Hockey Mom becomes a Figure Skating Mom too.

Kirsten has finally gotten brave enough to speak up to Dad about skating. She really doesn't want to play hockey, she wants to figure skate. Ugh. I wish she'd been brave enough to stand up about it before we bought her almost a full set of hockey equipment. So now we're in buying figure skates mode. None of the shops around here sell figure skates. Girlfriend needs to be professionally fitted - her feet are on the wide side - but the closest place that does that is at the Detroit Skating Club. And it's by appointment only. Double ugh. I'm just not so good with appointments. I balk at making appointments to get hair cuts or go to the dentist. I really don't like making an appointment to go spend $150 on a 5 year old's figure skates.

Another thing...what is it with Figure Skate Moms and track suits? I refuse to wear pants with a word written on my ass. These moms don't really wear them to exercise, so I just don't get it. I'll be the one in the  rink with jeans and a heavy sweatshirt, MAYBE with makeup on. I don't know how well I'm going to fit in with these moms. I'm prone to yelling to suck it up and skate...actually I did that today when Kirsten fell and the coach gave her a HUG. Really? A HUG? If you don't need to go to the hospital, suck it up and skate! My children know there is no crying on the ice unless you need to go the hospital. This is a bad trend, this hugging on the ice.

Powerskate summer is over. Draft skate for Squirts is Monday, Kirsten is signed up for learn to skate on Tuesdays, skill practice for both on Saturdays. Husband has hockey every other night of the week. Here we, go! Let the season of the rink begin!!!

Sunday, Sunday...

Well, here it is, Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting at the rink. Freezing my fingers off, desperate for coffee but not wanting to sacrifice the lining of my stomach to concession stand coffee. Scott is playing in an Old Timer's tournament this weekend and at noon the championship game begins. Two of his teammates are flew out for warmer parts this morning and won't be playing. Another of his team mates, the former Red Wing has injured his back. Fingers crossed for them, they're going to have to play hard. Standing in the lobby Scott was drafted for another game tonight in a different league. I have no idea how many teams have rostered him. I didn't realize there were this many leagues in Flint, MI. He had just finished telling me that his knees were worn out for the weekend, but he can't say no to hockey. I don't know what he's going to do when he's REALLY an old timer.

My little 10 year old Dids was diagnosed this week with Narcolepsy. While it feels good to finally have a diagnosis after 5 years of chasing it, I'm sad for my boy. Narcolepsy is a fairly serious disability, it can prevent him from driving and precludes him from many jobs in the future. It explains a lot though, and looking back I wonder how we never saw it. So many of the symptoms can be explained by other diagnoses, simpler thing like ADHD or behavior issues. Now we find out that those behaviors were coping mechanisms, attempts to stay awake for whatever was expected of him. We're waiting for the pediatric neurologist's office to call so we can talk about treatment and what to expect. The standard medication is not approved for use in children. Another of them is GHB. Great, just what I DON'T want to give my kid...the date rape drug. :( Payton was very worried when he heard us talking about it, wanted to know what this disease he can barely pronounce is. I found some websites that break it down in terms he can understand. He's been very quiet this week, thinking and processing it all. Until I get hinm to the neurologist I don't know how else to address it with him.

Jordan started driver's training this week. My hermit child is much better socialized than I had expected. He didn't gravitate toward the other sullen, cocky teenage boys who were trying to look like they were too cool for life. Instead he gravitated to the two cutest girls in the class. They come sit with him every day. I approve, they seem like nice girls, they're including him in their conversations and he's finding he might actually have something in common with other teenagers his age. He's walking taller this week, taking a little bit more care in his appearance. It's so nice to see him blossom and find his way. He drove one day this week, he was terrified but he did okay. He said one of the other kids was way worse than him and another was way better. As soon as he gets his "pink" slip he can begin to drive with us. I use us loosely, I don' know if I'll have the guts to drive with him yet. We'll see. Hopefully he'll be as responsible of a driver as he is at home, I'm slightly terrified since I see the victims of trauma fairly regularly.

Our beloved Red Wings clinched their playoff berth this weekend in Nashville. Twenty years of playoff seasons. Love April in the D. Almost time for Scott to go on the ice, so better get in where it's cold.

Manicures, iPads & Hockey

Yesterday my friend the roller derby girl gave me a shellac manicure. It's so pretty and shiny, even on my clipped shorty-short nails. Tonight at work though, something in the
skin prep wipes I use made my right thumb nail really dull. I keep wiping it with alcohol, but whatever it was ate the top layer of polish off, I think. Bummer.

I'm composing this entry on my new iPad using the touch screen keypad. My wrists are getting sore since I have to hold my fingers up to see where I'm touching since there's no sensory input for where you fingers actually hit. I bought the iPad on eBay, took the chance because the seller was very close and the price was very good. There is a scratch on the screen, but I'm hoping when the Invisible Shield goes on the scratch will disappear. The seller did disclose it in the auction listing, it's only a tiny bit worse than the auction led me to believe. All in all I'm pretty happy with it since I only paid $257 for an $800 piece of electronic equipment I'd been trying to convince myself I didn't really need. It's pretty. In every way. My kids are each going to want one next.

Today is the first practice of spring hockey. It's Dids' first day as a Pee Wee, let the checking begin. Most of the team is first year Pee Wees. I think there are only 3 on the team who played this level in the fall. Scott got roped into basically coaching the Squirt team as well since none of the dads stepped up to volunteer. I wonder if any of them can even skate. Jeff, the owner of the arena is officially the "head coach," but he told Scott he doesn't think he's going to get on the ice today and asked Scott to be there at 1 for Squirt practice. I guess it's extra ice time for Dids. He's going to be a tired boy after 2 hour and a half practices today. He could use the practice though, maybe it will improve his stick handling. He's still a little unsure of himself there and can't turn on his jets and skate around anyone with the puck.

