Happy Halloween

For some reason I was really not that excited about Halloween this year.  It has always been my favorite time of the year, but this year felt different.  I thought that maybe it was because none of our children were home, but when I thought about it, the four of them hadn't been home on Halloween night in several years.  In fact, two years ago, no one was home to hand out candy except for me as Doug was in Ocala helping Phil move.  

Thankfully, my feelings started to change this week, and I was glad that I had put out Halloween decorations, bought Trick or Treat candy, and watched multiple holiday specials, because by the time today rolled around, I was more than ready to celebrate Halloween.  I started the day by watching Halloween Town, a family favorite and ended it by turning on the horror movie, Halloween, with Doug after we gave out candy to 613 costumed children in our neighborhood.  I was thankful that he had left work early enough to join me just as the first Trick or Treaters walked by.  I couldn't believe how packed our street was with families, wagons, and golf carts.  The perimeter of the retention pond across the street had cars parked around it for over three hours.  We had to actually come in from the driveway and turn off our lights as we had run out of candy.  Overall, it was a lot of fun and a great reminder of why Halloween is one of the best nights of the year.   

Lunch Plans

This year they changed how we do prayer partners at CCW and I really liked the ideas they presented. Last year it was one of the most intimidating parts of being in the group. I didn’t know the majority of the women’s names, I could never find my prayer partner, and I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do. This year they provided time for us to meet our prayer partners during our meetings and also encouraged us to go to lunch with them one time during the month. Since I thought the idea was a great one, I wanted to make sure that I followed through with their suggestions. I noticed last month that only two people went out with their prayer partners for lunch. Thus, when I got my new one at the meeting in October, I called her afterward and invited her to meet for lunch. I knew that I would be busy last week, so I suggested one day this week. She picked Panera for lunch and this afternoon for our meeting.

I was super excited about going today, not because I was looking for a new friend, but thought that some social activity with a fellow Catholic in our area would be perfect. She was older than me and I was interested to hear her life journey. There was a little hiccup in our plan as I went to one Panera, and she went to another. That made me laugh, as I explained to her that I grew up in a town where we didn’t have any Paneras, so the thought that there were two never crossed my mind. She was very gracious about the error and in the end, I was incredibly glad that I reached out. She told me about her life, her faith, her boys, and what brought her family to Ocala 50 years ago. It was really nice to hear someone else’s thoughts on our church and the parts of it that they really enjoyed at Blessed Trinity. Overall, it was a fun day, and I would definitely do it again. That’s the best part about CCW. It has taken me outside of my comfort zone and has enhanced my own faith journey.

Bible Study

I wasn't sure that I would be able to get up this morning for Bible study as I was still exhausted from the weekend.  Thankfully, my internal clock woke me up early and I had plenty of time to get there before it started.  The topic this morning was the Last Supper and Passover.  I had learned a lot about the room where the last supper had taken place last year and enjoyed hearing even more about the Cenacle this fall. It was not only informative, but also enjoyable as it led to a lot of good discussion. My favorite part of learning about the Bible is the history that is discovered.   

When I started going to Bible study in September, I realized that I was the only person attending that was under 70.  In fact, some of the members made their first communion before my parents were born.  Several of the women from CCW were also in the group.  They were concerned that I wouldn't like the dynamics of the group, but I actually love it.  The group shares a lot of personal stories about their own faith and have enlightened me on parts of the Bible that I knew very little about before this past year.  Overall, I am thrilled that I joined.  It is exactly what I was looking for when we moved to Ocala last August.

Brett and Karen's Engagement Photo Shoot

When Meg got engaged one of the first things that she put on her to-do list was to find a photographer.  She wanted a good one, but who was also affordable.  It took some time, but Meg found an awesome one and we absolutely loved the pictures.  In fact, I just ordered several of them to hang in our home.  

Meg's research paid off not only for her, but also for Brett and Karen.  Once they got engaged, Meg gave them the photographer's contact number and they scheduled her right away for their own wedding day next June.  The wedding photo package also included engagement pictures, and two weeks ago Brett and Karen met her on campus for their photo shoot.  Karen sent us the finished pictures this week and we absolutely loved them.  They took the formal ones at Beck chapel, and the informal ones around campus.  They looked very nice in both.  I especially liked their matching Hufflepuff shirts for the casual ones.  I also really appreciated that the pictures, just like Meg and Nick's, really showed their love for one another.  

