Happy Halloween

Cam left this morning dressed as a hamburger.  The SGA at Bethany had decided to have a Halloween costume contest today and he was more than willing to participate.  He was definitely not the only one either as the majority of students walking out of school at the end of the day had gotten into the holiday spirit.  One group took it a little further than I would have suggested by spraying silly string all over several cars in the parking lot.  I was thankful to have missed that activity as I wasn't sure how to get it off of the paint.  Cam got in the car and announced that Sam was one of the contest winners for the Freshmen class.  We both laughed at that as Samuel had worn Meg's hot dog costume.  Cam played Madden when he got home and I walked around the house.  With the miserable weather I didn't want to walk outside.  Even with my altered path I had close to 8000 steps by the time we left for Goshen.  

Avery had invited several friends over to trick or treat with him this evening.  It was snowing when we left, but that didn't deter their group.  Cam did take an umbrella, hat and gloves to help combat the cold.  While he was getting candy in the Black Squirrel neighborhood, Doug and I watched Halloween.  It had always been Doug's favorite horror movie and was still just as scary as when he first watched it thirty years ago.  We did take a break for him to pick up Cam at 8:45.  He had had a great time and came home with a full basket of candy.  I was glad that the weather didn't ruin their evening and thankful that he changed into dry clothes once they were done.  Doug and I did get to finish the movie when he got back.  I was glad as I believe that we have watched it every Halloween night since we were first married.  We also got a lot done on our puzzle as well making it a fun night for all.  

Scream

These past three days I talked Cam into watching all of my favorite animated Halloween specials plus the Heinisch children's favorite Disney thriller, Something Wicked This Way Comes.  I appreciated that he agreed as it was a lot more fun than viewing them by myself.  After last night's Charlie Brown and the Headless Horseman, we chose Toy Story Tower of Terror this evening.  It was a lot shorter than either of us remembered, but still just as funny especially the vintage commercials and the porcupine's commentary on scary movies.

Once Toy Story was over Cam decided to take a break from Halloween specials and movies.  Doug offered to continue the Halloween theme by watching Scream with me and working on the Great Pumpkin puzzle.  Scream has become one of our favorite horror movies.  In saying that, however, the genre has become harder and harder for us to watch.  Therefore, working on the puzzle makes viewing gory movies a lot easier.  In the end I was glad that we watched it.  The movie makes light of slasher films providing humor during some extremely intense scenes.  The bonus was that we finished quite a bit of the puzzle by the end of it as well.  

Pumpkin Carving

Several weeks ago I asked Cam if he would go to Fashion Farm with me this fall.  He agreed and once we got there he asked me if we were even going to carve pumpkins this year.  I knew that he probably wouldn't do it if he was the only one participating.  It had been years since I had actually carved one, but decided that it was a Heinisch tradition that I wasn't ready to see end.  Thus, tonight we turned on "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and got started.

It was a lot harder to cut the hole at the top than I remembered.  I don't have a lot of wrist strength and I assumed that I'd have to have Doug help me, but once I got into the sawing rhythm that Cameron suggested I found success.  I've never been a fan of scooping out the guts, but that was a lot easier  than I remembered.  Doug came in from raking leaves in time to help finish out the insides of both Cam and mine.  We decided to make traditional Jack O'Lanterns this year and were both pleased with the results.  By the time Ichabod Crane lost his head in Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow we had two pumpkins ready for trick or treaters and had a lot of fun along the way.

 

Two Rooms for One

For the past year or so I have wanted to paint and reorganize Cam's sanctuary.  I had suggested several times that he move into the second bedroom so that he would have more room, but he was never interested.  He liked the room that he had had for the past seven years and I decided to come up with a different plan.  I would move the majority of Cam's keepsakes, books and furniture into the second bedroom and leave his bed, dresser, television, clothes and most prized possessions in his smaller room.  Cam agreed to this idea with the thought that I would get everything organized by the weekend of November 9th so that Doug could easily paint it.

Since it was a rare weekend at home for us and the forecast was miserable, I asked Doug if we could move up our plan and work on Cam's bedroom while watching football.  He thought it was a good idea and Friday night we let Cam pick out the colors for his new room.  I was not surprised with his choice of orange and blue, but others probably were.  Those have been his two favorite colors for as long as I could remember.

