February 14th

I am not one to be all bummed out if I don’t get an awesome Valentines present, I’m also not the one that bashes the “holiday” either.  I think if you have kids, I am really good with helping him celebrate it with his friends and whom ever he wants to be his Valentine. I am trying to teach him to be an awesome “friend” and give great trinkets when needed, not always store-bought, the handmade kind are far better than anything bought! With that being said this is what we did this year.

I worked with Austin in my office, because J had trial all day. Aust was bored to death… Just me and him in my office all day… that can be draining for both of us!  He read some and played on my I-Pod for a while, I made some practice math problems using measurement, he is having a little bit of a hard time with how many pints are in a quart/quarts in gallons etc and my being a food person, I know those so well!!! We usually don’t do anything to big on Valentines day, accept cards and a small gift for Austin!  We decided to make a couple of cheesy Valentine cards for J during the day, to say the least I was out of any imagination and all I could come up was to put the pictures below on 2 pieces of paper and put them in an envelope and then Aust drew hearts and people all over the envelopes!

The pics we used for our goofy hand made card to daddy.

 

I am such a dork.

 

 

 

LOVE YOU DADDY

 

 

 

Love you J

 

 

 

 

HEHEHEHEHEJust as cheesy

 

Just as cheesy

 

 

 

I usually do not go to hockey practice on Mondays, I have my reasons – that’s a whole different post!!! I decided to go since it was Valentines, didn’t feel like fighting traffic in the storm and J had to work as soon as practice was over. We had coffee and hung out for an hour. We left a little late from the rink. Austin had his 2 Valentines to give out, one to his really good friend, that he has liked forever and then one to his Valentine, he picked out 2 cards the other day, and he wouldn’t tell me which was for which, I figured it out finally but!!! He also said he wanted to get them both bracelets, we settled on necklaces, I thought they would get worn more and seen more and not as many chances to get broken. We had our great friend Dawn make 2 small charms with the girls names on them. Austin chose IZZY, instead of Isabelle, he says that’s what he calls he, not so sure he dad is going to like that!!! We went through all of my little charms in my scrapbooking things and he picked out the sunflower to go with Isabelles and the very faint heart to go with Allie’s. He picked out the necklaces and the small containers. On Sunday, he picked out everything to make the tags and did that, he picked out the candy and finished the presents off. We stopped by both girls houses, which luckily they live very close to each other because it was 8pm by the time we got there! He did a really good job with everything, he really does have a heart of gold somewhere underneath the shy, very boy, hockey player that he is!!!

Isabelles name charm, before Aust added the sunflower (thanks Dawn)

Isabelle's custom name charm with the added sunflower charm!

Isabelles tag for her little bucket of candy!

Isabelle's Card and Present

Allie's custom name charm, thanks Dawn

Allies charm with the heart attached.

Sorry about the bad picture, clear things are hard to take pics of - Allie's tag for her present.

Allies card and present

Allie and Isabelle's cute little Valentines from Aust

At Allie’s she gave him a pencil and some cookies - he would not share at all, and he started using his pencil right away!!!

 

J and I both got these hearts for our Valentines last week, love mine, it’s up on my bulletin board at work.

Love <3 LOVE <3 LOVE <3

Hope everyone had a great Valentines day, however you want to celebrate it!!!

Seattle for less than 24!

The life of a youth hockey player on a travel team, never home! Actually it’s been kinda weird, we traveled a lot the first part of the season, 3 tournaments and a lot of round robins, between lower mainland B.C. and Spokane, it seemed like we were gone almost every weekend from October through December. We had our own tournament the first weekend of the new year and then one other weekend of home games this year (2011). We had a trip a few weeks ago up and back to Lynwood in a day for 1 game, but it’s been pretty calm, we played the Junior T-birds last night and this morning in Seattle.  The problem with a small organization like ours is there is no teams close and since we are relatively close to B.C. that’s were the competition is, and they have so many other teams they can play, they don’t like to come here to play. Austin and his team will play around 40 games this season with only 7 of those here in town. A few things with that, not many people get to watch him play and it becomes very expensive and time-consuming always being on the road.

Our room, it was a King bed with a pull out sofa sleeper for Aust.

Sorry about the flash, this was the kitchen in the suite.

