Indiana Trip - Leg 1

The first leg of my Indiana trip took me to what I thought would be Indianapolis, but was instead Westfield or as others told me, Noblesville. I truly just said I was outside Indy and left it at that. My cousin Shad provided the limo from the airport and then left me at his brand new house alone to return to work. Silly man. By the time his wife and children arrived, I knew the house inside and out including everything in the drawers and closets.

I spent five nights with my family. It was a blast. This family just makes my heart melt. The three older kids watch out for that heart breaker above and there is very little snipping and sniping among them. Each one has a special personality and each one is unique in his and her own way. I love them so, so much, and am so grateful that I have gotten to know them and that they let me crash their vacations to tag along.

They have moved into a new house and decorating was on the list of things I helped with, although I mostly stood back and took photos so Jaimee could see whether or not she liked her own ideas. The above red piece is the side of a pew from a church. Jaimee is quite the creative little thing when it comes to odds and ends. I think while I was there she had 1,398 projects going on at the same time from quilting to painting and refurbishing furniture in the garage. One by one people were knocking on the door delivering appliances and furniture and consulting for various things that needed fixing or building or purchased to complete the home. It was organized chaos and so much fun to be a part of it all.

Except for the part where the front door fell on the two year old's head during the delivery of the refrigerator. The delivery men took off the front door without mentioning it to us and leaned it against the wall. Nolan, the two year old, wandered by it, noticed a door he had never seen in a place he goes by daily, and so he reached out to turn the knob to open the door and WHOA that door make a LOUD noise upon falling. Jaimee saw it happening, attempted to get to her child on time, screamed like a crazy woman, and then shook longer than Nolan cried. He had a cut lip, a knot on his head, and a mark under his eye, but within ten minutes had stopped crying and was eating the ice out of the bag that was suppose to be on his knotted head. The refrigerator guys missed it all, made some tsk tsk noises upon learning what happened, and left us with the new appliance that still couldn't be used for several hours.

Friday we drove two hours to a pizza joint where tons of my family came from all over to spend time with me. Shockingly, I spent the entire time talking and missed taking pictures. It wasn't long enough and I hoped to get back to the area on the second leg of the journey to spend more time with everyone. They are the greatest group of family members and I love them all to death.

Saturday Shad made breakfast that included eggs, sausage, and pancakes after buying groceries to fill the now available cold frig while letting us sleep in. Jaimee and I had stayed up the night before cleaning and organizing the basement in preparation for Lily's birthday celebration. I was entertained by watching my cousin work and by Nolan who very carefully worked hard at cutting his pancake with his right hand and used his left hand to pick up the piece to stuff into his mouth.

Later, we attended Carson's cross country meet where I got some exercise running from the starting point to point A to point B to point C to the finish line. I've never seen cross country in action so it was very cool. There were hundreds in Carson's division and he ran with turf toe which sends grown NFL players to the sidelines where they still collect their big paychecks. Carson gritted his teeth and ran. I'll admit I got a tad weeping as he ran past me at point A, B, C, and the finish line.

Lily's birthday celebration went off without a hitch and with tons of sugar. Grandma Kathy and her sister made handmade goodies with pounds of butter, chocolate, peanut butter, and brown and white sugars that raised all of our insulin levels, yet we kept eating. Jaimee, having just moved here, figured ordering cupcakes from a place that made cupcakes sounded like a good idea and it was. They were beautiful and cost an arm and a leg.

That night I showered in the upstairs bathroom with the curtain, window curtain not a shower curtain, that Jaimee insisted would work in the kids' shower/tub, although I argued against it. Because it was ten feet in length we had to put the rod practically to the cathedral ceiling and it was like showering in a castle. Except there was nothing inside the tub to hold in the water. Despite this being the third night of showering, this night the water ran out on to the floor and came out through the downstairs kitchen light. Jaimee and her family were sitting at the kitchen table when the light shower occurred and in the confusion and screaming Lily got blamed. A shower curtain was purchased the next night.

Jaimee had tickets to Home-A-Rama, an event that occurred in their brand new subdivision which meant that we could wander through five newly built and designed homes that we could never afford. We had a blast. We went after football Sunday so I was in my Steelers sweats and Jaimee was in her Sunday sweats and we stuck out like a sore thumb. We ignored the looks and acted posh and took tons of pictures of ideas we thought Jaimee could do in her own home.

Like put a bathtub inside the shower with a table for wine and chocolates

Like add a space suit and helmet to the space themed bedroom closet

Like decorate the toilet bowl with ribbons (although we figured out later that was so people wouldn't use it)

Like have a coffee pot in the bedroom

Three of the houses were plain weird, but fascinating. I was trying hard to get inside the minds of these builders and designers, but I couldn't figure out their plans. It wasn't until we came to the fifth house that I got excited. The house had a turret with a spiral staircase that could be seen from the street. The room was an office downstairs and had a small landing upstairs with bookcases. Since I don't like heights, I let others walk up the stairs to the landing where everyone would exclaim how bizarre it was, and I'd yell up that they should push on the bookcases for a hidden room. At some point in my roaming the house I ended up talking to the builder, took him back to the turret room and informed him he missed the boat by not having a hidden room upstairs. 

He took me up the stairs and showed me that he did. HE DID! It was so cool. No one could find it. It was on the end and the room was only big enough for a three people, but it was the coolest thing. I then hid inside the room and texted Jaimee to come back to the library, hoping to jump out and scare her since she hadn't found the hidden room when she went up the stairs. Instead I jumped out and scared a couple coming up the stairs in front of Jaimee and they about fell down. Thank god the builder loved us. He offered me a deal to build me a house in Florida, but I told him one in Indiana for the summer would work just as well. Unfortunately, this home had already been sold. I voted for his house to win the Home-A-Rama award.

The rest of the time was spent teaching card games to the children, cleaning cars and rooms, and going on various shopping sprees. Susan joined us on the last evening and we partied and talked long into the morning. It was a great first leg of the Indiana tour trip. Thanks to Jaimee and Shad and their brood for hosting me. Thanks for driving me to see my other family members who showed up to hug me and hear my hurricane stories. You guys all rock!