That Time of Year

 Now that we are fully invested in the cross-country life, for now anyway, the meets and Halloween festivities intermingle. And both are almost over for this season!

As I mentioned two weeks ago, Kade has been a scare actor at a haunted house, which we went to see last weekend. I didn't take any pics of Austin, Erik, Jason, and me when we arrived since it was pretty dark. The Pumpkin Factory, where the haunted house is, is located in Belleville, about 30 minutes south of us, and is in the country. There are hardly any lights in the surrounding areas. There are all sorts of fall activities to do there in the day, but at night, it's just the haunted hayride, which only Austin and Erik did, and the haunted house, which is actually a bunch of trailers connected together. 

Scare Actor Kade!

Kade gave them a heads-up that we were coming, so they knew to look for his family, and they could give him a warning. The lady collecting the tickets said, "Some very special guests have arrived, including Valerie," in a spooky voice. Then we proceeded to go through. Luckily, Erik was in front, where all the jump scares are, so there was less screaming from me. I was in the back, also not a good place to be, but it was fine. Kade's friends were excellent in their roles, and Kade plays a very creepy clown. They had an awards ceremony last night, and Kade got a "pee award", meaning he made someone pee their pants from fear. He's very proud of it, and I'm just glad it wasn't me who peed my pants! (It does help when you know who's doing the scaring.)

They all got a "Freak Squad" patch, and to the right is Kade's pee award.

Last night was our ward's Halloween party. The Youth did a great job with the games and scavenger hunt they put on for the Primary kids. Pizza and pumpkin pie were served, which was a first and very welcome at this party. We always finish it off with a trunk or treat.

Lois Lane and Superman

Pedro and Napoleon 

So funny!!

A cow and "6  7".

The Youth participated in the parade with the Primary kids. 

The XC update this week was another sick and successful story. There was no school on Tuesday for a teacher development day (I think the main reason was for Diwali). Tuesday night, Austin wasn't feeling well. He said his "bones hurt". On Wednesday morning, he had a fever. Other symptoms were a sore throat and some congestion. He stayed home on W and Th, but his bones were feeling better Thursday night, and he no longer had a fever. So he went to school on Friday and got to participate in the pre-meet run. He still didn't feel 100%, but good enough. We did the usual treatments that we do to help when he gets sick, though he didn't ingest quite as much garlic as the last time because we were the host house for the XC team pre-meet pasta party Friday night. I could only add so much garlic to the sauce I was serving 25 teenage runners with. We only had to provide the sauce and pasta, and the boys brought the breadsticks, drinks, fruit, and dessert, depending on what grade they are in. I was told by other moms who have hosted in the past to have extra fruit, drinks, and salad for the guys, which I did. However, I learned that I definitely didn't need the extra fruit as we had tons of that! Next time I host one, I will have extra breadsticks for sure! Anyway, everyone left in good time, and Austin went to bed early to get some rest. Luckily, the meet was at noon on Saturday.

A nice spread and such polite boys!

It was Regionals, which our team was projected to place first in, and Austin was projected to place second. Either way, Austin would be going to States next week. 

As usual, the guy who came in first for the Park, our high school meet, came in first with flying colors. There was a small gap, and then the next 3, which were Austin and the 2 guys from Plymouth that he's been mostly rivaling with all season. Clark took Austin by 4 seconds, and Austin came in a few seconds before LaPointe. So he came in 3rd. None of those guys got PRs, and I'm certain Austin would have beaten Clark if he had been feeling better. Though, in defense of Clark, he's a Senior and I'm sure he was locked into beating the Junior! Austin got a 15:50, which was 10 seconds off his PR, but I am shocked he still got sub 16, also considering he had been stung by a bee, just under his arm, right before the race. (I didn't know that til way later.) In the meantime, after that group of 3 came in a bunch of other Plymouth runners came in. One was a previous soccer teammate of Austin's, and I told his mom that he probably had the best PR of anyone in the meet, as no one else in the top 15 got a PR. We still had 4 of our runners place in the top 15, but it wasn't the best race for any of them. Owen probably had the best race, and he placed 15th. Whereas Plymouth locked in and took the first-place win from us. We took second. Our girls also took second, so the boys and girls Salem XC will be at States next week! We just found out that 2 of Austin's teammates are now sick, so they must have been fighting it a bit during the race. Hopefully, they recover quickly! 

Austin's in front of Clark and LaPointe here.

Now, Clark is just a step in front of Austin. There was still a bit to go.  

And for the record, LaPointe's dad came up to Austin and congratulated him for some great racing this season, as the two of them were neck and neck for so many races. LaPointe is also a Senior, so it's his last XC season in high school. I thought it was so nice of him to take note of Austin and congratulate him. Such great sportsmanship! 

Top 15!

We were still fantastic! 2nd place at Regionals!!

States is the day after Halloween. It will not be a late night for the Mercado family!

Soccer Tournament

 Erik's fall team had their first tournament this weekend. They played 3 tough games, about 45 minutes away from our house. Two were yesterday, and I took him to those. We were gone for pretty much the whole day- at least the weather was nice! His last game was this morning, and Jason took him to that one, in the rain.

Even though they lost all three games, the losses weren't huge. 3-0, then 3-1, then 1-0. The team this morning actually beat the first team we played yesterday, 6-0, so we must have played really well this morning!

Erik played really well himself yesterday. He played both games all the way through with no break, so I guess Coach thought he was doing well enough that he didn't need to sub him out. He plays Center Defense Mid, so he basically gets to run all around defending, but also gets to go forward with the ball. It works out really well for the budding runner as he gets excellent running training in. He almost scored the first goal yesterday, which was cool to see since he has always played defense and hardly got near the opposing net. Speaking of a budding runner, he came in 4th in the League Meet among all the middle schools in our district, with a time of 12:30. He was discouraged that he didn't get a PR, so we had to remind him how hard the course was compared to the one they usually run and show him times and places of Austin and his freinds three years ago. He was right in line, or even a little faster than the 4th place runner, then. 