Doug started Saturday morning and quickly got the first coat on the orange walls.  It actually looked better than I thought it would.  We had tried the color in the downstairs bathroom last fall and didn't like it there, but it was the perfect fit for Cameron.  The blue took a lot more work as it did not cover as well.  Doug wasn't able to finish it until Sunday.

While Doug painted, I worked on reorganizing Cam's possessions.  He helped sort through what he wanted and what he wanted to purge.  He had a lot of keepsake items from his siblings and his grandparents.  It was fun looking though everything and finally having room to display and store it all.  By the end we did have two boxes for a garage sale and one large bag of trash to take out of the rooms.

We didn't quite finish everything over the weekend, but I was able to get both rooms back in order today, paint the trees and take him chair shopping.  It took longer than we thought it would, but we finally found the perfect hammock chair to finish our redecorating project.  It was more work than I thought it would be, but definitely worth it in the end.  Both rooms looked fantastic and gave Cam the space he needed.

Hoosier Awakening

Meg spent her weekend with fellow IU Catholic students on a retreat at St. Charles church in Bloomington.  She didn't have her phone so I wasn't able to ask her about it until this evening.  When she finally called I was thrilled to hear that she absolutely loved it.  She met a lot of other Hoosier Catholic students and thoroughly enjoyed all of the activities.  She loved the letter of support that her family members sent to her as well as those from other Hoosier Catholic students that were praying for her on this retreat.  Meg said that she had never experienced Adoration in such a wonderful way and felt renewed in her Catholic Faith.  Doug and I both were extremely happy that she chose to attend this experience and look forward to hearing about more of her adventures with the Hoosier Catholic organization.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Doug and Cam had made plans to go to the Illinois vs. Purdue football game today.  Unfortunately, the weather changed their minds.  The forecast called for temperatures in the forties and over an inch of rain.  They definitely made the right call as the clouds opened up right at kickoff.  Neither one of them really minded as there were some great games on television today and they were able to catch all of them.  Cal had the same idea as he texted me that he wasn't moving off of the couch all day.

It ended up being a great weekend for the Heinisch football crowd as everyone of their teams won.  Illinois beat Purdue soundly, IU bested Nebraska by a touchdown and Michigan embarrassed Notre Dame.  Cam couldn't stop talking about how excited he was that IU was now bowl eligible by winning their sixth game so early in the season.  He also enjoyed calling Grandma every time Michigan found the end zone making sure that Grandpa knew the score.  Doug asked me at the end of the day if I ever thought that I would watch as much football as I have this season.  The answer to that was an obvious, no.  Even though I have never been a fan of the sport or planned to spend my Saturdays at Memorial stadium, I have enjoyed listing to Cameron's enthusiasm for it.  It has been even more fun now that the Hoosiers have been doing so well.

Short But Productive

I didn't have a lot of time in Bloomington these past two days, but I did pack in a lot.  I was busy yesterday from the time Meg and I left for the orthodontist until I picked Brett up from work late last night.  With all of the activity I had no problem falling asleep last night.

Brett had to work this morning, but was home by the time I left for a walk.  I appreciated his company as we walked through his neighborhood.  Our conversation revolved a lot of different topics, but the dominant theme was Disney.  Once I got ready we had time to go to breakfast before his interview with the IU athletic department.  We talked about prospective interview questions as we enjoyed the Village Deli special.  We finished with enough time for Brett to walk to the comic book store before heading to Memorial Stadium.  He called while I was on my way to Bethany to let me know that the meeting went well and he felt positive that he would get a callback for a second interview.  That was great to hear.  He's been a lot more comfortable going into interviews lately as he has had a lot of experience with them and knows that he has two jobs that he already enjoys.

My drive home was an easy one and I made it to Bethany right at dismissal time.  I was definitely glad to be out of the Pilot.  I had sat more than enough these past two days and was ready for a break.  We took it easy tonight.  Doug and I went to dinner and then invited my parents up to play cards.  Cam joined us for Trumpet, but sat out of Oh Hell.  It was nice to have some down time after such a busy couple of days.