once a runner, always a runner

"You don't run against a bloody watch. Do you hear?? A runner runs against himself, against the best that's in him. Not  against a dead thing of wheels and pulleys. That's the way to be great, running against yourself. Against all the rotten mess in the world.. Against God. If you're good enough."

bill persons was a man who knew how to use his words. 

the awesome thing about cross country is that it never really goes away. something in you totally changes the moment you decide to walk out on the line for the first time. 

it changes everything from your once presentable feet, to your mindset. 

i'm running against myself. i'm my biggest hurdle. 

the only thing stopping me from reaching any of my goals in anything...is me.

semester goals:

3.7 gpa

make friends

A in math class

find a job

run on the days i don't have practice

journal/ blog 3 times a week

write my missionary friend..pal..person..boy..man..matt.. more consistently 

have a positive attitude 

no sugar week

facebook cleanse 

so this is really for reals...

so i just got back from my last cross country banquet..

and it's safe to say that this season was one of the most rewarding seasons ever.

joining cross country has been one if not the best choices i've ever made.

i used to wonder what that feeling must've felt like..

knowing that you'll never wear that jersey again..

or race with the same team..

or under the same coaches..

or any of that..

and now, i just kinda wanna cry.

cross took over my life so suddenly and so drastically..i loved it but i hated it all at the same time.

now that it's really over, i want to cry.

i guess growing up really has to happen..

i miss my team already..thinking about next summer how i won't be complaining about summer cross is awesome but heartbreaking at the same time.

the simple sport has ment so much to me over high school and i'm not quite ready to say that my high school distance running career has come to a close..

cross has taught me so much about everything.

"excellence isn't a switch you turn on and off..it affects all aspects of one's life.."

people, running, health, myself, others.

i think that when i grow up, i want to see the world and live all over the place and finish a few of these...

but once i'm old and want to have children, they will run.

:)

 but long before then, i must find a boy who...

a whole lot of something..and a whole lot of nothing..

oh my heck. it's been quite the thanksgiving weekend. 

lets start off with my lovely visit to the ER..

so we were at demo team practice (i just watch considering i can't taekwondo anything for the next little bit..:( 

and there was a part when a girl (nikki) does a spinning hook kick, and her mom(kris); another person in our demo team, ducks the kick. but this time around, nikki threw the kick and kris was at the wrong place at the wrong time.. and caught the kick..with her face. 

we rushed to instacare across the street to get her help, but as soon as we walked in, the girls at the front office told us that we needed to get to a hospital ASAP.. so we rushed to Utah Valley. well.. sorta. 

this was one of those times when the hand of the Lord practically slaps you across the face. 

traffic was awful and there was no way we were gonna be able to get to provo before Kris got any worse.. then someone offered a prayer, i got around a car, and the entire lane was empty...

smooth sailing into the ER.. 

when we got there, they got kris in and taken care of. it turns out that it was a skull fracture but it could be easily repaired. surgery would be needed tho. when nikki heard this, she about died. i felt so bad for her. i cannot imagine how she must have felt. poor kid. but soon enough her dad got to the ER and i left.. 

thanksgiving was the next day:) 

yay!!! i'm so thankful to have so many blessings in my life. like the gospel, my friends, my teams, my family!, my health (for the most part), ah, my leaders.. the list could go on and on.but really.:) 

then on friday, i did the usus...i hung out with these crazy girls..

the one on the left...
and..

kels:)
yay for cross country teammies:) when you decide to make the DUMBEST choice of your life (joining cross) be ready to make TONS of new best friends, give up sugar, men, and social lives, and to basically have a blast :) i'm not quite sure what i would do without that one (look above..) right there:) we met in seventh grade english and were best friends ever since! no just kidding, i thought kels was SO cool, so we were friends but never best friends. till we decided to be on cross :) now, we play every. single. weekend. no joke. none. at all. really. movie nights, yogurtland, menchies, and more movie nights. it's superb:)

thee next day, i went on a date!
 (gasp..cross girls get asked out????? yeah, it shocked my father too...)
he made this face when he saw who was at the door...

only coming from a mexican man makes it that much worse..
and of course i was dressed awfully. khaki shorts and a where's waldo sweater..
l;sadjgkvbaiuwer. there goes any chance of this kid ever asking me out again...
so i finally get changed into jeans (thank you daddy for the early birthday present:) ) and get ready to leave..
when i closed the door, my dad reopened it and glared as we went down the stairs.. can you say AWKWARD????????
finally, we got into his car (audi quattro..) and left for cafe rio :) yummm
then went to nickle city. SO.MUCH.FUN.
then we were driving around when we got hit...
but really.
first accident, on a date..
did i mention it was his dad's car..?
talk about most memorable date. like ever.
but still, it was way fun:) thank you blake!

