Roller Derby Bout

A lot has happened since I last posted anything. This summer was a rough one for sure! But now that it is behind me I wanted to share with everyone that my husband and I had the opportunity to attend our first Minnesota Roller Girls Bout. It was the home opener of the season and it was completely fantastic. We had a blast! There were approx five to seven thousand fans cheering them on at the Roy Wilkens Auditorium. Marty has decided that his favorite MN Roller Girls Team is the Dagger Dolls, while my favorite was the Garda Belts! It was really a blast! They interact with everyone before the show, take pictures the whole nine. We had such a great time and can't wait until November 20th for the second bout of the season. This has definitely put a fire under my you know what to get skating again! We shall see if I can become a roller girl yet. Stay tuned.

By the way, I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted. Needless to say I am back and hope to not go so long in between posting. Thanks for being so patient with me while I get back in the swing of blogging!

Been awhile

Well, it has been a little over a month since I last posted something and let me just say a lot has happened in my life since I posted last.

My Grandmother passed away on July 8th which just so happens to be my now 4 year old daughter's birthday. This was completely unexpected but not suprising as she has had some health concerns for quite awhile. She will be missed. My Grandma was a very giving person and has helped many around her with her generosity. I love you Grandma, you are in a better place and with Grandpa now and for that I am so happy for you! This picture was taken at Christmas this last year, it was our last 5 generation picture. We had five generations for exactly 4 years, that is pretty amazing. My Grandma is the one on the right, not holding my daughter. We had a great time catching up with family members we haven't seen in a really long time while in Iowa for my Grandma's arrangements. One person who sticks out in particular is my Great Aunt she is one of my Grandma's sisters she was telling everyone about my blog so I better get on he ball and start posting more frequently, so this one is for you, Aunt Dee.



Sadly my Uncle passed away on July 20th, 12 days after my Grandma. Needless to say this has been a very hard month and a half or so. He will be missed by so many. He was a sweet spirit and a gentle soul. He left us way to early as he was only 42. He battled colon cancer for about a year. He left a wonderful wife and two amazing kids. His daughter who is a total daddy's girl at the age of 14 and his high spirited son who is 10. They are amazing kids and have an awesome mom and I know that their dad is going to be really proud of what they accomplish.

It is so hard to lose love ones and especially so close together but I know that they are in a better place watching over all of us here. I love you both and you will be missed.

Time to do things differently

Ok, so it has been awhile friends! Sorry about not posting anything for awhile, I have been super busy and life sometimes I think takes you where you never thought it would.

So my daughter Ella was in a wedding on May 29th, she was the cutest flower girl ever. I am sure every parent feels that way about their kids. My husband's cousin got married and she was a beautiful bride indeed. Here are a few pictures of Ella in the wedding.

Isn't she just adorable? I am so pleased with how well she did. She was awesome, we brought her princess barbies and coloring books. She did great. Her cousin who was the ring bear fell asleep during the ceremony so Ella had to assume ring bear duties, she was nervous at first but then decided she could bring the rings to the bride and groom since said ring bear was asleep. All in all it was a beautiful day and I am so very proud of Miss Ella!

On to what this blog is all about. So I think I might join a recreational Roller Derby League. I am looking into this a little deeper, a friend of mine might do it as well. I figure this will be a great way to see if I even like Roller Derby and then I can try out next year. The League is called The Debu-Taunts. I am kind of excited about this. There is no trying out or anything like that, just sign up, pay your dues and have fun! Sounds great to me. Speaking of, if there is any of you out there that are interested I would be happy to get you the information.

This blog is turning into one giant update! On Saturday June 12th my car was broken into, unfortunately it has turned into a big mess. The person took my cell phone, my coach purse :-(

and my check card. They used my check card a few times and racked up a $64.00 download charge on my cell phone. They downloaded something like 22 ring tones. That is sheer craziness. Oh and they burned a nice cigarette burn in my driver side seat :-( What is crazy is that we didn't even know that someone had broken in until the next day because it wasn't obvious. My car was locked when it happened, the Police Officer thought maybe they used a magnetic device to unlock the car. We did notice on Saturday night that my phone was missing but we thought maybe we misplaced it. Come to find out it was stolen. So it has been a mess trying to close our checking account and open a new one, try and get a new phone. What a nightmare. I would just encourage anyone to not leave anything valuable in your car. I had to learn the hard way, but believe me I am not so trusting of others now.

