Off to Lund! GAME TIME!
Tomorrow morning we leave to travel way SOUTH of Sweden! We will fly into Malmo and then drive to Lund were we face Eos in our second match-up! Two more games left in the qualification and then we are finished! Tomorrow is an important game for us in order to finish these qualifications out on top, which is our goal!!
Our flight leaves Umeå at 9.30 and the game is at 19.00. We will spend the night there and return on Thursday back to Umeå. So a pretty quick trip! Our last and final game will then be on Saturday vs. Sallen.
Game day tomorrow!! SO READY!!
GO COMETS!!
My Eye!
Man I am hot right now!! HAHA!!! Kind of looks like I got in a bad fight!!!
Just thought I would share!
Hejdå
VICTORY!!!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! We won tonight 93-86 vs. Eskilstuna!!!! It was a really close game through out, but we pulled off at the end!! Feels pretty great right now to have won 3 out of 4 qualification games!! Now only two games remain and in one week from today, we will be completely done the season! This game was really important because it takes a little pressure off of us to finish in the top 2. One more win and we are guaranteed. But I don't want to talk about it because I don't need any jinx right now.
So the game was awesome tonight! Some players really stepped up and played great! This was completely a team effort tonight and the reason why we won!! Shannon had a great game, shooting 6-10 from the 3 point land and finishing up with 27 points!! I am so happy for her!! Anna Ö played solid yet again, scoring 21 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. I told her after the game that I have never seen her fight for the ball like that on the offensive rebounds. It was so great to see. And Ida had a spectacular game with a season high 22 points and 5 assists. She went 4-7 from behind the 3 point arch which was great to see! As a team we made 12 three pointers (2-2 Anna Ö ;)) That has been one of our greatest weaknesses this entire year, so it was good to see us make some 3 balls!!
I myself had quite the battle today...I ended up with 13 points and 9 rebounds. But my key moment was when I received an elbow straight to my eye early in the 2nd quarter. I didn't think much of it at the time, but a couple plays later I wiped my eye and noticed it was bleeding. So I took a substitution and went to look at my eye to see if I could get it to stop bleeding. When I went to go look at it, I saw the gash above my eye that was causing all the blood. There wasn't much I could do at the time, so I left it alone and at half-time a doctor came and looked at it and thought I would have to get stiches. But in the mean time, I just put some tape stripes on it and played with the stripes over my eye...pretty nice picture of me hugging Anna in the newspaper and you can see what I am talking about! Anyway, everything is okay and I think I will survive. After the game, Shannon, Anna, and Julia accompained me to the emergency room at the hospital so I could get my eye fixed. We seriously waited for 3 hours in the waiting room until finally I was called back. I didn't have to get stiches but instead they glued my cutt above my eye. It's a little swollen right now, but I think everything will be okay for the next game...just a crazy story to tell now!
So it kind of sucks that most of the night was spent at the hospital, but I am still so happy with the win!! It was a great game and we had an amazing turn-out as well. I love our fans and I enjoy their support so much! Especially the drummers...haha!! Thanks everyone for your wonderful support, we really really do appreciate it.
Here are some more pictures from the game taken by the local newspaper VF.
My eye---looks strange in this picture....I was so happy after!! KRAM ANNA!!!
SWEETNESS!!!!
Hope everybody had a great weekend!! Mine turned out great with this win!! Couldn't ask for anything more!!
KRAMAR!!!
Game Day!!
GO COMETS!!!
Happy Waffle Day!
Today Shannon, Anna and I woke up earlier than normal to make some waffles since it's waffle day!! Julia came over and we all sat around eating waffles!! Hehe!! There is always some type of food day we are celebrating in Sweden! Kind of like it. Here they eat waffles with jam and whip cream. I made sure to eat one like that and then of course also the american way...with butter and syrup! They were great! Shannon is the waffle master!!
Not much else going on! Went to shoot-around this morning and now doing some laundry. Just waiting around for the big day on Sunday!
I forgot to post some pictures from the last week...so here are some pictures from the last two weeks!!
HAIR DAY!
Cutting Shannon's hair....check out with what...haha.
Dying my hair...no more roots!!
GO SKYHAWKS!
Watching Fort Lewis all the way in Sweden!! Check out all our gear!!!
PROJECTOR
Watching the Fort Lewis women's basketball game on Tony's projector!! Sweet! It was 3 am...True fan!
