Christmas Break

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! And for those of you in the Midwest...I hope the blizzard didn't cause too much trouble with your Christmas plans. I had an amazing time with family and friends. It was SOOO great to be able to spend time with them, since I missed them so much. The snow storm caused some travel complications for me, but I was with loved ones basically the whole time so I really didn't let it bother me. It definately was hectic though...

I flew out from Italy last Monday to London. My flight from London was delayed 4 hours, so by the time I landed in Chicago, I missed my flight to Fargo. I was forced to stay overnight in a hotel by myself. I flew out in the morning from Chicago to Fargo (that flight was only 45 minutes behind schedule). I then drove 4 hours to make an appointment I needed to be at with my fiance. I guess I haven't metioned it yet on here, but I am engaged and am thrilled about it. But back to my story now... After we made it to the appointment we drove another 6 hours to be with my family for a couple days. About this time is when the snow storm started rolling in. We left a day early to beat the storm and drove 6.5 hours through less than perfect conditions. After that, I needed to be in Fargo for my flight back to Italy....but the roads were all closed due to the storm. So I hopped on a train and got to Fargo around 3:30 am. The next day I found out that my flight was cancelled so I had to reschedule. The next flight I could catch was not until today (two days later on Monday). I am currently in the Fargo airport waiting for my flight to arrive so that I can begin my long travel back to Italy. And wouldn't you know it...my flight is delayed. It is delayed long enough so I will miss my connecting flight in Chicago. So I had to reschedule to a different trans-atlantic flight from Chicago. I have no idea what awaits me in my travels but I can't help but wonder what else could go wrong. :)

But I am SOOO thankful I was able to be with my family for Christmas. Happy New Year to everyone!!! God bless!

Game Tonight

We have a road game tonight. It is our last game before Christmas break. We definately are going to play as hard as we can and leave it all out there since we won't have another game for two weeks!

Game

Well, I am going to make this very short. We played very well for much of the game last Sunday. We found ourselves up by 7 with just over a minute to play. Things were looking great, but sadly things fell apart very quickly. We turned the ball over twice in a row and allowed the other team to get within 3 in a matter of a few seconds. Then moments later I was called for my fifth foul and so I was forced to go sit on the bench for the rest of the game. That was probably the most difficult it has ever been for me to sit on the bench and watch a game play out. The other team ended up tying the game and we had the last shot. We couldn't get a good shot off though and it went into overtime. Sitting out for the entire overtime was so difficult for me. I don't get nervous at all while I am in the game when it is close down the stretch. I can handle that really well, but sitting on the bench and feeling helpless is another thing. Overtime began with a 70-70 tie. The final score was 71-73. Yes...you read that right. We scored one point in OT and lost.

Things are challenging over here right now, but all I can do is keep my faith strong and my head up. Perseverance is a tough lesson to learn, but one that I believe God is teaching me right now. I have learned so much about life and the blessings in life through my time over here. Now more than ever I can see how precious and valuable time with family and loved ones truly is. If you are able to spend time with family over this Christmas season...do not take it for granted. Count your blessings. God bless you all!

Catch up post....

Hey everyone. I am sorry that I haven't been doing a good job keeping up with my blog. I was thinking about coming on here and making up a bunch of excuses about why I haven't been updating you on my life over here...Like, 'I have been very busy', or...'We were traveling a lot', or...'I have been busy Christmas shopping'. Although all those things are true, it isn't the real reason why I haven't been posting blogs over the past couple weeks. The truth is that we have been working very hard on the court as a team and playing some good games, but have come up on the short side of the score several times. It isn't as fun for me to write updates on here when we have lost :) But I guess that isn't fair to those of you who check my blog and never see a new entry.

Since my parents left at the end of Novemeber, we have had several games where we played well but came up short. There was one game in there where we got blown out by a team that we had no business losing to by that much, but other than that miss-step we have been battling hard. We played some teams that are ranked at the top of our league and fought hard with them. The last game in particular we were playing Veroli at home. We got off to a great start and had a 13 point lead near the end of the second quarter, but we gave up some ground going in to the halftime break only up by one possession.

The second half started well as we extended our lead, but again we stumbled towards the end of the quarter by giving up costly turnovers that they turned into timely baskets. We found ourselves down by a few possessions going into the final quarter. We fought hard throughout until the final buzzer, but we couldn't get on a role to dig out of the hole that we made. The final score was 82-92. We played fairly well against a very good team, but it hurts to keep losing while fighting so hard. We are staying together though and staying possitive. We have two games left before Christmas break. Tomorrow (Sunday) at home and then the following Sunday on the road.

I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season. Stay warm and keep your loved ones close! God bless you all.

P.S. If you would like to know more details about my life over here, or my individual performances, or any other questions you might have...you can email me at winkelman2209@aol.com. Thanks.