My Last Back to High School-August is Gone Already?

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I know it's not the start of school anymore, or the end of August, but October is already here!  That shows you what school does to me.  There is little free time to do this, but I upload pictures to add details to later!

Dual-enrollment is a blessing in SO many ways. I don't have to put up with the morning traffic. Our road situation around school is chaos as it is, but the beginning of school is so many times worse. This line of cars extended nearly a mile. That is not an exaggeration; I've run it with my gps watch.

Mom moved around her office to a new position, and it had her staying out super late the first couple weeks leaving Dad and me on our own for dinner. I really enjoyed cooking for myself a lot though! This meal here is sweet potato with the sweet spices, peas, beets, chia seeds, and fish on top with some seasonings.
I have also been eating tons of hamburgers this year!  Mom likes huge white buns, but I like wheat and just enough to cover the size of the patty, so I usually just use bread.  My burger trimmings: spinach, pickles, ketchup, mustard, sliced beets, red pepper flakes, jalapenos, onion, chili powder are pictured on this one, but I also use other things when we have them on hand.  Those include tomato, collard greens, tater tots when mom makes them, and many other things I can get creative with!

Back to school means I get to create binder covers and stuff!  I love having the opportunities to express myself!  These are some of my favorite pictures of quotes, thoughts, and fun times from the summer and two verses that I had recently found especially encouraging.

As seniors, we go back and forth from the typical "senioritis" outfits of tshirts and sweats when we aren't feeling it, but we get the urge to dress up sometimes, too.  We didn't plan to all three be dressy this day, but since we did, and we're seniors, we had to commemorate it.  We are determined to make this the best year yet.  In my opinion, it's a success so far.  I love this picture of my two best friends and me, but I love them and their friendship more.

I'm not a big selfie-snapper, but I have taken some lately, again to help me commemorate!  Mom also never gets to see me until I get home after cross country, so she enjoys it when I send her pictures during the day.  I also enjoy color coordination, ya know!  Especially my green and purple up there, all the way to the eye shadow.

The first couple weeks, they don't have everything together at school (But do they ever?), so peer tutors get pushed to the backburner.  I'm okay with that though; it gave me more time to work before class started!  Katlyn and I both have peer tutoring and dual enrollment, so we got to hang out in the library until our classes got assigned. 

I love how The Feed has so many deals!  Their marketing ideas really work on me.  When there is something free, it encourages me to buy something.  You don't always have to make a purchase to get their free stuff, but I usually do anyways.  Mom is also more willing to buy things online when I have special promotions.

The photo on the right features some of my recent purchases, the favorites being the waffle and wafels!   What I like about them:  taste, (obviously); fancy brands (I love exploring new things); originally from a different country? (cool); "slopeside" (skiing is my hobby); can you really go wrong with dark chocolate, maple, or a waffle?  (NO)

 

Everything on the right cost me $0.00.  Yep.  A Camelbak, Bonk Breaker Chews, and two bars all for zero dollars.  If I had bought these in a store somewhere, the free stuff would have been more than the items I paid for here.

I love being on the yearbook staff.  It gives me even more chances to prepare for my future, be involved with the school and community, and be around people and things that I love.

Here are some things that could fall into the #KenziesCreations category.

As the caption says, "homemade 'ice cream'" that I blend up from various combinations of protein powders, milk cubes, pudding, yogurt, fruit to pack an extra punch to my desserts

A new fresh fruit I decided to try-papaya.  I had no idea they looked like this.  Tip:  don't eat the peel.  It is disgusting!

Remember my post about my cross country girls all being beans?  Well, I love beans.  Double entendre intended.  Twice.  I also eat beans on a daily basis.

There's another bowl with some things I love to eat.  More beans!  Boiled cabbage has also been added to my list of favorites.

On the right is actually not a homemade meal, but from Akita!  Shrimp, chicken, broccoli, Sriracha, and some hot sauce that accidentally lit my mouth on fire.  If I say it's hot, you know it's hot.

 
I've tried many new food items during this time, but these are the only two that I had uploaded pictures for, so I'll share them!  Edy's is one of my top grocery store ice cream brands, and I recently decided to give French Silk a try!  It has a great chocolate and kinda-coffee flavor, as well as vanilla, and dark chocolate chunks!
Target is where I found the 18 Rabbits granola.  The brand is cute and healthy, and especially tasty!  Another reason I like it-they do good.  Every purchase helps feed hungry children.

 

 

 

Cracker Barrel is a great place to shop for holiday and unique gifts!  They got the fall stuff out just in time for my traveling to start, so luckily I'll get to browse the store more often.  Snoopy had a section on the shelves, too!

They also have lots of coffee mugs, and these caught my eye, immediately followed by my heart...and a few dollars!  I was actually super surprised that the Halloween mugs were so cheap, so I couldn't pass it up.  I also didn't have any Halloween mugs yet, so it was a great purchase in my opinion.  I got the Frankenstein monster!

We usually go to El Sazon for all of our family meals out now, but occasionally we do Cracker Barrel, too!

When we went to Waterville for our team picnic, I accidentally wore the exact same outfit that I wore a couple years ago.  I staged the picture on the right, though, so I could laugh at myself.  That's what happens when you're me!  You never grow out of your clothes!

(Yes I am aware that I am wearing half tights this year, but I was wearing the short pink spandex before I changed into drier clothes.)

My mom loves Chick-fil-a's new frosted lemonades, so I took her one to work one day!  Since she had been staying so late working hard with basically no time to even snack, I felt that was not good, and brought her a treat...and a glimpse of me to brighten her day!  Haha..I also sent her this picture one morning hoping that she would smile a little more.

What a wonderful flavor coordination for National Potato Day!  Sweet potato cranberry cookies, sweet potato cereal, sweet potato oatmeal raisin cookies, and a real sweet potato, of course!

 Simple cookies and ice cream (or frozen yogurt or pudding) are a great combination for a protein dessert after a long day!  Especially if it's a Lenny and Larry's cookie.

 

My Panther Creek races are now over!  I am actually sad.  Yes, it's the toughest course, but I love it.  We almost always have hot, sunny, weather, and it just feels so good to race here at "home."  I will miss this place.  This is a timehop collage from some good memories from previous years. 

Feeling free crossing that finish

Quintin and me both holding the course record

Emily and me being goofy with our new pink shirts

This post will start and end with cars!  I didn't plan it that way, but that's what happened.  DoSomething.org is a new site that I've become involved with lately, joining in some of their campaigns to share with others to make a difference in this world.  This one on the left is for no texting and driving.  If you wear thumb socks, you can't text.  And they look cute.  (I actually don't wear them, but they sit in my room as a reminder.  Practice what you preach!)

 

Some great window stickers! 

Some of my favorite things:  traveling, moose, Colorado, and Peanuts

This one made me smile so much!  I sent it to Katlyn because of her pet chickens.  The bottom one also brought a smile to our faces because it is such a simple and sweet reminder to chill out because God has His plan.

This is what it's all about!

Live a life that can be a light to anyone who sees you!  Like this for example.  I have no idea who these people are, besides they were parked near me.  However, they put a bright spot of encouragement in my day, and they weren't even there. 

You never know who, where, or how you may impact someone's life.

 

 

 

 

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!