Ellen's World Domination

I have written into the Ellen show asking if she would be interested in sponsoring me/setting a match against each other/really just for fun :) (Thanks for the help Mom!)

Ellen has a quest for world domination in 2010 so my proposal is to help get her into the beach volleyball world. These are two pics to show ways we can get her into the volleyball world- temporary tattoos, Ellen headbands, etc.

Hope she likes it!!!

Chiapas- Dariam winning the gold!

Since I still haven't had a free 20 mins to sit down and write about Chiapas, here is at least the video of Dariam winning! It is a long video because I recorded the game from about 12-12 on. Her celebration with her partner is super cute, and if you can turn the volume up loud enough, the beginning of her speech is AWESOME! :)

Hopefully, I'll get the rest of the trip up here soon!

MEXICO, MEXICO

There was a song that was played at least 1,000 times through out the weekend and it sounded a little like Alvin and the Chipmunks singing "MEHICO, MEHICO" and then some inaudible Spanish phrase. This song will now be stuck in my head for about a year!!! Haha, it's ok though because I had an absolutely amazing experience there!

I've got to come some sleep, but just wanted to post a short update. Dana and I went 1-2. We played Costa Rica first and lost in 3. Should have beat them, but it took us awhile to get into our rhythm. And we lost to Puerto Rico, the eventual champions, 18-20 in the 3rd!!! Yes, 3rd games are only supposed to go to 15. It was an incredible match to play in, but such a bummer we lost.

Anyway, Dana and I got to experience a really fun international tournament, got to experience some not so great living (which just made us more thankful for what we have), met some awesome people, and overall just had a blast! I will post a more thorough account of the trip when I have time to stop and think :)

In other good news... I MADE THE TEAM GOING TO TURKEY!!!!! YEA!!!!!

http://usavolleyball.org/news/article/36074

Chiapas!!!

It's finally the day!! I leave for Chiapas, Mexico at 11:30 pm Wednesday and get in on Thursday. I don't have a ton of information about it but we play Friday for sure :) probably Saturday for sure and Sunday is probably the finals! You can go to bvbinfo.com to follow along!

Also, USA U26 stuff is starting to pick up which is great! Last week Tuesday's practice was cancelled because I was the only person able to go. Last Thursday there were only two of us. And today there were 9 people! Woohoo! By this Friday the teams will be picked that are going to Turkey in June! I'm really bummed I won't get practice in on Thursday but I hopefully I'll still get chosen to go!!

I'll try to update from Chiapas!

GO USA!!!

Birthday Basket!

I have to mention on here really quick how great all of my co-workers are at the Montessori of Manhattan Beach :)

On Tuesday, I walked into the classroom I was told to go to for the day, and all of the kids screamed "Happy Birthday Miss Michelle!!!!!!!" (Or, Miss-ichelle as some of them say :) ) And, on the table in front of me was a BIG birthday basket full of goodies from the other teachers!! I wish I had taken a picture before I tore it apart, but that's not really where my mind was! I got all kinds of wonderful presents like beach towels, scratch offs, gift cards to PINK BERRY!!!!!!, gift cards to Target, yummy healthy snacks, Smart Water, gum, Zico, and all kinds of other great things. It was such an AWESOME gift!!! The teachers at the school really are such nice people and have been so welcoming to me. If any of you read my blog.... THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!! Veronica, one of the teachers I work with a lot, was the one who got it all together which was so nice of her. And, she told me that of all of the birthday baskets done lately, people were by far the most eager to participate in getting mine together. It made me happy to hear that because I don't get to spend a ton of time with my teacher friends outside of work but I think they are all so great! And, I'm glad my co-workers like me :) It's just always nice to hear!

