I immediately regret this decision

Fear is a funny thing. It gets a bad rap, but when you think about it, it accompanies all the really great moments in our lives. I know it seems counterintuitive, but rather than strategically avoiding situations cloaked in fear, we should indeed be seeking them. I did this--I sought out adrenaline spiking activities--for two weeks, and became a bit of a junkie real quick. I started simple, nothing too crazy, and went snorkeling with some sharks. I know what you are thinking, and the answer is yes, I have this much free time. I coerced Tucker into joining, which at the time she wasn't pleased about, but ultimately thanked me for enriching her life. We were freaking out in the moments leading up to it, and even in the moments after we were in the water with the giant man eaters, but once you accept that death is probable, you find you become shockingly liberated. We were in the water for about 45 minutes with the 10 or so sharks, sting-rays, turtles and other freakishly large fish. Seriously. I don't know if these fish compete in athletics for their schools (see what I did there), but if they do, these were the Shaquilles of each. At the end of our fear factor thrill, we were issued certificates demonstrating the completion of our impressive experience. Those bad boys went straight to the fridge when Tucker and I got home.

Next stop on the adrenaline train was a little cliff diving. One of my new Australian friends actually suggested this and when opportunity knocks, well, you answer my friends. And so, on a lovely Thursday afternoon I met Taryn at the train station and we headed to "Blackies", a popular cliff line near Perth just along the river. I was really looking forward to this and wasn't scared at all. That moment was fleeting, unfortunately, and as we approached the rocky cliff I suddenly felt as though I might throw up my intestines. Pretty graphic image, but that's what good writers do, we put you in the moment, and in that moment it felt like projectile vomiting was a virtual certainty. As with any moment involving the upchuck reflexes, witnesses are always ideal, so I was rather pleased when I saw that there were two guys fishing while we were preparing to jump. Amused and eager to watch, the guys became instrumental in our jumping as photographers. Anyways, back to the throwing up, it didn't happen, luckily, but that doesn't mean I didn't find alternative methods of embarrassing myself. Like screaming. Man can I scream. It's frightening, honestly, and typically scares me more than I was originally scared. The worst part of the jump, hands down, was the piercing temperature of the water. It truly takes your breath away as well as your ability to swim without flailing your arms dramatically about. I understand it's winter or whatever, but someone should do something about it. Unacceptable.

After successfully jumping off Blackies, I decided I wanted to be scared like that again. Cliff diving on steroids essentially, so the natural progression lead me to skydiving. Fifteen minutes later I was booked for the following week, though this time I found myself less persuasive in convincing Tucks (or anyone else) to join me; however, Tucker wouldn't miss the opportunity to be there for what could be my final morning. The days leading up to the dive I actively avoided thinking about the jump. My check-in time on Thursday was 8:30am in York, about 2 hours away. Eesh. That was both the longest and quietest car ride I've ever experienced. Neither of us knew how to say our potential good-byes, and both of us surely couldn't be bothered to figure that out at 6am. I think the insanity of what I was about to do truly hit us as we turned onto the dodgy dirt road leading to perhaps the tiniest and presumably hazardous plane you'll ever see. I immediately regretted this decision.
I wanted to back out, but that would mean losing my 300$ and I couldn't live with that. What can I say, I was raised to appreciate the dollar more than my life. So I boarded the death trap, begrudgingly, and thought of all the things I'd miss. I had skipped breakfast that morning (admittedly, I was worried the jump would strip me of my ability to control my bowels) so most of my thoughts drifted to my favorite meals: In n Out burger, Sushi, Chipotle, breakfast foods, leftover stuffed-crust pizza, Thanksgiving, Haribo candy, all other candy, the large green olives found at bars, Girl Scout Samoas, Magic Mountain funnel cake, and cherries. The basics really. Things happened really quickly once we had reached 14,000ft. In addition to myself, there were 3 other paying jumpers and 2 who, I am guessing, were jumping to save us in case our parachutes didn't work. I wasn't reassured by this for some reason. I was last. As I scooted down the bench towards the false door on the plane I was grateful I was both dehydrated and starving. Strapped to my master jumper in what can only be described as an adult-bjorn, my legs dangled from the plane along with my remaining hope for survival. And then it happened: he leaned forward and we were plummeting toward the ground, somewhere between flying and falling, and I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with excitement. We were free falling for a minute before the parachute deployed, and then for four minutes we just floated among the clouds. It's unlike anything else. It was the longest and shortest 5 minutes of my life and I can't wait to do it again someday.

