Sure you can!

At the ski hill on Saturday one of the 20 year olds who was with the group (Lets call her Sally) wanted to go try out the black diamond runs (the hardest runs on the hill) but she was sort of scared.

"Come on" I said.  "I am sure you can do it."

And I was right.  Sally skied down the first black diamond very well.  In fact, the dude she was with (who was bragging about what an expert skier he was) was left in the dust (or in this case the snow).

After the first run I said, "See!  What did I tell you? Nothing to be scared of"

We did 10 more black diamond runs until I was confident that she knew what she was doing and would be ok.  Then I said that I was going to go back across the hill to the beginner runs and see how Megan was doing because I had not seen her in a while.  

The good news...... when they called from the hospital three hours later.....they said that they did not think Sally's leg was actually broken! 

Apparently, Sally decided that I was right.... she was a super good skier!!!  Then she decided that she was so good that she should try out some of the jumps that were on the course.

In reality, she tried "one" jump.... and it was more of a "splat" than a jump.

Apparently, too, her buddy boy had taken a different route (or he was so embarrassed by how much better she was than him that he took off), so when she wiped out she had to lay there for like 15 minutes before someone realized she was hurt. 

When she showed up back at the hall later that night she had a huge brace on her leg, but she was still smiling and did not seem mad at me.... but I did notice that her buddy stayed away from her for the rest of the night.

The moral of the story:  Encouragement is a good thing..... to a point!

Alternative moral of the story:  If you really want to impress a girl... do not ski off and leave her laying in the snow with a possible broken leg.

Alternative alternative moral of the story: (As Sari often points out to people - especially little kids when I am bugging them)..... The only time you should listen to Tim is in church!  :)