Im still here!!

So I promise that I am still here and alive.. I just have completely postponed my blogging and remembered to do it after my dad reminded me about it.

Well I am still at UC Irvine, and this year has gone by so fast. I cant even believe that its almost christmas and that means I will be done with my first quarter of classes! This quarter I have taken, the biology of aids, art history, public health, and global economy. Its been challenging to balance everything but Ive been doing pretty well. Finals are coming up next week so that will be a little challenging. But everyone has to do it!

This year I am living in an apartment with Tiffany, Sharon, and a randomly selected roommate to us named Dawn. We get along pretty well and I love living in an apartment. It is so much easier that living in the dorms. We live in a beautiful apartment, with a pool, game room, jacuzzi, and barbeque pits.

Here are some pictures from the beginning of the year:

Me and Tiffany in our new house!

We invited our neighbors over for some cookies and cards.

One of the first nights in our new house!

Our neighboors kindly BBQ-ed for us one of the first nights we were there.

All four of us and our four neighboors

The four of us outside at one of the BBQ pits

UCI broke the world record for the largest Dodgeball game played! We are so proud:)

Banquet

Last weekend we had our end of the year banquet. This was the chance for all of us to reflect on our year and what we had accomplished. Dan presented us with a framed picture of our team that said Big West Champions on the bottom. It was really nice. Dan called the girls up by class and talked briefly about each one of us. He talked separately about each of the three seniors. It was a really nice banquet. Mom and Abby drove down for the day. It was nice to have them there. Here are some pictures from the day.

All of the freshman ( not including the transfers). Its very weird because in the beginning of the year we had 10 freshman and now we ended with nine. That day we had my two best friends on the team quit via email. It was pretty tough for me to deal with but just witnessing their decision to end their career in water polo reaffirms the fact that I want to continue this sport.

Me and Tiffany. Her last time with the team :(

Me and Dan, ignore the fact that I look like a cow. Dan has been great through this entire year. Yes there were times where he made us cry so much our eyes swelled up, but he pushed us. He is without a doubt the most passionate person I have ever met in my entire life and he carries that into the way he coaches. He is currently in puerto rico with the women's national team. He texts us everyday to say hi and that he misses us.

Mom, Me, and Abs

Me and Devin, another freshman girl.

BIG WEST CHAMPIONSS!!!!

I am soo proud to say that the UC Irvine Women's Waterpolo team has claimed the 2010 Big West Conference Championship!

We went through the tournament beating Davis in the first round, the University of the Pacific in the second round, and Cal State Northridge in the finals. It was an incredibly rewarding and emotional experience. I unfortunately did not travel to this tournament so as soon as we won I ran and jumped into the pool with all the girls. It was so exciting. Normally when a team wins their conference they get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the national championship but because we just switched conferences we are required to wait two years before you can get an automatic. So next year if we win, we will be able to automatically compete.

Back to Back Big West Champs!

Me Tiffany and Sharon

All of the coaches. ( Andrew, Dan, and Andy) Dan was the most excited I have ever seen him, he ran around giving all of the girls big hugs and holding back tears. It felt so good to make him proud. Especially after the tough year we had.

Me and Layne.

Beat the Beach!

Hi everyone! I am so sorry for my lack of updates and posts! Life has slowed down for a little bit so I am gonna work to catch up on everything.

A couple of weeks ago we had a big mens volleyball game against our rivals Long Beach! Games against Long Beach are always super intense and really fun so we decided to go. We have something called the Black and Blue series with them where the schools keep track of who wins each game of UCI vs. Long Beach and at the end of the year who ever has more points wins the title and a trophy. It gets pretty competitive and we hate them! ( sorry Papa :) ) We ended up beating them in 3 games! Here are some pictures from the night.

These boys traveled to every volleyball game and painted themselvs.

(Sam, Kelsey, Michael, Layne, Jordan, Me, Chase)

We may look a little orange.. this is because we were practicing 5+ hours a day!

Kelsey, Neil, and Me

Kelsey really wanted to climb this tree. So we did.