Maybe I Should Blog Something

I've had this blog thing set up for a long time now, but have never blogged anything. In an effort to cut down on my Facebook posts that annoy my friends, maybe I should just blog it. Then if they want to read my thoughts, they can come find them instead of me blasting them into their newsfeeds. Ha!

I'm angry and excited and happy and cold today. Yes, all at the same time. Over the weekend my son's hockey team won the Becker Cup. It's this little local "tournament," where all the teams in each level from the 4 local rinks play each other to determine who has the best team. Yahoo, we won. Either my husband is a good coach or we just have some kick ass kids on our team. Actually, it's a little of both. What should have been a really happy and proud moment was marred for me by the goings-on in the stands. Allow me to explain the situation:

There's a "home" section and an "away" section at our rink. Apparently the "away" section in inaccessible for wheelchairs. The family of one of the kids on the other team sat in our "home" section for the final game. I'm assuming the guy was the grandpa. He sat there and questioned every single call the refs made, and the ones they didn't make as well. On and on it went until EVERYONE who could hear him was incredibly annoyed. He dogged my husband when he yelled at our son for making a stupid play. Apparently a coach isn't supposed to question what the kids are doing on the ice, he's just supposed to let them do whatever they want to do. Anyways, I digress. At some point in the third period when we were winning and the other team was getting desperate, this kid came down and shot on our goal. The goalie deflected it and my kid swatted it away from the goal. Here's what it looked like to me: the tall kid who took the original shot was angry at my short defenseman and skated up to him very fast and cross checked him IN THE FACE...INTO the side crossbar of the net. My little 70 pound kid's head snapped back and he went down. Then the big tall kid landed on him and the net. I jumped up and yelled for a call on that, then stood fearing my kid's neck was broken. He hopped up and skated over to the bench, apparently fine. The kid who hit him kind of staggered up. The mother next to me was apparently in the same head zone I was because she echoed my thoughts when she yelled, "I hope you're hurt!" I immediately repeated it, and at the same time thought to myself that's not exactly what I mean. But in the heat of the moment when someone has just intentionally tried to hurt your child things come out of your mouth that you might not mean. It ratcheted up from there when the old man yelled to me, "That's just hockey! You don't know the game!" This pissed me off. That was my kid's last game as a Squirt, playing at the level where checking is NOT ALLOWED. Shoot, even in the NHL they are questioning hits to the head. So, with the filter on my language shut off, I yelled back, "Oh bullshit, go sit in your own damn section!" Then the mother got on me, "I can't believe you'd wish for someone to get hurt!" Blah, blah, blah...about then the puck was dropped again, at which point common sense prevailed in my brain and I sat down and disengaged to watch the game. After the game that mother went tearing off the locker room to report my behavior to all the other parents on the team. Except instead of reporting that I was mad at HER kid, she said I was badmouthing someone else's kid. A kid I happen to love. A kid I know and who is friends with my kid and would never in a million years dream of intentionally hitting my son in the face to hurt him. And she reported this inaccurate information in front of the kids.

So we're all taking pictures of our kids with the trophy and one of my favorite kids from the other team (also the other team's coach's son) comes up to me with big puppy dog eyes and asks me why I would say those things about his team mate. My heart fell as I realized that my poor sportsmanship had been reported to the kids. I turned around and saw that mother and immediately apologized to her, and informed her that I would never WISH for a child to get hurt playing hockey. She told me that she hoped not, shook her finger in my face and informed me that her child would NEVER play for my husband before she stormed out of the rink. I'm still not aware that she said I was dogging someone else's kid, not hers. I decided I needed to find the boy who asked me why I would say those things about his team mate, and in front of his parents explained to him that I was a very poor sport when I said what I said, that in the future I would try to keep my more stupid thoughts to myself, and that I would never want anyone to get hurt. HE was the one who then said, "but why would you say that about _____?" I was flabbergasted. To my knowledge the kid he thought I was angry at wasn't even involved in the play. I told him I hadn't dogged that kid, that it was someone else I was angry at and that I certainly did not say a thing about the kid he thought I had bad-mouthed.

Today I got a message from the parent of the kid I like, shaming me and telling me that now she knows who her friends are. I knew it would blow up like that. Now I'm mad again at that dumb lady who lied about who I was all fired up about. Grrrrr!

On the bright side, I think we have a good spring team. We kept almost our whole team together. One of our defensemen is going to play goal for the other team. Two of our kids didn't move up to Pee Wee. We replaced those 3 with kids from another rink, kids who have played with us before and who are pretty darn good skaters. The only drama for the whole winter season was mine that last game. I'm glad we kept mostly the same group of parents, because it would be nice to have another drama free season. Please no bitching about ice time, or "I don't want my kid to play defense," or "Coach Scott said 'damn' in the locker room!"

Dids (my 10 year old hockey player) got a new Warrior stick and blade in the pro shop for $32. They're clearing out all stock dirt cheap so they can put in a BAR. I'm certainly happy about that! Now if they'll heat the place in the winter I'd be the most content hockey mom ever.

We have our family vs player skate at the Joe Louis Arena next Tuesday followed by our awards banquet at Hockeytown Cafe. We're all looking forward to that. Hopefully since the Wings don't play Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday next week a couple of them will accept our invite to come skate with our kids and bring theirs out too. Wouldn't that be the icing on the cake for our team?!