RoAd TrIp on AcTiViTy BuS!

Last weekend we took the cross country team out east on a lil' road trip!  The seniors were recognized at the football game Friday night so we hit the road AFTER that which ended up being about 8:30pm!  It definitely takes a LOT longer to get places when you are on a BUS.  The purpose of this road trip was for the team to practice on the state course in Kernsersville, NC and familiarize themselves with this course since the STATE MEET is coming up quickly on November 5th and of course for TEAM BONDING too.

We arrived at our hotel around 2 in the morning and wow, it was a DISASTER!  I'll spare you the details but I can honestly say the team REJOICED and really had great attitudes about this not so nice hotel :)

Some of the team :)

Such a great bus driver :)

Meet Maggie :)  Coach Knight's daughter!
She (and her sister) were the only ones allowed get DONUTS at Dunkin Donuts :) 

DD Coffee - so good!
I don't think I need to convince you from this picture about the LACK of sleep that took place Friday night :)

Strategizing on the course!

Lots of push-ups!

Rance is up in the air clapping :)

Crunches & lots of em!

A-long KILLED!

After practice we stopped at a truck stop and everyone changed clothes before we headed to SCAROWINDS!!! :)

Poor lil' Frank letting the girls do his hair!

Adorable HA!

Almost done...

At SCAROWINDS!

Scarowinds was open until 1am and you better believe we stayed until the last minute!  Thanks to Tacey's dad (Tacey ran XC for Rance in previous years and I basically LOVE her) - we crashed at their house in Charlotte about 3am and back up bright & early to hit the road Sunday morning!

Everyone obviously CRASHED on the bus ride back!

We made a pit stop in Asheville to buy Lindy some new running shoes!

YAY for new shoes! :)

We stopped to eat Chinese & well, Irvin likes lemons :) Enuff about that!

Thank you Jesus for this group of runners and for an incredibly fun weekend!  We are headed to Cherokee on Saturday for REGIONALS...

XC update!

Last Wednesday was an incredibly special day for the cross country team!  You see, the girls team started the season this year without having a FULL team.  Basically in order to compete as a team you must have 5 girls.  We only had 4.  Why?  My husband has them on a training program that'll kill a person and some just don't want to do the work & discipline to get better.  

In the book "So You Want to be like Christ" by Charles Swindol - late coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry quotes "My job is to get men to do what they don't want to do to achieve what they've always wanted to achieve."  That's Rance's philosophy!  You cannot win a state championship by doing the things you 'want to do'.  We are human and we want the easy way out of everything.  Rance's goal is not to 'kill' them as I said above - but to teach them to discipline themselves and do what they do not want to do (giving up all soft drinks/caffeine, eating healthy, practicing/running like animals) to achieve what they have always wanted to achieve!  Achieving anything requires discipline - determined, deliberate, definable actions with a clear goal in mind.  As a coach, Rance wants to help the team achieve its goal by training, motivating and encouraging runners to stick to the plan.  Swindol says in his book that the word discipline drips with sweat.  "When I see the word discipline, I think of punishing workouts that produce results that everyone admires...and no one enjoys."  Is that not the truth? 

The same concept applies to our spiritual lives and that's what Swindol's book is all about.  Why exercise spiritual disciplines?  TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST!  "When you pray, pray so that you may know Him.  When you seek to simplify, do it as a means of knowing Him more.  When you surrender, or behave with humility or sacrifice, do it with the sole purpose in mind to know Him."  I highly recommend reading this book if your desire is to KNOW HIM.  This book will suggest ways to discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness (1 Timothy 4:7). 

Back to cross country...

So the season began with just 4 girls running - Amber, Lindy, Mallory & Madison.  Even though they couldn't compete as a team in the beginning - they still worked hard and just competed individually at each school race.  Can you imagine how hard that would be though?  Knowing every race that you run that you cannot win as a team!   

Part way through the season one of Rance's cross country runners from last year, Amanda, (who is playing volleyball this year) found out the team only had 4 runners - she decided to do BOTH volleyball and cross country.  She could not come to all the practices but she ran on the Wednesday race days which meant at least we had 5 girls now and could compete as a TEAM.  