We may have grown up a bit.....

So here's a fun little anecdote.... This was Easter Sunday 18 years ago.

Melissa, Me, and Elizabeth Graham.

And this was Easter Sunday this year:

Melissa, Me, Elizabeth Graham, and Elizabeth Dempster

Easter Sunday

This weekend I was able to go home for Easter. It was very nice to be home and we had a lot of fun. We played lots of Rummikub, had a Sandra Bullock marathon ( the proposal and blind side), and drove to Northridge and santa barbara to watch the UCI waterpolo games. ( sadly, I did not travel this time) Easter was especially fun this year because Maddie was baptized!! It was so exciting and really special. I was really glad that she was being baptized on Easter because that's when I was 9 years ago!

Maddie gave an amazing confession! She was completely put on the spot and she did great!

Dad gave an amazing talk while Mads was in the water. He left all the girls a little teary :) He talked about how exciting it is that she is the last of the McCardell girls to be baptized and now it means our family will be together forever.

Okay so Abby and I may have fooled around backstage while Maddie was getting ready.

The Foucar and the McCardell girls

When I was home I snagged a few pictures from Abby's CIF Semi-finals waterpolo game from my dad:

Abby and her friend that is a boy, Tanner.

Abby's first after game interview

Nana, Abby, and Papa

Smile for the Camera

A couple of weekends ago it was finally time for us to take our team pictures! I was super excited because these are the pictures that will be going on our official team website when the get around to posting them here. I was very excited. We took them at a small beach in Newport. The actual taking of taking pictures turned out to be very anti-climatic.. so the freshman girls hung around a little bit and took some pictures of our own. Afterwards we all ventured to the Sprinkles Bakery for the famous red velvet cupcake. They were delicious and the next time anyone visits me, we are going there. Here are some of the pictures from the day :

Look at those vertical jumps!

Me Kelsey and Layne

The place where we took the pictures. So pretty!

Travel Trip!

Well on our team we have a full roster of about 21 girls. This is a great number to practice and scrimmage against but when it comes to traveling.. not so much. Only 16 girls are allowed to travel, for cost and space reasons. This means that 2 goalies and 14 field players pack up and leave to wherever the game is that weekend to play. When every travel game weekend rolls around nerves and anxiety runs high. The competition increases and practices are very stressful. The first travel trip was in the beginning of February to San Diego. I did not make this first trip. I was so upset that I had a scheduled meeting with Dan to ask him what I needed to work on to change my chances of traveling to the next trip the following month.

In the beginning of March there was trip to northern California to play San Jose and Standford. We would be flying and I desperately wanted to go. I remember when our family flew to Nebraska for Aunt Caren's wedding we sat next to a group of waterpolo girls traveling from ohio to california to play in a tournament. I thought they were the coolest people in the whole and viewed them like celebrities . I was determined to make that be me on this trip!

Two nights before we were scheduled to leave Dan sent out the traveling roster. The roster only had 15 names on it and he said they would announce who the last player would be the next day after practice. My name was not one of the original 15 so I knew I had to have a great practice. So the next morning before practice, I came to the pool early to talk to Dan. I walked into his office and said " Dan.. I want that spot. I am going to work as hard as I can today to prove to you that I am not okay with being left behind." And walked out. I was so nervous my voice was shaking but I figured what could it hurt? Anyways I had a great practice and was told that I would be leaving the next day with the team. I was ecstatic!

Anyways so I traveled with the team up to Northern California. It was so fun to walk through the airpot dressed in matching sweatsuits. I really had fun and it was such a good experience to motivate me through other practices to make sure I travel to other games. We lost to Stanford and San Jose, but we played really well and like I said.. It was an amazing experience. We stayed in a fancy hotel with one roommate. We had every day completely booked. We would meet early to watch video and stay up late preparing for the next day's game. I loved it.

Me, Trudy, and Taylor on the plane.

( I wanted proof that I went!)

This is what Dan did on the plane ride...

Fold dollar bills intoanimals. He was very unsuccessful.