THEN,
of course i called the cross girls. movie night and recap of that nights events??? i think yes:)
well, that was my break.not much of a break, but oh so much fun:)

Come what may, and love it..even if it's your dad's hit audi... 

gimp.

and sometimes God hates you.

it's really not a big deal..

i mean that is until you can't walk. then it really makes things rough

so i've been annoying the heck out of tons of people to buy a flag from me so i could go to NXN southwest.

so i could do this..

die.

and make this face..

:)

i was so ready.

but the morning of, i went to the doctors, and ended up like this...

up to my knee. in crutches.

oh it's okay, i wanted to miss the most important, final race of my senior season to be stuck at home in a boot rendering me a gimp. it's really okay..

NO.it's not.

i cried. many times. at school, (painfully awkward.) at hom, in my car when no one was looking, in the doctors office, in bed. whenever the girls called to let me know how it all went. all the time.

who knew one person could cry for so long?

but before all this, my parents decided to hate me and we yelled.

we're mexican. it's what we do. when you can't get your point across, you yell.

because, ovbiously, the louder you say it, the more likely they are to agree with you... didn't everyone know that..?

so i had angry parents,

let down my cross team,

let down my tkd team,

and

unfinished BYU essays.

BOOOOOO.

oh and a lovely boot.

i hate my life.

....

on a less dramatic note, you know that awkward moment when you stumble along a song that's better then original? and you love it more?

yes.. take a look, or listen, whatever. and fall in love.

cover.

these cute little brown sibilings (watch out jo bros..) decided to make an adele cover, and be on CNN two days later.. no big.

and this is the original.

classic. almost. i love adele.

we. are. fighting.

it's end of term my friends. and as if that wasn't stressful enough, me and the rest of the world are fighting.

it's funny to think that school is the least of my problems. i have an almost 4.0:)

if i can ace my medical english test TOMORROW (yes, teachers actually hate students and give them tests the LAST day of the term. it actually happens.) and my finincial lit lit test that is ALSO tomorrow, ANNND finish both of my cultural arts reports;

i will have a 4.0:)

maybe then BYU will decide that they love me and they'll let me in.

did i ever mention that?

i've made an official decicion about this crazy thing called college.

if and only if, i make it into BYU, i'll go there.

the more i thought about it, and the cooler it sounds :P ...it's a PRIVATE university that is ranked all over the place, has an AMAZING xc team and i look pretty cute in blue...:)

i'll still apply to all 4 universities that i thought of before but if by the grace of God i make it into BYU, i'll be a coug...:)

BUT considering i just got my first not A in seminary, i might cry:(

dear brother tager, your test was stupid. even though i did pretty well on it, it was STUPID.

yes, i was gone for SCHOOL EXCUSED absences and i don't get credit?? what the french toast?? i'm pretty sure that the general athorities at some point in life said to get involved in high school..that requires missing class sometimes....BOOO!!

GAH!

brother tager, we. are. fighting.

you and your stupid B+. 6. 6 freaking points away from an A-.

I.HATE.YOU.

oh yeah, i also am fighting with Mrs. Molina. my LIA teacher. so i missed the first day we went to classes to go home cause of some unrelated issue, and i never got my actual assigned teacher. ever. it's been 2 weeks later, and still i'm bouncing back and forth between classes. it's ridic. totally ridic. so i missed another day for state cross meet, and again, she marked me absent and it's unexcused becuase she decided that. and well actually, it was school exuced.i hate you. so now, i have an NC with her, and today as i asked her about what classroom i'm assigned to, she took it as "mrs. molina, please take the next 3 minutes of my life and yell at me. tell me everything that is wrong with me in front of the entire class. oh, and while you're at it, PLEASE call the assistant principal and tell him what's up ya? that'd just make my DAY!"

being the amazing person that she is, she did JUST that! oh lovely.

 

yeah. i hate. you. i always have, but it's mutual. so whatever.

i just can't wait to tell you that i'm bailing out at the semester.

