:::Up In the Air, Flat On the Ice:::

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on my last post!


Yesterday I arrived in Texas at 8:30 am. That means that my flight from DC left at 6:00 am, which means that I had to be at the airport at 5:00 am, which means that my cab had to come at 4:40 am. Mark my words -- I will never take a 6:00 am flight again. Amen.

The movie shown during the flight was 'Up In the Air.' It. was. fantastic. I might even call it the best movie that I've ever seen. The acting from the entire cast was superb. The writing was wonderful, realistic, and well-paced, and the directing was just perfect. It changed my life, which I was not expecting, and you might not expect based on the plot of the movie. I still can't figure out exactly why the film impacted me so much, but it did and I'm so glad I could see an edited version of it. I only wish it wasn't rated R in real life.


Last night we went to Scott's first 'hockey' lesson. Really, it's just a hockey skating class since they have to pass three prerequisite classes before they even attempt playing hockey. Watching his beginner class skate was one of the funniest things that I have ever witnessed. The kids were dropping like lead zeppelins all over the place.

Scott was struggling a bit because he's never been on the ice before, so he got to use a special PVC walker to help him along the way.

That only upped the comedic factor a million fold. You should have seen him shuffling along the ice with his little helmet on. My stomach muscles were sore from laughing so much.

He was having a great time with it and thought it was hilarious every time he crashed and burned.

All of the coaching staff is from Australia (are they related?), and are so nice. The head hockey coach called the boys 'men' each time he addressed the group. 'Come on, men! Get up!' 'Come on, men! We can do it!'

Towards the end of the lesson the assistant coach took The Little Master's walker away and tried to make him skate on his own. I think he picked up on the fact that the Master was developing a strong affinity for his cool toy and wasn't seeing it as a temporary learning tool.

More comedy ensued. This is Buddy 'skating' towards the wall on his own.

While we were watching Scott's class there were a few ice skating classes running on the other side of the rink. Sophie said she wanted to learn how to ice skate one day, so my sister took her over to the information desk to learn more about future classes.

The next time I saw them Sophie was lacing up to join a class that was also meeting for the first time that week. She was over the moon that her dream had been fulfilled so quickly.

She had her fair share of falls as well, but Sophie is one of those kids who pulls on your heart strings all of the time, so her spills were more Tiny Tim sad and less Lucille Ball funny.

Molly was surprisingly well-behaved the entire time. Thank heavens.

When she wasn't running around the bleachers she was petitioning to be held so she could see her siblings.

Gold star for sticking out an hour of practice, Momma.