Doing What I Love

I have been absent from the blogger world for a while. I feel like I should apologize, but then, I've been doing what I love, so.....really.....I'm not sorry at all.

I've been Mommy, Wife, Housekeeper, Maid, Nurse, Tutor, Taxi, Chef, Errand Girl, and Business Owner.

(That last one has taken up a lot of my extra mental storage and "spare" time, what ever that is. )

Business Owner?! You're probably thinking, "How out of touch have I been with Liz?" Or "What have you got yourself in to now?!"

 Really, just roller derby. 

Remember two whole posts ago, when I talked about starting the Blacksnake Roller Girls? Well, it took off, a lot, and I can now call it officially my business. This also means, that if it tanks ever, than I will cry, a lot.

Let me summarize. Enough girls were interested and had enough practices in, that we were able to schedule our first game for April 28th. I expected 500 people. 1500 people were in attendance! I was to the moon with excitement! It made money, rather than lost money. It was an edge of your seat, exciting game! It was the best night of derby, EVER!

Neat fact, that's my silhouette.

Then, we had enough girls in the league, that we split into two teams. The Jesse Janes and the Venomous Vixens.

I helped create the logo with the awesome talents of Edith Myfist, one of my teammates from Dead Girl Derby.

Then we were in parades, and people started recognizing us.

We were able to play against Dead Girl Derby teams in June (that's when this whole thing became officially mine!), July, and August. Each game we made money, which we promptly spent on advertising for the next game. DGD skaters were jealous of our arena, and our fan turn-out. It felt pretty good!

September, we decided to have our two house teams play against each other, Frankly, we had been creamed all season by the more experienced DGD skaters, and felt it would be a better game for the fans to watch. Boy was it! It was an intense, lead switching game! First, the Vixens were in the lead at the beginning of the first quarter, then the Janes took the lead (I'm a Jane), then we were tied in the 4th quarter, then finally the Vixens took the lead and won by 6 points. Oh my goodness was it a great game! Such a good game, that no one Jane felt that they lost, and no one Vixen wasn't grateful to the Janes for laying it all out on the track!

This wasn't everyone, but most of us, excited after a hard fought game!

It has been an excellent season. I am sad to have this season be over, and knowing that we won't have a game in that arena until next spring, is a tough pill to swallow. I am grateful that I don't have to stress over, the arena being paid, contracts signed, ordering and selling tickets, collecting ticket money, making sure insurance paperwork for the games is in order, that we have enough refs, etc. I'm also excited to see the new recruits coming in October (we are hoping to add two more teams, which means we need about 35 more girls).

I never would have guessed, that when I first stepped in to a dimly lit rink to check out the new roller derby league practicing in Liberty, Missouri, that in just a few short years, I'd be running my own league! I've had some amazing people step up and help out, take over responsibilities, just because they love this sport as much as I do. I can not express how much your efforts and investment into this sport means to me! I have made some wonderful new friends, that don't live hours away from me!

I haven't made a dime yet, because I've invested every bit back in to making this league more well known, more visible, and bigger, better for the skaters. (It's nice not having to drive an hour to practice, and I do get the perk of not paying dues.) Some day, though,  I'll get a paycheck, but right now, my best paycheck is seeing other women, like me, who have found something they never knew they were missing out on, and now can't imagine being without. Women who had forgotten who they were, or that they even needed some "me" time, and now have more confidence and are happier. Right now, I can see the fruit of my actions, and how those actions have brought joy to others, and because (get ready for some BIG news) I love to make others happy, that brings ME immense happiness!

Is it Spring 2013 yet?

Learning.....

I am learning to be productive, when I don't HAVE to be, and when I'm not on an employers' schedule. I'm learning this new skill at 30 too. (Yes, yes I just told you how old I really am, although most of you probably know me and know I'm not ashamed of my age.)

I am, (once again and for good), a stay-at-home mom, and this time I'm not hugely pregnant or recovering from having a baby. This means, not only do I have to energy to be productive, but no excuse not to be. This has actually been kind of difficult for me. For the last 30 years of my life, I have had to be productive. Either because I didn't want grounded or priviledges revoked, or because I didn't want to be fired from the job that I was being paid to do. It wasn't hard for me to be productive, because I've always had a good helping of work ethic and pride in doing a good job, or my slight OCD wouldn't let me do a lesser job.

Housework on the other hand.....well, let us just say I did it because it had to be done if I wanted clean clothes, or dishes to eat on, or gross bugs to not infest my house. Mostly I think my attitude towards the house duties, were because I was pretty wore out from my job and trying to meet my husband and childrens needs, that I just didn't have the energy left to keep up on the housework.

