From Here to There and Everywhere In Between

Cameron and I started our morning in Goshen.  He needed to have his Meningitis B vaccination before school started and 9:15 today worked best with our schedule and the doctor's office.  We drove two cars so that he could go to tennis conditioning right afterward and I could go grocery shopping.  On our way to the doctor, I received a call from Warsaw Family Eye Care.  Cameron had wanted to get contacts and the only appointment they had when I called last week was the end of August.  They were calling today to say that they had several cancellations and could get him in earlier.  I knew that we had a crazy schedule today, but thought we'd be able to make it to the eye doctor at noon. 

The vaccine went well and Cameron was soon on his way to Bethany.  I hurried over to the carwash.  I needed to clean it out from our trip home from Florida last weekend.  I did my best to finish as quickly as possible and was soon on my way to Menards and Walmart.  I felt like I was in an episode of Supermarket Sweep while getting groceries.  I needed to get out of the Walmart by 11 a.m. to make it home in time to put the refrigerated items away before leaving for Warsaw.  Thankfully, my many trips to Walmart over the past year paid off and I was able to grab everything and self check out by 10:45.

Cameron was home when I arrived.  Tennis ended early and he had time to shower before we needed to leave.  The eye doctor went well.  Cameron was fitted for contacts and will go back on Monday at 2 p.m. to learn how to wear them.  They said that it normally takes an hour.  We next stopped at Panda Express for lunch.  Cameron had to eat in the car so that we could make it home in time for his  haircut appointment at 1:45.  We pulled in with five minutes to spare before he had to leave.

While Cameron was at Amanda's, I spent some time on the garage sale and then took a short walk.  Doug and I had a financial planning meeting with Dave Sands at 5.  I hadn't even showered yet with our busy day.  I had just enough time to do so before Dave and Doug arrived.  We met for about an hour with Dave answering all of our questions and giving us a lot of good information.  Once he left I told Doug that today was one that I was extremely glad that we had set it up for me to stop teaching.  Today was crazy with all of the running around and I was thankful to be able to accomplish so much without having to worrying about anything except helping out our family.  

Garage Sale Blues

This weekend Doug helped me get the tables set up for the garage sale.  It seemed early as we were having one with the town wide garage sale event on August 4th to the 6th, but we both knew that it would take all of that time to set up.  Since it was at our house, I had the luxury of working on it for a few hours each day instead of getting ready for it all at once.  For having a garage sale last summer, I couldn't believe all that we had accumulated in just a year.  The worst was the clothes.  I quickly ran out of space for all of them and had to become creative in how I would put them out at the sale.  We decided that we would mark everything low as we planned on donating whatever was left.  Except for Cameron's Mario Kart track, the vintage Fisher Price and a few pieces of furniture, there will be very few items over $2 on our tables.  After talking to Meg and Cameron, we did change our mind about selling the Playmobil Circus.  The two of them had had a lot of fun with it and thought it'd be great to have at our home if and when we ever had grandchildren.

After a day of working off and on in the humidity, I was thankful that Doug said that he didn't have to work tonight and that Cameron wanted to play cards.  I definitely was ready for a break.  Grandma and Grandpa came up to play Oh Hell after our Pizza Hut dinner.  I know that there will be more to do these next couple of days, but at least I made a dent in the work today.  After this summer, only one more garage sale to go.  Then we can be done forever.

Mr. Mini Golf vs The Undefeated Summer Champion

Cameron pointed out to me this weekend that he hadn't played miniature golf at Paige's Crossing all summer.  Since Doug had to work late tonight, I asked him if he was interested in going this evening.  Once he said that he was ready for a rematch, we decided to ask Grandma and Grandpa to go with us.  On the way there Cameron pointed out that he was undefeated at mini golf this summer.  I was positive that I was going to change that record, but Cameron pointed out how poorly I played at the Hoosier Putt Hole earlier in the summer.  After that I wasn't quite as confident in my ability to dethrone him.

