Getting Ready...

Good evening everyone! We are having a blast here, Nathan's brother Gabe is visiting with us! He flew in late last night.

I actually fixed breakfast BEFORE they went out to do morning chores! I realized that I needed to run to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients to cook a couple of meals for some dear friends of ours. Please keep them in your prayers as well, they have two family members in the hospital right now.

I taught voice lessons for 1 1/2 hours this afternoon. Headed to Tijeras for 3 hours of karate. We had a very challenging class today. We are getting ready for testing on Nov. 10. We are studying Shotokan Karate. They only offer testing once every three months, so it's a pretty big deal to be ready for it. My 14 year old son Aaron and I are (Lord willing) planning on testing for our 3rd degree brown belt. Once we achieve that, he and I will have to wait one year before we are eligible to test for our 1st degree black belt! Jordan, my 12 year old, decided not to test this time. He is a 1st degree brown belt. We have all been studying for two years now. My husband, Nathan, has only recently joined in the fun and is hoping to test for his yellow belt...go Nathan!!! Today at class, we counted our katas out loud in Japanese, played dodge ball with the younger kids, practiced our more advanced katas, and trained in sparring. In sparring, we do 5 step sparring, 1 step sparring, semi-free sparring and free sparring. We don't usually practice free sparring since that can tend to be a little dangerous! But, today we did! I actually did really well.

Well, after I rushed home, we had invited Nathan's other brother Chad and his family over for dinner since Gabe was visiting with us. I had some homemade tamales that I made with chipotle shredded chicken. Tonya made some wonderful spicy shredded chicken soft tacos. What a wonderful night of food and fellowship!

Now, for tomorrow...we are headed for the great state of Arizona to visit my parents and Nathan's parents. Fortunately for us, they both live in the same town. We hope to be there for a week while Chad and Tonya have graciously agreed to come farm sit for us till we get back. I sure hope and pray all the animals behave themselves while we are gone. I've been trying to get things set aside so I won't forget anything, but knowing me, I will probably forget a bunch of stuff I'm supposed to bring!

I had better turn in so I will be up early getting the boys on school, getting everyone's bags packed, loading the car and making sure everything is in order. Goodnight all! Much love and God's peace be with you all!