Amy Mohr

Lindsay is now gone...she left Umeå around 19.00.  She had to spend the night in Stockholm since her flight takes off so early today.  I had an amazing time with Lindsay here and I know she really enjoyed it herself!!  I was happy she got to meet some of my friends here and I was even more happy to see how well everybody got a long!  It was unbelievable how things worked out so well.  I have a feeling she may be coming back to visit again...perhaps soon Linds??

Today is my 4th and final day of camp with the little kids.  The last 4 days have hit me hard with basketball.  On Sunday we started practice up again.  Two girls are sick so it's hard to have a solid practice of 5 vs. 5.  But we were able to shoot some and run up and down the court which was good.  Yesterday's schedule is a lot like my schedule today.  10.00-11.30 morning practice with the team...then camp 13.00-16.00....and then practice again 18.30-20.00.  Last night I was so exhausted I couldn't do anything.  I just laid in my bed feeling like I had been run over by a truck a couple of times. HA! 

Tomorrow I have the day-off for New Years Eve!!  I have a feeling I will resting almost the entire day.  Then later Anna, Julia and myself will be attending a party with the Dalen innebandy team.  It will include dinner and probably some fireworks!!  I think they are expecting around 30 people so it's going to be a lot of fun!

Well now it is time for me to get up and get ready for my crazy day.  Coffee is always a good kick-start!  

Peace out!

 

SO I know it has been awhile since I have written on this thing...but life has been really, really busy.  Mainly because my friend Lindsay is here and we have been having so much fun together!!  She really loves Sweden and I am so happy she likes it here!!  Maybe she will come and live here!!  That would be SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!



CHRISTMAS EVE
Ok so know I will try and re-cap the events of the last week!  First it started off with Christmas.  Christmas is celebrated here on the 24th and we spent it with Julia (on my team) and her mother.  During the day, Lindsay, Shannon, Kyle and myself took a walk around Umeå.  It was actually a very nice day!  Latter that evening, we went over to Julia's for a fantastic dinner!  Her mom made some great quich.  One with the Vasterbotten cheese (local cheese made here) and one with olives, feta, and tomates.  Tasted amazing!!  The best was her famous fish soup that left us all in food comas.  It was unbelievably delicious!  After dinner we opened presents!!  I got a brand new coffee mug (which is gigantic!!) and the most exciting thing....a brand new dress for News Years Eve!!!  I love it!!  I got Lindsay some presents that I think she enjoyed or will enjoy.  Some Swedish candle holders, a scarf, some great tea from my favorite local fika place and a shirt.  I think Julia made out the best though!  She recieved a brand new digital camera, some i.d. makeup, and some clothes.  After presents we feasted on some cheese and crackers and a wide variety of fruits!  And not mention ice cream with cloudberries!!  It was a great evening and we didn't make it home until almost 12.30 at night!!  Thanks Julia and Kerstin for a great day, especially during a time when friends and family mean so much to us!!





PRESENTS!!!
  
 


 CHRISTMAS DAY
On Christmas day we decided to take a journey to the Baltic Sea...aka...the ocean (sort of)!!  I'm sitting with Lindsay right now and the first thing she remembers or says, is that it was freezing.  It was really cold but it was also very beautiful!!  Us girls from Colorado think something like that is pretty cool since we are from a land-locked state.  After our little visit out to Holmsund, we went and ate lunch at the hospital which consisted of only meatballs and tiny sausages.  Haha...but seriously!   Later that day we went to IKSU (work-out facility) and worked out.  Julia and I went swimming, went in the hot tub and also did sauna.  I felt very relaxed and comfortable afterwards.  After IKSU, we went and had a fika at Waynes!!  Lindsay's first fika in Sweden which she absolutely loved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  In the evening, Lindsay made us dinner and we just sat around and watched tv.  A very cozy, relaxing XMAS!!  It was great.  I am so happy and greatful that Lindsay is here because everything just feels so comfortable.