So this weekend it was Seattle for two games, last night at 6pm and this morning at 8:45am.  We stayed in an extremely nice hotel,Residence Inn – Seattle Bellevue it was a suite with a kitchen, there was a gaming room in the lobby for the kids with 4 X-boxes, including Kinect. Which by the way, Austin either extremely bruised or broke his big toe on his right foot. Not sure of which, he was in a lot of pain last night and a lot more this morning. We told him it would be stiff this morning, and that unfortunately the thing with toes is, there is nothing you can do. The doctor can’t do anything… So he had the choice to tough it out and play today and continue to skate, and if needed we can ice it after, or be done with the season and not be able to start the baseball season on time.  He is the tough hockey player I know he is and he played, and skated just fine. We iced it on the way home in the car and it is very bruised and he can’t really move it and it’s swollen…

So J got home at 8am from work and went to bed until noon, Austin and I hung out and did laundry. We left about 1pm, the weather wasn’t bad most of the trip, until we got closer to the rink in Renton, WA. Team rules are – you are at the rink an hour before game time so you can warm up. We got there at about 4. We have played the Jr. T-Birds before yesterday 4 times, tied 1, lost 1 and won twice. We went into yesterdays game down 2 players, 1 with an injury and 1 not able to be there. We dominated that game, we were on fire. We won 4-0!!! Austin had an awesome game, he played very physical on the boards and very positionaly sound for the most part, had quite a few decent SOG and got the game winner! We had eaten lunch late, so we didn’t go out with everyone for dinner at the restaurant we went and checked in to our very nice hotel in Bellevue that we were in for 9.5 hours…

Pre-Game Routine, having dad tie his skates as he listens to his favorite pre-game music!

We then went and tried finding something lite and quick to eat, we ended up at Bellevue Square Shopping Center. SO NICE… I wish I had enough money to shop there! We ate outside at this place called Dog in the Park. It was part of the shopping center, but it was only like a storefront you accessed from the front and it was freezing cold outside, at least it wasn’t raining, but it was windy. The tables they had were under cover!!! Aust and I had chili cheese dogs and J had Louisiana spicy sausage. They were awesome and most of you know I hate hot dogs!

Goofy pic of Austin and J outside freezing, eating our dogs!

OK, so my eyes are ridiculous, because I was SO COLD, I have on long sleeve shirt, sheatshirt, toque, and my down rink coat and still cold.

 

Sorry for the blurriness, it was COLD, but the buildings downtown Bellevue were so pretty.

We ended up back at the hotel, Aust played in the gaming room for about 45 mins, then he went to bed and we watched “Up in the Air” different movie, not one of Clooney’s best. Got up extremely early, had breakfast at 7am and headed to the rink at 7:15, had to be there at 7:45, game at 8:45. The boys didn’t come out real strong and the T-Birds did, we put the first goal on the board and it went from there, we ended up losing 4-3. Aust played decent, the team as a whole was a little off.

We left Renton around 10:30, stopped in Chehalis at a few of the outlet stores grabbed lunch and got home around 3. J and I took a quick nap before going to church tonight. Came home and Austin finished his 2 special Valentines for tomorrow while we are watching the Grammy’s and I am writing this.

No hockey games for him for 2 weeks, then it’s the long haul, he has 4 games and 1 tournament in the month of March, we are gone every weekend and then some, it’s also the end of the regular season for me and the start of playoffs on March 25th. The next few weeks aren’t too bad, good thing!

VALENTINES DAY PARTY in A’s 3rd grade class!!!

 

If you know me, you know I am the first one to volunteer for anything, especially when it comes to A’s school. Drives J crazy sometimes, because I kind of include him most times when I volunteer! For example, we were both at the Christmas class party planning meeting and then because the team had a game on the actual party day and J was on vacation, he got volunteered to help out during class, with all the other moms!!! Back to this holiday, I couldn’t attend the meeting for this party, but I let it be known, that I would bring the water and a snack or whatever! Well I got an email from Austin’s awesome teacher and was asked to bring the water and stuff to make fruit kabob, for the heathy snack.

Of course being my kid, he can’t have store-bought Valentines that just wouldn’t be right! So I gave him several ideas on what he could make and he picked 2 different ideas, 1 – girl idea, 1 – boy idea, and a whole separate idea for Mrs. Foster’s Valentine! We did these last weekend so they were all done and there was no rushing, because of his school/hockey/elective schedule and my work schedule our weeks usually leave little time to get things done before bed, you must be extremely organized to be in our family, (ok I am seriously lying about that, I am the only organized one, I am trying my hardest to make sure Austin is getting organized and well J… that’s a whole different story).

