A Month of Pictures

I hope I don't shock you all by actually writing a blog post today.  I know it's been a month since my last post.  Just when I thought I didn't really have anything to write about, I went through the pictures on my phone, and whaddya know, I found some stuff that pretty much sums up the last month and what we've been up to!

So I now present my last month, as told by my crappy cell phone pictures.

Yes, we've attended a few hockey games.  I can't even tell you who the opponent was here, but I know it was a shutout for my boy. :)

Snuggle time with this one has been high on the list.  She snores.  Not nearly as loud as the hubs, but yes, she snores.

One day I watched The View, and felt the need to take this picture and sent it to my sister.  Because that's what we do.  I told her that BaBa WaWa was looking an awful lot like Harry Carey.  She couldn't disagree.

I got to go to a Bulldogs game and drink wine.  This is very noteworthy.  Trust me.

Andy's team won first place in our home tournament!  Yay!

This sign was on the outside of the Two Harbors rink at one of the several games we attended there.  I don't remember seeing a more literal sign in a long, long time.  Hockey is very cool.  And cold.  And freezing. And arctic.

Our dance studio moved into it's new home!  So very very exciting.

This is a photo of the very first time attendance was taken in the very first class at the new studio.

I got to see a sun dog on one of the days that the wind chill hit -40.  Yes, there were multiple days that the wind chill hit -40 here.  That is just not right for crying out loud.

See what I mean?  Snuggle sesh #490467098.  She sleeps in your arms like a baby.

My silly boy and his silly hockey team advanced to regions.  What do you do when you advance to regions?  You and your entire team bleach your hair, of course.  Why not?

They ended up taking third place at regions, and only the top two qualified for state, so there won't be a state trip for us this year.  Probably a good thing because Lord knows what they would have wanted to do to their  hair if they advanced another level.

I think he looks kinda good. :)

Ahem.  Yeah.

My sissy and her daughter came to town to go see The Band Perry with us!  It was a great concert.

Third row tickets don't suck.  

Lindsay Ell was the opener, and she has some serious guitar skills. She was super friendly and we found her at the merch table after the show, so the girls got to pose for a pic with her!

And then I blinked and my baby turned TWELVE.  Ugggggh.  She asked for waffles for dinner.  I like to accommodate.  Even with a birthday candle!

I finally took the princess in for a haircut.  I miss her shag though.  I don't think we'll go as short next time.

Our high school team made it to state this year again, so as has become tradition, we packed up the fam and headed south to cheer them on.

Emily's silly boyfriend and his mustache made it with honorable mention to the annual "All Hocky Hair Team" video.  We are so proud. :)

I got to do some knitting by the hotel pool.  I have been working on this (*$#%*$#(ing sweater for about 2 years. I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON IT!  Little by little, I'll find the end.  It's got to be here somewhere.

We made a trip to the Mall of America, and someone was in heaven surrounded by all things Little Mermaid.

I finally got to meet this angel!  She's my new niece, Bailey, and she's perfect in every way.

We got to have one quick meal with her at Khan's, a Mongolian BBQ restaurant.  The food was AWESOME, but our visit was too quick.

We will hopefully get to spend more time with them at Easter, just around the corner!

Back for the championship game, in which we lost again.  Next year boys!  We'll be back to cheer you on!

So now as hockey season is over, we transition into dance competition season.  I have been busy blinging out costumes with feathers, crystals, and really smelly glue, but it's one of my very favorite parts of being a dance mom.  Our second competition of the season is this weekend at the Marshall School Auditorium.  You will find me there most of the weekend, probably sitting near the greatest light source in the room, with my knitting, cheering on my baby.  No place I'd rather be!

XOXOX

NH

New hair!

Lordy me, I am so ready for this winter to be over.  We have had so much stinkin' below zero, wind-chill advisory, school closed, nose hair frozen weather, that I just can't take it.

So, I got my hair cut!

I know, it doesn't really make sense to me either, but what the heck.

My ends were fried, my roots were grey, and I was ready for a new look.  Maybe I'm hoping that the newness will bring new springy weather.  I always forget how my curls love to be shorter!

So, whaddya think of the new me???

XOXOX

NH

Tourney Time

I haven't blessed you all with any hockey pictures lately.  Let's change that.

Two weekends ago, we hosted our home tournament.  (what? so I haven't been quite on top of posting lately.  gimme a break. ;) )

Once again, I'm so grateful for the team we were placed on.

Such a great group of families that we get to spend our winter with!

If you are wondering, no, I don't especially like it when he comes THIS far out of the net to play a puck.

We had won our first two games of the tournament, and were in the championship game on Sunday!

Yep.  That one went in.

My favorite thing about hockey is watching the team's improvement over the year.

I'll be the first to admit, I thought this team was a little shaky in November.

But they have come SO FAR!

And they have worked SO HARD.

Hard work pays off, boys.

The look on Andy's face right here makes it 100% worth it for me.

I know this wasn't the championship of the world, but it was very important to this team on this day.  And to this hockey mom.

And they certainly earned that first place trophy.  I am so proud of all of you boys!

XOXOX

NH

En Pointe.

It felt SO good to dig out the camera last night and take some pictures.  It had been a while.

These are some pictures taken during Morgan's Pointe class.  Enjoy!

To anyone wondering, this dance stuff is MUCH harder than it looks.  I don't know how they do it!

XOXOX

NH

Life is too short...

1.  For the packets of unflavored oatmeal.  Why do they even put them in the assorted pack boxes?  I don't have time to mess around with adding something to make it taste edible.  That's why I buy the little packs of instant oatmeal in the first place.

