Christmas in January!

So after waiting over two weeks to receive my package from Dad and brother (that was just sitting in Vienna somewhere), I FINALLY got it tonight! But, not only did I get my Dad and brother's package, I got another package and two letters! You can't even imagine how happy I was. Well, I bet you wanna see what was in them?

Well, it's gonna have to wait :) I'm gonna tell you about the presents I received from my mom first :) I got these on Christmas Eve if I do recall and I got to Skype with her while I opened them. She got me....

The Kindle Fire! Yay! Now I don't have to worry about carrying books around with me everywhere I go! Perfect! And she got me a gift card to get started (and I definitely have already gotten started reading). 

Yummy smelling body wash, lotion, and perfume! MMM!!! 

A sweet fossil watch! Awesome! I've already worn this out for a night and I've fallen in love. And I kept saying that I wasn't a watch girl. Once again, Momma knows best :)

And last but not least...

A super cute key chain! "Home is where your mom is". Ain't that the truth :) So, mommy, THANK YOU for this. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH and you mean EVERYTHING to me. I'm glad I got to spend my Christmas with you (even if it was through a computer screen). I can't wait to be "home" again :) 

Okay, NOW I can tell you about the packages I got today...

The first package I opened was a "mystery package". It was a mystery because the return address said that it was from "Your Friends". Who could that be? Ah the excitement! Well, upon opening it I learned it was from my best friend, Alicia Sieverding and her family! Also, there was a card in there from another good friend of mine, Kali Blocklinger! Alicia, a.k.a. "Goose", sent me: 1) A really cute wintery red headband 2) the book "Water For Elephants, which I'm sorry Goose, I've already read it but I can't wait to read it again :) and I would highly recommend it 3) taco bell taco seasoning (if you love Mexican food and you live in Europe, you'll understand) and lastly 4) Dove chocolate! Ah, she knows me too well :)

EDIT: The adorable red headband is actually from Kali, as well! Thanks Block! :)

Also in this package, I got the Sieverding family Christmas card, which I LOVED! So to Goose, Kali, and the Sieverdings, THANK YOU SO MUCH! These gifts are absolutely amazing and I am truly truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. I LOVE YOU all very much and I can't wait to see you again! 

I opened the letters second! One was from Donna Mueller (my Husker teammate, Tara Mueller's mom) and enclosed was their family Christmas letter. How amazing that she sent it all the way to me in Vienna! Awesome! The second letter was from my aunt Becky wishing me a Merry Christmas! She also sent me a few photos she had taken of me and some of my family members. Needless to say, the pictures and the cards are hanging in my kitchen for me to look at every day :)

Last, but certainly not least, I opened the package from my Dad and my brother! First thing I saw upon opening it was this...

Now, for those of you who can't quite see what the bottom present says (partly because it's upside down) here's a close up...

Oh my brother always knows how to make me smile. Also, he knows the way straight to my heart! He sent me three things. The first two being: 

Like I said, he knows the way straight to my heart :) Yeah we have a weird obsession with animated movies, I ain't ashamed to admit it. The last thing he sent me was....exactly what I asked Santa for! Good work brother! 

I've been doing my very best lately to become addicted to working out...so far, it's going pretty well. Anyways...BROTHER! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I honestly don't have enough words to describe how much I love you and how much you mean to me! You are seriously the best brother I could've ever asked for! Can't wait to see you again! I LOVE YOU! :)

Next up was the gifts from my Dad.

I opened the biggest present first (I'm still a kid at heart) and inside I find a sweet Under Armour sweatshirt! 

Awesome! AND it fits perfectly! Yay! Okay, so the next present was small...under the wrapping was a little box. I knew this was going to be awesome because I fell in love with the box before I even knew what was inside! 

Ahh! What's inside? Only the best present a girl could ever ask for from her dad...

I immediately felt tears running down my cheeks. Tears of joy because this made me feel so happy and special and because I love my dad so much. And, tears of sadness because I miss him every day. So Dad, obviously you're reading this, I love you so much. You are so special to me and I'm very lucky to have the best dad a girl could ever want. I miss you every day, and I can't wait to come home and see you again. 

What else did Dad and Eric send me? You guessed it....chocolate :) 

Yeah, it says "party bag" on it...oh boy...funny but, just today at practice, my teammate, Jenna Hagglund, and I agreed to stop eating so much chocolate. So much for that idea :)

To sum up...I have the best friends and the most amazing family I could ever dream of. I wish there were enough words in the English language to describe how much you mean to me and how much I love you. You are keeping the fire in my heart going strong. Sending all my love to you from Vienna. I am counting the days til I get to be with you again. I LOVE YOU!

