Space Shuttle Endeavor Launch 11/14/2008

Today I heard the Space Shuttle was supposed to launch tonight. I have lived in Florida all my life and have never been to a launch. Before Tim met me, he had traveled down about 6 times to see a launch and each time they were cancelled.

So, I thought it would be nice to be spontaneous and just take off to watch the night launch. Tim and JT agreed and we were on our way. It's a 2 hour drive but traffic started backing up on I-95 when we got near Titusville, so it took a little longer. We grabbed a few subs at Subway and started looking for a place to park and watch the action.

We finally found a parking lot about 2-3 blocks away from the water. We walked a little way and saw some people gathering behind a condo building. We got extremely lucky and ended up at a place with a great view of the launch pad across the river!

It was exciting watching the shuttle launch and it was nice sharing this first together.

This video doesn't do the sights or sounds justice, but it's not too bad coming from my digital camera with no tripod.

Jaguar Chorus

JT stepped out this year and surprised us by joining the Jaguar Chorus at school. They had their first concert in honor of Veteran's Day. The kids did a great job singing quite a few patriotic songs and I was amazed at the talent of a few of the soloists. They not only sang Thursday evening for the parents and guests, but they performed 3 times on Monday for all the kids in the school.

Halloween

JT dressed up like a Ninja for Halloween. They had a party at the karate school that he went to that allowed us to go out on a date a few hours alone as well.








The people Tim works with decided to dress up again this year for Halloween. Tim ended up being a cowboy this year. Judging from all the photos, there were quite a few very imaginative costumes. There seems to be a theme going on as well. Take a look at all the photos here.

Food Rescue

Through one of the ladies at church, I recently got involved in an organization called Food Rescue. Basically, what they do is get donations of perfectly good food from restaurants and stores that would normally get thrown away. The volunteers pick up the food from the establishment and then deliver it to an organization that can use it. I've been picking up from a Panera bakery a couple of times a month and taking it to the Clara White mission downtown. It breaks my heart to see the homeless people sleeping in the parking lot where I go to deliver, not to mention all the ones just hanging around waiting for the help they receive from the mission.

It's amazing how much Panera throws out daily. Some days I pick up as many as 7-8 huge plastic bags full. We just got word that we're delivering more than Clara White can use, so the next time I deliver, I will be delivering to a new organization. I'm not doing much, but hopefully it's making a difference to at least one person.

Maybe you'd like to donate 90 minutes of your time once a month? Or perhaps you know of an establishment that throws out food that they could donate? Find out more about Food Rescue by visiting their website at http://www.foodrescue.net.

2008 Songahm Taekwondo Fall Nationals - Orlando, Florida

JT has been taking Karate classes for a little over a year now and is doing very well. It's very obvious his instructors are impressed with his progress and he gets called out quite a bit in classes to demonstrate moves and help out. Of course, he loves it! He goes to karate class at least 4 days a week. He would go every day if we let him. He is very passionate about the sport and works very hard to be the best he can be. We are very proud of him!

His instructors told us he was ready for competition and asked if we wanted to let him compete in the Nationals competition in Orlando. We decided that since he worked so hard, and he really wanted to do it that we would let him. So for a couple of months before the competition he worked really hard getting ready.

We went down on Friday and watched the black belts compete. Then on Saturday morning it was JT's turn to compete. He was very confident and didn't seem nervous at all. It was a good thing because I think Tim was nervous enough for all of us. He ended up competing in a ring with about 12 other boys his age/size. I had a few knots in my stomach as well! JT put on his game face and competed like a little champion! We honestly didn't really expect him to win anything, just walk away with experience and life lessons. He surprised us though!

He ended up with a Gold medal in Weapons... a Silver medal in Forms and a Bronze medal in Sparring! I think he even surprised himself! He had some really good competition and the wins weren't easy... he truly earned them.

Here are a few photos and a video:

After a spending a couple of days at the karate competitions, we decided to head to Universal Studios on Sunday and enjoy some fun family time before we headed home. We had figured it would be a great consolation if he didn't do well, or a great way to celebrate if he did.