Vacationing is tiring!  The itinerary is packed with cross-state activities that require stints on the tour bus to get there.  Dave says sitting on the bus, and in my case getting bursts of energy primarily through sugar, wears you out.

The good thing, we don’t have two little ones dictating when we wind down or wake up.  But our tight travel schedule keeps us moving.  Many of the people with us are veterans at this.  Dave and I struggle to keep up!  Sadly, we’re among the youngest in the group and often the slowest. 

Marvin and Maxine from Cedar Falls

Today we took a Lake Champlain boat cruise, toured the Vermont State House and checked out a maple syrup farm.

Aboard the Ethan Allen III

Norm and Mimi from Cedar Falls

Donuts and pickles dipped in pure maple syrup, yum!

As I type, Dave is waiting for me to join him and the others at a wine and cheese reception in the resort we’re staying in tonight that sits on Lake Morey in New Hampshire.  Meanwhile my parents have trucked the kids and all their stuff back to Iowa to get them in to somewhat of a normal routine. 

When are you coming home?

Why don't you do crafts like Nana?

Charlotte was surprised upon returning that we weren’t there.  My mom explained we’ll be back in 4 days.  “That’s a long time,” she replied.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

All this eating and riding around in a bus are making me tired!  Of course I am out-of-control with my food consumption, typical for me when I’m in vacation-mode.  After a big meal, it’s like when can I get my next snack?  Vermont is the home of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, so I made sure to find some Cherry Garcia today.  The Shelburne Museum was our first stop.  Here’s Dave at one of the exhibits: 

Dave in an 1890 jail cell.

This afternoon we went to the Morgan Horse Farm in Middlebury, Vermont.  Sadly, I am so allergic to horses I had to use a zoom lens to capture this shot:

3-year-old Morgan horse

The Iowans with us continue to open up to me like old friends.  Perhaps because they watch me do the news, they are comfortable talking with me about personal matters.  You can learn so much over lunch in a museum cafe.  Or waiting for your ride outside a teddy bear factory:

Love you beary much!

Of course after hearing about Dave’s ordeal, the joke on the tour bus is DON’T eat chicken strips.  Dave has switched to turkey. 

Wilma and Joan from Washington

Joyce and Doris from Traer

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

Richard and Esther from Brooklyn, IA

I knew my 9-day trip with Dave and 43 viewers would be entertaining.  I had no idea 24-hours in things would get so personal and I would come to understand a lot about love and loss.  Many of the women, and some of the men, joining us are too wise and world-weary to beat around the bush.  They tell it like it is where their life experience is concerned.  And I’m listening.  One woman has been widowed twice.  Both times a heart attack killed her husband.  Another lost her spouse 17 years ago.  She has no interest in taking up with another man, despite attempts from others to set her up.  I was told some widows comb the obituaries for potential mates, give it some time and make their move.  Apparently this approach has resulted in two eastern Iowa marriages.  Other widows are said to keep a casserole in the freezer should a gentleman caller come available and need a reason to stick around.  Based on the number of widowed women who lived in my first apartment complex when I moved to Iowa, I get why there is a shortage of single, mature males.  I have so enjoyed picking the brains of my fellow travelers that by the end of the week I could probably write a book on lessons learned.  One couple shared the heartbreak of losing a son to cancer.  Richard and Esther, pictured above, were in the sleeper cabin across the hall from ours on the train from Chicago to Albany, New York.  When people are as open and kind as these two, they say a lot in short bits of conversation.  Talking to them the few times we have, I feel like I’ve known them for years.  From the loss of a spouse to a child, mid-life career switches to medical miracles, the triumphs and tragedies these travelers have bottled up inside are fairly easy to uncork.  I so appreciate the opportunity I have to hear about them.  As for the New England sites… last night stayed at an inn in Williamstown, Massachusetts.  Today went to the Vermont Country Store, Calvin Coolidge Historic Site and Billings Farm.  My goal is to show you pictures of all the Iowans with us.  You’ll likely know someone.

