My First 5K!!!!!

Last night, nine of us participated in the Presence Covenant Medical Center Illinois 5K Run/Walk (I read that off my race T-shirt) down in Champaign-Urbana. Six of our family ran last year.

Mary Ann, Grandt, and I were newbies this year. And Grandt beat Mom and Anna! Mary Ann and I were the last of our family. I beat her by a second. When we got to the stadium entrance, we both started running until we got to the finish line. Mary Ann said she only ran because she had to go to the bathroom... She asked me about stopping somewhere between the first and second mile, but I wanted to keep going. She survived. :)

Mary Ann and I walked most of the race together. Grandt and Katherine ran ahead of us and Mom and Anna stuck together ahead of us too.

My feet hurt pretty much the whole time, and my legs started hurting after the first turn. So I fake-jogged part of the time because that hurt less. They stopped hurting eventually, which was kind of strange.

One of my favorite parts (besides the food :) ) was all the people along the route cheering us on. Mary Ann said, "I couldn't have done it without all the people cheering."

Dad asked if I would ever do it again. "Oh yes!"

I think if I trained, I could probably do a 10K...

To My Best Friend

Happy 16th Birthday Katherine!!!

Even though I steal your coffee, I still love you...

And I can't believe that my little sister is 16. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

The Last Few Weeks

Wow, it has been too long since I blogged! Happy April everybody! Even though it's almost over. But if I don't post something in April, it will be the first month since I started my blog that I failed to post something. I find that pretty amazing. Oh, and this blog turns five in a few weeks!!!!! Crazy...

So, what's happened in the last few weeks...

Well, one big thing happened. I took the ACT last Saturday. I spent at least a week freaking out about it and living in the worlds of books so I wouldn't think about it. (And consequently getting nothing else done.) But it is OVER and I am so, so glad!!! Plus, I'm happy with how I did, so that's good too.

But it's been so long that they are several other "big" things that occurred.

On March 24 we celebrated Grandma B's 70th birthday with the uncles and aunts and cousins. And we got to see Uncle Chris for the first time in a couple years!

That next Monday we all went down to see the Baffas, and spent the night. We hadn't really seen them in a while and it had been over a year since we were at their house. We had a great, encouraging time!!

Grandma and Grandpa picked Josiah, Johnathan, and I up from the Baffa's house, and we spent the rest of the week at their house, cleaning (I washed the beautiful cherry cabinets) and eating lots of good food, and lots of junk food as well. But the highlight was the prairie burn. Josiah and Johnathan both helped out and I stood back and took pictures. I might post some later.

On Easter, Josiah, Katherine, and I all sang in the choir. We played chimes with one of our songs too, and my chime was the first note! And Mom played trombone along with that song as well. Then we went to Grandpa Kuhr's for Easter dinner, which was delicious.

The next day, Sharyssa, Khyrstyn, Kylee, Susannah, and I surprised Katherine for her 16th birthday (which is tomorrow). She came downstairs in the morning and we were all hiding in the corner. We all dressed up in "costumes" from different eras and Katherine did all our hair. Then we had a photo shoot down by the bridge by the canal. (Where Mrs. Greene took the pictures for my shawl pattern.) I'll have to post some of those later too. Afterwards, we had a picnic and just hung out until people had to leave.

As for some more "little" things:

• I beat Grandt, Anna, and Johnathan at some sort of PIG or HORSE on Sunday. I was quite proud of myself.
• Katherine, Anna, and I went to the zoo with Mrs. Short, Khyrstyn, and Bella last Tuesday. We had a lot of fun. And we got to ride the carousel twice, which is my favorite thing to do at the zoo. :)