Tennis Lessons

I've spent the past few months taking weekly group tennis lessons. How does an adult start taking tennis lessons? I've always wanted to be able to play the game. I've never had anyone want to play with me. One of the ATP series takes place a couple miles away every summer. When I was twelve, I was reading the sports section of the community newspaper. The sportswriter was impressed with a 17 year-old player named Pete Sampras. Cool! He was only a few years older than me. The writer seemed to think his potential was limitless. Flash forward twenty years and we know how that turned out. I convinced my best friend in high school that he was cute. In the era of Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Martin, and Chang, at least the Grand Slams were covered on tv. I was watching.
This summer, I had time on my hands. I received a postcard from a health center associated with an area hospital. They were offering classes called Tennis in No Time. I decided this would be it. Afterall, I had promised myself that I would exercise more while I was looking for a new job.
I took the TNT class and then they offered a follow up class for June. In July, it was the TNT grad class. In August, the TNT PHD class. By the time the regular classes started in September, I was hooked. I even had an extended Facebook conversation with someone I met at Laurapolooza about the benefits. It's exciting to know that I'm not the worst player in the class, as opposed to every year of gym class. Brian, the instructor, kicks our butt once a week. I can tell that I can run from one side of the court quicker than I could in May. One of the ways, I know this? I've lost 15 pounds and 10 inches since I started tennis. I haven't changed anything else besides not going to work. :) I know I have a lot more to go, but I'm pretty happy about making that much progress.

Now let's just see if Santa brings me a tennis raquette for Christmas...

Button string

I know how many Laura Ingalls Wilder posts can one person make? I wanted to show you a craft, I think I have finished.
At Laurapolooza, we were given several different crafts. One was a button string. Laura and Mary strung Ma's buttons on a string at one point to entertain Carrie. I strung the original buttons we were given. Then I realized I still had many of the packs of buttons you receive when you buy a shirt. I decided to expand the string using those. Why hide them in a drawer?
Here's some photos:

The whole string

The left side


The right side