The San Jose Pool

The Stanford Stadium ( So PRETTY!)

On Saturday after our game against Stanford, we were all completely exhausted. Dan called all of us in our rooms and told us to meet in the conference room in 15 minutes because we had A LOT to work on. So we all slowly worked our way to the conference room to prepare ourselves for a lonngg meeting. Instead he handed all of us 3D glasses and said " You're gonna want these". We were sooo excited! We piled into our red, white, and blue mini vans and headed across the street to he IMAX movie theater to watch this:

It was pretty interesting and fun to watch. Good team bonding :)

Well Hello! Remember me?

I am so sorry for the lack of postings recently. I have been completely swamped with school and waterpolo. It has easily been the busiest couple of months of my life. But I am finally at a point where I can catch my breath and update... so thats what I'm doing.

School has been easily the most difficult and stressful time of my college career so far. It has been exhausting. I have studied harder, cried more, and slept then I ever have. But it is finally over! I finished finals last friday and could not be more excited to have a break from school. Next quarter I am taking more units but less intense classes and I am looking forward to no chemistry!! ( my achilles heel in this whole process). I am looking into switching majors into more of a biology focused major instead of physical sciences. I am excited to jump into biology.

Water polo has been extremely time consuming and intense. We have are in the exact middle of our season and Dan will not let us forget that. We have been training for about four hours a day complete with weights, dry land training, and weight training. I feel like I am getting in really good shape but it is still exhausting. We just ended a mini streak of difficult games which consisted of USC, Standford, San Jose State, Hawaii, and UCLA. We played well and learned how to play against tough teams. It was very emotionally and physically trying but it was good for us. Now when we enter our conference games against teams that are not as good we will be ready! Next weekend we are playing in Santa Barbara. This will bring some good match ups and some exciting games our way. I am very excited for it!

I am very sorry for the drought of posts over these past few months but I will work hard to catch everybody up! Miss you guys!

16 Years Ago Today...

Babyy Abby was born! I remember ( not so much remember as saw it on home videos) when she was born, I held her for about 2 minutes and then begged my dad to then focus the camera on me and my new purse... (sorry abs).. anyways, Happy Birthday Abigail Christine! I love you so much and I am so proud of you! I am so sad that I am not to home to celebrate it with you, but I am so excited to see you on Saturday! Have a wonderful day!

Good luck on your driving test! (Now you can drive to Irvine :) )

You are turning into such a beautiful young lady.

Happy Birthday!

Weekend

This weekend we had our first official game of the season! It was super fun and I am really glad I got to see everyone. Our first game was against Cal State Bakersfield. It was a pretty good game and we ended up beating them 17-11. Our defense wasn't great but our coach was super happy with our offense. Our second game of the day was against Arizona State University. That one was not as spectacular. We played them in back in November and beat them, so we were not too worried. However, that worked against us. We ended up losing to them in by a significant amount. It left all of us disappointed and a little scared for Monday's practice.

Despite all of that it was SO good to see everybody! I missed you guys so much and it was hard for me to stay in the pool when you guys walked on the pool deck! Thanks for coming!

Jake, Jessie, Maddie, and I throwing up our "zots" :)

Papa and Jake playing computer games in the bookstore.

After the first game Mom and Dad had to leave for San Jose so I got to spend the night with everyone else. We went to the brewery across the street for some amazing spinach and artichoke dip discussed very important topics like who we thought was going to stay on the Bachelor ( and yes my Papa had some input on this!) I had so much fun. On Sunday Mom and Dad stopped by again on their route to Camarillo for some lunch, we decided to try the Crab Cooker in Newport, this place that Mom had heard so much about. It was an interesting hole in the wall kind of place. It was pretty good and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my Mom and Dad.

Our crab claws, they look alive!

All in all. A very good weekend!

Lockers, Midterms, and Number 19!!

Okay this may be a bit much but I was very excited when this happened.

