He's Home

Cal arrived home this afternoon in time to catch the second half of the Bears game.  Doug and I were thrilled to have him here for the week.  We were in the middle of finishing a project on the computer when he walked in, so we were also thankful to have someone here to keep us up-to-date on the score.  Unfortunately, the Bears quarterback was injured late in the game and their defense let the Ravens walk into the end zone in the fourth quarter.  After that no one was interested in watching the Bears lose one more game this season.

Cal decided to walk down to Grandma and Grandpa's once the game was over.  He enjoyed visiting with them and talking football.  Doug's macaroni and cheese was ready when he arrived back home and we enjoyed eating dinner with him, catching up on his week at work and watching the Chiefs game.  IU basketball had a game tonight, but Cal wasn't interested in watching them play.  Cameron had Samuel, Jordan and Richard over after the Bethany play tonight, so he didn't have plans to watch it either.  Thus, Cal picked Halloween 2 for our viewing pleasure this evening.  As far as horror movie sequels go, it's not too bad.  Cal had never seen it before and felt it was worthing watching as well.  

Meg arrived home from her night out with Sarah just as we finished the movie.  She was glad for an evening with friends after spending most of the weekend writing a twelve page paper for an ethics class.  Doug and I really appreciated all of the activity in the house today.  Only two more days and everyone will be on Thanksgiving break.  Can't wait! 

Zillow

Lately, Zillow has been all over the web for some poor home buying decisions.  Cal was fortunate to have sold his stock shortly before the news broke.  I was a little surprised to hear about the issues, but that hasn't change my opinion of the real estate app.  Meg and I have actually been using Zillow quite a bit lately and their financial problems hasn't slowed us down at all.  We find it a lot of fun "window shopping" for houses in other locations or finding out how much the homes in our area are worth.  Most of the time we love what we see, but every once in awhile we find one that's just unbelievable, either in price or in decor.

Last week, I sent a couple homes to Meg to compare.  We both liked one a lot and would have totally been sold on the second until we came across the photo of the pink kitchen complete with pink cabinets and pink countertops.  The next one I sent Meg was one of our favorites, not to buy, but for the "what were they thinking aspect."  It was so good that I had to show Cameron and Doug as well.  Cameron found it to be as hideous as we did, but Doug actually kind of liked it.  He was sure that the kitchen could be updated and if not, would make a good golf course bar.  He agreed, however, that the bathroom was a complete deal breaker as there was no help for that.  Even though we don't have plans to move until Cameron graduates, it has been fun to think about it, especially now while the market is so hot. 

She's Home!

Meg arrived this afternoon, happy to be home.  She still had a twelve page paper to write this weekend, but for the most part she would have time to relax and recover from a bad sinus infection.  She and I spent an hour or so catching up on our week and listening to my new vinyls.  She had quite a bit of laundry to bring in, but other than that there wasn't a lot of unpacking to do.  

Meg and Cameron had decided to go to dinner at Portillo's and to do some shopping this evening.  Cameron had a haircut right after school.  We thought that the best plan was for me to drive Meg to Amanda's in North Webster, so they could leave from there.  We only had to wait a few minutes before we got a look at Cameron's new haircut.  Meg and I both liked it.  They then took off for Fort Wayne while I headed home.  

Meg called a few times while they were out shopping.  She wanted to check on any deals that I had at Kohl's and also to ask me what I wanted from Yankee Candle.  They arrived home around 9 p.m. with packages in tow.  Cameron had a new flannel jacket and Meg had new earrings to show us.  They were both nice and I appreciate the shopping they did for me as well.  Overall, I was just glad that they had a good time.  They both like to shop and eat at Portillo's, so it was the perfect activity for them to do together.  It was also a great way for Meg to kick off her Thanksgiving break at home.

Getting Ready

I spent today getting ready for our first visitor of the Thanksgiving holiday as Meg will arrive tomorrow.  Since Doug has been using her room while she's in college, I had some rearranging and cleaning to do before she gets here.  Classes were finished for her yesterday at 4:00, but she wanted to stop in West LaFayette last night before traveling home.  Purdue still has classes on Monday and Tuesday, so Nick won't be home until those are over.  

I talked to all of the Heinisch children about their plans while they are home.  Doug and I are super excited to see them, but realize that they have others that they want to visit as well and some Christmas shopping that they wanted to do during Thanksgiving vacation.  Brett had made plans with a few of his friends from the Kosciusko County Republican party.  He also wanted to catch up on a couple of his video games that are still at our house.  His requests from us were to have a traditional turkey dinner for the holiday and to play Ticket to Ride England at some time while he's home.  Cal said that he didn't have any specific plans with his friends yet and still wasn't sure if he'd be off Monday and Tuesday.  He had a few movie requests for us when he did return Meg had a list of friends to get together with over Thanksgiving break.  She and Cameron are going to go shopping tomorrow night in Fort Wayne and to eat dinner at Portillo's.  Cameron's official break won't start until Wednesday, but he already had plans Saturday and Sunday of this weekend.  I know that we won't be able to spend every minute with the Heinisch children when they are home, but we will enjoy having them here and are thankful that they still love to come home.  

