Injury Time Out

I have a minor injury to my lower mid section which has made the last week a little challenging.  It hurts no matter whether I am standing or sitting.  I cannot lift anything with weight to it, and it is painful to bend over.

Due to this fact Cam and Meg have had to help out more than usual.  Today was no exception.  They both went to the grocery with me as I needed to buy pop and I knew I couldn't lift it into the cart.  They argued the entire time about who was going to push the cart, who would load the cart and finally who would unload it.  

I asked them afterward if it was really as terrible as they made it out to be.  They laughed.  Of course it wasn't, but who would ever admit that grocery shopping with Mom could be fun!  They both ended up picking out a prize from Dollar General - sour worms for Meg and a pop gun for Cam.

Meg keeps telling me that she has it all figured out.  She said that I am not really hurt, I am just lazy.  Wish that was the case.  With their extra help, however, I am feeling better.  Hopefully, I'll be 100% soon!

Golf

Cameron and Cal have played a lot of golf this summer.  They both have had a lot of success with it and seem to enjoy being out there.  Even when they are not at the golf course, Cal is in the backyard chipping balls and Cam is following us around telling golf stories.

This summer Meg, Doug and I have decided to get in on the action too.  We have played nine holes together each of the last two Sundays.  We aren't as competitive as the boys nor do we have the equipment, but we have had fun.  All three of us improved in scores this week.  It as definitely easier to putt as we had some experience.  All in all we had a great time and I hope we can continue it.  Maybe Brett will even join us one night.

A Beautiful Weekend

The weather this 4th of July has been just beautiful.  The days have been in the mid-seventies and the nights in the 50s and 60s.  We haven't had to have the air on at all and even put on a sweatshirt once or twice.  We have all enjoyed this very much.  It makes for great golfing, badminton and bonfire weather.  The mosquitos have been out, but not too bad yet.

All of this nice weather has reminded us of the 4th of July in 2012.  We went to St. Louis that year and had an awesome mini-vacation.  We stayed in a hotel near the arch (or as I said, "an arch and a half away from the block."  The fireworks that year were fantastic as they shot them off from the Mississippi River and they floated above the arch.  We were seated underneath them and ever since that time no other fireworks have compared.

That same weekend we also went to Grant's Farm, the Budweiser Brewery Tour and Monmouth Cavern.  The hotel we stayed at was not only close to the arch, but also provided free breakfast and dinner along with a pool for Cam and Meg.  The only drawback to that time was the weather.  Unlike this year it was 108 on one of the days.  Doug remarked about this several times today.  Since that time the 4th of Julys have definitely been a lot cooler.  Meg and I said that we would brave the heat and humidity to go back to St. Louis next year.  It may have been hot, but it sure was a great vacation.

4th of July

The guys got up early and played nine holes before breakfast.  Cam said it was one of his worst rounds ever, but both he and Cal enjoyed spending time with Carl.  Doug joined them as well.  Carl made breakfast once we got back.  We had time to take pictures in the corn before leaving.

The drive back was a little slower, but overall uneventful.  Cam finally got to see the movie Hairspray and said it was a lot better than he thought it would be.  Doug cooked an awesome dinner.  Mom made peach pie for his birthday.  Meg and Cam picked out a lot of USA soccer apparel for him.  Even though they lost Tuesday night, he still appreciated it.

Everyone played badminton and had a bonfire after dinner.  Cam, Brett and I got in a game of Qwirkle before the fireworks.  Brett destroyed us.  We watched the fireworks from Dr. Mulry's parking lot.  They were alright, but not quite the experience we had watching them under the arch two years ago.  It was a wonderful 4th of July.  With Doug's birthday added to it, it has definitely become one of my favorite holidays of the year.

DeKalb

Today we left for DeKalb to visit Doug's mom.  She has been feeling a lot better since her treatments have ended and we wanted to take advantage of this.  Brett, unfortunately, wasn't able to go with us as he had to work, but they plan to go back on the 19th when he can go.

