Home-a-gain, home-a-gain, jiggity, jig...

Post #478 - 21 days until my blog-o-versary

(yikes, I need to post everyday and double up to keep with my end of the deal)

 - over 100 followers :)

There are 21 days left to end my 3-100-500 give-a-way - if you haven't entered click on this link to be directed to the correct post to leave a comment.

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Up and going on this Monday morning. Plane landed back in California around 10:15pm and we were home by 11:15pm. As always, it is good to be home and back in ones own bed.

It was a great weekend and very busy between the hockey games and visiting with my parents...so that is why I didn't have a chance to post any update throughout the weekend - so here is a brief summary.

Thursday 11/3 (my bday) -

Up early to get in my workout, finish packing, get an early breakfast around for the boys to eat while I shower and get ready to go. Adorned with the traditional birthday hat (see photo below), we snapped a few bday photos of me with my boys and then headed off to the airport.

Just incase the hat doesn't give it away...I am the short one in the middle :)
 Robert is my older son on the left and Matthew, my younger on, is on the right.

I wore the hat to the airport, in the airport and on the airplane (but finally took it off for the 4.75 hour flight). Upon touchdown, after the flight attendant announced all the arrival information she then proceeded to announce that it was my birthday...when Robert kindly informed her of...and all 180+ passengers sang "Happy Birthday" to me...so of course I had to put the bday hat on., which I kept on as we departed the flight in the Midway airport and wore it all the way down to the baggage claim where we met up with my parents and sister.

They were very excited to see me, Matthew and Robert, who made it down to the baggage claim a few minutes later as his whole hockey team was travelling together on our flight. Once luggage was collect, my parents/sister said good bye to Robert, who was staying with his team at another hotel as did I...then we all left for our respective hotels. My parents/sister stayed in the same hotel as Matthew & I while Robert & his hockey team stayed an hour north of us.

Once at our hotel, we all settled in. I enjoyed a nice bday dinner with my parents, sister and Matthew in the hotel. It was the first time in a long time since Dad & I celebrated our birthdays together.

Friday 11/4 - Let the hockey begin

Matthew had 2 games on Friday - 10:30 and 4:30...perfect times. His team lost the first and tied the second. Both were good games...and Matthew played very well. His grandparents and aunt had a good time watching him play. In between games, it was lunch at Noodles & Co - a favorite place with the other hockey moms I travel with (my parents/sister joined all of us) and dinner was at Sweet Tomatoes with just parent/sister and a cousin of mine who lives in Chicago. He took the train in from downtown Chi-town to watch Matthew's evening game and have dinner with us. It was nice to catch up with him.

While watching both of Matthew's games, I was missing 2 of Robert's; however I was getting texted highlights throughout. Robert's team won both of their games on Saturday - Robert scoring in both games. The first game he had the game winning goal and the second game he scored the first to get his team going.

Saturday 11/5

Early morning alarm for this day - a 4:45am breakfast call for Matthew followed by a 5:45 departure for the rink in order to be ready to play the 7am game. The games for this day were in a different rink. That is one thing to be aware of when going to the Bauer International hockey tournament in Chicago, one certainally gets a good opportunity to visit a lot of different hockey rinks. There are over 1000 hockey players from over 400 teams that decend upon the city over the weekend for this tournament.

Matthew's morning game ended up in a loss and put them in 4th in their division, thus making their last game a consolation game with a 1:30pm start time - which they won 8 to 6. Nice to end on a win...and nice that Matthew finally got a goal which was the last one of the tournament for his team and an empty netter :) He worked so hard over the weekend, he was due for a goal.

With Matthew's team done by 3pm on Saturday - done with the whole tournament as well - Matthew and I jumped in the car with my parents/sister and headed an hour north to watch Robert's 5:15pm game. While I would have rather seen Matthew's team do well and advance to the sweet 16 instead of the consolation game, it was nice to be able to take my parents up to watch one of Robert's games. His games are fast, physical...and they are just big boys (15/16 year olds vers 12/13 year olds). 

Robert's team needed a win or a tie to advance to their quarterfinals - which they did advance with a tie. While Robert and his coaches commented that this was not their best game, my parents/sister were very impressed with how Robert and his team played. We waited for Robert to come out of the locker room to tell him "good game" and for my parents to get a photo with him...then it was time to head on back to our hotel.

Sunday 11/6 - time to start packing up

Because we never are sure how these hockey tournament weekends are going to end up, we always plan for the best outcome - making it to the championship. Which means, we find out what time the championship game ends and plan our flight out around that time. In short, we had all day to kill as our plane didn't depart until 7:30pm. But that is ok, we have found ways to "waste" time until we have to be at the airport.

