Declaring his intentions already

The other day, Isaac and I went to Bombers Burrito Bar because he’d been asking for tacos. He wanted Toxic Bell, but I wanted real food-not 75-80% meat and the rest fillers. Plus, Bombers makes a killer pulled pork burrito/taco/what have you. AND it is a LOCAL joint.

But, back to the point.

So, this particular Bombers is covered in Union College material. It’s right by campus, so you would figure that it would be. The main piece of Union stuff is a jersey and a stick hanging on the left wall by the cash wrap.

Isaac started jumping up and down and pointing it out to me. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded this, but I was attempting to order tacos! COME ON! Pick-Chicken, pork, beef, tofu…COME ON!
So, after strongarming him into ordering we got to talking about the jersey.

It was then that Isaac did something that still tests my loyalties to this minute.

Sidekick and crew-avert your eyes.

He said:

“I’m going to play hockey for Union!!”

I said:
“Not RPI?”

He said:
“Nope. Union.”

Well, there you have it.

Coach Leaman, are you listening?

Well, I didn’t want him to play for Coach Appert anyhoo.

Dear Entity that Controls the Weather

This has been a civil conversation thus far. Now, the gloves are off.

I don’t think you understand our working agreement. As of 3/31, each year, there is to be no new snowfall. The forecast tomorrow better be your idea of a prank and the snow better not show.

If it does show, and you kill my awesome crocuses (crocii?), you and I will be having more than words. Seriously.

The threat of a foot of wet, heavy snow does not sit well with this snow hater.

Your Thoroughly Annoyed Fairweather Friend,
Laura

Chara, Pacioretty and my worst nightmare

As we come into my favorite time of the hockey year, playoffs, things ramp up. Chances get taken and things happen. There are times that grudges get settled or something stupid happens and the league…well…is just the league.

Currently, take the latest case that has taken over the headlines and voices of the entire NHL.

Zedno Chara hit Max Pacioretty. Watch the video at your own gasp inducing risk.

End result for Pacioretty? A fractured C4 and a concussion.

Not good. So not good.

Punishment for Chara?

a 5 minute penalty. That’s right. a 5 MINUTE PENALTY

The league felt that there was no reason for any further action.

As the debate rages on if Chara should have gotten suspended-I think he should have-accidental or not-I wonder if the league will finally make the changes to hit to the head rules before Isaac gets far enough to check.

I think this is any parent’s worst nightmare. Their child getting hurt, seriously in a sporting contest. I know it’s mine. I cringe when Isaac hits his head on the ice, even though it’s in a helmet, because I know what head injuries do.

Some days, I wonder why I allow him to play hockey-when players’ heads get hit into turnbuckles, when vertebrae get broken. The last thing I want is a severely injured kid.

Then, I think about it. I realize that there are catastrophic injuries in every sport. You look at the kids in football who take one hit and fracture their necks. You look at basketball where an ACL injury is almost a badge of honor.

It’s one of those things that as long as my darling Shrimp plays sports, I’ll have to shove to the back of my head and know that the coaches are doing everything in their power to teach him how to be safe.

Now, can we just stop showing that awful hit?!

Oh, heck, just label it!*Giveaway*

It’s that time of year again…time for kids to lose everything and the time of year that we parents are gearing up for summer camp!

The first thing you are told when you send your kids to camp is to LABEL EVERYTHING. As a former camp staffer, I can’t stress this enough. I sat through so many incarnations of the “lost and found show” that I could do it in my sleep. The amount of stuff that was lost and was without a label of any kind was insane!

When I sent Isaac to day camp last year for the first time, I made sure every.single.thing of his was labeled so that it would make it back to us. It was a real pain in the neck to sit and write his name on every little thing that went to camp, but to me, to get his water bottle back or whatever he lost or forgot to bring home.

Since I got sick of labeling everything by hand, I was looking for a new way to label the kid’s stuff.

Enter Loveable Labels Camp Packs!

These packs are just the ultimate in labeling STUFF. Each pack comes with:
•15 Regular Sticker Labels
•40 Slimline Sticker Labels
•72 Press n’Stick Clothing DOTS
•12 Shoe Labels
•2 Mini-Metal Tags (two 4” silver ball chains incld)
•12 Square Labels

We chose the “movin’ and groovin'” pack. Spaceships, race cars, trains? Yeah. That suits us here quite fine, thank you very much!

The mini metal tags immediately went on Isaac’s backpack and hockey bag. Hey-we’re doing hockey camp this year! He needs his tag on his hockey stuff! The shoe labels are awesome-we stuck two of them on Isaac’s skates. Hey-everyone has black skates. It’s hockey. So, these super sticky labels went on the inside of the skates and now, he can just peek inside the skate and see if they are his or not.

