Thanksgiving 2012

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving day :)  We had a nice quiet day at the house.  Macy's parade in the morning and then dinner, desert and some rest time.  We got the turkey and ham from the Honey Baked Ham store so all we had to do were the sides.  Chrissy and I made everything yesterday and just cooked it all today.  So easy!

I missed the smell of a turkey cooking but it made the scent of Phina's stuff mushrooms fill the house even more and I won't lie that the scent and the taste brought a tear to my eye.  They were so good and felt like "home".

Cooper ate 3 helpings of meat (both ham and turkey) and scarfed down his whole plate...he was so cool with his sparkling cider to drink.

We had a nice relaxing day...until I kicked everyone's butt during Wii's Let's Dance game night!

Thankful

This Thanksgiving week, we have no school and for the first time in my life...that means no work for me either.  Can I just say how AMAZING that feels?   I have been feeling so thankful, so blessed and here's a newsflash you haven't read on this blog in a long long long time....I am happy.  Yes.  The real deal. The no anxiety, not on meds, natural Rocky Mountain High kind of happy. I didn't really notice it at first.  I thought something was wrong with me for a while. It's been so long since I have felt it, it felt uncomfortable and weird.  Was another shoe going to drop? Is this another phase of grief? How could I have nothing to my name but a storage unit and the lowest paying job I have had since serving ice-cream  and actually be happy and content and really joyful everyday?  Well....I am, it's is only by the grace of God and I am so glad to have made it through to this place!

So....what's been new around here?

We went to a Colorado College hockey game and I rocked a totally cute new hat.  If I do say so myself :)

Cooper was invited to an ice skating birthday party from friend at school and did awesome minus the pads and gear from hockey...he bruised up his knees terribly but he didn't seem to care.

Chrissy and I keep showing up in matching clothes...the kids are mortified...we think it's hilarious.

Cooper and I drove to Denver to see my friend Christian who I worked with in Tampa.  We also filled our Operation Shoe Box and dropped it off at church, Cooper was so into getting gifts for "his 5 year old boy".  We had a great time.

In other news...I finally got my hair done after 6 months!  

Cell Phone Collage

Hockey

When Cooper came home from school with a TRY HOCKEY FOR FREE card in his backpack I was about to trash it. He on the other hand, posted it on his bulletin board next to his calendar and announced he was going to play hockey.  I would have ignored the posted card, if he didn't ask me every day when hockey was.  I was really surprised. "You can't skate" I would tell him.  "You have never really even seen ice".  "So" was his reply.  I explained it was like soccer but on ice skates and you hit a puck with stick and you will fall a lot and it's really cold. He looked at me like "who cares?".  He really didn't like soccer, he never wanted to score and could have cared less about running after the ball. So when Sat rolled around, I thought, I'll take him to expose him to it, let him try, he'll hate the skates and the falling and I'll try again another year.

But when we got there, he jumped up and down as he waited for the hockey coach to suite him up ( Lord knows I had no clue how to!).  He was so excited!  For something I thought he had no idea about.

 Brad on the other hand knew better and cried that he didn't like hockey and was there only because his dad wanted him to go with Cooper. Cooper then cried on the way that Brad wasn't as excited as he was. Fun car ride by the way.  Anyway...

Cooper could barely wait to get on the ice.

So he got out on the ice, held up for 30 minutes of the 1 hour of the class by such a sweet teenage boy dressed in a number 9 jersey.  "Better him than me" I thought as I imaged what it would have been like to try to hold myself up on skates and a scared screaming kid clinging to me. 

 He did cry in frustration that he couldn't stand up, he was scared and clung to good old steady number 9.

  

But number 9 was patient, taught him how to fall, how to get up, how to hold and balance on his stick.  

And then I looked away for like one second and I couldn't find Cooper.  Kids were crawling all over the ice, coaches skating around and I was sure someone had taken him off.  But I didn't see him because he was skating on his own...scooting his puck along.

The next time Cooper cried was after Brad got off the ice with like 15 minutes left of the class (he had had enough falling I think!) and I said "ok..... you done buddy?" and he started to scream and cry at me from inside the rink "NOOOO, I don't want to get off the ice!!!".  Ok then..."Go on!" I yelled.  "Stay until they say you are done!" And off he skated, in an immediate smile as I stood there in shock!

He LOVED it.  Since, he has asked everyday when he goes back to hockey. We have 2 more free trials we will test out to see if this is something he really likes. I was beyond thrilled to see him have no fear, no doubts and such love for team and community!  You could see him light up when the coaches told him "Great job Cooper!" and when the huddle came in the end....he is right there on his knees on the left of this picture below, in the black skates, listening intently.  He told me "his team was a really good team."  

I bet they are!

(in this video Cooper is alone in the center coming toward the camera)

Halloween Fun and Playdates

As I sit here blogging, Cooper is on a play-date here at the house with his best little girl friend from school, they are so quiet I can barely contain  my excitement over how nice it is to have a girl as over and how nice they play. Cooper has been over at her house the last few weeks as I had teacher work days and he had a blast all day over there. Cooper wanted the top down for the ride home from school...."this is the funnest car ever" they exclaimed.  Made me a little sad now that I want to trade it in, but rear wheel drive on this mountain and this area isn't going to cut it this winter! 

Yesterday was full of parties!  Cooper had a blast at his school class party with all of his friends and then we had a fun night at home before we went out trick or treating.

I was so impressed by the neighborhood!  So many houses decorated and people answered the door in costume!  No wonder people drive into this neighborhood to trick or treat :)

 (Wine in a red solo cup while we trick or treat!)

We had such a great day, I was even too busy to take out my real camera...so glad the iPhone camera can step in in a pinch :)