Saturday:

Saturday was the 2009 Shaolin-Do tournament – a first for me.  Tough it was a long day (over 12 hours), I had one of the best days ever.  I love the Shaolin-Do family, and I love that I’m a part of it now.  I met so many new people (including the Grandmaster), and I got to hang out with all of the people I already know and love.  It was such an amazing day.  There was never a dull moment.  Something was always going on.

Some of my favorite moments were:

• helping to set up and run the table o goodies
• watching the children spar (especially Master Joe’s son Chris) – too cute!
• meeting and talking with Grandmaster Sin
• getting my gi signed and my picture taken with Grandmaster Sin
• winning silver medal in Kung Fu forms
• winning forth place in Sparring (blue through 3rd browns)
• winning bronze medal for lower rank tai chi forms
• every single demo
• getting to do 24 with everyone as part of the demo
• being with all of my current friends
• meeting new friends
• being inspired by some amazing martial artists

I was really nervous every time I had to perform except for when I sparred.  Sparring doesn’t really bother me.  You can’t have a game plan really so there’s nothing to forget.  However, when I was sparring, I took a nasty fall.  I wasn’t embarrassed, but it did hurt…OMG did it hurt.  I kicked at the same time my opponent ran into me knocking my other leg out from under me, and I hit the gym floor with my hip bone.  Take a look at the pictures:

the bruise that night

the bruise the next day

It’s pretty actually.  I nicknamed it the nebula.

Here are all of the pictures from the tournament that I collected from everyone that posted them.

Album 1

Album 2

Album 3

Here are the videos that I took or collected from others from the tournament:

Sunday:

I went and sparred at the TKD MMA sparring class.  I was really exhausted from the previous day and decided to work more on my blocking and deflecting.  This is something that I’ve seen needs work for a long time now.  I just kept telling myself “that everything was moving in slow motion” or “that I could see everything before it happened”.  It really worked.  By not focusing on the match, I was able to just react.  Except for my instructor who moves at the speed of light, no one else got much in.  I still got hit and I got some hits in, but my main focus was on blocking.  I am definitely going to keep working on this and see where it can take me.

Sunday night was the Black Belt Banquet that I could only attend thanks to dating a black belt.  :)  It was so much fun.  I laughed the entire time.  Again, I was reminded how awesome our little Kung Fu group is.  I’m so thankful for all of them.

Here are the pictures from the banquet:

Banquet Album

Monday-Friday (today):

Pretty much all I have done during the day is continue to study for my first exam (Generalist EC-4).  I have been reading the book I bought as well as making flash cards.  It’s a long process, but the 2 combined are already helping some of the facts stick in my brain.  I’m a visual/auditory learner so I definitely need to try to use this to my advantage.  This will also give me the option of having Bryan help me study even if he knows nothing that’s discussed in the book.

I went to Kung Fu on Monday and skipped Tuesday and Wednesday.  Wednesday night I had a video conference for school which is the last – yay!  Thursday night I went to TKD.  I have a TKD tournament on the 14th and am trying to stay focused on that until then.  My form is still not committed to muscle memory or any memory really.  I’m still struggling to remember the moves so that I can work on refining them, but I’m getting there.  What can I say?  Kung Fu and Tai Chi are just too distracting with there cool moves and weapons.  🙂

In other news:

Bryan’s grandparents have a closing date on the house which is exciting for them.  Everything is coming along great in the house, and they are starting to learn their way around Cedar Park/Leander.

Upcoming Events:

March 8:  going to play bingo with Bryan and his grandmother / Daylight Savings Time begins

March 14:  TKD Tournament

March 17:  St. Patrick’s Day

March 20:  Carson’s (my little brother) birthday

March 24: Jay’s (my older stepbrother) and Sara’s (my stepmother) birthday – yeah she had him on her birthday

March 30:  closing date on the house

Recent pictures of the cats:

Bryan's being sneaky again. Me sleeping with Bella and Sweet Pea.