To Ski Or Not To Ski
Before this weekend, I had only been skiing once. In December of 2003, I accompanied the hubs’ family on their annual ski trip with friends. We made the extremely long drive from north Arkansas to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. That trip was a lot of firsts for me: first time crossing the entire state of Kansas (& maybe even first time in KS – I can’t remember), first time seeing a tumbleweed, first time seeing the Rockies (I thought the terrain looked like we were in LOTR), first time riding in a car through a white-out, first time seeing legitimate amounts of snow, and, of course, first time skiing. We had prepared me with lots of warm gear, but I remember still being cold. The first day & a half I went to ski school while the rest of the group (about 9 or so of them) hit the slopes like pros. That second half day Sam’s dad somehow found the patience to teach me how to go from the pie-wedge to the parallel turn, so I could get out there with the rest of them. I remember being on my bum a lot. I survived though, and the next day I was out with the group. By the end of the week, I had been on a blue-black (scariest experience of my life possibly) and had tried doing little jumps with the rest of them to the amusement of all. I wish I could show you some pictures from this trip, but they have fallen into the unknown abyss that swallowed all of Sam’s pictures before he married me. They must be somewhere, but no one knows where. Now, all of his pictures are uploaded, categorized, backed-up, and facebooked for all to see. Anyway, it was a wonderful first experience.
Fast-forward to the present time: In the meantime, Sam has been on a handful of ski trips with friends in college, and I have not even been anywhere that cold & high again, much less skiing. We decide that we are going to ski again since we live less than an hour from some decent slopes. We purchase all new gear at REI (because any remnants of gear we may still have are on their merry way to England) and decide to hit the mountain ASAP, since we spent all that money. Hence, this Saturday, we dropped the pup off and drove up to Santa Fe as early as we could manage in the morning. It’s an easy drive of less than an hour but getting to the site adds about 30 minutes. We headed straight up to the ski area, geared up, bought lift tickets, and outfitted in rental skis for our day on the mountain. Sam was quite shocked at how little I remembered, like how to put on ski boots, so I’m not sure why he thought running me up the biggest lift first thing was the best idea. At the point of exiting the lift, I had only nudged my way up line thus far on my skis, so, naturally, when I have to slide down the steep little knoll that clears you from the lift exit, I fall … and hard! It was so bad even that the lift operator said, “Woah! Are you ok?” He may have stopped the lift, but I was too busy dragging myself off the ground to notice. In the meantime, Sam has glided his way far off the the left to peruse the trail map, not minding his wife who has no idea what she is doing. I somehow made my way over to him, and he is baffled by my lack of muscle memory and knowledge on how to safely and properly ski. I somehow make it down the death hill that you have to go down to get to any of the trails (who thought that was a good idea?!) but proceed to fall a handful of more times all the way down the green trail we take down the mountain. Also, I don’t really find it easy to get back up after falling. It is very disheartening. On our way down, we find the smaller lift with more appropriate sized runs for the novice I am, and Sam finds some of his patience to re-teach me how to ski. After that first trip down the mountain, I have a good enough grip on myself to not fall anymore, except for one more time exiting the quad lift. Does the time that I knocked Sam completely over coming off the lift count? By the end of about 5hours, we had skied most of the green & blue runs they had open (part of the mountain is not yet open), had lunch at the ski-in grill, and were completely exhausted.
Yep, lookin’ like a pro… from the shoulders up. I was as graceful as a newborn giraffe if you attached wooden sticks to its feet and slid it down a mountain. Anyway, we drove back into town & checked into our B&B, the Pueblo Bonito. The nice lady upgraded our room since a bigger one was available. The old adobe complex-made B&B was cute & southwest-y, complete with super-thick walls, pretty tiling, and a fireplace.
We walked to dinner at Andiamo for some Italian that honestly could have been awful, but I was so hungry I would never have known. I’m pretty sure it was yummy though. Then, we briskly made our way to the Second Street Brewery at the Railyard through the chill, so Sam could sample some local brews. By 7, yes, 7, I was so worn-out I was practically delirious. The hubs lit the fire, and we snuggled in front of it on the futon, sleeping a bit, before retiring to bed and sleeping about 10 hours. The next a.m., we explored Santa Fe a smidge (as much as one can at 9am on a Sunday), then made our way home to await the time we could pick up the sweet pup.
