Strictly Stephanie: Skis, Singing, and the Start of a New Month

I don't know if you've noticed the whole "skitripskitripskitrip" count-down thing at the bottom of this blog, but sadly, the count down is over. J and I went skiing on Jan. 31st in Massanutten, VA and had a blast. It was over way too soon....

I'm kinda surprised we went, seeing as his mom was in a car accident kinda the day before... Sitting in traffic on her way to work/dropping Baby D off at preschool, she was hit from behind by a big truck. The back of her van looked like an accordion. Though she and Baby D emerged safely, she later was diagnosed with a concussion and a bit of whiplash. She's okay though, and J's little brother was not injured at all (thank god for child safety seats, right?). Still praying that she makes a speedy recovery, as I know for a while there she was in a lot of pain... ):

...But she's really a trooper. It could just be that she is a determined woman that is done with letting things get in her way, but we went skiing anyways.. Her uncle had a timeshare, so we stayed in a purty sweet pad for the two-ish days we were there. We celebrated our arrival to the timeshare with pop-tarts, popcorn, and Klondike bars. It was fantastic. J and I stayed up kinda late watching episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

The next morning, we suited up for the slopes.

Pre-slopes-- in the car (:

I don't own any snow pants, so I was going old-school, with my puffy blue coat and black jeans. (Seeing as only NON-hard-core people need snow pants.) We got up to the mountains and ski lifts and skiing wonderland and ate breakfast at a little cafe place on the premises. Afterwards, we waited in line for two forevers as we rented/claimed/put on our various pieces of ski gear:
-helmet

Due to her condition, J's mom couldn't join us on the slopes, (frowny face) so it just ended up being J, his dad, and me. It was my first time skiing, and I did not have any clue as to what I was doing. It was J's dad's first time too, and we took a beginner class together called "Pathway One", where we learned how to go down tiny hills and turn left and right and sorta stop. (I love how they didn't teach stopping first). Well I kinda stopped the mini conveyor-belt-ish "ski lift" thing because I fell off... Picture it like you're on a treadmill and you just fall down. And the treadmill does not stop.

That was me. XD

This is me during ski class... It's really flat but I fell all over the place. Take a gander at my oh-so-concentrated ski-face (:

Though I stopped feeling badly/embarrassed after a woman twice my age did the same thing and they had to make it stop and practically carry her off the thing.

We were kinda bad-asses and we broke out on our own...
Oh yes. That's right. We totally played hooky from Preschool Ski-School, and headed straight for the big slopes. (:< (Well, okay-- the "easy" slopes...it's not like we were overconfident and threw ourselves down a black diamond XD)

J and I on the slopes

It wasn't easy. I fell. A lot. And I went sliding. Really far. For kinda really long. I'll admit it hurt a bit, but I was determined to get it right and try to better my technique. Several ski lift rides to the tops of various runs later, I wasn't falling down nearly as much, and I had so much more control.

Did I mention that the snow was PERFECT and that it was like, 48 degrees? I was tempted to take off my coat and just go, but I knew that wouldn't really be a good idea if I hadn't surpassed my falling streak quite yet.... We spent about 2-3 hours on the slopes, breaking once to eat. I was practically a pro skier at that point, so... You could probably flip on the Sochi Olympics and find me on the TV somewhere... (;

The next day I felt a bit sore... but the pain seemed to melt away when we went swimming in a pool near the Massanutten resort. J doesn't normally like pools, but the nearby water park didn't open until noon, and we had planned to leave the area by then. Soon it was time to leave, so we dried off and got changed, and all piled in the car to drive back to northern VA. The car ride back was filled with many a musical shenanigan.

After I got home later that afternoon... That was it. It was like it was a dream, it had all gone by so quickly....like it hadn't even happened.

and I had to mentally pull myself back into line after that trip. And seeing as I'm so behind with this, I thought I'd take a minute to discuss the

So I did it. 4 weeks of being unmasked. How was it? Whell I can say that it was four weeks of interesting. Four weeks of excitement. Four weeks of independence and confidence. Four weeks of letting go. And while I gradually ease myself into a light makeup routine, (so I don't lose my touch (; ) it's better now. I don't do it to hide behind a mask. I do it because I like it, and because it's like an art, of some sorts. The past 4 weeks have done wonderful things to my confidence level, I'll tell you what. It's actually quite amazing.
And for those who participated in the New Year's Dare with me, and made it this far...

Congratulations. (: I can only hope that your experience has been as empowering as mine has. It's not a big thing... It's not like I lost 100 pounds in the face of diabetes... but you'd be surprised at how many are uncomfortable with who they are... and if you can't love yourself... then it's almost like you're cheating yourself out of life. So the key here is to love yourself. The self under the mask. <3

So we've had a couple snow days since I last wrote, I think... I know for sure we had one this past Wednesday. Only... it wasn't really snow. It was ice. The trees were so gorgeous... the berries were covered in ice.

We didn't have to go to school and it was fantastic. Though that's normally how it feels when we get snow days.... Let's just say good ol' public service announcer Wayde did it again (; Speaking of our beloved public service announcer... here's a funny picture I found on his fan Facebook page, "Friends Of Wayde Byard"...

So the auditioned choir comprised of people from our school district is having its annual performance tomorrow. I am so psyched... Mostly because it's going to be AWESOME due to the amazing music we'll be singing. You can check out a random choir singing my favourite song that we have here.

it's February! Woo, new month. There's still some chance for snow (if it stays cold) and Valentine's Day is coming up...

It's gonna be a kick ass month.