Farewell!

Yes, I'm on a camel... thanks Mom :)

Sooo I have some sad news, but it's not really so sad!

Now that my new website is up, I am able to post blogs directly to my website!!!! The sad news is, I will no longer use this blog, but the great news is, I will still be keeping everyone updated through blogs on my new site!!! www.michellemoriarty.com - It's super easy!

Thanks everybody who has been reading my blog! I hope you keep reading it (and commenting on it because I love reading comments) on my new site!!!

WOW, Sorry!!!

Sorry for the incredibly long delay in posts! These last few weeks of my life have just FLOWN by and I am still just now trying to catch my breath!

Long Beach, NY was obviously a great trip! Taking a first place there helped my ranking out a ton and it's always fun to get a WIN!!!

Turkey (which we flew to straight from NY) was absolutely AMAZING!!! Everything about that trip made for an incredible experience. The volleyball was fun and challenging, hanging out with my USA teammates and coaches was a blast, and getting to experience a new culture was so fun! Overall, it was just an awesome trip. Emily and I finished 7th. In our pool, we had the teams that ended up finishing 2nd and 3rd in the tournament. We beat the Germans who finished 3rd, and lost to the Czech Republic team that finished 2nd. 7th was not a bad finish by any means but we were definitely good enough to medal! Oh well, now I just have to keep working hard for next year!

After Turkey I went to Milwaukee and spent some QT with my Dad's side of the family that lives in Wisconsin. It was so fun to see the Wisconsin Moriarty clan (Uncle Bruce and fam, and Grammy)! I always have so much fun when I'm with them. And, I just can't believe how grown up my little cousins are!! Tommy and AJ are college boys now and Pierce is starting high school! Craziness... The other reason I was out in Wisconsin was for another AVP U26 event. I played in this event with Dana Kabashima and we finished 3rd. It was tons of fun to play with her again!

Then, my sister Courtney and her husband Anthony came out to visit! It was SOOO wonderful to see them! Courtney is about 8 months pregnant so I'm lucky they were even able to make it out! I had so so so much fun and really appreciate them coming! We spent July 4th BBQing and watching the Astros play the Padres, then fireworks! Then, we got to hang out and enjoy the rest of the cloudy week together :)

This past weekend I played in a CBVA in Mission Beach (San Diego) with Diane Copenhagen. I grew up doing indoor USA Volleyball stuff with her so it was fun to be reunited! We played well together (especially since we never practice together) and finished 3rd! It was also a fun tournament because Scott was able to be there and his parents were in town so they got to see me play! It was so nice of them to come by!

Next up on the list is Hermosa Beach this weekend! I have the Hermosa Beach Qualifier on Friday, then the Hermosa U26 event on Sunday. Should be a fun weekend of volleyball, not to mention my sister Jennifer and her family are coming in, my Mom and Dad, and Avery (a girl I coached when I was in Austin) and her mom are coming in!

More exciting times to come!!! :) In the mean time, here are just a few pics... Also, my new website is up www.michellemoriarty.com and I will probably just start posting blogs on that site sometime soon!!!

AVP U26 Long Beach!!!!

Kim DiCello and I won the AVP U26 in Long Beach this weekend!!!!! It was sooo exciting!!!

There were 4 USA teams (the teams going over to Turkey) entered in the tournament and we had a great showing! The two mens teams played each other in the finals with Stafford Slick and Mark Van Zwieten (the U26 team) beating Madison McKibbin and Tony Ciarelli (the U23 team) for first place! It was a really exciting match... three games, 15-13 in the third!

Kim and I played four matches yesterday and ended up 4-0! Our first match was against the other USA team (Jazmin Machado and Caitlin LeDoux) and we went 3. They played great and it was a really good match. Our second match was against Cayley Thurlby and Briana Hinga and we won that in two but the second game was super close! 24-22 was the final score of the second game and it was so fun to be in a situation like that! Our third match was against the first seeded team (Kim and I were 3rd) and we won in two games, 21-14ish in both games. We ended up playing Cayley and Briana again in the finals! It was super fun and both games were back and forth up until the 21 time out. When the total of my score and my opponents score equals 21 we take a technical time out. For example, the score could be 11-10. And then Kim and I were able to pull away at the end!

It was a really fun day and we ended up having a great time going out to dinner after and celebrating the two USA victories! It ended up that the USA Women finished 1st and 5th, and the men 1st and 2nd! Go USA!

And PS Thanks to my new apparel sponsor Rox Volleyball!!! They provided me with some awesome gear to play in!!!

Jaeger Bands

Shoulder savers!! One of my good friends and sponsors is Alan Jaeger of Jaeger Sports. He is the guru of shoulders and arms, and is very well known in the baseball community. Recently he has decided that volleyball players need as much as help baseball players do when it comes to educating themselves about shoulder care. SO, we discussed the advantages and benefits to using Jaeger Bands, and he took me through the work out.

My shoulder feels way better than it ever has, and I noticed that my shoulder doesn't get nearly as sore anymore after tough practices and tournaments!

Here is a video of me doing my Jaeger Band routine! (minus the arm circles at the beginning)

Thanks Alan!

Santa Monica CBVA!!!

Champions!!!!!!

Dana Kabashima and I played in the CBVA (AAA) in Santa Monica yesterday and won it all! We played about 6 games yesterday and had two really really tough ones against one of the Canadian National Teams! We played them our very first game and very last game of the day. The format was pool play, 1 game to 21 against each team, and then play offs, 1 game to 28.

We won the championship game 28-22!!! (I think)

Here are the videos from the tournament! Both matches are against Canada.

TURKEY, here I come!!!!

