NUMBER SEVEN

I have been in Brno for 7 days now.

God created the world in seven days.
There are seven wonders of the ancient world.
I loved the movie "Seven Pounds".
The week has seven days.
The opposite faces of a dice add up to seven.
In chemistry, it's the neutral pH value between acidity and alkalinity.
Seven is the number of completion.

And now, something you FOR SURE didn't know yet:
I will be wearing number 7 this season.

LITTLE DID I KNOW

Hello everyone and welcome back to my life on the road!

I've returned to Brno two days ago, and am starting to settle in again. I am still living in a hotel as the paperwork for my apartment is getting finalized.

I've participated in two practices so far, and I must say that I am pretty happy to be back on the court again. The 5-months summerbreak has gotten me eager again to compete!

I did miss my girls, so it was nice to see everyone again: it seemed like we nevere were apart.

This year Tamika and Maiga-Ba won't be with us anymore, unfortunately, but there will be two new Americans that will join our team... I am really excited about being their teammate, and I am looking forward to their arrival.

We also have some new Czech ladies on the team, who I enjoyed meeting already: Alena, Teresa and Barbora ... they are all very nice... but I honestly didn't expect anything less.

Little did I know though that Brno is THAT BEAUTIFUL during the sunny season.... WOW... take a look:
























Alright everyone, until next time,

LIFE IN "THE THIRTIES"

So yesterday I went to the physiotherapist to get some treatment for the knots that have been occupying my whole neck for almost a year now as a trauma of last summer's vertigo attacks.

At the beginning of the session, I got asked the usual questions by the therapist "what happened?" "since when has it been bothering you?" "Have you done any treatment before?" da da da da da... that whole Spiel.

THEN he looked at the chart, browsed over it and HAD THE AUDACITY to say "Ohhh ok, I mean.... you ARE in your thirties. aches and pains like these ARE normal IN YOUR AGE.... calcification and postural changes, stuff like that is nothing out of the norm...."

*BLANK STARE*

"ThirtIES?????" Excuse me, sir... 30 years and 1 1/2 months. 30 years and 45 days to be precise!!

Isn't it against the law to say something like that to someone who just dealt with turning 30?

*TAKING A DEEP BREATH...HOLDING MY HEAD UP HIGH, CHEST OUT, BACK STRAIGHT...COUGHING*

Well people I guess I have arrived.... looks like my motto for the upcoming decade will be: THE THIRTIES ARE THE NEW TWENTIES!!!

I am here and I am going to love it!!

LEBE DEINE VISION

Greetings from Las Vegas... my home-away-from-home.

I just got done with my 3-day camp here and am about to head out to drive back to California.

The camp limit was 15 girls, so that I could pay attention to each one of the girls personally.
13 girls ended up signing up.... 13... a nice number indeed :)

Every day was organized like a WNBA practice session... and I incorporated a lot of drills and exercises that we are using at the professional level.

On the first day it was time to get to know each other. I tried to see how far I could push them, and the girls tried to figure out my limits... hahaha... they saw real quick that I didn't have a lot of tolerance for fooling around.... and luckily I had the whistle!!!

On the second day things went really smooth. The girls were able to pick up a lot of drills and complete them in the desired timeframe.

On the last day the girls picked it up a notch. I couldn't believe the intensity and the focus that the girls had. They put everything that we had learned in the past days together and applied it beautifully. The highlight was probably when Chris Matthuis and the Channel 8 crew arrived. Thanks to Anna, Julianna and Destinee for the kind words.... you know I would have stopped at your house afterwards otherwise.... ;) All of the ladies put their best foot forward and showed the Las Vegas community what they are made of.

I couldn't have left camp any more proud than I was that day.
Thanks ladies!

Good job to my campers Natalie, Camille, Kaila, Haley, Katrina, Shelby, Julianna, Anna, Destinee, Roberta, Lauren, Ellee and last but not least Megan. Keep up the good work!

Special thanks to:
Pastor Randy Greer and his Trinity Life Church for providing the facility and letting me share my testimony with you on Sunday! Thanks also to Pastor Jimmy for setting everything up.
Anthony Marar- former UNLV team manager and my helping hand/rebounder when I wanted to shoot extra after practice. He took the time out of his busy schedule to help me out at the camp.
The Hoffman Family- for looking after me like a daughter and always supporting me.

P.S.: Don't forget to click on the photo above to watch the cool video

30 YEARS CELEBRATION

Wow... wow... wow.... I still can't believe it! 30!
Birthdays always make me stop and reflect on the things that have happened in my life so far. I cannot believe I am already 30. Not that I suffer... no no... aging is part of life and everyone BETTER learns how to deal with it.

