Hello Everyone! So sorry for not keeping up with this. You can all yell at me when i get home MAY 3RD!!!!! But just a little update about the season. We are in the final 2 weeks of the season!!! woohoo. We finished the regular season a few weeks ago and then started the playoffs. How it works is the top 4 teams make it to the playoffs. 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3 in a 3 out of 5 match series. And we had 2 days off in between each match. It was very crazy and exhausting. So we ended the regular season 2nd so we had to play the #3 team, which was Brondby. Brondby has 3 Americans on their team. One girl played at University of Arizona and then I can't remember where the other 2 played. So we got to host the first match. We started off kind of slow and lost the first 2 games. Then somehow made an amazing comeback and won in 3! It was very exciting and very exhausting! Then 2 days later we went and played at Brondby's home gym. The first 2 games we started out very good and were up in both of them 20-15. But somehow Brondby came back and won both of them. We took care of them in the 3rd game and then in the 4th game we were down 22-24 and came back at won it! It was amazing! I'm still in shock that we were able to do it. And then we finished it out and won the match in 5! It was one of the most mentally and physically exhausting matches that we had been a part of. But so rewarding at the same time. Then 3 days later we played Brondby again at home. If we win we are done with the semis and move onto the finals....if we lose we would have to play again 3 days later. Once again we started off the match very strong taking the 1st and 2nd games pretty easily. The 3rd game was very tight and Brondby had chances to win it but once again Fortuna came out on top! It was very exciting. We had so many fans cheering us on and one of the boys professional teams here came and cheered us on as well! They were very loud which helped keep us going. We have a lot of respect for Brondby and it is always fun playing them. So now we are in the finals!!!! We will start our first match this friday the 9th at Holte. Holte is the team we beat in the Cup Final in January. So they will be coming out very strong. I'm pretty sure they will be playing the game online at Holte's website. When I know the website I will let you all know!

Now just a little catch up on me. I'm doing really well. I finally feel adjusted to European lifestyle...only took me almost 8 months!....hahaha. But as the season is coming to an end it becomes more real how much I am going to miss my teammates and how much fun I have had this season. I could have not asked for a better team to play on.

My mom gets here April 21st!!!! I cannot wait for her to get to meet everyone and see where I've been living for the past year. If anyone else is interested in coming hop on the plane with my mom! The more the merrier : )

And personally even though there have been tough times where I have felt very far away from God while being here, I have also been able to strengthen my relationship with the Lord which was something I was definitely in need of doing. And to all of you prayer warriors who had me daily in their prayers I thank you all so much for keeping me close to your hearts. Your prayers were felt here and I couldn't have made it this far without you! I am so blessed to have to many wonderful people in my life!

Once again I'm sorry I haven't been more on top of this thing, but I will be letting you know how the finals go and when my mama gets here!

Love you all.....vi ses from denmark for now

Hello lovely Americans!!! So I have some fantastic news.....my team won the Danish Cup yesterday!!!! This was a big victory considering we had lost to this team both times we have played them this season. We have been preparing for this match since we returned from our Christmas break. There was a lot of anticipation for the match as we were all eager to go out and compete in front of a huge crowd. We won the match 3-0. Here is our website where you can see pictures from the tournament and also the link to one of the newspaper articles that has pictures as well. I know some of you may not speak Danish fluently so if you would like to read any of the articles or our website you can just copy and paste into google translate and see what it has to say. But just beware that some of the way things translate into English may not make much sense but you will understand the main idea. So here are the links http://www.fortuna-odense.dk/main/top/index.php and here is the newspaper link http://www.fyens.dk/gallerier/422835

I hope everyone is having a great start to the 2010 year! Fortuna Elite Volley is definitely starting the year off with a bang! I miss and love you all!!!!!

So this is Debbie, the mom! I am sitting next to Kristen and have told her how annoying it is to check her blog and see November 21 over and over again so she told me to say something. Kristen has been home in Colorado since December 22. It was quite the journey for her to make her way home for Christmas. But she made it and now it's time for her to return to Odense. I think she's kinda sad about leaving and I know I'm very sad that she's leaving. The not quite 2 weeks went by way too fast. She is flying back standby which will be challenging, please pray for her. She's going Denver to Washington DC, DC to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Hamburg and then maybe taking a train from Hamburg to Odense. All in all, I think she's doing pretty well. She loves her teammates and hanging out with the guys from the men's team. In between practices and matches, she does some cleaning and coaching to make some money. Things are pretty expensive over there so every little bit helps. About 6 weeks ago, K told me that she believes she's suppose to be in Denmark but that she thinks it has nothing to do with volleyball. Maybe some personal growth, maturity, that kind of thing. I'm convinced that one day she'll look back at this experience and say that it was amazing. And she'll be so glad that she did it. In the meantime, she misses home and family and friends. And a toilet that works and a shower that's normal. Her team is doing well, they are playing in the Cup final on January 24 and Bill is planning to be there. Well, that's a little update from the mom's point of view. Thanks for being a part of this journey!!

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Just a little update on me. We play Holte tomorrow which is really exciting because they are the only team that we have lost to in our league. So needless to say it should be an exciting match. I will keep you all updated on how we do. Next week Katherine and I will be moving to our new place....yay!!!! We are so excited to finally get situated. I am a little sad though that I won't be home for Thanksgiving : ( Just promise me that you all will eat extra for me! I know that won't be a hard request....hahaha. That's about all that is going on over here. I will let you know how tomorrow goes. Please be thinking about Fortuna Volley when you wake up tomorrow morning, because we will probably be playing at that time : )

Hey Friends and Family!

