Friday, February 24, 2012

Swiss Family

zermat, switzerland skiing.  skiing doesn't really get much better than that, does it?  for anyone who knows skiing or has ever THOUGHT they knew skiing, switzerland is definitely a great place to go do so.  beautiful mountains, amazing sunshine, quiet, surrene, unimaginable mounds of snow.  it was one of the most, if not the most, picturesque place i have ever been.  pictures don't do this place justice.

i felt like one of the kids.  i'd never seen so much snow in all my life.  i was signed up for ski school, just like the older 3.  and this was an adventure i'd never had anything like.  yes.  i was feeling like one of the kids.





sunday was a day of full travel.  almost a 2 hour drive to the airport, 2 hours on a plane, 3 hours on a bus, and then 45 minutes on a train up the mountain.  and viola!  we had arrived!

once we'd gotten to our flat, a guy met us there to take us to be fitted for skis and ski boots.  he was young and fresh and had a skater-dude/british accent.  (don't ask me to immitate it but it was really cool!) and this little guy was easy on the eyes too.  he was really fun with the kids and we had a great time getting fitted for our gear.  the kids gear was too cute!  i couldn't believe that in only a few hours time, we were going to slap these small children into ski gear and send them down a mountain....or the fact that I, myself, would be getting into some gear and going down a mountain.  i'm not sure what freaked me out more!

we all headed back to the flat, this little british dude along with us and he showed us back to our "home" for the week.  and then he strapped on an apron and started to go through the pantry to find ingrediants, pots and pans and all sorts of other "cookery" things.....ummm, wait a minute.  you are our cook?  you are going to cook our meals and clean our messes?  oh my stars!  Heath, can we keep him?  


monday-friday was ski school for 4 of our crew of 7.  emma, our nanny was with us on this trip because it would be just torture to try to get echo into skis.  echo is clearly more concerned of when her next meal or nap is going to come.  we don't bother with her system because it works.  but, by golly, the rest of us were getting out there!

Kids formed a line on a rope to walk to the train that takes them up the mountain.


heath was the daddy of the holiday.  he was busy getting us all four padded and ready for our big first day of school.  he took the little ones first and then came back for me.  i must say, it's been a long time since i was this kind of nervous.  i do a lot of things that put me outside of my comfort zone but this was truly outside of my comfort zone.  he dropped me off at a train station and i had to ride up alone to find my instructor.  the train let me out at the top, to which i had to WALK down the snowy path to find my group.  i'm just going to be honest here, i couldn't even walk in the boots, much less, in the ice and snow, bobbing and weaving to stay out of skiers path, carrying awkward skis and too dangerously pointy poles.  this is NOT what responsible mothers do, is it?  and yet, here i was....

that was when i had the brilliant idea to ask a nice gentleman in front of me if he could be so kind as to pick me up and carry me 100 feet to the small ensamble of people that were below the hill.

okay, i didn't outright ask him to carry me, but i pretty much put all my weight into him as he "lifted" me down the hill.  turns out he was an instructor as well and as he handed me off to my instructor he said, "i think this one is yours, you've got your work cut out for you this week."  he smiled and walked off.


really?  i managed to make it all the way up the mountain on my own.  does that count for nothing?


my instructor just glared at me.  gulp.  i think we've gotten off on the wrong foot, sir. just wait until you get to know me and see the dynamic personality that i have....


i started out strong for the first 10 minutes on those slopes.  i mean strong!  full of confidence and excitement as i stood there....and then he told us to put on our skis.....

i won't go into detail about the morning, except to say that i was out on this tiny little bunny slope all day with a bunch of tiny kids zooming past me.  my problem is not that i can't ski. i can ski.  the problem is that i can't stop.  and believe me, that becomes a really big problem after awhile.

by lunch time, i was at the bottom of my class.  there were 8 of us in school and i was the worst.  i have  no sadness over this knowledge.  i have to take the truth and deal with it accordingly.  so as they were all moving on to bigger and better slopes next to my tiny bunny slope, i concentrated extra hard on using my legs, skis, arms, hands, and face to try and stop.

if you've ever wondered whether or not those bright orange fences and ropes keep you from going off a cliff, i can honestly say that, yes, they indeed keep you from death.

by the end of the first day, i was the pupil who could ski the fastest!

but i still hadn't learned to stop.

so the second day of school, what did this determined mama do?  i skipped school.  i went up the lift with my three beautiful children to sip on hot chocolate and watch them ski their little hearts out.  it was a good day.

