The Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

One of the best parts of March is Epcot's Flower & Garden festival.  It opened two days ago and last night Nick, Meg, Doug and I met at the theme park to enjoy all that the festival had to offer.  There were some wonderful foods to try.  Doug and I especially liked the chicken gumbo in United States, and I loved the chocolate cake in Canada.  The topiaries are always my favorite part of the festival and there were some new ones this year.  They also moved some of the longtime ones such as Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan to new spots in the park making it feel like a treasure hunt as we walked the countries.  While we were there, we were also able to listen to the musical entertainment offered, enjoying several different bands.  It was the lightest crowd that we had seen in Epcot for quite some time and overall, we all had a great time.  I really appreciated everyone taking time out of their busy schedule to meet.  It was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go several more times before the festival ends in June. 

Lego Time

When Doug and I were downsizing our home in Syracuse, we weren't quite sure what to do with a lot of our children's possessions.  There were some really nice toys, bedding and other items that they no longer used, but meant a lot to us.  I didn't quite finish the project as it took me awhile to sort through everything and decide what to keep and what to donate or sell, but I made a lot of headway during those two years.

Out of all of the items that we sold, the ones that made the most money were the Lego sets bringing in well over a thousand dollars for our children on eBay before we moved.  We still had a lot left when we arrived in Ocala almost three years ago, but neither one of us wanted to donate them.  We had enjoyed building them together and our children appreciated the extra spending money.  I found a great place to store the tubs of pieces above the cabinets in our laundry room and didn't even think about them again until this winter when Doug was working on puzzles and I suggested instead working on the Legos after he finished it.

As soon as Doug agreed, I pulled out every half-built set in our home and picked out one of the largest ones to complete.  Doug spent quite a bit of time rebuilding it and I spent an equal amount of time finding all of the missing pieces, but as of yesterday, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull set was on eBay ready for a buyer.  There were a lot of memories in that set as Jeanette bought it for Cal when he was recovering from hip surgery.  Even so, Cal was the first to say that it was time to find a new home for it and I was glad that I would be emptying a large tub from my closest.  I don't know how quickly it will sell as it is a more expensive piece, but either way it was a lot of fun to build and led us to other sets that also need to find a new home.

Well, That's Strange

Since my dad was going to be in the hospital longer than we originally thought, he asked me if I could do his taxes.  I had no problem with that as I had been doing Doug and my taxes for years and until recently all of the Heinisch children's as well.  While Cal was in Syracuse last weekend, I asked him to take a picture of all of the tax documents that my dad had in his 2024 and 2025 tax folder plus all of the passwords that were relevant in his black notebook.  It took some digging and some detective work by my mom but 36 pictures later I had everything I needed . . . almost.

The one item that was missing was the same one that my dad had trouble finding last year, my mom's SSA-1099.  At first, I thought, "No problem, I will just set up a social security online account like I had for Doug and I and get it from there."  I guess I was naive when I assumed that it would be a ten-minute process.  Social Security had changed their online registration steps.  A photo of the driver's license wasn't enough, now they needed a selfie from the person's phone as well.  I was frustrated but not discouraged when I read that.  I knew it would be hard for my mom to do, but with Aunt Vicky's help I thought it would work.  

After talking them through the process and several attempts, social security finally accepted the photo of my mom's id and a selfie.  I was happy to finally have solved the issue and continued the steps helping her set up the online account.  We got to the last question which asked for a phone number to text or call.  No problem, we gave them hers and soon got the response, "Sorry, this number is not linked to the registrant."  I was floored.  The only phone number that they would recognize was the landline that my parents had cancelled at least a decade ago.  That was no help.

That was when I decided to call the social security office and explain the issue.  The first time was absolutely no help.  The second person I talked to was a lot more helpful.  She let me merge my mom on to the call and after she verified that I could talk to the social security office on her behalf, they at least let us know the issue.  My mom's address was wrong.  We gave them every address that we could think of, even mine on Sunset Dr. but know of them worked.  That was when we found out that Medicare might be able to give us the information that we needed as the two accounts were linked.  After several failed attempts, we finally got into the website on our last try by remembering that my mom's favorite ice cream was butter pecan.  We saw the problem right away; her address was listed in Cocoa Florida.  I wrote it down and we called the social security office back hoping we could now find a resolution to the issue.

