Success

When looking back on this school year, I can think of so many things I can call a success. For starters, I have managed to maintain good grades which is very important to me. I played on the PCHS girls soccer team as well as a club team, and I increased my fitness level by attending CrossFit Club each week. I took the ACT for the first time and survived AP Geography and blogging every week! I have also made so many friends and grown closer to many others, and none of this would have been possible without them! This year has been a blast, but I am definitely ready for summer. 

My amazing soccer team after our game today

A recent success was my soccer season that just ended. When it first started, things didn't look very good for our team; we didn't have a goalie and we had never played together before. Each game the score got better and better until we finally started winning! Our last game was today and we ended the season with another win, meaning we had five wins and five losses. This is a lot better than we were expecting. I consider this a major success because we had a lot of fun and definitely improved over the course of the season. 

Believe it or not, I consider my blogging experience to be a success as well. I have enjoyed writing about anything and everything, as well as reading what my friends post. Without blogging, I would never have found my favorite food blog, spent hours reading about the funny experiences my friends have, or taken pictures of almost everything incase I decided to blog about it. I think blogging has helped me include more voice in my writing and has been a positive experience overall. I'd like to say that I will keep doing it after this school year, but, let's face it, I probably won't. 

Summer isn't quite here yet, so we all need to stay focussed and finish the school year strong!

The Season is Here

I'm sure some of you may have noticed that I almost completely stopped talking about soccer, and you're probably wondering why. We thought that the season would start in the middle of March, but our coach kept telling us the wrong dates since the schedule wasn't finalized at that point. Then, in early April, the season was supposed to start, but our first three games were cancelled and rescheduled due to bad weather. We finally got to a really late start at the end of April.

The season didn't start out the way we would have liked, but there are many contributing factors. The fact that we don't have a goalie or enough girls on our team is our biggest problem. To make up for our lack of players, a couple girls from the U13 team are playing up. They are pretty good and help a lot, but they are a lot smaller than fifteen year-olds and they have to play their own games in addition to ours.

Our last game was particularly hard because we played with only ten players half the time (there are usually 11 on the field, plus multiple subs). The U13 girls had a game at the same time as us, so they couldn't help us out and our coach had to coach them. Our old coach, Bob, coached us instead. Everyone was super excited for him to coach us again. We started the game without subs and then a girl twisted her ankle in the middle of the game. As expected, we didn't win that game, but we played well and had a lot of fun with Bob coaching us.

So far we haven't won any of our games, but we are getting better at playing as a unit and I am excited to see how we get better throughout the season. Considering all the disadvantages our team faces, we are doing pretty well and have improved a lot.

Gracie's soccer ball with mine.
Gracie has had a headache for about 6 weeks, pray for her to get better!

Disappointment & Frustration

Spring in most places is an exciting time because the weather gradually gets warmer and summer is approaching quickly. However, spring in Park City is frustrating and disappointing. I say this because the weather just can't seem to make up its mind about what season it is. One week the temperature will reach the sixties and then it will plummet to the thirties two days later. The snow melts when it's warm and then starts dumping again when it's cold.

This year has been especially messed up (I can't think of any other way to put it). Park City had an awful snow year, so everyone was excited when temperatures started rising and snow started melting. Then, out of nowhere, a giant snowstorm came and destroyed all hope of warm weather. We would be grateful for the snow at any other time, but it's a little harsh when the weather taunts us. The past week was a perfect example of this.

Here are some pictures I took on four consecutive white days on my way back from seminary:

Last Tuesday
4/2/13

Last Thursday
4/4/13

Monday
4/8/13

Wednesday
4/10/13

The delay of spring isn't the only thing making me disappointed and frustrated. My first soccer game was supposed to be on Monday, but it was rescheduled due to an unexpected snowstorm. Also, in my last post, I talked about my elbow hurting and making it hard to workout. It has been a few weeks since it has bothered me, but for some reason the pain came back on Tuesday at CrossFit Club. I still don't know what I did to hurt it, but it feels very unstable. Hopefully I'll be able to see a doctor and get it figured out soon!

The BEST Solution to Stress

School has been very stressful the past couple of weeks. Third quarter just ended and starting off on a good foot is almost as important as ending well. Unfortunately, I haven't started off exactly where I'd like to because of a few misunderstandings with teachers, but I think everything will work out. Stress like this can be hard to bear and sometimes you just need a break so you can refuel and keep going. Working out and playing soccer is how I relieve my stress because it takes my mind off of school and gives me a break. I have been looking forward to every opportunity I get to knock down the wall of stress that builds up so easily.

