Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone had a terrific holiday, and that Santa was able to grant all of your wishes. We have been blessed to see another year, and I don't know about you all but I am very happy and Thankful for that. I hope that 2009 will be just as good if not better to you than 2008 was. Whatever you were dealing with in '08' try your best not to let it affect you the same way in '09' This is a new year, and opportunity for new beginnings. I know that things are bad in a lot of places, and i know that the economy is not where we would like it to be. So many of those things are out of our control. So I ask everyone to try their best to find happiness in whatever it is that they do still have. God, Yourself, your health and strength, family, friends, teammates, churches etc. There are still so many things to be thankful in these trying times. Don't like all the good that cant still occur be affect by the bad that we can not control.

Now on to some of the things that I did while being at home with my family and friends.

When I left Israel I went on to visit my best friend and her family In Miami. We had a blast. I had not seen her in like 6 months so it was so good finally seeing her again. We exchange Christmas gifts which we both loved very much, her mother( which is my second mom) and exchanged gifts as well. We all began to catch up and talk about some of the things that had been going on in our lives. We went out on the town, did some shopping, went out to eat etc. but for the most part we just sat around talking and enjoying each others company. I stayed there for like 3 or 4 days and from there flew into New Orleans to be with my family. I brought in the new year in my grandmothers house with most of my family members. It was kind of hard but I know that was the right place to be. Some people may understand this and some may not, but as much as I love my family, it was and is super hard for me to be around them right now for holiday things. For 25 of my 26 years I have always had my grandmother with my for the holidays, so I wasn't looking forward to being with my family at all for the holidays. It was just too hard for me. I was not home for Christmas so that kind of helped me, but did bring in the new year with them like mentioned earlier. On new years day, I had my little cousin who is like my brother with me and my best friend came down to baton rouge with me for a few days. She flew in and I picked her up from the airport, from there we headed to LSU we were happy that we were able to catch one of the lady tigers games. It was really good to see how much that young team has really been making progress. You can see that they have been working really hard and I am extremely proud of them. While there at the game, we were able to see some people that we had not seen in a long time and all the fans were happy to see Sylvia back in the PMAC since she had not been back there since she finished playing. They were all happy to see the Olympian back on the premises. After the game was over we spoke to the coaches and the players, and the three of us headed to Mike Anderson's which is one of the best seafood restaurants that we have tasted. It is one of our favorites. We also hit up some of our other favorite places, such as Sullivan's- great steaks and if you wan to just relax and listen to music there is a bar and a live band playing on the other side of the restaurant it is a nice setting. We were able to get us some sushi from Ichibian this Japanese place in baton rouge that we like. It was a great time. We saw a movie, visited friends, shopped and was able to take some pictures. It was a great time. After she left I went back to spend some more days with my family and do more family things with them and the kids of the family. Then my mom and my sister ad my new niece came back with me to my house to spend some time with me at my house. I gave my mom her gift which she loved. She wanted a laptop for Christmas so she was blessed with it. I guess Santa was good to her . She was very excited so that was enough for me. I was happy to see a smile on her face. The next day I went o visit the elementary school that I adopted. It was so great to see those kids and their teachers again. I was able to participate in their dance exercises that they were doing during P.E., I got a chance to attend some of their classes, i did some question and answers with them, but the most amazing part of it all was all the hugs that I got as well as the ones that I gave. I think that means more to the kids than anything. It amazing how far just one hug can go .

As you can see I was very busy while I was home, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I am not back in Israel, oh yeah and I didn't mention how my family was in an up roar about me coming back here while I was home after watching what was going on over in Gaza with the war. Don't worry everyone, all is good where I am. I called everyone that I knew to call, I spoke with my agent, my teammates, my owners of my club, and some of the other Americans that were here already. They all told me the same thing. That it is so far away from where we are and that we are not affected by it. I was a little nervous at first but I did trust them. I am now back and so far they were all right. But I will promise everyone this. If i feel as though there is any danger headed this way, I will be on the first plane back to America. Ok I am off to get some rest now but I will keep everyone posted.

Until next time.............

One more thing I would love for you all to write in some of your new years resolutions. I would love to read them and see some of things that you all have to say.

The Run Ends

Hello Everyone,

I come today to share with you that we have lost, and are out of the cup. It was a crazy game, but we did end up playing another tough team. It was Ramata Hasharon, they have Jia Perkins of the Chicago Sky, Ebony Hoffman Of the Indiana Fever, and Erin Phillips who played for Connecticut Suns. Their team is a really good team!. It was a close game the entire way. They led the entire game but we kept it close -- no more than six the entire time. We did have a great yet scary surprise though. Our teammate Charde Houston decided to play on her hurt leg right before the game. I was so shocked and scared, I was not sure what to say to her or anything. I saw that she had made up her mind to play, so I just said a prayer with her and left it in God's hand to protect her. She came out and played really well for us. She gave us all that she had and we couldn't have asked for anything else. I am happy that she is on my team. Anyway the overall game was a sloppy one for both teams. It came down to 6.2 secs. We were coming out of a time out and the other team had set up a defense to trap me. I broke the trap and went a completely different way from the two defenders, I got the ball, and had a clear path to the basket -- I am running straight to the basket and as I go up for the shot one of the defenders rotated over and under cut my legs. I got the shot off, and the ball went up in the air, inside the rim and rattled back out. The refs of course did not call a foul, and our coach went crazy. He ran out on the floor and screamed at the refs and everything. It was no turning back though and we had to walk off with the loss.

It was a crazy game, but it did show that we can battle with any team in this league. And although we didn't come away with the cup championship we are gunning for the league championship. I believe that we can take it.

