Adventures of Kelli and David

This Crazy Pregnant Runner

2012-02-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I do not pretend in any way to be able to give out medical advice. I think all women who are considering exercising in pregnancy should first consult a doctor.

On the run at 24 weeks pregnant (1/29/11)

Most of my friends have thought I am nuts for running so much when I wasn't pregnant. Running is a very odd sport, but it can be very addictive. I don't run to lose weight, to look a certain way, or because I have to. I run because I like the way I feel after a hard workout, I love pushing myself to my limits, and there is no better feeling than breaking a PR (personal record) or racing a new distance.

I am pretty sure most people would not be surprised to learn that I have kept running through my pregnancy. David sure wasn't surprised. I found out I was pregnant on a Sunday, the week prior I had run 60 miles and did 2 very intense interval workouts. I was close to being in the best shape of my life, having run my first marathon just a month before getting pregnant. I scheduled an appointment with my OB right away, and was able to talk with him quite a bit about my hopes to run through pregnancy. Because I had been running at a high level for a long time my doctor had no issue with me continuing to run. He was even okay with me continuing to do hard workouts, but for my own piece of mind I cut them out, or slowed them down a lot until I completely stopped doing them around 10 weeks.

I have set running goals for myself throughout my pregnancy thus far, but they are goals that are there to keep me from making excuses when I just want to be lazy. If I am not feeling well, or if there is something pregnancy-related that makes me feel like I should back off, those goals go out the window. Baby boy is number one, not my running goals. So far, I have met and exceeded all of my goals through 25 weeks. I am actually still surprised at how much I am running, and how normal it feels.

I read a great book called, "Exercising Through Your Pregnancy" by Dr. James Clapp. He did extensive research explaining the effects of regular exercise on all phases of pregnancy. After reading this book I really felt that if I am physically able to exercise I should, simply because of all the benefits to mom and baby. A few interesting points from his studies and research:

Exercising women (EW) aren't any more likely to have preterm labor. They are more likely to deliver at full term (37-40wks) and less likely to deliver past 40wks. They tend to deliver 5-7 early than sedentary women (SW).
EW don't have low birth weight babies but they do have more lighter babies and fewer big babies.
Exercise doesn't slow the growth of the placenta, it actually grows almost a 1/3 faster in mid-preg has about 15 more vessels and surface area at term.
There is a dec in the need for medical interventions for EW. 75% dec in incidence of maternal exhaustion; 50% dec in need to artificially rupture membranes; 50% dec in need to use pitocin to induce or stimulate labor.
Babies of EW tolerated the stress of labor, measured by fetal heart rate, much better than those of SW.
All measurements of growth and development after birth in babies of EW were equal to or better than those of SW
EW gain less weight, deposit and retain less fat, feel better overall, and are more likely to return to pre-pregnancy weight within one year.
When studied a year after birth, EW who maintain exercise after birth routinely increased their max aerobic capacity by 5-10%

There are tons more benefits that I could list, but that gives a good idea of some of them. I also don't mean to say that running while preggo has been all great. I have to stop a ton for bathroom breaks thanks to increased pressure on my bladder. My running clothes do not fit so well now, but it is way too expensive to by new stuff just for pregnancy so I am trying to make it work. With the increase in weight and shift in my center of gravity, my stride is changing which has caused my calf muscles to burn every single day while running for the last month. I have to now stop every 1 or 2 miles to stretch them in order to alleviate the burn. I get more stares than normal, especially when I run on the treadmill at the gym. I can't run outside right now in the snow because it is too dangerous given the likelihood of a fall, so it is boredom on the treadmill for the time being.

All those things aside, I am grateful that my body has allowed me to continue running, because I know there are many women who run even more than I do who are unable to continue in pregnancy. I hope to continue over the next 15 weeks, but I have to hold it loosely since it is not in my control! My doctor here in France and in the US are both supportive and aware of how much I run so I plan to continue to listen to my body and keep going! Maybe in May you will hear a story of how I ran the day I went into labor!

Costume Party!

2012-02-02T01:54:00.000-08:00

David's team had a fun idea for the year, each player would host a little party at their house and serve foods from their home countries. With 7 or so different nationalities on his team, it makes for a fun a way to get a taste of people's home countries.

This last weekend we enjoyed foods from South America! David's Brazilian and Argentinian teammates and their wives prepared some great food for us to enjoy, but they put on twist on the party by making it a costume party! I think the theme was supposed to be movie characters and superheroes but really anything went. Most people went to a costume shop and rented costumes, some of which were hilarious. We decided to go the homemade route and be...

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES! Cowabunga Dude!

David did most of the work on our shells, which was the best part of the costume. We were cracking up the whole time about how silly our costumes were. It was fun that Kristen was still here too and got to take part!

Anyone ever seen a pregnant ninja turtle?

Kristen comes to France Part 2

2012-01-31T11:35:00.000-08:00

There are over 300 châteaux in the Loire Valley, all varying in size and distinctive architecture. From Tours we are able to easily drive to lots of different ones within an hour or so, so we hit up 3 different ones while Kristen was here.

After we all returned from Cannes, David and Kristen gave this pregnant lady a day alone so I could catch up on my relaxing! They took advantage of David's rare morning off from practice and headed to Château d'Amboise, which is just 30 minutes away from our house. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have been a guest at Amboise of King Francis I and there is a chapel there were he is said to be buried.

Kristen outside Chapel of Saint-Hubert,
David warming up by the fire!

The next day Kristen and I took advantage of a sunny day and headed to Château de Chambord, just over an hour's drive from Tours. It is one of the most recognizable châteaux in the world because of its distinct French Renaissance architecture. It is also the largest in the Loire Valley, with 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces and 84 staircases! It is surrounded by 13,000 acre wooded park and game reserve enclosed by a 20 mile wall. I think when David's parents come to visit in the spring they will love to spend a day at Chambord, enjoying the grounds just as much as the château. During the nicer times of the year they rent bikes that can be ridden over numerous bike paths throughout the grounds.

Have to fill all those rooms with something!

Finally, we visited Château de Villandry, which is only 15 minutes away from my house. We weren't quite as lucky with the weather, there was a hail storm while we were there! The highlight of Villandry is the gardens. I am looking forward to visiting again in the spring when things are blooming because I know the colors and variety of plants and vegetables will be amazing! 250,000 individual flowers and vegetables are planted each year. The layout of the vegetables changes during each of the twice yearly plantings, to vary the colors and shapes as well as to avoid deprivation of the soil. They keep 10 full time gardeners on staff to maintain the gardens. Even thought there was bad weather and nothing was really blooming, it was still really great to see!

Kristen comes to France! Part 1

2012-01-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

David's sister decided to come visit us for about a week and a half. Her trip was timed perfectly with two away matches in a row for David in Cannes. When Kristen flew into Paris I met her at the airport and from there we flew to the South of France, known as Côte d'Azur or the French Riviera. We spent our first two nights in Cannes, caught one of David's games, then we were in Nice for two nights and then back to Cannes for one more night and another volleyball game.

Cannes is a great city to visit, very clean, easy to get around on foot and the weather was amazing! We had lots of fun wandering around and checking out the sights. The weather was so nice that we didn't need our coats and we ate one of our lunches sitting on the beach soaking up some sun!

City view
David got to come hang out for a few hours one of the days. Here we are on the red carpet!

We took a 40 minute train ride from Cannes to Nice and found our way to our hotel, which was conveniently located right in the heart of the city and near the water. Nice has a very different feel to it, a more big-city type feeling. The coastline in Nice is hard to beat though! We had some great food in Nice and were able to see a lot of the main sights throughout the city. Gotta love how easy public transportation is over here, I can't even count how many buses, trains and trams we took on this trip!

Nice!

Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Nice

The great thing about Nice is that it is only a 45 minute (and 1 Euro!) bus ride into Monaco (or Monte Carlo as some may better recognize it as). Monaco is the second smallest (.76 square mi), and most densely populated (pop 35,986) country in the world. Some other interesting facts: Monaco has the world's highest life expectancy at 90 years, and the lowest unemployment rate at 0%!!! They also have the world's most expensive real estate market, at $56,300 a square meter. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that they also have the world's lowest poverty rate and the highest millionaires and billionaires per capita in the world. Makes you wonder just who I was sitting next to on the bus...

Kristen and I took the bus out to Monaco in the late morning and enjoyed a whole day in the city. It is one of the most unique and beautiful places I have ever seen, and also super clean!

The Grand Casino in Monaco, dress code strictly enforced!

Exotic Gardens...never seen so many pretty cacti!
Checking out the grotto at the exotic gardens!

Up next...the castles of the Loire Valley, and a costume party!

Hey There Little Guy

2012-01-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

I made it! Finally got the chance to go with Kelli to one of her ultrasounds and get to see baby boy in live action.

The doctor doing the ultrasound was really nice and spoke English very well. He did a great job explaining to us what we were looking as he moved around and checked out everything. Technology is amazing these days, but times like this it just magnifies the amazing process of how the baby is growing and developing inside Kelli. We got to see his profile, his hands, feet and little thighs. Crazy how he is only 3/4 of a pound and the length of a carrot, yet so completely human and forming his own unique qualities already.

Quick funny story though. Having done the previous ultrasound with Kelli, the doctor was aware that she is a crazy little runner. About 3/4 of the way through the doctor abruptly stopped the imaging to shake his hand out while telling Kelli that her strong abs were making his hand tired. Kelli was obviously excited to hear that someone thought that she was still buff despite the changes her body is going through!

Anyways, it was a lot of fun and we are getting more excited everyday as we see Kelli's belly grow little by little and get to feel (and see!) the little guy kicking inside.

Halfway!

2012-01-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

Today marks the halfway (20 weeks) point of my pregnancy. I wouldn't say that it has gone by super quickly, but I know the next half will fly by with all the volleyball, visitors to France, my early departure back to the US, and all the settling in back in the States before baby comes. If you haven't heard the news...we are having a boy!

So far everything has been going pretty smoothly and my symptoms have been minimal. Getting a good nights rest is tough, especially since I am naturally a back sleeper. I have had a cold for the last week now that is wiping me out a bit. David knows not to be surprised to find me napping at all times of the day! Just one of the benefits of not having to work while pregnant. I am still keeping up with my running, and was able to hit my goal mileage through 20 weeks. Running while pregnant can be uncomfortable at times, but it keeps me sane! More on that in another post.

The bump has finally made an appearance. I am just starting to realize that most people can probably now tell that I am pregnant, not just a little tubby in the midsection. :) Baby is super active, I am already wondering if it is a sign of things to come! He moves a lot at all hours of the day and night, and David has been able to feel him move as well. Feeling the baby has made it all a little more real for us!

I have my second trimester ultrasound next week and we are very excited that David should be able to go to his first appointment of my pregnancy!

Christmas Fun

2011-12-29T12:25:00.001-08:00

So a quick recap on the volley and then we'll get on to all the fun stuff. We have finished the first half of the French League, holding our spot at second. We had a shot at overtaking the first place team in the last match of the first half, but we were not able to hold onto our 2-1 set lead and lost in 5. In Champions League, we are second place in our pool with a 3-1 record and have a good shot of holding onto our place and moving through to the playoff rounds. Overall a very good season so far. We still have some wrinkles to get smoothed out, but hopefully we will come back from the break a stronger team and ready to take care of business when it matters the most!

After our last match in Poitiers, Kelli and I were excited for our fun Christmas break we had planned. We were also stoked that our good friend Matt Webber decided to fly in from Spain and spend a few days with us!

Matt with a peacock at the Christmas market in Poitiers

For Christmas Eve we invited the setter of my team in Tours and his wife and little girl over for dinner. After a "brief" 10 mile run in the morning, Kelli got busy in the kitchen making a typical American dinner to dazzle our guests (Brazilian and French). Of course the results were amazing and we had more food than we knew what to do with! Yay for a wife who is an amazing cook and makes being away from home for Christmas just a little bit easier.

Fired up for dinner!

The Dinner Spread

Yummy Desserts

Christmas morning we hopped on a train for Paris! A former teammate from Almeria is playing there this year and he and his wife invited us up for Christmas. How can you say no that offer?! Thankfully Matt had also played in Paris the previous season so once we got off the train we were able to get around on the public transportation and find where we needed to go. At Josh and Katie's we had another delicious Christmas dinner and finished it off by watching the start of the NBA season on their projector!

The next morning Kelli, Matt and I headed out to check out the city (first time for me)! Thankfully the weather was nice to us, and we got beautiful clear skies for the whole day. I was super excited and the day did not disappoint. Kelli was a great tour guide and for one day of sightseeing, I really don't know if we could have seen so much of city in any better way. Such a beautiful city, and I truly hope to go back again sometime and see it again!

Matt and I

Sainte Chapelle

Stained glass windows inside were absolutely breathtaking!

Kelli outside Notre Dame

Notre Dame from the back

The Louvre

At the top of Champs Elysees

Liberty Flame with the Eiffel Tower

Taking pictures while waiting for a crepe!

Beautiful Engineering (I know, I am a nerd)

Sacre Coeur overlooking Paris

Paris at Sunset

Watching the Eiffel Tower light up at sunset

A Great Day!

Cheerio!

2011-12-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting...we have been slacking!

At the beginning of the month I took a little trip to the UK to visit our friends Dave and Julia, who live in Oxford. We met them in our language course in Germany years ago. As soon I as saw them I decided we were going to be friends, whether they liked it or not! Thankfully, they decided to oblige. :) They now have an adorable toddler, Naomi, and have another one on the way in mid-February.

It was great catching up with them. I picked Julia's brain all day long about everything pregnancy, birth and baby. It was so nice to have someone to sit down and talk to about all my questions. I LOVED spending time with Naomi, she has the most contagious laugh and the cheesiest, melt-your-heart smile. I taught her lots of important things, like how to make a really good fish face. I wish I had gotten a picture of that!

We spent most of our days hanging out, grabbing hot chocolate, and of course shopping! One night Julia and I were able to go to a traditional carol service. There were nine lessons read from the Bible, along with carols sung by the choir and some we got to join in with as well. It was a very cool experience to be in a beautiful old chapel for the service.

These are pics I found online, the first is of last year's carol service, and the second is a better shot of the chapel.

I didn't take many pictures on the trip...whoops! Here are a few though!

Julia, Naomi and me

I look really lame here but Naomi makes up for it with all her cuteness!

Harlem Globetrotters...a lesson in cultural differences

2011-11-15T13:33:00.001-08:00

Last weekend the Globetrotters were in Tours. David has been in the US for a National Team commitment, so I went with some friends (2 Americans and 1 Frenchie) . We sat in a box right at center court, front row. There was a pretty large crowd there, which was impressive considering tickets were 25-40 Euro each. Good thing we got hooked up by David's team with free tickets.

Front and Center!

The night started with Globie, the mascot, getting the crowd going with some games. Four kids were chosen to play musical chairs with Globie on center court. It was hysterical to watch, the kids no clue how the game worked. It took a couple of rounds for them to get the hang of it. After that, they asked for volunteers for another game. NO ONE raised their hands. Very different from how things are back home. I guess us Americans are more inclined to humiliate ourselves in public! David's teammate and his wife ended up getting picked, and they had to do some silly dances on the court. The crowd seemed interested, but maybe a little confused as well.

Globie! David's Teammate Cala, & his wife Chelsea

If you have never been to a Globetrotters game, the way it works is that the Globetrotters are "playing for the World Championship" against the "Select" team. There are moments where it seems like both teams are really trying, but a lot of times it is choreographed to show of the ball skills of the Globetrotters. Throughout the game they would pause and do some randomness like stealing someone's purse, throwing water on the crowd, chasing kids around and so on.

Warm up

There was an announcer speaking in English, and also a translator. One player, the coach, and the referee also had mics on. Sometimes they would say things that totally cracked me up, and the rest of the crowd would be silent either because it wasn't translated, or it was translated incorrectly. They used music a lot for humor, but the same thing would happen, I would laugh because I would see the irony in the song choice, but not many others would.

No big deal, this guy(called Tiny) is only 7-8!!! What???

