Weirdo

While watching a movie my phone kept chiming. Who on earth is blowing up my phone I thought!

Just this weirdo AirDropping me some pictures of her walk back to school with Sophie.

No city sewer so our streets and yards flood often.

But let’s talk about this picture?! She looks so weird!! 

A Blast at U6

Adelynn had so much fun this year playing on the orange u6 girls hockey team. As the season went on she craved more and more ice time. She started skating with the boys u6 teams and then the outdoor rinks. 

Today was their last day. They entered the dark rink with their names being announced and a spotlight as they skated out. Then followed by a mini scrimmage and metals.

After Adelynn got off of the ice she refused to take off her gear from the waist down. She is so beyond excited to skate over the summer and join u8 this fall.

Noah on the hand was happy that hockey came to an end. He was really happy about his metal which he lost that same night.

Maybe he’ll be into hockey this fall. If not, at least he kinda learned how to skate. Or I should say run with skates, on the ice.

Good Times at the Badland

Sam’s team wrapped up the season with some good ole snow tubing at the Badlands in Hudson, Wisconsin. For $17 per person we could tune all day. With afternoon plans we had to keep it short. Noah was a daredevil and was going down hills with jumps to catch air. Adelynn was just as daring. It confuses me because they both dislike tubing behind the boat.

Adelynn took of with the girls while Noah hung with us. He obviously wasn’t the best at pulling his own weight. In most cases he had one of the hockey girls carrying his little tube for him. Good thing he’s a cutie!

I couldn’t find him for a bit and then discovered he was busy making snow angels.

It was a pretty good workout hanging on to the tow rope and having to carry Adelynn and Noah’s weight as their arms have out and I would catch up to them. 

We’ll be back!

Special Moments

Sam’s friend Taylin captured this picture. I absolutely love it! I wish they were this cute all of the time. I’ll take what I can get. 

My Tiny Dancers

Every so often we get a special treat at home. Sam and Adelynn will choreograph a dance for us. They’re so cute when they do these dances. It usually starts with demands to gather and sit. Then a lot of giggles.

Today’s song was “Let You Down” by NF (whoever that dude is... it’s a pretty good song.) I had to explain to Sam that the video didn’t mean the dad just stood watching as his child drown. That the drowning was a metaphor for how the child felt growing up. That he was never heard and that he wished he made his parents proud. The song is specifically in relation to NF and his parents. Where his mother struggled with substance abuse and her boyfriend was abusive. It’s a pretty sad song overall.

I’m proud of all of my babies. Life is hard and they are paving their paths to a great future.

Just Another Day

Today is my birthday but it really is JUST another day.

I spent the day in back to back meetings with my work vendor. I was treated to a delicious sushi lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis and a was given a gift card to Lulu Lemon from friends.

After i got home the girls put on a dance for the family and then Sam and I left for her last hockey practice. When I got to the rink Sam’s coach called me over to the bench about her breezers and then the whole team sang happy birthday to me. It was such a joy to listen to them sing to me. Truly brought a smile to my face.

Here’s to my last year in my 30s.

Morning Bliss

I love mornings! My alarm goes off and I spring out of bed with a smile at the start of a new day! I stroll to the girls bedroom and climb up their loft bed ladders to awaken my little angels with kisses. Then I hum myself a tune as I make my way upstairs to awaken the boys. The five of us go about our business getting ready in the morning. Music and laughter fill the air as we all join at the table for a nice warm breakfast that I whip up for my precious babies each morning. Alexa will tell us that we need to start heading out the door and that is when we clear the table and gather our belongings. After giving each one a kiss and hug we load up in the Explorer and I drop them off at school, then Noah to Grandpa Schiller in Hampton. We have such a great routine in the morning and I wouldn't trade it for anything.


*Rewind*






Totally kidding! I could only ever wish for our mornings to flow so nicely. Half of the time I've snoozed through my many alarms, dozed back off after Alexa's 5:15am report on traffic where she tells me my fastest route is always highway 56 to US-52 and that it'll take me 44 minutes to get to my office off University and Snelling in St. Paul, she then fills me in on the weather and top news stories. She'd probably be more effective if she actually spoke louder. I thankfully wake up no later than 7am when I hear Sam and Seth hollering at Adelynn or Noah about one thing or another.






