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I’m Back!

After a short, but much needed hiatus, I’m back to blogging.  The last several weeks have been amazing, busy, hectic and exhausting, which is why I took a break for awhile.  I may have lumped in a pretty awesome Momcation trip to Turks & Caicos as well, but that’s a story for a different day.  This spring has felt pretty disjointed as we’ve been at the rink for almost its entirety.  Due to Goalielocks’ injury, he wasn’t able to get back on the ice until a couple of week ago!  While Goalielocks was anxiously awaiting the chance to get back on the ice, the Mayor took the time to relax for a bit.  Since hockey has become a year round sport, it’s not a bad idea for a kid to take some time off.

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Goalielocks injury was quite scary and took two months for him to be symptom free.  He missed a lot of school, which caused a lot of stress for all of us.  In between missing work to care for him and making up school work once back, it was exhausting.  I’m grateful for his Assistant Principal and his teachers, who were extremely supporting and understanding upon his return to school.   At this point, he’s symptom free and back to normal life.

My job changed in February, the week before Goalielocks injury.  The job has been quite rewarding, but not without its challenges.  Fortunately, I have a great team that’s eager to work and improve the operation.  Nonetheless, it has taken up most of time and will continue to do so.  Consequently, I’ll be trying to post as often as possible, but it won’t be daily as it had been for much of the past year.  Speaking of which, my one year blogversary was last Thursday.  It’s been a great year!  I had intended to post on the anniversary, but David Grohl and the Foo Fighters had other plans.

I have enjoyed the Foo Fighters since their debut, but was never a mega fan that had to have their latest record.  I do have several Foo Fighters on my running and work out playlist, but I had no idea how amazing there really are… That is until last Thursday, when I surprised Jake with tickets to the Foo Fighters.  Holy cannoli batman, David Growl and company put on one hell of a show.  Not only are they amazing musicians, but they’re complete showmen.  It was awesome.

While I went into the concert liking the Foo Fighters, I came out of the concert absolutely loving the Foo Fighters.  Admittedly, after the encore I may have pulled the Wayne and Garth “I’m not worthy” move, they were that good.  I’d write more, but there aren’t nearly enough superlatives to adequately describe how great they were in concert.   There simply aren’t enough.  I’ll link to someone of the videos here, however, it is a rock concert so the language my be questionable for little ears.   Unless, of course, your kids – like mine – watch Family Guy.

Some of the highlights were Everlong, Big Me, Best of You, Monkey Wrench and Sky is a Neighborhood.  They also played some incredible covers while Grohl showcased his bandmates.  I loved this part of the show and can totally appreciate that Grohl may have needed to rest his vocal.  This portion started with an Alice Cooper cover led by Foo Fighters lead guitarist Chris Shifflet on vocals.  He was outstanding.  As Grohl introduced the keyboardist, the keyboardist began to play the unmistakeable melody of John Lennon’s Imagine.  It was at this case, Growl implored the crowd to join him in singing a song he knew could unite us all.  Jake was ecstatic thinking we were about to launch into a sing along of one his favorite songs Imagine.  If only….. In one of my favorite moments of the night, Dave Grohl launched into a cover of Van Halen’s Jump.  It was freaking brilliant! I’m not sure how they did it, but it worked and was masterful.

This was the second concert for us in the past week.  Last Saturday night, we took the boys to see Jimmy Buffett and the Eagles.  Before going into the stadium, we met up with some of my co-wokers in the parking lot for some tailgate action.  Needless to say, we entered the stadium feeling pretty damn good.  I was a bit disappointed that they sent Jimmy Buffett right on at 7:00 to a half empty house.  Most shows I’ve been to hold the acts until the building has at least somewhat filled out.  In fact, the Foo Fighters held until 8:30 because it was such a cluster getting into the park.

Even though Jimmy played to a half empty stadium at the beginning, my boys and I loved it.  By the middle of his set, as the sun went down, the stadium filled up.  There was a short break between Jimmy and the Eagles.  I took advantage of the moment to go meet my brother and sister-in-law near the bar a few sections over.  They managed to get some primo seats at the bar that were standing room only, but at a phenomenal location. Once it became clear the Eagles were about to take the stage, we moseyed our way back to our seats.