So, yesterday I went and purchased all the fruit – oranges, apples, strawberries, grapes, star fruit, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple and blueberries. I made 1 chocolate dipped strawberry for each classmate and I also found pink marshmallow hearts and some of those half-dipped in chocolate also.  You know I could not just cut the fruit into chunks, it had to be creative! The melons and pineapple were all cut into the shapes of either hearts, x’s and o’s or flowers!  I also got a little creative with the water bottles and thanks to Tiffany’s help, they each had festive wrappers with cute heart labels with their names on them!

Just the boys water bottles.

Just the girls water bottles

The water bottles up close!

All the water bottles together.

X's and O's watermellon

All the fruit set up for the kabob station! (Not sure why these are blury)

Another mom made yummy rice crispy treats with pink and purple nerds!

The pink marshmellows half chocolate dipped

Rhylan, LeAnna and Kaylin getting their fruit kabobs

Austin picked these cute little “rockets” made up of a package of Mento’s and Hershey Kisses (with caramel). Austin cut out the black “wrappers” and wrote on them and drew out the flames, he stuck the little fuzzy guy on and the Hershey Kiss. Tiffany and I taped the black “wrappers” and the flames, because they were a little tricky, because of the paper being so stiff.

All the boys "rocket" Valentines

Austin picked out the words!

Easier way to read them!

He then picked out these cute heart Valentines that have a barrettes on them, that we glued hearts on. He used my Cricut to cut out the Valentines, wrote on them decorated them with the heart stickers and picked out which hearts went on the barrettes he chose. Tiffany and I hot glued the hearts on the barrettes, and maybe used a little too much hot glue!!!

The girls' hearts!

For Mrs. Foster’s gift I traced out Austin’s hands and he wrote on them. That is a new fragrance at Bath and Body Works, makes me want to go to Maui RIGHT NOW!!!

So Cheesy!!!

I took a longer lunch today, so I could help out during class and got some great pictures. It is always fun to help out a few times during the year in A’s class. I love that school as you all know. I obviously see A’s personality at home and at hockey, but school, not so much. I always hear nice things from his teachers and other parents, but it’s nice to see a whole different side to him. I had an extremely nice mother that must help out quite a bit, say that she absolutely loves Austins personality that it’s infectious…

Such a ham

They did a craft today during the party, they were given large “lace dollie” paper hearts and decorated them! They are sweet. They also played a few games, pin the heart on the animal! Who can stack the most conversation hearts the fastest and highest! Bingo with conversation hearts! Then famous couples, this was the best. There were mostly Disney characters, we attached the names to the back of the kids and they had to ask everyone else questions to figure out who they were. For a laugh, I put Princess Fiona on Austin, the whole class was roaring! They all had a lot of fun with that, Mrs. Foster was Cinderella!

Emily's Valentine heart craft! Very cute!!!

Everyone quietly playing conversation heart bingo!

I love this picture of Emily

Playing famous couples.

I am so glad I got to help out, it was fun and I think all the kids had a great time!

More on Valentines in a few days.

2nd Quarter Honor Roll

I checked Austin’s school’s website as I do everyday and today 2nd Quarter Honor Roll was up. I knew his name should be on there and it was!!!  He made it with a 3.67, cut off is 3.5.  I don’t think this is his first time in 3 years making the honor roll, but I will say this is his first year that his grades have jumped up a lot.

My kid is super smart, it’s a fact! Okay, every parent thinks their kid is super smart and I am sure they all are. I will be the first to say my kid is not an all A’s type of kid. There are some areas that are just not his thing and I get that and I am okay with that. Not to say we don’t help him to strive to do better in those areas, or in all areas! I just tried to look back to see what his grades were the 1st quarter, I do know he has brought one subject up from a straight C to a straight B and a few others up also. He has 3 B’s (one is so close to an A)and 6 A’s.  I am sure some of you are thinking, umm Austin is only in 3rd grade and I would be right there with you if I didn’t see his homework everyday!