Yes, I know that Chi-town has a lot of great museams and great places to visit...but by Sunday we are typically fried and, if we have no games planned, then the focus becomes homework and completing everything before getting on the plane. So that is what we did Sunday. Matthew slept in, had a late breakfast and finished up his last few assignments so he could turn them in when he got back to school. I got up and hit the workout room while receiving texted from a fellow hockeymom from Robert's team, so I could keep up with the 8am quarterfinal game. Sounded like a good one that went into OT...unfortunately they lost 3-2 with 1:32 left in OT. Bummer, but they had a great tournament.

After saying goodbye to my parents & sister around 12:30pm - they headed to visit a friend before heading to the airport - we left the hotel [too] to have lunch and walk around a few shopping malls before we headed to the airport. We met up with Robert's team in the airport food court a little after 4pm.

Matthew got one more Chicago hot dog and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dinner...and, with a Ben & Jerry's "addicted to chocolate" milk shake in hand, Robert spotted us and came over. It was like a little reunion - after not being together for 3 days. Although I think the brothers missed eachother - for they packed up their stuff and headed down to the gate together leaving me behind with some of the other parents and Robert's team. Oh, well, it does a mother's heart proud to see her children get a long (even though in her heart she know that it is temporary, for as soon as they get home that loving, brotherly fighting will start all over again :) ).

...and now back to reality

It was a great weekend. Always nice when you can combine a hockey weekend with a family visit - even if it is short. It was good to catch up with my parents and my sister and they all enjoyed spending time with Matthew and seeing Robert, even brief as it was. They loved watching the boys play hockey, too.

Today it will be back to work and back to school. However, I will need to get the hockey bags and suitcase unpacked and the laundry started before I leave for anywhere.

Gotta go, thank you for all the birthday wishes over the weekend - it means a lot. Until next time, remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa

Happy Halloween!

Post #476 - 28 days until my blogoversary - 100+ followers and growing :)

There is still time to enter my 3-100-500 giveaway if you haven't,

just go to this post and leave a comment.

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Tonight's the night...when all the spooks, ghosts, and goblins come out...so beware!!! Consider yourself warned :)

But I am glad that you stopped by...here grab a handful -

What is your favorite Halloween candy - do you like the little candy corns that come out only at this time of the year, or do you go for the chocolate or maybe the suckers, swedish fish or tootsie rolls? You know, while I am aware of the fun the kids have as they go door to door, ringing the doorbell and shouting "Trick or Treat", neither of my boys particularly like candy. Sure, they will eat a Hershey bar and love a pack of M&Ms...but we always end up taking 98% of the Halloween candy to work. When we lived in Minnesota, the school district there had a program where they collected the kids' Halloween candy they wanted to share for the food shelves which are typically void of things like this.

We won't have to worry much about sharing our candy this year, for between covering for employees who want to leave early to be with their family members and the boys' hockey practice there won't be much Halloween celebration here. But it doesn't sound like the boys are too upset.

Thank you all for your comments and thoughts about the pumpkin carving design for my part-time job contest...unfortunately due to working in*Store #1* all weekend - and allowing DH to have a whole weekend off without stepping foot in either store, something he really needed - I didn't have the energy to carve anything creative or out-of-the-ordinary when I got home on Saturday or Sunday. I did carve a basic "Jack o'lantern" face with 2 eyes and a mounth with teeth so that the pumpkin didn't go to waste but I am not going to enter it into the contest. He will stay home and get ready to sit outside later tonight. Poor guy :(

Yes I worked all weekend and it went pretty well. It has been a long time since DH had a full weekend off, not setting a foot in either of our stores. It was like our rolls were reversed the whole weekend....I was in the store and he was playing the Hockey Taxi driver. For Matthew had practice both days and Robert had games both days. So, while DH didn't get much rest over the weekend, he did get time with the boys - which is priceless!

This week is going to go by fast I think...the boys are off of school today due to an teacher inservice day, but of course they saved all their homework to finish today (kids, what are you going to do with them?). Although, I think that Matthew told a teacher or two that he was going to be absent from school on Thursday and Friday, for there is another hockey tournament coming up.

