boston breakers

what professional women's soccer legs look like.

“Making a WPS roster by attending an open tryout is obviously a major long shot,” said Breakers General Manager Andy Crossley. “But it can be done. If you look at our open tryout last February, we had two players come in who were overlooked in previous player selections processes – Mary-Frances Monroe and Maggie Tomecka. Both played well enough to earn training camp invites and both ultimately fought their way onto the first team roster and earned starts for us last year.”

I played with Mary-Frances Monroe in Colorado Springs one summer. She is the most brilliant player I have ever had the opportunity to play with. She now coaches at UAlbany- I thought about going to play for her after I left IWU, but somehow I ended up with Joma in Arkansas...

who i'm up against...

Kristine Lilly

( one of my idols )

2009:

• Named to 2009 WPS All-Star Team by at-large selection
• Started and played all 20 matches in the season
• Only Breaker to appear in all 20 games
• Lead the team in minutes played (1,800)
• Scored 3 goals and 3 assists
• Scored 1 game winning goal
• Tied for 14th in the league with goals scored (3)
• Scored her first goal of the season at the Home Opener on April 11, 2009 against Saint Louis Athletica
• Allocated to the Breakers via the Women’s National Team allocation on September 16, 2008.

International:

• In 2006, became the first player to reach 300 international caps, earning the 300th against Norway at the Four Nations Tournament in China. She had a goal and an assist in the game.
• World’s All-Time Caps Leader (Man or Woman), Two-Time World Cup and Olympic Champion
• Second all-time leading scorer in U.S. and world history
• All-time leader in minutes played (nearly 27,000 minutes)
• Has come off the bench only 12 times in her 21-year international career
• Ranks second all-time in assists (98)
• Finished second in the 2006 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year voting
• Named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year in 1993, 2005 and 2006
• Played in five FIFA World Cups, winning the championship in 1991 and 1999
• Competed in three Olympic Games - capturing Gold in 1996 & 2004 and Silver in 2000
• Named MVP at the 2006 Peace Queen Cup in South Korea
• Became the fifth player in world history to score 100 international goals in 2005 when she tallied against New Zealand in October
• A member of the 2004 Women’s Olympic Gold Medal Team, assisting on the game-winning goal
• Led the Women’s National Team to a World Cup Title in 1999, scoring two goals and tallying one assist
• Cleared a crucial header off the line in extra time in the 1999 World Cup final versus China
• Became the fourth player in history to score 20 goals in one year
• Became most capped player in the world in 1998 after earning her 152nd cap

Club:

• Was a founding player in the WUSA, playing for the Boston Breakers from 2001-2003, where she served as team captain
• Named First-Team All-WUSA for the third consecutive year in 2003, the only player to do so in the history of the league
• Voted as a starter to the WUSA All-Star team in 2003
• Played professional indoor soccer with the Washington Warthogs in the Continental Indoor Soccer League during the 1995 season

College:

• Named to the Soccer America’s College Team of the Decade for the 1990’s
• Winner of the 1991 Herman Trophy and was a finalist in 1992
• UNC’s Athlete of the Year as a senior
• Four-Time First-Team NSCAA All-American
• Four-Time First-Team All-ACC and All-South Selection
• Had her number 15 UNC jersey retired in 1994
• Twice named the Offensive MVP of the NCAA Championship (1989, 1990)
• Led UNC to four NCAA titles, from 1989-1992
• Finalist for the 1991 Broderick Award as the outstanding female athlete in all of college sports, and was second leading scorer in the nation with 15 goals and four assists
• Completed collegiate career with 78 goals and 41assists

High School / Youth Club:

• Captained Wilton High School her junior and senior years
• Led the team to state titles her freshman, sophomore and senior year
• Played youth club with the Wilton Wonders
• blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah

Rachel Gerdin

• jbu women's soccer + joe thoma
• colorado springs united

BRING IT LILLY.

ketchup

repin' matt in his chubby stage at his LAST dbcs soccer game

(he was thrilled to see it after the game....)

right after the game mom, hannah and i left for hannah's soccer tournament in raleigh, nc.

on the way home we took the ferry.

(i think we left our brushes at home...)

we got bored so i made up a game,

which i won of course.

that's how it goes when you make up the game.

gabi found my baby book.

this is abby's favorite picture of me, in fact when we had people over she would get this picture out of my book and show it off.

best birthday party EVER with some awesome VA friends!

for not having a real job i'm doing pretty well... i got put up in the executive suite for 2 nights while i was refereeing in richmond.

couldn't find the newspaper anywhere!

we spent thanksgiving in PA.

this is at the Kreider farm that is now on the market : /

but we LOVE betty!

then we went to NY.

west point hockey game!

mmmm.... peanut butter and chocolate. YES please.

found another little treasure from the past.

then i dropped my phone and scratched the camera lens so all my pics look like a dream. except maybe more like a nightmare.

so, there you have it folks... you're now "ketchedup" with my life. soon, i will post again and tell you about life in paradise.

November Nor'easter

Nor'easters can occur in the eastern United States any time between October and April, when moisture and cold air are plentiful. They are know for dumping heavy amounts of rain and snow, producing hurricane-force winds and creating high surfs that cause severe beach erosion and coastal flooding.

{http://www.howstuffworks.com/question595.htm}

i definitely don't know anything about radar, but the yellow and red, yeah, that's where my house is and i don't think that's a good thing...

SCARED.

