Marcus 5K & Smalltown Fair {Curing #NOtivation}

This past weekend I traveled 2 hours north to my hometown for the biggest event of the year...The Marcus Fair! I grew up on a farm outside of Marcus which has a population of around 1200 people, but if you added in livestock we would be about the size of Omaha ;) What Marcus doesn't have in population it makes up for in heart! Being home for the fair always feels like being part of a big family and it is always great to see old classmates or kids I used to teach swimming lessons to.

I'm Linking up again with Mal Smiles and Life Oceanside to stay fit and cure #NOtivation!

Friday

Sisters Finally Reunited after over 2 months apart!

Got into town around 7 pm and after hugging my wonderful family, my sister and I headed up to the Methodist Food Stand for some delicious food! I met up with Trisha, Anna and Kelli at the bar and headed to the street dance. But only one drink for me because the next morning was the day of the big race! Unfortunately my mom had made some amazing O'Henry Bars (I will have to post the recipe on here!) and I inhaled them when I got home late at night...Not a good idea for running bright and early in the morning!

Apple Pie, Taverns, Taco in a Bag Oh My...

Day old Piglets!

Anna and I (Soon to be roomies in the Spring!)

Marcus Fair Partner in Crime - Trish!

Yes, We got carded...

 Saturday

All those oats, sugar and peanut butter from the bars must have fueled me decently for the 5K because I got my second best time for a 5K. My goal was to be under 29 minutes but I got 29:52 which I was still happy with. This 5K is special to Marcus because it is in memory of Michael Letsche, Hunter Heidesch and Sawyer Leavitt who lost their lives at a very young age. Sawyer Leavitt was friends with my brother and we had a moment of silence before the race started to remember these wonderful guys. 

My sister, mom and aunt Nancy participated in the 5k and my Aunt Nancy, Grandma and cousins did the 1 mile walk. After the race I showered up fast and returned to the fair to set up a stand in the fair buildings to display my Etsy Shop Items . At 4:00 pm we watched the parade and then shortly after Trisha, Brendan and I went to Germantown for some broasted chicken! 

Ready to Run!

Aunt Nancy (2nd place in her age category!)

Something Beautiful Inventory on Display at the Fair

Look at this Cutie!! Little Brady Man!

Ready to Catch A LOT of candy at the Parade!

Sunday

Went up town to watch some of the mud volley ball tournament and also try to sell some more items for my shop. I received several custom orders and sold a few items so that was exciting! The fair always goes by too fast and when I was little it was especially sad because it meant school would be starting within the next weeks. 

Mud - Volleyball Tournament 

Taelyn with Uncle Kyle

So whether you are running in a small town 5K this summer or a big city Marathon, stay Motivated! No matter what the distance is it is worth the effort ... just try not to eat a whole bar of O'Henry bars before the race ;) 

Birthday Weekend!

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a great time celebrating the day of my birth ;) just kidding! I just thought I would post a little something about the events of this weekend. Saturday Alex and I loaded up mom's pot stand gift and headed to Marcus! We got home about an hour before Mike's party started and Julie, Kim, Jean were already there getting all the food ready. I put together the pot stand in the garden and showed it to mom. She loved it! I wish I would have got a picture of her with it. Everyone thought it was pretty cool and was definitely a great addition to the house. We had lots of family show up to celebrate Mikey. Rachel, Bill, Liam and Jack came from Chicago and Randy Rupp came from Denver! He surprised my dad and we were really glad to have him there. They of course did their traditional zambuka shots where they dip their fingers in the alcohol, light their fingers on fire, take the shot and blow out the fire. Fortunately there was a lot of wind and the fire would blow out very fast.
So after all the family left and there was only a few people left at the party I took a dip in the hot tub to ring in my birthday :) Everyone sang a very off key version of "happy birthday" to me at midnight which was pretty nice!
 
Little Mikey, His cute shoes and the Chocolates Aunt Lynn made with Mike's picture on it



Hannah and Kyla feeding the Bucket Calves - I teased the girls and said that they had to try the milk before they could feed the calves...they didn't fell for it ;)

Sunday Alex and I slept in and then had a quick breakfast before getting ready for the ceremony. We got to the high school early and mom had saved us seats in the front. The ceremony was great and here are a few facts about the class of 2013 from MMC.
* They received over $430,000 in scholarships
* They were the first class to graduate as 8 man footba ll champs from MMC ( Marcus has never won first in any sport..ever)
* They lost 2 very special classmates and referenced themselves as "a Family, not just a class". Amber Brownmiller died in a car accident when Michael was in elementary school and Sawyer Leavitt died in a car accident his Junior year.
* Sawyer Leavitt's family donated $325 to every senior in his class.
* Michael received a Faith & Farming Scholarship
* The ceremony was held on a rainy day but that didn't stop the gym from being packed to celebrate this great class!