This time I will be flying with both my boys to Chicago on Thursday...November 3...my birthday. In fact, Robert's whole team and some of Matthew's will be on the same flight so I can celebrate my birthday in the morning 35,000 feet in the air. And then as soon as we land in Chicago, we will be meeting up with my parents and one of my sisters. They will be joining us for the hockey weekend...and to celebrate birthdays. Not only is my birthday on the 3rd, but so is my father's. I was born on his 25th birthday - pretty special present, huh? It will be nice to be together with them for it has been a long time since I was with my parents for my birthday.

Well...lets back up here and stay focused...stay in the present...remain in the NOW and take it one day at a time because there are a lot of things I need to accomplish before I get on that plane on Thursday.

Well, I am just rambling on right now. This will probably be a good place to wrap up the post!

As long as we convince ourselves that we’re so busy and our work is so vital and we can’t afford to slow down, then we don’t have to look at our own lives and the personal issues that are so difficult to address: a marriage that isn’t working, a career that isn’t satisfying, children we’re out of touch with, friendships we’ve outgrown, associations we need to move on from, the creativity we’ve been afraid to explore, our deepest fears or childhood traumas that have been holding us back from leading truly fulfilled lives.

~ Elaine St. James

Tomorrow doesn’t matter for I have lived today. ~Horace

Until next time, remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Back home and caught up

Back home from the hockey tournament in Chicago. Flying into the Chicago Midway airport on Thursday afternoon...the day of all those tornados and bad weather in the southern mid-west...wasn't very fun! Lots of turbulence and several quick drops, making it feel like we were on a roller coaster ride as we were into our final decent into the airport. I was very happy to be on the ground, but it took awhile for my stomach to leave my throat.

The tournament started on Friday with two games to be played, followed by two games on Saturday and Sunday and the semi-finals on Sunday morning. Yes, that is right I said: SEMI-FINALS! Matthew's (my youngest) team made it into the semi-finals by beating another team from California (strange to come all the way to Chicago to play a team from home)...this is the first time that Matthew's team made it to a semi-final game by winning a quarter-finals game. It definitely was an accomplishment. In the Semi-Finals, they met up with a very good team and lost 6-3.

With two games a day, there wasn't time for much except:

EAT

SLEEP

AND PLAY HOCKEY!



The NorCal Sharks - giving their cheer...Matthew is number 22...you can kind of make him out on the lower right hand of the pile.



 ...and that is basically all we did the whole weekend. Even Sunday, when we had 5 hours between the end of the Semi-Finals and the time we had to be at the airport - we didn't do any more than eat lunch at the nearest Olive Garden and then hang out in the hotel lobby so that the boys could get caught up on their homework before getting on the airplane. During the weekend, Matthew and I shared a car with another hockeymom and son. It is fun to travel with another mom/son combo on these weekends.

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Oh yea...during the last game, the semi-finals, Matthew not only scored the first goal of the game but also blocked a shot with his hand...which resulted in a minor injury. Either the ring-finger on his left hand has a little fracture or just a major broken blood vessel...but it is slightly swollen and turned a beautiful shade of purple. With a nurse on the team, she helped put our mind to ease with her recommendation of pain killer and lots of ice for there really isn't anything to do for a broken finger. While initially, there was lots of tears when he came out of the locker room, after an hour with ice he was able to move it without any pain; so we just kept ice on it throughout the day and on the plane ride home.

His coach was very proud of his "Purple Finger" for he was the only one who was blocking shots during the semi-finals and seemed to be one of the few awake and mentally present to play.

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I was able to find moments to get some X's made on my Family Sampler - time hanging out at the rink before game time and at the airport waiting for the plane. I will get my camera and get a snapper to show you the next time I post.

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Now back home, I spent yesterday basically catching up at work, home, laundry. We finally got the boys' spring/summer hockey clinic schedule figured out, which was one of my big stressors. We have a little breather for a month with only their school, track schedule and Robert (older son) spring hockey team practices to deal with leaving the big hockey clinic committment for later in May when all track is over.

With that decision made, I just have to keep focused on the trade show I am organizing for my job; as well as helping out at *The Store* during the two big holidays coming up: Easter and Mother's Day! Don't forget to order your fruit centerpiece for your Easter brunch and a special healthy surprise for your Mother :)

Well...I have kept you long enough. I hope all is well with you! Until next time,

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Back home and trying to get caught up....but got spoiled instead.

