Happy Turkey Day!

I love Thanksgiving. It is truly my favorite holiday. The one reason why I love it is so you can be thankful for everything you have. The second is that there is no mad rushes for out of control gifts. With that said, I had an awesome Turkey Day! I got up, worked out, straightened up my house for bit and was at my mom's by 11. I started right away. My mom and I worked in the kitchen straight through 2:30. The reason we ate at that time was because we were lucky enough that Ryan was able to come home from 1-3:15 to enjoy some time with us! We made it in time.

Dinner was delicious (as always) and just so filling. I don't remember eating so much. After we cleaned up and I said goodbye to Ryan, we had dessert. I made cheesecake the night before and my Aunt Gail brought a chocolate cake. Both (yes, I had both) were soooo good! We were so lucky to have so much food and our bellies were full. I felt so thankful to have my family and just be able to spend time with them.

We left my mom's and got home about 7:30. I cleaned up a bit and crashed right to bed. We had a very long and busy day Friday (Black Friday).

Every year on Black Friday, my mom, Dan and I go downtown. My mom and I have been going since I was young - 5 maybe - so about 25 years. We see the light show, santa, A Christmas Carol (Dickens) see the big tree they put up in City Hall, and eat lunch. Over the years, things changed. Way back when, the store started out as Wannamakers. They had lego land and a huge train that travelled around the store - so cool! After Wannamakers, I think it changed to Lord and Taylor's and I think another store until it is now Macy's today. Our sightseeing priorities have also changed. Well, because this year we were going to see Temple play at 1, we had to start really early and skip a few things in order to get to the game on time.

Friday morning comes and I'm up at 5 and everyone else is up by 5:30. Nonna comes at 6 and we're all running out the door to catch the 6:22 train. I don't ever remember going down in the dark. Usually we leave about 7:30ish. We get downtown about 7:30 and we walk right through City Hall. Perfect...first stop...pictures at the Christmas tree. Ryan was still with us so I was able to get a few shots with him. He went his separate way and Nonna, Dan and I went towards Macy's. We got the times for the lightshow and Dickens to start which wasn't for another 2 hours so we decided to head down Market Street to Kmart and do some shopping. No luck there. We head back to Macy's within an hour and the light show started (an hour earlier than the lady told us) - what luck! It is now 9 and Dickens starts at 10 so this is just perfect.

The lightshow was great this year. They changed all their bulbs to LED lights so it was brighter and they added back the huge Christmas Tree. I have pictures and I'll post them later. After the light show, we walk around a bit before we go stand in line for the start of Dickens. We had lots of time to kill. Dan was starting to get really antsy but did fairly well. We get through Dickens and head to eat lunch. We skipped out on seeing Sanata this year as we can go to the mall near us if we wanted. We go to the Reading Terminal and I get a hoagie. OH MY GOD!! It was incredible. I was stuffed again. I seriously have to workout to get all this food off! So, we finish our lunches and head to the EL. We take the EL and then hop on the subway to get off of Pattison. Pretty neat to be on three different types of transportation in one day.

We get to the Linc about 12:15 so we have 45 minutes to rest. I get a beer, sit on the couch and just relax. The game was about to start so we decided to go out. Ummm...it was freezing! It was supposed to be 53 degrees and it felt like 30! One thing I must say about this day is that it is the hardest day to dress. Your outside and in all day so your hot and cold. The game didn't help because we didn't have many layers. oh well.

And Temple won their last game of the year!!! It was incredible and it is no 8 at night and I am exhausted!

Neat & Organized

I used to be really neat and organized. I am the type of person that likes everything in its place and things to be in order. I'm also one of those people that knows you can't tell the future but some type of plan would be good for me to know. I wish I could just have no plans. I worry too much :)

Anyway, I can get carried away with clutter just a bit. I did some major cleaning recently. We just had stuff everywhere and it's so easy to just throw things around and everything gets cluttery. So, I threw stuff out, put things away so everything had a place, etc. I just needed our house to look more organized and clean-cut. I am finding my roots again. The house looks great and I've managed to keep it pretty clean so far. I even put all our CD's in a CD book and threw out all the cases to make more room on our shelves. We had a ton of CD's. I have a few more things to do and then I think I'll be happy. I actually had a list at the beginning of football season to keep me busy. Turns out, I didn't have time for the list!

