Happy Holidays!

Since it is the day after Thanksgiving, it is officially Christmas season! This weekend, we'll put up the Christmas decorations and get all ready. However, first I have to clean & straighten up my house, which honestly, isn't happening. Instead, I'm sitting here blogging, hanging out on Facebook and watching shows I've TiVo'd. It'll get done eventually.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to my sister's in-laws and had the best time. Ate way too much, but that's what Thanksgiving is all about.

Have to brag...my boy has been given the Core Value Kid award for November at school. Each month, 1 student is picked in each classroom to be the core value kid. For November, it was caring. His teacher told me it was an easy choice, as he is the first to jump in and help whenever any other student or she needs help! So, so proud of him!

Sooooo..

Now that football is over and not consuming my entire existence, what do I do?? Same thing happened last year. After spending 4 1/2 months with the football parents, I now must return to my regular life.

Well, there's running. I had good intentions this morning, but nada. I was evil-cranky yesterday and thought sleep would be better. There's also the stuff I wanted to do around the house, like clean. And paint.

However, with Thanksgiving a few days away, let's talk about my favorite dumb commercial - Kohls. It's the one with the 4 dogs talking to the chick getting out of bed to shop. At 4 am. In a dress & heels. Seriously? While I'm no "black Friday" shopper, you can't tell me any of them are getting up at 4 am, dressing to the nines to elbow each other out of the way for the last Wii (or whatever the hot toy is this year, I really have no idea). If she had rolled out of bed, threw on sweats, Uggs and a baseball hat, it would be WAY more believeble.

And that Key Lime Cove commercial..I don't know why it creeps me out, but it does. It even creeps out B...

On a totally unrelated note, I'm watching Oprah. Dr. Oz is teaching us how to live to 100+. Currently, they're at the "blue zone" in Italy. The 99 yr old man who still does daily manual labor says his long life is due to wine, cheese and bread. Sign me up.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Eat, drink and be merry!!

What a Season!

Today was B's championship game. Of all the Bantam teams in our league, it was us and TriCities. We ended up losing, 0-6. However...our running back scored a TD in the first half, but our team was called for holding and it was taken back. The other teams TD was a fumble recovery in the end zone. Our defense played awesome, and so did theirs.

TriCities is an undefeated team this season. We held them to 6 (in my opinion, undeserved) points and only 2 first downs, something no other team has done. We had more first downs, but just couldn't score. And, in defense of TriCities, they were the only team to hold us to 0 points in any game this season.

Out of 20+ cities in the global league that governs 10,000 kids from the Bantam level through Heavyweights, our boys made it to the Bantam championship. They got medals for winning the division championship last weekend and trophys for second place this weekend. Quite an accomplishment!

For a team with only a few kids out of 18 who have ever played organized football before, they have come so far since July. They played hard and with alot of determination and heart.

We had awesome parents and awesome players. Go Blue, you boys rocked it this season!

SUPERBOWL BOUND!!!

Yep, they did it! B's football team pulled off a win today! We are officially headed to the Superbowl!

The game was iffy, 0-0 at halftime. In the second half, we scored, then they scored. Then, we scored again! We are the division champs and next weekend, we play for the Bantam class championship!

GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!

One Month

The marathon was exactly one month ago. Oddly enough, today would have been a perfect day to run a marathon. At 5:23 pm, it is 47 degrees outside. It was cloudy and not windy. Go figure.

Soooo, what have I done since then? Well, I have run several times and began to weight train. Not so hot on the eating part, but whatever. Then, it happened. My November allergies kicked in and you got it, I'm sick. It's happened every year for a few now. Usually I can't taste Thanksgiving dinner, so it's a little early this year, which will bode well for Thanksgiving. You'd think I would have take steps to prevent it - allergy meds or something. And it did occur to me, I just didn't do anything about it. Lesson learned.

If you all remember, I promised the weather gods I wouldn't complain about the winter if they gave me good weather on marathon day. Well weather gods, that didn't happen (to their credit, it was a decent training season). So guess what, it's going to be 39 and flurries this weekend at B's playoff game. Guess who will be complaining???? Better luck next time!

