Where's Pics of John???

Ok...so I've been chastised by a certain someone..(moooommmmm!) that there was no new fave photo of John with my new camera...sooo..here is the explanation: He was involved in a bit of a scuffle during the game against Charlestown back on the 12th of Dec..actually he was what they affectionately call in hockey the "third man in". He was coming to the aid of a smaller player that was getting the crap beat out of him...long and short of it he, along with the original kid and another one who jumped in to help all got ejected and suspended. There was some confusion as to just how many games he was suspended, so when I dropped him off at his game on Sun, he wasn't supposed to play, but.....as soon as I got back home he called and told me to come back with his equipment as he could play, and to get back there fast (ummmm...hellooo..red lights????)..so in my haste to grab his equipment and get back there FAST, I neglected to grab the camera. I managed to have his equipment there and helped him dress fast enough that he only missed the first 4 minutes of the game. That being said, his first 10 seconds out on the ice, 1st game post suspension he managed to land his sorry butt in the penalty box....hellooooo...how about UNDER the radar fool????? He does have a game this sunday evening and if he stays out of the naughty box long enough I just may be able to get some neat shots of him....there, ok mom???? LOL

New favorite photo of Pat

New favorite photo of Ry

December...

Well December has come and is now almost gone...and quickly at that. My birthday was on the 11th and dad and boys managed to come up with a birthday present that was number one on my wish list..a new really cool camera. It is the new Canon EOS 7D with 18 megapixels and capability to take 8 shots in one second with one press of the button. It is absolutely fabulous for action shots and there's no stopping me now...when people see me with the camera bag they now run...hmmm. Next came the two weeks leading up to Christmas...all I have to say is Ryan's teacher has certainly earned her break and then some..nothing more trying than contain a rowdy group of second graders waiting for Santa..I wonder if she'll have to be dragged back kicking and screaming. Christmas finally (and I mean FINALLY) arrived and everyone was happy with their Christmas loot..John and Pat got fully loaded laptops and Ryan got a mini version designed for younger kids, but comes with windows and internet capabilities. This should hopefully dispel the constant fight for the one computer in our house. Ryan's hockey team has been in a Christmas tournament this week and so far has tied one game and lost one game. They're hoping to win the next game and get into the championship round..we're keeping our fingers crossed. As for John and Pat's hockey teams, well.......maybe 2010 will be kinder.

Priceless conversation of the day...

Me: Ry look at the spider on the ceiling..
Ry: Mom, you shoulda seen the bug in school...it had like 30 legs and they were all moving at once...it made me NAUSEOUS!

The Crazy Schedule...

Today I have updated by adding 3 slideshows to justify why it's been so long...Ryan recently made his first communion, which went rather smoothly, much to my surprise..the almost only glitch was just before Ry was to go up and read, he turned to me and said, "I'm not going up there and reading", to which my Exorcist head whipped around and said thru gritted teeth, quietly, "do you see these two rows of people for you? Well they came to see you read and you will do it"...at that point he muttered something unintelligble and went up and read proving once again, scenes from the exorcist really do work.
All in all, the boys are doing very well...marks closed this past Friday and just can't wait to see what the report cards show...It's been a juggle with 6 hockey teams between them, but so far ok..we're in between games at the moment, so I'm sure there is something productive that needs to be done here, so off I go....

Ryan's First Communion 10/25/2009

Pat's first travel game 2009

Ryan's first travel game 2009

First Day of School 2009

It's been a long time since I've updated, and I apologize. Things have been crazy. The kids are back in school, and hockey is in full swing. Unfortunately John's hockey season is still on hold at the moment since he broke his collarbone at the end of August. The ironic thing is he did not do it in hockey, but on a bike at an indoor bike/skateboard park in Rye, NH. I was not with him when it happened...I was getting ready to go for a nice quiet adult dinner, when lo and behold the phone rings, with daddy's cell phone number (I knew I shouldn't have answered it!, But I digress)...with 6 dreaded words..."we're on our way home now", followed by, John fell and he thinks he broke his collar bone...the selfish side of me blurted out immediately "Are you kidding me?????" as I could hear the wailing through the phone..a long ride home, followed by a quick trip to local ER, and yep, collarbone is broken, though fortunately not all the way through. We're more than half way through recovery with another xray scheduled on Oct 20 followed by another visit with the sports med ortho...lets hope for good news. He's getting frustrated with only being allowed to skate, but no contact. He's the one with the big yellow vest on the ice that just screams "don't hit me"...you can imagine how he feels about THAT!

Been very busy...

Yes...it has been quite a while since I've updated here...and I can't believe the summer is already more than half over. It's been tough one with the weather totally not cooperating with the phrase "summer vacation"....if the kids didn't have camp to go to every day, I think they would really end up killing each other, or me killing them, whichever would come first. It does seem that the weather has taken a turn more towards summer like with heat, humidity, and thunderstorms...woo hoo! In defense of not writing much lately I have added three slide shows today showing what we have been up to...and yes it did take me all afternoon..guess that's what I get for waiting sooooo long!

