October, aka the Busiest Month of the Year

So as you can see, I am very behind on sharing things.  Life is crazy!

At least I can say that I never really get bored.  October begins all the holiday festivites, leading into my favortie three months of the whole year.  There are three major holidays, super smells and foods, cross country season is really getting down to the good stuff, and there is just so much to do.  It's also the month of my birthday!  Here's some stuff that filled my October.

Our cross country team always has a Halloween party with a dress-up theme and games.  This year's theme was old people, and we had some great participation!

Here at my dinner table, we made old granny faces as our pose for this photo!  We love this party for the fun costumes, but also for the food!  We do chili and soup buffet, which are my favorite!  We were all so excited for what everyone would bring to eat.

Old folks cause trouble, too.

Katlyn, one of my funniest friends, just by her natural self, made a big saggy butt!

One of my life long best friends parents own our TCBY, and they just opened up a new store, that is fancy and includes self serve.  The night before it opened, they had an exclusive "party" and we got all the free frozen yogurt we wanted!  My friend Britt and I were super pumped.  I am glad I found someone almost as excited about frozen yogurt as I am.  We just kept going back to refill our cups!

The day before the region meet, we had a shorter run, so Cherie took her phone and we took some goofy selfies.  This was my favorite!

As I say, there are a few comics that relate to my life so well!  Mutts is one of them, and this is one of their days that was "Johnny on the spot!"  (As my mom likes to say)  I eat pumpkin all the time, in many ways.

The region meet comes with tradition.  Our race is around 1:40 each year, so we get to miss school.  Coach Farmer takes us to a nearby park, and we have a picnic lunch and hang out for a little while before heading to the race.

One of my teammates, who knows my love for Peanuts and obviously running sent me this that day!

At the region meet, our boys team wanted to qualify for state so badly, but came up short. It has been a long time since they have qualified, but this year they were really set on that goal, and I am still very proud of how they came together like brothers for support through thick and thin this year.

This girl is just a freshman, but I believe that she will be a top runner in our state very soon!  She really looked up to me at meets this season, and she wanted a picture together this day. She qualified for state, and I enjoyed getting to talk to her and answer her questions and give her some advice. 

Adam is just a beast. I'm glad we've gotten to be champs at several meets these past couple years.  We have done lots of record setting, including this day! He has recently committed to run for Georgetown!  I'm blessed to know several of the country's top runners came out of East Tennessee. 

So I like purple and this outfit. Now, earrings, bracelt, shorts, shirt letters, socks...purple. 

I was the only one in the parking lot at the park before practice one nasty rainy day, so I sent mom and dad this picture saying that "I'm ready to run with all my friends."

October 14th is one of my close friend and teammate's birthday, Emily, but also the birthday of my favorite professional runner, Ryan Hall!  I tweeted him and was surprised to get a favorite from him!

During homecoming week at school, we had book character day. Can you guess who I am?  Junie B. Jones the party animal!  Matching the book cover perfectly!

Pancakes...ah my favorite breakfast food when I need a hearty one. This was after a super long run one Saturday morning. Almond butter banana with almond butter banana honey glaze. Pumpkin seeds add a nice touch, too. 

New drink!  I had heard that pomegranate is good for muscle recovery, but I had only eaten one in my life. After I found this at the grocery stairs, I decided to save it for after a race, and I drank it down after region. Yum!

Back to Back State Champions

It's the end of October, heading into November and all high school cross country runners know what that means:  Championship time. State meets start being held every weekend and people prepare for the post season. This comes with tradition and new adventures. For my team, a tradition is the state week animals. 

Farmer and I both got the idea to put Halloween build-a-bear clothes on ours!  He and Coach Owens picked out a pig for me because, like pigs, I eat a lot, yet I'm picky about what I eat. 

I was so excited about this cutie that I went home and had a photo shoot with him before all the leaves were gone.
He can climb trees...

He can spy on me!

He can play in the leaves with me, too.

Hey, he can even be my dinner. Shh!  Don't tell him that!

We also get team shirts made for the big day, and this year the colors were green and purple, which convieniently matched a pair of socks that I got for my birthday!  

The Friday morning that we were to head out after first block classes was a but chilly, but I had to get in the purple again.

Ready to load the bus!

After traveling to Nashville, we had dinner, then went to the mall for around an hour. Christmas was just getting started, but I enjoyed getting to look at the early stuff that was out. Calendars of my favorite dogs make my heart melt.

So does build-a-bear. It brings back old memories and makes me feel happy inside!  These are adorable miniature pajamas.

I love all the seasonal stuff more than any other time, so I had to go in the store an shop. This is what I finally decided on buying.

Farmer stuck his animal's butt up in the window of the bus...lovely.

So the race wasn't my best, but I have learned many lessons this season. God will humble you when you take your eyes off of Him too often. It is painful to come down off of mountains, especially when you are expecting so much success, but it is good to know that God wants my devotion so much. I am working at lowering myself, but it is a struggle. Satan works hard, too!

However, another aspect of humility is not only putting myself lower, but making God first and foremost then others higher. I am a member of a back to back state championship team and teammates with some of the top runners in the state!  More than that, we have a spiritual relationship with God and each other that I could not live without!  I am blessed to be able to go through every race with them there to encourage me and talk through the struggles of it in our "therapy sessions."

Cross country is also an amazing opportunity to make new friends with other fantastic people!  I love seeing them and keeping up with them across MileSplit. This is our twin picture after all-state pictures with me, the shortie, stick in the middle!

State champions yet again...💜