Thanksgiving Week

On Thanksgiving Day, we had my Grandparents and my uncle, who live in Parsons, KS, at our house.  We had Thanksgiving lunch instead of dinner, because we like to be able to go play games and relax after we eat! We also like to go exercise a little so that we don’t feel bad about eating so much food! For lunch we had turkey, of course, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole.  These are my three favorite dishes!   For desert we had pumpkin and apple pie! Having pie is one of the things I look forward to the most about the holiday! It’s my favorite food!  After lunch, we play monopoly a couple of times.  We had to play twice because my sister could not end with her losing.  That night, me and my sister got all of our money together and headed to her friend’s apartment in Manhattan.  We planned on Black Friday shopping and didn’t want to have to drive half an hour at 3:00 AM.   We really didn’t go to shop, but we went just for fun and for the slight chance that we would find a present for someone! The next day we were extremely exhausted and took lots of naps! After we were fully rested, we got into the Christmas spirit and decorated the tree while listening to our favorite Christmas CDs!  We ended the day by falling asleep to Christmas movies that were on TV.

The next day, we had another Thanksgiving lunch with my other grandparents that live in Wamego.  My grandma made amazing food like usual!  She also made her amazing chocolate pie that everybody looks forward to all year long! We actually still have some leftovers in the fridge! I guess I know what I’m eating tomorrow!

I am so thankful to God for blessing me with my wonderful family and for giving us such a wonderful time together.   In my crazy life it is easy to forget how amazingly blessed I am and to be thankful for all that I have.  I am thankful that I have a family that has taught me to follow Christ! 

U19 College Showcase Tournament!

My main event this week was the GSI College Showcase Tournament in Kansas City for soccer. I played with the U19 Mid Kansas United team that is from Manhattan.  I played as their goalie the entire week and it went great!

The first game was at 6:30 PM on Friday night so it was a bit rushed for us all to get there on time because all of the other girls do go to Manhattan High school and they don’t get out of school until a little before 3:00 PM.  The car I was riding in ran into awful traffic on the way so we were twenty-five minutes late for warm up, but it turned out fine.  I was a little nervous when the game started because I hadn't been playing much goalie, but after a while I was back in my groove.  We won the game 2-0. 

The next day we played at 8:00 PM so it was completely dark out but the fields we play on have lights so it was fine.  It did feel weird though to be playing so late.  We usually play early in the morning, but it was actually a nice change because I got to sleep in that day and take my time.  Thankfully, I was not late for this game so I was able to go through my usual warm up so I was much more prepared this time.  It felt like this game went by extremely fast; even though we actually play longer then we normally do, so that there was more time for the college coaches to come see us.  We played two forty minute halves and usually we only play two half-hour halves. This game was not our best game but we did win 1-0.  We could have beaten them by a lot more but I think we were all tired because it was late.

The third game was at 3:00 PM Sunday and this was not my favorite game.  I was really used to playing in the dark now so the sun was a little annoying and it was warmer out so I couldn't wear my big goalie shirt so my arms got scraped up every time I dove, which happens quite a bit being a goalie and all.    At first I was nervous because our team looked really tired and just drained.  We were just kicking the ball and not making plays and seizing opportunities.  But the second half of the game was a lot better than the first and we were able to score 3 goals! The game ended with us winning 3-0!

I was pretty happy with the weekend because I didn't get scored on, which is ever goalies goal for a tournament.  Since it was a showcase though, they didn't do the whole 1^st and 2^nd place thing but it was clear that we owned this tournament.  

Moms Vs. Daughter Flag Football

Last night in Manhattan there was a moms vs. daughters flag football game for all of the Chief organization.  Not everybody showed up but a good amount did.  We started practicing at 4:00 PM with our team and one of the football coaches.  None of us really knew what we were doing except for the two girls who have brothers that play football.  Once we caught on it was really fun but still confusing at times.  After 2 hours of running through plays and practicing our defense, we started the game.  The coaches of the moms thought they were going to slaughter us because most of our girls weren’t very big and didn’t play a sport the required a lot of running and physical activity, but boy were they wrong.  The moms started off with the ball but we were able to quickly shut them down and get the ball on offense.  After running a couple of our plays that we had practiced, we scored our first touchdown! This gave us a lot of confidence and showed everybody that we have what it takes to win.  We soon scored two more touch downs, but the moms also scored one.  The score was then 20-6.  Since the game was only just for fun, the refs started to call really dumb things on us like interferences and fouls, even though we really didn’t do anything. Finally the game was almost over but the moms were very close to the touchdown line.  They somehow got through us and scored a very impressive touch down just before the time was out.  Somehow the score board got changed and showed the final scored with us girls with 26 and the moms with 27, so us girls apparently “lost”. But that’s okay; I guess there is always next year!