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Monday Night Mayhem

It was Monday night Mayhem when I received an urgent call from my Hubby as I drove to the rink for his and Jake’s game.   Unfortunately, their team’s goalie wasn’t going to to miss tonight’s game.  They wanted Goalielocks to suit up and play for them in the championship.  Never mind the fact that Goalielocks at 14 isn’t old enough for adult league.  But from a maturity stand point I’m not sure most beer league players are old enough to play in adult league, so Goalielocks would likely fit in perfectly.

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He was not to keen on the idea of being pummeled with pucks from beer leagurers living out their childhood fantasies of playing in the NHL.  However, the Hubby and Uncle Jon convinced him that nobody on the ice could shoot as fast or hard as anyone on his current team.  It took some convincing, but he eventually acquiesced as we drove back to grab his gear.

They held the game for us and our gear.  Consequently, Goalielocks quickly got dressed and took to the ice.  For Goalielocks, the game was a much slower pace than what he’s use to, but he was busy from start to finish.  He played phenomenally.  I’m pretty sure he’s the only goalie in beer league that can do the split.  This nice little trick caught the other team by surprise a couple of times.

Unfortunately, they pulled him with 5 minutes left in the 2nd when an adult goalie replacement was available.  Apparently, you have to be an adult (chronologically speaking) to play adult league.  While they’ve made exceptions for goalies before (in a pinch), it’s better from a liability standpoint to have an adult goalie in net.   He came off the ice smiling, but was still bummed he didn’t get to play the whole game.

Goalielocks walked into the locker room to get undressed and with a smile said, “they owe me a lot.”  And he would be right, he was kept very busy in net tonight.  Fortunately, he gave their team an opportunity to win.  In the end, he watched the third period from the stands with the rest of us fan.  Unfortunately, the goods guys lost 3-1.

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While he didn’t play the whole game, I could see that he enjoyed the opportunity to play with his family.  Likewise, judging from their reaction, they enjoyed the chance to have him in their net.  Of course the best part of the night, for my boys, was the free pizza, wings and beer post game.

Sometimes all compasses, all roads, and all maps lead us back to the same place.  For my family, our compass apparently only points us in the direction of the rink.  Moreover, forget the compass for a second, when I got leave to work or my house, my iPhone tells me how long it will take to get to the rink.  Such is life as a hockey mom and I wouldn’t change it for the world!

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P.S. Goalielocks also gets bonus points for making his mom dinner.  He made me awesome scrambled eggs and waffles!  The waffles were amazing!  Finally, the scrambled eggs were divine.

Tonight’s song is Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful) performed by Celine Dion.  I love this song.

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Black Friday

Unlike many Americans, we spent our Black Friday morning at the hockey rink at not the mall.  Quite frankly, I can’t stand the malls down here in season let alone on Black Friday.   Unquestionably, the normal rudeness and ineptitude ramps up a couple of notches when season kicks in.  If there is anywhere someone would get shot over a cheap TV, it would be here.  Needless to say, I’ll be avoiding Best Buy and the mall for the next month.

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I think that’s probably why Cyber Monday is more my thing.  No crazy people or horrible drivers to contend with as I surf the web, what could be better?  Nonetheless, the younger two and I did venture out to Dick’s and PetSmart.  Neither store was incredibly packed and both were well staff to handle all the shoppers. My boys left the stores empty handed much to their chagrin.  To stores was all I could handle, however, so it’s back to shopping online.

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We started out morning at the rink.  If you ask me, a 9:45 am game is way too early for bantams.  I thought the scheduling Gods would be smiling on us by bantam and we’d get later games.  Honestly, I prefer the later games as I am not a morning person.  This morning, Goalielocks was excited and relieved to have been dropped off at the right rink at the right time.

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Their first game was against the Florida Bulldogs, who Goalielocks played for 2 seasons ago.  Our squad went up handily in the first period notching 3 goals and only allowing one sort of shot on their net.   The rest of the game was much more even although we continued to out shoot them 2-1.   Moreover, our goalie came up with some clutch saves down the stretch.  As the final buzzer rang, the boys rushed the Goalie to celebrate their 4-1 victory.  We’ll be heading back to the rink shortly for their second game of the day against the Everblades, which should be a much tighter contest.

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After eating my weight in Thanksgiving goodies yesterday,  I was committed to getting in a run.  Consequently, the Piggie and I headed out for a 3.25 mile run around the neighborhood.  As with my last run, it was a bit laborious and a tough go of it.  Certainly, today’s run wasn’t fast! Hopefully, these runs will start to get a little bit easier and a little faster.