Family Time

 It was nice to sleep in this morning after the early mornings on both Friday and Saturday.  We had plenty of time to relax before we picked up Cameron to meet Cal and Maggie for lunch.  Maggie had really wanted to go to Chicken Salad Chick for lunch, but they were closed today.  Instead, we went to the next best option - McAlister's.  Lunch was great, but the best part was hanging out with Cal, Maggie, Cameron and Brett.  We talked a lot and spent well over one hour at our meal.  It was also nice to give them their Halloween bags in person this year.

Cal and Maggie headed back to Chicago after lunch and the four of us went to Brett's to play one more game of Ticket to Ride Germany.  It was a lot of fun as always.  Before Cameron went back to his apartment, we went to the IU Auditorium to visit the new John Mellencamp statue.  We were all impressed with it.  Cameron went home from there to study.  We hung out at Brett's a little bit longer, packing for our return flight.  Neither Doug nor I were ready to go back home as we had had a wonderful weekend with our boys. The only thing missing was Meg and Nick.  

Game Day

It was another early morning wake up call, but definitely worth it.  We met Parce at Pizza Express at 5:45 this morning so that we could be at the tailgate fields for their 6 a.m. opening time.  There were ten cars already parked when we arrived, but we got an excellent spot right next to the Alumni Hall.  Parce, Doug, Gena and I spent the next half hour setting up the tailgate spot and soon were enjoying the dark, chilly morning.

Cameron was the first one to arrive.  He was there just before 8 a.m. Jackie and her family arrived about a half hour later.  Pam followed an hour later, and Cal and Maggie were there before 10:30 a.m.  Maggie hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night, so she took advantage of a quiet house this morning to take a nap.  We were all very excited about ESPN Game Day being at today's game.  It had been 31 years since they had hosted their show at Memorial Stadium.  The hype was huge and the lines to get in to see them in person were long. We had an awesome time visiting with everyone and talked a lot about our years of tailgating together and the amazing run of this year's IU football team.  Pam wasn't as sold on Coach Cignetti as the rest of us, but we definitely had become big fans of him.  Doug's brats were a big hit as well as the desserts that Gena brought.  Maggie made caramel apple shots that were delicious.  The only issues of the morning had to do with the small generator which thankfully we were able to solve quickly as the van had a plug that we could use.  The benefit to that was staying warm sitting on the top of the running car.  The other issue involved a lot of drunk students using the wall around Alumni hall as a urinal.  Once I found out from Maggie and Cal that it was a lot worse out in the middle of the fields, I stopped complaining about it.  

Doug and I hadn't planned on going into the game as tickets were well over $100 at the beginning of the week.  At 5:30 this morning, I found two seats together in a prime spot for only $55.  Doug and I were both excited about going to the game and I was glad that we wouldn't have to use the port-a-potties in the tailgate area.  IU had to play its backup quarterback today and everyone was a little worried about it.  The first half was a little rough, but thanks to a pick six and another interception, we were up 17-7 at the half.  The third quarter was tense for a while as we threw an interception right away that resulted in a touchdown for Washington.  After that, however, we changed to a running game and ended up with the 31-17 win.  The sellout crowd was incredibly excited, and the rally towels were a lot of fun to use during the biggest plays of the game.  Even the drunks throwing up down the row from us didn't dampen the mood.  

After the game, we stopped by Cal's tailgate to see him, Maggie and their friends.  We then hung out with our crowd for another hour or so before packing up for the day.  It took a while to unpack the van at Brett's, but we got everything put away before Cal called for us to come get him at Brother's.  We picked up he and Maggie on the way to Cameron's, and then bought breadsticks for everyone.  Brett was back from his fun weekend with Karen shortly after we arrived.  We spent the rest of the evening catching up with one another, playing Ticket to Ride and watching more football.  It was so much fun hanging out with everyone and an awesome way to celebrate IU's 8-0 season.

