Life of a Hockey Widow

Sopes Friday Blog...(A little late)

 

Anyone want a pet??

I’ve had this pet issue now for a while.  When Sopes was traded this summer, I told all of the kids they could get a small pet.  The guilt in me kicked in, and I was trying to appease them.  Brent has called me a dumbass for this; I do deserve it.

Keep in mind that we do have a trained German Shepard guard dog.  By trained, I mean 3 years of training in search and rescue, home security along with car-jackings.  This is pretty convenient if I need to run into a store quickly and leave the kids in the car.  Not so convenient with small pets!

Lyla literally loved her hamster to death.  We would find her bathing it multiple times a day in a teacup, putting a leash on it and carrying it in her backpack.  What’s that saying?  I think it’s something like, “I will love him, and hug him, and squeeze him and I will call him George.”  That’s exactly what she did – and it died.

Jayla chose a fish, which was dead within a day.  She learned quickly that you can’t hold them, pet them and sure as hell can’t sleep with them.

Jake on the other hand, still has “Hammy.”  Getting him to clean the cage is another deal.  He was actually trying to tell me that urine doesn’t smell!  I told him, “Yes, it does and even if it doesn’t, shit does!”  Jake being the 12 year old he is; tried convincing me to throw the cage away and buy a new one with his money.  This is the ultimate in laziness!  Paul told me that he’s acting like a normal kid; I disagree.  Jake did clean the cage, but decided not to speak to me all night. 

How the hell do I get rid of this thing without crushing him????

 

"Decorating Daddy"

Yesterday the kids and I had such a good day.  We snuggled, went to lunch, voted and played some video games.   I had a flight planned and was supposed to be on my way to the airport headed to NYC.  A very short trip – 4pm Tuesday, and arriving back into Chicago at 11am Thursday.  Couldn’t do it.  I pulled into an oasis off of 294 and cancelled it all.  Well, first I called my sister for her opinion.  Kim’s the first person who will tell me that I’ve lost my mind.  Her advice is usually to, “Run the hell outta there if you get a chance!”  She does know me better than anyone and if she says stay, it’s either a good decision, or we’re both officially nuts!

Knowing that if I were to run right home, absolutely nothing would get done; I stopped at the bookstore to do some long procrastinated paperwork.  After around 3 hours, I buckled and called home to tell the nanny to meet me at a restaurant with the kids.  Kids always love surprises…or so I you would think.  When they arrived, I made an ass out of myself and jumped out from behind a tree in the waiting area.  Lyla jumped into my arms, Jake yelled with excitement, and then there’s Jayla. Her greeting was, “Why are you here?”  Annoyed, she was actually annoyed!  Can’t please them all…

After dinner we came home, only for me to discover that in that short period of time, Jake put his gaming system into his bedroom.  Apparently, the nanny tried walking in on him, but was told, “Get out, I’m changing!”  Really?  That was put back in the basement by 8pm.  Nice try.

So all of the kids were in bed, or so I thought.  Getting woken up at 11pm to our dog, Gritt, going crazy wasn’t a picnic.  Lyla had about 20 glow in the dark necklaces all lit up in her room and was trying to put them on the dog!  She has ADD, so it’s often a problem for her to sleep.  Books or Webkinz will usually keep her busy, but this was funny as hell.  I stayed up with her for a little while and made necklaces that we “decorated” Daddy with.

Sopes had these life-size cut outs of him made before he left for Atlanta.  Each child has one, and when you press the button on his watch, there’s a customized voice message.  It’s pretty cool how he’s able to change it each time he comes into town.  I do get a good laugh when I see how the kids “decorate” Daddy.

Sopes is missing a lot these days… Really, why would I want to leave?

 

 

 

 

There are highs and lows...

The past few days have been emotionally draining for me.  Friday was great; kids had their Halloween parties in school and of course that always puts everyone in the holiday spirit.  Friday night was spent alone.  When I say alone, I mean lonely.  If Sopes were home, this would have been called a miracle.  Anyone with four kids knows the stars don’t align this way.  They were at sleepovers and Paul had meetings at school until around 11pm.  Relaxing was tough – wine helped, but wasn’t the cure.  The new Eliot Spitzer documentary was as crazy as it got at my house. (I know I’ve got to slow the hell down.)

 Sunday couldn’t have been better. When I closed my eyes that night there were children in my bed; wake up and it’s my Sopes!!  My funk started on Sunday afternoon again.  It was upsetting that he couldn’t spend one full night.  Sometimes I feel that we can’t even relax and be a family when he comes home.  You feel as if you’re cramming a week into that one day.  Times like this I have to grin and go with it.

 Trick-or-treating was fun.  The kids get tired after ½ hour, someone’s cold, and another needs to be carried.  I will miss every bit of it when they’re too old.  Yes, even the tired, exhausted cry that you hear putting an overtired child to bed!

 Anyway, Sopes woke up at 3:30 on Monday morning for a flight back to Atlanta.  Practice, practice, practice.  I decided not to wake the kids – why upset them.  The girls ended up staying home from school and lack of sleep was definitely the diagnosis. We spent the day in our jammies snuggling on the couch, while watching hours of the cooking channel and lifetime re-runs.  I needed this more than them; but they were more than happy to join in.

 Not sure when Sopes will be able to see us next, but life has to go on.