An Active Day in Central Florida

 It was a fun day in Ocala filled with a lot of activities.  I started my morning early dropping Doug off at Winco.  While he was busy working, I checked out the Paddock Mall.  I had been hesitant to try it, but was very happy that I did.  Our experiences with indoor malls hadn’t been that great lately.  Bloomington’s Mall had lost at least a third of its stores recently and the University Park Mall has had multiple shootings this year making it an unsafe environment.  The Paddock Mall was completely different as every store was open and the majority of shoppers were senior citizens.  I didn’t buy a lot, but had fun walking around.  I did find a new store called Belk’s, which was a Florida version of Kohl’s.  I really liked it and found a great deal on a new sweatshirt.

I picked Doug up for lunch after my shopping trip.  We ate lunch at McAllister’s once again and enjoyed it just as much as yesterday.  While he was at Winco for the afternoon, I decided to head back to Silver Springs State Park.  I wanted to get my steps in and see if the Manatees were in the river yet.  I didn’t see any, but overheard from a few others that they were definitely around the kayakers and could be seen from the glass bottom boats.  I talked to Cameron later and we agreed that we will have to come back this winter and kayak out to see them.

This evening Doug and I went to the World Equestrian Center for their Christmas celebration.  It was incredibly impressive with Christmas decorations everywhere, a lot of activities for children, and multiple places to get something to eat and drink.  We really enjoyed it.  It was still early when we left, so we decided to stop by the Crazy Cucumber for a drink on their outside patio.  I was a little skeptical at first as they had a guitar playing musician for the entertainment.  He was actually very good and it was a lot of fun.

Back in Florida

For the third time in six weeks, Doug and I flew to Florida again last night.  He had to work in Ocala for the next few days.  He had asked me to go with him as he had also some exploring that he wanted me to do.  I would miss Cameron while we were gone, but since he had plans almost everyday this week, I thought it was a good time to go.  Our flight went well yesterday afternoon, in fact, it was the easiest, quickest flight we had been on this year.  Since we were already in Orlando, Doug picked Rock N Brews for dinner.  It was extremely close to the airport and we both had liked it in the past.  The pizza was just as good as we remembered, but the best part was the atmosphere.  The MTV videos on the large screen were fun to listen to and brought back a lot of memories from our college days.  

We arrived close to ten last night to our hotel, stopping at the Wawa first to pick up a few snacks.  This morning we spent a couple of hours working on a few things in Ocala.  After an early lunch at McAllister's, Doug headed to Winco for the rest of the day.  I spent my time walking at Sholom Park, shopping at Bell's and resting at the hotel.  Before I picked Doug back up at work, I had time to check out the outdoor shopping plazas in Ocala.  My trip led me to Marshall's and Barnes & Noble.

Doug wanted to eat downtown tonight and I wanted to see the lights on the square.  We were both happy with our choice.  He enjoyed trying the The Hammock Brewery and the lights were just as wonderful as we had heard.  We were back in the hotel early tonight as we were both pretty tired.  It was a busy day in Ocala, but a fun one.  

Watching Our Children in the Dating World

There's a lot of things that I love about being a parent to adult children.  Watching them in the dating world just hasn't been one of them.  I think that dating is a tough time in anyone's life.  Experiencing it through your adult children's eyes seems even more difficult than going through it yourself.  I try very hard to stay out of the Heinisch children's relationships unless they ask for advice.  In addition, I try not to get too excited about anyone that they date as I never know how long the relationship will last.  I also never say anything negative about their boyfriend or girlfriend even if they break up.  Experience has taught me that you just never know when someone will reunite with an ex.  I'd hate to have said something wrong and have it come back to haunt me later.  

Right now it's extremely easy to be supportive of Meg's love life.  She's been dating Nick for almost three years.  He's at our home a lot when they're home.  We're used to having him around and they seem to get along very well.  It has been different for Brett, Cal and Cameron lately as none of the three have dated anyone seriously since last summer.  Cal has been single since August, which was a new reality for all of us.  He and Hannah-Marie had been together since his senior year in high school and we had been used to their relationship.  He has met several girls this fall but hasn't completely jumped back into the dating scene yet.  I misspoke one time about using the Tinder app and decided after that to just keep my mouth shut.  I know he'll find a relationship when he's ready.  

After Brett's relationship with Rachael ended, he decided to take a break from dating for awhile.  Recently, he's tried a new online dating app where he's found some success.  The whole concept of online dating was extremely strange to Doug and I at first.  Now, we are used to couples meeting that way as the websites have become more popular.  As Brett navigates his way through these encounters, it reminds of just how hard starting a new relationship can be.  The insecurities it can cause can be a little overwhelming no matter how confident you may be.  Cameron has had his ups and downs in the high school dating scene as well.  I always thought that high school relationships were the worst as they tend to burn out very quickly.  In a school as small as Bethany, I think that it may be even harder as friend groups can change drastically due to a bad break up or a serious relationship.

Overall, we've done our best to be supportive of our children's dating life without being intrusive.  Doug always told the Heinisch children that waiting until they are 25 to date was the best advice that he could give them.  Guess he must have overlooked the fact that he was married at 22.  