Well I think that about does it for catching you all up on what has happened in the last couple of weeks. I have missed blogging, hopefully I can get back on track now.

Tired and Weak

I need to just put it out there. I am so completely tired you all don't even know. My daughter had her recital this weekend and it took up all day on Saturday and Sunday, no weekend for me but I am so glad that she enjoys dance. She is super cute and she had a ton of fun. Her grandparents (in-laws) came on Saturday to watch her as well as her Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. I hope they all had fun as it was really lengthy. She also had the coolest friends in the whole world come on Sunday to see her. She really showed off that is for sure. Here are a couple of pictures of her. The first two are of her before the recital and the other one is of her backstage waiting oh so patiently.

She did so awesome and I am so proud of her. Glad it is over though. She is in a wedding this Saturday so we will be preparing for that and another long weekend, at least I have tomorrow and Friday as well as Monday off! Thank goodness, I don't think I would survive if I didn't.

So this morning when I was getting dressed I somehow injured my back it has been hurting all day, when I move or BREATH hello gotta breath, it hurts so bad. I don't know why or what I did. I feel like it just needs to be popped back into place, it feels like it is pinched or caught somehow. I hope it goes away, I really don't want to go in and have it looked at. I always feel like I have some sort of issue :-) I am pretty sure that if you look up some random illness in a medical dictionary you will see my picture and name, well that's how it feels most days ;-). Seriously though, I don't know what I did or why it is hurting but I want it to go away! Has this ever happened to any of you? How did you make it go away. I have way to much going on this week to be injured and wounded, LOL. Oh well, I will let you all know how the wedding goes and will hopefully post pics this next week. Hope you all have a great day and an excellent Memorial Day Weekend!

Life needs to slow down...

Wowzers, life just seems to fly by, is there never enough time in the day? I am just amazed that May will be over before we know it. Summer is almost here people, summer is almost here!

So my life has been sort of jam packed with stuff these last few weeks. I feel like I have lost all track of my roller derby excitement. I have barely made it to the gym, I haven't skated in like 3 weeks. It is sad, but there has been far to much going on to even think about working out or even go to the gym. But on the bright side I am looking into purchasing outdoor wheels for my skates so my family and I can enjoy the great outdoors and my sweet daughter can ride her bike while whipping her mom into shape :-)

This weekend my sweet baby girl is having her dance recital both Saturday and Sunday, she is super excited for this, we have been busy preparing for that. She is also in a wedding next weekend on the 29th, so I have been running around getting stuff done for that such as taking her and my husband to get alterations done and getting new earrings (which is oh so exciting) for the wedding and making hair appointments and all kinds of craziness. I feel like I am running around like a chicken with her head cut off. It is going to be a busy couple of weeks! I hope everything turns out OK in the end. I am sure it will and she will be the cutest little dancer and flower girl you have ever seen!

On another note, I must share this, I have a huge passion for refinishing wood furniture and started my daughters dresser about a year ago, well I kind of stopped working on it for lack of time and I didn't really have the proper tools but at last it is finally finished, I am pleased to say that I think I did a pretty darn good job. I stripped all the old paint off, sanded, sanded and sanded some more :-) I then primed and re-painted. It looks so nice. I think even my husband is proud of the work I did :-) I have to say for my first completed project I am pretty pleased with the outcome. Pictures will be posted soon!

Have a great day everyone, enjoy the nice weather. Too bad I am stuck inside at work :-(

Daily routine's are not easy

I am realizing more and more how hard it is to consistently work out and also skate. I feel like I don't have enough time in the day. I am definitely not in the routine of my new lifestyle yet. I feel like the things I do are contradicting themselves. I am trying to eat better, not so much snacky type foods. And now trying to incorporate exercise in the mix. I need to figure out some sort of schedule I suppose. That will be my mission for today, figure out a skate/exercise schedule that won't kill me.