BOXING DAY...ANNANDAGEN (swedish)
The day-after Christmas is kind of a celebrated day here in Sweden.  Well exactly, it's more for the younger generation and it involves shopping and maybe partying later in the night.  So that is exactly what we did!!  I actually can't believe how much shopping we did!  We started at 10:00am...when the stores opened...and last until about 3pm or so.  5 straight hours of shopping.  We did take about a 30 minute fika pause at Schmäck!  My favorite place to fika!!  Then it was back to more shopping.  I bought some new boots that I love, a dress, and a couple nice shirts.  Lindsay purchased the most and I really can't believe how much she got.  It's crazy!!  HAHA!  Then later, we hosted a dinner at our place!  There were 8 of us total and Lindsay (of course) made the entire dinner!  Sophia, Jonas, Mattias, Julia, Shannon, Kyle, Lindsay, and myself were the featured guests!!  Sanna also stopped by for a little bit.  Lindsay made an american meal of chicken with a mushroom sauce on top of brown rice, sweet potatoe fries, and a salad with homemade dressing.  It was great!!  It really turned out to be a great night, and I think it's very special that Lindsay and my swedish friends got along so well!!  I am so happy for that!! 


DECEMBER 27th
Now I am almost caught up...but I do have to write about one more thing that is so exciting!!  Last night, Lindsay and I went out to dinner.  We went to an Indian restaurant called Taj Mahal and it was soooooo good!  After dinner, we went on a walk through the centrum and deceided to go for a fika at Waynes.  As we were walking by the Sandic hotel, we ran into the top 3 contestants of Swedish Idol, including the winner Kevin.  This is pretty exciting here in Sweden!!  Lindsay didn't know who they were, but of course I knew them and their names and I quickly explained to her who they were!!  She then went straight up to them and started to talk to them about American Idol and everything!!  It was pretty funny how we were sitting there having a conversation with th 3 finalst of Swedish Idol.  And Kevin...the winner!! HAHA!!  They shook our hands and we introduced ourselves.  Even got into a conversation about why we were all in Umeå...I told them I played for the Comets.  I guess they have a concert today in town!  But we did the crazy thing and took pictures with them...so everybody can get a look at some famous Swedish celebrities!!  They were very nice and friendly and fun to meet!!



So now I am all caught up to today.  Shannon and I have started a basketball camp for the younger girls in our club.  I did the same thing last year.  So we have camp for 3 hours a day for 4 days total.  We finish up on Tuesday.  Jan 2-5 we will also do another camp for the U16 team and also the U16 boys team!  Lindsay has gone skiing today with our friends Sophia and Jonas.  It's good that they were able to take her since I have a lot of basketball today.  Today also marks our first day back from break with the starting of practice!!  We will have our first practice back tonight for 2 hours.  Anna arrives back from Stockholm also today!!  I can't believe tomorrow is Lindsay's last day here :(  It's really sad.  We have been having SO MUCH fun together!!  Well goodbye for now.  I have to get some work done!  This week has seriously flew by...and I have to get things back in order.  Hope everybody had a great xmas!!!  Love you all!!

GOODBYE!!

Lindsay made it today!!  It's so great to have her here!!  Yippeeee!!!  We are going to have so much fun!!  Tomorrow we will celebrate Christmas here...Sweden style!  I know it's Christmas Eve but that's when they celebrate Christmas here!!  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!!

Love ya!

I was just informed by my former college that I made the All-Time Century team in the RMAC (the conference I played for in college at Fort Lewis).  The top 12 players in the RMAC women's basketball history were selected and I was choosen!  This is so exciting!!  The RMAC is celebrating their 100 year anniversary and have decided to selected All-Time teams in each sport.  This is a huge honor for me...I'm kind of speechless.  Me and one other player are the most recent in the last 10 years or so.  I can't believe this!!  Check out this link...

http://rmacsports.org/sports/wbkb/2008-09/news/rmac_wbasketball_all_time_team.pdf?dec= 

I am sure they are making a much bigger deal out of this back home, but being in Sweden playing basketball is obviously better!!  Doesn't mean much here but I am sure all my friends and family back home understand!!  Thought I would share the exciting, great news!!

Later

SOOO...Christmas is vastly approachig and soon it will be here!!  Today I went Christmas shopping and got it all done!!  Thank goodness!!  It's so stressful right now shopping because everybody acts like a mad person.  OH it's crazy!  But I am glad it is finished!!  I am really looking forward to Christmas...which is celebrated on Dec. 24th here, btw.  My friend Lindsay will be arriving on Tuesday!!  Can't wait, we are going to have some fun!!

 On Monday, Shannon and I have decided to celebrate American Day.  If you are wondering what that is...we made it up.  Haha!  Our swedish roommate Anna is going home for xmas and Shannon's boyfriend and my friend don't arrive until Tuesday, realized it's just going to be me and her.  So therefore, we should have American Day!!  Yeah we think of the craziest stuff.  We have some ideas, but not completely sure of all the details.  It is going to involve things like eating burgers (maybe McDonalds or something?), playing american football, xmas caroling (door to door), watching a movie with no swedish subtitles (haha), and some other stuff we are trying to think of.  Yeah we are dorks.  But it is fun!!  Swedish folk are more than welcome to join, but only American behavior is excepted!!

