Here

Still here. ;) Just keeping busy with stuff like...

- Noah building steps for our back patio.

 
(I had Noah take the picture for me since the stairs weren't screwed down and I didn't feel like going out the front and walking around to the back yard.) It's coming right along and will hopefully be done by the end of the month. :)

- Planning the coming school year. Just lots of looking at stuff and hemming and hawing and purging and reorganizing, lol. I'm getting closer... ;) Will definitely be posting more about that in the coming month.

- Micah testing for his black belt. This one's been the main focus of late. He's been training specifically since March, but the last couple weeks have been stepped up a bit...with extra swimming sessions for cardio, finishing up his required essay, and rearranging things on the calendar to fit everything in. (The actual promotion date got moved up due to one of the other families, which has meant shuffling a number of things.)

And then, last night, he had his first night of testing. They split the testing up into two nights. On the first night, they do: 

• all of their forms (I think 10 forms each with roughly 20-30 steps...they do each of them at least twice and about half of them another time or two or three)
• all 24 of their combinations (five times each on each side, so 240 repetitions...and each combination involves multiple parts...for instance, one combination is double punch, turn round kick, spin crescent kick, touch round kick, tornado kick, spin hook kick)
• and an individual weapons or musical form (each boy did a different form, Micah's is a musical form)

It takes a bit. ;) 

(Micah is the one at the far end, with the red stripe down his pants.) All three boys have been doing this together for years, generally promoting at the same time, and are good friends. They all did a truly fantastic job!

They've been instructed to rest today. :) Tomorrow will be the second day of testing...with all of their one-steps, grab defenses and sparring. It'll take longer and be more physically taxing. Fingers crossed! :)

So. That's mostly what we're up to around here.