High School Cross Country Girl's Team
Lindy, Amanda, Mallory, Madison & Amber

What's incredible is - this team went from not even having enough girls to compete as a team to....








WINNING THE CONFERENCE last Wednesday!!!!!!   

Here are the ORIGINAL 4
Lindy, Mallory, Amber & Madison
(Amanda had to make it to the volleyball game so she is missing in this picture)

Jesus did NOT have to bless us with the CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP but He did!  Wednesday was full of tears because in NO WAY did we believe we had a shot at this since we did not even have a full team for part of the season.  Let's just say Jesus is full of surprises and we give Him all the GLORY for this big WIN!

GLORIOUS DAY LIVE!

Rance and I just realized a few weeks ago that we are actually in the LIVE Casting Crowns video for the song Glorious Day (one of our favorites).  We went to this concert while we were dating and we had tickets on the 2nd row!  They mentioned it was LIVE but we never thought the first thing about it.  Almost a year later we find out we are in the video when a sweet lady from church told us about it! 

A couple of weeks later I had a co-worker email me and say "Is that you at 4:09 and 4:16 in this you tube video?" Honestly, I had forgot all about the casting crowns video and my heart sunk thinking "WHAT YOU TUBE VIDEO AM I IN?"  My mind is racing thinking of how Rance and I are with teenagers the majority of our life and I could only imagine what they had put on the internet!  As I clicked the link I realized it was Rance and I worshipping our FIRST LOVE at 4:09 and 4:16!  PRAISE HIM.

Casting Crowns - GLORIOUS DAY LIVE VIDEO


The lyrics to this song are incredible...

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a Virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He

Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed

Living He loved me, dying He saved me
And buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day

One day they led Him up Calvary's mountain
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He

Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree
And took the nails for me
'Cause living He loved me, dying He saved me
And buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He's ascended, my Lord evermore

Death could not hold Him
The grave could not keep Him from rising again
Living He loved me, dying He saved me
And buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day
Glorious day

One day the trumpet will sound for His comingOne day the skies with His glories will shine
Wonderful day, my beloved one bringing
My Savior Jesus is mine

Living He loved me, dying He saved me
And buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day
Glorious day, oh, glorious day


What a Savior.  To think Jesus went to the cross with JOY and in complete submission to the Father and He took those nails for you and for me.  I love to think how DEATH COULD NOT HOLD HIM and the grave could not keep HIM from RISING again.  Ahhhh!  One day He is coming - don't wait to 'get your life right' - noone is promised tomorrow!  Choose today to believe that Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived a perfect life, died on a cross to pay for the sins of the world (yours & mine), rose from the grave 3 days later and is one day COMING BACK!  Do you believe that?

Have a BLESSED Tuesday :)

Field Trip!?!

So as I'm working this morning and I get a text from Rance that says "field trip lol I will explain later"...


....and this picture was attached!


HAHAHAHA made me laugh so I thought I'd share!  I personally cannot wait to hear the explanation for this!


Only Rance & Only in Robbinsville...


Have a GREAT weekend!  :)

GLORY TO JESUS!

This weekend was super special for MANY reasons! 

1. This was the first middle school state championship race that the Robbinsville Black Knights entered into as a TEAM.  They do not separate 1A through 4A schools - it's just ONE BIG RACE!
2. Rance also had 2 middle school boys that entered into the race as individuals.
3. Many of these middle school girls ran cross country for the FIRST time this year.  To watch their improvement and discipline over the past few months has been incredible.
4. Friday afternoon we practiced on the state course and all the parents were there to support!  We prayed on the field and ended the night with some PASTA at Red Lobster.  Team bonding and parental support is such a blessing!
5. Saturday morning we all bonded over breakfast and then headed out to the STATE MEET
6. The nervousness and excitement of these girls/boys was priceless.  Not to mention my nerves were TORE up too.

 

Arriving Saturday morning!



Warm up run!

 

At the starting line! :)



I did not take one single picture during the race due to running all over the place SCREAMING for each runner!!!  It's so funny to watch how they speed up when they hear someone cheering for them. 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for the RESULTS...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing from the list above - today was SO SPECIAL because...

