Almost Showtime!

What an absolutely beautiful day…finally some clear and sunny weather! I actually had to dig through my golf bag today to find my sunscreen; it’s been awhile since I’ve needed it! Tomorrow is the first round of the Teva Championship out at King’s Island! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rain will stay away. I have a 9:20 am starting time tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll finish before any bad weather comes in!
This week is ultra special because my husband drove up from Charlotte, NC to caddie for me! He is always so positive and energetic! I always have so much more fun when he caddies, so I know I will have an awesome day tomorrow no matter how I play! Here is a picture that was taken of us last summer at the LPGA Corning Classic!




After a quick stop for some pancakes at Bob Evans this morning, I practiced a little and then played about 12 holes just to see a few holes before tomorrow! It was a pretty relaxing day and I even played with my long-time friend Virada “Oui” Nirapathpongporn! We actually went to high school together and were roommates at the IMG David Leadbetter Sports Academy in Bradenton, FL! I spent my sophomore, junior, and senior year at the Academy before graduating and moving on to play at the University of Texas. Oui and I had a lot of fun today laughing about some of the funny things we remembered from our high school days! Its crazy to think about how much time has already passed! She is from Bangkok, Thailand and I think she told me once that her last name in Thai means “Family of Good Health?” I wish my last name meant something significant like that! The only thing I could find on Swenson was that it is “one of the oldest of all recorded surnames, pre-dating to 1086, descending from Scandinavia, and is one of the earliest settlers name in America.” Only semi-interesting, I guess!
Anyway, I’m excited about tomorrow, as the course is in incredible shape! I know if I just stay patient with myself and just stay focused on the process, then I can post a really good number! As for now, I think I will watch the 2 episodes of “Tory and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood” that I TiVo'd this morning, then off to bed! I can't wait for my toasted cinnamon-raisin english muffin in the morning to start off my day! (Thomas' "nooks and crannies" of course!)

Cincinnati- Wedding Dress Heaven!!!

I am so excited to finally get back to Cincinnati! I have an awesome host family here whom I have stayed with for the past 3 years, so it is always nice to come back to visit friends! Coming back this week really brought back some fun memories from last year while we were here playing in last years Duramed Championship out at King’s Island! At this time last year, I was planning my wedding which took place this past November and I was a little frantic trying to find my wedding dress while I was traveling full time on tour! We don’t go to many big cities (mainly smaller towns) and therefore I wasn’t having much luck finding many bridal stores. Therefore, I was completely shocked to find out that Cincinnati has the “largest bridal district in all of North America!” How lucky am I! Supposedly, even Julia Roberts took a special trip to this bridal mecca to find her wedding dress (if only I could have had her budget!) If you can only imagine, I spent almost every free minute I had away from the golf course plunging through every bridal store as quickly as possible! After seeing about 100 dresses, I found “the dress!” Here is a picture of me in my dress, dancing with my niece!



Thank you, Cincinnati, for being bridal gown heaven! Not sure what I would have done otherwise!

Also, thinking back to last year…I was lucky enough to house here with last years Champions, Whitney Wade! Unfortunately, she couldn’t come back this year to defend her title, bc ironically she was asked to the maid of honor in her best friends wedding, which is this Saturday! Last year, we had a superstition that we needed to bake brownies everynight, because after the first night’s batch Whitney played awesome! So, it became a ritual! We both felt a little sick by the end of the week, but it was all worth it! Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to make my scores any lower, so this year I think I’ll stay away from the sugar! We miss you already, Whit!!!!

Anyway, to get back on subject…we really lucked out on the weather today! It rained a little bit for the morning pro-am, but lucky for me I was at the Mason Community Center sweating off some calories on the elliptical! I guess the community center is under some major construction because it took me awhile to figure out how to just get in the front door! I saw a bunch of other Futures Tour girls working out over there! The gym regulars probably weren’t sure what was going on??? There was a surge of 25 year-old, blondes taking over the gym with our ipods, People Magazines, and Blackberry phones!
The practice round was great! The front nine moved a little slow, but I played with my best friend and University of Texas teammate, Janice Olivencia. We had a few long waits in between holes, but we found entertainment in looking at a few funny YouTube videos on our phones. One of them, I saw on “Ellen” called “unicorn after wisdom teeth.” I was laughing pretty hard! Check it out!