So after my latest karate competition this weekend I got to thinking about a fortune I got last week in my fortune cookie at dinner and how it applied to me.  Most the time my fortunes seem silly, meaningless and out of the box but this one was different to me.

A little over a year ago I decided to take up a new “sport”.  A new direction in my life.  It was scary and I was sure that people would laugh at me but that didn’t stop me.  I had been coming to my boys karate classes for a couple months and loved their instructor, Mrs. Cupples.  I loved her encouraging and positive way of dealing with the kids.  She has a great outlook on life and pushes the kids to do the best THEY can not what everyone else can do.  When she decided that she wanted to offer the same training for adults, I thought sure, I’ll give it a try.  What was the worst that was going to happen?  I would do it for a couple months and decide it wasn’t for me?  Or better yet, try it and love it and continue on for as long as the journey will take me?  Well that is exactly what happened but the journey is not over yet.  It’s only just begun.  Despite the occasional laugh or “why are you doing THAT?” comments I’ve gotten, I’ve stuck with it.  Now look at me.  I’ve made it all the way to green belt (the first novice belt), won several medals and just today started helping Mrs. Cupples teach in her 5 year old class.  I’m proud to say that I train in karate and it has become a VERY important part of my life.

So I’ll bet you are wondering what my fortune was that night at dinner.  Here is what it said . . . “All personal breakthroughs begin with a change in beliefs”.  I was immediately taken by that comment because it is so true.  Because of Mrs. Cupples, Community Karate Clubs, Family Karate Center, Kyoshi Haynes and my new karate family, I believe more in myself than I ever have.  I believe that I can do things that before I couldn’t.  I have an amazing positive support system around me that encourages me to do MY very best in EVERYTHING I do.  It is much easier most days for me to let things go and realize there are more important things in life to worry about.  Don’t get me wrong though, I still have my days but then I think about my new journey and it helps me put my life back in perspective.  I can not thank Mrs. Cupples enough for believing in me and seeing things in me that I don’t always see at first.  Some days she is that positive strength in my life that I need.  It is her belief in me that helped me come to the realization that “I CAN do this” or “I AM that tough”.  Mostly that I don’t need to be pushed around by anybody.

She has helped Rob and I see strength in each other too.  I have the chance to get to train with him each and every week.  It makes my day on Monday and Wednesday to get to share that time with him.  Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better than that, a few months ago Mrs. Cupples decided to change the adult only class to a family class.  It is wonderful because now I get to not only train with my sweetheart but also get to train next to my own kids.  This is one of the things that CKC is all about . . . family.  I am honored everyday that I get to train with my sweetie and my boys and be taught by someone that I look up to as a mentor and great friend.  I hope someday that I am able to pass on what she has taught me to others either by helping her in her school or by having a school of my own.  I can’t wait till the day that I am able to join the ranks of my fellow black belt friends and say with honor that I trained under Mrs. Cupples.  She is an amazing teacher and a strong woman.  If the day comes in the future, it will be fun to compete against her at a tournament.  She will be a tough opponent but I have faith in my training that I will do the very best that I can do because of the positive and supportive training that I received from such a wonderful mentor.

Thank you Mrs. Cupples for making our community better.  Thank you for believing in us all.  Thank you for showing us how the little things can make such a difference in someones day.   You know exactly when to give us positive words of encouragement and praise to brighten our day.  Thank you for caring for each an every one of us.  I am proud to say I am a Community Karate Club student.  Thank you to all my new friends that I have made this past year, young and old.  You teach me something every time we compete and train together and working with my new littlest friends is going to show me a whole new side to something I already love.  Thank you Rob for joining me on this new journey in my life.  I couldn’t think of someone I’d rather share it with that with you.  Thank you to my boys for being so supportive and encouraging also.  It is fun to have something that we can both learn together and teach each other new things along the way.  I love learning from you. Finally, I also would like to thank Mr. Cupples for all he does for CKC.  You are a great teacher.  I love learning from you.  It is fun to have a different perspective on things and it I feel honored when I get to have you judge me at competitions or when you get to come watch us take our belt tests.

My personal breakthroughs have most certainly began with a change in believing in myself.  Here’s to a long journey on this wonderful road of life.