Kayla

P.S. In the spirit of Christmas (in January) here is your "The Office" clip!

HOME

Yes, I've decided to split this up into several blogs because I've been doing a lot in the past two months. And there are three different time periods I could split it into: Guadalajara, Home, and Vienna.

So, here comes Part 2! HOME!

Team USA flew from Guadalajara to LAX on October 21st (I'm pretty sure). From there, I booked a flight that night to Lincoln. So, I collected my bags from the first flight and turned right around and checked into my next flight. OF COURSE, my first flight was delayed, causing me to miss my next flight. I seriously have the worst travel luck ever. So, because of these delays, I was stuck in Denver for the night and would catch a morning flight to Omaha. This is not the first time I've been stuck in Denver trying to get to NE (yeah I told you I have bad travel luck). So, I got to Lincoln on a Saturday, I believe. First thing on the list of things to do: a much-needed pedicure! Thanks to Mama B! I got one of the best pedicures of my life. I forget who it was but if you want to know ask her. I'm sure she remembers. Anyways, since my one of my suitcases got lost on the way to Omaha (again, worst travel luck ever), I didn't have any flip flops to put on so my toes got ruined right away. Haha, figures. After my pedicure I went and showered and headed to the Husker vb game with my mom and brother. They played Illinois and won in 4! They played great. I stayed and trained with the team on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (which might have made my year...like I seriously look forward to when I can get back and play with the Huskers in the Coliseum). And Wednesday after practice, I made the 6 hour drive home to Dubuque! I hadn't been home since April, and even then it was only for like a week or maybe less than that. I wanted to get home early during this break because I didn't know yet when I would be leaving for Vienna. I honestly thought I would have to be flying out the very next weekend. So, I wanted to make sure I got to spend half of my time off at home with the family. Well, it turns out that Austrians (particularly my club) might be the most unorganized people on Earth. Even after I told them I was ready to come out (I had gotten all the documents I needed) they didn't book my flight to Vienna til almost a month since I got back from Guadalajara. Which meant I could've spent more time in Lincoln training. Oh well, I wasn't complaining. I got to spend almost three weeks at home! And an amazing three weeks it was! I told myself I wasn't going to workout or do anything. I was just gonna relax because I'd been running myself into the ground for the past nine months. Literally, the last two or three months of my time in Cali I was working out at night on top of practicing and lifting during the day. Yeah, I kinda went crazy I guess. Anyways, I didn't workout at all when I was home. I hung out with my brother, my dad, and my mom... A LOT! And it was perfect. Most of the time it was just us relaxing. We went and got steaks at Kalmes' one night, mom and I went to Carlos O'Kelly's a lot (its my favorite)! Eric and I went and played vb a few times. Turns out he's pretty good (who would've thunk it). And, yes, he may or may not have, but definitely did, six pack me pretty hard. He had some heat behind it, too. I tried to play it off like it barely hurt and I'd had worse, but damn! He smoked me pretty good.

Speaking of volleyball, I had the chance to go to some of my high school games, something I'd never gotten to do before because I was always in the middle of my college season. I watched them qualify for state and went to one of their practices to give them a little pep talk. A great group of girls who had a great season!

I got to see all my relatives, too! Brunch with my aunts (my dad's sisters) and Grandma Banwarth was fun! We got to go twice and if you get them together it's always worth a good laugh or two...three :) I got to see my aunts and uncles on my mom's side, as well! Spent a lot of time at Mary's (you know Mary, she's in one of my earlier blogs) house in front of the fire! I got to meet Lauren's boyfriend Ian! He's definitely a keeper, Lauren :) Basically, I got to see everyone that I missed during the past 9 months of my life. INCLUDING....drumroll please.....ALICIA SIEVERDING AND KALI BLOCKLINGER! Two of my very best friends! I got to see them twice and catch up on everything with them and of course, all the drama :)

Basically, my time at home was the best I've had in a very long time. It felt good to be around love and family again. It was the perfect way for me to regain my sanity before I started my season in Vienna. 

Kayla

P.S. Eric got a pretty good kick out of this clip, hope you do too! 

P.P.S. I crossed off some of my 101 in 1001! 

27.               Make a wish at 11:11 on November 11^th, 2011.

84.               Go to Olive Garden.

California Love!

