Thanksgiving at Andreas house

Every speedskater and their brother was at gabi and jordans house for thanksgiving so 9 of us had an alternative party at Andreas house. It was Andrea, her brother, her dog Meritage, Fergie, Ansis, Mikey, Britt, Rob, and me. It was super fun, the first time for all of us cooking on our own, which is what we toasted to. The food turned out amazing. I made stuffing from scratch in the crockpot which turned out to be the best ive ever had. From the time we got out of practice at 12 to 6 when we ate, Britt and me were cooking the stuffing, sweet potato fries, salad, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, you name it we cooked it...Fergie cooked up a nice juicy turkey and he and Andrea made 3 different pies. Here are some pics...



Andrea was taking pics and got this one just as I attempted to break my diet and missed my mouth completely...guess ill have to learn how to eat junk food again...


Fergies first time eating unsweetened chocolate...I warned him...


making stuffing


sweet potato fries


mmm our first turkey


Ansis walked in front of the camera mid burp as this was being taken , HAHAHA


Pie!


Dinner


Andrea, Ansis, Fergie, Britt, me, Mikey, Rob


Fergie the cleaning lady


Mikey, Ansis, and Meritage in a turkey coma on the floor...LOL

Overdue chocolate review

I havent posted any food reviews lately, and I just got this mini Chocolove bar, 55% cocoa with cherries and almonds. It was amazing. Eat this chocolate. It was shiny with little hearts on each individual square, perfect texture, melts in your mouth, mini size, 99 cents and easy to eat when your not hungry. Good stuff.

Halloween part 2/Am cup 2

Neither one was very good, for Halloween I went to see couples retreat with Gabi and Jun then we got some candy and watched the world series. I hate baseball but it was fun to route for the Yankees while Jun was completely for the Philies and was about to kill me, HAHA.

As for am cup 2, just finished racing this afternoon. It was possibly the worst meet ive raced ever. I lost almost every race, Jun was suspended from this meet for supposedly organising a team skate in the last am cup which he didnt do, so he couldnt be inside the building although he did come he just sat outside and sharpened blades, and also some other stressful things went down. Its times like this that make me absolutely hate skating. Never thought id say that, I used to love it. Now, not so much. I loved it when there was no stress and it was all fun. I improved so much more back when I was having fun. There were no problems focusing on what I needed to work on because I didnt have to worry about teammate issues, friend issues, or school issues.There was no pressure because everyone was so encouraging and laid back it was hard to ever feel bad about a race or practice. Now im the head case I never thought id be and skating is just a horribly frustrating mess. Hope it gets better.

Halloween part 1

Weve already had our halloween party because we had some Australians/New Zealanders training with us that are leaving today for the World cup, and we wanted them to have the full halloween experience! Well probably do something again for tomorrow. I went dressed as a Candy raver (its a raver who dresses in neon colors, glow sticks, and an insane amount of bead bracelets that they share :)


Andrea makes a GREAT witch!



ME!


Group pics





THIS was the BEST costume ever. Mikey not only DRESSED like Jimmy (natl team asst coach) but he ACTED and TALKED like him too! It was super funny. Jimmys got this way of walking that he nailed. What made it perfect was mikey didnt even know what jimmy was wearing that day! He fooled a lot of people that night.

Snowing in North Salt Lake

First legit snow of the season! Early ski season please?

American cup/Backpacking Lake Powell

Ive been putting off this post FOREVER so here it is finally. Am cup 1 was in Saratoga NY which was not too bad of a drive for my sister inlaw Anne and my brothers friend Geff. Im glad they came!! Loved having a support crew and Geff took tons of pictures. My brother ditched me to go to Germany for Oktoberfest, which is ok cuz I totally would have done the same thing lol. I skated horribly, probably the worst ive ever skated. Got dead last. But it was fun being back in NY, I got to see my friends again (Meghantron treated me to lunch at the best deli everrr!!) and visit my grandmas camp in the Adirondacks. I havent been there in a few years at least. I sure do miss the trees in NY...Utah is pretty but im just not a canyon/desert person.

