Autumn Trail Mix

Sweet and salty is a terrific combination, especially with nuts and candy corn.  And what a better time to throw together a bowl of trail mix with this stuff than now!  Candy corn and nuts are just so addicting....

Here is most of what I remember that I threw in here:  candy corn, Cheerios, Recees Pieces, Cinnamon Crunch, pistacios, almonds, peanuts, seeds, raisins, popped, rice cakes, Wheat Thins, dried pineapple, granola

Making it homemade is better, in my opinion, than buying it premade, becuase you can proportion it to your specific tastes!

Pumpkin Spice Cream of Wheat

Ever heard of Cream of Wheat?  Many think that this is an old people, yucky food.  I disagree!  I love the creaminess and unlimited flavors you can create!  I make it often for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and even a side with dinner.

 

This one I made for a pre-church breakfast Sunday morning.  I use the whole wheat version that doesn't come with flavor already mixed in, so I can mix my own.  The liquid I use is Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, because it gives things like oatmeal and cream of wheat a slightly sweeter flavor while adding just the right amount of creaminess.  I added some canned pumpkin, vanilla extract, pie spice, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon, topping it off with some pumpkin seeds!

 

I try to find any creative way to use pumpkin that I can, especially during the fall and winter seasons!  It also has many health benefits!

 

2013 TSSAA Cross Country State Champions

Ever since Coach Farmer has been taking teams to the state meet, he has given each member of the team a stuffed animal that he or she has to personalize and carry everywhere!  This is my second year getting to be a part of this, and this year I was given a fox I named Foster.  He is wearing a Build-a-Bear Halloween costume!  If we leave our animals anywhere, no matter where we are, we must do push ups.  20 for the first offense, and it doubles each time after that.  I got up to 80 pushups on the day of the meet!  I left him in my room when I went down to breakfast.  However, Farmer let me (along with 3 others who forgot) do our pushups on the bus after we ate lunch.

This had been our goal since last season.  Last year we had some sickness and other things happen and we placed third, but we were determined to get that title this year.  We all had a great feeling going into and were ready to give it our all.  We had one senior on this team who has put in so much effort over the years.  We wanted to give it all for her, too.  And of course, I had always been saying that I felt God had great plans for us this season.  This season has had the best opportunities to witness that I have experienced.  My parents tell me many times, too, how people see and respect our actions so much.  I feel unexplainably blessed to be a part of this team and everything we've been through.  They are my best friends and sisters in Christ.  There is also no way that we could've made it without our amazing coach and supporting parents either.  We even had girls and parents from past teams drive all the way to Nashville to watch us!

We had to get in a goofy picture, too!  Even Farmer made a face. 

 

These shirts we got made for the weekend were designed by Haylea.  It's like the Covergirl saying, but Easy, Speedy, Beautiful, Runner Girl with the Runner Girl symbol on it!

People joked that the trophy weighs as much as I do.

When the final scores came out and we had blown everyone away, we all celebrated!  Coach Farmer was with us and we went off to a quiet spot to talk and pray.  We are so blessed to have a coach that prays with us.  There were tears, but they were tears of joy!

 

Jumping for Joy!

After leaving Percy Warner Park, Coach Farmer gave us a little more time at the mall!  (We had gotten just a short time to look around the previous night after dinner at an interesting Italinan resaurant called Buca di Beppo.  Build-a-Bear came out with the brand new Christmas items just the night before, so Chantal, Cherie, and I went to get some to celebrate!  Mine is kind of hidden, but I got a Merry Mint Pup with pj's and and little moose!

I rode home with my parents, so we stayed and shopped a while longer.  Then I wanted some post-race dessert!  Froyo is my favorite, but at the beach I discovered Cold Stone Creamery aka the best ice cream ever.  I don't know what they do that makes it so unique, but you MUST try it.  This day I got cheesecake, Oreo creme filling, cake batter, and marshmallow.  Talkin bout heaven in a cup...the texture is just unreal!

 

What an amazing way to start the long weekend

State Champions Run on Dunkin, Too

Last Monday was Hamblen County's Fall Break, so we had an extra day after this thrilling weekend!  Of course I wanted to get a run in, so Sunday afternoon, I called up Chantal and Cherie and asked if they wanted to meet at my house the next morning and do a run to Dunkin Donuts.  I'd started doing this last season with my dad, and the girls thought it was such a creative idea, so I have started asking them to join me every once and a while!  Katlyn comes some too, but this time she was at her mamaw's house.  We start at my house, since the girls live close enough to walk, and run to the highway, through downtown and past the churches, and past some houses and lovely scenery this time of year, and finish at the store across the railroad on Morris Blvd!  My mom is usually the one to pick us up from there.

