Three Days, Three Heinisch Visits

I stayed at Brett's last night, so Meg could study.  I had also spent a lot more time with Meg in December and January than Brett, so I hoped to catch up with him.  We had some great conversations and I listened to his thoughts on the next few months.  He was definitely excited about running for city council and for his hours to change in May.  

This morning I was able to finish both Meg and Brett's taxes with them.  There were a few differences from last year that threw a wrench into the works for awhile - Meg filing as a non-resident in Illinois and Brett's 401K transferring at work.  We figured them out, however, and both will receive a nice return from the federal government.

Meg had to work today so she did not join us at McAlister's for lunch.  Brett and I enjoyed our soups and brought some back for Meg.  I hung out with her while she ate and worked.  She filled me in on what was happening with her Bible study group, what she thought of her classes and where Nick was flying this week.  It was nice to have some time with her before I left.  

I wasn't really ready to head home, but Meg had plans to go to the basketball game tonight and Brett had a meeting with the Monroe County Republican Party where he would be introduced to the group.  Cameron was also ready for me to get back.  He had plans with Alina this evening, but would be around later in the evening.  I talked to both Meg and Brett later in the evening.  They had enjoyed their evenings with IU winning and Brett feeling success after his event.  I was very glad to hear that.  After three visits in the last three days, I realized that there was no better feeling than seeing your adult children navigate the "real world" and be happy in their own lives.  

Another Day, Another Trip

Doug flew to Fort Lauderdale this morning as he had a board meeting in Miami tomorrow morning.  He arrived early and planned on working for a few hours.  He did get to enjoy the warm weather in the evening when he walked to the outdoor mall for dinner.

So that I could have access to the Pilot while Doug was gone, I drove him to the airport this morning.  It was hard getting up at 4:30 a.m. but the payoff was that I got to spend the rest of the day and evening in Bloomington.  I first hung out with Brett as he got ready for work.  I then picked up Meg from her "History of the Blues" class.  I was impressed to hear that she had gotten a 48 out of 50 on the exam.  We celebrated with lunch at Social Cantina.  I had only been there one other time, but really enjoyed it.  We then stopped at Kroger and Target before she had to work.  I used that time to finish a project for Brett.  

I drove Meg to the Kelley School of Business this evening so that she could participate in an accounting research seminar.  While she was there and Brett was at work, I spent an hour on the computer trying to order John Mellencamp tickets for tonight's performance at the IU auditorium.  I could easily get two tickets in the balcony at a reasonable price, but it would not let me order a single ticket so that the three of us could see him in concert.  In fact the single ticket price was higher than two together.  By 7:45, we decided to give up.  All three of us were definitely interested in going, but not too disappointed that we weren't able to do so.  I had already seen him and we figured that we would get a chance to see him again another time.  

The rest of the evening was a nice one.  Brett and I watched Fantasy Island and ate KFC for dinner.  Meg made a fried egg sandwich and studied for awhile.  We went over to her place later in the night to hang out for awhile.   We had fun talking and watching "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown."  I really enjoyed my second day of visiting the Heinisch adult children.

A Wonderful Visit to the Windy City

Cal had wanted to come home last weekend, but couldn't work it out with his schedule.  He instead said that he would be here the weekend of February 25th.  That seemed a far way off, so Doug and I decided that we would plan a visit to Chicago to take him to lunch.  Cal was all for it and we decided to meet in "Old Town" today.  

Doug and I were out the door by 9:15 this morning.  The drive in was an easy one as there was very little traffic even for a Sunday.  There was also a parking spot right outside of his building.  Cal met us at the Pilot and suggested that we walk to  lunch at "The Old Pour House" on Wells Street.  It was only a few blocks from his apartment and we were there in no time.  The restaurant was very nice and we all found delicious food to try.  Doug and Cal ordered the tacos while I stuck with my current favorite - a Southwest Chicken Salad.

Although the food was very good, the best part of the meal was talking with Cal.  He told us his thoughts on the IU vs Purdue game yesterday and the group they had at his place to watch it.  He talked about some of the movies that he had watched recently and ones that he wanted to watch in the near future.  We all agreed that Robert De Niro was a better actor than Al Pacino and that we liked Forest Gump way more than those on the Rewatchables.  Cal also talked about taking a trip to Ireland with his friends in August.  We were very excited to hear about that.  Cal had never been out of the country and the Emerald Isle had been on top of his bucket list.  

After lunch, we took a walk through the south end of Lincoln Park.  There were so many others doing the same as the weather was just beautiful for early February.  Cal told us that he normally walked along the lake, but it was still a little too chilly for that.  We could see Lake Michigan from the park and it looked just gorgeous.  After several hours together we finally left for home.  I was sad to say goodbye, but extremely happy that we had had such a wonderful visit.  

Rushing the Court

Last night, Cameron traveled to Blackhawk Christian with the Bethany girls' basketball team for their first game of this year's sectionals.  Even though the Bruins had won the game in Goshen easily and were ranked #10 compared to the Blackhawk's #16, everyone knew this one would be challenging.  In the game several weeks ago, the Blackhawk's were missing their starting point guard, but not tonight.  They also had the home court advantage.  

We were all correct in our prediction that it would be a tough game.  Bethany found themselves down the entire second half.  With twenty-five seconds left, it looked as though the Bruins' season would be ending tonight.  They were behind by five and were having a difficult time scoring.  A banked in three for Bethany and a turn over for Blackhawk led to Bethany having a chance to tie it with 1.9 seconds left.  A perfectly executed inbound play tied the game with no time left on the clock.  Bethany hit the free throw moving them into the sectional finals.  Cameron said that the game was a lot of fun with everyone rushing the court afterward.

