Watching Her Spar

Nana and Ba-Ba came by to visit the martial arts studio today, watching Madison do quite a bit on the mat.  You can see above where she was doing a bit of sparring, with her full gear on.

Also, some lessons on breaking holds and self defense as well.  This was a neat shot just because the kids were all lined up and we were sort of seeing things through the glass window from the teacher's perspective.

Madison was working on her form quite a bit, and in fact, Mrs. Edge spent some great quality time with Madison and one other student after class, perfecting things and preparing her for the testing that Madison will have next week.  That's Monday, when she will hopefully be ready to get a new belt.

She'll be practicing through the week here at home - we're putting mats down in the garage, or on the back deck.  But she's in pretty decent shape for the testing, and feels rather confident.  In fact, here she is tonight, earning her third and final stripe for the green belt.

With each belt there come three phases, three marks that come one after the other.  Each one signifies a step towards earning that very next belt.  The third one is the last, the one that indicates a readiness for the new belt, and Madison feels pretty confident now, especially after Mrs. Edge's additional training.

It was senior discount day at Goodwill, and therefore the in-laws were there with Mommy doing a bit of shopping.  Daddy was at the office, and Madison was at school, reviewing a bit for the upcoming math test, wrapping up Latin America, and studying the weather.  Speaking of which, this weather has been cool here, actually somewhat chilly in the evenings and morning.  That's supposed to change later this week, but we've just been loving this weather this week outside.  It's so nice outside.

There are storm chasers getting in place in the Midwest though, as the forecast is for Tornado Alley to live up to its name this week.  There have been some amazing pieces of footage lately, of massive dark and swirling beasts looming in the distance, and drones with cameras now flying alongside these twisters.

So a bit of bad news today, but we don't know entirely what is in store.  But the mind goes to worst case scenarios right off, and it all has to do with Nana's health.  We did not sleep tonight, Mommy and Daddy.  Mommy was so upset and saddened, and of course Daddy was right there with her.  The grandparents are leaving tomorrow, and it is less than ideal, and worrisome.  We're not going to call things out by name, but it's something that happens as we get older, at least until the appropriate medication or cures come along.  And it's been evident for the past few months or longer, a slow sort of declination.  But certain symptoms reared their ugly head today, and the end result is a quick trip home tomorrow, after a very quick visit.  This is life in a fallen world, and this is grieving.  Madison is somewhat shielded from this, not entirely oblivious, but certainly not feeling the weight of anything at this point.  Again, no official diagnosis is out there, and we're by no means experts in any medical field.  But the symptoms are clearly there, almost line by line on every checklist we were looking at tonight online.  And that is troubling enough to have kept Mommy and Daddy up nearly all night.