Here it is... proof that I was crazy enough to run the Reindeer Romp 5K at Crane immediately after (and partially during), a winter storm. However, I listened to some good tips from my pro friends about running on ice, I three-layered, and I had on my lucky Naughty/Nice Santa hat (on the "Nice" side), so I felt safe! Ha! I wish I had enough pics for a slideshow, but this is the only one. Check out my running events slideshows if you need to satiate your slideshow appetite.

Today, I did one of the more insane things I've done in recent memory. At 7:00 A.M., I looked out the window to see a blanket of snow on the street and more thick flakes falling quickly. Then I got in my truck, drove to Jimmy's (Let's Go leader's) house, and rode with him and two other friends to run the Reindeer Romp 5K at Crane! Ha! It was cold, windy, and super slick. With 29:49, I met my goal of breaking 30, but only with 11 seconds to spare! My placement was 22nd... out of 25! I'm still thrilled though! Jimmy put the results and congrats to me on the Let's Go Message Board. More snow in the forecast tonight. Keep warm!

Eighth grade Science is much cooler than it was when I was in school! Ed is in the process of teaching his classes to balance chemical equations. To make it more interesting, he showed them that when you combine zinc and hydrochloric acid, the result is zinc chloride and hydrogen gas. He captured the hydrogen in a balloon, then showed the effects of combining hydrogen with an open flame. BOOM! The kids loved it. I went upstairs to see it twice, and even brought one of my classes to watch. In other news, Sam is on BNL's yearly wall-of-fame as a receiver of 2007 All-Conference honors. His grandpa took the pic, and I love it! Also, check out the two new Fun Stuff sites! The first is the Let's Go Message Board. Here, you can read all the stuff that my Let's Go teammates and I talk about! Next, check out The Oldies Channel. Mike & Deb are still the way to wake up!

It's Christmas at JoKai.net! I've changed the layout to reflect the beauty of the season. (If you can't see the new layout, or if the site looks strange, delete your temporary internet files and refresh the page.) I made this layout last year using Christmas decorations; those on the sidebar were made over the years by my father and me. Christmas decorating has been lots of fun, as was last night's Christmas parade in Bedford. Ed drove me in the parade for Lawrence County Idol. It was cold, but we had fun! We also enjoyed a chili supper, hot chocolate, and a display of model trains. We're sure in the Christmas spirit now!

How does a gal spend a dreary Sunday afternoon? Helping out a third-grader in Louisiana! I have a friend who teaches in the New Orleans area. For a Social Studies project this year, each of her students sent "Carmen," a bear he or she colored, to a different country or U.S. state. I received Christian's bear, and we've been busy taking pics of some of southern Indiana's interesting places. So far, we've been to IU's Sample Gates, the limestone formations on Highway 37, and the Otis Park Band Shell. We're going to attend a high school basketball game this weekend. There's more than corn in Indiana!

The Christmas Season is here! Mom and I spent Friday decorating each other's houses (and avoiding all shopping centers). Abbi also joined in the fun by wearing her Christmas collar. Check out the new pics on her page. On Saturday, Mom and I went to the French Lick Casino and to the West Baden Springs Hotel. The dome of the hotel is unbelievable. However, Mom and I both found that we felt a

bit disoriented when inside! Strange! In the next few days, I plan to dress up JoKai.net for Christmas, so enjoy the fall layout while it lasts! Everyone is excited about Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving! The picture to the right was taken by Ed's sister, Stephenie, on Thanksgiving Day in 2006. I hope everyone has a blessed, thankful day! I began mine with a six mile run in the cold rain and enjoyed the last half-mile with my Let's Go teammates. It was a great start to the day! (Also, the Women's Health site has my entire essay online now!)