The Mayor of course was somewhat reluctant to go back to his seats as he “hates” the Eagles and doesn’t like listening to live music.  Don’t worry folks, in ten years when he’s exceedingly grateful to have seen two legendary groups, I’ll be sure to remind him of how much he hated every moment of the concert.  To be clear, even if he liked a minute, he wasn’t going to share that with us on Saturday night!

As for me, I thought the Eagles sounded amazing.  Deacon Frey is the spitting image of his father and sounds just like him.  It was obvious, however, that he’s not quite comfortable on stage yet, but that will come and didn’t detract from the show.  Joe Walsh and Don Henley both sounded great as well.  I’ll be sure to link to some of the videos from that concert as well.

It’s great to be back on the site!  I can’t wait to share the pictures and experiences of my Momcation trip to Turks and Caicos.  It was magical.  Here’s a preview. It’s an absolute privilege to spend time with strong, intelligent, professional, kind and beautiful inside and out women.  It was exactly what I needed.

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Changes

Over the past several months there’s been some changes in our lives. The major change has been a new position for me at work. While the move was lateral, it came with a significant uptick in duty tempo and responsibilities. My role changed in mid-February, which coincides with the stoppage of my daily blogging. I love writing at night, but frankly I’m completely exhausted by the time I sit down to write.

The good news is I love my new role and my new team. Last week some of us participated in the 2018 Mercedes Benz Corporate Run in Fort Lauderdale. I had high hopes for a stellar finish, but the two enormous bridges, my tendons and my endurance had a different idea. Perhaps I’m being too tough one myself after all it’s my first race post injury and with orthotics, but I don’t think so. Of course, the upshot is I know have a new baseline to work from.

This past weekend the Hubby and Goalielocks headed to the west coast for hockey, while I stayed behind. The Mayor headed to Epcot Saturday after an exceptionally early non-hockey wake up call. This was his first time to Disney and he had an absolute blast! He would love to go back some day, but if given the choice he’d rather go to the Keys or back to Atlantis. (He’s a smart boy!)

Saturday I didn’t do entirely too much other than get my hair cut, run to BJ’s to pick up groceries and relax. I spent much of the day following the Humboldt Bronco story, which continues to devastate our hockey community. Life is far too short and far to precious. In honor of the Broncos, I wore green today. Moreover, we’ve put our sticks out in tribute as “the boys may need them.” Please continue to hold these families and their community in your thoughts and prayers.

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Tragic Day For Hockey

It was a tragic day for hockey.  Today our our hockey community mourned the loss of fifteen lives in a horrific crash involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus and a semi.  For many of us hockey parents, we’ve been on the proverbial bus trip with our youth hockey player or sent our kids/billet kids off on the junior bus.  In fact, this morning I sent my youngest on a bus up to Epcot.   I was a nervous wreck the whole time he was on the road.

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For the uninitiated, junior hockey is available to players 16-20 years old and a great stepping stone into NCAA hockey or professional hockey.  My boys have played in a program that went from mites (U8) to juniors for several seasons.  Unequivocally, the youth players revered their junior counterparts and were devoted fans of our junior teams.  Similarly, the junior players gave back a lot to our youth players.  They spent time at practices, watching their games and cheering them on.   It is an amazing relationship that exists between these players.

During Jake’s first U16 year (Goalielocks Squirt AA, The Mayor Mites), we had a billet.  Biebs had been with the Hawks the previous season and really bonded with our boys.  If he was going to come back to Palm Beach, he wanted to stay with us.  Fortunately, Biebs is an awesome kid and we enjoyed having him here.  It really allowed us to see the level of commitment and effort it takes to play junior hockey.

Throughout his season with us, Biebs would jump on the Hawks bus almost every weekend for games.  Every time he was on that bus, I would worry.   I worried that something would happen on those Florida back roads that span our state east to west.  Or I worried that they’d get hit if the bus broke down.   When you billet a player, they become a part of your family.  This morning my heart sank for the Broncos community particularly for the families and billet families. I can’t imagine their despair as their worsts fears came to fruition.

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The thing about tragedy is that it tells you a lot about the character and gumption of a community.  Our hockey community is tight knit, strong, generous and supportive.   Regardless of where we are from or what level of hockey we played or our kids play, we stand with Humboldt.  They say there is no crying in hockey and for the most part it’s true.  A hockey player could lose teeth, take a clapper to the face or have their bone broken by a shot.  Not only would they not cry, they’d try to keep playing.  Today, as we mourn the loss in our community, there’s crying in hockey.

