Valentine's Day - A Change in Attitude

After feeling sorry for myself for being alone on Super Bowl Sunday, I vowed to make the best out of Valentine's Day without Doug.  It had been years since we had gone out on the holiday, but there was usually a nice dinner at home, a favorite movie and flowers when we were together.  I knew that wouldn't be the case this year with him in Florida, so I made up my mind to enjoy the day no matter what happened.  

First thing this morning, I called Doug to wish him a Happy Valentine's Day.  He was already at work, but still appreciated the phone call.  I then gave Cameron his Valentine's gift.  He was thrilled with the Eminem vinyl that I gave him and his gift form Grandma as well.  Once Cameron left for school, I texted Meg, Brett and Cal to wish them a Happy Valentine's and to tell them to enjoy the day with the extra cash that I put in their checking accounts.  

I spent the rest of the morning in Goshen grocery shopping.  Cameron and Alina planned to make dinner together at our home tonight and needed a few ingredients for their sandwich and soup meal.  I also wanted to stop at Menards for some bird food.  While there I found the cutest holiday gnomes.  As they were on sale, I decided to add them to my limited Valentine and St. Patrick's Day decorations.  I texted Doug a picture of them to let him know that I bought my Valentine's gift from him.  He just laughed.

My parents invited me to dinner tonight to celebrate the holiday.  We decided to go early to avoid the Valentine crowd.  I was in the mood for a taco salad and so was my mom.  Thus, Los Toritos was the place for us.  The food was nice and I enjoyed the company.  Cameron got home just as I arrived.  He had played golf with Noah and Keegan after school.  They had spent a lot of their time trash talking one another, but overall had a good time.  Alina came over a little later.  They had a lot of fun making dinner together.  While they were busy in the kitchen, I started work on Cameron's t-shirt blanket and talked to Doug a few times.  It was definitely a different Valentine's Day from the last 30+ ones that I have spent with him, but overall it was still very nice.  

Happy 28th Birthday, Brett!

Today was Brett's 28th birthday.  I texted him at midnight to wish him a great day, hoping to be the first one to say it.  I then called Brett before he left for work to see how he felt about being 28.  We both realized that it wasn't he who felt old, but me, as I now had a child that was more than half my age.  As we talked, I thought back to other birthdays and even the day Brett was born.  Those days all seemed so long ago.  I loved having him at home, but I think Brett being an adult suits him well and a lot of my favorite memories of him revolve around the last decade.  

I called Brett later in the evening to see how his day had gone.  He said that at first it didn't feel like his birthday, but that changed once he got to work and everyone wished him a happy day.  He also enjoyed all of the birthday posts that he received on social media.  Tonight Carson and Meg stopped by to drop off gifts and to wish him a Happy Birthday as well.  Brett enjoyed opening the present from Grandma and Grandpa (which Carson took credit for) that included the karaoke machine from his childhood days.  He remembered how much fun everyone had with it and was looking forward to using it in the future.  Meg gave him her gift as well - a Sam the Eagle sipper from Epcot.  Brett absolutely loved it as that has always been the Muppet that he has identified with the most.  The best part for Brett was that once the celebration was over tonight, he could still look forward to our trip to Bloomington on Thursday complete with more presents and dessert.  He said that it felt more like a birthday week instead of just a day.  I was pleased that he was so happy.  That was what was most important to me on his 28th trip around the sun.  

Super Bowl Party for One

For the first time in over thirty years I spent Super Bowl Sunday alone.  Doug was in Florida with his brother where they enjoyed some of his homemade beer and Doug's shredded potatoes.  Brett forgo the game all together, instead watching a movie with a friend.  Cal hung out with his roommates watching the game at their apartment.  Meg went to a party at Carson's and Cameron spent the evening at Samuel's with his group of friends.  Thus, it was very quiet here. 

I know that I could have watched the game with my parents, but I really wanted to work on Cameron's school book while the game was on and that was easier to do here.  Doug and Meg both called a couple of times and there were several comments on the group text, but overall it was a very boring evening.  Except for a few, the commercials really weren't that entertaining either.  The game was close, but it felt like both teams scored each time either touched the ball.  I also wasn't that vested into who won as  I was ok with either team winning.  There was a fumble recovery that led to a Chiefs touchdown, but other than that there wasn't much excitement.  The last drive of the game ended with a questionable flag thrown on the Eagles giving Kansas City a short distance to an easy field goal.  It made the close game extremely disappointing.  Hopefully, next year will be different and I won't spend the Super Bowl alone eating Cream of Wheat.  

Two Great Wins

This Saturday brought some great basketball once again.  First, up was the Regional Championship game for the Bethany girls' basketball team.  Cameron left early this morning for the team breakfast and then rode the bus to Caston High School.  I drove Grandma and Grandpa the hour plus trip to the game.  Even with the long drive, we were very happy that we decided to go.  The game was intense and hard fought.  The stands were filled with loud crowds and a lot of cheering students.  The defense was tough on both sides and the game was close throughout.  Bethany eventually pulled ahead and won by eight.   It was Bethany's first ever Regional win for the girls' basketball team and a lot of fun to watch Cameron cut down a piece of the net.  

We made it home in plenty of time for the second game on our watch list today.  IU played Michigan in Ann Arbor this evening and just like this afternoon, it was intense, hard fought, and close from start to finish.  The one big difference was that Michigan led for 80% of the game.  IU took advantage of their opponent's shooting dry spell in the last five minutes of the game to pull ahead and eventually win 62-61.  It was an exciting game for Hoosier fans.  It put IU in second place all alone in the Big Ten Conference.  It also brought a lot of attention from the sports media as they had now won eight of their last nine games.  There was even talk of them being a Final Four contender.  Whether that happens or not, we're just all excited with how well they have played during the last six weeks.  