I am going to RAVE about his school and I am not trying to offend any of you whose kids go or went to public school. I am in that category and as far as I’m concerned I got a fair education, that also was quite awhile ago. The education system is well not so good and we are fortunate enough to be able to send Austin to a great private school. I am going to ramble about that in just a min too. I am the first to admit to everyone that I am extremely uneducated about the public school systems, the knowledge I have is from other parents – mostly complaining, I honestly think I have 1 friend who doesn’t complain about their school district and it’s because they live in a smaller town. The other knowledge I have about public schools, especially here in Oregon and Washington is from the media and we all know how they exaggerate the truth, because the honest truth doesn’t sell ratings.

6 years ago, we went looking for a pre-school for Austin, he needed more than day-care and we wanted to get him ready for school. A few of the other cops in Gresham and a family I worked with at Les Schwab had their kids at Phonics Phactory and couldn’t say enough good things about it! That right there was all we needed. He has been there for 6 years – Pre-School, Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1, 2, 3rd and yesterday I enrolled him for 4th. A lot of people enroll their kids in private school up until 1st thinking it’s going to give their kids a better foundation, I would like to keep and make that foundation grow. He will continue to go to that school until they do not offer his grade and or until he moves for hockey and honestly I have two hang-ups about him moving away for hockey, one is finding the right billet to help raise him and the fact he will have to leave Phonics Phactory before I want him too.

I can’t say enough good things about his school. Everything there is just right for us and for Austin. His school prepares the kids from 1st grade on for the real world, day planners and responsibility and uniforms, yes uniforms, they are not that big of a deal, and honestly most people jobs require a uniform – that could be a Les Schwab uniform down to the business causal or here at the team – game day attire is much different from my normal work day. As a hockey player, he has to wear his track suit – and a regular suit those are all uniforms if you will. His day planner is a life saver, homework is never forgotten. The fact he goes to school only 3 days a week, T-W-T, this hugely helps with his intense hockey schedule, he never misses school for a tournament, ever! What’s awesome is that his school year starts after all the public schools do and ends way before, yet with only going 3 days a week, he has more teach instructor days than public school kids. We don’t have half days, or in-service or budget cuts… WE HAVE EDUCATION.

His school is at least 1 if not 2 full teaching grades ahead. I will say that if he went to public school I would push for him to be in 4th grade, he has a late birthday so he is in 3rd, where all his friends at public school are in 4th. It’s okay, because I know he is learning at the same or higher level than that. There is a lot of work, actual work that gets done in class. He missed a whole week, the first time in 6 yrs of school and I thought we were going to die at the amount of work we picked up for him to get done, 3 days worth of school and 2 weekends worth of homework. Justin sais Austin, next time you are sick, I don’t care if you are in a hospital bed, you are going to school!!! He has quite a bit of homework most weekends, but it’s fine, it’s normal and we don’t know any difference. He has tests almost every week in different subjects.

His subjects range from Science, Language, Cursive, Reading, Math, Spanish, Music, Spelling and PE., History.  He will tell you he’s not a number kid, but he is… he knows all of his multiplication facts up to 12 which is the basis of all other problems, they started long division this year and basic algebra and he is a pretty awesome speller, he did have a streak of 6 weeks getting a 100 percent and we are not talking easy words – this week he has all 4 of these – thought, thorough, through, though…! In 5th grade they start to learn Latin, I know everyone is always LATIN? Ya, because it is the foundation to everything. If you know Latin, everything comes easier – Math, Language, Science, makes total sense. I think you get the gist of his school work.

His homework some days, wow so different from when I was in school, when Aust missed that week, he had to ask Allie to explain how to do 2 math problems cause no one could figure it out, not me, Justin, Mema, Michael… no one! It’s hard to forget how to show steps when I already know the answer! It’s a fun and creative school also, they had to do a commercial for one of their book reports and stuff like that. It over all is the best thing education experience all around.

At the beginning of this year, the homework and class work were significantly different from last year, I head 4th grade is even harder jump. It’s a battle some weeks, some days with hockey and homework, but we get it done.  At the beginning of the year a few kids dropped out and went to public school, Austin said that he heard it was because it was too hard. I don’t know if this is true, which I can see, there are some days, I think to myself, we wouldn’t be struggling with him if it were easy – then I step back, listen to what I just said, slap myself and move on to the next math problem with him! I told Austin in October, there is no way you are ever going to another school, you are smart enough and just have to focus.

The other day when I got his progress report and it showed a 3.67, I said  Austin, no way you are quitting, someone who has the schedule you do and still can pull a 3.67 you belong in that class, in that school. He knows it, he just likes to push it sometimes.

