I've turned some corners

Wow, hard to believe that it has been a full week since I have shared anything with you all. I guess I have been busy trying to catch up from the two weekends I travelled to Phoenix. It is definitely nice to be home this weekend and I feel like I am more caught up than I have been for the last few weeks.

Anyway, last weekend was Matthew's hockey team's turn to go to Phoenix and his team did very well. After the round robin games, they were in 1st place. Unfortunately their mind took over - as soon as someone mentioned "Semi-Finals" they fell apart and went to win the consolation...ending up in 3rd place when the tournament. However, they had the best record coming out of the weekend - winning 4, loosing 1 and tying 1. Congrats to the PW99AAA Sharks team.

While in Phoenix, I did get some time to put some stitches into Family Sampler...here is a photo of it from last Monday:


Family Sampler Status after returning home from Phoenix - 9/26

 I finally made it to the second corner, something that I wanted to accomplished before boarding the plane on Sunday evening. However, due to the hockey schedule last week, I found myself at the rink 3 days in a row and definitely made a lot of time for stitching. So, here is where I am now:


Family Sampler as of  October 1

Third corner of the Pea Pod green vine has been turned (and fresh batteries have been put in the camera - photo looks better than the phone photos) and I will be happy when this part is finished. I am getting a little sick of the Pea Pod green as well as making the same pattern...time to change out soon!

It is definitely nice to be home and home for a period of time. My next travel weekend is October 13, when I will be flying with Matthew and his hockey team, again. We will be going to Detroit, Michigan for a tournament. 'Tis hockey season!

Guess a few more corners have been turned, as it is now Fall. The weather here in Northern California has been trying to hold onto summer-like temperatures, but it looks like Mother Nature will put a stop on that as we are expecting 2 rain storms next week and temperatures have fallen from mid-90s to mid-70s and 60s. I perfer the cooler temps, but not quite ready for the rainy season. Would be nice to transition into slowly, but I have no control of these things so I will just take one day at a time.

The corner of the September calendar has been pulled and today is the first day of October. Hard to believe that the last 3 months of 2011 are on our doorstep. That means the holidays will be here soon. Speaking of holidays...while I finished Lisa V's ornament a month ago, I am finally getting my act together and taking it to the post office to mail...today is the mail due date (can you say "procrastination?"). I took some photos of the ornament, which I will post as soon as she gets a chance to hold it in her hand first. So stay tune - how long does it take to get from California to Austrailia anyway?

Well, time for me to sign off! I hope that you have a wonderful Saturday. Until next time...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Phone Photos from Phoenix

The sun peeked over the mountains as started out on my run this morning - it was a nice cool 80, or so, degrees at 6:15am. Beautiful conditions for a morning run.

My run lead me from the hotel up the road, passed by the shopping center, car dealership (the not so exciting part of the run) and then through some deserty areas where I spotted this:

The Prickly Pear Cactus seems to be a vivid purple in the early morning sunlight. It really stood out in the background of the brownish sand.

Next was this:

Some kind of yellow-orange flowering plant. The vivid orange really caught my eyes.

I ran to the ice rink that Matthew & his team are playing at and then back to the hotel. A nice 9 mile run in the morning light and a good way to start the morning.

Matthew's team is doing well...won both of their games yesterday.

We are getting ready to leave the hotel for game #3...Go Sharks!

It is easy enough to be pleasant,

When life flows by like a song.

But the person worthwhile is one who will smile,

When everything else goes wrong.

~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Take care...until the next time, remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

And off I go again...

Yahoo...got my bootie out of the beddie this morning and on the bike. It has been awhile since I have managed to get myself up and going so early. And I definitely need to get in a good sweat, for it is going to be another travel day for me! Back to Phoenix this evening with Matthew, this time. It is his hockey teams weekend to play in the Phoenix SuperSeries99. Definitely looking forward to it - no team manager responsibilities = rest & relaxing :)

After returning home on Sunday, I had to find little pockets of time between work and driving down to the hockey rink to get little tasks done around the house, before leaving again. I did manage to get all the laundry complete and the house stocked up with Robert & DH's foods for this weekend (last week I made sure all of Matthew & DH's faves were in the pantry and the refrigerator). However, I wasn't able to find much time to get any X's made on Family Sampler...yet, ample time on the plane and throughout the weekend will be possible.

Take care my blogging friends. Until next time, remember...

Life, Love, Laugh and Stitch often

Lisa

Short week at home - a look back at the weekend

I am back home from Phoenix where Robert's team had a fair showing at the SuperSeries96 tournament. They won 1 - lost 3 - tied 1. However, I am very proud of the team and of Robert. Even with a short bench (aka small team; they only had 13 players playing over the weekend out of 15...a full team is 20) these boys battled hard all weekend - playing 2 games a day...and the games consisted of (3) three 18 minute periods. That makes for a long game, where you get a lot of ice time and short breaks on the bench to catch your breath.