All-in-all, a pretty great trip. I’ve got some lift ticket souvenirs, a superbly sore backside, and one visible bruise on my right knee where I think it hit one of my skis during a tumble. I’ll let you know how it goes the next time we make it up a mountain. : )
What’s Your Favorite Christmas Song?
There are so many fun songs that we only get to listen to at Christmas time, well, I mean, without getting our sanity questioned. Which one is your favorite? It is a really tough choice. Can you narrow down even a top 5 or 10? I may not be able to, but I’m going to share some favorites with you. Let’s start with the classics:
Classic get in the spirit song: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas – Johnny Mathis. Doesn’t it just make you think of strolling through a pristine wintery scene with perhaps a fur muff?
Classic Christmas party jam: Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee. Is it bad that with searching for this video I have for the first time known that the singer was a woman? I’m not sure if I thought it was a man or just didn’t think about it, but it took me by surprise.
Classic funsy: Christmas Don’t Be Late – The Chipmunks. Who doesn’t love a little chipmunks?
Classic good-feeling jam: Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys. Christmas comes this time each year.
Classic downer Christmas: Blue Christmas – Elvis. My dad likes to sing this in his Elvis voice, & I provided the “oo-oos.” He always ends it with “Thank ya, Priscilla.” : )
Now for some newer offerings:
Best Christmas peppy pop song: All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey. Just can’t resist it.
Best remake: Carol of the Bells – The Bird And The Bee. This was a freebee on iTunes. Don’t you love when those turn out to be favs?!
Best bowl you over belter: O Holy Night – Celine Dion. I love this song. Lots of people have done it well, but Celine’s version almost feels like a classic of its own.
Best head-banger: Deck the Halls – Reliant K. Love this whole album.
Best brand-spanking-new: Very Merry Christmas – Dave Barnes. As I told you my sister is up on all the hip new shizz, she showed me this last weekend, and it is fabulous.
I know this barely begins to scratch the surface. There are so many great Christmas songs & carols. My mom had a pile of CDs that we played every year: The Martins (an excellent Christian Christmas CD), Garth Brooks, Elvis, Celine, The Beach Boys, Michael W. Smith, Point of Grace, Mannheim Steamroller. Back in the day, my sister had the Rosie Christmas CD, and I thought that was pretty fun, I mean, she sang with Elmo! Add to that some Wow Christmases, Harry Connick, Jr., James Taylor, and more recently Glee, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (a hubs’ fav), She & Him… I could just keep going!
For now, why don’t you share your favorites with us, please?
Preparedness
It was apparently not a strong-point for me this past weekend. Not only was I stranded by the weather, which was admittedly worse than expected, but I was also under-clothed with an unprepared vehicle as well. Geez! In order to help keep you from the same mistakes, I researched some winter tips on different topics. So instead of this:
You’ll be more like this:
Check out more of Glamour mag’s winter outfit ideas.
Click the pic for Elle’s winter skin care tips, and here are some DIY winter skin care ideas from care2.com.
Keep that pooch safe & warm with tips from the AKC. Jack will be getting some winter gear very soon!
Last, but not least, prep that car! You have no idea how annoying frozen up wiper fluid can be when you are traveling – extremely annoying. Fill it up with undiluted, cold weather appropriate fluid asap, as well as checking the other important points in the article. We certainly don’t want you breaking down or having your car look like that ↑!
To recap, dress warmly (& waterproofedly), save your skin, protect your pooch, & prep that car! Oh & soapbox: wash your hands! That is the best way to prevent illness. Remember especially to wash them before touching your own face, mouth, nose, or food – keep those cold & flu bugs out.
Have a safe winter, lovelies!
Pass It On
I am also challenged. Challenged to be kind, to live out kindness. Isn’t God’s timing clever? I wrote to Midhun, our Compassion child, a week or two ago that he & I could go through the attributes of love in 1Corinthians 13 together and focus on acting out one attribute for a few weeks at a time. We, of course, started with patience. Well, guess what’s next! Love is patient; love is Kind. Woah! I just realized this, and I got chills.
So, why don’t you join me? Not just for this week, but for this Christmas season and beyond, to live out kindness to others. I think it could be catching…
Check This Out: One Fine Day’s Gift Guide Galore
One Fine Day: Gift Guide Galore.
