She's Home

Meg arrived this late this afternoon, happy to have finished her fall junior semester at IU.  She had three projects due this week and three finals.  Needless to say, she was more than ready for a break.  She had enjoyed her last evening in Bloomington of the year, hanging out with friends, shopping and exchanging Christmas gifts.  It was a nice way for her to unwind.

Cameron, Doug and I were happy to spend the evening with Meg.  It's rare that we get time together, just the four of us without any commitments.  It almost felt like a return to the spring of 2020.  We played games on the Wii losing to the computer once again, ordered Chinese for dinner and afterward tried a new board game called, Trial By Trolly, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  We even found time to debate the life expectancy of Rizzo, a favorite topic of ours for the past year and a half.  Nick did stop by for a little while, but was busy with his friends for most of the night.  For old time sakes I nagged Meg about leaving her stuff all over the house and Doug fell asleep on the couch.  In all honesty, it was a wonderful evening at home and I am extremely glad that Meg and Cameron are officially on Christmas break now.

Game Show Network

 We were very happy when we switched from DirectTV to YouTubeTV several years ago.  The savings was immense and the ability to add shows and movies to our virtual library was fantastic.  We could also share the service with the Heinisch children, even those that weren't living in our home.  Overall it was a great choice, but there was one disappointment.  YouTubeTV had a multitude of channels, but the one that was missing was my absolute favorite.  The GameShow Network was nowhere to be found on the new streaming service.  I was bummed, but knew that I would much rather save a $100 a month than watch game shows.

Over the past two years, I had checked other ways to get the GameShow Network, but I wasn't able to find anything affordable or easy to use.  Therefore, this week when I saw that it was added to our YouTubeTV channel list, I was thrilled.  I turned it on immediately and watched two episodes of "America Says", a newer game show that we all really enjoyed when it first came out.  I found it really funny the next day when I turned it back on to see that the lineup from two years ago hadn't really changed very much.  I was very happy with that as it meant that my all time favorite game show, The Match Game, was still on in the afternoons.  I have now scheduled my lunch around the show, making sure that I am ready everyday at 1 p.m. to enjoy the show along with my eggs and tuna.  

With all of the excitement of gaining a new channel, however, I am concerned about an email that I received from YouTubeTV recently.  They said that they were in negotiations with Disney, but might have to drop their channels from their streaming service.  The Disney part didn't really concern me as we had Disney +, but since Disney also owns ESPN, I became extremely worried about how the guys would still be able to watch their favorite sports.  Cal and Doug felt that it would be worked out by the December 17th deadline.  I wasn't as sure, so I started looking for ways to watch ESPN without dropping YouTubeTV.  Now that I have the GameShow Network back, I definitely do not want to give it up again.

A Night To Celebrate

Doug called while Cameron and I were on our way to Walmart after school.  He was excited to announce that he had finished his board meeting and that it had gone very well.  I was very glad to hear that as Doug had worked very hard on his presentation.  In fact his hours recently had rivaled those of his auditing days at Crowe Chizek.  Doug decided to celebrate this evening by ordering Sleepy Owl pizza for all of us.  That sounded great to Cameron and I as neither of us were interested in chicken and cauliflower for dinner.  

The three of us had other reasons to celebrate tonight.  On our Walmart trip Cameron was able to get his Pfizer booster vaccine this evening.  The shot hurt a little bit, but he didn't mind as he knew that it was the best way to avoid Covid this winter.  I was happy to hear that several of his friends had gotten theirs as well.  Earlier, I had offered to buy him Subway to celebrate the night, but once Cameron heard Sleepy Owl, he passed on a sub.  Instead he decided the best way to celebrate was to buy some Airhead bites and try a new drink.  We had plenty of time to look through the juice and pop aisle as we had to wait fifteen minutes after his booster shot to leave the store, just in case he had a reaction.  After looking through all of the choices, Cameron picked Minute Maid watermelon juice.  I wasn't too sure about the taste, but he was happy to report later that it was really good.  Between the new juice, the pizza and the chocolate covered Oreos that Doug received from work, it was a wonderful evening of celebrating.  

Christmas Blues

The holidays can be a rough time for anyone, especially for moms that are trying to stay on top of it all.  There are so many expectations that come with the season that it can get overwhelming.  From finding the perfect gift to planning the most delicious meal, it can be tough.  I think that social media has made the Christmas holiday even more challenging.  There are so many posts of decorated houses and family celebrations that seem over the top.  One of my friends from my teacher days posted this meme over the weekend and I thought that it was a wonderful way to remind myself that it's not about having the perfect holiday.  As Christmas draws nearer and the stress increases, I will have to keep rereading this so that I can remember that there is no right way to enjoy the season.  Just being with family will be enough.  

A Day Out of the House

It's rare that I spend an entire day outside of the Heinisch home, but that was the case today.  The first errand on my agenda was to drop Cameron's jacket off at Teresa's.  He had received a chevron for tennis at the fall awards program and wanted to add it to his sleeve.  It was a challenge for her to attach it, especially with the thick leather on the arms, but she was able to do it.  It looked great and gave me a chance to catch up with her as well.  We hadn't seen Teresa or the Fitzgerald family since Meg graduated from high school and it was nice to hear that she was doing well after her bout with breast cancer.  

