Grand Prix East 2021

The WOW team had a great time and did well at the tournament. Although T was unable to attend because of an injury and a funeral we had to attend he wanted to take a moment and congratulate his teammates. Here’s a list of his teammates accomplishments at the tournament:

Chris - gold

Greg - silver

Tori - silver

David - bronze

Banks - bronze

Marlizaan - gold

Nathan - silver

Crosby - bronze

Luke (exhibition) - gold

Hayes - silver

Exhibition means they didn’t have a fight so they automatically won gold but did a fight with someone outside of their bracket in order to be able to have an actual fight. 

So proud of all the kids. Wished we could have been there to cheer them on and we would have been had we not had an Ortho appointment and funeral to go to. 

When T saw what would have been his bracket and who got gold he was even more frustrated over being injured. The person that won gold T has beat every time they’ve fought. But that’s water under the bridge and now we get on with healing and looking forward to when T can compete again. Missing in action in what could have been a great competition season for T  is a bitter pill to swallow especially after working so hard to get where he was before the injury.  But that is the nature of sports. Injuries happen and recovery from them has to take place. He’s young and he’ll be back fighting soon and he can make forward movement once he’s able to compete again. 

(Pictures aren’t mine. I took screen shots to get them.)

Local Park Pictures

More Family Pictures

Got these as we were leaving the memorial service, at Living Word Family Church, today. 

Lisa Young’s Memorial Service

Lisa’s memorial service was absolutely beautiful. It was nice to see so many friends we hadn’t seen in a long while but not under these circumstances. I put this picture together after the memorial service today that I wanted to share. I got the picture of the cross as we were leaving. Love you to the moon and beyond Lisa and I look forward to the day when we get to see one another again. Oh what a wonderful day that will be my friend!!!

Family Pics June 2021

Since we have a memorial service to go to today I took the opportunity to get some photos of us looking nicer than we normally do😁. My guys clean up good😊!!!

Ortho Appointment

T had his Ortho appointment earlier. The Ortho doc wants to get a better look at T’s fracture because it’s right at the growth plate in T’s pinky toe and T is still complaining a ton with it. So now we wait as they get an MRI scheduled and we have a recheck next Friday  with Ortho as long as the MRI is done by then. No competitions or training for now. Because of where the fracture is the doc is concerned about the growth plate. Everything is a waiting game right now.

Go Team WOW!

While T can’t be with his team competing this weekend he is there in spirit. We will be watching livestream every chance we get this weekend to watch his teammates compete. T is hating that he can’t be there but injuries happen and it’s the nature of sports. This too shall pass and he’ll be back at it before you know it. 

A Friends Husband Passed Away

A friend that I grew up with, Kris, husband, James, passed away. I didn’t know James all that well but Kris and I grew up in church youth group together. The service for James is also this Saturday. It’s unfortunate that I can’t be in two places at once but my prayers are with her and their kids at this time of loss. 

Lisa Young, “A Friend Like No Other”

To know Lisa Young was a special privilege. She was one of the most awesome women of God that I’ve ever known. To spend time with her was like what one would imagine spending physical time in the presence of the Lord would be like. You would walk away, not in awe of Lisa, but in awe of God!  Her focus was always on God.  Life here on this earth won’t be the same without her but at least I know I’ll see her again one day. I wanted to take a moment and share her obituary with you. 

T is Much Taller than Nan

T is so much taller than Nan. The pics in this collage were all taken in June. 

Heaven Got Crazy Brighter Yesterday 6/21/2021

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Heaven got crazy brighter yesterday and the earth much dimmer as a good friend, Lisa Young, went to be with the Lord.  She’s the reason Scot and I met and eventually married. You never saw her without a smile on her face. She loved Jesus immensely and it showed all over her countenance. She was a mighty woman of God!  Although she will be missed deeply, as followers of Christ, we know this isn’t goodbye but just see you later.

Father’s Day 2021

This is late but we’ve had a lot going on. We really hope everyone had a great Father’s Day. We got to spend Father’s Day in Kentucky with Scot’s family. We always cherish the moments we get to have with our family because our time spent with them isn’t as often as we would like. Life is very busy so we make the most of the moments we have. T and I sat down and made this collage for Scot together. 

Scot got to have some special visiting time with Pop. I wish I could say I was able to get some pictures of that but I was unable to do so but I wanna share some pics I do have of Pop, our family patriarch, the one who is loved 🥰 deeply by the entire family. We cherish this man. 

 

T is on the Injured List

Well, T is officially on the injured list.  Grand Prix is out and more than likely AAU Nationals. He hurt his foot while training. We thought maybe he needed a metatarsal adjustment by the chiropractor but when we went there today to get T adjusted he said T needs to be checked out at an orthopedist. So we got him seen there and sure enough his foot is injured and it could be as short as 3 weeks or as long as 4-6 weeks recovery time according to the doctor. The doctor said everyone heals differently and kids generally bounce back quicker. But 3 weeks still puts him out of both USAT Grand Prix and AAU Nationals tournaments because he’ll have had zero training time for these few weeks leading up to the tournament to be better prepared for fighting. He’s in a Med boot and is hating life right now. This is just an obligatory pic that I got and he certainly didn’t want me taking it. He’s so upset but it is what it is. This may very well end up being just a growing/training year for him and cheering on his teammates until he can get back to fighting himself.

NexGen Training 6/11/2021

T got to go up to Ohio on Wednesday and train with his USAT coach. We wanted him to have some face time with him before the Grand Prix Championships on 6/25/2021. That’s fight day for T😁. Here’s a 20 minute or so video of some of his training on Friday. There’s another video going to be coming once we get home that will be longer from the training on Saturday. 

84 Years Young

Nan is 84 years young today😁!  Happy Birthday Nan!  You and Pop are the Patriarch’s of our family. We are so glad we got to celebrate 🥳 your birthday with you today. We love you to the moon and back. So thankful for every day we get to have with you and Pop. The boys (T, William, Tyler, and Scot) had a blast in the pool today and Nan had a blast watching them😁. Plus Brittany got in on the fun too😊. I would’ve been in the pool too but I’m still being extra careful😉. We sure love celebrating 🥳 the special occasions with the family though. Lots of fun 🤩 was had today. 

Changes…

T asked yesterday for the first time if he could also do maybe another sport. He still wants this to be his main sport but he wants to do something else too so he can have something different to do to mix things up a bit. We’ll have to see what that would look like and if it’s even possible given his training schedule with this sport. He’s just become a teen and we are seeing maturity changes and he is now wanting to do even more. That makes my head swim just a bit…LOL! He actually mentioned wanting to learn soccer. God help us because our already busy schedule would get even busier. Soccer would actually compliment what he’s doing with sparring because it would help big time with his foot work and learning the meaning of teamwork because it’s a true team sport. You work as a team to win verses what he does with sparring which is fighting individually and the entire team winning individual medals. It could be really good for him. I’m just not sure how we would pull off being able to do both is all. That’s a problem for another day. We will revisit the soccer thing come fall. We’ve just got to get past the summer fighting season first and go from there. 

Clip of NexGen Training 6/10/2021

Here are some short clips of some training from yesterday. T is really enjoying being up here. Training up here is different from training with his other coach back home. It compliments everything his coach at home is doing with him and makes him a more well rounded athlete. 

Having Fun with INSTA TOON

We found a new app that makes artwork out of your photos.  It’s a really cool app.