OK.  So I admit I may be a little slow at getting with the times but now that I have been reading the Twilight books I’m completely hooked.  I never got to see the movie in the theaters even though I always wanted to and hadn’t read the books either.  For Valentine’s Day, Rob thought it would be a good idea for me to read the first of the Twilight books before the movie release at the end of March.  Little did he or I know that once I started reading, I wouldn’t be able to put it down.  It took me a couple weeks to pick the book up and get started but in just a week and a half, I was done and wanting more.  For my birthday, Rob got me the entire boxed set (yes, now I have two copies of the first book) and in less than a week I’ve finished another one.  I get started and just can’t stop.  I sneak off all the time to catch just a page or two and before I know it I’ve read an entire chapter.  This weekend I will start Eclipse, the third book and try desperately to slow down so I don’t finish it too quickly. (more…)

Autumn is here
It has arrived
And everyone is outside
I hear crunch, crunch, crunch
Under my feet
And people are jumping in piles of leaves
I hear the pitter patter under my feet when I run
The ground is colorful
Yellow, red, orange
But rarely green
Unique, Magical
Dried leaves crunching
Everywhere I step

By:  Tyler Carroll, Age 9

Now that the snow is flying here at least once a week (it doesn’t stick around long), I thought it would be fun to share this funny video. I personally love the snow (for now) and really don’t mind clearing the car in the morning but I know there are lots of people out there who hate it. There have been a few days though that I think how nice it would be to have a semi-heated garage so I could just zip out without that extra 10 to 15 minutes. My tune may change if the snow ever starts getting heavy here in Colorado Springs but for now though, keep the snow coming. I want a white Christmas . . . and some good skiing after the holidays.

On Saturday, November 15th, I competed in the Family Karate Center’s Inter-Club Tournament. This time I was competing as a yellow belt with a little bit more experience under my belt . . . (ha ha, get it). Anyway, I practiced all week perfecting my Heian Shodan kata for not only the competition on Saturday but for my next belt test on the 24th of November. When my name was called and I marched out on to that mat, I felt like a million bucks. Like everything I had been practicing for had come to this moment to show the judges what I had learned and how I’d improved. I was really nervous though too because the several days leading up to it, I had been doing hammer fists in place of my down blocks.  I really didn’t want to forget those and wanted to try to remember to put my “looks” into the kata too. This is where you look in the direction of the invisible bad guy before you make your next move.  After watching the video, I remembered some but not all looks but my shirashi steps (sliding your foot from one step to the next so you are never out of balance) have come along nice and they looked better than I thought they did. Check out the video below of my latest kata and the one at the very bottom is the very first competition I did on June 21st as a white belt. (more…)

YAY! Rob and I finally did it. We are finally yellow belts in karate and it feels great. We already started learning some of our yellow belt kihon (blocks, kicks and strikes) and self defenses and they are fun. Most of the self defenses have cool pressure points and one of them has a really cool “arm bar” that you can put the “bad guy” into. If done right it could really hurt someone.

Yesterday we learned most of our kihon for yellow belt and I feel like I have three arms, two left feet and no balance.  Tyler was having too much fun laughing at me trying to figure out the elbo strike and I got really dizzy trying to learn the spinning back kick.  Guess it’s going to take a lot of practice at home to get these down before a stripe test or the final belt test.  We were also disappointed to learn at yellow belt we don’t learn any new stick flow drills but this will give us some time to perfect the ones we already know.   I can’t wait to see what else is in store for us ahead. It’s way exciting so far.

Check out the video slide show below of our belt test to get our yellow belts. (more…)

I just ran across this on a friends profile on MySpace and thought I would share my results.  I’m amazed actually.  It’s really close to the truth.  Take the test and reply to my post and let me know how you did.  I’m interested to see if anyone got “similar” results. Check out my results here . . . (more…)

On Friday night, June 27th at 7pm I participated in the Central Colorado Springs Relay for Life. It is a fun event that takes place for 12 hours. They say “Cancer never sleeps and for 12 hours, neither will we” so we walk from 7pm to 7am as a team in order to celebrate survivors and remember those lost to cancer. I ended up walking 22.5 miles for the night around the track at The Grace Center and raised $200 for Zach’s Team and for cancer awareness and support.

The weather was wonderful and as the opening ceremonies got underway we thought we might see lots of rain. Instead, we had a few sprinkles for about 10 minutes or so and lots of rainBOWS.  It was soooo cool.  Read (more…)