A few reasons personally Justin and I chose a private school, and it is Christian, the school is not affiliated with any church though. We wanted him to have a Christmas Program – not a Winter one, we wanted him to Pledge Allegiance everyday and use the word GOD. He needs to have that balance in his life and he has learned so many valuable lessons from that school. I wanted the smaller class sizes, – 16 kids in a class. He is the type that would get lost in public school, he would be bored which causes trouble! We love the fact that we know the majority of the staff and the owners quite well. That we can go talk to them at any time and know that honestly my child is not 1 in 5000, he is 1 kid they know, they know by name, they know by personality, they all know that hockey is his life, they all know him… That is what is so awesome about his school.

Being a small private school, you get to know most families that go there and that rocks. I love how tons of families came out to the Alice in Wonderland play that didn’t have kids in the play, just to support other kids and the school in general! The kids depending on age, every term can choose from electives that are after school. Last term Aust took Drama, he has taken Lego Robotics before, and M+M Club – which is a bible study group he LOVES! He has also taken Floor Hockey for the past 3 years. Three years ago it was for 4-8, I asked because of him playing regular hockey if he could join and he had a blast, same last year. This year it’s for 7th and 8th graders only, except the teacher asked if Austin wanted to play, so he started last week and of course LOVES it… He said he scored 7 goals last week, not sure if I believe that or not, he tends to embellish when it comes to goals in floor hockey! He wants to take boys – hip hop lessons this term also, not sure if he will yet…

I have rambled so much about his school, but I could talk about it for hours, and have so many stories and so much positiveness about that school and what it does and how it’s ran… I LOVE HIS SCHOOL, point-blank.

This whole thing started with my kid making honor roll – which there are 16 kids in his class, and 13 of them had GPA’s this term at a 3.67 or higher… our school is fairly small 1-8th grade there is 200 or less kids, I would say less… and 124 kids were on that honor roll. That right there is a testament to how awesome that school is. Also, I was trying to get the point across that his school isn’t easy and that honor roll and 3.67 is a huge achievement, at least in my book!

Sidenote – his school is not that expensive for a private school and for the education he is getting. There are highly expensive private schools in the Portland area and my guess is the education is either the same or ours might just be better – but then again I am biased!

GPA2ndqtr2011

SMILE

LOVE - LOVE - LOVE the smile!

I just looked at the above picture of Austin and realized how much I love that picture and here is why.

It shows his true emotion about the game in which he loves so much. It shows how happy he is on the ice. Granted he is not always this happy on the ice. I have seen so much emotion from this kid when he is on the ice. It’s a mix between happy, sad, disappointed, elated, frustration and pure LOVE of the game.

A lot of people think that Austin plays hockey because I work in the industry, but it is quite the opposite. I work in the industry because Austin plays the game. Here is a quick look back at Austin and hockey.

When I worked for Les Schwab, the store I worked at was the district advertising store, so all of the advertising for the entire district went through our store. At the time Les Schwab was a sponsor for the Portland Winter Hawks, Justin was working afternoons like always and Austin and I would take advantage of our free tickets to the hockey games.  I vividly remember when Austin was 4/5 mos old at his first hockey game. We were in a suite that night and people in the suite next to us wanted to see him, he got passed around about 5 suites! He didn’t mind it at all, except for the goal horn, which now I think is his favorite sound, well if he is playing that is! We got to go to a lot of games for the first 2.5 years of his life. When he was around 2 he said I want to play hockey.  We told him he would have to learn how to skate first, thinking that would be the end of his want to play,  you all know how that ended! He started out in group lessons, which was a very bad experience and I don’t think he learned much after his first few lessons. At one point we had the instructor come and tell us that she talked to Austin and he said he didn’t want to skate and we should not try to push our dreams on him… I so want to go back to her today and say, wow you were so right…  He eventually started taking private lessons when he was three. he was doing great, then we had the set back when he had his accident and had to take 6 mos off. He picked it back up just like he had never stopped. He joined the Portland Junior Hawks at age 5. You were suppose to have passed 2 learn to play hockey classes to be able to join at that point, neither class did he take. He has been playing roller hockey outside for a year and that was it.

I remember the first practice he had as a 5-year-old. It just so happen to be the day of his 5th birthday party also! I was so nervous, probably more than he was. I wasn’t sure his attention span would last the hour. He had never been on the ice with his stick… he had never take the lessons the other kids had… I had no idea what to expect.  I certainly didn’t expect for it to become his life.  As my career choices changed, I found myself without a job for a while and then I started volunteering at the Winter Hawks and finally made it a paying job.