Pilot Boy

We have known Nick for over four years now.  We have watched him graduate from high school and college.  He has spent countless hours at our house hanging out with our family.  We know that he likes ridges on his pasta noodles and loves to play board games.  He's traveled several places with us including both Bloomington and Florida.  Recently, he spent all of Christmas break with us as his family had Covid.  Needless to say, he's definitely become a part of the Heinisch family.

One important part of Nick's life that we spent a lot of time talking with him about this fall was job hunting.  Although, we had helped Brett, Cal and Meg with their career search, we knew absolutely nothing about how to get a job as a pilot.  Thankfully, Nick figured that out pretty quickly as he had a network of pilots to talk to at Purdue.  Instead of helping with the search, we focused on just being supportive of his efforts instead.  I would listen to his or Meg's ideas on where and what he wanted to do.  Doug helped him with his resume and ultimately read the contract before he signed for his current position.

In all of the time that we have spent with Nick, I never really thought about the fact that he would be a pilot one day.  Even when he was texting us from the Indianapolis airport while we were circling the runway, letting us know why we were delayed in landing, it just didn't dawn on me that one day he would be in the air, getting ready for take off and assessing the plane for any maintenance issues.  

That changed this week.  As I was listening to Meg talk about all of the places that Nick would be visiting over the next ten days, I noticed a picture on my camera roll.  It was him in his pilot uniform, all smiles in the mirror.  That was when I finally realized, "Wow, Nick really is a pilot."  At that moment, I was so incredibly proud of how hard he worked to make his dream come true.  The next day a new picture on my camera roll showed up.  It was still Nick in uniform, but this time making a goofy face that I was more used to seeing.  I texted Meg immediately and said, "Now, that's the Nick I know."

Drain Weasel

I have struggled with my shower drain for quite some time.  We tried Drano in it, which always helped, but within a few days I would be standing in a few inches of water once again while showering.  Doug and I even talked about putting our slow draining shower on the plumber to-do list when we called him this spring.  

Our plans changed drastically yesterday morning when I realized that I was standing in water well over my ankles that took over an hour to drain once I turned off the shower.  I knew then that Drano probably wasn't going to solve that problem.  I called my Dad to see what he thought.  He had a plumber's snake, but we would have to figure out how to take off the stopper on the drain to use it.  I really didn't want to do that if I could avoid it.

As I had to run to Walmart yesterday for groceries, I decided to stop by Menards to see if they sold anything that might be able to help.  I was actually surprised by how many products there were for this exact problem.  I read the back of each tool, looked over all of them, and finally picked one that I thought might work.  The name didn't sell me on my choice, but I did get a kick out of it and quickly purchased the "Drain Weasel."  

I showed Cameron my $5.99 prize.  He looked at me right before he left for Goshen and said, "Don't get your hopes up, Mom.  Remember the Christmas light repair gun that never even fixed one bulb?"  I realized that he was right about that disaster, but remained hopeful as most of my other DIY home repairs had actually worked.  Cameron hadn't even made it to New Paris when I called to tell him that I had found success.  The Drain Weasel worked perfectly.  It was disgusting to clean out the drain, but water flowed down it easily afterward.  The main culprit was hair, but I even pulled out a bandaid from when we got our original Covid shots that didn't help the situation.  

I was so excited with my success, that I tried the second Drain Weasel wand on one of my bathroom sinks.  I remembered that I had barely used it lately as it took forever to drain.  A couple quick turns of the handle and instantly the drain was clear.  I called my Dad to offer my plumbing services.  When he saw the number, he was more afraid that I got my hand stuck in the drain.  Thankfully, I didn't need to take the stopper off to use the tool, so there was no concern about that.  I let Doug know about my newfound product as well.  He was so happy that I saved him a plumber's bill that he agreed to try it on Meg's shower upstairs.  After seeing all of the hair in my two drains, I was ok letting him do the next couple.  Later in the evening I realized that the 1970s song "Dream Weaver" was stuck in my head.  I had inadvertently changed the lyrics to "Drain Weasel", however.  Guess it was a sign of a successful purchase.  

 

Future Travels

While Doug and I were driving back from Chicago on Sunday, we began to talk about our vision of the future.  Neither one of us had really planned much past the year 2023 as we had been focused on helping Cameron get started on his life outside of the Heinisch home.  Once we accomplished that, we knew that we both wanted to move out of Syracuse, preferably to warmer weather.  Living in a small town had worked well while we were raising our children, but we wanted access to a larger variety of restaurants and more activities than Syracuse had to offer.  Once we realized that Ocala would provide both and still give Doug a place to work, we became most interested in moving there.

One thing that we hadn't discussed in years was where we would travel once we were empty nesters.  During the last thirty years, we had taken some wonderful trips alone and with our children.  During that time we had thrown out ideas of other places that we might visit one day - Ireland, Mount Rushmore and Key West were high on the list.  We also talked about revisiting some of our favorites vacation spots including Vermont and California.  

The more we discussed our future travels on Sunday, the more we realized that our thoughts had changed drastically over the past year.  What became most important to us was traveling to see our children.  Trips to Chicago and Bloomington with a few day trips in Florida sounded great to both of us.  We were absolutely thrilled that Cal had booked a trip to Ireland with his friends and that both Meg and Brett had talked about visiting the Vatican in the near future.  We would love to hear all about their vacations and to see the pictures that they took, no matter where they went.  For us, however, we would be content just visiting them.  Maybe that will change one day, but for now, I was definitely happy that we were on the same page about our future travels.