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.

Now that I’m hooked, I just can’t get enough.  I have Twilight wall papers on my computer, cell phone and iPod Touch.  I got Twilight key chains a couple nights ago and almost bought a shirt.  The craziest thing though is I’m actually going to a midnight release party tomorrow (3/20/09) at Border’s in the mall so I can be one of the first to get a DVD.  I didn’t plan ahead though and forgot to reserve a copy so I may have to wait till I can find it elsewhere tomorrow but its OK.  It’ll be fun to play trivia games and such and see how much I really know about the series.  I’ve never gone to anything like this before.  Never done a midnight book/DVD release.  Never gone to see the midnight showing of a movie.  Never…. although that will change when Transformers comes out this summer (Rob’s obsessive movie).  Rob is so patient when it comes to the Twilight stuff now.  I just explain it to him that it is my Transformers . . . lol

Just one last thing . . . I only hope this poster is a good representation of the movie.  I love Edward’s eyes in this photo.  I only hope they are this beautiful and golden in the movie.  They are just like I pictured them when I was reading the book even before I saw this photo.

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.

I also decided to try kumite (sparring) at the tournament. I was REALLY nervous about fighting since I never had done it before but I’ve been going to sparring classes for a couple months so I at least felt better prepared. I was bracketed with my friend Amanda from my class, a brown belt and a purple belt. I got to fight against the brown belt and we fought first in our division. The match was really close and as time went on I was feeling more and more confident about my ability to fight. We went back and forth most the match and time expired before either of us reached eight points so we went into sudden victory overtime. A minute or so into overtime and she scored just a split second before I did and won the match. I ended up taking a bronze medal but I am not at all disappointed about it. In my eyes it was a gold. I accomplished exactly what I wanted to at the tournament and hope to try it again the next time I compete.

The day was really fun and I walked away feeling very accomplished. It is the best I’ve ever competed and I’ve decided to compete in a bigger tournament in December and possibly in the State Games of America this summer. I never would have guessed that I would have this much fun doing karate. I can’t wait to be a black belt and compete against my black belt friends and my instructor.  Oh, one more thing . . . I just want to congratulate all of my Community Karate Club friends who competed. I was especially proud of my friends who competed for the first time. Can’t wait to see how you do in your next tournament. Hope you enjoy the videos. Please leave me feedback on what you think. I love to hear what others think of what they see.

Video of Heian Shodan at the 11/15/08 Tournament

Video of my very first Heian Shodan competition on 6/21/08

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. There were several black belts at our test including Mrs. Cupples’ (my instructor) instructor, Kyoshi Haynes. We were all plenty nervous having so many turn out for our test but I was really proud to show them what Mrs. Cupples has been able to teach us since Rob and I started in May. We all love learning from her and can’t wait till the day she is there to watch us receive our black belts (a few years off still but a goal none the less).

Belt Test 9/24/08 – Adults from Tabitha Carroll on Vimeo.

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   We watched weather move around us all night long but it didn’t rain where we were.  At night, the temperatures were pleasant and around 2 am or so only light jackets were needed. That is way different that some Relay events in the past where we needed several layers of clothing and frequent stops in the bathrooms to warm up.  Texas Roadhouse served us a great dinner and Dominos and Louie’s Pizza provided us with a late night pizza snack.  Along with the walking, there were movies, games, singing and even line dancing.  We even had a silent auction for some great gift cards and treats to help raise money for cancer.  Some campsites had things you could buy like glowsticks and flashing lights for donations to the cause, others had services like massages you could get for a small donation.  There was even a poker game this year with all the money going to The American Cancer Society (ACS).

Around 9:00 there was a Ceremony of Hope. The lights go down at The Grace Center and the track is lined with luminaria bags.  Each one has the name of someone battling or lost to cancer.  Inside each luminaria bag was a glow stick and as we walked, the names written on the bag are read.  It is a really moving ceremony and in the stands, luminaria bags spell out the word “HOPE”.  Each person named on the bags represent a person who has been profoundly affected by cancer.  This celebration gives us a chance to reflect on how much cancer affects our lives and how we need to find a “CURE” for the disease.

I can take donations for this event through the end of the month so if you would like to help me in my fund raising efforts click here to Donate

Thank you to everyone who supports me and my team in our efforts to raise money for cancer research and support.  Because of you, lives are being saved and changed.  Because of you, the hope for a cancer-free future goes on.

The boys have their final regular season Panther inline hockey tournament today. Check out the schedule here.

Join me at The Grace Center in Colorado Springs in the celebration of those who have survived cancer and remembrance of those who have lost the fight. If you would like to join my team click here . . . Zach’s Team or to help me in my fundraising efforts click here to Donate

Thank you to everyone who supports me and my team in our efforts to raise money for cancer research.