Oh yeah, I'm a Quitter...

I am a quitter.

I have come to terms with this fact long ago. I don't fight it, I accept it. I don't have willpower.

My husband, on the other hand, has tremendous willpower. He will fight his way through anything. He is a tenacious bulldog, I tell you. Poor man, he is in love with me, of all people...

The ski trip - keep in mind I have never skiied until yesterday. First of all, no one told me that everything about skiing is uncomfortable. It started with the snow pants...I wore Jon's. Men don't have hips, you know. Jon had to pull on the zipper with pliers just to get it up. By the time we got everyone into the van, my feet were numb from lack of circulation. I got a headache and was feeling hot and grumpy. Then came the snow boots. Okay, they weighed at least ten pounds each! And Jon kept saying that they needed to be tight, they NEED to be tight, Melanie. And then he did them up TIGHT since I could not bend over to buckle them in my lovely snow pants. Fine, do them up tight, what do I care. At least I looked good.

Picked out my poles like an old pro and got outside. Popped my feet into the skis and was ready to go to the bunny slope with Jack and Jon. Jonah took off on a snowboard with Gable on skis. I fell down the bunny hill and was totally and completely stuck. It's impossible to get up in skis. They're like ten feet long and, helloooo, skis don't bend doggone it. I was laying there all tangled up like a pretzel with Jon trying very unsuccessfully to get me up. As I lay there with my toes numb from way too tight snowpants, feet tingling from the gigantic snowshoes, and a headache from, again, lack of circulation, I decided then and there to quit. I was done. No use fighting it, I'm done. Jon, the bully that he is, would not show me how to get my stupid feet out of the stupid skis because he said I wasn't allowed to quit. Yeah, whatever, just get me up out of this snow...

I finally got up and got back on the little moving sidewalk that kindly delivers one to the top of the bunny hill. I was trying to figure out how to get the stupid shoes off and Jon proceeds to tell me that I simply can't quit. Why? Because I'm a Price and Price's aren't allowed to quit. I told him that I am a good Price and yet, a good quitter. He lapses into Braveheart mode, saying something about courage and fortitude and blah blah blah. I wasn't buying it...until I saw little Jack. He was having a hard time. Things weren't coming as easily as he had hoped and his little head was hanging down.

Daggone it....How in the world could I encourage him by throwing in the towel after just ten minutes? I thought of a few excuses to offer to him, but none of them seemed just right. (note to self, practice excuses ahead of time next time)

So, lo and behold, I hung in there. Jon loosened up my boots and my feet began to breathe a little. And I skiied! It weren't pretty and Jonah can do a pretty good imitation of me with my poles sticking straight out to the sides like I was walking a highwire or something, but I did it! By the end of the night, I was looking over at the people going tubing and I felt a certain smugness over them. I looked down my nose and thought 'just look at those lazy people riding the conveyor belt up the hill and laying in a tube to come down. ohhhhh, that's so hard.

And just incase you are thinking that pride comes before a fall, just know that I did fall. Plenty of times. But I skiied!!