Happiness Is...

... Super Kids flavored popcorn from Kernels, and a candy apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. 'Nuff said.

I am in LOVE...

...with Old Navy's pajama pants. Most days, as soon as I get home from school, the first thing I do is change into my comfy pajama pants. I bought 3 pairs at Christmas time (I paid $7, regular price was $17.50!!!) When we were shopping yesterday, they had some more pants on clearance, so of course, I bought 2 more pairs (each for under $5!) So I now have 2 with a Christmas pattern, one pair of winter pants, one for Valentine's Day, and one for St. Patrick's Day. I think I'll need to buy a pair for every season and holiday!! Shopping was good.

5:00 in the Morning is TOO early!!!

Here's what a great mom I am! I was up just after 5am (yes, that's in the morning!!!) to take Drew to an Under 16 football development camp. He needed to be at the Golf Dome in Winnipeg for 6, so we came into Winnipeg last night and got a room at Holiday Inn. It was nice to be able to leave 2 little boys (and their dad!!) sleeping, instead of dragging everyone out of bed. Later this afternoon, we're going shopping!! Drew and I need an Old Navy fix, and Carter and Riley have $60 worth of Build-A-Bear certificates burning a hole in their wallets. Shopping MAY make an early morning worthwile!!
Tune in tomorrow, when I tell you how much I enjoy getting up at 4am (hint - I don't think I'll enjoy it!!)

One season ends and a new one begins

Betcha didn't know that there was a change of seasons in mid-February. But there is. The Superbowl (and the end of the football season) was last Sunday, and today, the Budwieser Pole Shootout signifies the beginning of the NASCAR season. Now, I think I wrote in a previous post that I am NOT an NFL football fan. I much prefer the CFL, and am quite a passionate Blue Bombers fan. I won't even think of watching the NFL during the CFL season. But the CFL season ends in November, and NFL continues until February. So we do watch the end of the NFL season (and by "we" I mean Drew and I.) Drew has a few teams that he likes, I just follow teams according to who I know about that is on that team. For example, I could not cheer for Minnesota this year, because I thought that Brett Favre hung on for far too long, and should have retired a long time ago. I cheered for Chicago, because Israel Adonije (on defense for the Bears) is from Brandon. I'll have to cheer for the Eagles next year, since I just heard today that Philip Hunt (a great defensive lineman for the Bombers) signed with the Eagles. But as I said, football season is over, and NASCAR season has begun. It was kinda fun to hear Darryl Waltrip say "Boogity boogity boogity. Let's go racing boys," as he does at the beginning of each race that FOX TV covers. Next week, it's the Daytona 500!

PS - Kurt Busch won the shootout. Was worried there for a minute. When they said Busch won, I thought they meant his brother Kyle, who we DON'T like at our house. (We don't like his attitude when he thinks things haven't gone his way.) We're okay with Kurt winning, though.

A Miserable Day to watch Fabulous Football

Our Portage Pitbulls football season started on Sunday. Drew plays on the Bantam team, which is 13 and 14 year olds, and Carter plays on the Atom team, 9 and 10 year olds.

Sunday started out kind of gray and drizzly. Drew's game was at 9:00, which meant we had to be at the field at 8:00. It was a fabulous game. The team has really been working hard in practice, and it really showed on the field. They executed plays really well, and worked together as a team. I screamed a lot, which, let's face it, is the main reason I enjoy going to the games. We won the game, 52 to 0. Minor football has a "mercy" rule, where if there's more than a 30 point difference, they only put up to 30 on the score board. We've been on the receiving end of that rule quite a few times in the 2 previous years that Drew has played, so it was nice that they did so well today. Drew plays defence (safety), and is number 87.



By the time Carter's team hit the field, it was no longer drizzling. It was full-on raining. Fortunately, we went shopping in between the two games. It gave us a chance to dry off a bit, and to buy ponchos for everyone. While Carter's team didn't win, they played hard, and kept it really close (13 to 6 - they did have a touchdown called back on a penalty). Carter also plays defense (number 9), but his age group only has 9 players on the field, so I'm not sure what you'd call his position. Kind of a cornerback, I guess.

The defense played their hearts out, kept the field pretty short for the most part, and got some great fumble recoveries. (I guess the coaches' yelling "Fumble, fumble, fumble" at practice whenever someone dropped the ball really paid off!) Carter got 2 great, touchdown saving tackles, where it was a run down between him and the ball carrier.

I was so excited when I saw him coming off the field, because of what he had tucked under his arm. Yup, that's a football, that he didn't have before the game started. The coaches gave him the defensive game ball, a pretty big deal for these guys. Coach said that he played with a lot of power and heart, and that he saved a few touchdowns with his tackles. He was pretty proud of getting one of the game balls, and I have to admit that we were pretty proud of him too!

The sun even managed to come out right around the end of the third quarter. So we spent most of the day damp or wet, and I have a bit of a cold now, 2 days later. But it was such a great day!!!

A Great Day to Watch Not-So-Great Football

So Friday was my birthday celebration. 2 very good friends, Amie and Sheila, and I make sure to do something special to celebrate each other's birthdays every year. For Sheila's in November, we go to "Homes for the Holidays" a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. For Amie's in June, we went for lunch and some shopping at Lady of the Lake (I love that place - it was the first time I'd been there. I'll definitely go back!) And, even though my birthday is in July, we celebrated last Friday, by going to a Winnipeg Blue Bombers football game. (It didn't work out for us to go to the one closest to my actual birthday.) Amie had never been to a game, and we were all quite excited. The day didn't start out so great, weather wise. When we left MacGregor around 1:30, it was raining. Not just a drizzly, make-you-miserable kind of rain, but a pouring down, who-in-their-right-mind-would-sit-outside-in-this-kind-of-weather rain. We had a few stops to make, and one of them was at Dollarama to buy rain ponchos. We did some shopping at Polo Park, and luckily, by the time we went for supper at Moxie's (chicken enchiladas - yum!!!) the rain had stopped, and the sun was actually shining!

I love going to live games, but I was really excited for this one, because they were honoring my favourite player from my teenage years, Joe Poplawski. Here he is, shooting off the cannon to start the game.

We all enjoyed being at the game, but the Bombers did not play very well at all. The Ti-Cats beat us, for the third time this year. Yuck.

Far Too Long

It has been way too long since the last time I posted anything on my blog. So, I'm ready to try this again. We'll see what happens!