My Lady Vikings

So I'm pretty sure most of you know that this year and last year I have been coaching Viewmont's Girls Lacrosse team. Lets just say that it is the most amazing experience that I have ever done. Last year, in the 2010 season, it was Viewmont's first year to have a girls lacrosse team. The girls had a very successful season as a JV team. This years season was a whole new territory for the girls. They were now a Varsity program for the very first time!!! I'll be honest with you, I really thought that this was going to be a very hard season for the girls. First we lost some great Seniors the year before. Second, they were used to playing JV teams and not Varsity teams. 

Boy was I wrong! My girls had an amazing season!!! They ended up being #1 in Division 2 North! This meant that my girls were now in the playoffs for State. Our first playoff game was against Lehi. They won 20-8!! I told my girls, there is no mercy when its playoffs!! After our game, Davis and Timpanogos were playing. The winner of that game determined who we would play against in semis. We were all rooting for Davis to win because we knew that we could shut them down a lot better than Timpanogos. That game was so intense. They went into overtime. Finally Davis out beat Timp. For the next couple of practices, Sam and I were thinking of ways how to shut Davis down for real! We worked really hard with our defense and midfielders. When game day came, I was so freaking nervous. I had butterflies all day! I got to the field, helped warm the girls up and it was ready for the game to start. My girls were on fire! You could really tell that they wanted to win this game. My girls won 16-8! We were going to the STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS and were playing against Waterford! Sam and I both knew how important these next couple of practices for the girls were. We had to get these girls ready. 

Of course this stupid, unpredictable weather was a huge burden for our team. It rained during every practice. Sam and I were worried about injuries and didn't want the girls to get sick for running in the rain. We had to stop practices early, which was the last thing that we wanted to do. The last practice day came, and the girls were so focused and really worked hard to learn new strategies. The weather even got better throughout practice. Two hours went by and practice was over. It was the last practice of the season and all the girls were sad. It was a sad moment but then at the same time, Sam and I were excited not to drive up to Farmington everyday. 

That evening I could not sleep at all. I was reflecting back when I was a senior and Jordan was going to the State Championships against Alta. Back then, It didn't really hit me that I was going to State until the whistle blew for the game to start. This year it hit me at 2 am, while I was laying in bed. I wasn't thinking about how we were going to win. I was thinking how awesome and amazing this experience is going to be for my girls. The girls who I have spent the last two season with. Teaching them how to catch, throw, shoot, and play defense. These were my little girls!! 

Saturday morning, my alarm goes off. I jump out of bed, get ready and start my drive to PC High. I arrive to the field and see my girls already warming up. They were so focused but I could tell they were a little nervous. After their warm up, I had them come talk me before we started on drills. I first told them how proud I was of them. Second, I told them to remember everything that they have learned over this past season. Apply the those things to the game today. I finally told them that all in all, have fun playing today. One of the reasons why I coach is because I love the sport and want the girls to love playing lacrosse. 

The game finally started. It started a little calm which was a little strange from my girls. They are a little bit more aggressive when it comes to going in for a goal. We maintained possession for most of the first half but when Waterford would get the ball, they would run down and shoot. It was half time and the score was tied 3-3. My girls seemed a little down. I don't think they were expecting a that much of a challenge from Waterford. I had to explain to the girls that Waterford came from Division 1. That they know how to play in high pressure game. We needed to show them that we can play just as well as them. The second half started and our intensity in the game was bi-polar. We were working so hard but it wasn't a steady energy on the field. We ended up losing to Waterford by two points. 

I am so proud of my girls. Even though we lost, we still got 2nd in State! That is a huge accomplishment for our team!

These are just a couple pictures from the game.

Cute little Chloe Kearney who was our little cheerleader!

Some of the fabulous parents that do everything for the team

HAHA this is Kate! This is what she did when they were announcing her name before the game!!

The team cheering before the game started
"We are the Vikings, hear us ROW! A-Way-Oh, A-Way-Oh, A-WAY-OH!!"

My secret weapon, Ainsley. Her shots are so wicked!

Brittany Harris, throwing off her defender!! 

Kelsie Christensen rolling the crease

Kelsie and I. I'm going to miss her so much!! Oh and I'm am totally an ugly crier.

"Norway" (aka Hanna) and I! I still can't believe she picked up our foreign sport so fast!

Sara, our goalie! We couldn't have gotten this far with out her.