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Today’s song is “Walk on Water” by Thirty Seconds to Mars.  I love this song! Who remembers Jared Leto from MY So Called Life?  Leto still acts, but has also found success with his band Thirty Second to Mars. 

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$15 Billion

$15 billion is a heck of a lot of money.  Coincidentally, $15 billion is the size of the youth sports market in  America.  This figure includes league fees, travel costs, apps to manage teams/organizations and live stream games.  Consider that DropBox and AirBnB are both worth only $10 billion, while SpaceEx is worth $12 billion.  That’s a lot of freaking money.

At this point, I feel like our family alone has contributed $1 billion.  With all three kids playing travel hockey, I feel like we’ve been “hockey poor” for most of our adult life.  When I was growing up, our sports followed well defined seasons.  Year round participation in one sport, which drives up costs significantly, simply didn’t exist in our youth.  Now kids are specializing in one sport early often by the time they’ve started middle school.  The problem with specialization in one sport early on is for the increasing incidence of overuse issues and burnout.

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There’s a ton of pressure on kids to make both club and school teams as they pursue college scholarships.  Its a vicious cycle.   As parents we complain about early specialization, but we’re also a big driver in extending the seasons of sports.  I read an interesting article on this topic today in the Star Tribune.  The author wrote how many high school coaches had been pressured into offering off season training for their programs.   This, in my opinion, created a vicious cycle where athletes feel that they have to specialize and work at their craft year round, while coaches feel pressured to coach and offer programs year round.

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How do you solve this problem? I certainly don’t have the answers.  But somewhere in the middle, there’s gotta be a balance.  All I know is that its exhausting and rewarding for everyone involved.

Meanwhile, we had our 5th game of the weekend this morning.  My morning was more than a bit hellacious.   Sadly, my phone wasn’t working correctly and I couldn’t get the rink info off of it.  I sent a text to a group text, but alas we’re all super sarcastic so that didn’t work.  Coincidentally, it didn’t help the lack of mimosa situation either, but I digress. As a consequence, I drove Goalielocks to the wrong rink.  He was livid (to put it mildly.)  Sadly, the game, much like my morning, was a charlie foxtrot.  Nevertheless, I’ve added a 16th bullet to my hockey mom wisdom blog reinforcing the importance of showing up at the right rink.

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The rest of our day, ascended from the ashes from a crazy morning.  Sometimes its all about perspective.  Midway through the first period, one of Goalielocks’ teammates got kicked with a skate leading to a deep laceration on the inside of his ankle.  In the end, medics had to respond to the rink and his teammate ended up in the ER at the local hospital.  Its amazing how insignificant  my untimely rink tour of S. Florida became against the back drop of this serious injury.  It truly is all about perspective and realizing even our worst morning isn’t that bad.

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Super Saturday

We spent our super Saturday dividing and conquering.  While I traversed the state for hockey with Goalielocks and my two brothers from another mother John and Jon, the hubby stayed in town for the Mayor’s evening games. Since the Mayor was at a friend’s for most of the day, so hubby was able to have a productive day at work.  Meanwhile, we spent 3.5 hours driving from the Palm Beaches to Ellenton on 70, which is largely a two lane road.  We had great company for the drive, althought I’m sure you can imagine how much fun this drive is.

We actually made great time, so we were able to stop and have lunch on the banks of the Manatee River at Woody’s River Roo.  This nice spot is absolute perfection for feeding hockey players, while enjoying a great drink and the beautiful location  Moreover, it’s not fancy, so you don’t have to worry about the kids breaking anything.  As I sat dockside admiring the beautiful view, I succumbed to the temptation and ordered a mimosa.   I had a cup of clam chowder and a salad, while Goalielocks enjoyed the burger.  We finished our lunch and headed to the lunch, which was less than five minutes away.

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Meanwhile back in South Florida, the Mayor was gallivanting about with his boy JM driving the Kaputa and the bulldozer.  As I sat in the sin bin between periods, I caught a video the Mayor had posted on his Instagram that had me in stitches.  It was a video of him driving in slo-mo and then speeding by.  Honestly, it was the funniest thing I saw all day.  When we finally got home after a long day on the road, the Mayor was super excited to tell me about driving both the bulldozer and Kaputa.

Both of the boys’ teams went 1-1 on the day, but both hubby and I were happy with their efforts.  While the day was as long as the drive,  the time spent was well worth the investment.  We only covered a good 380 miles in 7 hours of driving! (Thank you JB for driving our motley crew across the state!)  Our first game in Ellenton certainly didn’t end how we wanted it to, but what I enjoy most of all is spending time with my kids and with our hockey family.   The Mayor and his team did well this evening winning their game 4-1.  My Mayor was stoked that he scored a goal and his usual line mates did equally as well.