My dear friend, Smash (yes, that is a nickname) who runs the fabulously polished “The Creative” blog under the blogroll is doing a give-away. How cool is that?! She’s like the hip & thoughtful version of Oprah. Oprah just gives away anything & everything she can get people to sponsor, but Smash has hand-picked a holiday-appropriate & useful lovely for us to gawk at & potentially win. Head-on over, & check it out! If you don’t fall in love & subscribe yourself, then I’ll be baffled because it is a bright spot in my daily routine.
Anywho, besides being fabulous, Smash also gave me an easy out for today because it’s the 10hr drive back home day & I wasn’t planning on blogging. So enjoy this and think of me back on the road. Hope for good weather & maybe a few more tumbleweeds!
Regard My Person Immediately
When visiting the hub’s family during Thanksgiving and showing them my favorites of internet entertainment, my sister-in-law said I should provide a service that keeps people updated on internet fads. My response was “umm, I have a blog?” Did that count? Well, today it will. Here is one of the stars in my internet sky: Karmin
The duo includes Amy & Nick, who are engaged, and covers a wide variety of songs as well as putting out some original works. I first saw them when my sister, who is always up on the coolest stuff, showed me their youtube cover of Look At Me Now by Chris Brown.
It’s awesome! That little girl is gettin’ it. Their covers included Super Bass by Nicki Minaj, Whip My Hair by Willow Smith, We R Who We R by Ke$ha & Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars among many, many others. They make the quirkiest videos to match their covers. I highly recommend setting aside at least 30minutes to peruse them.
I bought their album, Karmin Covers, Vol. 1 on iTunes. It’s their fault that I run around singing look at me now, I’m getting paper. I look forward to seeing their originals, but for now, I’m off to do Christmas shopping. Enjoy your Saturday!
Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’
This title could be in regards to myself or my topic of blog today.
I’ve been rolling again. This weekend, I am in Fort Worth, TX visiting my lovely sister, and my mom drove down from Arkansas. Girls weekend! When we get together, it’s cray-cray. Today, we joined Kay for her half-day of work; I did some filing, and Mom’s & I fluffed a fake Christmas tree. One of those things I am good at, and it doesn’t involve faux Christmas cheer. I have a pet peeve about fake trees, but that is not today’s topic. Then, we ate Panera & took Kay to her root canal – boo! Just saying, try to avoid one of those.
Anywho, today’s topic comes from my experiences yesterday. The wind was pretty intense around town before I hit the road yesterday. I even saw a tumbleweed on a road in the middle of town. And That is what we are talking about today. Tumbleweeds! Don’t close your browser just yet – my best stories are yet to come. During my 10hour drive through NM & TX, mostly on the NM side, the wind was atrocious! It kept buffeting the car around, and you could see the dirt layer in the air. And the tumbleweeds! I saw hundreds of tumbleweeds yesterday – big ones, little ones, round ones, already hit by someone else ones – hundreds! At one point, I literally drove through a herd of tumbleweeds being blown across the road. A Herd…of at least 20! I found someone’s blog who had captured the magnitude of tumbleweedage I experienced:
Imagine that, blowing at you/across the road in intervals for hours of driving. It was unsettling and kind of fun and interesting. I only had two previous experiences with tumblewi. First, during the drive across Kansas headed to Colorado with my hubs (boyfriend at the time) and his family. I remember them being huge; however, it was dark, and without a previous point of reference, I wouldn’t trust my teenage perceptions. Next, in the Rio, we captured a wild tumbleweed and made him our pet:
This is Terrence! He was our friend until our sweet puppy, Jackson – seen here sniffing Terrence tentatively, slowly chewed him to bits. We call Jack a vegetarian because he enjoys ingesting plant matter.
So, that was the high-point of my drive – tumbleweeds. It was a great 10hours. Hitting tumbleweeds with your car on the highway is pretty fun though because they explode into a million twigs. That’s probably why I had to pull out quite a collection of twiggery from the grill. It made me think of the road runner incident:
But that is definitely a story for another time. Have fun & be safe on this crazy-weathered weekend. Fort Worth looked like we were living in a cloud, and the hubs is getting snow! Thanks for staying tuned in despite the…interesting choice of topic. You must be my true friends : )
welcometotheworldofkim 