Celebrating Our 29th Anniversary

Today we celebrated our 29th anniversary back where it all started, DeKalb Illinois.  It wasn't originally on our agenda to be there.  Once we found out that Addie's graduation party would be today, however, it seemed like the perfect place to honor the day.  I was extremely happy that all of our children were able to be with us.  We even had the added pleasure of bringing Uncle Phil to the event with us too.  

Besides Addie's party, we also got to visit Grandma Heinisch's grave, shop at Inboden's, and drive by Doug's boyhood home.  We celebrated Cal's 24th birthday and had a lot of fun visiting with those who attended Addie's party.  We hadn't seen the Bridge family or Andy in quite some time and appreciated catching up.  Overall, it was a wonderful day and I enjoyed it very much.  Back in 1993, I couldn't have imagined what life would have looked like 29 years later.  Today, I couldn't be more proud of the family that we have grown to be.  

Happy 24th Birthday, Cal!

Today was Cal's 24th birthday.  Even though he had to work, he still had a wonderful day.  He received numerous texts and messages from friends.  One of his friend's Dad's called him at 5 a.m. to be the first to wish him a Happy Birthday.  Cal decided that he wasn't awake enough to answer that call.  I did get a kick out of Cal's reply to my early morning birthday message - "Thanks Mom, how late do you think it will be until I hear from Cameron!"  Cameron has notoriously waited until late in the night to wish anyone birthday greetings.  Surprisingly, he got a text to Cal a lot earlier than either he or I thought he would.  

Tonight Cal celebrated with his friends by trying out a few bars near their new apartment.  Cal said that it was a lot of fun and that Sam Clark joined them as well.  He only lives a few blocks from Cal now.  I was happy to hear that and overall thrilled with how Cal's last year has gone for him.  He has found a lot of success in his job at Plante Moran.  He has a wonderful group of friends and has been enjoying all that Chicago has to offer from sporting events to restaurants to long walks along Lake Michigan.  We are incredibly proud of him and can't wait to see what the next year has in store for him.  

Nice to Have Meg Home

Meg has only been home a few days, but I've already really enjoyed having her here.  When she hasn't been at doctor's appointments or catching up with friends, we have been busy cleaning out her possessions in the basement.  Most of the items have been memory pieces that I've kept for her over the years.  It was a daunting task and I wasn't sure how it would go.  Thankfully, sorting through everything wasn't as bad as either of us thought it would be.  In fact it was actually really fun.  While I was pulling items out of tubs for Meg to look at she was showing me some of her favorite memories.  A Lilo & Stitch bathing suit, a baby outfit and a dance shirt were all on that list.  She also chose to share some of the funnier items from her childhood - her 3rd grade writing journal which featured all of the times she was mad at Cal ("his jokes aren't even funny") or the handmade paper bag puppet where she drew the face on the wrong side of the bag.  We laughed about that one for at least a day.  

Tonight was another example of how nice it is to have Meg home.  She walked along with us at Cameron's golf match.  When things got tense (a missed putt or an out of bounds), she'd look at me and say something like "That's it, the next time Cameron hits a ball I'm yelling 'Jackass'" (a Happy Gilmore reference.)  Her best comment of the night occurred when Cameron was on the third hole, behind a tree, looking through his range finder, hoping to get on the green.  She turned to me and said,  "I really don't even think he needs that.  He could totally use the spyglass from the Peter Pan set that we just cleaned out of the toy room."  I laughed out loud on that one.  I could just imagine the reaction of all of the intense number ones that Cameron had been playing with lately if he did that.  When she suggested it later in the evening to Cameron, he even laughed at that one.

My favorite moment of having Meg home, however, wasn't cleaning out anything or listening to her one liners.  It was instead the picture that we took this evening.  While we were waiting for Cameron's group to putt on the second hole, Grandpa Cutes took a picture of Grandma Jane, Meg and I.  I couldn't remember the last time that we had a picture of just the three of us.  It turned out very well and was a great way to commemorate Meg's time at home.  

Doctors

Meg hasn't been home a lot in the past year.  Last summer she took I-Core and stayed in Bloomington.  Over Christmas break, she spent a week in Arizona and a week in Florida.  She did come home for a weekend in February for her final orthodontist appointment and a visit to the dentist, but didn't have time for a lot else.  She was only home for a couple of days at Spring Break as we spent her vacation in Florida.  Thus, there wasn't much time for her to schedule doctor's appointments.  When I found out from her that she had some free time this week, I went ahead and scheduled every appointed that she needed.  She wasn't excited about it, but realized that she needed to make time for her health check-ups as she would't be available once her internship started in June.

