Life goes on...

Despite the fact that my husband lost his job almost one week ago, the world is still spinning and life goes on!

I wanted to thank everyone again for voting.....we're in the homestretch now with only 4 days of voting left!  We've stayed in the top 3 this entire time, but I did panic a bit yesterday when I saw the 4th place blog seemed to be closing in ;D  It doesn't really matter at this point- we've made it to the top 25!  But after being in 3rd place for so long, it would be nice to finish 3rd!  Don't forget, you can vote once each day until October 3rd, and, as always, you can click on the button above to go vote for Toddlers, Teens & In-Betweens!  Thanks again!


I also wanted to say a special thanks to everyone who has been sending me emails and tweets with offers of prayer and even jobs ;D  I just can't thank you all enough for your continued thoughts!  I was so blessed yesterday when my sweet, sweet neighbor (Courtney!) came by with a Starbucks gift card for me!  She knew I needed to de-stress and wanted me to go have some coffee and relax ;D  That touched me so much, and I can't imagine trying to get through this without the amazing people that God has placed in my life :D

And, as I said before, life goes on......

Saturday was Sophie's 4th cross country meet of the season!  It was a HUGE meet out in Lawrence at Kansas State University, and the whole gang went to cheer her on.  It's been held since the 1970's out at an old farm called Rim Rock Farm, and the course was challenging to say the least.

There were over 60 schools competing from states as far away as Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma!  This next shot is of the runners lined up for the varsity girls' race....

Caleb hung out on his daddy's shoulders to watch the start of the race!

Sophie started strong and stayed strong all the way.....

Over the rough terrain, across the old wooden bridge....

Past her fan club (that would be ME!) ;D

And up the hills.....one of them fondly named "suicide hill!"

Just to give you an idea of the steep terrain she had to face, here's a shot of the boys coming back up the course after watching her cross the bridge!

And she did GREAT!!!!!  She finished 4th for her school and in the top 50 for the whole race!  I'm not sure of the exact number of runners, but it was in the hundreds!  Her time was 18:11....not bad for a first-timer!  The top scores were in the 16-minute range, so we were thrilled with her time!

Someone pinned her number on Caleb's back and off he went!

Here she is after the race with some of the runners from school....

And her brothers love stealing her snacks and water- that's the only reason they go ;D

I'm always amazed at the sea of tents that are set up by the schools- it's so funny to see the kids napping and hanging out under their school's tent as they wait for their event or relax when they're all done!
Of course, they end up being there for many hours, so it's nice that they have a place to relax!

One last shot of Sophie by the school flag....

It will be interesting to see what flag she's standing under one year from now......!