To- Done List for Thanksgving Break

As my to-do list piles up, I need to be grateful for my to-done list for this long weekend.

1. Visit Dad at Firehouse and marvel at his and the rest of the firefighters' Movember mustaches.
2. Laundry
3. Watch CJ (little brother) kill it at the emcee at Pep Rally.
4. Watch CJ cheer the Sheehan Powder Puff team to victory against Lyman Hall.
5. Eat delicious 6 foot sub with family and friends after game.
6. Laundry
7. Enjoy Macy's Parade and sing along with broadway songs.
8. Eat embarrassing proportions at Thanksgiving dinner with Bachmann side of family.
9. Go to get CJ an xbox at an ungodly hour on Black Friday.
10. Indulge in second Thanksgiving dinner with Murray side of family.
11. Catch up with high school friends at Panera.
12. Curl Dani's hair for party.
13. Catch up with Amy and Aunt Laurie and go on and on about placement.
14. Go see Lincoln with Dad and CJ.
15. Laundry

Note the lack of homework done over break, I will pay for this tomorrow and the rest of the week. Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving break filled as much love, laughter and thanks as mine had.

Now a sprint to the finish for the last couple of weeks of the semester.

Tweet me your to-done list for Thanksgiving Break - @harasmur

Athletic Extras

Being a Saint Micael’s College athlete means more than just practicing and games.  We also are lucky enough to also have opportunities to participate in many comunity service activities as well as seeing a life skills speaker each year. 

A couple of weeks ago, my team and I participated in the Breast Cancer walk in South Burlington. The walk is called Taking Strides Against Breast Cancer and it was a great day.  The walk is five miles, and it was five miles well spent.  The softball team was joined by the men’s and women’s lacrosse team, the women’s hockey team, the women’s basketball team, and the field hockey team for this special event.  Below are two pictures, the first is a team picture with our sign, and the next is a picture of me, Stephanie Frank, Lindsay Houston, and Bethany Falls dancing with Mike the Knight. 

Another opportunity we are lucky to take advantage of as Athletes here is our annual Life Skills Event.  Every year, it is a night for all of the studen-athletes to get together and learn something.  This year, we were privileged to see a presentation by Hudson Taylor.  Asking Hudson Taylor to speak was an idea of our Athletic Department inspired by the Purple Knight’s It Gets Better Video.

The presentation was inspiring and reminded me and my teammates that what we say matters.  Hudson Taylor is the founder of the Athlete Ally non-profit organization and he spoke to us about reaching out to our fellow athletes, especially LGBT athletes. You can check out Hudson Taylor on Twitter as well, @hudsonism.  He did a great job speaking to us.

Being an athlete in college can be busy and stressful, but I am lucky to have a team to do it with.  I am also lucky that my athletic department is active in our community and wants the best for each of us. 

Any Questions? Comments? Concerns? Tweet me! @harasmur

Swamped

Midterms were upon us last week, and I was totally swamped. Now, luckily I can relax a bit, almost like the calm after the storm.  Speaking of storms, good luck and be safe to everyone who will be affected by Sandy! We are only expecting some wind and rain up here in Vermont, but I think southern New England might get hit pretty hard, so stay safe! Also, check out this wind map, it is awesome in such a nerdy way!

Look for my next blog post about my four-year sticky note plan.

Tweet me updates about the storm? Or about your Halloween Costume? Or about what you ate for Dinner?  Or questions? @harasmur

Live Webcam Awesomeness!

Hey Everyone!

I just got back from a wonderful 4 day weekend at home in Connecticut.

While home I was lucky enough to attend my brother CJ's Eagle Scout Court of Honor.  He worked tirelessly to achieve this prestigious rank and I am very proud of him.  And as of October 14th, I was no longer the only person in our family who has their own "day" in town.  So everyone mark your calendars because October 14th 2012 was Christopher Francis Murray Junior Day!