I will start off by warning you that this is a ridiculously long blog post. This past weekend was nothing short of amazing. My mom, my brother, and my best friend, Alicia Sieverding a.k.a. Goose, came out to visit me! The best part was that I had NO IDEA that my brother was coming! It was a complete surprise and was absolutely amazing! Anyways, I knew that we were gonna have some fun things to do but holy crap! We did everything and anything that you could possibly do in Cali. Everyone kind of had an idea of some things that they wanted to do while they were here and we did it ALL! And I managed to cross a few things off of my 101 in 1001 list, as well! So, CROSS OFF #97 OFF MY LIST! I got to have an entire weekend with Alicia Sieverding! We (and when I say we I mean Goose and Mom) took a ton of pictures! So this blog is going to consist of mostly photos of our fun activities!

They flew into LAX on Thursday and I picked them up around 2:30. From the airport we went straight to Hollywood Blvd. and did all the touristy things that you can do in LA.

We checked out the walk of fame saw some cool street dancers and went to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Also while in LA....

I CHECKED #80 OFF OF MY LIST! We went to the Hollywood Wax Museum!

And got to hang out with our favorite stars both at the museum and on Hollywood Blvd!

After the Wax Museum we went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and you know what that means...
CROSS #81 OFF OF MY LIST!
This museum had some amazing stories and some gross stories as you can probably tell from this next picture.

The last museum we went to that night was the Guinness Book of World Records Museum which was super cool because we found two AWESOME things here...

How cool right? Okay I know it's just an ice cream sandwich but what else does Dubuque ever get recognized for? Especially in Hollywood? Amazing and cool for Dubuquers! 

And we all knew that Karch was a big deal but it was super cool to see my coach in the record books! It just made me realize the level I have reached in my career! Sometimes you take for granted where you are so this was just really cool to see.

Friday morning I had practice for a couple hours and a lift afterwards so Mom, Goose, and Eric came and hung out at the gym for a little bit until I was done. After that we ate lunch at my apartment and then headed straight to Newport Beach. It was a perfectly beautiful day!

And they had one more surprise for me...SURFING LESSONS! That's right! CROSS OFF #3 OFF MY LIST!

After surfing we were on to the next activity which was Mom's idea. We rented out 4 jet skis for an hour! This was so much fun! The ocean waves were pretty harsh which made it even more fun because we just kept getting air off every wave we ran into! So much fun! We finished the day with a dinner at the Irvine Spectrum center with a friend, Liz, who lives out here in Irvine. And of course, while we were there we had to go shopping a little bit :)

Saturday we woke up early and headed to Long Beach. Why Long Beach? Well, this is where we had reservations to get on the CATALINA EXPRESS! Yes! I've always wanted to go to Catalina Island and now here was my chance! Okay so we missed the 10:00 boat so we walk around the Long Beach area for awhile, grabbed lunch, and then hopped on the 12:15 boat!

Once we got to Catalina we went straight to a bar called Luau Larry's! The famous drink at this bar was called the Wiki Whacker! And if you drink the Wiki Whacker then you get a straw hat!

Haha we all got hats :) After a quick drink we made arrangements to go para sailing!

I'll be honest I was nervous at first, but once we got up there, it was BREATHTAKING! Just gorgeous! After we went para sailng we went straight back to Luau Larry's...ha ha yeah we don't mess around. Well, we got one of the best seats in the house! We snagged a front booth with the most amazing view ever!

AAAaaannnd we ordered some more Wiki Whackers...okay so if you drink one, you get the hat, and if you drink two then you get a sticker, and then after that you just get monkeys....we got ourselves a few monkeys...

We sat at that booth all night! And then we made the rounds at a few other bars and clubs. Super fun! Needless to say, the next morning wasn't too fun...

And then we had to get on a boat to the mainland...it SUCKED. But a good sign that we had a great night :)
Sunday we headed to Manhattan Beach to check out the Manhattan Beach Open Volleyball Tournament! It was really cool and we got there just in time for the women's finals with the men's finals to follow! And we got great seats just to top it all off!

Okay to sum up:
#3. Go Surfing
#80. Go to the Wax Museum
#81. Go to Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum
#97. Spend a weekend with Alicia Sieverding

And lastly, I had an amazing weekend with three people I love very much! I miss you guys so much already and can't wait to see you again!

Kayla

P.S. Thanks to Mom and Goose for the pics!
P.P.S. Never would I ever forget a clip of "The Office"! Enjoy! (Dwight was put in charge of picking a new health care plan and had the staff write down the diseases they want covered)