I have been a Brownie leader for the past year and a half. Emma started in a Brownie troop at the beginning of last year. It wasn’t going the way I was hoping and so a bunch of us decided to leave the troop and start our own. I decided to become the leader. It has been fun and I think all the girls enjoy being in my troop.

This last month at our service unit meeting, the head of our service unit asked if any of us had been Brownies. Quite a few had, but none in the room could top me. I was a Brownie here in Park City, and my leader is still a leader and was at our meeting! She still has a scrapbook filled with photos from my troop. They also asked for photos of us as Brownies. As soon as she asked, I knew that I had a great photo of myself at my flying up ceremony. I just had to figure out where it was. I dug out my baby book and I found it!

I think this was at the end of third grade. I was probably about 9, so I am guessing this was about 1981. I can still remember so much about this day. I know that it was at Parley’s Park Elementary School. I remember that they had a little bridge that we walked across. I was excited to be “flying up” but disappointed that there wouldn’t be a Girl Scout troop for me to join. I REALLY wanted to sell cookies. In those days Brownies were not allowed to sell cookies, so I never got to do that.

Anyway, I have always loved this photo and thought I would share it with all of you.

I love this song. I can’t get it out of my head lately. Even my kids have been singing it Today in the car Nora asked me to turn on the “Oh, Oh, Oh song.” How cute is that?

Last winter I got a flyer about a free skate ski clinic in January. I really wanted to try it. But January came and went, and I never did it. Then the same happened with February, March, and April and I never did make it out there.

This year I made it a goal to take a lesson and try it. Today I accomplished that goal and I took a group lesson with White Pine Touring. I knew it was going to be hard, so at least I went into it expecting that.

We started out just working on the skating part without poles. We skated back and forth practicing the push and glide. Once we got that down (Ha!) then we added the poles. I actually picked up the technique fairly quickly, but the balance and timing took more practice. We just kept going back and forth. Thankfully, we got to take a few breaks. I was exhausted about half way through the lesson. I could feel the sweat just dripping off me! But I was really enjoying it.

Once the lesson was over I thought I would try out the 3K track to practice what I had learned. I knew that I would be tired, but I wanted to try it anyway. It went even better than I expected. But I couldn’t believe how sore my arms were. They felt like wet noodles by the time I was done.

I am happy that I got out there and tried it. It is definitely something that I want to keep doing. There is a women’s group lesson starting on Tuesday for the next few weeks. I just might sign up for it.

Only three more days until I can enjoy this:

And this:

With all this cold weather we have been having, I really can’t wait!!

I made it another year! I don’t think my posts were as interesting as other years, but at least I was able to complete my third year of NaBloPoMo. Here’s to another great year!

We spent most of Thanksgiving day with Scott’s family. His brother Mike was visiting from Arizona with his wife Maren and their cute baby Lucy. It is always fun to spend time with them. I really love Maren. She is such a nice person and so much fun to be around. And I love her sweet little Lucy.

We thought about getting up early and going shopping for Black Friday, but we decided not to. We really didn’t need anything this year so we decided that we needed the sleep more

We ended up going to Salt Lake City and having lunch with 3 of Scott’s siblings and his dad. It has been almost a year since we have seen Reva, and it was nice to see him again. We went to Siegfried’s, one of my favorite lunch places. It was the third time in a week I was there! I did a photo shoot in the alley behind there, so I needed to check it out first, and then we had to get hot chocolate to warm up after the shoot.

It was a nice Thanksgiving and we are all really enjoying having a few days to just hang out and spend time together!

It seems like the whole town is sick. If they don’t have H1N1 they have some kind of a cold or cough. I have been avoiding it—-until last night.

Before bed I felt so achy and my nose was stuffed. I got in bed with a cup of hot cider and a hot rice bag. I took some Motrin to help with the body aches and went to bed early.

I feel a little bit better today, but still tired and achy. Luckily I still don’t have a fever, so I am hoping it is just a cold.

Keep your fingers crossed for me

I spent the night out on the town last night with 4 of my good friends.

Last weekend at Vicky’s birthday party they all started discussing my birthday and what we were going to do to celebrate. There was talk about getting a hotel room downtown and going out to a piano bar. I don’t know how we pulled it off, but all 5 of us were able to get away without the kids and spend a night out.

We planned on going to a piano bar, but found out that Sunday night was karaoke night. I NEVER do karaoke, but I do enjoy watching others make fools of themselves We decided to go anyway…the options are limited on a Sunday night in Salt Lake City. Before that we went out to the Bayou for dinner. I LOVE the food there. I always get the same thing–sweet potato fries and gumbo with crawfish– and I was looking forward to it all week. I was not disappointed.

After dinner we headed over to The Tavernacle for karaoke. We got there and the place was empty, but it soon filled up. But after a bit we noticed we were the only women in the bar. Apparently it was gay night at The Tavernacle! All of the karaoke was very serious. Many of the people singing looked like they were going to cry and most of them could sing. The best kind of karaoke is when everyone is bad and having a great time. But Yori and Tiffany sang quite a few songs and did it the right way. They were silly and having a fun time while singing. We lasted there until about midnight and that was about the moms could handle.

We headed back to our hotel and all climbed into bed. We chatted for a bit and then fell asleep. It was nice company and fun just to get away for the night.

Look at what we had in our backyard this morning:

I grabbed the point and shoot that was on the kitchen counter and started taking some photos. We went downstairs and there was the mama moose looking in our window! We were literally 12 inches from her. Luckily we were separated by a window.

There was a mama and her 2 babies. We have seen them a few times this fall. This time there was a male with them. He wouldn’t leave the poor mama alone. She kept grunting at him and running away.

We all watched them for at least 20 minutes. Finally the mama had enough of the male and she ran away. The babies left right behind her.

What a nice morning surprise!

I got to enjoy a wonderful morning at the Glenwild Spa with my mom today! They were having a ladies spa event and my mom invited me to go. It worked out perfectly. I went right after I dropped the kids off at school. Scott was home today–for the first time in weeks–and he went to pick up Nora so I could stay just a little bit longer.

We sat in the hot tub and steam room, then I had a great foot massage. At least I think it was great, I slept through most of it. My favorite part was the make up after. There was a rep there from Colorscience and she was doing make up. I loved it! I love make up anyway, but I am a sucker for products that do more than one thing. All of their products are good for you skin and anti-aging too. I ended up with a whole bag of new things. I had a great time opening them all up and playing with them when I got home.

It was nice to just spend time relaxing. I have been so busy lately! Tonight I am quitting early and going to bed. I can’t wait to wear all my new make up tomorrow!