as your partner and you have self control it can be a great way to try out techniques that you wouldn't normally be able to try in a full gear sparring class.
All in all, it was the best camp ever. (ok so maybe it was my first)
And when it was all over, I was floored when Kyoshi L from NJ came up to me and said...
"I just want to tell you I really enjoy reading your blog"
my jaw dropped to the floor. Busted. He and his wife both have been reading it for a few months. aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
Big thank you's to my newly discovered readers. And thanks to all of you who travelled from NJ to teach us.

more pictures

Basics

Kata

Sand angels

what do you do if you catch on fire?

stop..drop..roll

commando crawls

saiza-before bow out- we covered Z with sand..heehee

Beach class

It was a bad weather day-thunder/lightening, pouring rain. Apparently, 102 people called the dojo to see if class was still on for later that day. Foolish!! (and I was one of them, too)

Punishment? 102 pushups~

Summing up

Not much time to type so I'll just sum up. Beach class was LOTS of fun as usual, luckily the rain stopped just long enough for the beach class picture and the class itself, then as soon as it was done, it downpoured. I have a lot of pictures and I'll post some or link to them maybe on sunday. Today starts Association summer camp so I will be all karate from 2pm-8pm tonite, 8:30am-10:30pm tomorrow and 8:30-noon on sunday. busy busy busy.

I have a question.. do any of you have any helpful hints for callous control? I just can't seem to get control over the ones on my feet. Any suggestions?

Fun Week

So next week is fun week. I love fun week! Monday is picture day. We have class pictures taken as well as individual photos. Its chaos in the dojo on picture day although each age group has their own time slot to show up for. They are always behind schedule. There is also competition camp for the kids all week. Tuesday they have a special guest instructor. Any one heard of Daniel Sterling? Yes! I'm not kidding! Un FREAKIN believable! lucky kids! On wednesday is my favorite class~ beach class~ where we all go in our white gi's, (with swimsuits underneath) have a group picture taken, then have class. We end up doing basics and kata into the ocean as well as commando crawls, forward rolls, maybe some bunkai...anything to make sure you're all sandy and soaked by the end of class. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post from that~my sister will be there with her camera. Then on friday, association summer camp starts. SO EXCITED! I've never been to one of these all weekend camps before. This year our Kyoshi is hosting it and it will be local (instead of in NJ where it usually is). So I will only have to drive about 10 minutes up to URI. Among other things there will be a White Crane class, lots of kobudo as well as kobudo kumite, ground self defense, pressure points , a Taiko drum presentation in Newport, a BBQ on the beach..plus a lot of other stuff. Its going to be a lot of fun.

I wanna go to Vegas too!

So next week, Kyoshi, Sensei T, Sensei D, Sensei B are going to Vegas. To some sort of martial arts thingy and expo. They are going to see Penn and Teller. They are also going to go see Ka. Kyoshi has seen it once already and says its just amazing. I've only been to 1 Cirque Du Soleil show up in Boston and it was unbelievable. I would love to see this one. We were standing around after class yesterday talking about their trip and Kyoshi is a little worried that Sensei B might not come back after he sees it. that he might want to stay out there and join the troop. Sensei B is one of the instructors of the Extreme Tricks class (as well as a lot of the traditional classes-he is a 3rd degree) at our dojo and he absolutely defies gravity. He is gonna love it. Now Sensei D, on the other hand, is absolutely GIDDY because they are seeing Penn and Teller.
They are going to have so much fun. Take me with you!!!! And of course we were laughing because the saying "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" will be more like "What happens in Vegas comes back to the Dojo and will spread like wildfire and haunt you for the rest of your life"
I'm so jealous.

new testing cycle

Last night was the black belt pretest. 35 people took the test. 35!!! and most of them were going to nidan or higher. One of the adult students is going for 4th degree. There are at least 6 or 7 adults testing for 3rd degree, a bunch of teens and a couple of adults going to 2nd degree, 4 youths going to 1st and only 1 adult going for 1st (G). I'm totally routing for G. she has an awesome attitude, (her daughter was also testing, but for teen Nidan). She was very nervous which is understandable. the pretest is a very nerve wracking experience. first of all, they make you line up facing a totally different direction than you usually face in class. That alone can throw a person off. Secondly, Kyoshi has 3 tables of judges watching from 3 different angles. He also has everyone line up and stand in ready stance in complete silence for about 10-15 minutes while he meets with all the judges in the office. Just to add to the tension. My theory is that they're all playing rock/paper/scissors and eating nachos back there and laughing. I stayed for some of the pretest. So glad it wasn't me out there.