My favorite part of the whole thing was at halftime when "Big G" came out. They played a montage of songs and he danced along. I can't believe I didn't start recording it until the very end. I was crying, it was so funny. The part I got on video was the best, but another highlight (that I don't think non-American's would get) was when Big G shrank to about half size, and waddled along to the munchkin song from the Wizard of Oz. Ya know... "we represent, the lollipop guild." So funny! Seriously, if you have 5 min to spare, search youtube for Big G Dance, many variations, all very funny!

All in all it was a fun night! David is very jealous that he missed this one!

Turn your volume on for this one!

Runner, Volleyball Player or ???

2011-11-11T04:32:00.000-08:00

David and I always joke that when we have kids we will probably have tall girls, short boys, and they will most likely be musicians or artists...just to be as different from us as possible.

Guess we will find out soon enough...Baby Smith, coming May 23rd (or so)!

12.5 week ultrasound

Halloween!

2011-10-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

We never know what to expect when we are overseas during the more "American" holidays. We were excited to see some pumpkins in the grocery store, which we have not been able to find in the other places we have lived. We bought two, one to carve and one to keep through Thanksgiving as decoration. We had fun decorating it, but we kept it pretty simple!

I had asked a friend here if the French really do much for Halloween, and he implied that it wasn't a very big deal. Needless to say, I was surprised when the doorbell rang at 9am and there were trick-or-treaters. Not going to lie, I was still in bed and only got up because I thought David, who had left just minutes before, might have locked himself out on his way to practice and needed back in the house to get something. The doorbell rang throughout the day, and we had to buy more candy because we only had one small bag of wrapped candies in the house.

David left today for an away game in Paris, so I was alone for the rest of the afternoon and evening. All was well until around 7:30 when the kids asking for candy started getting a lot older. Our pumpkin, which we had lit up and on the ledge outside our kitchen window, disappeared shortly after the first group of older kids. The last time I opened the door, there were about eight kids pushing and shoving to get candy from me, and they ended up pushing their way into the entry of my house. That got me mad, so I pushed back and shut the door on them without rewarding them with candy. They then started knocking on my kitchen window, so I shut all the lights off and went to the other side of the house. Once they all left I closed the shutters on the windows so it looked like no one was home and called it a night!

As annoying as this was, I don't think it had much to do with being in France, I am pretty sure the same kind of things happen at home during Halloween too!

Busy Season

2011-10-25T06:21:00.000-07:00

I am now in Poland, in the midst of a crazy couple weeks with lots of volleyball and not enough time back at home. As much as I appreciate volleyball keeping me busy, there are some times during the cluster of travel, training and matches where a pause button would be nice.

Since the last French league match, I was able to play in my first ever Champions League Match. It is a really cool opportunity that I have to be able to play with other tops teams from across Europe and I know my family back home likes it cause you can watch the games live on the internet! Our first match up was against ACH Bled, a Slovenian team, which was a little younger than years past, but still a good match up for us. The game was played in Tours and it was a blast. We had a great crowd behind us and we played some really good volleyball to make it a clean 3-0 sweep.

Allez Tours!

The fans were fired up with the win, they brought their own confetti!

The next morning we hopped on the bus for a drive up to Beauvais for the weekend match. Even though it is only a 3-4 hour drive, we had to take off early because of a boxing night that was happening in our gym in Tours. Not a big fan of spending more time away from home than I have to, but sometimes you just gotta roll with it. On Saturday, we came out a little deflated and lost our first match of the season 1-3. It was a weird night when nothing really seemed to be clicking on our side of the net, and to Beauvais credit, they played extremely well and put their hearts into the match. Never fun to lose a match, but as our coach reminded us, we have to learn from this and get better because of it. We have a long season ahead of us, and one match will not derail our plans for the season. Still, it was not a fun bus ride home. We arrived back in Tours around 3am and we all stumbled off the bus and headed home.

Unfortunately we had practice at noon (yes, that is early for me after traveling all night), so I was not able to join Kelli as she went to check out a church in Tours that was having a service in English that day. While it was a bummer that that church was all French, aside from the Irish pastor that was teaching that day, we were encouraged to hear about a sister church nearby with twice monthly English services. Once I got home from training we spent the rest of the day being lazy and ended it with a delicious dinner of biscuits and gravy (and me winning a game of Rook).

The next morning I jumped on the bus bright and early for another day of travel. After a long time on the road (and in the air), we have arrived in Belchatow, Poland and are preparing for our second Champions League match. Hopefully we will be able to rebound from our performance this past weekend and play a solid match.

If you want to check in out the match, we play Wednesday at 18:00 CET (9am California Time) at http://www.laola1.tv/en/int/volleyball/cev/cev-cl-pge-skra-belchatow-tours-vb/video/335-1348-65653.html

The latest

2011-10-21T03:23:00.000-07:00

David and I have been finding our rhythm here in Tours. His practice and game schedule is a bit busier than we have experienced in the past, so there has not been much free time to do exploring. They usually have 2 practices each day, with only a few hours break in between, just enough time to get some food and relax a bit. They even have practices on some Sundays, definitely a first for us!

We celebrated my 28th birthday on the 12th, getting old... It was a mellow day since David got back mid-day from an away match and then had some team obligations in the evening. We did go out to dinner at a great Italian restaurant, and I made a yummy chocolate cake that we shared that night with some friends. David got me a new apron and matching pot holders, a mixer, and a pretty silver bracelet. If you know me well at all, you would know that as lame as an apron and mixer might be for some, for me it is super exciting!

Making a birthday cake with my new mixer and apron!

David's team is doing well so far. They have won all of their league matches and are tied for first in the overall league standings. Last weekend they had a home match against Tourcoing, a team with 2 Americans that David plays with on the National team. It is always fun to see familiar faces, and it was interesting seeing how many fans were excited to take pictures with the Americans! One fan even brought his own American flag. That same fan was telling us that he was born in Boston, but moved to France shortly after his birth. He then explained, "Je ne parle pas american." Translation: I do not speak American. Ha ha...

Americans in France! Jon, David and Jayson

Last Sunday David and I walked around the city center and the Loire river. It was a beautiful sunset, it made us wish that we had bought the fancier camera we keep talking about getting! After our walk we met some friends for dinner in the center. We picked a restaurant at random and it turned out to be a bad choice. They brought me the wrong pizza, they didn't bring David's dinner until everyone else was done eating, and the service was just poor in general. At least we now know where not to eat!

The Loire at sunset

The bridge to North Tours
Our city!

Little by little I am getting chances to practice my French skills. Some days I am a little bolder than others, but I am at least speaking more that I have in any other country we have lived in! I am trying to be diligent about studying a few days a week and to force myself to try French first in every situation. The people of Tours have been very kind and seem to welcome the efforts, more so than last year in Spain.

Until next time!

Showering Natalie

2011-10-16T06:56:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention in my last post that David's sister, Kristen, and I threw a baby shower for our sister-in-law Natalie, who is due with her first in December. It was a fun day, here are some pictures!

Cake Jars! Blueberry, Vanilla and Chocolate Cakes Taffy Favors

Goodbye USA Hello France

2011-10-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

My last few weeks in the US were quite busy! As David settled into our new place in France, I wrapped up moving out of our apartment in Orange County, sold my "summer" car, and got the rest of our belongings tucked away in storage. I stayed with some wonderful friends for a few weeks, and loved getting lots of hang out time with them and their daughter, who is by far my favorite 3 year old. :)

Coaching also was in the mix as I finished moving, etc. I was able to be at 3 of the 6 meets for the season, and it was great getting to know the team better and better each week. It is always hard to leave the team, knowing I won't be back until they are already through a good part of track season.

My trip to France was not quite uneventful...I flew from Los Angeles to Washignton DC and then from there to Paris. My flight out of LA was delayed about 30 min, leaving me more than stressed since I already had a tight connection at 45 min. Midway through the flight, just as I was closing my eyes to relax and maybe sleep, I felt a rush on liquid run down my legs. The lady next to me spilled her entire bottle of red wine, all over me, and the white jacket I had laying across my lap. The flight attendant tried to help me out, but there was not much to be done, the stain covered a good portion of the jacket. To keep things exciting, as soon as I landed in DC and collected my carry-on bags I just to sprint to my gate for the Paris flight, while my name was being paged throughout the airport. I think I made it out of one seat and into the next in about 4 minutes! I was relieved to make my flight and also to have a row to myself to stretch out and sleep. David picked me up in Paris and drove me home from there!

We have done a few fun things in the days I have been here. David had a home game on Saturday night, which they won pretty easily. After the game we went bowling with a teammate (Cala), his wife (Chelsey) and her friends, and another American from the team they played. It was a late night but we had a lot of fun...and David and I came out on top of the scoreboard! He actually beat me!

Post game VIP, David is his team VIP shirt and jeans :)
Late night bowling!

On Sunday we watched one of the last sections of the annual Paris-Tours bike race. It was fun to see, and there were quite a few breakaways which made the excitement last a bit longer than if it was just one big pack.

This is right after another biker almost took my head off by throwing his water bottle right at me!

Our new neighborhood, we live right behind the first set of buildings!

David left yesterday morning (Monday) for an away game, which they won tonight, and he comes back tomorrow early afternoon. I spent the day running, shopping at Ikea and the grocery store, and then dinner with Chelsey at my place. I am looking forward to David coming home tomorrow...and celebrating my big 2-8!

France Livin'

2011-09-21T04:39:00.000-07:00

So I've been in France for a couple weeks now and I have been enjoying pretty much everything about it (except for the fact that Kelli is not here yet). Volleyball has been keeping me very busy, which I guess is better than being bored all the time. The first couple weeks, we've been training with an abbreviated roster due to the fact that some of the guys on our team were playing for their counties in the European Championships and the South American Championships. It's a bummer cause those are some of the better guys on our team, but we still had many preseason friendly matches scheduled. But there is nothing we can do about it so we played with the guys that we've had, and to my pleasant surprise, we've been playing pretty well against the other teams we've faced. Last weekend we got invited to a small tournament in Saint-Nazaire, France, which is right on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. One of the best things I love about volleyball is that you always seem to run into people you know, no matter where you end up going. This weekend, the team that we met in the finals was Paris Volley, and my setter from my first year in Almeria is playing there this year. It was good to see Josh again and I know that since Paris is only a couple hours away from Tours, Kelli and I will make a few trips up there to hang out with Josh and his wife Katie.

Yesterday we got our other middle and our starting opposite from Czech and this morning we got our last outside hitter from Serbia (who recently served the match winning ace in the Euro Finals). Unfortunately, we don't have much time to get to know each other, as tomorrow we are headed to Poland for our last preseason tournament. As busy as it may be, I am truly enjoying being with this team and I am looking forward to a good season this year.

Life outside of volleyball has been going smoothly as well. It always helps to have another English speaking teammate (and his wife) and even better when they live just down the street from us. It's also been good because for the first time since we've been overseas, we have internet set up in our place already (less that two weeks!!)! Hopefully this will lead to more frequent updates and connection with everyone back home this year, but then again we always say that don't we?

Alright, time for me to get ready for practice! Until next time!

Home Sweet Home

2011-09-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

David made it safely to France and is settling into our new place. We have a nice 2 story place with 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths (room for visitors!). We also have a backyard, garage, a washer and... a DRYER! This is the first time we have had a dryer in Europe. Super pumped! We also have a nice Mazda3 to drive this year!

Here are some pics from David:

Outside view
Backyard
Living Room
One of the bedrooms
Kitchen
Our sweet ride for the season!

Wrapping up the Summer

2011-09-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

So here I am, my last night before I take off for France (for those of you who didn't know that's where we are going this year) and I thought it would be a good idea to wrap up the summer before I leave and who knows when I'll get my internet again.

First off, as I mentioned previously, I have to opportunity to play in France this season. Looking at the schedule of matches for the season, it looks like I will be plenty busy for the next few months. Kelli and I are excited for the new adventures and memories that this new season and new country will bring. As usual, we will do our best to keep you guys updated and post pictures of our adventures and often as possible. For those who want to follow the volleyball a little closer, here are a couple links that can help you out.

French Men's League Website: http://www.lnv.fr

Tours VB Website: http://www.tewebe.com/

And one last piece of exciting news, last week I finally got baptized. After years of making little excuses for why I couldn't or how the timing wasn't right, I finally chose to be obedient to Christ and did it. I am thankful that our good friend Craig was willing to be the one who baptized me.

Alright that is all for tonight! I am going to miss you all back in the States, but hopefully this year will go by quickly and I'll be back again before you know it! Au Revior!

SF Marathon!

2011-08-05T13:44:00.001-07:00

I used to say that I had no interest in running a marathon, at least not in the next 10 years! Even 2 months ago, if someone had asked, I would have said that I was not going to do one for at least a year or two. Oh how things change...

It is fun to look at all the circumstance that led me to sign up for the San Fran Marathon. I did an 18 mile long run with one of the athletes I coach, as he was preparing for his first marathon. That was back in May, and it was the longest I had run in my life, by 4 miles! I then ran a series of 5k races and found myself back in the same shape I was in college, which has been a long time coming! After that, I did a crazy hilly 16 miler with some new friends, and I was amazed at how fast I was able to finish the last 8 miles. That run is what really got me thinking about doing a marathon sooner than later.

On a whim I sent an email to the elite/invited coordinator for the San Fran Marathon, and was pleasantly surprised to be given a complimentary elite entry (saving me $150!). That sealed the deal for me, and before I knew what was happening, my training shifted gears to prep me for my first 26.2 mile race! (Side note: The SF marathon doesn't offer prize money, so they don't get many "true elites," normally I would not qualify as an elite, but for this race I did!)

Excited about my "Elite Runner" bib

I had a great 5 week block of training going into the marathon, with my hardest day being 22 miles with the last 8 at faster than marathon pace. David and I headed up to San Fran Friday morning before the Sunday race and we met up with my mom, dad and my Aunt Cathy. On Saturday we also got to see my Aunt Tricia, who has run the SF marathon twice before, and my cousins Miranda and Brittany. We had 2 fun days hanging around the city, but I did my best to stay hydrated, and stay off my feet as much as possible!

Hanging out with family the day before the race

David and I with the Bay Bridge in the background

I was surprisingly relaxed the morning of the race, and was happy that the temp was around 57 degrees. I was in the first group to start, right at 5:30am! The course does a huge loop through the whole city, and includes going out and back on the Golden Gate Bridge! I had lots of funny thoughts during the race, here are a few random ones:
- Wow! I am actually doing this!
- This whole marathon thing is not that big of a deal...
- Man...I think I am going to throw up!
- Another hill...at 23 miles, are they crazy!
- Hey! I am running next to a guy dressed like Minnie Mouse.
- One step in front of the other...get to the next mile marker.

- No stopping, no walking!

Here we go, 26.2 miles to go! (I am in the red top, black bottoms, long socks)

My cheering crew was at mile 16 and mile 17, and I definitely looked forward to seeing them and kept counting down how many miles it would be until I saw them.

David caught a pic of my dad hiking through Golden Gate Park, trying to catch me running by!
Still feeling good at mile 16

I am not going to lie, the last 3-4 miles were very tough, but I was happy to see my splits after the race and realize that I didn't actually slow down too much., even though I thought I was totally hitting "the wall."

Around mile 21 or 22, starting to really look forward to the finish!

Almost there!
Nice shot with me and the clock
My cheering section, Aunt Cathy, Mom and Dad

Relaxing after the race with my biggest fan

I don't know when my next marathon will be, but I have to say, I am addicted! My next goal will be to run one under 3 hours, so I will have to find a course a bit easier that San Fran!

My final stats:
Finishing time: 3:06:05
Avg mile pace: 7:06
Overall place: 87th of 6002
Gender place: 9th woman of 2008
Age group place (25-29): 3rd of 450

Split Times:
7.4 miles: 53:05 Pace: 7:11
Half marathon: 1:33:34 Pace 7:09
20 miles: 2:21:26 Pace 7:05
Second Half marathon: 1:32:31 Pace: 7:03

Check out the race elevation chart!