WE WON! WE WON!

What a week! Historic election, Chicago weather going from 70+ to 30's, a great report card for B and his FOOTBALL TEAM WINNING ROUND ONE OF THE PLAYOFFS, 25-0, I might add...all in the first 8:30 minutes of the game.

Yes, I'm thrilled about the election results, not so thrilled about the weather, even more thrilled about the great report card, and very, very excited about the game - it was so fun..because we were up by 24+ points, we had to change out our players, so B got to be QB again for most of the game. He did a great job, and even ran for 30ish yards total. We have such a great team, great coaches and great parents.

Next weekend, we're off to our division playoffs, then when we win that one, off to the "superbowl"! What a season!

Election Day!

I love election day. I'm not a big political junkie, but I've always loved election day. Today is no different. I would have much rather been at home today watching CNN obsessively, but nope, had to go to work.

We get home from football practice and MY DIRECT TV BOX ISN'T WORKING! REALLY???? You'll be happy to know after 20 minutes of trying reset the stupid thing, it is now working. WHEW. And thank goodness for the internet. I now can watch TV AND browse the web to cure my election obsession. Gotta love technology!

Here's my rant about election day...WGN has Judy Baar Topinka and some other guys on giving their .02. The anchors keep going to the three of 'em for so-called "insight". Gag me. They're all so annoying. One of the anchors asks Topinka which candidate's tax plan is better. She says McCain..of course she does, she's a republican. Then they go to the Dem dude. Guess what his answer was?? Shocking, I know. Just tell me the numbers and go away.

I'm going to be tired tomorrow, because I will be up watching election coverage into the wee hours. Join me, this could be fun!

Mother Runners??

This post will be all over the place, but I will start by directing any of you runners out there who are also mothers, to Kristina's blog. Take a look at the post about her book. Then, take a look at all her posts. Her blog is awesome!

Next, mother-related themes..B's team won on Saturday, 24-0, and he intercepted again. YAHOO! We're already headed to the playoffs, but his team is also #1 in their division. Championships, here we come!

Also..get out and vote tomorrow. I don't care for who, just vote.

And finally, back to running, I did just that Sunday. 5 miles in just over 48 minutes. Rock on.....

Sports, sports & more sports....

We went to the Blackhawks game last night. Dave won 4 tickets on Monday at a union meeting, and our seats were 3 rows off the ice. My brother in law, John, is a HUGE hockey fan, so he came with us. We all were outfitted in Hawks apparel, courtesy of John's collection, and off we went.

What a blast! B got a practice puck before the game from one of the officials on the ice and he loved every minute of the game. He was screaming and jumping up and down most of the game (well, when he wasn't eating hot dogs, nachos or pretzels). I've never been that close to any professional sport before, so it was quite the experience, especially when they chucked each other against the glass. We were hoping for a good fight, but no such luck. The Hawks won, 2-5. Hockey is officially my second favorite sport, right behind football. Plenty of action, the potential for some butt-kicking.... oh yeah....

The other big news related to the hockey game is B would now like to skate more (although, he does claim football is still his favorite). John and Juj took him back in the spring, and like every other sport the boy plays, it didn't take him long to pick it up and buzz around the ice for 2 hours. So, we now have to make time for THAT. The good news about that is he loves sports, and I love that he does and that he is so active. Guess where you'll find me once football season wraps up?? (Okay, one cannot ignore the "hockey mom/pitbull/lipstick" comment from earlier in this political season. I may not be a republican, but I'm pretty sure I can pull off the "hockey mom" persona!)

Back to football...B plays today. It's our make-up game from the rainy September weekend. The team we play today beat us in the "superbowl" last year, so B and the other 3 kids from last years team are out for revenge. Those 4 kids have been named captains for todays game, and they all think that is very cool. We're already in the playoffs, which begin next weekend, but we're still looking forward to a big win today.

And finally, B announced that while we will continue to watch college football and the NFL, he doesn't want to watch hockey on TV. He'd prefer to go to the games. He thinks that is alot more fun. Anyone have Hawks tickets they want to unload???