While I was in Warsaw, I decided to do some shopping as well.  I stopped at Aldi, Menards and Walmart for groceries and other household items.  I was happy to find the correct filters for our humidifier as the last ones I bought were a little big and hard to trim.  Since it was such a beautiful day and a car wash was right beside Aldi, I decided to run the Pilot through it.  I wasn't the only one with that idea as there were close to twenty cars ahead of me.  Thankfully, it moved quickly and I soon had a clean car.  My last shopping stop was Rocket Fizz.  I wanted to pick up some fun gifts for the Heinisch family Christmas and it was the perfect place for it.  

My busy day wasn't quite done once I arrived home.  Doug called as soon as I walked in the door.  He needed me to do a few things on the computer for him.  It took a little while, but I finally finished it.  I waited to put the groceries away until I ate lunch.  It was close to 4 p.m. and I was more than ready for some eggs and tuna.  The last item on my agenda was putting away Cameron's laundry.  He arrived shortly after I finished and gave me the details on his day.  He still wasn't feeling the greatest, but didn't have as much homework tonight.  Thus, he could spend some time resting.  

I got in a short walk before Doug called to say he was leaving work.  I was completely worn out by the time he arrived.  I still had a few items that I wanted to finish including writing in several Christmas cards and ironing Cameron's shirt.  I decided to call it a day and wait to work on those tomorrow as I was just too tired for another project.  In the end it was the perfect night to relax in front of the television.  While I was looking for something for us to watch, I discovered that YouTubeTV had added the Game Show Network to their lineup.  I couldn't believe it as it was the one channel that I had really missed when we gave up DirectTV.  I spent an hour watching "America Says" while Doug was busy working on the computer.  I did tear myself away from my all time favorite channel to find a movie for us once he finished.  We scored big when I found "Driving Miss Daisy."  We hadn't seen it in years and it was the perfect way to end a very busy day. 

Calm Before the Storm

Doug, Meg and Cameron spent their weekend preparing for their tough week ahead.  Doug was focused on a meeting that he will have on Wednesday.  He has been working on the slides and presentation for it for several weeks and has had to change them multiple times.  He was able to finalize them this weekend and practice his speech multiple times.  I knew that he would be extremely busy working.  Thus, I really appreciated that he was able to take Friday and Saturday night off so that we could play games and watch movies together.  I tried to be supportive the rest of the time, staying out of his way, not adding anymore to his agenda and helping rake leaves when he decided to take a break today.

I wasn't really able to help Meg very much except to listen when she called to complain about finals week.  I could completely sympathize with her as no one enjoys taking tests and working on papers for the end of the semester especially in December.  All Meg wanted to do was to finish up and come home.  She has a lot of fun planned for her time off and couldn't wait for it to begin.  I was happy to hear that she finished two of her classes today and found time to hang out with a friend as well.

Cameron had quite a bit of homework to do this weekend as well.  Most of his classes had tests or papers due this week and his Monday and Tuesday looked extremely busy.  He also wanted to rewrite a paper in English that he didn't score as well as he wanted.  Added to the stress of school work, Cameron woke up with a low grade fever today.  I wasn't surprised as he had been extremely congested this week and had constantly been blowing his nose.  I had worried that it was something more than a head cold.  Although we were positive that it was probably sinus related, we decided that it was best to get tested for Covid.  Unfortunately, it was hard to find a rapid testing site on a Sunday.  I finally got him an appointment at the MedStat in Warsaw.  Cameron didn't enjoy the swab in his nose and I got frustrated with their reporting issues, but thankfully by 3:30 we were happy to hear that he had tested negative.  

Covid Woes

Last night I received a text from my mom to let me know that my Aunt Vicky was in the hospital with Covid pneumonia. She had been really sick and we all had been worried that it was the dreaded virus.  I messaged Jess right away to see if she knew anything else.  She let me know that her mom was going to be admitted to the hospital and that she was very sick.  She was obviously very upset.  I couldn't blame her as it would be scary, especially since Aunt Vicky had not been vaccinated and also had several health issues that could complicate a bout with the coronavirus.  I texted the Heinisch children right away and asked them for prayers for "Aunt Bebe."

Today we did get some good news as Aunt Bebe was doing a little bit better.  She was on oxygen and several different medications, but had seen some improvement.  We were all glad to hear that and could finally relax enough to laugh at what happened after I sent out the prayer request to our children.  Shortly after I sent something out, Brett responded with this meme:

When I first saw it, I was confused.  I was afraid that he was making fun of the situation.  That wouldn't make sense coming from Brett, but didn't know how to respond.  I decided to call Meg to see what she thought.  She hadn't seen the meme yet as she was on the phone with Nick, but once she looked at it, she said to me, "What the F*#@ is that?"  I started laughing right away and so did she.  We decided that Brett probably hadn't read my message as it just didn't make sense.  Brett called after I talked to Meg and was able to confirm that he hadn't read my message and was actually trying to send the meme to his friend Alex.  He got a good laugh out of it as he agreed that even for him it didn't make sense.  Cameron got home around the time that Brett called and enjoyed the humor of it all as well.

I was a little surprised that I never heard from Cal yesterday at all about Aunt Bebe.  I knew that he would be worried about her and thought he'd check in at some point.  I finally found out the reason today when he called.  He said that he was used to getting interesting memes form Brett and didn't want to rip on him, but just couldn't figure out what he meant with the wine drinking meme in response to my request for prayers.  Fortunately, I could alleviate his fears on both parts.  Aunt Bebe was getting better and Brett wasn't crazy.  He was glad to hear that and decided that all texts about family members being gravely ill had to be sent with this meme included in the message.  When I hung up the phone, I realized that I was never more thankful for our family than this weekend and appreciated the fact that in this scary time we could at least find some humor in it all.