Football weekend!

We had a great weekend cheering on the Boilers and Landon in football games!🏈  On Saturday, we went down to Purdue and met Nate to do some tailgating before the Kids Club football game.  The weather was gorgeous (a little windy 🍃, but nice).  We had good seats and got a good view of the game.

 The 1997 Boiler team was there to honor their coach Joe Tiller (who passed away last week) and celebrate the 20th anniversary of their season.  We got a good view of Drew Brees as he made his way onto the field.

 Everything was going well until the 4th quarter when dark clouds rolled in, then the rain, then the crowd was evacuated for lightning.  There was a 90 minute weather delay while we waited in Mackey Arena (the basketball arena).  We decided to head home instead of going back to the game (it was close to 8 pm by then) and we missed an awesome ending where Purdue came back and won the game. :(

watching the storm on the Jumbotrons

 Then on Sunday, Landon's flag football team played in the Panther Bowl on NorthWood's high school football field.  They played the first game against the Packers and won.  Played the next game against the Lions and won a close game.  Then played a third game (all in a row...good thing they are young!) against the Bengals and lost.  Landon had a great season and so did Matt as coach.

The girls (Kenna, Lola, Vivi, and Emmy) cheered on their brothers!  "Let's go, Titans, let's go!"

 The Titans 

Front Row: Ryan, Landon, Ryder, Tyler, Wesson  Back Row: Coach Matt, Sloan, Jayden, Brycen, Mason, Kike, Greyson and Coach Scott

So fun watching these boys play together!

Remaining Summer Pictures

I had a few summer pictures that I didn't get blogged before school started:

4-H Fair

We had one day to go to the fair before we went on vacation.  Luckily it was a gorgeous day and Todd had some ride tickets, so the kids got to ride just about everything they wanted!

Dance Party
Emerson's fun summer activity was to make her brother dress up and they had dance parties.  She'd blast the music and they'd both dance and sing.  She picked out the outfits! :)

 Camping at Chain O' Lakes
The first weekend in August, we went camping with the Davis and Frye families.  Friday evening it rained, but the rest of the weekend was beautiful.  After we went swimming on Saturday, Emerson complained of her ear hurting a lot.  We figured she probably had an ear infection, but of course no doctor's offices were open. So thankfully we got a prescription called in and got her medicine quickly.  Other than that, we had a great weekend!

Waiting out the rain inside!

 Swim Lessons
The kids both took swim lessons at the Nappanee pool.  They LOVED it!  We signed up for August thinking it'd be warm to get in the pool, but we were wrong.  Most mornings were in the 60's.  But that didn't stop the kiddos from getting in and swimming around with their instructors!

Tree Accident

One evening, a few days before school started, Em and I were going to Meijer to get groceries.  A storm had just rolled through and as we were driving, a large tree branch fell out of the tree right on our Honda Pilot.  Thankfully we were fine, but the hood and headlight were pretty banged up.  Over $3,000 later (thankfully covered by insurance :)), we have a nice looking new hood and front end!

Notice part of the tree still stuck in the light!

Grateful

As Nappanee tries to pick up the pieces from the recent tornado, I am reminded about how awesome people are. When you are needed, it is overwhelming the sense of urgency you feel. How can I help? Where am I needed? That is what thousands of people felt yesterday afternoon as they all descended upon Nappanee to help clean up the damage. It was so heartwarming to see the masses of people, friends, neighbors, and complete strangers that felt the urgency to help. Although, we only worked for a few hours, I could see progress being made but know there is a lot more to be done.
Then today as I returned to school, I was extremely nervous about what my students would be like today. Would they be able to concentrate and learn after seeing so much destruction over the weekend? Would they dwell on the tornado and want to spend the day talking about it? Had anyone lost their home in the storm? Well, of course the only way those questions could be answered is through relying on God to lead me through. Amazingly enough, students talked (just as all the teachers did), but by lunch time, they had moved on to other things. Kids are so resilient, while adults are still trying to figure everything out and process it all.
My two favorite quotes of the day:
"Mrs. Hahn, did you hear about the tornado?" :)
"We live in Blackstone [the subdivision that was hit by the storm]. But luckily we don't live in a mansion because the mansion side was hit by the storm, but our side is just fine!" :)
Thank goodness for the kind souls of people.

Unbelievable

The tornado that ripped through Nappanee on Thursday night did a lot of damage to homes and buisnesses. It is absolutely unbelievable. This is a picture of what used to be Taco Bell/KFC and all of the debris. It is so crazy how different you feel after a storm has ripped through your community as opposed to somewhere else in the world. It feels so much more real seeing places you know well, destroyed. Co-workers lost roofs and whole stories of their houses while others had to be evacuated for the gas leak. Church members found their house unlivable and are staying with friends. I feel so helpless and I'm sure no one knows quite where to begin. Matt and I are planning on helping with the clean up.

If you are in the area, on Sunday at 10 am at NorthWood High School everyone is meeting to be shuttled to areas that need help cleaning up. It's one small way to give back to a community who always gives so much.