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The wonderful people that make up our hockey family are incredibly dedicated to their families.  Morevoer, they’re invested in their children and super fun to be around.  When I look at social media influencers on instagram and beyond, I see people who’s only commitment is to themselves.  Whatever commitment they had to their family or their kids is secondary to their own interests.  Its sad really.  In contrast, the hockey parent life calls for a parent that is selfless.  Hockey parents have to be  willing to dedicate of time and resources (aka money) to their children’s athletic pursuits.  I know some day my kids’ hockey careers will come to an end.  At that point, I’ll have time and money to spend on my interests.  Until then, I’m committed to living the hockey mom life.  In fact, I’ll be back at the rink tomorrow morning for Goalielocks’ game.

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Champions!!!

After 10 games in 4 days for two kids, two teams, at two rinks, tonight both Goalielocks’ and the Mayor’s teams are champions!!!!  It was a rough start for both teams.  Goalielocks’ team won Thursday night, but one of our stars was taken down in a nasty hit.  There was some concern that he would miss some games due to a concussion, but fortunately the hit looked far nastier than the outcome suggested.  Thankfully, he was absolutely fine with no headaches or any concussion symptoms post-game.  Hallelujah!  The Mayor’s team got a slow start Friday losing to a team they beat the previous weekend.

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Additionally, what is fun to watch as a hockey parent is when a team starts working together.  The focus shifts from trying to score a goal yourself to trying to setup your teammate.  In the Saturday’s second game, I really noticed this shift in the Mayor’s team.  Here’s hoping it bleeds over in league play next weekend!

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Goalielocks’ team went 5-0 on the weekend and was fairly dominant.  We got into some penalty trouble, which is pretty normal for U14AA.  The talk of the U14AA tournament was crazy megaphone mom, who makes the rest of us hockey moms look sane and normal.  I assure we’re not.   She proudly shared with one of my fellow hockey parents that the megaphone has gotten her kicked out of countless baseball, lacrosse and hockey games.  Consequently, I’m going to go out on a limb here.   I am going to assume she’s either certifiable or she’s a bit slow.  Now she is blonde, so either assumptions is equally plausible.

Undoubtedly, hockey tournaments are exhausting, but exhilarating as well.  For the hockey family, tournaments serve as reunions.  A wonderful opportunity to see all the friends you’ve made throughout the years that are no playing across the state of Florida.   I should clarify that Megaphone Mom is not from Florida.  Even us Florida hockey parents are’t that crazy.   Our level of crazy is purely superficial when compared to the likes of Megaphone Mom.

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The Mayor and hubby have been sleeping for two hours already. Apparently, there 4:45 am wake up call left them exhausted.  As a public service, I skipped the early morning game.  Nobody, and I mean nobody, should have to deal with me on that little sleep. There’s not enough caffeine in the world to make me palatable in that situation.  Moreover  I’ve been rocking a sinus headache since my migraine abated.  Sadly, it feels like a sinus infection is trying to take hold, but I’m not going down without a fight.  Overall, we had a fantastic weekend with our hockey family.   

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The Struggle is Real

The struggle is real.  By the time we get to Thursday.  I’m fresh out energy, both mentally and physically.  Life as a hockey parent can be freaking exhausting.  Through the week, we run from the morning drop off at the bus stop, to work (pit stop at Dunkin), get the kids, head to the rink, teach Zumba, conquer homework, try to get in a workout and coerce the kids to shower before bed.  Rinse repeat day in and day out.

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By the time we get to Friday, sleep deprivation is hitting its peak and our energy is hitting its low.  The exhaustion is all encompassing, yet we press on.  We derive our inspiration from our kids, while our energy comes courtesy of perpetual coffee.  We should likely have stock in Dunkin’ and Starbucks.  Any hockey mom that’s been around for more than a season knows exactly where to find her favorite coffee near every rink.

Notice how I say we because I’m fairly certain that I’m not alone in my craziness.  It’s not just me… Seriously….  Ask any hockey mom or day and they’ll tell you. As I left work today, I let out a smile as I realized this weekend’s games were home!  Winner, winner chicken dinner!  The realization that  I don’t have to drive to Tampa this weekend was almost transcendent.  Of course at this time of day on a  Thursday, I’m looking for any win.

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I headed home feeling a bit uneasy about life and my path.  Its easy to feel that way when exhaustion fits in.  Thank god for my beautiful, energetic and incredible Zumba girls.  These ladies rock my world (not that way you pervert) and always bring a smile to my face.  There’s nothing like a great workout to clear your head and remind you how great life truly is.  Thank you endorphins!