Well, I am back home from the hockey tournament in Chicago. Robert (older son) and I got home at 3:30pm yesterday afternoon...which allowed us to attend Matthew (younger son)'s hockey game, an unexpected joy. We weren't suppose to get home until 10:30pm, but because Robert's team didn't do as well as we hoped, they were done playing Saturday afternoon (for they won 1, lost 2, and tied 1 thus not making it out of their division to play on Sunday)...so we moved our flight up to the 1pm departure. It got us home early enough to drive home, take the suitcase and hockey gear out of the car and jump back in to hear off to the hockey rink. Glad we got to see Matthew and his team play because they won their game...and Matthew even scored a goal! Way to go Matthew...Way to go Devils!

Even though Robert and his team didn't do well, we still had a good time in Chicago. I even had an opportunity to visit with a member of our Friendship Sampler RR group - April. She, her DH and kids came to the Saturday afternoon game (Dad and kids left for a lunch date, giving us time to get to know eachother). April and I took turns do a "show-and-tell-what-is-in-your-needlework-bag". Boy was her's full of fun stuff!!! She even had a few little gifts for me...lookie what I got to add to my stash:

Several Lizzie Kate patterns and a Pine Mountain July kit...how cool is that. Thank you so much April!!! It is opportunities like that...to meet fellow stitchers, that make traveling with the hockey team that much more meaningful.

And while we are talking about fellow stitchers and packages...when I got home last night, there was a package waiting for me on top of the mail pile. It was from CindyMae. "Why would I be getting something form CindyMae?" I asked myself. For I am the one who should be sending her something (like the Christmas Quaker Ornament models that I am just finishing up for her). I opened it up and found this:

 

It was a Birthday package...Joy to the World pattern, Sekas & Co "A Fall Heart", Sekas & Co. "Watercolour Ghosts",  The Prairie Schooler "M*N*O", Just Nan "Diamond Bouquet", and Just Nan "Needle Story"...and a scissor fob, which she stitched and finished her self with cupcakes on it. I love it...and now I definitely have an excuse to splurge/treat myself to a pair of fancy scissors! Boy, did I get spoiled by my stitching friends!

 

Now I am trying to get caught up, for I had 5 loads of laundry to wash, dry and fold. Which I have just about put away. This week the boys have Wednesday off due to Veteran's Day...so we are planning to stay home and have a cleaning day (each son will be assigned several cleaning jobs). The house needs to be cleaned - so this will be a good opportunity.

 

Well, that is all I have to share right now...need to go and make some milk shakes for dessert! Take care...and remember to Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often - Lisa

On our way to the Windy City for Hockey...

Look out Chicago, we are on our way. This weekend my older son and I will be in Chicago for the Bauer Invitational Hockey Tournament. This is the third year he and his hockey team will be playing in the tournament (just to clarify...this is the first year that he is here with his Bantam team; the last two years he was with his PeeWee team). Since he had a 1/2 day of school, I have decided that I would let him miss today so that we could leave early, getting us into the Windy City early to check the team into the tournament, check into the hotel and get a bit to eat...this also lets him acclimate to the 2 hour difference between here and there.

However, the opening night and the "check-in" for this tournament are are staged at the "main" rink (fyi...we play at 3 different rinks through out the weekend) and it is WILD. On the top floor of this rink, is where I have to go and check in the team. Last year they had a huge food buffet, a cash bar, music and several hockey oriented vendors marketing their products. In addition, in the lobby they are displaying all of the famous NHL trophies which you can get your picture taken with, there usually are several retired NHL players on hand to sign autographs and so on. It makes for a fun beginning to the weekend.

In addition, I looked through my list of the Friendship Samper RR members to see if there was anyone who lived in Illinois...and there was: April. She and I have emailed back and forth making plans to meet eachother. It looks like we were able to plan something for Saturday (I am not planning to bring my "big" camera, but will have my camera phone with me, so I will try hard to remember to get photos!). And speaking of stitching...yes, I know I haven't really shown anything or had a posting dedicated to stitching in a long time...I took some time to kit up 2 Christmas ornament patterns for the ornament exchanges I have signed up for. I look forward to stitching them, just as soon as I finish my last model for Cindy (I am so close!!).

Which reminds me, the Needle Show "Retail" opens today at 2pm EST...so, I guess I will have to wait until later tonight or tomorrow (between hockey games) to go through all the designers who have signed up to be apart of the first "retail" show. I already spent my birthday money on a new purse and wallet (since my favorite bag was stolen last week)...but maybe I can find a little extra $$$ just incase I find something I "need".

Anyway...I have ramble on enough for today. I hope Thursday finds everyone well. Oh, yah, one more thing and then I will conclude this posting. My 1st blog-o-versary is coming up and I am in the process of putting together a giveaway...so stay tuned.

Remember...Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often! Lisa