Speaking of canyons and deserts..I took a backpacking class thu the U in the Lake Powell area. I assumed since it said LAKE powell I would be in a wooded area near a lake. NOPE! it was in the desert and we were hiking through canyons for 3 days. It was super fun though. The instructors we had are the climbing instructors who teach rock and ice climbing and were filling in for the normal instructor. Apparently the map the instructor gave our instructors didnt work since the canyons have changed since it was made..We all got lost at least 3 times, lol. On all of the occasions where we got lost, in order to get out of the canyon we were in we had to use technical rock climbing and scrambling skills so we were VERY lucky we had the climbing instructors. It was funny, they were like um yeah sorry guys.. we were told we wouldnt need ropes or climbing equipment so we didnt bring it..and you all have 40 lb packs on...and were going to have to get everyone over that cliff without rope, lol. We ended up making a shuttle, with a train of people on the rock wall holding eachother up while passing up the packs. It was interesting. Especially this one area of rock we had to get across that had a deep pool of water under it. Soft landing maybe? Well I love rock climbing so I had alot of fun, Ive always wanted to learn how to free climb without rope. OH I also got to walk on quicksand for the first time!!

I have a slideshow of some of the pics, which ill have to post separately cuz blogger is stupid. The slideshow is in the previous post. My carpool group went to 7-11 n i got coffee in a domo-kun cup and a SROOPWAFFEL!! whoda thunk 7-11 would have those things...thats what the coffee pic is about. Theres another pic of a noticeable set of fang marks on my hip..that was a HUGE spider bit i got, must have been in my sleeping bag. Lucky it wasnt a black widow, Ive seen them around here...

Heres some pics I took in NY


Me and Clarissa!


Lily and Mc Dreamy, lol


Ahhh my camp...good ol NY with trees and water...


back of the camp


The Rochester group at Am cup

Dream

So I had a dream last night, I was at a very very small short track rink with no pads, where there were long trackers from around the world skating. As I was watching I noticed my stuffed animals were around me and I found a live baby fox with them!!! It was the CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD.
It was a red fox, but it was as cute as this one:


Just thought id share the cuteness with everyone :) (Does anyone interpret dreams?? This was a weird one.)

Shoutout

Remember Shannon, my roomie from freshman year? Well I have something to say to her mom, Mrs. Bee. I MISS YOUR COOKIES AND MUFFINS!! They were sooo delicious. I was just talking to Shannon and we were talking about the good ol days when you'd send her cookies and id sit there and eat them all. Hahaha!! Just thought Id share that with you.

Ps. If you ever feel like sending me your top secret muffin recipe, thatd be cool. :)

Trials

Didnt do so hot yesterday in the 9 lap time trial. I got 18th putting me outside the top 16 so that means im done skating for the week. Now im stuck in Marquette watching the top 16 skate. Which is ok I guess, I get to watch and learn. But Im disappointed in myself because I know I could have skated better. My time was 1:39 and if Id skated around the time I did at the Desert Classic a few weeks ago, 1:37.4, I would have made it. I know ive only been skating 4 years, this is my first trials and I should just enjoy being here. And I would enjoy it, if I knew I skated my best. Even if after skating my best I still didnt make top 16, but I cant help but feel like I didnt skate to my potential. Maybe I was too nervous, maybe I didnt prepare well enough or eat the right things before the race, I dont know. But I guess ill just have to work on it and wait for my next chance, heres to the next 4 years!

Ps: id like to add how much it means to me that so many of you (family, distant family, people I wish were family, haha) have sent me emails and cards wishing me luck, its awesome to have that kind of support. Some of my family even sent me checks to help with travel expenses while im here at trials! Just wanted to thank you for being behind me, and I wont let you all down in 4 years you can be sure of that! :)

Dinner

I made one of my favorite korean foods the other night, Bibimbap!! It was no joke...the best ive ever had...even better than at the korean restaurants around here. All 2 of them. Haha. for those of you who dont know what it is: Heres the Wiki on bibimbap.



~~~5 days till I leave for Trials!!!~~~