The One and Only Race I've Ever Won in My Entire Life...

......So, far. But will more than likely, 85% sure, be the only race I'll ever win in my life. My dad was coming down for a visit, and we wanted to sign up for a race. Originally, I was going to sign us up for the one we've done a couple time previously, Run2Serve. Unfortunately, I was too late to get the shirt and packet, so I decided to go with a different race (Run Your Race) this year and I'm glad I did! It was held on my birthday, November 2nd. It's not close to my house by any means, but they have lots of fun races with really neat medals. The race was called "Mystery" run, which meant that you didn't know which medal or shirt you would be getting--basically they were getting rid of leftover medals and shirts haha!
I had been training on the trails for a few weeks prior to this race. The treadmill just does not train well enough for outside races (I tried training for a 5K on my treadmill once, and the race did not go well!). Training outside was hard for me at first, I had to stop every half mile or so for the first few runs and I could only go a mile and a half for my first (in a while) outside run. But I gradually added distance and went further without stopping, until I could go the full 3 miles without stopping! After achieving that goal, I haven't had to stop during a run since. I don't always go a full 3 miles/5K, but I don't feel like I need to stop anymore. Since I trained on the trails where it is rocky and hilly, this paved, flat race wasn't too hard, and I went a bit faster than I did on the trails. My dad kept pace with me for the first half, and the second half he zoomed off towards the finish line.

 Even though I'm a slow runner, I managed to get 1st place in this race! More to do with the scant number of runners in my age group/gender than a testament to how fast I am, but it still was fun to get in first, let alone place it all! I was 6 minutes faster than the lady who came after me. If I had raced a mere day before, I would have placed 2nd (which I still would have been happy about!). After the race we had water and snacks and picked out a couple of medals. I picked out a turkey medal and a Christmas medal that I turned into an ornament later on, and a pink running shirt that I like to wear on my runs. All in all a satisfying, fun experience!

My dad and I after the race

There was a photographer that took pics of everyone as they ran by the finish line. I didn't download mine because it was all blurry, but here is my dad's.

Some pictures taken with the falls in the background, hence the name Arizona Falls

First place!

My dad got 2nd place, a very close 2nd. I think if he didn't run with me and my slow pace the first half, he would have easily gotten first.

November Random Happenings

Here are the fun things we did in the month of November:

Nov. 1

Erik and I took my dad out for lunch at Ajo Al's for some Mexican food. Later that same day, my dad went out for Mexican food for dinner at another restaurant. So my dad had Mexican for two meals that day! He was visiting for Halloween, my birthday, and to visit his brother Spencer who had been bedridden with Lou Gehrig's disease.

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Nov. 2

My birthday dinner at Arrowhead Grill. Yum!

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Nov. 3

One last picture with the boys before flying back to Salt Lake City.

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Nov. 5

Red and orange "Thanksgiving colors"--Ian's choice of bands at this orthodontist visit.

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Nov. 5

I took Ian to an organ concert in Chandler to see a former Tabernacle organist, Clay Christiansen. It was a pretty neat concert. I had Ian go up to shake his hand and take a photo with him.

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Nov. 7

I took just Ian out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I had gotten a free kid's meal card from school, and it was expiring soon. He sure had a good, yummy time out for dinner.

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Nov. 8

We all watched Napolean Dynamite to celebrate it's 20th Anniversary, which is also Erik and I's 20th dating anniversary since our first date was seeing Napolean Dynamite.

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Nov. 10

I hadn't quite gotten around to putting my Halloween wood cutout away in the garage all the way. Every time I would unexpectedly see this creepy face around the corner my heart would do a flip. I had too many of those moments before I finally put it in the garage till next October.

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After I finally put away my Halloween wood cutout, I started on my Thanksgiving one. I spent the better part of November working on it, and I finally finished a week before Thanksgiving, I struggled with the design for a while until I finally settled on this one. I wanted a turkey for the center of the design, some vegetables, and a Happy Thanksgiving somewhere in there. This is what I came up with. The turkey took me the longest. I like how it turned out, and it's nice to have a Thanksgiving decoration since they're hard to find, no one wants to decorate for Thanksgiving only straight to Christmas from Halloween. Even though I like it, it's definitely no one's favorite:

I started with the fruit. I am always happy (and surprised) at how bright those cheap-o Apple Barrel paints are.

I worked from the bottom to the top. I used tissue paper to cover up the parts I had completed so that they wouldn't get damaged/messed up as I went along.

Here it is, all finished just needs to be cut out,

I took it outside on the driveway to put it out. I don't love the weird space above the turkey's head. It bugs me, but hopefully no one else thinks about it too hard.

