Skating fun

Last week a few of the mom's made a date to get together so their kids could go skating at our rink here in town. They've done this different times over the years, and although my kids have went, because I didn't ever learn to ice skate AND I'm a wimp in the cold AND a homebody that can talk myself out of going ANY where-ANY time for nearly ANY reason, I have never gone along.

I reminded myself that one of my new years notes to myself included the message "If you don't like weekends, figure out how to change things".

That's another story, but anyway it got me out of the house.


Here's 3 of the mom's who brought their kids for an afternoon of fun. Another showed up later after I'd already taken the photo

Since my friend Gina came prepared to skate I decided to be daring, take the plunge and go too.
Now mind you I told you in the earlier post I have never ice skated. I never learned how.

"I wore my mom's ice skates on frozen (mud) puddles (and I DO mean puddles) when I was a kid. We didn't have any place to skate. When I was a teen some of us went a couple times, but I never had skates that fit, and I had bad ankles, (I managed to break both of them at different times) so never learned how to do it although I could generally manage to stand & slowly inch along while wearing them! Besides all that, Nebraska weather is very fickle. We get cold, we get snow, but generally our cold is not cold ENOUGH and does not last LONG ENOUGH to solidly freeze lakes around here for ice skating. Therefor it is rather pointless to even buy ice skates if one is only going to be able to wear them a time or two.
A little over 10 years ago I learned to roller blade, and so I figured that maybe since I could do that, I could also ice skate but never had actually tried it.
I also realized it's been over 8 years since I've roller bladed now! After I learned, I had two more babies, so that activity fell by the wayside!
My kids have went ice skating over the years, but I never have."

Lynisha mentioned she remembered skating in between me & her dad at Cottonmill lake--I honestly cannot even remember that, but Leon does not ice skate at all and I may have skates on, but as I mentioned above, I didn't know how to skate in them!
SO...back at the rink--


Believe me, I started out pretty slow. In fact I circled the whole rink close to the edge, with the ledge in close reach. Yeah, don't even think about making me move over!


Kaela started out using the slider until she got the feel of things again. She's been skating on her own for quite a few years now. I think she first went when she was about 3!






Woohoo! getting braver--see, I've moved out in the open away from the ledge!


Jackson--



It's way better to learn to skate when you're young, closer to the ground, and NOT afraid of looking stupid!













Gina and I kept busy carting little girls around the rink.

They weren't too brave as far as venturing very far from the edge without us nearby!



The whole group of kids (plus Gina) after a fun 2 hours!
I'm hooked. Ready to go anytime again. I just wish it wasn't so pricey!


Newest pictures from Sat 2-13

Kyrie and Trey are here for a week, and when they heard about us going ice skating last week, they wanted to go! Luckily the rink was open for skating this Sat, so we made a date with Gina B and her kids to go. This time we got there a little before starting time, so we got in without waiting in a long line, and when the ice was still nice & smooth!


Kyrie had no hesitation about venturing out on her own! she was so excited to try it out!

Waiting their turn...

Trey was all excited to go, but pretty hesitant about the whole idea of actually going out on the ice. He had to stand & watch for a while




Quite the independent little guy he is! at one point he decided he was hot, so headed back to the entrance where Papa Leon was, removed his coat & hat, thrust it at Papa & headed back out on the ice!



Gina's 3 little girls ventured a bit further than last week.



Gina with her 3 girls--I missed a picture of J-boy totally!

Kara & Kaela


Kyrie & Trey had no problem navigating on their own!

We let Trey try the skates first, and I took him around the rink on a "ride", then we took them off & he just slid around in his shoes, happy as can be!















Me with the "great amazing N"-- Yes Nathan, I said that totally for your benefit!

"Look at me"!


After wearing his shoes for quite some time, he decided he wanted to try the skates again, so again headed off by himself to find Papa & request help putting them on. This time he was quite ready to try venturing on the ice with them, and actually did quite well for being on the ice for the first time, and barely 3 years old!

Take a picture for mom.....




Our group was smaller this time, but no less fun. We had a great afternoon of skating.
Come join us next time!

P.S. I was feeling pretty good about the 2 hour work out I had and all the hundreds (HAHA!!) of calories I'd burned until I ate that awesome Jimmy Johns sandwich for supper tonight....
See, there's no point of me exercising anyway. It just makes me hungry!

Life--

Gets in the way of me updating my blog.

Saturday I went Ice skating for the first time! Pictures & post coming soon.