As much fun as Friday night's game was to watch, Saturday afternoon's was even better.  IU played Purdue at Assembly Hall and the hype was big.  Purdue was the #1 team in the nation and had been trash talking IU non-stop lately.  Cameron felt confident about the game.  Doug and I were not so sure.  IU came out on fire, leading Purdue in the first half by 16.  As much as we wanted to believe that they would be able to maintain that lead, we knew that the second half wouldn't be easy.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.  The Boilermakers came roaring back and with less than five minutes to go, they pulled within one.  All I kept thinking about was last night's game.  I was positive that the Hoosiers would fall to the same fate.  Thankfully, they stepped up their defense in the end, hit several key buckets and beat Purdue by five.  For the second time in twenty-four hours, we watched fans rush the court.  

The last game of the night was probably the most important, but the least competitive.  Fans didn't rush the court afterward, but did cheer when the Bethany girls' easily beat Lakewood Park Christian for the sectional championship.  It was fun to watch, but my favorite part was seeing Cameron on the screen behind the Bruins bench and to listen to him talk about cutting down the net after the game.  What a great weekend for basketball.

Finding a Realtor

Doug and I have absolutely no experience at buying or selling a home.  We sold our home in Lisle over twenty-five years ago when we bought this one.  We really didn't like the realtor in Illinois.  She met with us, told us a higher than average price that she could get for our house and then let us know immediately after we singed with her that we had listed it too high.  We have never wanted to be in that position again.  The only other experience we have had was when we tried to sell our home just after Meg was born.  The realtor then was just way too laid back for us.  Thankfully, it all worked out as we ended up staying here and adding on which we ended up liking a lot better than any new house that we had looked at previously.

With our limited experience in mind, Doug and I had talked a lot about how we would find a realtor.  We knew many people in town in the realty business, but none that we would want to work with for various reasons.  We asked one of our friends for a recommendation.  She had one that she liked right away, but Doug didn't think that person would be a good fit for us.  We didn't want to keep asking people, so we had to come up with a different plan.

I decided to look online for ideas on how to pick a realtor.  There were reviews for ones in our area, but nothing that really helped.  We had received a postcard in the mail from a local realty company that had sold homes in our neighborhood.  I looked at her website.  It was impressive, but we still weren't sure what to do.  That's when I came up with an idea.  I went on Zillow and changed the filter search to "homes sold in Syracuse in the last twelve months."  Sixty-five homes instantly showed up on the map.  

I first tried to just read through the selling agents to see if I could find a pattern.  There were just too many to do it that way.  I decided instead to make a spread sheet of each of the homes, their selling price and the listing agents.  I even colored coded the different realtors that sold two or more homes in Syracuse.  It was very easy to soon see a pattern.  The realtor who had sent us a postcard had sold seven homes in Syracuse out of the 65 I looked at on Zillow.  Her office had sold another 6 as well.  Thus, Doug called her first thing yesterday morning and set up a meeting with her for the end of February.  I was excited and nervous all together.  Hopefully, it all goes well and we will have found our realtor.  

Bittersweet

Every two years, the teachers at Bethany attend a Mennonite conference during the first Thursday and Friday of February.  During this time, Bethany students are given a winter holiday.  This year's break from school arrived at the perfect time as Cameron was ready for a couple of days away from school.  He and his friends made plans to watch movies and hang out.  They also decided to spend one day in Michigan at Bittersweet Ski Resort.  Doug and I were glad to hear this as it had been awhile since Cameron had gone skiing and the weather was perfect for it.

Yesterday, Cameron packed for his day trip.  Samuel had invited him to spend the night so that they could all leave from Goshen.  Cameron planned on driving since he could fit all eight of the group in his van.  They left this morning at 9 a.m. and we didn't hear much of anything from him until close to 6 p.m. when he left the ski resort.  They went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner before Cameron headed for home.  

Doug and I were up watching Groundhog's Day when Cameron arrived.  He was absolutely exhausted, but said that he had a lot of fun.  He told us the details of what happened including the time he fell down and when the group lost JJ for a short time period.  They enjoyed lunch in the resort and skied for almost seven hours.  His shins were killing him from the stiff boots, but overall it was a great experience and a wonderful way to start his four day weekend.  

IU Housing Application Completed

Cameron left school at 3 p.m. today.  The IU housing application went live at 4 p.m. and we both wanted to make sure that he was home in plenty of time to fill out the information as early as possible.  He had already completed the FERPA requests, the contact information and the medical forms earlier in the week. Therefore, he would be ready to fill out his room requests as soon as the application became available.  From previous experience, our family knew that the earlier he filled out the forms, the more likely he would be to receive his requests.

The application was very straight forward.  Since Cameron had been invited to be a part of the Hutton Honors College, he could request to live on the honors floors.  There were three dorms for him to choose from - Teter, Forest or Briscoe.  From talking to Meg, Cameron knew that he would prefer Teter if possible.  It was centrally located and according to Maddie, the floor would have residents of like interests with Cameron.  He put down that area as his first choice.  He wasn't interest in Briscoe as it was pretty far away from campus.  Thus, he decided to put down Forest next.  The last thing he requested was a double room.  He said that he would be fine if he didn't have a roommate, but was hoping to have one.  He then had to sign a good behavior statement and pay $200 as a deposit.  By 4:30, he was finished with his application.  We were both happy that it had gone so well.  

Now all Cameron had to do was to officially enroll in the university of his choosing.  Since Wisconsin and Michigan had deferred his application to April and he had no interest in going to Purdue, the only thing left was to hear from Florida.  Their admission acceptances were at the end of February, so he should know pretty soon.  This definitely is an exciting time in Cameron's life.