There is something to be said for finishing strong and in our final four games of regular season we did just that. Sure, it wasn't always pretty, but we worked through it and came up with 4 wins heading into our bye weekend and playoffs. The final games of the league will be played this weekend, so I don't know yet who we will face first round or even what position we finish in (2nd or 3rd for sure). So I will briefly recap the last games instead. The Cockburn game was close for a bit, but we controlled most of the game and as I mentioned, having Darcee back was fantastic. Half time turned into a 45 minute delay thanks to their Super Bowlesque lighting malfunction. I stunk but Tucker was awesome and saved us. The Mandurah game was ugly. We won by 30 or so, but nothing about it was pretty so I'll spare you. Bunbury was certainly the most challenging of the games. Bunbury beat my team last year for the championship, but earlier this season we killed them by 49 at their place. We suspected this game would be more competitive, especially since we were missing Darcee this time. We were down 5 at half and at some point in the 4th it was a double digit deficit. Fortunately, we rallied together and got stops and converted on offense and managed to get within 2. With under a minute, our point guard hit a deep 3 to give us the lead which we kept. It is always a bit more rewarding beating Bunbury than the other teams. The next night we travelled to Lakeside for our final game. I was especially keen to win since it was my birthday and no one wants to be a loser on their birthday. We opened the game on a 13-0 run and never looked back. It was a really fun way to end season.

This is the first year I've celebrated my birthday outside the country. I assumed that would mean it would be a very unremarkable one since I'd be away from my closest friends and family, but I was happily mistaken. Tucker, my lovely teammate and roomie decided to throw a little surprise party for me at her place on Sunday afternoon. The surprise was successfully alarming and the party was equally fun! There was even cake and presents like birthdays in America--who knew? It was a great day and another happy reminder of how blessed I am. I missed my mama, who always takes me to sushi dinner with family, but it was still a great time.

Although I pretend to not be, I am still a tourist of this fine country, and so I still do touristy things once in a while. As I approach my final month in Australia, I am doing my best to ensure I have seen all this place has to offer (at least Perth area where I live). All the locals repeatedly informed me that a visit to Rottnest Island for the day was a must. It's only a 30-minute ferry ride away and it's meant to be remarkable. Taryn, my mate that jumped Blackies with me, was the lucky volunteer who gave me the tour. We snorkeled, biked and played with Quokkas and it was nothing short of brilliant. All that is left on my list of Aussie adventures is attending a footy game, Australian Football Rules, and thanks to our bye this weekend, I will be doing just that on Saturday.

Some people have to work.

I’ve been negligent. And I don’t have an excuse for not writing—actually, that’s a lie, I have heaps of excuses, but I’ll spare you…mostly because they are pretty pedestrian and you deserve better. I find myself spectacularly overwhelmed at the moment with the amount of information I have to cover (a months worth), so if this post becomes progressively unimpressive and vapid, well, tough crap. Some people have to work alright, and just because I don’t happen to be one of those people, doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to use that argument. Annnnyways, here come the goods, so stay sharp.

Last I left you, we were about to play Perry Lakes and East Perth in a double-header following my first lost since I got out here. My summary of the Perry Lakes game is simple—we got out-worked. Our effort was atrocious, and that’s all I have to say about that. We faced East Perth the following night at home and decided we could be bothered to work hard this game and won by a fair margin. We headed to Kalamunda the following Saturday night and despite an embarrassing first quarter that finished with us down 27-7, we got our poop in a group and tied the game up by half. We dominated the next 20 minutes and won by 20, giving Kalamunda their first home loss of the season. We followed up a great win at Kalamunda with an appalling loss to Willetton at home. I reckon Willetton is the best team we’ve played, but I still think we should beat them. We either play very well or just shockingly poor, it's interesting. And by interesting I mean completely maddening. Long story short, we turned the ball over and didn’t defend—not a winning combination. After the disappointing loss to Willetton, I had to do my least favorite activity: feign cheerfulness. It’s frustrating and I am revolting at it, but it’s part of the gig I suppose. It was my teammates birthday party following our game and it was costume themed, so there was really no way out of this one since I’d spent very little time and money on my costume already. Still, I couldn’t let either go to waste, so feign I did. We were meant to dress up as something starting with the initial of your name—so “s” for me. I considered “single white female” or “sunburnt” before landing on Sandy from Grease. Throw on some black leather and red lipstick and bingo-bango, Sandy. I don’t recall why I thought this would be a good idea, cause it wasn’t, but people seemed to recognize who I was, so yay me. Despite myself, I did end up having some fun, though I made sure the fun was limited, after all, we did just lose.