I love our hockey community.  The Gofundme campaign is already over $2 million.  Moreover, tonight as I scan Facebook, the pictures of the Jets (Winnipeg) and Blackhawks (Chicago) game popped into my feed.  In a show of solidarity with Humboldt, both NHL teams wore jerseys with Broncos on the back instead of their own names.  Before the puck dropped, they met at center ice in an incredible show up support to Humboldt.   Many of the players that have made the show, cut their teeth in junior hockey.  For these players, they’ve been on hundreds of bus trips.

Lastly, hockey is an incredibly expensive sport.   This is especially true at the junior level where many players are playing away from home.  After the tragedy of yesterday’s crash, many of these families are faced with unexpected bills and loss of income.  A  Gofundme has been setup to help these families offset these unexpected costs, please consider donating.   Tonight I’ll hold my boys a little closer tonight as life is precious and not promised.  #prayersforhumboldt

Here’s the link to the fundraiser: Funds For Humboldt Broncos

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Exploring The World

There’s nothing I enjoy more than exploring the world with my family and friends.  Last month, we were in the Bahamas for a fun and relaxing trip with family.  This weekend the Hubby is headed West for an adult hockey tournament with Goalielocks, while the Mayor will head to Epcot with school.  Jake will be working, which means I’ll have an entire Saturday to myself!  (Say what!?!?!)  If I didn’t have all these blisters on my feet from starting to run again, I’d probably go get a long over due pedicure.  I’m just a little concerned about picking up an infection with the blisters, so I’ll probably go shoe shopping instead.

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Before I get to my super Saturday, I have a 5K on Thursday night.  It’s all about the preparation with these races, which means I’m facing an uphill battle.   I’ve trained pretty steadily for the past two weeks, but it isn’t going to be sufficient to yield favorable results.  My goal is to get back under 30 minutes, but I don’t think this will be that race.  Nevertheless, it feels great to be running again.  To be clear, it feels good after I’m done running not while I’m running.

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Next weekend I’m headed to the islands for a well deserved momcation.  I can’t wait to be on a beautiful island with incredible women and incredible beaches.  Its been a hell of a first quarter and this is the perfect way to recharge my battery for the second quarter.   Honestly, I cannot wait to disconnect for a few days while in the company of great people.   Plus, you cannot beat the beaches in Turks and Caicos!

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One of my goals has always been to travel more and see different places.  The trips don’t have to be long, but just enough to get away for a bit and explore a new city.  Consequently, I’ve been thinking that for the boys’ birthdays, it would be better to take them on a weekend getaway than buy them something.   I love the idea of shared experiences over material goods.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  Lastly, Goalielocks hit the ice for the first time in earnest since his injury almost two months ago!

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Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter to the blogosphere. I don’t know about you guys, but I started my day with a sensible breakfast of eggs. While the breakfast of eggs part was true, the sensible not so much. Unless, of course, your breakfast of eggs was made up of Cadbury eggs.

Our egg/basket hunt was a bit disjointed as Jake had to leave for work before Goalielocks woke up. While we could have woken him up to hunt the hunt, it’s better to let sleeping beasts lie. Though shall not wake up a teenager unnecessarily. We’ve learned that lesson the hard way.

The boys enjoyed their baskets. Admittedly, they were quite simple, but we’re trying to move towards a less is more kind of lifestyle. Fortunately, I planned the candy but well so as to leave enough extra Cadbury Eggs for the hubby and I to enjoy.

For the majority of the day, we chilled at home binge watching the Trailer Park Boys. If you’ve never watched this show, you’re missing out. The show follows the unbelievable antics of three friends in a trailer park. Unfortunately, for these guys the park provides a pretty toxic environment.

We also made so progress on the remodel project we’re starting in our family room and kitchen. After some debate over paint colors, we narrowed it down to three choices. Consequently, we headed to Home Depot to get some samples. Afterwards, the Hubby painted the sample on to the wall in two areas, so we could make an intelligent case. Here are the colors? What are your thoughts?

Lastly, the Piggie and I got in a good four mile run this afternoon. Admittedly, neither my speed nor my endurance is where I’d like it to be heading into Thursday’s race. While I’d love to finish the corporate run (5K) below thirty minutes, I don’t think I’m there yet. Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes on Friday.