Going in for the finish!

Big bro support!

Best friend rivalry!

On the soccer field!

The best part about the soccer tournament was watching him in between games, before we went to lunch. After the first game yesterday, the other Plymouth Reign team near his age group had a game scheduled for the same field. Erik and his friend decided to stay and watch with the coaches, since they know them. Erik and Shabeg got excellent instruction from Coach Victor's commentary throughout the game and even enjoyed some playful bantering with him. Toward the end of the game, one of the players got elbowed in the head pretty hard. They only had one sub, so when he came out of the game, they had none. Not only was Erik ready to sub in, if they needed him, but he and Shabeg talked to the player and assessed his needs. They got his water bottle, and upon finding it empty, Erik got his extra, unused water bottle out and poured the water into the other boy's. Coach Victor poured it into the boy's mouth and then sent Erik and Shabeg over to get some ice for his head. The boy was fine, and I don't think he even suffered a concussion, but they did everything right and were so helpful. I felt very proud of our boys! (Erik and Shabeg have been playing soccer together since they were 4!)

A kind heart is always a win for me!

Celebrations!

 I'm trying to creatively incorporate all the good from the past week, especially since I didn't update my blog last weekend. It was an extremely busy weekend! 

The first thing to celebrate was Kade's astronomy class's successful viewing and photos of the moon! They went to a dark park, and Kade was able to take these pics of the moon through the telescope. Stunning! He really loves that class!

(And, Kade buzzed his hair!)

We'll see him live at his haunted house job next weekend. Pray for me to not pee my pants!

Next thing was Erik's completion of his 2-mile race against East, coming in first place! His time was 12:10, another PR for him. His soccer team had a great game on Saturday with some excellent plays. They ended up winning that one. 

The front runner!

Erik also got to perform at the 8th-grade band night at Plymouth HS's HOCO game with the HS marching band. He really enjoyed playing the game music with friends and even the halftime show music, even if he didn't really approve of playing the Minecraft Steve's Chicken song.

His little head is in there in the middle. 

Halftime show!

(I figured out my video issue!)

Austin wowed us all again by securing a 3rd place win at the Wayne County Championship meet. He ran a 15:45, not quite a PR, but more importantly, he worked harder than I've ever seen him in a XC race at the finish line. He's been beating one kid from Plymouth for most of the races by a few seconds. This kid is a senior and is continuously ranked one slot above Austin. He was on Austin's tail the entire race. With only about 175 meters left of the race, Austin was about 15 meters behind, so not really a great place if you want to beat someone. That's what Coach and Jason saw. I was a little further up, and I could see Austin's body contract, ready to blast off, which is why my recording of the moment got messed up. I was overly excited in anticipation! This was about 20 meters from the finish line, and Austin was only 5 meters back. Austin's teammate got a better recording than I did, but even he missed the final .01 second on the finish line when Austin beat LaPointe. The final results didn't include the 10th of a second time, but says they both finished 15:45; however, Austin's name is in third and LaPointe's in 4th because Austin had him by .01. Our whole team was amazing and came in first for Varsity and JV! They also came in first at the dual meet on Tuesday, which was against Canton and Plymouth only. Canton, Plymouth, and Salem make up the 3 schools on our campus, which we call The Park. Salem is now the Park XC champions of this season. Austin came in 2nd that race, behind the guy that we knew would beat him because he was 2nd in the state last year. LaPointe wasn't at that meet, so we didn't get to see that rivalry again. 

This was the very start of the race. Austin is on the far right in the shadows. None of the guys pictured here with him finished in the top 5.

Wayne County Champs!

(This was recorded by Austin's teammate. The first guy running here is also the guy who came in first at the Park Meet.)

Austin's buddies and he celebrated last weekend, after winning the Wayne Co Champs, at the Plymouth HOCO dance (the team didn't go as a whole, but some members of the team were there, and some old friends from elementary school). And then even fewer of the group attended Salem's HOCO dance last night with dates. 

Crazy boys!

They clean up nicely, though. Austin has known most of these guys for most of his life!

I really like taking pics with the girls, too. 

Finally, we celebrated Victoria's birthday, which was yesterday. We talk to her on Mondays, and since last Monday was her official first Monday out in the mission field, we weren't sure what to expect. Austin was around when Jason and I realized that we didn't know about the rules on her birthday, so we sang to her with him. A mission office elder called me last week to have me send some pictures for a surprise slideshow for her. Hopefully that turned out well. I'll know tomorrow when I talk to her again. We were pleasantly surprised when she called us at 9am yesterday, on her birthday. It was only 7 her time, so nothing had happened yet, but she was able to talk for 15 minutes and tell us that the scheduled baptism of the young girl went well, she was going to eat lunch with her family that day (the family makes piñatas, so I'm sure they made one for her), and her companion made her a cake. Our conversation was glitchy and disrupted since we had literally just arrived at our church building to clean it, but it was so nice to see her on her birthday and know she was already being well celebrated. Can't wait to talk to her again tomorrow!

MTC companion.

Mexico!

First field companion!

Our conversation on Monday!

These celebrations were highlights over the past two weeks as we supported and mourned with our friends who were in the Grand Blanc church shooting. We know many people affected by it. Even our community here, an hour away, not in the church, felt the effects of that tragic incident. 

Two weeks later, and things are settling down again. Celebrate the good things!