Hockey=Crazy

It's not normal for me to act in a crazy or impulsive way. I'm pretty reserved generally and I'm not much into doing nutty things spontaneously.

However, the girls at hockey inspire me to be nothing like me normal self. Last night after our game we were sitting around having a couple beers. I scored another goal, which means I deserve a beer. Yes. Deserve one! Anyways, one of the girls just bought a snowboard and wanted to try it out. (It's 11 at night by this time).

So, what do we do? We head home, get all dressed up in our snow clothes (it was -21 Celsius last night) and went boarding up at the golf course. The snow sucked, it was too cold and too sticky to slide really well on, but we got some good pictures.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to stay out until 2 am, snowboarding the golf course, on a work night. 6:30 came awfully early this morning.

Now more 2006... will it ever end?

2006 was one of those years that you're glad is over, but at the same time so many things happened that you don't really want to remember, but you don't really want to forget either so I'm kind of going to do a year in review sort of thingy. Here goes....

JANUARY

Hockey, Hockey, Hockey and more hockey! The Lightning had a blast at tournament even though it ended with me and a horrible sinus infection, and the start of W.'s lung thing. Alos, I think that was the month where W. lost his Grandma and a favorite cousin all in one week. It was a great month and a horrible month all in one. Dad and Grandma both had birthdays.

FEBRUARY

I turned the big 30 with a great birthday party planned for me by my fave cousin! Played a lot more hockey and tried to get over that nasty infection.

MARCH

I got to play in the Masters tournament! Fun, fun, fun. We only won one game but we had a good time. W. had his work hockey tournament and we BOUGHT OUR HOUSE!!!! It was still just a hole in the ground, but it was our hole in the ground! A stressful couple of days and some quick decisions but so exciting! Went to the CMHA convention in Edmonton - a fun ladies road trip and a very horsey weekend.

APRIL

April was Grandpa's birthday party and that's about it. I think that we just watched the house grow and started riding.

MAY

VEGAS BABY! W. and I headed for Las Vegas for the first time with his hockey team. We had a blast! It was our only holiday of the year and we made the most of it. May was also Mom's birthday.

JUNE

June brought our annual Ladies Clinic - riding, friends, food and wine! A great time for all. June was also W.'s 30th Birthday. We had a big party for him in his parents backyard and he played some ball that weekend too.

JULY

This was the month where W's lung problems escalated. We spent some time in a few different hospitals for tests. We also managed to get in a nice weekend of camping, just the two of us too. We found out that W. has cancer and that he's going to need surgery soon.

AUGUST

We headed down to Washington State for the C-Fair horse show, which was a blast! It was a little stressful being so far away and not knowing if W. was going to have to go for surgery right away. This was the only show I made it to this year, and it was a good one. We place in 4 of 6 classes and won one! Our first US show was a success! The rest of the month was a lot of waiting and wondering when W would have the surgery. We were also trying to find out whether we could move into the new place a month early. We also lost Tucker in August which made a very sucky month even sadder.

SEPTEMBER

Sept 1 was W.s surgery. He had 2/3 of his right lung removed and was in the hospital for 8 days. It was a pretty stressful time, but they got all the tumor out and it hadn't spread at all, so he pulled through really well. He was off work for the rest of September, recovering at home. He's doing awsome now - no remaining effects at all! September was also the start of a new season of hockey for me, and for our local CHL team. We have season tickets and go to all the games. This was also our 2nd wedding anniversary.

OCTOBER

We moved in at the end of this month! October was full of house stuff, furniture buying and meeting with lawyers etc. W. started back to work 1/2 time in the middle of the month and did well. We had a big moving party and were in the new house all in one day! It's gorgeous and wonderful and we are so happy there! Our Alberta friends were in town and we did a beautiful fall trail ride.

NOVEMBER

W. is back to work full time and hockey carries on. November was a busy month for me at work. W. starts playing hockey again! Things are right back to normal now. I played a lot of hockey and we had a tournament and the first Christmas event! I love Christmas! We also found our new kitten this month! She's made herself at home with us and we love her!

DECEMBER

More hockey, Christmas decorating and shopping filled December. W. lost another family member this month, one of his close Aunts passed away suddenly. I got stuck out of town for work due to some crazy wind and snow and wasn't able to get home for the service. We had a great Christmas with all of our families and had a well deserved week off between Christmas and New Years. Not enough time though! We need a vacation!!!

So that's 2006. Here's to hoping for a happy, healthy and fun 2007!

Hey! Look over there!!

Ok, it was time to get that last post off the top of the page. No one needs to look at that for very long! So today I'm just going to mention a bunch of random items.

Random Item #1: Go Canada Go!!!!! I was fortunate enough to have Friday off work to watch our awesome Canadian boys win the World Junior U20 Hockey Championship for the THIRD year in a row. There is nothing that makes me feel emotional faster than watching an amazing athletic effort pay off. The celebratory pile-up on the goalie at the end of the game? Guaranteed to bring a tear to my eye. Congratulations boys!

Random Item #2: Our oldest horse, R., has been having a tough couple of weeks and there was a day or two there where we thought we were going to lose her to laminitis. But! She's feeling much better and our vet says she should make a full recovery - there was no rotation in her cannon bones, so once the inflammation is gone she should be fully sound again. Yay!

Random Item #3: My house is soooo boring! I put off doing any decorating after we moved in because it was so close to Christmas. I put away the Christmas decorations last week and now it is bare, blank, boring. No pictures on the walls, nothing. I don't even have many ideas for how I'm going to decorate, so I guess it's boring house for a while more.

Random Item #4: The Tragically Hip! This Week! Here, In town! A favorite of lots and lots of Canadians and I can't wait to see them again.

