Glenda and I were both awarded our blue belts back in August of 2005. Glenda was 7 months pregnant and did great!

After a number of months away Glenda has returned to the dojo. Within three weeks she has refreshed all of her knowledge and is taking on new techniques in preparation for her green belt test.

I was awarded my green belt in January and then my brown belt in April. In our system, Okinawa Kenpo Kobudo, there are three levels of brown belt. I am currently brown 3, the lowest level. I will spend at least a year progressing through the brown belts before I can test for first degree black belt (first dan), hopefully at the 2007 annual testing.

Evan began sleeping 8 hours night when he was ten weeks old! What a blessing.

Evan is now seven months old and has been a very easy baby up to this point. He has mastered the roll and can pretty much roll himself anywhere he wants to go. He's starting to get himself up onto his knees. Attempts at crawling seem imminent.

Stephen, who is now 2yrs 7mo old, loves his little brother Evan. Sometimes a little too much.

I owe you some more current pictures. Stay tuned.

Evan was born healthy on Oct 27th 2005 at 2:06am via c-section, after a heroic attempt at a VBAC delivery, including 20 hours of labor! He weighed in at 8lbs 3oz and measured 20in long.

Lewiston, ME. Marguerite Winn Gay, 89, died quietly at home with her family around her. She was living with her daughter’s family, Carol and Steve Moitozo at 35 Shawmut Street in Lewiston. Marguerite was a life long resident of Nashua and Rumney, New Hampshire. She lived in Palm Bay, Florida for eight years.

She was born January 19, 1916 in Nashua, NH, the eldest of the six children of Charles Thomas and Marie (O’Hearn) Winn.

Educated in the Nashua schools, she graduated from Nashua High School, the class of 1934. She attended Nashua Memorial Hospital School of Nursing before marrying her high school sweetheart Arthur Evans Gay Sr., May 5, 1934, in Lexington, MA. Marguerite and Arthur graduated from Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL., Marguerite in the class of 1944.

We had our annual testing yesterday. We didn't test for belts, but participated anyway. This completes a week of training with Kyoshi Marcus Devalentino (Sensei's instructor) who is now an 8th Dan. Sensei Pelletier was given the title of Shihan, which means teacher of teachers or masters. What a surprise! We have really enjoyed this past week and look forward to next year's visit from Kyoshi.

Sensei promoted us to purple tonight! How cool is that?

Well we've moved beyond our yellow belt and just received our orange belts. It's nice to be moving forward. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the belt system in our style of martial arts here's a primer.

White Belt - (lowest rank, where everyone begins)
Yellow Belt - 8th Kyu
Orange Belt - 7th Kyu (our current rank)
Purple Belt - 6th Kyu
Blue Belt - 5th Kyu
Green Belt - 4th Kyu
Brown 3 - 3rd Kyu
Brown 2 - 2nd Kyu
Brown 1 - 1st Kyu
Black - 1st Dan, Shodan
Black - 2nd Dan, Nidan
Black - 3rd Dan,
Black - 4th Dan,
Black - 5th Dan,
Black or Red/White Striped - 6th Dan (our instructors current rank)