I worked out last night, I felt completely unmotivated and didn't even want to go, but I pushed through and forced myself to go. I don't think I worked out as hard or pushed as hard as I could have but I at least did something. Not anything to be proud of by any means, but it was a small something. My arms kind of hurt this morning. Oh well, I am sure it will get better with time, the sore, tired and fatigued muscles will have to go away eventually, right? I just have to stop being a whimp and push through. We will see what happens.

Whew

OK, so it has been a crazy couple of days, but I first must tell all of you that I had the most Amazing Pizza on Saturday, it was from Pizza Luce www.pizzaluce.com it was fabulous. For those of you who don't know I have Celiac Disease, I am basically allergic to Gluten and I am also allergic to Dairy. Anyway, Pizza Luce has the most amazing GFDF (Gluten Free, Dairy Free) pizza, it was so delicious and I haven't had pizza forever! So delicious, I will definitely be going back.

On another note, my daughter is a crazy girl, you might as well call her fearless. She was running on Monday and fell and broke her nose, I can't believe she actually broke something! She falls all the time and will stand on chairs when told not to, she will jump on furniture when told not to. But now she gets a broken bone, really? Not to mention it happened just weeks from her dance recital and she is also in a wedding at the end of May. Crazy girl! Maybe she will take after her mom and become a Roller Girl! I am sure if that happens she will for sure break more bones than just her nose. Oh the things to come, I am sure we are in for a childhood of many injuries and ailments. LOL!

So with the business of the weekend and my daughter's mishap I haven't been able to skate or work out. I am feeling completely unmotivated and completely wiped out. I am going to go work out tonight though, hopefully I can get back on track. We were actually planning on skating on Saturday night with some friends but the rink was closed for some strange reason. We will see if I can get going and start skating regularly again.

Hope you all have a great day and hopefully the sun will shine soon!

A New Day

I worked out last night by myself, no one to go with, but it was great. I did the elliptical for 12 mins, I know that this doesn't seem like much but it is when you are out of shape. I did some Leg exercises and I did the bike for about 8 mins. It was such a great feeling to be doing something that is going to benefit me in huge amounts.

After I worked out I went to a softball game, it was a great time. We watched my co-workers play, they ended up losing but it was great to watch them. My daughter even enjoyed it, she was cheering them on and it was so much fun to watch her. She even asked why I wasn't playing, I told her maybe next year I will actually be able to play (because I might actually be able to run) Yippee!

This weekend I am hoping that all of us can go skating, I think it would be fun to have my whole family with. We will see what happens.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Discouraged

So, I am just going to put it out there. I am 100% discouraged, I feel sad because I often times let people get the best of me. I feel like sometimes I might set myself up for disappointment also. Or maybe I just let people and things get the best of me and allow myself to be disappointed. On any note here is what happened.

I had plans to go skating with a friend/co-worker and she bailed on me last minute. This has happened more than once and why I let it affect me is a question that will most likely go unanswered. So rather than going by myself I just felt completely bummed and my whole plan was ruined and felt like what is the point? I was so mad at myself for not going anyway and I was ready to sell my skates and cancel my gym membership. Why I let people get the best of me and get to the point where I want to throw in the towel is beyond me. So my wonderful and awesome husband talked to me and totally pin pointed why I was so upset, he said he felt it was silly for me to want to throw in the towel that easy and give up on my dreams of skating for the MN Roller Girls. He is right, why is it so easy for me to throw in the towel when things get to hard or I get let down? I should stand up and fight for the things I want. It shouldn't just be so easy to give up. Have any of you ever felt totally discouraged and felt like giving up? How did you work through it?

I have my skates with and I might just go skating by myself tonight, we will see. I am extremely tired but I kind of want to try and push through this and have a break through, hopefully!