Hockey for Austin has shaped his life in so many ways and will continue I think for a very long time. When he was 5, if his group was not listening they all had to do push ups! He also started T-Ball later that year – big mistake, here is a kid that liked baseball and new the basics and also was a hockey player now for 6 mos and new he had to behave and listen or there were consequences, T-Ball on the other had been like a vacation sport, you could do what ever you wanted!!! It was not much for him to say the least.

In the 5 years Aust has played hockey, he has gone from not knowing anything to being on travel teams the last 3 seasons. He has seen the joys of playing and the rewards of playing the greatest sport (well at least in our house!), he has seen how the dream of playing can come crashing down in an instant due to injuries and age. He is very realistic when he plays and he is very realistic when it comes to his future. We, especially him, never talk about “playing in the NHL”, it’s always about this season and what he can do to make it on the top team next season. He does have a goal, he wants to attend Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy in Kelowna BC when he turns 12/13. That is a realistic goal, one he can obtain if he continues to want it and continues on the path he is on. He has made comments about playing in the “Dub” but that even is a very long ways ahead.

Hockey is not a very forgiving sport. It starts as a very early age and it does suck the regular kid life out of its higher players. Austin is always at practice or lessons, or away for tournaments. Thank goodness for the school he is at so that he doesn’t miss any, was we usually leave on Fridays for tournaments or Thursday afternoons.  He has had to do homework in the car, hotel rooms, or in the locker room just to get it done some weekends. Practices 3x a week, private lessons on top of that, most of his time is spent on the ice or in a rink. Kids in the neighborhood are always at the door wanting him to play, the other day our neighbor asked him to play, I hear Aust say, sorry I’m leaving soon to go to practice and I hear our neighbor say “AGAIN”! So funny, because any one outside of the sport, doesn’t get and probably will never get it. It’s one of the most expensive sports there is also, especially here in the Pac NW, where we don’t have a lot of anything hockey. We buy most of his equipment either when we are in Canada (seems like every other weekend some months,) or online.  He spends his summers at camps here in Portland and in Canada. I am sure some people think we push him, but it’s just the opposite, that kid lives to be on skates, he lives to have a stick in his hand… He has hockey in his blood, I don’t know how, but he does and he lives for this sport.

There have been times when he has had practice and a game and then we will stop by the mall and he will want to free skate on the rink there. I always say, aren’t you done, aren’t you tired of skating and the answer without a doubt is NO. It’s his choice, he knows he can say, I’m done and there won’t be any backlash! At home, he does play with regular kid stuff – legos, bakugun or what every trendy toy is out there, PS3 and the Wii, he is a regular kid, but he plays knee hockey any chance he gets, he is always in the garage shooting at all hours of the day. He has taught all the kids in the neighborhood how to play! He is a HOCKEY PLAYER. It is HIS LIFE, HIS LOVE and HIS DREAM. I will never stand in the way of it, even if that means losing my baby at age 12.

With my job, I deal with the players parents all the time and it is my favorite part of my job. I have awesome parents and I have learned a lot from them and I hope I will be ready if he makes it to POE in Kelowna (that is 9 hours away from Portland if you didn’t know.). Well I won’t be ready emotionally, but I will hopefully know what to expect in all other aspects, that is a plus with my job. J and I won’t be naive or taken back by what happens in this sport at such young ages. It is demanding and hard, physically and mentally and I know Austin is a better person at age 9 for having played for 5 years, I am excited to see him in 10 years at age 19 and how much this sport has shaped him. 

He will miss a lot of normal kid stuff growing up. I saw it this season, he has missed friends birthday parties, playing with his friends, school activities, holidays at home. He has stayed in hotels more than probably all his friends combined at school, he learns to do homework in locker rooms, hotels and the car. He has gotten so much that his non-hockey friends don’t have – the comradery, everything that comes from being in hotels all the time – the pool, the pranks, the being in hotel rooms by yourself when all the parents are hanging together at night, the friendship that will last a lifetime. lessons about losing and humility and pride when you score and the happiness when you win, the soft spot for your goalie when he gets lit up. This life is hard, but it’s worth everything to my little boy. 