Alright!! That's all folks!!
Ha det så bra!
Dang It!!
Now we are 2-1 in qualifications and play a key match on Sunday vs. Eskilstuna again. It's an extremely important game for us!! We have to focus on them this week and execute on Sunday. Hope it goes well.
Finally we are back in Umeå. After a 3-day trip (the longest this year) we made it back to our home finally! I am extremely tired right now and longing to just lay in bed all day. I am going to watch some One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl and maybe a movie also! Might as well. No practice today. We need some rest! I hope everybody had a great weekend!!
KRAM!
WE WIN...WE WIN...WE WIN!!
So just wanted to write real quick and tell everyone we won today! I will write more when I get home on Tuesday. Have an important game tomorrow, so now I will go and sleep! Need plenty of rest. I was in some foul trouble today so the good news is that maybe I will be more rested for tomorrow! Hope everybody had a great weekend!!
GO COMETS!!!!
Hitting the Road
Wednesday game was great! We won by 25 points, the most ever this year. It felt really great!! It really was a great TEAM effort!! Our defense was solid in the second half. Going into half-time we only had a 1 point lead. THEN we picked up our defense a lot and only allowed the other team to score 13 points in two quaters of action. That is so great!! Anna Ö had a game high 25 pts and 9 rebounds, Ida had 14 pts, then I followed with 12 pts and 15 rebounds. I think it's pretty crazy when I have more rebounds than points...haha!! It maybe wasnt my best game of the year, but I will take a win like this any day and I don't care how I play whatsoever!! Ida even had 3 blocks and held the other team's high scorer to 0 pts! Excellent D!! I was so proud and excited after the game!! We also had a great group of supporters! Fans banging drums and shouting...it was great!! I love that atmosphere. Hope to see them again!
This week has been pretty slow. Our practices have been good, focused and concentrated. The tone is definetly different and I like it! Hopefully it carries over to the games. We had a treat this weekend...our friend Tony let us borrow his projector. So my roommates and myself abused it a little and had a little movie marathon viewing session :) It was fun!! But then he took it back :(
Tonight was low-key. Another bowling night with some friends. John, Patte, and Christian from Dalen accompained Shannon, Anna, Julia and myself to a mini-bowling competition. I'm sure the guys kicked our butts but I must say...I am EXTREMELY impressed with Julia's bowling skills. That girl can bowl for sure!!
Well it's late...I should be in bed sleeping but I am not! I can't believe it's the end of March already. Hope everybody has a great weekend!!!
Anna taking it to the house!! Love this pic!!
GO COMETS!!
25 Point Victory!!!
SO NICE TO SEE ON THE SCOREBOARD!!!
We win tonight by 25 points vs. Eos!! Our first game of the qualification round and we really stepped it up!! I am so proud of us and the effort we gave tonight. Hopefully we keep this up and keep going!!
Here are some pictures from the game that were taken from the local newspaper!!
Feels so good right now to win by 25!!! It's pretty late right now and I need to go to bed...but I'll try and write more about the victory tomorrow!!
GO COMETS!!!
GAME DAY!!
GO COMETS!!
Irish Love!
Ireland people...gotta love them!!
Sometimes they speak the same language as me...
Maybe they know something about coaching basketball???....
But they are pretty nice :) And I really enjoy their company!!!
Eating some oysters in the VIP room!! YUMMMMMY!!!!
Had a great day today. Had practice around 2.30pm then went to church right after. Had a really great practice I thought!! Met up with my new group of buddies at church...Tony, Hanna, Julia, Shannon, Thomas, Danny, and Rebecca. After church we all went next door to schmäck to fika!! Cup of tea! Then we all came over to our place and spent the evening playing some games! It was a lot of fun. I am really really bad at Twister btw. We also had ourselves a pretty intense competitve round of spoons. Good times for sure!!
Now it's time to focus on our important games this week!! We will play Eos this Wednesday in our first qualification game! This game is HUGE!! We have to start it off right!! I'm excited and ready for it. Going to do whatever it takes. Well I better hit the hay because it's late and I need plenty of rest for this week. Hope everybody had a great weekend!!!!
Cheers!!
Did Somebody Say SWEET SIXTEEN!!
Keep it up ladies!! I'm still cheering from you all the way over here in Sweden!!
GO SKYHAWKS!!