London

2011-07-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

This past week I had the opportunity to go to London with the US National team to participate in a "friendly" volleyball tournament as part of an ongoing "London Prepares Series." As many of you know, London is hosting the 2012 Olympics (with opening ceremonies exactly one year from yesterday) and as part of their build up to that, they are testing their venues and protocols to make sure that everything runs smoothly when the real thing comes to town. Just going on a trip to compete with other teams is exciting enough (not to mention checking out a new city!) so the concept didn't really even hit me until I walked into the gym the first day. Then I really realized that this was the venue we will be walking into when we come again and try to defend the gold medal. Everything was built for that occasion, from the locker rooms, to the warm up courts all the way to the competition arena. I thought they did a good job and I think it will be a great place to play some high quality volleyball.

As far as the tournament went, we did okay as a team. After a tough loss to Serbia to start the tournament, we took care of Egypt, Mexico and Great Britain to give ourselves a shot at the gold medal heading into our last match against Brazil. Unfortunately we couldn't hold onto our 2-1 lead and lost in 5, settling for the bronze. I think I played well with the the chances I was given on the court, but as always I'm still finding ways to grow and improve in my game.

Me at the London Towers

Westminster Abbey

The London Eye

After a looooooong flight back home (in the middle seat no less) I am excited to enjoy my first full week off from volleyball since..... I can't really even remember, something like spring of 2009. I am even more excited about heading up to San Francisco this weekend to support Kelli as she races in her first marathon ever! It should be a fun weekend and we'll also get to hang out with some of her family while we are up there!

3 Year Anniversary!

2011-07-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Today we are celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary. While you would think we would say that time has flown by, we actually feel like we have been married much longer than 3 years! We figured that it feels that way because of all the things we have experienced in 3 short years of marriage. We definitely don't have "normal" lives! Here are glimpses of the last few years in numbers:

8: number of different apartments we have lived in (2 in Costa Mesa, 2 in Newport Beach, 1 Wurmlingen, Germany, 1 San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, 2 Almeria, Spain)

9: cars we have owned/driven regularly (Cutlass, Camry, Swift, Prelude, Montero, Mercedes, Tacoma, Mini Cooper, Prelude)

4: countries/territories we have lived in (US, Germany, Puerto Rico, Spain)

>100: volleyball games David has played

thousands: miles Kelli has run

15:races Kelli has run

3: different languages Kelli has taken classes for

12: countries David has spent at least a day in, other than the US (Germany, Austria, France, Holland, Italy, Serbia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Spain, Greece, Poland, Canada)

7: countries Kelli has spent at least a day in, other than the US (Germany, Austria, France, Puerto Rico, Spain, England, India)

We are excited for new and exciting adventures to come!

Summer Fun

2011-06-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

For those of you who rely solely on this blog to provide updates, we are sorry to leave you hanging with the last post. We ended up losing to Brazil in the hard fought 4 set match in the Pan Am Cup Finals. Obviously it was a bummer to lose in the finals but I feel like we played really well as a team and I had a great match to finish the tournament it wasn't as hard to swallow as some other loses in the past.

A few days after I got home from Canada, a former teammate came to the US from Latvia for vacation. We've been hosting them on their first leg of the trip and trying get as much in the short time we have together as possible. The first day we took him to the beach and enjoyed a little beach volleyball and watched a surfing competition that just happened to be going on that day. That afternoon Viktors and I went to the OC Fairgrounds to check out the Barret Jackson Car Show. I've seen this auction on tv a couple times (Speed Channel) but I never really knew what it was about. We had nothing else to do so we decided to check it out. To my surprise it was really really fun. There were tons of cars of all kinds throughout the entire ground with lots of fun activities to do. We checked out the auction that brought in all kinds of cars for the event (and an auctioneer that speaks so fast I am not sure anyone could really understand him at all). We got to watch drivers drift around cones, under hurdles, and around each other (and then us 6'7" guys reached over all the short people to catch the free hats they threw into the crowds, don't hate us cause we're tall). We drove some sweet radio cars (like the ones I had when I was a kid, but on steroids), test drove a Mustang (think I was going a little too fast for my supervisors comfort) and then sat in the passenger seat as a pro driver showed me that I know nothing about driving fast.

Viktors test driving a Mustang

About to learn what driving fast really means

Awesome radio controlled cars

OoooOOOh... pretty car!

The next night we decided to go to an Angels game and Kelli was able to score some sweet tickets for only $7!!! And these weren't nosebleeds, this was like 15 rows up from the right field wall! It was a fun game with a hilarious peanut man and a walk off hit in extra innings.

At the Game

The next day, with Kelli gone to UCLA to help coach at an FCA Camp (she'll give an update in the future) Viktors and I decided to test what we learned at the game the previous night and went to Boomers to take some swings at the batting cages. Having never swung a baseball bat before, he did a pretty good job with the slow pitch softballs and was able to get ahold of a couple baseball pitches too. After that we put our wii golfing skills to test and played a couple rounds of mini golf (I won the first round, he won the second).

Since I have been back home from Canada, I have still been practicing with the National Team, and we are in the mist of a 7 week long tournament called World League. We are doing well and are still fighting for a shot at the final round next week in Poland. We've struggled coming out strong the first night (we play two matches a weekend on back to back days), going 1-4 in the first 5 weeks. However we've been able to come back strong on the second nights and taken all five of those matches. This week I was finally able to crack the travel roster and will be joining the team as we take on Puerto Rico at Long Beach! I am excited to be a part of this roster and doing what I can to help the team secure a spot in the finals. If you are in the area and want to see some great indoor volleyball, opportunities like this do not come around often so try to make it to the games on Friday and Saturday night!

K, time for me to get out of here, hope to see some of you soon!

Pan American Cup Final - Live now!

2011-06-18T16:55:00.001-07:00

The championship match is on right now, USA vs. Brazil! Go David!

http://www.sportscanada.tv/index.php/2011-pan-american-mens-volleyball-cup

Live Semifinal today!

2011-06-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

David and Team USA are playing in the Pan American Cup semifinal today at 3pm California time (5pm for those of you in OK!). They are playing against Puerto Rico, which is fun for David since the coach of the PR team is the same coach he had when he played in the PR Pro League. One of his former teammates is also playing for them!

Here is the link for the game, http://www.sportscanada.tv/index.php/2011-pan-american-mens-volleyball-cup

Go DAVID!

Pan Am Cup Pictures!

2011-06-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, but the next few updates will be all about volleyball and David. :) USA won their pool but winning all three matches in three sets, and have earned a bye through the quarterfinals and will go straight to the semis which will be Friday. Once I know what time they play I will report here the time and the live video link.

David is having a great tournament so far. Here are so pictures that I "borrowed" from Vball Canada on Facebook.

Go David!

2011-06-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

David is currently in Canada with the USA A2 National team, playing in the Pan American Cup. His games will be live online, starting with one (vs. Bahamas) that starts sometime in the next 5 minutes or so! (12:00pm California time)

If you want to watch, use this link: http://www.sportscanada.tv/index.php/2011-pan-american-mens-volleyball-cup

The same link should work for the following USA games:
Tues, June 14th 12pm California time vs. Panama
Wed, June 15th 3pm California time vs. Argentina

After that, the championship rounds will begin, with the US hoping to defend last years title!

Catching Up

2011-06-07T21:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, we know, we have been terrible with updates lately! This is always a busy time of the year, moving home, getting an apartment and car, moving into our new place, and on and on. Here is a very quick recap of our last few weeks in Spain.

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a very big deal in Spain. It is the week before Easter, and among other things, includes many processions that snake throughout the cities. The processions feature "pasos," lifelike wood or plaster sculptures of scenes from Jesus' arrest, crucifixion and burial or images of the Virgin Mary. These huge sculptures are carried on the backs and necks of men, who stand under the pasos and slowly move for up to 11 hours through the city streets. We were able to see 3 different processions, each one with a unique theme. The procession also includes lots of people carrying candles, and all dressed in unique costumes.

David's team rolled right through the quarter finals and semis of the playoffs. David was "Man of the Match" twice, once in the quarters and once in the semis. In the playoff finals, which was a best 3 of 5 series, they won the first match, which was at home, then lost the next 3. We were bummed that they didn't win the finals, but overall it was a great season.

Go Almeria! (Me, Natalia and Bea)
Quarter finals
Proud of the "Man of the Match!"
(Ali, Me, David, Sarah and Chris)

We had a couple of goodbye dinners before I left for California. The first one was with a lot of the people from the team, and the second was with some American friends. It was hard to say goodbye, especially when you never know when or if we will see some of these people again!

Volleyball friends!
Vanessa, Bea, me, Natalia and Marleen
American dinner, minus Sarah and Chris who got stuck out of town.
One last goodbye from Kristina

It was hard to say goodbye to Almeria, it was a great year with great people but it is very good to be home in Southern California! More to come soon!

Repost: Almeria Schools

2011-06-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

(David's last blog got deleted somehow from Blogger. Here is a repost!)

As part of a community involvement program that our club designed, everyone on the team is selected to attend schools around Almeria to host a little assembly and talk to kids about how we became athletes and how sports can help you in life. For the most part I just sit in the background and let my teammates do most of the talking because after a year and a half of living in Spain (and another 4 months in Puerto Rico), I still don't know any Spanish. After we take a bunch of questions that range everywhere from well thought out to absolutely hilarious (for instance, one kids asked me if I have any friends because of my hearing loss). After we'll give out a couple prizes, a few autographs and a ton of high fives before wrapping it up with a group photo. For the most part I smile and try to have fun even though I never really feel like I have inspired any of the kids.

That changed a couple weeks ago when someone in the club came up with the idea that I should visit the deaf school in Almeria. I was down for it and so we headed out one afternoon after weights. It ended up being a group of about 25 kids with varying degrees of deafness all packed into one room with a bunch of excited teachers. Kelli had told me the night before after a little research, but it began to become clear to me as I spoke (and then Kiko translated to Spanish, and then another girl, translated to Sign Language) that the deaf culture in Spain is very new compared to the States. These kids are among the first generation of deaf culture in Spain and it was sad listening to one of the teachers explain to me that when she was growing up she wasn't allowed to play on sports teams with other kids because people saw her hearing loss and too much of a handicap. I was glad I got the chance to tell the kids the same thing my parents told me growing up, "you are the only person who stops yourself from doing something because you are hearing impaired." After we finished a teacher came up to me to say thank you and that he was happy I was able to come as a real person that these kids can look up to.

After we visit the schools we invite the kids to come to a volleyball clinic a couple days later to play around. I decided to go that week even though I wasn't scheduled cause I was curious to see if any of the kids from the deaf school showed up. Three of them ended up coming and I had a blast trying to interact with them (our sign languages are very different) and play some hybrid form of volleyball/jungle ball.

The best part was that weekend a couple kids came to the matches and brought their families with them. I noticed one of them hanging over the railing trying to get my attention during the match so after we won I went over to say hi and found out he brought his whole family to the game (a couple other deaf siblings too). His mother was super excited and though we struggled with the language barrier again, I could tell she was happy to see that I took the time to try to talk with them. Sometimes I forget the unique platforms that I've been given in life to touch a certain group of people in a way that others cannot. I am so determined at times to be "normal" that I forget that isn't the case, and sometimes, it's being different that makes the difference to some people.

I was unable to find any pictures from the deaf school, but here are some other pictures of my school visits!

Jersey winner!

Smile!

Lots of Autographs happening

And one last group picture

Cookies!

2011-04-27T12:25:00.001-07:00

I have been making a lot of cookies for David's team, usually once a week. Their favorite so far has been M&M cookies, but they have tried all different kinds now. They get very excited when they see David coming with "the cookie container." This week is the beginning of the final round of playoffs, so I decided to break from my usual cookies and do some sugar cookies with a little decoration!

As usual, I didn't have all the normal ingredients, or tools, but I made do with what I had and I think they turned out really well. They tasted amazing and were fun to make. The coaches and players all seemed to appreciate them. I was too embarrassed to take them myself to practice, so David was my delivery boy!

Frosting with a toothpick!

Trying my best to be artistic!
Team name and logo
Ready to eat!

Just another random experience...

2011-04-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

So I ran a 10k race here in Almeria on Sunday. I ran about 40 seconds faster than last year, and won the women's race by a few minutes. I was not totally thrilled with the race, I think I felt too good for too long in the race, but every race is a learning experience.

This guy totally blocked my picture ;)

Finish!

I have been seeing David's team phyiso every couple of weeks for some adjustments, massage, etc. As I have been running quite a bit this season, and all of it being on concrete with lost of hills, my body has been taking quite a beating. Getting worked on every few weeks has been key to staying on my feet. Today I had another appointment, mostly for some knee tightness I have had for about a month, and also tight calf muscles (which have forever plagued me). Miguel (the physio) took things to another level today to address my leg tightness. Check it out...

Step 1: Regular Chinese "cupping" method
Next: Blood Cupping

With the blood cupping, my legs were first pricked with an acupuncture needle in pressure points on my legs. Not my favorite part... Then the suction is applied and left on for about 10 minutes. After, the cups are removed, along with dark, gunky blood that was extracted from my legs. The cupping will leave these rings on my legs for about 24 hours, and the first 2 hours or so they were pretty tender.

Time will tell if this helps with my muscle pain. I hope it does! For now, I am banned from running for 48 hours...David doesn't believe that I will follow this prescription, but I will, since I am also allowed to cross train!

The crazy things we do for our sports!

Extreme Hiking!!!

2011-04-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had a chance to spend a fun weekend of hiking with friends while David was away for some games. The first day we went cave hiking with a local hiking club in Almeria. My friend Chris works with someone from the club, so we got to do the real-deal, rather than an official tour. We didn't really know what to expect, but judging by the hard hats (with lights!) and the legit hiking shoes, we figured it would be pretty good. After a 45 min drive out of Almeria, and one "breakfast" stop, we hit a dirt rode in the middle of a desert area. As we bounced along I was glad that I had not driven the Mini-Copper...it would have been rough!

Stealing from an informational website: "[The Cuevas de Sorbas] is a set of caves that were formed by the combined action of water. On the one hand, due to erosion of river waters and on the other hand by the dissolution that occurs on some rocks, in this case: Karst. Gypsum is a mineral with a fairly rapid dissolution in water. Because of this speedy dissolution, its degradation is also quite fast and this is the reason why there are very few Gypsum Karsts in the world. Most of these geosites are highly degraded. However, in Almeria, because there is very little rain, this process is not that fast and therefore it is one of the best preserved Gypsum Karst topography in the world.

Copyright of this text and more info at: Spectacular geosites located in Almeria (Spain)http://www.unique-almeria.com/geosites.html#ixzz1JJWs91xN

The girls ready to head in!Dropping into the cave

The caves go on for 50km, with hundreds of entrances that are not easily seen by my eye. Getting into the cave involved hiking through a valley, and then dropping down into a small opening of the cave. There were three levels of the caves below the ground. As we hiked we could definitely feel the temperature drop as we got farther and farther from ground level. Walking in the caves was difficult at points...sometime we would be crouched all the way down like little ducks and we would still bump our heads! There were little rooms we could drop into that would be full of crystals over every surface.

Chris checking out one of the crystal rooms

I always thought it was funny that we would be in what looked like a dead end, and then our "guide" would squeeze through some tiny crack, or shimmy between two walls and tell us this was the way. It would be really easy to get lost for days in there, and without headlights it is completely dark in there. We all turned our lights off for a few minutes and it was interesting how our eyes never could adjust to the darkness.

We had to maneuver ourselves between the two walls and then drop down a few feet

We had a lot of fun, it the company we had made it quite interesting! The next day, the four of us headed to Cabo De Gata, a natural park near Almeria. We went to an area that was new to me, and it was unlike any of the local beaches I have been to. The area was beautiful, with tons of little hidden beaches ready to be discovered. We picnicked at one beach, then spent some time hiking around the other beaches. The only thing to beware of...nudity is allowed at the beaches here, so you never know what might be around the next corner. Yikes!!!

The view during our picnic
Kindle club!

