This is Halloween - 1998 to 2022

Tonight we celebrated our 25th Halloween on Sunset Dr.  It was a low key event compared to those in the past.  The rain must have scared the Trick or Treaters away as we only had about half as many as in the past.  It was also quiet because Cameron was not home tonight.  He had a scrimmage for the girls' basketball team to attend this evening.  My parents did join me for the holiday, but overall there wasn't much to it.  I talked to Doug, Brett, Cal and Meg this evening and they all had a very relaxed night as well.  The activities of Halloweekend had been the peak of their holiday celebration.

The biggest highlight of the night for me was the post that I made on Facebook showcasing all of the  Halloweens that we have celebrated since we moved to Syracuse in 1998.  I had at least one picture from each year with some of the Heinisch children's favorite costumes.  Meg as Dora, Cameron as Boots, Brett as Captain Hook and Cal as the Crocodile were some of the ones that made my heart smile.  I loved looking back at all of the homemade costumes as well.  It was obvious that I had passed my love of Halloween on to all four of my children.  I also enjoyed all of the comments on the post, some asking if we planned to move and others emphasizing the importance of a Woopie Cushion costume to Cal's wardrobe.  Overall, it was a very fun post to make and I will look forward to seeing it in my memories next year no matter where we live.  

A Long Walk Down Memory Lane

I spent the last month or so sorting through nine different tubs of Heinisch family photos.  Most were in albums, but there were a lot of loose pictures as well.  My plan was to take all of the pictures that I wanted to keep and place them in Ziploc bags by year.  By doing so, I hoped to downsize from nine tubs to two.  Eventually, I would then be able to make photo books out of the pictures like I have for the last ten years.  

As soon as I started the project, I almost instantly became overwhelmed.  There were a lot more pictures than I realized and some were extremely hard to get out of the albums.  I also had quite a bit of photos from Jeanette that I had to sort through as well.  I definitely thought about quitting a few times, but realized that we just wouldn't have room when we moved to store nine tubs of pictures.  Thankfully, Meg Doug, and Cameron were super supportive as I worked on the project.

Today, I finally finished the last of the pictures.  I was not only glad that I was done, but appreciated the long walk down memory lane.  Vacations, birthdays, holidays and every day life in the Heinisch home were in those tubs.  It was so nice to be reminded of all that we had done as a family.  It was also wonderful to see the pictures of the Heinisch children with their grandparents and great-grandparents, especially those who were no longer with us.  There were times that I laughed out loud like when I saw the photo of Meg on Easter morning with all of her hair in front of her face as she held up her Easter gifts.  Other times I was transported straight back in time such as our trip to Grant's Farm with three year old Cal at the petting zoo, telling the goats "That's enough for you goat!" as he moved the milk bottle to another hungry animal.  Brett's obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine and Cameron's facial expression were so much fun to relive as well.  I forgot how much Doug and I traveled when we were first married.  The pictures from college were also priceless.  Even though it was daunting at times, I certainly was glad that I decided to organize the pictures.  Now, on to the next project.   

Fall Festivities

Today was full of fall activities that did not include leaf raking.  Thankfully, we finished that yesterday.  Doug and I enjoyed a fall family party at Champion.  There was lunch for everyone and bouncy houses for the children.  There was also pumpkin painting and cupcake decorating.  While we were there, Doug also gave me a tour of the plant and his office.  It was a very nice celebration of the season and Champion's thirty years in business. 

Cameron spent the afternoon making chicken sliders for a Halloween potluck at Samuel's.  He and Alina dressed up as Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc. They had fun hanging out with their friends watching the Adam Sandler movie, Mystery.  

Cal had a fun Halloweekend as well.  He was Warrio to Rachel's Walugi on Friday night and was a cross between the Blue Man group and a Woopie Cushion tonight.  Besides going to parties, he also talked about watching a few old horror movies from the 1970s.  Meg joined in the fun on Halloweekend as well.  She went to Carson's party on Friday night where she and Nick looked great dressed as a pirate and parrot.  Meg and her friends then made plans to hang out at Brothers this evening wearing fairy costumes.  While Meg was out with her friends, Nick joined Brett at his apartment for video game night with he and Sean.  Brett didn't dress up for the occasion and instead wore his pajamas.  Andrew on the other hand had made an appearance in a karate outfit.  All in all it was great couple of days for fall activities in the Heinisch home and I was glad that everyone took full advantage of the season.  

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.