20th High School Reunion Trip to Indiana

  I was raised in Indiana among the corn fields.  Indiana stays in your blood.  Coming from Tucson, I always amazed at how green and beautiful Indiana really is.  With much enthusiasm, I returned to Indiana last week to attend my 20th High School Reunion and to film a cooking segment about my first kid's cookbook, Cake Mix Cooking for Kids.  You can watch the FOX59 clip here.

  I flew from Tucson to Indianapolis on Thursday, August 4th.  I had to get up at 2:30 a.m. to catch my early morning flight.  I picked up all the supplies and ingredients I would need to film the next morning, then I headed over to my brother Barry's house.  That night he treated me to a fabulous pasta dinner with a To Die For Sauce made fresh with the vegetables from his own garden.  I also had my craving for Indiana Sweet Corn fulfilled as well.  My brother is an amazing cook!  Maybe it's in the genes.  :-)

  On Friday, I woke up at 2 a.m. Tucson time (5 a.m. Indiana time) to prep for my television appearance on FOX 59's morning news.  FOX 59's news station is pretty amazing.  I've been to stations around the country and was very impressed with their new state of the art facility.

   Barry and I went to lunch with Katherine before heading down to visit the LARGEST Children's Museum in the world.  I will be doing a write up on our visit on mysavvysavings.com soon.  I have been to several Children's Museums around the country, and Indianapolis definitely has the BIGGEST and BEST!

   On Friday night, we had a girls 20th pre-reunion dinner/party at Kristin Dunn's house outside of Lebanon.  I was there from 6-11:30 p.m., and no one was anxious to leave.  I had only seen Kristen Cheek in the last 20 years, so I was anxious to see and hear how everyone else was doing!  The girls who came were some of my closet friends in high school.  I was grateful for the extra time to visit with them, so that I could visit with everyone else at the reunion the next night.

Aunt Sherry and I at The Journey in Fishers, Indiana

  

   On Saturday, I finally had a chance to catch up on sleep.  Barry, Katherine, and I met up with my aunt Sherry for lunch.  My brother Barry treated me to his favorite restaurant, The Journey, in Fishers.  It was definitely worth the drive.  The food was amazing, and the company was even better!

  After lunch, I headed north to see how many things had changed since I had left Indiana.  I grew up outside Kirklin, so I drove around that area first.

 I went to look at the house where I lived from second grade until I left for college.  I was overcome with a flood of memories.  There were some good changes including the dirt road in front being changed to black top.

  I headed over to see my elementary and high school next.  Another wave of memories hits me.  Our school district was a tiny one.  Grades Kindergarten through Sixth were in one building while Grades Seven through Twelve were in an adjacent building.  Both schools together house less students that my son's current middle school.  From the school, I headed to visit my cousins, Gina McKinney Crenshaw and Brent McKinney.  We had a great visit.  Brent has been battling liver cancer, and I was especially happy to see him doing so well.

   Next I headed to the Green Lawn Cemetery.  I had to chuckle at the sign I saw there.  It said, "Buy One Space Get One Space Free."  In the fine print, it stated, "Advance Planning Only."  Even cemeteries are being affected by the slow economy.

   While at the cemetery, I visited the graves of my grandparents (pictured above), my great grandparents, my uncle Mike, and various other relatives.  They are not forgotten and are all missed.

  From there, I headed over to the church that I attended the entire time we lived in Indiana.  Being a Saturday afternoon, the church was empty, but I still felt the same sweet spirit that I felt there as a young girl.  I will be forever grateful for all the wonderful teachers and leaders who taught me, showed me how to follow the Savior by their own examples, and instilled in my heart a love and need for Jesus Christ in my life.  This is where I gained my testimony of the restoration of the gospel.

  On the way to my reunion, I passed this trailer stating, "Frankfort, Indiana:  Home of the Hot Dogs".  I remember telling people about their mascot at BYU, and no one believed me.  Here's the proof.  We used to chant at basketball games, "Eat 'em up, eat 'em up!  Raw!  Raw!  Raw!"  LOL.

   Our 20th class reunion was held at Pepe's in Frankfort.  It started at 7 p.m., and they were so gracious to let us stay far past closing (11:30 p.m.) to visit. 

  If my memory serves me well, we had 89 in our graduating class.  This picture shows all of us from the Class of 1991 who attended the reunion.  There were some who looked the same while there were some who looked completely different.  We came from all over the country and all over Indiana to reunite.

  One of the biggest surprises for most was seeing one of our teachers stop by the reunion.  Andy Robertson was one of my favorite teachers at Clinton Central.  He was my History Academic Team Coach, and I was his teacher's assistant my senior year.  It was great to see him after 20 years.

    I feel blessed to have grown up with such remarkable and wonderful people.  Kristen Cooper Cheek and Paul McKinney were such great friends to have in high school.  They and many of my other friends always supported me in my values which meant the world to me. 

  Lesley and Jessica were also great friends as well.

    Sunday morning after 2 1/2 hours of sleep, I woke at 12:30 a.m. AZ time (3:30 Indiana time) to get ready to catch my flight home to Tucson.  As I was driving to the airport, I was feeling a little sad that I hadn't been able to see any of my friends from church on my trip back to Indiana.  I have so many wonderful memories of girl's camp and church as well as my memories from school.  As I sat down to wait to board my plane, I glanced up and saw Jeni Hockema who had been one of my girl's camp leaders.  Then, I saw her younger sister, Megan, who had been one of my great friends.  We were all on the same flight to Houston.  It made my day and touched my heart that Heavenly Father assisted in that great reunion in the Indianapolis airport.  God is great!