Day 10: Hockey Gamers

 It was one of those days where you have the best laid plans for the day, but the wheels come off one by one and it turns into an actual fiasco. 

We have a lot going on during Fridays. School of course, then mid afternoon hockey practice for Camden, followed immediately (and I mean, 15 minutes immediately) by Calen's swim team practice across the street (which actually, is fairly convenient). Today, of course, a few wrenches were thrown in. We had an extra kid today, a buddy and teammate of Camden that we needed to get to practice. Sure, that's easy. Then, the desperate need for a scorekeeper for the JV high school hockey game popped up. Well, I keep score every weekend, so I said sure. Until I found out that the game actually starts at 1pm. 

Let's recap my Friday the 13th (I can't even make it up) schedule:

JV high school game: 1pm - 3:30pm
Camden and buddy Thor hockey practice: 3:45pm-5pm
Calen swim practice: 5:15pm. 

Psh. I got this. This is nothing. 

So I assigned Brad with getting Cam and Thor to hockey, had Calen to walk to a neighbor's/fellow swim team buddy so he can get to his practice, and then heading out by myself to the JV game, in which Cam and Thor's practice was immediately following so I could just stick around and take them home. I got it! I figured it out!

I even planned ahead and put a roast and vegetables in the crock pot at 10am this morning. I was so proud of myself for being prepared. 

The JV game went on without a hitch. No trouble, no problem. The game even ended early, early enough for me to run to walmart and grab a box of Cheezits because I was starving. Brad texted that he was coming with the boys and Calen texted he was walking to his teammate's house. Perfect. 

Cam and Thor showed up to the rink, and as Thor was getting himself suited up he realized his breezers (hockey shorts) are missing. He told me they're at his house, which is problematic, because no one at his house is home and his mom is in a very important meeting in which I could not call her. So I called Brad who was on his way back home and said "dig in the garage and grab the biggest pair of breezers you can find". Brad comes back in record time, beholding a pair of tags-still-on breezers that we bought Cam probably two years ago thinking he'd grow into them, but Cam never grows, so there they've sat. Now, Thor probably has six inches on Camden and is rock solid, so I thought, "there's no way these breezers are going to fit him." But, it was the only chance we had to get him on the ice today, so we loosened the laces as wide as we could and squeezed him into these two sizes too small breezers, and we were victorious!

One mishap down. 

I'm standing there with a few other moms chatting, cold, and I have this wicked headache that just won't relent. I had been at the rink all afternoon, and I was ready to go home. I commented to my fellow hockey mom how glad I was that I had prepared dinner and thrown it in the crock pot this morning. And the moment I said that, Brad texted me and said "ummm, so the crock pot was never plugged in."

Of course it wasn't. 

So my perfect roast crockpot dinner has been sitting stewing in it's stupid cold uncooked juices for the last seven hours.

Perfect. 

And so! As practice ended I packed up Cam and Thor and declared that we were going to Subway! Because screw it. 

This was a great little tender moment in the car. Thor - who's "brain works differently", as Cam explains it, was having the most wonderful conversation with Cam. He adores Cam, and Cam is surprisingly deeply patient (something that is not in his nature) and strongly protective of Thor. Camden told Thor we were going to Subway, and Thor asked Cam if they were going to get pizza. Cam, who would have been irritated if Calen asked such a question, gently and patiently said "No, we are going to go to Subway and get sandwiches! Do you like sandwiches Thor? What's your favorite?" And then they spent the next ten minutes talking about meatball subs and pizza toppings. 

I kind of feel like Cam should be a teacher. 

Except if anyone wronged one of his students he'd probably punch them in the face and that would be a problem. 

We got our Subway sandwiches and headed back to the house. Calen was still at swim and the hockey boys had no interest in getting undressed with the promise of Nintendo at their feet. They sat on the sofa, fully dressed in gear (Cam still had skates on), playing video games. 

Cam announces: "Mom! Take a picture of us! We are "Hockey Gamers". Get it? Hockey-Game?" And they laughed and laughed. 

In the end, everyone made it to practice, everyone was fed, and the roast will be ready for dinner tomorrow. 

Hockey Gamers

Day 9: The Enchanted Forest

For those that live under a rock, or maybe don't live on The Rock (see what I did there?), Kodiak is finally, finally, enclosing their ice rink.

