Best Example of Organized Chaos (aka Karate Tournament)

Imagine around 200 students from 20 different parts of KS & MO, in six different belt classes (24 classes if you count intermediate striped belts!) ranging in age from 4 to adults participating in eight different events over a five hour period.Karate Tournaments should definitely be listed as a perfect example of organized chaos in the dictionary.

Example of how the chaos was controlled.

This was the boys' fourth tournament and they each did three events. We keep telling the boys that one day they will lose and they'll have to get used to that but each tournament they do better than the last one! :)

After taking 1st & 2nd in Escape Drill.

This time, Travis won a 2nd place in Escape Drill, 3rd place in Sparring and a participation medal in Fastest Fist. There was some complications with the meter bag for Fastest Fist and he was really upset about this one (as were we) but we decided to set that aside and be really happy with the two trophies and the knowledge that if he were in a fight or needed to defend himself, he'd be fast!

Travis in sparring gear after winning his first round.

Thomas took home a participation trophy in Sparring, a 2nd place in Strongest Punch and a 1st place in Escape Drill - he edged out Travis by about a quarter of a second! (15:03 vs 14:47). This is the 3rd time he's done escape drill and won a trophy for it!

Thomas ready to hit the bag during Strongest Punch.

It was a really great day of fun and learning and a little drama. Can't wait for class on Tuesday where they get to show off their trophies to the other students and talk about how they won them. I am SO proud of them!

At home with their collection of trophies from THIS tourney!

I'll post some vids of their sparring as soon as I fix them up... :)

Red Ball

Red Ball was last Friday night and it was MUCH better the second time around. Better flow, better service (worse food), great entertainment and really cool live auction process - those guys were into it!

Red Ball is a black tie gala to benefit the American Red Cross Greater Kansas City Chapter. If you're in the Kansas City area, you should attend this next February!

View more about the event here:
http://www.redballkc.org/

View my photos here:

2009 event

2008 event

View Ramsey's video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP4S0oof60Y

Why Buy Expensive Toys?

My friend Teri sent this to me and I just HAD to post it [I honestly don't know why SHE didn't! :) ] It takes me back to the days when the boys were little and played for HOURS in the big boxes some of their Christmas toys came in from Ohio. It was litke a fort for them and they LOVED crawling in and around them. Enjoy this little baby - and have a Ripping Good day!!

Impossible

I got this video from a friend of mine and couldn't resist posting. I love magic and this was just SOOOOO cool. Have a smile today!

Lifestream

As I'm fairly new to the whole blogging world, I have to give a shout-out to a co-worker and friend of mine, Ramsey. This man (OK, I honestly think of him as a "boy" most of the time given the age difference, but I'm being PC here; he IS over 21!) has got it seriously going on in the world of techno-geekdom.

Not only does he have a very cool blog (albeit with sometimes questionable posts...I'll let you judge for yourself... http://www.acrosstheboardblog.com) he is also doing this new thing called a "life stream".

Essentially, he has a web cam that he takes everywhere with him. He has it at our work (muted, thank goodness!) and at home, out at a bar or bowling and even had permission to bring it into the T-Bones Baseball game when we went with work (AND he got a radio interview for it!). The camera is either focused on him and recording what he's doing (and giving us without a life a front-row seat to watch him) or he's wearing it on a red ball cap and we get to see the world "through his eyes".

When he first told me about this, I personally gave him grief. Called it dumb and seriously wondered about his sanity for awhile. However, for him, I see this as a wonderful addition to his life, at least right now. He's a very outgoing and impressive guy and this just puts him out there in the thick of things a little more. He likes to share pieces of himself with the world at large and this just shares it a bit more.

The reason for accolades to him on MY blog? He's teaching me. Maybe not directly and probably without him realizing it. But, I'm learning to be a little more open each day and share the cool stuff of my life and mind (not just the weird and morbid). Doing this blog is helping me express myself better and helping me learn that if I really want to make the world a better place for my kids, I have to start with ME. Without him, I wouldn't have started a blog - at least not yet.

So - well done Ramsey! May this be a truly positive experience in your life and something you can talk about with your grandkids someday (who will probably be doing the same thing in their day, but as a mandated government tracking program or something!).

http://www.justin.tv/ramsey - check him out!

911 Call

As a mom of two 5-year olds this was just too funny not to pass on. I could SO see my boys doing this! =)

Boys Playing Basketball (video)

Boys Playing Outside

First video I captured with my mother's day gift...of COURSE it's of my boys! Not the most excited video, but you get to see them as more than a picture. =)