I know I have rambled a lot! That is how my mind thinks, so just go with it, if you have ever had multiple conversations with me, you will know this is how I think! This whole post came about because I was just staring at the above picture of Aust!

 I found the below words a long time ago, it’s on my bulletin board at work.

IS THIS WHAT WAYNE GRETZKY’S MOM FELT LIKE EVERY TIME HER SON WAITED TO GET ON THE ICE?

Do you think her heart leapt into her throat so full of pride watching her son play a game that he came to love more than anything else?

Do you think she could already tell by his passion for the game that he would become one of the greatest players the sport has ever seen?

Or was she just another mother worries about keeping her child injury free for another game?

Perhaps she was hoping that his team would win so that she wouldn’t have to muster up the words necessary to ease a bruised ego and wounded pride.

Perhaps all mothers of the great one’s have that one moment, that moment when they can feel the passion that radiates from their child.

It’s all because of  a love of a game that drives them to practice at all hours of the day and night and the want to play every chance he gets.

That moment when they look out on the ice and see something different from you and I

It’s their playground, their dreamland, and it’s their LIFE.

I will leave you with a conversation between Aust and I the other day.

Aust – Mom, what do you think is the better goal, the tying or the game winner?

Me – That’s a good question, which do you think is the better goal?

Aust – I would want to get the tying goal to get my team back into the game!

I don’t know to many other 9-year-old hockey players that would take the tying goal, over the glory of the game winner.

LOVE MY KID!

FIREWORK

I took this last summer, J's favorite firework he buys them every year.Good thing we still close to Washington.

 

One of my favorite songs right now is Katy Perry’s “Firework”. I love every lyric in this song. Almost daily – on my way to work, it comes on my XM and I turn it up to as we call it in our house “Mommy Volume” and sing to the entire song at the top of my lungs. It makes me feel good about starting the day and that I need to realize that I am a “FIREWORK”

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind
Wanting to start again

Do you ever feel, feel so paper-thin
Like a house of cards
One blow from caving in

Do you ever feel already buried deep
Six feet under scream
But no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there’s still a chance for you
Cause there’s a spark in you

It takes a lot of COURAGE everyday to remember that I am a FIREWORK and some days are harder than others.  Heck some days I am just a sparkler and other days I am a dud.

You don’t have to feel like a waste of space
You’re original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe you’re reason why all the doors are closed
So you can open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it’s time, you’ll know

I am learning to let go of being a perfectionist – it’s really hard if you wanna know the truth.  I am the one that has to finish something when I start it right now – no sleep, nothing else until it’s done. I am letting go of that, last night was a step for me. We emptied out Austin’s old room, since he has moved to Kopi’s room. I am going to put all my scrapbook stuff in there, YAY ME! Anyways, we started moving stuff in there last night and at about 11pm, I still had a lot of things I could do. I sat back looked at everything and said “self, just go to bed, this can wait until tomorrow” and off to bed I went. We won’t mention I watched Parenthood after I went to bed, but I did let go off not finishing a huge project which took a lot of doing.

I will pick up on the project tonight and again tomorrow night, and each night that I have time until it is done, and I am OK with that.

I am done rambling for today. I hope everyone realizes that they too are a FIREWORK.

Tweedle Dee and other ramblings

Aust was awesome as Tweedle Dee. He remembered his lines, we could hear him and everything was great. The play was a success and all the kids did such a great job. There was something like 93 kids in the entire production. HUGE!!!

Aust was very hard on himself, he said he didn’t do good because he forgot his lines, before he went on stage – he remembered them all once on stage!  On Friday night Grandma Karen and Aunt Jessica were there and so was Tiffany. On Saturday night, all the Elliott’s came – Katie, Josh, Jake and C.J., Mema, Poppa and Vyonne all came! Thanks to everyone that supported Austin and his school. Much appreciated.

This weekend was very nice and calm, I got a lot of things accomplished. I now have a legal OR drivers license, we won’t talk about when it expired! Two hours in the DMV is enough for me for a while. Had a great dinner with Tiffany after the play on Friday and went home and watched the NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft.

Saturday, Justin had to be at the track most of the day until Austin’s play. Austin had a birthday party of one of his classmates – great place to have a boy’s birthday party – inside a college gym – they could be loud and run!!! I registered Austin for baseball – he hasn’t played since T-Ball, just because of his hockey schedule I always forgot to register until it was too late. This time he kept reminding me!  Austin and I went and ordered drinks off the underground menu at Jamba, that was fun! Then we chilled at home until he had to be at the play. We had signed up to help breakdown everything at school – which is typical of us and it was nice reminder why I love that school and the owners!

