This will probably be something of a ramble today. Things are both going well and not going so well...no, I shouldn't go so far as to say that...things are going well and I'm wondering what God is trying to show me in a couple situations.

Saturday was the annual Missions Tournament and it was (as usual) a hoot. Last Monday Mr. Murry had us brown belts each perform a kata for the white belt class, and since I knew that Ethan was going to do Wan Si Sho, I decided to do Teno, just so things didn't get boring. Well, I did Teno and Mr. Murry comes up to me afterwards and says "Hey, you should do that kata for the tournament." AHH!! Never mind the fact that I hadn't practiced Teno seriously for over a year and that Wan Si Sho has been my compitition kata for three years now! And I'd been practicing it for the tournament! So with 5 days to go I started work on Teno instead, hoping that I didn't fall flat on my face while doing it.

So at any rate, Saturday comes and it turns out that Anna and I will be in the same division...over 18 brown belts (not "more than 18 brown belts" but "brown belts over 18 years of age"). So Anna does her kata (did a pretty good job of it too! Got a 9 from Mr. Logston!) And then I go out to do mine...at that point the black belts were doing their weapons forms but Mr. Holzbaugher sits right next to the judges and stares directly at me during the entire kata! But I got really good scores...8, 9 and 9! And when they called up the winners, Anna took third place and I had first! WEEE!!! Mr. Holzbaugher even told me I did a good kata afterwards!

For fighting they put adult brown belts with adult black belts...and I made the really silly mistake of standing next to Jeff Logston when they were writing down our names for the fighting. Duh. He's a third degree black belt who is REALLY fast.

Just as we stepped into the ring to fight Anna grabbed my arm and whispered "Mr Miller is standing behind you." Oh, music to my ears! I ran over to him. "Don't get set. He's fast...you have to move. Don't be there when he tries to hit you." I bowed in, touched gloves and dropped into my fighting stance...an annoyed voice behind me calls out "Your already set!" So from that point on I was, as BJ described it, the Spastic Fighter. Say whatever you may about my fighting, I was on my toes for that fight! And it actually worked! I was supprised to discover that fighting him was a lot like fighting Brittany...He was very fast and if I let him get into me then it was all over...but he didn't have a particularly good defense and if I came in quick with my hands I had him. In the end he beat me 4 to 3...which is not bad at all, if you ask me. Mr. Miller was pretty pleased with it as well. (oh, and Jeff Logston went on to win first in fighting, as well as the overall excellent competitor award.)

In other news...Naomi took 3rd in kata and 1st in sparring. Ethan took 2nd in kata and did not place in sparring...whole nother story there! Isaac placed in kata, but he didn't remember what place he got! LOL! Joshua took first in kata and wasn't able to fight because there wasn't any other male brown belts his age to fight against! Poor fellow was pretty bumed about that. BJ placed 5th in kata (in a very large division) and got good scores as well. She lost her first fight...she would jump in with one strike and then didn't know what to do after that...have to work with her on some combos.

Ok, enough about the tournament...I'm sure I've bored all of you to death. If you are still reading...then you probably have no life. lol

Got some very bad news today. I'm in the honors program here at RSU, which covers tuition, books and fees...very sweet deal. RSU does a program with Cameron U. which allows students to do their first two years at RSU, and then take classes from Cameron at the RSU campus to get a degree in elem. ed. So I'm doing that. Well, I just found out that once I finish my second year and start taking classes from Cameron, my scholarship will go bye bye! AHHHH!!!!!!!! This is very scary news for me. I'm trying to think of what i might be able to do to pay for my last 2 years and I'm trying to think how God might be leading me through this. Please pray for me...pray I can figure out what God wants me to do without too much beating my head against a wall.

Ok, I've got to go now...this keyboard is not ergonomic (sp?) and my hands feel like they are about to fall off. I hate flat keyboards. talk to y'all later.