Last night Johanna (my non-existent sister, according to Martins) called and asked if I would take her sledding. As there was virtually no snow on the ground, I told her that as soon as it snowed then she was welcome to come over any day and I would take her sledding at my house. After a while she softened up to this idea and asked to bring her skates too...I wasn't sure about this because it has been so warm that I didn't think there would be enough ice on the lake, but I said we could see.

This morning she called me very excitedly to tell me that it SNOWED!!! As it did. I called the rec center and they told me that they had checked today and there was 8 inches of black ice on the lake (stronger than white ice because it doesn't have air bubbles, which is why it is clear), covered with 2-4 inches of white ice. They had the machine out cleaning the ice today and they set up a hockey rink and opened the warming house. So I told her she could bring her skates, and some for me, and she was very excited.

So, this afternoon she came over to the house and we went skating. We skated around the island once (she does not skate that well...mainly i just pulled her along, but she laughed a lot). Then we started again, but we only "made a C" (her call) and came back. By that time she had fallen down so much that she was sore and cold (last fall was on her face), with wet gloves, and then she cried because she was so cold and sore, and I had to take off both our skates and put on our boots before we could go home, and give her my mittens, and then carry her most of the way home. She cheered up when we got inside though and I made her hot chocolate to help warm up, and a grilled cheese (which she actually didn't eat most of, but she wanted hot food), and finished reading the first Narnia to her. Then we began watching the Blues Brothers for a while, and around 6 she wanted to go sledding. It was really cold out. But, we found a big hill and slid down it for about an hour. It actually was pretty fun, and you forgot you were that cold after a while. She forgot to bing a hat, and she said her hood wasn't warm enough during skating, so I gave her my hat...this was too big for her and kept falling down over her eyes no matter how many times I rolled it up, so finally she just left it down and I guided her around holding her hand, and i held onto her sled as we went down the hill together. it was pretty funny. or, as she described it, "awesomely fun" and "wicked awesome." at one point we decided to do 5 more slides and then go home. So, we did 4, and then on the 5th one she fell off her sled, so we did a do-over on that one. but then she announced that the do-over didn't count either, so we did another. and then 2 more. I didn't really care though, she was having so much fun. my ass was just sore and freezing from sledding in jeans (she was pretty bundled up and waterproofed, lucky girl). On the last one she announced that instead of doing any more slides we were going to have a snow-eating contest and promptly leaned over into the nearest snowbank and ate. mmmm. So I had to eat snow too. Mmmm. Then she got more ambitious and ran further into the snow bank, where the fresh snow was. And shoved her face all the way down in it and chomped away. And then, surprise, she was cold and wanted me to carry her home (so we could say goodbye to paul and catch the bus RIGHT THEN)...luckily my older sister called and offered, out of the blue, to come pick her up if that would help. I think she was kinda disappointed about not getting to take the bus, but we can always do that another time.

Oh, and how this girl sleds? Murder on the knees! I slid sitting on the sled (we both had those round plastic ones), with one leg bent so my foot could be on the inside edge, and one leg straight so I could steer/stop more effectively if the need arose. She, on the other hand, positioned her sled and then just jumped, tucked her legs under her, and whomped down on the sled in a kneeling position. Wow. it did get the sled going, though. since she was blind i'd always help her out, too, and at the end of the hill I'd give her sled an extra little shove so she could go farther than me (and feel very special).

It was fun. And you don't want to go because you feel kinda warm and lazy, and why would you just want to go get so cold? But it was a lot of fun and now I hope it snows more so we can go again. She could not stop laughing. Hahaha. :)