Perfectly Soggy Slopes

Our church did a study of the book One Month to Live by Kerry and Chris Shook about a month ago.  One of the most profound things I took from the book was that so much of us make excuses when it comes to important things in life, like spending time with our families or taking risks, because we are waiting for someday to happen. 

Today was the day that I put all of that knowledge into action.

Mark and I took today off so that we could go snow tubing at Perfect North Slopes in Indiana with Ben's Cub Scout pack.  This was planned and paid for over a month ago, and just our luck, it was 46 degrees outside and raining heavily.

All the way there, while driving through the blinding rain, I kept thinking of why it was going to suck.  You might not know this, but Mark and I are not avid skiers.  We've each been skiing twice in our lifetime, and I never got past the bunny hill without completely wiping out.  Snow tubing seemed like a safe alternative, but we really don't have the "attire" that most people who ski have.  For example, we each wore jeans because we don't have waterproof pants.  Mark doesn't even have a winter coat, so he wore his leather jacket (Ben was dressed appropriately in a snow suit, don't worry).  I just kept imagining the 3 of us in the same hospital room with pneumonia and the doctor saying, "What possessed you to go snow tubing in the cold rain - in blue jeans?"  My answer of, "I'm living like I only have 30 days left" probably wouldn't seem logical at that point.  In fact, the doctor might tell me I was living accordingly...

Nevertheless, we pulled into the parking lot and Ben was completely astonished at the sight of the hill and the slopes.  We got our ticket and headed out toward the hill.

Mark and Ben (still dry and warm)

They have an escalator that is basically carpet that you stand on (and balance) to the top of the hill.  It took about 3 minutes to get from the bottom to the top.  Mark enjoyed watching me get on and off the escalator because every time I looked like I was going to wipe out and take out an entire family in the process.

heading to the "carpet escalator"

I made it!  I could even take a picture and balance!

We went to the highest hill first.  We hooked our tubes together and took off!  We had to be going 40mph by the time we hit the bottom.  It was soooo much fun!  It made you almost forget about the rain while you were going down, except for the fact that it was pelting you in the face and you couldn't see where you were going. Besides that, it was awesome!

Me & Benny-it's blurry 'cause of the rain!

Mark & Ben ready to go!

We all had a great time.  We were soaked and chilled to the bone, but we had so much fun just being together.  Ben can drive me completely crazy sometimes, but I always have fun with him when we do things that he enjoys.  It's important to me to spend time with Ben and Lauren by themselves; I want to make sure I can focus on each one of them for a little while each week.  I really want to know them, not just be their guardian.

So, if I only had 30 days to live, I think I would be happy with how I spent today.  It would have been so easy to cancel out of this, but I'm so glad I didn't.  Sometimes it's fun to be miserable when you're with the right people.