Hard Work Paying Off

Last night Doug told me that the best part of Father's Day was seeing how well his own children were doing managing life.  I thought a lot about what he said, especially after Cal called today to tell us about his positive performance evaluation at work.  Our children have all been successful and I am very proud of the four of them.  

Over the years I have come to realize that a large part of their success revolves around the positive influence that Doug has been on their life.  He has been supportive and encouraging of them from day one.  He has been their coach, their mentor and at times their voice of reason.  He has worked hard in his career to pay for their needs, including their college expenses.  He wanted each of his children to walk out of their college graduation debt free with a car to drive.  Doug knew from experience that having those needs met would help greatly for them in the future.  

During Doug first years post college he didn't have loans to pay off, but he did have to buy a car, pay rent at home and come up with money for his car insurance as soon as he graduated.  Those expenses were tough on his tight budget.  Much like Cal, he didn't start working right away as he studied for the CPA.  He worked for my parents that summer, saving up as much as he could. 

Over the years, it has been challenging at times to fund those expenses because costs have increased greatly from when we were in college.  We have budgeted and done without to make it work.  I have always been impressed with how Doug was willing to work multiple jobs so that we could pay for their education while allowing me to stay at home to be an integral part of our children's lives.  He has also made it a priority to enjoy life with his children outside of our daily routine.  We have taken some wonderful trips over the years and have spent countless hours with our children.  Overall, Doug's role as father has been nothing less than impressive and I am so incredibly blessed to have been the mother of his children.  I know that they feel the same way.  Meg said it best yesterday when she posted this beloved picture with the capture, "Happy Father's Day to my biggest role model."  

Happy Father's Day!

Doug had a wonderful time celebrating Father's Day.  First thing this morning Brett called him to wish him a fantastic day.  He was still excited about yesterday's convention and talked to Doug about that before heading off to work.  Cameron, Doug and I left Syracuse at 9:30 a.m. for Chicago.  We had the Pilot filled with everything that Meg still needed.  She had spent her first week in a dorm room and was happy now to have a studio apartment all to herself.  It had a full kitchen, a bigger bed, a private bathroom a desk and a chair.  It was located on the top floor of the building.  Needless to say, she was extremely happy with the arrangement.

We made it to Meg's around 11 a.m.  She and Nick met us in the parking lot.  We got everything to her building in one trip.  We couldn't go up, but she promised to FaceTime us at some point and show us her place. Once they took everything to her apartment, we went on a long walk around the city.  We stopped by the Art Museum and Bean before crossing the Chicago River.  

After our walk, we headed up to Cal's new apartment in Old Town.  It was on the fifth floor of a 1920s building.  We really liked the area and his place.  It had a living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.  There was a large deck outside that was perfect for hanging out on or even playing corn hole.  We had Doug open his gifts from Meg and Cal while we were there.  He got a kick out of the Gettysburg Battlefield Tour CD that Cal gave him.  It was from one of our trips long ago.  Cal had absolutely hated listening to it.  Meg found him a Blue's Clues salt and pepper shaker set complete with paprika.  He loved it.

Cal took us to a coffee and wine bar for lunch called 3rd Coast Cafe.  I wasn't sure when I walked in what the menu would be, but we really liked it.  They had a mixture of breakfast foods, sandwiches, tacos and quesadillas.  Everyone was pleased with their food.  Meg even tried a mimosa and Nick tried a pimosa (made with pineapple juice.).   We then walked around Cal's neighborhood.  It was very nice. It was close to Wells street and not too far from the south end of Lincoln Park.  

We left Chicago around 5 p.m.  We had to drop Nick in Wakarusa, but still made it home well before 8 p.m.  After dinner, Doug opened his gifts from Cameron, Brett and I.  They were perfect for the head of our household - five different hot sauces to try from Cameron, Dwayne Johnson Tequila from Brett and a bag of snacks and candy from me.  We invited Grandma and Grandpa up to play Oh Hell.  Grandpa loved his Father's Day gifts as well - licorice, circus peanuts and a Chicago coffee mug.  Overall, it was a wonderful Father's Day.  Doug said that he couldn't ask for anything more.

Convention Time

In November, Brett was elected as delegate to represent Monroe County for Republican Party at the state convention.  His best friend, Sean, was also chosen to be a delegate along with several people that Brett knew from around the state.  Today's convention was held in Indianapolis and was an exciting day for him.  He texted multiple times during the day to give us updates and send pictures.  We were both glad to hear that the two candidates that he supported, one for State Treasurer and the other for Secretary of the State of Indiana, had won their nomination.  