My Seniors!!! Ally, Emma and Kelsie!!

Talking to the girls.... While sobbing

Getting together to for one more Vikings cheer!

Hugs all around!! I just love our team unity!

My Girls!!

I love my girls so very much!! I hope that if they learned anything from me, that it would be the love for lacrosse!! Thank you for all the parents and their support this season. Also thank you to Doug Hancey, for all the wonderful pictures that you have taken throughout the season. A huge thank you to Brian Acord!! You are the best parent rep a team could ask for!!

Something New...

Every time it's time for me to get my hair done, the question "what should I do this time?" comes up. I am not an impulse person! I like to plan things out, make sure that I'm 100% positive that I want to do it. For example... Last spring, I was talking to Ashlei (the girl who cuts my hair) that I wanted to do something different with my hair for the summer. I brought up the idea of going maybe "blonde". She told me to keep thinking about it until the next time that I saw her. I thought about it more and more and when it came for my next appointment I was pretty set on doing it. She told me that its was going to be a long process, that I should bring things to occupy my time. I really didn't believe her when she meant it was going to take long. It was a good 3-4 hours at the salon to get rid of my dark hair to a "blonde". Now when I say "blonde", it was blonde to me because I never had my hair so light before, but it definitely wasn't Katie's hair color blonde. 

Me, Craig and Katie

This was at my brothers wedding in June right after I colored my hair. See its definitely lighter than what it normally is but not as light as Katie's hair. I really did enjoy my lighter hair color but it was so much harder to manage then my dark hair. It was a lot more drier and fragile then what I was used to. So I decided to go back dark in the fall when school started up again. It took my hair a while to hold onto the dark color because of being so light before. I think darker hair suits me better then lighter but other people would say otherwise... my mother. 

Me and Katie

Now this is what the Knight sisters look like. Dark Brown vs. Light Blonde, Albino (Me) vs Tan, Tall vs. Short, Lacrosse vs. Cheer leading, Medicine vs. Business... We could go on about our differences. There are some things where we are very similar. We are both Vegetarians, we love Nordstrom and J Crew, we are both really involved with our school studies and most of all... We love our nap time!!

Now back to the topic of hair. For the past couple of months, I wanted to change things up a bit. When I saw Ashlei a while ago, I had an idea of putting a little bit of red in my hair. Not a lot but a small amount where you could see a little tint. I really enjoyed having the red in my hair. Then I had this crazy thought of going all the way red. Not like Rhianna's weird red but like a deep auburn red. Here a few ladies, who I love their color of red.

Debra Messing

Isla Fisher

Bryce Dallas

Kate Walsh

There are so many different shades of red that I absolutely love but I think I'm leaning more towards Kate Walsh or Bryce Dallas hair color. I'm still discussing color with Ashlei but it a for sure thing that I will going red no matter what! I'll not sure when I'm going to do it but when I do, I'll make sure to post some pictures!!

How I Feel About School....

Crochet or Knit...?

This last November, I decided to pick up on crocheting. It was such a nice stress relief from school, especially when finals came around. I went to Hobby Lobby, bought a skein of yarn, a pack of crochet hooks and a book about crochet. I tried just learning from the book but it wasn't to effective. So I went on youtube.com and learned how to crochet there. My favorite channel for crochet is "Bethintx1". She is amazing!!! I've learned so much from watching her videos. Another channel I use is "Art of Crochet by Teresa". I'm so grateful for people taking time to post a video on how to do things such as crochet. As soon as I was comfortable enough with crocheting, I wanted to make something other than granny squares.

I was on a search for a cute hat pattern. I came across this web site called Ravelry.com. I love this site just as much as I love my youtube channels. There's a ton of patterns to choose from and also a forum if you have any questions. I found a pattern for a really cute hat. So I took the challenge on making it. I'll be honest, it wasn't easy following the pattern since it was my first time. But I finally finished it!!! I love this hat! After a couple days of wearing it, the yarn became so soft and warm. 

I started to get a hang of it. For Christmas, I wanted to make something for everyone in the family. I wish I had pictures of everyone wear their hats but I only have a couple. For Katie I made her a cute purple hat because she loves purple. Jeanette, I made her a beige cloche with a purple flower that can be taken on and off. For Craig, I made him a wanna-be Scott Pilgrim hat. I found a pattern just like the original hat, but it was knitted and at the time I didn't know how to knit. So when I get better at knitting, I'll make him the "real" one. For Ryan's hat, I knew that I wanted to make him a warm hat because he works construction. So I experimented with a technique on making a beanie and it turned out so great!!! I'll have to get pictures of everyone wearing their hats and post it. 

