Titus started his Taekwondo journey back in January 2018. We looked around a long time for the right dojang; one that would love and discipline him to strengthen his character. From the first trial class at Kim's Yong-In Taekwondo, I knew we'd finally found the right place and Titus was hooked. He was so cute in his first dobok, Master Kim adored him and enjoyed spiking up his hair.
Fast forward four years (less 18 month break because of "The Stupid") and today Titus finally earned the right to test for his Black Belt. This is a real Korean dojang, they don't just hand these belts out (like in some American schools), you actually have to earn them and sometimes you fail in your attempt.
The test consisted of many parts: Poomsae, Self-defense, terminology, kicks, sparing, and breaking.
Needless to say Titus was a little nervous going into tonight but his instructors knew he was ready and in the end he earned it without a single mistake. When Master Kim gave him his belt in the special ceremony he once again took the time to try and spike-up Titus' hair just like when they first met, bringing the journey full circle.
Tonight was wonderful and very emotional... a night to be remembered.
We are very
proud of who Titus is today.He is
patient, kind, sympathetic and strong.I love watching him help out the younger kids in class. We
are forever thankful to our Taekwondo family for the sincere love, caring, and
leadership they give our son.We believe
it will continue to be instrumental in helping him become the man God wants him
to be in the future and we look forward to the rest of his Taekwondo journey.
We were suppose to be in Hilton Head for Michaelmas and the beginning of October for Lance's fall break. However, those plans were crushed by Hurricane Ian, much to the disappointment of everyone.
Instead of leaving for vacation on Thursday, Lance got Amber some new fish for her 11 gallon tank. As is our new trend, they were really cute miniature rainbows.
By Friday, we realized it was good we were home, as the hurricane actually ended up going over HH and then up and over our way and we wouldn't have wanted our house sitter to deal with all the stress. First, we lost a 130 ft tree on the side yard (Lance and I measured), it shook
the whole house when it fell (we're leaving that where it fell as "new
feature" in the yard). We also lost a huge branch from the maple in the
front yard that blocked the whole drive way. The maple falling was a
bit ironic since Chris had gotten a new toy (pole saw) to trim up the
maple last weekend, good thing we did or we'd have had more to clean up
on Saturday. Then we lost power around 8pm and it stayed out for 23 hours; thankfully we had the generator. Did you know that a generator can power two fish tanks, a dragon tank, a lamp, a refrigerator and an occasional computer for 10 hours on only one gallon of gas? Long live the ICE! But a I digress....
However, not everyone was still out of power Saturday morning, Chris had found a way to four-wheel Homer over the grass to get around the branch so that Lance could get to his 7:45am baseball practice. We cut up part of the branch that was in the road in the early morning hours for Lance to drive by and then the rest after he left. Rather than burning this time we decided to used the branches as a tool for cutting down erosion in the chicken coop, the chickens approve of the idea.
In an attempt to make lemonade out of lemons, Monday I ended up going with Lance on his day off from school to assist him in buying his first car; a 2007 Audi A3 Turbo Manual. We met the guy out in Wilson. Turns out he was a fireman and ECU student. He had the engine re-built only 1000 miles ago, new alternator, clutch, etc. Lance was in love as soon as he drove it and got it for a very reasonable price. Titus immediately offered to detail the car as soon as it got home. Lance knew it needed tires and brakes but didn't know how bad till he went to replace both. By providence his work was having a sale on tires that week for employees and the brakes aren't much when you do the work yourself. Now its all in perfect running order. He put on the last 500 miles (already) of engine break-in, so he also changed the oil and now he can run the RPMs as fast as he wishes. He's learned to shift it really well, its the perfect little fun car he'd been looking for and gets much better gas mileage than Homer ironically. By the way, the car's name is Plurp (A tip of the hat to Peep in the Big Wide World). Also, in putting on those first 500 miles he realized the need for a dash-cam, now both Plurp and Bruce have them.
The first FIAR field trip this month was to Page Farm for traditional fall fun; corn maze, corn crib, hay ride, pumpkin picking etc. After we got home with the pumpkins, Titus took it upon himself to have fun cutting one up all by himself. It turned out rather cute and the chickens loved the innards.
