#yesafilter

Hannah has a friend who sends me the cutest snapchat selfies. I cannot compete. I send back snaps of my tea, books, letters I am writing, my garden...anything but a selfie. Yesterday, just for kicks...I snapped a selfie with a filter. Eureka!!! I have found the perfect solution to any selfie...use a Snapchat Filter...it  makes you laugh AND takes away the rough edges of time. 

Red

Hannah is playing High School Hockey with the boys. This year she is playing defense instead of left wing and is on Team Red. I think she should embrace the fact she is the only girl and wear some matching red lipstick. Thoughts?

Operation Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday. Don't mess it up for me by putting Christmas ahead of Thanksgiving. No Christmas Decorations. NO Christmas music. No tree. No lights.

Thanksgiving. A time to appreciate all that God has blessed us with. No worrying about shopping just a quiet holiday appreciating the smell of a roasting turkey, the taste of cinnamon in a pumpkin pie, and maybe a little whipped cream by hand to adorn the pie. Simple. The smell of fall, leafs twirling by my window, colors bursting forth in the trees, and a fire in the fireplace.

Serving. I love to participate in delivering meals for Thanksgiving to families who might not be having a turkey dinner this year. Sign me up. I am blessed with a car. I can do this...

This year, the whole family was able to help deliver and I am over the moon. The whole family serving others. Could life get any better? 

Crash...my kids ditched me after delivering meals for three families...to decorate Lauren's Christmas tree. I have put all three up for adoption after this traitorous behavior. Next year....no gifts to anyone who puts out any Christmas stuff pre-Thanksgiving. The Queen has spoken.

Taco Tuesday

This is what happens when you let your kids in the kitchen to help cook...food is plated and a Snapchat is sent to another sibling to let her know what she is missing. Matthew and Mexican food go hand in hand....and macaroni and cheese...and pizza...and Chick Fil A...

Sweet Home Alabama

California Girl. That was always me...through and through...part of my identity. It's like being blonde. I am a blonde. I couldn't imagine having hair any other color (although if I could pick my hair color before being born, it would have been red).

Driving home from Nashville I pass the sign all the time. The last time I passed it, I thought, "Home, I'm almost there." I realized I am no longer a California Girl. I thought the earth would shake but nothing, just a calm realization, that girl is gone and I have a new identity. It came on so slowly, I never noticed it...I have a new song to sing....join me.

Profile Picture

Profile Pictures. Ugh. How to pick the perfect picture that defines you without looking like you're fishing for compliments. How to post a recent picture when you have no recent pictures. The simple answer is to take a selfie. Except...I feel ridiculous taking a selfie. It's the stuff of anxiety attacks.

I decided to leap off the cliff into the abyss, take a selfie, and make it my FB profile.

That selfie lasted about an hour. People would comment, "Pretty, beautiful, etc." and let's face it, I felt ridiculous. I know that ship has sailed, old age has set in, and the picture had to go. I needed a different profile picture. I gave it some thought and googled "tea, book, image." Voila', the perfect profile picture that epitomizes me, and it looks like this...

This is perfect. This is me. A picture tells a thousand words.

Lookin' Good

Once upon a time there was a California Girl who wanted a denim jacket. She saved and searched and finally found the jacket of her dreams at The Gap...in the men's department. Sold. The girl loved her jacket and didn't care that it was a bit big...after all her sweaters and blouses had shoulder pads in them, really big shoulder pads and that made the jacket work.

The California Girl graduated from college and entered life...work, marriage, a child...a long span of time (a really long span of time) and two more children. The Girl became a Mom, The beloved jacket moved to the back of the closet and reminded the Girl of her days in college. A carefree time, one of her favorite times.

One day, the youngest child, asked his mom for a denim jacket. The mother looked at her beloved son and said, "I have one, it's in the closet upstairs." The son had the jacket  out of the closet and on his person in the blink of an eye. I have to say, "Lookin' good." The jacket, I mean, the son is not too bad either.

The son and the 35 year old jacket lived happily ever after.

#vintage

Follow Up

We are four weeks out from surgery, time to take a peek at the healing taking place in our Titanium Man.

Seven Screws

The Verdict. You can skate. No shooting. No long passing. Quiet Shoulder.

So...this happened yesterday. A little Stick and Puck Session, thankfully, there were not very many people at the session.

Bice is back on the ice

Saturday Stroll, Part 3

The advantage to Matthew not traveling, is the ability to do family stuff...so another weekend, another opportunity to make Matthew run, while we walk, observe nature and try not to trip over tree roots and rocks. I was blessed Lauren stayed near just in case me knee gave out and HEMSI would be needed to traipse through the woods to rescue me.

Green Mountain was beautiful but...the Southern Stereotype was in full swing. The trees were full of families in their Fall Fashions with photographers clicking the perfect picture of the perfect family.

I loved this mini-version of Walden Pond that Lauren directed us to, it's quite breath taking. I can't believe we have lived here over 10 years and this is the first time I have been here. Travel hockey lets you see a lot of other people's backyards, you forget you have your own.

A little history lesson of Green Mountain, delightful

Saturday Stroll, Take Two

5K - check

Next up, Monte Sano. Matthew was cleared to run, running uphill is supposed to help you skate faster...so, the weekend after the 5K, we grabbed Matthew for the Girls' Saturday Stroll and made him run...not quite fair but fair doesn't seem to be the way life rolls.

It was a beautiful morning with some hints of autumnal color on display.

