Recover

I did yoga for about a year before Bubba was born and then off and on for the next few years until my instructor, Jen, was killed in a car crash.

Since then, I've tried a few classes but nothing really stuck; timing, schedule, child care etc.. But mostly I've come to think maybe I hadn't grieved her death, and accepted the fact that its okay to take a class and enjoy it from someone else.

I went to a yoga class Monday night that happened to be in the studio that Jen was remodeling and had plans to teach in before her death.

It was a bit emotional, but good. Really good. As we sat centering ourselves, I let a few tears fall, I reminded myself it was okay and I am pretty sure it would have been okay with Jen too.

The class is marketed as a recovery class for athletes who may forget to stretch or who may not get everything stretched real good. It's stretched real good now!

I'm glad I went. I'm going back Monday.

Above it all

Once I got above the clouds it was beautiful on my walk today. Flooding predicted for tomorrow so I'm REALLY glad I got out today.

Judge ye not

Tuesday is pool night. My Honey plays pool and I watch. And have a beer. Or two.

Last week I saw a gal walk in who looked familiar, but I couldn't place her, because that's how I am. Eventually, I heard her voice and realized it was Hannah's teacher. My first thought? "What is her first grade teacher doing in a BAR?!" Followed closely by "What is a first grade mama doing in a bar?" I was quick to judge. And quick to stop judging too.

Eventually she saw me and we had a little conversation about first grade teachers and first grade mamas in the bar and we decided it could be our secret. And I invited her back next week. Turns out her husband plays pool too.

Mmmmmmm

So I might have been a stud and made this delicious quiche for dinner the other night. Or I might have stolen the picture. You will never know for sure...

Out and about

I had to travel to the county seat today. That's it. Right there. The whole thing.

Somehow, our address was marked as "no such number" so a new set of license plates were returned to the auditors office. No biggie, and aside from the rain, it wasn't too bad of a drive. Since I was headed to BFE, I thought I would take the dog and see if we could find ourselves some new scenery for a walk. We were successful, but had to cut it short because of travel time. So instead of a 4-6 mile walk, we only got 2. But it was COLD so I'm sure I burned twice as many calories, right? And we saw SNOW. Yeah. Stinking stuff. If the temperature continues to fall here in town, we could wake up to the white stuff tomorrow. WTH? It's barely mid-October. Oh well. Time to break out the cross country skis and/or snowshoes.

Poor little leaf. Surrounded by snow.

A quick word about hockey

Note to self 1: Sports Authority and Dick's Sporting Goods don't carry hockey equipment. Boo.
Note to self 2: Your game rocked last night!

Let's talk about the scrimmage, shall we?  OKAY!

I spent the first half of the game playing defense (D) and I gotta say it felt pretty good --- well compared to last year and the year before. My game is coming along, I'm no intermediate player (far from it!) but I might be working my way to the upper end of novice. Half way through I changed to wing (RW) and I might have played pretty well there too. (For me, anyway.)

As D I think I was where I was supposed to be most of the time. In our defensive zone I was either defending my goal, or waiting to take the puck up the ice from my other D. I was playing on the right though, so every stinking pass was to my back hand. Not bad, it just needs work. I was trying real hard to skate to the puck, not just wait for it, and a couple times my other D and I had it together. Mostly we didn't, but it was our first time playing together. I'm not sure who is more unpredictable; me or her.

As RW I tried to stay close to the goal, took a couple shots. Nothing made it in. Once I was sure it was going in and when it didn't "SONOFABITCH!!! REALLY??!!!" might have been what I yelled at the goalie. We are good for a few laughs! I chased my offending wings down the ice like I'm supposed to, and I kept up with them(!).  I think I was close to where I was supposed to be, I'm sure I could have been better, but I tried really hard. I did hear one of the other gals say she needed some new moves against me ... that's gotta be good, right? OH! My tight turns? ROCKED IT! Well, better than before anyway. Those practices are doing me some good :)

We played three iron man periods, which means no changes, since we only had the minimum of 5 per team! Hard work! But a great work out. At some point I expect the picture of us all sprawled out on the ice between periods posted on FB -- gotta love FB. Classic hockey, everyone lying (literally) on the ice resting between periods!