In the end, we were let down once again.  My mom was able to give them the fake address, but they started asking her a lot more questions that we weren't prepared for and only confused her with "What's the account number on your savings account? What is your father's name?"  My mom didn't have her account number memorized and she didn't know if they meant CrapPa or her biological dad.  We gave up.  They did give us the numbers for her SSA-1099, but that was it.  I realized at that time that the only way to solve the issue was to make an appointment with the Social Security office an hour from her home and take her there myself at the end of March.  What a pain.  At least I gained knowledge for what to do so this never happens to Doug or I and I can now work on my parents' taxes.

How Can It Already March?

Nick told Meg that he was glad that summer had arrived.  She reminded him that it was only March and that spring hadn't technically even arrived yet.  I had to laugh when Meg told me that story.  The weather had changed here, and it did feel a lot like summer.   

Even so, I still can't believe that it is already March.  February absolutely flew by.  It seemed like we had just been in Indiana celebrating Cameron's 21st birthday not too long ago and now he was talking about his spring break trip to visit us.  I am definitely not complaining.  I love March and am ready for all that it brings - beautiful weather, green grass, St. Patrick's Day, March Madness, spring break and so much more.  Hopefully, this March is just as much fun.

Maggie's Golden Birthday

This weekend Maggie celebrated her golden birthday on the 27th of February.  Our family showered her with gifts and messages of good will.  I love how quickly Maggie became a part of our family.  She fits in on every level and has been a joy to have around.  She completements Meg's interests very well which I enjoy tremendously as she comes up with great recommendations for Doug and I, just like Meg.  Her laid-back attitude and organizational skills have benefitted Cal very much, I appreciate how much she includes us in their lives as well. I would never push anyone to get engaged, but if Maggie and Cal decided to get married, I definitely would not object.  

Another Weekend, Another Visitor

Cal finally had a break from work, so he used it to go out and visit and Grandma and Grandpa.  He hadn't been to Syracuse since December and was very thankful to see both of them.  While he was there, he was also able to help get a few things done for Grandma as well.  The biggest item on the list was cleaning out Grandpa's 2006 Dodge Caravan and finding the title to it. Since I was coming out in March to help get ready for a garage sale in May, I was very happy to hear that there would be room to store the items.  I was also glad to know that they had decided to give the car to Jess.  She and Adam only had one vehicle and it wasn't running the last I heard.  Once Jess had her own car, Aunt Vicky wouldn't have to run as many errands for her as well.  It may not look the best, but it should work well for her needs.

While Cal was there, he also took Grandma over to see Grandpa.  Since the hospital is talking about sending him to rehab in Fort Wayne or Muncie, I was very glad that she got to visit with him before then.  Cal said that Grandpa looked a lot better than he thought that he would.  They put him on a steroid which had seemed to help.  Cal was very positive about his visit to the hospital and was glad that Grandpa liked his chocolate shake.  I was very happy to hear about his day.  My mom looked great in the pictures that they took and he was even able to find the tax documents that I had been looking for so that I can help my parents file their taxes this spring.  It has been very overwhelming trying to manage all of this while living a thousand miles away.  Thus, I really appreciate Brett and Cal taking time out of their weekends to help.  It takes a village, no matter the age of your family.

A New Look

This year's cold weather was extremely hard on my outdoor plants.  Thankfully, most of them survived, even though they looked pretty ragged at first.  Unfortunately, the two bromeliads on our front porch did not.  I was actually surprised by that as I had planted them when we first bought the house replacing the ugly ferns that the previous owner had in them, and they had lived through several hard freezes since then.  There must have been something different about this year's weather that ended up taking them out.

Doug and I decided to wait until we were sure that winter was over in Florida before we tried anything else.  The planters were made out of cement, and we knew that we wouldn't be able to move them once we purchased new plants.  We had looked at Lowe's two weeks ago and loved several that we saw but today settled on two Petra Crotons.  It was a colorful tropical plant that loved direct sunlight.  We had plenty of that in our front landscaping and knew that they would be perfect for the planters.  While we were there, we also saw a beautiful daisy and picked that up as well.  Everything looked wonderful when we were done and matched our St. Patrick's Day decorations as well.  I was more than thrilled with it all and in the end was glad that old man winter decided that we needed a new look.