The view from the top

There seems to be a theme where my kids take their picture and Me? Never asked. Sigh.

Saturday Morning Stroll

The Girls and I did a 5K...well, sort of, we didn't run, we wore tutus, and ponchos since it was raining...but...we had fun. Lauren has been doing this run for the past few years and this year, Hannah and me joined in the fun.

After the walk, we went to breakfast at Another Broken Egg, along with almost every other Liz Hurley participant, we waited a very very long time for those eggs and pancakes.

Last few minutes of being dry and cute

Just a few thousand of our closes friends

The 5K takes you through Downtown Huntsville the historic district is so beautiful

I'm not sure who strung up the bras but kudos to the brave soul

Soggy but successful

I'll be honest, I would rather do a "Cancer" 5K since my dad died of throat cancer and my grandmother of stomach cancer...my mom's breast cancer was taken care of and she is doing great. I often wonder how people dealing with other cancers and not as much publicity feel...it seems a bit unfair. I guess where cancer is concerned...nothing is fair.

Getting Back

An acquaintance sent me a message about Matthew's injury. I don't know her very well, he son plays on a different AAA team but she is actually concerned about him playing again and she is not his mom...very sweet. I sent her an answer and I guess since I don't know her well, I unburdened my heart. I guess it is a bit like strangers on a train sharing things that you wouldn't tell anyone else. And this is what I said to her, not spoken aloud to anyone...my mama's heart:

Matthew really doesn't share that it hurts. I only know it hurts by the way he carries himself or if someone bumps into him or if he asks to use the cooling machine the Wegner's let us borrow. He won't take anything for it because he doesn't like the way ibuprofen or acetaminophen makes him feel.

It's hard. He was like this the first time he broke it. He won't say anything. He just keeps it inside. It is going to be really hard to watch him get back on the ice. I don't want him getting hurt but hockey is part of him. It's weird, he has wanted to play hockey for as long as I can remember. His dad kept wanting him to play football. It took him two years of pleading to get me to sign him up. I had him in swimming and he hated it. Keith Rowe came to his school and did a thing with his PE class and handed out flyers to try hockey for free and he came home so PROUD of his flyer. I couldn't say no....that's kind of how this is, I can't say no, but I am so leery of him going back to playing...and that is all he wants to do.

Social Media Stars

Our church is tech savvy...so much so, I'm usually about one step behind...We have a lot of young people who are excellent in keeping our youth excited and informed about upcoming events. Lately, I've been stumbling on my kids on social media in their promotions. It's kind of sweet and worthy of a screenshot for posterity.

So...not driving

My last post was about the fabulousness of driving Matthew to Nashville for hockey. This post will be about not driving. Last Sunday, while in Nashville, Matthew was owning the game until a 2 on 1 into the boards re-broke his clavicle. Did I mention this was the Championship Game? Monday was a roller coaster day of let it heal on its own or get surgery and plate it. Four doctors recommended letting it heal, four were for plating, the last doctor said "If my kid was in band, I'd let it heal on its own. If my kid played hockey, plate it." I had peace about that statement. I did not have peace about letting it heal on its own. Matthew wants to continue playing and I think if he didn't have bionic reinforcement, he would never be able to not worry about it snapping again.

 Greg was running the camera and was unaware anything happened to Matthew. Most people thought he was doing a line change. One of the parents puts the games on YouTube and he had no idea Matthew was hurt and was actually making jokes when Lauren went to get Greg while I got the car.  I was standing right by where it happened and as soon as he grabbed his arm, I knew what happened. I had no idea how tough Matthew was until he re-broke his arm. He didn't cry, he didn't stop the game, he just skated to the bench. He even held his stick in the hand of the arm he was holding. I have to say, he is so much tougher than me. I almost question whether he came out of me. The kid has grit and must be made of barbed wire and nails.

I have to tell you about our team, well, mostly the parents. They have been so good to Matthew, one of the dads has a sports medicine background, he assessed the situation, got Matthew's jersey off without cutting it, his wife got Matthew's skates off using her teeth to undo the laces  Greg kept saying, "Don't inhale! Don't inhale!" to the mom, she said she would only get that close to a skate for one of her kids or Matthew. High praise indeed (Matthew can tie some tight laces). One parent loaned us his cooling machine (well, actually, his wife did), three moms brought their players by to see Matthew when he had surgery. Most have texted or checked in with our team manager. We are truly blessed.

Matthew is sore and recuperating from the surgery and already planning on getting back to playing. I will enjoy the time home because it doesn't look like it will be long before I am back to driving to Nashville.

Watch the game here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIIwrh4b1hw

I'll Admit

Driving to Nashville for Matthew to play hockey puts a lot of miles on our car and it's a bit crazy to do but the time spent with him is precious. Lauren drove him last week and this week. A bit of a gift now that I am entering my second season of driving. She said she doesn't get to spend time with him so offered her services last week and this week. I think she has found it's a good way to spend time with him, also.

Labor Day

Yeah, so I'm a little behind and out of order on my posts. What else is new?

Matthew had practice over Labor Day Weekend. He stayed with a teammate so we celebrated Greg's Birthday a day late...at Magiannos, with some friends, after a stop at Centennial Park for Greg to do some homework and for us to goof around.

My sweet friend, Kimber, made us place settings to give a more festive feel to the Birthday Celebration. White chocolate that looks like olives for our Italian meal. She's so clever

Lauren made Greg's favorite, carrot cake cupcakes, she is so talented