	Mysterious Muskegon AVP
Wind hurricane in "Muskegon!" When I first heard that I was going to play in Muskegon, I had two questions....#1. Is that a city in the USA? And #2. How do I spell that? Well I was able to answer both questions as I headed to play in the AVP stop in Muskegon, MICHIGAN! One thing is for sure, I am getting to see cities in the US that I would have never gone to if it weren't for the AVP stop there! Ha ha On Wednesday, I flew into Chicago and my wonderful friend/agent/coach Peter, picked me up from the airport (he lives in Chicago) and we headed up to this mysterious place Thursday morning. Upon getting into this "city" we were careful not to blink too long in case we missed it. As I opened the door to get out of the car, I almost fell over. The wind must have been gusts of 35 mi/hr. I put my head down and braved the wind to finally fight my way into the hotel. Chrissie and I actually braved the wind and "tried" to practice for about 45 min before heading to their only restaurant in town for a nice dinner. That night I was praying that it wouldn't be so windy the next day. You know it's really bad when there are plows on the street plowing the SAND off the road so people can drive! Having a friend who is a professional cook sure does have its perks. Peter brought his portable stove and cooked me eggs in his hotel room that next morning! I wondered if that is what Britney Spears and all those famous people get to experience every morning. I felt like a rockstar right from the start!  Chrissie and I got to the site were playing against the #14 team of Mason/Pavlik. I was SO lucky that my families good friends Lydia and Steve Collard drove all the way from Detroit area to come cheer me on in the hurricane wind conditions. I was so grateful they were there! The wind had NOT died down and in fact it was worse than day before and there was NO area of the entire beach to get away from it. If you look at the waves in the some of the pics you get a idea of how bad it was! YIKES! At this point warming up seems silly, because whoever can serve it over the net will win the point! Ha ha. We tried to "pepper" but looked like we had never played before. All we did once we got on the court was try to serve the ball over the net. I got a couple of underhand serves over.  The match started I went up to hit the ball and it flew behind my head and I landed on my face. I am so thankful Chrissie is such a great sport and a hustler. We sure got a lot of laughs! If someone would have taken video and didn't know how windy it was, people would have thought I had the skills of a 5 years old and was just learning to play. I served a ball that must have landed at least 15 feet out of the court!  This first match was a close one as both teams were just fighting to somehow get the ball on the other side of the net to make the other team deal with it. We lost the first game 21-17, won the second 21-19 and fought hard in game three but lost 12-15. We went to the "bad side" (where the wind is the worst) and couldn't recover. Our next match was better, not because the wind died down but both of us got used to running around and just batting it over the net as much as we could. So we beat the next team 21-17, 21-12, to set up another game against #12 team Stacey/Jen P. The first game we came out on fire and won 21-12, then lost game two 12-21. (all to do with who was on the good side) We had the lead in game three 7-4 when the ref let two double calls go and we found ourselves now at 7-7. Then another bad call gave them the lead at 14-13 and the beat us 15-13 in the third. Many times throughout my playing career (even steaming back to HS) I can remember only 1 or 2 times the reffing really affected our match, but I was so frustrated with this match. It really is hard when you feel that the ref decides the match for you and in this particular third game we lost 4 points from bad reffing and we lose by two points. As a competitive athlete and one of character I hope to be, it's such a struggle for me to know how to deal with those. I know I don't have any control over these calls, but rules are in place for a reason and I trust refs to be consistent with them. Both Chrissie and I were frustrated beyond belief and had a lot of fellow competitors that told us we were robbed. So I had to learn a tough lesson about things I can't control, while I try to be the person I want to be regardless of unfair circumstances. I also know that we should win regardless of the calls, but in the conditions we faced it was hard to make a difference. After the match Lydia, Steve, and Peter and I all went to a really nice restaurant and got to do my favorite thing on every AVP stop, which is just hang out together. I was so grateful for their resilience and toughness braving that wind and still cheering for us when I am sure they wanted nothing more than to retreat and grab some hot chocolate. And thanks to Lydia for taking all the pics for me! LAST AVP of the season With this tournament behind me, I only have one more AVP tourney of the season this Friday (Aug 28th) in Chicago! I am spending all week here in Chicago and having a GREAT time seeing the city! I am being treated like a totally celebrity. Would you ALL really pray for me for this one last fight and to play to my potential this weekend. I really do have a passion for playing and I am praying for the joy of playing with Chrissie to compete as best as we can. In the offseason you always are visioning the start of the season, but at the end of a season you look back to all the hard work you did and how you just want more strong effort to end with. After Chicago I will be heading to CO on Saturday night to spend a couple weeks in Colorado as well as play in the Motherlode in Aspen, CO over Labor Day. Thanks SO much for going on this journey with me. I can't believe the season is almost over and so many of its great moments were because I was able to share them with you. I am so blessed by your encouragement along the way! THANK YOU!