Weapons

Ok so I've just finished learning my 5th bo kata. Here's what I know.
Taiso Rensu uke
Shushi no kun
Taiso Rensu kogeki
Ten ryu no kun
Tokemeni no kun

so its time for nunchucks!! First kata is Nunchuck dai ich. lots of figure 8's. Lots of repetition. A couple weird one legged stances. I'm not sure about those. I have a hard enough time with all the crane stances in Chinto, but whatever, I'll do what I can. And then once I learn that, I can move on to kama. Yay!

Yay! new blackbelts!

So last week, we got a new bunch of blackbelts. The ceremony and show went well considering we only had half a gym. Apparently, the huge door that divides the gym was broken so they had to perform in one half. This caused a HUGE vein to bulge on Kyoshi's head for most of the day while setting up. But everything went well, M kicked ass on her demo! Congrats to all of them. AND all the black belts who graduated last time (me) got their Shodan certificates. There is a 6month probation period from when you actually get your black belt to when you become "official". Just to ensure that only the dedicated students get their certificates. We have had people get their black belts and then never show up again. Those people kind of get crossed off the list.
I went to a couple classes yesterday, lots of kata and bunkai and power kicks. Kyoshi taught. After that weapons. We reviewed and practiced some basics with the bo, "working the bo" etc. Its always helpful to work on those little things that make it look better and help it to make more sense. I hate it when I KNOW that I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm going thru the motions anyway. For me, its almost impossible to remember any kata unless I know what I'm doing and why. Some people seem to have no problem just going with the flow and looking ok. I feel like I look like I'm faking it and everyone knows it. Just one more bo kata and I can move on to nunchucks. YAY

....who me?

Becky tagged me!


1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Excited and freaked out a little.
4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? It wasn't a consideration.
5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 24
6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? I took a pregnancy test.
7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? I told my husband
8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Nope
9. DUE DATE? October 30th(ish) 1992
10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not with this one
11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Everything dairy.
12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? heartburn
13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Male
14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No- I was very happy
15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 46lbs
16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yes
17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I think I knew.
18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No- very healthy.
19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? St Josephs hospital in Lowell, Mass
20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 12
21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My husband
22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? My husband, my doctor and a couple nurses.
23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural
24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I had some Demerol which made me vomit immediately. Didn't have the epidural...at the time, the anesthesiologist was busy.
25. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 8lbs 9oz
. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? November 3rd 1992
27. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Calvin
28. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 14!!!UGH


and now for my 7 random facts:

1. I have 9 1/2 toes
2. I've been taking Shorin Ryu Shidokan karate for about 4 years and just promoted to Shodan last October.
3. Both my kids have ADHD (without the hyperactivity)
4. I'm addicted to HGTV
5. I just learned how to knit this year, became very frustrated with it and now I'm hooked (haha) on crocheting.
6. I wish I could get paid to garden.
7. I hate the word "meme"

Rules: Those tagged must list 7 random facts about themselves. They also need to write in their blogs the rules of the game, which are pretty simple--you list your 7 facts, then list 7 people you are tagging. Then you leave them comments letting them know they've been tagged.

This should be tricky as I don't think I know 7 more mommies to tag...

