2007 already!!!!!

Well, it seems that recovering from a concussion spins everything into craziness! I can't say I've been to busy to blog, I just haven't :) especially the last couple weeks. So I guess now is a good time to do something before the next semester starts and things go crazy again.

I guess I should start where I last left off. The rest of the second week was mostly crappy. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't go to my classes. On Tuesday I went to my lab and then missed another exam, also to write once I started feeling better. Thursday I went to my Biol lab, felt decent and so decided to go to my afternoon class. It was the first class I came out of in a week that I actually understood what was happening and could tell you at the end of it what was taught. Such an amazing feeling. By Wednesday the next week I was starting my physical rehab. I wasn't allowed to do much but it was more than nothing and that was a relief.

The long weekend was time for my parents and I to take a trip. My mom and I are avid NFL fans and we have wanted to see a live game for awhile. So we decided this year was time to do it and the long weekend was a perfect time as we could drive and my mom wouldn't have to take any time off. My dad decided to tag along. We left Friday night, intending to drive ~5 hours, bad weather and full hotels caused us to drive till ~2am. Needless to say we were all very tired by the time we got to the hotel, but closer to our destination for the next day. On Saturday we drove to Vancouver and spent the rest of the day with my Uncle, my Dad's brother and one of my cousins. None of us have seen them in awhile so it was really nice to catch up and hang out. We had fish and chips for lunch, went for a walk and then went back to his place for dinner. My Uncle made a really yummy supper, then we played a game. Then we starting driving so the drive to Seattle wouldn't be as far for Sunday. we intended to stop on the Canadian side of the border, but plans seemed to be changing a lot with this trip and we ended up driving ~1 hr across the border, once again pretty late. Sunday was pretty sweet. We had some entertaining navigating getting to the game. Julie and I are always very prepared for road trips but my parents didn't get anything, so we navigated to Qwest stadium by my memory. We found it so apparently it's pretty good. The game was really sweet. The stadium was really cool, and ridiculously loud, and of course, the right team won, GO SEATTLE!! Then we got in the car and drove to Kamloops. The next day we drove the rest of the way home. The weather for the entire trip was rather atrocious. I have never driven on such bad highways, at least not that I remember. Seattle and Vancouver were rainy and the highway going out of Seattle was crazy so the water was everywhere. Despite the weather it was a really sweet trip.

I had Monday and Tuesday off for our Fall Break. It was a good thing too as I had 2 midterms on Wednesday and a huge paper due on Friday. This is where my concussion came to kick me in the butt. I had planned on starting the paper weeks earlier but couldn't because I couldn't do anything. I probably should have gotten an extension but I decided to be stupid instead and it cost me a bit. The midterms went pretty well, but I ended up writing an 8 page research paper in 2 days. Not recommended. The rest of the semester was pretty dull, nothing exciting and after that paper I was mostly done other than exams. I had a couple of littleish asignments, but that was it. It allowed me to study a lot for my Anatomy lab final, which I rocked and that helped in studying for the lecture final. Mostly my finals went pretty well. I can't say for sure as I didn't get the marks for most of them, but I was able to maintain my GPA, which I was pretty nervous about, so that made me quite happy. Course, I had to ignore my sisters whining about their grades. (hehehe)

