Krispy Kreme Challenge....check

Well I did it. I completed the Krispy Kreme Challenge. My goals were:
- run the whole thing without walking....check
- eat all 12 doughnuts without throwing up....check (GROSS, GROSS, GROSS)
- finish in under an hour....check

My official time is 58 minutes and 40 seconds, and I came in 1,951 st place out of 5,200 people. Only 2,126 people completed the challenge (meaning ate all 12 doughnuts and finished running in under an hour).

I am sooooo glad it is over. I did induce vomiting about an hour and a half after the race because I felt so horrible...I'm pretty sure it would of happened naturally soon anyway.

I am so glad I got to be part of an NC State tradition and I am so glad I successfully completed the challenge, so next year I will not feel obligated to be re-challenged.

Doughnut boys ran in their intertubes!
Funny costumes!

Grace and I pre-race (she ran but did not eat the doughnuts...SMART girl!)

Sam Marshall and John Berger (I can't find their times on the finisher list...so I'm not sure if they "completed the challenge")

Almost there!...I was 1/4 mile from the finish and I was feeling horrible even though I look really good in this picture!!!!

Victory is SWEET!

Two of my supporters: Blanca and Ekaterina (Destino members).

A lot of people dress up in funny things: there was Santa, girls in 80's dresses, The Incredibles, guys in speedos, etc. Below is the Inter Varsity group that ran and they say "Do If For the Kids"...the KK Challenge is to raise money for children's hospitals. (This year we raised $35,000).
These are just a few pictures from our hunger dinner program last month!

happenings....

Let's see...

I have been going to aerobics classes some days in stead of running because the whether is cold. My favorites are Muscle Blast, Spring Break a Sweat, Total Knock Out, and ABSolutions. They all make me sore!...and then I try to run 3 days a week.

Speaking of running, I am registered to compete in the Krispy Kreme Challenge on February 7 at 9:30 am. ESPN is supposed to be covering the race.
1 hour
12 doughnuts
4 miles
$15 to children's hospitals
My personal goal: completion without vomiting under an hour

I also really like my Aasics Running shoe...I made the switch from New Balance to Aasics over Christmas.

I had a Hunger Dinner Program. We had a dinner of beans, rice, and corn bread to raise awareness of world hunger. Pictures to come...

We have THREE new members in Destino this semester! I am super excited about Destino Conference in Texas mid-February. Holly (campus Crusade Destino representative) has started weekly discipleship with me...which I'm enjoying. I also got to lead our fist Destino meeting this week and I will be discipling two of the girls in our group (Gladys and Berenice).

My hair is getting really long and my skin is super pale from lack of sun.

I have been going to membership classes at Christ the King (the church I attend: CTK)...mostly just to get to know other people. I have been "adopted" by a family at CTK who will feed me in their home once a month (family of four with two kids in elementary school!).

I went salsa dancing with Hillary and friends on Tuesday night and had a blast!

I am currently reading through the book of Joshua and the song that my mom use to sing about Joshua 1:9 is constantly stuck in my head.

I eat a lot of ice cream! I like to get a variety of flavors from the C-Store using my board bucks (RA Payment!) and keep/eat it in my room.

We have a Superbowl party this weekend in Syme as a program. We are ordering like 1,000 wings and 1,000 pizzas (that's is a major exaggeration, but we are getting a lot of food!).

...that's probably enough for now!!!!

Yes, it SNOWED...in Raleigh!

I woke-up to a wintery-wonderland this morning! We got a little over 6 inches of snow today.

I LOVE long weekends!!!!

I actually spent most of the weekend doing homework...I have seriously never had so much. It's not that hard, there is just a lot of it...a lot of reading!

Also this weekend I got to meet my friend Heather's new baby twins!!! She is married to one of the Honduran brothers that Hillary and I are friends with. Poor Heather has five children!!! Jocelyn (7), Hannah (5), Seth (3), and the twins Gabriel and Elijah. I did not know until today that Heather is only 23! I am excited for this opportunity to be her friend. Pray that our relationship would grow and that I would be able to bless her by spending time with her and helping her with "childcare". I also LOVE playing with her other three children...they are sooo fun! Today we played Freeze-Tag for an hour. Fortunately, her mother-in-law stays at their apartment 5 days a week to help out!

