New Pictures!

The night before I left for Team Processing, Mandy suprised me with a small family party including my two closest friends: Alisa and Erika (I hadn't seen Erika for at least 6 months!). It was wonderful!

Mandy ordered a cute cookie cake with the Olympic Rings frosted on top! I think our group devoured the whole cookie in one sitting!

It was just so nice to have my family and two friends together before I left! It was such a special gift!

I have a screen flashing in front of me "7 days 13 hrs until the Olympic Games in Beijing China." I can't believe it's almost here! I am so excied for the Opening Ceremonies! Until then... we're busy training away.

We got this morning off so I was able to sleep in and have a great quiet time! We practiced his afternoon, but it rained on and off. So during the heavy rain periods we would wait under the roof. Then Butch threw a little, soft rubber ball at me. This began a game of ball that EVERYONE participated in at some point (even Coach Lee!) which evolved into a twisted form of baseball. I was pitching, Brady was catcher and Butch was at bat, putting to use his stabilizer rod. We had such fun! When the rain subsided, we returned to training. As I stated earlier, today was rough. But I know the Lord has a plan that He is working out in my life. I wold like to say, I am so happy to have Khatuna on the team! Khatuna was so encouraging to me and tried to help, giving me pointers on my shooting and emphasizing the positive. She is so kind to me and often knows what I need to hear to get me into focus before I compete, as long as I'm not competing with her ;-) She is a dear friend to me. So... I will continue as I wrote earlier. And follow my sister's instructions before leaving: Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. Thanks Mand! Exactly what I needed to hear ;-)