2.  To jump to conclusions.  Gather your facts, people!

3.  To not completely spoil your dog.  Yep, I made that sweater.  Thankyouverymuch.



4.  To immaculately clean your house.  I'd MUCH rather snuggle. Or knit.  Or watch TV.



5.  To miss hockey games.



6.  To not tell your kids every.  single.  day.  that you love them.


Yes, he let me draw this on the end of his brand new hockey stick.  He covered it with another layer of tape, but it's still there!

7.  To drink crappy stuff that you don't love.  This, however does NOT fall into that category.  If you haven't tried this, you need to.



XOXOX

NH

A few updates

I was going to try and not wait a month before blogging again, but well, I did.  So now I will show you a few pictures of stuff we've been doing lately.

We traveled almost all the way to Canada for a hockey tournament.  There isn't much between here and there, except a very very long road.

Tomorrow begins the journey of getting these babies straightened out.  Miss Morgan is NOT looking forward to it.

DARE graduation, and she was chosen to read her essay in front of the whole class and visitors!

It has been really, really cold here.  When the lake is way warmer than the air, it steams.  It makes for very cool pictures.  And very cold people.

My hubby turned 40.  This picture was taken on a trip we went on together shortly after we met.  I think we were about 19 and 21 here.  And a LOT of pounds lighter.  :)

Morgan has been dancing.  Shocker, I know.

Sami is getting along pretty well at our house.  I'm spoiling her as best I can, and even got to make her a pretty sweater to keep her warm.

We took a trip down to visit my sissy to say goodbye to the crappy year we had and ring in a much better, new one.

Love this girl more than I can say.

Last but not least, Morgan has perfected the art of texting with her nose while at hockey games that are too cold to remove your mittens.  I have tried this, and it is VERY DIFFICULT.  So the fact that she can do this is impressive enough for me to blog about it.

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season.  Mine was different, for sure.  But we made it through.  Some new traditions were started that I'm looking forward to continuing every year!

I don't really set resolutions, but of course I'm going to try and lose some weight and blog more in the upcoming months.

Thank you all for your outpouring of love and support to me and my family.  I love you all, and look forward to sharing more of my stories in 2014!!

XOXOX

NH

Loss.

I miss writing on my blog, so here I am.  I'm warning you right now before you start reading, that this post is ramblings of what's going on in my head, and will most likely not follow any logical writing pattern at all.

I've been trying to figure out how to get back into this, and it hasn't been easy.  I have been through the biggest losses of my life this year, and I've been grieving.  I know there is no right way to grieve.  I know I have to do whatever feels right to me, but sometimes I just don't want to figure out what feels right.  I just want to stay in bed.  My parents died 204 days apart from each other.  Sometimes it's hard to think about anything other than that.

I have had friends or acquaintances lose parents in the past.  Until you go through it, you just don't understand.  Nobody understands.  Everything that has gone through my head to write down here just sounds SO cliche.  Like I've heard it a million times before from other people when they've gone through this.  But I didn't understand.  There was no way I could have.

Cancer sucks.

It's not fair.

This happened to MY mom.

It all happened way too fast.

I want more time with her.

I want one more hug.

Did that all really just happen?

I don't have ANY parents anymore.

I would give anything to sit at another chemo infusion or blood transfusion with her.  Sometimes we'd sit in silence and knit together, and sometimes I'd listen to her little things that were so annoying at the time.  How she had to tell every single nurse her whole story about her power port, or how she is getting over pneumonia, or the story behind the dishcloths she was knitting.  We'd always end up laughing though, and I never took one minute for granted.  She gave me a hard time for pushing her wheelchair into the elevator forwards instead of backing in, like Erin did.  I'm sorry, mom.  I should have backed in for you.  I'm sorry when I left your tea bag in your cup too long.  And I'm sorry for hitting the pot hole at 10th Ave E and 4th St EVERY time I drove you through that intersection.

Sometimes I wonder about the people at the cancer center that were so nice to us.  I wonder if they ever think about mom.  Is there like a staff memo that comes out to let them know if a patient doesn't make it?  Or do they just have to assume if they don't ever come back?

The lady at the check in desk has a steel trap mind.  She knew every single patient that she checked in.  Mom never had to tell her what her name was, except when she needed her to recite it out loud with her birthdate before she put her wristband on every day.  She was so nice and funny.  Ironically...  I can't remember her name right now.  Dumb, isn't it?

And I wonder how some of the other patients are doing that we'd see there often.  We didn't ever really talk to any of them, but it doesn't stop me from wondering about them.

Lordy, I don't know where I'm even going with this blog post.

I guess I should use this post as a thank you to everyone for being so kind to me through all of this.  I probably haven't been the very best friend, or fun to be around.  I'm still not.  I'm doing my best, and as I dig myself out of this hole I'm in, thank you for being patient with me and noticing when I need help digging, or when I just need a day of digging by myself.  Sometimes I just need to sit down and stop digging.  It's an evil battle that I'm fighting.  Some days I feel like I've lost.  Other days I feel like I have more energy to keep on fighting.

I have gained a new perspective on so many different things in my life through all of this.  I'm really trying not to write one big cliche here, I promise.  But I guess I don't know how else to feel right now.

Dad, I miss you very much.  I hope the strawberry shakes in heaven are even better than McDonald's.

Mom, I think about you every day.  I am hurting, but I will be ok.  It has been almost a month since you left us, and I still can't really believe that it's true and that it all really happened.  I'm glad you are finally not sick anymore.

Thank you both for what you've taught me.  I hope I am making you proud.  We are taking good care of Sami for you.  I know she misses you both very much too.  Thanksgiving sucked without you, and Christmas will suck worse.  We will do our best to keep on with your traditions, and start some of our own.  We ALL miss and love you!

I'm so very, very ready for 2013 to be over, and to start over with the new year!

XOXOX

NH