Even if my day is awful, I can count on soccer practice or CrossFit Club to help me forget. I have found that even my school work becomes easier to do and I am more productive on days that I have physical activity.

As you know, CrossFit Club is ran and organized by students at Park City High School, and I have been going to it fairly consistently since the end of October. The kids that started it are currently juniors, but they want the club to go on longer than just the next two years. Obviously this means they need to find someone to take over for them after they graduate, and they need to go consistently. My friend and I just happen to be the two people that come most frequently, so there's a high chance that we will become the new leaders in a couple of years (unless there's someone else who knows what to do). Anyways, If CrossFit Club seems like it's a big part of my life right now, it will only become more and more prevalent.

Here is a team photo from Team Night last Saturday.
Photo credit: India Watson

The Joys of "A-Squared"

While talking with my very hilarious dad earlier today, he made a very nice and rather funny comment about me: "Sophie, I think you've got a very fun life. All those double-A's; academics and athletics..." He concluded that "A-Squared" was the best way to say the acronym that he made up on the spot (hence the title of this post). I congratulated him on his creativity and asked what I should blog about this week. As you might have guessed, he told me to blog about "The Joys of A-Squared." After a little thought, I realized that this was exactly what I wanted to talk about this week. I might include some insight from my dad here and there.

Let's start with the first A, academics. Quarter three ended this week and, as we all know, that means lots of tests and grades are finalized. As always, this week was stressful but it ended well. Every quarter for as long as I can remember, I have gotten a 4.0, and it has happened once again. I'm not trying to boast, but I don't really understand how that has happened. I am a MAJOR procrastinator, and I rarely ever check my work on anything. Apparently, as my dad would say, that's just one of the Joys of A-Squared.

Athletics are extremely important to both my dad and myself, so it makes sense why it is the other A. As I'm sure you know, my primary sources of exercise are soccer and Crossfit Club (Workout Club changed its name to Crossfit Club). Both my siblings have also been participating in a lot of athletic activity recently, including track and basketball. My dad is simply overjoyed with all the sports in my family right now. The soccer season is just a couple of weeks away and I can't wait!

This was just a quick update on A-Squared (I really like that name, so I think I'll start using it more often) and I'll hopefully have more about soccer in the next two weeks as the season grows ever closer.

Here's a picture of my dad and me :)

Upcoming Season

I can't believe that the spring club soccer season is almost starting. It seems crazy that the season would start when there's still snow on the ground. I have so many questions about where we will play and how it will workout with the snow, but those questions are just going to have to wait until the schedule is out.

My old team

I am super excited for the season, but I am also a little worried. What worries me is that we have very few players, girls from the U13 team are playing up with us, and I have never seen our keeper play. At tryouts last June, we lost three players, including our keeper, to Black Diamond. I am happy for them because they are my friends and will probably be very successful this season, but I am also sad that they left because it resulted in Park City Soccer Club not having enough girls for a full GU15 team. To accommodate for losing those players, a few U13 and U14 players have been added to our roster. I feel like they set us back a little, and we are now approaching where we were before they joined. This means that they have improved, which is good. Our keeper just recently started playing soccer, which worries me a lot. However I have never seen her play and she has been attending goalie training for the past couple of months, so she could be much better than I anticipate. We'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

I'm excited for the season because our team is made up of a really fun group of girls. Each girl has a very unique personality and they're super fun to play with. Seasons in the past have been really fun, so I assume this one will be the same. Even if our team isn't very successful, I think it will still be fun. That is the real reason for doing sports, right? The reason for playing sports should be to have fun, instead of just to win. After all, we will never know the true joy of victory until you know the sorrows of defeat.

The Perfect Snack

Who doesn't reach for a granola bar when they're hungry before a sports practice? I know I do, and that's why I had wanted to try making my own granola bars for weeks. I finally got around to it a couple of weeks ago. I was rather surprised with how well they turned out and I had a blast making them. My favorite thing about making my own granola bars was that I could choose the ingredients.

The original recipe I used was found on For the Love of Cooking. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/3 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp salted butter, plus more for pan
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup cut pecans
• 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Ingredients

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9x9 glass baking dish. Set aside.
2. Spread oats, almonds, and pecans in a baking sheet pan. Toast in oven for 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
3. While that is in the oven, combine honey, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla in a saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until brown sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
4. When the oat mixture is done, remove from oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees.
5. Immediately add oat mixture to honey mixture. Then stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Spread into the prepared glass baking dish evenly, and place in the oven for 25 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
8. Cut into squares or bars and wrap individually with saran wrap. Store for up to a week.