Christmas has been nice and relaxing. Rachel got home 2 days before my last exam and was only home for 10 days. That first week was a little crazy. Lots of parties and shopping, while trying to recover from school. I made my first ever gingerbread house, and it was really sweet, I recommend it to everyone. I can't wait till next year, I already have plans of what I'm gonna do:) Then my sisters and I had a really big party at our house. It will be the last one in this house. The last few years we haven't had a hockey game but this year we did. It was relatively small compared to other games, but still a lot of fun. I ended up on my butt a lot but so did a lot of others :) It was an interesting mix of people but it worked out really well. One girl commented that she didn't realize you could have fun at a party without getting drunk. Apparently my predictions/promises were right:) (In the invitation I guaranteed that people attending would have fun) Christmas Eve and Christmas were good. I got a laptop from my parents :):):) We did the normal Christmas thing. Open presents, have breakfast, hang out then go to Skinners for dinner. This year's dinner was rather large, I think 21 people! But as always it was really yummy:) Boxin Day was relaxing and we played games in the evening. Wednesday morning, very early, Rachel got on a plane to St. Louis (she was going to Urbana, then back to school) Since then I have been very relaxed, prety much done as little as possible. I am currently feeding an addiction to Grey's Anatomy. I got Season 1 from my sisters for Christmas and today I bought Season 2 with money from my grandparents, (thanks :) New Years Eve was fun. A bunch of friends got together and we had a fondue party. Mmmm, chocolate:) We also had broth, oil and cheese. One guy brought this really sweet game. It wa similar to DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) but with a guitar playing rock songs. It seems like an odd party game but it was really sweet, and surprisingly entertaining even when not participating. Julie and I got home ~3am, we had intended to leave closer to 1:30, 2 but everyone had left and left a big mess, so we stuck around to help clean up.

Now it's time to get moving again. I need to do some running before next week's fitness testing or I think I might die. 1.5 to 2 hours of fitness testing, bleh (imagine a puking motion) but it's to get better right? More to come, maybe soon, maybe not, no promises:)

Well, the last week has been an interesting one. I guess I should start from the beginning.

Last Thursday my rugby team left for CanWest. The drive down was fairly uneventful and went by very quickly. We watched some movies, ate lunch in Airdrie and had a little quiz. The quiz was entertaining. Our coach matched us up, rookies with vets and forwards with backs. Then we had a quiz. It was mostly based on alumni and the history of the Pandas team with a few questions from our playbook mixed in. My team did pretty well but I was matched with a forward in her 4th year playing for the team. She knew the Alumni stuff and I knew the playbook stuff. I had been warned that there would be a quiz so I had been studying, but there aren't many good places to study the Alumni information. We arrived in Lethbridge ~2:30 and did a quick run through to get our legs moving and stretch out. Then we went to our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We had a team meeting that evening and talked about a few technical things, then had a meeting with just the players. It was a sweet time to set our intentions and remind each other why we play Pandas and why we're committed to working so hard. I think all of us came out of that meeting pumped for the weekend and very excited to play. Then the list came out of who was starting for the first game. I didn't expect to be on it and was right, but that was okay with me, I was happy to be there.

Friday was a day of mixed emotions. Our first game went pretty well. I didn't play and was left standing on the sidelines thinking, holy crap, theses guys are good. I'm going to be a spectator all weekend because I'm not this good! We then went back to our hotel, I wrote a final for my rugby PAC class (it went pretty well), ate lunch, relaxed and got ready for the next game. When the list came out I was once again not on it. We went to the field to warm up and half way through our warm up our backs coach came to me and told me I would be starting. One girl got hit funny in the first game and they were concerned she had a concussion so they pulled her for the second game and put me in her spot. I was very nervous before the game but that went away once it started. We also won that game. I can honestly say that it was the best game I had ever played. It was also very weird. I didn't feel a thing the entire game. No pain, not tired, not cold (it was pretty cold outside). I love adrenaline :) The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We got back to the hotel, had ice baths (cold, but not nearly as bad as you'd think) had supper at a fancy italian place (yummy :) and then I was told to go sit in the bathtub to make my legs loosen up :) For those of you who don't know, hot tubs and warm bath tubs are big no-no's on tournaments because they make your legs go to mush, but our trainer told me to go in because my legs are really tight and need to get looser :)

