Cameron called after golf tonight and said that his plans had changed. Instead of hanging out with friends, he was going to dinner with the seniors. They had started a tradition last spring of having a formal dinner at Taco Bell the night before prom and they had invited Cameron to join them this year. He arrived home shortly after he called and asked his Dad if he had a suit jacket to wear for tonight. We laughed when he said it, but Doug was more than happy to help. I was just glad that he didn't ask to wear the white tuxedo he had just picked up for prom.
Earlier this week Cameron had some free time and decided that he wanted to watch a movie with us. We went through a list of movies that we had already seen, but thought that he might like. Most were thrillers, but there were a few that fell into the historical fiction genre. After thinking about it, Cameron picked the 1987 political action thriller, "No Way Out." Since I had been watching a lot of Kevin Costner in Yellowstone recently, I was happy to rewatch one of his early films.
The opening credits started to roll and I told Cameron that I thought there were a few actors that he might recognize in the movie that weren't big stars. I didn't really say too much else, but as the movie progressed I pointed out to him, Fred Thompson. Cameron didn't recognize him right away as he had only a small role. He also had a lot more hair than he did in his Law & Order role as District Attorney, Arthur Branch.
The next actor, however, he had no problem recognizing. George Dzundza was cast as a wheelchair bound computer expert and one of Kevin Costner's good friends. Cameron knew him instantly as detective Greevy from the first season of Law & Order. At first I was impressed that he recognized the actor. Then I remembered that we had watched a lot of our favorite television series over the past two years, so I shouldn't have shocked. We all enjoyed the movie, especially the twist at the end. In honor of the death scene of George Dzundza, as soon as the film was over, Cameron and I instantly picked a Law & Order Season 1 episode to watch.
As much as I enjoyed the night, I was most happy to realize that the Heinisch children had all been exposed to more than just their generation of movies, music, and television growing up. We had introduced them to many of our best-loved sources of entertainment while also enjoying a lot of their favorites. Sharing those small parts of our lives has enhanced our relationship with our children and has made life in the Heinisch home even more fun. No Way Out was the perfect example of that.
In the summer of 2020 we were all trying to figure out how to live in the middle of a pandemic. Cameron spent his time on the golf course, Doug was in the middle of projects at work, Meg was busy with classwork and I was just trying to keep the house free of Covid. Although none of us enjoyed the changes that the virus had brought to our life, we figured out a routine and it seemed to work out well for the four of us.
Cal was the one that struggled the most with the changes to our life in the Heinisch home during that time period. His job with Plante Moran was delayed and all that he had to keep him busy was studying for the CPA. He did work as a bag boy at Tippy and hung out with his friends at Maxwelton, but he definitely got frustrated with the reality of the pandemic. In our house we believed that the most concentrated cases of the virus came from large gatherings. Because of that we decided to stay away from two covid spreaders - church and restaurants. That meant that Cal wasn't able to go to The Frog with his friends. He found that frustrating, especially since a few of them made fun of him for our decision.
One night Cal came home from the golf course mad. His friends were all going out and he was stuck at home with us. I felt bad for him, but didn't really want to change our rules. We still didn't know a lot about Covid and we definitely didn't want it in our house. In the middle of our discussion, Cal decided to make dinner. Shortly, after he started I realized that he had used one of our Rainforest Cafe plates to cook bacon in the microwave. Needless to say, the plate did not survive that night.
I didn't say much to Cal about it. I did show him the next day where the actual bacon plate was. I realized that he was mad the night before and the plate took the brunt of his anger. I tried to replace the plate as buying the set of them at Rainforest Cafe was a great memory of a fun trip to Disney World for Cameron, Meg and I. Every time that we went to Disney Springs this past year, I would stop in their store looking for a new one. I realized on our last trip that I wasn't going to find one.
I decided a couple of weeks ago that I would start researching online for a replacement plate. I found several on Ebay, but they were all part of a set. I didn't want four additional animal plates, just Nile the Crocodile. I finally found a lone plate up for auction, but the price was more than I wanted to spend - $12.95 plus shipping. I decided to "watch it" and soon after I clicked the button I heard from the seller. They would lower the price to $9.80. That was a lot better, but I didn't want to accept right away. In the end I went back to the seller and offered $8. Doug thought I was crazy for trying to save a $1.80, but it worked. The seller accepted my offer. I paid right away and last night the plate arrived looking perfect.
