Footlocker Regionals

Drew had the opportunity to run Footlocker Regionals last weekend in Walnut, California.

He was introduced as the Oregon 6A State Champion--Kind of cool!

He was a excited to run a good race, especially after not having such a good post season so far.

Here he is at the introductions!

And they are off in the boys seeded race--Drew was seeded 17th!

Heading up Poop-Out Hill!!!

And down the steep back side!

We are sorry to say the day did not go as he had hoped.

Not wanting to make excuses, he was unsure what to say, but he knows there is something wrong. He again had the asthma like breathing and this time he said about 1/2 mile into the race he was feeling like he usually does at the finish line--no oxygen! Also this time he said all his vision below his eye level was blacked out--not a good sign. We are looking forward to seeing the doctor on Friday and getting some questions answered for him.

I will admit I was a little worried about him possibly having a bad attitude for the rest of the trip---but I was very proud of him!! He said he ran the very best he could have that day, and he chose not to dwell on it, and we had an awesome rest of our trip!! Some maturity--I was excited for him especially in this point. Trusting in God in the good times is easy, trusting in Him when you are having a hard time is much more difficult!!

Traveling Again!!!

Yep, we are ready to head out again!!! That seems to be my life story for the last month or so!!

So thankful for the memories being made and the time spent together.

We will have Drew with us again this weekend as he will be racing at the Footlocker West Regionals in Walnut, California.

Of course Hannah and Caleb are along for the 13 hour car ride!!

Danielle and her fiance, Ryan, will be joining us for the race on Saturday and then a fun family day at Knott's Berry Farm on Sunday!!!

We will only be missing Erinn as she has finals all next week and cannot make the trip!!! We are sad!!

Thankful David's finals were all done this week allowing us the time for this trip.

Now praying for a safe trip, fast racing and fun family time!!

Oh yeah------we also get to see who gets the most sick on the roller coasters!!! If they are spinning Caleb will take a pass, as he gets very sick on the playground merry-go-round!!! Otherwise we will probably give lots of things a go. I am thinking I am very thankful to have Hannah as an excuse not to go on some of the bigger ones!!!!!

What about ducks??

And NO I am not talking about the University of Oregon Ducks and their civil war game going on right now with the Oregon State University Beavers, with the winner going to the Rose Bowl. I have been civil warred out today....not sure that is a word, but you get the idea.

Actually I am talking about those 4 guys you see as little dots out in the field!

And the ducks the big guys got to shoot on Thanksgiving!!!

That's right, no elk this week, but lots of ducks!!!

And go OREGON in the game....I guess I am a platypus (half beaver, half duck)!!!!

Chickens Anyone?!?

When life gives you cold weather and chickens, what would you do??

Well you play with chickens of course......

but first you have to catch them!!!
Even if it means crawling in the chicken dung!!!!

Ahhh, but the smell of sweet victory....or is that poultry I am smelling!!!

So this is what you call fun in cattle country!

Delayed Thanksgiving Pictures

We had the privilege of spending all last week in beautiful Baker City.

David spent his days hunting and we spent the evenings visiting with friends.

You will notice there are NO ELK pictures.....enough said on the hunting front!!!!

We stood in awe of the majestic mountains surrounding Baker City!!

Here are our wonderful friends, Andy and Kris, whom allowed us to crash all week at their home and even invade their family Thanksgiving dinner.
Hannah enjoyed getting to know some new friends--Ruby, Cassie and Bryson.

Kids of all ages enjoyed the fishing game in between the football on TV. David played hearts for hours.

I love the way God weaves our lives in with others to make a beautiful tapestry.

Here I am with Kris and her daughter Heather. Heather was once in the youth group David and I led and now we share the common joy of being adoptive moms together. Kris has been a good friend for years and she has been a wonderful example of parenting a second time around with a younger set!!

Border Clash 11

Drew had the opportunity last weekend to participate in the Nike Border Clash race on the Nike campus in Beaverton.

