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!

Cow Appreciation Day

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The day after we got back from camp at Furman, I had another fun run plan fulfilled!  Earlier in the week, TSSAA dead period was finally over, and we could talk to our coach "legally," so I texted him and asked if we could run to Chick-fil-a for Cow Appreciation Day that Friday, July 11th.  I ran a little bit before meeting the girls closer to run there dressed like cows.  We were very creative and a great entertainment to everyone driving by!

We posed outside the CFA Morristown sign, where the manager took our picture and posted it to the Facebook page!
I'm even sporting my cow slipper/socks that my friend is holding up my leg for, a tail, and many of us had ears!

We do Bible study here once a week during the school year, so it was exciting to bring it back one morning of the summer!

Not only do we look like cows, we can act like cows, too.

Dressed in our cow attire, we all received a free breakfast meal, complete with entree, drink, and side!

Out of all the dressed-up girls, Grace should have gotten the ultimate prize if there was one.  She also ran down the highway wearing this sign.  She is all about the dress-up days!

 

Here are two random things I added from the day that have nothing to do with cows whatsoever.

My cousin got married!  They had a very small wedding and short honeymoon because they both had to get back to do more school stuff.  They're working hard!

I also made a new thing that I am now kinda in love with:  roasted and spiced vegetables!  Here I used sweet potato, squash, zucchini, cucumber, and onion with lots of spices and baked it in the oven...YUM!

 

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!