Saturday we only had one game. We had a pretty lazy morning, a couple meetings but nothing major. Our backs coach had a chat with a bunch of us individually to talk about the game. I wasn't starting (the girl that was pulled for the last game got cleared) but they were still concerned about how she was doing so I was to be ready if needed. I was also told that she (our coach) was happy with how I'd played the day before :):) We warmed up and the game started with me on the sidelines. About 10 minutes in, the same girl took a nasty hit and got knocked out, which means I go in. So I played almost all of that game as well. We played pretty well, especially our defense but the game did not go how we planned and we ended up losing 3-0. That put us in a 3 way tie for first and the 6th tie breaker rule knocked us out of the final. This was a first for the Pandas and all of us were in shock. We had a really good meeting later at the hotel and we let some frustrations out. The thing the impressed me most was that no one got mad at anybody, we were all just sad and trying to console each other. I can say with absolute certainty that this is the best, closest team I have ever been on and I really look forward to the next 4 years, the season just isn't long enough. That evening we had to go to a banquet for the tournament. It was really hard but we went and made our coaches proud. Everyone there was looking at us expecting to see anger, frustration, you name it. But we walked in there unified and proud. It was somewhat entertaining seeing how all the other teams just sat there and watched us the entire evening. Then I went and sat in the hot tub and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

The next morning we got a special treat for breakfast and got to eat at the buffet in the hotel restaurant. The previous mornings we ate in our manager's room, good but not as good as french toast and eggs. However, I was not feeling well and had no appetite. I also had a headache. Some of you may see where this is going. I got hit in the head in Saturday's game. At the time I thought nothing of it but when the little headache I had Saturday night wasn't gone Sunday morning, and then I was falling asleep at breakfast, our trainer decided to have a little chat with me. She decided to pull me for our game that day and about half an hour after our first chat I was doing signifcantly worse then during our chat. Large headache, nauseuos, dizzy, didn't like light or loud noises, no appetite, etc. Pretty much it sucked. Our last game went well and I cheered from the sidelines, despite my headache, once again, I love adrenaline :) I was accompanied by the other girl that got knocked out and one other who also got a concussion in the same game. We all play similar positions, similar size etc. so our team has nicknamed us the concussion triplets. We won the last game handly and had alot of fun doing it, despite the ref. I forgot to mention this. We had the same ref for our last 3 games. He was horrible. I would rant but most of you would not understand my problems with him. Put simply he didn't really understand the rules of the game and made that obvious by the way he called the game. I'll give you one stat. In a 50 minute game, we had 52 SCRUMS!!!!! That's insane! The rest of Sunday sucked. We went back to the hotel to shower, went to the awards ceremony and drove home. The bus shook the whole way home and I wanted to throw up. It was not fun. On top of that I was supposed to write 2 exams Monday morning.

The rest of last week was crappy. I didn't write those exams and have a lovely doctor's note to get me out of them. One is being tranferred to the final :( the other I will write once I start feeling better. I went to all my classes but I may as well not have been there. Focusing hurts, reading hurts, writing hurts, even writing this hurts, but I felt I should post so I have been taking lots of breaks to get all of this down. At certain times last week, I would start reading something and by the third paragraph I wouldn't remember what I was reading. You know that feeling when you're really tired and you read something but it doesn't really get through? That's what I was experiencing constantly and if I pushed it too hard my head would start throbbing. I had a constant headache but this would make it worse. I'm starting to get better, but it's going to take awhile. I still can't do much but the consequences aren't as bad. I generally don't have a headache, until I start to do something. THen I get a mild headache, feel slightly dizzy and just generally "off" So as long as I do nothing, and I mean nothing, I'm fine :)

Well, I think that's plenty long enough and in depth enough. Plus my head hurts now so I'm going to say good night and go to bed, my happy place right now :)

Okay Mom, I'll post

Well, this post has been prompted by my mother who insists that the news I recieved this morning was exciting and warranted a post. But, to keep you all in suspense I'm going to fill you in on everything else that has happened in the last couple of months first :)

Well, first of all our trip to Winnipeg was a lot of fun. For some of you it is strange that three sisters would get along well enough to go on a road trip together, and it is a little weird but I'm very glad. My sisters are awesome. I also got to hang out with most of my relatives in Winnipeg. I used to hate going to Winnipeg because it was always so busy and half to time would be spent with people I didn't really know. This year we spent the time with closer relatives, who are all really cool and alot of fun to hang out with and my little cousins are so cute :) I have to say that I look forward to going again, I just have no idea when that will be.