I immediately texted everyone to let them know that Nile had arrived. Brett loved the comment. Cal promised not to use it again, at least not in the microwave. Meg responded instantly, "Omg, the new bacon plate." That made me laugh. I never heard from Cameron, but I knew that he was busying with golf. Once we got home, however, I realized that he had grabbed the plate right away to put his pizza on it. I knew then that the purchase was well worth it.
Bethany had a golf match today against Trinity and Northwood at Knollwood Country Club. I had been there before for one of Cal's matches, but had never walked the entire course. It was very nice and definitely challenging with tight fairways and small greens.
Cameron started off playing very well. He hit the ball well and putted even better. After the first four holes he was even par. Unfortunately, the fifth hole gave him some trouble with a chunked chip and a three putt leading to a triple bogey. Cameron still played well over the last four holes, but it looked like someone had knocked the wind out of him. I was proud that he hung in there to bogey out and finish with a 43 as he could have imploded and scored much higher. It wasn't the score he wanted, but in the end he was happy with how well he hit the ball.
Austin also scored in the forties tonight, shooting a 47. The rest of the Bruin team struggled with the difficulty of the course all finishing in the upper 50s and low 60s. It wasn't the teams best score of the season, but it was a good learning experience for all.
Bethany's next match isn't until next week. We're all hoping for warming weather. It sure didn't feel like spring tonight with temperatures in the low 40s. Thankfully the sun was out for seven of the holes or it would have felt even colder.
For the past six months Doug has been dealing with a tremor in his right arm. It wasn't noticeable at first, but has become more so over time. Although we both felt that it was related to the stress that he was under at work, we thought that it was best that Doug have it evaluated by our family doctor. Dr. Freeze met with him, reviewed his symptoms and ran some bloodwork. It took awhile to get the bloodwork back due to a confusion with BRCA 1 testing, but once it returned it didn't show much of anything. The next step was for Doug to undergo an MRI of the brain. It was an extremely uncomfortable test as he had to have his head bolted to a table with a hockey mask covering his face. He survived the unpleasantness of it and thankfully, was told that he had a very healthy brain.
Our last stop in the journey to diagnosis his tremor led us to the neurologist this afternoon. We left her office feeling very unsure. She spent an hour with us, but within a minute of meeting Doug, she had already come up with her diagnosis. Since the testing was all subjective - observation and some motor movement evaluations - we just weren't quite convinced that her diagnosis was correct. Some of what she was seeing were items that Doug had always dealt with, most notably dexterity issues in his hand (interestingly enough it was observed in the left hand, not the shaking one). Once we mentioned this, she agreed that she doesn't really know Doug and that she could be wrong. She really wanted him to try some medication that she felt would answer the question for us. We weren't as excited about that as it was a strong medication with some severe side effects. Doug set up an appointment for three months from now to reevaluate where he was at and to see if his tremor had progressed or slowed down.
After a lot of discussion last night between Doug and I, we thought that it was best to research more about what we felt originally caused the tremor - stress. I realized almost immediately that there was tons of information about shaking caused by outside anxiety. It talked about the tension that muscles feel when a person is under a lot of stress and how those muscles have to get rid of the extra adrenaline somehow. For most people that results in shaking. There were different relaxation techniques and tips on how to manage the tremor that we thought Doug might be able to try. It was the one avenue that neither Dr. Freeze or the neurologist had explored. We figured that it wouldn't hurt to try, especially since his shakiness always seemed to show up in stressful situations and relaxed when the stress reduced. We don't know if we are correct, but figured that our observations might be more reliable right now since we were the ones seeing the tremor daily. Either way, we figured that it wouldn't hurt to try the relaxation techniques. This has been one of the most stressful times in Doug's career. Even if it doesn't solve the problem, it may relieve some of that.
Cal left Thursday morning for Colorado as he had made plans to hang out with his roommate from college, Riley. Cal had never visited the state before and was really looking forward to the trip. He was also ready for a break from work. Busy season was winding down and a weekend trip was the perfect way to celebrate. Even better was the fact that two of his friends, David and Brock, were able to join him on his adventure.
It was definitely a quick trip as they left Thursday night and arrived back in Chicago on Sunday morning. While there they took full advantage of their time in the Rocky Mountain state by hiking in the mountains, checking out the nightlife and even playing some indoor miniature golf. We heard from Cal multiple times while he was gone and we loved the pictures that he sent. Most of all, we were just happy that he had enjoyed his weekend and was able to get in some relaxation after a stressful busy season.