On Thursday, Sam participated in a fundraiser for the Lawrence County Museum of History, called Teen Brain Games. Local high school students formed teams and faced off against one another by answering trivia. Out of 16 teams, Sam's team earned second place! We are proud of them! Also this week, the December issue of Women's Health hit the shelves. The first half of my "Impossible Is Nothing" essay is on page 57! It's so neat! (If you click the pic to the right, you can see the magazine better.) After printing the first half, the magazine asks readers to log on to their web site to see the rest of my essay. Unfortunately, it's not there. That's kind of a bummer, but it's still very cool to see my essay in the magazine and to know that my Adidas loot will
be here soon! Incidentally, one year ago November 19 is my run-iversary—one year of running fun!

The quilting class that Mom and I took has officially ended. We both really enjoyed the Monday evening classes. Every week, we learned more about quilting, made new friends, and had good conversation. Our final project was a quilted table runner for Christmas. Everyone's designs were all unique and festive; just check them out in the pic to the right! Mom and I really admired each other's work, so we decided to switch projects when we finished! Another quilting class is going to be given by the Parks Dept. in January, and I'm planning on enrolling!

Happy Veterans' Day! Ed and I are looking forward to performing at the BMS Veterans' Day program tomorrow. We've been super busy with Forever Gold this week, having rehearsed twice and played two gigs. The schedule will step up again soon with Christmas on the way in six weeks!

This was "pageant" weekend in Lawrence County! First, BMS's Mr. and Miss Cutter was on Friday. My nephew Alex participated as the Track team representative and won best talent! Unfortunately, I had to miss the Mr. and Miss Cutter program because I was in rehearsals for Lawrence County Junior Miss. This year's LCJM program had 17 amazing contestants; the talent was really impressive this year! Anah Hewetson was named the Junior Miss, J.J. Starr was 1st runner-up, Michelle Jones was 2nd runner-up, and Elizabeth Day was 3rd runner-up. I can't believe it's been 11 years since I competed in the Lawrence County Junior Miss program! Some of us "has-beens" posed for a picture together after the show. In other news, Forever Gold's appearance at Mike's Dance Barn has been postponed. Shoot! I'll post info about the rescheduled appearance here when it becomes available. We still have two gigs to keep us busy this week, though!

Happy Halloween! I didn't wear Mom's puppy costume today, but I did bust out the blingy eyelashes. They were fun to wear, except when I was in the sun—the rhinestones are very reflective! Don't forget to carve a pumpkin and trick-or-treat safely! The pumpkin cursor will be retired tonight; IE users, check for the turkey tomorrow! Also, tonight's Times-Mail has an article written by me! Check it out!

On Tuesday, I mustered up enough courage to do something different with my hair. Using my own ideas and advice collected from my September 12 post, I got golden red lowlights. The change is very subtle, which is the way I wanted it, but I can tell a big difference! Most folks didn't notice until later in the week. It's almost like the dye used was time-released, because it seems to have gotten a bit redder every day! That's probably my imagination. In other news, Halloween fun is in full swing! Last night was the BMS Halloween Dance. It was so fun to see the students' creative costumes! I wore Mom's new puppy mask and tail. More fall fun will include the return of Let's Go, Too, which began this week, and a Forever Gold appearance at Mike's Dance Barn on November 17!

Fall Break is almost over! Wah! However, it ended in style today at the Little Nashville Opry Talent Contest; I got third place! That means I get to go back and sing with the Little Nashville Express, their awesome band, twice next year! I'm pumped about that! No contestants got a chance to practice with the band before competing, so I was more than a little nervous. However, except for an issue with a button (see photo), the performance went off without a hitch. Also, the leaves finally turned, so we had beautiful scenery too!

Hooray for Fall Break! However, I'm missing fallish weather. It was a year ago this Saturday that I took my fall photos for the fall layout during what was last year's peak weekend for fall color. This year, nearly everything is still green. Ed says it's because it has been warm; but I thought that the changing of the leaves had to do with changing light, not changing temperature. In any case, I was hoping to see some vibrant color at the Little Nashville Opry Talent Contest on Sunday. Oh, well! I'm still looking forward to that contest, and will give the full happy report next week, even if the good news is just that I had a good time! My voice should be back to 100% by then. In the meantime, check out the old Fun Stuff site where you can carve your own pumpkin. (Also, check out Mom's from October 21, 2005.)

