It's OK Not to Remember

My brother died on this date in 1977.  Thus, August 31st had always been my least favorite day of the year.  I used to dread it as it brought back so many sad memories.  When I was younger, I was even afraid of the day, thinking that it was a bad omen.

Several years ago I was watching Harry Potter and was amazed by the idea of a Pensieve.  It allowed wizards to pull a memory from their brain and place it in a safe, secure spot until it was needed again.  I remember thinking how wonderful that would be.  I would never have a bad memory pop into my mind again unless I wanted to relive it.  

Over time, the Pensieve changed how I thought about August 31st.  I realized that I didn't need a device to help me forget.  Instead I had the ability to chose what I thought about.  I could also control what I wanted to remember.  It was then that I decided that I no longer wanted to remember anything that made me feel sad or bad inside.  It worked very well and soon August 31st was just another date on the calendar.  Instead of feeling bad on that day, I focused only on happy memories of my brother and that made all of the difference.  

Surviving Our First Hurricane

For the past few days I had been diligently watching the news.  The local meteorologists were tracking a hurricane that was supposed to make landfall on the gulf side of Florida this week.  I became anxious about what we would do in case it became the category five that they had predicted.  Thankfully, the weathermen gave a lot of advice.  One even had a catch phrase of "Don't panic until I panic!"  The news stories really helped us get ready.  We bought non-perishable food for a couple of days and an extra case of water.  I made sure that the portable generator was charged and Doug brought in the patio furniture.  

Marion county was under a state of emergency starting on Tuesday as we were in the predicted storm path.  Doug's company closed early so that those in unstable homes could find a safe place to live for the next few days.  Thankfully, all of the local shelters were open for those in need.  All we had left to do was wait and enjoy a "visitor" who stopped by on our back patio.  I assumed it was getting ready for the storm as well.

The storm hit late in the evening, well past midnight.  The eye first made landfall about fifty miles from here.  The hurricane then traveled north up the gulf to Big Bend creating strong storm surges and damaging everything in its past.  The worst of it hit hardest at Cedar Key destroying buildings, cars and homes.  Even though it was only a category three, the destruction was major.  It had hit areas that hadn't seen a hurricane in over one hundred years.  

Thankfully, Ocala did not have too much damage.  We were awakened twice by tornado warnings in the middle of the night.  I really appreciated that the Orlando news station followed the path on television giving exact locations of the wind speeds and high damage areas.  They even showed the exact streets that the tornado was traveling over.  Once it passed by Majestic Oaks, I headed back to bed.  

All storm warnings were over by 3 p.m. on Wednesday.  We were very grateful to have never lost power.  Doug was able to work from home most of the day.  He actually got a lot done as the only other people working were in the Elkhart office, so he didn't have a lot of meetings.  Doug and I decided to head to Walmart late in the afternoon to pick up a few things.  I think that we were really just interested in getting out of the house for awhile.  We definitely did not see the damage that was on the news.  North of us had been hit hard with high winds and flooding.  We only saw a few branches down on the trees.  The strange part to us was that everything was still closed.  The state of emergency had been lifted hours before, but even Walmart was closed.  Thankfully, Hungry Howies was open, making for a fun dinner for us and a walk down memory lane as it was our go to pizza place when we lived in Naperville almost thirty years ago.  It was an awesome way to celebrate surviving our first hurricane.

Ireland

There's only ever been one place that I have wanted to visit outside of the United States and that is Ireland.  Doug and I have talked about going for years, but haven't been able to make it work.  All of the Heinisch children have heard us talk about traveling to the Emerald Isle, but the only one who seemed to share our interest was Cal.  He even asked about all of us going once he graduated college.  We didn't even get a chance to talk about it as covid changed everyone's travel plans in 2020.  

Thankfully, Cal was able to live out his dream this past week as he and eight of his friends spent a week exploring Dublin and its surrounding cities.  They toured the Guinness factory, sampled whiskey at Jameson, explored the countryside where A Quiet Man was filmed, hung out in a pub while Notre Dame played close by and enjoyed some wonderful traditional meals.  I absolutely loved all of the pictures that he sent and was so glad that he took advantage of the adventure.  

Cal's last day was spent in Stockholm.  He told me that he would like to return there some day or visit the Scandinavian countries.  He said that the only downfall to the trip was staying in a hostel.  He definitely would stay in a hotel the next time he traveled abroad.  Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I can't wait to see where he travels next.

Starting a New Job

Meg has officially been working at Plante Moran for two weeks now.  She is adjusting, but finding it a little overwhelming as their start class began in the middle of busy season.  Thus, everyone else is very busy and she hasn't been given a lot of client work to do so far.  Cal told her to study for the CPA when she is not busy as that would be the most valuable thing she could do for her career and for Plante.  She is coming around to that idea.  Either way, this hasn't quite been like her internship, but Meg's still happy with her job choice.  