It wasn't just doctor's appointments that Meg took care of this week.  During her first two days home, Meg not only got into see Dr. Freeze to update her prescriptions, she also made it to Amanda's to get a haircut.  Today she had her first visit to Warsaw Women's center where she received some positive news.  She also had a check-up with Dr. Caughill, her eye doctor.  In the end that one was the most important.  Meg had been having issues with double vision when looking at items up close.  He assured her that her eyes and prescription were fine, but that she would need to return to her eye exercise routine.  She wasn't excited about that, but was relieved that it wasn't something more concerning.  She also picked out a cute pair of glasses.  The last three days may not have been the best of Meg's summer vacation, but they definitely were productive.  Now Meg can take a break from doctors until November.  

A Match Worth Walking For

Tonight Cameron had his second match of the season at Knollwood Country Club.  It was also the second time that he had played against both ECA and Trinity.  Thus, there was a lot of familiarity to tonight's match.  Meg drove me over so that I could ride home from South Bend with Doug.  She was going to stay and watch, but Sarah wanted to get together with her tonight, so she made plans to watch Cameron play on Thursday at Black Squirrel instead.  Grandma and Grandpa weren't able to attend tonight's match either as Grandpa had a town council meeting.

Cameron teed off on number 12 once again.  I was a little bit behind his group, so I walked up the hilly fairway with the number two golfers.  I got about twenty yards down the hole and I strongly thought about calling Doug and telling him that I would wait for them at the clubhouse.  The joints in my left leg were absolutely killing me.  I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to walk nine holes on uneven ground.  I decided to at least give it a try and in the end was very glad that I did.

Cameron had working on slowing down his swing this week and it paid off today.  He hit the ball very well and matched scores with both the Trinity and ECA number ones.  At the end of seven holes he was only two over par.  I was impressed.  He finished the night tied for low medalist with a 40.  The Bruins beat ECA and barely lost to Trinity.  Overall, it was a great match for Bethany and I was glad that I decided to walk along.  

Here's the Story . . .

Meg arrived home last night in time to eat dinner, unpack her car and catch up with us before heading to bed.  Today I got to spend a lot of time with her.  We took a long walk, visited with Grandma and reorganized all that she brought back from Bloomington.  After dinner tonight, I also got to open both hers and Doug's Mother's Day gifts from me.  They had purchased them in Florida.  I loved the M & M ice cream bowls and flamingo shirt that she gave me along with the new Dolly Parton book from Doug.  

Tonight Doug had to work.  Meg and I were hoping to play Swap Meet with Cameron once he got home from practice.  When he called to say that he was going to play another nine holes, both of us were a little disappointed.  That's when I suggested the watching an episode of the "new" show that Meg had started binge watching while studying for finals - The Brady Bunch.  Meg was up for it and I didn't have to talk Doug into it.  The Brady Bunch was one of his all time favorite shows.

It had been years since either Doug or I had watched the Bradys.  It was like revisiting an old friend.  I had grown up with the Bradys and Doug had watched them religiously with his roommate in college.  We knew which episodes were playing within the first minute of airing and we enjoyed watching Meg's reaction to the show.  She had decided a couple of weeks ago that Doug and I were Mike and Carol.  Since we only had four children in the Heinisch family, she had to think long and hard about who each of her brothers were on the show.  She knew instantly that she identified with Jan, but it was harder for her to place her brothers.  She easily decided that Brett was Greg and Cameron was Bobby, but she just couldn't see Cal as Peter.  She viewed he and Cindy as the weakest on the show and didn't feel that either of them would fit in the Heinisch family.  I finally suggested to her that maybe Cal was most like Marcia.  Instantly, she agreed that he fit as the most famous child on the show.  Both Doug and I got a kick out of Meg's take on the show.  It was a great way to pass time with Meg while waiting for a round of Mario Kart with Cameron.  As an added bonus, she even won tonight.

Moving On Up

Cal told us several months ago that he and Jayce were giving up their apartment in Wrigleyville.  They had grown tired of the close proximity to Wrigley Field.  The increased traffic during Cubs games had been enough for them to look for something new.  Their friend Nolan joined them in their quest for a new place and all of them were extremely happy with their choice.  They found a three bedroom, two bath in Uptown.  It was closer to Plante Moran's office and it even had a private rooftop deck.  When Cal was home last week, he took one of our outdoor tables and four chairs for them to use on it.  

Today was moving day for Cal, Jayce and Nolan.  Cal sent us a picture of the outside of the building as soon as they arrived.  It looked very nice.  Shortly afterward, he sent another text, this one with a video of the apartment.  He was very pleased with it.  He also let us know that the deck was big enough for them to play corn hole.  As happy as he was, we weren't surprised when we received a text at the end of the day "I am NEVER moving again!".  We couldn't blame him for feeling that way.