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Well….the 30 day challenge is over. I can report that the challenge was fun, and it was easy having something set in stone to write about each day…….however, I did not come to some sort of deeper meaning of life … Continue reading
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Well this is, yet again, another reminder of how far I’ve come in the past year!!! I have changed in so many ways since a little over a year ago until today it is amazing!!! I am in a much … Continue reading
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On Tuesday I posted an entry for The Extraordinary Ordinary’s Just Write Tuesday (Click HERE for the post). In that post I spoke of how it is that through the past few years of ‘living’ I have learned that I … Continue reading
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Choosing a picture of me and my friends is challenging…….different friends, in different circles, but for this post I chose these pictures as they were taken this summer with our newest friends Chane and Leanne. Awesome friends, amazing mom’s and … Continue reading
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Yeah this picture pretty accurately explains how I feel right now……Can someone please help the ‘ass’ back down to the ground?? Anyone who knows me, knows that I usually always take on too much!! I play hockey, I ref hockey, … Continue reading
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Well as labor day approaches and the MN State Fair draws to and end 😦 (meaning that the summer is just about over, the annoying neighborhood kids once again disappear into school buildings, and the hockey season starts to ramp … Continue reading
So in life some things are a given…..like being born and dying!!! But what comes between those two extremes is what I want to talk about……… As the picture above depicts…..we got through stages – creation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adult … Continue reading
Today I learnt that a PARAPROSDOKIAN is a “Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation.” Here is a list of rather funny Paraprosdokians……. 1. Do not … Continue reading
This morning, 8/13/11, I had the opportunity to ref some fine and fantastic U-10/U-11 boys hockey games. I say fine and fantastic because today I was dealt a ‘blow’ I wasn’t quite expecting!! You see I am so used to hearing coaches screaming, bitching and down right not having a good time, so when I heard “this” I was floored……thankfully NOT literally!!
It was my second game of the morning, a team from ND and a team from northern MN. It was an OK game, nothing too exciting. The team from Northern MN appeared to have had their Wheaties for breakfast and were rather aggressive, but the ND team was dominating…..playing the game with skill vs brute force!! This is when I skated past the ND bench and one of the kids was complaining about something and the coach said to him, “Hey, you’re not guaranteed another day, so make the best of each and every day and make it FUN!!!”
The reason this floored me was because 1) he wasn’t yelling at me about the roughness of the other team, 2) yelling at the kid to ‘man up’ and do likewise to the other team (yes I have heard many coaches say this to 9 and 10 year olds), and 3) this coach, as were all 3 coaches, was a college student, a youngster, who usually give the most grief to refs. And here he was telling this kid to just HAVE FUN!!!!!! Which leads to 4) a coach ACTUALLY telling the kids to have fun, not screaming at them, not telling them they were useless or should have done this or that. Just to have FUN!!!
I’ll never know if there was a reason this guy said this to the kids, had he lost someone recently that made him evaluate life and what was important?? Is this the way he was raised?? No matter what the reason, that statement from that coach to that kid had an impact on me!! And as I skated up and down the ice, calling icing, tripping, offsides, etc.
I was thinking to myself what can I do to make today FUN?? How do I make the most of each and everyday?
Lets be honest, we don’t always make the best of EVERYDAY we are given and we don’t always look for what can make our days fun…….at least I don’t!! So in thinking of this I came up with some things that make my days fun………that make my days reasons to carry on…….that makes me value each and everyday I am given here on God’s green earth!!
My family, albeit I don’t see them very much, are still a reason I value life, and when I do get to be with them I strive to make each and every moment as FUN as possible, I make memories, and I cherish them!! A couple of pictures of these memories are below:
Jeanna Marie Pelton makes me very, very excited to open my eyes each and every morning!! And we have so much fun together!!!
If you know me at all you know that I don’t need to explain anything more when I say that hockey makes me happy and I have so much FUN playing!!
Again, as I said above with hockey!!
Without friends I think we have a gap in our hearts that needs filling. The real friends, who you know will be there for you NO MATTER WHAT!!
I love them as if they were my own children
What makes your days FUN??? What is your reason for making the best of everyday you are blessed with?? I hope that I think back to this moment in my life, when I heard these words and I realize how truly blessed I am to be given another day!!
Well I’d say that if you know me AT ALL you’d know the answer to the subject line of this blog……..DUH!!!!
Growing up I honestly never thought I’d leave South Africa, heck I was 17 before I ever sat in a plane and went anywhere. We always drove to our vacations be it Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Cape Town and of course Trekkersrus in Phalaborwa, who can ever forget Trekkersrus ;).
But at the age of 17, I flew to the Czech Republic with the South African National team, I still remember crying on the plane leaving my parents. What’s that you say? You’re asking if I was 17 right? YUP sure was…….17, leaving home for the first time alone (as alone as you can be with 20 teammates, some of which you’d ‘grown up’ with playing this game), and I was crying!!
Turns out I had the time of my life. The experience, the hockey, the country, all of it…..memories I’ll cherish forever!!
After that I travelled…..a lot!! I was really blessed to visit the countries I did to play a sport I love!!! Hungary (twice), Slovenia, Romania (twice), Austria, London and most recently Iceland. I had filled up every page of my passport with Visa’s within a few years of that first trip at the end of 1997 (for those of us who do not possess an American passport we need visa’s to visit just about every country out there).
To return to the subject line, however, have you ever lived outside the country you were born in……..I have and I still do. I have not lived in my country of birth for almost twelve years. Before I know it I will be living here longer then I lived there!!
Here of course is Minnesota, USA, there is Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Johannesburg Skyline
I often say I am not sure if I was brave or stupid, I mean me coming to live here was all my OWN doing!! I pursued it, I wanted to play hockey, back then that’s all I thought of, it was life!!!!
So speaking to been brave vs stupid……well the jury is still out. I CANNOT go back, I CANNOT undo the decisions that have been made, therefore really considering it is kind of pointless if you ask me.
I am most definitely happy I have travelled, I feel that those who have not travelled are missing out on a part of life that only seeing other cultures, other ways of life, can provide.
Travelling opened my eyes to the world, to how other people live, to what others consider ‘normal’……and I think I am a better person for it!!
So how about you? have you ever lived outside the country you were born in???
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