Wildlife

Tuesday morning woke up to my oldest son, Jake, bringing me an owl. He said he was on his way home Monday night when this owl flew up under his truck and promply broke its wing. :(

So of course he brings it to me! LOL!

You have to understand that our family is big on rescuing animals. We're down on animals at the moment, but we do still have our rescued crow (although it's with Mom in Anaheim). This owl that Jake brought was, of course, VERY wild. We looked it up and it looked to be a young Great Horned at first glance. Hissed at us, and clicked its beak, with huge yellow eyes fearsomely glaring at us.

We transferred him out of the laundry basket Jake put him into a pet carrier. I put in some water and some cat foot (thinking he MIGHT eat that). Then covered him with a blanket so he would feel protected and not freak out with one of us or our pets walking by.

Have to tell you this -- we have an Amazon Double Yellow parrot. There are only 2 things we have found that our parrot is afraid of -- snakes and owls! Yes, Hughie was just beside herself until we covered up the owl!

Anyway, I didn't want to call the animal shelter. I have found that they really do NOT know animals; they just grab them. I remembered that there is some sort of wildlife rescue down in Espanola, but had no idea where it was or even the name of it. That became my mission that morning with phone calls about the owl. So I called Stray Hearts -- they're supposed to be the humane shelter here. But there was no answer, so left a message. I called our vet -- and lo and behold, they knew about this wildlife place! They promptly gave me the number and wished me luck.

So I called them. They are called the Wildlife Center, and yes, they are in Espanola. They will come and pick up or have someone from the Forest Service come and get injured animals. They are absolutely fantastic!!! Since we were going to Santa Fe for hockey that evening, I told them that I would bring the owl down on our way, but made sure someone would be there since we would be arriving around dark.

When we got there at dark, the people there took the owl in and immediately took it to the back to x-ray it and then start surgery. We were also told that our owl is a long earred owl, not a young Great Horned. Great Horned owls have their young in January and February only, so if ours was a Great Horned it would be fully grown by now. Long earreds are about a foot tall, so it was quite big! We were told that this place has one of the highest recovery rates in the nation! And that our owl would probably be fine to be re-released back into the wild unless it was really mangled. They have an area where there are animals they keep that will never be able to be released, and the public can view them. But then they have a huge area where the public can't go, and only 2 workers are allowed in there, where they keep all the animals that will be released. They even have an area for the big cats that have been brought in! Of course, no one is allowed in that area, either. Check this place out; it's amazing!

And the place will be e-mailing me with updates on "our" owl!

Thanksgiving Hockey Tournament

Well, Thanksgiving is over, and so is our local hockey tournament. Our Taos Coyotes PeeWees team did GREAT! They came in second. The El Paso Rhinos came in first... grrr... I also found out that it's best to use the BIG air horn on these freezing mornings, as the little ones just freeze up and don't work. LOL! Yeah, the other parents just love me and my air horn... NOT! But, hey! The team voted! And it was unanimous! It's for the kids, right?

We woke up to 5-6 inches of snow on the Friday after Thanksgiving! Beautiful!!! And an absolute perfect start to our tournament! But it was super freezing cold... well, not really, but we've had such a long extended "summer" with all this wonderfully warm weather, that our bodies just rebeled against temperatures now at freezing. It was so funny to walk into the Family and Youth Center to start our hockey tournament that first morning because all of us adults were talking about how none of us could find our snow boots and winter coats! Fortunately for me, Derek (my "little" son) is such a sweet heart; he pulled out some hand and toe warmers from his hockey bag and handed them to me that first morning. Awwww, what a kid!

Our raffle during this tournament did fantastic! I was "in charge" (whatever that means, except I get stuck watching it during the times no other parent will watch the booth -- which came out to a LOT of hours!). We have a raffle twice a year to raise money for our hockey association. The money goes to not only cut down on our costs, but mostly helps with scholarships for parents who just can't afford our drastically low hockey sign-up fees. We had a couple of winners from the raffle just give us extra money for the prizes they won, because, as they said, "it's going to a good cause"! Sometimes I'm just in awe at the generosity of other people, and get that warm fuzzy feeling about how great people are. KWIM?

Derek has been snot-nosed for a couple of weeks now -- well, so have I. I just haven't quite gotten over that virus a few weeks ago. Anyway, Derek has managed to maintain with some homeopathic Chinese pills that Taos Herb recommended. I thought I was doing great, too (also taking the pills), but THE day after our hockey tournament, wham! I'm down again. :( I'm sure it's because I still wasn't fully recovered and was SUPER tired.

Our tournament ended Sunday. Monday was "back to business as usual" -- which means, schooling in the morning, chess in the afternoon, and then leaving right from chess to hockey practice. Well, being sick that morning, I BARELY made it out of bed to get Derek to chess and hockey! And then Tuesday it's the same thing all over again, except for hockey we drive to Santa Fe to practice with the comp team. Ugh. I slept in the truck while Derek and his friend went in for practice that night...