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Nov. 9

Ian went to an escape room party for his best friend Jame's birthday. His mom sent me these pictures. Looks like they had lots of fun!

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Nov. 11

I took Elisa and her friend Makayla out to shop and get some fun boba drinks. It was a day off of school. The girls had a good time getting spoiled.

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Nov. 16

Erik took the boys to top golf. He said they liked it and had a good time, but mainly they (they as in Ian) enjoyed the food.

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Nov. 18

I took miss Elisa to Starbucks before schools started. I had a gift card Michael got me for my birthday. The Starbucks in the store had a special $2 drink coupon, otherwise $10 would not have been enough for our two drinks. It's crazy that it costs about $10 for one drink at Starbucks. I don't think they would stay in business if people weren't addicted to their coffee and sugar drinks.  Anyway, they were yummy drinks.

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Nov. 19

Our Young Women's Tuesday night party/activity, Remembering the One. The girls were supposed to do 100 collective baptisms, but the temple closed the week before our goal date, so we didn't quite make the goal. No matter, we had the party anyway. It was also a gift exchange. The girls had a good time munching on yummy food and opening gifts.

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Me and a few friends from the ward have birthdays close together and we're all turning 40 this year, so we decided to celebrate by going out for brunch at the English Rose Tea Room. It was a fun experience to try some different teas and little treats. The scones were the best, but the desserts weren't that great. We all had a good time!

The entire table of ladies. Of course, my head is obscured.

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Nov. 23

My uncle Spencer's funeral. He had been suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease for years. He had been bedridden for several years and made the decision himself to pull the plug Nov. 18 or 19th. That Saturday was the funeral. We had flights that afternoon to go to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving, but I was able to go to part of the funeral. My dad flew into Phoenix in the morning. Erik picked him up. I drove my dad to the funeral--to the same church building Erik and I went to when we lived in Peoria. Most of my dad's family was able to come. Spencer in the coffin did not look like Spencer at all, I thought. I was able to stay for only the first part of the service before I had to leave. I'm happy I was able to go, even if it was for part of the time.

Random October Happenings, Part II

  Here are more fun things we did in the month of October:

Oct. 26

I took Gabe to the Train swap meet for him to look around. He came home with a train and some train magazines, I think he mostly liked just looking around.

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I was asked to fill in for the new primary pianist that didn't feel comfortable playing the entire program. Ian was also asked to play a few songs on the piano for the program. Good thing one of the songs he chose was choose the right, since I had to play organ that day too! We played the song together as a piano/organ duet for the closing song. The primary sang the first verse and the congregation joined in on the last two. Ian did a good job on his other songs. The biggest part of his performances was his organ playing--he played a few songs for the prelude and played for the opening hymn--I am a Child of God. He played perfect, foot pedals and all! Everyone was impressed I think, and I was proud of him!

Oct. 25

Ian playing I Am a Child of God

Oct. 26

Pizza for the program practice.

Oct. 27

Ian's line for Sunday's Primary program

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Oct. 27

I helped Elisa and Cosette with their Sunday lesson in church 2nd hour. We used a magnetic skeleton for part of the activity. Elisa did a good job on her lesson.

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Oct. 27

We used the same skeleton in Elisa's lesson for our Come Follow Me lesson later that same day, led by Elisa.

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Elisa's (new) band teacher was smart enough to have the band concert in October and not December this year. I took a few videos of the band's performances. It was nice be able to finally see Elisa from where we were sitting! The videos were too long to upload on blogger, so I put links to YouTube were I posted them.

We could see her and her pretty face!

https://youtube.com/shorts/O4yAYPwgCcg

https://youtube.com/shorts/NbpNwdcjtYU

https://youtube.com/shorts/LuzY3Dg_q4E

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Oct. 28

Erik spent the evening at Camelback Bible Church recording "O Holy Night" with the Millennial Choir. They spent about 4 hours recording and rerecording until the director was satisfied that they had enough good takes to put together the song. The director even kept them 30 minutes longer to enjoy the acoustics of the choir singing their a capella song "O Magnum Mysterium."

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Oct. 31

My dad was over visiting (my mom was going to come but Tom was sick in the hospital so she delayed her flight for a future date). I thought it would be fun to eat breakfast on the bridge before school with Ian. I made an invite to make it official and sent it to Ian's phone. In the morning, I made pancakes and breakfast burritos. We all walked over to the bridge (it is a half mile away) and ate the yummy food, and walked back.

The invite

Breakfast on the bridge!

Walking back. It is good for Ian to get some exercise in.

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