Job Shadowing

Cameron was home today after spending the last two days job shadowing.  It was a requirement for graduation at Bethany and Cameron made the most of it.  He chose to first shadow Hetal in the accounting department at Champion.  Meg had enjoyed her experience there and highly recommended it.  Cameron not only learned about the different accounting positions, but also spent time with the head of the IT department and those in charge of customer sales as well.  In addition, he toured the plant and spent some time learning about freight rates and how they affect a business.  

On the second day, he chose to shadow Dr. Diane at Goshen Animal Clinic.  He had spent a lot of time with her in the fall of 2021, so he already had a good idea of what it was like inside the veterinarian's office.  Yesterday, he watched several surgeries first and then spent time talking with Diane about possible majors in college if he decided to pursue a career in the veterinarian field.  They also talked about other possibilities for careers if Cameron chose to major in chemistry instead of business or decided to double major in science and business.  

I really like that Bethany requires its senior to job shadow before graduation.  I believe that Meg's experience really helped her decide to major in accounting at IU.  I also thought that Cameron's experience made him see that there are a lot of possibilities out there for him.  I also appreciated this year that Bethany was more flexible with scheduling the job shadowing activities, giving them three days to get their required twelve hours or even job shadowing over fall break if needed.  There were two things that I would change, however.  The first was less paperwork.  It seemed a little old school to fill out so many forms.  I would have preferred that part to be online.  The other thing that I would change is the the hour requirements.  Some jobs work well having a high school student job shadowing for six hours.  It would be no problem for an educator to fill that student's time.  In the business world it could definitely be a lot harder to keep a teenager busy for that long of a period.  Overall, I am definitely glad that Cameron and Meg were given this opportunity.  They made the most of their experiences and learned a lot as well.

Anxiety Revisted

I had problems with anxiety around seven years ago.  It stemmed from a specific incident but was exasperated by my job.  It took a lot of work, but ultimately I was able to learn how to manage my anxiety without making it the main focus of my life.  Issues would arise every now and then, but overall I could use what I had learned to keep my anxiety in check.  I even learned how to fall asleep when I woke up in the middle of the night upset about something that I couldn't control.

The past few months, however, that has changed greatly.  We have had some extremely stressful issues arise in the Heinisch home and it has taken all that I have to manage the anxiety that those situations have caused.  I've cried more these past two months than I have in a long time and I have definitely had difficulty sleeping.  All of this has left me drained.   I had hoped for an easy transition into our next stage of life, but that wasn't meant to be.  Thankfully, I have still been able to keep on top of the anxiety.  Taking long walks, listening to podcasts and being honest about how I feel has really helped.  Meg and Doug remind me all of the time that soon this will all be a memory.  I know that they are right.  I also realize that this  will just better prepare me for the next time that I have to deal with a stressful situation.  I am definitely hoping that that isn't any time soon.  

Fashion Farm Revisted

Brett arrived home very early Tuesday morning in time to get a few hours of sleep before heading to his scheduled dental cleaning.  Last night he was also able to see the limited release documentary about Mother Teresa at the Pickwick Theater.  Grandma and Grandpa joined him and enjoyed it as well.  Brett also had time while he was home to play some of his favorite video games, show me the silent movie Mysterious Island, work on one of his Legos, get four loads of laundry done, have buttons replaced on some clothing items, get a haircut and play Ticket to Ride with Doug and I.

I enjoyed everything that I did with Brett these past couple of days, but my favorite was our trip to Fashion Farm.  After Meg, Cameron and I went on Saturday, I texted him to see if he wanted to visit the pumpkin patch one last time.  At first he wasn't interested, but after he thought about it, he was definitely wanted to go.  Yesterday we made our pilgrimage to Ligonier to see the 50th anniversary decorated pumpkins.  He felt just like Meg did when she walked through the display agreeing that the theme was all over the place, but still seemed better than in years past.  He and I walked through the grass maze.  We both agreed with Cameron's take that it was really just a hike through tall grass.  He then tried out the puzzle that had stumped Meg.  He didn't figured it out as quickly as Cameron did, but definitely made Meg mad when he sent her a picture of himself solving it.  We ended the trip with some pumpkin ice cream which was delicious.  Overall, it was a lot of fun hanging out with Brett these past few days.  I am looking forward to seeing him and more of the Heinisch family in the upcoming months.

The Fog

October has been designated as scary movie month in the Heinisch home for as long as I can remember.  We started our children off with kid friendly ones early in their lives including one of my Disney favorites, Something Wicked This Way Comes.  I still remember seeing it in the theater back in the 1980s and was glad to share my love of jump scares with them.  From there they graduated to Doug's favorite, Halloween.  Brett even went through a Michael Myers stage wearing his beloved mask and jumpsuit everywhere.  

Since those early days, other horror movies have been added into our October watching lineup.  We've watched old ones like Friday the 13th, innovative ones such as The Blair Witch Project and new ones  including Get Out.  Over the years, the guys have ranked their favorites and debated the best ones.  Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the top of Cal's list and is a must see for him every year.  One year Cameron and I spent an entire Halloween season making fun of the slow run of the zombies in "Night of the Living Dead."  Scream has been my favorite scary movie since it first premiered in the 1990s and I've enjoyed sharing that one with everyone as well. Meg has never loved scary movies, but will watch all of the Halloween specials with "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" being her #1 holiday special.

