As Mr. Hayden requested, I shall briefly write about my weekend trip to Worlds in Little Rock, Arkansas...

The Trowbridges and I left early Friday morning. And when I mean early, I mean early. We left about 1:45am from my house (since they were so kind as to pick me up!). Medium and Little Mr.Trowbridge soon fell into slumber (and maybe Mrs. Trowbridge?) once leaving the outskirts of Ft.Wayne. Big Mr. Trowbridge and I enjoyed some conversation for about an hour or more until I myself dozed off. Two quick stops and 6 hours later from when we left, we decided to switch drivers since Mr. Trowbridge was beginning to blink rather often. I took the wheel, as Mrs. Trowbridge navigated. An hour later, Mr. Murray called and asked where we were. We soon found out that him and Jay were only 2 miles behind us. They soon caught up with us, thankfully before Mr.Murray gave Jay a heart attack from his driving. We stopped and grabbed some breakfast from McD's and continued on together in a miniture caravan with Jay leading the way. Around noon Arkansas time, 1pm indiana time, we arrived in Little Rock. The Trowbridges dropped me off at my hotel where Mr.Hayden, Mr.Smith and Mr. Karst had been staying the week and I and Mr. Murray and Jay would get rooms as well. After meeting Mr. Hayden in the lobby and grabbing my key I headed towards my room. I soon met up with Mr. Smith and Mr. Karst who had been swimming in the hotel pool. Mr. Murray and I soon joined them. The water was quite refreshing from the stuffy car ride down and the Arkansas heat. Once an hour had passed, we got ready to meet up with all our Kendallville clan and took off to visit ATA headquarters. We saw some really exciting things such as Grand Master's personal office and his wife's as well. We got to view the special work out rooms and view some objects Grand Master has recieved over the years as gifts. It was very exciting!

Grand Master's Desk!

Work out room!

(Mr. Hayden really wants those mats!)

When we left ATA headquarters we headed back to our hotel to await opening ceremonies. When we arrived we sat with Mr. Foster and Mr. Shepherd and other close ATA family. We could tell by the set up that we were in for a treat!

At the start, we got to witness and vote for our favorite team in two competitions. It felt a bit like American Idol whlie we pulled out our cell phones and texted our vote for our favorite team. We were also witnesses to many other exciting things such as four 7th degrees testing for their 8th degree, high ranks becoming Masters and Senior Masters by being dubbed by Grand Master with the Flying Dragon Staff and an never-ceasing ongoing demonstrations reminding us of how and where our beloved Songahm Taekwondo got started. We got to listen to special speakers including Eternal Grand Master's wife and son along with Grand Master. Probably by far the most exciting thing was done by Grand Master himself in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the ATA. We got to be awed by him preforming a form and breaking two boards. The first board was so fast, I can't remember how he broke it. The second he broke with a super fast twist kick. The crowd went estatic! All in all, I left that on a taekwondo high!

Getting ready to start opening ceremonies!!

Little Mr. Trowbridge, Medium Mr.Trowbridge and Mr. Smith excited to see the ceremony!

On Saturday Mr. Hayden, Mr.Smith and I took the hot walk across the bridge to go and compete at the convention center in our traditional weapons. At the Gate Mr. Hayden pulled out Mr. Smith and my new belts and had us take pics before entering the convention center. Most exciting! :o)

In weapons, Big Mr.Trowbridge did the best of Hayden's ATA by placing 2nd in his ring. I didn't do so bad in my ring, but I was so glad when it was over. Having been concentrating so much on old forms and one steps for my black belt, I had to work a bit the week before Worlds to remember my chuck form. If you watch the video of my weapons form on our website, I think you can probably tell I was nervous.

 Mr. Trowbridge doing his weapons form!!

Later, in the middle of the afternoon, after a long lunch (our pizza took forever!) we returned to the convention center so that medium Mr.Trowbridge and Mr. Smith could compete in their forms and sparring. As you have heard, Mr. Smith recieved 1st place in sparring. What you probably haven't heard is how he creamed them! Mr. Murray and I got to witness it (we were amazed ourselves!). Mr. Smith's first to matches he won 5-0. Around 40 seconds both times. His next two matches gave him more of a challenge and they were closer in points. Upon Mr. Smith bowing out, the three of us headed over to watch medium Mr. Trowbridge spar. He did a great job in getting those punches in (something I personally need to work on!)!! We video tapped Mr. Smith four matches and Mr. Trowbridges with the flip, so hopefully soon, Mr. Hayden will put them online.

Mr.Smith's first match

In the late evening, once we were tired from our long day, we walked to the Flying Fish to get some yummy seafood dinner. On our way there we went through the Garden again:

Our brick in the Garden!

 Loverly pic?!

Sunday Mr. Hayden, Mr. Murray, Mr.Trowbridge, Jay and myself competed in Traditional. Upon arriving there, I cheered on big Mr. Trowbridge along with his family, Mr. Karst and Mr. Smith. I soon headed over to my ring to try to energize myself before I competed. In my forms I recieved 6,6,6 (or the Devil's number as Mr. Hayden points out). That's really a pretty good score at worlds. So I'm pretty happy with it. I will mention that there were a good three or four other gals in my ring of twelve that had just as well recieved their black belt fairly soon, so I wasn't alone in prefoming Chu-jahng (spelling?) 2. Sparring went rather well, as you have heard, with me recieving 2nd place. I learned from my experience (and being pointed out to me by Mr.Karst and Mr. Murray) that I need to work on integrating more punches in with my kicks.

Me preforming my form!

After I had finished (and everybody else recieved a trophy but me!) we said goodbye to the Trowbridges and headed out to change and take the long car ride home.

Overall, I throughly enjoyed my trip to Worlds. Wait, let me rephrase that: I LOVED IT!!!! It made me so excited to learn more in taekwondo! I am so looking forward to the years to come of taekwondo! I also really want to go back to Worlds. Hopefully maybe next year! :o)

Wow. I just saw that my four year anniversary for xanga is coming up. I'm surprised it's been four years!

So right now I'm really busy (what's new?!). The store hours have changed...meaning we close at 2pm now and I open three days a week usually. I also am at tkd about every day of the week due to them also changing the schedule around. In some ways it's not the greatest, and in others I think it's fun. Call me insane, call me crazy, or passionate, but I believe it's where I'm supposed to be right now. I think I help people out a lot. Pray that I still allow God to use me as a tool for encouraging and witnessing to others. So far, God is good and has blessed me by using me. It's wonderful. God's great!

Last weekend was a busy weekend but a enjoyable one. On Saturday I had tkd testing (I'll find out tomorrow how I did at Rank Ceremony) then in the evening I had to dress up for Natasha's Birthday/costume party. Rachel, along with Timothy to get my dress to zip up but alas, after about 45 minutes of trying, the zipper would not budge all to much and was decarled a broken zipper. So, hurriedly I put on a blue dress I wore as a bridesmaid for my cousin a few years ago. Amazingly, it still fits. Though, it was a bit tight. The straps left marks on my shoulders after wearing it a few hours. The party was a fun one. Natasha was very creative in hosting the fun, and there were some great costumes amongst everybody. Sunday after church and dinner with the Dentons, I went home for a bit, took a nap and then meet some homeschool girlfriends. Some were on their fall break so it was good to see everybody. Yummy dinner and delicious conversation.