Under Water

Bethany cancelled school today as did every other school in Elkhart County.  The rain that started yesterday did not subside and there was flooding all over the area.  Our school system stuck with just a delay although it did get it's share of standing water.  I worked in the morning and was off for the afternoon.  When I got home Meg, Cam and I decided to go to Goshen to see what was really happening.  

The trip over was pretty easy.  We only saw one or two roads with water crossing them.  Meg's friend had told us that Linway Plaza was closed.  We wanted to check and see what that looked like.  I was blown away as we got closer.  All roads in that area were closed.  The Kroger parking lot was completely underwater, enough so that people were canoeing in it later.  The nearby park had also flooded.  The water levels had reached the top of the shelter roof which would have been well over my head.  Meg banned me from saying "Wow!" as that was all I could say after driving by the rain drenched area.

Cam had wanted to go to Hacienda for lunch.  We quickly realized that was out of the question.  We drove to Olympia next, but that was closed as well.  It wasn't flooded, but we found out later in the day that all of Elkhart County was under a state of emergency, so most places had closed.  We settled on Tony's.  We had never eaten there before, but knew that Grandpa and Cal really liked it.  The atmosphere was sketchy, but the food was good.  Since we didn't know what would flood next we drove home after lunch.  Doug had several roads that were closed on his way home.  He left before it got dark, however, so he had no problem navigating the standing water.  I took Cam and Meg to tennis.  We also had no problems with the drive.  By the time that we got home we found out that Meg and Cam had a two hour delay.  None of us were surprised by that.  

Flood Delay

It started raining yesterday and just hasn't stopped.  We did not have any standing water at our house when I got home which I was happy to see.  Normally, the neighbor beside us has a flooded yard that travels into ours when it storms.  As this was not the case we did not have to worry about water in our basement.  Meg and Doug said that there was more water in the Goshen area.  None of the roads they traveled on were closed, but there was some standing water in patches.  Both made it home without any problems.

As the night wore on the reports of flooding in Elkhart County increased.  By the time Meg left for senior night at the boys' basketball game most schools north and west of us had two hour delays.  I heard from her shortly after she arrived at Bethany that they had one as well.  I was completely surprised.  In all of our years of living here I do not remember a flood delay.  I didn't expect Wawasee to call one since our roads were better, but at 8:15 p.m. we joined the list.  I definitely did not complain.  I strongly prefer driving to school in the daylight especially if the roads are covered with water.

Start of a Long Week

This week will be long no matter what I do.  Friday is the end of the second trimester and many of my students have missing work to make up or standards to master.  I spent a lot of time over the weekend organizing lists of what everyone needs to do to finish the trimester strong.  There was a lot of retesting today and I answered more math questions than I have in quite awhile.  That coupled with the ISTEP practice test made for an exhausting day, but I made it through.

Doug got home later than normal as he picked up Cam from the last middle school girls game of the year.   Cam appreciated being able to go and hang out with his friends.  Meg had tennis conditioning until 5.  She decided it was a great night to stop by Grandma's for noodles.  It was quiet here which gave me a lot of time to grade and regrade assignments.  It probably wasn't the most exciting night of the year, but I did get everything done.

A Late Snowstorm

Last night there was an unexpected snowstorm that quickly brought two inches of snow to our area.  The snow had turned to ice this morning, so Meg and I were unable to go to 11 a.m. mass.  Normally, Doug would have taken us, but he had a religious education meeting and wouldn't be back in time.  Instead of going to church I used the time to do my leg exercises.  I added in ones for my back as well and even did the elliptical.

I spent quite a bit of time working this weekend.  The five elearning days have been great from my perspective as I have been able to be home more this winter and haven't had to worry about making up days at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, a lot of my students haven't taken advantage of the learning opportunities and this weekend I had to take time to make lists of those that were missing work or had tests to make up.  It will be a busy week at school with the end of the trimester on Friday and a practice ISTEP test tomorrow.

Cal spent most of his day at HM's.  Meg had homework to catch up on.  She and Cam also cleaned the guinea pigs.  Doug had work to do as well, so we all stayed busy.  I did make time to get Cal's taxes done.  I wanted to do them while he was home in case I had any questions for him.  He won't get as much back as he did last year, but he was happy with the results none the less.

