Skiing!

We got a little crazy yesterday, took the day off and went skiing.  It was good in so many ways!  It was a nice break in the routine, the air was amazingly clean and fresh, we spent quality time together as a family, it was great exercise.....I could go on and on.  The best part for me, though, was being able to keep up with everybody.  We were there all day (10 to 4) and my hundred extra pounds didn't keep me from tearing up the slopes the whole time.  It was a big ego boost and I feel much better about the whole crackers and frosting business :)

Here I am looking like a pro.

Here's Chloe without a care in the world.

Graeme, demonstrating proper racing technique.  He wants to be on the ski patrol when he grows up because then he can go on whatever trail he wants.  Also, he'll get paid to ski.  More power to him, I say.

Kai crashed into some girl on his last run of the day so we didn't get any pictures of him on skis, but he sure had a fun time on this snow hill next to the lodge.

Here's Brian showing off his fabulous rental skis.  Maybe when we win the lottery we'll buy our own skis.  And ski resort.  Hey, I can dream can't I?

Yesterday was just what I needed.  I think doctors should start prescribing ski days instead of anti-depressants.  How awesome would that be?

Today

I went to the gym this morning instead of sitting on my bed eating graham crackers and frosting.

Before you congratulate me, you need to know that it was the hardest thing I've ever done and I almost didn't go.  I've also been continuing to fight the cracker/frosting urge all day.  Why is this still so hard?  Every day I wake up with this raging hunger/need for crappy food that I have to battle all day.  Even when I don't give in, I go to bed feeling defeated because I don't look any different and my clothes don't fit any differently and I don't feel any different.  Well, that's not entirely true; I feel a little more defeated and a little closer to giving up.

I've been doing this for more than a year!  When will my weakness become strength?

So freakin' cold!

It was cold yesterday.  Really cold.  Then the wind blew all night.  Here's what we woke up to (this is my kitchen window):

Yep, that's ice on the window.  The INSIDE of the window.

A LOT of ice.

And here's a picture of our actual thermometer taken this morning (actually at 8:12 am) AFTER the sun came up to prove that I'm not just imagining things.

Of course, that's just the air temperature.  The wind chill was 15 to 20 degrees colder than that.  Needless to say, I refused to let Chloe and the neighbor boy walk to the bus stop at 6:30am but it was so ridiculously cold that the stupid van wouldn't start.  The car started, but the gremlin who lives in the car killed the blower so INSIDE the car wasn't significantly warmer than OUTSIDE the car and it's a miracle I didn't hit some poor slob on my way to and from the bus stop since the windows were all frozen over.  I'm also a little surprised that I managed to escape frostbite since my hands were so cold when I got home that they hurt.

The thing that REALLY chaps my hide is the fact that it's this UNBELIEVABLY cold and we HAVE NO SNOW.  The rest of the country is LITERALLY BURIED and I have NAKED GRASS and a stupid FROZEN VAN BATTERY!  Deep breaths.  Six more weeks of winter?  Just shoot me now!