Quincy's Excellent Board Breaking Adventure

Last night, Quincy and Grace's karate school had a special board breaking class. Yes, that's right...board breaking. The instructors all but guaranteed that everyone who attended would break a board.

And break a board, he did! Mom was teaching a class, so Dad was the witness to this feat of concentration and strength. Prior to breaking the board, each student was given a marker with which they were to write their goal on the top half of the board and the obstacles to their goal on the bottom half. Quincy wrote for his goal "8th Degree Black Belete 20020" (meaning 8th Degree Black Belt by 2020). For his obstacles, he wrote "quiting and not triing" (quitting and not trying). Then, Master Galloway, the instructor, showed them techniques to channel their concentration and energy into breaking the board and symbolically separating their goal from the obstacles that would prevent success.

Quincy broke his first board on the third attempt. The second board broke apart on the first attempt. Quincy was very excited about his accomplishment and has told of his amazing feat to almost anyone who would listen.

He told me this morning that he was going to keep his board in his room so that he can always remember his goal. If he is to become an 8th degree black belt, it will take him until 2020, when he is 19 years old. Not many six-year-olds can make that kind of committment.

We'll be there cheering him on every step of the way to 8th Degree Black Belt or whatever goal he aspires.

Birthday Lillies

Monday, August 25 was my 35th birthday. Erik commented that "you're halfway to 40." Actually, it's more like halfway to 70! To me, 35 is a minor landmark; I'm not longer "young" but certainly not old. And, I'm old enough to be President of the United States.

It was a nice birthday. The big celebration was Sunday party that was also a fundraiser for my campaign for the Colorado State House of Representatives. We had a good time with good food and good friends. Thanks are due to my parents for allowing me to use their beautiful backyard and flagstone patio for the event.

I wanted to share this picture of the beautiful bouquet Erik brought home for me on Monday. It is the most exquisite bunch of Stargazer Lillies, which also happen to be my favorite flower. Grace also loved them. I think she will need to get a bouquet for her fifth birthday, which is coming up in less than two weeks!

First Week of School!

First Day of School 2008

The Hansen Family is now officially a family of school-aged children! On August 19th, Quincy started first grade and Grace started kindergarten at Silver Creek Elementary School. They are both excited to be back at school and the first week seemed to go smoothly, though the main topics of conversation about what they did centered around recess, lunch and P.E.

Quincy is in Mrs. Kiefer's class. She is a first-year teacher at Silver Creek, though she taught in the Adams 12 School District last year. Quincy thinks school is great and he's looking forward to "trying to be the smartest kid in class."

Grace is in Mrs. Frankenfeld's full-day kindergarten class. We were very pleased with this teacher assignment, as we had seen Mrs. Frankenfeld several times over the summer at the grocery story, and Grace was already telling everyone that she was going to be in Mrs. Frankenfeld's class. Her neighborhood friends Ella and Riley are in her same class, which also makes her very happy. Grace was very worried that she would forget and call her teacher "Mrs. Frankenstein" so she was also quite proud to have made it through the first week without making that mistake.

We are also very pleased to be hosting Silver Creek's Chinese teacher this year. Mrs. Lihong Wang will be staying in our home through November. The children have enjoyed having her here very much, and so have Erik and I. We enjoyed watching the Olympics together where we got the "inside" scoop on what it is like in Bejing. Lihong has also been teaching the children Chinese. Quincy is very excited to also have the opportunity to talk via web phone to Lihong's 5-year-old daughter who is back in China.

Quincy and Grace are also both taking karate classes at Thornton Mile High Karate. They are "Gold Belts" and soon will be promoted to "Orange Belt." They work very hard at karate, and it involves so much more than punching and kicking. They also must work on memorization of the Black Belt words of the month and must earn "stripes" for graduation by doing things like reading daily, practicing karate, and using good self discipline.

The summer came and went very fast. I spent a lot of time working on my campaign for the Colorado House of Representatives. Each Saturday, and many days during the week, I am walking door-to-door to meet as many voters as possible. I am in a little big of a "David vs. Goliath" situation, as my opponent is the incumbent representative for this district, but I have so far received very good feedback and it looks like it will be a very close race. This weekend, my campaign commercial debuted on cable TV, which was very exciting to see. It was produced and paid for by an outside organization, so I saw it for the first time at the same time as everyone else. There is a quick shot of the family, and the kids are very excited to be "TV stars!"