Happy Holidays!

I know its not possible for me to send everyone a Christmas card, so for those of you I missed this was the picture on my card this year. Cheesy I know but I just couldn't resist. I just hope everyone knows it was meant as a joke, I admit to being a dork but I'm not THAT bad.
Anyways I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know I sure did. I just love everything about this time of year, of course it goes by way too fast! So I will leave you with 10 of my favorite things that I only have to wait 364 days for them to come again!

10. I have an excuse to go shopping!
9. It is the only time of year I like snow.
8. Christmas lights.
7. All of the yummy food and cookies!
6. Decorating the tree.
5. Getting dressed up Christmas eve to go to Church, where I always read the lessons every year.
4. Grandma's apple pie!
3. Being with my family, so many aunts, uncles and cousins I only see a few times a year.
2. Of course everyone loves getting presents, but I prefer to be the giver. I love giving presents.
1. And my favorite thing about the holiday season is the 10 pm candle light church service. Everyone holding candles and singing Silent Night brings tears to my eyes every year, without it it wouldn't be Christmas.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! PS. I am leaving the cold for sunny California on Saturday so finally I will be blogging about riding again!

The Cheboygan Tribune

I must say I love the small town I grew up in. I hope to spend at least my summer months here for the rest of my life. But there are certain things about small towns that really get to me. A couple of years ago after winning my 4th title at Loretta Lynn's my mother called the news paper in town to ask if they wanted to run a story on it. In a town of 5,000 people, one of those people winning a national title in ANYTHING is news. Well the sports editor didn't really think so and we went back and forth on the phone and email. First he said he wanted to meet in person but I was leaving the country for three weeks the next day so he wanted me to call him when I got back which I did. He replied in an email saying that even if he went through with the story he wasn't sure it would ever go to print because it was football season. My reply might have been over the top, but I was furious. It went something like..."I am aware its football season and once attending Cheboygan High myself I understand that you can't get any where in this town unless you participate in school sports. Just answer me when was the last time any of our teams made it to nationals, let alone won them?" Then I told him, "as for all the members of this community who keep asking my why I haven't been in the news paper yet I will just tell them to read my column in Racer X, or they can read about me in the Detroit Freepress or the New Jersey Star Ledger who have both done stories on me earlier this summer. Or they could even watch the Disney movie 'Moto Kids' or MTV's True Life." Needless to say this was followed by another reply from him saying I was the cockiest person he had ever met in his life and all of my success has gone to my head.

I don't think that is true, I know all I do is ride a motorcycle, its nothing to really brag about but being told there was no room in the news paper because they had to run football scores really got me going. How ever a few weeks later in the sports section there was a small article that he put together off of information he found in my bio on the WMA website. That was that and we haven't talked since. I had almost forgotten this whole incident until last weekend when I took my puppy Frankie to the book store in town to get his picture taken with Santa Claus. Being the proud mommy that I am I have to say every one loved him because he is the cutest dog out there. Great Danes aren't very popular up here, and most of the dogs in that day were little ankle bitters. Needles to say Frankie being the ham that he is made everyone fall in love (he's so good at this my DAD actually even likes him! My dad is NOT an animal person). And after getting our picture they asked me to sign a release to allow them to use the picture in the paper. I gladly signed thinking how cute he would look. But this Friday when my Father picked up the paper and there was Frankie all 5 months and 70 lbs of him on Santa's lap all I could think of was the last time I was in our news paper and the trouble I had to go through. The moral of this story? Apparently in a small town winning a national championship isn't news, but my puppy sitting on Santa's lap? Alert the press!!!!!

Snow shoeing

I must say my family is getting aggravated with all of my complaining. I came home from California three weeks ago to two feet of snow and I haven't been very happy about it! Snow may be pretty but when you grow up with an over protective father who doesn't want you to do any winter sports like snowmobiling or snowboarding because they are too dangerous, pretty is about its only quality. Just the other day my mother who has taken up snow shoeing asked me to join her. I have heard that snow shoeing is a great pass time (I got yelled at earlier for calling it "the worst sport in the world'" I guess its not a sport) and a very good work out. I must have been doing something wrong then because even though I tried making it harder by breaking my own trail and going up and down the jumps on my track I never warmed up, and didn't even come close to breaking a sweat. I must admit it was nice to do something outside, but as far as a workout goes the hardest part was when my dogs would step on my shoes and trip me. Here in this picture all three of them Frankie, Endo and our beagle Buddy are all tackling me. Yes I am actually in this picture. But I have decided from now on if I want fresh air I will just go wrestle with them without the snowshoes for them to trip me with and as for a work out I will just stick to the gym, where there is HEAT!

First colors

Thanks to everyone who wished me luck. As you can tell by looking at the picture I did in fact pass my belt test. I haven't been this nervous (besides before my half marathon) since I don't even know when. I know it was silly of me to be so nervous going in but you must remember my whole life has been about motorcycles. I took dance in fourth grade, and I was terrible at it. Besides that I ran track in high school but I never really competed in anything else. I have really enjoyed branching out to new things this fall, and mostly doing it with my brothers. Ben is so passionate about martial arts (he reminds me a lot of myself only with MX) that its hard not to fall in love with it too. And it has been great for Terry and I to have our very own Sensai living with us. In fact while Terry and I were being tested in Karate Ben sat up front with professor Gary and every thing we did wrong he would tell Ben "you need to work on Sarah, she is dropping her arms." as if it were Ben's fault. Of course it goes both ways too, he also complimented Ben that some of my kicks are at a black belt level, and I look just like him when I kick. Ben was glad to take credit for this. Which he deserves because while I have only been training for my belt since this summer, Ben has been showing me kicks and punches
for years now.

So even though in the world of martial arts I have only just won my first race in the C class, and it really isn't anything to brag about, I'm happy with my accomplishments so far. My training will obviously dwindle this winter when I am in California riding, but I still have a month of training and bonding at home with my brothers. Nothing brings you closer together than a kick to the face and a bloody mouth.

(I think Ben is trying to point out where he has hit me with about 40 hook kicks, I need to learn how to dodge better!)

Ben

There really is no point of this blog other than I have this really funny picture of my brother who came home from working in the woods and passed out on the couch with our dog Endo, still wearing his snow suite! This is for all those hook kicks to the side of my head you gave me!