Thanks again teacher friends!!! And thanks to everyone else I got cards and gifts from!!! My Mom sent me some cute new bathroom decorations which was nice. My house is FINALLY starting to come together :)

Believe In Yourself

There are two things I wanted to share:

A. Number 1 (As Scott would say): I made the USA Under 26 training team!!! That means, it is me and about 5 or 6 other girls fighting for two spots to go to Turkey for the World University Championship!!! I'm so excited to have made the training team but I'm definitely not satisfied with just making the training team... I want to go to Turkey!!!!! So, I wanted to share the good news about completing the first step :)

B. Number 2: I was sent an email (from Scott's grandmother and then again from my Uncle J) and it had a lot of life advice with cute animal pictures to go along with each piece of advice. For some reason, the picture above with the advice "Believe In Yourself" stood out to me. I think it is the cutest thing ever, and is actually such good advice!! I feel like it's fitting in every aspect of life but definitely fitting for specifically sports as well. You're only going to be as successful as you believe you can be!! And, if God believes in you, then why shouldn't you believe in you???

Anyway, wanted to share those two fun things :) I'll keep updating on the USA training as things keep coming up!

PS Next tournament- NORCECA in Chiapas, Mexico, May 14, 15, and 16! Go USA!

Birthday Weekend!

Well, my birthday was celebrated a little bit different than usual this year, but it still ended up being a good weekend!

I definitely missed getting to share my birthday with my family, and I missed getting to be there for my Mom's and Courtney's birthdays as well! Even if we didn't get to spend the actual day together we were usually able to have some sort of birthday dinner for the 3 of us, close to our birthdays! Usually we go to dinner (or my Dad or Mom fix it), have some cake, open some presents, you know the usual.

This year, I woke up at 4:45 am, picked up my partner Tori Grafeman and we drove up to Santa Barbara for the AVP Qualifier. My coach Nancy Mason drove up with Whitney Pavlick (another volleyball player/friend of mine) to help coach us, which was really awesome! Nancy brought me a little present to open too, which was super nice!

Anyway, we played our two matches which I already wrote about, the second was such a heartbreaker!!!! And, since we were super bummed we lost, I hung out and watched Cayley's match finish up (they won the match I watched!) and then we headed back to Hermosa as soon as possible. We got back and I pretty much laid on the couch all day not planning on doing anything at all because I played 2 matches and drove 5 1/2 hours that day and was totally exhausted. But, then my awesome roommates (Mitch, Taylor and Taylor's girlfriend Brittany) came home and all decided since it was my birthday we had to get out and do SOMETHING! We went and got a piece of pizza from Paisano's which is my FAVORITE pizza place in the area, and then we went to hang out at a place down the street where our friend works. We danced a little and hung out and then headed BACK to Paisano's for round 2 haha. Yes, we went to get pizza twice in one night, which, if you know me, is the best birthday dinner ever, haha. We were all pretty tired so we went back to the house and passed out. It wasn't the craziest birthday ever but I totally appreciated my friends helping me make the best out of my not so great day!

The next day Tori and I were supposed to fly to Ft. Lauderdale but since there were only 8 teams signed up and we needed 12 we decided not to take the risk and save the money. So, I drove up to San Diego so I could hang out with Scott and our friends down here. I got in Friday afternoon and Scott and I grabbed a bite to eat and then got ready for the baseball game. It was beerfest (don't worry MeeMaw, I didn't have any :) ) so Scott had a few friends meet up and we all went to the game together. It was my first Padres game this season so I was super excited to go! We hung out, watched the game and then went out for a little bit with everyone.

The rest of the weekend has consisted mostly of getting Scott and his roommate, Steve, moved into their new apartment which is just as awesome as the last one! It is super nice and is basically connected to the baseball field which is really cool! On the 7th floor of their building is a "party" area which is for everyone in the building to use and you can literally watch the baseball game from there! It looks over right field so it's a great view!

Anyway, I will head back early tomorrow morning to get another week of training started! My next tournament will be the NORCECA in Mexico that I qualified for with Dana and that is May 15th weekend. I am so excited for that! And, I will get to see my old UT teammate Dariam Acevedo there because she plays for the Puerto Rican beach national team!!

Have a great week! Happy Sunday!