Best Days Ever (for me)

My college roommate, Rachel, came to visit for almost a week.  She stayed with us, despite the chaos in the basement and the crazy dog and a variety of commitments I had on the calendar.  And it was so fun.  We got together numerous times with Sandy and Christi because we had all been at college together.  When I was busy, one or both of them entertained her.  Sometimes we hung out at my house, sometimes went out, sometimes at Christi’s.  It didn’t matter where, there was always conversation. 

I love that we just pick up wherever we left off.  There is no awkward phase of what we will talk about.  It just is friendship and sharing and being. 

Most of the picture taking happened when we went to explore Wadsworth – the shops, the murals, the gelato – and a little park nearby.  We also did a lot of eating.  And the girls decorated the dining room for Rach’s birthday!

                    

    

And I need to go visit her, too.

Random Summer Happenings

Welcome to summer.  It will go fast, a blink of an eye, but we will enjoy it.  Here are some pictures of the first month of fairly insignificant happenings. Pepper, 4 –H service project (actually before summer started), Jen Quinones visited and we went BOWLING!, a picnic with the neighbor girls.

We also visited a new bookstore/coffee shop in Apple Creek, Midnight Readers, for a craft activity night with Sandy.  We thought we were making one bookmark and having a special drink.  We were pleasantly surprised that we made 2 bookmarks and a keychain while we drank our drinks.  It was crafty.  It left no time to peruse the bookstore, so we will have to go back to do that another time. 

              

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!