Finally Done!

I have spent this entire week cleaning.  Since I have quit teaching, our house has defintely stayed both cleaner and also more organized.  In saying that, it doesn't mean that I enjoy cleaning.  In fact I started looking on the internet today to see if there were easier ways to clean my house, especially the stove top, bathtubs and toilets.  I actually found a couple of ideas that I am going to try.  I ordered a pumice stone which supposedly removes hard water stains.  I have never seen such high reviews for a product, so I ordered it from Amazon today and can't wait to see if it really works.  I also looked at electric spin brush cleaners in the hope that I don't have to scrub as hard, especially in the showers.  I was hoping that it would decrease the amount of pain in my arms after a week of cleaning.  The reviews weren't as high on those and they were more expensive, so I'll wait on purchasing one.

I told Cameron all about my cleaning finds today when I picked him up.  He was pretty sure that I was going crazy.  He's probably correct, but it did give me a project for the afternoon.  Doug at least pretended to be interested.  Unlike Cameron he could appreciate the amount of time it takes to clean five bathrooms.  No matter their enthusiasm for my week of cleaning, I was more than happy to be done.

Fall Sports Award

Last evening was the fall sports award night at Bethany.  Cam and I had just finished helping with the leaves before we left for the event.  Doug met us there.  We decided not to tell him that we had picked up all of the leaves in the yard and instead surprise him when he got home instead.  He did figure out that my parents were at the house before he left Bethany.  The leaf pile had caught on fire after we raked due to the hot embers leftover from last night.  The wind kept it going and before we pulled out of the driveway I had to call my parents to come up.  Cam had moved most of the wood furniture away from the fire, but I was still afraid that the ashes would drift to the woods or our house.  My Dad kept an eye on it until we returned.  As soon as Doug parked in the garage he hurried out to the fire pit with the yard rake.  Once he made sure that everything was alright, he looked at my Dad and said, "Wait a minute, did you guys pick up our leaves."  It was then that my Mom showed him the pictures of our afternoon.  He was more than pleased with our progress and thankful for our neighbors help.

Even though Doug was worrying about the yard, we did enjoy the fall sports award.  It was a little long, but we expected that.  After the all sports session we went to Matt's room for the tennis portion. Matt spoke highly of the season and then talked about each individual player.  Cam was given the "Confidence" award and earned his letter and numbers.  We agreed with his evaluation of Cam' play this year and talked on the way home about the work that he wanted to do during the offseason.  Overall, it was a nice way to end his first high school fall sports season.

Leaves & More Leaves

I spent the last two days unpacking from our weekend, grocery shopping, putting away the Halloween, getting out the Thanksgiving and dusting the main level.  I was even able to get Cam and I to the dentist in between all of the household chores.  I had just finished putting out the Thanksgiving lighted owl in the front landscaping this afternoon when Roger stopped by to offer his help.  He had noticed Doug raking leaves in the dark last night and knew that he and his John Deere could make a huge dent in the project in a lot shorter period of time.  He also realized that our weekends recently had been spent in Bloomington with the three older Heinisch children and that Doug hadn't had much time recently to make headway on the daunting fall project.  I thanked him for his offer and told him that I would let Doug know.  I also explained that we would be gone tonight for the Bethany fall sports awards, but Doug would be home tomorrow night to do yard work.

About fifteen minutes later I had just sat down for a break from all of the work that I had been doing and to eat a snack.  Pretty soon I heard what sounded like a mower and a leaf blower.  I thought that maybe Josh, our neighbor to the west, was working on his yard.  It quickly dawned on me, however, that the noise was coming from our yard.  I called Cameron down from his room and told him to grab a rake. For the next hour Roger, Darlene, Cam and I raked, mulched and dumped tons of leaves on our burn pile.  Josh even joined the "fun" with his own mower and leaf catcher.  I could not believe how much we accomplished in so little time.  The front and back yard looked awesome.  It was such a nice gesture and I thoroughly appreciated our neighbors help.

Daylight Savings Time

Yesterday we set all of the clocks back an hour in accordance to Daylight Savings Time.   I didn't really think much about the time change after that.  As I posted our pictures from the weekend on Facebook later in the evening, happy that we were able to enjoy the extra time in our day, I was absolutely surprised by the amount of posts complaining about "falling back."  I normally don't read much on Facebook, but as I scrolled through the comments I actually became irritated with the negativity surrounding Daylight Savings Time.  Indiana decided thirteen years ago to join the rest of the country and initiated the change.  It was controversial at the time, but Mitch Daniels believed that it was best for the economic growth of the state.  I understood his rational and although I didn't have an opinion regarding the decision a decade ago, I was glad that the state chose to follow the Eastern time zone instead of Central.  We had lived in Illinois for several years and I could still remember how awful it felt when it got dark at 3:30.

I don't usually get annoyed with posts on Facebook, but tonight's really bothered me.  I wanted to type back "the decision was made thirteen years ago, get over it."  I knew that would be immature so I stopped myself.  I also felt that several of the teachers that were complaining were only doing so because they still resented Daniels for his decisions on education during his tenure as Indiana Governor.  I finally shut my computer when I read a post that stated, "I just want to go back to the old Indiana time."  As the time change yesterday put us back on Eastern Standard time we were "back to the old Indiana time."  It was the same time that we grew up with and the same time zone that felt most comfortable to me.  I realized at that point that ignorance and Facebook tend to go hand in hand and there was no reason to read anymore.  Part of me still wanted to comment on the idiocy of the statements, but I knew that nothing good would be accomplished and I would probably offend some of my friends.  Thus, I refrained and wished that others would have made that same choice as well.

