milestones Archives - The Hockey Mom Fit Life

May 8, 2025May 8, 2025

Last of the Lasts

Today, we experienced one of the last of the lasts. Our youngest, the Mayor, had his last day of school today. Getting here has been a long road, but we’ve finally crossed the finish line. Our oldest started school in 2004 in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota. After he finished kindergarten, we moved to Florida.

The first of the lasts are quite difficult as your brain learns to process the moment’s emotions. I remember feeling lost as I navigated Jake’s move from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, and his senior year. Each milestone I experienced with Jake prepared me to experience it fully with Goalielocks and The Mayor.

The Mayor’s senior year has hardly gone to plan. Who could have foreseen that he’d be hospitalized in the fall and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes? Fortunately, his high school played an integral role in adjusting to diabetes. His school nurse, also a diabetic, took him under her wing immediately. The nurse ensured everyone understood what needed to be done to keep him safe at school. His English teacher helped him too, as she is also a type 1 diabetic.

The last of the lasts is interesting too. It’s not as hard as the first time, but the finality of it all is a bittersweet pill to swallow. Honestly, when you first have kids, you feel like you’ll be parenting them forever. In the end, active parenting is a temporary assignment. After eighteen years or so, parents are expected to send their kids out into the world. It’s like having three versions of your heart beating outside your body. Yet seeing them thrive as adults is quite rewarding. So, cheers to the next chapter as we celebrate the last of the lasts.

2025 Goal Tracker:

Run a 5K: in training
Complete Kayla Itsines program: in progress
No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): I made it into February and haven’t buckled!
Top performer at work: on it!
Travel: working on it
Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
Read daily: in progress. I’m reading A Knight and a Spy 1414 (The Road to Agincourt – King’s Spy), by Simon Fairfax
Get out of debt: in progress
Financial independence: in progress

What was the last live performance you saw?

The last live performance I saw was Jerry Seinfeld. He’s only the second stand-up comedian I’ve seen live. The first was Chelsea Handler, whom we saw ages ago in Miami Beach. Seinfeld’s show was as entertaining and intelligent as I expected it to be. I’d definitely go see him again. Next week I hope to scoot up to the amphitheater to see Breaking Benjamin live. It’s been far too long since I’ve been to a concert.

May 15, 2024May 15, 2024

Milestone

We hit another milestone last week as the Mayor turned 18. It’s incredible to me that I no longer have any children under the age of 18. It’s been a lot of milestone moments, but can someone tell me where the time has gone? I’m pretty sure I just brought him home from the hospital yesterday. Also, I can’t possibly be getting old this quick. Time is an absolute thief and someone needs to stop it.

We celebrated the birthday with Jake, Mellie, and the Hubby with dinner around Sushi Yama. Unfortunately, Goalielocks couldn’t join us as he’s staying in Orlando for the summer term. As for the waitress, I think we either impressed her or horrified her with the sheer amount of food we ordered. The Mayor and Goalielocks always order chicken fried rice and the chicken katsu meal. It’s a perfect double order because the fried rice is still phenomenal the next day. We left the restaurant well-fed and happy. It was a great way to celebrate his milestone birthday.

After dinner, it was pretty late by old people’s standards, the kids headed to Menchies for dessert. Afterward, they headed to Mellie’s to play some Dungeons and Dragons with her family. Meanwhile, the hubby and I headed home, so we’d get in before bedtime. I find keeping my sleep schedule consistent has been super important to my well being. Consequently, I try not to deviate from the schedule too much. It was nice to have Jake and Mellie at the birthday dinner. They’re quite obviously two of the Mayor’s most favorite people.

Are you a leader or a follower?

It depends on the situation. When I’m hiking through a national park in search of a monument, I’m a leader. After leading for too long at work, I quite enjoy being a follower.

June 8, 2022June 8, 2022

Grad Party

We celebrated Goalielocks’ and his friend TK’s graduation with their grad party over the weekend. While TK is his friend, he and his family are considered family to us. It’s been amazing to watch the two grow up and go through the trials of elementary, middle school, high school and hockey together. So much has changed since they first became friends almost a decade ago.

Our friend Garlic Bob catered the event with an epic taco bar that was capped off with a nacho cheese fountain. Boy, can he cook! His food is always delicious and on point. We sampled his taco bar at a friend’s grad party last year and I instantly knew we wanted him for Goalielocks’ party. It was absolutely a no brainer.

