The big prize

Today begins a pretty big hurdle in two of the twerplets lives. After school today we will be traveling to Frisco, Texas for the first part of what is a very important weekend for the kiddos. You see, between 4:00 PM and 10:00 PM today, the kiddos must appear to be weighed in for the 2010 Texas State Tae Kwon Do Championships.

For them this is no small tournament, this is the gateway to the US Junior Olympics in Orlando, Florida and, most importantly to them, a trip to Disney World. Based on their most recent performances you might think that they would be a shoe in, but, this is a different animal. With over 700 competitors from all over the State of Texas this will be the largest competition in which they have ever participated. There will be more competition, more pressure, and a much larger prize - a golden ticket to the US Junior Olympics.

The pressure is on.

For me, it is about grounding them. Personally, I don't care if they win. You know my mantra. The battle is in the journey. Let's be realistic, they have only been doing this for little more than a year and they have only been fighting competitively and seriously for less than 6 months. It would be unfair to expect world domination. However, I can expect them to give it 100% for ever second of the multiple matches they will face. Their biggest battle will be in facing their fears. And, in that battle, their is no doubt in my mind that they will come out as grand champions. It is that journey, in this high stakes game, that is so important for them to experience. If they can just endure, they will come out with an incredible life experience and much better for it.

So, again, tonight is weigh in. All of the fun begins early tomorrow morning. The kiddos are competing in both sparring and in forms. It will be a long haul, 12 hours of competition, and both will have to compete multiple times in both sparring and forms. Gauging by the competition it looks like Graham will have the most. He will have to spar in a minimum of 3 matches and it could be many more. Thankfully, Sydney has less competition but it will not be an easy walk in the park. The good news is that she looks to be at the top of her weight division which should give her an edge.

Once again, you will be able to follow all of the action on twitter. Lynley will be tweeting from her @ldungan account and I will be doing the same from @mdungan. We will see who provides better coverage.

So, there you have it. Another big milestone in the Dunganlets lives.

This is going to be fun.

This is one of those times that we get to see the purpose pay off.