Karate Tournament

Today Matthew competed in his 2nd karate tournament and placed 2nd in his division for his forms & 2nd in his division for sparring. He was a really good sport & was so happy for the 1st place winners and was pleased for himself to get 2nd place in two categories. The boy who earned 1st place in sparring began karate at the same time as Matthew about 14 months ago and he is a bulldog in the sparring ring - definitely a different personality than Matthew and really that's his (Kyle's) strongest area. Kyle has now passed Matthew in belts - he ranks one belt higher, so there is a subtle competition there. Matthew did "tower" over the others in his age division, which was funny...I don't see him as "that" tall but clearly he is on the taller side. But I am SO proud of Matthew & his good sportsmanship!




We also had to attend a luncheon for a friend's son's 1st Holy Communion immediately after the tournament - the boy's father is our terminally ill friend I've talked about a lot. Well his wife's Uncle died of a heart attack on Wednesday night unexpectedly and they had the funeral yesterday afternoon. Her Aunt is such an incredible person - the Uncle was too (he was an influential teacher in the area for years & supposedly there was a great article in the paper Thursday about him) - but her Aunt did not want the funeral to hamper the plans for Emmanuel's 1st Communion and there her Aunt was today....cooking, taking care of people, playing with my boys....and she just lost her husband 3 days ago. Wow - the strength is amazing.

We are now pooped and are looking forward to a relaxing afternoon...think there is any chance of that?????????