This race takes the top 40 guys and top 40 girls from Oregon and Washington and gives them a taste of elite runner's life on the Nike campus.
Sorry to say Washington won again this year.

Drew's friends (Blake, Nick, Nick, and Ammon) got up at 4 am to drive up and support Drew and the other southern Oregon runners. They are great friends, but had some trouble spelling!!!

Here they got it right!!!

Now remember it was very cold and they ran around the whole race like this!!!!

This race is an actual head to head, in that they actually start on two opposite sides of a soccer field and race directly at one another!!!

Here you get a view of the actual CLASH of the teams!!!

The cross country logo in the midst of the soccer field.

Drew sporting the Oregon 'blue'!!

Drew and his teammate, David, post-race.

Drew did not have the best of races, but he gave it all he had for the day!!

Way to go Drew!!

Hello Baker City

We had a good trip to Portland on Saturday. We were able to visit a church for a Saturday evening service in Beaverton. Then catch the last of the inspirational speakers at the Border Clash evening with Drew. We then were able to get the last few minutes of overtime and see University of Oregon pull off the win over ASU.

Sunday was not all Drew hoped for a race. He ran as hard as his body would allow, but not what he would have liked. We will probably get him into the doctor and have them check his lungs this week. When you are competing at as high of a level as he is, small issues can cause big issues with racing. So he is not feeling as though he can breath during a race. He describes it like asthma. Praying for healing for his chest.

We then headed out to Baker City for the week for hunting. Thankfully the roads were clear the whole way this time. Hannah surprised us by wetting her pants in the car and saying nothing about it!!!! Sometimes I can honestly say that I have no idea what the two of them are thinking. They keep me at the top of my parenting game all the time. And of course being out of routine is never very good for them. So we choose a quite day today as David and Drew went out in search of the elusive elk. David had one in his sights this morning, but could not see the head and would not take the shot without knowing the sex of the animal. He was kind of bummed about that. Praying for more success in the next couple of days.

Off to rest with a book!!!!

Off to Border Clash

So we head out this afternoon to the Oregon-Washington Border Clash put on by Nike.

In this race they take the top 40 runners out of each state and have a race on the Nike campus in Beaverton. They have an interesting start....they put Washington on one end of a soccer field and Oregon at the other end and they race directly towards one another, then turn and funnel up a path together for the rest of the race. It is quite intense and shorter than most races. Nike does an amazing job putting on this fun end of the year race for these athletes. They all look so forward to it.

At the end of the state meet Nike is on-hand to do a short video of all the kids you can find Drew's video here.

After Border Clash on Sunday, we will be heading to Baker for the week. David and Drew have elk tags to try and fill. I will post as I get time and access to a computer.

GOTTCHA!!!!!!

It was 4 years ago today that we stood in the Portland Airport and met our two newest members of our family!!!!

We were not allowed to travel due to the instability of the country during their first presidential elections after 13 years of civil war. In order to get Hannah home to get the medical attention she needed, we chose to forgo the travel to get her home quickly. I do wish we had had the chance to meet them in their own country, where we would have been the ones to stand out and things would have been more understandable for them. Also it would have helped to have the insight into their culture by having seen it. I am so thankful for the many friends who have helped to fill in that gap for us!!!!

Caleb Charles (5 years) and Hannah Charlesetta (2 1/2 years)

Caleb was all eyes and wonder!! He now says we all looked funny and were talking a funny language, though English is the national language in Liberia too!!!

Hannah was a stinky little one, literally, having bad parasites will do that to a person!!

The minute the escort handed her to me she started screaming---loudly!! After about 5 minutes I handed her to David so I could actually talk to Caleb and she stopped---just like that!!! How is that for rejection!!! I do not think female, mother figures were high on her list of trust worthy people!!

Now 4 years later!!!!

We are so thankful for the joy they have brought into our lives. We are so much richer for having them be a part of our family!!!

