Merry Christmas!

Today (Christmas Eve), I hung out with my family all day. We went to church...twice (since it was a Sunday)! But that is cool with me. We then had some family and friends over after the Christmas Eve service. I ate a lot of cookies and my favorite, chips with chili cheese dip. We are skipping Christmas morning church because I leave at 1:30pm tomorrow. So we are just going to have dinner at 11am in the morning before I have to go to the airport. I'm excited to get back on the basketball court with my teammates, but I am not excited to see how bad of shape I am in after nine days off. I have playing basketball almost every day, but I guarantee I lost a lot of my cardiovascular stamina. I don't know, we'll see I guess. Hopefully my flight isn't delayed tomorrow. Please pray for good weather. I'll update later.

P.S. I just want to thank God for sending his Son to die for us so that we can live forever in heaven with Him. As a Christian, it sure is great freerolling through life (because of Jesus) knowing that it is only a matter time before I, along with all believers, will be joining God in heaven. Please remember the real reason we celebrate CHRISTmas. With all that said, have a Merry Christmas!

4th in Tourney

I just finished 4th in the $7K guaranteed deep stack $75 buy in on Full Tilt for a profit of a nice $1378. I am very happy with the 4th place because I bad beat my way to the final table. I did make some really good plays throughout the tourney, but man I put some brutal beats on some people :) I got to the final table 2nd in chips, however, I felt like all of the other players were much more experienced tournament-wise than me. To be honest, I thought that I was the worst player at the final table. So I will definitely take a 4th place finish. I really like this deep stack tourney. I played it once last week and took 12th in it for such a little profit. I want to play in this tourney more often in the future but the problem is that it doesn't start until 1 am Nebraska time. So Montana is the only realistic place I can play it because starting a tourney at midnight is not too awful, I guess. Alright, it is almost 4:30 so I am going to get some sleep.

Back in MT

It sure feels good to be back home. My mom made a nice pot roast for the family last night. That was the first good meat I've had in a long time. Since most of my good friends don't come home until tomorow, I will probably hit up the casinos tonight. Should be a fun week.

Random note: When I looked up my grades on the internet, I expected anywhere from a 2.6 to a 2.9. I looked at my grades and somehow I ended up with a 3.51 GPA. Unbelievable! I must be naturally good at this thing called school. Sorry for bragging.

Montana on Friday

Unfortunately, Montana lost their semi-final game so I won't be going to the National Championship game in Tennessee. That's okay because I am really excited to get back to Montana and see my family and high school friends. I have ten days off before I have to return to Seward on Christmas Day. In Montana, I plan on going skiing, hanging out with my friends and family, and playing some live poker in the casinos. It should be a nice, relaxing ten days without school and mandatory basketball. I have one final left tomorrow before I will be finally done with this semester. I am ready for a change of classes, but not before I have a good break from school. I will be flying out of Lincoln on Friday because we have practice up until that morning. I'm excited!

Sooo close

Disappointment is all I feel right now. I played a huge role in the game tonight which was exciting for me. Yet I am very disappointed because I could have ended up with the game-winner. I saw minimal playing time in the first half, but the second half I played a ton. I am mainly in the game for my defense. I can't tell you how much I love playing D. It is so much fun flying all over the court, getting steals and taking charges. That is how I love to play. Anyway, we were up seven at half and very confident. Second half come around and our starters started to get into foul trouble. I was then subbed in. Soon after, Garrett made a nice pass to me for a three pointer which was a boost of confidence for me. That ended up being my only shot attempt for the game (as I look at the stats online, however, they have me for a missed layup and a turnover when I wasn't even in the game...lame). We grinded through the second half missing free throw after free throw and watching them hit all of theirs. With 16 seconds left we were down by one and they were bringing the ball up the court. I decided to jump the guy with the ball and trap him. I somehow got a steal and was fouled. So I step up to the line absolutely loving it and very confident. I live for this situation. In high school, many times I was called upon to hit big free throws in key situations. I play the game for these moments. However, tonight I missed one and I'm really pissed at myself. I missed to first attempt long, but regrouped and made the second to tie it. Doane then missed their game winning shot attempt and we went to Overtime.

We lost in OT due solely to missed free throws which is extremely disappointing. Our team was an absurd 13-29 from the line compared to their 27-36. A team is not going to win many games when they lose by 14 in the free throw category and lose the rebounding war by 18. We have a lot to work on. Hopefully we can regroup and finally get our second "W" on Saturday. I am starting to enjoy basketball a lot more these days. Tonight was the first time in a while that I actually had fun playing the game and competing.

Brothers

Me: 6'1" 175 lbs. My bro, Eric: 6'6" 290 lbs.

Yes, we are brothers! He's going to be pissed when he sees this. haha.

School, basketball, and Grizzlies

I have been pretty stressed out lately since ALL of my big assignments have been due in the last two weeks. The stress will continue until next Wednesday when all my finals will be over. I can't believe I am stressing out of school, when I really do not care that much about my grades. Anyway, I am trying to get everything done and time is not on my side. I also think I have ADD. Like now, instead of writing my blog, I should be starting my 12 page paper that is due on Tuesday. I also have other stuff that is due this Thursday that I should be doing. I always just find myself reading people's blogs or watching highlights on espn.com. I just need to focus and actually do some work for once and the stress should go away. I can't wait to be done with this semester and go home. This is by far the most homesick I have been in my three years. You would think that my freshman year would be the worst, but I wasn't this homesick back then.

We play a huge game against one of our biggest rivals, Doane, tomorrow. Basketball has been a rollercoaster ride for me so far this year. I thought poker was a bad...I went from starting the first two games to playing garbage time to not playing at all and now to playing quality minutes off the bench. It has just been a weird year for my teammates and I. This is a program that year in and year out wins a minimum of 20 games (my freshman year we were 32-6). We have started out the year a dissappointing 1-7. eww. We close out the semester with the game tomorrow and then we go to Morningside in Iowa on Saturday. Hopefully we can get another win before Christmas.

The best part of my life right now is consisting of my brother's life. That's how good things are going. But seriously, my brother has won the starting spot at right guard for the Montana Grizzlies who dominated the first two rounds of the Division 1 football championship (formally 1AA). They will now host UMass on Friday night and it's going to be on ESPN 2! I am so excited to get to see my brother flatback some UMass players in HD. The game is at 7:30 EST if anyone wants to watch. My brother is #78.

If they win that game, I will be changing my plane tickets next Friday to Chattanooga, TN instead of to Billings, MT for the national championship. I don't want to talk about it too much because I do not want to get my hopes up. But if the Grizzlies play like they have been playing, they will not be beaten.

Alright, time to get studying. Please pray for me so I can get all this work done; and my brother too if you so desire. Thanks.