Hanging with Zane after lunch.
Reese and Maddox learning skills.










by day three, i was back in the game.  we had learned that my boots were fitted incorrectly and they had given me better boots!  i was ready to take on those big bunny slopes!  but when i got there, the instructor took one look at me and began to scold me for skipping.  he told me everyone else was ahead of me and that my job today was "to catch up and catch up fast".

meany.

he sent me down the bunny hill, i managed to stay upright and as i was coming back up the hill he pulls us all together and says, "let's go".  i get looks from all the other students.  clearly, this is not good.

and up the lift we go.  on to THE REAL DEAL SLOPES.

um, i'm sorry sir, i don't yet know how to stop.  i don't even know how to slow down without using my face as the breaks.  can we discuss this?


apparently my punishment for skipping school was to be thrown into the mix.  or thrown off a cliff.  whichever came first.

i managed to figure out how to stop.  when you are given a choice of do or die.  you do!  oh man, you do!  i picked up the pace pretty well, even the instructor was surprised and told me so.  i thought we were getting on pretty well.  we'd done the level blue slope four times and i was feeling really confident.  he had shown me a few moves which i was starting to figure out and then it happened.

i hurt my foot.  at the time i thought i broke it.  seriously.  i felt a hot snap inside my boot as i was making a turn and i just knew that i'd broken my foot.  i couldn't stop the tears.  it was embarrassing to say the least.  i was almost at the bottom of the slope with only one more hill to go when the instructor pulled off next to me.  i told him something was wrong with my foot.

he turned me to face the hill and said, "you're a big girl, you'll be fine".  then he smacked my bottom and sent me sailing down that last hill!

i still can't believe it as i'm typing it.  the good news is, i found out later that day that my foot was not broken after all, it was only "tweaked".  the better news was, that i was dropping out of ski school!

i'm not a total loss when it comes to skiing.  i will give it another shot next year when we all head back to the slopes.  i will be certain that my instructor is not some old french guy named Marcelle.  i can assure you of that.  i will take on those bunny slopes once again and even brave the big ole blue slopes.

and if skiing is not my bag then tobogganing is always an option....but that's for my next blog...

Maddox was so proud of his medal.

Reese was a natural on those slopes!

Would someone give me a snack and a nap!?

Much like his mom, he cried every day at ski school and wanted to go FAST!  Unlike his mom, he hung in there and earned a medal.  Nice work, buddy!

Our gang!

The medalist!  Total champs of the week!
*thank you, heath, for taking this crazy family on a grand adventure.  you were so patient and kind the whole week as you watched us all bust, cry, complain and moan over aches and pains.  (okay, maybe i was the only one moaning over aches and pains).  you hardly had time for any skiing yourself and yet you were so happy to invest your time in each one of us.  you really took one for the team this time.  this was the first of many ski trips for us, i hope.  it only gets better with time....right?


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Kept. Forever.












there is a strange and common occurrence happening around the house that drives me absolutely crazy these days.  makes me nuts.  sends me over the edge at times, causes me to take a step back and breathe before doing the unthinkable....

what is this unthinkable thing, you ask?