When I was browsing Ravelry for hats, I came across these two hats for little boys. I absolutely wanted to make them for my two little cousins Rockie and Hawkins!!! They look really hard but were so easy!!! I made the Owl hat for Rock and the Raccoon hat for Hawk. I later found out that Hawk loves the Owl hat. Good thing Rock is too little to complain or have a preference.

Hawk (top), Rock (bottom)

After I made those hats, my mom wanted me to make her something. She didn't want me to make her a hat because she thinks that her head is to "large" to wear one and look good. So I found this pattern for a shawl that I think she'll like. If not, I'll keep it and make her something else. I've already gone through 3 skeins and still have not finished. I need to go and get one more and I think I'll be good. I'm still debating on putting fringe on it. The pattern has it and it looks cute but I'll have to ask my mother to see if she wants it. I also have to "block" it. It'll be my first time blocking and have been researching on how to do it. So we'll see. Here's what it looks like right now...

I also wanted to make myself a shawl, so I found a cute pattern but this pattern is different than my moms. Its called a "Motif". You make a bunch of squares and triangles, and then sew them together to make the shawl. I so far only have 3 squares and need a total of 28 squares and 8 triangles. I have a ways to go but I'm in no hurry. 

One of my squares (top), An example of what the shawl is suppose to look like (bottom)

A couple weeks ago, my mom and I discovered a cute little yarn shop here in Sandy. Its called "Unwind". They have such an abundance selection of yarn. I felt like I was in a candy shop but for yarn. The owner told us that every Wednesday from 6-9 they have a social knitting night. They also teach classes at that time too. I was so excited because I always wanted to take a class on knitting! The next Wednesday, my mom and I went. My mom wanted to start crocheting but decided to learn right handed (she's a lefty). They got her started on making a wash cloth. She's actually pretty good for be a lefty, crocheting right handed. I started to learn how to knit a scarf. I chose this pretty green yarn. After a couple days of knitting, I was thinking that I wanted to make it a little longer and probably need more yarn. Unfortunately, I picked the discontinued color and they didn't have anymore green in stock. The owner at Unwind is so nice though. She's looking everywhere for the skein for me. 

I have one more project that is knitting. It's a red hat. I'm almost done with this one but it looks really small so I don't know how well its going to turn out, but I love the red yarn!!!

Now to answer my post title: Crochet or Knit.... I love both!!! They are so different and enjoyable that I can't love one more than the other. I'm going to try my best and update whenever I start and finish a project. If you want me to make you something or want to join me Wednesday nights for knitting (or any night), let me know!!!

The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship!

It all began when I was invited to go down to St. George for a couple of days for New Years 2010. Honestly I didn't really know who all was going to be going. The only reason why I went was because of a boy. Obviously things didn't work out with him but that's beside the point. Anyway... There was a group of girls that were going down with us. The girls were: Sam Pierson, Bethany Dannelly, Cato Nelson, Jess Hill and Juli Camarella. I kind of knew Jess and Bethany from school but never really got to get to know them. At first I was worried that they were going to be clicky group but I was totally wrong. They welcomed me like I was one of their long lost friend.

The next couple of weeks, I got to know these girls better and met more girls of the group such as Whitney Twede and Linda Simons. I was invited to barbecues, movie nights and even the infamous GNO (girls night out). Of course during this time I was still dating one of their friends. When things didn't work out and things ended, I was really sad that I wasn't going to be seeing these girls anymore. I called up Cato and told her what happened and pretty much thanking her and all the girls for being so nice to me and welcoming me in the group. But now I probably won't be seeing them as often. I was surprised when Cato told me that it was nonsense that I thought that. She told me that I was one of the girls now and I can still hang out with them no matter what. That really made my night and year! 

The rest is now history! I have had so many fun moments with these girls in the past year!

Cato and Jess taking me to a Jazz game on my birthday (even though I'm not a huge fan of basketball, I went because they were so excited to go!) Oh and the same night as the basketball game. The three of us went back over the Jess' house and spent most of the night writing all over Betty's wall with foolish nonsense! I'm still not sure if Betty appreciated our gift to her.