We started on the B course at Paige's Crossing and Grandpa soon jumped into the lead.  Cameron and I both tried our best to catch him, but in the end Grandpa won the first eighteen holes.  We decided to give it one more try and played the C course next.  Cameron had several holes in one on the first nine and it looked like he would win easily.  Grandpa wouldn't give up, however, and soon Cameron needed a hole in one on the last hole to win the two round score.  Cameron scored low enough to win the C course, but lost by two shots overall.  I finished in third place with Grandma trailing behind.

Even though Cameron lost his crown tonight, we all had fun playing.  Grandpa held on to the title Mr. Mini Golf and Cameron could still claim to be undefeated with his friends this summer.  We celebrated our outing with dinner at Dairy Queen.  It's rare that I have fast food and I enjoyed my dinner of a chili dog and sundae.  It was a great way to end the evening.

Nope

Cal told us over the weekend that he had watched the new Jordan Peele movie, "Nope."  I hadn't realized that it had been released yet, but Cameron did.  I asked Cal what he thought about it and he really liked it.  I looked to see when it would be available for streaming, but the earliest date would be some time in September.  As we really liked Peele's previous movies, "Get Out" and "Us", I asked Cameron and Doug what they thought about seeing it in the theater tonight.  I was glad to hear that they were both up to going.  I hadn't been to the movie theater since March of 2020 and was looking forward to it.

Cameron and I met Doug at Linway at 5:30.   We decided to get a big bucket of popcorn as we hadn't had that in 2+ years either.  There were just about as many people there as there was two years ago before the pandemic (less than a dozen.) which wasn't too surprising for a Monday nights.  

As soon as the opening scene started, we were hooked.  Cal had told us that it was a sci-fi thriller which was a little different than the previous thrillers that we had watched, but that didn't make it any less intense.  They were times that I had to look away and times that I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen.  The last 45 minutes were absolutely riveting and we all like how it ended.  Even though Cameron said that it was disturbing and none of us were quite sure that we would sleep tonight, we all walked out of the theater happy with our choice of this evening's activity.  

Cal called us on the way home and we agreed with his rankings of Jordan Peele's movies - 1) Get Out, 2) Nope, and 3) Us.  We couldn't agree on the most disturbing part in the three movies, however.  Cal and I felt that it was the family standing at the end of the drive in Us.  Doug and Cameron said that it was tonight's scene with Gordy the chimp.  It didn't really matter to us who was right.  It was just nice to be back at the theater enjoying a good movie.

Elkhart County 4-H Fair

Growing up, the best week of summer was always the Elkhart County 4-H Fair.  I loved going when I was little.  We'd walk through all of the animal barns, try several of the food booths, play some carnival games and ride a few rides.  In high school and college I would work at the fair for WKAM for the week.  It was an awesome experience.  I'd drive the golf cart, work the fair booth, and even help with interviews. 

When we moved here, I assumed that fair week would be a big part of the Heinisch family's life.  We took Brett and Cal a few times when they were little, but I quickly realized that my affection for the county fair was not shared by Doug.  He thought that it was dirty, unsafe, had terrible food and was expensive.  Thus, we stopped attending as a family and instead the Heinisch children and I would spend an afternoon at the fair each summer with my parents.  After a couple of trips with four children in tow, I quickly started to view the fair the same way that Doug did, especially the expensive part.  We calculated that it was cheaper to spend a day at King's Island then to take everyone to the fair.  When we explained that to the Heinisch children they were ready to make the amusement park a staple of our summer activities.

Even though we stopped going to the fair as a family, our children did still attend most years.  They would go with their friends when they were in high school or with my parents when they were younger.  They always had fun, but didn't spend every day there as I did when I was younger.  Cameron attended last year with Richard, Samuel and Avery having a great time.  He decided this year that he wasn't up to a trip with friends and decided to see if grandma and grandparent were available.  Thankfully, they were interested in going to the fair and took full advantage of free admission day this afternoon.