TURKEY!!!!!!!!!!! Here I come!!!!
Here are links to the information I have on Turkey!

http://www.wubc2010.org/ - Tourney site - apparently it doesn't have a ton of info but it has cool pics!
http://www.fisu.net/en/Beach-Volleyball-2010-1700.html - FISU website, which is the World University Games organization.
I can't believe it's only a week away!

I am already in San Diego right now getting all ready to head to the Chula Vista OTC!!! We will be training Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then heading back to LA to fly out to New York. We (meaning me and the other USA players- 2 girls teams and 2 boys teams) will play in the AVP U26 event in Long Beach, NY. After that we will fly to Turkey to train for a few days, then start playing!!!

I am so excited for the journey I'm going to be on the next few weeks! I can't believe how lucky I am to have these opportunities. I definitely thank God every day for what He has given me!

Huntington Qualifier Broadcast!!!

My first match tomorrow will be broadcast live!!! The link is http://www.network1sports.com/stations/avp.asp

My partner is Tori Grafeman and one of her friends is a broadcaster. He wants to get into some AVP stuff so he got permission from the AVP to broadcast our game. How cool is that???

Anyway, if you have time tomorrow around 11am (west coast) listen in to hear my match! Tomorrow is the qualifier and Tori and I need to win 3 matches to get into the main draw. It's totally do-able so we need to get in there, take it one match a time and "get 'er done"! :)

Hope you get to enjoy the match! Hook'em!

Are you aware that Texas is a whacked out different country?

Texas is the best country ever!!! :) And, if you doubt it, ask any Texan, they'll tell you! Haha (And yes, I said country on purpose!)

Ask me anything

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!

AVP Santa Barbara/Ft. Lauderdale

This weekend is the first AVP event of the season that I've attended! Today was the qualifier. Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as I'd hoped :( I played with Tori Grafeman who is a year older than me and is kind of in the same place in her career as I am. We were excited to play together since we both want to be great beach players and we want to do it faster than the norm (which is about 3-4 years of playing before really getting into the main draw much)!

We won the first match pretty handily. It was super windy, but having Nancy Mason there to coach us helped a TON!!! She was able to give us great strategies and by listening to her we won pretty easily :) The second match was a much better match and way more fun to play, even though we lost. The first game was a little shakey because we were playing a pretty good team and that was our first test. The game was close but we lost. The second game was much better! We got a lot more fired up and confident in what we were doing which was so much fun! And the third game was back and forth the whole time but we just couldn't pull it out at the end.

So, yes it was a bummer, but I think Tori and I could be great partners with some more training together! We only practiced together twice this week before playing together, haha, oh beach volleyball!

Now, the back up plan is for us to fly to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow to play in the AVP U26 tournament. The problem is, there are only 9 teams signed up and we need 12 to make it an AVP sanctioned event. That means, if we don't have 12 teams, they still give prize money, but no AVP points are awarded. It seems like it would still be worth it to go, but the points are the more precious thing to us!! :)

I'll keep everyone updated on what happens! Hopefully I get good news tonight from my old boss Al Lau and I find out 12 teams are signed up and we're good to go! :)

Have a great night!!

Au Revoir Cote d'Azur!

Nadal!!!

Prince Albert

(I actually took this picture!!!)

The Cascade on the Castle hill

Ahh, it looks like I might finally be heading back to the states! Although, I haven't actually gotten on the plane yet, so who knows what will happen?

This trip was amazing for so many different reason! I played my very FIRST international volleyball tournament!!! I met a lot of fantastic people, volleyball and otherwise. And, I saw by far some of the most beautiful places on earth! I really wish I could put into words, or even show you with pictures how gorgeous these spots are. Even the pictures don't do it justice! They really mean it when they say Cote d'Azure aka blue coast. The water is sooo blue, and so many different colors of blue!

For a short synopsis on the trip-

I flew into Nice and stayed my first night here. I didn't get in until late (missed my connecting flight) so I pretty much went to dinner, walked around some, and then went to bed. Next day I walked around a little, bought some strawberries and a croissant from the market (Cours Selayar) in Old Nice. The Cours Selayar is a very famous flower market/farmer's market in Vieux Nice (Old Nice). I went and met up with Cayley, and hopped on a bus to Monaco.

We made it into Monaco, checked in, and changed to go practice. We walk down to the beach and after many failed attempts to actually get down onto the beach (getting out of the hotel was tricky) we finally made it to the court. Remember, 99% of the beaches around here are rocky so we're walking down wondering how in the world this will work! We got to the court, only to find no net and no balls. No problem, sort of, at least we brought our own ball! However, we were only allowed to use the last 10 feet of the court, haha. It was a short practice to say the least. We showered and changed for the tourney dinner that night. First, we watched a sponsor tourney (the sponsors had a few representatives and they just goofed around playing matches), then they drew for positions in the pool. Only two teams were seeded to begin with, Latvia- the European Cup Champs, and France- won the tourney last year. They literally drew names out of a hat to seed the rest.

Anyway, we had dinner and went up to bed to rest for Friday. Friday we played Switzerland first. It wasn't a bad match for us, but it wasn't great either and we ended up losing to Switzerland, which proved to be a really bad loss :( considering that was the one we needed to stay in the tourney. We had a lot of time off so Cayley and I did a little site seeing in between matches. Then the next match was Denmark, who we beat in 2. Still wasn't an awesome match but we started finding a groove. They were just an interesting team to play because they were small and kind of unconventional aka they mis-hit the ball a lot and things like that. After that we had even more time off, so we went upstairs to the hotel room to relax. Before we went upstairs we asked the Swiss girls who they were playing next because we wanted to watch their match against France so we could scout France. They assured us that they were playing Denmark next so we went upstairs for a few hours, only to come back down and find out they either a. just didn't know what they were talking about or b. lied so we couldn't watch the match (we're still not sure which one it was!). After all that mess, we ended up losing to France. We actually played decently well but needed to execute our game plan just a little better. I'd say for having to 5'9" girls playing a 6'4" girl we did pretty well though! Haha

