Family Reunions

While Doug and I were at Dan's last weekend for a "Cousins' Reunion", Meg and Nick were attending the Yoder Family one as well.  I was very glad that they were able to make it as they had missed the last two years due to Nick's travel schedule.  They both said that they had a lot of fun and caught up with a lot of family members that they hadn't seen for a while.  

Meg's trip also allowed her to spend a lot of time with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Cutes.  Grandma was very happy to see her and Grandpa enjoyed watching the Simpsons with her.  Meg also made time to visit Toledo on her trip.  She and Cameron met at the Toledo Zoo and afterward he took her on a tour of his apartment and Owens Corning.  Meg told me that she really enjoyed her stay and was happy to have had a few days with everyone. I have been so glad that our family makes an effort to stay in touch and visit often even though we live miles apart.  I truly believe that it makes us appreciate each other even more.  

Above and Beyond

Recently, I found a Lego that no one remembered ever owning.  Since some of it had already been built, Doug and I decided to finish it and put whatever money we made off of it toward shipping supplies.  Everyone agreed that it was a good idea and we started on it in June.  Once we got working on it, we realized several pieces were missing from the Star Wars Lego.  Since I had ordered from the Lego replacement store previously for other missing parts, I thought that it would still be worth finishing.  Once the missing pieces arrived, I put the Hoth Wampa Cave together and listed it on eBay.

The Lego was a huge hit on the selling site and soon I had $58 extra dollars to use toward bubble wrap, packing tape and more.  About two weeks after I shipped the Lego, I received a message from the buyer that there were seventy pieces on the set that were incorrect and several more that were not true Legos.  Since there weren't a lot of pieces in the set to begin with and everything we have or have bought are Lego, I questioned his message as nicely as I could.  He agreed that our listing had stated that we could not be 100% sure that all pieces were included or correct but still wanted some type of remedy to the problem that he addressed.  I didn't agree with him but since I didn't want negative feedback, I offered a refund if he returned the set.   He didn't want that and asked for a partial refund instead.  I decided to give him $15 back and thanked him for compromising.

About a week after he received the refund, the buyer messaged again asking me to look for six pieces with stickers on them that we didn't know were part of the set.  I wanted to say to him "six is a lot less than seventy, so what were you talking about in the first place" but instead I spent an afternoon looking through all of our tubs of Legos searching for the blocks with stickers on them.  I was extremely pleased to find four of them and sent them out the next morning.   

In the end the buyer never offered to pay for the shipping for those pieces, but at least I did receive positive feedback from him.  Doug asked me why I went above and beyond for such little return.  I didn't really know, but I think it was because I realized that if this was one of my own children, I would want someone to treat them the way I did even if they were being a little over the top.  I don't know if I would do it again, but I was glad to help out this time. 

Skin Cancer Blues

Doug went to the dermatologist this week to have another skin cancer removed from his head.  I didn’t go with him to this appointment because he told me that he would be there for several hours. It was a smaller area that had to be removed than the last two times, but he would have to be there longer as he waited to make sure that all of the margins were clear. 

Doug was very positive about it and I didn’t think much about it since it sounded like a pretty easy procedure.  Imagine my surprise when he came home with six stitches on the top of his head. I looked at him and started crying. I know that I shouldn’t have, but this was nothing like I was expecting and I knew from his previous surgeries that this one would be a lot more noticeable. Hair doesn’t really grow back over a scar, it just kind of grows around it.  That didn’t really matter with the two in the back of the head, but for some reason knowing that this one would be in the front felt overwhelming to me.

Once I started reading about the skin cancer, I stopped feeling sorry for myself. Doug had a different type of this time of skin cancer this time and although it wasn’t deadly, Basal Cell could definitely cause a lot more damage to the bone. I thought of my uncle Bob and the fact that he had lost his nose to skin cancer. A scar on Doug’s head would be nothing compared to that. Plus, our main goal is to keep Doug healthy and stress-free. Me crying over his skin cancer was stupid. Hopefully, this will be the last time, but if not, we at least know how to deal with it now.

IU Scholarships for the Win

Cameron sent me a text today asking me if I had checked his bursar account lately.  Since it wasn’t August yet, I hadn’t even thought about looking at his tuition bill.  He told me to look at his financial aid package when I had a chance as he thought that there might be some changes to it.  I was definitely curious after his text, but didn’t have time to log in until after lunch.  

When I finally sat down at the computer, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.  In the section for financial aid awards there was an extra $4628 in addition to his annual provost scholarship of $4000.  I had to read it twice to even believe what I saw was true.  Cameron had won the Douglas A and Rebecca L Smock Scholarship award for $2628 and the Padget Family Bicentennial Scholarship for $2000.  Both were merit based scholarships in the Kelley School of Business given to undergraduate students demonstrating academic excellence and campus involvement.  Cameron fit the definition perfectly.

