Flurries in the forecast... BRRR

Hello again from Iceland. Its starting to get pretty cold here and the need for a warm winter coat is in full swing. Thank goodness I have a friend coming to visit this Friday and she is bringing me one! I am hoping this week goes by fast because I am ready for my friend to get here. We went to Iowa State together the past 3 years and became really good friends over the years. So I am really pumped she is coming all the way to Iceland during her Thanksgiving break to visit. I already have a list of things for us to do and that doesn't even count the random things we will do spur of the moment.

So back to last week, on Tuesday I went with one of my teammates and her sister and friends to see the LeBron James movie. I was actually really surprised cause the movie was really good, definitely brought back memories of my childhood basketball days and playing AAU. The movie really concentrated on the 3 guys that James grew up with and played AAU with every summer and then went on to play High School ball together as well. This really made me think back to my AAU days and have the rare opportunity to play with the same girls from when I was 9 years old till I was 16. That doesn't happen to often and I was blessed to be able to do that. It was cool to see the real game footage of LeBron's AAU team and see them play in gym, I myself had played in. Anyways not to ruin the whole movie, I recommend you go see it.

On Wednesday we had another game that we ended up losing in OT. I fouled out in the fourth quarter of the game, which really sucked and made me feel like I let down my team. Guess I better be a little more careful from now on with my fouls. On Thursday we had the day off but had to go to the local mall to help set up for a Christmas show (at least I think that's what we were setting up for, I am not really sure) Anyways we had to set up over 300 theater like seats. Lets just says after the 2.5 hours we were all dead tired and it no longer felt like we had the day off. So a couple of my teammates and I rewarded ourselves with our hard work by going to TGI Fridays for dinner. Once again it was amazing! Friday was a pretty uneventful day, as I didn't do a whole lot besides the typical workout, go to lunch and then go to practice. On Saturday we had a workout at the local fitness club at 10am and then had the rest of the day off. After the workout I definitely came back home and took a nap before I went and worked a boys basketball game. Which brings me to a short story about the game. The boys were about 16 years old and I know at that age guys can start to get a little cocky and have some attitude problems but I have never one as bad as one of the guys playing. Lets just say if I was his coach I would have pulled him out of the game sometime during the first half and wouldn't have put him back in. The kid got the ball stolen from him from a much smaller guy and then proceeded to shove him in the back at full speed, strike 1 for him from me. Strike 2 came when he seemed to be SOO tired that he couldn't even play defense but once his team was on offense its like he had all the energy in the world. But strike 3 was by far the worse. It was about 2 minutes left in the game and the other team was winning by almost 20. So this guy gets a steal and what looks like it would be a wide open dunk for him turned into a kid on the other team chasing him down and fouling him by reaching to slap the ball away. It wasn't a dirty foul by any means but this guy definitely thought it was so he shoved the kid to the ground and then reared back like he was going to punch him. Thankfully the ref stepped in and grabbed the guy. The guy was removed from the game but wasn't given a technical which I am still surprised by but I guess that is the least of my worries. I am more worried about the guy and his attitude problems, definitely did not make a good impression on me.

Anyways on Saturday night me and a couple of the Americans (Rahshon Clark formed Iowa State Cyclones and Kristi Smith former player at that other school in Iowa, yes there is a little Iowa State/Iowa rivalry over here as well.) went out in downtown Reykjavik. We stayed out till almost 5 am and then came back to my apartment and crashed. It was a fun night out and the next day the three of us went out to lunch and were able to look back at the night and laugh. Definitely made me feel like I was back in the States, as I always enjoyed going to Village Inn on a Sunday morning after a long night out on Saturday :). The rest of my Sunday I spent relaxing and cleaning my apartment. I was also able to watch the Iowa State women win their first official game vs. Florida Atlantic. Before the game started our Elite 8 banner from last year was dropped inside Hilton Coliseum. Although I wished I would have been able to see it in person, at least I got to catch it online. I still look back on last years season and can't believe everything we accomplished. And every now and then I watch this video and I still get goosebumps from it all! I ended my Sunday by watching the Patriots vs Colts football game. I am a HUGE Peyton Manning fan but was a little worried when I finally had to turn off the game due to not being able to keep my eyes open and the Colts were losing by 14 in the 4th quarter. It definitely made my morning to wake up and find out the Colts came back to win 34-35. I guessed I missed a great ending and a typical Peyton being Peyton leading his team to victory with less than 2 minutes in the game. A prime reason why I love him!

As for today, I think the weekend caught up with me as I slept in way to long, but I am really not complaining. Once I finally got up I went and worked out, then relaxed a little before I headed to practice. After practice I went a ran one of the younger team's practices and then went and watched the first half of our junior teams game. A lot of the girls that play on my team also play on the junior team so its nice to be able to support them in those games. As for now I am laying on my couch watching the Kentucky Men's team play on ESPN 360, and surprisingly they are getting beat by 15 right now by Miami, Ohio. So far I am not TOO impressed with Kentucky freshman John Wall, maybe a little to much hype around this young guy. This could be a good game and a great example of College Basketball.

Well I think that is all I have for now. I hope you all have a great week and until next time have a great week and take care! Also a special congrats to the Iowa State football team as with their win this past weekend the became Bowl Eligible, the first time since 2005. Gotta love Coach Rhoads and what he has done with this program already! Good luck to them this weekend as they travel down to Missouri to take on the Tigers. And I will be honest I have yet to decide who I am cheering for. Once a Cyclone always a Cyclone but I am also Mizzou born and raised!

Most recent game..(not a great pic though)

Got a nice package from my friend Kiley with some Athletic training supplies and

some South Dakota gear that I am definitely supporting!