Mysterious Muskegon AVP

Wind hurricane in "Muskegon!"

When I first heard that I was going to play in Muskegon, I had two questions....#1. Is that a city in the USA? And #2. How do I spell that? Well I was able to answer both questions as I headed to play in the AVP stop in Muskegon, MICHIGAN! One thing is for sure, I am getting to see cities in the US that I would have never gone to if it weren't for the AVP stop there! Ha ha

On Wednesday, I flew into Chicago and my wonderful friend/agent/coach Peter, picked me up from the airport (he lives in Chicago) and we headed up to this mysterious place Thursday morning. Upon getting into this "city" we were careful not to blink too long in case we missed it. As I opened the door to get out of the car, I almost fell over. The wind must have been gusts of 35 mi/hr. I put my head down and braved the wind to finally fight my way into the hotel.

Chrissie and I actually braved the wind and "tried" to practice for about 45 min before heading to their only restaurant in town for a nice dinner. That night I was praying that it wouldn't be so windy the next day. You know it's really bad when there are plows on the street plowing the SAND off the road so people can drive!

Having a friend who is a professional cook sure does have its perks. Peter brought his portable stove and cooked me eggs in his hotel room that next morning! I wondered if that is what Britney Spears and all those famous people get to experience every morning. I felt like a rockstar right from the start! 

Chrissie and I got to the site were playing against the #14 team of Mason/Pavlik. I was SO lucky that my families good friends Lydia and Steve Collard drove all the way from Detroit area to come cheer me on in the hurricane wind conditions. I was so grateful they were there!

The wind had NOT died down and in fact it was worse than day before and there was NO area of the entire beach to get away from it. If you look at the waves in the some of the pics you get a idea of how bad it was! YIKES! At this point warming up seems silly, because whoever can serve it over the net will win the point! Ha ha. We tried to "pepper" but looked like we had never played before. All we did once we got on the court was try to serve the ball over the net. I got a couple of underhand serves over. 

The match started I went up to hit the ball and it flew behind my head and I landed on my face. I am so thankful Chrissie is such a great sport and a hustler. We sure got a lot of laughs! If someone would have taken video and didn't know how windy it was, people would have thought I had the skills of a 5 years old and was just learning to play. I served a ball that must have landed at least 15 feet out of the court! 

This first match was a close one as both teams were just fighting to somehow get the ball on the other side of the net to make the other team deal with it. We lost the first game 21-17, won the second 21-19 and fought hard in game three but lost 12-15. We went to the "bad side" (where the wind is the worst) and couldn't recover.

Our next match was better, not because the wind died down but both of us got used to running around and just batting it over the net as much as we could. So we beat the next team 21-17, 21-12, to set up another game against #12 team Stacey/Jen P. The first game we came out on fire and won 21-12, then lost game two 12-21. (all to do with who was on the good side) We had the lead in game three 7-4 when the ref let two double calls go and we found ourselves now at 7-7. Then another bad call gave them the lead at 14-13 and the beat us 15-13 in the third.

Many times throughout my playing career (even steaming back to HS) I can remember only 1 or 2 times the reffing really affected our match, but I was so frustrated with this match. It really is hard when you feel that the ref decides the match for you and in this particular third game we lost 4 points from bad reffing and we lose by two points. As a competitive athlete and one of character I hope to be, it's such a struggle for me to know how to deal with those. I know I don't have any control over these calls, but rules are in place for a reason and I trust refs to be consistent with them. Both Chrissie and I were frustrated beyond belief and had a lot of fellow competitors that told us we were robbed. So I had to learn a tough lesson about things I can't control, while I try to be the person I want to be regardless of unfair circumstances. I also know that we should win regardless of the calls, but in the conditions we faced it was hard to make a difference.

After the match Lydia, Steve, and Peter and I all went to a really nice restaurant and got to do my favorite thing on every AVP stop, which is just hang out together. I was so grateful for their resilience and toughness braving that wind and still cheering for us when I am sure they wanted nothing more than to retreat and grab some hot chocolate. And thanks to Lydia for taking all the pics for me!

LAST AVP of the season

With this tournament behind me, I only have one more AVP tourney of the season this Friday (Aug 28th) in Chicago! I am spending all week here in Chicago and having a GREAT time seeing the city! I am being treated like a totally celebrity.

Would you ALL really pray for me for this one last fight and to play to my potential this weekend. I really do have a passion for playing and I am praying for the joy of playing with Chrissie to compete as best as we can. In the offseason you always are visioning the start of the season, but at the end of a season you look back to all the hard work you did and how you just want more strong effort to end with. After Chicago I will be heading to CO on Saturday night to spend a couple weeks in Colorado as well as play in the Motherlode in Aspen, CO over Labor Day.

Thanks SO much for going on this journey with me. I can't believe the season is almost over and so many of its great moments were because I was able to share them with you. I am so blessed by your encouragement along the way! THANK YOU!