County Council

The last day to sign up to run in the primary election for county council was today.  Doug found out early this afternoon that he is the only Republican candidate in his district running. Almost 75% of Kosciusko County is  registered Republican, so as of now it sure looks as though he will be re-elected next November.  I am thrilled that he is going to hold on to this office.  Doug is a perfect fit for it as a large part of the responsibilities are financial.  He is a wonderful leader in our community and I am glad that he gets another chance to serve.

Doug is also a great role model for his children.  The more time he devotes to helping those in our county, being an actively involved father, holding a key position at Renegade, the more it benefits our children.  They are firsthand witnesses to the skills needed to be a leader.  I know that has been influential in a lot of the decisions that they have made.  Brett's success in college, running for office in his dorm, joining civic groups, and lectoring at church stems largely from the support he has received from Doug.  This week I heard Doug encourage Cal to work on his leadership skills both on the basketball floor and in his studies.  Meg has had a spectacular week enjoying success in band, piano, the spelling bee and basketball.  Cameron is growing ever more confident in his choice of friends, school and extracurricular activities.  I know without Doug's support none of them would be the successful, high achieving children that they are.  As always I am incredibly proud of the Heinisch children and their father.

What a Winter

I cannot believe this winter.  It almost feels as though it will never end and it is only February 6th.  We had another delay today.  That makes seven delays and seven cancellations since Christmas break.  Wow!!    Some schools have had double the cancellations that we have.  A neighboring school system is currently scheduled to end the school year June 13th.  That is eleven days after we will end.  They will only have eight weeks of summer.  The dates for ISTEP have been changed to allow teachers time to prepare their students. Glad that our school system has tried to work old man winter.  The weather is supposed to improve next week with temperatures at a balmy 30 degrees!!  It will feel strange to have a full week of school!!

Roommate Trouble

Brett has had an interesting couple of days at IU.  His roommate has been having episodes where he is incoherent and delusional.  The IUPD has had to come two nights in a row.  Brett spent the night in a friend's room until they could sort everything out with the RA.  Today his roommate dropped out of school and was taken home by his parents.  Hopefully, he will now be able to get the help he needs.

I am extremely proud of Brett and how he has handled this situation.  He has been mature about it and has not panicked.  He has kept himself safe and looked out for the best interest of his roommate as well.  He has communicated with the police, his RA and the people in his dorm.  He has kept us informed as well, but didn't feel as those he needed help from us other than moral support.  It feels great knowing he is becoming the self sufficient young man that we knew he could be.

County Spelling Bee

Meg had a great showing at the county spelling bee tonight.  She was runner-up to last year's champion.  At one point she could have won with the word "poltergeist", but she didn't know it.  That word did not appear in our list to study.  Meg was very proud of herself and we were proud of her as well.  She studied and worked hard this year to compete.  Mrs. Kaiser, Teresa, Doug and Grandma Jane were all there to cheer her on.  She already has a plan for how to win it all next year!

Victorious!

My girls won their first basketball game of the season tonight and Meg played fabulously!!  She was leading scorer with 12 points and was aggressive enough to foul out of the game in the fourth quarter.  She did everything that we asked her to do and showed a lot of improvement from the first game.  The best part of winning is that we did it on our home court with a great group of fans watching.  We still have work to do, but so far we just keep improving.  Doug was greeted at the high school by one of the Dad's whose first comment was, "They played great defense!"  That was awesome to hear as we had really worked on that in practice.  I realize that we may not be the most skilled team, but we sure are aggressive.  Winning isn't everything, but it definitely is fun!!

Not so super Super Bowl

The annual Super Bowl party at the Knights of Columbus was once again a big hit with the Heinisch family!  In fact Meg said it is her favorite Knight function of the year.  The food was great and there was pool, ping ping and BINGO for all to enjoy.  Meg tried to get Mike Delucenay to pay up for the large number of swear words that came out of his mouth during the event, but he claimed that swear words were free on Super Bowl days!  Cal joined us after Gage and Jayce left.  It was a good thing too as Nick Goralczyk would have really let him have it if he hadn't showed!  

Unfortunately, the best part of the Super Bowl was the party.  For all iof the hype the game was a dud with the Seahawks destroying the Broncos.  All of the Peyton Manning fans in our area surely had to be disappointed.  I really only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, and even those were a little disappointing.  The half time show was the bright spot highlighting the talent of one of the Heinisch children's favorites - Bruno Mars.  No matter the outcome, it was once again a great family day!

24 Hours of Fun

Meg and I were up early for her band contest.  The weather was awful, but we made it there and back in one piece.  Meg and Preston played well.  They ended up with a silver medal and some great advice for next year's contest.

Cam also had a successful morning at LYC basketball.  He scored at least eight points and his team remained undefeated.  Meg and I made it there in time to watch the second half despite the treacherous road conditions.

With all of the snow none of us were surprised that Cal's game tonight was postponed until later in the week.  An unexpected afternoon and evening of free time turned into twenty four hours of fun for the boys basketball team.  Cal, Alex and Jayce hung out here for the afternoon playing games of pool, NBA 2K14 and Blokus while watching a multitude of NCAA basketball games.  Cameron had fun joining them in their activities. 

The weather changed drastically in the late afternoon and actually warmed up.  The snow of the morning melted from the roads and the boys decided that a Hacienda run was much needed.  We also took advantage of the weather change and headed to Goshen for a quick trip through Target and dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Cam wasn't sure he wanted to go, but loved it in the end as he found Aquaman's arch villain, Black Manta, and a pack of 100 basketball cards.  

The boys returned shortly after we did with the addition of Gage and David.  Doug made chocolate chip cookies, which were devoured almost as soon as they were taken from the oven.  Around 9:45 p.m. one of them got the bright idea to walk up to the high school for fun in the snow.  Five boys returned soaking wet, but happy.  They headed back down to the basement, and we thoroughly enjoyed all of the shouts, cheers and laughter coming up through the vents.  I believe that even those in Milford heard the collective "Yes!" echoing through our home when Duke hit a three to send the Syracuse game into overtime.  Sorry that the boys' game was cancelled, but glad that they made the most of their new found free time.