Skiing and Cows

Odd title, I know. But I have to tell you about both! This weekend T and I went to Shanty Creek skiing with some friends. We had a great time - and I only fell twice! :) I don't ski very fast, so I don't fall very hard. I did my first night skiing when we got there Friday night. I took a wrong turn on the first hill and went on one that was a bit too challenging for me. I pretty much screamed the whole way down. But I didn't fall. :) After that terrifying experience, I stayed on my nice, slow green runs. My favorite up there is called 'Chicken's Choice'. I am not ashamed of the fact that I'm a big chicken. There were lots of people on the slopes Saturday - including many little kids taking lessons. That always freaks me out that I'm going to catch an edge and go careening into a group of innocent little people. I successfully maneuvered around them. Then, there was this very large group from a rehabilitation center who took people with disabilities skiing. Basically, the person would sit in this chair with a ski on the bottom, and someone would ski them down. And there would be about 10 other people skiing around them with bright orange vests. Well, I started going down my Chicken's Choice just as the person and their entourage went, and so I just stayed clear of them. Until one of the orange vest people thought I was getting too close and she threw her arms out and yelled 'STAY BACK!' Hello, yes, I'm not a very good skiier, but I do know how to stay out of people's way. Like I'm going to go gunning for the disabled person. Friggin eh. Anyway, it turned out to be a beautiful weekend. Except for driving home Sunday. Icky. T drove- I slept.

Okay, onto the cow adventure. I was coming home from school last night, when I hit the dirt part of our road, I noticed 6 very large black cows jumping a fence and start running down my road. Um... what the hell do I do now?!? I had never been in that situation before. So, I went to the person's house, but no one came to the door. I thought they might want to know that their cattle were hoofing it toward town. So I followed them for a bit and called T to look out the front window. He said "Are you driving a herd of cattle home?" Yep, I'm a cowgirl - I drive 'em around with my Explorer. So T said he'd call the police and told me to back up and go around the block to come at them from the other way so they'd stop running. Did I mention that we live out in BFE and rarely do cars drive by? So I went around the block and was able to stop them just past our house. As I tried to push them to go the other way, they decided to keep running, not down the road anymore, but up our neighbor's driveway. At least they weren't in the road anymore. What a surprise to anyone who would drive down the road! T went back to the house where the cows lived and was able to find the guy who owned the cows. He said the guy was standing out in his driveway, scratching his head wondered what happened to his black angus. So T ended up getting our quad and helping the guy round up the cows out of our neighbor's field and back down to their house. We never know what goofy things are going to happen out in the country.

More Vacation!

T and I are leaving Friday for an extended weekend up north. We're finally going skiing!! It's been 2 years since the last time we hit the slopes. Last year, the weather never seemed to cooperate with the weekends that we could go, so we had a year off. We're not big-time skiers. Usually once or twice a winter we'll ski for a weekend. Having the slopes so far away, and crazy lives, it makes it difficult to find the time/energy/moo-lah. I have packed all kinds of reading material and comfy clothes to hang out when not outside. I'm good for a few hours a day and then I'm ready to warm up and give my legs a break. I like to hit the smaller hills- I'm not much of a daredevil. I just love the shush-shush of going down the hill. Not a big thrill-seeker here. We're going up with some friends that we haven't gotten together with in a long time. They are leaving their son (who is 18 months) for the first time with grandma and grandpa for a whole weekend. He'll be fine- I just hope mom and dad aren't too preoccupied with thoughts of him instead of being able to enjoy themselves. Hopefully I'll have some pics from the hill the next time I post. Have a terrific weekend everyone! :)

I'm back!

After I typed that title, I realized that many of you probably didn't even know that I had been gone, due to my lack of posts recently. And I will apologize for the negative tone my last few entries have had. It's just been kinda crappy around here. Anyhoo, I went to Florida for the weekend! This was the first time that T had been down to visit Grandma in Daytona. It was sooooo great to wear shorts and t-shirts everyday. It was on the cool side, but hey, it's winter there too! When we left Lansing, it was 10 degrees, when we landed at 9pm, it was 60. Much better!!! Of the 3 days we were there, it was generally in the low 70's. It was great to show T around town and go beachside. Although, we never were able to go down to stay at the beach. Ugh! That's the best part!!! There is absolutely nothing like being at the ocean - it's probably my most favorite place in the world. We ate down there at our favorite restaurant right on the pier yesterday (we're on the pier in this pic). Wow, it doesn't seem like it was just yesterday!! We also went inland a bit to Blue Spring to see the manatees on Sunday. There were gators there too! Very cool. Anyway, it was great to get away from the drama and trauma around here.

This is T and Grandma before we left Monday. They're standing by the plant that T's family sent for Grandpa's funeral last March. It was what we would call a house plant in Michigan - in Florida everything grows crazy fast outside.

Pissy

I am very pissy today. Namely, because there is school. Yes, I am quite pissed because I had to get up and come to school this morning when I had many things already planned for my snow day. But I'm mostly pissed because my superintendent wants to push her own agenda instead of keeping our students' safety at the top of her priority list. I had a lovely day on Monday. I got a lot of things done at home and I was looking forward to just one more day!!! It was especially nice given the piece-of-crap week I had last week. When I drove in this morning, it was negative 9. NEGATIVE NINE! On the news, Terri DeBoer the weather whore said that exposed skin can freeze in 3 minutes. At my school, all the kids walk. A lot of their parents do not have transportation - and if they do, usually it's not very dependable, especially in sub-zero temperatures. If I was a parent, I wouldn't send my kid to school if they had to walk! Right now, I have 3 kids gone. I thought I'd have a lot more than that. Ugh. PISSY!!!