Hello to everyone!!!! WOW--first off I just want to apologize for not having an update soon....it's been a while so we are going to see what I can remember from the past month or so....

I think the last time I updated was before Duke, but I am sure others are more interested about the present especially after our disappointing loss last night.....

But, first I want to talk about going home to Indy to play in front of a nice crowd there. Let me just say, I know Indy is NOT MY HOME, but I knew that it was going to be the closest I could get to The Grove and I can't even begin to describe how awesome it was to have my friends and family there.

There were so many signs that were just awesome! My favorite and the sign that is probably the most true was the one that said, "You can take Katie outta the Grove, but you can't take the Grove outta Katie!" How true is that statement--I loved it when I read it!!!!

But to the game, UCLA was a very good team and I thought they played us very well, we were lucky to come away with a win down there, but THANK GOD for Beth Jones--how awesome was that shot, however, I thought the play Erika made was even more awesome....to be double teamed and find Beth wide open in the corner--hello UCLA, why leave Beth Jones that wide open!? Well, we were very fortunate to come away with a win and we'll take it because in the end it doesn't matter how or what way we got it done, as long as we got it done!

After UCLA it was time to get ready for a very talened UCSB team....another close game, but it was awesome to come away with a win. They were very good and had a well balanced attack. I can't even tell you how stressful that week was with finals and everything. I don't think I got to sleep before 4 am every night and to have a final on Saturday--WHEW, I sure hope that never happens again!!!!

After my final on Saturday it was time to go home and spend Christmas with the family--I couldn't wait....At last, I could have some time to sleep and relax...yea, well I think I have figured out that when you go home there really isn't much time to sleep because you want to see so many people and spend time with them....the only time I did sleep was Monday and I slept in until 1 in the afternoon, I think I could have slept all day long, but my back was starting to hurt, so I forced myself to get up and do something productive.

I had an awesome time over break, I was able to spend time with family and friends. We even had a little basketball party from last year--Coach McNew and Dean were in town and we all went over to Stacy's and it was so nice to be able to sit down and just laugh on the good times we had.

Santa was pretty good to me--I got everything I asked for and more....I didn't ask for a lot because I was just happy to be home and spend time with my family....

The day after Christmas it was time to come back and get ready for Western Michigan. The first practice back was a very good practice and was the second and so on, I didn't feel too out of shape because I was able to make it over to my high school and get my hands on a basketball--I did a lot of old shooting drills that I did last year in high school--I just figured I needed to find my shot that has seem to escaped me (and still I have yet to find it, but I am still working and hopefully the search will end soon)....After some good practices it was time to head up to Kalamazoo to take on Western Michigan....after a nice pre-game speech from Coach Curry we went out and just played awful in the first half--going into half time we were lucky to just be down by 10 points. With the second half coming, I got the call to start it and I just wanted to be productive and get the ball to the right person at the right time. Beth Jones and Shereka Wright were just amazing--we finally came together in the second and played the kind of ball we are capable of playing--now we just need to do it on a consistent basis and everything will be fine.....

Up next Penn State, the game everyone is talking about right now. We were so prepared, we knew what they would do offensively and I thought we did an excellent job of holding them to 47 points. And if you would have told me that we would have held them to 47 points and we would lose, I would have thought you were crazy. We came out of the gate a little slow but we were able to crawl our way back into and go into halftime with a lead....in the 2nd half, we just got comfortable and went away from things that were working...well, I guess a whole lot of things were working--I mean making 13 shots total in the whole game--I can almost promise that will never happen to us again...that was just unbelievable....I mean I know we played horrible and didn't make the plays that needed to be made, but if you look at it this way....we make 13 of 63 shots and only lose by 5 points, and we have a chance to win it at the end....

I think this loss will just build some character and bring us all together--at least I sure hope it does! The Big Ten was not lost last night--we just have to win the 15 games and we'll be tied with Penn State--but we still have a long season ahead of us and who knows what will happen.....

We had a good practice today--getting prepared for Notre Dame--of course that is going to be a battle and I am sure they are going to be up to play us, so we definately have to bring our "A" game.....