Below is Elijah Preston and Gabriel Antonio. They are 3 weeks old!

Big Brother Seth (3 years)Me feeding baby Gabriel

Baby Gabriel Antonio

Big Sister Jocelyn and Baby Elijah
Seth, Me, Gabriel, and Hannah

Baby Elijah Preston

I also celebrated my friends John York and Jasmine Cooper's birthdays on Saturday. A big group of us went out to eat at P.F. Chang's Chinese Restaurant.


This past week Allison and I held a Knitting Program for our residents. It was a big hit and I see the girls working on the scarfs when I walk past their rooms!

First week of class......check.

Factual Statements:

-I lost my voice. Yesterday I was pretty much silent, and today I sound like a man, tomorrow?????.....
- I am currently training for the Krispy Kreme Challenge. (2 miles, 12 donuts, 1 hour, $15 to children's hospitals)
- First Destino Meeting is Tonight and we are planning for Destino Conference in February and just catching up
- Thursday, Allison (co-RA) and I are doing knitting program for our residents. We had 10 girls sign-up. They will be learning how to knit scarfs and we are using chop-sticks (instead of knitting needles) to offset costs!
- Starting next week I will be weekly tutoring an ESL student as a requirement to one of my education courses...and I'm excited!!!

This semester's theme: READ

For my bulletin board I created a "New Year's" theme. The board has information about new year's resolutions, how to keep them, etc. I also put a large piece of white paper in the middle for my girls to write their personal new year's resolution or semester goal. For myself, I wrote "read more for fun". I really do enjoy stories, but I spend so much time in school reading un-enjoyable books that during my free time the last thing I want to do is pick up a book. But I decided that this year was going to be different...I was going to read more for FUN!

So, classes started yesterday and I have been getting all my syllabi and assignments for the semester, etc....and GUESS WHAT most of my new classes include????? You got it, READING! (Disclaimer: the exclamation mark is to emphasize shock, NOT convey excitement.)

Serves me right. I deserve to spend this semester reading more than ever,...I asked for it, right? Apparently next year I need to emphasize and repeat the "FOR FUN" more than the "READING" part of my new year's resolution. ....live and learn!

As for classes, I will try to give my first impressions in a timely manner:
~Tutoring Adolescents: I start this class on Tuesday
~Educational Psychology: I LOVE MY TEACHER. She was so prepared, not overwhelming, and creative in presentation. She has her Doctorate and she deserves it. I only have her class once a week (but for almost 3 hours at a time).
~School and Society: I like this teacher as well. Not as creative, but very organized and seemingly caring of her students. All her test are online and openbook...however they are timed!. She has assigned LOTS of reading. She is a hefty black lady in her early thirities, has a large gap inbetween her two front teeth, has her doctorate, had a blue tongue on the first day of class (I'm guessing she eats blue candy!), has fake black people hair, and looks more like she should be working in a barber shop in downtown New York...and I like her! Not a sterotypical teacher.
~English as a New Language: This is my ESL online course. It should be very informative and relavent to my life.
~Spanish Oral and Writing: Will be an easy class, but I can use the opportunity to learn if I push myself. Also, after a schedule mishap, my advisors are allowing me to use this class (which I don't need credit wise) to replace one of my Senior Spanish classes. This will help me to have a more relaxing senior year!
~Latin American History: The teacher is a really old white guy. He seems to know his stuff. There are a LOT of reading assignments. Hopefully it will be interesting....but I'm not really a fan of "textbook-style-history-learning".
~Nutrition: I like it so far. Should be relatively easy, informative, and practical (there's always room for nutritional emprovement, right?). After one class, our teacher, Dr. "Something", has already convienced me to never eat a burger at Hardees!

Last Day of Freedom, with a little bit of Hawaii

So today is my last free day. I start classes in the morning. I don't feel like I have had enough of a vacation, but I guess that happens when you have never really had 2 consecutive college semesters back to back before. (...Costa Rica, Spain...got me use to LONG vacations!). I think this semester will be tough, but I'm ready for the challenge. The past few days I have been in RA training, hanging out with residents, and reading a lot. (I got the book Redeeming Love for Christmas).

Below are a few pictures I stole from Amy (Zach's girlfriend) of them in Hawaii.


In these two pictures they are at a wedding reception (not sure who's though).

Scuba diving....


400 ft waterfall (not sure which one)