Go Skyhawks!!
GOOD LUCK GIRLS!! GO SKYHAWKS!!
FLC!!
:S
I have been feeling the pressure lately about what I am going to do next year and even after basketball. What should I do?? Should I go home and stay...maybe get a career and begin to build my life up some?? If I go home, then that means I have to give up the one thing I love the most, and that is basketball. I don't have the same opportunity to play at home like I do here. I mean that is why I come all the way over here. :S But I really have been missing all my family and friends back home lately. They are always there for me and I feel so secure in them!! They are my back bone especially during difficult times. I miss them so much!!! And love them so much!!! OR should I stay and play basketball in Sweden. Also another strong possibility. I mean I like it here a lot. I have made some great friends and been given the opportunity to continue to play basketball. Even make a living off it!! But it gets hard being away from comfort zone back home. People know me so well there I feel, and it's just harder for me here to get that connection. Harder to relate I guess. But I love the culture here and I really do have a great appreciation for Sweden and could really see myself building a life here as well. OH THIS IS SO CONFUSING RIGHT NOW!!!
So lately I have been kind of stressed out with this. I don't want it to bring me down, but I can feel it is. My motivation is kind of running low. I really do love basketball so much and pretty much all of my life has been determined through basketball. So I have no idea what my life would be like without it?? Is that even possible?? Would I just be totally lost?? Okay maybe I am getting a little too deep right now. But those are some feelings and emotions I have been feeling lately.
Now moving on....tonight Shannon and I hosted a home group from our church. And it went great!!!! The fika was good and everybody loved the american cookies I made!! Maybe one of the best batches of the year!! I am really enjoying these group of individuals. It's so fascinating to see how they grew up with religion and what kind of influences it has on them...culturally!! It's really nice I think. Plus we get to hangout with new and exciting people that share the same views and opinions of God. It's always fun to be around that especially in a country where that can be difficult at times. But I think tonight was a great success and Shannon and I really know how through a good fika (coming from the states...haha!)
It was also fun today because Shannon, Anna and I went ice skating at Umeå Arena where the city's hockey team plays. It was my first time on skates in a really really long time. I was very clumsy at first but started to get better and better as time went by. Only fell once or twice I think and I managed not to get hurt. That's always a huge accomplishment of mine!! HAHA!! Jari and Danny invited us to join the SFI students and families for free skating. It was so much fun. Shannon is pretty good on skates, and same with Anna. I was the one that looked like a fool! Shannon and I got pulled into a tag game with some little kids. They wore us out! But the end of it, Shannon and I could barely move and we both had broke a sweat. And the little kids still had energy to keep on going...we had to tell them we could do anymore. But it was fun while it lasted. Shannon took some pictures, check them out!!
Our first qualification game will be a week from today. We are unsure who we play right now, but will find out after this weekend. I pray and hope everything goes so well for us!!! Well gotta go!!
PS. I have been watching American Idol over here...and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Danny!! I hope he takes it all the way!!
Hejdå och godnatt!!
SPA DAY....SUCCESS!!!
OKAY, as soon as I got in the car with Sophia we turned off our cellphones just to take a little break from the world. It only took around an hour to drive to Övik, and before we knew it, we were pulling into Sophia's grandma's apartment. Her grandma was so cute! I really wish that I would have been able to have a conversation with her, but I tried a little and it really did force me to speak some Swedish. That was interesting...haha!! Sophia did a good job of keeping us both involved in conversations, being my personal translator at times.
After a quick bite to eat, we had to get over to the turkish spa for our appoinment starting at 18.00. I have no idea if anybody knows anything about a turkish spa??? But I absolutely had no idea and I was really in for a treat! When we first got there, we changed into our bikinis and were given towels. We walked to this giant suana-shower room were we just sat and relaxed for a bit. Then they come around and pour warm water over you and that felt amazing! Then after that, we laid on this giant slab of marble and they literally scrubbed us down from head to toe...I'm not even kidding you. So it was like getting my entire body exfoilated! Felt pretty good and pretty clean afterwards. Then we went to relax in the relax room with some wine we had brought and meet some new friends (who actually knew Sophia's family some how...small town I guess). Well none of them spoke very much english so I found myself sitting in the midst of a swedish conversation that I didn't really understand so much. It's alright though...I was relaxing ;) Then we went in for our full body massages which were absolutely WONDERFUL. The exact thing I needed. Then after the massage we went back to the suana-shower and then finished with a skum treatment. The best way I describe this is just a bunch of bubbles and then another scrub down. Then 3 hours later, we were done!! It was great!!