Watching Glee once a week but of course Betty and I would always cheat and watch it the night it aired and then watch it with the girls acting like it was our first time seeing it.

Watching the last episode of season 1 Glee at Whitney's house. All of us girls had goosebumps during The Glee club sectionals routine and in tears when the Glee club sang "To Sir With Love" to Mr. Schuester. Ha ha oh and I can't forget that at the end of the episode, we were all talking about who was theirs. Like Cato has Finn, Betty has Puck but so did Sam... I don't really remember who the rest of the girls had because no one else claimed Artie, who is mine! 

Going to go see Celine Dion: Through the Eyes of the World at the Megaplex. Linda was so funny! She danced and waved her arms up in the arm, getting all us girls to do the same.

One thing I loved doing this year was going on dates with my wonderful, funny friend Bethany (aka Betty!) We always would either go to: Noodles, Pei Wei, or Rumbis. And every time we go to Rumbis, I always offer Betty a bite of tofu from my meal, and every time she closes her mouth, scoots back, and shakes her head no. Some day Betty, you will have and enjoy tofu!!!

Having a "I Hate Boys" night with Cato, Betty, Jess, and Sam. I had some yummy Haggermann cookies made just for this night and boy were they good! We bought a pirate pinata that we first were going to destroy (it was the only pinata that looked like a male) but then we did something completely different. I would say what we did but that would defeat the purpose of a secret! I will tell you that we still have our pirate who we did name Petey!

Cato, Jess, Haley Hansen and I went to a really fun concert! I am proud to say that we did go to the Justin Bieber Concert! We (and by we I mean Cato) made some amazing shirts that I still wear out in public which say "Bieber Fever" on the front and a cute picture of him on the back. The best thing about the concert was the four of us were the only girls dancing and singing during the entire concert in our section. You would thing the girls around us would be doing it too since they were all under the age of 16. Something must be wrong with them or maybe they were just being shy. Who knows?

For Jess and Cato's birthday, a bunch of girls went up to Park City for a night. I promised them that I would get them a Disney Princess ice cream cake from Cold Stone. So I did!!! Unfortunately the cooler that I brought to put it in wasn't big enough for the cake and we didn't buy enough ice. So the cake melted slightly and was a little bit smashed from being tilted a little bit on the side. When we got to Park City, Betty pointed out while we were driving "Hey look! There's a Cold Stone right there!" The smart thing would have been ordering the cake there and not in Draper. At least we know now for next year! Other than that, the night was fun!

Ever since this Fall Semester started, us girls haven't really seen much of each other. So we decided to go out to dinner when we were all done with school. We went to Olive Garden and boy were we hungry. Linda and I were complaining the entire time while we were waiting how "starving" we were. After we went over to Jess' house and watched Easy A. That movie is so funny!!! I would suggest this to anyone who wants to watch a comedy. 

These aren't all the things I remember doing with the girls but they are just a few of what I will cherish always.

So this is a big thanks to all the girls:

Cato, Jess, Betty, Sam, Whitney, Juli, Haley, and Linda!

"Keep Calm and Carry On"

First let me start out saying that yes, I have fallen into the craziness of having a blog. Many of my friends have their own blog and I just love reading them. It is so interesting to see what people have to say and to see how their life is going. So we'll see how well I keep up with this.

A couple of months ago, I think during the summer, I was with my mom at Hobby Lobby to pick up a picture that she had framed for Katie's bedroom. I didn't know what picture she had framed, so I was interested to see what it looked like. Here's what she had framed. (Its not the exact picture and frame)

I've never seen this picture before. My mom kind of told me the origin of the picture and why she got it for Katie. I was curious what the whole story of the poster was, so I googled it and I found this information on http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/ (go figure). Here's what the site had to say about the poster.

I began thinking how this can influence my life. If most of you don't know, I stress. Like a lot. I stress about school, finding a job, and even the most dumb things like trying to find my favorite pair of black TOMS. My dad has always told me (and the rest of my family members) that I (we) always panic. That "there is no need for you to panic". I love my dad dearly and realized that he is right. There is NO need to panic. Like this poster says "Keep Calm and Carry On". I always think about this and my dad when I start stressing. So before I panic, I just say this in my head and it helps me realize that panicking is not going to help me. Now I'm not saying that my stress levels and panicking are gone because they are most definitely not. But I can say that I am panicking less often because of this poster. I hope we can all "Keep Calm and Carry On"!!