Johnathan brought home a baby Douglasfir tree from first grade. He wanted to plant it so that is what we had to do. Mark Jr. also has been learning iMovie so I decided to make a family education project out of it. Johnathan would help me plant the tree and Mark Jr. would document the event and add all the photos to a montage with captions. He spent a fair amount of time with a computer based training on iMovie to learn the important parts to put it all together. This was his opportunity to put all that learning to good use. I went to buy a pair of sneakers and figured when I came back we would work on the project together. When I came back, he told me he had it almost all done. It was 90% done and I just had to help with the finer details that he would have gotten eventually. I was surprised and very impressed on what he did. Not only was it well done, but it was funny. I think he has my sense of humor… God bless him…
Archive for the ‘Mark Sr.’ Category
Arbor Day 2009
Monday, April 27th, 2009A painfull week!
Friday, May 16th, 2008It just hasn’t been my week. Currently I am involved in martial arts, racquetball, coaching flag football and T-Ball. So it all started on May 6th. We had sparing that day. Usually its not too bad since we wear pads on our shins, feet, head and hands – oh yeah and a cup, can’t forget the CUP! Usually I fair pretty well in sparing. I might be the oldest one in my class (most students are in their 20s with one or two 30 year olds scattered about) but I guess fighting enough growing up gave me some “experience”. The worse you usually come away with is a few bruises on your legs and/or arms from blocks kicks.
I am currently a green belt and I am sparing with a ~ 20 year old who is a yellow belt, lifts weights and is pretty good shape. There isn’t supposed to be any punches to the head, although open hand slaps to the head are allowed just not at full force. Then kicks are allowed since you have pads on your feet. So we are going at it I’m getting the better of him. Did I mention this was his 1st time sparing? Well he might be new to sparing but not to fighting as he has had his share of bar fights 
Anyhow, at one point I get in too close and BAM he hits me square in the jaw with his ELBOW! I have only actually gotten smacked once in the head while sparing so this was new to me AND NOT ALLOWED AT ALL! I immediately take a knee. This was a full on elbow shot full swing. After taking enough time to recoup I get up and we continue. A couple of minutes later, a kick to my cup! I go down again. His discipline and accuracy is way off.
My sensei decided I needed to spar with someone else so off I go to another 20 something year old that is 6′ 5″ about 250lbs and a green belt like myself. I am 5′ 9″ and 185lbs. So we begin. I have spared with him a number of times and hold my own. This time he is throwing a lot of kicks pretty low. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing because he hadn’t done that before and where he would have hit me wouldn’t really hurt that much if we were really fighting in the street. To cut to the chase, he ultimately kicks me two times in the cup. Full power round kicks dead on. Cup or not, these hurt like crazy. After an elbow to the jaw and three kicks to the cup I am sent to spar with the bag. I haven’t gotten kicked in the cup sparing until that point but it must have been a magnet this time.
I get home and my jaw is pretty sore. No buises, just sore. I make a slice bread sandwich and go to take my 1st bite. WOW WHAT PAIN! I practically had to let it soak in my mouth just so I could eat it. The next day it hurts less but is still sore. The following day the pain is mostly gone and its Friday.
On Friday I have a lunchtime racquetball game against someone that is pretty good at getting to the ball. We are in the middle of our game and its a ceiling shot. The normal return is to return it back to the ceiling. I turn to follow the ball and make sure that is indeed what he is doing and I see a blue rocket coming at my face. He smashes the ball straight into my left cheek where I was just elbowed 3 days earlier. Boy does it hurt! After the game I see myself in the mirror and it is 1/2 a circle and totally bruised (redish and purple). Then Sunday comes and its mother’s day. As I am out with Millie people keep telling me I have lipstick on my face (it sorta looks like 1/2 a lip print also). I have to tell them its a bruise, not lipstick. I’ll be posting a picture soon.
Now its Tuesday, one week from when I had gotten the elbow to the face. I have a T-Ball game with Johnathan (5 and 6 year old kids). There is a kid on the team that tended to throw the bat. I have been telling him constantly to NOT throw the bat after he hits. I enfoce it just before he gets up to bat, and he forgets right after he hits and the bat goes flying again. The other coach was working batting with the kids and I was trying to pay attention to when this kid gets up to bat to tell him again not to throw the bat. He had told me he had been working on not throwing the bat this past weekend. So I watch one by one as the kids get up to bat. A parent starts asking me a question and when I turn to see where he is in the lineup THE BAT IS COMING RIGHT AT ME! WHAM!!! The metal bat hits me right on the elbow. So that has buised and gotten a bump.
