A Day in my Life

So, after an eventful evening at the movies with the family....meaning I got carded to see the movie, and my 29 year old sister was not let in without her ID....I woke this morning on the air mattress in my condo. As I woke, Alicia, my sister in law, was watching tv. Soon, we were off to meet the rest of the gang for breaky at Swami's. Very Good! After that, off to the paint store (success), then to the bed store (success), then home! Once home, I had about 30 minutes to stop and breathe before heading off to yoga. Yoga was great today, and I was beat! After yoga, straight to the sista's house to load up the vehicles and get people to the airport. Upon return from the airport, stopped by Krystal's house for about an hour before heading home. Its 8:42pm, I am tired, and am eating leftover pizza before bed. The most exciting part is that when I wake, I am heading to LB to watch Lewis dominate at the AVP!
Good NIght!

Love Volleyball Camp

So, since I have been in the USA, I deplaned, drove home, ate, slept, woke and started coaching. We finish every day at 4pm....so 830am-4pm, I am coaching kids! After 4 pm, I have a million things on my brain. Unpacking has still not happened, laundry....nope,finding a decently comfortable bed....kind of, and deciding where I am going to live, think I got that taken care of. However, dinner with the family is mandatory every evening and usually an evening activity. So, basically, I have not really had any time for me. But, I cannot complain....I have my beautiful nephews here, Alicia and Bil also. It has been fun, tiring, but fun! Today is the last day of camp, and I think it is has been a good one this year.

Jetlag

So I have been home for 3 days now, and my normal wake up time is anywhere from 4-6am. No one else is usually up, so I grab my computer and check out what's going on in the world. After that, I shower and get ready for camp. Camp, camp, camp.....there are over 60 kids we are coaching this week. There's nothing like getting off the plane, sleeping a few hours and then hanging out with 7-14 yr olds all day. But, really, I am beat! The whole family has been here for the week helping with camps, so every evening after camp finishes, we have a bbq or go out to dinner and then usually I am out by 9pm. Such is life, huh! Well, I hope all of you that read this know that I am home now, so drop me an email or phone call.

Coming Down

Coucou everyone! So, we are in Dublin airport.....kind of hard to believe we are finished with this season. I am beat.....totally exhausted. I love volleyball and I love competing at the highest level, but there is a point of balance you need. I am so excited to be going home and getting back to some normalcy, but I will miss this spontaneity in life....of traveling to random places and meeting crazy people. Heidi and I have certainly made some great memories, and I hope they continue. I have camps to caoch for the next 3 weeks, Heidi's got a wedding to plan, and then who knows what's next. Our last night in Marseille, we shared a bottle of vino, sat on the port and just reminisced about how lucky we are to do what we do.....TRAVEL the world and play volleyball! These are 2 of the greatest things ever invented! Well, tata for now, I will do my best to keep this updated even when I am in the US.
Bisous

It's been good!!!!!!

Well, we have come to the end of our season in Marseille, France. We ended on a positive note, by qualifying! This has really been an amazing summer and beside the fact that we did not qualify for Beijing, we played at the top of our game and have had an experience of a lifetime. So many people have followed this journey and kept up with where we are and how we are playing. We will leave tomorrow morning for NYC and then to LAX.......home sweet home!

Rough ONe!

So yesterday we played in the qualifier. We had only one match to win, but do oyu realize how much pressure that is?????We were the number one seed playing the 16 seed, Netherlands. They were 2 young girls, but very athletic....We proceeded to get the most out of the day by losing the first game terribly...21-13. We continued to play very poorly, and were trailing all of the second game, until 12-14, then we scored 2 in a row, for the 14-14 switch. After that, we were point for point, but we got the 18-17 switch. From there, we pulled out the veteran plays and won 21-18. To start the third.....we scrapped for every point, then took a timr out at 4-7 (yes, we were down). We were thinking, but never said it out loud....we could be finished here. However, after that time-out, we scored 3 point to make it 7-7. Next thing we knew we were up 10-9, the switched at 11-9. We proceeded to finish the game out at 15-11. Woohoo......good ending. Today, we face Italy....the same team that knocked us out in Moscow. All we can do is have some fun while doing what we love.

See you all soon.....

In Marseille, France

I know these titles are far from spectacular, but at least they get to the point. We arrived in Marseille this afternoon. Since the last blog we drove to Montpellier (la Grande Motte-to be exact) to stay with some friends in their parents house. It was a cute French house, fabulous food, and great people. It was a great change from the hotel and 5 Euro breakfast we have been feasting on. I think one of the best things you can do while traveling is immerse yourself in the culture. Well, now we play tomorrow...our last event....will let you know how we do!

8 more hours

We started off this morning in Munich...frantically getting to the post office before it closed, then deciding we needed to DRIVE south. So, from 2:40pm til....now, 11:25pm we have been having a Smarty Party.....really, it was not sooo bad. Heidi did most of the driving from Munich to France, then I finished us off for about 300km to Lyon. We are at the Etap (cheap hotel) and will head south in the morning. Bonne Nuit!!!!!

Since Day 1 of Driving in Europe

So we have been on the road....literally, driving for the last week. Last Sunday we left for Hamburg to meet up with Lauren, we stayed one night in Hamburg, before heading to Braunschweig to stay at the Dume's house. We arrived at midday and just relaxed, did a little shopping and ATE! Next day was gigantic breakfast and a lil more shopping, before heading to the Farmer's Market! This market was 3 minutes walk and we had bread, cheese, pommes frites, pickles, and wine. Just a lil wine! From there we walked to the neighbors house and finished the evening. Next day, we were off to Hamburg again to get our luggage from the Dutch girls. And, to watch them play on Thursday.....so we stayed in Hamburg for one night. Today, it is Saturday morning, we are 8 hours south of Hamburg in Munich, with Philip......We will begin our next leg of the journey to Marseille this afternoon.

Cruisin'-part 1

So we are out o Moscow, Russia and on with our lives.....After a LONG travel day on Saturday, beginning in Moscow with a delayed flight (because there is only one runway most flights are delayed)...we flew to Rome, arrived at 8:45pm (15 minutes before our connection to Amsterdam)...we had passport control and customs to get through, which put as at our connecting gate at 9:15pm. This means our flight should have taken off....but again, DELAY til 10:30pm. The good news, free meal! We boarded, flew (slept the whole way), and landed in Amsterdam at 1:30am....poor Marleen picked us up bc our rental car co was closed. We woke the next morning 9:30am (wanted to be on the road at 8am) and drove back to the airport for our rental. We got a SMART car cabrio, woohooo!!!!!! What a fun piece of machinery, this made up for the lack of sleep the day before.

What are we doing today?

Well, it is our 4th day in MOscow, Russia. We actually went sight seeing yesterday.....saw the Red Square and Hard Rock Cafe....woohoo! We are currently sitting on our hotel beds, which are fairly nice in comparison to anything outside the room, and blogging/ sleeping/ looking at pics of the summer/and figuring out our next week and half of Europe! We are not going to the Olympics as we are not in the top 24. We are , however, in the top 34....which should account for something:)
Here are some pics of the last few days!