My favorite hockey game

My favorite hockey game of the year (that my kids aren't playing in) is on right now. This year it is extra special because the Chicago Blackhawks are playing the Detroit Red Wings in an outdoor rink, set up in Wrigley Field! I have to confess, though, that I am not really watching it like I should be. I went on the computer just to check my email and then saw that Denise had sent me a message on Facebook and my whole plan went to heck. First I spent a bunch of time catching up on Facebook stuff, then I went to Blogger and started blogging and catching up on blogs I read. Now I realize I have missed most of the game. Good thing it is on Tivo!

Empty Rink Video for Mike

Final hockey good-bye

CUP tells me that I blogged too much about my last day of work, so in order to spite him, I'm blogging about it once again! If I didn't annoy my kids as much as possible, what kind of mother would I be?????

Luke and I went to the rink tonight, to sort and find new homes for all the hockey equipment. One of the adult hockey players is a PE teacher in a very rural, low income area, so we donated most of our stuff to him. He introduced the kids in his school to floor hockey and they loved it. Now they will have some additional equipment and skates. I feel really good that our stuff is going to be well loved and not just sitting in storage somewhere.

Luke was a huge help tonight. He worked so hard to get all the stuff hauled out to the cars and trailer. Luke and I worked for 3 hours and we were pretty tired out when it was time to leave.

This is all that is left of my scorebooth. Waaaah!

The End of an Era

I've never posted videos before, mainly because I didn't have any! I hope I can figure this out.

Video #1: The first video is of Luke and Drew, playing their last game. They are both in black jerseys, Drew is #28 and I think he has white pants. Luke is #19 and he has red pants with black knees. You can also hear Steven commenting in the background.

Video #2: This video shows part one of a small fight. Four people are sent to the penalty box, two on each team, including Steven. Steven is wearing the black jersey with yellow shoulders.

Video #3: The third video is part two of the fight and resulting penalties. There is a bit of swearing in this video, so if kids are around, you might not want to play it! Hockey players LOVE the "F" word. Keep in mind that the penalty boxes are right on either side of my score booth. I'm used to the swearing and arguments that go on between players, when they are sent in at the same time. It isn't unusual to have them throwing things at each other or getting into a fist fight right behind my booth. I was crushed up against the score table and hit in the head with a hockey stick during one fight and Mike was hit in the head with a thrown helmet, during another, just to name a few. Hmmm, when I look at it like that, I can't believe I loved that job so much!!! You can hear me, in the background, yelling "that's enough" and "stop". One of the players, who is yelling at Steven and his teammate is my friend, Bart's son, Cory. On the video you can only hear what is being yelled from one penalty box, not the responses coming from the other. You can also hear my friends, Stephanie D. and Scott V. teasing the players about getting kicked out of the league!

Video #4: The last hockey goal ever scored at WISC!

Last night of work

I've spent more hours than I could possibly count, sitting in this score booth!

Well, last night was a little less traumatic than I thought it would be. I only cried twice, which was a LOT less than I thought I would. I did fine most of the night because I was working really hard to convince myself that it was just a regular work night and not the last work night ever. That worked pretty well until my friend of many years, Stephanie, was leaving. Her son, Nathan, is Luke's age and he starting playing hockey in our league about a year after we did. Stephanie is also the friend who "made" me get Wrigley and she has two of his brothers, so it isn't like we will never see each other again. In fact, we will be seeing her this Saturday at a Halloween event for the kids that she works at. Anyway, her son had two games, but she was tired, so she decided to leave after his first game and have someone drop him off at home after his second game. When it was time for her to leave, she started talking about how sad this was and how we had been together for so many hockey games and so many years, etc. That made me cry. I was really proud of myself, though, as I only cried for about 30 seconds and was able to compose myself, which is unusual for me! Then Stephanie had a change of heart when she got home and came back for Nathan's second game. She said that she just couldn't miss the last game ever played at our rink. I teased her for making me cry for no reason, since she would probably do it again when she left the second time, but I was really glad she came back!

Me and Stephanie

Then my friend, Christian, who is one of the hockey players that has played with us since he was about 15, also made me cry when he was leaving. He assures me that he will still be around to bug me, at least until May, when he will be leaving for graduate school. I'm really going to miss him, he has always stood up for me when I had any problems at the rink, including always letting me know that if anyone gave me a hard time, he would beat them up for me! He has also been extremely supportive whenever I had a difference of opinion with the rink owners or when I was frustrated about their lack of dedication to the hockey program as a whole.

My friend, Mike, and me with the Colonial Cup

The last ever Championship Team at the Williamsburg Indoor Sports Complex!
Steven is in the yellow and black jersey, just behind the goalie. Congrats to Team Revamp.