I will be going home soon to be with my family. I will probably miss Christmas with them but I will bring in the New Year with them. I am looking forward to seeing them. I miss them all very much.

We will have at least 2 weeks offs so until next time everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's! I hope that Santa brought everyone what they wanted and I hope that this new year God brings you all as much happiness as the Year before.

God Bless Everyone!

I will talk to you all next year.

Meek

The Run to the Championship

Hello everyone, I want to start off by saying happy holidays to all. I hope that everyone is enjoying their time with their loved ones. I am still in Israel and probably wont get to make it home for Christmas. It is ok though, I will still have Christmas with my family when I get back there.

Ok let me fill you all in on whats been going on with me over here. This week has been a very tense week. We have been practicing and preparing for Cup play. During cup play it is like the NCAA'S, it is one and done. So throughout the week everyone was really on edge, we were playing Ramla for our first game, and they had knocked the club that I am playing for (Ra'annna) out the past couple of years so it was really important to concentrate on this up and coming game. After all the hard practicing and getting after each other pretty hard, the club treated us to a spa day. Something like a team bonding. We were able to get a full body massage, use the jacuzzi, as well as lay up in a suite and just relax. It was really a fun night. We all felt so good and relaxed after that.

The next day I surprised my teammates with gifts. They do not celebrate Christmas here but they do celebrate Hanukkah. I wanted to try and put the Christmas/Hanukkah spirit within the team and I think it worked. They were all so surprised and so excited. They thought that I was crazy to go out and buy each one of my teammates a gift. This is evidently not something that is done here very often, because they just kept saying that I was crazy. The only thing that mattered to me was that they were happy and that they enjoyed and appreciated their gifts. It was not about the money at all, and the smiles on their faces was priceless. It made it all worth it.
So now it is time for the game and one of our key players was having some knee trouble and before the game we knew for sure that she was not going to play. That was a little nerve racking because she is very important to our team, by the way sorry it is Charde Houston that I am speaking about. Everyone had to give a little more against a team that was almost favored to win anyway. Once the game started, we came out a little slow, but with a not so good performance in the first half, we were still only down by 7 at the half. During the second half once we tied the score the lead change would go back and forth until we finally got up by like 6. From then on we kept the lead, but Ramla who has Tan White and Nikki Anosike on their team as well as Adia Barnes would not just go away. They fought until the end.

This was a really hard fought game and I was so proud of my teammates for the way that we all stepped up and gave a little extra in Charde's absence. Now we sit and wait to see who it is that we play again. For some apparent reason they are going to draw out of a hat the two teams again for the second round. I have never seen this happen before, it is usually the first round and that's it. But not here, plus this year they are doing things a little different. Usually the cup games are spread out to play, but this year they are doing them all in one week. It is 3 games in 5 days. So if we keep winning, which I hope that we will, that will be our schedule from now until the break. I am looking forward to the next game and I am interested to see who it will be. Sorry everyone as of right now I don't know so I guess I will just have to let you all know next time. Ok I am off to bed now. Wish us luck for the cup, hopefully we will come away with the championship.

Please have a safe and Happy Holiday.

Merry Christmas to all!

Meek

One and Done..

Hello fellow bloggers!

I can finally say that this week is a little slower than the past. We only had one game this week and we played it yesterday. We played a team called Ne Tanya. They have two players that I know, and I know the lady tiger followers would know for sure.

One is former lady tiger Erica White who played pretty well for her club, and the other is Natasha Brackett, a former SEC player from Auburn. It was a pretty close game throughout. I had some foul issues and due to the aggressiveness that I tend to play on defense, the refs were not too hesitant to blow the whistle. I wasn't even guarding and American either. Usually they will allow the Americans to play, but yesterday for some strange reason that was not the case.

Anyways, I fouled out with like 15 mins to go in the game. My teammates were nervous but, guess what, they did what they were supposed to do. They held it together and performed well, and we walked away with a victory. As I cheered them on as I was on the bench I became even more proud of being on this team with a group women that just refused to give up.

This is all for this week. There is not very much more to this week besides two-a-days and preparing for the game on Monday. I am suppose to go by some of my teammates apartment so that they can teach me how to play poker, not really sure how this will go but hey we will see! If I don't learn it or enjoy it I will at least be able to say that I got out of the house and chilled with my teammates. It will at least be an outing.

Ok I must go now I am a little under the weather. I have a soar throat and a stuffy nose. So until next time I will talk to everyone later.

I will keep you all updated on my poker skills ...........

Hey!

Today was a good day... it was a day after a win that we needed and just had to get. This morning after an hour of practice we did something amazing. We had a scrimmage with the Special Olympic kids!

We had a blast. During every time out and half time everyone danced with one another. The ones that didn't get to perform in the scrimmage were able to leave the bleachers and come down and dance with everyone. My teammates and I had a blast. I think I already said that, LOL.

Today was a good day. I was very happy and so were the Olympic athletes. They really enjoyed themselves as well as enjoyed us. But they just don't know that they were just as important to us as a whole. At the end of the event they gave my teammate the MVD award. At first I wasn't exactly sure what that was, and we thought that it was similar to the MVP award so my teammates and I joked with Charde about how it is ironic that she received that award and not any of the actually athletes that it was for. LOL. But it was the MVD award which mean the Most Valuable Dancers. We all fell out laughing, but we understood it then. If anyone knows Charde they will know that she loves to dance and she was truly all over the place. She danced to every song that was played it was hilarious. We had a blast.

I know this was short, but I'll be back. I wanted to share this quick moment with you all.

Until next time....