We had another double-header this past weekend against Perth and Wanneroo. Perth is not a very talented team but they kept it close until the 4^th quarter. Fortunately we were able to string a little scoring run together and get the win at home. First place Wanneroo was the following night and we now sat just behind them in second. We beat them at home by 26 the first time around, but I knew this game would be much closer. For a half the game was much closer, in fact, it was tied after 20 minutes. It stopped being a close game after that. I don’t know if it was fatigue or lack of focus, but we stopped executing on both ends and ended up losing by double digits. Eesh. So after not losing for 9 games, we have now lost 4 of our last 7. 

I’ve been at my job for about 5-6 weeks now, and I am still not allowed in the kitchen. Of course I can be in the kitchen, as an observer or distraction (semantics), but not as a cook or something productive. Look, I don’t blame them, but it is mildly insulting. Surely I can be helpful somehow! Last Friday, however, I was working with one of our chefs, Lisa, and she decided to throw me a bone: skinning the carrots. This was it, I’d finally been called up, I thought. Sure, a 5-year old could do this job, but that wasn’t important. This was my moment to show them I was just as capable, if not more, than a 5-year old, so I needed to bring my A-game. I was going to be the best carrot skinner ever. Obviously this little anecdote wouldn’t have made my blog if that last statement came to fruition. Somewhere in the midst of all my excitement (it was palpable) I must have stopped listening, so instead of skinning the carrots I went ahead and just peeled the carrots… every last one. Too keen, Sam. There’s really no coming back from that either, in terms of a quick fix. Lisa wasn't amused at all. As she approached me, I peered up at her, proudly, anticipating her approval. Instead I got a disgusted if not confused gaze and an escort back to the register.  Looks like I’ll be working there for a bit longer. It’s better this way, not everyone can hack it in the big leagues.

It hasn’t been all work though for me this past month. I’ve been rock climbing (indoor, but still, feel free to be impressed), golfing and dog walking! The golfing turned out to be a bit of an adventure since we decided to rent carts AND let Sami drive one... eventually. I went with a few friends, all of them named Ryan, which was an irritating coincidence, and played a round of 18 for only the 3^rd time in my life I’d guess. We rented carts though, as I mentioned, so I wasn’t too worried. As a matter of fact, being the speedster that I am, I was really excited about potentially driving. I rode with Ryan (haha, obviously) and he took the wheel first—I was fine with this because I knew my moment would come. Well, two holes in and I still hadn't touched the gas pedal; I was starting to worry that maybe Ryan was a bit of a sexist and I’d never drive. I decided to take things into my own hands and 2 holes later I usurped Ryan as the driver while he was searching for his ball in the rough. Boom. I started out slowly, easing my way into things, following the paths and avoiding people. It wasn’t till the 8^th hole that things got disastrous. Ryan hopped out to retrieve his ball and I was feeling entirely too confident behind the wheel when I overlooked a giant sandpit and dove right into it. Just like that, I was the clichéd, incompetent female driver, stuck in a sand ditch. And I kid you not, the 3 Ryans had to dig the cart out for about 10 minutes before it would move. To be clear, I didn't drive into a bunker next to the green in plain sight, no no. I'm not some sort of idiot. This guy came out of nowhere and was suspiciously located alongside the fairway. Needless to say, I was stripped of my driving privileges and viciously mocked. Good times.

We play this weekend at Cockburn and, finally, with our stud post Darcee who has been gone playing internationally for Australia nearly the whole time I've been here. Must be nice. Anyways, she will undeniably be a huge boost for us so I am excited to have her back. We only have 4 games or so until playoffs start, which is both exciting and hard to believe.

Happy Independence Day everybody! If my memory serves, and it usually doesn’t so fair warning, this is my first 4^th of July outside America. I am incredibly bummed to be missing it, but I know I can count on all of you to do some extra celebrating for me. Go USA!

Wanna get away?