So I want to apologize for not keeping up lately with my blog. So let me fill you in on the latest that has been going on. A little over a week ago we traveled to Finland to play in the first round of the Nordic Cup. We had a Swedish team and a Finish team in our pool. We played the Swedish team the first night and beat them pretty good in 3 which was very exciting. And for those of you that are knowledgeable in volleyball might find this kind of cool. The Swedish team had former University of Florida outside hitter, Marci Hampton, on their team. That was really exciting to get to play against someone who I played in college and now play against them in Europe. The other great thing was that we beat them! We ended up losing to the Finish team the next day in 5 which was a bummer. And it came down to points whether we qualified to play in the finals at the end up January. But we missed it by a couple of points which was such a bummer. We really felt like we deserved to make it. But oh well life goes on.

So that has probably been the biggest thing going on lately. As far as our regular matches over the weekends we have won all but 1 match. Our team just keeps getting better and better which is really exciting to see. We will play in the semifinals of the Danish Cup sometime in December before Christmas.

Ok enough about volleyball......I'm still slowly but surely starting to get adjusted here. I have now started riding my bike and am verrrryyyy slowly getting better. So far my crash total is at 3. I'm hoping it doesn't get much bigger than that but I really can't make any promises. Me and bikes were just not meant to get along. But I will say that one of my big falls was not my fault and I will tell you why. We were leaving on a train and had to be at the train station by 730am with all of our bags for Finland. Well Katherine and I had to ride our bikes to get to the train station. I have never had to ride a bike with luggage so I just threw the bags over my shoulders......big mistake! I got about 30 ft away from the house and the first words out of my mouth were "uh oh im going down im going down!" and sure enough I fell and then the bike followed. Luckily I landed on my bag but it wasn't an ideal situation. Katherine was behind me laughing and asking if I was ok and I couldn't even talk because I was laughing so hard. So then I realized that there was a strategy to balance multiple bags while you're riding which Katherine was so nice to help me do. But we finally made it!

Katherine and I will be moving again in about 2 weeks to an apartment that we will be in for the rest of our time here. We are really sad to be leaving our nice house but at the same time excited to have a place that we know is ours. Right now we have an Australian guy who just joined the men's team here living with us. He is 6'10!!! And really sweet! It has been so cool to get to know him and also great because he makes Katherine and I dinner a lot which we never pass up on : ) Our house just seems to be an orphanage for those that don't have apartments. But Katherine and I love it because we get to know more people that way.

Lets see I think that should be it for now. If there is anything you all would like to hear about please let me know and I would be glad to fill you all in! I hope things are going great out in the good 'ol US and I hope to talk to you all soon!!!

Love and miss you!!!

Hey all! I APOLOGIZE with my whole heart for not writing in so long. My access to internet has been sooo limited that when i do get to use it I try to call my family. So I'm sorry for lacking in my blog writing : ( but I promise when I do have internet consistently that you will be hearing from me on a more regular basis!

But things are going good hear. My body is holding itself together which is nice and I'm slowly but surely getting settled!

I hope things back in the states are going well for everyone and I miss you all!!! Thanks for all your support and prayers!!!!

Hey everyone! sorry it has taken me so long to write. We haven't had a lot of access to internet lately but will hopefully get it in our house in the next week.

So just a little update on me. We went to Germany last weekend to play the top German team and another German team that took 4th last year. These teams were AMAZING!!!! Both teams had players girls that play on either the German national team or the French national team. So needless to say they were a little bit better than us.....hahaha. But it was really good experience especially for our young players to see that kind of volleyball. I struggled most of the weekend passing. For some reason my platform has not been the same. It has been really frustrating and I don't understand what is going on. I used to be so confident in it and now I feel like my confidence is getting lower with each practice and match. But hopefully I will snap out of it and get back into. If anyone has a nice perfect platform for sale I will pay anything for it!!!!!hahahaha (but seriously i will). We go to France in a week to play some of the top French teams and from what I've heard from the girls these teams are better than the German teams!!! So it may be a little rough! But I just hope that we take a lot of good from it and learn a lot as well. So just keep us in your prayers as we go into next week!

I'm slowly but surely starting to get adjusted. They got Katherine and I bikes to get around which makes me really nervous. I am a bad biker. I can't make sharp turns. I asked for training wheels on my bike but instead got a guys bike. And people can't really use the phrase "its like riding a bike" with me because it means nothing to me! But I will let you all know how it goes! It should be pretty comical.

We get to stay in the house that we moved in to because there are 2 American boys that are playing on the men's pro team, and they are living with us. They are both really nice so it should be fun. The only issue we have is that we only have 1 bathroom and shower. So it will be interesting to see how all that works out. But so far we haven't had any issues. But right now neither of them has a room or a bed so they both sleep on little mattresses in the living room. I feel so bad for them. Over the weekend while we were in Germany we let them use our beds and they said it was amazing! I felt bad taking my bed back but they should be getting their rooms here soon!

Well I am missing everyone back at home and I can't wait to hear from everyone and all the updates!!!

Love you all!!!