Titus is still on course to testing for his Black Belt in November. He successfully got his 4th Tip this month and completed his required Black Belt Project. Though Jared will not be able to test for Black belt till March, the Masters allowed them to do their Black Belt Project together. They decided to teach an "Introduction to Taekwondo" class, they advertised all over, begged a few friends and ended up with a class of 13 students. They did an absolutely wonderful job planning and teaching the class, the Masters were very pleased and as a bonus one of the attendee even signed up to start taking classes.
Chris took the day off for his birthday, he came with to see Amber ride and enjoyed a lazy rest of the day watching baseball. Since Lance was at an away game, we waited to really celebrated Chris' birthday on Saturday. We started with "Celebration" and a ball pelting, followed by French Toast, then later we had an early lasagna dinner, followed by his favorite Spice Cake for desert (Titus insisted on putting and lighting all 53 candles. To Chris' credit he blew them out in one blow). We had dinner early because the boys had a dance to go to that night, so in the evening the rest of us watched the movie of Chris' choosing. My loving husband works so hard for the family I'm glad he at least got a few days of relative relaxation.
Ballroom Dancing this fall consisted of learning Swing, Tango and Cha-Cha. Lance and Jared had a blast as usual dancing and even taught the group some English Country Dances for good measure.
The second FIAR field trip was to Bennet Place, the site of the final surrender of the Civil War. This was one of the best docent tours we've had in a long time. We learned so much about the civil war we never knew before. Piecing together what we learned there with what we learned previous opened up all kinds of different ways to view Abraham Lincoln's assassination and who may have truly been behind it. Jared spent a long time talking with the reenactors and got the inside scoop on how to become one; something he's very interested in pursuing. (Though when he does - the Union and Confederate soldiers will probably be shooting AT each other, not side by side LOL).
On the way home from Amber's B-Day celebration we realized Big Red didn't have running lights. So Lance brought Big Red into his Electronics class so they could diagnose a problem with lights. It was a great real life hands on experience for the students and it saved us a ton of money in diagnosis. After Chris ordered the part and brought it back for a second day of class to have it installed. This was a real team effort with the Chevy expert volunteering his help. There's some electrical issues still to sort out but Lance is getting the wiring schematics from the Chevy guy, so he'll learn even more fixing the bad alarm job of the previous owner. Not many people save money from sending their kid to college.
We don't normally participate in Halloween, but the dojong really needed help with their party, so we allowed the boys to volunteer. They dressed as a sniper and Long John Silver and had a wonderful time helping herd all the "cats" at the party.
While they were at the party Chris and Lance ran the first of two tryouts for Titus' Spring Baseball Team. Chris will be the head coach of varsity this year. A few days before, participation was looking rather sparse, thankfully attendance was much better than expected. After the second tryout on Sunday (All my boys attended this time) they are thrilled to have enough quality kids to field both a Varsity and JV team. Chris and Titus are very excited about the Spring season.
Jared is getting closer to monetizing J-Rod Studios and making his passion a business. This month one of his shorts reached 1M views and his subscribtions are at 7.4K. He just needs to find a way to get the 4K watch hours on his videos, unfortionately shorts don't count toward monetization.
She truly is, the boys have their shotguns at the ready. Amber is very crafty, learning to crochet, sew and arts/crafts of all kinds and she loves all animals, not just horses. So each year her birthday has an animal type theme.
In the past we have gone to the NC Zoo for Amber's birthday but this year we decided to do something different. We decided to go the Greensboro Science Museum (GSM), so glad we did! They had a very unique collection of animals, including penguins, a stingray petting pool, sharks, red pandas and the one Amber most wanted to see a Foosa. Amber brought he friend Kimberly along, the zoo/science museum is arranged in such a way that we didn't have to worry about them getting lost when they ran ahead out of site. The enclosures were very enriching but also fairly close together allowing us to go through the exhibits twice to see different animal at different times of the day and therefore more/less active.
We went to GSM on Sunday. Her actual birthday was Wednesday; with the traditional birthday ball pelting followed by a special breakfast with the her Great-Grandma's china.
Then Amber was off to her riding lesson. Kendall made sure she rode her new favorite horses; Eddy.
After riding and Lance got home from practice that night, we took her to dinner at "Alpaca" (her favorite restaurant), culminating the night with spice cake.