The one issue I thought I’d have was the stick factor. I figured that these would pull off of anything after a few days of rough usage. NOT SO! I tossed one on a water bottle that gets banged around day after day after day and it still holds! Also, I’ve sent it through the dishwasher, and it’s still there, as vibrant as ever. Also, I tossed one of the clothing dots on Isaac’s jacket and it hasn’t even moved from where I stuck it. These things hold like I’ve never seen a label hold.

These will totally avoid the humiliation of your stuff being held up during the lost and found show!

So, you want these?

Lovable Labels has generously supplied me with a “Camp Pack” for one lucky winner! Thanks, Lovable Labels!

To Enter: Go to the Lovable Labels website and leave us a comment (one per day only, please) telling us which one of their amazing product is your fav! Once you’ve entered by leaving a comment, you can gain additional entries:

Follow @mylovablelabels and @kileigh7on Twitter and tweet “WIN Camp Pack” from @mylovablelabels @kileigh7 http://www.kileigh7.wordpress.com. leave us the link for extra daily entries.
‘Like’ Lovable Labels on Facebook for one extra entry. (Write Laura sent you on their facebook wall so I can verify)
Mention this giveaway on your blog and leave us the link for one extra entry.
This giveaway ends just in time for Camp Season at 11:30pm on April 1. The winner will be selected by random draw and will have 7 days to respond to our notification email before another winner is selected. This giveaway is open to Canadian and US residents only.

Disclosure: I was given a camp pack by Lovable Labels for my use and review. One pack was provided for giveaway. No other compensation was given. The opinions here are my own.

Movin’ on up?

We’ve come to the end of another hockey season. I can’t believe we’re here! It only seems like yesterday we went gear shopping for our own gear. Hey-can you blame me for the loaner gear last year? I didn’t know that we’d be in this deep with hockey. I had secretly hoped we would-that Isaac wouldn’t wash out and he’d be as happy as a clam playing a team sport, but I wasn’t sure.

So, when last year, we made the decision to move him up to Mini Mites from Intro to Hockey, with the assurance of the coach he’d be FINE, we kept a spot in Intro just to make sure that he was covered on all bases.

Hey-you can never be too careful!

We ended up keeping him in Mini Mites. Two days a week seemed to fit well. As the season wore on, we were faced with the inevitable choice of keeping him in Mini Mites one more year or move him to Cross-Ice Mites for next season. It seems early, but you really have to think of these things. For us, it’s also a time thing. This year was two days a week and if we move Isaac, it would be 3 days a week-one day of drills and things (which is currently our 2nd day now) one day of skate (with the awesome Coach Randall-which is our first day now) and one game day (which we don’t have now.)

About a month ago, Isaac began to make these huge improvements, rather than these small tiny unnoticable ones that would make us keep him back in Mini Mites.

Now, we seriously have to think.

Do we move up, or do we stay put.

Hrm.

But, no matter what, it’s worth it to see this

Saving the Bobbies

 

So, when I was in college, I had the bestest Educational Psychology prof. I had heard good things, but come on. You never know. So, the class fit into my schedule and whammo, bammo, I was in.

I met Bob Malloch on the first day of class, where he asked us to call him Bob. His exact speech went something like this- “I’m Bob Malloch. You can call me Mr. Malloch, because I am a guy, and that would be appropriate. You can call me Dr. Malloch, because I have my PhD from Texas. But, what I really like to be called-is my handle- Bob. ”

 

um. Ok.

 

Bob was a kindred spirit from the word go. Monty Python loving, joke throwing and all around smart and awesome guy. One day in class, he went on this huge tirade (in the way only Bob could…which wasn’t really a tirade…but it was close enough) about how all the bad kids in examples are named Bobby. Why couldn’t they be named Jack, or something else?! So, we all promised him we’d “save the Bobbies of the world.”

 

He said a lot of things about family, trips with your kids and other things. It was quite the class. A lot of those things stick in my head. Like giving homework…but that’s another blog entry for another day.

He also told us that he had HAD cancer, and he was the only survivor of that particular kind of cancer. Great! He’s standing, he’s teaching! AWESOME!

Then, I never thought anything more of it.

 

Let’s fast forward to me moving into the area. I started knitting at Trumpet Hill yarn shop, and one of their instructors, Carolyn Malloch taught a class or two that I took. Last name sounded familiar, but I never got around to asking if she was related to Bob. Just kinda never thought to.

 

So, this week, the weekly email update from Trumpet Hill came through, and there was the date and time for a Celebration of Life for Carolyn’s husband, Bob. wait. Is this the same… no, can’t be. So, I dove to the paper and found the obituary. Yep. This is the same.

It’s yet another person in my life who helped shape my insane career. I’ve pretty much made a career out of “saving Bobbies.”

Think about it.

My first placement at “Ghetto Middle”

My love for the toughest kid in the room.

The Juvies who took care of me while I was pregnant with Isaac

They’re the Bobbies of the world.

And thanks to Bob, I remember that I need to try and save them every day.