Barefoot kitchen witch

One Crazy Chick

Forever a Black Belt

if I think of more, I'll add them

Self Defense or something

I love the fact that we're in the self defense portion of our curriculum. Last night, my son and I went to class together-it is a teen/adult class. They used to separate the classes, but theres a new bag class with Kyoshi at the same time so the classes are now combined. M is assistant teaching this class. I don't know how she does it. Some of those kids are royal pains in the arse and they won't stop talking! I told 3 of them to zip it last night (one being my son) during warm ups. Non stop boy talk. This one kid-T-I would like to strangle. He's probably 16, took karate when he was little, got up to 2nd degree then quit for a while. Now he's back and he has the biggest ego ever. Thinks he's all that but the truth is, he's LAZY and cocky. I can't even get into it because just thinking about him is pissing me off. It was nice when Sensei T sidekicked him in the stomach and told him to pay attention. that made me smile.
So I guess Sensei T is being teased by all sorts of people because of what M did to him at the practical. (more details- after she knee striked him, he yelped, turned around, grabbed himself, and fell over) he's a good sport, though. I guess the most embarrasing thing was that he actually let her grab his shoulders during the sparring match to bring him into the knee strike. He must have been in disbelief or something. I'm sure that will never happen again heh heh heh.

Friday night's Practical exam

So the black belt practical test was last Friday night. It was not a good night. Although no one broke any bones, and there was no blood, it was ugly. And why did it get ugly? Because people were WHINING! Not my friend M, she’s not a whiner. Big rule regarding the practical test. DON’T WHINE! Renshi-(or Kyoshi now) HATES it. It makes him very angry. These kids and CB were complaining even before they had anything to complain about! So they all got to see his “bad” side. Almost everyone ended up in tears at some point (except M. she’s bad-ass) Now, I’ve told you about CB (crybaby) and her 2 daughters. Well, the youngest failed the physical test so she is out until the next testing cycle. She had been sick way too much and had to take a make-up physical test. She ran her 3 miles in 36 minutes. Not too good. So now its down to the mom and oldest daughter. Both of them complain ALL.THE.TIME. Actually, I’ve heard that the oldest one actually howls sometimes when she’s running. HOWLS like a dog at the moon. Must be comical to say the least. So some other incidences were; one kid (going to 2nd degree) wore the wrong gi top. He wore his blue top-everyone is supposed to wear white. (not his first practical so he should have known this) Punishment? 1000 pushups. That’s right. 1000. Also, M was sparring Sensei T (who is also an accomplished muay thai fighter)..he told her that he was gonna start hitting her and it was going to hurt. So he did, harder and harder each time, and finally he threw this kick to the ribs that really hurt – what did she do? She executed a perfect knee strike to the groin. Even grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into it. Legal? No. Effective? Yes. Kyoshi reprimanded her later in front of everyone for that…he called it “completely unacceptable behavior” And she knows this…but at the time, that’s how she reacted. (knee-jerk reaction heh heh).
Then after sparring they did breakfalls-over and over, and they couldn’t use they’re hands or arms to get up afterwards, legs only. Then they did bunkai (kata application) and kumite (pre arranged short sparring drills) for the rest of the night. No kata at all. And apparently, CB was talking constantly to M throughout the whole thing. M’s just trying to do what she’s supposed to be doing and CB keeps stopping and talking to her. And not even just talking while doing kumite-she would actually stop and try and have conversation (mostly complaining about the unfairness of the whole practical) finally M said “can you just SHUT UP and do the Kumites!!” I don’t think that really worked though. In the end, they were told they all had to come back the next morning and work more on bunkai and show their musical demos. All this after they had to run at the track at 8am. And they had to run 5 miles. Ouch.

Big promotion last weekend

So how cool is this... Our very own Renshi was promoted to 7th Dan over the weekend! Not only that, his title has now been changed to Kyoshi! I wish I could have seen the promotion. A few of the adult students took a road trip down to NJ to watch. I hope someone took video of his demo. They said it was quite impressive. At class last night, he was presented with a framed group of pictures from that night. He was very humble and thankful. and his belt is quite snazzy...red and white with his name embroidered in gold thread. He said its going to be hard getting used to a new title as he's been a Renshi for the past 10 years. Especially for the little ninjas & dragons..they think his actual name was "renshi" so some of them have been calling him Sensei Renshi...heh heh heh now what? Sensei Renshi Kyoshi?
Someone in class last night asked him how many miles he had to run for 7th...he said he had to run all the way down to NJ. ha ha ha. I wonder if he had to do any commando crawls or duck walks...hmmmmm.

and now I've moved it back!

yes, I know I'm fickle. I tried to understand Wordpress language because the templates are so pretty. But I can't do it. I can't fake that I understand it. So I am back at Blogger because its in a language I understand. It speaks to me like I'm 4 yrs old and that is just what I need.
Sorry- thanks for following me. :)

My Blog has moved.