Playoff Time

2011-04-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

So last time we were wrapping up the regular season and prepping for the Copa Del Rey. Our last match of the season was against Teruel, the second place team and a team we knew we would have to battle in a few more matches during the postseason. We wanted to play hard, but at the same time, not give away too much for the playoffs. We did a bad job with balancing that, and we got destroyed in 3 games. It was a bummer cause we always want to win, but at the same time, we had 4 days until the Copa Del Rey and so we had to remind ourselves that we are a better team than that and that we would have a chance to prove that at the Cup.

After a long drive back home, I got less than 24 hours to spend with Kelli and then I was back on the road again to the Canary Islands. Though our first match wasn't until Wednesday, the team wanted us there on Monday so we could get a practice or two in at the tournament site. On Wednesday we knew that our biggest trouble in the first round would be a lack of fire and letting the other team catch us sleeping. It ended up not being a problem as we came out hard and took the game in 3 quick sets. After a day off on Thursday, we played in the semis versus, Palma, one of the few teams that managed a victory against us this season. But once again we came out strong with a quick 2-0 lead before letting up a little and squeezing out the last set 29-27.

A nice shot from the Quarterfinals of the Cup

I see you...

Block against Palma

As per our predictions, Teruel was waiting for us in the finals and we were ready to give them a better showing than the week before. They came out strong and we battled back and ended up splitting the first two sets. Looking back I was probably a little more pumped up than I could handle at the moment so it took me a couple sets to calm down and play my game. In the third set we were struggling and after a pair of badly missed calls by the ref in a rally, I grabbed the net in frustration and earned my first yellow card since high school. Obviously that did nothing to help the team and we lost the third.

In the fourth set we fought a tight battle and I ended up going back to the service line at 23-24. The first three sets had all ended with a missed serve and I had no intention of finishing the game off that way, but at the same time, I needed to put some pressure on their passers so we could get a stop and even the score. I put the ball in play and we got a great touch on the block. I managed to play some defense and put the ball to the right spot for our setter and we got a good swing on the counter attack. But it was not our day as their libero made a great play to keep the ball alive and they managed to swing out of a broken play for the final point. It was not the finish we wanted and it was tough watching them celebrate, wondering what we could have done differently. One of the toughest things in sports for me in sitting there in hindsight and trying to replay what went wrong. It's tough cause sometimes it is so easy to play the what if game, trying to change a past that has already been written. As an athlete (and a person) I have the responsibility to learn and apply the lessons from the past to, in a sense, change the future that awaits me. Not the past. In the end, God has a plan for it all and sometimes that includes losing a match, even if I want to win.

So, lucky us, after returning home after the Cup, we got three days to train before hopping back on the road and returning back to the Canary Islands to play the first match of the quarterfinals for the Championship. I was getting tired of being on the road so much, but the coaches gave us a little boost by promising a two day weekend the following week if we would sweep the quarterfinals (best of 3). We left no doubt that we were the better team and took the first match in a quick 3-0 sweep in 75 minutes.

Starting the playoffs on a good foot

Tomorrow is the second match of the quarterfinals and we are looking to take care of business and enjoy Saturday and Sunday off!

In the running world, Kelli is a little more than a week out from her second try at the Almeria 10k. She ran this race last year, and as some of you might remember, she self-assessed her pace as a "stupidly run." This year Kelli has a much stronger base and she is looking to drop some time. It will be fun to watch her run as I rarely get the chance to see her compete.

Time is flying by quickly and we are looking forward to finishing this season strong and coming back to the States for the summer. See you soon!

Fun Weekend!

2011-03-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we had the chance to lock up the first place spot for the regular season which results in a home court advantage for the playoffs. However, we were scheduled to play the last place team in the league, which presented a tricky balance of allowing our non-starters a chance to play and not getting too careless as to lose the points we needed. It ended up not being an issue at all as the guys stepped up and played very well and we took care of the match in 3 quick sets. After the game, the club offered us a chance to go watch our local futbol team play in their match that evening. Kelli and I haven't been to a game yet this season and so we quickly said yes and joined a few of my teammates to the game. It was a good game and Almeria ended up coming away with a 2-2 draw.

Go Almeria!

Somebody rolling on the ground in pain.
Don't worry, he'll be fine in about 2 seconds.

The next day was a nice day so Kelli and I headed down to the beach for the afternoon to sit at a cafe and chill outside for a while. We ended up running into Greg, Nico, Marleen and Nico's parents. Later our American friends Chris and Sarah swung by real quick and we had a good time relaxing for a couple hours. Before we took off for home again, Greg showed us his new ride. His roommate lent him his moped for the next couple months, so Greg was excited about his new "hog."

Greg's Ride

The past couple nights we've had some cool lightening storms pass by. Kelli and I got to sit on the balcony (under the overhang) and watch the sky light up in the distance. Unfortunately our camera is not the best for these types of things so we didn't get any great pictures, but it was still a beautiful thing to watch.

ooooOOOOOOH!!

This week marks the last week of regular season for the Spanish League. With the top seed in playoffs already locked up, we go to Teruel (2nd place) without having too much pressure to win. While winning is always our objective when we hit the court, it will be a great chance for us to compete hard, get better as a team and prepare for the Copa Del Rey, which is next week, and playoffs following that.

Care Package!

2011-03-11T05:38:00.000-08:00

Our apartment gets buzzed all the time when people are trying to get into the building and they just punch any apartment at random. I usually just push the button to open the building door and assume it isn't actually anyone for us. Yesterday I was wrong!!! When our door bell rang a few minutes after I let someone in, I got super excited cause I knew that only mean... a package!

It is a good thing we both work out so much!

David's parents sent us many of our favorite things. David can only describe my excitement as pure giddiness! Have you ever seen such a big bag of chocolate chips? 72 ounces!!! David's teammates will be excited because this means lots of cookies coming their way.

For full disclosure, I have to say that David has hidden the candy and I let him know when I want some, and what I want. If you know me well at all, you know I have no self-control with these kinds of goodies!

Thanks Rick and Nancy for the treats!

And February Flew Right By...

2011-02-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

So February has come and gone and we have done a horrible job keeping you up to date.

Volleyball-wise, things are going well. We are at the end of our regular season and we have a chance to lock up the top seed in playoffs over the next couple weeks. We've altered out training program a little so we are going extra hard right now in both the gym and the weight room, with the hope of building some strength that will carry us through the playoffs once we taper down a little. We have also recently added another American player to the roster. He was one of the guys that brought home the gold from the Beijing Olympics so he is a great player with tons of experience and has been helping us out a lot. And it's always nice for me to have another person around who speaks English.

That blocker has no chance

Kelli's had another busy month as well. Earlier in the month she headed to Oxford to hang out with our friends Dave and Julia and their baby Naomi. I wish I could travel with her cause I have never seen Oxford and Kelli loves it every time she goes there. On the way back, she met up with our friend from last year, Lily. I played with Lily's husband last year in Almeria, but he is dominating in France so Lily decided to visit us while Bogdan was traveling with his team. It was interesting having Lily around again, because we live in the same place they did last year so everything was so familiar, and yet not quite the same. Thankfully the weather was beautiful while Lily was here, so Kelli was able to get her beach volleyball on again. I had fun sitting in the cafe and watching them play. Kelli did a great job maintaining her level from last year, despite the fact that she really hasn't touched the ball since.

Kelli, Naomi, and Julia

At the surprise lunch we had for Lily

After Lily left, Kelli and I both got sick. I got hit with a ton of congestion in my nose, and mainly my chest. Thankfully it wasn't bad enough to stop me from playing, but there were times I was coughing up some awful stuff during practice. Later that week, Kelli started to get worse, and the night before I had to leave for an away match, peaked with a fever of 103! It was a little scary that I had to leave her alone in that condition, but thankfully the club was very nice and offered to help. We tried to manage on our own for a while, hoping the fever would break and take care of itself, but when it persisted, we were able to call one of my team trainers, who wasn't traveling with us that weekend, to help Kelli. He was able to get her a variety of antibiotics to help with everything, and she slowly got better from there.

Last Sunday, when were were finally getting better, we were able to see our second professional bike race in Almeria. Last year, Kelli got me to run all over the city with her to catch a couple checkpoints in the race and we had a blast. This year we got to see the race in the very early stages (when the pack was huge). Without really thinking, we got a spot in the center of a roundabout to watch them as they climbed a hill in the early part of the race. We could see them coming for a long way off and it was cool to see how the pack kept changing and reshaping as the riders kept moving for better position. Once they hit the roundabout, the pack was so huge that instead of everyone going one way, they split right in front of us and rode around us on both sides. Kinda cool. After the team cars all followed and cleared out, we killed some time and then when down to the finish to watch the end of the race. Kelli had researched beforehand and found out that there were two American teams in the race so we decided to make a sign to cheer on our fellow countrymen. Despite the fact they only saw it for a grand total of 3 seconds at the end of a 4+ hour race, I thought it was a good looking sign. When the pack finally turn the corner for the last stretch of the race, we were surprised at how many people were there at the end. Last year it was a breakaway group of maybe 5 guys, this year there were 30 bikers flying down the road for an all out finish. It was an exciting finish and I am glad we got to watch the race again this year.

Huge Pack Coming up the Hill

Left or Right, Take Your Pick

Team Cars with Bikes Loaded on the Roofs

Team Garmin (American Team)

Team United Health Care (American Team)

Kelli with our Poster

Sprinting to the Finish!

The Winner (looks kinda tired)

Cleaning up the bikes and getting ready to hit the road again

This past week has been mellow for the most part. The cold(er) weather has returned and the wind is once again beginning to pick up. Healthy Kelli has packed on 55 miles of running this week so she is out and about once again. We had a fun team bonding BBQ on Wednesday, and we made so much food that I brought home more leftovers than I ate at the BBQ. Last night we beat Vigo to remain 4 points ahead of the second place team with only two matches left in the regular season. Hopefully we have another good week and we can lock up our top seed in playoffs this coming weekend.

Bonus Pic! Slap this handsome fellow on your desktop!

Almeria Medio Maraton

2011-02-03T04:06:00.000-08:00

If you know me very well at all, you would know that I am super competitive and really hard on myself. Running is super important to me. David and I agree that while his athletic endeavors support us, my running is just as important to me as volleyball is to him. I am thankful that he agrees and that he puts up with my craziness! I had to remind him many times leading up to this race that it is just different than volleyball. David has games every week, sometimes even twice a week. I race maybe once a month, but usually much less than that. Hence my nervous energy before a big race!

Sunday, January 30th, was the Almeria Half Marathon (13.1 miles/21.09 kilometers. I was really unsure of what to expect since I had taken 2 weeks totally off of running while I was in India. That gave me 3 weeks to get back into it before race day. I was happy to have some good workouts leading into the race, but I also had some back problems flare up that led me to worry even more about how things would go. I got some treatment for my back in the week leading up to the race, which I am so thankful for because it made a huge difference!

My friend Ali, an American teaching English here in Almeria, was also running the race. She ran her first ever road race back in December with me, and this was going to be her first ever half marathon. The race course had some loops so it was fun to be able to pass each other during the race and cheer each other on!

Go Ali!

So here are some random thoughts of mine during the race. My mom always likes the details of what goes on in my brain during a race, so here you go! One side note, I only looked at my watch the first mile, and at 5k. Otherwise, my watch just logged my times, so I had no real idea how I was doing until the finish.

Mile 1: 6:03, whoops. I am an idiot. I know I am running way to fast but I don't want to let the race get away from me! Hope I don't pay for this later...

Mile 2: 6:29 Sweet...I found a group of guys to run with, hope they can hang for a long time.

Mile 3: 6:31 Counting the women ahead of me as we go around a loop...looks like I am in 7th or 8th.

Mile 4: 6:32

Mile 5: 6:43, ugh, this long straightaway didn't look so steep on the course map!

Mile 6: 6:22 Nice downhill...saw David and some other friends. Time to lose the gloves and armbands, it is warming up!

Mile 7: 6:32 Woo hoo, I passed the women that was ahead of me. She didn't try to keep up. I think she is the only women I had a shot at catching, the others are too far ahead.

Mile 8: 6:26 First part of the steep uphill section is done, now for a long downhill!

Mile 9: 6:25 That downhill didn't feel so great, I would rather stay at a consistent pace, rather than push the down, but it is worth it to stay with my little group of guys.

Mile 10: 6:35 Feeling a second wind the last mile or two...hope it lasts!

Mile 11: 6:32 Aw man, I got passed by a woman like I was standing still! That was a bit discouraging.

Just after I got passed by a woman, right before I started feeling terrible!

Mile 12: 6:55 Ouch.

Mile 13: 6:54 Regretting that first fast mile. Trying to hang on, these last 2 miles have had more up than down and I am struggling to get through this. Not going to look at my watch, in case I am not running a good time.

Last .1 of the race: at 6:01 pace Just saw a clock before the entrance to the stadium, guess I didn't blow up to bad, I can still break my time from Granada (1:28:14).

Finish: 1:26:40 8th female/136 overall (of 1,200 or so)

Finishing in the stadium!
David says this trophy is the ugliest one ever!

Overall I am happy with the PR and the 90 Euro of prize money, but I am bummed that I crashed so bad the last 2 miles. I am pretty sure it is a result of having 2 weeks off of running, and not really training too specifically for this race. David just laughs at me for being happy for about an hour and then dissecting how I could do better next time. That is what makes us both keep pushing on in our sports!

Feels like winter!

2011-01-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful that I squeezed a beach day in 2 weeks ago because the weather has definitely taken a bit of a turn since then. While it is still much warmer than it was living in Germany, it is feeling cold. We have even turned our heater on the last few days!

David's team is still leading the Spanish league, and they have 2 matches this week. I know he is relieved to have all the long travel trip behind him, at least for now! I am keeping busy with training for my half marathon, which is coming up this Sunday. I am nervous, after taking 2 weeks off while in India, and also because of some lower back pain that made a return after 6 months of relief. I saw David's team physio who worked on me quite a bit yesterday and taped me up. Hopefully I will be good to go on Sunday!

I am super excited to be taking a trip at the end of next week to Oxford, England to visit our friends Dave, Julia and baby Naomi. The last time I saw them, Julia was about 7 months pregnant, so this will be my first time meeting Naomi. David is bummed he can't come as well, but we hope they get a chance to visit us sometime in early spring.

That is all for now!

A Busy Beginning

2011-01-19T05:32:00.000-08:00

Still in the first month of the new year and I am already tired. These past couple weeks have been crazy with travel and matches. We went through a stretch 11 days in which we only had one day that was free of either a match or travel (I've been on the road so much that I have read 3 novels!!! I never read that much!). It ended up being the perfect day as we were in Barcelona and our libero volunteered to take us around the city. I have never been to Barcelona before but it was amazing to see the difference between this city and Almeria. It was absolutely gorgeous and I wish we could have stayed a few days longer. But then again, I had only seen Kelli one day in the past 3 weeks, so home sounded kinda good too.

Sweet carry-on/scooter combo I found in the airport! (No I didn't buy it)

Sagrada Familia, under construction since 1906

A shot from the back of the building

Don't see big streets like this in Almeria (No, that is not Kelli running in the picture)

A pair of houses designed by Gaudi (same architect from the Sagrada Familia)

Nico and I in a town square

Barcelona sunset from 9 stories up

A water fountain where they begin the celebration each time
FC Barcelona wins a championship in Spain (which happens a lot)

Thankfully the club gave us a precious day off when we got home so Kelli surprised me and we spent a day in Roquetas De Mar. She booked a nice hotel with a spa that we could both relax at for the day. Since it is still winter, the hotel did was not as busy as it normally would be, but Kelli and I were laughing the whole time because the average age of the rest of the vacationers was at least 35 years older than us. It was fun to spend a day hanging out outside of Almeria and we'll return to the area again soon to take advantage of their bowling alley.

View from our room in Roquetas De Mar

And now we are back to our "normal" schedule. Kelli, despite taking time off to go to India, has officially signed up for the Almeria Half Marathon in a couple weeks so she is training hard for that. My match schedule is now much lighter that we have been eliminate from the CEV Cup, but I am looking forward to second half of the season in the Superliga.