Annual Summer get together 07/05/2009

4th of July at Rye Beach, NH

Fishing Trip July 15, 2009

Feel good story...

Today my son John gets credit for the feel good story of the day. His baseball team has been having a rough run of it losing the last 2 or 3 games. Personally he was having a difficult time also, especially with hitting, as the league he moved up to is more difficult than the league he played in last year, much more competitive. He was getting a bit discouraged at times. Well, today the baseball gods must have been smiling on him...he had 2 RBIs with the first one in the 5th inning bringing in the run to tie the game. The second one was much more dramatic. It was the bottom of the 6th, they had last ups. It was still a tie game. There were two outs and John was up next (every mother's nightmare if their kid plays baseball...very stressful). The last pitch was thrown, John swings (I swear to God it was going in slow motion), and it goes past the shortstop for a single to bring in the winning run for the game. I have never seen him look happier than I did today when the whole team crowded him for congratulations....yes I, (and my friend Carla) had misty eyes...Way to go buddy!

It's been a busy month since my last visit.  I just added two slide shows to show that I really haven't been slacking and laying around eating bon-bons.   For those who don't know, the boys and I participated in a Boston area walk for ALS in honor of Pat's former hockey coach, John Filo.  It's been a learning experience for all of us, not least of all for Patrick.  Patrick is very fond of and attached to Coach Filo.  So much so that when we needed to solicit donations to raise money for the walk, he brought the pledge sheet with him to church on Easter morning and solicited donations.  In all the boys and I raised almost $300 to give to ALS research.  It was a great day and there was a tremendous turnout of his hockey kids, all wearing the Quincy Youth Hockey team shirts.  It was quite the sight to behold for John, at times it was difficult for him not to get emotional.  It was a true testament to someone who gave so much of his time, that it was his turn to be the beneficiary of us giving our time for him - gratefully.  We love Johnny with all our heart, will always love him and be there for him anytime day or night. This photo above is my favorite photo from the walk - the boys with their favorite hockey coach Johnny

ALS walk for Coach John Filo

Opening day for Baseball 2009

Visitors to our lawn...

Recently we had some unusual visitors to our front lawn.  We have a couple of birdfeeders on our front lawn, which are filled on a regular basis.  We usually get some beautiful Cardinals, blue jays, wood peckers and finches....imagine our surprise when we saw this in front of our house.

This photo was taken of Patrick during the state tournament in March.  My good friend Bryan was able to download it from photographer's web site and forwarded it to me...As I look at it  I realized that I need to invest in a really good camera to get awesome shots like this.  I do like to take a lot of pictures when they're playing sports.

Where's spring?

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've checked in here, but it has been crazy busy with end of year hockey tournaments and tryouts for next years travel teams.  All the boys did well and now we just have to wait to see what teams they made.  Everybody is pretty much ready for winter to be totally gone and for a nice warm spring to arrive....hmm, haven't seen hide nor hair of warm spring yet though.  As a matter of fact Patrict has baseball practice today in about an hour, and correct me if I wrong, but it's still freezing out there.  I'll just have to watch from the nice warm toasty confines of my car....reading a book or a magazine....hmm there could be worse fates I suppose.

Our newest addition...

As a few people know, we acquired a new family member over the weekend.  His name is "Buddy" and he is a Jack Russell Terrier.  We adopted him from the local animal shelter.  He had been surrendered to the shelter because he was quite the escape artist from his original owner's home and had landed at the pound 9 times.  So we know this going into this gig.  He is extremely sweet, but very stealth like, and I can see how he could be an escapee.  I opened the door to the laundry room and I happened to turn and look behind me, and there he was trying to bolt past me...but he was sooo quiet I didn't know he had snuck up behind me.   The other challenging aspect is that he is deaf.   He does know some signing, and you never have to worry about calling him for dinner because he always foraging for food.  The funniest thing so far was when I asked Ryan to find him one day over the weekend in the house and he starts calling very loudly in a sing song voice "Buddy, Buddy...where are you?" and Patrick, very matter of factly, in the exact same sing song voice yells to Ryan, "He's deaf, He's deaf"...Ryan stops dead in his tracks and says, "oohh, yeah he is".  

While we will love this dog just as much as we did Lacey and do love Timmy, he will never take the place of her, but he will build his own special little spot in each of our hearts, I'm sure of that!

