Just call me Sly Fox

I snuck all the way home this weekend!

Thursday after class I left my wonderful school to go see my wonderful family and friends. The only people that were supposed to know were my parents and siblings, but somehow the cat got out of the bag to a couple of my uncles and my grandma.

But the surprise was still good for important one... my best friend. This weekend was homecoming at my high school and Taylor was a candidate, so I wanted to come see her on the big day. When she saw me she started crying :)

I mostly stayed at home hanging out and doing homework. Homework seems to take up most of my life these days. Saturday evening I went to see Grandpa Reimer in the nursing home, my Grandma Wiens came over for supper, and then the family went out on a 4-wheeler ride!

On our journey dad found a giant "mechanical bull" that he decided to ride. Life has no dull moments with that man.

Sunday morning we went to church. I got to go to my parent's college/young adult sunday school class... weird. The class wasn't weird, it's weird to be a "grown up." It was baptism Sunday so I got to see some of my friends go through that. Amazing testimonies. After sunday lunch I drove all the way back to my loving roommate.

I loved seeing everyone again! It was a great weekend!

Just call me 8 Year Old.

Ten years ago today I was sitting in Mrs. Garver's 3rd grade class.

My Principal, Mr. Harshberger, came over the intercom and announced that the twin towers had been attacked by terrorists. I had no idea what the twin towers were, or even what a terrorist was, but I could tell by the look on my teachers face that this was bad news. My class was then taken to the auditorium where they had brought a big TV with the news coverage. Several minutes later, that auditorium full of 8 and 9 year olds watched the towers fall to the ground in heaps of rubble.

I can also remember going home after school and having my mom explain exactly what had happened. I still remember thinking that I was living through a day that would be remembered for decades to come.

So here we are... ten years later. I can't help but think how appropriate it is for the 10 year reunion to fall on a Sunday. The day of the LORD! It was a horrible tragedy, but through it all, God has made his hand known.

I found this webpage that was truly inspiring and a very good reminder of what an awesome God we serve. Check it out if you have 2 extra minutes.

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/United/Where.htm

We all have a story. I told you mine. Feel free to share yours.

Just call me Adventurous

I ran a 5k! At Midnight! It was awesome!

The first e-mail I received in my college e-mail was from the Omaha Midnight Run. I signed up not knowing of anyone else that was going, but I wanted to challenge myself, so i did it anyway. It sounded kind of sketchy (sketch is the favorite word of all Nebraskans, Kansas people don't use it) but when I showed up, it was in a really nice part of town and I found about 10 people that I knew either from school or 8:08.

I also signed up thinking that I would probably come in dead last, but when I got there I realized I could beat a vast majority of the people there. I'll just say there were people of all shapes and sizes. There were over 1200 participants.

My goal: I wanted to finish in under 30 minutes. (I have never, EVER, run a distance race in my life so I had no idea what to expect of myself or aim for but I knew that a 10 minute mile was a pretty good pace)

My strategy: I found 2 ladies in their late 20s early 30s that looked like they would push me, but that I could keep up with. I followed them, probably kinda creeped them out. Oh well.

My journey:  I only stopped once to tie my shoe. Right before the finish line there was a monster hill so most people walked it. Being the competitive person that I am, this made me want to run faster because I saw the opportunity to pass all these people. It was a 2 lap race and I lapped some people, kind of sad.

My finish: I crossed the finish line at 27:something. I forgot to look at the clock. How dumb is that! I think it was around 28 seconds. they didn't give us any official place but I would say I finished in the top 200 - 300. I believe the winner ran a 15:31.

I had a blast and I hope to run some similar races soon!

View from my room!

Just call me Spoiled

For labor day weekend Shawn and Anna took me with them to Atkinson to Phil and Kathy's house.

(FYI this post includes a lot of details to jog the memories of those who have had the pleasure of spending time at Phil & Kathy's. They may be uninteresting to everyone else. sorry.)

It was awesome! I loved just being able to sit around and relax, even though I did homework most of the time.

It's kind of hard to see, but there were several times when we would look around and see that all 5 of us were on our laptops.

Friday we arrived just in time for supper and then made a quick run to watch some West Holt football and a little bit of Phil's band playing.

Saturday we slept in, had a late breakfast, and then had "heavy hors d'oeuvres" (as Shawn preferred to call them) during the Huskers game. I think we forgot that there were only 5 people to eat all the food we made. We are so used to feeding the whole Reimer army.

I should probably add that this picture was taken after everyone had already my several trips through the line.

Of course we had to get "cheap pop" several times during the weekend.

Sunday we went to church in O'Neill and ate lunch at Tia Zia's mexican restaurant. Yumm! We had a double feature movie night. Gulliver's Travels with Jack Black (good movie), and Turbulent Skies which made us all so mad that we couldn't pull ourselves away. Of course we had to have an intermission snack of chicken tenders and MOCHA PUNCH. Quite possibly the best drink ever concocted.

This little guy and I became best buds. We even taught him to put his hands up whenever we say TOUCHDOWN!

Monday afternoon we headed back to the big city. When I got to school I went STRAIGHT to the gym... I ate WAY too much.