 

Closing out my Thursday with a rocking Zumba class is the best way to launch myself into productive and happy Friday.  Not every moment in our life is picture perfect.   Moreover, there will be times in our lives where our progress doesn’t align with where we envisioned ourselves.  That’s okay.  So maybe you’re not where you want to be professionally or personally, who cares.  Ultimately the control over where you land is with you and only you.

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Priceless

We were playing a team they should have handled with relative ease, but in hockey (as with any other sport) you can’t take your opponent for-granted.

Throughout the entirety of the game, I had quite a bit of company.  It was clear the ref’s were intent on maintaining control of the game.  As a result, both boxes were packed throughout the 2nd with coincidental penalties.   While it jacks up the rhythm of the game, at least it wasn’t one sided officiating.

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We went into the 3rd period and the contest was farther closer than it needed to be.  Consequently, my heart was racing, my stomach was in knots.  My resting heart rate is normally around 68-70.   While Goalielocks is in net, it varies from 90-120 depending on the game situation.  According to my Fitbit, I get at least 2 hours of fat burning out of one of his games without having to lift my finger.  Its great to be a goalie mom, isn’t it?

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My dear friend Sharyn, seeing my angst, was kind enough to get Chris Kunitz to take a picture with me.  At this point, we had 6 minutes left in the 3rd and I was officially dying.  I popped out of the box to pose with the kind and very accommodating Stanley Cup winner, which knocked at least 60 seconds off the clock for me.

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Unfortunately, the boys seemed intent on causing some heart palpitations and I once again had a full box.   This time there was just over two minutes left and there were no coincidentals.  Cheese and rice, it was a long two minutes!  My heart was beating out of my chest as Goalielocks and his boys faced a 6 on 3.  They stood strong.

 

Goalielocks ended up drawing a penalty after his buddy from the Bulldogs took a chop at his arm.  Thankfully, this critical penalty ended the 6 and 4 and they were forced to put their goalie back on the ice.  The squad weathered the storm and soon (although it felt like forever) the final buzzer sounded.  As expected, the boys from both teams scuffled a bit after the buzzer.  Consequently, the refs sent both teams off separately.  Happily, this goalie mom survived and even her picture with an NHL star.

Post game we headed to Twin Peaks, which was clearly a mistake.  Their hiring practices definitely do not emphasize critical thinking, time management or anything other than looks.   While the food is decently price and pretty tasty, no team lunch should ever take 2.5 hours.   Fortunately, our groups of parents is awesome.  After all these years, we continue to enjoy each other’s company.  Nevertheless, it was a bit tough to stomach that serving our group could be that complicated.

 

For many of us, this is our 6th year at this tournament.  I was looking back at pictures from our first trip to this tournament in 2011.  Our boys were so small and so sweet.  Conversely, they’re no so big albeit they’re still mostly sweet.  The relationships my boys and I have formed over the last 6 years of travel hockey have been absolutely priceless.  There is no amount of money you could spend to replace the experience or our hockey family.  In the most critical and difficult times of our lives, they’ve been there for us and we’ve been there for them.  I couldn’t imagine life without our wonderfully crazy, wild and fun hockey family.

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A Wild Saturday Night

Oh it was a wild Saturday night here for our household.  I even got a tattoo before heading to the gastropub Saturday night to watch the Mayweather-McGregor fight.  Okay, never mind that the tattoo is temporary and I got it from an 8 year old.  It’s still pretty awesome.

As we waited for the Kennedy’s sitters to show up, a.k.a. Jake and the Mayor, my BFF gave me a tattoo and tried on my shoes.  My BFF threw on her sisters fashion forward back pack and struck a pose.  She’s cute as a button.  The sitters got there and us amazing adults headed to the pub to watch the fight.

Our reservations said 5:00 pm on Eventbrite, but the fine print said seating could begin at 8:00 pm, but no later than 9:30 pm.  What?  We got there at 8:00 pm obviously not having read the fine print.   Fortunately, not having a table didn’t preclude us from enjoying an adult beverage.  We were not seated until 9:30, but instead of a high top table with no chairs they gave us a nice booth.  #winning

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Batch Gastropub is the latest edition to Delray Marketplace and was having a big bash for the fight. The place was crowded, but as soon as we were seated it didn’t matter.  Our server was amazing.  The food and drinks were on point.  I will never complain when my next round arrives right before I finish my drink.  For dinner, I had a chicken sandwich with Brussels sprouts, while Luke enjoyed the chicken and waffles.  Since I’m keeping my carb intake low and last night’s carbs were reserved for vodka, I opted for Brussels sprouts instead of fries.   In addition, I ate the sandwich off of the bread, but ate no bread.  Its all about priorities and last night Tito’s beat out the bread.