Gas prices suck. What happened to throwing 5 bucks in the tank and being able to drive all over the place?? HaHaHa! Guess I'm showing my age here...

National Chess Tournament

We just got back from Scottsdale, Arizona, where the 14th All American Cup was held. We stayed in a BEAUTIFUL hotel, complete with two pools that were filtered with salt water instead of chlorine! HOORAY! My son could swim in between rounds! Ordinarily, he doesn't swim between rounds because the chlorine just knocks him down and gives him a nasty rash.

We had 9 rounds -- four on Saturday, and five on Sunday. My son was undefeated Saturday. Saturday night the kids went to Castles and Coasters (an amusement park) and got home tired around 10 p.m. Not good to be tired! His first two games Sunday morning he lost... :( BUT won the rest of his games that day!

The first round of the tournament we found out after the round started that my son was registered in TWO sections! He played in the "wrong" section first, came out about 3 minutes later stating he had won, and his coach sent him back in to play a game with another kid in the RIGHT section! He came out a few minutes later winning that one, too! So he played two games for the first round!

Now that one game? He actually won a trophy for it! Twentieth place! After our initial confusion at the awards ceremony, the coach and I just cracked up over that! But my son won 3rd place in his division! He received a HUGE trophy! His team for that division also took First Place!

Now let me tell you something about our kids here in Taos. They are ALL great kids and GREAT chess players! I think very few of our kids DIDN'T get a trophy! And our teams took either First or Second in all sections! Of course, we were the most vocal during the awards ceremony, too... :) The hardware we loaded into my truck to take back to Taos was incredible!

On the way back home yesterday, I decided to stop at Meteor Crater to give the kids a look. That was fun -- and a welcome break from our long ride! 'Course, the parents were all calling wanting to know why we weren't home yet (were supposed to get home around 5 p.m -- got home around 9 p.m.!). And, we had to stop at every sign for a store that advertised chess boards! LOL!

I'm sitting here typing this in my jammies, my son is still in bed, and I'm feeling sorry for the other kids who had to get up for school today... :( Homeschooling is one humongous perk to having an active 11-year old!!! When he gets up, he'll just start his schooling when he's ready -- and he'll be rested and ready!

First Competition Hockey Tournament!

For our first competition hockey tournament with our Team New Mexico, we traveled to Pueblo, Colorado!

Of course I drove, as hauling kids and hockey bags is MUCH easier in a truck! We stayed in a motel that was under renovation -- not quite to my comfort level, as there was dust and chemical smells (like carpet glue) everywhere, so picture me with swollen eyes and snot nose all the time dealing with getting the boys up and ready for games... :( Not a pretty sight!

The kids played 3 games, and won them all! Competition hockey is really exciting for us parents, as it has an atmosphere of pro hockey, complete with up beat music every time the clock stopped. Us parents were all having fun rockin' in the stands! For our fourth and final game on Sunday, we were playing for either first or second place against a VERY physical team that we had already played -- and lost by a point! Darn! But at least we took second! Our team received a very cool and interesting trophy to take home! For our very first tournament, with many of our kids first-year PeeWees (which means the first year for checking for them), they did OUTSTANDING! We were so proud of them!

Okay, about checking... am I ready for this???? The team that was so very physical is comprised of many second-year PeeWees, so they not only had more checking experience, but they were older and bigger. The coach of that team also seemed to be coaching the kids to be more physical, too.

My son played left wing. Wings seem to get checked more. During the third game my son got illegally checked HARD against the boards. His head snapped back, and then his head bounced several times off the boards, he went down, and then his head bounced several times off the ice (all of this within seconds, which, as his mom, seemed like it would never end!). I just held my breath, tears welling in my eyes, my brain figuring out how I could jump over the glass and onto the ice over to my son. Now, my son is not one to stay down when he gets knocked down; he's usually right up and immediately moving again, so I've never had to worry before. THIS time, though, it took him several seconds before he got back up -- and he left the ice! AAAHHH! Do I go over to him? No, that might embarass him. So I stayed put. And fretted. He was SITTING on the bench, too, not standing hanging over the side watching the game like he usually does. AAAHHH! I was numb with worry and indecision. But cheered loudly with the other parents when the kid who checked my son got a major penalty of 5 minutes!

Then he came back out onto the ice! WHEW! He seemed to be skating just fine, too -- in fact, with more agressiveness! When the game ended, I was right there beside him, and asked him how his head was. His response?

With irritation and puzzlement he replied, "My head?!? Nothing's wrong with my head, Mom!"

Oh, okay. So I'll back off.

Later in our room he said he injured his knee during that check. His knee?? His knee had a small bruise and was slightly swollen. And he was having a hard time bending it. So we went off to Target and bought some Icy Hot sleeves for his knee. We put a sleeve on overnight and I gave him a Tylenol. In the morning we put another sleeve on, I gave him another Tylenol, and he said he was "just fine". So he skated again -- with even more vigor! Like there was absolutely nothing wrong with him!

::sigh:: He's obviously ready for this... but am I?