I am just glad that she has given public accounting a try.  Cal has had a lot of success and has easily adjusted to life in Chicago.  I know that Meg will too.  The ability to work at home and not have to commute a few days a week is a nice bonus as well.  Plus there are so many places for her and Nick to explore on her days off.  I've loved the pictures that she has sent and have enjoyed listening to their adventures.  This may or may not be Meg's forever job, but it is giving her a lot of experience in a much needed field in a city with so many things for a young couple to do.  What a wonderful way to start life after college.

A New Grill

Putting together furniture has got to be one of the most tedious projects ever.  Some directions are extremely helpful and others are very frustrating.  We have definitely been putting our direction following skills and patience to the test lately as we have bought several new pieces of furniture for our home in Florida.  I try to assemble everything myself, only asking Doug for help when I cannot physically finish a project.  The grill, however, was not something that I could tackle on my own, so Doug decided that he'd put it together himself.  It took some time, but it looked great in the end and the brats, chicken and hamburgers that he cooked on it were delicious.  

Pickle Milkshakes & PBJ Wings

Today Doug and I took a break from unpacking and spent the afternoon at Epcot enjoying the Food & Wine Festival.  It was hot and I was glad that we both wore hats as the sun was brutal.  In saying that, however, we had a lot of fun trying new foods.  My favorites were the pickle milkshakes and peanut butter & jelly wings from "Muppets' Lab."  

We didn't stay long at Epcot, but had fun just the same.  Day visits to Walt Disney World have been one of the best parts of moving to Florida.  It wasn't in our plans years ago when we took our children on countless trips to "The Most Magical Place on Earth", but spending time in the parks has brought back a lot of wonderful family memories.  We hope to make many more during our time in the Sunshine State.

Our New Home

We flew into Orlando yesterday morning and were at our home in Ocala by noon.  It was nice to know that we only had one house to worry about now.  I had planned on resting most of the day, but couldn't wait to start the unpacking process.  Doug had brought a lot down with him over the past few trips and it was neatly stacked in the piano room waiting for me.  I worked on it a lot yesterday and today, making pretty good headway.  My goal was to find a place for everything we already had here before the moving truck arrived on Monday morning.  I also wanted to post pictures of our new home as most of our friends and family had not seen it yet.

Tonight we took it easy, enjoying the fire pit on the back patio.  It still is hard to believe that we are now living in Florida, but both of us are happy with the move.  With Doug's work schedule, it made a lot of sense to move as he is needed here more than in Elkhart.  The best part is that his job landed us somewhere that we both really like.  I don't think I would have like moving as much if we ended up in Minnesota.  

Celebrating Two Years of Hard Work

As hard as it was getting our house ready to sell, the process at the real estate office yesterday was incredibly easy.  We signed all of the paperwork within fifteen minutes and soon had checks for both the lot and the house in our hands.  We had to wait for the buyers to arrive and sign their portions before we could leave, but there were no issues with that.  The families were very nice and seemed excited about their purchases.  They asked a few questions, but nothing that we couldn't answer - What was the white cord for in the living room?  Why were there two tanks for the water softener?  

Within a half an hour of the process starting, we were at the bank ready to deposit our checks.  Key Bank was very helpful as we had to set up a high interest savings account for the money for Cameron's college and a separate CD with money set aside for Brett, Cal, and Cameron's weddings.  Everything else was left in our checking for various expenses - Meg's wedding, Meg's College Loan, our Florida mortgage, and the painting/landscaping fund for our home in Ocala.  We also had to change all of the addresses on each of our accounts since Meg, Brett and Cameron all had moved as well.  It took longer than we had planned, but soon we were finished and on our way to Bloomington.

I wished that we could celebrate with all of our children last night, but we did have fun with Cameron and Brett.  The four of us enjoyed a meal at Mother Bears talking about the house, our move, Brett's campaign strategy and Cameron's first week of classes.  I was glad to hear that he had adapted to college and that he was happy with his classes and his friends on the floor.  Overall, it was a wonderful day, but I still couldn't believe that we were finally finished with our two year long project.

Twenty Five Years in a Blink of an Eye

Today we said goodbye to our home in Syracuse for the past twenty-five years.  It was sad at first when I thought of leaving, but once all of the Heinisch children moved out, I knew that I didn't want to stay.  The house was too big'; I wasn't sure how often they would be able to visit; and honestly, I didn't want to clean three levels with five bathrooms anymore.  We also got a great price for our home.  Thus, I knew that it was the right decision to make.  

In saying that, it still was hard walking through our home one last time this morning.  I knew that I would probably never drive down that street again, so pulling out of our driveway felt strange.  As I headed to meet Doug at the real estate office, I thought a lot about Cameron's charge to his class at graduation.  His words in May fit exactly how I felt today.  We had an awesome twenty-five years of wonderful memories on Sunset Dr. filled with a lot of love.  I would truly miss those days, but there was a whole world in front of us.  It was not a time for sadness for the past, however, it was just the beginning of something new for the six of us!