The Mercado Family



Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Hard Work!

 Over 25 years ago, when I was in high school, my friend and I would have discussions about whether or not marching band was a sport. He always said it was because they were marching around for hours, but I always disagreed. Now, I still don't know if it "qualifies" as a "sport", but I tell you what I have learned: it is dang hard! Sport or not, those kids work really hard and are dog-tired when they're done. It also has musicality and creativity involved, so bonus for them!

Kai is not in the marching band, but she is a member of it since she's in the color guard. Over the summer, they practiced every weekday for at least 3 hours. Sometimes it was 6 or 9 hours. Now, during the school year, this is what their schedule looks like:

Monday: off

Tuesday: practice from 2:45-6

Wednesday: practice 2:45-6

Thursday: off

Friday: practice 2:45-5:00, eat sack dinner and get ready, 6-9:30 ish perform at fb game

Saturday: practice from 9-9 (yes, 12 hours), or practice 8-2, then load a bus for competition and compete and then return to school and unload semi-truck and leave by 11 or midnight for home.

Sunday: off

Phew! Sometimes they get fed a snack and sometimes they get fed dinner, but often they eat a sack dinner that they pack, along with a sack lunch. On the school days, Kai goes to seminary at 6, so she's gone at least 12 hours a day most days, if not more. 

The color guard does more dance and creative movement and the marching band obviously plays music, but they also have some simple choreography in the competition routine. I don't know if the band does a lot of conditioning, but I know the color guard does. 

I got to see most of their competition performance last Friday. They go to their first competition this Saturday. I won't be able to attend that one, but will sometime soon. I was very impressed by their routine! Unfortunately, I can't post it yet as we have been asked not to post it onto social media yet, so I'll just post a some pictures of Kai at the game and the competition run-through. There is a video of their half -time show too, but it was pretty simple for the color guard. It was Band Night, which meant all of the band was playing, not just marching band. So the color guard just did a basic routine to go with it. 

I'm so happy she likes color guard! I have never been more excited to see the color guard and marching band come out onto the football field!

In the stands during the game. She's in the second row back in the section on the right, looking down.



I got a close up and she was really into this song the band was playing!

Half time song, High Hopes. She's the flag on the left.

Same place, just further out.



Overview of the band for the competition routine. It's called A Matter of Taste and takes place at a restaurant. The color guard are the customers, so their costumes are "dining clothes" and the marching band wear chefs' clothes and server outfits.

She's second on the left behind the tuba.

Now you can see her blue shirt on the left.

Blue shirt and khakis.




Below is the halftime routine. 




Thursday, September 16, 2021

Labor Day, Labor Week

 School always starts here the day after Labor Day, which seems like months ago now. We have been so busy since then, it's unbelievable! While we do have to wear masks to school again, I'm happy to do it since we were able to start the school year completely normal. 

On Labor Day weekend, Jason and I (mostly Jason as I was his assistant) worked really hard to finish the deck, which had to be completed by the next morning. I did, however, convince him to go to a family BBQ that evening at our friend's house with a bunch of other families and the missionaries. We needed the break from the deck, and we didn't have to make dinner. We just brought some fruit and veggies. Even though we stayed later than we should have, it was nice to visit with friends. Luckily, with Jason working at home, he was able to finish up the steps the next morning before his work meeting and before the inspector came and passed our deck and sunroom! We still have to put the drywall up on the back of the sunroom and do the floor, though.

Happy kids in the sunroom!

The siding has been completed too.

I love the darker blue!

Jason, hard at work!

So many details that I didn't realize!



The steps were a real pain! 

And I didn't realize how long it takes to set in pavers. So much patience and so many layers required!


Finished! (Except for the skirting on the other side and the rest of the pavers, but this is all the inspector needed to see.)

So, while Jason spends the day on calls for work in the basement and working on the financials with the Mustang for Ford and then spending his evenings working on the skirting of the deck while it's light and the sunroom as it gets dark, the kids and I have been doing all things back-to-school.

I am back with 22 students in my preschool class, only 6 are boys! Having many more students after so few last year, and they are a younger group, makes it more challenging right now, but I'm loving it!

 Victoria started 11 grade and is taking a few honors classes. She'll be doing track in the spring and is enjoying training with them after school on most days until dance starts this Thursday, in which case she still plans to train with the track team, but also dance. She's loving the comraderie of the team at the high school. She drives the car to the high school and still works twice a week. BUSY!

11th grade!


Karissa, who goes by Kai now, is in the Arts Academy at the high school now. Basically, for her ELA and World History classes she has more choices of how to show her knowledge. Instead of just writing a paper or taking a test, for example, she could write a play or a song, do a comic strip, or other creative outlets. She goes to seminary with Victoria, which now starts 20 minutes later because school starts a little later now, thank goodness! She also has orchestra with Victoria, so they have two classes together! Most days she has color guard practice for a few hours after school and all day on Saturday. Friday nights they play at the football games. It's been really fun for her!