Christmas Cards

Lately, I have found making our yearly Christmas card a little stressful.  When the Heinisch children were little, I always had plenty of pictures of the four of them to chose from on my camera roll.  I would pick out a fun one and Doug would come up with a caption for it.  We had a lot of really cute ones including one in front of the liberty bell where Brett said, "Don't blame me!  Cal cracked it!"  Another one had the picture of the older three peering through a cabin window with the caption "On the lookout for Heinisch number four."  I loved that a few years later we took the same photo, but with Cameron in the picture as well.  

As our children got older, we stopped having just the one photo of the four of them and went to a picture collage on the front of the Christmas card and a written update of our family's year on the back.  I always still included a photo of the four of them or even the six of us in some years, but there were also ones of Meg playing soccer, Brett in the play, Cal on the basketball court or Cameron at the golf course.  Those collages were easy to make as I had a ton of pictures of everyone as they were all involved in so many activities and they were all at home.

Last year I still had quite a few pictures as we had taken a trip together to Disney before the pandemic hit and I also got a really good one of the four of them on the back deck at Thanksgiving.  What made the 2020 Christmas card stressful was the shipping problems last December.  Thousands of items got lost in the mail and it seemed that every package was delayed.  The worst for us was Carl and Marina's gift, which took over three weeks to arrive to their home in Florida due to a detour in North Dakota.  Our Christmas cards fell victim to the USPS delays last year as well, but thankfully arrived by December 17th giving me time to mail them before the holiday began.

Because the issues of 2020 haven't gotten much better this year, Doug and I decided that we would pay for expedited shipping on any holiday packages that we ordered or sent in 2021.  We also decided to order our Christmas cards before Thanksgiving with the hope of getting them out a little earlier this holiday season.  I started working on the card yesterday and quickly became frustrated.  I realized that we hadn't all been together much this year.  We had seen the Heinisch children a lot, but whole family activities had definitely declined.  Once I realized that I wouldn't have a photo of the six of us or even the four Heinisch children, I had to come up with a different plan.  I could either find individual pictures of each, take a group photo at Thanksgiving or find pictures of the Heinisch children in pairs.  I knew I didn't want to wait for a Thanksgiving photo.  Cal and Cameron were participating in "No Shave November" and it wasn't quite the look I was going for this holiday season.  I also didn't have a lot of individual photos to chose from either.  I did joke about using a picture of Cameron with each of us in the collage as I had plenty of those, but in the end went with the pair idea and it looked perfect..  I made two cards and had everyone preview them.  It took a little bit of editing, but in the end we found something that we were all happy with for this year's Christmas card.  Now the only stressful part will be waiting for them to arrive.

Leaf Raking Season

As soon as we unloaded the car and ate lunch on Sunday, Doug was outside raking leaves in the backyard.  I had to unpack and get the laundry started for the week ahead, but once I finished, I spent some time in the yard as well.  It was cold and the leaves were heavy from the morning snow, but we were still able to finish in the back before sundown.  

This afternoon Doug made plans to come home early to work on the front yard.  I was glad that Amanda was able to change my hair appointment from 5:30 to 3 p.m., so that I could help him.  The weather was a lot warmer today, which I really appreciated.  The leaves had also dried out considerably making the task a little easier.  We were able to finish the front yard and driveway before dinner.  It definitely looked a lot better.  I know that we'll still have some yard work to do this weekend, but overall it was nice to make a big dent in the project these past few days.  As much as I love our yard, I will not miss leaf raking season when we leave this area.

Happy Birthday to Me

I had an enjoyable day celebrating my 53rd birthday.  I received birthday greetings from all of my children.  I read multiple posts on Facebook wishing me well and enjoyed the pictures that my mom posted in honor of the day.  I had several text messages from my good friends and I listened to my new vinyls all morning.   Doug invited me to lunch at 5-2-3.  The food was delicious and the company was perfect for my birthday lunch.  I got to see Doug's new office, complete with a tour of the famous "storage closet," and he even surprised me with flowers when he arrived back home.

The celebration continued in the evening as my parents brought up an Angle Food cake for dessert, a twelve pack of Fresca as a birthday gift and even stayed for a game of Oh Hell.  I really appreciated that Cameron was home to join us as well.  He had been busy with his friends and after school activities this past month, so we hadn't gotten a chance to play cards in quite some time.  All in all it was a low key birthday for me and a wonderful way to celebrate my 53rd year of "traveling around the sun."