Oh Whoa Whoa Whoa...

"Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting..."

That song has been in my head for a few days now.  I couldn't remember why until earlier today when I remembered that I had yet to post about Trevor's tae kwon do tournament that I took him to in Memphis last Saturday.  I know some smart aleck is going to say that kung fu is not tae kwon do...but when Chad was putting the tournament video together we were trying to come up with a song that would go with it and that is the one that came to mind first...but then we couldn't find it in my itunes library so we went with some other songs instead.  

Still with me?  Good, 'cause I don't know if I am with me at this point!

Before I tell you about the tournament I am going to hijack this post and talk about me for a while because, heck, this is my blog after all!

Ever had one of "those" days when everything seems to be going wrong?

Saturday actually started out pretty good.  My hair was behaving (take THAT Tennessee humidity), my clothes were clean (and ironed), I got up on time and had enough time to spare before picking my sister up to make myself a peanut butter sandwich and put it in a baggy for the road.  I was looking forward to a day away from the noise of Chad pounding on the roof and the little ones were hanging out with my folks, so I didn't have to chase them in a crowded high school gymnasium or listen to them whine during the three hour car ride to and from Memphis.

 After Trevor and I picked up Karen we decided to stop at McDonalds for a drink.  We waited in the drive thru for what seemed like forever for a couple of diet sodas and were mildly surprised when we got them that they gave us at least five napkins...which is amazing considering they very rarely give more than one when you order a meal for six people!  Karen inspected the drinks and noticed that one of the lids looked a little funky, but we were already on the road and figured that it would probably be fine.

I bet you know where this is going now, don't you?

After we got on the interstate I pulled out my pb sandwich and enjoyed it greatly since it was my first time tasting the homemade jam I made a few days before.  By the time we were on the outskirts of Smryna (about fifteen miles up the road) I realized that I needed a drink due to the peanut butter.  I picked up my drink and it took exactly one second for the lid (which was defective, part of one of the sides was missing) to pop off and my finger to go inside the drink and (I can't tell you exactly what happened next because I was being responsible and keeping my eyes on the road) the next thing I knew half of the large
Diet Dr. Pepper and ice was in my lap.  

This is pretty much how I felt about the whole thing.

 I proceeded to the nearest exit while asking Karen for napkins...turns out five napkins really aren't all that absorbant after all.  To make matters worse (or better, depending on how you look at it) we were in Chad's Infinity, which has leather seats, so the soda was just sitting there, not absorbing into the upholstery...

and it was very, very cold.

We made it to a gas station and Trevor took off across the parking lot in search of paper towels.  Karen found a little fleece beanie in the trunk and proceeded to wipe up the mess inside the car while I grabbed some window wiping towels and tried to dry myself off a little.  Soaked to the skin I was, and it was not a pleasant feeling. We were trying to figure out where I could go and get some new pants at 7:00 in the morning and came to the very depressing conclusion that Walmart was too far away and Target wouldn't be open for another hour.  

BUMMER! 

What was left of my "refreshing" drink.

I resolved to sit in this for the next two hours till we could find a Walmart.

A nice butt shot of my ruined shorts.

They felt a lot worse than they looked...

You may be able to see that those shorts didn't start out khaki.
They were white in their previous life (their pre-Diet Dr. Pepper life).

I was able to get the cover off of a booster seat that was in the car so I could sit on that instead of the leather seat for the next two hours and I was never so happy to make it to Jackson and see a Walmart in my life...and probably never will be again!  Of course, it was the one Walmart in Tennessee that didn't have much selection in the clothing section, so I wandered around for twenty minutes until I found some capri pants that would work and we were once again on our way to Memphis.

When we arrived we got Trevor checked in and dropped off to where he needed to be and found ourselves a spot to sit.  I got that little feeling of panic when I realized that I hadn't reminded Trevor to bring his "cup" but brushed it off thinking that it probably wasn't mandatory.

Just after I took that picture one of the judges (the bald dude in the video that you will see later) called me over to tell me that Trevor wouldn't be able to spar without a cup, but that I could buy one out where the registration tables were and that I had some time to get out there and get one.  I walked out there as fast as my gimpy hip and a crowded gymnasium would allow, hoping the entire time that I had enough cash or that they took cards.  