My other family...

2011-01-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

It is hard to figure out how to capture my recent India trip in a few paragraphs, especially as I continue to process and figure out what the trip meant to me. Being my 5th trip, and my responsibilities as a leader, I was surprised to still be able to experience the excitement, the newness, and the joy all around.

A few highlights would be spending time with Kaveri, the little girl I have been connected to over the last 5 years. She is growing up into a beautiful little girl, and is getting to spend a lot of time with the staff of Harvest India. Also, I got lots of time each day with Jerusha, a woman who got married during my 3rd trip to India. On that trip, her and her then-fiance participated in an engagement blessing along with David and I. It was fun to reconnect, and I made a point to seek her out each day for at least a few minutes. A first for me... I got to name a baby during one of our medical camps! I chose the name Elizabeth, after hearing a message that day about Zechariah and Elizabeth waiting patiently for a baby, who was to be John the Baptist. The baby I named is about 2 months old, but looks to be closer to a newborns size, as she is allergic to her mother's milk and is not thriving. I pray that she will get the nourishment that she needs.

Kaveri and I

Jerusha

Baby Elizabeth

As I think back to the trip, look at pictures, and watch the above video, the one word that resounds in me is FAMILY. I am so at home amongst the people in India. Our ministry partners are trusted family members to our church and to me. The children remember me, year after year, even when I am absent for a year or two.

I don't know what the next few years will bring, whether I will be able to go on another trip or not, but either way I know we will always stay connected with Harvest India. The work they are doing there is so important and so powerful, and their faithfulness to God through it all is inspiring and motivating. I am so thankful to be able to play just a small role in the ministry.

If you want to find out more about Harvest India you can check them out online at harvestindia.org or you can email me. Thanks to all of you who supported me financially and through prayer!

India

2011-01-11T08:27:00.000-08:00

A longer post about my trip to India is to come, but for now, please watch this video. One of the guys on the trip put it together and it gives a beautiful glimpse of our time in India. In the last 10 hours I have watched it at least 6 times.

Rockharbor India Team Video (click here, link fixed)

Oh India....

The Holidays!

2011-01-04T15:14:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!! We hope that you had a great 2010 and we are looking forward to where the new 2011 takes us!

Before Kelli and I split ways (me for Holland and her for India) we hosted a little Christmas party for some guys on the team and some fellow Americans that we have met in Almeria. Kelli spend the day (and the day before) in the kitchen making tons of delicious eats! I failed at my duties to properly man the camera and take pictures throughout the night so these limited shots do not fully do Kelli justice for the amazing food she made for us. My apologies but we hope you like what we do have!

Dessert Table! Including homemade candied nuts, three different kinds of chocolate covered prezels, sugar cookies, and homemade peanut butter cups (amoung other things)

Close up on the Chocolate Covered Prezels

Thumbs up for the bountiful food!

Everyone enjoying themselves

A little post-dinner MarioKart faceoff between Mario (who else?) and Vanessa

A few nights later Mario and Jesus (and Christina) invited over to their place for another Christmas dinner with a highlight of Jesus' native Venezuelan food, Arepas! You can google it if you want to know more, but basically it is a deep fried corn cake that you cut open and stuff with eggs, cheese, deli and tuna. They were pretty good but man they were super heavy!

On Christmas eve Kelli and I made homemade pizza (ok, Kelli made it, I sat there) and opened our presents. Special thanks to our family for working hard to deal with our overseas life and somehow filling up the room under our trees with love (read: gifts :-D). Our night was highlighted by an interesting Wii game that Kelli's mom got for me. Ladies and gentlemen I present "Michael Jackson: The Experience!" With this game you can dance as Michael or his backup dancers. If you think it is embarrassing, you are right.... but once you get over that it is pretty fun!

By the time I get back home, I'll be a pro

For Christmas we opened our stockings (Kelli got candy coal in her stocking.... but totally didn't it), and had lunch with Ali. Kelli made stuffed pork chops (yummy yummy) and Ali came with enchiladas! An interesting combo, but it was delicious nonetheless! The next day Kelli and I both headed our seperate ways, me for Holland and Kelli to join her team in India.

And here we are in the new year! Kelli is in the latter half of her trip in India (check the link below) and the team seems to being doing well though prayers for the health of the team are always welcome. I am back in Almeria and already back in the grind with a match against a Polish team on Thursday and an away match on the Canary Islands on Saturday.

Happy new years and we wish you all the best in 2011!

India Bound, part 5!

2010-12-26T01:22:00.001-08:00

I am finishing up packing and about to head to the airport in a few minutes, bound for my 5th trip to India. I am co-leading a team of 31 people from our church back in Southern California, and partnering with a ministry in India called Harvest India. I am very excited to be heading back to India after a year and a half away. You can follow our journey over the next few weeks at our team blog site: rockharborindiateam.blogspot.com (I won't be the one writing)

Hope you all had a merry Christmas and have a safe and happy New Year!

Run Kelli Run!!!

2010-12-19T06:38:00.001-08:00

Despite all the bouncing around the globe in the recent weeks, Kelli, as always, continues to run almost everyday, racking up huge mileage and making my training for volleyball look pathetic. To keep herself motivated, Kelli is always on the lookout for races to run. Such a race was found in Adra, a city 50km outside of Almeria. Kelli immediately signed up and got fellow American-living-in-Almeria, Ali, to run the race too. So bright and early Sunday morning we piled into the Cooper and headed out for the race. The course was a 8.5 km series of loops that ranged through the city, along the boardwalks by the beach. Ali was excited since this was her first road race, and Kelli gave her tips on both the course and warm up ideas. Kelli took off strong and got into the lead position for females early, with another girl running on her shoulder. Having been to more and more races these past few years, I feel like I am slowing figuring out Kelli and her running style. Conservative at first, maintaining a consistent pace for herself despite what others around her are doing and relying more on strong endurance rather than speed to run well. This is why I knew when I saw the girls running by the first time, it was the other girl running with Kelli, not Kelli with her. While this might sound like the same thing, I knew that Kelli has very strong endurance, and if the other girl was trying to hang onto Kelli this early in the race, Kelli would be able to control the race in the latter half. As per my prediction they stayed even for the first couple loops before Kelli broke away for the last half of the race and put a minute and a half of distance between them in the last 3 km. Kelli ended up finishing right where she was hoping time-wise, with a solid 33:26 time. Ali also had a good race and finished near her goal as well. Here are some professional shots we recovered from the race (mind you he is a professional volleyball player, not a professional photographer).

Loosening up for the race

Pre-race Smiles

Top females shoulder to shoulder

Ali hanging with the pack

Kelli coming in for the finish

Top of the podium!

More Trophies!!!

And in honor of the most wonderful time of the year, we have pictures of our Christmas tree (thanks to Lily and Bogdan for leaving us one)! Kelli also found some cool stockings for us as well, a little different from the traditional red ones we always use.

Making it look pretty

All together now..... oooOOOOoooooh! (And presents too!!!!!)

Our stockings for the year!

We like our decorations a lot, and we are excited to plan a little Christmas party with our American friends and some guys from the team. As always, more updates to come!

All I want for Christmas...

2010-12-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

...is a big leg of jamón.

Quick Catch Up On Wheels

2010-12-07T01:59:00.002-08:00

And we are back after several busy weeks in which both Kelli and I have traveled many places for many reasons and many hours. Of course my reasons are volleyball but that does not mean I haven't gone very far. We have recently had a match on the Canary Islands and in Vigo, on opposite side of Spain (our two longest road trips for the Spanish League). Since we have also reached the point in the season when our CEV Cup (European League) schedule kicks in, it has just added to the number of matches we play and the amount that we travel. In the European Cup, I got to play fellow US teammate Andy Hein (and Will Price) and his team from Greece. They were a couple hard fought matches, and we managed to get through the round by breaking the tie (we both won at home 3-1) with a golden set, winner takes all game to 15. Our team has played some good volleyball these past few weeks and to show for it, we are sitting on top of the Spanish League again (thanks in part to a few upsets as well) and we face a team from Holland in the next round of the CEV Cup.

While I was busy bouncing around Europe for volleyball, Kelli made a trip home to pick up her Spanish visa and enjoy thanksgiving with her family. The timing worked out well as I was traveling with the team the majority of the time Kelli was at home. Kelli, of course, squeezed everything possible second out of her trip home, and in addition to getting her visa, ran a race, did some shopping for us (PEANUT BUTTER!!!) and many other things. I think she came back more exhausted than when she left.

As some of you may have heard, we recently found out that the car the club had given me at the beginning of the season (Opel Corsa, a nice little car) was just a short term rental so they asked me to return it to get the car we were getting donated by a sponsor. I (and so was Kelli) was excited to hear that we were being given Mini Coopers!!! Before any of you ask, yes, I can fit in there quite comfortably. The car is really brand new and comes with a lot of cool features, not to mention it is small which makes parking so much nicer when trying to find a spot on the streets. One of the cool features Kelli and I have liked (since Kelli is now becoming a pro at driving stick) is that there is a feature that prevents the car from rolling back on hills when starting up from zero even without the E-brake. For those of you who have driven a stick shift, you know how stopping on hills can be tough sometimes, but this feature almost eliminates that problem! So without further ado, we present our bright red ride!

Of course the day I get it, it is raining :-(

Oh, how the tiny cars make parallel parking so much nicer.

Instead of a traditional ignition, just insert the "key" and push start!

BONUS PICTURES!!

While home for Turkey Day, Kelli made a creative and delicious (or so I heard) pie!!!

Before...

And After!!!

Granada Half Marathon

2010-11-18T01:57:00.000-08:00

*Disclaimer: if you don't find running interesting just go ahead and skip to the pictures! I won't be offended, shoot, I won't even know!

When I first got to Spain I looked around on the internet to try and find a road race to run. I had trained pretty consistently all summer and through the fall as I coached at Vanguard and wanted to put that training to good use. I found out that there was a half marathon in Granada on November 7th, which is about 2 hours away by bus. I was not sure if I was actually going to run it because my first two weeks in Spain were rough with jet lag, sickness and not much running. I eventually decided to not miss the opportunity and just go for it even though I wasn't sure how I would do.

David had an away game so I was on my own in Granada. I took the bus on Saturday afternoon and then checked in to my hotel when I arrived. I was excited to be in a super nice 4-star hotel, right by the starting line of the race, and I booked it for only 50 Euro. I walked over to the track to pick up my race number and other info, stopped by a grocery store for some snacks, and then settled in for the night. Of course I couldn't fall asleep for 2 hours, between my nervous energy and many trips to the bathroom (staying hydrated!).

There were around 1,900 people entered in the race, but only about 180 women. The women got priority on one half of the starting line, which is was nice so we had a fair start. What stood out as funny to me is that a few women, at least in their 60s, crowded at the front. Oh well...I managed to push my way to the front eventually. The race started and I saw one women immediately go off the front but no others went ahead. I realized pretty quickly that I had a good chance of placing pretty well amongst the women, which was exciting since first place would win 300 Euro, second place 200 Euro, and third place 100 Euro.

And we are off!

I was unsure of a race plan going in since I had missed some training my first weeks here, but that ended up not mattering since I totally threw out any "go out conservative" plans within the first 1km. I was feeling really good from the beginning, and even though I doubted I could hold 6:40's per mile for the whole race, I didn't think it would kill me to run a few early on. Another women passed by just after 3km and I decided to let her go a bit, but keep her in sight for later in the race. Around 7km an older man ran up next to me and started telling me that I was in 3rd and that 2nd place was just ahead. He keep trying to get me to pick it up and catch second place. So much for my plan to be patient the first 10km!

Early in the race (5k or so)

I caught the second place female around 9km, ran with her for a few minutes and then moved ahead. At the 10km mark I was still averaging around 6:43 pace and feeling pretty good. The last half of the course was still ahead though, and it was much tougher that the first half. We had a couple of long uphill, one was almost 3km of steady climbing, and there were definitely some points were I was thinking I shot myself in the foot by going so fast the first 10km!

One of the best parts of the race was hearing the crowds get really excited when they saw me. They would yell (in Spanish) that I was the second female, or they would say "Venga." The crowds would really get a lot louder when they saw me coming. That kept me moving along and trying to maintain my pace. The men I was racing with where also encouraging, and would offer to grab a water bottle for me at the water stations.

I was really hurting the last 5km of the race, which were also mostly uphill, but I have to admit that I had "200 Euro, 200 Euro" going through my mind a bit! I was surprised to find out after the race that I actually maintained my 6:43 pace all the way to the end. Given how much I was hurting I thought for sure I had slowed down. The finish of the race was on the track and as I entered the stadium I heard them announce that I was coming in. It was cool to hear the crowd get really loud and cheer for me, especially since I didn't have anyone I knew there to cheer me on.

About 15km (9.3 miles) in, feeling pretty tired!

After I finished I got right in line for my complimentary post-race massage by a local massage school, and then headed over for the awards. I was interviewed, in English, for some TV station, and I also talked a bit with the woman who finished third. Overall it was really fun, a very positive experience, and I was more than pleased with my finish time. Although...when I got home I told David that I already felt a tiny bit disappointed, cause I now know I could run much faster on an easier course. Oh well, I guess that is what keeps me going week after week of training!

Done!

I was proud of myself for getting out of my comfort zone, taking this trip all on my own. Due to my lack of knowledge of Spanish, I don't think I would have done this last season. Just don't tell my grandma I went to Granada by myself...she tends to worry about me! :)

Visitors!

2010-11-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

Just two weeks after I(Kelli) arrived in Spain we had visitors for a few days...David's brother Robert and his wife Natalie. They visited us towards the tail end of their first European adventure. Before Spain they spent some time in Paris and many spots in Italy. We only had them with us for a few days so we did our best to cram in as much as we could.

They arrived in the evening so after dropping their bags at our apartment we walked over to the gym to catch the last part of David's practice. After that we headed to our favorite burger spot, as we figured Rob and Natalie might be ready for some familiar food.

The next day we took them to the Alcazaba, the fortress in Almeria. Joining us was another American volleyball player named Greg. We brought him along for comic relief...ha ha. After the fortress we went to Cabo de Gata, a beautiful area east of Almeria. There we had lunch at a restaurant that belongs to a friend of David's club, and we also visited a beautiful lookout point. The food we had for lunch was absolutely amazing! Good times...

Natalie found a mule on the way to the Alcazaba
In the fortress
David breaking the rules
Goat cheese, macadamia nut, and fruit salad...yum!
David's lunch, Garlic Pork (I think)
My lunch (way better than David's!) Filet with a berry sauce and some kind of cheese on top. Amazing!
Rob, Natalie and Greg had paella, as everyone needs to do at least once in Spain
Dessert on the house!
So full!
At the Cabo de Gata lighthouse

The next day Rob, Natalie and I ventured to Granada, a two hour bus ride away. David had a double day so he stayed behind to "work." First off we headed towards the Alhambra, a palace and fortress built in the 14th century by the moorish rulers of Granada. It is quite difficult to get tickets to view the whole grounds and palace, I tried a week in advance and they were already sold out. Thankfully we were able to still see the gardens and the Alcazaba, which took a few hours of our time. It is really beautiful there and we saw some amazing views of the city.

In the gardens of the Alhambra

View of the cathedral from the Alcazaba

We also visited the Cathedral in Granada, but no picture taking was allowed inside. Our final stop involved a very long climb high above the city, to the area called Sacromonte. This area is home to Granada's Roma, or gypsy, community. The area is lined with caves built into the mountain that hold homes and restaurants, including many places where one can catch dinner and a flamenco show. This area is know to be very big in the development of flamenco dancing and other arts. We didn't see a show since it was still too early, but we paid a visit to a very random museum that showed how the Roma lived in caves. Some of them still do.

I don't think David would be a big fan of cave living, space is a little tight!