...throwing paper away.

paper.

so why would it be difficult to throw paper away?

let me explain:

my children are in the beginning stages of writing.  reese especially loves to write letters to heath and me.  she wants us to "keep them forever".  she draws us pictures, cuts out hearts, shapes, tiny little shreds of paper that she claims is a work of art.  a piece well deserving of being kept and loved, hung up on the wall, refrigerator, for all to see.  every piece.  every scrap.  she does not want to waste a bit.

today, i was cleaning out their rooms, their closets, my desk, the kitchen.  i kept coming across these tiny pieces of paper.  and just as i would be about to toss it, i would think, "how could i toss this?  her tiny hands made it.  she gave it as a gift.  she wants it to be kept.  forever."  i began to put all of these pieces together and pile them up.  several loads are in her closet now for her to sift through, find later, and give to  us again as a "new" creation of hers.  there may be a few that she asks about, "mommy, where is that tiny little piece of paper that I made into a bear, and named it Teddy?  i gave it to you along with the heart that i colored pink and put tiny dots on it..."  oh, i hope she does not have that great of a memory of some of those pieces....

she  will work for long periods of time on these papers.  cutting, coloring, shaping and shifting, folding, holding....oh, paper!  i find tiny little strips in random corners.  sometimes she reminds me of Edward Scissorhands.  she just keeps cutting, paper is flying, she doesn't give a care where the pieces land but, by golly, she thinks EVERY LAST PIECE is special!


i find little notes around the house.

Dear Mommy...


Dear Daddy...


these tiny little strips of paper should be so easy to throw away, but i find myself stopping my cleaning, stopping my scurried moment to read and reread those tiny little words on those tiny little sheets of paper.  my writer.

i have children that can write.  and read.  i say this in disbelief.  little writers.  little readers.  it's remarkable to me.  to watch them grow and change.  these tiny, 4 lb babies have come so far.

and to some, these tiny scraps are just that.  scraps.  scraps that could easily be tossed and never thought of again.  but for me, even if/when i do toss some little masterpiece away, i have a pang of guilt.  sadness.  how could i throw it away!?  deep inside of me though, i know that i can't keep all these things or you would see me, in 10 years, on Hoarders.

being a child of God, it makes me wonder how many times i've handed Him something.  some tiny strip of paper.  maybe it was a piece that i worked really hard on, maybe it was a piece that i picked up from the rubble of paper and handed it to Him as a "gift", hoping that it was enough to please Him for the moment.  how does He see these tiny pieces that i give Him?  i think it all depends on the giver, not necessarily the gift.


was it genuine?  did it matter to me?  was it something i intended for Him?  or did i give Him the leftovers?  because i know that He wouldn't want the leftovers.  but He would certainly take any tiny piece He could get, as long as it was meant for Him.  as long as the intentions were true and heartfelt.

lately, i feel as though i've given Him my tiny pieces that have fallen to the floor.  the leftovers.  i know it's not enough.  i know He wants more.  He wants my masterpieces.  He wants me to put some effort into these tiny "sheets of paper".  He certainly put some effort into me.  into us.  He thinks we are amazing masterpieces.  and we are.  it was easy for Him to "whip us up".  to create each one of us.  but He did it with such precision and love.  such sincerity and joy.  He whipped each one of us up with great intent.  great purpose.

am i serving that purpose?

i'm working on it.  i work on it all the time.  and sometimes i have to stop and be redirected on my purpose.  because i forget.  i get sidetracked.  i get a little lost.

and then i refocus.

and there He is.

my Purpose.

i will continue to wrestle with myself on whether or not to throw these tiny pieces of art away.  i hope that i will continue to find tiny little love letters strewn about the house.  one can never tire of tiny love letters from a child.  especially when it's your own.

however, i want to get better at my own "art".  i don't want to leave tiny little pieces for God.  I want to give Him my best.  my masterpieces.   i'll stumble along at times but i'll always get back on track.

and anyway, sometimes when we stumble, it makes it all the better for when He carries us through.

and rest assured, once we give our masterpieces to him.  once we hand ourselves over to Him.

and we are His.

we will be kept.

forever.