A few pix

Just a few pix of our weekend. There are PLENTY more!
The first picture is a cropped piece of a light fixture. Miss I, My Honey and Bubba viewed the picture and all set out to find it.... Only Bubba knew, right away, what it was and where to find it. Pretty clever kid.

The second is part of our T-day feast. Bubba helped me edit it. He thinks it looks like an old fashioned picture.

Turkey Day on the West Side

Since it had been stormy all over the State, I worried that traveling on Wednesday would be a pain ... I was so wrong.

Our drive was just fine, no problems on the roads that we couldn't handle, not too much traffic, our only challenge was the hour wait for the 10 minute ferry ride. If we hadn't stopped for dinner we would have made the early one, but the rumbly in my tumbly (and a couple of antsy kids) made a stop necessary.

Once here its just great! 12 of us squashed into the Big House, no phone, no TV, no radio. We have Internet and I have a camera! And we had snow and high winds last night (luckily no power outage). The kids are going to bed well and sleeping in (like past 7!) the food is good and plentiful, and there is a fire going all the time.

Life is good.

First-ish snow!

It actually first snowed on the 11th (yes, before my birthday, which I love) but this is our first snow that stuck around, and is still here, and we might get some more!

This was taken on a walk up to "the canyon" with Bubba yesterday morning.

The first week

No, I'm not going to do weekly updates on being 40, it's all I could think of to call this post.

My birthday was great! We planned an evening thing at a coffee shop to hear Camille Bloom and ended up planning a dinner thing too. I had a blast at both! Dinner turned out to be a large crowd (18 of my friends and family!) and we ended up with a dozen at the concert. Yeah, I felt pretty special. The dinner special just happened to be a pound of prime rib which is one of my favorites. So I ordered it and ate up! MMMMM! The crowd at dinner was diverse; my mom, auntie, My Honey's parents and one of his sisters, a high school friend (thanks FB), my sisters, and some friends we have made through My Honey's work. My work girls, sisters and My Honey were at the concert. It was a great night.

LK stayed the whole weekend even though I was working, and we ended up getting to go out to dinner on Saturday night with her and Shelle. MMMMM, another good meal at Chateau Faire la Ponte. I had a blackened rack of lamb and it was very good. The best part was their french onion soup. MMMM! We ended our evening at Hastings (the only bookstore in town) we were looking for some kind of inspirational-type books for 2011. Can you believe its nearly 2011?? EEK! Anyway we ended up in a pretty animated discussion and I wondered what others around us might have thought of the way we were "harshing on each other" (good phrase, LK). We were good with it tho.

Yesterday was Miss I's FIFTH BIRTHDAY. Holy moly. Five. I'm not sure what to say to that. She is every bit of five. Stubborn, but lovable, feisty but sweet. Independent but helpless. I took ice cream and sprinkles to her preschool today for a birthday treat (because I am too lazy to get or make a cake) served in special dishes (I did make a trip to Goodwill for those) and she was the most helpful little thing, getting the dishes of ice cream and setting them down for everyone, it was very sweet. I was very impressed with her helpfulness and cheerfulness and willingness. Some times she is a doll. Other times ....

Pictures to follow. I am still getting used to this new laptop!

It's almost time

My Fortieth Birthday is nearly here!

My Honey tells me that I "don't seem to be having as tough of a time with 40 as you had with 30" ... Hmmm I wish I had been blogging then to see if he is right.

I do not recall "having problems" with turning 30. I do recall I had just changed jobs, we had a pizza party (with beer, which was a big deal back then) and that is about it.

I might have been stressing about being out of shape and getting worse because I had broken by collar bone earlier that year and hadn't really gotten back into working out, plus now I had a totally sedentary job. I might have been thinking about the fact that I was turning 30 and didn't have any kids yet ...

Fast forward 10 years:

I have done two triathlons, I am playing hockey and we have two kids. I am doing the same job (which is surprising) and life is ... well, its good.

I am thankful for my family, My Honey, Shelle, LK, my Moms and Dads and aunties. My dear friends (girls, you know who you are.)

To celebrate a whole bunch of us are meeting up at a coffee shop for live music! I am very excited! It should be a fun, fun night.

Fall in my yard

Miss I went to church today and she is singing to us:
"I like to do what God likes to do.
I like to do what God says is best.
God is good, God is great ..."
To some made up tune in her head.

The Third

I went to my third practice at oh-dark-thirty today. (In January 5:15 is going to seem like sleeping in!) Another great experience. I'm slowly getting the hang of stopping, falling, turning, falling, hitting the puck around and falling. I wasn't the worst one out on the ice today, so that helped my confidence a little.

Stopping still requires so much stinking concentration, it will be nice when it's second nature. I can't figure out the mental block I have about it. It really isn't that hard, get into a low sports stance (like you're doing a squat) put all your weight on one leg and the other leg slides sideways along the ice, well, actually you push it out, to slow yourself down. I guess it seems counter intuitive for me, that's the same motion I use to get speed so it's a mental block I can't seem to overcome. I should really try and get out on the ice for awhile this weekend just to practice.

Turning, or switching directions, also requires a lot of concentration. It reminds me of rollerskating. Remember rollerskating? Remember learning to skate backwards? Remember learning to switch directions from forward to backward. THEN remember learning it all over again the opposite direction. Yeah. It's a lot like that. I don't feel too bad at that particular skill, when I can do it on my stronger side, but when my opponent goes to my right I really have to think about what I am doing. The coach gently reminded us this morning that we should always have our eyes on the opponent so we can know where they're going next. Oh yeah.

And then there is hitting the puck. Did you know you're not supposed to smack it like a golf ball or baseball? You're supposed to gently catch it with your stick, like it's an egg -- !careful! don't break it! -- and then gently slide, or push it wherever you're aiming it. I don't know if I am explaining it very well, but it ain't what I thought! Then switch directions and do it backwards! I had some challenges keeping the puck coming to me. You're traveling backwards scooping the puck toward yourself instead of pushing it out in front. It was messed up!

Falling. What can I say about falling?
OUCH.
Today I am in a little more pain from falling than the last two times. I took a hard crash on my left shoulder and hit my helmet-clad head on the ice (thank goodness for the helmet!) I think the number of falls is actually good, that means I am not stressing so much about staying upright. And as I fall, I will learn better balance and what it takes to keep me where I should be. Right? Right.

Lastly, since adding hockey isn't enough for me, we added swim lessons for the kids. Back to back lessons which means I can get a workout in! And I started to read a book on personal finance that makes sense. Go figure, something on personal finance that makes sense to ME! Actually, My Honey has been listening to this guy for awhile now, telling me stories now and then. I finally broke down and started to read his stuff. It's making sense and that scares me, that means it's simple. I gotta say it's encouraging, empowering and, you'll LOVE this part, opening lines of communications about finances that we've not had before.