You know what that means? It means no more raining and snowing sideways. No more wind tunnel and -10 degree windchill while standing there for hockey practice in cold, wet, misery. It means we're entering first world civilization!

Or we will someday. As most of you know, construction is slow, tedious, and almost always delayed. 

Maybe I'll still live here when it's finally finished. 

Until that glorious day, construction is underway and the parking lot to the rink is closed. Which means parking up the hill at the elementary school and walking through the woods on a little trail to the rink. The city put up some large industrial type lights, since it's very, very dark during practice time, which gives it a charming and almost eery glow. 

Cam and I instantly nicknamed this path "The Enchanted Forest."

This evening we had practice and took an evening stroll through the Enchanted Forest. 

Some are annoyed by the setup, but I actually find it quite fun. 

Day 8: Camden Stop BOUNCING

 I wasn't feeling very awesome today, so I've remained situated at my sentry post in the corner of the couch laying on a heating pad. 

Brad graciously volunteered to take Calen to swim team practice, and Cam offered to vacuum and empty the dishwasher - for screen time, of course. 

I mean, I do my chores for screen time. 

Most kid, when playing video games, look like this:

Observe: Sitting. Calm. Quiet. 

This lasts about 2.5 seconds with Cam. Then it turns into this:

You can't tell, but he's bouncing. 

Constantly. Bouncing. 

Never stops. 

As an avid gamer, I don't understand how this works?? How is your hand-eye coordination so good that you can be actually bouncing all over the place like a loose ping pong ball and still manage to accomplish actually anything in a game? 

We sound like a broken record. Like that obnoxious Dora the Explorer show that I thank the good Lord my children were never into. Instead of "Swiper no swiping!!" It's "Camden STOP BOUNCING!" 

So he sits down. For three seconds. Three. I've counted. 

Then he bounces back up. ESPECIALLY if he's in some form of combat. 

Camden, stop bouncing. 

This is especially a pain in my actual rear end when he's playing games upstairs, where their gaming setup stands literally, exactly, above my favorite spot on the sofa. Cue the bouncing, and it resembles some sort of rhythmic earthquake, or the vibrations of war drums sounding an invasion, or a dinosaur crashing into the house. 

CAMDEN! Stop BOUNCING!

He really tries to stop. He really does. But it's some sort of intense second nature that he literally can't help. 

Bam Bam Cam. 

Day 7: Writing Laws, One Dinosaur At A Time

Homeschool is fun. 

Fun in a fly by the seat of your pants sort of way. 

As the boys were doing their morning warm ups, I was perusing Facebook and saw a post from my twin-cousin Jake about how he was searching for a bill that is being proposed in the State of Washington and how it was funny that he had to search for the word "dinosaur" to find said bill. Intrigued, I clicked on the link for the bill, and it's a bill, a real bill, on how Washington State needs an official State dinosaur and which dinosaur it should be.

Wait. Hold the phone. You mean to tell me that there are official state dinosaurs and I never knew about this?

A quick Google search told me that Alaska does not have a state dinosaur. 

It was a short, simple bill, about two paragraphs, easy to understand structure, and I poured over it twice before setting my coffee down, clapping my hands and announcing to the boys "I know EXACTLY what we are doing for school today."

So we instantly pulled out all 75 dinosaur encylopedias we own and researched dinosaur fossils discovered in Alaska, and the boys wrote, start to finish, their own bill on why the "Alaskan Troodon" should be the official State Dinosaur of Alaska. 

It was tedious, took almost two hours, but they were so engaged, enthusiastic and invested in completing it, that I wasn't going to discourage it, and so we ditched math instead, and the boys completed what I think is a pretty convincing bill.

The best part? Jake is going to review the bill and help get it ready to be actually submitted to the State of Alaska. 

Best. Uncle. Ever. 

Day 6: Night Skiing

Not a lot happened today, except it did finally decide to snow for exactly one hour before turning to complete downpouring rain, so the boys promptly threw on their snow gear and took their new snowboard and mini skiis out to the hill behind our house around 8pm for some night skiing/boarding. 

Bonus points to the grandparents for getting the boys these super sweet knit caps with built in headlamps!

Day 5: The Planet Hoth

We had a big cold snap this past week, not anything fun like feet of snow or anything, but enough to freeze the roads and the standing bodies of water. 