I didn't die

Ok folks, so here it is. I didn't die! I survived my first workout session. It was definitely hard work and I realized that I am so out of shape, but I did it. I wish I could have done more but I thought it best to ease into this whole new lifestyle. I did about 10 mins ish on the eliptical, I did some arm/back excercises and sat in the sauna for like 10mins. So not great but I did it and it is a start!

I am going skating tonight so hopefully I will have a little more endurance than I have in the past. I really hope that I am able to skate at least 15 mins without stopping, this has been a little bit challenging for me in the past, we will see. I am trying to take one day at a time.

So what do you all do to stay active? Any ideas or suggestions?

Have a great day!

Work Out Day

So today is the big day of working out. I am sorta excited and sorta dreading it. Not to sure how I will feel at the end but I am excited to start this process. It will definitely start to get me in shape for Roller Derby. I know you all are probably sick of hearing it but I can't help but ask myself am I really going to be ready in a couple weeks for tryouts? I really want to do this, and think I can, but am I completely unrealistic? Who knows, really. Time will tell I suppose.

So I found this video about Roller Derby. It is super fun and great to see some girls from MN Roller Girls, which is awesome.


I will let you all know about my work out tomorrow. Have a great night!

This and That

I just want to start off by saying, I am sorry my long lost blog friends it has been a while. I plan to get back on track. I have no excuses except that I have not really had much to say I suppose.

Anyway, I am sure some of you would like to know how the meet and greet went last friday. Well, I didn't end up going :-(. When I got home that evening to get ready to go to the meet and greet my sweet almost 4 year old daughter begged and pleaded for me to go fishing with her and my husband. How does one say know to her cuteness? So I decided my family was more important that night than going to meet some roller derby girls. We had a great time, we caught a couple of fish and it was super exciting, while they weren't huge, it was still fun.

So on another note I haven't gone skating at all this week :-( which I am totally bummed about! I plan to get back on track this next week. I also signed up for LA Fitness, to get my butt in shape. Hopefully you all will see a new and improved me in the coming weeks. I hope to lose a little weight but more importantly build endurance and get healthy. I want to be here for my husband and daughter and don't want to worry about my health. So time to get on track and improve myself. Hopefully I can encourage anyone out there who is feeling like they can't do something about themselves. You totally can! I am, and I never thought I would get to this point but I am ready. I will do this and can do this! Crazy as I am!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and I will post on Monday!

Stretch it out

So I wasn't able to post anything yesterday because I couldn't get my pics to upload. So here you have it pictures of me and one of my co-workers. She stretched it out with me. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a really long time. She is super flexible and don't know if that is something I will ever be, LOL. So she encouraged me and helped me stretch before going roller skating. I don't know if it helped though as I was still really sore, I was only able to skate for about an hour. My co-worker who took the pictures went with me, she did really well for not skating since highschool, however she is a few years younger than me.

I am including a picture of me on my roller skates however it isn't a good picture. It is dark and a little blury, I will try to get a better one, one of these days.

On another note, I am going skating tonight for a little bit, there is going to be a North Star Roller Girls Meet and Greet tonight so I am going to go and hopefully get some awesome pics. I probably won't post again until Monday. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! Do something fun, enjoy the weather!

I will survive...

So I went skating last night. I had to go my by myself because my co-worker who was going to go with me forgot she made other plans. It turned out ok though. I skated for about an hour and realized how sore I was still from the other day when we went skating. CRAZY! I met this amazing girl who was super nice, she was skating with her fiance and her soon to be step kids. Super sweet girl! She is a musician which is totally awesome, she said she plays in a swing band which is even cooler. Anyway, she said she has a couple of friends who play Roller Derby, I love this girl already! It was great meeting her and hopefully I will see her at the skating rink again.

I am planning on going skating again tonight, we will see how far I get with being so sore, I am going to have to learn how to push through the pain. I have set some goals for myself from the North Star Roller Girls Recruits Group on Yahoo Groups. They said you should be able to skate 5 laps in one minute or less. OMG is this even attainable for someone who is as out of shape as me? So I am going to shoot for this by tryouts for next month. We will see, I will keep you all posted on how that goes. Another goal is to be able to skate 20 laps within five minutes. We shall see!

