Carving Pumpkins

On 10/29 we had our pumpkin carving night. We invited the Withers over for our attempted annual event (I don't think we've done it every year, but we try!) It was a lot of fun!

Here's Katie (sorry, she wants Kaitlyn now...) showing how much she loves our get together.


Brandon & Russ Withers, and Jon.





Tyaan's friend Omar came over as well. It was the first time he'd ever carved a pumpkin! His turned out really great too!!



It really made the holiday a lot of fun for me. I stayed home and passed out candy on Halloween but I only got about a dozen trick or treaters. I still have left over candy! Tyaan didn't trick or treat this year, she went to a friends house for a little while, went bowling, and then they came over to our house later that night to play video games. So the pumpkin carving was the high point of this Halloween for me. I didn't carve a pumpkin but I helped a few of them finish theirs when they got worn out. It was really a lot of fun.

Halloween Dance

On 10/25 Tyaan went to a church dance that allowed them to wear costumes. She took 2 non member friends with her. Notice the black 'soot' she put on her face to go with her costume. I thought it was a nice touch!





The building was about 15 or 20 minutes away from our house so I was undecided whether or not I should drive home and go back for them or just stick close by and wait. Once I got down there I realized I was right around the corner from Em's house so I dropped in on her for a couple hours. That was an unexpected bonus! Thanks Em!

CC League Meet #2

On 10/16 Tyaan had her 2nd (of 3) league meets at Bonelli park. It was the same course she had run on the previous league meet there so I was better able to get to where she would be running past and keep her updated on where she was time-wise.

Tyaan was already having problems with her shin and had it wrapped up pretty well. At just past the 2 mile mark she turned to go up a hill and I couldn't see her for a few minutes. She had one of her teammates right on her and I didn't want her to get passed but it looked like she was hurting and I was worried she'd have to stop. She had been running SO well at that point but I knew her leg was a problem.


As I moved toward the end of the course, but far enough back that I could cheer her on, I watched and waited until I could see her again. I kind of expected the other Chaffey girl to be ahead of her at that point but soon I saw her coming with the other girl not even close behind her. She had run a fantastic race and ended with a time of 22:35, only 50 seconds off of her letter time. This is a more difficult course than their home course and she beat her best time by 10 seconds. I was so impressed and couldn't stop grinning while she was catching her breath. She was really excited when she found out her time and her coach said that they had all done so well he might hold a time trial on their home course to help them qualify for their letter.

Homecoming Campaign

Tyaan decided to run for homecoming court this year. She had been considering it for several weeks because she thought it would be fun to do, but hesitant about it because she wasn't sure if she would get on. She decided to do it, went to a meeting where they told them the rules of campaigning, and the week long project began. We went Friday night and picked up some supplies. She was aloud to have 50 posters, and she wanted to make some shirts and rally tags. (Postcard sized tags which can be tied to backpacks)

On Saturday we started making everything. She used a nickname of hers "Ty-rex" as a theme and made stencils of a cute T-rex. Everything came out really great but it turned into hours and hours of work. Luckily Russell came over and helped us. I don't know what we would have done without him. We worked all afternoon and until after 10:00 Saturday night when we ran out of green spray paint. We ran to the store to get more but we got there just after they closed, so that put an end to the rally tag making until Monday. We did get all of the posters and all 13 shirts finished Sunday, although I was up most of the night putting the last of the writing on them. She went to school on Monday morning with 13 shirts (They were all white except for 2 red, one for her and one for her homecoming date) about 175 rally tags, and 49 posters (one got messed up and had to be tossed). At just after 8 am the next morning I got a message from her saying she was out of rally tags, and all of her shirts and posters were put up and distributed before the end of the day.


Posters:

So needless to say Monday evening was spent making more rally tags. A few of her friends came over, Russell included, and we got another 225 tags done. They looked really great. Tyaan liked how I wrote on them, so I was the only one who did the writing. So I was up most of the night, again, finishing writing and putting the ties on. Luckily doing the writing kept me away from spray painting and I avoided having green fingers. So at that point we had made 400 rally tags.



