LONG Time No See (Write)

I guess I have to start somewhere when it comes to getting back into blogging. So how about a "list style" update (I do far too many of these but it works I guess) to kickstart my next season of writing.

1) Because everyone thinks my life revolves around soccer, I'll start there :) The season finished a bit earlier than anticipated this year as we didn't make it into the conference tournament; The one that we nearly won last year. It seemed to be a big transition year with a new coach which presented some struggles so hopefully next year we can start building up again. But I got my fair share of playing time and am looking forward to making an even bigger impact next year.

3) I made some INCREDIBLE strides spiritually and, without going into much detail in this post, it ended with me getting baptized. My "Beyond Awesome" journey continues and I was just asked to share my testimony at the monthly FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) dinner and social next Monday. I'm nervous but so excited to share with my fellow athletes and hopefully some teammates what God has been doing in my life!

It was in the Laramie River and it was BEAUTIFUL

 

2) As always I tend to be recovering from some kind of injury every time I write (staying healthy is definitely going to be a New Years resolution). I managed to keep my body well most of the season but with 3 games left I completely tore the UCL in my left elbow at practice :( Long story short, I waited it out to see if my elbow would miraculously heal itself though the chances of it reattaching were pretty minimal BUT ended up having surgery 4 weeks ago to fix the damage... Rehab is going great and I'm 2 weeks ahead of schedule in regards to recovery time. My goal is to get back to 100% in time for our spring games which begin sometime around March so I still have a ways to go. I'll hopefully be getting cleared to do conditioning (other than stationary biking) on thursday as well as non-contact soccer skills. It will be several weeks before I can play goalie but at least I get to work out with my team and not be away from the game all together this time.

*The bruising was pretty nasty but the doctor said they can tell if the patient kept it elevated by where the bruising was;  bruising in the forearm means you let it hang and biceps and triceps means you kept it elevated. As you can see mine was definitely in the triceps so GO ME! And the next picture is what my daily rehab consists of. Step 1: I do homework while the trainer moves my arm. Step 2: I ice my elbow. Step 3:  repeat A LOT! But it's working.

3) School is crazy but I actually enjoy the chaos this semester. I think the variety of course topics helps me stay engaged: Physiology, Statistics for Social Sciences, Spanish, and Intro to LGBTQ/NS studies...My main focus is Physiology as I need to do well in it to get into nursing school (which is a whole 'nother story that I'll save for another post). My Stats class is a self paced online class, Spanish is SUPER easy though I am expanding my vocabulary, and Intro to LGBTQ/NS (other than being a mouthful to say) is definitely interesting though I still don't know what category of sexuality/gender the "N" and "S" stand for.

Now to the more random updates

4) I made my mom/ grandma's lasagna without any help and because it's a recipeless dish it may or may not turn out. It's one of those recipes that sounds something like this "a little of this, a lot of that, and some of these" and to be honest I may have mixed up the "a lot" and "a little" on a few things. Regardless, I'm cooking it and feeding it to people tomorrow however it turns out and hopefully it doesn't taste too bad.

5) I stayed in Wyoming over my short, but welcome, Thanksgiving break. My heart was definitely in North Carolina with my family but it was still nice to have a few days off here just to relax.  I actually had thanksgiving dinner at the same family's house as last year so I guess it's becoming a tradition. I missed my mom's signature stuffing more than anything but the meal was great and so was the fellowship... The next day, a friend and I went up to the Snowy Mountain Lodge for a night to just relax and enjoy the outdoors AND I saw a moose on my morning photography hike.... The lodge is owned by The WEST Institute an outdoor seminary school based out of my church and it's amazing; both the lodge and The WEST Institute (look it up).

I know it's blurry but I was trying to get to a clearing
to see him  so we were both moving.

SOOOO...

I think that about does it for now but I assure you there will be more posts to come including the ones about my baptism and major/future career. Thanks for checking in :)

Finding Him in Chaos

It's been a great summer filled with family, friends, healing, and of course soccer.  Technically, I consider my summer over once preseason starts on August 1sty but even at August 24th I  feel as though my summer is just now ending. After traveling off and on for most of June and early July, I was able to spend the rest of July doing anything I pleased. I went to Cheyenne Frontier Days with my cousins from Nebraska, I went to a rodeo with my dad, I successfully avoided weddings, I slept in and stayed up late, I cuddled with lots of kiddos and new babies and even caught up with a few friends. And though life's many changes got the better of me at times, I managed to keep my spirits high and rely on others and Christ to fill me back up when my emotional tank seemed to be running on fumes (which is something that has always been a struggle for me. I hate being dependent on others even if they don't mind at all). AND I GOT MY BOTTOM BRACES OFF (It's been a over 9 years and the tops are coming off next month)

