Cover Me--I'm Going In!

It's Spring Break here in Oregon, and I need to use this time to clean and purge my office/craft space. As you may remember, I taught monthly classes for four years at Stampin'Cat Studio. Before that I had an online scrapbooking store. Now, my focus will be on grad school for the next year and a half, so I need to change the focus of my workspace. I'll be doing a HUGE clean/purge/sort "Clean Sweep" kind of thing for the next few days. If you haven't heard from me by Thursday, send in someone to find me. I'll probably be buried under the Basic Grey papers. Or Bazzill. Or Echo Park. Either way, keep digging until you find me!

Been Scrappin'

This weekend (and last weekend) I spent some time with my first hobby love: Scrapbooking. Last weekend, I went to one of the regular retreats hosted by my beloved ScrapDivas (a yahoo group that I've been a part of now for nearly 8 years). As someone who moved all the time growing up, it's lovely to have a group of friends that has been a part of my life for eight years. (To give you some perspective on the moving: we've lived in our house here in Albany for almost 9 years and that's the longest I've had an address in my entire life). I really enjoy the recharge I get from hanging out w/these ladies. This weekend, I'm spending the entire weekend scrapping w/one of my good friends as a way to celebrate her birthday. It's going to be great!

I'm contemplating taking apart and reorganizing my albums. A few years ago, I thought it would make sense to separate each kids' activities and scrapbooking layouts into their individual albums. I haven' really kept up with that, so now I think I want to re-incorporate those layouts into my big family chronological albums. Anyone else do a complete album reorganization? Was it worth the hassle?

Derby Progress:  I went to my first practice in well over a week. I was sick on Monday, and out of town scrapbooking (plus practices were canceled due to slippery floors in our warehouse practice space) so I was a little apprehensive and worried I would have lost a lot. Not so much! It was a great practice. I slept better, woke up better and feel better than I have in about a week. I feel like I can really do a t-stop now; I just need to keep practicing to make it better and more consistent. I also might not be the slowest in the group (for awhile at least) since we had a bunch of new girls join this week. I do need to push myself more; I tend to give myself permission to take a rest or go slower, and I need to change this mental attitude. I have to admit that at this time, I don't really have the fire for competitive derby--I want to learn derby skills, and I'm hoping that the goal of a Sick Town recreational league will someday be a reality. Maybe this will change--I don't know. I DO know that I LOVE this, and that I want to be better every time I go to practice.

current family picture...love these guys!

Derby Progress

My goal with roller derby is simple: Be better every time I put on skates than I was the last time I put on skates.

Oh! I didn't tell you I joined the Roller Derby team highlighted in this video I posted about in August? Well, I did. I'm on the beginner team (Team Skabies--think "skate babies") and for a few months I was really more of a remedial beginner. I've been skating with them since August 11, 2010. My progress is v e r y  s l o w. But that's okay, 'cause I am having a BLAST!

I need a place to record my improvements though. At each practice, I try to find at least 3 things I'm improving on or that I couldn't even do before. I don't want a lot of files or Facebook posts, so I'll just do a quick record here after each practice I attend.

Last night I:

• started figuring out the toe-stop turn-around (thanks to a tip from skater Smackdapus)
• managed to average 3 laps a minute in one of our relay challenges--and found I probably could have pushed harder and skated faster (will do that next time)
• created a baseline of skills in another relay
• did some pack skating like never before
• didn't have to sit out and recover as much as earlier practices
• managed to stay low nearly the entire time while skating.

Thanks! I attend practices a minimum of twice a week (my goal for 2011), so this might get repetitive. Feel free to wait around for my usual blog posts.