Halloween Happenings

 I probably mention it every year, but Kade really loves Halloween. It's his most favorite holiday. We decorated on the first day of fall this year, even though Kade wanted to do it earlier. Kade also got a seasonal job at a haunted house over the weekends of October, which he loved! And he finally got to have a Halloween party at our house with his friends, like he has talked about doing for years, but never got a chance, being in color guard and all their activities in October.

Halloween party feast. He put out the spread mostly by himself. Jason and I grilled the hamburgers and hot dogs.

They wore their costumes, ate, and played a couple of games, but mostly just goofed around.

Kade put up lots of spiderwebs! One of the games they played was the throw the bean bag in the ghost cup you can see in the sunroom.

Kade was Casey Jones. He made his mask from scratch!

Here's Kade in the field of the hayride at the haunted house. He mostly worked in the field, but one time in the actual haunted house. His job was to scare everyone!

Here's his makeup under the mask!

Earlier in the month, Jason and I went to see the annual scarecrow display in Downtown Plymouth with Erik. Then, Kade, Erik, and I visited Downtown Northville's skeleton display last week. The weather was nice all month long, so it was very comfortable outside. 

I've always liked Popeye!

Room on the Broom is one of my favorite children's Halloween-type books.

An electric company sponsored this one!

With all the political happenings...

This was during the time Victoria had her displaced rib. Jason suggested we send this chiropractic-sponsored one to Victoria!

Schoolcraft College is where Kade will go next year.

Northville Skeletons

Selfie with the selphie skeleton!

Edward Scissorhands!

Soccer players!

Skateboarders!

We went to the ward party for the trunk-or-treat, the kids carved pumpkins with friends instead of at home, and they went their various ways on Halloween night. Erik and Kade went trick-or-treating with friends and Austin handed out candy with a bunch of friends at Sam's house. He was prepping for States which was 2 days away and not supposed to eat of ton of candy.

Owen (Marty McFly) and Austin (MF Doom) were kinda twinning with their red vests.

Erik was the Grimm Reaper.

We were has-beens. (Cheerleader and Tennis Player)

Kade was Alvin at school with some friends, but they didn't wear their chipmunk costumes!

Ready to hand out candy!

Ready to trick-or-treat! 

Jason was in Texas supporting his parents during his dad's open heart surgery, which was successful, so I just got some stuff done while handing out candy at our house alone. I can't believe October is over!

Another Exciting Week

 We had another week full of surprises and excitement, some bad, but mostly good.

Victoria's all healed from her bronchitis and displaced rib, but she had a mishap with too much excitement going on with friends in a car and she shut the car door on her thumb. Turns out that she has a broken thumb along with strep throat, which she suspected she might have after being around someone who had it. So she has to take more antibiotics now, which gave her a rash and stomach issues, though that is improving now. Two rounds of antibiotics within a month was not a good idea. I keep reminding her to eat lots of yogurt. It seems she is improving now, so fingers crossed she doesn't have any more problems this semester!

Kade performed so well at the Fall orchestra concert this week! He decided not to try out for symphony for his 7th year of orchestra, and just stay with concert. While I supported this decision, it would have been fun for him to play with the more advanced students, especially because he is really improving. His new expensive viola helps with that too! The good thing about him staying in concert orchestra is that they need his help! The violins are okay in that group, so some good violas are really necessary. In one of his pieces, which I'll include, many people commented on how the violas carried it and did so marvelously. I agree! I'll also include the piece with the concert and symphony playing together with the choirs. It's amazing!!

Warming up. Kade's in the middle.

I was chaperoning the musicians in the balcony, so we snuck a little selphie in.

I told the stinker to smile when they were done, but he did not.

A smile with Izzy, though.

Finally, Austin ran in regionals yesterday. It was a breezy, sunny, but chilly day. He and Jack went out pretty quickly and Austin got a PR on his first mile with a 4:53. He stayed very near Jack and Isaac for most of the run. It was the final half mile that made a huge difference. When I saw Austin running in as the first Salem runner, finishing with a 16:26, not a PR, but still amazing, I was surprised to not see Jack there. Then I saw Isaac about 20 seconds later and I thought I had somehow missed Jack. But then he came in about 20 seconds after that and he did not look good. I cheered the rest of our team on as they came in one after the other, before going past the finish line. I always try not to get in the way nor approach Austin right away (we're actually not supposed to), but I always want to get a glimpse of him standing. I saw so many guys on the ground, including Jack. Austin looked pretty good, but he was worried about his friend. He and some other teammates helped Jack up and walked him to sit on a bench. The rest of the post-race was solemn as everyone worried over Jack who was numb, vomiting, and had a hard time with his vision. Austin and Isaac said that their arms had gotten super numb during the race because of the temperature. It wasn't that cold, but they had their little tanks on and the way their bodies warmed up on the inside but were cold on the outside was not a good mix. Jack had the same problem, but the numbness went to his entire body. He ended up in the ER yesterday, but I believe he is doing better now. In the meantime, Austin is the only Salem runner who qualified for States. Isaac missed it by 1 place and 5 seconds. Somehow, our whole team came in 5th in that meet! So, while we are so excited that Austin gets to run in the State Championship this Saturday, we are also grieving Jack's health, who always seemed invincible, and Isaac's situation who is a senior and missed his chance for States by so small a margin. (Isaac is actually pretty upbeat and chipper, I think he's mostly worried about Jack.) Austin is excited, but he really wanted to run with friends. I told him he has to run it for the whole team! And the final meet after States, Jack will be back with a vengeance! (A healthy, safe vengeance in my opinion).

While we were waiting for the meet to start, Jason and I tried to keep up with Erik in soccer. 