Just working on my pottery skills in a cave

On Rob and Natalie's last day we went down to the beach in Almeria for tostadas (baguettes cut in half with various toppings). We also relaxed on the beach for a bit. Unfortunately, David had gotten sick early in the morning so he was not feeling so hot. The funny story about that is that I found out the next day that David being sick made the news. Someone reported that he was sick and questionable for their game on Saturday night. Now I joke that I need to alert the press every time he stubs his toe!

It was a fun, although brief, time with Rob and Natalie visiting. It is always fun to see how other people experience Europe and what things stand out to them as different or similar.

Quick Volley Update

2010-11-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

So we are almost caught up with all our laziness in posting! The season is underway and it has been a pretty good start so far. The week before league started, we played for the Supercopa against last year's champion Teruel. It was a weird week leading up to it because the World Championships had just finished and 4 of our starters didn't arrive until Monday afternoon, which gave us 3 days to train together before the match. Thankfully Teruel had a similar handicap with their setter and starting middle also playing for the Spanish national team. Either way, these guys are still pros and we took the situation for what it was and prepared as well as we could for the match. When game day came we started off strong, taking the first set, then dropped the second set before winning the third and fourth set to win the cup! It was a hard fought match but we were extremely excited to start the season off on a good note.

Attacking in the Supercopa

We had a team dinner here to celebrate the win. Somewhere in here, there are bottles over 60 years old, and another one worth 2000 euros

The following week we had our first match of the regular season. I was a little nervous that we might have a let down after such an emotional win the week before but we came out strong and beat Barcelona 3-0. I had one of my better matches in Spain, leading the team with 6 blocks and playing well offensively as well. The next week we played our first away game at Palma. Unfortunately I got food poisoning the day before we left and was struggling to eat. By the time the match came around, I had only been able to eat about a half day's worth of food in the couple days. Kelli later found out that this whole situation somehow got into the papers about how I was sick and might not be available for the match (don't ever think it was really that bad). When the match started I did my best to push it aside and focus on playing. I started really well the first set, but I could feel my body getting weak quickly. I was just hoping that we could continue the momentum and finish it off in 3 quick sets. Palma had other plans and made my worse case scenario reality, a hard fought 5 set match. They played scrappy and gave us no free points, eventually taking the win from us. I was exhausted and I didn't want to move afterwards, but unfortunatley we had to catch a plane home in a couple hours. No rest for the weary.

Monday morning we were back at it again (albeit 6 pounds lighter thanks to the food poisoning) with an unusual two match week ahead of us. Thankfully the first match was at home so we could spend more time training, and less time traveling. We played Sevilla on Thursday, and after a slow start, we came away with a 3-1 win. I played well again and ended up getting named to the "team of the week"for my efforts. The next day we hopped on a bus for a loooooooong drive to Zaragoza (about 9 hours). One of my favorite parts of playing overseas is playing against former teammates and friends. We share a unique bond through our volleyball pursuits, but it still fun to battle them when they are on the other side of the net. My fellow middle. Matt Denmark, from last year's this team was playing for Zaragoza this year and I was looking forward to playing him again. They gave us a little scare in the second set, pushing the score to 26-24, but we ended getting a sweep and were rewarded with.... another looooooong bus ride home. Haha.

So that is where we sit as far as volleyball goes, 3-1 in league and holding the 3rd place slot. Next week we face off with the league leading Soria. I am looking forward to doing what we can to knock them off their perch on top. Coming soon, look for our last "catch-up" post, featuring Rob and Natalie's visit to Almeria, and, more importantly, Kelli's result from the Granada Half-Marathon!!

Apartment Tour

2010-11-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

We thought we would give a little tour of our apartment, via our blog. We are loving our place, it is probably our favorite home away from home thus far. I especially love that we have wood floors, an oven, and a heater (even though we really won't need it much!).

Our living room..I am still not so sure about the "art," makes me think of a flight attendant

Bathroom!
Second bedroom, with an air mattress for visitors!
Our bedroom, we sewed two beds together to make a cal-king sized one!
Laundry
Kitchen
If I can't have a dishwasher than this is second best. Simply wash the dishes, store them above and they drip/air dry from the rack!

Update from Spain

2010-10-29T04:35:00.000-07:00

At long last, a new post! We keep thinking about how we need to write a new blog, but so much has happened over the last few weeks that it is hard to remember all that we need to catch up on!

Last time we wrote, David had just arrived in Spain and moved into our new apartment. I was back home in California, wrapping up a few things before I made my way to Spain. I joined David in Spain on October 12, my birthday! To be honest, it was a bit anti-climatic for a bday, I was traveling half the day and struggled to just stay awake the rest of the day until a decent bedtime. That night I slept 15 hours!

My last few days at home were a bit crazy! On Thursday I went to Disneyland to celebrate and early birthday, courtesy of my friend Heather and her 2 year old Mackenzie. It was a blast to experience Disney through the eyes of a toddler. We had a lot of fun going on teacups, It's a Small World, seeing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show, and much more!

My last Saturday was a busy one as the school I coach for had a home cross country meet. It was an early day for Coach Kelli, helping to set up the course and prepare for the meet. I was really glad to be able to be there for one more race. The girls did a great job that day and the guys upset the 2 conference favorites to surprise everyone and win the meet! After an exciting morning at the race, I headed straight over to church to catch the last half of a training for the India team I am helping to lead. The team spent the morning doing service projects throughout the community and then we all met back at church for some India food (eaten with our right hands only!) and a time to debrief the day. It was an awesome time and I felt really blessed that at the end they took time to pray over me, as it was the last time I will see them until we are halfway to India in December.

Go VU!

So, as I said earlier, I arrived in Spain on my bday, slept a ton, and then tried to get on track with the new time zone. I always tend to struggle adjusting, but it was even harder this time around as I picked up a nasty head cold that knocked me out for a good 5 days or so. David did his best to take care of pathetic me...and to not let me sleep in the middle of the day when I was ready to pass out!

More to come from us soon, including the Supercopa, a visit from some family and pictures of our new apartment.

2010-10-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hello from Spain!!

I have made it at last, and have been in Almeria for a little over a week now. Though I am getting more and more settled in everyday, I still lack my beautiful wife and a consistent source of internet which is why is am sitting on our balcony with my computer positioned in such a way as to just barely grasp the few waves of free internet provided by one of my neighbors. Kelli (when she arrives next week) and I are living in a different apartment this year, but still very close to where we were last year. The grocery store is a little further of a walk but the gym is much closer which is a nice feature for me. Only downside (for Kelli that is) is we are now right across the street from these guys.

The firemen looooove their sirens!

Other than our living space, our team has a different look as well as we are only returning 5 of the 13 guys that we had last year. We won't be having the strong foreign influence that we did last year so I will have to work a little harder on learning my Spanish. It will be interesting to see if it feels very different once we begin competitions. Right now we are a few men short with some guys missing while they play for their national teams, but we would be able to get everyone together next week which will give us a week to start clicking before the Supercopa (Super Cup)!

In Spain there are 3 different kinds of titles you can win. There is the League Champion, won as the end of the season through a playoff format, a Copa Del Rey Champion, which is an 8 team single elimination tournament that takes place on the weekend prior to the start of playoffs, and there is the Super Cup which is played the week before regular season starts and is between the League Champion and Copa Del Rey champion from the previous year. As we won the Copa Del Rey last year, we have the opportunity to fight for the Super Cup this year (sorry if that was confusing, it took me a while to get it at first too)!

Copa Del Rey Champions from last year
(I am the second green shirt on the left)

In the time that I haven't spent getting used to the new place and training with the team, I have been enjoying the beautiful weather in Almeria. There is one other American here who is trying out for the team so I have been using him as an excuse to revisit all the places that I went last year. I took him and another teammate to a burger place that Kelli and I liked last year. These burgers are goooooood!

Burgers with Mario and Greg

We also crashed the beach on Sunday and split time between a cafe on the boardwalk and the warm sand by the water. We met up with fellow foreigner Nico, who is from Holland. It was a great day as the clouds took away most of the brutal sun and the breeze kept us cool as well as providing us with parachute surfers (not to be confused with windsurfers) to keep us entertained.

Parachute Surfers

Me, Greg and Nico at the beach

That is all I got for now! Tomorrow we have a friendly scrimmage with a nearby team. By nearby, I mean it will be only a 3 hour bus ride as opposed to the normal 8 hours. Hopefully we will continue to improve and play hard.

Adios from Espana!!

Champions!

2010-09-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

David's team won their preseason tournament out in Germany! It is pretty good for them since they are still missing a few of their other starters. Below is a picture I found online of the team with their trophy.

David is now in Spain, spending his first night in our new apartment! Look for more updates from us soon!

Update from Tilburg, Netherlands

2010-09-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

David sent me an email this morning with an update on his travels. Keep in mind he had two huge bags, one one rollers and one not, plus a smaller rolling carry-on and a backpack!

"I am sitting on a bench in the middle of town stealing Internet from a closed ice cream shop (it looks really good inside). Thankfully my itouch isn't as big to carry as a computer so I don't look like a dummy. From what Chris [his agent] told me last night the guys should be here in a half hour or so so hopefully I wont be so bored then. It looks like we will have a scrimmage vs a Netherlands team tonight and Chris said it should be pretty mellow so hopefully that is the case cause I want to take a nap and it is only 1130 right now. I think cause I barely slept the whole way I should be able to get adjusted to the time really quick.

The flights went well for the most part. They were able to put me in an aisle seat from LA to London which was awesome especially since the seat between me and the window person was also open. The airline was pretty good too I thought. When I got to London everything went well. The waiting area you talked about was pretty cool. Tons of shops and places to eat and I liked how it was really spread out and relaxed. On my flight from London to Germany I got stuck in the middle but thankfully due to the time change it was only an hour and a half long (though whatever kind of sandwich they gave on the flight was pretty nasty).

Then all the fun began. Somehow I got through the passports fine then ended up back in the terminals without my bags. I had to wander around for a while then finally someone was able to escort me back to the baggage claim. Thankfully my bags were still on the carousel so I grabbed them and made my way to the trains. I got to the first station without incident to find my best case senario train was just about to leave but without my ticket I would miss that one and have to take one that came an hour later. So I just sat there for an hour and the whole time they were making announcements that my train was changing tracks. Luckily I was able to pick up on that and got from the airport to the main hub. Still, this was no fun with the luggage I was dragging around. I got to the station and with the swarms of other people tried to get off and make it to my next train. Now imagine trying to go from platform 16 down stairs to an underground tunnel over to platform 4 in foot traffic similar to a crowded baseball game. Now do it with all the clothes and toys you plan on using for the next 8 months. Now imagine halfway up the stairs to get to your departing platform you see your train leaving without you. Yeah not a fun moment. After kicking myself for a couple minutes I found that I would have to wait another hour for the another train. I called Chris to let him know that I would be later and then plopped down on the ground with all my stuff. For some reason everyone seemed to come over by me and decide it was the perfect place to smoke. Since I had all my bags I didn't really feel motivated to move but people just kept coming. After an hour of timing my breaths to alternate with their puffs I realized that I had in fact stationed myself right outside the designated smoking zone. Perfect.

Finally my train came and I got on thinking I would do whatever it took to not miss my next train. Easier said than done. I had to do the same thing with a flood of people around me trying to make it down stairs over to another platform and back up. The doors were closing as I ran dragging all my stuff across the ground but thankfully there was another person trying to get on who opened the doors and let us both on. I was happy that was the last close call as I was beginning to hit the wall. Chris met me in Venlo (where I of course snapped my handle
on the wheeled luggage trying to get off the train). We took one last train to the city where I am now and took a 5 minute walk to the hotel.

The people there are really nice and despite the rooms being smaller I didn't care as I was ready to sleep forever."

And he is off!

2010-09-21T21:09:00.001-07:00

It has been a crazy few weeks trying to get everything together necessary for David's departure to Spain. Fedex finally pulled through, just a few weeks late, and we got all the paperwork we needed in order to head to the Spanish Consulate last Wednesday. While there we found out that my visa will take up to 3 months to process...awesome! I will be able to go to Spain, as any tourist can, for up to 90 days but once my visa is ready I will have to fly back to California to pick it up.

No wonder this was lost...look at all those stickers!

We were told David's visa could take up to 3 weeks, which would not be good news for him or his team, but we also knew his team was going to contact the consulate to try and speed it all up. Yesterday, (Monday), we were disappointed to not get any emails from the consulate indicating that his visa was ready. We did get an email saying he was missing paperwork, which I knew was incorrect. I gave them a call and by a miracle actually got a human on the phone! I pretty much pleaded with her to check the status of David's application. She had me email some info to her but I was left feeling pretty sure that nothing was going to go through that day.

David and I were emailing his agent and manager about options for getting David there in time for a tournament this weekend. We were thinking he would fly out today (Tuesday) without the visa and just fly back to the states once the visa was ready. As we talked about it I really felt like David should drive to LA and pick up his passport from the consulate in case he needed to leave. He jumped up around 10:30, got dressed real quick, and headed out to LA about 10 min later. He was on the road about 15-20 min when I called to remind him of some questions to ask at the consulate and right as he answered the phone the email about his visa being ready came through! Thank goodness he was already on the road, otherwise he would have never made it by the noon closing time of the consulate! It turns out there are 2 David Smith's in the system (shocking, I know...) and they had David's mixed up with this other guy. I am not sure if it would have gotten done yesterday if we hadn't called.

With visa and passport in hand David left this afternoon. He is actually going to the Netherlands and Germany first, to play in a tournament with his Spanish team. He will make his way to Spain sometime Monday. It is going to be a long journey for him but we are so excited things are moving forward!

I am still in Orange County, cleaning our apartment, packing the last of our things into our storage unit, and wrapping up my other responsibilities here. I have some fun things ahead of me the next 2 1/2 weeks, including a trip to Oregon with the cross country team I help coach. I am hoping to join David in Spain around October 5th.

I can't describe the weight lifted off my shoulders once David's visa came through and he got his flight itinerary. It has been a lot of work, a bit of stress, and way too many papers/copies/translations but now it is all done!

2010-09-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been way more than a month since our last update, and to our surprise we are still in California! Thankfully we are not here because of something bad, but rather we are just waiting to get our visas in order to take up residence in Spain for the next 8 months. I am ever so thankful for Kelli who does a great job tracking down the things we need and getting everything in line so that we can make a quick turn around once we get things finalized. While we wait though, we continue to enjoy our time in OC and remain busy with the extra time we have been given back home.

My time is mostly taken up with volleyball as I train with the National Team in preparation for the World Championships in Italy. A solid 8 week block has been planned out by the coaches and I feel like I made the most of my time training with these guys. Unfortunately I was not able to make the roster to travel with the guys to Italy, but I am still thankful for the opportunity to compete at such a high level in practice everyday. As the guys prepare to leave on Friday, I look forward to taking advantage of the few days left that I have with them before we all disperse for the tournament, and then our club seasons afterward. I think after a rough summer we made the most of this training block and we are prepared to finish strong at the World Championships and then come in strong next summer as the real work begins with our first chance to qualify for the 2012 London Games.

The past couple weekends we have had a few inter-squad scrimmages to simulate a match environment. I was able to play in both matches and I had a lot of fun. My team won the first match in a long 5 set battle but we were not able to replicate our effort again that second weekend and we lost in 4. Either way it was good to get out of that practice feeling, put on a uniform, and have a good crowd come watch us.

Kelli here now... Life has been so busy the last few months that I actually had to look at my calendar to know what to write about! I have been busy volunteering for the nonprofit ministry in India that our church partners with, and I am also co-leading our church's team to India in December. In my free-time (ha) I am assistant coaching again this year with the cross country team at Vanguard University.

In mid-August we took our cross country team up to Mammoth for 8 running-filled days at high altitude. I actually logged 80 miles in 7 days up there, which is the biggest mileage week of my life. It is exciting to finally be "back" with regards to my running fitness. It has been a long road for me since taking a few years pretty easy after college. It is fun to finally be able to hang in on workouts and to be able to do some real long runs. I am racing this weekend in a cross country meet out in Riverside. I have high hopes for a good result!