:) oops.

another thing i'm fighting with.

boys.

in general.

they all are dumbbbb.

in the perfect world, there would be a boy that was roughly 6'5, and kinda built. he'd have dark hair and light colored eyes. he'd love sports but not be rooted to the TV in any given season. (uness it was march madness, that is TOTALLY understandable.) he'd love to come running with me and know how to tell me that i'm being annoying without being mean. he'd also love the outdoors but love being inside too. we'd go rock climbing all the time and possibly rapelling down waterfalls too. he'd also be a return missionary with school on his mind once he got back instead of getting married.

but this is high school.

and you get stung along for stuff you did NOT sign up for, and you'd pretend that everything is hunky-dory.

boys are dumb.

i guess that's why missions are TWO whole years long, so all the weird can leave them and they'll be normal for us:)

oh did i mention that MVHS XC BOYS and GIRLS took state???:)

fuzzy:( but that's us:) boys and girls. state champs baby!!!

oh and i'm selling flags:( please buy one from me:(

iannnd for black belt testing, i'm in need of soap for a serive progect. if anyone has bars of soap they are dying to get rid of, i'm your girl:)



bob firman

this weekend when everyone ventured off to another day at school and it's rousing homecoming festivities, me and 43 other kids sat on a charter bus awaiting a rousing 6 hour trip to bosie idaho. why you may ask are 44 teenage kids willingly missing their senior/junior/sophomore homecomings???

well, for the seniors, we're either super duper dedicated to the well being of our team, or we didn't get asked cause boys are noobs.

we were headed to one of the most intense races of the season.

bob firman.

there were 11 states represented and well over 2,000 runners there.

pretty much, this race is a huge deal.

while we were on our warm up, these two boys ran by us and looked at our jerseys and said "you guys are mountain view...? like the famous one..?"

yes weird boys. we are the famous mountain view. jealous much?

then they kept on bugging us about our current team.

weirdos. but i guess it comes with the running shorts.

we ended up doing really well actually:)

we took third again:)

yay jay-vee girls!!:)

i'll post pictures once i get mine back and i'm not mooching time off my parent's..

the night before, as tradition calls for, we bought a goldfish. last year, coach's kid threw him into the lake we race around.. but we took better care of him this time!! he made it almost home..then he died...:( because TWO missionaries (or soon to be ones) didn't give xavier bjorn firman a blessing through the phone:(

but over all, i am SO glad i ended up racing. it was such an amazing race and trip. i heart my team:)

quick little catch up..:)

so obviously, i didn't meet my summer goal of blogging every day. 

oops. 

BUT as of now, i will TRY to blog consistently

so last time i wrote, was BEFORE girls camp.. that was quite a while ago. and honestly, i didn't expect much out of it. i really didn't wanna go back. it was the first year that i felt more "meh." then "YAY CAMP!!!"  although, it was my little sister's first year, and my last so i figured, it'd be one heck of a way to end my girls camp career 

it ended up being one of the most amazing years ever. and i even went running at camp:) 

right after camp, i went to park city with my best friends. Ellie and Karli Thornley. 

it was a partay. 

we did a lot of walking, a lot of driving and iron chef-ing all in one weekend because...

that monday, i left to cross country camp!!!:) 

and it looked a little like this...

THEN 

i came home, and hit up california:)
first was tkd camp.. where we trained non stop. then my fam bam met me down there and we played southern california for a while..:) 

THEN! we had time trials for cross country. 

ANNND 

i made top ten:) 

spandexxxxxx;) :) :) YES!

they look more like this only red and white:) 

as opposed to these diaper insta ride up wedge ones... that we had last year

thennnn last night, i ran a midnight 5k with my besties: )

but for the mean time, those are all the pictures i have

to be continued:) 

the fest of summer

summerfest:) 

the one weekend all summer that everyone swarms to the park to play:) 

and of course, we had to get our summerfest on.

the first day we went, we went on two rides and about died. 

buut it was really fun:) 

then we decided that we would look around cause maybe if we kept moving, we'd feel less sick?

yeah. no. we're officially babies. 

there was this one really cool stand that was selling frogs. 

FROGS!!!! AH! soo cool. 

you had to give the little boy a dollar, and he'd give you 3 balls. you had to stand behind the line and make it into one of 9 cans. if you made it, you got a frog. or if you spent 3 dollars you got a frog. 

so ellie, of course got all excited and went over. 