The ride out was pretty easy and Cal and Cam made it to Buena Vista golf course by 5:45 p.m.  They were able to get in nine holes before dinner.  Doug, Meg and I went to Inboden's to pick out meat for tomorrow night's dinner and a couple of extras.  We had time to visit with Carl and Jeanette before the boys called.  Dinner was delicious and everyone had fun watching Doug blow out the candles on his red, white and blue birthday cake.  We had purchased a Germany soccer jersey for Jeanette to give Doug and he really liked that.

After dinner Cam and Meg played cards with Carl and Jeanette.  Doug, Cal and I went to Target and Barnes and Noble before bringing home beer nuggets for everyone.  It was a very enjoyable evening and a wonderful way to celebrate Doug's birthday a little early.

Mixed Emotions

Today I spent the afternoon at a visitation for a student at our middle school.  He would have been an eighth grader this year.  Mary went with me and we stayed for a couple of hours in case any of our students came.  There were a few students that were able to be there plus all of his cousins.  Some I know from school and others I know from when Meg was a student at Syracuse.  We talked with them and hopefully made a difference.

This boy died of carbon monoxide poisoning.  His parents had been running gas generators in their home as their electricity had been cut off from lack of payment.  There was a lot of debate online about the cause of his death and why they would have generators in the home when they are not supposed to be inside.  I stopped reading the arguments as it finally dawned on me.  It didn't matter what he died of, the fact is he was a product of his environment.  No amount of arguing or blame could change that.

A lot of our students are a product of their environment.  They cannot change their circumstance in life and at twelve many fall victim to their upbringing.  The older Heinisch boys have had friends in the same situation.  It made me realize that birth is just luck of the draw.  No one gets to chose where they start their life from.  We talk to students about rising above the challenges that they face everyday, but in all honesty so many of them cannot.

I spent the second to the last day of school with this quiet young man trying to help him catch up on all of the missing work from his math class.  He couldn't find his book, didn't know where his agenda was to figure out which assignments were missing and was overwhelmed just trying to come up with a solution to this problem.  School was challenging for him.  I understood that then, but not to the extent that ended his life.  For our school to make a difference in the lives of the students we have to figure out how to help them while they are in school.  If a child goes home to a house without electricity and to a family that is struggling just to get by, homework will never be their priority.  Instead of laying blame we need to come up with a solution that works.  I don't have the answer right now, but hope that his memory will keep this problem foremost in my mind when the next school year begins.

Summer Storm

I had a hard time falling asleep last night.  There were storms headed our way and I was concerned.  I finally nodded off when a little before 1:00 a.m.a siren blasted from my cell phone.  Both Doug and I jumped out of bed and grabbed our phones.  It was a tornado alert.  Our county was under a tornado warning.  We quickly got Meg, Cameron and Cal downstairs.  They all piled into the toy room.  The boys took the bunk bed and Meg the couch.  I told them to go ahead and sleep downstairs since we did not know how long the storm would last.  They were out within a few minutes.

Brett was already downstairs working on his paper for class.  He and I stayed up until 1:45 a.m.  By then the tornado warning had been lifted, but we had lost power.  I crawled back into bed and listened to the storm outside.  There was definitely a lot of wind.  I had a hard time sleeping, but finally drifted off.  Our power was restored at 4 a.m. which we later found out was a real blessing as some in our area are to be out for days.

This morning Meg and I drove around Syracuse looking for any signs of damage from the storm.  There were many limbs and branches down.  Some large trees had been uprooted and Doug even said that he had to drive under a tree to get to work.  Of all the damage, however, I couldn't believe my eyes when we pulled up to the high school.  The wind had taken out the fence and bleachers on the tennis court.  It had also blown down the fence on the soccer field and bent the end posts.  The concession stand was overturned as well as the band viewing tower.  Both soccer team dugouts had extensive damage with the roofs being thrown halfway down the hill behind them.  I believe it will be awhile before everything is repaired or replaced.

After looking over the destruction of this storm I couldn't help but feel lucky. We only had a few branches and limbs down in our yard and lot.  It will take a while for the town to clean up all of the damage.  I hope this is the last big storm of the summer.