As David mentioned, we are waiting on our visas for Spain. The story about that is so long that I don't think I can even write it all down, I think I would run out of room! Let's just say that I have spoken to at least a dozen people at Fedex in the last few days, and unfortunately for me, almost all of them have been telling me a different story. We are crossing our fingers that the document we are waiting on arrives bright and early tomorrow so we can get ourselves to the Spanish Consulate Wednesday morning.

Now we are slowing taking apart our apartment, bringing load by load to the storage unit as we find time to do so, knowing that our time for departure is drawing ever close, but not yet knowing when exactly that will be. Until then, we'll keep on doing the things we do!!

More Fun in July

2010-08-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

The summer continue to roll on and it is being to hit us how close we are to leaving for Spain again. If you didn't already know, I signed another contract with the same Spanish team so we will be returning for a full season in Almeria!

Thankfully we have been keeping busy and having lots of fun so far this summer. A couple weeks ago we met up with our friends Jon and Nicole to check out the OC Fair. We try to go every year and we always have a lot of fun and return home with our bellies full and our wallets a little lighter. This year we got to see some cool ice sculptures (pun intended) and watched a man use glass blowing techniques to create a vase. My favorite part of the night was the Extreme Rodeo we got to attend. Having never really been to a rodeo before, Kelli and I didn't really know what to expect. We had a blast though, as those crazy cowboys (and cowgirl) ran around playing games with angry bulls and untamed horses. We couldn't believe the amount of danger some of these people were willing to risk but we still had fun watching them.

WHOA!! ICE!!!!

Us with the Sculptures

Waiting for the Rodeo to get started

I don't think the bull missed this time...

We also got to spend a weekend down in San Diego to attend a friend's wedding. Sadly some of our plans for hanging out in San Diego got taken away as we sat in traffic foreeeeeeeeever. But the wedding was beautiful and we got to see many old faces from our college days.

Me, Kelli, Jorie (the bride) and Matt

The next morning Kelli took me to the coast where there is a cliff that hosts a paragliding area. It was very fun and peaceful to watch people fill their chutes with air and then go running off the cliff and then go floating over the ocean. There were a couple crazy guys who kept swooping down on us for fun, but our favorite part was silently cheering on a poor lady who just couldn't keep control of her chute long enough to take off. She must have been trying for at least 45 minutes before Kelli and I left.

Enjoying the Morning

And off he goes!!

Cool Remote Controlled Planes Too!!!

This past weekend we went to our first Angels game of the summer (and probably our last). It was a fun game to be at as the scoring was abundant and the Angels ended up winning 9-7. Plus it was Firework Friday so we got to watch a firework show after!

Go Angels!!

Ooooooooh!

And with a month to go before we take off again for Europe we are busy cramming our summer with every activity imaginable. Kelli has been keeping very busy with some volunteer work and is also heading to Mammoth Lakes soon for 8 days of running camp with the college team she assists with. I am continuing my training with the National team and trying to see Kelli when she isn't running off to her next meeting...

First Half of July

2010-07-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

As you probably noticed from Kelli's last post, we began this month celebrating 2 years of marriage. Before that, we were able to sneak up to Santa Clarita for a quick fourth of July BBQ with my parents and the neighbors. Kelli offered to bring desserts, but instead of doing the simple brownies and cookies, she got busy in the kitchen and made a sweeeeeeet fourth of July cake!! It was pretty cool and tasted pretty yummy too!

Start with a lot of cakes...

... and then let Kelli do something Top Secret with them...

... to make this awesome cake...

...that is even more awesome on the inside!!!!

We headed home that night so I could get back to practice the next day. We were both looking forward to a much anticipated anniversary dinner at Ruth Chris (thanks Aunt Barb and family!!). Of course I had to shake things up a bit and proceeded to sprain my ankle at practice in the morning. Despite the fact that I have had to miss a couple weeks of practice, I am thankful that I could at least walk on it (though it was still painful) and we headed out for dinner.

And what a dinner it was!!! When we arrived for our reservations, they took us to our table and sprinkled anniversary confetti all over the table. Every person who passed by the table congratulated us for the rest of the evening. The food was absolutely amazing (and Kelli's was much more amazing than mine) and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We left that night and started making plans for when we should go back again... it was that good.

To love and to annoy til death do us part!

Looking good!

Our delicious food (lamb chops for me, filet mignon for Kelli)

Yummy desert!

Last weekend we left for Fresno so we could see Kelli's parents. Despite being home for a couple months, it has been gloomy and chilly down here and we were not looking forward to the hot hot weather up north. Time flew by quickly and we were able to hang out and do a lot of stuff. We went golfing with Randy on Friday and I barely survived a round of Kelli's golf cart driving. It was a beautiful course and we had a lot of fun, and I managed to lose only 6-7 balls throughout the round (ok, I know that isn't good, but it's been a while!). The next morning Kelli arouse early (and dragged me out of bed too) for a 6:30am 5k race. It's been a long time since she has run a 5k (the one is Spain was 10k) and Kelli was nervous to see how she would run. She impressed us all by running a super fast 18:35, her fastest time in 5-6 years! She placed first among the women and got a nice gift card to a local running store. Sheryl also did the 2 mile walk and did well, managing to smile for the camera too!

Leaving the pack behind early!

At least she is enjoying her race!

Pulling into the finish line

Excited for her prize!

Happy 2 Years!

2010-07-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today David and I are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary! Oh how time flies...

We have experienced so many crazy adventures over the last 2 years. I am so thankful that I have been able to share so much with my sweet husband and I know there are many more adventures to come. I love you babe!

July 5, 2008

Honeymoon in Hawaii

Loving life in Germany...August 2008 - April 2009

Summer of Volleyball 2009

Surviving Puerto Rico...October 2009 - January 2010

Fun Times in Spain...February 2010 - May 2010

I thought it was called summer BREAK!!

2010-06-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, we are probably the last people on the planet to be saying something along the lines of "we are so busy!" but seriously... we have been very busy.

Since we last scrapped together the effort to update this blog, I went on with the A2 team to win the gold medal in Puerto Rico, Kelli coached several girls to very impressive finishes at nationals and has since been on a whirlwind of a schedule back home. She continues to impress me with her energy as she balances class, running and all the little things she is so eagerly involved in.

One of the big things that we have been able to be involved in again this summer is the yearly visit from Suresh Kumar. This summer he was able to bring his son, David, along with him. Though Kelli was not put in charge of his schedule again this summer, she has been able to stay very involved in Harvest India. Our church has taken a new approach this summer and some of the people who have gone on past trips helped organize events outside of the normal weekend services to really reach out to the church and answer all the questions people have and to get people involved in the work God is doing in India through Suresh and his ministry. Last week we were able to host a good sized group and share with them in detail the ministry of Harvest India, the people they reach out to, and the things that the missions team is involved in when they go in the winter. This week we held an event called "Cultured" in which we shared more about India in general and how its unique structure in society and government lends to a different approach in ministry than we are used to in America. Afterward we had Indian food, chai tea, and other little stations where people could enjoy a "taste of India." I was glad my parents were able to come down and join us that night and listen to Kelli and I share a little about our experiences in India and how it has affected us.

We have really enjoyed being involved in all the things we do but we also are looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend! Happy Father's Day to Rick and Randy tomorrow (and all the other dads out there).

Sorry I do not have a story for all the pictures, but still, we hope you enjoy them!

Kelli made this cake for my B-day/Mother's Day. It has 7 layers!!

Finished Product... minus a couple slices for me! Soooooo GOOD!!
And very pretty too!

Vanguard Track Team at NAIA Nationals. Coach Kelli on the left.

Attacking against Brazil. These guys were HUGE!!!! But we still won :-D

Wedding Time! And yes, the groom is wearing a kilt.

Life goes on...

2010-05-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry we haven't updated in a long time! We have been really busy these last few weeks. We are back in Orange County, settled into the same apartment complex we lived in last month. We bought a truck, a '99 Toyota Tacoma, which David is really excited about! We figured that with all the moving we do it would make sense to have a truck to keep year-round. It is also going to come in handy because it is a manual and I need to do quite a bit of practice to get ready to drive manual in Europe.

David and I both jumped right into life back at home. David had practice right away and I went back to coaching at Vanguard for the last few weeks of track season. I have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks volunteering at our church and back at my old job, CASA, helping get ready for some events coming up.

Right now David and I are both in different places... he is in Puerto Rico playing in the Pan American Cup with the US National A2 team. I am in Marion, Indiana with Vanguard at the NAIA National Track Champs. We are both having a good time and things are going well with our teams. David's team has won all their matches and will play against Argentina for the gold medal tonight!

We will try to get a more detailed update soon!

Second Place, harrasment and more

2010-05-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well, a lot has happened since we last posted. David's team in Almeria made it to the finals of playoffs, against a team named Teruel. Almeria was ranked ahead of Teruel all season, and had beaten them 3 times during the season. While we all hoped for the championship, and thought it was likely to happen, we knew it would be a battle.

The finals were a best 3 out of 5 matches. The first 2 were at our home court, and we went to 5 sets each night, losing both matches. The first match was a terrible showing on Almeria's part, but the second match was not quite as bad, and it seemed like we would pull out a win until the very end. With 2 losses, Almeria headed to Teruel with the task of having to win 2 matches in a row in order to bring the 5th and final match back home to Almeria. It was another rough night for Almeria and they lost the match in 3 sets. It was a big disappointment for the guys and for us girls who had driven out to watch the game.

Lily, Indra and I drove to Valencia the day before the 3rd match, did some sightseeing there and stayed the night before driving to Teruel the next morning. We had a great time seeing Valencia, I was able to see a lot of things that I didn't see the first time I was there.

We had quite an experience of our own at the final match. As we walked up to the gym to go inside, we were confronted by an official from Teruel who was obviously looking for the Almeria fans. He told us, not so nicely, that we had to sit in our assigned "visiting team" section, and we were not allowed anywhere else. He followed us into the gym and called security over so that they could also tell us where we had to sit. They followed us all the way to our seats, which were in the top, far corner of the gym. It was silly that they were making us sit there, since there were a total 7 Almeria fans compared to the 4,000 Teruel fans, but eventually we just decided to make the best of it and cheer for our team from our section.

They told us that the section was all for us, no matter how many of us there were, and the police turned away Teruel fans who tried to sit in our section. As it got closer to the start of the match, more and more people arrived and it was apparent that Teruel had sold too many tickets for the match. People started to get mad that they couldn't sit in our area, and they complained to the Teruel officials. Before we knew what was happening, we were surround by Teruel officials and police who were all yelling at us. They decided that we couldn't even have our section anymore, and that we had to move to the very top row so that their fans could have our seats.

At first we refused, because it was just silly, but then they got a bit more forceful. The sheriff showed up and started yelling at us, and my friend Lily asked if he was going to arrest her for sitting in the seat assigned to her. He told her, in Spanish, that if she didn't move that he would arrest her, and then he grabbed her by the arm and started to pull on her. Another Spanish guy, one of our friends, intervened but the yelling continued. At this point I was so furious that I was in tears, asking over and over why they were treating us like that. The manager of our club was also furious, and tried to get them to leave us alone. While this was all happening the match had started and I looked around and saw that no one in the gym was watching the game, everyone was watching the police hassle 3 girls (although I don't think the crowd was sympathetic). Unfortunately, even our guys were distracted by what was happening.

We ended up being forced to go to the top of our own section. The reasoning we were given was that we had signs and they would clock the view of the other spectators. I guess it didn't matter that there were people all over the gym holding signs, ours were more obtrusive...

The whole thing was really upsetting and frustrating. We were targeted and harassed from the moment we walked through the parking lot. Even when we did what they told us to do, we were still given a hard time. The changed the rules on us over and over, making them up as they went along. We were told that the manager of Almeria was going to submit a complaint about our treatment, and my friend Lily also wrote to multiple people about the incident. They gave us our own section, per the rules, for our safety, but then decided that having seats for their fans was more important that our safety. I was just amazed and shaken up to be treated so badly, and then it didn't help that during the rest of the game we were heckled by the Teruel fans surrounding us.

Indra and Lily in "our" section, before we got moved to the top row
(see the police in the background?)
Us girls are pretty intimidating, huh?

Guys getting their runner-up medals

Busy Til the End

2010-04-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

So busy past weekend! We have finally reached the end of the season here in Spain and my team is matched up against CAI Teruel in the Championship Finals. We hosted the first two matches on Friday and Saturday but sadly lost them both in heart breaking 5 sets matches. Looking at the box scores we beat them in nearly every category and outscored them both nights, only to make errors at key points in the game. I think I played well both matches but it doesn't comfort you too much when you don’t come away with the win. Kelli and the wives came full force once again with their signs and got a spot in the paper. We take off tomorrow for a couple tough matches in Teruel where we either fight to bring the deciding game 5 back home, or finish the season as runner-ups. No pressure. Haha

Crazy Little Fans

On a much cheerier note, Kelli had a race on Sunday! She tried to run a half-marathon in Almeria right when we got here, but the timing and the moving threw everything off so she was unable to do it. Being the dedicated runner she is, she somehow found a local 10k race and signed right up, convincing one of my teammate’s girlfriend to join her. Since we volleyball players don’t really have much to do on our days off, the rest of the foreign (to Spain) guys decided to show up as well and support the girls. Of course 6 tall guys walking around together at a local event got us spotted rather quickly and the newspapers were all over the story taking pictures and getting Kelli and Indra’s names. Both girls ran very well, Kelli achieving her goal of a sub-40 minute time (though she ran, self-admittedly “very stupid”) and Indra came in under her goal time of 50 minutes. Kelli ended up placing 2^nd overall! She got plenty of pictures in the paper including a wide shot that took up two pages as well as her own little write up. I was extremely proud of her and I was glad the other guys on the team had a fun time watching her run.

Kelli and Indra Pre-Race Pic

And off she goes!

Runners on their way to the Lighthouse

(I think Kelli is in there somewhere)

Leaving the men in the dirt (From the newspaper)

At the Finish Line (Kelli swears the guy in red cheated)

Tasting Victory!

The Ladies and their Trophies

For once we get to be fans for our amazing athletic wives!

After the race we once again worked our contacts and got into a football match. It was a very close and intense match and after the final whistle it nearly broke out into a fight. Sadly it was a loss and it will be the last soccer game we can watch before we come home. But then again... WE ARE COMING HOME SOON!!! We miss all of you at home and we can't wait to hang out with you all once again! But first, we have some matches to win and a Championship to secure. Go Almeria!!

More Fun at the Football Game

Barcelona!

2010-04-24T05:37:00.000-07:00

A week ago my friend Katie was heading back to states and her travel home included a long layover in Barcelona. For various reasons it worked well for me to go along with her and then return to Almeria the next day. Our flight to Barcelona was scheduled to leave Almeria around 10:45am, arriving in Barcelona around noon. We would have a good part of the day to spend in the city and then Katie would fly out early in the morning. My return flight was not until 5pm on Friday so I would have another day to explore the city.

Too bad things didn't go as planned... Our flight out of Almeria kept getting delayed and finally, around 2:45pm, it was canceled. Bummer. The volcano did not directly impact the flight being canceled but it messed up a lot of flights and scheduling so I think our airline, being really small, decided that it wasn't worth it to keep the flight. Thankfully Katie's husband had booked our flight with a travel agent so a quick call to him got us on a different airline, leaving around 3:45pm.

By the time we got to Barcelona, navigated the airport and got to our hotel, it was almost 7pm. Our hotel was really nice, we got a good online deal, and our stay included access to an awesome spa area. We hit the spa for an hour or so and then planned to ride the bus to the city center for dinner. Too bad the bus that was scheduled never actually showed up... Instead we got dinner at a Japanese restaurant nearby and then went to bed, anticipating another early morning. It is a goo thing Katie and I both have a good sense of humor, considering all the things that went wrong that day.

After helping Katie with her bags at the airport I jumped on a bus to the city center and did some exploring. I decided that since I had limited time in Barcelona, my bets bet would be to do a 4 hour bike tour that would cover many of the main sites in the city. I did a tour with the same company in Pairs last year so I knew it would be worth my money. It is a lot of fun cruising the streets of a new city on a bike, it gives a different perspective.

