Fencing movies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-wToYUC1Vo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcke0VZQZa0

K this is the only way I can figure out how to do this. Click on the links and you can watch their fencing bouts. The second one is Amadeus's bout and the first is Isaac's. But I think that's mentioned in the video. LOL

Fencing excitement

We just had a very exciting weekend, prior to Thanksgiving. The boys just fenced in their first tournament this year and did very well! In this first video, you see Isaac's first match. He won all his matches with the exception of two in direct elimination against the girl who was that national champion for Y10 (which is the age group he is fencing in). Even though she beat him in direct elimination, she did not beat him in the first round. So he still beat her in one bout! I wish I had recorded that bout! Wah! But as a mother I was so nervous. I thought my son was fixing to get slaughtered. The other contestants had been excited when another boy managed to get three touches on her. You have to get 5 to win. So she had been unbeatable thus far. He decided to just have fun with it and was doing some crazy foot work and he won! He gained himself a cheering squad that called him crazy feet. The girl's dad then went over and started coaching her on what to do in the direct elimination. I think that is totally wrong but oh well! My son still took first place for the Boys Y10 and second all around!

In this second video you see Amadeus, he was fencing in the Men's Epee. I highlighted that for a reason. Amadeus's skill level is in the Y14. However the Y14 was fenced on Sunday and we don't participate in those. So he decided to fence in the Men's Epee so that he could still get some experience under his belt. His goal was to get a touch against everyone that he fenced with and to win one bout. The contestants started walking in , and he turns to me and says, "can we pretend I got sick". That was before they started warming up. They were huge, and they were fast. However, he sucked up his courage and he went out to fight his Goliath's. And he almost completely achieved his goal! He got a touch against everyone he fenced except one boy who is 17th in the nation, and that almost noone gets a touch against. and he came very close to winning one bout. He got 4 out of 5 touches. That's pretty amazing! I am so proud of both of them. Isaac has made a committment to be more committed, lol. And Amadeus, knows what it takes to play with the big guys now. So he can really focus and be ready to make the transition at the end of the next year when he will transition out Y14. Hope you enjoy the bouts! Oh and the top picture is of Isaac with his trophy. And yes I know that I used their names all through out this post but I always forget when I'm videoing, so I give up :P Okay I can't get the videos to upload. So stay tuned, I'll have to try the Utube thing. I've been trying to upload these video's for two days! Aaargh!

Peace On Earth

I just had to put this new picture as the blog Title picture. I have been thinking a great deal lately about that line, "peace on earth". Growing up in a warring world that is full of conflict and strife, will make any child lose there faith in the potential of the Earth to achieve peace. But as I heard those words sung in Joy to the World a couple of weeks ago, I thought of Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality when she is giving her acceptance speech for her award. She had been cynical of the pageant participants and made fun of there constant line of wanting "World peace", she then with tears in her eyes and fanning her hand in front of her face says, "and I really do want world peace". It is a very funny moment and not meant to be profound but I think it is. I believe that deep down those that are trying to live their lives keeping the commandments at their core want and wish for, "peace on earth". But like in "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day", we think "there is no peace on earth". But I have found over the last year that there can be. We each can achieve peace on earth for ourselves as we trust more fully in our Father in Heaven and the Savior and work on keeping an eternal perspective. The more people that we help to achieve this, the more peace on Earth there is. And we can also find hope in Christ as we look to his second coming, knowing that with a ruler that is righteous, and who has the proper eternal perspective that we can achieve a more peaceful habitat. I could go on and on but the point is that we should not let ourselves be cynical, we should work on achieving what we can, knowing others are doing the same and trust in God and our Savior to make up the difference in their own due time. I am so thankful that despite the World not being at peace, that I can find peace as I accept the atonement in my life and allow it to change my perspective and set me free. I hope your Christmas this year brings you much peace and joy.
Love to all,
LMSS

Finally Time to Blog :)

Okay there will be a series of posts after this one. I have been so busy with my Dad being very sick due to his cancer and Thanksgiving and planning a Jr. High dance party for the boys school. Then there is the everyday stuff such as watching Lil Red that has left me no time for blogging but much has happened so today I will try to get it all blogged and shared. The video attached is of my Little sock monkey at work, literally! LOL! Enjoy

About the pictures below

My birthday was wonderful this year! My adopted sister TISO came down and took me out to get a pedicure. Lil Red decided he wanted in on some of the fun and decided to soak his feet with me. Afterwards we went to the mall to look for me some jeans. TISO was my good luck charm. I found two pairs of perfect fitting jeans right away and a great pair of clip hoops that I've been looking for, for 5 years. I'm wearing the hoops and a pair of the jeans in the halloween pics :)
BTW in the last month I've gone down from a size 14 to a 10 sometimes 8. Hence the need for new jeans. I'm so excited! Then we met Big Red for lunch at this great Mexican restraunt. I had my two faves, Chile Relleno and Cheese Enchilada. Big Red gave lil Red a taste of hot sauce, poor thing, was banging the table for water. Mean daddy :P
So then we did a little looking at Bed Bath and Beyond and then went home to visit a little before TISO went home. Then it was off to get the boys and do the lessons that they have on Thursdays. It's our long evening as they have fencing and DK has guitar lessons. So I brought them rice krispy treats to share. Lil Red loves rice krispy treats as you can tell from the pics. And the white fence pic is at the fencing academy. He loves leaning against the fence and watching the boys. So after we got home I went into the kitchen to grab a pizza to put in the oven for dinner and found a huge bouquet of yellow roses with berries in it. They were so sunshiny and brite! My sweet Big Red had bought them for me and gotten me the mushiest and sweetest birthday card ever, suffice it to say that I cried, and I have never cried over a birthday card. I loved it! He made me feel so special. The rest of the evening was spent playing phase 10 with my boys. I won of course :), the boys were sure that I was cheating because I went out quickly on the first 4 or 5 rounds and there were only 2 rounds that I didn't go out. But for the record I didn't cheat. It was just birthday luck :)
Okay onto halloween. Some of the pics are at the mall which is where we ended up. It was crazy there. Big Red and I were looking for my b-day present and thought we'd show off our cute baby. And yes everyone cooed and offered him chocolate, lol. Emy should have come with us and she would have had a years supply. I just turned them down and said he was to young, lol. He had so much watching all the other little ones and of course he enjoyed his first taste of candy from the sucker Big Red gave him. He only got a couple of sucks before Daddy threw it away though. He was monkey enough without the sugar! So we have had our first halloween. It was fun. I think next year we might try for Flash Gordon though, our monkey boy sure is fast! Sorry it took so long to get these up. Hugz, Raydiant

My Little Sock Monkey on his first Halloween

My birthday fun