Tax Day 2013

{ This post is linked up @ Home Stories A to Z}

Hey everyone! I just got done working at the pregnancy center which was a pretty jam packed day! We had probably 7 positive tests and a handful of repeat ultrasounds. It was another great day working with those wonderful ladies and helping women in need. And there is exciting news at the pregnancy center..For the banquet they had they raised close to $300,000 which is enough money to open the new clinic out west on 144th and L. This is a great population we can serve because there are many high schools right in that area! I'm really excited and I hope that I can work there in the future but they may be choosing people based on seniority. This weekend was a lot of fun because I went home for several reasons.

First off I just had to see Addy because she is getting so big already and I know she will grow out of her puppy stage soon! And of course I wanted to see my family. My sister was back from college and I hadn't seen her since right before Easter. And it was Diane and Johnny's Wedding reception so a lot of my friends were in town like Trisha and Anna. Kelli was also there with Brady and he was wearing a cute little Hawaiian shirt with a Hawaiian necklace. It was an open bar for awhile and they were making the drinks very strong so it didn't take long for me to start dancing and talking loud, haha! We all danced and then went to the Panhead afterwards. It worked out pretty nice since my parents left the bar at the same time I did and I had a ride home. Sunday we just chilled and played with Addy and then it was time for Kobe and I to make our long trek home.

I picked up supplies to make homemade chili and cornbread so Alex and I could have it for a late supper. It turned out delicious and I will post the recipe I used. The corn bread was just a Jiffy box mix.

Simple Chili

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 (10¾ oz) can condensed tomato soup
• 2 cans Bush’s chili beans, undrained
• ¾ cup chili sauce
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. In a large pot, brown beef with onions until beef is no longer pink. Drain off any excess grease.
2. Add the remaining ingredients to the beef mixture and stir to combine.
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes until thickened. Serves 6

I also had to post about a big tragedy that happened today. At the finish line during the Boston Marathon today there was 2 explosions that left 2 people dead and more than 50 injured. Some of the pictures from the scene were pretty hard to imagine and Brian Prunty ran in the Marathon today! I knew he was running in it because he posted a photo of his number so I checked out his facebook page to make sure he was ok. He said that he finished a few hours before the explosions and was perfectly fine. I guess they are evacuating some of the big hotels in Boston, stopping some of the transportation and have cleared out Pennsylvania Ave in front of the White House. They still don't know who caused the explosions but it is pretty serious! I just hope that everyone that is injured comes out of the hospital ok. Those people had no idea that running 26.2 miles would be the least of their worries that day! So keep praying for those families and pray that whoever did this is found and never has the ability to do something like this again!

Weekend in Marcus

Last weekend Alex and I decided to go to Marcus and see my family because we hadn't seen them in awhile, Megan was home on spring break and my parents had just gotten back from Mexico. So we split up the drive by going to Sioux City first and meeting for dinner. One of our family favorites is Outback so we put in our name and were prepared to wait 45 minutes or so because it was packed! About an hour later and having our buzzer go off once which was a false alarm we were finally seated (right next to a couple with a crying baby..haha!) I was craving the cheesy fries and Alex and my dad shared some grilled shrimp for an appetizer. I got a strawberry margarita which was pretty good :) My sister had to wait a long time just to get her soup and salad and Alex's pork wasn't cooked as much as he would have liked it so that was a bummer. But we had great conversation and laughed a bunch. I made the comment that my mom never cries and that she didn't even cry during our wedding but my dad corrected me by saying "Oh that isn't true, She cried during the movie Ted when he got ripped apart!" HAHA! Oh boy! After dinner we drove home and watched a little SNL before going to bed. Sunday morning we went to church and it was nice to hear the new pastor's sermon. He gave a really great sermon about Jesus in Nazareth. In the sermon he talked about we are quick to judge people and we don't like hearing criticism. He also explained how the word "widow" was used to describe a women whose husband died because the husband or the wife was a bad person. Widow is used a lot in the bible and I never knew the meaning behind it.
After Church we ordered food from the Junction and I watched the NDA championships that were on ESPN. It was really fun to watch dance routines again! I finished off the sunday afternoon by taking a long nap! Then my parents, Alex and I went to a movie in Sioux city. We saw Snitch with Dwayne Johnson who plays a dad whose son is charged with selling drugs. It was a pretty good movie and it was neat because "Shane" from The Walking Dead was in it too and Alex and I love that show.
It was a great but short weekend! I miss home so much sometimes and I hadn't been there since New Years day! I can't wait to go back again..whenever that is and hopefully stay longer!