Mom in Taekwondo

In October, I had my first taekwondo class in almost 20 years. Luke has been taking taekwondo now for a couple years. He takes the summer off and recently took a 9 month break. He is back in and tested for his purple belt. Watching all his classes, I have always had the urge to join him and jump back in. I have always enjoyed taekwondo and the exercise. Since we finished harvest I thought that would free life up a bit and I could make it work. Luke was very excited and anxious for me to start. The instructor Master Phillips was all for it and told me I could wear my green belt. I felt a little awkward and silly jumping in with a group that has been doing it for so long and being a higher belt. There are mostly kids and a few adults. Even more bizarre was my co-worker from FDAH and his kids are in the class. Kevin worked in the lab and while working I visited with him daily. He was always a very nice guy and I enjoyed working with him. Now I get to take class with his 14 year old daughter and 5 year old son.  I recalled the formalities and everything came back easily. I did realize how my college days and Master Pak, the Korean ISU instructor, were much more hard core and disciplined. There, we had to learn everything in Korean language and technique was perfected. This group is relaxed and kid oriented. I wanted to participate mostly for exercise and to do something together with Luke. The kicks and moves were easy for me and I can still kick very high. For the last 15 minutes of class the upper rank belts stay to spar.
2 months into the class, I am feeling less sore, more fit, healthier, and improving my skills. I am enjoying the class. One night Jake had my phone during class and took some pictures. I could not believe that was me in the photo jumping for a jump side kick. I kind of impressed myself. Mama can jump. Luke is doing great in his taekwondo and it has been fun to see him improve.

 10/27/16 Mark and I had appointments in Des Moines at Ballenger in the morning. In the evening we went to an Informed Choices banquet. It was a nice sit down meal at round tables. It was very informative about what has been happening and future plans. They have saved so many babies just by talking and encouraging mothers. i love what they do and what they stand for. i love that they promote life unlike Planned Parenthood. There was also entertainment a guest comedian. He was funny and we really enjoyed him. We made a nice donation to support saving babies. I am glad we went and glad Mark was willing to join me. Everywhere I looked I recognized people from Cornerstone. It is encouraging to be part of such a great giving bunch.

Friday got up to 80 degrees and was very windy. The boys had Spanish class and Mark worked cattle. He and Tony worked them all by themselves. That is a lot of cattle to sort, push through chutes, and vaccinate, implant, etc.