...but, i HAD to go running so i put my rain gear on, my phone in a ziplock and headed down to the beach.

that sand is not supposed to be on the road! nor should there be WAVES in the river!

runoff from the bridge above plus the river 30ft to the right and the fact that it's been raining for 3 days straight will cause flooding.

hey car, good luck getting through the little lake.

yeah.

i was down at the beach at 7am and the tide was so high that the water was on the road. poor Yorktown and the rest of Hampton Roads. the good news is that Gabi had a "rain day" and Matthew and Hannah had a half day.

my new obsession

i love my bicycle!

it's a fixed gear.

a fixie is a beautifully designed bike, but it's not for the faint of heart... there are no gears, which makes climbing hills EXTREMELY hard. experienced riders typically don't have brakes because you can stop by resisting the rotation. the hardest thing that i've had to get used to is the fact that you CAN'T coast. pedaling at all times isn't an ideal situation for biking in fact it makes me tired just thinking about it, BUT just like the pain from the seat, i've gotten used to it.

there are some AMAZING trails in the area.

Lydia showing off on her beach cruiser.

i've been riding with a legit roadie.

he built this bike without brakes.

someday i will build my own bike without brakes. ok, yeah, that's a bad idea... it'll have brakes.

not so recent revelation.

my feet belong in the sand.

double deuces

i got to hang out with these ladies on my birthday AND eat sweet potato pancakes.

delicious conversation and awesome food;)

thanks girls!

on the drive home my mom warned me that hannah dropped my cake. i asked if it was edible- she said edible, but not legible. it's a hamburger. i love meat? also, you can't really tell, but there are real sesame seeds on top and the candles are matches.

they really went all out for me this year. but seriously, my family is the best.

meet the fishin sisters

here we are.

we love to fish.

this is our dock.

our first attempt was uh, ummm... well, interesting. we went down with our CHEAP fishing pole, pizza crust, marshmallow, and carrots for bait. we didn't have a weight for our line so as people passed they could see our incompetence- our human food floating on top of the water. we didn't catch any fish that day... BUT our second trip to the pier we met this young lad and his "paw-paw" they hooked us up with a rig, a weight and squid for bait.

is he not the cutest little fisherman you've ever seen?

before our third attempt at fishing we went to the tackle shop and picked up some squid, which the croaker really love. then we went down to the pier and fished. that day we caught 4 fish, a crab and a oyster toad. we were the only people fishing because it was rainy and cold, but we didn't care- we had the time of our lives

cutest fishersister i've ever seen.

now we are professional fishersistergirlfriends- we go almost everyday. we still have our CHEAP fishing pole, which surprisingly has allowed us to catch lots of fish. after we catch the fish we name it and then throw it back to it's home. i think eventually we'll bring some home for dinner, but i'm not sure mom is ready for a bucket of fish in her house yet.

living the dream

the other night my family and i were outside sitting around the fire pit. ->

we were chatting, telling jokes, having a good time and then we started talking about serious things like... my future. we took a vote- who wanted me to say in Virginia (my parents house) i thought for sure they'd be ready to get rid of me seeing that we have a tiny house, but to my surprise they all voted yes to rachie staying at 229 nelson st. so, looks like i'm staying. i honestly don't really care where i am for the next 4 months, but starting Jan 2010 i would like to tryout for a WPS team- either Washington (DC) Freedom, Boston Breakers, or Philadelphia Independence. i know a girl on the Breakers we played together in COS. and by played together i mean she played and i watched in awe. maybe i'll end up in boston- it's all about who you know right?

so, the next 4 months i get to do whatever i please. don't be worried, i do have a couple aspirations- get my personal training certification and train like crazy, on the beach of course. just so i'm not completely broke when i leave the comfort of my parents home i am going to ref some soccer and i just got offered a coaching position last night for the club that my siblings play for in williamsburg.

i've thrown around the idea of going to hawaii for a bit or maybe sarasota, fl to live in my grandparents empty condo OR my aunt and uncle have offered me a place to stay at their house in NY (an hour north of the city). i mean, i have so many options- i don't even know what i want to do with myself.

H1N1

yes, the SWINE has made it to the "happiest place on earth."

meet Addie... this is her taking her temperature on the way back to camp from branson. she is a fellow counselor in cabin 8 who eventually was sent away from camp for a week because her temperature was over 100°. i sent home 4 campers from 2nd term in my cabin alone and so many more were sent home. BUT not to worry... we practically drink germ-x (well, it's not germ-x because that costs too much, it's a mixture of alcohol, nail polish remover and water? ok, i don't know what it's made of, but it has the consistency of a liquid rather than a gel and it smells like nail polish remover)

at k-west we are surrounded by 2 other camps, k-2 and k-7. we are not allowed to mingle with them or go into the other camps.

i thought for a hot second about licking a spoon of an infected camper because i heard the summer swine is not as intense as the winter swine, but i decided against it.

pray for my health- only 9 more days at camp.

can't stop, won't stop.

yesterday was a busy day...
1. 630am trail run (calli).
2. breakfast with 3 girls from high school (nichole, erika, tara).
3. painted one of the cabins with 3 friends (calli, risa, raleigh).
4. hiking with 2 more friends (amy, emily).
5. SHOWERED (no one joined me for this one).
6. dinner with JBU peeps (jenn, ashley, bunch, megan).
7. coffee with 2 girls from FRAC (lindsey, sara).
8. BED (or this one).
= 14 sistergirlfriends in one day.

i basically went 3 weeks without seeing anyone to one crazy day of hanging out with 14 friends. i guess i should have expected it because afterall it was my last weekend in colorado. i leave for Kanakuk on Thursday, which i'm really excited about. i can't wait to be a counselor, but i'm slightly afraid of the hot & humid weather (and smelly middle schoolers).

first blog EVER.

so, i decided to take a break from painting and become a blogger. i'm obviously not so good at painting and this blogging thing isn't going so well either. i've been sitting here for A WHILE trying to think of something to say in my first post (and what font to use). i've got nothing.

well, that was just too much fun... hope next time it isn't so stressful (it could be the paint fumes getting to my head though)

peace.