The Tournament Weekend

Well, we had a long busy sports weekend planned. Started out Friday night with a hockey game. Dan got two goals - woohoo! My friend surprised me by coming to the game that night too. It was great to hang out with her and her husband after the game.

On Saturday, we had to get up early to start the soccer weekend. He had a game in Philly at 9 and from there we had a tournament with one of his other soccer teams. Unfortunately, Dan was not feeling well at all. He played the first game, we drove to the tournament fields and another team forfeited our first game. So, we all went to a joint to rest and get some food before our second game. At that point, Dan decided he need to go home and rest. So, we went home and watched Star Wars the rest of the time. He fell asleep at some point to get some rest. I did hear from another mom and the team did well their last two games and won; so, we move on to Sunday with two games left. Ryan and I ordered Chinese for dinner - love it! and then I headed off for some Christmas shopping. I got a few good gifts. I got home about 10 and we all went to bed.

Sunday morning came and Dan comes running into my room at 7 letting me know he's all better and he can play! I said "great...now go downstairs and watch tv till I wake up in another hour". :)

An hour goes by and we started our day. We went to 9:00 mass, ran to food shopping, I quickly worked out and we were out the door for the last two games. The team played great and they won the tournament - they were so excited!

I also experimented with the black and white option on my camera so here are a few pictures:

After the tournament we went to my mom's for a dinner she made for my aunt's b'day. It was delish! Then we went home to sadly watch the Eagles - they lost. :(

Now about Ryan

I mainly write a lot about Dan and I (and the dog) so now I'll tell you a little bit about Ryan. We met in Aug. 2002. At that time he was a Physical Education teacher at an elementary school is Philadelphia. Dan was 3 at the time. They clicked and got along great! Ryan was (and is) terrific with Dan.

After that school year of 2002, Ryan decided to get back into coaching football - this is his passion and dream. He will always love coaching and he just loves this job. He warned me of many, many, MANY things that come along with him coaching. I heard what he said and we jumped right in. He got a job at Gettysburg and we did the long distance relationship. I'm not fond of it but we got through it. He was there a year and then moved onto Villanova for a few years and is now at Temple. After we got married in July of 2007, he adopted Dan in November of 2007. Truly a joyous day for all of us.

Just for only being in the coaching job for about 8 years, we've gone through a lot and have learned a lot. Ryan is and will always be my rock. Even though he cannot always be there for everything, he is always thinking about us. He does what he can whenever he can. He is a hard worker and is always pushed to his limits. My favorite thing about him is that he never complains and helps me when he can.

Ryan is an amazing husband and phenomenal father.

Realization

I've come to realize that not only do you have to be dedicated for football but all your family and friends are too (in a good way of course). I can't even count how many times my family and friends have been there for me (us) if I was getting pulled in another direction or needed something. Especially my parents who have been a huge help to me and is always there at the drop of a hat. I've ben really lucky that way!

Seriously though, it is really hard to understand that you cannot always count on your husband (or wife). Granted, this year has been better than before where we see Ryan a little more at night than we ever have (which is fantastic!) but he still misses taking Dan to practices and watching his games. We have been eating dinner together more often though.

If I can't make it to something, I always rely on my parents. There are also sports parents who are always willing to help as well. So, the dedication for me, married to a football coach goes beyond just us - it really involves a lot of family and friends :)

I'm sure this is the same for people with multiple kids, or people married to doctors or military families, etc. I'd like to think most of us are in the same boat sometimes and we all are so very understanding.

Election Day

Well, the day has arrived. I've been waiting for this for awhile. This is the most historical day in election history. And Obama won! I just hope he can get this country moving again like he says he can.

Well, Tuesday was my day to take the kids. I had four kids all day and they were great. I took them to vote with me earlier in the day and then they played for awhile, I fed them lunch and we went to do some errands. I had to take Mya to the vet as she has an ear infection. I also had a chip put in her. I was excited about that. Oh, I also held a newborn baby today. I did get major baby fever for the first time. So, all in all, it was a great day!

Wednesday was back to work. It was a regular day - nothing major happened. We came home and I took Dan to Prep. I was able to workout again tonight though. My goal is to lose 20 pounds - we'll see if I stick to it this time. I think I really need to get my eating habits down really.