I was a bit worried the tropical weather that dumped nearly a foot of rain in our area would keep a lot of people away, but we only had a few cancellations. Goalielocks played hockey in Dade County, which was underwater for most of the weekend. Unfortunately, that made it unsafe for his Miami based teammates to make the drive, which was a bummer.

I tried Pink Whitney for the first time at his grad party. Pink Whitney, of course, is the ubiquitous hockey mom drink of choice. I’m surprised it took so long for me to try it. I love it. It was so good! A couple of observations about the drink, it’s good, but it’s a bit sweet. Also, a group can drink a small bottle in minutes. To cut the sweetness, I recommend pairing it with sparkling water on ice. This would make it much less sweet and more refreshing.

The grad party was a rousing success. We finally headed home with two cars full of kids just after 12:30 am. Everyone had a great time celebrating the two boys graduation. I think, the highlight for me was the two boys cutting the cake and feeding each other. It was super funny. The cake, of course, was super yummy and beautiful. Hanh makes the best cakes! They’re always beautiful and super tasty without being too heavy in your tummy. It was a great night!

February 5, 2018February 5, 2018

Milestones

Last year was full of major milestones for our family with Jake’s graduation, start of college and the Mayors’ completion of elementary school. It was a lot of big changes for our family, so much so that I completely forgot about this year’s forthcoming milestones. Yep, this year Goalielocks will finish middle school and get his learner’s permit. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! Can somebody stop time?

Last month, we completed the choice program application for his high school program. Like his middle school program, he’s looking to continue in the medical choice program. I still can’t believe that he’ll be starting high school. It’s absolutely insane, but the scarier part is that he’ll be driving.

Its scary enough having one teen driver in the house. Honestly, I’m not sure my heart, stomach and pocket book can handle another teen driver. I hope my neighbors are prepared as well. I have a new respect for what my brothers and I put my parents through when we were first driving. Moreover, in South Florida you have the added worry of your teen driver having to contend with elderly driving and other crazy South Florida drivers. In good news, once you learn to drive here, I’m pretty sure you could drive anywhere and feel comfortable.

Meanwhile, I started my 14 day vegan meal program that I purchased off of Groupon. The meal plan from the Vegan Garden comes with 14 breakfast and 14 dinners. Tonight’s breakfast was a chocolate muffin, which was very yummy. If I hadn’t bought it as a part of a vegan meal plan, I wouldn’t have known it was vegan. My dinner was a great dish of spaghetti and “meatballs.” Fortunately, the spaghetti and meatballs were absolutely yummy. In addition to being flavorful, the dish was filled with protein. I complimented these meals with a vegan protein shake for lunch. After my two-week meal plan is over, I’ll give you a full review and run down on the Vegan Garden meal plans.

Tonight’s song performed by Simon and Garfunkel is “Mrs. Robinson.” I had to choose a song with the legendary Paul Simon as he announced his farewell tour today. P..S. The pics are some of my favorites of the boys and my dad from our trip to Norway. My dad taught my brothers and I how to drive as well as Jake. I hope he’s ready for his new student Goalielocks!

May 13, 2017

The Last Day of School

It all started on a cool Tuesday morning in September in Blaine, MN in 2004 when we sent Jacob off to his first day of kindergarten. His first year of school was fabulous and he made a lot of friends. At our first parent/teacher conference, his teacher recounted to us how he was sat next to the twins from China. The thought was that since he was such a chatterbox, he’d help them pick up the English language quickly. I’m pretty sure their new words revolved around things like hockey, Halo, Buzz Lightyear and Star Wars, but hey at least it was a start.

I remember being as equally emotionally wrecked sending him on that bus that day to kindergarten as I was on Friday. Except this time instead of getting on a big yellow bus, he was (gulp) driving himself to school. Almost 13 years later, his journey through school ended in Boca Raton a far cry from where it started (Blaine, MN.)

Meanwhile, his little brothers have two more weeks of school…. Two weeks of radio silence at home during the day, now that’s quite the graduation present. Throughout the years, Jake’s always been persistent, goal driven and kind. While I’m broken up that this stage of his life is over, I cannot wait to see what he achieves next.