Pace Setter!!

She did it! Millie finally did it. She came in first at last week's cross country meet at Floyd Central. After she got second place the week before, she had her goals set for number 1. When they started this program last year, the first place finisher got a special shirt, called a Pace Setter shirt, that explained hard work and setting good examples. They are silver and you only get one by finishing first.  As soon as she saw that shirt last year, she wanted one.

Here are our girls all lined up and ready to go.  There were about 180 girls in this group getting ready to run. 

 

 I was so nervous after the race started. Since I'm a coach, I have duties at the finish line so I couldn't see any of the course until the runners came around the last bend just before the finish. When I saw her little yellow do-rag make that corner I almost cried. I was so happy for her. The other down side about coaching is I don't get to take photos. This really bums be out. So I don't have any photos of her at the finished but I got some with my phone afterwards and Rick's mom took a few as well.

At the finish Rick swept her up to give her big squeezes.  I guess Reed thought she needed a kiss on her super fast legs.

Proudly getting her medal and lots of cheers from her team.  We have the largest team with 108 runners so it was pretty loud.

And most importantly, that Pace Setter shirt.  That's one happy little girl right there.

 

Their teams did really well over all too.  If I remember right, the boys got second place and so did the girls.

She had a pretty big smile on her face all evening and I was so glad Rick and his parents and my mom were there to see it.

Look What I Did!

So, I'm kind of super proud of myself. I've been wanting to make wooden signs for over a year, ever since Pinterest came into my life. I've been saving ideas and researching techniques for when I get off my lazy butt and do it. This weekend was finally the time I did it. As my kids gets older, they are accumulating a lot of medals, ribbons and trophies. I want to do a 'wall of fame' in our basement and display them all. I'll need Rick to make the trophy shelves but I wanted to paint the signs for the medals.

I used Photoshop to print out the font then cut it out. I took a big piece of purple chalk and colored the back side of the printed paper. I taped it to the board (scrap from our wood pile in the workshop) and then traced over the letters. This left a chalk image on the wood. 

I traced over the chalk image with a fine tip black sharpie.

Then I just colored in the letters with a regular size black sharpie. This was super easy. I did use the fine tip to color in some of the smaller areas. 

I'm pretty darn happy with how it turned out. 

I've got a few more to make but this one will be for Millie's Cross Country medals. I kept it simple with unpainted wood and black letters but I may get more colorful with the next one. This one just needs hooks and it will be finished!

UPDATE:
Now Mr. Reed has one too. He was worried he wasn't going to get one.

'Tis the Season for Cross Country

Millie had her goals set before this season even started. Last year was the first year they had this team so Millie was able to run the first year as a second grader. Second, third and fourth graders are allowed to participate. As a second grader, she did great and usually finished in the top 15. Her goal this year was to finish in the top 5. She met that goal tonight by finishing second! She had the number 1 girl in her sights but couldn't quite catch her. She was super excited with her finish but now she said her new goal is a first place finish.

Overall, our school teams did great. Our boys finished first and our girls finished second. It was also exciting to see that 3 of the top 10 girls were all on Millie's softball team. They all three go to different schools so it was neat seeing them cheering for each other.