Sunday found me actually keeping my phone on silent, it was a team day off and I decided I would go “radio silent” I had no alarm and woke up at 10:30. We deep cleaned the house, made a trip to Ikea and then church. Gotta love Church at 5pm! Austin loves youth group – not sure which appeals to him more, hanging out with Allie, or Allie’s brother Evan and the chance to learn more about God. He is happy that with his hockey schedule we should be able to make the entire month! That is a rarity.

I feel extremely accomplished starting this week! Our schedule is a little off as Austin starts another youth group at school on Wednesday’s since drama is over and he starts his floor hockey at school on Fridays. I have 2 big games this weekend and normal practice for Austin M-W-F. Justin is on days for training, that makes us all happy he is home all night. Justin has to teach on Saturday, so he will miss that game. That’s a typical week in our house – the fact that it’s not typical!

Hope you enjoy the picture of my lovely Tweedle! Look at the enthusiasm in his face.

“I’ve never met anyone named sorry before.”

 

Today is the day… the day my hockey player becomes an actor, it might only be for 2 performances and a small part at that, but it’s still something so new to him, well at least the actual acting, he is dramatic most of the time anyways.  His school is putting on what looks to be a great performance of  Alice in Wonderland. 

He asked back in October if he could take drama as an elective and my first question was what girl is in drama.  Turns out none, well at least not the ones he likes, although the girl he does like her sister is Alice and the performance is made up of the drama class, choir and the dance class, which Allie (the girl he likes) happens to be a part of.  Drama has been a lot more work than we all thought. I didn’t realize how much time that this was going to take. I really thought it was going to be just a class and then when I heard they were doing the play, I thought it would be a simple play. Umm, NOT, which is good for him to be diverse, we were joking last night, won’t this look good on his resume’ just kidding! I have said several times I might not have said yes if I would have known how much time it was going to take to get to this point. He makes his commitment to hockey and to his team and we don’t like for him to miss practices, and he has had to miss 2 this week. Then again, it’s just 2 and his only 9 and then again it is HOCKEY we are talking about.

When they found out what play they were doing, Austin said he wanted to be Alice – what? because she had the most lines… oh! Then he wanted to be a doorknob, me being me I said I really wanted him to be a doorknob so I could just say that my son was a doorknob!!! He ended up with the part of Tweedle Dee and I think it suits him just fine. He has known his lines pretty well for at almost 2 mos and is ready to go, I THINK. Both J and I are very nervous for him, this is a major production with wireless mics and video and everything. I am sure he will be fine, he said he is a little nervous. After watching dress rehearsal yesterday, he said he wants to take hip-hop lessons, because some of the boys break-dance during the tea party. That makes me laugh so much. 

One more quick story about the play tonight. So Allie – Austin likes her very much, she is the cutest little girl ever! Last night he said… Umm so, Allie looks different with blush and other make-up on, and without her glasses. I asked, good different or… His response – YES GOOD DIFFERENT!!! 

There is no flash photography or video aloud at the performances, I will see what I can get and post up here.

My word for 2011 – COURAGE

I really like reading articles and tidbits of life from Ali Edwards, life artist. She does so many cool things in her life, and one of them is her word for the year. She chooses a word that comes to her and lives by that word for the entire next year. She defines it in her own words and that word opens up new possibilities for her. I have wanted to do this for a few years now and like most things, I don’t take it seriously. This year I am taking it seriously and will stick by my word for the entire year.

I am going to borrow this definition of COURAGE – from a book I am almost done with – “The Gifts Of Imperfection” by Brene’ Brown. She by the way ROCKS!!!

ORDINARY COURAGE - is about putting your vulnerability on the line.

As a perfectionist it’s very hard to deal with vulnerability. The best way I know how to deal with being vulnerable is to not put myself in those situations where I might be exposed. So in other words, not live life to the fullest. If there is one thing I can teach Austin in life it will be to live life to the fullest, have no regrets and never look back, unless it’s to smile!

This blog is going to be a place I can share stories and events in my life and I am making the commitment to stick with it. I will make the time to share whats going on for those of you who do not live close and for those of you that do but don’t get to see me and my awesome family enough. I hope you enjoy my crazy rambling!