The rest of August was pretty boring. More working and rugby, but not nearly as much rugby. My season was a little frustrating this year. We had a really good start, but then people stopped coming to practice and others disappeared all together so the rest of the season didn't go nearly as well.

Now for the biggest reason I haven't posted since July :) At the beginning of September I tried out for the U of A Pandas Rugby team. I made the team, but oly as a red shirt, essentialy the practice squad, no travelling just lots of practices. The rugby scehdule is a little different from all the other varsity teams. We just play a couple of tournaments, Can West and when we win that, Nationals. More on that later :)

The first bit of school has gone well. I don't do much other then school and rugby right now, but I'm fine with that and it's been a great experience thus far. I'm really enjoying most of my courses so far too :) I'm taking an Intro Anatomy course :):), physiology, Bio (ecology, not as much fun, but it could be worse) a course in Phys Ed that deals with a conceptual approach to teaching Phys Ed, because there's so much to teach and you can't be an expert in everything but you still have to teach it all, and a rugby PAC course. The PAC course has been entertaining. My club coach is the instructor so that's been fun and educational from a coaching perspective as I saw how she introduced certain concepts to people who had never seen a rugby ball before that class. It's also been a bit boring when teaching certain things. I was talking to one friend one day during class and she remarked that I must be so bored. She's standing there trying to put everything together and I'm standing there picking up what is being missed (this was during group presentations). My exams and assingments have been nicely spread out so far so I haven't gone crazy but it might get a little worse in the next couple weeks, hopefully not though.

Now time for my exciting news. Can West, the first tournament, is next weekend and they announced who was travelling this morning and guess who's on the list? ME!!!!!! I've moved up :):):) So on Thursday I get to leave with the team and go to Lethbridge :):) Some history for those who don't know anything about the U of A Pandas Rugby team. THey have been around for 7 years, in that time they have 7 Can West championships and 5 national titles, in other words, we're really good so hopefully that tradition will continue this year:) Well, off to get all the school work done that needs to happen before I leave :) Have a wonderful time and hopefully I'll have time to post about how my weekend goes :)

Yes I'm still alive :)

Well I've decided that I have let you all wonder about what has happened to me long enough and I will answer some of the questions regarding where I have disappeared too. That and my mom and my sisters have been bugging me about not updating my blog and the only way to get them to stop is to update my blog so here goes.

I would have to say that I am definetely more busy now then I was during the school year. At least for May and June. July has been a little slower but apparently not enough because July is almost over and I'm just now updating all of you. :) Most of my business has been related to rugby. We had a lot of games at the end of May and June so lots of practices and evenings playing rugby. My weekends from the time school ended until July 8th were all busy doing something. There were rugby tournaments/games, weddings, a golf tournament(which was a lot of fun :) and then I also decided to try out for the Senior Women's Rugby team for Alberta, for experience, so many Sundays were busy at try outs.

On the July long weekend, my sisters, a few friends and I traveled to Victoria. We went for fun and to meet up with another friend that was in B.C. for the summer. It was a lot of fun. Julie and I took Scooter rides right beside the ocean. It was so beautiful and scooters are so much fun to drive. I used to make fun of people that drove them, and I still will if they're driving on Calgary Trail but it's fun so I understand a little more. I wouldn't say it was relaxing at all but I enjoyed it so that's good. I must say that driving the Coquihalla is a lot of fun :)

The last little bit has just been work and rugby, similar to most of my summer. I'm really looking forward to school starting again. I think I may be disillusioned, looking forward to school, there must be something wrong, or maybe I've found what I really want to do :)

My sisters and I will be taking another trip, but this time in the other direction, for the August long weekend. I can almost guarantee it won't be relaxing but I will enjoy it and relaxing is overrated anyway :) Lots of relatives to see, but I haven't seen many of them in 2 years so I'm looking forward to it and another road trip with my sisters, what could be better? :)

I think that's all from my very exciting life :) But now at least you know I haven't fallen off the face of the planet :)

I'm still alive don't worry, just busy

It may sound ridiculous but I seem to be more busy now that school is over. Hence the ridiculous wait between posts, but at the same time I coudn't think of much to talk about. A lot has happened but at the same time it's not exciting and most of it is just repitition over the weeks.