My friend's new baby :)

My cousins sporting all the Wyo gear I sent them

With school starting up again and a full course load I'm  beginning to feel some pressure to kick my butt in gear and start crossing off the things on my to-do list. I need to get some bills sorted out figure out what my work schedule will look like come school time, and I have a few other relatively important things to check off before school gets too crazy but God is providing me with peace and it's so evident that His plan AND timing is better than mine. So at this point going with the flow has become my modo and I'm enjoying almost every minute of it... except when it gets me in trouble.


So for those of you who remember the parking ticket I got a while back (my freshman year)  this may entertain you a bit. I'd like to say I haven't had any parking tickets since then but that most definitely is not the case. I've had several and let's just say I've paid my fair amount of fines to go with them. Yes, yes, yes you'd think I would learn but in all reality every one has been an honest mistake like
       - parking without a city permit on the streets near the classroom building
               *who knew all the cars on the street in Laramie  either paid or are risking tickets? not me...
       - class going long by 30 minutes and my meter (which I over paid just to be safe) still ran out and managed to get ticketed in the 5 min walk to my car
       - parking under the football stadium (where there are no signs dictating parking laws) while I went into the training room for an ice bath.

I'm definitely missing a one or two but you get the point... I need to be more careful! But let me also say thank you to whoever it is who put money in my meter after it had run out during class once (I had forgotten to grab enough change and knew I'd be 15 minutes short but when I got back I still had and hour left :) ) Well the whole point of me telling you about parking tickets is because I got another one yesterday for 150.00 dollars! I think is the most expensive one I've ever had was the one my freshman year for 75.00 for parking in a fire lane (read the story it's a good one). Let me explain...

It was move-in day for anyone staying in the dorms and there were University of Wyoming officials at all entrances to the dorm and dining hall area (the dining hall is called Washakie). As a student-athlete, our preseason breakfast was at Washakie and as I drove into the dorm area I was greeted by an official who gave me 30 minute parking pass since everyone else was unloading their dorm room from cars. I asked if I could park anywhere and smiling at me the UW official said, "as long as there is an orange 30 min parking sign in front of it you can park there." He then pointed at the spot in front of Washakie's doors next to two metered parking spots and said I could park there if I wanted. I noticed it was handicap parking but since there was a temporary sign that said 30 min parking AND he showed me to that space I figured it was ok. I mean he wouldn't of told me to park there had he known I would be fined. I received the ticket at 7:17am and my parking pass that was displayed on my dash enabled me to park until 7:55 am. I understood that it was a handicap spot but because the UW official told me I could park there and the temporary signs were up, I assumed there would be no issues.

I'm appealing the ticket which I've only done one other time which was again for my ticket freshman year (which I was denied). Though I've heard that if you get denied the first time and then submit a written appeal you almost always get the ticket and fine voided :) Still not a fun process but I have hope...

ANYWAYS we have two games this weekend (today and Sunday) and are traveling to Utah to play Sunday. So I'll be out of town and my to-do list will get ignored for another few days but I'm okay with that I guess :) GO POKES!

Back in Laradise

This is how Koa travels (in the driver's lap)

Wow it's been a few months. OOPS! I seem to go through phases on this blogging thing and apparently the last few months I was in the "out" phase. In my defense,  I've been out of town/ out of state in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Colorado. And most of the trips I didn't bring a computer along (though with my new iPhone I was able to access the necessary stuff :)) Anyways, I'm back in Laramie, WY a.k.a. Laradise so hopefully this will be the first of many posts that aren't nearly so far apart. ( I realize most of these photos aren't great quality but at least I've been documenting my adventures)

and Lizzy in her happy place

Here are some updates to start off with:
1. I'm 100% cleared to play soccer (or do anything else) which means the doctors think my foot is completely healed. It still bothers me when I do certain things but hopefully 2.5 weeks is enough to work out the rest of the cobwebs and get back to soccer for good.

