Never thought a twisted ankle would make me laugh

[I finally uploaded Christmas pictures. You can see them all at this seperate page.]

I seriously thought my husband was crazy. He wanted to take Erica ice skating last Friday. The girl is only 3!!! Okay, well she's almost 4 and is VERY tall and active for her age. But still...

Truth be told, I was just plain old scared. I'd only gone once before, and that was with Andrew. I fell A LOT and it was quite embarrassing. I was afraid to embarrass myself again, and I knew that since Andrew would have to help Erica, he wouldn't be able to help me out.

But I went anyway. I couldn't stand the thought of missing out on seeing my daughter doing something new and exciting.

We actually went into Lancaster, to the baseball stadium for "Lancaster Barn Stormers." Lovely name, huh? Anyway, during the winter they put up an outdoor skating rink. Its cheaper than other places. And luckily that night it wasn't too cold. I think it was around 34 degrees. Cold, but not in the teens like we had been having.

Erica was so excited. She just wanted to walk out on the rink by herself! Andrew went first, to warm up. I actually had to grab Erica from going out alone, she was so impatient. Then Andrew took her around once. It was a LONG once-around. They were so slow, b/c she realized it was "fun" to fall down.

Then they got me; I was so scared! Thank goodness it wasn't too crowded, so I spent that first time around grabbing onto the wall of the rink. Such a wimp, I know. But then after Erica and I rested so Andrew could skate alone, we all went out together. Meaning, no more wall for me!!! I was so so so so so so scared! You have no idea. And not just scared for myself; scared that I would fall and hurt Erica.

But it was amazing! I got the hang of it rather quickly. Of course, I'm still no pro. Not at all. And more amazingly, Erica did a fantastic job. Sure, she kept falling on purpose... but between Andrew and me, she never fell hard. Andrew kept giving her chances to skate alone, without holding our hands. I can't tell you how much that freaked me out! I just imagined my child breaking a bone. By the end, she was able to go quite a long distance by herself.

I'm so proud of my little girl! I really am.

Anyway, I didn't fall the entire time. I was so proud of myself. BUT WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT... at the very end, right as we were exiting the rink for the last time, I slipped and fell!!! Good grief! I still have no clue how I managed to do that. Cuz I think I was actually holding onto the railing at that point. But no, I slipped and got myself all cold and wet on the ice. But I just laughed. I laughed and laughed... I just found it hillarious that I was good the WHOLE TIME, up until the very end.

I twisted my ankle when I fell. Yeah, yeah, I know that's b/c my skates weren't laced tight enough. Its my own silly fault, of course. But I wasn't really upset about it. I still think its funny.

SOOO... you may be wondering: Where are the pictures? Yeah, totally stinks. I took my "old" camera b/c I didn't want to break the "new" one. Plus the "old" one was small enough to fit in my coat pocket. But as soon as we got there, I realized that the batteries were dead. Stinks, I know. And what stinks more is that when we left, I found the "new" camera in the car!!! Ugh.

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I know I'm a terrible blogger. I take such huge breaks between posts. But I want to remedy that, really I do. Blogging used to make me so happy. I know, I know, that sounds lame. But its true. So it would probably lift my spirits some to get back into this.

I originally started cutting back b/c of my book. Well, I'm at about 200 pages. WooHoo! Still so much more to go, though. I had taken a big break from that too, but I'm back on track now. I spent a few days totally editing it all, so now I'm up to speed and ready to continue. I just need to figure how to manage my time better in order to fit everything in!