Summer Wrap - Up

What better time to update our summer than on day two of snow days (in October). We have gotten about 20 inches but it's lighter than the past few Spring blizzards we've had - not as bad shoveling!

Playa de Carmen - Early June - Relaxing on the beach and in the pool!

Had a really good time! Beautiful scenery, good company, food whenever you're hungry and plenty of beverage!!

Boys finally treed a squirrel. Didn't really know what to do next though! Several picnics in the hills with the boys.

Went to Long Beach for a tournament (and sight seeing - on the Queen Mary). Jackie got to fight on stage for 1st and 2nd place. Lost but came back to Colorado and worked her way up to 2nd place for the year in continuous sparring (17 & under division). Fighting on stage really gave her the confidence to do the continuous. Of course in between the trips we had several other tournaments. She lost the state title in continuous by 3 points but won the Point fighting state title decisively.

Summer Vacation!

Summer break has started - to 3 solid days of rain and clouds - but we're really not complaining! Spent the first day off at ..... take a guess.... a karate tournament. Jackie placed 5th in continuous sparring, 3rd in Bo, 2nd in forms and 1st in point sparring! I actually won my division for a change and brought home my very first 1st place trophy (keep in mind it's the slow-old lady division!)

Jackie finished her first year of Middle school with 4.0, made a lot of new friends, discovered she loves to run (had the best girl's mile time) - hopefully of the Strahl running genes, she has more of Kris', Greg's or Pat's - mine were a bit slow! She is now taller than me and still growing rapidly - aaugh! Though she can no longer borrow my shoes as her boats are getting much larger than mine! She also received an award for excellence in Spanish - which she is planning on using on our trip south of the border next week. Looking forward to a lot of beach time, eating whenever and whatever we want and then there's the beverage fun as well!

Mike and Jethro - well they are still dipshits - but they serve as good entertainment.

Karate Update

Jackie rocked her test and is now officially a Nidan (2nd Degree). She did very well in every aspect but really excelled in the knife defense - she took her instructor by suprise. (She's only the first part of the video - the 2nd is Tracey who was testing for -and passed - her 3rd degree and is very fun to watch as well.)


A total of about 3 hours - combos, tonfas, bo (staff), forms, self-defense, sparring, and blackjacks (20 pushups - 1 squat, then 19 pushups - 2 squats...)

Tea ceremony (saki for instructor) then the punch (actually she got punched by 5 members on the board - karate people are odd - "I respect your test so I will now hit you really hard!"

After a few weeks of rest - it's time to train for Salt Lake. Barely made it out of town before blizzard hit. We made the decision to leave a few hours early and missed the closing of I-70 from Morrison to Vail by about 4 hours. Did get a few extra hours at Glenwood though before heading to Salt Lake the next morning!

Jackie drew the current Champion (NBL - nat'l blackbelt league) for continuous sparring - held her own but lost. Jackie was at the bottom of the weight class and 12 yrs old (13 the next day) and the girl was at the top of the weight class and 16. We were very proud and she was pumped that she did as well as she did! Guess we have to think about going to other national tournaments. Some photos from Salt Lake (April 17 & 18)

On another travel note - we are heading to Mexico in June if anyone wants us to pick up a virus for them! Go figure - we've been planning this (and of course just finished paying for it) for 6 months. We are going to play it by ear - thank goodness for trip insurance! May have to wait to take the trip later.

An Update? ... But it's only been 6 months!

Okay so once every 6 Months is not good but it's better than a few others I know!

September

Jackie's last tournament of 2008. Takes first at the tournament, and wins state decisively! This is her best fight of the tournament (out of 3). The 1st and 2nd place round she won 10 - 0 and it wasn't much of a fight - pretty much Jackie schooling the other girl on how to blitz!

Middle school "rocks" and she's getting straight A's so far in all of her classes including 4 Honors classes! Started babysitting and wasting the money she's earning on clothes and computer games! She still has no concept of what a clean room looks like or that dog poop needs picked up on a regular basis, but I will work on that - until the day she moves out!

October

Halloween - Mike went as a very pissed off devil dog and Jackie was "Miss Understood" - no trick or treating -to old (had more fun giving out candy to the kids anyway!)

Went to Alamosa for a wedding and got to spend time with Michelle, Donny and the kids! Always a good time - would post the pictures but they are the same kill shots of Erin and Clayton's deer in the truck that are on Michelle's Blog.

November

Same old Same old. Work, School, Karate...

December

We had a pretty mellow holiday. Karl was on vacation for all of our break and we did a whole lot of relaxing and nothing -it was great!

Finally got to go to the Karate Banquet and get the well earned State Champion Trophy! (She also finished 3rd in Kata Forms - on the same placard)

January

Had a wonderful visit with Sandy, Darin, Hiilani, Montana and Michael! Went to Keystone to play in the snow and planned a tubing trip that didn't quite work out and we ended up at the Casinos in Black Hawk but still had a blast!

February

Jackie is now training hard for her 2nd Degree Black Belt - she tests on March 28th! She's also committed to competing at a national level so we are off to Salt Lake City in April. Not committing past that to any others until she sees what that's like at this level. The last time she competed nationally she wasn't at the Black Belt level so it should be a whole new story.

As always I will try and keep updated better - so most likely in another 6 months!

Jethro and Mike are settling down (somewhat).