The last couple days of practice have been pretty intense.  We have gone hard which is a really good thing.  If we carry this over into a game, we can do some good things!!  We leave Friday morning and travel to Visby which is in Gotland (an island off the coast) and then on Sunday we play Marbo.  Marbo is located about an one hour drive from Göteburg.  These our last two games before xmas.  Then we have a week off and start back up practicing Dec. 28th.  It's going to be a nice week off!  I have to plan some fun adventures with Lindsay.  It's going to be a lot of fun!  Well I don't have much to write about.  I will keep you posted on the upcoming games!  Hopefully I have some victories to report!  That's my goal anyway.

NOTE: I think I passed my Swedish Level 2 exam!!  I should have received a notification by now if i failed...and I haven't received anything.  SO...I think i passed...Level 3---HERE I COME!

Later homies!

Remember this Dad??!!  I told you someday we would send you a picture...but instead I decided to just post it on my blogg so you could see.  Last night we just all (Julia, Anna, Shannon, and me) hungout and watched the movie Hancock.  The movie was alright...nothing that great. 

Today I have basketball practice starting at 16.00 with the U16 team and then basketball school with the kids at 18.00.  Then our own practice at 19.30.  Busy, busy day!

Tomorrow we are going Christmas shopping after lunch!!  First xmas shopping I have done all year.  I can't believe xmas is in like 9 days.  The time is flying by so fast!

This weekend we play two games away.  We travel to Visby and Marbo.  Play Friday and Saturday.  We must have a solid week of practice this week!  We HAVE to win some games.  Well talk to you later more in detail perhaps!  Goodbye!

Today we lost by 5 pts, in a game that we lead the entire time, 55-50.  I am so mad right now and frustrated.  Why can't we finish a game??  Well I better stop writing because I am too angry.  Jämtlands only lead of the game came with 1:30 left in the entire game!!  WTF???  We beat them in every statistical category...rebounding, steals, less turnovers...but they beat us in the one that counts the most.  POINTS.  Dang it.

Today I had 19 rebounds.  My personal best this season.  Also had 18 points and 4 steals and only 1 turnover.  But these stats don't really mean that much to me if we can't win a game.

We are on our way back to Umeå right now in the bus.  It's kind of nice because our bus has internet and I am glad I brought my computer.  On our way to Östersund today we saw moose!!  I thought that was pretty exciting.  Too bad we didn't win our game.  :( 

Hope everyone is having a better weekend. 

Vi hörs.

Last night we celebrated the Swedish Lucia!  It was my second year doing it, so Shannon was crowned this year as the Lucia.  Shannon wore the crown of candles on her head.  This year I was one of the angels.The Lucia is a Christmas tradition that symbolizes the celebration of light (since it's so dark here all the time).  But it's fun!!  We sang songs in front of about 250-300 people.  It was for the Comets club-organization, so all the teams were there for the celebration, mainly all the young kids (that I help coach sometimes) and their parents. 





We sang 6 songs....including a duet by Shannon and I.  We had to sing Swedish lyrics that were pretty difficult.  We got some good laughs from the audience, but it was a lot of fun!!  We also sang a duet of Deck the Halls just me and her, it was great.  Haha!!  After the celebration...TB (team manager) told us that is was top 3 in all of the Lucias he has been to.  That might be because of Shannon's solo she did on the guitar of Silent Night!  It´sounded very beautiful!! :)





ROOOOOOMIES!!!  Getting ready was a lot of fun and it was a great team bonding experience also!!

Sorry I have been pretty busy this week so I have not been on my blog for a really long time.  A big reason why is because I have been studying for my Swedish exam which is tomorrow.  I can't believe that is already Friday tomorrow.  This week seriously flew by!  On Saturday we leave for Östersund to play against Jämtland.  A team that is pretty even with us when it comes to competition.  We have had a lot of focus on them this entire week, so I hope it all pays off!!  We are taking the bus there and we leave 7am on Saturday, play at 15.00 (3pm).  I will be looking forward to it! 

Well talk to you all soon.  Hopefully I will have some more time after my test tomorrow.  My test is at 15.00-17.00, then practice after.  Until then I will keep on studying, studying, and studying.  Also construct a scouting report in the middle some where!  Talk to you soon!!

