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I think we had a really good season. A lot of people picked us to be last in the Western Conference and to not even make the 2008 WNBA Playoffs, and I think us finishing fourth and making the playoffs just shows the character of our team. It shows that we prevailed through the adversity of having several injuries, losing players, etc. For us to keep fighting all year, make the playoffs, and put up a good fight in the playoffs showed how resilient we are and how close-knit this team is; that we were willing to keep fighting for each other. That’s what everybody did – we just played for each other, from the beginning to the end. A lot of times we felt that we were the only ones who believed in us, but that’s what we rode for the entire season. I’m definitely not happy about it ending as early as it did, but I’m happy with what we built here as a team and as an organization.

It was tough to lose in Game Three [of the Western Conference Semifinals] the other day because we fought so hard and we felt like we’d played a good game. There were a few bounces that didn’t go our way, but I think all-in-all, especially once we’ve had more time to get the emotion out of it, I think we played a good game and did things well. Of course, there are things we could have done better, but you always have that in every game. I think, again, it showed how resilient our team is to keep fighting. On paper, San Antonio is the best team in the league and we took them to overtime [in Game Three] and gave them a lot more than what they probably wanted to deal with. So I think that we’re proud of how we played and our fight from beginning to end. It’s tough to lose a game like that when you feel like you’ve fought so hard and you feel like you deserve it so much. But again, once we’ve had some time to get the emotion out of it, I think we’ll be proud of how we played.

Now, I’m packing up and leaving to go to Louisiana to visit with my in-laws and then we’re going to Georgia to take care of some things at our house. I might not do that though; I may just rest and let my husband do that! Then I’ll be shipping out to play in Naples, Italy, for a team called Napoli. I’m not sure exactly when they want me over there, because I still have to get my visa! I may be making a few trips all around the world because the consul in the jurisdiction of Louisiana is in Houston, so I may have to fly back and forth from there, and then go to Italy. There are a few things up in the air right now so I’m just going to try to get some rest.

There were some other teams that were interested in me but it is freezing in Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia... I did not want to go to any of those places! I told my agent that I preferred Spain or Italy, and that’s why everything is so last minute – I told them that I was willing to hold out until I could get somewhere I wanted to be, especially since this really is my first time playing in Europe and also the first time for my husband and daughter to leave the country. I wanted it to be a good experience for them in a place that they would enjoy and have a good time. My daughter has bounced around so much, I just didn’t want to take her somewhere where it’s freezing cold and she couldn’t go outside to play. Anyone who’s ever met her knows that she has loads of energy and she needs to be able to let that out and be a kid. I just want to make sure I was somewhere where the weather is nice enough for us to be able to do that. From what I hear, Naples is a beautiful city, so I’m really looking forward to it.

I have the web link to an English-Italian school that Napoli gave me. There’s a military base there too, so I could send her to an American school if I wanted to, but I figure why not let her get exposed to some culture. I’m going to send her to the English-Italian school where they speak both languages. They said it shouldn’t be a problem to get her in so I’m going to get on the website and check it out.

I’m looking forward to Italy because everyone says it’s so beautiful. Naples is on the water, which is something I love. I’m from Miami! But I haven’t been around the water in a long time – being in Louisiana, and here – so I’m looking forward to being around it again. I’m looking forward to a new environment and a new experience.

Ticha Penicheiro also will be in Italy – in Milan – and I have one of my old college teammates who will be in Italy, Doneeka Hodges, so I’ll get to see her. There will be a couple of familiar faces.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you who have kept up with my blog and responded to what I’ve had to say. I’ve enjoyed doing these blogs because I get to show another side of me other than the basketball me and I feel as if I’ve had a chance to express some things about motherhood and give some people some insight about questions that they have, like “She’s married and has a child and she does what for a living?” I think that was kind of fun! I enjoyed being able to give some insight into what people may think is a secluded world – being a professional athlete – and also letting people know that I’m human too! It’s always good to keep close that reminder—we’re not superhuman, by any means. I’m happy if anybody got anything from my blog, even if it was just one little bit of encouragement or connection. That means a lot to me, so thank you!

Aishida has started kindergarten and she likes it, but I didn’t expect anything else. You could throw her in the middle of the ocean and she’d be fine! She adapts really well to any situation, she’s having fun and she likes her teacher. She comes home every day excited about what she did in school and she says things like, “We wrote our numbers, we drew a tree with numbers,” and all that kind of stuff, so she’s having fun.