I heard through the grapevine (i.e. social media) that the big lake in the area (Buskin) was frozen solid and it was safe to walk on. In an instant I leapt off the couch and shouted to my unexpected family "We're going on an adventure!" and started thrusting snow jackets and hats out of the coat closet. 

My poor family. They never know when Mom is going to announce an "Adventure" and disrupt everyone's lazy time. 

We headed out to Buskin Lake, which is about 5 minutes away from our house. It was starting to snow and extremely windy. Brad went out onto the lake first, as he's over double the weight of the rest of us. Once he deemed it safe, we all went out to follow him. As it hasn't snowed in a long time, we could see all the way to the bottom of the lake (which wasn't far, as we only went out as far as waist deep (if we were to fall through). 

Trekking around the lake, with the wind blowing puffs of snow across the ice and visibility of the surrounding mountains exactly zero, reminded me distinctly of walking across Planet Hoth. The kids were over the moon excited about the experience, running and sliding, doing ice angels and seeing how far they can slide rocks across the middle of the lake. 

We only spent about 30 minutes there before we decided we were ready to go, but it was a fun mini adventure that you can really only experience this far North. 

 

If A Tree Falls In The Trailer, Does Anyone Hear It?

 This afternoon, Cam, Calen and the Boy Scouts went off on a mission to collect the town's unwanted (live) Christmas trees and haul them to the dump as part of an annual post-Christmas community service project. They borrowed a huge flat bed trailer and had to empty it twice at the city dump, all in all collecting thirty unwanted Christmas trees. 

Work builds character! And muscles! And video game time, because everybody's got a price. 

Calen on the left and Cam hidden behind his arm

Cam (on the right) and Calen in the middle

Day 3: How To Spend $16 on Three Items (in 2023)

 It was Camden’s turn today to go take that inferno of a gift card to Safeway, since it was burning a hole in his pocket.

Camden really didn’t have a whole lot in mind, except he HAD to have a bag of chips. We also didn’t have a ton of time, as both kids had sports practice (swim/hockey) at the same time, because of course they did. Combined with the fact that Camden has the hardest time making decisions when it comes to spending money, he took it upon himself to say he was only going to get a couple of things because he didn't have time to decide.

I thought that was mature of him to say.

How we dress for the grocery store 30 minutes before hockey practice

So what do 11 year old’s buy when they get (almost) free reign? A bag of bbq chips. Sweettart flavored gum (you know Sour Patch Kids, the candy?) A jar of Nutella (that he’s NOT sharing) Necessities, you know.

These THREE things ended up being $16, because groceries are stupid in Alaska. Especially Kodiak, Alaska.

But, he justified that the jar of nutella would make him like, ten sandwiches, so honestly, that's fair.

The gum was his favorite, he said it's so "flavorful" and keeps asking if I wanted to taste one. No, thank you very much, that sounds like the worst flavor of gum there ever could be. But that was part of the deal, use the money to buy something that Mom would never say yes to, so how could I say no? Honestly, this has been such a fun social experiment. I can't wait for them to go on their next shopping spree.

Day 2: The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

 It was cold today.

I mean obviously. It’s January in Alaska. But compared to the last week? Compared to the majority of our gross, wet, rainy, miserable, mild winter? It was COLD. It was so cold that when I went to start up my car this evening, it took two hands and a lot of strength to heave the driver’s door open. Then, as I opened Camden’s door (footnote: does every parent have their passenger seats “labeled” as to whichever kid normally sits there? Instead of saying “the right rear passenger seat”, we say “Camden’s seat”, because that’s where he’s basically been assigned since birth. Doesn’t everyone do that? No? Just me? Anyways. As I opened Camden’s door to search for an ice scraper and went to close the door, the door bounced back at me, because the locking mechanism was frozen. Well that’s rude. So we go to hockey practice and thank the good Lord it was a board meeting night because I spent all but 20 minutes of that practice indoors, thanks. And after suffering those 20 minutes of freezing feels-like 11 degrees, trying to scrape frozen fog off the rink glass so I can actually see, and then chirp at Cam to hurry up because I’m freezing, he asks if he can stay for open skate “because it helps my skating skills!” Which is a cop-out because honestly he just wants to hot dog around, but then he argues “but you always say to save your messing around time for open skate!” You got me, kid. You have fifteen minutes. Fifteen freezing, painfully cold minutes. But he didn’t care. He doesn’t feel the cold, like ever. He could be the next featured male protagonist in Frozen 3. The cold never bothered him anyway.