Yesterday, I listened over and over to a song with the lyrics, "I need a miracle," and I got one. I managed to stand center court and sing the National Anthem at Conseco Fieldhouse before last night's Pacers game, only two days after having, at best, 5% of a voice due to laryngitis. So I cracked a little on "rockets' red glare." No worries! I was just thrilled to be able to sing in near-full voice. Ed and my supergoodfriend Lisa helped calm me down and get prepared, because I was a nervous wreck yesterday morning. Anyway, Ed, Sam, Mac, and I had a great time at the game last night; just check out the slideshow I made! I hope I get asked to sing at a Pacers game again, and this time I'll nail down that "red glare."

I'm proud to unveil a new JoKai CobbWebs site: Bedford Middle School! I gave the school's site a whole new look and feel. Speaking of look and feel, I look and feel terrible. I have my worst-ever case laryngitis. I haven't been feeling well the last few days, but at 1:15 P.M. today, my voice literally just disappeared. Not good with my Pacers Anthem coming up! My doctor gave me some meds. Have any home remedies you'd like to share? In the meantime, here's a puzzle for you. Check out the floating safety pin to the right. That pic has not been photoshopped! Any guesses on how it worked? You can see if you look closely! Also, check out the clean-cut Cobb family below in their 2007-2008 school pics!

Yeah, those are painted rocks. For some reason, I bought a book about rock painting, then made the rocks to the right for Dad, Mom, Ed, Sam, and Mac. You can probably guess whose was whose. I have two exciting bits of news to share this week. First, I've been asked to contribute to the sequel of Math Doesn't Suck, a book about math for middle school girls. Next, I will be singing the Anthem at a Pacers pre-season game in one week. Yeah!

DAD IS THE 2007 SENIOR CITY CHAMPION! Way to go, Dad! This is Dad's second consecutive Senior title. He shot a blistering 4-under par 68 yesterday to win by six strokes. His round was unbelievable; he had seven birdies, two of which came from off the green. Ed, Mom, and I enjoyed following him on two beautiful days. I'm so glad I got to witness all 141 of his awesome shots, and I made a slideshow so others could see some of the awesome-ness as well. It's linked on the Fun Stuff page. Check it out! Interestingly, Sam won a 4-ball tournament with his friend Jared yesterday, as well! What a great golfing day! Today is the first day of my favorite month, and I'm anticipating some exciting things: the quilting class, my cousin's 16th birthday, Fall Break, the Little Nashville Opry Talent Contest, a (slight) hair change, Forever Gold fun, and beautiful Fall weather!

Forever Gold had a gig at French Lick Springs Resort last week. We performed for a State Special Ed. Convention and had a great time! I added some pics to the Forever Gold Pics & Clips page. Our next scheduled appearance is at Mike's Dance Barn in Nashville, IN. For details, check out the Forever Gold page! If you're wondering where all the recent What's Up stuff went, check out Summer 2007 in the What's Up Archive, also linked at the bottom of the page. In other news, Dad is only one stroke out in the Senior City Championship. He shot 73 today! Go Dad! Finally, remember the "Impossible Is Nothing" essay? IT WON! I'm going to be published in Women's Health in December!

Fall! Is! Here! I don't care if it's still in the 90s; I'm going to start celebrating Autumn! I changed the JoKai.net layout to its Fall look. (If you can't see it, delete your temporary internet files and refresh the page.) The Fall layout is special to me because I made it using leaves I found and pics I took on a Fall excursion last year. Fall brings football, and Mac's 8th grade BMS football season is in full swing. Check out the pics of him to the right! For more Fall fun, Mom and I have signed up for a quilting class, offered by the local Parks Dept., that will begin on October 1. We hope to be professional quilters by November! Something to which I'm also looking forward this Fall is the Little Nashville Opry Talent Contest, in which I'm a contestant, to be held on October 21 at 1:00 P.M. If watching some live country music singin' on a Sunday afternoon sounds fun, let me know! Tickets are $10, and you can get them from me.