Bad Blogger... Bad, Bad Blogger...

Yes, we are still alive.

Yes, we are doing just fine.

No, I have not abandoned the blog.

Yes, I plan to keep blogging.

There, happy now?

I'm going to simply say, by way of explanation, that I think I've had a mild case of the Winter Blahs. Ask me to do pretty much anything the last 6 weeks or so and my answer was likely a rather monotone "Nah, I don't really feel like it."

But March is finally here, which means Spring is just a few short weeks away. And with the turn of the calendar page I feel a return of some of my old spunk.

Dave and I have even started up our old rock band again, "Lisa Can't Sing."

 I'm not kidding, folks. I am honestly and truly the lead singer in a rock band. Now stop that laughing, already!! You just wait till I start posting videos of us...

(oh gosh, did I really just obligate myself to post videos?!?)

But anyhoo, the Big News around here is Lin's very first Tae Kwon Do tournament, where she not only took first place in her division... She took the overall championship title!!!!

My daughter, the Champion!

I almost got choked up when they called her name, I'm just so ridiculously proud! So without further ado, here are the pictures...

Lin's back is to the camera here, as she bows to her first opponent...

You can just see the force behind that kick, can't you?

She easily won her first match-up, then had to go up against the winner from the other fight in her division.

Again, Lin's back is to the camera here, but just check out the size of her opponent! That boy is younger than Lin, but outweighs her by some 70 pounds!!! And he's nearly a foot taller than her, too!

I mean, honestly, look at the fierceness in that girl!! This second match-up was much more even, as far as number of hits. But in the end Lin was declared the winner, which made her First Place in her division!

Here's our girl after the fight.

Once all the matches were done, all the students were gathered back together and the 4 judges were then asked to call out the names of a few kids who had done a particularly great job. I don't remember which judge it was, but one of them called out Lin's name!



So then the judges were asked to confer with each other to determine the overall Champion...

And the winner... LIN!!!

Here are some pictures of the new Champ with her Giant Trophy!

It was truly awesome to see the other students all gathered around Lin to congratulate her...

That trophy's only two inches shorter than she is!!



Here's Lin with one of her instructors, Master Hernandez. He's tough, but he loves giving Lin a hard time! (And we certainly can't overlook Ruby here, along with two of her stuffed pals, Mimi and Victoria.)

Here she is with one of the judges, "Mr. Rob" -- an all-around nice guy!



And here's the Champ with Master Seigel, the owner and main instructor of the martial arts academy.

I have to say, I was confident Lin would win her division. She really is good at this whole Tae Kwon Do business. And when we walked in and saw that big ole honkin' trophy at the front of the room, I thought, "Oh, wouldn't it be cool if she actually won that?" But I didn't let my imagination run too far away from me, because she's only been taking classes for 6 months. She's still a beginner!

But that behemoth of a trophy now resides in her bedroom! How many ways can I say how proud I am of my daughter?!? We are just about bursting around here!

By the way, if you ever come across Lin in a dark alley, I'd leave her alone if I were you... She'll kick your you-know-what to you-know-where before you can say "Yip-a-dee Doo!"