Most of my life since Jasper has been rugby and work. It has been frustrating and very busy but a lot of fun too. Coaching rugby is now over until next season unless my coach tries to get me to help coach in other areas. I really enjoyed it but both Char and I are quite happy it's over at the same time. No more leaving work early to get to practice on time and no more planning practices that only 10 people come to. The last game went quite well and they started looking like they could play rugby and do it well. Their second game was not good at all and we slowly progressed through the season but it definetely got better and that was good to see. Next year should be fun.

Playing rugby has also been exciting. I'm getting in really good shape and I'm starting to see more and more. It's nice to see. We have played 2 games so far and won both of them. The first game went really well, the second we won by default. My team is the bestest and I love going to practice because it's so much fun. I went to a trial for Alberta Rugby Senior Women because my coach told me too. It was interesting but I was surprised to see that I'm not that far behind some of them.

Work has been good and frustrating. My boss doesn't like to work in bad weather so there have been a lot of lost days due to bad weather, but at the same time he likes me so he's giving me extra hours to make up for the weather.

I have been busy every weekend since the beginning of May and I think it's starting to catch up with me. I'm at home today because of more bad weather but I also feel [retty crappy so it's probably a good thing.

well, that's all for now folks.
=:)

I'm still alive don't worry, just busy

It may sound ridiculous but I seem to be more busy now that school is over. Hence the ridiculous wait between posts, but at the same time I coudn't think of much to talk about. A lot has happened but at the same time it's not exciting and most of it is just repitition over the weeks.

Most of my life since Jasper has been rugby and work. It has been frustrating and very busy but a lot of fun too. Coaching rugby is now over until next season unless my coach tries to get me to help coach in other areas. I really enjoyed it but both Char and I are quite happy it's over at the same time. No more leaving work early to get to practice on time and no more planning practices that only 10 people come to. The last game went quite well and they started looking like they could play rugby and do it well. Their second game was not good at all and we slowly progressed through the season but it definetely got better and that was good to see. Next year should be fun.

Playing rugby has also been exciting. I'm getting in really good shape and I'm starting to see more and more. It's nice to see. We have played 2 games so far and won both of them. The first game went really well, the second we won by default. My team is the bestest and I love going to practice because it's so much fun. I went to a trial for Alberta Rugby Senior Women because my coach told me too. It was interesting but I was surprised to see that I'm not that far behind some of them.

Work has been good and frustrating. My boss doesn't like to work in bad weather so there have been a lot of lost days due to bad weather, but at the same time he likes me so he's giving me extra hours to make up for the weather.

I have been busy every weekend since the beginning of May and I think it's starting to catch up with me. I'm at home today because of more bad weather but I also feel [retty crappy so it's probably a good thing.

well, that's all for now folks.
=:)

Mountains Yay :)

I think this must be some sort of record! I'm posting again and it hasn't been that long since the last one, not even a week! Just make sure you don't get used to this as I'm pretty sure it won't be a normal habit but maybe, who knows.