Wedding day memories

**Edit note--I finally got the album to post. It's still not exactly right, and I'm leaving the individual pages on here also so they'll still be here after I remove the completed album.**

January 22 was our 33rd anniversary. I have very few pictures of our wedding day, and what I have are very poor quality. I've never had much inspiration to scrapbook them, so they've sat for all these years. Since we've had two of our kids get married this last month, and plenty of pictures to take, edit & scrapbook along with the fact that the digital scrapbooking bug has bit me pretty good; I spent the last two days scrapbooking our wedding photos.
I'm really bummed because the scrap-blog site I use has not been working right, and I could not get the whole book to open like it should, so I've finally given up and downloaded the pages & posted them individual. Because of the amount of pages, I'm posting them small. To see them better you can click on each page to enlarge them.

2009 52 weeks challenge scrapbook project

One of my projects was to make a scrapbook from the pictures I used in Carin's "mom's in the photo" challenge from last year.
I took a few liberties changing things around a bit, and also added a couple additional pages.
I want to thank Carin again for a wonderful and very fun challenge, I honestly didn't think I could do it. In looking back on my photos including me, I went quite a bit over the "required" one a week!

(If you have a hard time seeing the pages, or would like a closer look, here's a link)
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=1543447

Take 6

...........OR MORE,

And you still don't get a good one. All I wanted was a picture with us and all 5 of our grandkids together.
Unfortunately for me, this was only my priority, no one elses.

Sometimes it's really not the nicest thing to have so many others who carry cameras and like to take pictures. It means scenarios like this:

Me: I need to make sure I have my camera with me.
Them: Don't bother mom, everyone has theirs & there will be lots of pictures.

Right. Um huh! I have issues with that one, because the truth is, people take pictures of what THEY want, WHEN they want it. Then when the occasion is all over if I gave in and counted on someone else taking all the pictures, then the conversation goes something like this:

Me: So where are pictures of the "_____"
Them: oh, I didn't take any of that!
Or: Why would you want pictures of it?
Or: I didn't think that mattered
Or: They weren't around, so I figured we could get pictures later (we all know later dosen't happen...)
Or: I figured someone else was getting pictures of that.
Or: ____________

"whine, whine..."

O.K. You get the idea.
Of course the other problem with not taking pictures yourself is that you have to wait on the other people to share. Then not only am I impatiently waiting, but I have to deal with others who are impatiently waiting also & can't figure out why "I" don't have any to share yet.

"whine, whine..."

Obviously I'm not going to put a big picture of these on my wall--
















Then again...on second thought It's my life. Why not? You don't get much more real than this!
My life isn't Perfect and neither are the pictures!

Happy New Year

Dear Blog readers,

I'm being lazy.

The wedding is over

It was beautiful

The cheesecake was absolutely awesome

All our kids were home except Laura

No one fought

(at least in my hearing)

The kids all left again and arrived back to their homes safely

We've had several wonderful and lazy days with Jana here

My husband has a new job

It's Monday

Meshayla's off being Nanny for Jeanne for 2 weeks while she works off her notice to quit
and stay home with baby girl

Little girls don't go back to school until tomorrow

It's a NEW YEAR
and I'm happy as can be to see the old one end.
My resolution is to make 2010 the very best year of my life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all. May it be a wonderful one for you!

New Year, A New Beginning

The old year ends, a new begins
With pages clean and new;
And what is written on each page
Will now depend on you.

You can't relive the year that's past,
Erasing every wrong;
For once a year - or day - is spent,
It is forever gone.

But don't give up in dark despair
If you have failed some test;
Seek God's forgiveness and resolve
Henceforth to do your best.

Resolve each precious day to do
Things good and kind and pure;
Though days and years may pass away,
These things shall still endure.

You know not where your path may lead
Nor what's beyond the hill;
But know that God walks at your side,
If you will do His will.

All things are possible with God,
Though days be bright or dim;
So do your best and know that you
Can leave the rest to Him.

Wedding day!

• The big day is here, ready or not. (I'm sure they are!)
• woke up with a migraine and am trying to keep myself on my feet.
• I am SO thankful for my family and good friends who help me in occasions like this!
• A bit of ironing to do.
• cakes to decorate.
• There is plenty else to do this morning, but my crew is going to be on the job, and I'm leaving that to them.
• I'll post a few pictures tonight
• Happy New Years eve
• Happy Happy New Year to everyone. I'm looking forward to 2010!!