As soon as I found out, I texted Cameron to congratulate him on his hard work.  I then called Doug to tell him and started crying.  I had spent over ten hours last March helping Cameron fill out his FAFSA, the general scholarship application, and the one for the business school specifically.  At the time I told myself if he got a thousand extra dollars it would be worth it.  Now he was getting over $4600 and it couldn’t have come at a better time.  The cost of living in Bloomington had skyrocketed over the past three years.  Cameron’s rent alone was twice what I had paid for Cal his senior year.  From my estimates this summer, I was going to be $3500 short in the account that I had set aside to pay for Cameron’s final year.  Now with these two scholarships I had a little breathing room.  It felt like a gigantic win and a wonderful reminder that God does answer our prayers.  

Fourteen Years and Still Going Strong

This post popped up on my memories today and it made me smile instantly.  I absolutely loved our 2012 Honda Odyssey and was happy to know that it was still going strong.  It had seen a lot in its fourteen years.  It was the last car that we bought when all four children lived at home, it had moved each one of them to college and would have been the last car that Grandma Heinisch knew for our family.  The van had not only made numerous trips in the Midwest, but it had also been to Washington DC, Boston, Maine, Vermont, Niagara Falls, Texas, Orlando, Tennessee, and Wisconsin as well.  The Odyssey had known me as a driver for nine of those years, Cameron for four and now Karen for almost one.  It overheard more conversations between our children and I than I could ever count and has truly become an important part of our family.  I know that one day we will have to say goodbye, but not thankfully, not today.

 

World Cup Final

Doug and I left DeKalb yesterday afternoon with the hope of making it to Tennessee before stopping for the night.  Thankfully, traffic was light and we made it to Ocala with no issues.  We were both tired when we pulled into our driveway today but extremely thankful to be home.  We had three boxes to unpack from my parents' home, but nothing like the last time we traveled back from the Midwest.  

While we were driving yesterday, our afternoon entertainment was listening to the finals of The World Cup between Argentina and Spain.  Doug was hoping that Argentina would win as he was a fan of Messi and I was rooting for Spain, mostly because Cora had Spain and we had a girls' alliance in the Heinisch family pool after a lot of trash talking from the guys occurred in the beginning of the tournament.  The hype around the game was big outside of our family as well because it was the first time that two Spanish speaking countries had played each other in the final since 1966.  

Thankfully, the game lived up to the hype and even though it was low scoring with Spain winning 1-0, it was still very exciting.  It also kept Doug and I entertained on our long drive.  Although, I had been pulling for Meg's England team to win in the final four, I was still very happy that Cora won our pool's $50.  The best part for me, however, was all of the family texts back and forth throughout the tournament.  It was a great way to keep in touch and made the World Cup even more fun.

DeKalb

Doug was up early this morning so that he could meet his dad for breakfast.  He really enjoyed his visit and was able to see Uncle Ray as well.  Uncle Ray had moved into Oak Crest last spring and although unsure at first, had really come to enjoy living there.  I wasn't surprised to hear that as I know that Carl and Marina really like their new life in the senior living community.  

While Doug was busy, I appreciated the extra time with Cal and Maggie.  I was also thankful that they could take me to DeKalb to meet Doug so that we could leave for home from there.  Doug and I offered to give Maggie a tour of DeKalb since she had never been to Doug's home city.  She got to see Inboden's, our favorite butcher shop that was a highlight of our family's many trips to visit Grandma when she was sick.  She also got to see St. Mary's Church and visit Jeanette's gravesite.  As nice as it was to share our memories of those sites with her, the best part was taking her to Doug's childhood home.  The new owners were in the driveway when we went by, so Cal stopped and asked if we could walk around.  They were incredibly nice and we all had so much fun talking about all of the good times that we had shared in Grandma's backyard - from our wedding rehearsal dinner, to the garden, to the pine trees that Doug watered every day when they moved-in, to the clubhouse that Carl built, to the bench from the golf course that Dan brought home, to the back porch, to the place where Apache was buried - it was a wonderful walk down memory lane and I appreciated Cal and Maggie taking the time to share it with us.

After our tour of DeKalb, Doug and I went to a cousins' gathering at Dan's.  It was very nice to see Doug's cousins and catch up with so many of them.  Doug hadn't seen a lot of them since Uncle Jim died four years ago.  It was also nice to visit with Addie and Morgan.  They have had some major life changes recently and it was fun listening to them talk about their futures.  We weren't able to stay very long but really enjoyed the visit.  It was a little bittersweet without Jeanette, but extremely nice just the same.