Brett called afterward and talked non-stop about his day.  From getting up early, to taking pictures with politicians and friends, to the number of ballots that each person needed to win.  The closest race was the treasurer with Eliot only winning by three votes.  I had followed a lot of the races with him as the state Republican party had my phone number instead of his, so they would text me the information and I would send it on to him.  We tried to change that, but couldn't.  In the end, I was glad to be involved.  Several times I would get survey calls during the day.  I could answer them while Brett was working and fill them out with his opinions.  

As much fun as I had being a part of this with Brett and listening to his update tonight, my favorite interaction actually came from Sean.  Once Brett's phone battery died, he used Sean's to text me the results.  In the middle of the information, I got a text that said, "This is Sean!  And now that I have your number I will spam cute baby pictures!" That was definitely alright with me.  

Making Progress

Doug has worked for two to three hours every night in our backyard cleaning up the debris and fallen trees from Monday nights storm.  Thankfully, Kosciusko REMC cut down some of the trees in the lot, but that still left quite a few logs, branches and sticks to remove.  Doug has a small chainsaw which has helped a lot with the smaller trees and branches, but has made no difference in dissecting the largest tree or the tree stump on the side of the house.  

Tonight, Doug started a fire as soon as he got home from work.  The sticks that I picked up on Tuesday worked out perfectly for kindling and he soon had a nice bonfire going.  He spent  the rest of the evening adding branches to the fire and moving large logs to the lot.  I was extremely impressed with how much he got done.  By the end of the evening I had all of the bird feeders and potted plants moved to new spots in the yard and he had almost everything burned.  We even had time for two games of Ticket to Ride before nightfall.  We will still need some type of help with the large tree and plan to have Hoosier Tree Service take out three of the more daunting looking trees, but overall our backyard looked a lot better.  I still can't believe all of the damage.  

All of the inside cleaning that I did this week and the outside work that Doug accomplished as well, confirmed my opinion that we need to move to a smaller home once Cameron graduates from high school.  I love this home and it has served the Heinisch family well, but I know that Doug and I would benefit from the added time that downsizing would afford us.  I love spending time together, but would prefer to do it outside of manual labor tasks.  I also realize that this house and yard will feel even bigger once Cameron goes away to college.  I wasn't sure that I would ever be ready to leave our home, but in the past year, I have come to see why it's important to do it sooner rather than later.  Otherwise the work will become so overwhelming that we may never leave.  It will be sad to leave, but the storm on Monday definitely reaffirmed to me that our decision to move in 2023 is a good one.   

Mammogram

I had scheduled my Mammogram on Monday, but had to move it to today because it was the only day that Dr. Freeze had available for Cameron's sports physical.  Cameron heard me pre-registering on the phone yesterday and asked me what a mammogram actually was.  None of the boys or even Doug for that matter had ever questioned the procedure, but I could see with Cameron's interest in science wanting to know.  He thought it would be more like a MRI.  I explained the x-ray machine that they used and told him that MRI's and ultrasounds were only for women who were high risk or already had breast cancer.  I also said that I thought the worst part was the skin that they pinched during the procedure.  I told him about the memes that I had read stating that if men had to have their intimate area squished once a year than all cancer would be cured.  He followed up with "All women are good for is cleaning and cooking."  We both laughed at that and I left for Warsaw.

Normally, I have had very little wait time in the women's imaging department at KCH.  This year, however, I was there about twenty minutes before they called me back.  It gave me time to think about how fortunate I have been to never have had a lump or even a call back for something suspicious looking on the x-ray.  I knew that wasn't the case for a lot of women.  Maybe that's why I never minded getting a mammogram.  I didn't enjoy the process, but knew it was important.  I also didn't think that I should complain about it when many women received devastating news afterward.  The procedure was quick as always which I appreciated.  Soon I was on my way to the grocery store, thankful for having being done with this routine test for another year.  

I am not Getting Out of Bed for Three Days

Today, Cameron played in his second tournament in as many days.  This one was at Beechwood in LaPorte.   The drive was longer than usual, but the tee time was in Central time, so we didn't have to get up as early.  Cameron felt pretty good about it when he arrived.  He had shot a 93 there last year and definitely wanted to do better than that.  He was disappointed that so few people were playing once again, but didn't let that bother him.  He just said that he liked it better when there were 20+ in his age group instead of less than ten.  

