Saturday: a Saturday

'Twas a pretty normal Saturday.  We did go rock climbing this morning with one of Joshua's friends.  We did some housework, played some games, took a nap.  The kids laughed together a lot...it's my favorite sound.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's taken me a while to get this posted, but I did want to briefly remember the weekend.

The weather was lovely.  Cool, but not cold, in the mornings and it warmed up to a pleasant/hot temp in the afternoons.  The normal crew was all there, including several people that we only see on Memorial Day weekend.  Joshua's friend's family also joined us this year!  They weren't quite attached at the hip, but they did spend quite a bit of time together.

The kids did the fun run in the morning.

Sunday we normally play a family game and frisbee golf, but Ben wasn't feeling well at all.  He actually ended up going home Sunday afternoon.  He didn't want to, but he was dragging.  The kids didn't handle this as well as I was expecting, but they got over it with minimal tears.

Monday I finally got the camera out since I realized I hadn't taken any pictures yet.  We took a peaceful walk on the beach in the morning.

We took pictures on the rock, which is apparently a tradition.

I pushed them on the merry-go-round a little bit.  The merry-go-round would out of order last year and there was much discussion prior to the trip as to whether or not it would be back.  The boys spent hours on it.  Joshua's poor legs are all bruised from it too.

I made the kids help me more with packing up this year.  Last year I volunteered to do all of it, and that was a mistake.  It just takes a little bit too long.  This year the kids helped pack up our stuff within the camper.  Isaac put packed everything into the car.  (This was in part possible because we had put some stuff into Ben's car, so my car wasn't quite as full.)  Isaac also helped to wash down the floor as I was vacuuming.  I was so excited at the end; Isaac had been so helpful and it went so much faster this year.

Friday: Bears

 Yesterday Joshua found out that Snowfoot and Grey Bear were planning to go on an adventure today.  So when he got home from school, he found out that they grabbed a few other bears and had a bear-rel adventure!

(Root beer was in the little barrels.  These are not drunk bears.)

Thursday: the day

Today was mainly a normal day.  I biked to the library instead of driving.  I did two loads of laundry and finally got it all cleaned.  (It's always a project after camping.)  It isn't sorted, let alone put away, but it's at least clean.

Grey Bear was waiting for me for nap time.

Giraffe hung out in the giraffe holder during the day.  During screen time Tornado jumped up on Isaac's lap so I got a picture of all of them.

It's been a bit of a boring week, once we got home from camping, I'll admit.  Putting the desks together was fun, but there has just been a lot of normal/boring things filling the days too.

Wednesday: a cat day

 Today was a lot of cleaning up.  Finishing up cleaning from the new office set-up, camping, and then the normal cleaning.  The cats made me smile several times though.

I was taking apart the boxes from the desks, turned away for a moment, and suddenly there was a cat in the box!  It felt a bit odd because usually the cat takes up most of the box, but this time there was room to spare.

Ben has a bad...something...and so I've been in the guest room the last two nights.  Horizon usually snuggles by my legs like a nice kitty, but when I woke up this morning he was near my shoulders and next to Snowfoot.  It is not where I was expecting to see him.

Monday: Joshua's computer

 A short while ago we decided that it was time for Joshua to have his own (good) computer.  So I have a new computer and Joshua, who is inheriting my old computer, has been sad about the lack of Minecraft for the last few days.  It hasn't been too long, but I wanted to get everything set up for him promptly.

And so, in between a few other chores today, I reset the office.  It use to have one longer table, but that table wasn't long enough for two computers.  

Joshua was so excited.  He promptly decorated his table with assorted Minecraft characters made out of Lego and added the creeper head to the back of his chair.  Ben and I were happy that we've hung on to some of the old monitors that we've used in the past...they're small and the color isn't great on the secondary monitors, but they work for looking stuff up as needed.  These tables also came with cupholders, but we're calling them lovie holders instead; you can see Grey Bear in the middle of the picture.

Saturday: final test

The day finally came!  Black belt test number 3, the final test.  

It started with basic actions and combos.  There were always a few that I have trouble starting, but I get them within one or two repetitions.  We moved on to forms.  I struggled with a few forms, not because I don't know them but because it is hard to do them with a group.  However, I've also been at enough practices lately that they know I know the forms and this last test is mostly just for show.  (There were a few people missing and I think there were a few students they were watching a bit closer than normal.  They got a little grumpy at the lack of power some students were putting forth, but besides that they seemed happier than normal too.)

Phew.  We were through the hardest stuff.  Self-defense followed.  I had been struggling a bit with this because they would previously only give the name of what they wanted...and it felt like the names and/or the motions kept changing.  So this time they gave a quick description too.  I was with a lovely partner and we had a fun time together.  We are trying to come up with a word when we execute the move correctly.  We don't want to say "good", because it doesn't feel good.  But we don't want to say "bad", because the move was executed correctly.  We've been using "terrible" and laughing about it, which lightens the mood.

Next we had some fun things!  We were divided into two groups and needed to make a six-motion form in five minutes.  There was one adult in each group, with the expectation that we'd help lead.  No problem there!  One student would select a move, we'd run form.  Then the next student would select a move and we'd run the form.  If they were too slow to choose a move someone else got to choose, although everyone did get to put a move in by the end.  The parents voted and we won!  Huzzah!

Then the parents came out and we had to teach them the first five moves of a form.  My sparring partner's mom came out to help me since the rest of my family was camping.  She is a red belt, although hasn't been on the mat for a while, so we had to do one of the harder forms.  We ended up with Bassai, which was the one I disliked the most.  But we only had to do the first five moves and I know the form!  I just don't like it.

The mile came next.  I just gave them my time from Thursday again  (12:02).  I feel a bit like it's cheating, but that 10 minute break is so nice.

We finished up with some sparring.  I never love sparring but it was fine.  It helped that I had just had a break.

And then we were done.  They noted that I was the first adult female to become a black belt under their leadership of about eight years.  (In fact, there aren't that many adults that make it.  I obviously don't know the history all that well, but in talking with the other adult that was testing for his second degree belt there might only be two males as well.  There are several teens that are now in college and on the cusp of adulthood, but they were all younger when they actually got the belt.)

(Note that we were all able to flip our belts!  Previously we had the red on the top black on the bottom denoting black belt candidate.  Now we have black on the top denoting that we've passed but are waiting on the official ceremony.)