I roll out of bed, weigh myself, curse or smile, then start getting ready and tell Noah at least 16 times to get dressed. Meanwhile I need to remind Seth to brush his teeth and gather Noah's coat, mittens, hat, etc. At least once a week I need to remind Sam that she should be asking Adelynn what she wants packed in her lunch. Don't forget to give your picky cat FRESH water in the bathtub where Squirt stalks me each morning. Did you let Chloe outside yet? No? Great, make sure you change the pee pad by the litter box and pick up her poop because she has probably already pranced off and did her business. Noah - are you dressed yet?! Nope... still in his underwear from yesterday but I can see one new sock is on his foot.

One Final Game

District Playoffs start today and we finished in 12th within the district. In order to get into the regular district playoff bracket we had to win against Rosemount today. A win would give us two more games, and a loss is the end of our season.

We started strong the first two periods and were up 2-0. Then everything rapidly changed and we were down 2-4. Sam had a beautiful shot on net that everyone thought went in. Unfortunate the refs waved it off. The puck hit the side post then ricocheted off of the top post and out into play. We pulled our goalie in an effort to catch up with Bree coming off of the ice, Sam came flying off of the bench and raced to the action at the Rosemount goal. Things didn't come together and Rosemount scored on our open net.

Front Row: Bree
Second Row: Brooke, Kyra, Maddie
Third Row: Elle, Taylin, Sam, Lexi, Ava, Autumn
Back Row: Olivia

Missing: Coach RJ, Asst Coaches John, Jason and Courtney

The girls were pretty sad after the game with many tears. Not so much that they lost, but because they truly bonded throughout the season and didn’t want their season to be over. The hardest thing for Sam is that we live outside of Hastings so when hockey is over, she loses 11 friends that she has been seeing almost daily for five months, whereas the rest of the team still sees on another at school.

Final Score 3-6 Rosemount


Season 4-10-2
We have lost more than we won but these girls came a long way in the season with the progress they made as individuals and together as a team. I loved watching every game they played.

Surprise!

Today started off with a team gathering at the Assistant Coach, John’s house for some Cosetta’s and scary movies until the 8:30pm practice. Nick and the kids left for home and I stayed with Sam to meet up with Jo for a few drinks during practice. A few things seemed odd but I didn’t question the nights events until I saw Nick texting Jo as I was texting her.

I’m pretty resourceful and will do investigative work if I’m given any details about surprises. As soon as Nick left I kicked my investigation into high gear. Within the hour I discovered there was a “reverse” surprise party for me at Dugarel’s in Hastings.

People ask why I dig into surprises. I don’t know... it’s fun and a challenge; plus it feeds my competitive nature.

It still was a surprise for me. I didn’t expect much of a turn out and I was proven wrong.

Who showed up?

Nick with a cake and a single red rose, Dale, Matt, Lindsay & kids, Mike & Allison, Jo & Pete, Dodge & Derek, AJ & Candis, Jen & Nick, Tony, Karen, RJ, Sam, Bree and Anni. There was probably more but Jen was loading me up on shots all night. A few couldn’t make it because of other plans or sick children. It happens. 

We made it home at 4am and I didn’t crawl out of bed until 11:30am on Sunday. Completely sober feeling!

I had a great time at my first birthday party since I was a child.

You’re Going Down!

Sam’s practice today was the big parents vs. kids game. It’s the biggest game of the season where we put the girls in their place and show them that we can play too!

This year, Adelynn joined us on the rink with playing for the girls. She’s a die hard and a little spit fire. She was in on the plays and would come by taunting the adults that we’re going down! With each goal she’d be sure to put us parents in check. “Watch it short stuff!” as I’d slide her around the rink with my stick.

Our goalie was Courtney who is one of the assistant coaches. Lucky for us, she is a goalie. We were whooping some butt with an 5-0 lead. Then someone decided to be a softy on the girls and switched goalies for the teams.

Our new goalie was pretty good but I think she was letting some in. At my first opportunity, I plowed into Sam and tried tripping her so we could score. Yes, Sam jumped at the chance of being in goal. She did pretty good.

We all had a great time and I thankfully didn’t run any girls over.

I Missed You

“Momma, I missed you!”