Cameron started off well, hitting the ball straight.  The course was tight, so I knew that would make a big difference in how he scored.  He liked the player that he was paired with for the match.  His mom was nice too, which made the day more enjoyable.  Grandma had rode along with us and got a cart.  I appreciated that as it was hot today and I would be able to sit down for part of the round.  

In the end, Cameron did break 93.  He shot 88 which was good enough for fifth place.  He was disappointed in his play on the day, especially in his approach shots.  I could see where he thought that, but a lost ball and an uncharacteristic four putt were the difference for him between 1st and 5th.  The course played tough today with the extreme heat, slow play (they teed a ladies league off in front of the tournament), and rock hard greens.  Either way, I was glad that he had played the last two days and was thankful for a break from the sport tomorrow.

On the way home we stopped at Portillo's for a late lunch.  Cameron enjoyed that and Doug appreciated the "Big Beef" that we brought home for him.  While we were driving, Cameron said that he was absolutely exhausted.  He planned to "go to bed as soon as he got home and not get up for three days."  I told him that I thought it was a good idea.  I mentioned it to Doug when he arrived home.  We both laughed as we knew that wouldn't last.  Sure enough, about an hour and a half after we arrived, Cameron walked downstairs and said, "I've changed my mind.  I'm going to go to tennis tonight."  Neither of us were surprised.  

What A Mess!

 Last night Doug and I spent the evening at the Northwood High School tennis courts.  We had a lot of fun watching Cameron play, especially when he was paired with Breece at number one doubles.  We were a little disappointed when the match ended early due to lightening.  The good news was that Cameron and Breece won, the bad news was the storm that followed the lightening.

The three of us arrived home about five minutes ahead of the predicted severe thunderstorm.  As we walked in the house, the power flipped on and off.  I had heard a transformer blow miles from our house and was glad that it hadn't affected us.  That all changed several minutes later.  As Doug was looking out the back window, he saw sparks fly.  A large tree in our backyard had come down on the power line.  My excitement about having electricity was gone and we started to make plans for what to do next.

The storm stayed strong until 10:30 p.m.  Cameron had an early morning tee time at Meadowvalley, so he and I decided to stay at Grandma's.  It was hard getting up at 6 a.m. after all of the excitement last night.  Cameron decided to play, however.  I was glad to hear that.  I had planned on meeting him after nine and walking the back with him.  Once I saw the damage in our backyard, I asked my Dad if he could go to Middlebury instead.  It was extremely hot out today and I wanted to make sure that someone checked on Cameron.  I was glad that he and Grandma could make the trip.

Doug waited until I got home at 7:30 a.m. this morning to leave.  Not only was a big tree down, but two others were as well.  Dozens of big branches had fallen as well as hundreds of sticks.  The biggest tree was hanging on the Mediacom cable line.  It looked as those the tree just missed the electric line, but we found out later from our neighbor that REMC had fixed the line late last night.  Doug had slept through the noise.  Before Doug left for work, he called Hoosier Tree Service, REMC, Mediacom and Farm Bureau Insurance.  Once he pulled out of the drive, I started working on the yard.  I took a break at 10:30 and felt like I hadn't even made a dent in the cleanup effort.  

Cameron arrived home in the mid-afternoon.  He was absolutely exhausted, but pleased with his second place finish.  He was even happier that he got to play with one of his long time friends on the junior tour circuit.  Grandma and Grandpa took him to lunch at Essen Haus to celebrate.  He spent the evening at Samuel's making good use of their swimming pool.

REMC arrived around 3:30 this afternoon.  They made plans to come out and take down the tree hanging on the cable line as well as a few others that might cause damage in the future.  I was glad to hear that.  Doug arrived shortly after they left and started work on the tree that fell in Kyle's yard.  Thankfully, Josh was able to help.  He had a bigger chainsaw than Doug.  I spent another hour picking up branches and sticks.  We did hear back from our insurance.  Our deductible for wind damage was too high to help with the tree clean up and they wouldn't pay for the downed fence as it was on Kyle's property.  Thus, they closed our claim.  Kyle's insurance would pay for the fence, but he thought that he could fix it without much issue.  

It was definitely a long day of clean up from the storm last night.  We would still have plenty to do for the next week or two.  We knew from the estimate from our tree guy that it would cost about $2500 to clear away the debris, stumps and take down a few more trees that look precarious.  Even with the long hours, hard work and extra costs ahead of us, Doug and I didn't really have any complaints.  We were just thankful that no one was hurt in the worst storm of the twenty-four years that we had lived here.