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As for the fight, I was impressed with McGregor.  I don’t know much about boxing or fighting only that it is one of the toughest sports in the world.  While I’m not a Mayweather fan, I also acknowledge he’s the best boxer in the world.   McGregor lasting ten rounds around the world’s best having never been in the ring before?  It was pretty damn impressive.  Both Mayweather and McGregor are amazing athletes and it showed last night.  I’d be curious to see what would happen if it were the MMA ring and not the boxing ring, but I doubt that will happen.

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I was glad that neither fighter felt compelled to pay homage to Tyson by biting someone’s ear off.  The Holyfield-Tyson fight is the last boxing match I had watched until last night.  At the end of the night, our group of friends had a great time enjoying each other’s company and the fight.  Lastly, the best part of the fight?  Unequivocally, the memes leading up to and following the fight.  I leave with you with a few of my favorites.

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My Running Partners

When I started running over two years ago, I didn’t know that I would love it so much.  Nor did I know that my running partners would be so important in maintaining my training or that they’d bring me so much happiness.

Most days my running partners are Jake and our dogs Maya and Athena.  The beautiful thing about running with these three is they keep a brisk pace.  Jake is particularly fast ,so running with him means I have to push myself.  The puppies like to be first, so which ever dog is in back is racing to catch up to their sister.

This can be a bit problematic when Jake and his puppy pull away from us.  Usually it’s Maya and I holding up the rear.  Jake’s got his mile below 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, I almost threw myself a party for breaking the 8 minute mile barrier.

Maya trying to keep pace with Jake means we’re pushing race pace almost every run.  Since Jake is so fast, Athena is usually super tired after two miles.  We’ll switch the puppies and walk them for awhile, so they can catch their breath and cool down a  little bit.

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By the time we start running again, the puppies’ energy is back and they’re ready to roll.  Some runs, Goalielocks or the Mayor will come with us.  For those runs, we usually cap our distance at three miles.  The best part of running with the puppies is how happy they are when we run.

While in Norway, Jake and I mixed it up a bit by hiking on the mountain trails.  It wasn’t a rigorous as our runs, but some parts of the trail were quite steep and took a lot of concentration to master.  The views were incredible and so was the weather.  No horrible heat indexes to contend with.

The unfortunate part of summer in Florida, is heat indexes in the triple digits.  As much as I love to run with my kids and my dogs, the summer heat makes it dangerous for the dogs.  Until the heat abates, I’ll be hitting the treadmill and missing my running partners.  When I run on the treadmill, there’s no sweet puppy looking back at me smiling as she enjoy the run.  Nor is there Jake, who motivates me to run faster and further every time we run.

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Adventure on the Fjord

.My brother’s cabin in Flam came with its own boat and a prime location on the fjord.  It truly doesn’t get much better than the view from their living room or kitchen table of their cabin.  Our boys and their cousins love life on the water, so they were intent on the dads taking them out on the boat.  We were ready for our adventure on the fjord.

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The first journey on the boat, my entire family and my brother’s family hopped in eager for our adventure on the Fjord.  It had been raining that day, but the rain had abated as we boarded the boat.   No sooner had we pushed out to sea, when the winds began whipping and the rain restarted.

Unfortunately, it was clear the boat’s engine hadn’t been used in sometime.  As my brother struggled to get the engine started, hubby rowed us back towards the cabin.  The wind whips down the mountains into the valley on to the fjord with a lot of velocity, so we were quickly moving towards the very large cruise ship Costa Magica.  Luke was rowing as hard as he could, but the wind was that fierce.

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The engine did not want to start, so we were getting worried.  If we didn’t get the engine started quickly, we would hit the Costa Magica or end up in the cold waters of the Aurlandsfjord.  The very idea of going into the not so shallow (the fjord is 3,900 ft deep)  and very cold waters of the fjord made it a little nerve wracking.  As we worried,  waited and hopped for the engine to start, the engine finally started.

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My brother and hubby switched places.  After several more tense minutes, the engine finally started.  We headed safely away from the Costa Magica and out on the Fjord.  The rain and wind abated as the engine finally started.  The irony was not lost on the two men that had been rowing through the wind.

Hubby drove us out towards Aurland, but not too far from shore.   We were able to see the goats and the Viking burial grounds.  We got a close of up of a beautiful waterfall that falls several thousand feet,  goes under E16 and into the Fjord.   Despite the hairy start to our trip, our evening on the boat in  Flam turned out magical and memory filled. Undoubtedly, I was quite relieved when we were back on solid ground.

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