Cameron said that they all had a lot of fun.  He got to see Joey in the beef barn.  He ate a polish sausage and tried lemon ice cream from the dairy barn.  He didn't ride any of the rides, but he played a few games, winning a small prize or two.  Overall, it was a great afternoon and he was really glad that he went.  It will probably be his only trip to the fair this year, but that seemed to be ok with him.  

Life Outside of the Heinisch Home

I had a chance to catch up with Meg today.  I had talked to her a few times while we were in Florida, but hadn't heard everything that she had been up to this week.  She talked a lot about work.  She was excited about an event that she went to with Plante Moran.  It was the first social activity that she had been invited to that Cal was also attending.  She appreciated having him there.  Last night Meg decided to spend a quiet evening to herself reading on the beach of Lake Michigan.  Today she was waiting for Nick, Rachel and Alex to arrive.  They had plans to go to Lincoln Park, the Water Tower Place and Nando's.  She was most looking forward to the Brian Wilson concert that she and Nick had tickets to tomorrow night.

I also talked to Cal multiple times this week.  He enjoyed the social event with Plante Moran as well and thought it was fun to see Meg at it.  He had a golf outing this week with his partner that also went well.  He was excited about the newest episode of Better Call Saul and gave me a lot of background information about the series.  He didn't have a lot of plans this weekend besides hanging out with friends going bowling and watching the new movie "Nope" in theaters.

Brett didn't feel the best earlier in the week.  It had taken him a couple of days to catch up on sleep after a busy time in Florida.  He finally felt a lot better yesterday and hung out with Sean and Norman last night.  Tonight he went to a Monroe County Republican Party event after work.  He really enjoyed that.  For me it was fun just to catch up with everyone.  I was happy to hear that all were busy and having fun with friends and co-workers.  It's been a busy summer for everyone.  I can't believe that it's almost August.  

Five States, Seventeen Hours, Three Buc-ee's & We're Finally Home

We got the boys up early this morning and were on the road by 6:45 a.m.  We all hoped to make it home by midnight.  I brought plenty of snacks including a loaf of peanut butter sandwiches and a lot of drinks in the hope that we would be able to avoid long lines for fast food.  We made it through Florida and to our first stop in Georgia without any issues.  The boys slept most of the way, but were all up and ready to explore Buc-ee's when we arrived.  Samuel and Avery had never even heard of the famed convenience store.  Thankfully, Cameron and I didn't over hype it and they were just as impressed with it as we were the first time that we stopped.  

We made it through Atlanta without much traffic.  That was a complete surprise for a Friday at noon.  The rest of Georgia was traffic free as well which wasn't the biggest news of the day.  That occurred when Doug told us that he needed to do a few things for work and that we would be stopping at our second    Buc-ee's of the day.  The boys used this stop to purchase matching key chains.  I was thankful for the clean bathrooms once again.

The next good news that we received was when we finally made it out of Georgia.  We had spent five and a half hours in the state and were glad to be done with it.  The boys had used the time in the car to read "Devil in the White City"  for Michael's class.  They all said that they liked different aspects of the book, but hated having to annotate it.  I couldn't blame them for that.  

We decided to drive through the east side of Tennessee on this trip.  The time was about the same and we knew that there would be less mountains to navigate.  The added bonus was that once we made it through the state there would be another Buc-ee's waiting for us in Kentucky.  I bought all of the boys their famed brisket sandwiches to try and we enjoyed our dinner traveling into Indiana.  

Our last major stop of the night was in Indianapolis where we had to drop Samuel off to get his car.  He had parked it there Tuesday night when he flew to Orlando.  He and Avery grabbed their bags and soon we were on our way to Syracuse and they had left for Goshen.  The last part of the trip was a quick one as there wasn't any traffic on the road.  We pulled into the driveway at 11:40 p.m. just twenty minutes short of our arrival goal.  Cameron headed straight to bed, glad to be home and happy to have had a fun week with his friends.