Saturday, September 24, 2011

Weekend Fun.....

Danielle headed to Lovell last Thursday (the 15th). I had the busiest week of my school career this past week, which is why I didn't go home. Even with everything I had to do, I did get to have some fun with my friends. Thursday night I played volleyball at the Stake Center with some of my friends from the Institute.

Friday after school, I was going to watch Emilee play volleyball on the Internet. Unfortunately, the TCT West broadcasting wasn't working. Kristen came over and we watched "Jumping the Broom" instead. After the movie was over, we wanted to get something to eat. We headed to Lovejoys, but it was way too busy and we didn't want to wait. Last second, we decided to head to Cheyenne instead to eat at the Olive Garden. It was delicious and was totally worth the hour drive and the half hour wait.

I started the day early with Kristen; we woke up and went to breakfast with Josh. After we were done eating, I came home, cleaned the house, did some laundry, made some cookies, and got ready for the day. At about 3:30, I headed back to Kristen's house, where I helped her get ready for our Christmas party that we were going to have at 6:00. Yes, that's right a Christmas party in September. It wasn't my idea and I'm not wishing the cold weather here, but it was a lot of fun! We went all out with the decorations. There were lights and snowflakes hanging down from the ceiling. Of course there was a Christmas tree, ornaments, and wrapped Christmas presents.
We had our friends from high school come over. Emily, Wendy, Ashley, Kristen, and I were all in attendance. It was a lot of fun. We ate food, listened to Christmas music, made Christmas sugar cookies, and then watched two Christmas movies ("The Santa Clause" & "Elf").
It was a good night and nice to hang out with my friends for the weekend before I had the worst week of my life!

Volleyball Treats.....

Last week was Homecoming in Lovell. I didn't get to go home for the games over the weekend because I had to study, but Danielle did. Needless to say I was a little sad that I had to miss out on the fun! Since it was Homecoming, we wanted to do something special and fun for Emilee wishing her luck, especially since I wasn't going to be able to be there. I wanted her to know I was thinking about her. We wanted to include Leanne too and a few of the other girls, and since we didn't want to leave anyone out (and because we love all of Emi's teammates) we decided to make treat bags for the entire varsity team.

We were originally going to make a candy bar letter for Emi, so we decided to take the saying we were going to use and get small size candies and put the saying on the back of each candy bar. Some of the candy we had to tape together because the saying included to two different types. These are the sayings we used:

“Shock” your opponents and play “Extra” hard.
Don’t be a “Dum-Dum,” play “Smart!”
You & your “Musketeers” play with mad “Skittles”
Keep the “Snickers” to a minimum & pound it to the ground!
Your teammates are your “Lifesavers,” play together!
Do it the “Bulldog Way” (For this one, we got Milky Way candy bars and covered up the 'Milky' on the front and put the word 'Bulldog' in its place)
Don’t have “Butterfingers,” “Crunch” your competition!
Play like you’re playing for “100 Grand”
Take big “Strides” toward the net
Keep the winning “Spree” alive!

What started out as a little thing we were going to put together for Emi really quick, turned into an 8 hour project. From coming up with the sayings, to designing/printing/cutting everything out, to going to the store and buying all the supplies, and finally putting them all together to get the finished project, it all took a lot more time then we thought it would. It was a lot of fun, and they turned out awesome! It wasn't possible to make these for all three teams since that would take forever, so we took the big bag of leftover candy to the locker room for all the girls to enjoy!
From what Dani told me, they were a hit! I'm glad they like them. It's always fun to get a little treat to know that people are thinking about you. I'm sure proud of my baby sister and her team, they're doing great this year! These girls are awesome and I'm so happy Emi has the team she does. They all make her feel part of the team and are all friends. It's the best to grow up in small towns, where we get to do fun things likes this to show our support!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Well Worth It.....

On Labor Day weekend, Dani & I headed to Worland to watch Emi play volleyball. It was Border Wars, with Montana and Wyoming teams. The Wyoming teams did great, most of the Montana teams that were there couldn't even compete!
    
I haven't gotten to see Emilee play much, only one time when she was in 7th grade, and never when she was an 8th grader. I'm not going to get to see her much this year either, except State and maybe Regionals, so I jumped at the chance to watch her (even though I just made the 6 hour drive only a couple weeks before).
    
I had to go to class on Friday and didn't get done until 2:00. We got into Worland around 7:00 and only made part of Emilee's last game for the day. In the little bit of time that I was there, she played so good! They won every match on Friday in 2 games, except the last one. The next day was going to be pool play, and because they went to 3 games in the last match, they took 2nd place instead of 1st.
    
Saturday the first game was bright and early at 8:00. It was a close game, going to 3 games, and in the 3rd match they were down by quite a few points but came back to win by a couple points! The next game was at 10:30, and they lost by a few points. Emilee played an amazing game, she got some great hits, blocks, and saves!! Everyone was on fire during that game, it was very exciting to watch. They shouldn't have lost but the refs made some bad calls at critical times, which totally changed the momentum of the game. It was difficult to watch and deal with that loss when you know they shouldn't have. Their next match was a pretty easy win, dominating in 2 games. The first three games were all against Montana teams. The last game of the day was against Powell, and the girls played with fire! They were unstoppable, and all played well. It was great to watch them play together.
    
I absolutely love the girls that Emilee gets to play with. The girls are all so sweet to her and make her feel so comfortable and loved. A bonus of getting to watch Emilee play on varsity is that I also get to watch Erin and Leanne during their senior year!! All of them did amazing this weekend, and from the sounds of it on all of their other games so far too! I'm so glad I got to watch them play and wish I could see them all.
Good Job Ladies, I'm so proud of you, especially you Emi-Chelle and Annie-BaNannie!! Good Luck with the Rest of Your Season, Let's Go Dogs!!