Of course they didn't take any kind of cards, just cash or check!  The cup was $10.  I managed to pull out $9 in cash and lucked out that Sophie hadn't been through my change lately so I could dig up 4 quarters.  I gimp walked back across the gym just in time for Trevor to hightail it over to the dressing room to put the cup on and get back out to compete.

I could tell right away while he was doing his pattern (the series of moves that he learns for each belt color) that he wasn't doing very well.  He has only been a red belt for three weeks and he was competing against three girls and a boy who have been red belts far longer.  At that point I was hoping he would at least place third somewhere in the tournament to make all the drama of the day worthwhile!

When it came time for sparring he was up against the other boy first. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time while his opponent racked up three points right off away.  Suddenly Trevor woke up or figured out the other guy's strategy and went for it.  He won that match by the skin of his teeth with a double kick to the guy's chest.

The second time he sparred he was up against a scrappy little girl with a blonde pony tail hanging out of her helmet.  Right off the bat she got four points and my blood pressure went thru the roof!  Then, all of a sudden, she let her guard down and started lunging at him without blocking herself and he kicked her in the gut, again and again she did that until he was tied with her at four points.

We were down to the wire and I almost couldn't watch, but he somehow managed to pull off another point to take first place in sparring for his age group/belt level!  It was a great relief, not that we would have been upset if he'd lost, it just really helped me feel better about everything we'd been through that morning!  

Trevor and the little girl that he sparred with at the end of their match.  I love how they hold up the victor's hand first and say, "Winner this time," and then the opponent's hand and say "Next time."
 I think it gives the kids hope for the next time they spar.

Here's a little video from his first sparring match and when he got his trophy.
 Chad had a lot of fun putting it together, so hopefully it is viewable!

It was a crazy day to say the least! 

But there was more fun to be had.

 When we finally made it back to Murfreesboro despite Mother Nature's best efforts at killing us with a wicked storm complete with lightening and rain drops the size of my fist, Chad called me to tell me to meet him and the other kids at Toots (cause we are cheap and kids eat free when they order the hot dog meal).  When I sat down Chad said, "I have some bad news about the house."

Great.

I almost started laughing hysterically but managed to keep it together enough to ask what he meant. 

Apparently the same lightening/rain storm that tried to drown us on the road had tried to fry him while he was up on the roof.  He had been putting tar paper up all day and was ONE ROW from finishing at the peak of the roof when the lightening and rain hit and chased him to the ground.  He was fine and all, but when he got inside he realized that we had leaks in almost every room of the house.  The bedrooms got it the worst because they are directly under the part of the roof that wasn't protected, so we have some repairs to do to the ceilings in those rooms.  Our new tempurpedic bed was wet (on MY side, of course) and the carpet around it as well.  

Sheesh. 

 The ceilings were due for new paint anyway, and we didn't lose anything important so it could have been much worse.

Needless to say, I was exhausted when I crawled into bed that night...I didn't even notice that I had to sleep sideways along the foot of the bed to avoid the wet spots! 

 I woke up to a much drier Sunday...I even managed not to spill any soda on myself!

Lest we forget the most important part about the whole ordeal, here is Trevor basking in the glory of his win:

Trevor and his Tae Kwon Do instructor, Master Stevens.

Trevor and his super resilient mom, aka, Me.

Chad looked up the tournaments for the rest of the year and it looks like we'll be back in Memphis in July. 

 I will make sure to bring a change of clothes, plenty of cash, and Trevor's cup with me...and just for good measure I will probably stick to drinking only water that day ;-)!

Mothers Day

I seem to remember posting something last year after Mothers Day about how I used to have ridiculously high expectations around Mothers Day.  I went around thinking that Chad would magically start to remember more than a day in advance and pull out all the stops for making me feel loved and appreciated...and then the day would come and I didn't get much notice other than the wilted flower that some kid at church handed out after Sacrament Meeting and I'd be all disappointed until the next year when it happened all over again.

Then Blake started school and I discovered that the homemade cards and poems he brought home for Mothers Day were way better than anything they had done for me in the past.  This year I almost changed my mind about that.  I know, I know.  I'm fickle.  Here's what happened...

