Chardon 1/2 and more

As the school year winds down, there is so much to do!  Last Thursday was my LAST ever band banquet.  We actually bought tickets to eat dinner (usually just show up for the awards) because it was senior recognition night...Jacob would be given a dinner...but the ROBOT wasn't yet working well...so Jacob was at robotics until 7:00, when I had to insist he come to the banquet (he would have rather stayed at robotics).  Sat with friends and had a good time.  It was a nice evening and about all the kids.  What a great group of kids Jacob has gone to school with.  Pictures ~ Mrs. May and JB; JB with Sam and Hannah; Audrey, me, and Olivia; Kent, Taryn and JB.

The Western Reserve Conference Tournament was suppose to be the same day at the band banquet...but due to rain it was postponed to Friday...to start at 9.  Then moved to an 11:00 start time...then moved indoors because it was still raining.  Finally around lunch time, the first matches were played.  Jacob won against Brush, Chardon and was in the finals against Mayfield.  He lost the first set and was down 5-0 in the second set...with the wheels falling off.  It was match point.  JB 15-40.  Match point.  JB 30-40.  Match point.  Deuce.  Ad in.  JB 1-5.  JB 2-5.  JB 3-5.  JB 4-5.  Mayfield won 6-4.  What a come back over a better tennis player.  Second place in the conference ~ which makes him All Conference.  If you have to lose, this is the way to do it.  It was a very exciting match.The whole team, except for a third place for second singles, placed second.  Madison places second in the whole tournament.  It was a great day for tennis.

Saturday brought us Robotics ~ a day of exploding medal.  Here is the 10 hour video... I found the Madison matches (missing some at the beginning...) at 8:28 Cleveland Heights ~  8:53 Ashtabula ~ 9:21 Beaumont  and then every 20 minutes or so...  Jacob was the driver & it was REALLY exciting for 40 seconds...and then 3 hours of sitting there.  We had really cocky t-shirts "Our Robot can Beat up your Robot"  and Dreadnaught could.  They lost first place because of a faulty wire ~ but their robot was clearly superior to all the others.  Exciting day.  

Craig Ayala took some GREAT pictures.

A second place finish for Team Dreadnaught ~ off to the National Competition (on the day of Graduation) in Pittsburgh

The driver (Jacob) and the chief mechanic (Zak) ~ the only seniors on the team

As I was pulling into the driveway after robotics, I surprised to see Patrick's car parked next to the garage.  PATRICK came home.  What a great surprise!  He brought Mags home for the summer ~ stayed until Tuesday and is currently looking for a co-op job for the summer in Cincinnati.

Sunday morning took us to Chardon to run the inaugural Chardon Half Marathon.  In the drizzly rain.  BUT it was 50+ degrees, so the drizzle wasn't bad at all.  This was a good race with a really hilly 5k to finish it.  Dodd took off from the start.  I sort of ran with Mike for the first two miles or so.  Then he took off.  My legs were tired from the start, and Mike was on fire.  He just kept getting further and further ahead.  I did see him do an awesome run jump for the photographer...and it inspired me to do the same.  Unfortunately the photographer didn't get either of us.  But I enjoyed watching Mike...and it's always good to run jump yourself :)

Finished in 1:50:35 ~ within my goal time up under 2 hours.  Enough time to go back and see Angela come in with almost 6 minutes to make it to the finish line and get her Birthday PR and break the 2 hour mark for the first time.  Exciting to see people make their goals.  Mike almost PR'ed on this very tough course...if only he didn't have to stop and tie his shoe (still didn't catch him)  We were SOOOO wet when we finished.  There wasn't a dry spot on me.  We went back to the car & all changed out of our race clothes.  Good race for Madison Group Run ~ I may have come in last, but I placed SECOND in my age group and won a little coffee mug.  I've been nursing sore hamstrings all week.  My first run back (Tuesday) had me slapping the pavement with my right foot.  It was weird.  

Got home and Jacob asked how we did.  He found it very humorous that I kept up the second place theme of the weekend.

Monday brought an all day AP Calc study day for Jacob 

Wednesday took us to Mayfield to play the kid who beat Jacob for the conference title.  Jacob beat him in two sets.  Jacob's game was ON FIRE.  Fun to watch him win that one.  Might have been the highlight of the season.

Thursday Jacob too the AP Calc test and Friday he had a field trip with the Jazz Band to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.  Tomorrow is Prom...it just doesn't end.

But to end this post ~ it was teacher appreciation week this week and our PAK did an amazing job making us feel special.  The best part:

our boss sent us a bag of chips and a jar of salsa to share.

So Lori brought me one chip dipped in salsa every period all day long.