She finished off her birthday week with having Kimberly over again on Friday to play with all her new Playmobil horses and go with her to the barn for her real horse lesson.
We are so thankful for our beautiful little girl and all she adds to our family dynamics. At the rate she is growing I won't be able to call her little much longer. So if she must grow up, we pray that as she grows in body, she will continue to grow in her character and her love of the Lord.
The month started with Titus(#3) and Jared's(#1) laboring through their next Tip Tests in TKD. They both passed with flying colors, though Jared did try to break his hand by forgetting to use his hammer fist to break his boards. Not to be left out, a week later Titus did a number on his hand in sparing class. Thankfully as of this writing they are both back to snuff.
**Next was yard labor, I told everyone I wanted the backyard at a stopping point by Labor Day, ie. all the beds and paths mulched and lined with plants. Everyone chipped in and we got it close enough to done. Getting to the plants to line the one path is still a work in progress. The Daylillies I wanted to move from front to backyard are in an area that has been left unattended too long. However, as Chris dug up the Liriope up front for the one side I slowly made progress on the other other side, finding 5 missing blueberry bushes and then a large Harvester Ant mound (Titus and I are very allergic), sadly I hadn't quite made it to the Daylillies before we had to put the brakes on further discovery till the ants are dead. As an alternative, the boys lined that part of the path with 4x4s for now. Lance profoundly stated that the state of our yard is a reflection of the mental state of our family, so glad its all getting straightened out. Here's the final product, quite a transformation!
We celebrated Saturday afternoon by meeting our friends at the pool for one last Hurrah! before it closes for the season. We arrived at 3pm and I thought we'd all leave to go home around 6pm, but everyone was having so much fun (adults and kids), we stayed much later.
Having Monday off was a much needed day of rest for everyone, especially Lance. Lance's schedule continues to be hectic but he's getting used to that. They are now starting games and field practices and Lance is performing well. At a charity event they recently worked, for "Miracle Kids", they got a team photo.
The Thursday after Labor Day also marked the beginning of Titus in-person writing class with Miss Smelcer. Thankfully he is really enjoying the class and there are even two girls from our new field trip group in the class.
FIAR FT group went to Cary Police Department K-9 Demonstration as their first field trip this month. It had been quite a while since we had done such an event and the officers did a great job presenting and answering questions. After the kids did what they do best, they played hard in an adjoining park, while we moms talked - what we do best :-)
In between school and field trips, Titus has been helping Frank with some wood working around his house. Their first project was to re-built the deck ramp into his shed. It's so such a nice arrangement for them both because they have so much fun together and Titus is learning a lot.
FIAR second field trip of the month was to hike at Lake Johnson. We had driven past the park many times but this was the first time we stopped to explore. Highlight of the day for Amber was meeting the mounted police officer. For Titus I'm sure it was their long game of Cops and Robbers. We'll have to bring the family back some time to hike all the trails.
The Friday following I drove Jared to meet up with a friend at the Liberty Antique Festival. The festival covered 100 acres, vendors from 20 states and is apparently a very popular event. As the drive was a little over an hour one-way it seemed silly to drive him there, go home and drive back to get him later - I stayed but as soon as we found his friend they went their way and I went another. Their goal was to find WWII items.... personally I really had no goal but to explore. I thought I'd end up spending most of the day reading in the car (with the beautiful weather this was not a bad option) but after the initial awkwardness of being at a festival all alone I got into a rhythm and enjoyed myself very much. I met up with the boys on and off throughout the day and at the end of the day I found them so they could be my muscle to get my finds into the car. Jared's one purchase of the day was something he'd been looking for a long time a 48 Star American Flag. It has a "bullet hole" we used to negotiate the price down, though he and his siblings quite like the hole. Jared looked up the manufacturer and found out it was actually rather a rare find, which increased his affection for his purchase. Me? Well I managed to control my self pretty good: Got myself a beautiful all metal bird bath, clip on earrings for Amber, a well preserved 1920s hand drill for Titus, a baseball holder for Lance, and a train book for the boys. For Chris, I did NOT get a whole lot of other stuff LOL
In addition to being a self-proclaimed horse addict, Amber is our own private weather girl. She's learned to read the clouds and frankly she's more accurate than the so-called professionals. It's not unusual for one of us to ask her to go outside and tell us how the day will be. She's also our art instigator. Though she often does projects on her own, she loves it when we all join. Frankly, art is therapy for us all. She sees beauty all around and keeps us grounded in her excitement, even the simple sunset she'll drag us out to see in all her enthusiasm.