It was Little 500 at IU this weekend and Meg took full advantage of all that the event had to offer. On Thursday night, she and her friends spent the evening at Kilroy's Sports Bar for Miley Cyrus night. She had a lot of fun dancing and sharing some drinks with her friends. She didn't know a lot of the songs, since she didn't really watch Hannah Montana much. That didn't stop her from enjoying the night anyway.
On Friday Meg went with Maddie and Evan to the women's Little 500 race. She liked it more than she thought she would and could understand why it was such a big deal to the riders. Nick arrived for her nighttime activity, the musical "Jersey Boys". She had learned quite a bit about Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons in her History of Rock N Roll class, so I knew that she would really appreciate seeing the musical. I was right as Meg and Nick had a great time listening to the story of the band's life and all of their top songs.
Saturday was spent at the Men's Little 500 with Maddie and Evan once again. Meg definitely got some sun at that race. She also saw some spectacular crashes. Unfortunately, her least favorite team won, but that didn't stop the fun. After the races they stopped at a few parties before doing some shopping, walking on Kirkwood and getting dinner at Culver's.
There was some disturbing this year during the Little 500 weekend. On Friday night there was a shooting outside of the nightclub, Kaola. Three people were shot and several suspects were arrested after a police chase. Kaola was right across the street from the bar Meg was at on Thursday. It scared Meg and her friends enough that they decided not to go out again the rest of the weekend. I don't blame them for that.
Today was the Bethany Fish Fry and the first one that the junior class was in charge of running. Cameron was a section head, which he explained as an overall supervisor. He had shadowed the position for the past two years and felt like he was ready for the responsibility. He was happy to report when he arrived home that all had run smoothly. The favorite part of his job was shuttling others around in the golf cart and missing an entire day of school helping set up. I was glad to hear that the fund raiser was a success, but even happier to hear that he had a lot of fun during the event as well. Cameron also reported that he had sold at least 30 tickets. That was twenty more than we thought that he would be able to sell and lessened the amount that we owed overall.
Cameron wasn't the only one that enjoyed the fish fry. Grandma and Grandpa were in line early for their meals. They loved the food, especially the pies from Rise N Roll. Doug and I also made our way through the fish fry line, but waited until closer to 7 p.m. Doug knew from experience that arriving later in the evening would mean for a shorter line. He was right as there were only four cars ahead of us when we arrived. We only saw Cameron briefly as he drove off with a cart full of juniors, but did see many of his friends working the tents. It was a great night for the fish fry and we appreciated how hard everyone worked. It is the only fundraiser at Bethany and in the end was pretty easy to support.
The Bethany Bruins were back in action tonight playing Elkhart and Goshen in a three way match at Bent Oak Golf Club. Cameron was extremely excited for the match. He had been hitting the ball well and was thankful that the weather had warmed up enough for him to wear short sleeves.
Cameron started off this evening on the second hole. He was pleased to have parred it and was hoping for a similar score on the next one. Unfortunately, an errant drive and some standing water changed his plans He soon found himself with a seven on number 3. Cameron decided on the next tee that he wouldn't let a triple bogey get the best of him. He told himself to play better and that's exactly what he did. He played the next seven holes two over finishing with a 41. He had the third best score of the night.
Cameron was extremely proud of his round tonight, but even more pleased that the rest of the Bruin team also played well. They easily broke 200 with a total team score of 192. They lost to Goshen, but were within seven strokes of Elkhart. Their goal for their next match was to break 190 and to beat at least one of their next two opponents. They're definitely on the right track.
Last night Doug met with Dr. Freeze virtually. She had run some tests recently and one of them discovered the BRCA 1 gene mutation in his DNA. Doug and I weren't really surprised by the news. There was a high incident of cancer on the Brucker side of the family and both Doug's mom and his brother Phil had tested positive for the mutation. From the results today, we learned that Doug was at a slightly higher risk of male breast cancer and prostate cancer. The scary one that she mentioned was an increase in pancreatic cancer as well. The good news was that no one in Doug's family had ever had pancreatic cancer, so it may not be a concern at all.
In the end we talked with her about the next steps for Doug. She said that she would contact a cancer surgeon in Goshen and get his recommendations. Dr. Freeze was most concerned about Meg as the BRCA 1 gene increased her risk for breast and ovarian cancer up to 60 percent. Thankfully, Meg and I had already met with a breast cancer doctor and had made tentative plans with her in case Doug did test positive for the gene. We're still holding out that Meg will test negative for BRCA 1, but right now we're skeptical of that. This wasn't quite the news we wanted to hear yesterday, but at least we all came up with a plan on how to move forward with the information.