I'VE MOVED!! come by and visit me at my new spot.

Can't think of a title for this post

So- some good news on the pretest. M passed (i knew she would), the crying one passed, and the adult arm-breaker did NOT pass. There IS justice in the world. So right now, they're all at the track freezing their butts off running 4 miles and doing crunches and pushups. aaaaahhhhh fun.
So, since our dojo has a new space for pilates and yoga, they've also started offering belly dancing class. Thats right, BELLY DANCING. For women only. I went last night and had a BLAST! They are having it every friday night and its taught by this girl (well, 24 yrs old) whose brother and sister take karate. I will definitely go again next friday. Rumor has it that Renshi wants a belly dancing demo done at the next Black Belt spectacular. I am definitely up for that. I enjoy making a fool out of myself in front of a huge crowd.

Keeping it fun?

Last nights class was excellent. Renshi's classes are always good. The BB pretest is tomorrow night so we are still reviewing kata kata kata and all the bunkai that can go with it. Tomorrow I am going to go to the dojo before the pretest to help out M. There will also be another woman testing for shodan. This one concerns me. She's quite a crybaby. Seems to always have one injury after another. And they're never injuries that are visible to the human eye. Don't get me wrong, she is a very nice person, but always seems to have an excuse for why she can't do something. she actually cried the other day when she found out that she needs to know Kusanku Sho for the pretest. CRIED and then left the dojo w/o going to class because she was so upset. a wee bit over dramatic too say the least. AND ITS KARATE! there's no crying in karate. Not like that. As far as I see it, bottom line is that it should be fun. If she's crying now when the cycle hasn't even started yet, I cannot see her surviving a whole testing cycle. So I'm sure she'll be there wednesday before the pretest practicing along with M and I. I hope she can keep this all in perspective.

Not much

Not too much to talk about. I've been getting back to class on a regular basis finally after the holidays. right now we've been focusing on lots and lots of kata. This is because the pretest is coming up next week for the new black belt candidates. The lesson plan is set up this way to help the 1st kyus practice and fine tune what they will be expected to show next week.
I AM SO GLAD ITS NOT ME! My friend M will be taking the test. we started taking karate at the same time but she took some time off to have a baby so we ended up in different testing cycles. I think this group is a lot larger than mine. With a lot of students testing for Nidan and possibly Sandan too. there is one adult student that is going for Nidan who is going to be a problem. This man is a grown up version of arm breaker. He spars like he's in a back ally brawl every time. Always hits extra hard. If he passes the pretest (he sucks at kata so he could actually fail) he's gonna be a tough one at the practical. I AM SO GLAD ITS NOT ME...oh. i said that already..

oh well

Well, I went to class last night. I did not spar, though. It was a great class anyway, mostly working combinations with a partner. Then they did regular sparring towards the end of the class. They combined the teen class with the adult class so it was pretty crowded. I worked with a woman who just got her green belt. I love seeing that there are more and more adults taking karate. My dojo always encourages the parents to start taking classes,they usually offer a free 3 months to parents of students. Right now there is a group of maybe 10-15 parents who are now green belts who all started as a "parents class" a couple years ago. Its going to be awesome to see them all get their black belts together.
My little arm breaker was in class last night too. So was my son. My son cracked him in the head with a ridge hand and said.."thats for my mom"
what a good boy...he's been waiting for an opportunity for that since the night my arm was broken.

2007

Happy New Year!

I hope its better than last year. :) We have sparring this week~ I'm hoping to be brave enough to go.