I also wanted to share with you all the benefits of Roller Skating. This link has some really interesting information about the health benefits of roller skating. Take a look, I never would have thought about this. http://www.skateland.net/pdf/skate_heart.pdf

I will hopefully be posting pictures of me in action here soon. Can't wait to share more about my crazy journey into the world of Roller Derby.

Tired but pushing through

So I am totally exhausted today but I must skate on, LOL. I haven't been sleeping well lately, maybe because I am just to darn excited to sleep? Not really sure what the deal is. I am however super excited to skate tonight. My co-worker is awesome and is going to go skating with me tonight, I am looking forward to having someone to skate with. It is always so much better to have someone to go with you.

So I should tell you all a little more about my dream of becoming a Roller Girl. My first and foremost goal is to try out for the MN Roller Girls check out their website http://www.mnrollergirls.com/. They are holding tryouts on May 15th. My goal is to try and get somewhat good by then, we will see if this is an attainable goal or not :-). I will also be trying out for the North Star Roller Girls check out their website http://www.northstarrollergirls.com/. Their tryouts are June 19th which gives me a little more time to get in shape and kick some serious butt. I am excited and eager to find out what happens with all of this, but regardless of what happens I can honestly be proud that I tried. This is still something that I want to be a part of no matter what.

On another note, I am joining a gym, I am happy about this, but also having mixed emotions, it is hard work to be healthy, lose weight and be committed to doing something. But I know I need to. I really want to be healthy most of all, it isn't just about losing some weight but really making a lifestyle change. I am fortunate enough to have a super motivating and awesome co-worker to work out with and be accountable to. Look for the new and improved Tara 2.0 to come in the near future.

I think that is about it for now, I will hopefully post pics tomorrow and write about my skating experience from tonight. Have a great day all!

New Skates

So I bought my skates on Friday and am super excited. I went skating with my daughter on Friday night. We went for about an hour, it was fun. My poor sweet girl had wheels that didn't roll though, it was like walk skating. She looked like she was running, it was funny but sad at the same time. Poor Girl, awe! We had a good time though.

We also went skating on Saturday for a few hours and that was fun, we went with some friends who made it that much more fun and are completely supportive of my crazy dream of becoming a roller girl. My husband on the other hand barely made it around the rink once. He was twirling in slow motion but I think this was his way of trying not to fall. He fell twice, poor guy! He was very brave, he went right out in the middle of the floor, awefully daring, no wall clinging or holding on for dear life, he just went for it. Pretty hillarious. Well I plan to skate a couple times this week we will see if I improve at all.

I also met this really nice lady that was skating with her husband. She seemed like she was really good and knew what she was doing. I asked her how long she had been skating, she said 30 years, I thought oh my word, 30 years! I don't have 30 years, I have 4 weeks to get somewhat good at this. She plays for the Madison Roller Derby League. She gave me some helpful tips such as practice falling, she said you need to be able to get up super fast. She also gave me advice about loosening up my wheels a bit so that I can be more in control so I am excited to see if that makes a difference. We will see what happens. Maybe I will meet more derby friends out on the rink.

I am going to try and go skating today and for sure tomorrow. Anyone want to join me? LOL!

Big Suprise?!?!?

So it is official, I want to be a Roller Derby Girl! I know, am I crazy or what? Do I really know what I am getting myself into?

I have always thought that it was awesome but not until I saw the movie Whip It did I really think, hmmm I think I want to do this. So I am just putting it out there, I want to get down and dirty and roller derby. I NEVER in my life ever thought I would want to play a full contact sport, but here I am having this crazy unquenchable desire to play roller derby.

So here I am, I have decided to start a blog to write about my journey on this crazy and possibly wild ride full of broken bones, missing teeth, black eyes and many bruises. I am excited to see where this journey takes me and I welcome comments and advice. (I will even welcome comments that say ARE YOU NUTS?)