 

     6.   The girls WON THE MIDDLE SCHOOL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!

Massive dumping of WATER on Coach...

And more...

and even more!!!

High Fives, Lots of Smiles & TEARS!



I love Rance watching their reactions!  He was like a proud daddy!



And the whole team shouted "TO GOD BE THE GLORY!" 

 

Robbinsville Black Knights - MIDDLE SCHOOL STATE CHAMPIONS!!!



Proud Coach & Coach's Wife
JESUS YOU ROCK!

Maddie, Taryn & Shawnda!
These 3 gals are the 8th graders on the girls team that will be joining the HIGH SCHOOL XC team next year!



They all celebrated by drinking MOUNTAIN DEWS for the first time since cross country season began :)  This team did what they needed to do from training hard, to eating right, to giving up all soft drinks, to pushing & encouraging one another along the way!  That same kind of discipline should be applied to our spiritual lives!  Philippians 3:10 clearly states that OUR DETERMINED PURPOSE IS TO KNOW HIM - but knowing HIM will require discipline and sacrifice (just like training hard to win a state championship).  Our prayer is that this team walks away applying the same kind of DISCIPLINE to their walk with Jesus daily!   

And that brings me to the 7th reason continuing from the list above...

      7.  The ministry with this team is the most important part to Rance and I.  Winning is great   

           but their salvation and walk with Jesus is the priority. 


THANK YOU JESUS!

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:17)

XC Middle School State Championship

We are headed to Guilford College in Greensboro, NC this weekend for the Middle School State Championship Cross Country race!  Rance's middle school girls team WON conference on Monday and are headed to compete for the state title tomorrow!

Meet the team :)

GO BLACK KNIGHTS!

Old MacDonald had a Farm...

Let's just be honest for a minute - when several people met me for the first time in Robbinsville - they had misunderstood that I was from 'Raleigh' so they automatically labeled me as a 'city girl' and I KNOW they were thinking 'wow that poor girl is going to go into culture shock here gosh she'll just absolutely hate it here.'  You think I'm kidding but I've actually had people tell me this is what they first thought when they met me and even before they met me.  Isn't that awful?  That's why you can't judge people (read God's Word)!  What they didn't know is that I grew up and spent 18 years of my life in the country...where stoplights don't exist...on a farm...working my butt off in a tobacco field...in this place called Nahunta which doesn't even have it's own post office.  If my husband had moved me to New York City then I'd be going into culture shock; however, if that's where the Lord called us then that's where we would go and I'd absolutely LOVE it because being in His sweet spot is better than comfort! 

And for the record, I love Robbinsville :)

Back to the farm - this past weekend Rance and I made a road trip to NAHUNTA to visit the family!  It was such a fun weekend full of farming and lots of family time :)  Saturday was absolutely GORGEOUS outside and there was lots of cotton to pick and hay to get up! 

Welcome to our farm in Nahunta...

That's my brother :) It's hay time!
And that deer stand in the background is calling my husband's name!

Meet my daddy!

Travis with the hay baler!

Getting up the hay!
Rance is in the orange hat!

Rance supporting "Nahunta Feed Supply"!
And I love his backside :)

Oh Rance!  He brings JOY to everything.

A trailer LOAD of hay!!! 
& Check out the SKY!

 

My cousin Brooke driving the truck :)



Mama and I on the Rhino!

Now time for a cotton pickin' good time!

Rance and Travis inside :)

Watching this whole process is amazing!

COTTON...

....COTTON...

...AND MORE COTTON!!! 
So incredible to think clothes are made out of this! 
People better thank Jesus for farmers because if they didn't exist we would be
starving and naked.

A load full ready to dump!

Sunday was special because Rance and I finally got to spend some time with my extended family on my dad's side!  My granny had everyone over for lunch and we sat outside for HOURS and laughed and talked!



Just a few pictures...

My sweet lil cousin Katie :)

One of the newest additions to the family - Miss Emma  



The other newest addition to the family - Miss Allie
(Allie & Emma were born on the SAME day and their mommy's are SISTERS)



Love them :)

This is how we roll in Nahunta! :) 
Sunday afternoon horse & carriage ride!!!

I love family :)