But to me it seems like yesterday that I was Daddy's little girl, sitting on his lap and putting on my cutest face possible to ask him for some "Pfennige" (~cents) so I could run to the store and get me some icecream.
Or seeing my mom prepare my lunchbox for school and take me out to the street where I would meet up with my "bicycle gang" (which consisted of me and my two bestest friends at that point) so we could ride to school together.

I graduated COLLEGE... not HIGHSCHOOL... COLLEGE... 7 years ago!!!!!
It seems like yesterday though that I packed my two 32kg bags to leave Germany to come to America... I remember how I stood in the airport of Hamburg thinking that my heart would rip into pieces the moment I said goodbye to my family.

WOW... I still remember the first butterflies that I had when I met my husband for the first time... 10 years ago!!!! Or the first butterflies I had when I played in Madison Square Garden for the first time.

Well, this is it for my yearly "Walk on Memory Lane". I am so thankful for everything that has happened to me so far, and I am happy to be able to turn 30 today.

To conclude with the words of a wise 30-year-old woman today,
"CARPE DIEM- SEIZE THE DAY!!"
Enjoy each moment that comes your way...live it right now! Don't live in the past- leave bad stuff behind and don't cry after the "good ol' days".
Live in the present and create new joy TODAY, so that in a couple of years when you take that "walk" again right before your birthday, you can look back with a smile and be proud of yourself for living life to the fullest.

MAKING A WISH!!!
What did I wish for? Sorry can't tell you.... hihihi





BLOWING OUT ALL 30 CANDLES...
I remember for my 18th birthday my mom didn't put candles on the cake, because she thought I was too old now to not care about things like that.... but oh no WAS SHE WRONG!!! No candles, no celebration.... lol..... so I am happy to announce that I did have candles on my cake this year.... unfortunately, each year gets harder to blow them out with just one breath... we'll see how much longer I keep candles on my "MUST-HAVES-ON-BIRTHDAY" list.





HORSEBACK RIDING IN LAKE ELSINORE, CALIFORNIA
With grueling efforts and many "emergency lies" my family was able to surprise me at the top of the mountain with a group horseback riding trip... WHAT A JOY! The weather was beautiful, the company was second to none, the view was perfect, and.... thank God, the horses were trained!!! Nevertheless, as a PRECAUTIOUS GERMAN GAL I switched from birthday hat to helmet during the ride!








































































FLOWERS FROM GERMANY

















Thank you my dearest family for these beautiful flowers.... they were especially flown into the States from Germany...JUST FOR ME... Thanks for making me feel special!!!!!

CONTINUE READING ONLY IF YOU ARE WORKING FOR THE U.S. CUSTOMS: Do not panic!! The flowers of course didn't come FROM Germany directly... I was just saying that to make it sound even cooler! No need to panic.... these flowers are California-growns!!!

My NBA Identity

First of all, I must say that I am not really a big NBA fan throughout the regular season, but comes Playoff Time, I have to admit that I like to watch a game or two EVERY NIGHT.

If there is any team that I am really cheering for in the NBA, it would be the Dallas Mavericks... and that just because of Dirk... or should I say "if there was a team".
Unfortunately the Mavs are out of the playoffs after their game in Denver yesterday. For a team whose obvious emphasis lies on the offensive end, there just weren't enough weapons out there to put the basketball in the hoop. Oh well, so it didn't work out! Dirk, as our German representative, did his thing though... so no complaints!!!
What now? As usual, life goes on!!! But who am I going to cheer on now? Any suggestions?

BACK AGAIN, BACK AGAIN

Wow, it looks like I am having a great time here at home, huh?
No blogging, no facebooking, no emails, no nothing.

Well well well, it's not like that! I mean, I AM having a great time at home, but since I've gotten here my daily routine has changed
I've been actually doing things

This is what has happened since I've gotten home:
I've freed our front yard from the ground cover that initially came with the house.
I built a little path with stepping stones from the drive way to the porch.
I created a slope with a little rock garden on it.
I've cleaned up our house office, destroyed bills from 1999 and dusted off our VHS collection, etc. and reorganized our file cabinet.
I've helped my husband to move our company TriFytt Sports into a new office.
I've decluttered the garage.
And after all of this, I am ready for a yard sale now :)

My youngest sister just finished taking all of her 6-hour exams to graduate, in Germany we call it "she wrote her ABITUR".
Now while we are anxiously waiting for her grades, she got one more oral exam to prepare for.

Two of my sisters finished moving to a new apartment and my brother, who has been studying and playing basketball in San Antonio, got to meet up with our countryman Dirk Nowitzki when Dallas came to town to play the Spurs.

Well, that's my last month in a nutshell.. I am going to close with a nice little quote from 1 Corinthians 10:31:
"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God."

Until then,