Home

Ok, we've been running around like crazy pretty much all day, every day (except for those SUPER slow, late mornings we always take...) so not much time on the computer, but just loving home! Spending a lot of time with Jodi and Morgan and friends, had a great Christmas with the fam, and just took our engagement photos today with our super-talented photographer of a cousin Boyd! Loads of pics to come :) Back in Italia Friday (will have to catch the second half of the LSU game in the Atlanta airport... hopefully...)

Hold those horses...

Ok, so I spoke a little too soon... The holidays will not officially start till we get HOME! We got held up in Rome and missed our flight to America, which was like the worst scenario possible. I could right a book right now on how stupid and frustrating airports are, especially the ones in Europe, ESPECIALLY the ones in Italy from my experiences... Through a series of frustrating events, it has been deemed MY fault we missed our flight, and I had to pay a penalty and out the "wazoo" for my ticket home because the other was restricted. But, we got to spend the day with Kiki because she was home, so she pretty much saved us. Things could have been a lot worse, so we just had to accept what we were given cause there was nothing we could do about them (we came to this conclusion after a lot of huffing and puffing and venting about how ridiculous all of it was, but better late than never, right?). Our baggage wasn't here in Atlanta when we arrived, so we will need to pray that those arrive magically in BR when we get there...

----------------------------------------------

I know this is weird, but the internet cut out on me in the airport... I even had a whole two paragraphs wrote out and everything. I thought it was interesting stuff, but if it really was, then I'll fit it in later. Oh, and our bags did not arrive, but should be delivered tomorrow. We shall see. Home is great! Shopping in a day will get interesting though. Merry Christmas!!!!

Holidays have officially started!

So we went 2-0 while Morgan was here! I didn't have great games, but in each of them I had a few minutes of spark in the second half to help propel us to victory. I can't complain :)

And now the day I've been waiting for--the day we've been counting down for weeks--is finally here. Mo and I will begin our 20 hour journey back to the states in about 4 and a half hours, so we're excited... Well I'm super excited, and he of course wishes he could spend more than a week in Italy.... understandably.

Ok, well here's a quick recap of the first half of our season: We are still undefeated in the Italian League! We've played everyone once, so now we will go back and play everyone again at the opposite site (home/away), then the play-offs start. In Euroleague we have pretty much secured 3rd place in our group which is good enough to qualify for the next round! We are excited about that.

On a more individual note, I had to go look up my stats because I try not to pay attention to them much. Basketball is a team game, and individual stats shouldn't be on the mind very much (especially someone who plays for a winning team and is under a 3-year contract!). Here we go for the Italian league though: In 11 games 9.3 points per game, and shooting 34% from the 3 pt. line. I went 19/20 from the free throw line. Not great, but not too shabby. For the 8 Euroleague games, I did a bit better: 12.4 points per game, and shooting 54.5% from the 3 point line (which is 4th in the league to go along with 3rd in the league in 3 pt. FG made per game). And I went 11/12 from the FT line. I can be proud of myself for that.

Plus this recent article from the FIBA website--http://www.fibaeurope.com/cid_KNce8jInH7Qj1EsyH5rjn2.teamID_92200.compID_jr6ZiXqeGhMBtfq1yxqV83.season_2010.roundID_7049.playerID_71492.coid_7,80fggBJU2zY8i1EbQYf0.articleMode_on.html

Our team has a lot of improving we need to do, as do I, but it feels great to be with the group that I'm with and I feel very privileged and blessed to be a part of what's going on this season.

Hope to see all my people while I'm home!!!

Countdown!!!

We can see the finish line!!! Well, you know, to Christmas time and a big fat 10 day break anyways! We are feeling the fatigue a little much lately, and a LONG trip to the middle of no where in Russia (Ekaterinburg) which is 4 time zones over, getting our behinds kicked by 30 and then traveling back to play a few days later did not help... We began that next game horribly and were losing by 20 on the road to the second place team in our Italian League. I didn't know it at the time, but they only had one loss going into the game, so it was more important than I thought.

Our team battled back despite an unruly fan coming and literally banging on the glass right behind our bench. I suppose he thought he was motivating us, but it was very disturbing and thankfully security led him away (someone from our team said that the person isn't allowed in our gym anymore, and I hope that's true). Our fans already don't get along with their fans at all, with fighting in their background, so it wasn't even like they just wanted us to win. I got the feeling from that crazy guy that he was pulling for us so that he could be talking the "smack" and he could be the one to rub it in at the end of the day. Anyways, back to the game. Our team battled back and were close enough with a few minutes left to give ourselves a chance. I, personally, didn't have a great game unfortunately, but I was in for the last few minutes of regulation and all 5 minutes of overtime that we forced mostly for my defense than anything I was doing on offense. Once again, our team just found a way to win. I love the way we finish games. I hated the way we started, but I'm still proud of our effort in the end.

We now have one Euroleague game to play tomorrow and one more Italian league game Sunday to try and finish off the first half of the season undefeated. And Morgan will be here for both!!! We had a very difficult time due to weather traveling back yesterday, but he's here and happy (and for the first time with his baggage!) so we will have a good time in Taranto before we make the journey home next Monday.

Rollin'

Someone asked me if I was enjoying my time here in Taranto. They asked me right after we just won another Euroleague game at home by 14 in front of a crowd of 2800 people, and I had 4 3-pointers in the game (which puts me temporarily in first place in the league in 3-pt. FG made), so my answer was, "Yeah, it's a blast!"

Now, don't ask me that question tomorrow when we're practicing in the afternoon, trying to jog out tired and sore muscles because we have another game Sunday, so no time for a day off!!! But I always make an attempt to enjoy our moments, soaking it all in, smelling those roses when they're blooming :)

A little info on Euroleague. There are 4 groups of 6 teams, each team plays against everyone in their group, home and away, and then the top 4 teams in each group move on to the next round of 16 teams, which is followed by the quarterfinals, then of course the semi's and finals. Seeding is important because a 1-seed team plays against a 4-seed. This win puts us in 3rd place now behind two VERY good and experienced Euroleague teams.

We also won a very close game in a very difficult gym to play in last Sunday. We probably should have lost because we didn't play well, but we got a bit "lucky" at the end. One of our guards had a 4-point play (a three point basket and a foul) with under 30 seconds to play to give us one of our first leads of the game. That game has driven me to quit always cheering for the underdog every time. If a team is better, works harder, is much more efficient as a unit, they deserve to win.