I seem to be out of randomness for now.

"Tis the Season to be Jolly...

Fa La La La La, La La La La....

Is Christmas really only a month and a bit away? It's hard to believe it's coming around already. I mean, I know it's coming, and I've even done some Christmassy things. I've bought a few gifts, done a little decorating, gone out to some Christmassy events. But really, I think, if I counted right, it's only 33 days away!

Of that 33 days I have 12 days that I have hockey, 10 days that W. has hockey, 7 days where we have to go watch hockey. Obviously, some of those all fall on the same day, but seriously, 27 hockey games in the next 33 days? WHEN AM I GOING TO GET READY FOR CHRISTMAS???? No really, when?

I have 14 people still left to buy Christmas gifts for, a Christmas movie night to plan, baking to do, decorating to get done, Christmas trees to cut down. Not to mention that we still haven't finished unpacking the new house.

Woo-ee, December is going be one fun month. Good thing I just made a new batch of wine. I think I'm going to need it.

Sorry! Goal! Road Trip!

So I realize that I've completely screwed up this post a day business, so rather than coming on here every second or third day to apologize to myself (because who are we kidding here, there are no readers), I'm just going to make my goal 30 posts for November. That way when the weekends get away from me, I can just do two posts during the week. Ok, that's out of the way now.

So I scored my first goal in two years on Sunday! Yay for me! It was a nice one too. A pass, which I actually got on my stick and kept it there, and the shot! It didn't come off the ice, but it beat the goalie on the glove side low, hit the inside of the post, and was actually hard enough to spin around the net and hit the other post before it came out. A real shot! A real goal! I was pretty excited. Unfortunately the scorekeepers screwed up and gave it to a player who wasn't even playing that day, but that's ok. I know it was mine.

I also got invited to go to Seattle for an exhibition series. I'm a little scared about going. I'll be the most beginning player there, and I wasn't in the first round of invites, but I was invited, which means I must be fun enough, and a decent enough player to rate. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up on the "Fun" part of the weekend, I'll be the shy girl in the corner as usual.

I know on the hockey end of things, if I work hard and don't wimp out, I'll do ok.

Let's call today Wednesday

So it looks like we have a new kitten. I don't think we're going to call her Mittens anymore though. It's too close to one of the big guys nicknames and I don't want to steal it from him. Yes, I'm having cat guilt. I feel bad for him. He's been the one and only for so long and now there's going to be competition. I hope that I can transition the new kitten into the house with a minimum of stress on him. It's going to be hard, but I guess I'm going to start tonight. We haven't even had one call or anything about the poor little girl. I don't know what else I can do. Someone is missing their kitten.

On a different note... last night was a super fantabulous whooping of a hockey game. It's been years since we've seen a game like that. My hands hurt from the clapping and my voice was croaky from all the cheering. Just like the old days. Many goals, fights, crazy opposing players. It was awsome. It's a good time to be a fan again :)

Hi, It`s Saturday!!!!

So November, for me, is going to be `Get in Shape` month for me. I know. How boring, you`re thinking. But I need to write it down so that I actually pay attention to myself and get a move on. Literally.

Sunday is the big start day. I don`t know why it`s so hard to start something like this mid-week, but it is. So Sunday`s the big day. I have a hockey game, so that`ll get me out of the house and doing some exercise.

Monday, I`ll do a big grocery shop for lots of healthy veggies and fruit, and make myself stop eating things like tacos and chicken nuggets. Blech. Also, back to the gym, and getting myself and W. out walking in the evening.

It all starts Sunday. So wish me luck. I don`t want to look like a big fat blob in the Christmas pictures....

Owie

I'm getting old. Every day I have a new ache or a new pain, and what a pain that is. Ha Ha.

Seriously, today my list of complaints sits at:
1 sore neck
1 headache (could be caused by either the sore neck or the 50 gazillion things I have on my desk today)
1 sore rib/ab muscle
1 sore lower back (darn pesky slipped disk)
1 sorish knee

Oh, and also. Shrinking. I'm shrinking at 30 years old.

Now, maybe some of these can be contributed to the nasty smacking I got in hockey on Monday night. (No ones fault, unless skating with your head down in hockey is a no-no. Oh, it is? Huh, learn something new every day).

Anyways, I'm pretty sure the sore neck/knee/ab-rib thing is hockey's fault. But the others, the slipped disk and the sore neck and the shrinking. The pesky, pesky shrinking. Soley the fault of being old, decrepit, and crooked. (Did I say old? Yes. Old.)

Goon

Interference. #18 Green.

That's me! A penalty in my first game of the season. I have only gotten one other penalty in my whole hockey career. (Shush out there! Three years does make a career.) That penalty wasn't even me. I didn't do it, officer, wasn't me :)

This one was most certainly was though. And I didn't really even feel that bad.

For the first game of the season, I felt really good. I won a good majority of my face-offs, I had numerous shots on goal, my legs felt good. No goals, no points, but the potential might be there....

(Gets up in the face of anonymous internet reader)... What? You don't think so? Wanna make something of it? Huh? Huh? Come on... (Throws stick and gloves on the ice) Let's go....

(Whistle blows) Roughing. #18 Green.

That's me. Goon.

What's that? Busy... Oh yes

Apparently I suck at this posting business, but the busy, it reigns! It's one thing after another these days. Get up, go to work, go to the gym, back to work some more. Then there's the making dinner and the walking and the cleaning and the laundry and the riding and the hockey. The hockey is like an addiction these days. If it's not the NHL (Woo Oilers!) it's the Memorial cup and whatever else in between we can find. A constant non-stop hockey fest! But after tomorrow that should slow down and oooh, then the riding ramps back up for the weekend! A whole weekend of lessons and horses and wine. YAY!