FryDay

Today was Bethany's biannual fish fry and the seniors were in charge of the fundraising event.  Cameron took his role as section head seriously and worked very hard this week to make sure that everything was ready for the night.  He sold tickets to his friends' families, made the breading schedule for the day, stayed after school several times this week to help plan and set up, and he even bought the helpers cookies.  Every senior had to have a parent or adult work at the event.  Doug volunteered to work table cleanup as that was his job the two times that he helped Meg's class.  Except for his back hurting from standing, he said that it went well.

Grandma, Grandpa and I arrived around 5:45 for our fish dinner.  It wasn't very crowded, so we got seated right away.  Alina placed us right beside the Rusel family which I really appreciated.  The dinner was good especially the homemade coleslaw which almost didn't happen due to supply shortages in our area.  While we were eating we visited with Cameron, saw Doug in action and enjoyed friendly conversation with Avery's family.   Cameron was pleased to announce when he got home that they had done better than they originally thought.  We were all glad to to hear that as the money they raise pays for their senior trip.  I won't miss the fish fry, but it was a nice way to spend our last one. 

The Highs and Lows of Fall

My favorite season by far has always been fall.  I love the changing of the colors, the crips mornings that turn into beautiful sunny afternoons, pumpkins, Halloween, watching football with the guys and so much more.  There is a big negative of the autumn season, however, that gets harder and harder to deal with every year.  The most challenging part of fall to me are the leaves.  Every October our beautiful backyard becomes covered with more of them than anyone else's in the neighborhood.  Even this year after losing six trees from last fall, we still had a yard full.  Our front tree also decided to drop its leaves early this year, so not only is our backyard full, but so is the front.  

As Doug had been very busy these past few weeks, I thought that I would help him out today, especially since the weather was perfect for working outdoors.  I knew that raking for a long period of time would hurt my arms, so I borrowed my Mom's leaf blower and got to work on the front tree.  The leaves were wet and thick which made it more challenging than in years past.  In the middle of my efforts, Josh came over to check on my progress  He said that the rake on his mower was broken, but once it got fixed he would be able to "rake" the leaves for us.  I thanked him, but told him that I'd go ahead and keep working as there were plenty more to come down.  He then brought me his gas powered leaf blower to try instead.  It definitely was more powerful, but a lot heavier.  I didn't want to say no, so I did my best to lug it around the front tree and driveway blowing our leaves into piles.  By the time Doug got home from work, I could barely lift my arms.  

Thankfully, Doug took over from there, raking all of the leaves on to a tarp and then dragging them into the back lot.  Within an hour the front yard was pretty much leaf free.  We knew that it wouldn't last and made plans to work some more tomorrow.  As much as I love fall in Indiana, I will never miss raking leaves when we decide to move.  

When a Stranger Calls

Last week Grandpa Cutes and I were telling Cameron about all of the scary movies that we had watched when we were younger.  As we were talking about some of our favorites, two came to mind that we hadn't seen in a long time.  Grandpa mentioned "I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did", a 1965 thriller that revolved around two teenagers prank calling.  I didn't remember that very well, but did the next one that we talked about - the 1979 thriller, "When a Stranger Calls."  I remembered being extremely scared when I saw it for the first time.  Doug said that he had never watched it, but just seeing the commercials for it scared his nine year old self immensely.

We talked to Cameron about watching the thriller some time this Halloween season.  He said he would try it if he had time.  Once we heard Mike Greenburg talking about it on ESPN during our drive to Wisconsin and how he fell off his parents couch during the scariest scene, Cameron pushed it up on his priority list.  This evening the three of us sat finally found time to watch the movie.  It started off just as scary as I had remembered, especially the scenes with the phone ringing.  The movie lulled for a little bit in the middle, but ended well.  We decided that it wasn't quite a rewatchable, but definitely work watching once.  