I decided to try something new, and get a wheat bagel with cream cheese.  I also added jelly and honey I brought just in case.  Since I am signed up for their emails and rewards, I get lots of coupons, so today I used my free medium birthday drink to get my coffee!  From my iPhone app, I got mom a free cappuccino.  Chantal and Cherie got manager's special cream filled and donuts.  This was a fun and yummy way to start the day!

XC Halloween Party

I know it is a little late for this, but I have been insanely busy.  I still am, but I am trying to find some time to share.  Our cross country team had a Halloween party the Friday after the region meet.  Our parties always have themes, and this year it was super heroes.  The food theme was soup to match super!

This cutie is Jessica, and we are the Mighty Mites.  We also had to have a background story, so Jess made up a hilarious one! 

One day there were two mites on a farm.  Then a Farmer came and fed us Raymond noodles with a side of Burnt Toast.  That's how we got our powers.

**Our coach's name is Raymond Farmer, and one of the guys who graduated last year who assists him is named Berto, sometimes called Burnt Toast.  One summer run, Farmer paired Jessica and me up on a run and called us the Mighty Mites, and it stuck!

We may be the smallest on the team, but we are mighty!

We matched all the way from the ribbons and makeup to the socks!

More Verses Coming Together

Yesterday, I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't find a great verse for me this week that I wanted to share at Bible Study with the team.  But have no fear!  Jesus always answers my prayers in one way or another.  So I had prayed for Him to lead me to some great scriptures.  Looking through the verses I had found in my reading the past couple days, I read one of them again and had the Yes! excited thought go through my head. 

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."  Proverbs 16:9

This goes right along with the song Strangely Dim by Francesca Battestelli.  This is the part of the song that I thought applies to my life, especially now as things are so busy: 

"I've had all these plans piled up sky high, a thousand dreams on hold, and I don't know why...

...But when I fix my eyes on all that You are, then every doubt I feel deep in my heart grows strangely dim

All my worries fade and fall to the ground

cuz when I seek Your face and don't look around, any place I'm in grows strangely dim"

I love to make plans of things I want to do, but no matter how hard I try, God's plans overrule mine.

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  Psalm 139:16

Just knowing this gives me peace because I know as long as I do my best, God will "make all things work together for the good."  Romans 8:28.  Whenever I start to get nervous or stressed out, I just try to remember that I really have very little contril.  When I feel overwhelmed with obligations and work to do, and I don't get everything done that I feel I need to, and I don't get to do things that I want, there is no reason to be worried or disappointed, because there is a reason that it didn't work out.  Something I know I always have to focus on improving is following Hebrews 13:5 "Be content with what you have, becuase God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"

When I fail, but look to Christ, He is exalted.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness...For when I (my human self) am weak, then I am strong."  2 Corinthians 12:9-10.

With God in my heart, I have all I need.  I don't need victory, good grades, people's attention, pretty clothes, money, or other silly things I worry about accomplishing.  By setting my sights completely on serving God, I am filled with joy that I can never bring myself.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  Proverbs 37:4

Putting my Birthday Presents to Good Use

Coming back from my birthday weekend, I made great uses of some of my new birthday gifts!  I wore one of the outfits my mom got me, too.

My friends know me so well!  It's such a blessing to get to spend time with my favorite girls so often.  It's a good thing we love each other because we see each other multiple times a day on average 6 days a week.

Azalia got me the Starbucks coffee mug, which I am in love with.  It has a removable outer covering so I can decorate it any way I want.  So now I can have a coffee cup for any and every situation!  I have already come up with endless ideas that I can't wait to get going on!  This week, I put a verse on one side that says:  "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  Psalm 37:4.  Around the other sides and back I put a Build-a-Bear jack-o-lantern sticker along with some Peanuts Halloween stickers, a Snoopy and Charlie Thanksgiving picture, and a Life is Good Moose.

The Clif Bar is from one of my most thoughtful friends ever, Katlyn.  She pays so much attention to what people truly love.  She knows I love anything and everything pumpkin, so she got me a Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar.  This thing was fantastic!  I also have inside my coffee mug another gift from Katlyn:  Pumpkin Spice coffee!  Katlyn also has chickens, so she brings me eggs.  I had one of those with my breakfast!

Katlyn was the one to introduce me to this cute little grocery store called The Fresh Market.  It is kind of a fancy store, but I just love the atmosphere.  They have a huge area of all kinds of foods that you can portion out for yourself.  These items include candy, chocolate, nuts, grains, trail mixes, and bookoos of coffee flavors, just to name a few.  We have one of these stores in Knoxville.

Here, above and below are a couple pictures of the seasonal greatness that Clif Bar has produced.