Today it was Xavier’s birthday and to celebrate we played two hockey games. He finished the first game with a shutout and after a bit of a shaky start where we were shorthanded 5 on 3 for most of the first and second period he locked it in and shut the other team out making some clutch saves. We are a U16 team playing against U18 players and some of the kids are 3 years older. At first a lot of the teams did not believe that we were 2-3 years younger as we could skate with them and in a 5 on 5 situation we would do well. This team we have a lot more offensive power and as long as Xavier can hold down the backend we do well. He has played very well this tournament as today was his birthday, so obviously he has to do well. Some of the kids on the other team look like adults and the game this afternoon got a bit out of hand. I think that the older players are not too fond of losing to kids that are several years younger than they are. One of our top players ended up getting kicked out of the second game this evening and has been kicked out of the tournament. As is tradition, every year we have had a player kicked out of the tournament. Losing him is huge, but the rest of the team has stepped up and we have enough scoring from players that we can win. This evening we decided to replace the coaching staff with moms on the team, and we had to have our Executive General Manager go to the bench halfway through the first when things started to get out of hand with all of the hitting. The bigger boys were physically man handling some of our kids and it was getting a bit out of hand. We took a lot of penalties and we managed to keep the score close enough to pull off a tough win. Tomorrow morning we will have Semi-finals and if we win the finals are at 5:05. So far Xavier is leading the tournament with 3 goals against and the other goalies have 7 to 13 goals against. This summer I would like him to go to the U18AA tryouts just to see how he does. He does not want to sign with the teams, but this will give him some ice time and more experience playing against the other kids. His team has said that he has been playing lights out this tournament, and he tends to do well in tournaments and has maintained his streak of winning player of the game in each tournament that he has played in.
With all of the hockey I have managed to eat fairly well as we have bought snacks and things to have at the hotel. I am quite full at the moment, but might have some ramen for my midnight snack. I am surprised that my energy levels have been quite high and I took a quick 15 minute nap before the 6:30 game but otherwise things have been good. I walked through the resort with the dads and even took the stairs several times. Things seem to be pretty good and I am curious to see how this new chemotherapy will impact me in the upcoming weeks. Without the 48 hours of home treatment I think that perhaps I will be fine. I am assuming that 3 days of treatment has a bigger impact than just 1 day of treatment. It seems though right now that when I get full it sits heavier than it did in the last couple of months. It could also be because I am pushing myself a bit more than I normally do as well. We will see what happens next weekend. I have a bit of a reprieve though since it is a long weekend and hopefully things will be ok.
My sister has said that she has enjoyed my stories about my childhood as there are things that she was not aware of like my bus trip to see my father. She also told me a story about how my parents were as well. I am not sure when this occurred as I do not recall this at all, but I can see that I probably played a part in it. My parents were frugal and my sister received a barbie for her birthday. Apparently my best friend told Tim to cut up the doll dress and he did as he was pretty young. My sister asked for more clothing for her doll, but my parents refused as they did not see any benefit in it. What my sister did instead is she would take scraps of cloth from my mom and make her own clothing for her doll. My parents would not spend money on things that they did not see value in. We never got any brand name clothing or shoes. They would buy us whatever was on sale from whatever store. It is interesting because now we will buy the kids things from Costco, Walmart or whereever. Our kids do not care and especially Xavier. He does not care about brands at all. Olivier loves clothing from Walmart and he prefers the clothing there over anything else. Mel and I have a mix of expensive clothing and really cheap things. I have a bunch of Lululemon jogging pants for a dressier look, but I also hacev some cheao jogging pants from Walmart that I actually really like. Sometimes the cheaper stuff is just as good as some of the expensive things. I understand my parents frugal nature though I am not always frugal. As my parents gained more money though, they then started to spend more money. My brother had far more toys than my sister and she was spoiled considerably more than both my sister and I. My brother was the baby of the family and by the time he came along my parents were much further along with establishing their life here where they did not need to rely on the assistance of others. It makes quite the difference. They had always saved money for the future while also always providing an allowance for the kids. Xavier has failed to live up to his $500 shut out challenge, but parents tell me that he should still be getting it because of how he is playing. He will not since he did not meet the requirements. As long as he progresses and always does better than that is enough for me.
Q