Let's play a game. It might be one of my favorite games ever and it goes something like this: I say a word, any word at all, and you say the first thing that comes to your mind upon hearing my word. For instance, I might say "Sami" and you would say "awesome" or "comedian" or "pale". Surely you understand. The word is "Slovakia"--ready, go! You know, it strikes me now that the best part of this game is actually hearing the responses others come up with, and I can't do that. This game kinda sucks now. Seriously though, I played this game with myself earlier and came up with jack for Slovakia. It's adjacent to Czech Republic. I'm out--that's literally all I got. One point for geography class. The point of this little game was to share with you that I signed with a team in Slovakia last week, so that is where I will be moving to after my season in Australia finishes. Suppose I coulda lead with that, but that would have been too easy, and that's not how I roll.

Ideally, I would have really liked to stay in Australia and live here for the year, but, after a lifetime of trying, I've learned you can't always go where you aren't wanted. Slovakia should be cool though and it will certainly be different from anywhere I have lived before. But that's not for a while, so we can table that topic for now.

Ever seen those clever Southwest airlines commercials featuring various terrifyingly awkward scenarios wherein someone ultimately ends up desperate to "get away" quickly? I actually quite enjoyed those until I found myself living in one this weekend and now they just seem insensitive. After having a bye last weekend, we played this Friday at home against Stirling. They ran a box and 1 throughout the game on me and intentionally fouled me quite hard twice-- safe to say they were keen to making life difficult for me. I reckon it worked a bit, but we still scored 51 points in the first half, so it wasn't a real game changer. I was involved in a few game changing moments though at the end that had me relating to the Southwest commercials. With about 15 seconds left in the game, I hit a 3 to tie the game up. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be my most memorable game changing moment. The next play down, I over-helped and my player slipped and made a wide open lay-up to give them the lead. Wanna get away? Sure, but it gets worse, so hold that plane for me. My teammate inbounded the ball to me, and all I can say is I had a complete brain meltdown because I dribbled to half court and chucked a hail-mary shot up... with 11 seconds left on the clock. Not 1, but 11. Yup. Wanna get away? Please God, yes. Anywhere, anywhere at all would've been fine. I've literally never been so desperate to be anywhere other than where I was in that moment, standing at half court, the entire gym shocked and rather unimpressed with my complete lack of awareness. Someone put me out of my misery. Needless to say, we lost this game, the first one since I've been here, dropping us from 1st to 3rd place. I had 23 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists, though if you're counting those last two plays, I guess I really had 7 assists. Fortunately we have a double-header this weekend so we can get back on track.

Saturday night our club hosted a "Quiz Night" to raise some money for the organization and just to bring everyone together for some general merriment. Honestly, I was not pumped about this event, mostly cause I was still a bit embarrassed about our game the previous night, but the evening turned out to be brilliant. There were something like 10 rounds of questions with a wide range of categories and the team who answered the most correctly won, naturally. Obviously my team won and I can honestly say that I was considerably instrumental in our success for once. It ended up being a great night with great people and the perfect distraction from our loss. We kept the good times rolling at Tucker's place afterward and then went out in Rockingham, as well, to the one club our town has. It wasn't the classiest place I'd been to, but it had music and dancing so I was satisfied.

Last week when we had our bye, I also had the week off from work which opened up my afternoons. On Wednesday I went with one of my Aussie mates from the men's team, Ryan, to Penguin Island to visit with some penguins. The island is only a 5 minute ferry ride away and it's absolutely breath-taking. However, we didn't see one penguin on the island while walking around (I am told this is common), though we did see an alarming number of seagulls. Ick. Thankfully, the island has a "learning center" that houses like 10 penguins to ensure visitors do see at least one penguin before leaving. We watched them swim and waddle and eat inside the center and it was everything I hoped it would be. I was disappointed I couldn't feed one, but it was still pretty awesome seeing them up close.

Today was a big day for me. Since day one of arriving in Australia, my goals have been three-fold: win a championship (obvi), feed kangaroos, and meet a koala. Well friends, I accomplished two of the three today thanks to my teammate Tucks. She took me to Peel Zoo this afternoon where I got to hang out with Hamish, the most regal koala you've ever seen, annnnnd I got to feed lots of kangas. It was pure, unadulterated magic. It was a bit overwhelming at first knowing I was about to live out two of my dreams. Once I overcame this, I just went absolutely nuts running around petting and feeding the animals and taking shameless selfies with them. I even saw a dingo!! I did my best to not say it, but resistance was futile and I proudly yelled, "a dingo ate my baby!" Good times. It was a magnificent afternoon that I'd love to repeat... every single day.

