A week in the life: Saturday

At 8:15am, we picked up Austin's best friend, Soren, and headed to Carman for the 2010 Premier Taekwondo Championships.



Waiting to compete for patterns.



Mr. Mayert and Mr. Drummond, third degree dans from our club, competing in patterns.



Austin and Soren doing their patterns.



Austin grabbed my camera and took some pictures of me while I was doing my pattern. (Thanks, Buddy!) How it works: you compete against another person from your division and then the three judges declare a winner. From there, you compete again and if you win twice, you win gold. So, my first match, I won.



And my second match, as well. :)



My first gold medal at a tae kwon do tournament. Actually, now that I think about it, that might be my first gold medal ever.



After patterns, I competed in board breaking. (No pictures, unfortunately.) I had two boards to break: I broke the first one with a back spin kick (just like I did here) and attempted to break my second board with a step-behind-sidekick, but unfortunately wasn't successful. There were two other women in my division. The first one broke both of her boards and the other only one, like me. However, the kick I used to break my board was more difficult/challenging than hers, so I won the silver medal.

For the black belt board breaking, I got to scorekeep, which was a fun learning experience.

Onto the sparring...

After seeing my would-be competition (young, fast and good!), I was SO thankful that I'd decided against sparring in this tournament. Once I was done my patterns and board breaking, I felt so happy and relaxed that I was finished competing for the day.

Of course, that left time for me to focus on cheering on my favourite blue belt:



Here, he's wearing the blue helmet.



And here, he's wearing the white helmet and the red circle on his chest protector. Even though he didn't take home a medal, I can't even begin to tell you how proud I was of him! He sparred so well-- the best I've ever seen him spar!

And I also got to cheer on some of my friends. Holly (in blue, then in red), from my club...





And Evelyn (in red), my friend from the Carman/Treherne branch, who won the gold medal for her division:



Austin ended up leaving once he was done, with Soren and his parents. I stayed to watch Holly and Ev compete and was also able to do some timekeeping for a couple of matches, which was fun.

I made it home to Morden at five, picked up Austin and then we went to a bar-b-q at some friends' from church-- a thank you to Cameron who helped them move their sister into her new house that afternoon.

We didn't stay very late. I walked home with the kids, did the baths, jammies routine and let them watch Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel while I scrapbooked at the dining room table.



And that is my week in the life for April 2010.

Thanks for looking!