A blurry photo taken of a moving target through a frozen glass pane

So I dragged him off the ice 15 (exact) minutes later and we walk up to the car, the last car in the lot, and I go to put the key in. And the key lock is frozen solid. Like my key won’t actually go in. So there I was, in the dark, alone, shivering, with my hockey player (who was quite warm thanks because he was in full gear and just skated for two straight hours), knelt in front of my drivers door performing CPR on my stupid car (cupping my hands and blowing hot air into the keyhole) and then literally using my key as an ice pick to slowly jam it in the keyhole and jimmy it like some sort of horizontal ice fishing, until the ice either broke free or melted, then another two-handed pull to get the car door open. You know, Kodiak is mild temperature wise to the rest of Alaska. And don’t get me wrong, I love the cold and I love winter. But if we can at least leave out car doors and frozen keyholes, that would be just dandy.

Day 1: New Year, New You (Or Something Like That)

 If I had a dollar for every time I restarted this daily blog, I'd probably be rich. 

Rich like, enough to buy a gallon of gas rich. 

One gallon. Not a tank. Just so we're clear. 

But you know, "New Year, New You", or something of the sort. I was talking with a friend today (on Facebook messenger, which is relevant to my point in a minute) about how I wish I wasn't so dependant on social media (see the connection now?) to keep up with friends, family, etc. Yes, it's a wonderful thing. But it's also addictive, a time waster, stupid, etc. I need to install some sort of 15 minute/daily timer to the app on my phone. 

But the other big thing I love social media (particularly Facebook) for is the daily "Facebook memories", where I can see what I was up to in years past. Since I'm a frequent poster, I usually have something fun to look back on. Which is great and all but that should be able to fall into that 15 minute a day slot. 

So you know what I'm going to try to do (again), is blog instead. Daily. The 365 day challenge has returned! Of course I'm starting on January 4th, and not the 1st, because the 1st would be too easy, and it took me 4 days to figure out my New Year's resolution. 

So there it is. 

First of all, let me geek out (literally) about our new daily calendar. It's a space-themed daily RPG, where each day we continue our story, make decisions about what to do, roll some d20 dice, save the universe (or die), etc. 

I mean seriously, is there anything cooler and nerdier than this?

Today our hero (a droid) successfully broke out of his cage. Now they're in for it. 

Also today, I took Calen shopping after swim team practice. For Christmas, my mom got each of the boys their own $50 gift card to Safeway, to "buy all the things that Mom says no to."

I mean seriously, this is a brilliant Christmas gift. 

Calen, donned in his slick 90s style Pizza Planet jacket, swaggered through the store, gasping and chirping with excitement. "This is so fun, it's like being an adult, it must be SO FUN to have your own money and buy your own groceries and not have to share." He started in the deli, and moved to the bakery, where he checked the price of an entire chocolate cake, then laughed and said no and moved on. "Where is the cereal?!" He demanded happily, for if there is one thing I say "No" to on a regular basis, it's cereal, because it costs. so. much. So we march down the cereal aisle and Calen looks at a couple boxes and snaps "HOW DOES CEREAL COST THIS MUCH??" and promptly returns the cereal to the shelf and moves on, while I'm behind him stifling my laughter. 

See? Your mother isn't crazy. Buying a box of cereal for $7 that will last LITERALLY three days is crazy. 

A wild Calen on the hunt in the cereal aisle

The only "rule", per say, that my mom gave the boys was that it couldn't be all candy, and that Mom (me) gets final say. For the most part today I gave Calen free reign, within reason. Out of $50, he spent $18, and was delighted with himself at self-checkout and had to announce to the entire checkout section of Safeway that he had managed to "save four dollars!! I can't believe it!" 

I wish I still had that kind of fresh faced enthusiasm when I save $4 at the grocery store. 

So what do 13 year olds with gift cards and free reign buy for $18? After much deliberation, Calen picked:

The spoils of war

A bag of Salt and Vinegar chips
Four meat sticks
Salt and vinegar almonds (hey it's almost healthy)
A bag of lemon drops

So basically, his snacks are covered for the week, he was raving about the almonds in the car, and was over the moon with being able to go grocery shopping on his "own".

Best. Gift. Ever.