Suzanne and Charles from Cedar Rapids in the dining car

Dave at Billings Farm in Vermont

Norman and Kay from Cedar Falls

Iva from Waterloo, Marlys from Tripoli, Mae from Newhall, Dorothy from Belle Plaine, Nadean from Waverly, Ellen from Hazleton

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

At roughly 9:07 this morning, I temporarily returned to the married-with-no-kids lifestyle again… and this time I’m not pregnant like I was three weeks after our wedding!  Of course I took the opportunity to call my best friend from college.  She’s a stay-at-home mom in New Jersey.  We talked for 3 1/2 hours!  Then I had to go, off to get an hour massage.  I was so excited to be alone with Dave I sat in the school parking lot where he teaches, just waiting for him.  We headed off to a Chinese buffet…and didn’t have to rush while we ate.  I’ve already talked to my parents and Charlotte twice.  She slipped and called me Nana.  That’s a good sign, right?  Now I’m slowly packing… what’s the rush?  There are no dirty diapers to change or toys to pick up.  The house is clean and quiet.  Tomorrow about 9:30am the bus departs to Chicago where we’ll board the train.  I have my iPhone, camera and laptop ready to go.  Plan on a lot of pics and updates while I’m away.  Hopefully the 43 viewers going with us will be game for candid shots and blog mentions.  I plan to get their life stories, you know.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

Dave and I are naturally very excited about our upcoming New England trip with more than forty viewers.  But the thought of 10 days without our kids is hard to wrap our brains around.  We have been away from Charlotte for more than a week, but Dave especially missed her terribly.  Thomas has only left our side twice, for no more than two nights in a row.  Nana and Papa are meeting me tomorrow to take them back to Illinois.  But at some point, before our return, they’ll bring them up here.  And at other points they will be so exhausted from round-the-clock care of their high energy grandkids, we may be summoned home early.  No, hopefully not.  It will be a lot of work, though, as all of you grandparents know.  My mom has crafts ready, games purchased and excursions planned.  I am picturing Dave and me with 44 other people on a train, in a bus and aboard a plane getting some peace and quiet.  It’s true.  It will be relaxing to hang out with all adults who are not jumping on the couch, throwing TV remotes or chewing on everything.  Well at least not the first few days of the trip, anyway.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

I am not the joiner type, never have been.  The idea of becoming a member of a group has never really appealed to me.  I like being an individual too much.  My senior year of high school I decided against going to Syracuse University soley because the Greek system was the dominant social scene on campus.  I am not sorority material.  The thought of being selected for an organization that can label you by how you dress or how you look is disturbing to me.  If you disagree, ask any fraternity member to name which sorority at his college had the “hotties” and which one did not.  They always know.  No, thanks.  Same goes for country clubs.  Growing up some of my friends invited me to come to their “private” pools.  I was happy to swim in the one in my own backyard.  My parents put it in when I was 3.  I digress.  The point of this entry is despite my anti-group attitude, one of the best decisions I made in life was to join a church in Waterloo.  Do you know Thursday night when I raced to the hospital for Dave’s first surgery, a lady from church called me shortly after she saw it mentioned on Facebook.  I couldn’t talk as I was heading to meet with the surgeon.  Moments after the doctor and I spoke, she appeared by my side in the waiting area.  She prayed with Dave and me in the recovery room.  Just as she arrived, my cell phone rang again.  It was our pastor calling to pray over the phone.  Yesterday morning another woman from the church joined Dave in the surgery center to comfort him and to pray with him since I could not be there until after I had care for our kids.  She called me immediately after he was wheeled in to the operating room with the details… then called me later in the morning to see how it went.  I can not express how comforting it is to have this “group” support at a time of so much uncertainty and when all of our parents and relatives live in other states.  When a crisis strikes, you are some times left to deal with it alone.  In this case and the previous health scares in my family, our church family has been there to lean on.  It has made all the difference.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

You should have seen the look on my face this morning when I raced to the outpatient surgery floor to meet with the doctor after Dave’s surgery and he handed me the piece of WIRE he had just removed from my husband’s throat!  I also have two copies of the picture above to verify its size.  Let me back up.  I could not take the kids to daycare until 8am and Dave’s procedure started at 7:30am.  So at 5:30 this morning we loaded in the car and drove Daddy to the hospital, dropped him off, came home, went to daycare and all the while the surgeon was digging in Dave’s throat for what we all thought was a chicken bone only to come across a 2-centimeter piece of metal instead.  Yes, it was inside the chicken strip he ate two Fridays ago with the kids.  My nose biopsy was not fun.  Charlotte’s scalp mole removals pained me.  The ear tube procedure for Thomas was trying at times…. But this? 