While in Phoenix, my role not only included all the team manager functions that I normally do but I also got to drive one of the van...which happened to be the equipment van...aka the Stink Mobile.

The Equipment Van - hockey bags loaded from the front to the rear.
OPEN WINDOWS!

No one would ride with me :(  It wasn't as bad as it sounds, the car didn't smell too bad; however, the extra room we reserved at the hotel for the boys to store their hockey bags over night and between games...well, that room definitely took on the wonderful, ripe odor of a locker room. I just hope that I don't get assigned that room when I travel back to Phoenix this coming weekend when it is Matthew's team's turn to play in their SuperSeries.

So, have you ever come across one of these:

Well, if you are one of those people who collect those little hotel bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel - you would have been out of luck at this hotel. They had these little dispensers on the shower wall. I actually liked it, for I definitely had enough shampoo and conditioner...those little bottles don't seem to have enough. This was also a good thing for the boys' rooms (there were 3-4 boys in each room) for I am sure that many of them rely on hotel shampoo and one of those little bottles definitely would not have been enough for them all to share.

While travelling last weekend, I got in some stitching time...and if you made it all the way to the end of this post you will be rewarded with a status photo of Family Sampler:

Starting in the upper right hand corner, I got a good portion of the Pea Pod vine started. While I am already getting sick of Pea Green...I do think that I will continue with this border until it is completely done. I want to make sure that it matches up when I come to the end. I think that if I worked on the little flowers that are on this vine...and it didn't match up in the end...I would be more upset and stressed. So, here is to Pea Pod...my new color friend for the next few weeks :)

Hope your week has started out well...until next time,

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Catching up...

I am back...arrived back in town Sunday night after a 30-45 minute delay of our return flight from Phoenix. Weather was so bad up and down California that any plane coming from the state was late and many out of Phoenix to the southern part were cancelled...thank goodness that I had a direct to Oakland...so it was only late, not cancelled!

The weekend in Phoenix was wonderful. It started out with an early arrival on Thursday, March 17...just Matthew and I that whole day. We were able to get a room downtown Phoenix for the first evening because the team hotel was booked. My goodness...was the Phoenix airport a mess, for it is spring training and there were so many baseball fans - San Fran Giants, Oakland A's, Los Angeles Dodgers...on our plane, in the airport and waiting in the very, very long line for the rental car bus. Thank goodness that we were taxi-ing to the hotel for my patience would have been shot if I had to wait in that!

Anyway, once we reached the hotel and got checked in, we pulled out some mac-n-cheese and created a little room picnic for Matthew so that he could get in some lunch before we headed out to explore the city.

Mac-n-cheese, sour dough french bread, applesauce and apple juice...good source of fuel for the walk to the first museum.




I guess Matthew wasn't quite done eating when we started out to our first museum. Stopping to touch a cactus, something that he wanted to do immediately, I caught him mid-chew of his last bite of bread.



After he finished eating and I finished unpacking, we headed out and walked down the street to the Heard Museum, where there is one of the nation's largest collection of Native American cultures - especially the cultures of America's southwest. Matthew and I really enjoyed walking around the museum, there was a lot of wonderful information to read and activities to do.

Matthew outside the Heard Museum in the sculpture garden. It was a very warm day outside...upper 80s.



A mask from the Kuba (?) Tribe from S.America...Matthew thought that this was a very cool mask, because it reminded him of one of the first units he studied this year in Social Studies; so of course I took a photo of it and emailed it to his Social Studies teacher :)

After the Heard Museum, we headed further down town, taking the light rail so we didn't have to walk the short 3 miles in the heat we weren't use to :) While downtown, we visited the Science Museum where we only had enough time to watch a movie in the IMAX theater; for afterwards, most of the "fun" science activities had lines of kids and it was close to closing time...aside from which we were also hitting our wall of exhaustion & hunger. So, before we went back to the hotel, we took the light rail to one of our favorite restaurants - Sweet Tomatoes...the endless salad bar, with a pasta station, bakery and dessert counter (fruit & soft serve ice cream). We had a nice day together, Matthew & I. It has been a long time since we have traveled and did something non-hockey related. It felt great.

On Friday, after a good night's rest, a great 8.25 mile jog downtown and back, Matthew and I packed up. Our little mini-vacation was over and it was time to get back to reality. We were here for a hockey tournament...and the last one for the "official" season. One of the other hockey families were kind enough to pick us up and bring us to the "team" hotel in Scottsdale.

With a game Friday evening, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday....eat, sleep, hockey (and I did get in some stitching; took out Family Sampler while sitting around the rink waiting for the game to start or at the hotel while we were resting) is about all we did until leaving Sunday evening. While the boys lost 4 games and tied 1 - they played amazing!!! The losses were only by 1-3 points for the most part. They have come a long way since their first games back in September. We are all proud of them...and I am proud of Matthew!



Matthew is in back - the one with the blue shirt and tie/no jacket
(fyi-this is only 1/2 the team)

Now it is really back to reality...laundry, work, *The Business*, continuing hockey practice for Matthew, track & field for Robert, school...never ends, does it?

