The Road to Black Belt

The Road to Black Belt is a long one, but a worthy one. My grandson went all the way through the junior program to junior black belt which took about a year. Now he is in 'real' black belt training. His red coat symbolizes that he has decided to go all the way through to black belt - the others stay in white. This is his testing day - there is a panel of five black belts on the stage judging them.

This is Andy doing one of his patterns for green belt senior. He did the whole junior program. Then he started over with no belt, earned his white belt, white belt senior, yellow belt and yellow senior, gold belt and gold belt senior, orange belt and orange belt senior, and then to green and now to green senior. He is half way to his green belt. About another 1 1/2 to 2 years.



His next color will be blue, blue senior, purple, purple senior, red, red senior, brown and brown senior and the black! And then of course there are degrees of black belt.



Here he is getting is new green senior belt - that means it's green with a black stripe running through it. He works on the pattern in green belt and then as a senior green belt he works it on both sides of the body - left and right.



Andy you have done a lot of hard work - congrats on your green senior. You have been wanting and working at that for a long time.



Finally - the road being washed away during the heavy storm this past fall is finally finished - we lost a lot of trees - looks a little barren - but drivable!



From Wikipedia:
Abigail Adams – wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth. She was the first Second Lady of the United States.
When John Adams was elected President of the United States, Mrs. Adams continued a formal pattern of entertaining. With the removal of the capital to Washington in 1800- she became the first First Lady to preside over the White House, or President's House as it was then known. The city was wilderness, the President's House far from completion. She found the unfinished mansion in Washington "habitable" and the location "beautiful" but complained that, despite the thick woods nearby, she could find no one willing to chop and haul firewood for the First Family. Mrs. Adams' health, never robust, suffered in Washington. She took an active role in politics and policy, unlike the quiet presence of Martha Washington. She was so politically active that her political opponents came to refer to her as "Mrs. President".

Abigail Adams was an advocate of married women's property rights and more opportunities for women, particularly in the field of education. Women, she believed, should not submit to laws not made in their interest, nor should they be content with the simple role of being companions to their husbands. They should educate themselves and thus be recognized for their intellectual capabilities, so they could guide and influence the lives of their children and husbands.

Smart woman!

Love,
Chatty