It was really good to get on the ice with my gals in a scrimmage! Totally looking forward to our tournament in November!

From this to that

Good riddance! We cleaned and cleaned and purged and purged yesterday. All. Day.

All. Day.

We now have closet doors that close, a kid-friendly-TV-room. We re-vamped the guest room/office and.... Well, lets just say its clean, organized and it was a lot of work.

It's amazing how this mess ...

Becomes these. My son can find what he wants in that hodge-podge and whip out a fly in just a couple minutes when he sets his mind to it. Ask him to clean it up tho and he goes into a zombie-like trance!

He's not the only artsy one in the family. My Honey made pancakes yesterday morning. This was Hannah's flower. Cute, no? She loved it. He also made an assault rifle and a fishing hook for Bubba.

Trying

I am trying to get a photo that really represents the hill the dog and I climb. This kind of does. But maybe telling you that my legs have not hurt after any hockey practice, nor have I been winded during practice will tell the story better? I hadn't realized what kind of shape I'm in until I started to play again.

We are climbing hills, people! Technically, we might be hiking ...  We are! According to The Oracle that is Wikipedia, hiking is defined as: "walking outdoors on a trail for recreational purposes." Good job us!

I blame that stupid RunKeeper app for motivating me. About four weeks ago I set a goal to walk 130 miles by December 6. It coincides with a fitness something-or-other at work. As of today I have walked 39 of those miles.

We get thirsty, too. Back in June, maybe, I bought a hydration pack. I feel sort of dumb wearing it as I leave the house, but I'm usually really glad to have it about mile three. Of. Climbing. Hills! And I have to say the one I bought is spectacular! Its cut for women, narrower in the shoulders, has lots of chest adjustment for small (me), medium and large breast-es-'s, and its a 70-ouncer so it holds plenty of water. Pockets on each side and a small pouch in the back. I wanted to be able to carry my phone and stash a jacket if I needed to, so its perfect so far. It's by Nathan, and I love it!

Hmmm, again, I thought of much  more stuff to write about while walking today, but its gone now. Later I will talk about my last two hockey practices, and maybe I will get into it about an online course I'm doing. Not sure. We shall see. But for sure I want to say I am loving the new P!nk album. I know, completely unrelated, but that's how I roll.

Different point of view

This is my usual road for walking the dog. It heads over to the right and then along that dark row of trees near the center of the screen and then, when we go really far we end up in the light-ish brown area above the dark row of trees. Yesterday we did 7.5 miles, today I wanted to hit a yoga class so we only got in 5.25 miles. And yoga was excellent. Totally worth cutting my walk short.

This is the hill across from where I usually walk. You can kind of see the trail near the top of the picture on the left. I saw what turned out to be a game trail on the other hillside so the dog and I traversed the canyon only to find the trail ended near an orchard. Good for the deer, not so much for us so we turned around and headed back the usual way.

I don't know. They just kind of looked cool.

I had hockey practice today too. According to one of those fitness apps I have burned damn-near 1300 calories today. Time to find me something to eat!!

Executioner

I'm a planner. I can plan, plan, plan. I can schedule a day to the minute if I have to, but I usually lack follow through. I'm not always great at executing a plan. I'm not sure if I can't handle the idea of failing, or succeeding, or if I just get it all planned and then I don't care anymore... Either way, gittin 'er done isn't usually my strength.

And that's all I remember about the fantastic post I was composing in my head on my walk yesterday. SEE! Great planner, poor execution!

Good news is that I got a walk yesterday. With the fires and inversion my valley has been filled with smoke for the past few weeks. It was very nice to get out! It's still kind of yucky, but nowhere as bad as it was!