With two games this weekend and two games next weekend, hopefully we can bounce back from the loss and string together some good wins again as we get closer to playoffs. Of course I will keep you posted, but until then, here are some more photos from my zoo experience today. You didn't ask for them, but you'd be fools to not appreciate these little gems. So, you're welcome.

Room for improvement.

Two more weeks, two more games and two more wins. Neat. Wannerroo was sitting in first place when we played them two weeks ago, just one game ahead of us, so we went ahead and took their spot, beating them by 26 points. I had 25 points, 9 boards, 4 assists and an alarming 6 turnovers. Despite the final score, the game was in fact close for the first 3 quarters. With a few exceptions, that has been our method all season--outlasting teams in the 4th quarter. This weekend we played Kalamundo at home, a top 4 team that disrupts teams with their in-your-face pressure defense and up-tempo offense. We certainly struggled early on, missing heaps of wide open lay-ups and just as many outside shots. We led by 6 at half and it was still close going into the 4th quarter before we went on our run, winning by double digits. We missed early and often, but when it counted, we made big shots. I had 33 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals. I made 7 3's for the first time ever, but it took me 17 attempts. You read that right. That is just woeful. Normally taking 17 shots total in a game is a lot, but 17 3's? Someone sit her down!

We have the bye this week and then we start up play for the second half of regular season games the following Friday night. We have been playing pretty well overall, but we certainly have room for improvement if we want to continue winning the second time around. Since we don't have a game this weekend though, we had a little team bonding action Monday night at my teammates place instead of training. Everyone made food and brought games. I know I don't have to tell you what I made--say it with me: deviled eggs. Bingo. In addition to bringing food, there was a dress code--onesies. I have a little experience in this department so I felt pretty confident. And just to clarify, it appears I am flipping the bird in the team picture, but I assure you there is another finger up too, it's just blending in with my hair...or the really white wall.

The Eurobasket website announced their "all-league" teams and awards earlier this week for the German leagues since the championship is over, and it turns out they picked me for stuff. Somehow I was named guard of the year, and was 1st team all-league and all-imports. I don't know who votes for this--I envision a panel of middle-aged men that don't actually watch our games but instead cast their votes based solely on arbitrary facts, like the color of our shoes. I wore purple shoes so naturally I carried that vote--ipso-facto--guard of the year. Thanks guys. Incidentally, I got new shoes recently and they are neon green and a sharp blue, sooooo, my future looks bright.

The more I work at the store, the more I've discovered what years of high school math proved to be impossible--I am rather good with numbers. I think I just lacked the proper arena to truly nurture my gift before. But now, surrounded by numbers and calculating customers' change, complicated math equations are nothing. Your total is $5.50 and you give me $10? $4.50 change, boom. Not impressed? How about the total is $25.75 and the customer pays with $50, but then, last minute tries to bamboozle you by adding in the .75 cents. I can do that change without even counting on my fingers. Yeah... I know. I would have dominated calculus if it was more of this and less of the, well, the calculus.

I have also been able to tap into my undeniable comedic wit at work, as I was put in charge of our street sign in front of the store. This is a real task, I assure you. The space is limited and obviously it needs to be relative to our services, but I accepted the challenge. I included a picture of the verbiage I came up with, and I gotta tell you, I am pretty proud. So here is some background: we sell Rosie's tasty chicken at the store which a lot of people come in for, and most the workers are ladies so... look, if you aren't laughing now, you suck.

So you know how a lot of talents and gifts can be inherited or "run in the genes"? Well, I am here to tell you that golf is not one of those talents. My entire family is good at golf. My grandpa coached at my high school and can still shoot a 78. My dad has been winning pro am's and tournaments since he was a kid and my brother has always had a natural knack for it too. Even my mom--God bless her nonathletic soul--has game. Maybe the golf genes can only be given to the first born. Seems legit. Don't get me wrong, when I don't whiff the ball, I hit the crap out of it, usually in the general vicinity of the hole. From there though, it's all down hill. I played the back 9 last week at this lovely golf course nearby, and while it's been awhile since I've actually golfed, I don't remember being this bad. It took me one hole to decide I was not going to be scoring my round, but it doesn't take a genius to know that losing multiple balls and 4 four-putting every time adds up. As a general rule for my life, I don't like doing things I am really bad at, but the beauty of this is, I am pretty great at most things. It's a burden really. Still, it was a beautiful day and I had a good time so I will be back to swinging away soon. Putting it mildly, Sam's got room for improvement. I reckon my biggest hurdle will be finding someone willing to play with me again.