Anyway...hope you all are doing well and until next time, take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

May the Luck of the Irish be yours...

Happy St. Patrick's Day at the wee hour of the morn...I am up and about at the dark hour of 2am in order to get in a nice spin on the stationary bike before Matthew and I head to the airport for a 7am flight. Suitcase, hockey bag and stitching backpack all stuffed, ready for travel. I heard that the weather is nice and warm down in Phoenix, AZ - so I am definitely looking forward to hanging out in warmer weather today! Joanie, who commented on yesterday's blog, gave me a heads up to a great needlework store - Attic Needlework - which doesn't look like it is too far from Scottsdale (that is where we are staying with the team for the tournament). I will be without my own set of wheels during the weekend, but maybe I can borrow someone's car and take a field trip during the weekend ;).

It is weekends like this, even when I travel and it is filled with activity and preparation for hockey games, I do enjoy them...more so now then in years before. First, these weekends bring with it some "downtime", more than I get, or allow myself to take, when I am home. This is the time between activities when I can hang out in the room by myself or with my son or with a fellow hockey mom. Second, these weekends provide me with some one-on-one time with my son; as they continue to get older this time becomes more valuable. Lastly, where else can I go where someone else makes the bed, picks up the towels on the floor and cleans up after me???

Anyway...I am looking forward to getting away! And if I have free internect connection, I will keep you informed...if not, then I will catch up with you all when I get back! Until next time...

Wishing you a rainbow

For sunlight after showers—

Miles and miles of Irish smiles

For golden happy hours—

Shamrocks at your doorway

For luck and laughter too,

And a host of friends that never ends

Each day your whole life through!

 

Take care...Lisa

 

Where did time go?

Oh, my it is Wednesday already? I know that we lost an hour on Sunday, but I feel like I lost a few days there too!

Over the weekend, DH and Matthew were in Los Angeles. Matthew's hockey team played a few hockey games down there against a team who was visiting from the Czec Republic and one game against the LA Jr. Kings PWAA team. Sounds like it was a fun weekend, especially with a pizza dinner on Saturday night where they got to visit with the Czec Kids and trade gifts. The Jr. Sharks (Matthew's team) gave San Jose Shark T-shirts and a Jr. Shark pennant and, in turn, Matthew's team received a hat with the Czec hockey team logo and a pennant. Aside from hockey, the weekend was also about father/son bonding - something that DH hasn't had a lot of time to do because of *The Store*.

So, while they were down in LA I was minding *The Store*. I worked in there all day Saturday and then again on Sunday. It was fun, but tiring. When I got home, I did do a little stitching on Family Sampler as well as napped...however, I wanted to finish the ornament for the ornament Swap, but didn't have the creative energy to complete it. So, I will have to do that when I get back from Phoenix.

Yes, that is right...tomorrow I am off to Phoenix with Matthew. He has a hockey tournament down there again, but it doesn't start until Friday evening. So we will have all day Thursday to explore downtown Phoenix before moving to our assigned hotel on Friday. This trip, which hasn't even started yet, has caused some stress. First, it was an issues with our airline tickets for tomorrow. Using point to save some money, I accidentally booked a 7 AM flight instead of a 7PM one...and since I used reward points you really can't change them without a headache. Once over that mistake, I found out yesterday that we didn't have a room for Thursday night at the hotel that we are staying at for the tournament. Because our travel plans differed from the rest of the team, the manager forgot about our need for a room and just booked us Friday-Sunday like the rest of the team. No big deal, except that the hotel is over booked because Spring Training is going on down there. They did put me down on a waiting list, but for a piece of mind, I went ahead and book a room at another hotel for Thursday...using points.

So free airline ticket down to Phoenix,

free night stay at a hotel on Thursday...

no hockey until Friday evening = mini vacation for Matthew and I. 

I did a little research finding this hotel for Thursday, and we are staying right down town where there seems like there are a lot of museums, shops and restaurants to explore. I am sure that we will find some things to keep us busy!

Hopefully the weather down in Arizona is better than here. We have had some wet days lately..."Spring showers bring Spring Flowers" I guess. However in between showers I have been able to get out and do a little jogging. Monday I had a very nice 6.5 mile jog around the neighborhood and yesterday I did a 9 mile one. It felt very good...but just a little sore this morning. Nevertheless, I was able to get my butt out of bed and on the stationary bike for a good spin - to loosen up my legs and get in a good sweat before getting everyone else up and around for school/work.

Well, before I sign off on this post, I will leave you with this to think about:

Watch children running around in the playground and you will soon be thinking,

“They’re having so much fun.”

Why are they having so much fun?

The better question is, Why aren’t you having more fun?

Children run around and play as if by instinct.

They do not question whether they should have fun, they just go out and do it. . . .

 Having a little fun, a time for pure silliness and happiness, is an essential part of every day.

~David Niven

Make the most of your day today...

go out and play, be silly, be happy!

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa