I'm managing to get online from work by getting a little bit of the wireless from next door. I thought this was a good picture: Corky is enjoying a lazy afternoon of coloring. And I love that shirt.

The reason I can't hear you is because of the sinus infection that that has got my ears totally stopped up. And it's a great picture and I just had to post it.

So...black belt test. Below you can see pictures from the test. I had gotten an email earlier last week saying that the test was starting at 11:00. The newsletter said the test started at 11:00. So I showed up at 10:20 thinking that I had plenty of time to warm up and get ready. Haha. Apparently the test started at 10:00. Jason had already done most of the kata for his test. :-O Christa (God bless her) took the blame for the misinformation and I was still allowed to step in and test.

I don't really remember all that much from the test. It may sound odd, but the whole thing has turned into a big blur. We did kata and I only messed up twice and they were just small mistakes. Three minutes on the heavy bag was tough but I did ok. Once the fighting started everything blurs. I know Mr. Murry was my first fight. I know I fought Scott Brown, Kai Mittchel, James Price, Mr. H and Steven Whiteker somewhere in there. Ethan was my fourth fight. Or fifth? Scott Brown gave me a black eye and James Price bruised a rib. Kai was pulling my into some knee strikes and I tried to block one of the with my leg...got a really bad bruise on my thigh. My last fight was Dale Sloan.

Plural fights were intense. I did better than I've ever done. I actually won my four on one fight, but Mr. H didn't call it because he wanted the fight to go on (and I'm not making that up...he admitted to it!) Kai sidekicked me in the chin really, really hard. I actually blocked the kick with my hands, which then hit my chin. Had I not blocked that kick it would have knocked me out cold.

Hmm...other things that happened at the test. Jason got his third degree black. Mr. Murry broke his nose in the first fight and he was knocked out standing. He still finished his fights, although it was certainly very tough on him. His board breaking was awesome.

Erin got second black and did a great job. Her eskrima kata was wonderful.

School is killing me right now. I've got a ton (a TON) of stuff due next Monday. On top of that I'm sick. Bleh.

Last night I taught the second spotting workshop at work. We only had time for the very basics of bar but I'm glad we got to cover what we did. One of our troublesome teachers has stopped coming to work, and the other one has been getting much better. She was at the workshop last night and had a lot of good questions and actually seemed to listen to what I had to say.

I took a class on nutrition a few semesters ago and the teacher told us that there is no such thing as a suger rush. He even tried to explain crazy kids after trick or treating as well, you let them stay up late past their bedtime and go visit a bunch of folks, that's why they're nuts. Not because they ate fifteen bags of candy. That's got to be the biggest bunch of hogwash I've heard in all my classes. Yesterday our level 7 gymnasts were nuts. Totally crazy. Taylor was talking about 400 miles a minute all evening and I don't think Miranda ever even noticed we were having class, she was so busy singing songs and trying to coach all her teammates. Halfway through class I asked them, "What on earth did you girls eat on your way to class today?" "Oh, we had extra large smoothies."

No such thing as a suger rush my foot!

Well, ladies and gentlemen...I am now a black belt!



Fighting Kai.



Fighting Mr. H...6 time world kick boxing champion. If only I could remember what happened during that fight...





Trying to survice the last fifteen seconds of a fight with James Price.



Dale Sloan...my last fight. Notice the beautiful roundhouse that I just landed on his chin.











Do I look tired in this picture?



Getting the belt!



Samuel is hugging his sister...isn't that cute? No, it's not cute. Samuel is leaning entirely on his sister, who is the only reason that he is not lying on the ground...he's half dead.



It's offical! I have a black eye (thank you Scott Brown), black and purple ear, swollen nose, smashed lips, jacked jaw, bruises all over my head/face, bruises on my forearm from blocking, bruised ribs (thank you James Price), a deep muscle bruise on my right thigh (thank you Kai), very, very bruised shin from blocking and a stone bruise on the bottom of my right foot. It's not an experience I can say I enjoyed...but I'm certainly glad I did it.