It Must Be Spring

There are lots of signs to look for to herald the true coming of spring.  Here are two of them:

I’ll have you know I took those pictures myself. 🙂  This lovely mama decided to build herself a nest just in the last week outside my office window, and I had a great view of her and her husband’s arguments this morning. She seemed pretty happy to be sitting on the one egg she has, but he seemed more interested in trying to create more.  😉

I lowered the screen on the window so that I could get a clear shot, but although I was as quiet as I could be, she was still pretty surprised to hear my camera focusing. The shot of the egg itself I took from a second floor window with my 75-300 zoom. I was actually pretty tickled about these pictures, and I’m thinking about entering them in the county fair later this year. Which reminds me, I need to remember to enter the county fair this year!

So that’s one sign of spring. Another sign, a more joyful sign actually, is…drumroll please…

The end of hockey!

Both of my boys’ spring seasons ended this past Sunday, and although I love hockey, I love it when it’s over too.  😉 We started last year in June 2013 with tryouts, and then pretty much went full-tilt all the way through until just this past weekend, including a lot of drama and stress when we had to switch teams for both boys in March. But despite the challenges of spring, it was a great season for both kids, and we’re really happy with the teams they ended up on.

Jamie’s team finished with a tournament, and it was as much fun to hang out in between games, as it was to watch the actual hockey.  Both Friday and Saturday we had early early games, and then afternoon games, and since the rink was over an hour from our houses, we all just decided to hang out and tailgate in the parking lot both days. We have some families on this new team they really know how to party!

I have to thank my friend Beth for that shot, since she took it.  That’s me in the pink shirt on the right.  It’s not often I get to see myself from behind, lol.  Not as svelte as I’d like, but better than I was 12 years ago, that’s for sure! 🙂

Since Friday was also my husband’s birthday, I snuck out to the local Kroger and got him a cake.

He was surprised when I bought it out and presented it to him in front of all the families, but he was even more surprised when the hockey player started singing happy birthday to him.

My husband isn’t much for having his picture taken, so I really love this shot of him smiling so big!

We had a good time hanging out with everybody, and we had quite a spread.  Everybody else ate hot dogs and hamburgers and chips and cookies, but I was the black sheep who brought salad and fruit, and that’s what I ate, along with a piece of the birthday cake.

See my plate?  😛

The team ended up 2-2 for the tournament, having a good opening round but losing in the quarterfinals.  Still, besides the wins and losses, the camaraderie and new friends we made were well worth the trip. And of course, I got to take lots of pictures.

That’s my boy in the red, with his new mouthguard, which I hate. :/  Yes, I know it’s a critical piece of hockey equipment, but it makes him look surprised in every picture I take of him!  😉  Still, Jamie played very well this weekend, and the coaches had good things to say afterwards.

JJ had two games this weekend, too, and he also played very well. It is amazing to me what a great little defenseman he’s becoming. Both my husband and I kind of fought it for a while, but he loves it, so we’re going to let him keep playing defense.

That’s him in the white, doing a great job taking the puck away!

While the hockey was going on, we were driving back-and-forth every night to a rink an hour and 20 minutes from our house, but Saturday morning I knew I wanted to get a run in before we went we back up north for the tournament. However, since we had to be there at 7:15, that meant we had to leave at 6 AM. In order for me to comfortably get in a 6-mile run and then a shower, that meant I had to be up at 4 AM. And guess what? I was!

As crazy as I thought I was last weekend when I was out there at a little before 5am, I knew I had gone off the deep end when I got out there at a little before 4:30 in the morning. Seriously, what kind of a freak does that? 😉

I didn’t get any pictures, because it was too dark, and because I was in a hurry, but I did have a good run despite a little bit of wind and just overall general tiredness. Dude, I ran 6 miles on the road before 4:30 in the morning…who cares what my pace was?  I think I deserve some serious props regardless!

That was Saturday’s run. On Monday, I got up early again and had another good run, finishing with a nice sub 9:50.

After all that, I stepped on the scale to see what damage the weekend had done. I wasn’t feeling like I’d lost any weight, but I felt like I should’ve stayed the same based on how I ate. Unfortunately, the scale and I were not in agreement on that point.

Damn it. That’s up 1.4 lbs from last week, which was up 2 lbs from the week before. It was frustrating to see the gain, considering that while everyone else was eating junk food this weekend, I was eating salad with grilled chicken breast and fruit. :/ Yes, I had some birthday cake on both Friday and Saturday, but I counted it, and I felt like I should’ve at least stayed the same. I will admit I’m feeling pretty fat these days, which of course is all relative, but that’s the first time I’ve been above 120 since September of last year. Yikes!

I’m going to regroup this week and really try to focus on what I’m putting in my mouth, and also not eat quite so many of my activity points.  It’s interesting to note that this is exactly what happened to me last year at this time, when I started gaining weight in the spring. It took me all of the summer and fall before I  was able to take it off.  In fact, it wasn’t until January of this year that I finally got back down to a decent weight. I sure hope it doesn’t take me that long this year!  But I’m beginning to wonder if my body likes to hang on to weight and water when the weather gets warmer.  It wouldn’t bother me so much, except for the fact that my pants are getting a bit tight. And that’s no fun!

But I know how to do this, and I’m not going to let a little setback get me down. I’m still 80 pounds lighter than I used to be!

I’ll check back soon, in the meantime, I hope everyone has a great week, and a great holiday weekend! Thank you for reading!