Cal and Meg must have decided that it was the perfect night to watch Halloween shows as well.  Meg picked the Disney version of Sleepy Hallow.  I was glad to hear that as it has always been one of my favorites.  Brett was happy with Cal's choice as he finally watched the infamous horror movie, Halloween 3.  I was shocked that he liked it as we all found it to be just awful.  It did remind us, however, of just how catchy the jingle from the movie was and Cameron and I spent the rest of the night singing "Five more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.  Five more days to Halloween, Silver Shamrock!"

Fall Sports Awards

It was a quiet drive to Goshen tonight as Cameron and I road together to the fall sports awards program at Bethany.  While riding he and I spent some time talking about the gifts that the team got for Matt and Daniel and on the season in general.  I took advantage of the drive to also give Cameron our thoughts on awards.  We have never emphasized winning an individual award in any sport and this season was no different.  Cameron had had a wonderful tennis season and that was what he would always remember.  He agreed instantly and except for the rain we both felt really good going into the chapel.

The first item on the agenda was a recap of the fall sports highlights.  Bethany had done very well with a tournament win in tennis, conference wins in four other sports and two sectional championships in soccer.  As soon as Gary was finished talking about those accomplishments, Matt was called up to hand out the sportsmanship award for tennis.  Matt gave a nice speech about how the team chose the person for this award emphasizing leadership and being a role model for other players.  Doug and I were surprised and thrilled when Cameron's name was called.  Cameron was very proud of the award as it was the one that Bethany sports valued the most.  He was even happier when he realized that he was the only one of his siblings to win the sportsmanship award.  Being the youngest of four makes it hard sometimes to be the first in anything.  

After all of the sportsmanship awards were handed out, the athletic director recognized the all conferences winners and the academic winners.  Boys tennis was the only team to not have conference recognition as none of the other schools had a team.  Matt said that it made each one of his players "All-Conference" then.  The tennis team did earn a special honor, however, as they were named an academic all state team with Cameron receiving individual academic all state honors as well.

The second half of the awards program was held in Matt's room where he talked about the season and handed out "individual awards" to each member of the team.  His speeches about the players were very nice as well.  The night ended with actual individual awards.  We were once again completely surprised when Cameron was named co-MVP.  His doubles partner, Breece, was also given the award.  It was very nice to see them both recognized for their hard work this year as well as the leadership that they provided for the team.  The last "award" of the night was given to Matt by Cameron.  He named him the #1 coach of the year.  The team had all signed a jumbo tennis ball for him and gave him gift certificates for dinner at Oasis and Goshen Brewing Company.  Cameron also had a card with gift certificates for Daniel, making sure that he knew that he was the #2 coach.  Everyone enjoyed the joke.  Overall, it was a wonderful celebration of a fantastic tennis season.  

Turn the Other Cheek

When we first started attending St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, Father Ed was the priest.  He was an interesting clergyman, ex-Navy, gruff and extremely blunt.  We didn't have a close relationship with him, but did look forward to his homilies as we never knew what he was going to say.  One of the most memorable ones occurred on the Sunday after 9/11.  I was pretty sure that the message was "Don't trust Muslims."  Being that he had served in the military, I guess that it made sense to him.  I was just thankful that our children were too young to understand the negativity of that homily.

As controversial as Father Ed could be, there was one homily that he gave that always resonated with me.  In it he talked about the Bible verse in Matthew encouraging "that ye resist not evil; but whoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."  I always thought that this verse meant that I should I forgive someone for a bad act and still remain a relationship with them, even if they wronged me again.  Father Ed said that interpretation  was incorrect.  It meant to actually forgive them, but turn away from the wrong doing.  That made so much more sense to me than letting someone keep treating you poorly.

From that sermon to today, I have never forgotten Father Ed's advice.  Before then I would have let someone walk all over me.  After his speech, I realized that I was acting incorrectly;  I could actually forgive someone and walk away from them even if they were family.  No one had the right to treat me or my family poorly, but that didn't really matter.  What did matter was that I learned to turn the other cheek and keep moving on without them.  It was up to me how many times I would let them "smite" me before I left the relationship, but I didn't have to keep getting slapped over and over again.