Freshman!

First game as a color guard member! I'll post performance videos/pics later. They had a short performance this first time.

Filing out to the field. I was a chaperone and got to walk with the band to the stands and then sit near them with all the fun music during the game. It was a blast!


Austin is finally in the middle school groove, now that we're starting a "normal" year. Even when they were in person last year, he just wasn't focused. So many things were online and it was hard for him to focus. He's been on top of it all at the start of 7th grade and is comforatble and confident with school again. He's doing cross country every day after school, orchestra before school, taking piano lessons, and playing soccer again. His cross country is helping with his soccer stamina and his new coach was very impressed with his game on Saturday.  For his first cross country meet today he ran 12:10 for 2 miles and got 7th place out of the 7th and 8th grade boys. He was very proud!

7th grader!


Erik rides his bike to and from school, mostly on his own. Since all the public schools start 15-20 minutes later, I leave for work before he leaves. He's very responsible and reliable, so he gets there no problem. Jason is home working, but doesn't need to remind Erik at all. He loves his 4th grade class. His teacher is a tech-geek man, so Erik thinks that's pretty cool! He's doing really well on his soccer team and might try Stride at his school two days a week, soon. 

4th grader!

Since they all have after school activities, one would think I would have more quiet time, but no. I feel like I need to contribute, and I want to contribute. Right now, we are short on bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors, parapros, and a few other posisitions in the schools. Not to mentions garbage collectors, soccer referees, hospital staff and even workers at Wendy's (and many other places I am sure). I love my job and don't plan on getting another, but I am volunteering to help Austin's cross country coach on Mondays. I will be helping Erik's Stride coach on Thursdays, most likely, and thus far I have voluneered 3 different times for color guard/marching band activities in the past week. All those things are seasonal, so they'll end at the begninning of November and we'll see what I decide to do next, if I'm not dead by then! J/K, I actually have been blessed with tons of extra energy and have been able to just keep going, lately. Most evenings I'm even able to help Jason a little, who just keeps working hard on our projects to get them done. He's amazing! He seriously is so good at building the deck, I'm very impressed!

 He got some cool tools out of it too!

Erik and I got some donuts from the cider mill for the first day of school breakfast. 

The marching band/color guard packed over 1,000 meals for the Plymouth Fall Fest. It's one of their annual fundraisers. Kai and I helped for 3 hours. It was tiring and hot. Here's all the chicken being grilled.

Only some of the corn.

We were in an assembly line. Her job was to foil the boxes, mine was to put the corn in. 

Finished product. The chicken and corn are in the foil. There's a cookie, roll, chips, and utensils in there too. $12 a meal and people were lined up left and right! It's a tradition that's been going on for 65 years!



Sunday, September 5, 2021

Last Hurrah!

 Rather than coming home for Jason to work one day here and then heading up to Lake Michigan to meet some friends for camping at PJ Hoffmaster, we opted for Jason to work from Utah on Monday and then make the 3-day drive, heading straight for our campsite. It saved a little time and probably a lot of effort. We didn't have to unpack for the evening and then pack again for camping. It was a little hard going "home", but not home yet, though we were excited to go to Lake Michigan for our annual trip there. Even better, to meet up with friends!

Lucky for us, our friends, the Clawsons, provided the main dish of chili, so when we arrived, a little later than we wanted because of the time change and the traffic through Chicago, we didn't have to worry about cooking. We contributed our fruit and chips and enjoyed the chili with everyone else. Chili also happens to be our traditional dish while at Lake Michigan. We made it one time while there and ate it on the beach, watching the sunset over the lake. While we didn't eat it at the lake this year, we did enjoy it with friends and then we all went over to the lake for an evening swim, which is also super fun in the setting sun!

The next day, besides playing around at the campsite and nearby playground, we were mostly at the beach. Everyone enjoyed borrowing our paddleboard and our boogie boards, we all enjoyed borrowing the Onofrio's sand toys, and we all went for 1/2 price milkshakes at the local Whippi Dip ice cream shop at 3. After dinner, we went back to the lake for the evening swim, before the nighttime fire, marshmallow roasting, games, and conversation. 

It was a good time of relaxation and fun. It also helped us to start getting adjusted to the time here in Michigan, which is 2 hours different from Utah, and 3 from Vegas where we were only a few days before returning home.

Ready or not, school, here we come!


Victoria paddle boarding


Friends in the water.


Erik, Austin, and Noah


Boogie boards!

 


Sand dunes!


We always find sand from Lake Michigan somewhere in our camper the next summer!


Austin boogie boarding



 




Kennedy and Victoria 


Lucy and Karissa









Rachel makes very good dutch oven cakes!