For the Record

 I try to give each of my kids equal blog time, just as I try to provide them with equal quality time with me. To me, equal doesn't mean it's the same amount of time or the same kind of activity. It just means that collectively, we all feel fulfilled and loved by each other through the time spent together. 

I say this as I have to give another update on Austin's XC season. The KLAA (Kensington Lakes Activities Association) Championships were on Thursday and Austin blew us out of the water with yet another PR. He took 20 more seconds off his time for a 16:19 on his 5k. He came in first of the varsity from our team, which is also astonishing, since Jack, who's always first, seems to PR most of his races. Austin is still 3 seconds off of Jack's PR, but Jack just didn't have as good of a race that day. He was still only 5-10 seconds behind Austin, but he didn't look as good. Austin felt great and was dancing around at the end, something he doesn't usually do.

Austin was 23rd overall out of 110, which was great considering that 4 of the top 10 teams in the state are in our district at that meet. 12 of those who came in before him were seniors. Austin is now the 4th fastest sophomore in Salem history and the 24th fastest of all of Salem history. He has now cut 2 minutes off his time since last year.

This is all very exciting and I can't even believe it, but most of all, I am just so proud of all the hard work he's putting into it. He is so conscientious of what he eats and how he trains, and getting better with his sleep, that I can see he is passionate about it. He actually skipped going to the multi-stake dance last night because he was feeling a sore throat coming on and he wants to rest well for regionals coming up this week. If he does well at Regionals, he can go to States the following week. 

And Austin's not the only one on his team working so hard. So many boys set personal records on Thursday and have been gradually improving throughout the season. Our JV team, most of whom are Austin's close friends, has gotten 1st place in most of the meets. They got 2nd a few times and 3rd a couple of times, so they have the potential to be pretty awesome next year and the year after as our varsity team. Coach Goodrich said that his team this year is the hardest working team he has ever coached at Salem. 

I've been thinking about this sport compared to dance and color guard, with which I have a lot of experience and have decided that one of the reasons athletes who excel so much in xc get so much attention is because it's an exact time to measure, whereas dance and color guard are less concrete because of some many aspects that go into them. The judges have to give their scores in various areas. And unlike in soccer, with which I have a lot of experience watching now, xc is an individual sport, even though they are placed on teams. The soccer score depends on how the team works as a whole, but a XC runner can still receive a lot of attention for an outstanding pr, even if the team as a whole came in last.

Erik's soccer team hasn't had a good season, but I watch Erik and see how much he has improved and how much effort he has put into it and it doesn't matter that his team has scored only 1 point this entire season. Yesterday, at his game, he and another kid tripped each other up and Erik reached his hand out to help up the opposing player with a concerned look on his face. Erik made it clear that it was an accident and he had good sportsmanship. I was very proud of him. 

Stay tuned for the next XC update: Regionals!

When he finally passed Jack, he was pretty stoked! 

Salem Varsity!

Coach Goodrich is in the middle!

Here's from an article someone posted. Jack, Austin, and Isaac were together the entire time. Every time I saw them run by, I was surprised Austin was still with them. 

I took this from a video someone posted of the whole race. Austin's the first Salem runner to come in!

Here are a few quick videos. I had a very scratchy voice last week, you can hear how deep it sounds in the first video, so I brought a bell to ring instead of yelling, but it was really hard to record, ring my bell, and be so excited at the same time!

A medal was given to the top 25!

Celebrating 20!

 We celebrated Victoria on her half-birthday in April when she came home for spring break, and we celebrated with the Kish family just over a month before her birthday before she left for school. Her 20th birthday was on Friday, and we were more involved from a distance than we thought we would be. That was totally fine with me since it's still weird not having her here for big occasions like that.

(Flashback pics to September's celebration)

We opted for 2 candles because she blew the 20 out in April in one breath, so I didn't feel like putting 20 on again.

Sammy and Karyn think of Vicky as another member of their family:)

And of course, Susie does too!

Joe also does. We love this pic of him because he's actually very tall, but in this pic he looks like a short, goofy kid!

Joe let me take a picture of his plate. This is Victoria's favorite meal! Puerto Rican delish!

She had already been on our acute radar since the week before when she announced that she had a displaced rib. Yes, a displaced rib! I thought it had been from when she had a big fall in her tap class, which may have played a role in it, but I think the main cause was when someone cracked her back for her, who was not a chiropractor. After the pain kept increasing and causing more problems, she finally went to see a chiropractor who confirmed what her dance teacher thought- it was a rib out of place. The doc put it back in place and assured her that it happened more frequently than we might think, which made me feel better. He usually puts someone's rib back in place each day. I had no idea! She had to take it easy for some more time, and the pain still intensified, even after she went. I was thinking that she was going to be feeling well just in time for her birthday when she called Thursday night and told me she had just gone to the urgent care and had bronchitis! That day, she had problems breathing, kept coughing, was light-headed, and had a headache. They prescribed her with antibiotics and some steroids. When she returned to her apartment, she was exhausted and hungry but didn't have the energy to make something to eat. Jason and I decided to Door Dash her some groceries that evening so she could start her birthday off on a decent foot and not have to go back to the hospital because of dehydration or something. It was rewarding to pick out some of her favorite foods that would help her heal, like chicken noodle soup, clementines, popsicles, and cream cheese for her bagels. I got Austin to text her that she needed to use the lemons, honey, and cinnamon we were buying for her to make herself a lemon tea- something that he learned when he was sick was very soothing and healing. 

By the next morning, she was already improving and she had a lot less pain from her rib. She had to skip a few of her physically demanding classes but went to her kinesiology class. Her friends took her to dinner and she felt well enough for that, which I was so happy about. We're glad she was celebrated and is healing again. No more injuries or illnesses for a while now, please!

With her BYU-I friends!