A weekend's worth of gratitude

On Thursday, we flew to Dallas, Texas to attend Taekwondo America’s annual National Tournament.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Son competed with his club’s demo team and also individually in forms and sparring as a Senior Blue belt.

• Grateful this busy weekend started with a great yoga session.

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• Despite a few mid-flight bumps, I am grateful we landed safely.

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• And despite having trouble understanding the GPS and getting lost multiple times leaving the DFW airport, we eventually found our way and arrived at the hotel without incident.

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• Because we were able to buy four seats to Dallas direct on American Airlines for the low, low price of $560, we opted to drive 2 ½ hours to the Raleigh airport instead of flying out of the much closer/more convenient Charlotte airport.  The decision to do this could have been a disaster given the fact we have never traveled to or flown from this airport before, but ultimately everything ran smoothly…right down to how polite the shuttle bus driver treated everyone on her route.   I am grateful for the ease of travel and the cost savings we achieved with this decision.

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• Grateful that when we checked our bags at the kiosk, our new American Airlines credit card had been activated thus waving the fees resulting in a savings of $100.

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• Grateful for the suggestion to go to the Perot Museum in downtown Dallas.  We would have loved more time to explore the amazing exhibits, but are grateful for the time we had…well worth the visit.

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• Numero Uno and Numero Dos were invited to tour the museum with the other TKD kids.  They had so much more fun with the group than they would have had with their dad and I.  It always feels good to be included.

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•  Despite the fact the demo team did not place in the top three, I could not have been prouder.  The team worked hard and gave their best performance to date.  Grateful to Mr. O’Regan for spearheading this venture and giving Teenage Mutant Ninja Son a place in this world to shine.

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• After the competition Master Dang took the demo team out for dinner.  It was after 10 p.m. CST, so we arranged for Teenage Mutant Ninja Son to go with the group while we stayed back at the hotel.  Very grateful to Master Dang and the other parents for keeping a watchful eye and transporting him safely to and from dinner.