A Beautiful Heartbreak

Well, the Borden Family sure had a fun time prepping for the 2012 DeWalt Contractor Challenge at Home Depot. Mitchell had the chance to compete for a pallet of tools that was valued at just over $2,000.  He was really excited to be in the competition.  The challenge:  Drill 5 screws into a piece of wood faster than anyone else.

Mitchell made a practice station to drill with his prized Impact Driver.  He practiced a few nights in a row, bought a stopwatch, and I timed him.  His fastest time at home was actually 10.31 seconds, which was awesome and way faster than his qualifying time of 11.79 seconds that won him a drill and made him a finalist for the challenge.

We stayed up late making "Support Team" t-shirts.  Tyson kept praying he'd win.  It was really cute.  The kids made signs that said, "Go Daddy", "You're OUR Champion", "We Love You", and "Good Luck".  Emmett added his own little scribble to make his sign perfect, and Tyson added a picture of Mitch holding a drill to make his sign PERFECT.

My Support Team T-shirt got the words "Baby Bee" across the belly, since our company is "Golden Bee", and I was 8 months pregnant.  Haha!

The station....

The name of my dad's company is called "Golden Bee", so Mitch made company t-shirts for everyone who came on their lunch break to cheer him on.  His "Support Team" consisted of me & the kids, my mom, dad, and Taylor, and then I surprised Mitch by bringing his mom along, too!  It wasn't just any Home Depot, it was a Home Depot 45 minutes away, so we made a trip of it. : )  Apparently I need a new car, because on the freeway Tyson told me and Myrna, "MOM!  This car is so rattling!  It makes my teeth CHATTER!"  He cracks me up!

All the finalists got one more run to beat out a man named Joel who had the current standing fastest time at 10.96 seconds.  Mitch knew he would have to shave off a second and a half off of his qualifying time to beat Joel.  Joel didn't have to do anything if no one beat his first time.  He could just keep it if he wanted to.  All the contestants had their run--one had a slow time of about 15 seconds.  Another one of the contestants gave up in the middle of his try and walked off--LAME.  By the time it was Mitch's turn I was holding my breath--he had a perfect stance, he was ready, the clock started and he was going FAST.  I was amazed and thought he would actually do it, and THEN...he dropped his 4th screw!  IT WAS SO SAD!   Mitchell finished his run, but didn't beat out Joel.  The DeWalt representative asked Joel if he wanted to just keep his time or see if he could be his own time.  The rest of us were curious if he could do it, too.  And so he gave it whirl and honestly beat out his own time, shaving it down to 10.36 seconds--which was super fast.  We were actually happy for him--of all the people there, he was one of the nicest finalists, and he didn't rub it in anyone's face, and he legitimately beat out his qualifying time, so it was a fair competition.

 

The boys wanted to try, so Mitch helped them after it was over.  

We really had quite a fun day!  I'm so glad we went to the challenge.  I'm sad Mitch didn't win, but holy cow was it fun dreaming beforehand, and making shirts and signs, practicing, driving with a car that made Tyson's teeth chatter, and eating lunch at Carl's Junior with the "team" afterward.  Of all the other finalists, Mitchell was the ONLY ONE with a Support Team there to enjoy the experience with him.  In my opinion this is one of those things that you would call a "beautiful heartbreak".  It was heartbreaking that Mitch didn't win the challenge this year--that pallet of tools would have been SO COOL!!  But the beautiful side is that he had so many people there who love him and who were there to have fun with him and that it was so fun to just be in the competition at all.  

The hope that Mitch will qualify and win next year is already in the back of our minds. : )