A Wonderful Day in Bloomington

We were glad that we left at 3 a.m. this morning for the Orlando airport as parking was hard to navigate and security was more than the twenty-minute wait posted.  We still made it to our gate in plenty of time, but it was nice not to rush or stress out about it.  Our C boarding pass wasn't a problem either as Doug and I found seats across the aisle from each other and our carry-ons fit in the overhead bins without any issues.  The flight was a quiet one and I was able to finish three episodes of Chicago Fire before we landed.

The start to the trip to Bloomington from Indy wasn't the most pleasant because of a problem at the rental car desk, but once we got going everything went well from there.  Doug and I made it to Bloomington in time to pick up Cameron from class.  We unpacked everything at Brett's before we returned the car to Enterprise.  We were all glad that Trojan Horse was open today as we had been trying to eat there for a couple of months.  The Greek food was delicious, and we finished in plenty of time to drop Cameron off at Memorial Stadium well before 2 p.m. He had signed up to help put rally towels on every seat for tomorrow's game.  

After dropping Cameron off, we headed to Kroger to purchase food for the tailgate.  Doug decided to make brats which were always a family favorite.  We unloaded the groceries and then headed to Kirkwood.  I found an IU coffee tumbler for Cal to replace the one that was lost in the mail a month ago.  After that, we stopped at Nick's so that Doug could have a long island iced tea.  It was a lot warmer than I thought that it would be, so we sat outside at the picnic benches along Kirkwood soaking in the atmosphere as well.  I also tried some of their French fries which were as delicious as when we had them during Meg's wedding weekend.  

From there, we returned to Brett's apartment so that Doug could start the brats for tomorrow morning.  While he was cooking, I ran to Target to pick up a few Halloween items before we met Pam for dinner at Bucceto's.  It was nice to catch up with her even though we were both wiped out from our early morning trip.  At 8:30 p.m. Doug and I decided to call it an evening.  We spent the next hour relaxing before going to sleep as we had another early morning planned for tomorrow with a jammed pack day ahead of us that we were both excited about.

Early to Bed . . .

Doug goes to bed by 10:15 every night due to new work schedule.  Because of that, I have been going to bed earlier as well.  I used to stay up and watch Chicago PD or another show when he went to sleep but lately, I prefer to get up early.  Thus, it's rare that I stay up past 11 p.m. anymore. My decision to rise early came in very helpful this week.  I didn't sleep past 7 a.m. any morning and today was up well before 6 a.m.  With the extra time I have been able to pack for this weekend's trip, complete some work for CCW and even watch a few of my shows before I left the house. 

The best part about changing my sleep schedule is that it should be no problem for me to go to bed at 8:30 p.m. tonight for our 2:30 a.m. wake up call.  Our flight leaves the Orlando airport at 6:50 a.m. and we want to be there in plenty of time to park and navigate security before boarding.  October is one of the busiest travel months of the year here because of all of the tourists enjoying their fall break in Florida.  With the cancellations due to Hurricane Milton, it has gotten even busier this year. Hopefully our plan to leave before I-75 gets crowded works, and we are well on our way to Bloomington by 10 a.m. tomorrow.  Neither one of us can wait for the weekend.

 

California Dreaming

Meg returned from her trip to California yesterday exhausted, but happy with her vacation.  She met Nick in San Diego where they went to the San Diego Zoo and La Jolla Cove.  They loved all of the animals at the zoo with the koalas being Nick's favorite while Meg fell in love with the babirusas all over again. The beach at La Jolla was covered with water, but there were still plenty of sea lions for Nick and Meg to enjoy.  Meg thought it was funny how aggressive they became with each other when one would try to take another one's spot.  They ended their time in San Diego with a long hike along the coast.  Meg said that it was beautiful, and they really enjoyed it even though Nick got reprimanded from two ladies for being too close to the edge.  I was glad that they were there to say it as I was feeling the same thing from the pictures that Meg sent.

The next three days of their trip were spent in Anaheim at Disneyland.  Meg and Nick went to Trader Sams for souvenir cup drinks, shopped at Disney Springs and visited both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.  They rode on all of the rides that weren't at the Orlando parks and several that had been closed years ago.  They loved the Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion ride, and especially enjoyed Disneyland's version of Pirates of the Caribbean.  They ended their fantastic trip by visiting the memorial at the childhood home of Beach Boys, Carl, Brian and Dennis Wilson.