So, that was the end of the tourney for us, but after our last match an American, John, came over and introduced himself. He has lived in Monaco now for about 3 years so he invited us to come hang out with him and his friends. After a lot of chatting with tournament people, the cute little tournament helper boy Ludovic (who happened to be the President of the tourney's son and our BIGGEST fan there), and other random photographers and people, we made our way to hang out with the group. They ended up being great people and we sat and chatted for a few hours. We then went straight to dinner, still dirty, with some tournament people and players. While at dinner we ran into..... drum roll please..... Rafael Nadal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooooo cool!!! We finished up dinner, quick showered and changed, and then went out to meet up with the tourney people again. It was nice of them to set up a little get together at a club/bar type place, so we went and said hi. But we had arranged to meet up with our American friend and his friends so we left after a little bit and met up with them. We had a super fun night!!! The people we met were just such a great group of people that it really made the trip for us!

After a really late night, we hung out at the pool for awhile, and then, went to watch one semi-final game and the final match of the tournament. Finals were Italy vs. France. It was actually a very fun atmosphere and a pretty good crowd! Italy ended up winning it all which I was happy about because the girls couldn't have been any sweeter. Oh and we met the Prince of Monaco!!! Prince Albert!! Our group of friends from the night before had come back to hang out, so we sat with them and hung out for a few hours. Ended up going out with them again which was just so much fun, again! We went to the casino for a little bit, which was really really neat! Such a different feel than any casino I've been in. It was very serious and formal, and definitely not cheesy like Vegas!

Sunday, Cayley and I did our touristy thing a little and went to the palace and got some souvenirs! At one point, we were trying to get to the casino by bus (it's a 5-10 min walk, but we had our luggage and it's uphill) and we just missed the bus we wanted. We were thinking, no big deal, we'll just catch the next one, it shouldn't be more than 15 mins.... wrong!!! 40 mins later the next bus came and it was jam packed! Kind of a random story, but it was hilarious at the time. After that fiasco we finally hopped on a train to Cannes!

The train to Cannes was also packed because there was a train strike and lots of trains weren't running that day. Oh, not to mention no one in Europe could fly anywhere because of the dumb volcano!!!! That was another fiasco where Cayley and I literally just forced our way onto the train, stacking our luggage on other people's and getting tons of dirty looks along the way. Haha. We made it into Cannes late afternoon so we checked into our hotel (we got lost first, of course) and did some site seeing. We pretty much just walked around and took pics, and found a place to eat. We were so exhausted from the long weekend that we went back and passed out afterwards!

Next morning we got up right away and hopped on a train then bus to Saint Paul de Vence, a cute little artsy town built in an old castle area. It really was just adorable!! And, we found more souvenirs (mostly for ourselves :D ). The one thing we were told to do there was to eat at/look around Colombe d'Or- thanks Holly McPeak! Now, I didn't know much about it, and neither did Cayley but WOW! First of all, it was beautiful. Just a really old style restaurant/hotel with lots of greenery, cute tables, beautiful artwork, great view, etc. And, the food was awesome! Pricey, yes, but awesome. And the waiter we had was a character! He was an older man, and the first thing we said to him was, we'd like to eat at your restaurant, and can we leave our bags here? Which is funny to us now because we know how nice of a place it is and probably how big of a deal itw as for us to ask!! Haha. Anyway, the waiter looked a little suspicious of us, but we sweet-talked him and he ended up loving us by the end of lunch! So, lucky for us we got to leave our luggage there all day so we could tour with out, such a relief! A few hours later, we came back to get our stuff and head back to Nice. By the way, if it gives you any idea of how popular/exclusive this place is, we saw people turned away from going to look at the inside because they weren't patrons. So weird!

We had about a 40 min bus trip, where we both took power naps, and then we were in Nice. This is when craziness began! Long story short (too late, I know) we sat at a McDonald's for a good 7 hours! Why one might ask? Because that's the only place we could get internet!!! And, my computer didn't even work, only Cayley's so we had to take turns! We needed the internet because I found out my flight was cancelled and Cayley had no idea what was going on with hers! In the end, Cayley's flight went on schedule and I got rescheduled to leave Thursday! Which was actually super lucky because I got 2 extra days in an incredible place, but wasn't "stuck" here for a week and a half like some people.... oh and by the way, this is only true if my plane tomorrow actually takes off. I guess there is still a possibility I could be here for another week, haha, but I'm going to assume my flight will go as scheduled tomorrow.

So, did I pout and mope around because my flight was cancelled? Absolutely NOT! I checked into a new hostel close to Vieux Nice, and went site seeing on my own! I went to Cours Selayar and got cheese and apples, had a nice little snack on the beach, then walked up to the old castle area. WOW! You walk up quite a ways, to find yourself at a beautiful park (the castle is long gone) and overlooking all of Nice! Whenever I talk to people about my time in Switzerland I tell them how Interlaken is probably my favorite place in the entire world... and now I can tell them that the top of the castle in Nice is a close second, or maybe even tied for first. You can't even imagine the views! Not to mention the waterfall! Yeah, a waterfall on the side of this hill/mountain/castle thing... just incredible! After a great day, I came back to my hostel where I met my 3 American roommates whom I proceeded to go to dinner with. Super fun! I just love meeting people! We hung out in Vieux Nice after dinner then turned in for the night.

