Brown Belt

My husband had to take medical leave from Tae-kwon-do, but our son did not want to wait for him.  So, I took him to TKD class three times last week where I learned that belt testing would take place this weekend.  Testing is only offered every two to four months depending upon belt rank, so he had to get in as much practice as possible and learn the forms if he wanted to move ahead and leave his dad and sister behind him in rank  He worked hard and did indeed earn his brown belt.  Kudos to his father for watching him practice to make sure he got the forms correctly.

We all deserved some sort of prize after belt testing, however.  We arrived two hours early for the testing (located about 15-20 minutes from our house) as my husband forgot that brown belts test with red and black belts, and I never once looked at the sheet.  So, we drove back home, started making a dessert for Pops' birthday, and I started shopping for a bigger boy bike for my son.  Just as we were leaving again for testing, I found a bike for sale that was used but in great condition, but I didn't have time to correspond with the owner regarding pick-up, and I did not have facebook messenger on my phone because the security policies are so disagreeable.

We drove back to the TKD center to wait, and we watched them go through warm-ups.  Our son tested well, but I had to laugh at the big smile and cute dimples all over his face during the sparring portion, which is supposed to be mock defensive fighting. 

He could not scare away anyone with that grin, but perhaps the smile is part of his strategy to catch his opponent by surprise.  He broke more boards with his feet and took down his opponent using the new forms. 

He passed, but then he had to sit cross-legged on the floor while the other belts ahead of him tested.  That could take a while, so I went to the grocery store to get him some items he wanted. I looked up the address for the owner of the bike and took a chance that they might be home.  I finally found the address after missing the exit off the interstate a few times requiring me to sit through 8 extra stop lights and to drive at least 4 extra miles.

When I got to the house, no one was home.  So I surrendered to Facebook messenger's horrible privacy policies (they can share your location and who knows what else with the world) to download the message from the owner.  As it turns out, they were renting a house and would not be moving to that house for another week or more.  They gave me the new address, and I got there just in time before they were leaving for the day!  What a blessing.

Then I drove back to the town where TKD testing took place, and the red belts were still testing.  Milk and dairy items were getting hot in my car (it was about 98 degrees outside), so I drove 20 minutes home to wait for awards to begin.  I missed the awards, but I got there in time to find them at the pizza shop next door. We devoured the fresh goodness after waiting without food for over four hours for the belt testing to finish.   My son had the most discipline as he could not move or talk that entire time.  My husband and daughter occupied themselves with books and computer games.  I ran errands and put lots of miles on my car going to to TKD four times that day.  But the deed is done, and he now has his brown belt. He's over half way to black belt now!  Way to go!

The fact that I missed his belt presentation (not on purpose, but the awards schedule was running so late that we did not know which awards would be given when, so it was all very unpredictable) was forgiven when he came home to see this bicycle waiting for him in the garage!