Although none of the Heinisch children were old enough to thoroughly understand that sermon several decades ago, they have benefitted from Doug and I being in attendance that day.  They have witnessed how we have handled negative relationships by forgiving and walking away.  Nothing bad has to be said or done, just turn the cheek and leave.  That advice was some of the best that I have ever received.

A Fun Week for All

With Cameron off to play golf with Keegan, Doug took advantage of the warm weather to complete some yard work.  I helped him as much as I could while still making time to unpack from our trip.  I also made time to catch up with Meg, Brett and Cal.  They all had had busy, but fun weeks as well.

After studying all week for midterms, Meg was very excited to go to Harry Styles night at Kilroy's on Thursday night and then spend the rest of the weekend in West Lafayette with Nick.  They tried a few bars, including Harry's, did some shopping, and went hiking.  She stopped last night on her way home to go to dinner with Gabby.  Meg was extremely happy to get a break from studying.

Cal left Thursday for Austin, Texas to hang out with friends for the weekend.  He really enjoyed Texas and was glad to be in the state when the Longhorns were upset at football.  The weather there was even more beautiful than it had been for those of us in the Midwest.  

Brett made the most of his weeks with friends as well.  He also went to West Lafayette visiting two of his friends from high school, James and David.  Thursday night he met with a friend from Bible study for dinner before heading to Adoration.  Friday night he introduced both Sean and Norman to Something Wicked This Way Comes.  I didn't get a picture from him, but Sean sent me a cute one of Norman the next day.  Saturday night took Brett to Bedford to hang out with Andrew and tonight he met a new friend in Mooresville for dinner.  Overall, it was a wonderful week for the three oldest Heinisch children and we were very glad to hear that they had enjoyed themselves.  

Jump Around

Today was just as exhausting as yesterday, but even more fun.  We headed to Camp Randall stadium well ahead of game time so that we could find a parking spot.  It was a lot different than an IU football game day as there really wasn't anywhere to tailgate.  We knew that ahead of time, but didn't realize that there wouldn't be much parking either.  Thankfully, we were there early enough to scout the best places close to the stadium that weren't already reserved.  

After securing parking, we walked through the artisan part of campus where there were shops, bars and more.  We really enjoyed it as the stores reminded of the area around the courthouse in Bloomington.   Next, we headed to campus where there were several activities to tailgate with the university.  Before we found the first one near the union, a team of reporters from Purdue stopped Cameron and Samuel to interview them.  It was a lot of fun listening to their answers.  The boys each had a brat as we watched contestants play games on the big stage.  Next, we walked to the arches of Camp Randall.  The football players arrived shortly after we did and walked through the crowd giving out high fives and hugs to those in attendance.  The last area to tailgate was at the engineering mall.  Bucky the Badger was having a dance off with the fans in attendance.  Cameron and Samuel participated in several tailgate games including a field goal kicking activity that ended with Samuel thankful that he had pursued running instead of football.  

The four of us headed into the stadium about 45 minutes before the 2:30 kickoff.  We were instantly impressed with the size of Camp Randall Stadium and that nearly every one of the 80,000 seats were filled this afternoon.  The student section was seated together in the north end zone.  They stood throughout the entire game, danced, cheered and sang along to all songs played on the big screen.  Bucky the Badger was a nice addition as he was extremely interactive with the students.  He wore a different Halloween outfit each quarter with Pikachu begin my favorite.  There weren't as many gimmicks during the timeouts and halftime as there were at Memorial Stadium.  We figured that was because Wisconsin fans actually came to watch football whereas at IU everyone was just there for the atmosphere.  One exciting part was when Steve Miller, a Wisconsin grad, came out to lead the band in a rendition of his song Swing Town.  The best part of the day was definitely participating in "Jump Around."  The stadium shook as all 80,000 in attendance jumped up and down to the song.  It was absolutely amazing to witness in person.  All in all it was a lot of fun going to the game.  Our only wish was that Purdue played better as Wisconsin dominated the game and that the drunk behind us would have left early.  Other than that, it was a fantastic  two days in Madison and we were very thankful to spend them with Cameron and Samuel.