Daddy getting two surgeries a few days apart to cut out a piece of wire embedded in his throat.  This pretty much trumps them all.  Guess what was on the menu today for the kids’ school lunch?  Chicken strips, no kidding.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

Dave’s throat still feels funny.  Like when you have something stuck in your tooth and you can’t get it out… but imagine that sensation on the side of your neck.  His pain ebbs and flows depending on the strength of the Prednisone, antibiotic or Tylenol.  The good news, he can eat pretty normally when the soreness is masked.  The down side, he has not been able to sleep much as the medication keeps him up.  Think 2am fish tank cleaning yesterday!  We are awaiting the CAT scan results.  Sounds like the chicken bone is so thin, it will be tough to remove even if it shows up.  So our hope and prayer is that it can either be taken out via another surgery or dissolve on its own sooner than later, with little discomfort.  I will say the chicken strip was a very popular brand sold in many local freezer sections.  He has no plan to every eat any form of chicken nugget again.  And we did contact an attorney!  Stay tuned.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

From the title of this entry, you can imagine what the past 24 hours of my life involved.  In two words, chicken calamity!  A week ago Dave was sharing chicken strips with the kids-the frozen kind you heat up in the oven.  He felt something funny in his throat after swallowing one and commented about it to a neighbor, some co-workers and me the past few days.  Wednesday night his throat was so sore on that one side he could barely swallow.  A trip to Urgent Care yesterday morning led him to the emergency room so an ear, nose and throat specialist could take a look with a scope.  One x-ray later and the outline of an apparent chicken bone lodged deep in his throat was so clear, he was immediately scheduled for surgery to remove it!  The doctor said it could move into his windpipe and cause more serious problems.  I was soloing the 5pm & 6pm newscasts when he was going under the knife.  Before anchoring, I raced to daycare and took the kids to our wonderful neighbors who kept them for 5 hours last night.  After signing off at 6:30pm, I beelined it to the hospital where Dave had just come out of surgery.  The doctor told me briefly over the phone as I walked into the elevator that he needed to talk to me about an issue and our options.  My heart started racing and I can tell you when I sat in the patient waiting room it felt like someone had dropped a load of bricks on me.  What could have gone wrong?  I started praying to God and telling myself that, no matter what, we could get through it.  Thankfully, the doctor came in and calmed my fears a bit by explaining that Dave’s throat was just too irritated and swollen to navigate through the tissue and get the bone fragment out.  So now he’s on Prednisone to bring down the swelling, a CAT scan is scheduled for Monday and another surgery is likely next week to, hopefully, remove the bone.  Did I mention we’re still shooting for Dave to join me and 40 station viewers on a 9-day New England train trip that departs one week from tomorrow?

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14

Pre-made pie, 1996

I can’t cook, don’t cook and really don’t want to learn how to cook.  And, as you can tell, I apologize little for it.  My mom and sister are great in the kitchen.  So are Dave and my dad, actually.  But I have survived just fine eating cold cuts and cereal, microwave meals and fast food, even using my apartment oven as a place to store my unused pots and pans.  In the past, I’ve boiled noodles for spaghetti, mixed up boxed batter for brownies, that kind of stuff… but if the ingredient list is long and the steps are many, my eyes glaze over just considering the preparation time and detail.  It’s not worth it to me to spend countless hours at the grocery store and in the kitchen only to have the outcome devoured in minutes.  Not to mention, I have that food addiction issue I’ve documented.  Leftovers turn into bigger portions and late-night snacks for me.  Brownies and cakes in the house, I can’t leave them alone.  So, you see, my cooking boycott is more about my inability to control my eating than not wanting to put forth the effort.  And I am so tired of these TV chefs with their 10-minute meal plans and 3-step recipes.  Of course the process is quick and easy for them!  For people like me, it’s an exercise in pure frustration… and the stress would only lead me to overeat.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 14