Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Update, and summer plans.

Our computer has been in Texas for the last 3 weeks or so. It had a bit of a break down, and needed a new motherboard. We thought that it would be gone until the 21st of this month, but they got it done faster than expected and it arrived Monday morning! We are all very excited to have our computer back. We didn't know how much we each used it until we couldn't use it any more. Howard has some maintenance to do before all is well again, but it's getting there. I'll be able to do pictures in a few days so you can expect a picture post soon.

The Boy started Taekwondo classes today. We are paying for them with out economic stimulus check, I'm not sure that we would have been able to pay the $595 for 6 months of classes, 2 uniforms, membership in the ATA (American Taekwondo Association) and some other paperwork kind of stuff. He's loving it! We are hoping that he will learn self control, respect, and confidence as well as self defense. I like the school and the teachers there, they are willing to give him some personal help as he learns what he needs to learn in his classes. There are 2 other boys in the class, both are about 5 or 6, they are at different levels in the training. The teacher doesn't stop the class to show The Boy what to do, he asked an other teacher to stand by The Boy and help him with the form, standing still, all the things the other boys know already. It was good, he is learning quickly, and didn't disrupt class any more than the other boys did. In January we will look at how The Boy is doing, what he does best and if he is ready to go into the Black Belt Program, which is a specific program aimed at getting the student trained to Black Belt and beyond. It involves more discipline and has a stricter set of rules. There are different degrees of Black Belt, and once a student reaches a certain degree and is old enough they can teach lower levels to pay for their further training. The Boy may or may not be ready to do that in January, (if he is ready before January we will do what we need to do to change him over to the program) if he isn't he can still continue with the Basic Program as long as he wants to and as long as we can pay for it. In February we usually get our Tax return so we will be able then to pay for the next 6 months or whatever. (The Black Belt program is a 2 or 3 year commitment from what I understand from our introduction class.) Maybe someday we will have enough money to take a family class, although with Howard's schedule it would most likely be just The Boy and me.

I'm planning for August. Christopher is getting married on the 8th, and my Dad turns 70 on the 10th. I need to figure out what to get as a wedding present, and decide if The Boy and I will stay at my parents after the birthday party and help Mom do some canning before The Boy has to start Kindergarten. I'm excited about all of it, my FIRST baby is getting married! My soon to be daughter-in-law is a sweet woman, I'm very happy to welcome her to our family. I wish I had a little bit more time and money to help out with the birthday bash, but I'll do what I can. It's going to be great fun. If all of the FAMILY members who have said that they would like to come to the party actually make it, there will be something like 27 adults and 12 children, 3 of the children are teens, I think the oldest of the other children is 8 or 9, and the youngest will be 1 year old. Of course some of them won't be able to make it, I think that 6 of the adults have cancelled taking 2 of the teens with them. Even if it's only my Dad, Mom, my brothers, their wives, children and grandchildren, Jessica and her boyfriend, Me, Howard and my 3 boys it will be wonderful! I love family!

The weather has been kind of hot, and very muggy. I overheat quickly these days, so I keep water close, and stop at the store to get sports drinks if we are out and about too long. We are enjoying summer so far, and are looking forward to The Boy starting Kindergarten in September.

2 comments:

Hennifer said...

Welcome back to the online world! I've missed you!

The martial arts sounds very exciting!

Messed up Mama said...

It's fun to watch the class, and he loves it. If you would like to bring E to a class, he can go to one class with Aidan for free. Of course they will try to get you to sign him up for classes. I'm not sure if that's something that would fit in your schedule or not. Anyway, we would love to see you guys any time you have the chance.