Not Quite Done Yet

 In a surprising turn of events, Matthew's football team pulled out a commanding win over a team that beat them earlier in the season. They will have one more game this Saturday. I'm not knowledgeable enough about football to know the difference, but Scott says that Matthew has really been working extra hard in practice these last two weeks, resulting in improved game play.

Matthew has enjoyed several field trips and group projects with school already this year. He is actually on another field trip today!

Micah has had two post-season races so far. The league meet was not his best. (Although, it is hard to run fast when you can't see through the rain on your glasses.) His coaches did not lose faith in him, though, and still put him as one of their top 7 runners the next week in the district meet. He had an excellent race! He finished under 18 minutes again and was 5th for his team. The team's performance was enough to qualify them for the regional meet this Saturday.  It is unlikely that they will move on from there to the state championships, but you never know!

holding his glasses in his hand

We also squeezed in some forced family fun at the pumpkin patch and corn maze. 

Last Race

 I loved watching Hannah run this season. She gained a confidence and competitiveness that I haven't seen from her before. I also loved seeing her joy when things went well, and her determination when they didn't.

Saturday was Hannah's last cross country race of the season. Micah ran this invitational last year, so we knew it was a "fast" course. Hannah was hoping to knock her PR down just a little bit more.  She ended up knocking it down a lot more - to under fourteen minutes!!  Her time was 13:52! She was first for her team and 37th out of 262 girls.

sports banquet

Just an hour later, it was Micah's turn to run.  He still has more races this season, but he knew this course would be his last good chance to meet his goal of getting a time under 18 minutes. He ran what Scott calls "a typical Micah race". He seems to get lost in the crowd at the start, then he spends the rest of the race passing people. It works for him, though! He crushed his goal by getting a time of 17:47! He was 5th for his team and 79th out of 428 boys.

While Scott and the "bigs" were at the meet, Baby K and I got to watch Matthew play football. They were definitely the better team in this matchup, so the coaches let Matthew play quarterback for a play.  Unfortunately, the snap was wide, but Matthew recovered it and broke a few tackles to make forward progress. 

He also played running back on this play.

Fun Stuff

 Hannah finished her fall soccer season yesterday.  Although the team only had two wins, all of their games were close and competitive.  All their new players grew a lot, and they're looking forward to the spring.

In both of her last home crosss country meets, Hannah has set new PR's.  Her school hosted a small invitational, and her time for two miles was 14:36. Just three days later, she knocked it down to 14:25 and was first for her team. She has one more meet this season - a big invitational on Saturday.

pre-race huddle

kicking hard at the end to get that PR!

"Miss Jen", our elementary director at church, came to cheer them on.

Micah also had a new PR recently - 18:11 for a 5K.  He's really hoping to get under 18 minutes this season. He has been a solid varsity contributor all year - finishing 5th, 6th, or 7th for the team in every race. He has one more regular season meet (the same invitational as Hannah next Saturday), then they start their post-season campaign to try to get to States!

Last week was homecoming for Tallmadge.  Micah rode on a float in the parade with the cross country team. He asked his friend Lily to be his date to the dance. A whole group of them took pictures together, went out to dinner, went to the dance, and hung out at Lily's house after.

This is a great group of kids. (That's Ally Hay on the far right.)

Last Saturday the boys had the amazing opportunity to go to the Notre Dame vs Ohio State football game.  It was a very high-profile game, with a lot of excitement - including ESPN's "College Game Day" being filmed lived on campus! The game itself was a great one, coming right down to the last seconds. Scott said it was a day he'll always treasure that he got to spend with the boys.

ESPN's "Game Day" - how cool for them to see in-person something that they've seen many times on TV!

The tickets were a VERY generous gift from our small group at church. Besides faithfully leading our class for almost 20(?) years, Scott has put in an enormous amount of time and care as an elder of the church over the past year as our church has undergone huge transitions. The class picked the absolutely perfect gift to thank him. But...then he and some of the OSU fans had to made a side bet...now Scott has to wear OSU apparel to church for the month of October. 😂

This Saturday I ran the Akron half marathon.  (I ran it once before in 2011.) My neighbor Leann asked me in the spring if I was interested in doing it with her.  At that point I was concerned about my body holding up; it was hard to run two miles without stopping. But I agreed to give it a try. Once Baby K joined us in June, it was a chore each week to find time to run (and to exercise while sleep deprived). But it ended up being a blessing. If I hadn't had this goal to work for, I probably wouldn't have made time for exercise at all.

It was a beautiful day to go for a run with thousands of people. 

Leann and I at the start

We ran together for about the first half of the race. When she paused for a bathroom break, I kept going and picked up my pace a bit. It's such a fun event - basically a city-wide party. The majority of it went by quickly (the last two miles were a bit rough!). Then I had to climb four flights of stairs in the parking garage to get to my car. 😅