So I'm learning to get off my butt, and do housework, because it's my home, the sanctuary for my family. I'm really enjoying the time with my kids, and the fact that I've watched my baby taking her fledgling steps all week. Mostly, I think I'd get pretty bored if I didn't find something for me to do. The other day, I cleaned the bathroom, really, really well. No one made me, it didn't REALLY need it, but I wanted to. WHOAH! That just happened?
Yup, I now have a new job, and I've settled into actually taking pride in the work I do around the house, instead of doing it begrudgingly.


It helps that when my husband gets home, and I tell him to go look, that he does, and gives me the appropriate approval comment (something along the lines of "ooooooooh nice!"), accompanied with a smirk, a kiss, and a wink. Yup, I may seem a lot more boring to some of you now, but hey, I know what that wink meant and boring isn't it.

My job has some great perks!

New Adventures!!

Sorry it took nagging from friends and family to FINALLY sit down and post another blog. Those who know me, know I'm busy. Those who don't, might guess from my posts, that with 4 children, I'm busy. Not only am I busy, but I am crazy and decided to add a whole new level of busy! I am in the process of building a roller derby league, (while being Wife, Mom to 4, and Skating Carhop/Sonic Manager) !! Yeah, I had to go back to work. That's another story, but basically food prices went up more than our skimpy food budget could handle. *sigh*

Sorry, back to the subject at hand...

So I love roller derby, duh! With our family trying to conserve money, driving to Kansas City once a week for practice was NOT in the gas budget. Also, playing games wasn't going to change from Sunday's to Saturday's any time in the near future, and I couldn't justify breaking the 4th Commandment anymore (you know, the whole keep the Sabbath Day holy, and yeah, derby is not exactly holy). Plus I really wanted to spread the derby love to some women who like me, said they'd love to, but couldn't make the drive.

So at the end of last season with Dead Girl Derby and my Royal Pains, I told them all I was leaving and going to start a league in St Joseph (which is only half the drive for me). Being scared and intimidated about starting a business from the ground up, I talked with several of my derby people to figure out what I needed to do to get started. (a.k.a., I cried HELP!)

Jeff, one of the DGD BoD members (also a ref known as Don C. Nuttin), decided it would be good for DGD to help set things up so they would have other leagues, near by, to play. So he has been helping me with paperwork, while I have done a lot of foot work.

I named the Blacksnake Roller Girls. I found a place for us to practice. First practice was the beginning of November. It was just me, and another girl who (due to a car accident) wasn't able to finish recruitment with DGD, and was looking for another chance at roller derby. I was worried that's all that was going to show up, for longer than could stand. Lucky for me, that wasn't the case. The next week there were two more girls. The next week, two more. It spread slowly, some girls coming to check it out, then didn't come back. Some girls, like me, were hooked and couldn't come back soon enough.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I wasn't expecting much turn-out, but it seemed that growth had plateaued at about 12 girls. I need 15 to have a team so we can play games. I love roller derby, but part that love about it, is that it is that one part of my life, I'm not in charge of making things run smoothly. I had tried to recruit coaches so that I could get back to enjoying that part again, and not being the "in charge" person, but both attempts failed. I was running drills for the practices, two days a week, realizing we needed a bigger practice facility, didn't know where to find one, and was getting discouraged.

Then press happened. The Regular Joe printed an article about us on page 11. I was in the paper!!! Then the St Joesph News-Press printed and article in their Sunday edition. We were the front page story of their "Life" section! With a big picture at the top of me and some of my roller derby girls! They even put up a video!

Pictures taken by Jessica Stewart/St. Joseph News-Press

The next day, people kept telling me what a nice article it was, and how cool it was, or they couldn't believe I was crazy enough to play roller derby ("Do they really throw elbows and punches?!" P.S. no that's a penalty and derby girls don't like penalties).

The best part about it, was the interest it gathered. I have 6 girls who say they are going to come to practice tonight! SIX GIRLS! If they get hooked, and stay, that's my team! That means, in 2-3 months we will be paying games! Oh games how I've missed you!! (If you've read earlier posts games=bouts, but I've switched to using the word games, because it's a more widely understood word, *sigh*)

Last night, I took 7 of my girls to watch a DGD scrimmage practice (basically game practice) so they could get a better understanding of how the game works. (It's so much easier to watch it, than to try to explain it.) They were thrilled and getting more and more anxious to play. Me too ladies, me too.

So, I'm a little more excited when I put on my fishnets and skirt, and hoping that by the end of this month, I can call the Blacksnake Roller Girls, officially a team. I'm hoping come, the end of March, or beginning of April, we will get to play our inaugural game against one of the teams of Dead Girl Derby. I'm hoping I can find a coach to take over coaching, (I keep telling the girls I don't think I'm very good at it). I'm hoping I can find an affordable, bigger practice facility.

I'm hopeful. I just know, if I can get this team off the ground, there will be no stopping it.