Running with Olympians

Meet Kara Goucher and Amy Yoder-Begley. Here they are at the 2009 Olympic trials after qualifying in the 10k. Amy is the one on the far left, and Kara is in the middle. (The other fast skinny lady is Shalane Flanagan, the American record holder in the 5k and the 10k.)


Now, here's a video of me racing Kara and Amy, the aforementioned Olympians. Look for me at the start, then 9 minutes later when Kara Goucher laps me during her finish, and then 50 seconds later when I finally finish. I'm in the black uniform all the way on the right in the front row. This was quite the experience of my life.


This video goes along nicely with my other documented Kara Goucher encounter. Here we are hanging out at the Olympic Trials in Eugene last summer.


This is how Amy and Kara must have felt after beating me in the 3k. Nobody was expecting such a slaughter!

Swiffer!

Mike Swiffers the ceiling. What a guy!

"Go away blue shark!"

Keyton likes to have his turn reading scriptures. See his blog for the entire blue shark story.

The Baby Bet

As we all know, Lachelle is due to have a baby pretty much any day now. She is, as they say, a ticking time bomb....of joy! Her actual due date is Thursday, Nov. 13th. But, will little Baby Sister come that day? Will she come sooner? Later? Who knows! Natalie, Mike, and I have decided to make a bet: whoever guesses closest to the actual hour that the baby is brought into this world is the winner. The two losers must make the winner a Baby Bet Dinner of their choice, and, as Natalie suggested, a Baby Bet dessert if the winner so desires it. Here are the guesses:

Mike: Friday, 11:00 pm
Natalie: Friday at 12:00 am
Katie: Friday at 1:00 am

(Lachelle, if you really love me, you'll have your baby sometime between 1am and 11:59am on Friday. Come on!)

Happy Halloween!

I haven't really done much for Halloween in years, unless you count sitting on the couch in the dark (scary!) watching the first half of Hostel. (The movie is so sick and deeply disturbing there's really no need to watch more than that.) This year I went for the double whammy: I carved pumpkins AND dressed up! Here's me holding my pumpkin, obviously.

Can anyone identify this molecule? It's everyone's favorite!

Mike worked really hard to carve an awesome design on his pumpkin. We bought one of those pumpkin carving kits, and he was going to carve out a picture of three wolves howling at the moon. But, the pieces were too intricate, and Mike had a card time popping the appropriate shapes out of the pumpkin. After hours of work, he flipped his pumpkin over and carved a generic smile with triangle eyes in about 30 seconds. Keyton would have approved.

Some mean people my freshman year called me Peter Pan after I chopped all my hair off. Instead of continuing to feel bad about this, I finally decided to embrace it. Props to Mama Meerkat for making me this sweet Peter Pan costume, and props to Larry for making me this sweet dagger. (I even match Keety; check out his blog!) Mike is Captain Hook...or just a regular pirate with a hook. Whatever. We're a cute couple. We match.

I think Mike might be a real pirate!

"Don't worry: this will only be the most painful experience of your life."

These guys will eat anything

Goats in the city?! Brilliant!! (Keety would have loved this.)

Welcome Home, Nat Pat!

After 2 painful months of being Natalie-free, my dear sister finally returned to me on August 23rd, 2008. I think this may have been one of the most joyous days in my 21 years of life. Oh, how I missed her! To welcome home our cherished Nat Pat, Mike and I made her a celebratory fun-fetti cake. (Don't mind the spanish vulgarity; it's how I show I care!)


We got a little excited with the cake decorating supplies, and decided to sport some festive mexican mustaches in honor of the occasion. Ayayayayaya!


What a delicious masterpiece!


And here's Mike doing some very important reading with his new glasses.