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…)

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The wind awoken from the sky and it blew as fast as a stallion racing for a gold.
Everything fell on the ground as the wind rushed and flowed.
The wind flowed from the sky to all over the world.
Everything was twisting and twirling on the dry, rock hard ground.

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By:  Tyler Carroll, Age 9  -  4th Grade

The Capture My Colorado project is coming to an end. This week is VOTE WEEK and my photos, along with everyone else who has submitted photos, need your votes. We all help shape how the book will look and decide which photos make it in and which do not. Go to the website and vote. Click the link above to get to my page of photos. (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…)