Finished product :)

These were extremely delicious and they were the perfect snack whenever I got hungry. The beauty of this recipe is that you can substitute almost any of the ingredients with ones you like better.

Let me know if you try this out with different ingredients!

Outdoor Practice

My friend wore ski goggles to make fun of the fact that we had practice outside and there's snow on the ground!

This week we had our first outdoor practice since the fall season. Up until this point, we have been training indoors at the Basin Recreation Field House. Our time there has been helpful, but space is limited and the season is approaching so we need to start practicing where there is more space. Lucky for us, one of the fields at Quinn's Junction is cleared every winter for our use. Practicing outside in February is almost as crazy as it sounds. It's usually below freezing and you find your muscles sufficiently frozen by the time practice is over. As you probably know, running outside when it's cold sucks. I don't think there is any other way to put it. Breathing becomes nearly impossible, your nose won't stop running, and your muscles are about ten times harder to move. In short, running is the last thing you want to be doing.

I had been dreading outdoor practices for about two weeks because of the experiences I had last year with them. When the day finally came and we were forced to play outside, I was pleasantly surprised that it was almost forty degrees! It was still cold, but it was sunny and much warmer than I anticipated so I was happy. However there are a few things that I completely forgot about since last year and I will need to prepare my bag accordingly. It completely slipped my mind that tissues, gloves, and hats are essential for practicing in February weather. I learned my lesson and I am going to keep those things in my bag from now on. Luckily it was a warmish day, so it wasn't a bad day to forget these things on.

Although our first practice was warm, I have convinced myself that we just got lucky and we won't be seeing warm weather for a while. Future practices are bound to be much colder, but I am excited for the upcoming season and I know that enduring the cold will be worth it!

Team Night!

What happens when a girls soccer team gets together outside of soccer? You start to see the real colors of each girl. Who's energetic and outgoing, and who's timid and shy. As my coach says, "It's team building." My coach is a firm believer in getting to know each other outside of soccer, so we have team night once a month.

My crazy team

Last weekend, we had our second team night. We had dinner and watched She's the Man at my house. I have known most of the girls on my team for quite a while now, but I still find it rather amusing to see how they react to certain things. Plus, just about everything anyone says is hilarious to someone on the team because teenage girls are fluent in the language of Sarcasm. There were three very funny instances throughout the night.

The first noteworthy thing that happened was when my team discovered that I have a pet bird and he flies around the house. It's funny enough when one of my friends witnesses him flying for the first time, but when an entire team of clueless girls finds out, it's priceless. Many people screamed, ducked, and were on edge for the next few minutes. Surprisingly, my coach seemed more afraid of him than almost anyone on my team. When this happened, I was laughing so hard I couldn't stand.

My bird, Ollie.
Photo courtesy of Caroline Wagner.

The second was when I pulled out my popcorn maker. My family doesn't make popcorn in the microwave, we have have a different kind of machine that eliminates the risk of burning it. A few girls on my team had never seen one before and they quickly became entranced with how it worked.

I love how easily entertained they all are :)

The last thing was watching the movie as a team. Specifically my team's reaction to the movie. Almost every girl on my team was obsessed with Channing Tatem and it was hilarious to hear their comments throughout the movie. Another funny thing about watching the movie was how everyone reacted to a kissing scene. Again, my coach's reaction was the best. Every time someone kissed, he would single me out and say, "Sophie! Close your eyes! Don't worry it's almost over!" I couldn't stop laughing every time this happened.

I love spending time with my team and I can't wait for our next team night!

The U Camp

Sunset at the U Camp during the summer

Last summer, a few of my soccer friends and I went to a soccer camp at the University of Utah for four days. While there, our routine was eat, play soccer, sleep, repeat. It was tiring, but we also had a lot of fun. Now, during the offseason, our team doesn't get much time on the field so some of my friends, Marta and Gracie, and I decided to do another camp at the U. This one is every Friday afternoon and focusses on technical skills.

I have enjoyed every session I have gone to, but I also find it somewhat embarrassing when I'm there because most of the girls are older than me and way better. Playing around people I don't know that are way better than I am sort of makes me fall apart; I look like I've never touched a soccer ball in my life. That is obviously not true, but I can comfort myself by saying that I've been playing soccer for a little under two years and everyone around me has been playing for at least five. Anyways, this small, embarrassing factor has prevented me from looking forward to attending the camp on Friday afternoons. It seems like it sucks up the rest of my night even though it's only an hour and a half to two hours long. Against all odds, this week was different.