Today I was going to go to St. Tropez but it was a little expensive/hard to get to and around so I decided to save that for another time. Then, I was going to go to Eze ( a little midieval town just east of Nice), so I called my friend Yana that I met in Monaco and she met me at the train station there! (Side note, Yana is Russian so it made me think of Anna the whole time we hung out :) ) Apparently, Eze has two parts, Eze sur mer (by the sea) or Eze Village (up in the mountains) and we went to the boring one, boo. Yana had looked around already, so I literally got off the train to say hi to her, and then we hopped right back on the same one and went back to Monaco. We were going to get on the bus that went up to Eze Village but we couldn't figure out when it came and we knew it was only once every 2 hours or so. So, we walked around a few places I hadn't seen, and then had lunch and chatted. She's such a great girl!!

And after a bus ride, and a dinner and glass of wine by myself (I love being independent), I am back in the hostel catching up on internet-ing!

Hope I caught everyone up. I wish I could describe better how AMAZING this trip has been! I definitely recommend a vacation here to everyone! :D

And now, I'm finally going to get some sleep!

Goodnight y'all!

PS I'm going to have to figure out a way to post albums because I have a million pictures to share!

Nice!!!

I'm here! After a long day of travel, I finally made it :) I took off from LA at 12:30 yesterday afternoon, (which is 9:30 pm over here) and made it into my hostel around 7:30 pm! Surprisingly, I"m not as exhausted as I expected (probably because I slept almost the entire time on all 3 of my flights, haha).

My flight from LA to Houston was pretty easy, I just tried to stay awake as much as possible so I could get in sync with this time zone as quickly as possible. Hung out in Houston, got some food and a converter, and hopped on my flight to Frankfurt. The plane was a 2, 3, 2 and I ended up with two seats to myself so I curled up and slept as much as I could. Unfortunately, we got into Frankfurt like 15 minutes late, which was just late enough for me to miss my flight to Nice :( We had to get shuttled from the plane to the terminal, then wait in the customs line, and then I had to go back through security! By the time that was over, I got to my gate at exactly my departure time and the plane, of course, had already backed away from the gate. I was bummed because it cut out time from being a tourist today, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I hung out, had a German beer (sorry parents, but when you're here, you have to get it) and took advantage of the FREE cappuccinos. Yes, I said FREE! There was a machine at every Lufthansa gate, and it served any kind of coffee you wanted, and it cost nothing! How great is that?

I finally hopped on my flight to Nice and immediately passed out (which I was trying not to do). I ended up sleeping until the second we touched the ground. Once I got into Nice, everyone was super nice and helpful. The info guy at the airport helped me hop on a bus into "Old Nice" or "Vieux Nice". And then a nice man on the bus saw me looking at a map, and he ended up needing to get off at the same stop so he pointed me in the right direction. It still took me about 20 times of walking right past my hostel to figure out where it was. In my defense, there's no sign on the door, or anywhere for that matter. I was just supposed to know that it was number 20 and know that I was supposed to ring the doorbell, haha. I'll take pictures in the daylight tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about! The guy working when I got here was American though, so that was helpful.

I finally got settled in, checked my email and headed out for dinner. It was pretty dark, and kind of late by the time I got on the road, so I just did a little bit of walking around and found a cute Italian place for dinner. It was really yummy and the people were soo nice! Now I'm back at the hostel and I'm probably going to hit the sack fairly soon!

I took a video because I've been promising to do that, but it's not that exciting :/ I'll get better as I get more experience, I promise!

Hope you enjoy it!

Au revoir :)

It's Here!!!

Tomorrow is the day, it has finally come... I leave for my Monte Carlo tournament!!!! Yea!!!! I can't wait to go represent the US in beach volleyball! I'm also super excited that I get to go and do it with my friend Cayley Thurlby!

So far, the plan is for me to leave tomorrow at 12:30 and get into Nice, France at 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon. I'm going to head straight to my hostel and put my things up, then do some touristy things! I figure it will be good to get my blood pumping so I get on the France/Monaco time zone quicker!! :) Plus, I just really want to use my time there to see EVERYTHING that I can!! It will be fun to walk around by myself some because I feel like it always ends up being a fun adventure doing stuff alone. Then, Thursday morning I'll hang around, do some more site seeing (or maybe just sitting on the beach) until I meet Cayley at the airport in the afternoon when she gets in. We're going to head to Monaco together as soon as she gets in! We'll meet up with the volleyball peeps and they'll take it from there.

Once we're doing volleyball stuff, I think they have some things they have planned. Thursday night there's a dinner or meet and greet type thing. And, obviously Friday is volleyball all day! As long as we finished 1st or 2nd in the pool (which we will!) we play Saturday as well. Saturday is semi-finals and finals! If we play on Saturday we get to stay at the hotel provided by the tournament people an extra night which would be nice!

After volleyball Cayley and I are going to do some traveling together! We'll do a day in Nice (probably Monday) and a day in Cannes, we think.

So, I absolutely cannot wait!!! I will be bringing my camera, computer, and Flip cam so hopefully I'm able to upload some pictures, write some stories, show some videos, etc. while it's going on!

Back to Europe I go! :)

Flip cam!!!!

Get ready for some video blogging!!! I just received my new Flip cam in the mail!! Courtesy of Scott (early birthday gift, kind of thing). Thanks :)

Anyway, sorry if the title got you all excited for a video. I know, y'all can barely contain yourself waiting for the first video... I promise, there will be one soon!!

On another note, I'm getting closer and closer every day to figuring out who my partner will be for the season!!! Yea! Finally!

Also, I'm trying to work my magic with potential sponsors as well! Wish me luck and say a little prayer or two if you don't mind :)

Video is soon to come!!

The Easter Bunny

Yes, the Easter Bunny still comes even when you're 26! :)

This is what he left for Scott. And, he told Scott he was supposed to share it with me, so don't worry, I wasn't left out!

When you were younger and your older sister's friends were babysitting you, what helped you sleep better? a. soothing jungle noises b. sticking your hand in a bowl of warm water

Haha well, since both have actually been done to me, I can answer honestly that the answer is c. all of the above.... Oh wait... Haha :) Man, I remember being so mad at the time when I woke up with my hand in the water, but now I can't stop laughing thinking about it!!!