About a month ago Ron DeSanto signed a law that became nicknamed the "Don't Say Gay" bill. It caused a lot of confusion and controversy as the LGBTQ community felt that it was an anti-homosexual bill that would stop schools from supporting children from that group. The Republican party in Florida argued that the bill was actually aimed at stopping sex education in the early elementary grades. I decided not to have an opinion. As a former teacher I definitely didn't like having the responsibility of counseling children in the early teenage groups. I know that some teachers did. I was just glad that I was done teacher and that our own children were almost all out of high school.
Because the Walt Disney corporation had backed the pro-business Republican party in Florida for several years, Disney World had also received a lot of backlash after the bill was passed. Their employees even staged a walkout to protest the treatment of the LGBTQ community. That led the CEO of Disney to withdraw support of the Florida governor. Shortly after that announcement, DeSanto signed a bill into law that would dissolve the township that Disney had governed surrounding its Florida theme parks. They would also lose their tax break in Orange County.
None of this really affects any of us. There's a lot of posts on social media claiming that this will raise the taxes of those living in that area, but I doubt it. Someone even said without the tax break that Disney will take their theme parks to another state. That was a stupid comment. Ultimately, the best part of all of this happening is that Brett has absolutely enjoyed the backlash that Disney has gotten over the news. He sent me several memes about it and said that he and Sean planned to play Disco Inferno over the weekend as they talked about the "burning of the Disney corporation." Brett still loves the Disney movies and theme parks, just not their political stance. From what I have read, he's not alone.
Cameron told us yesterday that it would snow in Northern Indiana today. Unfortunately, he was right. It wasn't enough to delay or cancel school, but it did need to be cleaned off of cars this morning. The snow also closed Maxwelton today and forced Coach Shenk to cancel golf practice. Cameron was bummed about that, but not surprised.
Cameron wasn't the only one disappointed with the weather. Cal texted me first thing to let me know that he was sick and tired of snow. I couldn't blame him. This has been one of the crummiest springs that I could remember. March was miserable at times with cold temperatures, wind and storms. April hasn't started off that great either and now snow. As much as I love the movie White Christmas, I'm definitely tired of winter. Everyone keeps saying that it will be in the 70s this weekend in Northern Indiana. I hope that they are correct. Right now, I'd just be happy with temperatures in the 50s with no rain and lots of sun.
Cameron, Doug and I arrived last night in Bloomington in order to celebrate the Easter weekend with Meg and Brett. We stopped at Meg's first to check in with her and Nick. Meg was busy getting ready to go out to dinner with Carson for her 22nd birthday. Nick decided that he'd rather hang out with us. While they were getting ready, we met Brett at his apartment as soon as he got home from work. We wanted to get in a round of Ticket to Ride Germany before dinner. Once the game ended we headed to Cafe Pizzeria. Nick had joined us by then and Meg showed up just as we were getting ready to order. The birthday party had been down the street at Buffalouie's, so she was able to walk over when it ended. Dinner was entertaining although Cameron may not have agreed as he developed a bloody nose in the middle of it. Thankfully, it stopped in time for all of us to play Chameleon back at Brett's.
We had talked about going to 8:30 a.m. mass this morning, but after staying up late last night, we thought that 10:30 a.m. would work a lot better. It was crowed, but we were able to find a parking spot and a pew before the service began. We enjoyed the mass very much, especially the homily by Father Patrick. It was very apparent to Doug and I that Meg and Brett were well known in the church. They were greeted by several of the priests and members of the Hoosier Catholic group.
After mass everyone wanted to open their Easter gifts. Grandma Jane had given them all Easter candy along with some spending money. I had picked out t-shirts for our gifts to the Heinisch children. Cal had already received his new Steeler's shirt when he was home in March. Brett got a kick out of his M & M one and Cameron absolutely loved his Juice Wrld screen print. Meg decided that she wanted a mug instead of a shirt this year and appreciated her new one from the movie Tangled. We gave Nick the perfect shirt for him complete with Snoopy on it drinking Root Beer.
Meg began to studying for her Cost Accounting test after they left. Brett, Doug and I had just enough time to play one more game of Ticket to Ride before we had to leave. It was a wonderful Easter celebration. The only thing missing was Cal. He had to stay in Chicago this weekend as he had to work this weekend.
