End of the Year

Well, May slips by so quickly every year, and this year was no exception.  It is because there is so much going on.  So, this is just a mumble jumble of things that happened.

Choir / Band concerts… These are always fun.  Madison is not doing band next year (wanted to open her schedule up to more types of electives), so this was a last concert for her.  Madison’s choir made it to the state level of OMEA competition.  So, we went and watched her perform on Saturday early morning at Jackson High School; then, we went shopping to add some more fun to the day.

Ellie’s 7th grade choir broke out in song AND dance.  They performed and danced to Footloose which was a lot of fun to watch. 

         

Then, there were dances.  Madison is not old enough for prom, but we went to grand march, held inside due to rain, to watch Sam and Lilli (along with others).  Sam took Maddie Kate, and Lilli went with Noah. 

    

Ellie had her end of the year middle school dance.  I loved the dress she chose, and in the end, she loved it too.  I was gone with track, and Heather Pauli offered to have her come over and get ready at their house with Bailey and a few other friends, Maylynn and Kinslee.  She had fun prepping and did a great job on her hair (I think pretty much on her own!).  After the dance, pretty much all the 7th grade girls ended up at Linc-Way Cafe for drinks, snacks, and extra hanging out.  She had fun.

   

In high school, they have a lot more award things – sports banquets and academic awards are two that Madison was a part of this year.  She received a certificate for volleyball.  She was awarded a varsity letter for track.  And she earned an academic letter for her hard work in the classroom.  Pretty fantastic start to high school.

    

Graduation ceremony.  I hadn’t been since I graduated 29 (!!!) years ago to Dalton’s graduation.  Lilli was going to be walking to get her diploma, so we joined the ceremony this year.  Mr. (John) Gregory, my high school trigonometry teacher, was retiring, and he gave a speech along with the valedictorians. 

     

Memorial Day parade and program marked the official end of Madison’s marching band career.  She enjoyed it although she didn’t love it.  That paired with the time it took up during volleyball season was enough to solidify her decision to let it go. 

And packing up my classroom.  I don’t usually take pictures of my empty room, but this year, for some reason, I felt the need to document the closure.

    

Bring on SUMMER!

Madison Continues with Track

Madison had a hard November when she tried out for the 323 volleyball league and didn’t make it.  They said they would like to see her strengthen her serving and passing skills.  It was incredibly disappointing.  Her plan was to do this in the spring to improve her volleyball for the fall.  It would be her spring sport.  However, it didn’t work out as we had hoped.

But it was a blessing in disguise.  Because she didn’t participate in that, she decided she would try track at the high school level.  She was unsure which events to do.  She had done hurdles and high jump in middle school.  So, she started there.  She did some work outs with the sprinters and didn’t love it.  She did work outs with the distance people and found her groove.  She still did some hurdle work, but her focus became the mile, a hole that needed filled on the roster, and whatever else was needed.  She did 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, ran on the 4x400m relay, and ran on the 4x800m relay, and ran the 800m dash/run.  She had a lot of fun this season getting to know the girls on the team, working to PR (personal record), and just running… she says running is fun (must get that from Jeremy!). 

It was fun to watch her mile time tick down by seconds as the season progressed.  Her first meet she ran a 7:12, then a 7:03, then her goal was to be sub 7 minute mile.  She hit that mark at the next meet with a 6:59:49!  The next week, she knocked 10 seconds off that time for a 6:49:92!  At WCAL meet, she ran a 6:48:6.  And at districts, she placed 13th with a time of 6:48:33.  Every meet she pushed harder and came up a little quicker.  And let me tell you, the weather was not in her favor!  We sat through rain, snow, wind, cold almost every meet.  If it was a track day, you could almost guarantee it was raining.

                  

She also was a part of the 4x800m relay team.  The first time mid-season.  They ran a 10:53 collectively that race.  Then, because her friend, Jaida, was struggling physically with her knees by the end of the season, Madison filled in for her at districts.  My mom joined me to cheer Madison on at Districts which were an hour away (Jeremy was traveling and Ellie had a middle school dance).  And it was raining for the beginning of the meet, but let up by the time her relay came around.  They blew their previous time out of the water with a time of 10:34 (Madison’s leg was 2:53) to place 3rd and move onto regionals. 

        

We celebrated with Cane’s afterwards.

Regionals were also about an hour away.  Jeremy was traveling (again!), but Ellie went with me to cheer her on!  And you guessed it, it rained!  Then, let up for us to watch the relays.  The team did well, but the competition was tough.  They placed 11th with a time of 10:35 (Madison’s leg was 2:54).  But with such a young team, one junior, one sophomore and two freshmen, they could be so proud of what they did!

    

Way to go, Madison!  I am learning to love track.  So proud of your hard work!

Ellie tries out Track

So, as a middle schooler, there are a few sports options – cross country, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, cheerleading, and track.  Ellie started the year with volleyball and took off the winter sports season.  She got bored and decided that track would be worth a shot.  And she loved it! 