Ask me anything

Beautiful San Diego!

Well, since I'm on Spring Break I made a trip down to San Diego to hang out with Scott for a few days! He and his roommate and friend from high school are living for a month in a penthouse apartment overlooking Petco Park and because they are so high up, it over looks A LOT of other pretty parts of San Diego! Long story short, Scott and Steve were supposed to move into an apartment across the street from Petco but the guy bailed on them with 2 days left before they moved in!!!! Yeah, so rude... I couldn't believe it!!! But, Steve is a property manager and was able to find a great deal for the place they are staying now for a month, and already has a new place lined up for move-in in a month! They are both great locations and about a great a price as you can find around here :)

I set up a few work outs while I was down here (so that I didn't have to drive back and forth a million times to play volleyball) and I had my first one this morning! I got to play with Kim McGiven, who went to Santa Clara, her partner Julianna, Beth VanFleet and Heather Lowe in Mission Bay. It was a great day on the beach, besides the fact that it rained this morning (YES, it does rain in San Diego!!!!) so the ground was super hard. It was sunny and the temperature was great for playing! All in all, I would call it a successful day!

Now, I get to relax for awhile until Scott gets off work and enjoy the view and weather from the balcony! :) Yea for Spring Break!!!!!!

Volleyball, Dodgeball and Strength Training!

I finally got on board with Level 10 Fitness! Level 10 Fitness is a gym in Manhattan Beach, but every time you go in you have a small group or personal training session. I am joining the group of volleyball girls that already go there so I will mostly be going in a small group setting. I'm pretty excited because I can't wait to get my leg strength back to what it used to be but I'm a little nervous considering the trainer there is nicknamed "Mere-death", haha. I've heard nothing but good things about her though and she was really nice when I met her the other day! It was also a good sign that when I walked in Misty May and her dad were in there working out! If the best beach volleyball player ever works out there... I guess it's good enough for me too!! :)

My first session which includes testing so that they can see where I am and "base work" is tomorrow at 8 am. Wish me luck!!!

Also, I have my last night of dodgeball tonight! It is the semi-finals and finals of play offs. Theme this week is white trash... should be fun!!!

Oh, and I have my second week of Tuesday night 4's volleyball league :) Staying busy as always!!

USA IDQ #2

Well, we came out 5th overall, which was kind of disappointing, but at the same time, still a great finish! After a second place finish in the first International Development Qualifier (IDQ), Dana and I were really hoping to finish top 3 to clinch another spot in a NORCECA event where we would represent the USA. Unfortunately, we came up short of that goal, but we learned a lot over the weekend!

The main thing I learned??? Quit going to 3 games so that I'm not so tired on the second day of a tournament!!!!! :) On Saturday, we had pool play, so we played 3 matches. Two of which, we went to the 3 games, and most of those games were close ones! It took a lot of energy, but it was good to know that we could find a way to win even when we weren't playing our very best volleyball. The one match that we won in 2 games was still tough because the wind was pretty strong so it took a lot of concentration not to mention a lot of extra work physically to make sure we were taking care of the ball. We went 3-0 the first day, so, it was a good day at the office!

Sunday was a shorter day however. We won our first match (in 3 again!!!!). And, we could tell we were both a little tired after that match. We had a little bit of time to rest though, and we ate a little to get some fuel. The next team we played were the eventual champions! They were a great team all around and made us work for every single point we got! There were at least 20 rallies during the match that went back and forth over the net 5-6 times. (A normal rally may last 2-3 times over the net... maybe) Anyway, the problem was they ended up winning all of the long rallies, and the match...

My coach, Nancy Mason, was there though and was able to give me some good insight on what to work on! It was so great having her there because not only was she able to give me tips in between matches, but she is now able to build practice around specific things for me to work on!!

Next step in my volleyball life.... A STRENGTH COACH!! I went in and talked to the Level 10 Fitness people today... I should be starting in the next few days. Wish me luck!!!! :)

Did I mention the trainer at Level 10's nickname is "Mere-death" - haha

Monte Carlo!!!!!!!

Just a quick note until I have more details and more time to write it all out, but.....

I'M GOING TO MONTE CARLO!!!! My friend Cayley Thurlby and I will be representing the USA at tournament in Monte Carlo mid-April!!! I cannot wait to go!!!!

As I get more details I will write more about the event!!

How are you so good at recognizing shapes and colors?

My 4 and 5 year olds at school have been teaching me :) I think I've got most of them down now!

Ask me anything

What ultimately led you to choose to pursue beach volleyball professionally over continuing to play indoor overseas (Puerto Rico, Europe or wherever else)?

I still haven't given up on indoor volleyball, but I have just fallen in love with the beach game! I can't think of a better office than the beach :) But, if a great opportunity came up for me to play indoor, I would probably take it. I'll always love indoor volleyball as well!

Ask me anything

Pledge of Allegiance

I just wanted to share this awesome video with everyone. Scott's Grandma sent it to me and I feel like it's so important! I think it's crazy that Red Skelton talked about the "Under God" part of the pledge of allegiance and how sad it would be if it were ever to be removed as if the idea were far fetched. And yet, there's actually been discussion within the last few years about removing it. So sad! Or as I would say to my kids at school "How very sad!"

http://media.causes.com/604250?p_id=42563578*

When our little lone star (that would be you) first moved to So. Cal, did you experience any degree of culture shock?

Getting adjusted is an ongoing process ;)

Ask me anything

Since you're a UT-Austin alum, is there a memorial for the victims of the l966 massacre or is it something that the college wants to forget about?

Yes, there is a Memorial garden on the UT campus for the victims. I'm sure UT wishes they could forget about the incident but they will never, ever want to forget about the people who died that day.

