~Goodbye to Van~

So I was going to post a bunch of cute photos of my kids from tonight but something else happened. As some of you may or may not know, my grandpa died about 5 years ago from leukemia. Since then my grandma has found a great guy to share her life with for the last 2 years we call "Van". Living in California I did not get much of a chance to get to know Van but from the little time I did spend with him I could tell he really loved my grandma. Van was a funny guy as you can see from the above picture that shows him at my house last year at Adam's 30th bday dressed as a swiss miss. Not too many guys can pull off drag! And last year when we were in Sunriver for New Year's, he helped the guys put up a great fight when we played Battle of the Sexes....we still won...ha,ha! He was a fun guy to be around and always seem to have a great look on life. Unfortunately tonight he passed away from pancreatic cancer and he will be greatly missed. As some of you may also know or not know, my mom works full time as a teacher but found time to also be there for my grandma which I think is amazing but if you know my mom, that is not uncommon for her to be there for someone she loves. She is an amazing strength that never ceases to amaze me. Tomorrow I will probably post some great pix that I took tonight but for now I wanted to remember a man that made my grandma laugh and will be missed.

Happy Halloween!

Okay, so I know I already posted today but I had to share some great Halloween pix from the past! Enjoy!

Adam and Laura- circa 1982??
Ryan as "Peter Pan" 2002
Laura, Aj, and Ali 1997
Ryan as "Woody" 2001 Doug and Laura 2006

My first mammogram

So I decided to share with you all that today I am getting my first mammogram. As some of you may know, my mom was diagnosed a few years ago, went through radiation and is now cancer free therefore my doctor felt that even though I am only 33, I should start having an annual mammogram. If any of you reading this have been avoiding a mammogram or do not even self check I highly recommend you do so. Did you know that every 3 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer? Also in 2008, 1 in every 8 women will be diagnosed. If you have a mother, sister, or grandmother that has had breast cancer, this increases your chance. So, October is breast cancer awareness month and although it is the last day of the month, you can still be proactive and get those mammy's grammed. I know it may be scary....I am personally terrified.....but as Oprah would say "Knowledge is power" and a very high percentage of cancers that are detected ARE treatable so the earlier you know, the better. Thanks for reading and I'm off to get my mammogram! For more statistics, go to http://www.breastcancer.org/

Hockey, Hockey, and more Hockey!

So, the weekend was a typical Sheridan weekend except I've decided to share this weekend's schedule. Saturday morning AJ has hockey practice at 10am. Saturday afternoon Ryan leaves for LA to play with his team in a scrimmage in between the 1st and 2nd period of the King's game. Ali has cheer practice from 11-1. AJ has a game at 3:00 in Riverside (30 min. away). Sunday Doug, AJ, and Ali leave for AJ's game at 5:30am for a 7:00am game. Ryan graciously gets picked up by a teamate giving Laura an extra hour to be at his 7:15am game. 6:45am Laura and Jack leave for Ryan's game near Disneyland. 10:30am the whole family is home and napping because at 3:00pm we leave for yet another game of AJ's. 8:00pm Home.

Now, most of you may know this but for those of you that don't, our family life revolves around this sport we call hockey. We play it, coach it, study it, watch it, and think about it constantly. Just to give you all an idea, my actual due date with Jack was April 26....I had him April 5th. Not because I went into labor but because hockey playoffs in San Jose were going to be that weekend and I had to beg my ob/gyn to let me deliver early insuring that my husband would be in town for my delivery. So I went and got an amnio the day before to insure that little Jack's lungs were good to go and they were. AJ and Ali's birthday is usually spent in Colorado Springs, Thanksgiving is usually at some hotel with the team either in Portland or Chicago and this year it will be in Vegas. My own wedding day, my husband played in a hockey game. So, you see, we are the ultimate hockey family. As my son AJ would say, "It's not an obsession, it's a lifestyle."

Oh, and by the way, it's my brother Adam's 31st bday! Happy Birthday Bro! Love you! FYI this is Adam at his 30th bday last year which was a costume party....he normally doesn't dress in leather.

Pumpkin Patch and a Pizookie

So we made it to the pumpkin patch! It was a great night and the kids had a blast picking out pumpkins and winning small little prizes that took $20 to win.....gotta love those carnival games! Kenzie also got to ride a pony and Jenn and I secretly fantasized about winning the lottery and being able to let Kenzie take that pony home. After the pumpkin patch we decided to go to a restaurant called BJ's Brewhouse. I had never been but heard it was good so we went. 2 hours later,we were done. Service stunk! Food was awesome though and it ended with a thing Jenn introduced us to called a Pizookie. It's a huge cookie with vanilla bean ice cream piled on it....heaven! If you are ever at BJ's I highly recommend the peanut butter cookie pizookie.

Another Snow Day

Okay, so no school again tomorrow. Yeah.....I think. Today was a total waste with the kids being home because this air has just taken the energy out of us. Tomorrow we are headed (hopefully) to the pumpkin patch with Adam, Jenn, and the girls so that should be a fun adventure. Jenn and I have gone in years past with the kids but never taken the hubbies. Check my post this weekend to see how we survived...ha,ha.

**Update for those of you concerned. We are currently just trying to deal with this air. It looks a lot like a really thick blanket of fog but it's smoke. Last I've heard the fire has moved east away from us so I think we are fine but who knows. I will keep eveyone posted.

Great weekend, not so good week!

This weekend I went with my brother, Adam and his family up to my other brother, Mark's house for his daughter's 1st birthday. They live about 4 hours north of us but Friday night it took us 6 hours with traffic....not fun! Anyhoo, weekend was great. Had a good time visiting with everyone and we headed home on Sunday. As we were headed home, we have to pass Magic Mountain and to our surprise their was a HUGE fire going in the canyon to the side of the freeway. As we got closer and closer to our house, the air cleared up almoset completely until we got to Irvine and looked to the left of the freeway and see more smoke. So, that was the start to a VERY long 4 days and counting. Currently their is a fire south of us in Camp Pendleton which is approx. 20 miles from us and then the fire that we saw that started in Irvine but is now less than 10 miles from us. Doug and I drove out to part of the fires last night that are by our church, Saddleback and this is what we saw. As a newby with the photography, I know I should have had a tripod for this night shot but I didn't so this is what I got. Pretty scary! Last I heard, this fire is 50% contained and the most disturbing thing about it is that this was arson. While Doug and I were out taking pix, we got a phone call that some close friends of ours had lost their home.....how devasting. I cannot imagine what that would be like. I've spent the past few days thinking about what I would pack if we were asked to evacuate and as easy as that may seem for some, it hasn't been for me so tonight I am going to go room to room and jot down any items that I think are irreplaceable such as family heirlooms so I know just what to grab if and when we may need to go.

I'm a blogger!

Okay, so I am an official blogger. This is me when I was probably 3.....life was so easy then. Now I have 4 kids ages ranging from 6 months to 14 years. I am a busy stay home mom who loves her job!