I loved hearing all about Meg's trip and seeing all of the pictures.  Our vacation in California in 2019 was a family favorite.  I was so glad that Meg was able to revisit it and take Nick to all of her favorite places in Southern California.  It was also nice that she got to see where Nick works.  I hope the memories that they made will make returning to the accounting world a little bit easier.  

Early Voting

 Doug and I weren't sure that we would be able to vote in person on November 4th, so we decided to request mail-in ballots.  We had never voted in Florida before, so we weren't sure exactly who was running for what and how to fill out our ballots.  First, I did a lot of research last week on each candidate and all six amendments on the ballot this election.  Then I read and reread all of the directions on how to fill it out and return it to the Marion County board of elections.  Once I felt comfortable, I explained it to Doug and we filled out our ballots, filed them in the "secrecy sleeve" and signed the return envelope.  

Before I mailed the ballots, I found out that I could drop off our envelopes at the local library beginning the first day of early voting which was actually yesterday.  I was very happy about that as there was a library a little over a mile from our home.  I had never really wanted to mail them since our post office is not the greatest in delivering mail on time.  My opinion changed quickly when I pulled into the library yesterday morning.  The parking lot was packed, and voters were being asked to park in the grass lot beside the library.  The line to get into the library was at least a 100 people deep.  There were signs and supporters of all type outside of the library as well.  

After seeing all of the chaos in person, I decided to drive straight to the post office.  I knew it was a risk as our ballots could arrive late or not at all, but I thought it was worth it.  I realized that it was the first day of early voting, but I didn't want to drive through that mess ever again.  The bright spot was that people were taking the election seriously.  It will be very interesting to see the final results.  

New Insurance

When Doug switched jobs, we started on a new health care plan.  It has only been a few weeks, but I am already impressed with how easy it is to use.  I set up our account online and gave the new information to our dentist.  My visit last week and this week were covered without any problems at all.  This may be minor to most people, but our last insurance was incredibly difficult to use.  I had to contact them every time we went to a new provider, the claims were always paid late, and I didn't have access to EOBs online.  It was so nice not to have to worry about that anymore.

We also were able to switch our homeowner's insurance policy last week as well.  When we bought the house, we just went with the insurance agent that our realtor recommended.  She was independent and not affiliated with just one carrier.  I thought that would give us the best deals, but most discounts occur when auto and home are bundled.  Thus, I worked all summer and fall with State Farm to get the best insurance rates possible.  Our roof had to be replaced before the homeowners could be switched, but once that was done, it was an extremely easy process.  Tomorrow, we will have a sink hole inspection and if all goes well with that, I will officially be done with insurance for a while.  It took a lot of time and effort, but I couldn't be more pleased.  I really liked our new agent.  He was knowledgeable and was able to help me save $3000 a year.  That will go a long way towards paying off the roof. 

The Plant Sale

Last fall I saw an event on Facebook that I thought that Doug would be interested in attending.  It was a plant sale at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville.  We had never been there but loved traveling to the college town.  Doug had also talked about buying a lemon tree back then and I thought that there might be someone knowledgeable about growing one at the event.

Doug and I enjoyed the sale and the botanical garden so much that we actually bought a membership to Kanapaha.  Doug also got his lemon tree and has watched it thrive over the past year.  Because of this, he and I decided to attend this year's sale as well.  We knew a lot more about Florida plants and Gainesville, so we were both looking for to going today.

Doug and I left right after mass this morning as we were afraid of vendors closing early on a Sunday.  We walked through all of the tents looking for a new outdoor plant or two for our home.  There were a lot of orchids available as the Gainesville Orchid Society was hosting the event, but neither of us really liked orchids.  My favorite tent was hosted by The Peacock Cottage, but I didn't buy anything from them.  They mostly had indoor plants at the sale, and I knew that I could visit them whenever I wanted.  After a lot of searching, Doug and I finally found the perfect plants for our backyard - two bromeliads and one lime tree.  We were both extremely pleased.