Ask me anything

l noticed that you didn't participate in last year's Coney lsland AVP tournament. Have you ever been to NYC? Do you plan on coming east for either the Belmar AVP tourn. or the Long lsland AVP Qualifier?

I actually have been to New York City and I love it! My best friend from back home lives there now so she gave me a great tour last time I was there! And, hopefully, I will be at at least one if not both of those tournaments!

Ask me anything

What do you like most about where you live now?

I like that when I wake up and walk into my living room, I see the sand and waves. And, I like even more that when I walk out my front door I'm standing on the sand :) You can't beat being at the beach. I've always been a beach girl at heart! (I still LOVE Texas too, of course!)

Ask me anything

Ask Me Questions!!!!

What is my favorite Pink Berry flavor?

Who is my all time biggest sports hero?

What have I been up to today?

Is there anything you've desperately been wanting to ask me?? Go to http://www.formspring.me/michmoriarty and type in a question, any question and I can answer you!!! It comes up through twitter so you should definitely follow me - michmoriarty is my twittername, and you can also see the answers at that same website once I've answered it!

And, let's be honest, I don't think anyone actually needs to ask who my sports hero is, but it was just a question that popped in my mind :)

USA Try Out... Number 1 of 2????

Picture from the IDQ two weekends ago!

Today was the first High Performance try out of the "summer" for USA Volleyball. Apparently, I was one of the only people that got that memo, haha. There were about 30 people total, 20-ish guys and 10 girls. I was the only U26 participant, there was one U21 participant and the rest were between the ages of 15 and 18. So, it made for an interesting try out!! The girls were all super nice and worked hard but it was weird trying to make things work with such a different level of player. And, I am not at all saying they were bad, because they definitely weren't, but 95% percent of the girls had no beach experience so it was just a little different :)

Anyway, the try out went alright and I am supposed to hear back in about a week or so if I make the team! The problem is, they want me to try to come to another try out so they can see me with people my age, which is kind of a bummer, but if I make the team it's worth it!!!

If I make the U26 team (it consists of 8 girls) then I will get to train from April to August, twice a week for free! And, then they pick two teams I believe at the end of the summer to represent the USA in Turkey for the World University Games! Send positive vibes and say a few little prayers if you think of it! :)

USA IDQ Finale!

Today was the play off day of the USA IDQ. Dana and I ended up playing 4 matches (obviously a good sign!) and are now both completely exhausted!

The GREAT news is.... we finished 2nd in the tournament!!!! We qualified to play in a NORCECA event and represent the USA!!!! We will get to play in one of three events - Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala or Mexico! USAV gives us some money for travel and the tournament pays for hotel and transportation and all that good stuff once we're there. Very, very exciting news!!!

I am COMPLETELY exhausted, so I will give details on today's matches tomorrow hopefully! And Mom, don't worry, Scott filmed 95% of all of my playing done today :)

USA IDQ Day 1!

Day 1 of the USA IDQ is done! I won my two pool play matches in three games each. The first match I played was against the number one seeded team in the tournament!! My partner, Dana Kabashima, and I played GREAT the first game! I think the score was about 21-15. The other team changed their strategy a bit the second game and it was close, but we lost. The third game was close the entire way but we pulled it out at the end and won 15-12!!

The next match was against the 13 ranked team (we are 12) and that match also went to three games. We lost the first game, mainly because it was a completely different style of playing. The first match was against two taller girls who were more aggressive hitting and offensively, whereas, the second match was against two shorter girls who had better ball control. Once Dana and I figured out how to play this team, we won the second 21-16 and the third game 15-10.

It was a really fun day (after the rain stopped this morning)!!! Pretty windy, but some good volleyball was being played! I'll update again tomorrow after play-offs! They should start around 9:30.

Mrs. Lippy's Class!!!

Now you're all in big, BIG trouble! Here are the official team pics for Mrs. Lippy's Class (my dodgeball team).

This is not all of our team, but it was most of us! We are still undefeated heading into the home stretch of the season. Next week we play the next best team and we will be dressed as Ninjas! Look out!

AdvoCare!

I just recently rediscovered my favorite energy drink/supplements and am sooo happy that I did! All through high school and college I drank Spark which is an AdvoCare product and took a few other AdvoCare supplements. I guess after 8 years of taking it, I decided to take a little break, but I am full swing back into my AdvoCare stage and I don't think it will fade again!

Anyway, I wanted to let you guys know that:

A. AdvoCare is really awesome stuff (I'm not just being cheesy, it really is GREAT stuff)

B. I am now an AdvoCare Distributor (I get a discount and I can use this as a second source of income)

C. www.AdvoCare.com/10027793 - This is my website, so if you ever want to order anything, this is the place to go!

If you have any questions, I am always here to give you more info about products! But, I'm super excited to have these products again just in time for season!

Speaking of volleyball season - I have a tournament this weekend in Long Beach. It is the USA IDQ and my partner is Dana Kabashima. I'll definitely post results!! :)

Dodge, Dip, Duck, Dive, and Dodge

MRS. LIPPY'S CLASS - Part of us anyway

The long awaited Dodgeball pictures are finally here!!!

Tonight's theme was Superhero and it was awesome! I had no plans of what to wear until about an hour before the game and the costumes ended up working out great (thanks to my friend Brittany who picked everything up)! The game tonight was intense, but not in the usual way. We pretty much dominated the entire night, BUT there was one guy on the other team who couldn't have been more annoying!! He's the reason it got intense. As you may be able to tell from the pictures, dodgeball is totally for fun for most of the people who are in the league. Of course, it gets competitive, but in the end we're all there to have a good time. Well, there was one guy on the other team tonight who was way too serious about it. He had his head phones in the entire time, and crouched in the corner holding a ball the ENTIRE game! He literally got up to throw the ball maybe 10 times in 45 mins. SOOOO frustrating... It may seem silly that it was frustrating, but I'll explain why it makes sense.