Last night Cal and HM made hummus that was excellent.  Tonight they made dinner from their new recipe book.   Tonight's recipe was a chicken dish with kenwa.  We had never had it before and found it delicious.  Doug had also prepared chicken and waffles in case Meg and Cam weren't as adventurous as the rest of us.  It was very nice to eat dinner together before Cal had to head back to IU.  We were glad that he was able to spend the weekend with us.

A Weekend with Cal

Cal decided to come home this weekend.  He didn't have any upcoming tests and was off of work as well.  At first we weren't sure how we would manage his trip north as Brett had a networking event in Indy during the day and would need the car.  Cal found out later that he had a test to take Friday night, so it actually worked out well.  Brett made it to his event and was back in Bloomington well before Cal was ready to leave.

Cal didn't have time to do much last night except to stop by Hannah-Marie's.  He had bought her a giant teddy bear for Valentine's and wanted to give it to her.  They said that Winston thought it was a real person.  Today they stopped by Mom's for lunch, took Winston for a long walk and then went to dinner with all of us at Mad Anthony's.  Afterward they wanted to stop at Martin's.  HM had gotten Cal a cookbook and they wanted to try several of the healthy recipes.  Cal was proud of the fact that he had lost twenty pounds since Christmas break and wanted to continue his current eating lifestyle.

Mom and dad were here when we got home.  Cal had invited them over to play cards.  We ended up deciding on Tripoloy.  We introduced Dad to the Google Home Mini and Spotify and enjoyed the cookies that Doug made.  It was a fun evening for all.

A Night with Friends

Mary asked us if we could have Evan over tonight as she and Ken were going to Fort Wayne to celebrate their wedding anniversary.  Since Evan had not spent the night in quite some time we thought it would be a great idea.  The only hiccup in the plan came yesterday when Mr. Willems emailed to say that the boys' end of the season basketball party would be after school today.  We decided to let Cam go and have Evan hang out with me.  He had reading to do and I had papers to grade, so it worked out well.  We picked up Cam at 4:30 from Bethany.  The boys headed straight to the PS4 when we got home and didn't leave it except to eat.

Meg had tennis conditioning after school until five and then had plans to go to Hacienda and to spend the night at Jackie's.  Since Cam and Meg were busy I decided that it would be the perfect evening to get together with my friend Jen.  We had texted many times over the last couple of months but hadn't seen each other since late summer.  It was wonderful to catch up with her.  We spent quite a bit of time talking out our current lives and everything going on with the Heinisch children and Grace.  After dinner we hung out at our house for awhile including Doug in our conversations.  It was fun reminiscing about our shared memories from over the years.

Fog Day

Today we all woke up to a two hour delay.  None of us were surprised as it was extremely foggy last night.  I normally go ahead and get up, but I was wiped out this morning and fell right back to sleep.  When I woke up at 8:15 I was surprised to see that Wawasee had cancelled and we would have an elearning day.  I called Doug right away and he said that he was glad that I did not have school as it was one of the worst days that he had driven in to work.

We decided at that point that I would definitely take Meg and Cam to Bethany.  I hurried and got my plans on to our elearning page and we headed out at 5 minutes after 9.  It was difficult to see, but with the light I had a lot easier trip then Doug.  We stayed on US 6 and State Road 15 with the speedometer set at 40 mph.  The only issues that we encountered was the cars without headlights on.  It did take me close to an hour roundtrip, but everyone made it safely.

I spent the rest of the day answering emails from students, doing laundry and cleaning Cam and Meg's bathrooms.  One benefit to the elearning days has been that I have been able to keep our house clean.  The downside to them has been that only about 60% of my students have done the lessons.  I went back to Bethany at 3:30 to pick up Cameron.  It was still foggy, but the visibility was quite a bit better.  Cam and I ran to Ben's pretzels while Meg attended her end of the year basketball meeting.  By the time we got back she was done and ready to head home.  Even thought the weather was better Doug decided to take her to tennis.  He worked while she attended her group lesson.  Although we were all hoping for a delay tomorrow by the end of the night the snow had melted and the fog had dissipated.  At least we knew we had only had one more day to get through before the weekend.