To sum it up in a 8 day period I got elbowed in the face, three kicks to the cup, a racquetball hit to the face and hit on the elbow with a metal bat.
Emmaus Halloween Parade with Leading Edge Karate
Saturday, October 20th, 2007We, as a family, are marching with Leading Edge Karate at the Emmaus Halloween parade. Considering I had flag football with Mark Jr. early this morning, the Halloween party at Leading Edge Karate and now we are going to march its a busy day.
We all bundle up warm because its a bit chilly and we have to wear our Karate uniforms. Well all except Millie since she decided to wash her and my uniform 5 minutes before we are about to need them. I had bought a spare uniform so I was able to wear that one. Was it an accident? Probably. Subconsciously though it was probably on purpose
We park our car a few blocks from where we are supposed to meet up with everyone. We get there just in time – or so I thought. It turns out we are waiting a little over an hour until its our turn to start going down the parade route. Its now like 8:00 and Johnathan, Mark Jr. and Millie are all beat. I have to be in the front holding the banner. So we start marching and I’m holding the banner. On paper the route seems like its not that big. Boy I should have checked the scale of how that route was drawn. This march took about 1:20 minutes. Along the way Johnathan got piggy back rides from Lance and Melissa. Then they put him in the wagon after they ran out of candy.
I figured thank goodness we are done! No we aren’t, Millie promised the kids ice cream somewhere along the way. So off to Friendly’s we go. I just wanted to go home and sleep. The kids shared a meal and Millie and I got burgers. Then Johnathan got his usual, the Candy Shop. Mark Jr. got a double scoop cone. Millie got a soft serve sundae with caramel. I ate whatever Millie left me.
Mark Sr. Yellow Belt Board Breaking
Friday, October 12th, 2007Well its my 1st time breaking boards in karate today. I was the 3rd person up. I had assumed the high belts would be breaking boards 1st to show the lower belts how its done. No such luck. It was low belts to high belts. A black belt had gone 1st to show us how its done. Then another yellow belt, then me!
We start off with a hammer fist. I check out the board before I had it to sensei. This might not be a board I’d want to build my house with, but its real wood. Not something that is just going to break by itself. I’d have to really hit it to make it break. I’ve broken a number of bones on my body already, so I’m thinking whats one more I take my 2 warm up swings and I go for it. I could have probably broke 3 boards as hard as I swung. It was exhilarating. My 1st broken boards!!! They will be mounted on the wall just like Mark Jr.’s.
The next strike is an elbow. Its not really an elbow its more a forearm. This one should be easy I’m thinking. I’m just hoping I don’t crack sensei in the face. I take my 2 warm up swings and CRACK the board breaks.
Our next strike is a palm strike. I go up with all the confidence in the world. I take my 2 warm up swings, I pull back and yell KIA!!! Right as I smash sensei in the fingers. OOPS!!! He jumps back and shakes his hand in pain. Honestly I didn’t even feel his fingers but he says I hit him so I must have. After he gets feelings back in his fingers he holds the board again for me to swing. I take my 2 warm up swings and CRACK the board breaks. Phew!!!
Next is a knee strike. This one cannot possibly go wrong in any way. I take my 2 warm up swings and go for it. CRACK the board breaks. When you do this, you don’t realize but your foot that is planted on the floor almost comes off the floor when you kick with your knee so hard. Seeing pictures of all this afterwards really shows alot.
Next is a front kick. I fell I have a pretty strong front kick. At least its not bad. I’m thinking this board is history. I take my 2 warm up kicks and WHAM right into sensei’s fingers. This time I felt it. Not as bad as he did though. This time it was really bad. I could see big pain in his face. He said, “the next one that hits me is holding a board for me!” Talk about pressure. I know that one must have really hurt bad. So I take my 2 practice kicks again and smash the board. Barry who went after me kicked sensei in the fingers also so at least I wasn’t alone. Sensei had another black belt hold the board for a few attempts since he was a little sore at this point.
Next is a side kick. Having had a problem with the front kick I was just hoping this one went smooth. Sensei wasn’t holding the boards at this point so he could give his fingers a break (figuratively speaking of course). I take my 2 warm up kicks and CRACK the boards break. Phew…
Now for the test. Sensei is having us break 2 boards at a time. We are to break 2 boards with a palm strike, at the same time, held by 2 cement blocks. Miss this time and I will be coming down on cement. So needless to say the boards wouldn’t break, the cement blocks wouldn’t break and maybe my hand would instead. I concentrate, take my 2 warm up swings and KIA, I smash the boards. They break!!!
A nice day of board breaking. Really exciting.
