Good Morning all!!
The girls and I had a wonderful time in Tenn. We headed out on Thurs. afternoon to find an ATA. We saw an ATA sign and turned in thinking it was Giles ATA. After embarrassing myself by asking the owner if he was Master Giles, I learned that I was at Mr. Sage's ATA. What a wonderful man!! I asked for permission to train at his school (the only way to redeem myself) and he agreed. We went in later that evening to train and instead of taking classes, Mr. Sage himself worked with me for an hour and had his World Champion instructor Mr. Irving work with the girls. I was honored to soak up every ounce of knowledge and felt so happy to be welcomed in from nowhere. True Southern Hospitality at its finest. To watch this man do the black belt form was amazing and his wife tells me he has turned out 16 world champs! It was a true honor to have so much attention focused on myself and my girls when he had other students in class that night. Thank you to all of those who had to give up time with your instructor.
The tournaments was CRAZY..I got 2nd in weapons, 3rd sparring. Lauren placed 2nd in forms, lilly 3rd (same ring...12 competitors...awesome) and Leah got 1st in forms but totally kicked butt in sparring. She had to help her opponent up twice...his name was Micheal. (We had to hear about it for the next 5 hrs). That was the first time she had ever had sparring gear on and Mr. Hayhurst, you have created a monster!
The fundraiser was not very successful I am sad to say. I sat up a table but had no way to collect money because I was literally running from room to room (at the middle school) watching Leah and trying to get her ring finished (which I had to also judge..no I didnt give scores) and making sure Lauren and Lilly didnt miss their ring and therefore....no one was at the table to take money...lets just say we sure have all of the bugs worked out of our system for the next tournament! I will have family at the next two tournaments so someone will be at the table always. It was tough but we got through it and I think we made a whopping $38.00 by the end of the tournament. We have decided to not get discouraged because it was a very small tournament and our system was very flawed at best but we now know what not to do and it has been a learning experience in every way imaginable.
Casey is recovering well from her last battle with her devastating illness. I spoke with her dad this morning and he tells me she is back in Taekwondo class and doing well. She has a check up on Tuesday and hopefully her tests will all come back with good results. We are pulling for you Casey!! Be well, and keep your eyes open for postcards recently mailed out!