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that remind you what your purpose is. It’s easy to get lost otherwise. 

Being Functional Again

It’s been a long 19 week since I was at my functional fitness class and I’ve missed it every day. The coach posted on Facebook today that family or loved ones could attend class for free tonight (otherwise a $10 drop-in cost) so I jumped on it. First thing was running two laps around the indoor track. I was surprised I didn’t loose my endurance and was able to do it. We then did a few stretches along with lunges into a cossack squat x4 and back to two more laps to complete our warm up.

Next we worked on sumo deadlifts adding weights after each set of 4 until we moved to the snatch, again adding weights after each set.

Our metcon (metabolic conditioning) to wrap up our hour class was 30 seconds of overhead squats with an empty bar, 10 second rest followed by 30 seconds of box jumps. We’d repeat this five times which was pretty mild in that it usually runs 20 minutes. The purpose of today metcon was to push fast and hard. Get as many reps in as possible within those 30 seconds.

I did it and I left feeling accomplished. Tomorrow will be painful as I pushed myself to increase how much I was lifting. My legs are already sore. I didn’t lift as much as I had in the past but enough for being my first day back. One more week and I’ll be back 3-4 nights a week for my therapy.
Mind ~ Body ~ Soul

Kindergarten (non)Bliss

Most of  this school year I have had recurring morning struggles with Adelynn not wanting to go to school.

What!? You are in kindergarten! Isn’t that the best year of school?!

At fall conferences we spoke to her teacher about her displeasure of kindergarten. We heard how she doesn’t finish her work in the allotted time, how she seems bothered by other kids who don’t want to follow directions and overall engaged. We heard how she loves being the teachers helper and is even listed as a substitute teacher helper. What is going on?

Her biggest complaint is they sit too much and she wants more time at centers. It’ll be a long 12 years if she doesn’t start finding things to look forward to at school.

Bluetooth

Adelynn gives a whole new meaning to Bluetooth after eating a sucker at the rink.

Filtered

Sam spends quite a bit of her time on Snapchat. It’s the new craze with kids that has taken over texting. They maintain steaks where each person has to send at least one picture to the other within 24 hours. With the convenience of snapping they tend to send what I’d consider worthless snaps. Mostly if the ground or weird faces with a ‘s’ scribbled across the picture. Sam and I are sitting around a 43 day streak. She bombards me with snaps which I don’t mind since I can see what’s going on in her day.

Snapchat also has filters which will change your voice, make you an animal or someone else. On our drives to hockey I have to be aware of what she’s doing. I’ve been busted belting out a song or ad-libing by her recording me and sending it to whomever is on her list.

Other times I’m minding my own business and check my Snapchat and find this...

Or this...

Then I look up just in time to do one of these...

We’ll hold Bitmoji conversations and laugh. It’s a great app as long as your kids don’t abuse it. We have a lot of fun with it.

The Life of Saturday’s

Saturday’s have been our busiest day of the week since October. With Adelynn and Noah starting u6 hockey this year we’ve been spending a lot more time at the rink. They both are on the ice at different times. Mostly back to back with an occasional 45 min break in between. They’ve been practicing their skating skills and doing fun little games since the season started. Adelynn LOVES hockey and can’t get enough of being on the ice. Noah on the other hand has better things to do. His most common complaint is that he falls a lot. We continue to reassure him that his 12 year old sister falls often as well. It’s part of skating. Just go have fun. I’m not sure he’ll be on the ice next season. If he chooses to not skate then at least he had the opportunity.

Sam and my morning started at 10:45am on the East rink. I picked up Locker Mom duty and she did her thing the hour before game time. We played Woodbury and lost 0-3. It was a good game. Sam took the puck from behind the net and made a shot on goal. She’s in white surrounded by four Woodbury girls.

Nick and Noah missed the last 20 minutes of Sam’s game and headed to the West rink to get ready for his 12:30pm practice. He’s still trying to figure out how to skate versus run. He had a lot more fun this practice than he has in the past. 

At 1pm Adelynn started getting ready for her 1:15pm practice. She joined the boys for the last bit of their practice. It makes me so proud to see her skate do well and love hockey as she does. All of the girls were playing Toilet Tag and chasing the coaches.