Hejdå!

Haha!  It's like 2.30 in the afternoon right now...and it's dark.  For some reason today, I really noticed it.  MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY.  Oh how I hate Mondays!

I had to take a quick break from watching Sweden vs. Russia in the World Championships of innebandy (floorball).  I was watching the game live on the internet and in some foreign langauge, and after the first period the score was already 6-0 to Sweden.    I think it's already safe to bet they will win this one!  Last nights game was a little more exciting, 5-4 vs. Czech.  Sweden and Finland are the favorites to win...i'm cheering for Sweden!!  :)  I did notice the US team picked up a win vs. Japan (haha!!).

Back to work today!  Work...sure...i guess you can call it that.  I am coaching the younger girls practice tonight and then the even younger girls later tonight.  Then we have practice!  Have to keep testing out the new Russian post player who arrived on Friday.  So far she has only been to one practice and it was before a game, so we still need to get her going with the team.  Today is going to be a challenge.  Teaching her our offense...and she doesn't even know English very well AT ALL!  Get's kind of hard at times.  We felt bad that she was staying at the hotel alone, that we invited her to live with us.  So she has been sleeping in our living room on our spare bed.  I really hope that she works out for the team!  She is tall and that is something we need.  Vi får se!

Our next three games are pretty critical!  If we can pick up at least 2 wins...we are going to set ourselves up pretty well.  Atleast still give us a chance to make it to the playoffs in the end.  Jämtland is this Saturday and Visby-Marbo the following weekend.  Jämtland and Visby are two beatable teams that we can get wins against if we play hard and good!  We are a great team there in pieces, now it's just a matter of putting it all together consistently for 40 minutes of play!  Going to work on it this week at practice!!  

Here is a picture that was in the newspaper today from our game on Saturday.  I'm looking pretty white don't you think?!?


I also have another big challange this week.  My TEST on Friday for my swedish course.  To move on to level 3!  And it's this week.  So I must study this week!  I MUST STUDY!!!  So that means I should get off my computer and get to studying.  

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!  Talk to you soon!! OH BTW...Step-Up 3 is out!!  SWEET!!
Late    

We lost our game last night vs.Telge 62-76.  We were up 10 pts in the first quarter against the number one team in league.  We just made too many mistakes.  Better luck next time!!  Big game this weekend vs. Jämtland.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Not really wanting to write much right now...but maybe tomorrow.

later

Sorry...but the bloggs are getting fewer and fewer lately.  Things seem to have picked up for some reason.  Yesterday I was really sick.  The sickess I have ever been here.  After lunch I went home and took a nap.  When I woke up, my head was throbbing and my nose was running.  I think I had some type of sinus infection.  I got up before practice and realized that I wouldn't be practicing.  So I went to practice but just sat there and watched.  Then I came home and went straight to bed.  I slept from 8:00pm until 10:00am the next day...that was 14 hours of straight sleeping!  But it turns out that it was the best thing for me to do!!  Because when I woke up this morning, I felt a hundred times better.  A slight headache but it was managable! 

Today we scrimmage against the IKSU men's basketball team (div. 2) and we actually beat them for once!  We play them almost every Thursday and today we picked up the first win...haha!  We have a really tough game this weekend agaisnt the number one team in our league, Telge.  They haven't lost a game yet this whole year.  Maybe we could give them their first loss!! :)  That would be great for us!!  Practices have been different lately, more intense and the girl's seem to be playing with higher confidence.  I hope we can carry this out now and pick up some more wins!!  We figured it out late last year, and hopefully this year it comes sooner!!

Exciting news!!  Tomorrow arrives ou new player from Russia.  Her name is Anatasia.  She will not play on Saturday but hopefully we can get her ready to play the following weekend!  She is a post player, 6'3...190cm.  Will give us some more height which is great.  Anna, Shannon and I will pick her up at the airport kl 12.20 tomorrow.  Then we will have some lunch with her!  I'm looking forward to meeting her and seeing what she can offer us!

Hope everybody has a great week so far!!  Tomorrow is FRIDAY!!  TGIF!! 

Take care homies!!

She is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO adorable!!  My best friend Janey's little girl who was born the 1st week of November!!  They named her Norah Jane Patella!  She is so cute!!  I can't wait to see her!!  Not until this though :(  But it will come soon!!

Congratulations Matt and Janey on your beautiful daughter!!

Love ya!