Two weeks ago I got a notice from Blake's teacher that I needed to send in an 8x10" frame for a "special" project that they were working on.  "Oooh! I wonder what wonderful goody I will get back?" I thought to myself.  I took Blake to Hobby Lobby and we picked out a nice black frame (that was 50% off=SCORE) and I sent it with him the next day.

Friday afternoon he came home from school empty handed.  Trying to disguise my disappointment I asked him what the frame was for.  He looked at me slyly and said that it was a surprise that we would bring home from Curriculum Fair (the day after Mothers Day).  Bummed, I didn't think much else about it.

Trevor came home with a flower in a cup and this masterpiece:

It is no less than two feet long! I almost didn't have enough magnets to put it on the fridge.  Here's a close up so you can read what he wrote:

It may be a little hard to read, but it sure made me smile!  That kid sure knows how to get on my good side when he wants to.

The weekend was super busy.  We had the Fathers and Sons Campout on Friday night.  I took full advantage of the quiet around here and made myself a skirt...still on the fence about whether or not I like it...but I did it all by myself!  Saturday morning Sophie and I went strawberry picking with my sisters and by the time I got home Chad was back with the smelly dirty boys.  We had already decided to take a trip to Chattanooga to attend at least one ward there on Sunday, but both of the ones we wanted to go to started at 9 am (Eastern Standard Time-we are on Central) which meant we'd have to leave here by 6 am to get there in time.

Dreading this, I casually mentioned to Chad that it was too bad we couldn't use some of his hotel points to just stay the night over there.  I saw his eyes perk up a bit at the thought of being able to sleep a little longer on Sunday and the next thing I knew, we were bathing kids and throwing things into overnight bags and off we went, with a short stop at our old neighbor's house to give her diabetic cat an insulin shot since she is out of town.

Once we finally arrived in Chattanooga, we went to one of our new favorite restaurants, Taco Mamasita, for lunch/dinner and spent the rest of the afternoon trolling around looking at neighborhoods/houses that we are interested in.  We stopped at a Bi-Lo for a bathroom break where Chad took the boys in and came out with ice cream bars for all of us, which Sophie thought was wonderful.  The kids were really good in the car, and all I have to say is thank goodness for portable dvd players!  They spent the afternoon watching Pinky and the Brain and getting Sophie to say new words like Purple and Brain, which was pretty funny to listen to.

The next morning we attended a ward in Hixson, TN, where everyone was very friendly and we were shocked that it was actually a ward and not a branch because there were hardly any people in it!  Our ward is ginormous by comparison.  I took Sophie out of Sunday School when she started being loud and walked the halls with her until she discovered that she could reach the water fountain and spent the last twenty minutes playing with it.  Chad took her during Priesthood so I really got to enjoy the Relief Society lesson.  I haven't been able to sit through/enjoy that for a very long time!

We headed up to Signal Mountain after church and enjoyed the beautiful views up there and then headed home in time to give the diabetic cat his afternoon shot.  It was a pretty relaxing Mothers Day all in all.  I loved being able to be with my family and just enjoy the day.

Back to Blake's picture frame.

Monday night was crazy busy.  We had to give the cat his shot, the older boys' bus was twenty minutes late and then we hightailed it over to Curriculum Fair (which is where they have a bunch of their work from the year on display), then Kade had his team photo and a t-ball game, Trevor had Tae Kwon Do (which my dad generously took him to) and we had to get back to the school for Awards night for Blake.

When we finally got to Blake's class during Curriculum Fair I saw the frame we had sent propped up on his desk.

I am kind of wondering what it has to do with Mothers Day, and I am also wondering what he meant by a few lines in his poem, but here it is:

I am happy to see that he loves his family and I can tell him right now that he will NOT be seeing/reading The Hunger Games for at least another three years and I am slightly offended that he is worried about Sophie when he's not around...though at the same time I am touched that he thinks about her.

Oh well.  At least I got a new frame out of it ;-)!  Altogether I had a great Mothers Day and I am happy that I got to spend it with the ones who made me a mother...and that nobody threw up in the car (or anywhere else for that matter...I hate barf).

I hope your Mothers Day was nice and that nobody threw up in your car either!