Hockey Save The Date

I can’t believe I hadn’t posted this before! When Nick and I got engaged and had made our wedding plans, we decided to send out a save-the-date card to our friends and family. After spending some time on pinterest, I found the idea of having Nick wear his hockey skates, and myself put on a pair of heels! This way, our save-the-date can incorporate our love for hockey. So there we are! Being a hockey wife and lover, of course I wanted hockey involved in these pictures!

Back to the US on Monday!

Wow…back to the good ol’ US of A on Monday! Life will certainly be a whirlwind there for the 12 days before we get married and fly back. Oh, did I mention Nick is just going to make a guest appearance for this trip- he’ll be back for a whole 48 hours to say “I Do”, celebrate, and then we leave.

What I’m looking forward to….

• A bubble bath- nightly. 
• Ice cubes- in everything. My soda, my water, heck I may even start eating them plain.
• Seeing my girls, kitty and Lily.
• SHOPPING. I will dedicate at least two days to this. Some for clothes, some for other things we need over here— who knew my mascara was going to be triple the price?! Looks like a year supply is coming right up.
• Hopefully, some time to relax with friends and family.
• THE WEDDING!!! After months of planning, I cannot wait to put on my dress and start the day. I get to marry my groom, Nicholas Angell, and I get to be his wife!
• Did I mention shopping and bubble baths?

So, I’m bound to have a couple of crazy weeks of last minute wedding planning, and re-packing to come over here…my packing skills the first time around were maybe not quite sufficient. Then again, I did know that I would be back in Minnesota and have plenty of time to grab other things (ie, winter coats, boots, a pair of shoes that aren’t sandals or open toed heels…) I’m quite excited to get back home. Hopefully, I will have plenty of time for everything I need to do- necessary things also include my bubble baths and happy hours. Heck, I don’t think there is anything on this trip that I would deemnot necessary.

(Inter)National Dog Day

Well…yesterday in the good ol’ US of A it was supposedly national dog day. I figure I’ll be a little late to the party and make it international dog day, so here we are. Back at home of course we have our Lily (also known as lilymonster). Taking a little nap with me, and then of course for Halloween I had to dress her up as a hot dog. I think I promised this picture would never get out- but hey, Lily doesn’t read my blog (or so I think…) so she will never know!Hopefully Nick doesn’t read this post either, because I don’t think I’m allowed to dress her up ;)

Today we met our second English bulldog over here in Sweden. Little (or huge, by Lily standards!) cutie named Frankie. Really good looking bulldog. So of course I snapped a picture for Nick- and then as we were leaving discovered that Frankie can shake hands! So, despite not being able to celebrate with our girl, we found a new friend over here!

Lets Talk Hockey

Alright, we have officially been in Sweden for 3 weeks now- Nick playing hockey the whole time, and me most of it. Lets talk some of the differences I’ve noticed in hockey here versus hockey in the states. Granted, I’ve only watched 3 of Nick’s games, and had my own practices- combine that with not being an expert, and this could be totally wrong. However, it’s just my opinion- some things are better, some are worse. Overall, it does seem to be a very different game. I can see why some players are more successful in the US versus Europe, and vice versa.

The biggest difference I see? Hockey here seems to be much more of a controlled game. I see this especially in the defensive zone on break outs, as well as shift changes. When these two occur simultaneously- WOW. In Sweden, one player can sit behind the net with the puck for 3, 5, even 10 seconds with no pressure coming at him. The entire unit has time to set up their breakout, gain their speed, and prepare their momentum. In the US, you might have 2 or 3 seconds before you are pressured- if that long at all. Because of this, the game here seems to be more about controlling the puck than a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am game. Swedish hockey is very patient and controlled. 

Perhaps this patience and control extends into practices. In the US when I’ve practiced, we will tend to do a drill for maybe 3-4 repetitions a person, and then move on to the next drill. Here, you might do that same drill 15, 16, 17 times- even more- before moving on. Again, the US moving quickly and focusing on whats ahead, while here hockey focuses on the repetition and patience. 

Hockey here is also played on an Olympic sized rink, so the physical sheet of ice is bigger. Players can’t be as sporadic, or they will just get burned. Again, with the patience and picking the right moments. 

Checking and physical play. Wow, another big difference. The hits here just don’t seem to be as ‘spectacular’ as in the US. There are occasional hits, but overall it is a much less physical game here (for men’s hockey anyways. The women’s team seems to be more physical than I recall a women’s team being. Then again, this is my first time playing for a women’s team in 8 years, so I have been out of the loop). 

The common theme here that I’ll close on, is that Swedish hockey has a lot more finesse and patience. American hockey is more about grit and wearing opponents down- not ever giving them a second to rest. Perhaps later in the year I will revisit this- however, for now, these are my hockey related thoughts! 

(P.S. I do love to see my guy smoke another player-perhaps the Minnesotan in me coming out!)

Kalmar Trip

I took a road trip today to see the boys play in Oskarshamn. On the way, I took a detour and stopped at the Kalmar Castle due to the great reviews it had from people- true to form, it lived up to my expectations! Firstly, my drive started off with a pretty cool view of a thunderstorm. I love when you can see the line of the storm coming and ending! One thing I discovered I don’t love so much is Swedish drivers…more on that for another post ;)

I decided to walk around by myself, and take the guided tour another day when Nick can join me- as he is a history nerd, I know he will appreciate me waiting! However, I was able to gleam a lot of information on my solo tour. The castle has a history that goes back over 800 years, but the current configuration was established in the 16th century to create a Renaissance castle. One of the coolest things to me was inside the castle and the plaster and decoration painting. You can see this a little bit in the second picture. The ground floor has the largest blocks, the middle floor a combination of medium and small-sized blocks, and finally, the top floor (supposed to be the grandest floor) only having medium sized blocks. Of course, a lot of this plaster and decorative painting has worn away- but when you look closely you can see!

The next picture that was coolest to me was seeing the cannon balls still lodged in the walls of the castle. Being a castle, of course they had cannons to protect themselves, and at times were attacked. It is thought that the cannon balls still lodged in this wall are from the summer of 1611, when the Kalmar War was fought. It was very impressive to learn that only 6 to 8 shots could be fired from a cannon in an hour, because of the process to cool the cannons down!

The rose I have pictured is ‘Kalmar slott’, a hybrid, that is an old-fashioned Danish rose specially cultivated for Kalmar Castle! The roses are apricot-coloured, and very pretty. I thought it was fairly unique the castle had a rose cultivated just for it!

Lastly, while I was on my way to snap a couple of cool pics of the castle- along with the necessary selfie! I noticed a couple that was apparently quite ‘inspired’ by the castle. A funny observation to share!

Overall, the trip to the castle was great! These are just a few of my highlights from my tour- more to come when I bring my history nerd along with to check out the guided tour! And of course, the day was made perfect when KHK won the game 6-3, and Nick getting 1 goal 1 assist and 2 huge hits :)