This is mostly to talk about my weekend. Jasper was really sweet. Friday was a bit of a gong show. I was going down with two other girls. One of them was going shopping with me before so we could get our costumes for Saturday night. She didn't pick me up until 1:20 and we were to be picked up to leave at 4:30 but she still wasn't packed. We managed to succeed but it was a bit crazy. The drive was uneventful, other then a bunch of funny looking elk, but we had a good time talking. We arrived, waited for other people to arrive and then went out for food and after that, went to the bar. My supper was delicious but I'm sure you don't care so we will move on. There is a tradition on trips that anyone who has not been on that trip before becomes a rookie and those who have are seniors. Now I have been through this process before on trips to Grande Prairie and Fort Mac. but Jasper is a little different as it spans a longer period of time. So Friday night we assemble outside and begin an auction, to sell off the rookies. Wow, that was interesting. I'm just glad I am permanently on the other side of the fence now :) I have been on every other trip and now am officially a senior in everything. There is another advantage to being some what shy and quiet on your rugby team, you are seen as not as much fun so the seniors don't want you as much as others :) I was picked by someone who wanted to have fun but knew I wouldn't drink so she didn't push it. I got the wonderful jobs of carrying her stuff and getting things for her but that was essentially allthat I did.

We had 2 teams go to the tournament, an A side and a B side. I was on the A side :) Our B side had their first game at 9 and my first game was at 10. The B side had a lot of inexperienced (or I should say never played rugby before) girls so they got their butts kicked, but there was a huge improvement from their first game to their second game and that was really good. A few girls really started understanding everything and it was cool to see them get really excited about playing rugby. The B side lost both their games and were finished after that. The A side had a pretty tough first game. We ended up losing in sudden death overtime. Our next 2 games were ridiculously easy so it felt like I didn't do anything most of the day, I also made a couple big mistakes and felt pretty stupid about them but you have to get over that. Our day brought us to the Plate final, which means the lower good people. We were playing a team that had earlier creamed our B side and we found out that their game plan was to take out one of our players. This got everyone a little riled up, which was good because we were a little sleepy, and the game was really good. We lost but is was a good game.

We went back to the hotel afterwards to get ready for the evening. The seniors came up with this idea of making all the rookies have ice baths. It actually felt refreshing once you got out, but I feel sorry for the rookies who had been done playing for about 4 hours already. Our theme for the party that night was rollergirls and we had t-shirts made and one of the girls picked out names for all of us. I was "Miss Conduct." It was a really funny night. Essentially we got ready, ate pizza then went to the bar. I kept my promise and had one drink, but that was it. The bar was so loud and I was so tired that I left around midnight. Then we got up the next morning and drove home, not very eventful.

I realized I forgot the end of Thursday. My sister came home from Montreal and I was very happy to see her. Now she is home for 4 months and I have to fill up because then she goes back and I am opnce again Rachie deprived :( But that's a long ways away so we will not think about it yet.

Yesterday I started work. I was a little nervous, I'm not sure why but I was. But the day went fine and I remembered how to swing my hammer so it's all good. I think I put in more nails yesterday then I did the entire month I worked last August so my arm is a little sore but that's okay. I'm home right now becuase it's really gross outside and my boss doesn't want to work. I hope this doesn't happen often as it will get very annoying but right now I'm some what glad, exams just finished and I don't feel like I really got a break at all.

That's all for now folks!

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

I guess a little explanation is needed for the happiness. I'M DONE!!!!!!!!! My first year of University is officially finished, now I just have to wait for my marks. No more English ever:) (sorry Hayley but we've discussed this, it would be like you taking a Organic Chemistry class, not that I liked that either;) So I must apologize for the lack of posts the last little while. Classes ended and then I had to study. I had intended to post but it just didn't happen so here it is now.

A lot has happened since my last post. I have written 6 finals and one paper. The more exciting thing that has happened has been rugby season. We have been practicing outside now for about 2 1/2 weeks :) This weekend we go to Jasper for a tournament and I am sooooo excited :):) Coaching at Ainlay has also been fun. I'm enjoying it more and getting more confident. They had their first game on Tuesday and did very well (better then I was expecting) and it was really cool to see some hard work show itself in a real situation. They didn't win but they did score which is a huge improvement from last year, and the game was pretty close for most of it.

This seems really short but all I have been doing is studying, practicing and coaching so there isn't much else to say. I have a job for the summer. I'll be framing houses again, so that should be fun. The posts might become a little less sporadic now that I have no school work to do, but I'm not promising anything :)