Once again, early during the next day she was out of rally tags again! We weren't available Tuesday night to make more, but Wednesday we decided it was worth one more night since there was still two days of campaigning to do. I went and bought 300 more index cards, a couple of Tyaan's friends came over, and we went back to work. We finished all 300 (another late night for me) for the next day. By then we had a system going and it went quicker than the first 2 batches we had done. (Yes, we made 700 rally tags - and she could have used hundreds more)

Rally Tags:

Friday came, the day of voting, and we were both nervous. There was just over 30 girls running and there's only 5 on court. Tyaan felt she had a pretty good chance of making it, but there were several others she knew had a good chance as well.


It turned out that she didn't make it on court, but it really was a lot of fun to try. I was really worried that she'd take it hard, but she didn't. I think it was really good for her to see how many people supported her and helped her campaign. I got to see some of the other rally tags and shirts that the other girls had done and Tyaan's were by far the best I saw. It was great to see some of her friends come and put in some hours helping her paint the tags, and she could have gone through lots more shirts if we had been willing to make them. And she got so much encouragement and great feedback from other students at her school. We've decided that she must have finished 6th. :-) I'm really proud of her for being brave enough to run, and proud of myself because I know I'm part of the reason she's become such a confident girl. She is pretty amazing!

Update!!! It's official, she came in 6th place. Isn't that a killer?!

CC vs Baldwin Park

On 10/8 Chaffey had it's last home cross country meet of the year. We've still got several weeks of season left, but there were only 3 home meets and this was it. So, the goal was to get her letter time while she had the home course advantage.


Tyaan has been running really well but she still had to get her best time ever to letter. We did our best to get her well fed and well rested, although with her busy schedule that's never easy to do. After mutual (which she is expected to attend because of her stake calling) and hours of homework we were lucky to get her to bed at a somewhat decent hour the night before. I made sure she ate a good breakfast that morning (not a usual occurrence at our house) and drank lots of water throughout the day. I bought her racing shoes which are made to be as light as possible and should help her drop some time.


I showed up at the meet and she was dressed and ready...and nervous. She wanted to do really well but she knew it was going to take a lot do get the time she wanted. Her best time on the home course previous to this day was over 24 minutes, so to get the letter time of 21:45 was going to be hard. I was equipped with my stopwatch and ready to hit the spots of the course she had asked me to give her the time at.

They started off and she finished the first mile in just over 6 minutes, which was great. At the second mile mark she was at about 15:30, which was about 30 seconds behind where I thought she should be to get her time. She ran the last mile great but I could see she was tired. She had done a good job with her breathing and didn't cramp up. She ended with a time of 22:45, exactly a minute over the time she needed to letter, but I was so thrilled with how well she did. She improved her best time by 2 minutes which is fantastic. And she's in great shape so there's still hope that she'll get the time on another course before the season is over.

CC at Ontario Christian

I have been slacking at getting these posts done. We don't have a lot going on right now except for cross country. I have other news, but I'll save that for when I get caught up which I'm determined to do quickly.


On 9/30 Tyaan had a cross country meet at Ontario Christian High School. This is a really, really boring course and it was miserably hot. It was 106 when their race started! Tyaan did well. She was pacing herself really well and finished strong. She passed two runners from the other school on the last half mile. She finished 4th from her school and 7thor 8th overall. Her time was 24:57.

Megan's Wings 5k

On 9/26 Tyaan ran a 5k for Megan's Wings. It is a foundation started by her cross country coach after his young daughter (Megan) died of cancer several years ago. This is the 4th annual run and all of the proceeds help pay expenses for families of young cancer patients. They had over 800 people register for the 5k run/walk and the 1k fun run. This is the second time Tyaan has run this event. She ran it 2 years ago as well.



It was a nice day. Perfect in the shade, but quite warm in the sun. They had over 600 people in the 5k and it took a little over an hour to get the last walkers in. For those of you who know the area the event is held at McCarthy park in Upland on 20th and San Antonio. The course is north on San Antonio to 24th, east on 24th to Euclid, down Euclid to 20th and back to the park.


Jon's dad, Don, came to watch her run. He's the best spectator because he cheers louder than I do. Gives lots of good encouragement.


Tyaan finished th 5k in 24:22 which is really good. She finished about 60th overall, 12th girl, and got 1st place for girls in her age group (16-19). She did really well and it was a fun way to spend the morning. We got home, ate lunch, and both slept for most of the afternoon.

She made me proud, as usual!