2nd Weekend in October....

I took my dad to the airport on Wednesday morning, dropped the girls off at school, went on my 3 mile walk, and then came home to closed windows and ignored the world.
It was such a good time for my dad to be here. We did talk about things. We cried, hugged, and healed. It was so hard to take him to the airport and to talk to him on the phone now brings more tears to my heart. But that is good.

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Praise! My mom had her first cataract surgery on Thursday and she is doing wonderful. It was funny to visit with her yesterday and explore a newly uncovered world with her. It reminded me of so many of those same feelings that I had with my eye surgeries......"wow everything is crisp" and "oh my gosh how did the bathroom get so dirty". Now we are all looking forward to the next surgery, which I hope they schedule soon, so that she can see clearly with no struggling.

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In the midst of everything I have been sporting around continual waves of major headaches. It is really getting on my nerves. They hang around for a week at a time slowly building to a non-functioning climax that sends me to bed with the world spinning. I have an appointment on Monday but things have calmed back down and I can do most things without noticing the irritation. Don't know that an appointment would solve anything now.

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On to other things......
Last night our oldest daughter came into town from Spokane for the weekend with her boyfriend. We decided that we needed to go downtown to the hockey game because our Portland Winterhawks were playing the Spokane Chiefs. Those who know me well may or may not be surprised to find that mind mannered me absolutely LOVES hockey.

Do I understand it all?....no. Do I know any of the players?....nope.

Do I even follow the game at any time during the season?...definitely no.

But it is the only sport that I get excited about and have a desire to watch. Maybe it is the combination of speed and the thrill of the ice. OR maybe it is the almost guaranteed assurance that there will be a fight during the game. Just being honest here.

I haven't been to a game in years. As a matter of fact the last time I went to a game, we took some dear friends of ours and they had their little baby girl with them (who now is in 2nd or 3rd grade). Sometime during the evening I slipped out of the suite box and rocked her to sleep on my chest while the sporting crowd chanted on for plays that I couldn't see. I was happy though because there is nothing like holding a baby in my arms.

So, last night was fun. Somehow we ended up in the section where I think all the hockey parents sat. I would guess they were so because of their participation /anger level. What was really humorous to me was the lack of people everywhere else. The picture below will show you all the empty seats around the stadium.

But we had a ton of fun. Since our daughter and her boyfriend are from Spokane, we had our own team rivalry banter going back and forth amongst ourselves. Here is a picture of hubby and I with his classic "goofy face pose".

This is our girl with her boyfriend. See their happy faces? That is because Spokane won 6 - 2. And yes there were 3 fights all in the 3rd period of the game.

(see how bad I am at sports. I had to sit here and think of what to call it...a quarter...an inning....nope it is a period.)

And those enthusiastic hockey parents were embarrassing by the end of the evening. They were so sore about losing that they yelled out names and directions to the referees. Then one proclaimed loudly as we walked by that "Spokane Sucks!"

Our daughter looked him in the eyes with a smile and said, "Oh that is not nice to say. We are from Spokane."

He stumbled ever so slightly in speech and followed back just as loudly as before with, "But we LOVE that they spend their money in Portland!"