After practice Adelynn and her friend Anni, went to the outdoor rink to skate some more. They’ve become good friends within the past two days. Not sure how they missed each other through the whole season since Anni’s dad coaches Sam.

Seven hours later we headed for home. A delay in leaving to watch a bit of Anni’s u8 game against Rosemount.

You’re Going to Embarrass Me

Today Sam’s team was invited to play hockey at The Shinny in Hastings. It’s a private rink in the back yard of another hockey players yard from the boys team. They have two warming trailers and a zamboni to resurface the ice. The parents put together some pizza and snacks after practice today. Since I was on the ice with Sam yesterday, I was excited to get back out and hone in on my skating skills in preparation for the parents vs. kids game next week.

Sam was excited to go until I shared that Adelynn and I planned to skate as well. “No mom, you’re going to embarrass me!” Excuse me?! I can skate and I’m better at stopping. Way to turn that knife after stabbing me. I then felt the need to teach Sam what embarrassment really was.

On the way into the rink for practice I made her hold my hand. Then I started skipping and swinging her arm. All the way through the lobby. A few teammates said I should skate and they wouldn’t be embarrassed. She was a bit upset I was making a scene. Oh well.

On the way to The Shinny she texted me this...

I held off for most of the night not skating. Then ended up playing, or aimlessly skating around on the rink during a game. Occasionally I’d get the puck passed to me by her coach but I never amounted to anything. I’m going to blame my inadequate skills on using a righty stick and I feel more comfortable with left.

Adelynn skated all night and had so much fun. She told others how she doesn’t need to score a goal. It’s all about having fun. What a great attitude.

Sam played goalie in full gear. She did great. Let me call out that I scored on her twice. She’ll deny it.

Let’s Play Hockey

After Sam's hockey practice today she left the ice wanting to skate more. We were supposed to have Adelynn’s game night since it was a rare instance of all six of us being home. We walked in the door, sat for dinner and Sam hesitantly brought up the request to skate with Adelynn who was so sad on Tuesday when we had to cancel game night. How would she take a second cancellation? With incredible excitement that’s how. We all raced through dinner, changed, geared up hopped in two cars and off we went.

Everyone was very excited to go play hockey. We all had our own agendas. I need to learn how to stop quickly which has to be similar to my pre-snowboarding days when I would go skiing. I spent most of my time shoveling the 3” of snow off the ice and playing zamboni between hockey time. Seth wanted to learn to skate in general. He gave us a lot of good laughs. Nick just wanted to shoot pucks and outskate the kids. Sam wanted to outplay Nick and to be our coach by setting up back to back drills measuring our speed and agility. Adelynn wanted to improve her skating skills which look pretty similar to Seth’s skills. Noah spent most of his time walking on his skates and falling. He resorted to ditching the skates and playing boot hockey.

It was a chilly 11° outside but we kept warm and had a lot of laughs. We’ll be going again real soon. Maybe even pull out my snowboard and hit the slopes with the kidlets. 

Let’s try this again

So much has happened since my last post. With some effort I’ll try to fill in days and close the gap. 

My babies are growing up.

Seth, 14, is busy with his recent interest in Civil Air Patrol out of the Stanton Airfield. He’s attended two meetings and is looking into their boot camp.

Sam, 12, is busy with hockey and has been invited to two AAA teams this spring and summer. She has taken off and we’re loving every minute at the rink.

Adelynn, 6, is enjoying u6 hockey and is skating pretty good. Maybe I should join her in the rink to work on my skills. She’s reading and a little ‘meh’ about kindergarten. 

Noah, 4, is in preschool three days a week and hangs with Grandpa Jim 4-5 days a week. He isn’t a fan of u6 hockey. Instead he’s working his social butterfly skills in preschool and does things on his own time.

Nick still volunteers on the RH Fire Dept, Boy Scout chair, and has been going to crossfit since I introduced him to CF3 a few months back. He opens shop at Schmitty’s by 3am and seems to enjoy being a diesel mechanic. 

I’m pulling my 13th year at HealthEast, now Fairview, and my 10th year building out the electronic health record program. Currently an Epic Application Analyst on the new Patient Experience/Virtual Health team. March of 2017 I made a change to my life with eating clean and working out. I joined CF3 in August and absolutely love the challenge. I’ve lost 80 pounds and hope to never see them again.