Each and every year someone finds a new one scary movie or Halloween special hat none of us have seen.  Sometimes they are new productions such as The Muppets Haunted Mansion which aired a few years ago.  Other times it's a forgotten or never seen classic that one of us stumbles across.  That is what happened this week.  Cal texted Sunday night to let us know that he had rented the 1980 horror movie, The Fog.  I had either forgotten about it or had never seen it.  When Doug and I read that it was a John Carpenter film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, we just had to watch it too.  The movie was definitely the weakest of his films, but still had enough jump scares to keep us entertained.  The plot reminded Doug of The Blob, while I thought it was more like Pirates of the Caribbean.  We were surprised to see the actress that played "Annie" from Halloween in it and even more so with Janet Leigh's cameo.  The special effects were a little cheesy, but overall it was worth watching once.  Cal's only complaint was the ending, but otherwise enjoyed watching it too.  Brett even decided to give it a shot this afternoon before our rental time ran out.  Once it ended, he thought he would try watching the 2005 version as well to compare the two.  I don't know if we will join him for that viewing, but we were glad to have found a "new" horror film to start scary movie month off with this year.  Can't wait to see what we chose next.  

Forgiveness

Cameron attended Peter's funeral service today with several of his friends.  He said that it was a wonderful tribute to Bethany's IT director with every seat in the church filled.  The song played at the end was Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World."  That was sad to hear, but all of the memories shared at the reception afterward were very nice.  Three different pastors spoke this morning, but the one that Cameron talked about most afterward revolved around the topic of forgiveness.  I was impressed by that and to hear that they had prayed for both families involved in the accident last week.  

Forgiveness is hard.  The students walking out of today's service were given the perfect example of how difficult it can be to give and how important it is to receive.  Heartache can easily turn to hatred.  Hatred can lead to bitterness and that's a terrible way to live.  Thankfully, today's service was about love and peace truly demonstrating this it is a wonderful world.

A Wonderful First Weekend of October

It was a wonderful first weekend of October for all of us made even better by the beautiful sunshine.  Doug was able to put the computer aside on Saturday to work in the yard.  He said that it was a nice break from his accounting duties.  He also enjoyed going to dinner at Goshen Brewing Company with Nick, Meg, Cameron and I, as well as watching football all afternoon with Cameron.  I also had a fun weekend going to Samuel's cross country match on Friday night, hanging out with Meg and Cameron all day yesterday, and having a bonfire with Doug on Sunday evening.  

Both Brett and Cal had a great start to the month of October.  Brett spent Friday night with Sean and Norman and then went to Andrew's for a bonfire Saturday night.  Cal started his weekend by going to the new horror movie "Smile" and then hung out with friends in Lincoln Park.  Meg thoroughly enjoyed her time at home, making the most of the two short days.  She spent Friday night with Nick's family, Saturday with all of us and then Sunday on the way home she caught up with Gabrielle and Joshua.

Even though tennis had ended, Cameron's first weekend of October was full of activity.  He also went to Samuel's conference match, cheering him on to a second place finish.  His time at Fashion Farm and going to dinner with our family was much appreciated.  He didn't even mind that all of his teams lost at football this weekend, as the most important team won when he beat Keegan at Fantasy Football.  Cameron ended the weekend at Alina's, taking a walk and watching one of their new favorite shows.  Busy, fun, beautiful are all words that I would use to describe this wonderful first weekend of October.   

50 Years of Fashion Farm

Last year Cameron took a great picture of himself and his sister "Lucy" at Fashion Farm on our annual trip.  Meg was bummed when he sent it to her that she wasn't be able to come home and join us.  She was glad, however, that he got a picture of her favorite Peanuts character while there.  She also decided that she would do everything possible to make it home this year as she knew it would be our last family trip to the local pumpkin farm.  As soon as she got her IU schedule this fall, she looked at the calendar and set the date for this weekend.  We reminded Cameron multiple times to keep this afternoon open and today after he returned from the SAT we headed to Ligonier.

We didn't realize that our last family trip was also Fashion Farm's 50th year celebration.  The pumpkins were decorated for the event with recreations of ones from the past five decades.  As in previous years, there were some good ones and some that were just ok.  We enjoyed them all just the same with Meg's favorite being Queen Elizabeth having tea with Betty White.  Cameron didn't have a favorite, but found the Fred Flintstone vehicle to be the best of the day.  

After walking through the pumpkins we headed to the grass maze.  This year, the grass was finally tall enough that I couldn't see Meg or Cameron as they walked through it.  They said it was more like a hike than a maze, but they still had fun.  We checked out the life size puzzle next and then took pictures with the "Queen and King" of pumpkin land.

It had been several years since we rode on the hay ride as it usually wasn't running when we went during the week.  This year we got the perfect seats on the hale bales and had a great time on the ride through their 26 acres.  It was definitely longer than we remembered and they had many different costumed pumpkins along the way.  Both of those made it a lot better than our rides of years ago.

Our last stop was to buy ice cream and donuts.  Meg and Cameron even picked up souvenir 50th anniversary shirts that they planned to wear the next time they were together in Bloomington.  Overall, it was a lot of fun and after Brett and I go on Tuesday I plan to post pictures of all of our annual trips over the years.  Cameron said to Meg and I while we were riding on the hay wagon, "The best part about this place is that it is so cheesy that you have to have fun."  We agreed with his take and also decided that we were ready to trade Fashion Farm in for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party next year.