I finally have my official locker in the team room! With my name and everything. In the beginning of the year all the freshman had to share because there was so many of us but after our quarter grades came in, Dan divided up the single lockers to the freshman who had better GPA's. He surprises us sometimes with leaving new bags, candy, or new sweats in them randomly. Its nice! Anyways the first day I got mine, I took a picture of it. Cheesy I know, but I was excited!

Also you may notice, the cap hanging in my locker is not number 10. Yes it is true, number 10 and I have parted ways. It was too difficult to for me to see number ten when the ref would hold it up during a game ( it only being a fist) So I decided to spring for a new number. Originally I wanted number 8 but this other girl on the team wanted it REALLY badly, so badly to the point where she burst into tears when I beat her at rock, paper, scissors for it. So being the amazingly nice person I am, I let her have it. Only after calling my dad to complain and to be calmed down by him telling me a bunch of other famous athletes who had been number 19 ( my second choice). Thanks dad! So for those of you who will be coming on Saturday, look for number 19!!

Midterms are the worst thing in the world.. I am convinced. Thats all.

Love you.

Well Here I Am..

Okay so I heard more than a few times over Christmas break that I was lagging a little in my pictures that I was sending home, so in response to this I typed up a lengthy email detailing what has been going on here in Irivine complete with pictures, when all of a sudden my battery died in my computer and I lost the whole email! So instead of emailing I am going to give this whole blogging thing a try as Dad earlier suggested. I'm hoping that this might make my updates a little easier. No promises, but we'll just give this a trial run.

School as started again and its hard! I am enrolled in about 14 units this quarter. I have chemistry, a chemistry lab, a biology class called drugs and the brain, and Calculus. This might sound like lot and thats because it is. It is very difficult and I am working hard to manage my time better than last quarter. I study a lot and I refuse to miss class! I am feeling a lot better about class but we'll see, my midterms start next week so if you remember, say a little prayer for me around 8 on wednesday morning!

Water polo is still going and every day it seems like it is getting harder and harder! We have been in the water 12 out of the past 14 days and its exhausting. We've been conditioning and studying plays like crazy. But finally we get to play!! I am so excited for Saturday! We have just been practicing and practicing and now we finally have something to look forward to! I know that playing time for me will be limited,but I am just excited for our team to finally start taking down other teams! I also cannot wait to seeyou guys! Its going to be awesome!

I am also now writing to you as a 19 year old! It was very weird being away from home and hearing happy birthday from my family via skype. My friends were very good to me though, they woke me up early to take me to breakfast and afterwards we drove to Newport to go to the beach. After that we got all dressed up and headed to PF Changs for dinner. It was really fun but they didn't have my crispy green beans. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? The only reason I wanted to go there for my birthday was for green beans and they ran out!! It was awful.

Getting ready for the beach!

Me and Evan and Chris, two freshman water

polo boys who came to dinner.

So last weekend,Tiffany, Kelsey, Layne, and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Cal Poly to visit some various friends. We were very spontaneous. We stayed with Kevin Doria on the first night and the second night we stayed at Layne's friend Scott's house which was pretty interesting. There are 6 boys from Fresno who live together and rent a very pretty house in SLO. We let the boys engage in their night festivities while the four of us drove to Ablertsons to grab ingredients to make cookies.We baked cookies and watched movies on the couch. It was fun to meet all of Layne's friends from high school. We had fun and definitely made some memories.

All of us on Scott's couch.

We stopped by our house on the way home for some lunch.

This weekend was also pretty nice and relaxing. Tiffany had some of her guy friends from SLO visit her and therefore i was kicked out for the weekend. It was fine by me I didn't feel much like entertaining wierdo boys anyway. Last night Kelsey, Layne, and I took all of our study material to the sophmore waterpolo boys house. They are all geniuses in this class and quizzed us on various facts while the played video games. We ended the night with a little Harry Potter and returned to the dorms. It was a good night.

Some random pictures:

The four of us watching the Womens National Waterpolo Team game.

All of the freshman girls at dinner for Kelsey's Birthday.

Anyways I miss you all and cant wait to see you! Love you!