BUT! before we came over to the park, ruby let us do her hairs and make up:) she looked so pretty! i'm officially awesome at flat ironing hair:) 

so when we got to the frog stand, the little boy gave us 3 balls, then looked at ruby, smiled, and gave us a 4th. and when we looked at him like uhh..? the sign says 3..? are we gonna have to pay more?? he just smiled, and looked down and said, "it's for her.." 

and that just about melted our hearts:) oh puppy love:) 

i'm positive that ruby thought he was cuteeee:)

12 balls later, no one made it in. we obviously have no future in basketball. oh well. we still got frogs. two as a matter of fact. 

yay for bert and ernie:) the frogs. 

here is ruby, looking all cute and stuff :) 

then day two rolled around and this time, we were really gonna get our summerfest on. 

with tanner:) tanner is ellies lover..ooo la la..

so it was us four against summer fest. 

we ended up at the car show. and it was actually really cool. we found this one green car. like eco friendly. and the only thing that was different about it, was the spark plugs. and with just changing that, you get better gas mileage and a cool sticker:) and who doesn't want better gas mileage????!?! 

we found this one stand that did glitter tattoos:) 

so we made tanner get a glitter tattoo and said happiness in Chinese:) 

then we had to leave cause i had a wedding to go to. 

so i got home and threw some clothes together and went with ma besite, britt, to Stephanie's wedding. 

Steph has a twin, Michelle. us 3 were BEST friends since we were little. like i almost did ballroom because they were really intense dancers. and my mom and there mom were friends. 

like we had sleepovers every conference weekend and they were always the first ones to show up and the last ones to leave all my birthday parties. like we were tight. but then something went down with our mammas and we just weren't that close anymore. now it's more like we're sorta friends but not..

but i still thought it'd be nice if we went to the wedding. 

so we did. 

it's so crazy to think about how many girls my age that have babies on the way, and are tying the knot with some other boy..uhmm, yeah. my longest relationship was almost two months. 7 weeks to be exact. and that was soooo long. in a good way.. for the most part. ha. but to think that there are girls MY AGE getting married for forever, is simply absurd. but if they can make it work, props to them:) 

so we show up at the church and there's the line up. 

momma, steph, sam, and all his groomsmen... most awkward thing of my life. we pretty much said congrats, hugged her, shook hands with a dozen strangers, dropped off our present, and peaced out. 

our next destination was the parade. because we were in it:) 

tara, our main instructor, is out of town. so val was all on her own. the look in her face was heartbreaking. she taught lessons every day, all day, did everything imaginable, and ran the parade. so i asked her if she needed help with anything, and she looked at me with these huge eyes of relief, and asked if i would help with the parade. so i said yes:) then i told britt, and she asked if she could help, so we did:) 

we got to run the ENTIRE parade, and hand out fliers and frisbies. oh the things grown men will do for frisbies. pretty much, i got mauled by little kids, and lost my voice from screaming "ANYONE WANNA FRISBE??? YOU GOTTA SHOW ME YOUR BEST TAEKWONDO MOVE!!!!!" all day. then by the time i gave them out, the truck was a good 200 feet away, so i was booking it back and forth. all day. did i mention that i was wearing a BLACK tee shirt??

it was really kinda fun tho:) the looks some people gave me were really priceless. i had my hairs all curled and my black belt. little girls would look at me like "oh my goodness. she has a black belt and she's a girl.." others gave me the "oh wow. they hand those things out now a days?" then i would kick or something then they'd just smile sheepishly. oh i love my life sometimes:) 

of course we ended the day with fireworks:) 

we were in line for a ride tho. and the guy was a total jerk. we seriously stood in line for like an hour and didn't even get on. he kept on letting randoms get in from random places in line. it was SO annoying. but austin and shawn were there and kept us pretty entertained. i miss austin:) and shawn is a pretty cool kid actually. 

twins and i ended the day off with a sleepover:) too bad i'm allergic to cats since like TWO days ago??? what is this??? retarded stuff. i love sleepovers. they remind me of the good old days when nothing really matters.

then today was my little sister's first day in young womans:) awwww. she's getting soo old!!!!!

it was really funny when they asked her to say something about herself, it went something along the lines of "uhm... i like shopping.... and playing the wii...." in the most elle woods voice i've ever heard my sister talk in..

but yes. this weekend has been a blast:) 

oh! did i mention the date i went on? yeah. who knew that making play dough, playing in fountains, and milkshakes would be way fun:) andrew thomas, you're awesome:) 

and now, i'm prolly gonna regret this loooong post, because CROSS COUNTRY STARTS AT 7:30!!! TODAY!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH:) 

i love me some distance running:)