She wasn't really ever with me during the day before she started school because I’m usually at practice so my schedule hasn't changed - my husband is the one that gets the break for those three hours. She goes for half-days, from about 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. This is the first school that I looked into that has full days but it was full by the time I found it; it’s a brand-new school so it filled up really quickly for full days. Anyway, Frederick is really the one that’s getting that time off that he’s usually home with her. He’s the one that’s getting that break right now, because I’m always practicing!

In August, we had a week off from work leading into our break for the Olympics (July 28 - Aug. 25). No practices, no games, no lifting, NOTHING! And what did I do? I took care of errands. Also, we visited Frederick’s family in Bastrop which was nice. Really I just relaxed, because I was having some stiffness in my neck, so I was just trying to recover. We went to Georgia to take care of some things at our house there, then back to Louisiana and came back here. My days disappeared really, and we didn’t do anything that fun.

Our practices during the break have been very different from the rest of our practices during the season. We have more time to focus on getting better as a team as far as our systems go, and not worry so much about preparing for specific teams. We really get to work on the pieces of what we do, like our defense and our offense. We try to clean up things that we’ve had problems with or that we’ve struggled with. We use this time to fix those things up.

I’m thinking about playing overseas this off-season so Frederick and Aishida are going to come with me if I decide to go. But we don’t know. I definitely want to try it out. It’s difficult for me to find a place to go overseas right now because they have to come with me – I’m just not willing to leave my family for that long – and I want to go somewhere where there is an English-speaking school for Aishida to go to. It’s not just what country will pay the most for me to play for them, but it’s those other things too. Frederick wants to get into strength training for athletes, so he’s been taking this summer to study for the certification test. He’s really looking forward to passing that test and possibly doing that over there, but if not, he has his teaching to fall back on.

Frederick has been everything for me to be able to get where I am. When I got pregnant, Frederick made it a point to make sure that I was just like every other athlete. I didn’t wash clothes, I didn’t wash dishes, I didn’t cook, I didn’t clean—he did it all! I tell everybody that I’m spoiled rotten, to this day; I don’t think I washed clothes for five years before I came to Sacramento! He did all that stuff because he really wanted to make sure I had a “normal” – so to speak – experience as a student-athlete. He was just really huge in my success, in being super dad, or, “Mr. Mom,” as my mom nicknamed him. He changed more diapers than I did, especially after I went back to playing basketball. Initially I did some of it, but he took the brunt of it—taking a little infant to games when I went back to playing, changing diapers in the middle of games, things like that. He’s a huge, huge part of why I am where I am today. After I had Aishida, Frederick is the one that worked me out, pushed me and never let me give up on getting back into shape. I was that player that was really used to being in super good shape, I never knew what it was like to be out of shape. I always went 1000 miles-per-hour so I never knew what it was like, but when I came back after I had her, it was a struggle! It was hard because I had never been in that place where I had to push through being tired. So he was my rock, he really was the reason that I’ve gotten to where I am today.

I played my freshman year which was 2001-2002, then found out I was pregnant that summer so I sat out what would have been my sophomore year, 2002-2003. Then I came back in 2003-2004 and played the three years I had left.

I started playing basketball in the sixth grade. Before I played any organized sports, I participated in field day during elementary school and I’d beat all the boys in races all the time. That sparked everybody’s attention, they were like, “Okay, that’s a pretty fast little girl!” So I ran track when I got to middle school and my track coach was really good friends with the girls’ basketball coach. After track season was over, I would hang out at school and wait on my mom to get off work and come pick me up because she usually didn’t get there until 5:30, so my track coach asked, “Why don’t you just play basketball? You could stay in shape for track and it would give you something to do.” So I decided to try it.

I never considered myself to be a good basketball player, I was just super athletic and fast, so I could beat everybody to the easiest shot on the court – a layup! That made me good because I was really athletic and I could get to a layup really quickly before anybody could do anything to stop me. Then, I started to grow more of a love for it throughout playing in middle school and in eighth grade, I had a choice to make—in my city, there was one high school that was known for girls’ track and always competed at the state tournament, and then there was a school that was great in girls’ basketball and always competed at states. At each school, the opposite sport was terrible. So coming out of eighth grade, I had to choose which sport I wanted to focus on. I ended up choosing to play basketball; I thought that it would be easier for me to play basketball on a really good team and compete, then just run track and do my individual events. So I did that and ran track for a few years but then I gave it up because my basketball coach was really concerned that I would tear my knee up while I was doing the triple jump; I had no teaching in that event, I was just out there being athletic. So I ended up giving up track my sophomore year and focusing completely on basketball.

I got recruited to Louisiana State and that’s where I played basketball for four years and during that time, after my freshman year, is when I got married and had my daughter. My husband and I have been married six years now, we just had our anniversary.