Checking Tasks Off - One By One

Today was an extremely busy day for me both inside and out of the home.  I spent the majority of the morning helping Doug with a project that included conference calls and research on the computer.  Fortunately, I could be home to work on that, so I catch up on laundry as well.  I did also find some time to squeeze in a Body Project workout before leaving the house.

I spent this afternoon in Goshen running errands.  My first stop was Dr. Freeze's office for my second shingles vaccine.  It took a little longer than I planned, but now I should be done with immunizations for awhile.  Next, I went grocery shopping at Walmart.  It was quicker than normal as I didn't need a lot, mostly snacks and food for Cameron.  The last stop was the most frustrating.  I had to pick up a package at Kohl's.  Their curbside pickup was closed and there was a long line inside.  It took twenty minutes, but at least I got what I needed.  County Road 29 was closed, so I had to take a longer route than normal.  Thankfully, I still made it home before Cameron and in time to get my boarding pass for tomorrow's trip.

Tonight wasn't quite as busy as today.  I unloaded the groceries, finished the laundry and packed for our time in Florida.  Cameron was busy helping Jacob Leininger with a project, but was able to be home for the second half of the IU vs. Syracuse game.  The Hoosiers looked good and it was a fun way to spend the rest of our evening.

Back in Bloomington, Reluctantly

Meg left yesterday afternoon for Bloomington.  She really did not want to leave.  She had had a lot of fun over Thanksgiving break and was dreading the next three weeks.  She would have a lot of work to do for her upcoming finals and she just wasn't ready for that to start.  We could completely sympathize with her, but knew the best thing that she could do was to take it day by day.  

Thus, the first goal was to get to Bloomington.  The trip went pretty well for her until she got to Martinsville.  She waited over twenty minutes in stopped traffic there, but otherwise did alright.  Brett helped her unload her car and she even had time to finish her new series on Peacock + before heading to bed.  Meg's next goal was to meet with the IU Health center about the residual effects of her sinus infection.  She took care of that Monday morning and still made it to class on time.  She felt good about that and even had a successful day at work.  By the time I talked to her tonight, she felt a lot better about the semester.  She had received several grades back that she was worried about that turned out higher than she expected.  She had a plan to deal with the stress of finals and was looking forward to finishing the semester.  I was glad to hear that.  

College Football

One thing that made Christmas decorating yesterday a little more fun was watching college football with Cameron and Doug while we were doing it.  Rivalry weekend has always been one of our favorite times and yesterday's games were really exciting.  We watched Michigan shock Ohio State with an upset, followed by a disappointing quadruple overtime win by Alabama over Auburn.  Cameron then kept us up- to-date on the score of the Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State game.  It was also a close one with OK St. holding on to win in the end.  Those along with a close Florida vs. Florida State game made for an exciting day of football.  The only game that wasn't fun to watch was the IU vs. Purdue game.  The Hoosiers looked terrible once again and were completely blown off the field.  For the first time in years, we really didn't care that much about the Old Oaken Bucket game.  All of the other ones made up for it.  Cameron said it was his favorite day of college football all year.  We were glad to hear that as Doug and I both thoroughly enjoyed watching it with him.

Christmas Decorating

Yesterday, Doug pulled all of the Christmas out of the storage room.  When I first saw the eleven tubs, the entire set of North Pole Villages, the three boxes of light up Christmas animals and the Christmas tree, I almost cried.  I love our Christmas decorations and traditions, but the reality definitely became apparent to me this year that we have too much.  Doug was already on that page, but now that we have talked more of moving and downsizing, we have to start the process now.

I felt a lot better about the Christmas after today.  Doug was able to hang up all of the outside decorations, put up the Christmas tree, fix the non-working strings of lights and set out the North Pole Village by this afternoon.  With all that he got done, I was able to focus on the tubs and decorate the tree.  Once I finished going through all of the ornaments and unpacking everything in the tubs, Meg was able to look through it all and decide what she wanted to take to Bloomington with her.  She ended up with two tubs to add to her collection. Next, I FaceTimed Brett so that he could also look through all that I was ready to part with this Christmas.  He ended up with a tub full as well.  

Cal left for Chicago at noon today.   He let me know before he headed out that he really didn't need any Christmas decorations.  I wasn't too shocked by that.  The last person to go through the "goodbye" pile was Cameron.  I wasn't sure how much he would want to keep as he usually holds on to more than the other three.  I was actually surprised by how much he parted with this time.  Meg and Brett were both relieved, however, that he said he wanted to keep the "Saxophone Playing Santa."  We had had it for years and they didn't want to insist that I keep it, but were glad that he did.  Doug did not share their sentiment, but overall was thrilled to find out that in the end we had downsized at least five tubs of Christmas decorations.  I was happy about that and was also pleased that I found the missing piece to Grandma Guard's vintage toy stove top.  I had lost it several years ago and found it tonight in the bottom of the last Christmas tub that I cleaned out.  Overall, it was a great day.  We got a lot accomplished, decorated the house, downsized quite a bit and even had some decorations for Grandma Jane to use at the cemetery.