Our games are timed for 45 minutes total. In that 45 minutes you play multiple little games. So, it's like volleyball in that the match is the entire thing, and there are games that make up the match. Anyway, you play as many little games as you can get in in 45 minutes. WELL, usually we get in about 15 little games (it goes quick because the gym is tiny so people get out fast). Tonight, the final score was Mrs. Lippy's Class (my team) 7, other team 3. We only played 10 games because this guy would sit in the corner for 10 minutes hiding behind a ball while about 5 people from our team threw at him. It was SOOO boring for everyone else involved because we literally sat on the sidelines forever!!!

Anyway, that didn't really take away from the fact that it was super fun once again! And, my arm feels like it might fall off, once again :)

Enjoy the pics and thanks for letting me vent!!!

Nanananananananananan BATMAN!!! Yes, I'm wearing little boy cartoon underwear :) Thanks Britt!

My underwear says "WHAK" and her's says "IRON MAN". I liked my WHAK haha.

Two teammates - Zoro and the Burger King

More awesome teammates!

Our team captain- Amy Dittoe and Batman of course.

That's one of my roommates, Mitch, on the right, haha. They were Clark Kent and Superman.

Pro-Am Champs!

I won a flat screen TV this weekend!!! Yes, that's right, besides all of the other highlights of my weekend, I actually won a flat screen TV! So awesome!

This weekend was the Huntington Beach Pro-Am. Huntington Beach is about a 45 minute drive south of me (for those that might not know southern California very well). Anyway, the tournament was scheduled for Saturday, and Nancy Mason (my awesome coach) was supposed to play with the daughter of a really good friend of hers. Well, as you all might have heard, there was lots of rain and more importantly, tsunami warnings for California beaches, so people were not even allowed on the sand Saturday. Here's where things get really exciting for me...

Nancy's partner couldn't play Sunday, so Nancy had already asked if I could play Sunday if the tournament got rescheduled. I, of course, jumped at the opportunity! Not only do I get to play with someone as good as Nancy, I also got to play with my coach (an invaluable experience). And, it's just another excuse to be out on the beach all day long playing volleyball, which will never get old to me! Anyway, Sunday morning rolls around and we head down to Huntington about 7 am for a 7:45 start time. I'm going to throw Scott under the bus really quick and mention that on the way down to the tournament we got pulled over :/ Definitely not a fun way to start the day! Not that getting a ticket is funny in any way, but the "funniest" part about him getting pulled over was that about 5 minutes before he got pulled over he said "The flow of traffic right now is 80, I'm lovin' this!" Haha, oops! Anyway, we were a little worried we might be late, but still weren't too stressed. Little did we know, we would show up about 8 and not start until 10:30! Gotta love beach volleyball!

The tournament schedule was a little chaotic because there were some drop outs due to the switch from Saturday to Sunday, so Nancy, Scott and I went and grabbed a nice little breakfast and hung out for awhile. We strolled back down to the beach around 9:00 and there still wasn't much happening. Anyway, our first match was pretty close, but we were just getting warmed up. Plus, even though Nancy trains me 3 times a week, we have never played together before so we worked through getting used to that. In the first match, we lost the first game, then dominated the second and won a close 3rd game. We played back to back so we started our next match almost right away. The second match was against Heather Hughes and Alicia Zamparelli. I played/trained with Heather a bit over the past few months and knew she was a great player so it wasn't going to be easy! And, Alicia has been around the game awhile and makes a decent amount of main draws every summer so she's good too! Anyway, we lost our second match 22-20 both games. Such a bummer, but Nancy and I both hate losing so I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen again!

Those two matches concluded pool play so we started with play-offs. Play-offs were supposed to be one game to 21, but Nancy decided she wanted to play 2 games out of 3, so she told the tournament director that and he changed it (gotta love being an AVP star, haha). Our first play off match was against my really good friend Cayley Thurlby, and Olivia Waldowski. Once again, both really great players! It was a close match, but Nancy and I ended up coming on strong at the end and pulling it out. (Keep in mind that even though I'm exhausted, I've already improved exponentially throughout the day just playing with Nancy and getting all of her advice!) The second play off match we played against Heather and Alicia again! This match was a better outcome for us though and we pulled it out in two games. Nancy and I were just getting going, haha, but really we were both exhausted but 100 percent determined to win. After that, the sun was starting to set so we had to go back to one game to 21. We played two girls about my age who I've played with and practice with before and it was a close game through about half way and then we started playing really well and took it and ran with it.

So, that puts us into the finals!!! I'm so pumped at this point! And, if you know Nancy at all, you know she is seriously getting into it and is demanding that we will win this game! They went up at the beginning of the game, but about halfway through Nancy and I tied it up, and then pulled through at the end with a few runs of points!! It was SOOO awesome!!!

At this point, the sun was basically setting so we gathered up our things, grabbed our flat screens and said thanks to the tournament people, snapped a picture and left! It was such a fun experience and such an incredible learning experience! I will definitely never forget it.

I need to say a special thanks to Scott for being such a trooper and driving us out there, sitting there all day, helping shag, filming for my Mom, getting us food, and all kinds of other really nice things :) Thanks!!

February Fun

At Kalyra in Santa Barbara (One of our favorite spots!)

Once again, I know it has been awhile but I've been so busy enjoying my new busy life that I barely have time to even check my email!!

For the last two months I have been working out in the mornings (usually 4-5 times a week) on the beach and in the gym, then going to work at the Montessori School of Manhattan Beach from 12-6. Then, if I'm feeling up to it I hit the gym again. I've also started playing on a Dodge Ball team and going to a small group from my church (Hilltop Church of Christ).