In other news: Have you seen this tweet? You can click on it to view it larger...

And did you see the response from Saint Michael's? It's below...

Well, Saint Michael's came through a couple of days ago.... Click to check out the webcam!!! It is so cool, even when I am here I click over to it. 

Keep a lookout for the girl on the light blue bike, it might be me riding (or speeding depending on the time) my bike.

That's my story for now, hopefully you find the webcam interesting and you waste as much time as I have watching it.

PS - did you like this tweet? See more like it by following @harasmur and @saintmichaels on twitter!

Cooking in the Townhouses

Hey Everyone!

One of many great things about Saint Michael's College is that nearly everyone lives on campus.  When I was looking at schools, I was really turned-off by "suit-case schools".  A "suit-case school" is a school where all of the students leave to go home on the weekends.  If there was ever an opposite of this - it is Saint Mike's.

A reason for this are the townhouses (housing for upperclassmen, especially seniors).  There have been a bunch of posts through SMC Blogs about the townhouses, but I just really wanted to brag about a meal I made for my upperclassmen friends so I felt the need to chime-in.

Although I do not live in a townhouse, I have friends who do, and I totally used them the other night to create a delicious masterpiece that I am extremely proud of. Naturally, I got the recipe off of Pinterest.  Do not laugh but it is pasta stuffed bread.  MMM Carbs and some more crabs stuffed with carbs - every athlete's dream come true.

I needed a kitchen for this endever, that is where the townhouse came in handy.  Seniors living in townhouses usually do not have a full meal plan, meaning they need to learn to cook and provide for themselves, this also means they get little kitchens to experiment in.

Below is a picture of the meal I made for my friends and I.  It is literally bread stuffed with pasta.  Yes, the cat plate made it taste that much better.

The bread after it was baked and before we ate it!

Yummy yummy on a cat plate. 

Okay guys, thanks for letting me show off my cooking prowess!

If you need any cooking pointers (haha) or just want to ask a question - tweet me @harasmur or email me at smurray4@mail.smcvt.edu.

NE-10 Blog

Hi everyone! Happy October!  

This month I am looking forward to the fall colors, going home for break and apples!

The reason this is not a video post is because I am in the library.  The softball team finished our fall season yesterday and we have one week off before we start conditioning with our conditioning coach.  I am trying to use my week off from softball to get all caught up with work and maybe even get ahead, for me, this means being very quiet and focused in the library.

I have some exciting news to share with you today as well.  In the beginning of the semester I was chosen to be a NE-10 student-athlete blogger.  The NE-10 is our sports conference that Saint Mike's competes in.  It includes The website for the NE-10 is here.  I am very happy to be a part of the second year of the blogs and my first post will be up soon at this page.  Especially if you are an athlete - you should check it out.  There is a representative from each  NE-10 member school.  I am very proud to be representing Saint Michael's for this year.  

Speaking of softball, our last fall-ball games were yesterday.  Our last game was a soggy event against Norwich University.  The rain and mud did not put a hamper on our excitement for our last games of the fall,  We are now pumped to get in the gym and prepare for the spring season and especially FLORIDA! (I am looking way ahead with this as the trip is not until spring break).  

That is all for now.  I will try harder to update this on a more regular basis so keep in touch!

As always - if you have any questions feel free to tweet me @harasmur or email me at smurray4@mail.smcvt.edu.

Until next time!

Timing is Everything

Hi Everyone!

I am back with another video post this week.  I tried to upload it yesterday afternoon, but I needed to leave to get my bike fixed! Bummer that I had to wait until today, but huge relief that my bike is now good to go.  Below is a quick video I made about time management and the other goings-on in my life this week.

Today I am lucky enough to be playing in the Alumni Game for the SMC softball team.  It is Almuni Weekend here at Saint Mike's and the Alumni Softball Game is an annual tradition.  It is a fun game between the current team and the alumni players.

That is all for now, I will update again next week with more adventures!