Book of Mormon

With the time change last night we all planned on getting an extra hour of sleep.  Although that sounded great, especially after such a long day on Saturday, we were all up by 7:45 a.m. this morning.  That was alright with us as we used the extra time to play Ticket to Ride.  Afterward Brett and I took a walk around his apartment complex while Doug worked and Cam watched highlights of the Big Ten games yesterday.  As it was only 10:30 when we got back, we decided to play one more game of Ticket to Ride.  Doug won again.  I guess we just can't figure out how to beat him.

We met Robyn, Mike, Cal and Hannah-Marie for lunch at Crazy Horse.  We enjoyed our conversation    with them and were glad that they came down for the weekend as well.  Meg and Nick were not able to join us as they made other plans.  They had a busy weekend hiking in Brown County, tailgating,  and meeting Sarah and her mom.  Meg did have time to go with Brett and I to see the Book of Mormon this afternoon.  We had bought tickets several months ago and were glad that we could all make it.  The musical was just as good as I remembered, although extremely vulgar.  There were a couple of scenes that made Meg and I uncomfortable but overall she and Brett enjoyed it just as much as Doug and I did the first time we saw it.  They also knew more about the South Park writers than I did which added to their enjoyment.

Doug and Cam spent their afternoon watching the Bears lose.  They then packed the Pilot and met me at Read.  We left later than usual, but missed all of the traffic on the way home which made it a quick trip home.  We were all exhausted when we got back and once the Pilot was unloaded we spent the rest of the evening relaxing.  Cam hung out in his room watching television and Doug and I finally finished It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown puzzle.  It was a wonderful way to end an awesome weekend.

Game Day Saturday

Northwestern vs IU drew the 7 p.m. game time slot for the Big Ten Network.  The good part about that was having the morning to play Ticket to Ride and eat lunch at the winery with Brett.  The bad news was that it would make for a cold evening for those of us going to the game.  In the end it worked out pretty well.  We enjoyed our time with Brett before he left for work and made it to the grass lots by 3:15.  We were glad that we arrived early as the majority of the fields were absolutely packed.  We did get a spot in the last lot which by 4 p.m. was completely full.

Our tailgate was a lot of fun.  It was a different crowd than we had had in the past.  Cal, Doug, Cam, Hannah-Marie, Meg and I were there as usual, but in addition Parce, Nick, Robyn, Mike, Pam, her Dad and several of HM's friends also joined us.  Doug had made cheesy potatoes and antipasto squares which were a big hit.  Robyn brought chicken and chips to share.  Pam added fruit and vegetables, so there was plenty for everyone to eat.  Parce had met Cal for breakfast club earlier in the day and we were glad that he walked out to the grass lots to visit us as well.  We hadn't seen him in awhile and Cam had a lot of IU football to talk to him about.  Meg and Nick left early to meet Sarah for dinner.  She was in town for the state cross country meet.  Meg was excited to see her and enjoyed their visit.  Doug had brought plenty of beer for everyone.  Robyn talked everyone into tequila shots to toast IU.  I hadn't had a shot of tequila in a long time, but joined in the festivities.  Doug and I both handled it way better than we thought we would.  

 

 

We packed up and left for the game around 6:30.  Parce had given us his tickets which were in the north end zone and closer than our seats.  Cam had a fantastic view to see the team run out on the field.  At halftime Pam invited us to sit by her Dad.  As good as Parce's seats were, his were even better.  He was three rows behind the team on the forty-nine yard line.  It was really awesome being that close to the players and coaches.  We got some great pictures and thoroughly enjoyed watching IU rout Northwestern 34-3 giving them a 7-2 record on the season thus far.  With an IU victory and good friends and family to spend the day with, it made sitting in the cold not quite as bad as I thought it would be.  

 

Fish FryDay

Cam set a new record for himself at this fall's Bethany fish fry eating thirteen pieces of fish topping last year's total by one.  He thought it was funny that when he asked for five pieces at once the server asked him if he was kidding.  Cam went to the event with Joey who also set a personal best at eight pieces of fish.  He didn't have to work as hard to beat last year's total of two.  When we picked Cam up at 5:45, he was proud of his accomplishment especially since he didn't throw up this year.

We headed straight for Bloomington from Bethany.  Cam wasn't much in for the snacks that we brought down and didn't order anything at Mother Bear's besides a root beer still full from his fish dinner.  Doug and I were ready for pizza, however.  We finished in time to pick up Brett from work.
The four of us then spent the rest of the evening at his apartment playing Ticket to Ride.  We got several updates from my Mom throughout the night.  She agreed to hand out candy to Trick or Treaters for us since Halloween was moved to this evening.  She couldn't believe how many groups came to our door and was happy to announce at the end of the night that she had given out almost all of the candy that I had bought earlier in the week.  We appreciated her and my Dad taking on this task.