After the spa, Sophia and me were pretty tired and thought that maybe we could to O'Learys, have a glass of wine, and have some dessert. So we went ahead and did that, but as the night kept going, so did Sophia and me!! Then it turned out to be pretty late when we returned home...hehe. We meet some new friends along the way and it was such a great night. That was the beauty of it, just doing whatever we wanted!! And then it also ended with a food run to Max...of course!!
It was nice on Saturday because we slept in until around 10.00. We then got up and drove out to Sophia's family's summer house. It was pretty out there and ton of snow. I am sure it is absolutely the most fun ever in the summer!! Can't wait to go back then!! I thought it was so pretty out there. It sat right on the coast of the ocean and the view was amazing! Just so, so, so beautiful!
Then Sophia, her granmother and me went to watch a hockey game. Modo's women's hockey team...Sophia's friends Frida from Umeå was playing. We walked over the arena because it was literally right next door to Sophia's grandma's place. Sophia's farmor had a kick which was sweet!! She even gave me a ride on it!!
**Just so all you Colorado people know....Peter Forsberg is from the town of Övik. So whenever I told people that I was from Colorado...I automatically got AVALANCHE yelled back at me!! Haha!!
Then it was back to Umeå by 16.00. What an eventful trip!! But a great one!! Loved it! And I wanted to say THANKS so much to Sophia and her grandmother for this wonderful weekend!! It's exactly what I needed!! PERFECT!!! Thanks again, your great!!!
MUCH LOVE!!
SPA DAY!!!
Today I am busy studying for my Steg 3 test which will be about everything that we have learned the last 6 weeks. Going over a bunch of review right now. There has been a lot learned, I just need to remember it all ;)
Tonight Sophia and myself plan to wine and dine ourselves and then treat ourselves to a spa treatment!! I absolutely can't wait and this is something I have been longing for....for a REALLY LONG TIME!!! It will be nice to get away from Umeå for a night and just forget about everything. I am really looking forward to not thinking ab out anything and just RELAXING! Relaxation...YES YES YES!!
Tomorrow night we are having a team party!! Everybody has to dress up as a famous singer....guess who I am?????? Can't tell right now...but you can guess!! It's a good one!! I am really looking forward to the night!!
This weekend is going to be great!! Hope everybody else has a great weekend!!
KRAM o PUSS
Sportlovsbasket!!
This whole week Shannon, Anna and myself coached a camp for the youger Comets team! It actually was really rewarding by the end of it that almost all the girls had taken what we said and applied it!! They do actually listen to us sometimes!! This is the part of my job I love and it really does feel great! I know the girls really loved it also!
We lost our game last night by 11 pts I think. We had a 2 point lead at half, but just couldnt finish up the second half. The good news is that I really think it prepared us for our next 6 games we will be playing in. If you didn't know, we will be playing in the qualification play-off games starting March 18th. We will be playing the top 2 teams in Div. I and then Eskilstuna (the last place team in the Damligan). 6 game series with 3 teams!! I really hope we win every single game!! That would be great!! And I really really think we can do it!! We are not sure yet what 2 teams we will be playing from the Div I because they have to have a play-off first. Soon we will know after next weekend!!
Tomorrow I have my Swedish test for Steg 3. I have not done much studying because of camp this week and then our game on Wednesday. Tonight and tomorrow during the day I will devote much of my time to studying for it. It will be about EVERYTHING I have learned these last 6 weeks in this course. Test is at 15.00! I am pretty nervous but once I get to studying I know I will feel better.
After the test tomorrow, I am headed to Övik with Sophia!!!!!!! I can't wait!! A night at the spa!! I have been waiting for this for quit some time!! It is going to feel amazing and we made a pack no internet or cell phones. I'll be back Saturday for our team party, but I will talk about this later!! Just waiting for my mini-vacation!! Soon Sophia, very soon!!
Gotta run, this was a rushed one!!
Vi hörs!
Last Game of the Regular Season
Tomorrow we face Marbo in our last game of regular season. Want to end the year on a high note!! Wanna pick up that victory for sure!! Game starts at 19.00 at Gammliahallen!!
GO COMETS!!