As usual, I found myself dreading the usual embarrassment I feel every Friday afternoon. Plus, Workout Club was doing a form workout that I would be missing. Of course, I have soccer the one time I really want to do a specific workout. Let's just say that for multiple reasons I did not want to go to the camp this week. Somehow I managed to change my mindset and convince myself that I was just going to hang out with my good friend, Gracie. Our focus this week was passing and receiving, or just possession, and, because of my more positive attitude, I was able to perform much better and have a lot more fun.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner at Noodles & Co. and had a blast remembering experiences we had at the U Camp over the summer. I learned more than just useful tips for passing and receiving from this week's training session. I learned, or rather was reminded, that your mindset and attitude really make a difference in how much you enjoy something and how much you will learn from it.

Workout Club: A Mental Game

High school soccer ended at the beginning of October and, for some unknown reason, my club soccer coach decided to give us a break until the beginning of November. I understand that "too much of a good thing can be bad," but isn't a month of no soccer a little long? Couldn't that break be more hurtful than helpful? I think it comes down to what you end up doing in the time off.

Our coach last year decided to give us a month long break as well and it proved hurtful because of each player's individual choices. Most players decided to be lazy throughout the entire month, which made coming back to soccer extremely difficult. We ended the fall season feeling like we had improved a lot and we were almost at the top of our division. Then we had a break from playing that set us back; the team looked and played sloppily when we started practices again. Instead of working on new things, we were forced to focus on old things and getting in better shape. 

I did not want a repeat of last year, so I decided to stay active during our time off and attend the Park City High School Workout Club. It is run by students in the weight room at PCHS. The workouts are different every time and I am always challenged. 

One workout that was difficult but that I enjoyed was the deck of cards workout. Each of the four suits represent different exercises you do and the number on the card determines how many reps you do. The deck of cards basically determines what order you do the workout in. In the end, you do at least 104 reps of four different exercises.

This workout was extremely challenging, but I still enjoyed it because of how I felt after completing it. I felt extremely accomplished and like I had made good use of my time. Working out is a mental game; you push yourself to the point where the last thing you want to do is another push up, but you keep going anyway. I really like how workout club has helped me to increase my mental endurance as well as my physical endurance. Sometimes things aren't enjoyable at the time, but we can see that they're worth it if we do them with the future in mind.

Deck of Cards Workout

"School, Soccer, and Everything In-Between"

     Starting a blog seemed like a nightmare. I had no clue what I would want to write about every week for the rest of the school year. What if my interests change, I get bored of writing about the same thing, or there seems to be nothing else I could possibly write about the topic I choose? I decided that the best way to avoid this would be to choose a topic that has many different things I could focus a blog post on. However, this only solves one of my three problems. In regard to the other two, the solution I came up with is to name my blog something that incorporates multiple things I enjoy. This would give me room to write about whatever I want, but it would still relate to the overall theme of my blog. "School, Soccer, and Everything In-Between" is what I decided on.
     I thought that doing a blog about cooking would be fun, but that I wouldn't have a new recipe to post very often so I decided that cooking could be one of the things that is "in-between" school and soccer. As I was looking for ideas, I came across a blog called For the Love of Cooking. I liked this blog mainly because it had a lot of pictures of each recipe that was posted. The author is very straight forward with what they say. The blog says exactly what needs to be done for each recipe while also telling the author's personal experience with it or how they came across it. This blog will inspire me to post pictures on my blog so it will catch the reader's attention.
     Another topic I am interested in writing about is photography. The reason I decided not to have my entire blog on photography is that I really like it but I don't take pictures very often. A blog I found that is about photography is called Cool Photoblogs. I really liked it because it had beautiful pictures that were taken all around the world. This blog will inspire me to include the pictures that I take in my blog and tell about the experience that goes with the picture.
     The third thing I'm interesting is, of course, soccer! Finding a blog to get ideas from was much harder because I want to write about club soccer and most soccer blogs are about major league soccer. The blog I found that was closest to what I want to write about is called BYU Soccer Blog. This blog is written by someone on the BYU men's soccer team. He writes about experiences he has at soccer practices and other activities the team does. I'm going to use the way he organizes the blog for the posts that I do about soccer.