I was surprised that she loved it to be honest, but I was so happy she did.  She tried long jump, high jump, and 100m hurdles.  She was able to compete the most with high jump since you can send 3 people to invites and there were not many participating (usually 8th graders will take those spots).  She cleared opening height (3’8”) at her first meet.  Her PR was clearing 4’2” at Chippewa – 3 levels up from starting! 

    

She hurdled in county head to head meets and tried long jump once.  I wasn’t very good at clocking her hurdle times.  I only have the one from Chippewa with a time of 22.19 seconds.

    

I am fairly certain she will go out again.  It will be interesting to see if she sticks with the same events or broadens her scope.  Way to go, Ellie!  It was so fun watching you do new things this year!

Wrapping Things Up

We have worked in spurts at Gloria’s to try to clean out the house – donating, saving, selling, auctioning, throwing away, etc.  Jennifer stayed for about the entire month of December organizing and sorting things.  Jason has come for some whirlwind weekend trips.  The whole Minnesota Yoh family came over spring break for some days and did some work.  Jeremy has been over there consistently doing many things – meeting people for Marketplace sales, cleaning ladies, small clean out days, big clean out days, and more.  Then, I rounded up a few willing souls to put in time and energy and who wouldn’t be afraid to just get things done.  A HUGE shout out to Chris Daniels, my mom, Sandy, Steph M., David Bricker (hauling stuff one day), Madison, and Ellie.  Here are just some pictures from this time… (note that we did have fun… my button, Jeremy fitting in the trunk, dress up with the girls)

         

And then the house was empty, staged, and put up for sale (along with the 4 other condos in the allotment!).  We were beyond blessed that it sold for asking price quickly.  Working with Laura Martin, our relator from buying/selling our home, was a joy.

The secretary at my school was also selling her father-in-law’s condo across the street from Gloria’s.  She captured this photo one evening when they were there.  A reminder of the promises of God that we will be together again one day. 

Holiday Gatherings

Happy Easter!  At church, we had used the Lenten season to pin our thoughts, prayers, struggles to the cross after each sermon.  Then, on Easter, we did the “blossoming of the cross” which we hadn’t done since Madison was a little baby.  It is a beautiful moment where everyone adds greens and flowers to turn the wooden cross into beauty and life. 

Jen and Arturo were in town for Easter this year which was good.  They came for the meal, but left fairly quickly to join some of the Brickers in Easter festivities. 

We took the traditional family pictures… While I love this tree (really), I hate the shadowing and the fact we are always facing the sun.  We need to pick a new spot for pics.  (I’ll be thinking…)

         

Jen (Ediger) offered to be in charge of a festive thing/egg hunt for the grandkids.  It is always debated whether this should even happen since they are all getting older.  She is pretty good at coming up with unique ways to hunt eggs.  This year, all the kids had to hide their eyes,

and the dads taped the eggs on to their clothing.

Then, on the count of three, the grandkids could chase the dads to grab the egg of their color; the first one with all their eggs got a special prize.

    

Then, she had them play a dice game of passing eggs.  This one was a bit confusing for them – required a lot of focused brain power, and they were on vacation mode.  But they tried it. 

And other things that day… Pepper went on a walk with Bella – both ignored the other one.  The girls played emoji texting hide-and-seek – venturing out on the roof for the ultimate hide.

    

Fast forward about a week and…. Happy 50th anniversary, Mom and Dad!  My parents celebrated 50 years in April.  It’s a pretty big deal really.  When we asked if they wanted a little cake and people reception, they said they just wanted to get together as a family.  Well, let me tell you, it was not easy getting a date that would work for everyone.  We left mom and dad out of the group text and the stress, and finally decided to do an early supper at Broken Rocks Cafe in Wooster.  They seated us at two tables of ten – adults and kids.  It was just a short time of being together and sharing a meal.  We, of course, added a spur-of the-moment addition to Hartzler’s Dairy for some ice cream and more talking. 

   

Fast forward about two weeks and … Happy Mother’s Day! 

Almost skipped gathering on this holiday because we had gotten together so frequently.  But it was mother’s day AND mom’s 70th birthday, so kinda a big deal.  At the last minute, I invited everyone over for hamburgers, salad, and anything they wanted to contribute to that meal.  Surprisingly, everyone was able to make it!  It was a good time to be together, even though we had just seen each other. 

Steph M. had worked to make a beautiful quilt (machine/hand quilted) for mom when she was diagnosed with colon cancer.  We all wrote encouraging words or scripture for her.  We hadn’t seen the finished product until this day.  It was stunning.  I loved what she choose to do with all of it.  Here is a picture of mom holding it.

Fast forward again about a month… Father’s Day!  Madison and Ellie made some creative cards for Jeremy; it is neat to read what they say to him in the cards and see their creativity.  We also gave him an Ohio State t-shirt; he laughed because there was no tag, and it smelled “washed.”  I had to admit we found it while shopping at a resale shop… but it’s the thought that counts. 

Again, it was almost skipped, until mom came to the rescue with a last minute offer to buy pizza and have a gathering.  Pretty much everyone came.  Mom had picked up a “fun, festive” shirt for dad to wear… which he did. 

And there it is.  Two months of getting together all in one post.  I am putting these posts in order (mostly), but definitely not in a timely manner!