hockey and criticism

For any women out there that may have considered playing hockey I have one thing to say, “Be a shoe” to quote W. Meaning just go a head and do it. These last few weeks playing hockey have been amazing. I play with a bunch of women who are mothers them selves with older kids. Monday night I started playing in a hockey clinic with women and men and it wasn’t bad at all. I wasn’t the worst out there and actually had a lot of fun playing against the guys. It’s true that playing against the guys that were much better made me really have to work harder to keep up. So last night I only got about 3.5 hours of sleep and I am completely exhausted but it was so much fun. After the class was over we even got to stay for about 20 extra minutes and play a pick up game. That was really tough but once again a lot of fun. Dennis Williams, assistant coach of the UAH Chargers was supposed to coach, but last night he wasn’t there and instead was replaced by Kevin Galerno a forward from UAH Chargers and Jonathan Lounsbury a defensemen from the Huntsville Havoc. I got to work with Kevin on puck handling and shooting and he really helped me start to get the hang of it a lot more.

So in other news the criticism has started about me nursing past a year. Granted I expected it, but its come from people I didn’t expect. So far when I get the comments about how long we are going to keep going I just say something along the lines of we are not in any rush to wean. That normally gives people the impression that we are about done and they back off, but the truth of it is that we really aren’t done. Right now the only time frame I have in my head is sometime before I finish my master’s degree. By that time he will be about 2.5 and I will probably be ready for a break before we possibly start trying for a second after I finish my degree. The odd thing is a year ago I don’t think I ever even considered the thought of nursing past a year. I guess I thought that I would just wean at a year or that he would self wean and we would just be done with it. A year later I don’t see how I could wean him right now.

After saying all of this once again I am reminded of something. I could not have taken all of this on without the unwavering support of W. He is the one that encouraged me to start the women’s league. He’s the one that has never given me any grief about extended nursing and has even gone as far as to defend it to his family without me having to say a word. If it wasn’t for him and his support of my insane energizer bunny on crack way of being there is no way I could do all of this.

guilt and random update

It seems like there isn’t a week that goes by lately where I don’t feel guilty to some degree. I apologize to W for seemingly being a complete ghost during the week and feel bad for Butters that I only see him for about 3 hours before he goes to bed at night. W constantly tells me that he understands and that I’m doing all I can, but I still feel bad. Lately I’ve working more 11 to 12 hour days getting to work at 4am just so I can get things done and still get home to see both of them around 1530. I try and tell myself that this is great that I put forth the effort to make time for both of them, but sometimes it just doesn’t seem like enough. I know that all of this comes from juggling work, school and now hockey with family, but I always seem to have that guilt. One of the things that keeps me going is know that with school I’ll be finished by the time Butters turns 3. At least this way I’ll be there for him later. Also part of the reason I have started playing hockey is so that I can skate with Butters when he starts termites when he turns 3.

On another random note the name Butters is very ironic now. He has contact allergies to acids from fruits but now he also has a contact allergy to butter. We don’t know if its to all dairy products, but this weekend while eating scrambled eggs cooked in butter and smearing them all over himself he broke out in blisters everywhere the eggs touched. So we gave him a bath and within 2 hours the blisters were all gone and he was fine. He never acted bothered by them. It’s just really strange.

In other news I love playing hockey. After my 3rd week of practice I am really starting to enjoy myself. This last practice we did full ice scrimmages and I really liked it. The main thing I am having problems with is puck handling. It looks so easy but my hand eye coordination just stinks! I am so excited to go to this tournament at the end of the month.

Also finals are coming up in both stats and flight testing so if I don’t update this thing regularly in the next few weeks that is the reason right there. My stats test is going to be comprehensive which scares me to death and my flight testing final is a presentation which also makes me a little nervous. Either way I have a lot of work to do in the next 2 weeks to get ready for these finals.