It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh yes, it snowed yesterday! Enough to break us in gently for the shoveling season. I was in Des Moines Christmas shopping all day yesterday with some of my buddies, and I was the designated driver for the trip home. Not so much because of the boozing (although if you need a place to eat in Des Moines, check out Django. So delicious and the Parisian Sidecars...oh my!!), but because I am the one who will drive in the snow. Many years in Wisconsin with a rear-wheel drive Toyota van made me an expert. (Oh, how fondly I think back on all those sand bags I used to pile in the back...and the patented Rock N Roll technique to dislodge your car when you're stuck.)

At any rate, it was not fun. I-80 in the snow...try not to do that. On a positive note, we only saw one car off the road.

In my absence, Mark and the kiddles put up the tree and decorated much of it. I was sorry not to be there, but between M3's swim meet taking up most of Saturday and the aforementioned shopping trip, I was hardly home this weekend! We will decorate more tonight. Yay!

Swim meet update: M3 had a good meet. She tried the 100m Individual Medley for the first time and did great! The IM is cool because they do a lap of all four strokes. It's so neat to see those little ones out there doing the butterfly! If I tried that, I would surely drown.

In sporting news...

A couple of fourth grade dads formed a girls' AAU basketball team, and M3 asked to join! I was surprised; basketball is not big around our house (sorry, Dad. Although we do like to go watch the college women's team sometimes.) She had her first practice last night and said she had fun! So I hope it's just lots of fun for her, and she can get some skillz. Plus it's a nice mixed group of girls; different from her usual buds. They will practice twice a week and only have a few "tournaments." I guess that's when they actually play other teams? I am pretty clueless.

I was hesitant, because M3 already has swim practice three nights a week plus meets on Saturdays. Now she'll add bball on Wednesdays and Sundays. That's a sport (obligation) every day except Friday. Sheesh. But swimming is done at the end of January. And I'm glad she's interested in a team sport. So I guess I'll deal with the schlepping.

Thanksgiving

November was a rough month, so it was lovely to end it on a happy note: spending time with my whole family in KC. Thanksgiving dinner was awesome. Really, what's not to love about Thanksgiving? No gift pressure, just good food and hangin' with the ones you love (OK, sometimes there is turkey pressure involved). Friday I scratched the yoga itch with a great class at The Yoga Gallery. It's so fun to have people to go to class with! And a little post-yoga coffee klatch? Sigh...I wish we could do that regularly, girls! Jenn and I have do our coffee klatches (yay!), but they aren't generally after a juicy yoga class that neither of us had to teach! We also took the kids to see Fantastic Mr. Fox (a Wes Anderson movie for kids?! Suh-weet!).

We took advantage of the kick-a** 70 degree weather on Saturday to take some family pictures. And they came out pretty well!! Not too many closed eyes! (Whoops, I guess Mark's eyes are closed in this one...but you can't really tell, can you?)
Carmelle double-fisting it. Party on, Carmelle!
All four cousins. Their personalities are so evident already. Four amazing little people.
I'm thankful every day for these four and for the rest of my family. I am so very lucky.

The roar of the crowd...

M3 had her first swim meet last Saturday. I was glad when she decided to swim again this year. She was on the fence before the season started, and we weren't interested in forcing her to sign up or anything. But I was happy when she decided to sign up, because I know she loves to swim. Plus it's not only a valuable skill to possess, it's a great way to burn off energy in the winter!
So at the meet, M3 anchored the freestyle relay, and it turned into the most exciting race of the day!! The other team was ahead, but the third leg of M3's team made up a good amount of time. When M3 jumped in, she caught up so fast that she touched the wall only hundredths of a second behind the other team. The crowd was yelling so loudly that my eardrums were literally vibrating! I asked M3 if she could hear the crowd in the pool, and she said she could a little. So not only did her team almost beat the opposing team, who were mostly girls in the older part of her age bracket, but they also beat their own other relay team, which was also made up of more older girls as well. Anyway, I was proud she made such a great effort, so bear with my bragging just a bit. :-)

Her affinity for swimming is such a mystery to me. Yesterday, she came to the pool to goof around while M4 had a lesson. She informed me that she wanted to swim an 800 and would I count her laps? Well, she did 36 laps, 900 meters. I had to look up how long that is...more than half a mile! Up next, the English Channel!

Star Wars Yoga

I needed a giggle... Here is the full series at Matthew Latkiewicz's blog. Thanks, Jenn, for sending this link to me! It made my day.

Ch ch ch ch changes...

(This is not me...just one of my favorite online inspirations for Step class.) (Also, can you believe I did that?)

It will be strange not teaching. I love teaching! And I think I am good at it. But I needed a break, and I was fed up with the management of our studio. I just needed to step away. I do hope I will go back to teaching movement in some way in the future, whether that is teaching ballet or yoga or maybe fitness again. BUT it will need to be in a place: 1) where I have no investment in the place and can just teach and leave or, 2) where I have more ownership of the place.

I'm a bit worried about falling off the face of the earth into the isolation of being "home" again full-time. But thanks to the support of Mark, my parents, my dear friend and colleague Jenn, my fellow like-minded teachers at the studio, and my wonderful, wonderful students, I think the rough transition will be a bit easier.

I'm looking forward to being FREE! I'll have more time and energy for the kids, the house, other pursuits (knitting anyone?). Or as my friend Helen said to me, "Now that you don't have to teach all those classes, maybe you can REALLY get into good shape!"

Lunch

The kids are taking their lunch to school more often these days, which is just fine with me. M3's favorite sandwich: cheese and lettuce. M4's: formerly PB & honey, now PB & J.

On the subject of food, I read about yet another E. coli illness outbreak from hamburger, and I'm just grateful that we can easily buy beef from a local farmer. Particularly with hamburger, I feel better knowing it all came from just one cow, and I know where that cow lived (and died, thank you kind cow). Plus one of our local CSAs, Grinnell Heritage Farm, is having a winter share for the first time! Yippee!! I don't think I'm a food Nazi, but I feel better if I'm attempting to keep some of the crap out of my family's diet, uh...E. coli in particular.