September 19, 2026

12:00 p.m. CST

Good morning!!! It’s women’s doubles day! ☀️

Woke up ready to go today after a great night’s sleep.

First time partnering with Amber today, but honestly, it feels like we’ve played together before. We’re good friends, so the chemistry is already there, and her game style fits really well with mine. They don’t call her Amber the Slamb(er) for no reason. 😂🔥

We had a tough first round and started the match by losing the first game. But toward the end of that game, we started finding our groove and figuring out the spots and patterns that were working for us.

Sometimes you can lose a game but still feel like you’re doing the right things and getting the right setups. In those moments, you just have to trust it and keep going until things start going your way.

We both stuck with it and rolled through the second game. I realized pretty quickly that my job was to be sneaky and let Amber bring the chaos. 😂 That’s when she thrives, so I made sure I gave her as many opportunities as possible to do her thing.

We got a little lucky with some net cords too, but hey… that’s part of the game!

Got the win and we’re on to the quarters next. 💪🏽

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Friday, September 17, 2026

7:30 p.m. CST

Welp, we went 0-2 today… 🥲 It had been a while since my last 0-2 day, and of course it had to happen at the tournament where I’m doing the blog 😂. But it definitely happens, and honestly, probably more often than you think to a lot of us. Unfortunately, you don’t get to pick when those days come.

Our second match was way better, though. I felt more like myself and actually enjoyed being out there. Obviously, nobody likes losing, but at least I felt much better on the court than I did this morning.

That being said, once I finished, I was READY to get out of there. All I could think about was going home… but the hubby was still battling in the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, they came up short in the third game, so we both headed back to the Airbnb, took a shower, and decided to do our best to take our minds off the day.

Tbh, it’s never easy staying at the venue to watch after you’ve had a bad day, so we decided to fully embrace couch potato mode, order some Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and support my friends through the livestream. Welp… I did my part. Poor B got knocked out. 😂

We picked up the girls at the venue after the semis and went straight to dinner. We were ALL hangry, and poor Brandon had to deal with three hangry women at once. 😂

We went for Korean BBQ, which we’ve probably had at least 10 times this month, but it’s just SO good. You do leave smelling like a bonfire afterwards, but honestly… still worth it. 😂

And you already know what happened when we got home: attempt #2 at finishing Austin Powers. Hopefully I’ll understand a little more this time 😂 and, ideally, not fall asleep before 8 p.m. Although… it’s not looking promising.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I’m excited for women’s doubles with Slamber Amber! 💪🏼

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9:54 a.m. CST

First match of the day definitely did not go the way we wanted. I felt pretty off on the court — weak mentally, low energy, and like I couldn’t really get myself to focus. I could definitely feel all the weeks on the road catching up with me, and honestly, I just played like sh*t.

Sometimes you show up, you don’t have it, and you lose first round. It sucks, but that’s part of it.

I let it all out after the match and talked to my friend Zack about how rough I felt out there. He reminded me that we’re lucky enough to do this for a living, and that I still had another shot in the backdraw.

So I’m trying to stick with that mindset. Reset, show up better, and give my partner a better version of me in the next one.

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5:34 a.m. CST

After some touches yesterday and a few rec games at the venue with Drake, we were ready to get out of there. Getting as much time on the court as possible before play is super important, especially since it’s a different court surface than we’re used to, so we can get a feel for it.

We were on our way out when the arcade called our names… so obviously we had to play some games 😂 We lost all of our money to some pretty questionable claw machines, but at least we had a good laugh.

We drove back to the Airbnb we’re staying at, which is less than 10 minutes from the venue, showered, and made the group decision to get Mexican for dinner. I LOVE Mexican food and hadn’t had it in a while, so it sounded perfect. We found this little local spot that was actually really good, I demolished some tacos, and we sat around chatting at the table for a while.

When we finished, it was still pretty early, so B and Kat decided we should watch this movie they’ve really been wanting me and Domi to watch because they said it was so funny and such a classic… "Dr. Evil."

Not going to lie, Domi and I were SO lost. 😂 European humor must be very different because we were sitting there barely understanding what was going on while Brandon and Kat were literally reciting every sentence and dying laughing. Honestly, that was probably the funniest part for us.

I think we made it about 45 minutes into the movie before we all passed out on the couch 😂

I’ve been up since 5 a.m. this morning, which actually kind of works out perfectly for our 8 a.m. start time for mixed. Since Domi and Kat were already up, I missed breakfast hour, so unfortunately I had to make my own breakfast haha. Eggs it is, along with at least two cups of coffee lol.

We got ready and headed to the venue to warm up. We always try to get there about an hour before we start playing to get the body going, get some movement in, and get a few practice games in before the real thing.

Let’s get the day started. 💪🏽

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Thursday, September 17, 2026

12:38 p.m. CST

We landed in Kansas two days ago! We came from Vietnam after playing D-Joy, it was 30 hours of travel, it was insane! We did Vietnam to Korea, Korea to Chicago, and then here. We made sure that we got in a little bit earlier because the jet lag has been pretty brutal. I've been going to bed at like 7 p.m. and waking up at 3 a.m. Today I slept a little bit longer, to 6 a.m. but not that big of a deal because I usually don't play singles.

I had a back injury two years ago, and since then I stopped playing singles. Honestly, especially this week, I don't really care that much! I generally don't care that much, but it's a good extra day of rest. So I'm on camera duty! I travel with Brandon and Kat and Domi. We've been together for the past eight weeks of this craziness of touring, and I'm on camera duty and mom duty. That's what they call me! So anything that they need, I'm around for. I'll take pictures of them, and then when my mixed partner gets done playing, he's in the backdraw, I'm playing with Drake this week, I'll get some practice in. Then I'll pick up Brandon and go get some dinner.

We did a year of travel in a van, Brandon and I, when we started playing pickleball. That's how we drove through Kansas, aside from that this is my first time here, the weather is nice! The venue is pretty cool, AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk, I'll definitely be playing some arcade games or something later today!

This week I need to try and stay mentally locked in. I'm playing with Amber, who is a first-time partnership for me this tournament. Drake is a second-time partnership. I feel like we've been on the road for so long that you kind of start feeling a little bit burnt out. So I just want to make sure that I'm giving my partners 100% even though I've been on the road for a lot longer than they have.

I feel like sometimes when we're traveling so much, first of all, it's really nice to be with a group because if it was just me and Brandon, we would probably be going crazy. But traveling with Domi and Kat, especially for me, makes a big difference because we're really good friends, and I feel like when we are all just tired, we like to go to do random things. Kat is into escape rooms, so we do that sometimes. Yesterday, we were driving to get coffee, and we saw this place that said, "coffee and ceramics." And we're like, "Oh, this looks interesting!" So we went in there, and it was like a place where they made the pottery, and you get to pick whatever you want and then paint it, and it was actually pretty cute. We realized who's artsy and who's not in the group. I'm not gonna say any names, but I'll post my pictures! It was fun. It's just really good for all of us to get our minds off and do something that's not pickleball-related at all. And painting was actually like pretty calming and nice. I think it's something that I might take on and do another time.

So just staying locked in and and giving my best for the last push of this long travel is my goal for the week.