It has been an absolutely wonderful last two months! I'm definitely improving volleyball wise and getting in better and better shape every day! Starting in February, I have been training three times a week with Nancy Mason who is "officially" my coach. There's nothing official about it really, except that I asked her to train as much as possible! She's been so great to work with and has helped me SOOO much! Also, the AVP calendar finally came out which is great news! Check it out on www.avp.com - I can finally start planning my summer, and hopefully my fam and friends can start planning to come see me too. :)

My job is so so fun! The kids are the cutest things ever. I am a floater so I get to work with pretty much every single kid at school and I can't tell you how happy it makes me when I walk into a classroom and hear "MISS MICHELLE!!!!" and then get lots of HUGE hugs! I also really enjoy all of the back rubs/scratches, hair playing and even kisses I've gotten lately, haha. It's also fun to work with kids who are just learning their letters all the way up to kids who are starting to read chapter books. It's just so neat to see their growth! As a side note, one of the kids in one of my favorite classes to work in is Eric Fonoimoana's son. That name might not sound familiar to a lot of people, but is he is a beach volleyball legend! He won the gold medal in Sydney and dominated the AVP for quite a few years. Anyway, his son is super cute and fun to work with, and it's always exciting when Eric comes to pick Tucker up because I get to pretend like he and I have something in common (even though he has no clue I play beach, haha).

The dodge ball team I joined is named Mrs. Lippy's Class (from Billy Madison, in case you've never seen that classic), and we pretty much dominate! It's a bunch of my friend's from around the area and every week we dress up with a new theme (we were the first team to do that and now almost every team does the same). The first week we were team USA, second week we did Jersey Shore, last week was Mardi Gras, and this week was nerds! We are one of only two undefeated teams left. I'll keep you posted on how the season plays out.

The church I go to has been absolutely awesome! I've met some really wonderful people from the area, including the people I now am doing a small group with. There is also a young adults small group that I might start attending as well, which will be nice so that I can meet even more people my age!

Other than that, Scott got an awesome job with the San Diego Padres as Advanced Scouting Director. Basically, he scouts the team that the Padres will play next and gives the manager and players a binder full of information on them. So, obviously he just recently moved from Hermosa Beach down to San Diego. That part is a bummer for me :( but I'm super happy for him and I will still get to see him on most weekends. He is loving it so far and gets to go to Spring Training soon which will be really fun! Hopefully, I'll get to go visit him there!

Also, Scott and I had fun in Santa Barbara for Valentine's Day. We drove up for a nice dinner and some wine tasting which was super fun! We also drove up to Palo Alto to watch the Rice baseball team play Stanford. The trip itself was fun but unfortunately, the Owls didn't do so hot. They went 0-3, but they still have a great team and will end up doing really well this season!

Talk again soon! I Promise!!!

Courtney is Pregnant!!!!

Just a quick update on my family...

My sister Courtney is pregnant!! I am so happy for her and Anthony, but it's sooooo weird to me that someone will be calling her Mom! You might think, "Michelle, you already have two sisters that are Mom's, why is it so weird?" And, my answer is, it was weird when Jennifer got pregnant the first time, weird when Kiki got pregnant, and it's now still weird that Courtney is pregnant! I just know that her life will be so different now (in a fantastic way) and so thinking of her in such a different role is just hard to picture!!!

But anyway, I'm very happy for Courtney and Anthony! Congrats to them! Love you guys and your baby kumquat!

Happy New Year!!!

Tacky Christmas Sweater Party (Thanks for the sweater Mom :) )

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year break! Mine was absolutely awesome! I got to spend a ton of time with my family and see lots of friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

I went to a Tacky Christmas sweater party and saw friends, made Christmas cookies with the little boys and sisters (minus Courtney who we missed a lot!!), opened presents and read books on Christmas Eve, opened Santa presents Christmas morning with Owen, then later on in the day saw Jake, Josh and Jill's presents from Santa, opened the rest of our presents, and helped cook/ate Christmas dinner.

And that's only part of the trip!!! I'll write about the rest as soon as I get more pics :)

Here are some Christmas pics from this year:

This was for the tacky Christmas sweater party that my friends have every year. Thank you Mom for supplying the sweater :)

My mom and I at the movie premiere for our neighbors movie!

Making Christmas cookies! Yea!

Grandeb made a "scavenger hunt" Christmas Eve game. This was team Peaches (that's the word the little boys yelled during ghost stories in Alabama)

Team "You just got poned by the cauliflower Spartans" - Everybody contributed to the name which is why it was so long. And, poned is something Jake and his friends say, kind of like you got owned.

The boys and Jill in their Christmas PJ's... the girls got some too but not everyone was there to take pictures (Courtney was snowed in in Iowa, yikes!)

Reading T'was the Night Before Christmas

My Christmas Eve sleeping buddy and me ready to go down and get our presents Santa left!

My sweet dog Sunny with her pink nose and white face! Apparently, the pink nose makes her "less desirable" but I think it's super cute! Plus, she's the sweetest dog ever!!!

Aaron and Owen opening presents Christmas morning

Owen and me saying Thank You to Santa for all of our presents! Haha

Grandebb trying to wrap while Courtney and Anthony's sweet dog Tex "helps".

Jake and PawPaw hard at work with a new Xmas present

Jill and me in her new playhouse!

Just a really cute picture of Jill

My awesome MeeMaw opening a present!

I know it's hard to see but I'm wearing oven mits because it's FREEZING and I had no gloves!

Jake with his karate Christmas bow headband

Owen showing off his karate moves

Josh showing off his karate moves

Jill is 100% convinced she's playing the Wii

Kiki and Jennifer doing their Wii fit karate moves, haha. Jennifer is really just moral support for Kiki who's on the board.

Family Christmas card pic. Finally we have a pic with everyone in it!!