After success at the plant sale, we took a walk through the bamboo gardens before heading to Relish for lunch.  Our last stop of the afternoon was Swamp Head Brewery where Doug tasted a few of their new beers.  The past few times that we had gone, I had looked to see if their alligator was visible in the pond.  Part of me thought he was an urban legend until I saw him for real today.  He was at least five feet long and a lot bigger than I thought he would be.  It creeped me out a little bit, but not enough to make me want to leave as we were up on the fenced in patio away from the pond.  No one else seemed in the least bit phased.

As soon as we got home from Gainesville, Doug and I repotted the three plants.  We could have waited, but with the wind and the fact that we will be gone next weekend, we decided that we would rather get it done today.  The two bromeliads looked fantastic in their new pots, and it was fun to see the lime tree next to the lemon tree that we bought last year.  It was a great way to see how much the lemon tree had grown in twelve months.  I am already looking forward to next year's event.

Another Week, Another Win

The hype around IU football grew immensely this week as it became the highlight of the Big Noon Game on Fox.  That along with all of the homecoming activities made for an exciting and busy weekend for Cameron.  He was in the homecoming parade yesterday, attended Hoosier Hysteria last night at Assembly Hall, handed out "Study Later" towels to the students before the game and went to the SAB tailgate as well.  

Although Cameron may have been the busiest in our family on game day, he wasn't the only one who was excited.  Cal had driven out to Syracuse to watch the game with Grandma and Grandpa.  Doug and I had our own viewing party here with just the two of us.  We started watching when the Big Noon show began at 10 a.m.  At first, I hoped to see Cameron there, but the crowds were a lot bigger than I would have ever expected. Therefore, I just enjoyed the show.  It was amazing to know that the spot where we were just two weeks ago was now filled with fans, cameras and celebrities that we were more than familiar with - John Mellencamp and Jerry Yeagley just to name a few.  It was so much fun to watch, especially since the announcers were extremely positive about IU and joined in on many of the "Hoosier" chants with the crowds.  

I was nervous about the game all week, but Cameron said that there was no need to be.  He was more than confident that we would win.  Because of that, I started to believe.  It wasn't long before everyone began to join in with the believers.  IU finished the first half 21-7 and scored the first touchdown of the second half, never looking back.  Even a hand injury to our star quarterback didn't slow us down.  The backup QB came in and looked fantastic, giving us an extremely impressive victory at 56-7 win over Nebraska.  Coach Cignetti and the 7-0 IU football was all over the sports news the rest of the night, making for a lot of happy Hoosier fans.  The best part was that we will be able to see it all in person next weekend.

Perks of Working Near Orlando

I got up at 5 a.m. this morning to ride with Doug to his new job at Si Goldman.  He was going to spend his time traveling all over Orlando with another employee getting to know all of the projects that they were working on currently.  He had his steel toe boots in the Pilot and a safety vest and hard hat at his office ready to go.  I was glad to see how excited he was about his day.  So far, he has really enjoyed his new position, and I am very thankful for that.

Doug wasn't the only one excited about his day.  I was happy to spend time in Orlando as well and decided that I wanted to check out all of the Halloween decorations at Magic Kingdom this morning.  I hadn't been there in a while and didn't want to miss all of the Mickey pumpkins before they switched holidays. I also hoped to ride my three favorite rides while I was there - Peter Pan, The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.  Thankfully, I was able to fit it all in and even add in shopping and Little Mermaid before I headed back to Longwood.  As much as I loved being in Magic Kingdom, my favorite part was hearing from all of my children while I was there.  Although it would have been a lot more fun having them with me, it was the next best thing as I could listen to what they were up to and also fill them in on what was happening at Disney.  

Doug was finished with his work tour early today.  I was glad as that gave us extra time at Epcot this afternoon.  We both had a couple of more foods dishes that we wanted to try, and the weather was perfect for a visit.  Doug also had a few drinks on his menu as well.  The park was a lot more crowded than the last time that we visited, but we were still able to make it through all of the countries.  We liked everything that we tried except for the carrot cake.  It had apples in it which changed the flavor completely.  Otherwise, everything was very good.  We also decided that this will be our last ride on Living with the Land.  We were stuck on it for at least ten minutes.  As this has become the norm for the ride, we thought we'd retire it for now.  The carrot cake and delayed ride didn't dampen our mood, however.  Both Doug and I had had a wonderful day.  It was the perfect way to kickstart the weekend.