** Technically the front yard pictured above was finished two weeks later. Jared, Amber and I went to the Farmers market to get three specific plants. We ended up not coming home with ANY of the intended plants, instead we found a cool Szechuan Pepper Tree, a flat of pansies (the impetus for redoing the front bed, Jared and Amber wanted to have more color) and a flat of collards/bok choy to grow to feed Drago (to save cost and have fresh food on hand). Most importantly, we got cookies so that made everything okay :-)
Today marks the 10 Year Anniversary of Jared's Open Heart Surgery. We have been looking back by reading the daily blog/FB posts we wrote during our journey to and home from Boston. It's been very emotional. We are reminded with every post how much God was driving the boat and we were nothing more than passenger and how the prayers of family, friends and strangers all over the world lifted us up. We are humbled once again. There are no words to express the sincere thanks we have for everyone who joined us literally, emotionally and spiritually on that journey. If you still follow my blog you'll see that Jared is continuing to do fantastically and we are thankful beyond measure. Love to you All!
Jared now has a job. He is working on the Leadership Team at TKD. This wasn't something he was looking for but rather a position he was commanded into by Master Kim. After seeing Jared at the Open-House, Master Kim told Chris and I at Titus' next Sparing Class that Jared must come teach...and so Jared did. He is absolutely loving the job and the Masters couldn't be more pleased. In addition, Jared has been animating like crazy too. He took a short break from 11:30 (getting a little burnt out after working on it for a year) and created this awesome Pirate Raid stop motion.....
Jared's work goes just one class after Titus' Bodan class on Thursday, so Titus and I were going to just hang around. Master Kim had a better idea for Titus, he waved his hand at Titus and Titus came running. Master Kim decided it would be good for Titus to help out with the White Belt Class, rather than just sit and wait (Jared is in the other room working with the Family Class). Titus has such a soft spot for small kids, especially if they are scared or he thinks have been bullied. That day there was a little boy who was transitioning from Little Dragons to the White Belt Class. Master Kim decided that maybe the best approach was for Titus to ask him to join the class (He told Titus to say he was "five too" wink, wink) and it worked, the little boy at first stuck to Titus' side but by the end of class was engaged like all the other kids.
Titus has been busy around the house as well. He was determined to paint the hallway (a project about 8 years past due), we had the paint, I was just leery of starting another project. So to test his paint skills I asked him to repaint both back stairs (a project also in great need). He did it beautifully, I let him go in the hallway, which also turned out great. So thankful he pestered me to get it done. Now we just need to get trim paint to re-do all the doors and casings.
Jared and Titus are continuing to participate in Archery. Jared moved back to Indoor only (so they can go on the same day), the heat was getting to him but ironically he found out he didn't do too bad at outdoor this summer.... He actually placed 2nd in a virtual tournament. Titus is doing well too and won a bunch of class contests the other week and as a result, received a shot counter in lime green to match his set-up.
We started a new tradition this month of fellowshipping with friends the first weekend of the month.
Our first outing was with the M-Family, the C-Family, Mac and Moses. The purpose was just to enjoy each others company and that's we did, along with some bowling too. In fact, everyone was having such a great time, no one took pictures.
Lance started Wake Tech classes and baseball on August 15th. It's been a big, big transition, he's hardly ever home. He's either working, in class or at a baseball event; and baseball practices haven't even started yet. The coach has been having them do hitting, lifting and team building events (ie. attending sporting events to support the other school sports, volunteering at other events). Lance is having a blast with his new team and fitting in well with his teammates. There are currently 55 guys trying out and 20 will be cut by December 1st (no pressure). In school, he was granted an automotive apprenticeship, which means that next year's school will be free as well. He really likes his automotive teachers and Alexander is in his Thursday morning class, so they drive up together which is nice (Automotive/ North campus is unfortunately about 40 min away, thankfully baseball is at South Campus which is only 15 min away).