The Newest Quirk..."Buddy"

February Vacation

We survived February vacation unscathed.  The boys spent one day at Rye Airfield indoor skate park, which I am told is the biggest indoor skatepark in the Northeast.  They even managed to make a short video of some of their skateboarding.  We trucked back up to Waterville Valley for another hockey tournament, this time for John.  The road trip did not start out on a positive note, as we got stuck in traffic on I93 behind a 5 car accident.  We left Quincy at 7:20 am for an 11:10 game in Waterville.  We got to Watervill at 11:10.  Fortunately, half the team was stuck in the traffic with us, and also half the team we were playing against was also stuck in this traffic.  John, who was the one to play at 11:10 was of course blaming me...."I told you we should have left earlier"...who would've guessed a two hour trip would turn into a 4 hour trip (kinda like gilligan's island)...no matter how much I told him that his assistant coach and 4 other players were an exit behind us, he grew more neurotic by the minute...he even put most of his equipment on while on the highway.  Fortunately, we made it as warmups were starting.  Quincy lost that game and I am totally going to blame it on the traffic (doesn't matter that they all looked like slugs out there).  The rest of the weekend was without incident, and they had a blast in the hotel, being able to play manhunt throughout the hotel.  I think the staff and management just closed their eyes.  The trip home was an uneventful under 2 hour drive....as Ryan would say, (due to his parochial schooling)...thank the dear lord!

It's only 30 seconds..

We went for a rare dinner out to Bugaboo Creek last night.  Why rare you ask?...spend a day with the boys and you'll understand why these visits are not of the frequent variety, although, they are getting much better about getting along long enough in a public venue so that the dinner field trip can at least be tolerable.  There was the usual statements and disagreements, but overall it went well.  Here is a sampling of the conversations:

Waiter:  drinks for anyone?

Ryan: Pepsi for me

Me:  No, you can have root beer or sprite.

Ryan:  I don't wan't root beer!  I want Pepsi..why can't I have it

Me:  Because of the caffeine and I said so...

Ryan:  Fine....I'll have sprite, but I really want Pepsi

Waiter moves around the table and gets to John

John:  I'll have diet pepsi

Ryan:  WHY CAN HE HAVE PEPSI?????

Me:  The caffeine affects you more, you're smaller.

Ryan:  NO SIR, IT DOES NOT AFFECT ME!!!

The stare down with his arms crossed begins....I win...sort of....he ended up taking Dad's root beer.

The next conversation was a keeper:

Patrick:  Dad, can I have the butter for my bread?  This was said with much effort as the poor kid apparently had a temperature of 101.9 not figured out until we got home and took his temperature.

Just as Dad is about to grab the butter, Ryan whips it away and starts buttering his bread.

Dad:  Ryan, that wasn't nice, Patrick asked for the butter first

Patrick: (with a really big sigh, followed by putting the head down on the table, muttering "I have a headache")  It's ok Dad, its only 30 seconds of my life...I have more seconds to wait for the butter...

Maybe if we all had that calm approach to lifes potholes, people wouldn't always be so damn crabby!

Deep Freeze Tournament in Waterville Valley

Ok, so we survived Patrick's hockey tournament in Waterville Valley, but barely.  Who would've thought a hockey rink is actually warm when the outside temp was -22 degrees?  The kids played well and missed the finals by a measly 1/2 point.  We managed to go tubing at Tenney mountain, but that only lasted about an hour since the temperature was a balmy -15 or so.  Back at the hotel there was just lots to do...ok, maybe Days Inn is not a luxury resort, but they could run up and down the hallways, play knee hockey in the hallways, and even skateboard in the hallways...who needs a four star hotel when you have all that at your fingertips.  Yes, though, I was the mean mother who dragged the kids into the room at 10:30 at night...I was part of a small minority...but I digress.  All and all the kids had a great time...even some of the parents had a really great time.....maybe too great...lots of headaches dragging asses around.  We left on Sunday, the day before MLK day during a snow storm....it took 4 hours to get home and we counted 12 cars spun off the road into ditches and snowbanks....at that point the novelty of the weekend had worn off and by hour 3 in the car it was a miracle no one got tossed out of a moving vehicle and the best part is we get to do it all over again in February for John's Deep Freeze tournament....must remember the ativan!

Deep Freeze hockey tournament in Waterville Valley, NH Jan 2009

Ok, so I've been told that I am seriously neglecting my blogging commitment...blame it on chocolate martinis (any headache today Abby?) and hockey.  I know, I know, its no excuse.  So here's some highlights:  the boys are getting too used to 2 hour school delays (two this week alone), we're in a bit of a slump in hockey for ALL their teams (what's a win?), and John's game today was rather ugly in all respects..they got their butts kicked by Framingham, and not just in score numbers....The scorekeeper most likely ran out of penalty lines on the scoresheet, and John was an avid contributor to that (most decidedly undeserved!)....as a matter of fact, one of his brother's coaches has given him a new name:  Jack in the Box.....hmm, maybe we really need to work on that...this week we leave for Waterville Valley in NH on Friday for a 4 day tournament for Patrick's team...6 Quincy teams alone are taking over the Days Inn....3 nights in a hotel with 90% boys between the ages of 6 and 12....should provide for lots of blogging material with interesting pictures upon our return!