I got a new guitar for myself this week. Pretty happy about it. The last guitar I played was Morty's in Germany and you could barely call it playing then, but it's fun and I've got a huge void to fill in my life now that I am caught up on breaking bad. I have more time and lots of sadness, and let's face it, those are the two prerequisites for playing a guitar. Win-win.

I've got two words for you.

Whenever I can, I try to pass along any nuggets of wisdom or pieces of advice that I feel are pressing. But, being that I am not wise and I tend to not listen to the advice of others, I've never had anything to pass along...TILL NOW! So listen up, cause I've got two words for you: breaking bad. Don't confuse this brief moment of sincerity for my typically sarcastic, glib nature. If you haven't seen this show, your life isn't as awesome as it could be. Really, you owe it to yourself to be better--I want this for you and so should you. I started watching it just shortly after getting to Australia and you've seen how great my life is these days. Coincidence? I think not.

Alright, now that that is out of the way, who is ready for a riddle? What's rusty, debilitated and way past it's prime? Kudos if you said the Celtics, but I was actually referring to my new "previously-owned" vehicle. He's a bit of a fixer-upper, but he sure does have character. What he doesn't have is curb appeal...or power windows...or power locks. Or a cd player. But he's got a trunk that won't quit and goes 0-20 in like 15 seconds flat. Least we know I won't be getting any speeding tickets with this bad boy (challenge accepted?). He's a bit camera shy presently, but I'll post some pictures next time.


We've won our last two games, extending our win streak to 7. I expect ESPN will be calling soon--just 27 more wins and we'll break the Laker's record for longest win streak. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch or anything, but I think we can all agree that the first 7 wins are the hardest, so it's basically smooth sailing from here. Neither of the games were very close, but the wins moved us into 2nd place. I had 26 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 5 assists in one game and the same stats the next game, except I scored 25 points. After our game in Bunburry, our furthest opponent--a mere hour and a half away--both our team and the men's team decided to stay and go out in the city after our games.

The city is actually shockingly banal, but I guess that wasn't really the point. It was a rather fun team activity and served as a platform for me to showcase my sparkling personality as I got to know everyone better. It is stunning to me that no matter where I go to play, I always meet someone who played with someone I know or played with. Basketball is so unique in that regard. We play tomorrow against the first place team. I don't need to tell you how excited I am about this game, but I will so that I have something to write about. I am very excited about this game. Good talk.

I've been a working girl (in its less venereal terms) for 3 weeks now, and I can't be 100% sure since this is purely based on my deplorable narcissism, but I think in congruence with my employment at the store, there has been a coinciding increase in sales and customer influx. I don't have "facts" or "numbers" or anything, but I did earn a respectable B in my college Econ class and it seems this is a classic case of supply and demand. Obviously I am in demand, in case that wasn't clear. Economics isn't for everyone. I'll probably bring that up with management, maybe even include like a bar graph? I pretty much run the store these days--I'm a rather quick learner. Like, this one time, my boss told me not to let anyone rob us. Seems basic, right? Well it's not, don't be fooled. Still, I'm no moron so it only took me being robbed once to understand why we don't want that to happen. Quick learner. Can you say upper-management?

Even with my part time job, I find myself with heaps of free time and so I decided to start working out with a personal trainer. My teammate Tucker has a brother that started training people professionally about a year ago and she and I had been doing some workouts with him, occasionally. This past week I decided I wanted to do it regularly with him and see how it goes. So far, it's not fun, I won't lie. Garth kicks my butt, which is great after the fact, but during it's absolutely miserable. I was actually scared to sneeze the other day because my "abs" were so sore. I should have bought a puppy.

Sunday is Mother's Day! I sure did get lucky in this department. Not only did I score the greatest mom, but I have been blessed with having a lot of other people's really awesome moms in my life too. I've sorta got a monopoly on the quality moms in the world. Jan, when you aren't annoying me, and we've seen great improvement in that department over the years, you are such a delight! I love you SO much and am grateful you put up with all my nonsense. I know it's moments like these that make it worth it :)