No time to post

I really don't have time to post, but I'm going to anyway. I had a work meeting tonight and I should be getting ready for our trip tomorrow. The kids and I are very excited because Mike got free tickets to the Washington Capitals vs. Chicago Blackhawks hockey game in DC. We also get to stay in his company's townhouse, so the only cost to us is gas, which I am happy to report is down to $3.00 per gallon! Since we couldn't afford to go to Chicago to or PA to visit our friends and family this year, I guess this will have to suffice as our vacation. Sorry, Denise, if we had a longer time, I would love to drive up a couple more hours to see you guys, but Alex has to be at play rehearsal back in Williamsburg on Sunday evening.

Our plan is to leave tomorrow night and then take a walking tour of DC, have a picnic lunch/dinner and then go to the game. We have been to several Capitals games and they are always tons of fun, since we all love hockey so much.

We have some issues with who to root for, though, since we love the Caps and the Hawks! Our family will be wearing a variety of gear for both teams. I guess we'll be happy with whoever wins, so that is good.

Work went well tonight

I had a really good time at work tonight and very little pain. I got to talk to a lot of the guys and my friend, Stephanie D. I haven't really talked to most of them in a few months. I also ended up staying about an hour after I was done, to talk to some more of the guys and my friend, Stephanie B. I used to talk to her two nights a week, so we had a lot to catch up on.

Also, the games were really good, with the team that Drew, Steven and Luke were on winning in a shoot-out. Luke got the game winning goal!

Back to Work

I decided to go back to work tonight, since my leg has been feeling so much better the past few days. I also wanted to go back since my job will only be around for the next 8 weeks or so. I lasted through a game and a half before the pain got too bad for me to stay. The bench I have to sit on is really hard even though I put two pillows on it. I only sat there for about 5 minutes and then I had to stand.

It was really nice to go back, though, because a lot of the guys were happy to see me. Luke and Drew played in the first game and they both did really well. It was so hard to watch the game, I kept thinking that this will be one of the last times I get to see them play. I wanted to stay for Steven's game, but I just couldn't do it.

My leg feels better now that I'm home. I realized that I probably made it so much worse at the beginning when I had the leg pain and I still worked for the first 4 weeks or so, sitting on that darn bench.

I'm so upset!

Well, this afternoon, my boss called me and told me that they are canceling the youth hockey program that I direct. That didn't surprise me all that much, but he also talked about how adult hockey would still be going on. Since I work at adult hockey as well, I figured at least I still have half of my job and my three older kids, who are obsessed with hockey, will still be able to play, since they have outgrown the kids league anyway. My boss also told me that maybe we can see what is going on in January and possibly still have the Winter League for youth.

A few hours later, I received an email from the adult hockey referee informing me that not only has the sports complex canceled youth hockey, they have actually decided to remove the entire hockey rink from the facility! Since they are removing the rink on December 1st, I'm wondering where my boss thought we would play hockey.

This is going to be a MAJOR life change for our family, since we are so heavily involved in inline hockey. Our only options now are for the kids to quit playing or to travel to another town about 35 minutes away to play ice hockey. Ice hockey is incredibly expensive, so that probably isn't an option.

More Family Pictures from 2007

Shauna with friends Rebecca and Logan from third grade
Referee Luke
Drew and one of his beloved cats, Sassy
Hockey Luke at a travel tourney with the Penninsula Prowl (2007)
Penninsula Prowl gets a pep talk from Coach Dave

Hockey

Steven and Luke's team had their play-off games for the first half of the summer season. They were missing their top scorer because he went to a Pearl Jam concert, but they won the first game, anyway. Steven and Luke played great and had a really awesome play, where they skated down together, passing the puck back and forth the whole time. It was so pretty.

They also managed to get a goal for an older guy who is on their team that isn't such a great player. He is a really nice guy and they have been trying to set him up for a goal all season and it finally worked tonight. Steven passed it to him.

The first game was against a team that is sort of their rival team, so they were really happy to win. Tensions were running high during the game and it was getting a little dangerous, so I'm just glad no one got hurt. There were quite a few temper tantrums and penalties, but that is par for the course. I've been keeping score for the adult league for so long now that the tantrums don't even bother me anymore!

Only a few kids showed up for the youth league, so I was able to spend a lot of time talking to the mom of one of the players. She thinks he has Asperger's so we had plenty to discuss. It was nice to talk to an adult!

Hannah brought her friend, Alexus, to the rink and they behaved really well. They hung around with Cory the whole night, so I was expecting some trouble, but there was none at all. Yay!

I almost forgot to say that they lost the championship game by only 1 point! That's okay, though, their team has already won the championship a couple of times and the team that won is a good team, with mostly nice guys on it.