2. I've been pretty self conscious about my weight lately as I realized I didn't fit into some of my summer outfits from 2 years ago (I guess that makes since that I didn't fit but still...). My average weight has been somewhere between 155-160lbs and lately (after nearly 5 months with minimal to no work outs) I was pushing 170lb. I realize it's not a huge deal but every pound feels like 10 during preseason and that's the last thing I need when getting back from an injury... Thankfully I've been able to get back into running, biking, and eating right without too much effort and am back down to 162lbs. Let me be clear I'm not really trying to lose weight I just want to feel healthy again.

Dinner of Champions

3. Tomorrow is my last day as a teenager. It's kind of a crazy thought but a welcome one I guess. Bring on the twenties.

4. WE GOT FISH!!! We are now the proud owners of 2 fish (there were 3). We plan on getting more but for now we got ones that are supposed to be pretty hardy and friendly to hopefully . One of them is fascinated with this glass Fanta bottle that we have in there and escapes the currents of the filter by going inside it. We are so proud of our smart little guy.

5. I passed out at work and hit my cheekbone pretty hard. I got a little black eye and a nice scrape but nothing too serious. It was like 100 degrees in the building (well 90 degrees to be exact), it was 9:00pm and I hadn't eaten since lunch but I was just about to get off work. I was exhausted from a few days of travel and sadly 9:00pm is past my bedtime. I feel great now and other than a sore cheekbone felt fine immediately after too. I guess I should probably not put off eating and drinking at work especially when  I practically work in a sauna during the summertime.

6. One of my friends had a little baby girl a few weeks ago and she is ADORABLE!!! The older siblings want to play with her so bad and can't wait for her to be old enough to play with them. Isn't she cute!

7. We got some family pictures taken and they turned out AMAZING. If you're in Nebraska or the neighboring states my dad's cousin did a phenomenal job! Here's her Facebook page and the link to her website is on there too. Kam Kloth Photography

 Well that seems to be it for now. Happy July and Happy Birthday to my dear friend Lauren!

Life is Good (I think)

So I'm several weeks into this whole foot being broken and screwed back together thing and I'm holding up better than I thought.  I'm in my third cast and I'm approaching six weeks on crutches but hopefully I get put in walking boot (still with crutches for a bit) on Wednesday. It's not too painful unless I'm crutching around all day or never got the chance to put it up during the day and, even then, it just throbs. So hopefully I'm on the tail end of recovery and should be back to my active self relatively soon.

Kind of blurry but the only pic I got of the stitches

Hopefully third and last cast

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IT'S SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!! No more school for a while and I'm not even doing any summer classes this year. This semester was MUCH better than last semester though I'm .5 percent away from my desired grade in one class and I'm praying when I go in next week to review my test I'll find a way to get that half a point back. But other than that grade I'm relatively happy with my grades and am excited to have some time off though I do wish I could go for a bike ride or wander around and take pictures both of which seem a bit difficult on crutches.

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I've only talked about this indirectly on here before but for some reason I'm feeling like I should be a bit more open which probably has something to do with not having anyone to tell but either way... I'm slightly nervous that some of the same struggles I had last summer are coming back. Let me explain a bit. I would wake up and feel purposeless and incomplete like I should be doing something in life that I hadn't been doing. I felt so bad that sometimes I wouldn't want to do anything but lay in bed. The feelings of hopelessness usually didn't fade away until the afternoon and then, just when I thought I was feeling normal again, they'd come back. It was a vicious cycle of restlessness, hopelessness, anxiety, some relief, and then back to the beginning. I would go days on just a few hours of sleep because I refused to wake up just to feel sad so my solution was just to not go to bed. Not the best idea with workouts, two classes, and what seemed like a never ending to-do list. I slipped further and further into a depression that seemed so dark that I may never escape it... But I did. I had a great support group and an amazing family that unknowingly kept me pushing forward even on the days that I had no desire to do anything.

Anyways, I'm slightly nervous that the vicious cycle is beginning again. I couldn't sleep at all last night and didn't end up falling asleep until 4:30am and when I woke up at 10:00am I felt so anxious I thought something was seriously wrong. My heart was beating so fast and I was cold but sweating. My roommate was packing up to head home for the summer so we just talked about random things for a while and I started to feel a bit better. This is how it started last year. And then today, had I not been hanging out with a friend, I probably would have just sat inside all day and watched a movie or something. Last year, at first, I just thought that it was my bodies way of telling me to take a break since I had been going non-stop since august with soccer and school but after a while I knew it was more than just catching up on sleep. SO I guess what I'm saying is that if you're the praying type I'd love your prayers for this summer and if your not send your good vibes :) I feel as though I need a constant reminder that I'm okay and trust God for that this summer.