Amazed to actually be getting on a plane (No, those are not actually my sunglasses)
Katie is a bit overwhelmed by the map
Inside the Cathedral in Barcelona
Weeee....here I go!
Plaza del Rei...the rumor is that this is where Columbus was received by the King and Queen when he returned from the New World (probably just a rumor)

Barcelona's version of L'Arc de Triomphe
Fountain in the Parc de la Ciutadella that was worked on by Goudi, too bad it was being cleaned the day I was there :(
La Sagrada Familia: Begun in 1882 and was mostly designed by Antoni Goudi
The detail on this place from all angles is amazing!
After a mostly rainy tour the sun came up while we ate lunch at the beach!

I wish I had more time to spend in Barcelona, who knows, maybe I will get another chance one of these days! It is a good thing I don't mind doing things on my own, otherwise it would have been a lonely day in the city. I guess I can thank my mom for the gift of chatter, it helped me make some friends along the way!

Alcazaba Almeria

2010-04-21T03:33:00.000-07:00

We went to the Alcazaba here in Almeria with some of our friends. The fortress was built sometime around 955 AD and was conquered multiple times. The fortress is really beautiful, they have made many parts of it into amazing gardens and fountain areas. We happened to go on a really nice day which made it all the better.

Fun times in the UK

2010-04-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the chance to go visit some friends who live in the UK. They are Americans who were living in the same area of Germany as us last year. We met them in our German language course and spent a lot of time over the year with one another. Dave and Julia now live in Oxford, where Dave is a professor at the University and Julia teaches English at a secondary school. They are also expecting their first baby, a little girl who will be arriving mid-June. I was very excited to see Oxford and London, but most excited to catch up with our good friends. I was also there over Easter weekend so I got to go to church, which is something I haven’t been able to do in Spain.

On Easter we went to church and then enjoyed the rest of the day having lunch and fellowship with some friends of Dave and Julia’s. On Monday they took me on a tour of Oxford, showing me some of the more “touristy” colleges in the university system and giving me a feel of the town. On Tuesday Julia and I took a bus to London where we spent the day enjoying a sunny day and taking it all in. We saw the parade of the guards at Buckingham Palace (didn’t make it in time to get a seat to see the actual changing of the guard), spent hours at Westminster Abbey, strolled past Big Ben and the London Eye, got lost over and over again at Harrod’s (craziest store: you can buy everything from an onion, to a Dior onesie for a baby, to a grand piano), and did our share of shopping, mostly for Julia’s baby. Julia was quite a trooper keeping up with me all day, I was exhausted by the time we caught the bus for home so she had to have been really pooped!

Wednesday was spent in Oxford, seeing the college that Dave teaches in and checking out a few more sights in town. I left early Thursday morning and was sad to leave friends and also to leave a country where everything is in English!

I have tons of pictures and to be honest, I can’t remember exactly what each picture is of since there are so many amazing buildings in Oxford so sorry if I mess that up a bit!

Julia and I in front of Christ Church College

If you are a Harry Potter fan this picture and the following should be familiar

Another part of Christ Church...I think!

Inside of Magdalen College Church (pronounced Maudlin)

Just one of the amazing views from the tower at University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Guards marching towards Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

The big Ferris Wheel is the called the London Eye

Dave and Julia outside Mansfield College, where he teaches

Thanks to Dave and Julia for a wonderful time!

Football Match

2010-04-05T04:15:00.000-07:00

A little late i know, but a few weeks ago Kelli and I were able to take advantage of some people that know other people that were able to talk other people into getting us into a local football (soccer) match. Almeria was just coming off a surprising draw against Barcelona (pretty much the best team in the world) and we were excited to get to watch a soccer game live. Along with Matt and Dallas we squeezed our way up to the lower level and watched our home team take home a win! During a break in time when a player when down (happens so much it is a little annoying actually) the field side photographers got bored, turned around and started snapping pictures of the crowd. Matt noticed them and told them to hold on and he undid his team scarf and held it overhead for the pictures. The next day before weights we were browsing through the sports section and found that they published the picture in the paper! I am glad we went to the match, we had a fun time and I hope I can get into another one before the season is over!

It is nice to have hook ups

The stadiumDecent seats

We are in the paper!!!

Copa Del Rey Final

2010-04-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

Note: I know our blog background is super cheesy...I just thought I should be a little more festive!

I posted a lot of celebration pictures on my first blog about the Copa Del Rey but here are a few more from the final. As I mentioned before, David's team played against the host team Zaragoza in the final. The setter for Zaragoza is David's former team mate from UC Irvine, Brian Thornton. Brian played great and it was actually a very exciting match through 3 sets. The match scores were 25-21, 25-19, 33-35, and 25-18. David played well and it was so fun once we knew the win was in the bag!

David and Brian talking some trash across the net, ha ha!

We had to use our yellow cards a few times throughout the cup...

This is something like, "Get out you package," the Spanish thought is was hilarious

Zaragoza!

2010-03-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

We stayed in Zaragoza for 3 nights during the Copa del Rey, at another lovely Holiday Inn. I was totally surprised with how big Zaragoza is, I guess I could have read online about it before we went but I didn't. The population is around 700,000.

When we arrived in Zaragoza on Thursday we checked into our hotel and then headed off to find the boy's hotel so we could pick up our tickets for the game. We didn't do so well navigating, it probably took us about an hour and a half to get to the hotel, which ended up being only 3 miles away from our hotel. At least we got to see some of the city as we searched for the hotel...

This is where the team stayed...nice, but strange looking

Friday morning I went running which was a great way to get oriented in the city. It seemed to help throughout the trip that I had a bit of a clue where we were. We decided to avoid driving since our track record on the trip was not so good. We caught the local bus by our hotel and got around pretty easily (and cheap) that way! We spent the day wandering around the old part of the city. We went to the Bascilica, to an old Roman Theater of Ceasaraugusta and bought some yummy treats at a great chocolate shop.

Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar
(said to be the first church dedicated to Mary in history)
Rachel, Katie and I
The theater ruins were discovered in 1972, they had been buried under the city

On Friday we went on a bike adventure! We had seen tons of stations around town where bikes could be "borrowed" and there were lots of bike paths all over town. I checked it out online and was able to sign us all up and at 5 Euro for 3 days it was quite a steal! We had a blast riding all over town. It was nice because we could take a bike from one station, and then return it to any other one, so we ended up riding to the team hotel, grabbing some snacks there and saying hi to the boys.

Here we go!

I think this sign was for my benefit!
We all forgot how much fun it is to swing!
The wives... Me, Lily and Katie

Zaragoza was host to Expo 2008. For the Expo lots of unique bridges and buildings were built along the theme of "Water and Sustainable Development." They also built cable cars for the Expo, which are still open and available to ride for a small fee. We took the cable cars from the team hotel to the other end and then grabbed bikes to ride back to our hotel. It was fun seeing the city from another angle.

Interesting building
I took this one for David...he likes bridges

Quarter and Semi Final

2010-03-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

In the quarter final of the Copa Del Rey David's team played Barcelona. Katie, Rachel and I dressed up crazy, brought out our signs and did our best to heckle the other team. We like to think that we contributed to the win! The first set Almeria fell behind but came back to win that set and the next two. David had a great serving night, his best since being in Spain.

The semi final match was against Teruel, who is ranked #2 in the league behind Almeria. Because of the silly way the Cup is seeded, they were matched up in the semi, even though it felt more like a final. David hit really well and led his team in scoring. They lost the first set they crawled back in the second in a close battle, the third they blew them out of the water and in the fourth they sealed it all up. Again, us girls did what we could to pick on the other team, particularly one of David's former team mates from Puerto Rico. All in good fun! It was an intense match, made even more dramatic by the fact that Teruel, being only about an hour or so from Zaragoza, has at least a thousand fans there compared to our 200 or so. They sure got quiet though come the 3rd and 4th set!

Valencia

2010-03-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

I was able to go to the Copa del Rey with Katie, the wife of the team's setter, and her in-laws. We made an adventure of the long drive by stopping in Valencia for one night before heading all the way to Zaragoza.

We picked the best night possible to be in Valencia! While we were there, the Las Fallas festival was going on. Here is a brief explanation of the festival,

"The Fallas is the biggest annual Valencian celebration. It is a world famous street party, a spectacular celebration of Valencian tradition for the locals and an enormous cosmopolitan festival for the visitors. During the year, over 350 Valencian communities (also called "fallas") construct huge colourful fallas sculptures (2 each = around 800 in total) made of wood and papier-mache. The fallas are usually satirical in content and often elaborate works of art, some as high as 25 metres. The fallas-communities themselves break out nomadic camps on the streets and cook paella on the pavement. On every street you walk, there is a parade of the locals in traditional costumes and with music bands."

We had no idea at first what was going on, we just saw tons of these fallas around town as we drove to our hotel. We also saw crowds of people in traditional costume and it seemed like everyone was flocking to one part of the city. We checked into the good ole Holiday Inn and then jump on a city bus towards all the action.

View from the Holiday Inn

Costumed people take to the streets

We walked around for quite a bit and took lots of pictures and then grabbed a great dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant. We were all pretty tired from a long day of travel so we thought we would head back to the hotel, having seen what we thought was most of the spectacle. Thank goodness we had a hard time finding our way to the correct bus stop, otherwise we would have missed the best part!

Here we are!

Bull fighting arena
Crazy fireworks setup

As we were walking we ran into the main part of the festival. There were lights everywhere, and the biggest fallas that we had yet to see. I think our favorite one was trying to depict major things that have happened in the last year. It was funny seeing Obama on there and a depiction of the Federer/Roddick Wimbeldon final. Along the way I snagged the largest cotton candy ever, and we danced in the streets to familiar music. We were all totally shocked at the number of small children letting off fireworks in the streets, with what seemed to be no parental supervision. That, along with 14 year olds drinking beer, made us start saying, "You know you are in Spain when..."

I think one of the craziest parts of the whole festival is that on the last night they set all of the fallas on fire. What a sight that would be!

Katie, me and Rachel (Katies sis-in-law)
People cooking in the street

After a fun night we finally found the correct bus stop. We came around the corner just as the bus was pulling up and we did a little celebration as we got on the bus, to the amusement of the bus driver, he even jumped in with some high fives. We were the end of the line for the bus and when he saw me taking a picture of the bus once I got off at our stop, he waved us girls over cause he wanted to take a picture with us, he was so excited! We took a picture, mine is kinda blurry, and then he gave Katie his email address so we could send it. We all cracked up when we saw the email address... sergibus@blank.com He must love being a bus driver!

Sergi and his bus!

All in all, we had a blast in Valencia but were anxious to get to Zaragoza and see the first match of the Copa del Rey. More of that to come next time!

Si, Si, la Copa es aqui!

2010-03-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

What a week! David’s team won the Copa del Rey, the King’s Cup, yesterday afternoon. They won their quarter final Friday night in 3 sets, the semi Saturday night in 4 sets and the final Sunday at noon in 4 sets. David had a great weekend of volleyball, each match he played very well and Saturday night he actually led his team in scoring.

The Copa del Rey consists of 8 of the 12 teams in the Spanish league. They pick the top 7 teams from midway in the season, plus the host team of Zaragoza. The team that wins the Cup gets to play in the Champions League for the next season. Champions League is comprised of all the best teams in Europe and is played throughout the season in addition to the regular season within each country. Almeria won the Cup last year, after being the 6^th seed, and it was important to win it again this year.

An added bonus to the weekend was that Brian Thornton, the setter David played with all 4 years of college, was on the team he played against in the final. Brian plays for Zaragoza, who is actually ranked last in the league. They played out of their minds this weekend, upsetting 2 teams to make it to the final. They didn’t make it too easy on us in the final, they took us to a 4^th set in the final after winning the third set. The scores for the match were: 25-21, 25-19, 33-35, and 25-18.

I have TONS of pictures and videos from the week. We were both gone for 5 days and between matches and sightseeing there is a lot to catch up on! Look for frequent blog posts in the next few days. We saw festivals in Valencia, rode bikes and cable cars in Zaragoza and much much more!

David and I were surprised to find that we made the paper this morning. Many of the local papers had pictures from the matches and one photographer caught us right after the match in a quick kiss. I am slightly embarrassed and David got teased a bit by his team mates today…

Since David came in the middle of the season, there was no fan shirt for him so I made my own...out of electrical tape...I promise.

Us crazy girls...too bad you can't really see our knee high red soccer socks.

(Me, Katie, Rachel (Katie's sis-in-law) and Lily)

David was a little excited...

David's UC Irvine team mate Brian Thornton

I can't take credit for making this sign, but I like to think those are David's hands. :)

All the foreign guys with the foreign wives.

(From Back: Josh, Dallas, Viktors, Matt, David, and Bogdan. Front: Katie, Kelli and Lily)

This was from the paper...caption number 7 is ours!

Last regular season match

2010-03-15T07:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was David's last regular season match. This week is the Spanish Cup in Zaragoza, which is in the northwest part of Spain. I don't really understand the significance of the Cup, I just know that it is very important for Almeria to win it. It is a single elimination format with Almeria playing their first match on Thursday night. If they win, they play Saturday and then hopefully again on Sunday. I am driving to Zaragoza with the wife and family of one of the other players, and we hope to do some sightseeing along the way, stopping for a night or two in Valencia.

I finally remembered to take my camera to a match, so here are some pictures of David from Saturday. They won the game in 4 and David had a pretty decent night. After the game we went to a burger place that was AMAZING! They were not quite like burgers at home, but they were huge and on really good bread, and they were cheap! Best thing is that the place is just a few blocks from our place so we will probably be returning for some more burgers!

David and Dallas enjoying their burgers

Clasica de Almeria

2010-03-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Last week I noticed big buses around town that were for some pro cycling teams. I figured that either some teams were doing training camps here in Almeria, or there was a race coming to town. I was very excited to find out that there was going to be a race, it is the first pro cycling race I have ever seen in person. Some of you may know my slight obsession with the Tour de France, I used to get up at 4am to watch the race live, and have been known to get cable service just for the Tour. It was so great to finally see a race in person, even though it was not quite the Tour de France!

David and I had to get to the race on foot, since we don't have a car, which meant quite a bit of walking. We walked 2 miles roundtrip to see an early section of the race, and then another 3 round trip to see the finish. I will just say that David is not a big fan of walking... hee hee.

About 10km into the race
We made it to the finish early enough to score some swag!

Getting excited!
Here they come!

The winners

Video of David

2010-02-26T08:50:00.001-08:00

David was interviewed a few weeks ago by a TV Station. He blogged about it a few weeks ago, saying that he felt a bit embarrassed because a lot of the segment was about his hearing and he was not able to sign and speak at the same time like they had hoped. We just found the video online. We aren't sure if it is a whole station dedication to deaf and hard of hearing people, but this video is all in Spanish and Spanish Sign Language. Click on the link below and then forward the video to about the 12min mark. His segment goes until about 23:45 into the video. You will first see David at a press conference with the President of the club. His coach is interviewed and then later on they interview Matt, another American middle blocker on the team.

http://www.radiotelevisionandalucia.es/tvcarta/impe/web/contenido?id=5208

Back to school

2010-02-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

Every week a few players from David's team will go and speak to kids in the local schools. David went last week with his teammate Alexis, who translated for David. The showed a slide show or pictures from the team and then each of the guys shared about their story of becoming a pro volleyball player. Finally the kids got to ask questions. David said that there was one smarty pants who asked why David wasn't in the slide show and also asked how much money David makes. Smart kid, huh?

I think this is the kid with all the questions...he won a prize.

David signing autographs

Finally...some pictures!

2010-02-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

We finally got the chance to go down to the water today. David had not been to the beach since he arrived in Almeria. I had the chance to run there a few times and was excited for David to see how pretty it is down there. We have had rain the last few days, I guess Spain is getting record breaking amounts of rain. The sun peeked out a bit today so we went down and walked along the boardwalk. We took a some pictures, including some silly ones. Enjoy!

(You can click on the pictures to make them bigger)