Hockey players have fire in their hearts and ice in their veins...

I just LOVE coming home from the rink all fired up! It's such a rush! I took almost 150 pictures at the game tonight... Thank GOODNESS for digital cameras! I can shoot away to my hearts content and then edit and play later... deleting the bad ones as I go! When I look back over my years of taking sports pictures, I cringe at some of those early ones I ~thought~ were sooo good! Amazing what a nice camera and the knowledge to use it does! This was the first face off of the night... we played the Midget B boys. They're 15-17 year olds. We're 14 & 15 year olds... we won 6-5 in an intense and extremely good game. We don't have much for competition up here from around PG, so we play the older rep teams to give the boys some practice. We're off to tournament in Kelowna at the end of the month, and I'm hoping that my Great Aunt Doris and Great Uncle Terry will be able to come out and catch a game. They usually do. As well, we LOVE it when Uncle Bill and Auntie Brenda pop up from Greenwood, sometimes with Great Grandma Ashe in tow, if she's feeling up to the drive. Here's another shot of Willy heading up the ice past the competitions bench... I was shooting through the glass here and it's a bit fuzzy, but you get to see an action shot!
Today really was a nightmare in terms of driving back and forth! First off, Willy forgot to pack his skates in the van to get sharpened after school... so I discovered this after work on my way to pick up the girls from school. It's 1:30pm, and Devin's parent/teacher interview is at 2:45pm... okay, as much as I hate to, I have time to buzz home and get his skates and take them to the sharpening place. Fine, the girls and I drive home, hot speed as usual, have a pee and snack, and I send Dakota to get Willy's skates. We head back into town... it's 2:30pm, pull up to Player's Bench. I know the line up for sharpening is going to be long... I grab Willy's skates, think to myself, something isn't right. Head on in... yep, one and a half hours until his skates would be ready... start to put his name on the hockey tape and realize with DREAD, Dakota grabbed the wrong skates! OMG! No time to go back home and get them... Too bad so sad buddy! You'll be skating on dull blades tonight. Rush to school for Devin's PTI... Get there just in the nick of time... Excellent report as usual! Another proud mommy moment! Head down to the high school to get the boys... it's now 3:20pm... drive like mad home AGAIN! By now, I've put over 250kms on my van in less than 24hrs... no wonder I go through gas like crazy! Get home, make some KD for the kids to shovel in, pack up Willy and his gear, and his unsharpened skates, make it to the rink, late for his pre-game warm up... sigh! I hate days like these... being late annoys me more than anything else in the world! So now we're home, happy but tired and I still haven't had more than a bowl of KD since breakfast... and I wonder why I can't lose weight! Another big ~sigh~

I need to go and warm up in the tubby, have a Christmas orange for a snack and hit the hay. I can't wait for Friday morning... the kids have a non-instructionaly day, so I get to sleep in until 9am before getting up for work. Man I miss the days of sleeping in until 10am! LOL! Oh well, Saturday will be soon enough!

Tomorrow is another big day around here. Willy has hockey again, and Devin and Dakota are going to the school's Halloween Dance. It's Dakota's first school dance... she's an intermediate now you know, and she's been on pins and needles waiting for the boy she likes to ask her to the dance. I guess a couple of the other grade four boys asked some of the grade four girls to the dance, and I think she's worried no one will ask her. I've told her, she's too young for a "date" anyhow, and maybe he's just shy. She knows he likes her, so be happy with that and dance with him at the dance... It's going to be so much fun! I can't wait to go and chaperone! They grow up so fast don't they???