The Blind Side

Remember the movie The Blind Side is coming out this weekend. Looks like it will be a good watch.

Praying that many Christians will be moved to help those children who have no one else!!! It is time to see a great movement in the people of God!!!

Drew's Weekend

Drew had a long weekend in Boise.

First we had to try to travel the width of Oregon in snow!! Seriously, it was snowing about 40 miles out of Medford and we basically had snow all the way to Ontario on the Oregon-Idaho border, with the exception of some clear roads around Bend. Drew was traveling with the team in a van and we traveled in our own van. Thankfully we all made it there with no big issues.


First stop was at the Nike Cross Country Team Championships. Drew ran a good race, but not what he was hoping for. He has a very tight chest and a spike hole in his knee for his efforts. We are praying his cold is better for his last two races coming up.

He then spent the rest of the weekend at Boise State University on a recruiting trip. This trip had about 7 others on it, so it was very different from his one on one visit at the U of O. He liked the campus, the places to run, and Boise in general.

Praying for wisdom in the next months as he will have to make a choice on what school to attend next year. It is a very big decision. Praying he find the choice that will keep him right in the center of God's will for his life!!

Family Time?!?

We so enjoyed having Danielle home for the weekend!!!

We had such an awesome time as a family watching Drew at state, at the same place where Danielle competed for four years also. Oh yeah, David and I ran on the same course about 25 years ago too!!!

All five of my kids in one place at one time!!

Sweet sisters!!!

And wonderful brotherly affection?????

Yes, this happens everytime these two get together!!!

Imagine having them growing up in the same house!!!

It was loud!!! And never predictable!!!

More pictures and links

I have no idea why I cannot make these pictures bigger. I did get them off the Internet and I am sure that has something to do with it. Our pictures did not turn out, a combination of bad weather, wrong camera settings and a very excited Dad I think were our problems.

Also since we use this blog to keep up with family and friends at a distance, I thought I would put some links up to some additional sites.

http://www.dyestatnw.com/?pg=reg7-2009-Cross-Country-OR-091107-Oregon-State-Meet

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&event_id=118&video_id=17309&folder_id=-2

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&event_id=118&video_id=17302&folder_id=-2

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091108/VARSITY/911080348/1009#STS=g1v10qud.1zgq

All this said and posted.....We thank God for the health and the strength he has given to Drew to run as he does!!! The glory is all His!! May Drew continue to run in strength and power and give the praise to Him through whom all blessings flow!!!!

A State Re-cap!!!

More pictures of Drew's big day at the Oregon State Cross Country Championships!!!

Oregon runs all of their cross country championships on the same day at the same place, so on Saturday they started in the morning with the 1A, 2A, 3A combined race (girls then boys), then they moved on to the 4A races and the 5A races. So by the time Drew ran, there had been 7 races on the same course. It had been raining a lot last week and the course was fairly squishy to start with, we were very thankful that morning to see clear skies!! Actually it stayed dry till the start of the girls 6A race, when is started drizzling......then when the boys were getting ready the skies opened up with a deluge and a very cold wind!!!

With the conditions being such, there was a large pack of 15-20 runners in the front for 2 miles. Especially on the back stretch where no one wanted to take the lead and break all the very cold wind for everyone. At about 2 1/4 miles the pack broke up with Drew running in 5th when he got out of our view. When we were again able to see him with 600m to go he was tied for 4th and turning on an amazing kick! He passed the last guys and raced the last 400 meters all on guts, as you can see in the picture....it hurt!!!

Drew was excited to see his friend from across town make the podium in 10th place.

And yes, it was still freezing and raining and they took the space blankets from these guys and had them stand up for their pictures!!! Notice Drew's clenched fists!!!

The other exciting part of the day was that their boys team took 4th place!!!!!

Nick, Nick, David, Drew, Ammon, John, Blake, Stetson

North Medford Black Tornado