On a Roll!

We had so many hours of talking on our drive out to SC. We talked about anything and everything you can think of and the kids really, really , really took advantage of our undivided attention. On one particular moment in my car I had the girls answering questions. In part because I wanted to know, and in part because if someone didn't keep talking I would have fallen asleep. I asked them questions in regards to our family life like "what is something you want to leave behind in Colorado?", "What is something you'd like to keep the same?","What is something you are going to do better?", "What is something you're going to try?" and so many others. They had some really off the wall answers sometimes and at other times they shocked me at their ingenuity. With each question I asked them, they would ask me the same ones and I had fun answering them because this was a "new start" for all of us!

To the question "What is something you are going to try and do better?" my answer was roller blade. If you know me at all, you know that I often fall up stairs, I have been known to trip on nothing and wind up on the floor, I went to a step surprise class one evening at the health club and the only surprise was by the other participants realizing how uncoordinated a person (yours truly) can be! In a nutshell, I am not one you'd want running in front of you in a race let alone on wheels! On the other hand, Emma is a rock star roller blader!! She has no fear about trying new things and often when she decides to try something she has it mastered in very few attempts. Emma doesn't like the roller blades with the brakes on the back either because she "t-stops" and so she will only wear street hockey blades. Emma can be going 90 miles an hour in one direction and with the sound of her name she whirls around and is heading back another direction. As she roller blades, like she has rockets on the back of her heels, if something gets in her way she doesn't go around it, no, no, that would lose the dramatic effect, she just jumps over it! The girl could make it big in roller derby I tell you! She has the personality and aggressiveness to pull it off without a hitch. So, when I answered the girls with the fact that I wanted to be better at rollerblading I swear to you the reaction I got was the same reaction I would have gotten had I said I was giving them all up for adoption! It was like a horrified chorus of "mom, really? oh no! seriously? Are you sure? why that? do you know how hard that is?" They really had me defeated before I even put the roller blades on, which made me want to prove to the little boogers even more that if I have the super hero power to pop them out of my womb, I can roller blade for god's sake! ...well...maybe!

The driving force of my answer was two fold. You see, I bought a pair of roller blades two years ago along with a jogging stroller. The blades for exercise, the jogging stroller to help me stop while on the roller blades! I used the contraption once and it really did work out pretty amazingly. I looked like a great mom with 5 kids on bikes or blades, one in the jogger and me on roller blades myself. The only problem is that after I told Kayela "if mommy starts to yell "stop! stop!" you need to insert your foot into the front tire of the jogger so we don't go crashing into anything OK honey?" she had some fear about getting back into the darn thing! When Tait came along he wasn't heavy enough if I needed to lean on the handle bars while having a vulture death grip on the brake so, short story long, I never attempted to go out again! I was determined (on that whim in the car) that I was going to roller blade! Emma asked me how exactly I was going to attempt this near impossible feat and I told her "that's simple, I'm going to practice!" but in my mind I was thinking "that's right, practice! ......Just as soon as our insurance cards come in the mail!".

This past weekend was my time to shine! Not only did I want to roller blade for the sheer enjoyment of it, but I also want to find something I really like to do that will get my heart rate up and my butt to disappear. So, while the kids were out playing and Josh was jumping on the trampoline I decided it was my moment. I got out those darn roller blades and after dusting them off I put the things on my feet and stood up in the driveway! That's where I stood for a good ten minutes too! No movement and a lot of "if you bump into me you are so busted!" being shouted at several of my children. I finally decided to move my feet and when I didn't fall I moved them more and more until I was scooting around the driveway. The kids were all having races down the driveway, down the alley, into the street, around the crab dock circle, back up the alley and into the driveway while I managed up and down the driveway. Josh was supporting my attempts with video camera in hand, I could have killed him and he caught many not so loving moments of ours on tape in that 5 minutes of video. I got better and better and finally was going down the alley when Mihya fell in the street and I zoomed on my little purple roller blades out to grab her! I didn't fall and was so proud of myself. Then we went up and down the sidewalks and again, no falls from me! I was totally psyched!

Sunday morning Josh went on a bike ride so I told the kids we were going to go get some sunshine and head towards the pool. Their is a path the whole way so I figured I would roller blade and they could use any form of transport they choose as long as they could keep up with the group. The boys decided to ride bikes, Kayela chose scooter and the rest of us were on roller blades. We set out on our path, Emma in the lead and me bringing up the rear. All was going really well and I managed to be making it on and off the sidewalks just fine, which was a worry of mine. The path doesn't have any big hills down either, which was another worry of mine and so I was looking like I might know how to roller blade. At one point though I stepped off the sidewalk onto the street and almost wiped out. I had my hands going in big circles and I let out a little yelp when Emma in no time flat was at my side. I didn't actually fall but I did cause a lot of stares from other patrons on the path and Emma found great humor in that. While scooting along, I announced to her that although I am managing not to fall she looks a bit more natural and graceful than I do, so that is my next goal. Right at that moment Graysie fell at the bottom of the hill, followed by Kayela and there I went zooming down the hill realizing I have not yet tried to stop!! Complete panic swept across my face in which Emma found great humor and started laughing so hard she was swerving in front of me all over the path and losing control! It was like the clowns in the circus playing out right before my eyes and all that I can think about is "I'm not going to fall!". At one point Emma had her arms flailing trying to regain her balance just inches from me and I did what any good mother would do at that moment and I shoved her with every ounce of muscle I had in me off the path and into the trees! I seriously, totally shoved her butt right off the path, but I did not fall! Once our circus routine was over we laughed until we were crying over the fact that any other mother would have probably taken a fall for her child and yet here I was shoving mine out of the way so I didn't end up hurt! Memories were made, fun was had!

Once we got back home we were still laughing and talking of our near death experience and I said "well, I knew I didn't know how to stop and I knew I didn't know how to turn so I had to shove you out of the way or it was going to get pretty ugly!" With that Emma stopped laughing and stared into my eyes intently before saying "mom, those are pretty important things to know when roller blading. It's like going skiing and not knowing how to turn or stop!" I told her maybe I need some more practice.