Since Lance was starting school, I decided it was a good idea to start our school as well. This is Jared's Senior Year. He's finishing off geometry, Math-4-Life, Fitting Words Course and some various books. Titus will be 7th Grade, so he's starting Pre-Algebra (Video Text), taking Miss Penny's Garage Door Writing Class (Starts in Sept), Aviation and Korean on his own. He is joining Amber and I with our new Good & Beautiful History and Science (courses designed to teach the whole family at once with worksheets for different grades to take the subjects to the appropriate level). In addition to the Good and Beautiful History and Science, Amber is doing their English/Art/Geography and CLE Math. All this in addition to lots of reading for Titus and Amber both. [Current reads: Black Stallion Series by Walter Farley, Grace Lin books, Henty Books and Horatio Alger Books].
Part of getting back to school is getting back to field trips. Rather than waiting around for someone else to plan things for us, Vanessa and I decided to just start going places. Our first outing was the JC Raulston Arboretum. We hadn't been their in a long time and the weather was perfect for a visit. There was a self-guided "Story Walk" we were going to see, that was lame, but it didn't stop us from having a great time. Our kids enjoyed looking at and filming all the the beautiful flowers that were in bloom and took some notes of ideas for our backyard. All the walking was good exercise for everyone.
Then later in the month an opportunity arose to try out a new Field Trip group themed after the beloved FIAR books. The first meeting was at Pullen Park and was a huge success. The kids in this group actually know how to be kids and were running around playing tag and generally having fun. Everyone (adult and child) was friendly and welcoming. We rode the carousel, did the paddle boats around the "lake" and the boys played the water balloon game. Before joining back up for lunch and more games of chase. They plan two field trips a month. The key phrase is "they plan", I don't have to do anything but show up and that's about all I can handle right now, so it's perfect. Amber even ran into an old friend from SEEK, which she was thrilled to be reacquainted.
Amber continues to progress at riding (I seem to say that a lot but horses are her passion). However, her streak of keeping her seat ran out this month. Her horse Leroy tripped in a hole going down and taking her with him. Her trainer said there was no way anyone could have stayed on. Ironically, I was filming at the time. It was a nasty fall for both and the film was useful for the doctors later. At the time, however, she was really tough, got back on and they took it slow walk. This fall got her a visit to Mrs. Dr. G. It happened on a Friday so we couldn't bring her in till Monday, but other than being a little sore she said she was fine. The exam told a different story, he top two vertebrae were shifted and her pelvis twisted. Thankfully, she's young and very flexible so Dr. G was able to get everything back in place. Since that time, she had another rough ride, this time on Chester, but she stayed tall and stayed on. She's a remarkable little rider.
Before Master Chin returned to Korea he held a Poomsae Seminar for the students. Master Chin is a Poomase intstructor/specialist. Both Titus and Jared attended, found his two hour work-out very useful and informative. They understood the nuances of their poomsaes much better at the end.
Throughout the month we continued to make progress on the yard. We
found the fruit trees up front, repurposed plants for back yard, and
bought a few new ones. Along the way Chris hurt his back enough to
make an appointment with Dr. G himself. So glad he did, its going to
take some time to straighten things out, looking at the x-rays I don't
know how he's been getting around at all. My husband is a serious tough
cookie. In addition to making the backyard look pretty, we've been harvesting a lot from our yard as well: blueberries, pears, figs, peppers (green and Thai hot), and tomatoes to share and make yummy dishes....
The crowning jewel of August is always VIR for the boys. As always, they had a blast watching the races, getting close to the cars in pit row and gathering up chachkies. Something new this year was the Mazda Miata Race. The boys said it was hysterical, it was like watching live Mario Kart, they absolutely loved it.
While the boys were at the race Amber and I had a "Girl Day". Holly joined us for a bit as we explored the NC Museum of Natural Science and had lunch. We hadn't been there in a long time, so it was a lot fun exploring the exhibits again. We picked up a cool book detailing all the different hiking trails in the area as well. When we got home Amber made a list of her top choices to try first. Then Amber and I sat down to watch the Mickey Rooney/Liz Taylor version of "National Velvet". Amber has the book but neither of us have been able to get into the authors writing style, however we really enjoyed the movie. Maybe now we can get into reading the book. When it was over it was time to start getting dinner ready for the boys return. A truly fun day was had by all.
