Taking the kid to college - a decade later

I've not been sleeping well - which has led to some interesting dreams. Sporadic sleep does that to me. Saturday morning I had a doozy! The subconscious mind is very cool.

It's been ten years since we sent our first born off to college. That's a traumatic thing for mommies, no? Not as much for me as for others it seemed. I knew Amy was ready to move past high school and was excited to take her on college visits. We went to Drake and Creighton, followed by my fave Iowa State University. Since Amy was interested in art/design, that school made the most sense - but we tried not to pressure her into that decision. She realized it was the best choice and that was that. Yay!

Not in my dream. I had dialed the up the wayback machine. It was 10 years ago and we were moving Amy into the SWCC dormitory. SWCC stands for Southwestern Community College - the very fine school in Creston. Perhaps it was the money thing...she was a very good student and it would have been very sensible for her to go there. #$0tuitionlaundryathome

In the dream, our friend, SWCC college president Barb Crittenden, was helping move Amy into the nice new dorm. The school didn't really have one of those back then (though they have a couple now). Barb was viewing the less than pristine conditions in the dorm room with a jaded eye. You go Barb! Krissy McFee was helping too - since she was also moving in there. Maybe they got a package deal.

It was a pleasant dream and I was sorry to awaken from it. I like to have random wacky dreams that  include my loved ones. It's like a little visit. When I did wake up I thought about Amy's choice to attend ISU instead of SWCC. Despite the added cost, it was a good decision for her (and later, her brother Jud who refused to even look anywhere else).

Amy with Greg, Jenna and Rachelle - college Halloween

Sure it was difficult leaving the cocoon of friendly Creston, where everyone knew their names. When Amy went to ISU, she had a random roommate, a girl from DSM. She didn't have much in common with her, but she made friends with others on her floor and is still bestest buds with them today. We get to see Jenna and Rachelle each time Amy returns to DSM. Amy sees another roomie, Allie, in Denver.

Love these guys!

Jud chose a friend from Creston to room with, but Steve moved into a fraternity house at the semester - so Jud was forced to meet other friends. I worried he would spent his time playing video games by himself, but he really came out of his shy shell and made lots of friends. We saw most of them a couple weeks ago at a football game - hugs all around. What a nice bunch! He met GF Kara there too.

Amy on vaca with the girls this summer

For our children, the ISU college experience - moving away from home, meeting new people,  learning a new way of life and not flunking out was priceless. Even if it did cost more than SWCC. I know it's not that way for everyone. It sure worked for Amy and Jud.

At roomie Pat's wedding with Logan and Pete (and Kara of course)

Just like Paul and me, our kids met lifelong friends at school. People they share their problems and dreams with. Living in the dorms (and not in an apartment with people from your hometown) is scary. Yep, you can get a stinker of a roommate. But later in life this can help you deal with a stinker of a workmate. And you can change roommates - they're not permanent!

I don't claim that this type of college experience is for everyone. But it worked for our family. And we've got the benefit of great friends from it. Dream on!

Throwback picks - from our college years.

Me in the back - visor, between the 2 Janes, Vic in front. Saw Cindy Nutt - front middle recently

Paul will be pheasant hunting with Tom (on right) soon. We still near from Brad (on left)

Punctured plans

We've been looking forward to visiting Jud and Kara in St. Louis for months. With their busy schedule - and ours, this weekend was it! The weekend for our mini-vaca in St. L.

Until karma had another idea.

If you're a regular reader or have seen me lately you know I've been struggling with health issues. I've been whining about it for a while. Fing frozen shoulder and recently diagnosed hyperthyroid with not-fun symptoms. Physical Therapy is proceeding for the shoulder. I'm happy to report that my shoulder scored a whopping 178 degrees Thursday. That's not temperature - it's more like angles. 180 is what a normal shoulder bends to if you're laying on a table. It takes lots of gyrating, faces, and noises for me to do it. My PT, Christine shakes it out after I stretch it up. I need to keep it stretchy!

The pain continues to be a problem. A constant these days. So I had the idea that I'd try something new. Acupuncture. I made an appointment Thursday night at a nearby clinic which will remain nameless. I received a pamphlet on the process and the doc - also a chiropractor explained what she'd be doing. She treated me differently than if she would have been treating me specifically for frozen shoulder. She was impressed with my range of motion. 178 mofo.

Poster in the acupuncture room my butt doesn't quite look like that

I selected ocean noises for my experience - waves crashing on the shore. I took off my shoes and socks. Very slim needles were inserted into:
the bottoms of each foot
2 in each ear
my forehead
the top of my head

Did it hurt when they went in? A little, not much. Of course I would have taken a pic of myself with a needle in my head, but I had them in my feet and couldn't get to my phone...damn! The doc left me in a dimly lit room with the ocean noises. I fell asleep! She came back in after about 15 minutes to twist the needles and left for another 10 or so. I felt a little "chi" or warmth from the insertion of the needles.

The doc said I should sleep well that night. I made an appointment for next week.

Early Friday morning I awoke (not unusual with the shoulder thing) with the beginnings of a migraine headache. I usually take my medicine and they go away. Not this one! I had flu-like symptoms to go with it - causing me to cancel my PT appointment and later to miss an important work meeting. I didn't have a fever - but had all the other stuff. Ick.

I still thought I might perk up so we could go to Jud's - but as the morning passed I realized that wasn't happening. I was bedridden with my little pal Odie laying by my side. The strange thing - as sick as I was - my shoulder didn't feel too bad...but my headache wouldn't totally go away.

We thought about going to Jud's today (Saturday) for an overnight trip, but he wasn't wild about us driving that far for one day. And even last evening I wasn't feeling the best. I texted him to say we'd probably better not come - right away he called. He was so understanding. I still feel so bad about not being able to go.  I'd heard so many good things about St. L. We have such a good time with J & K. I cried when I hung up - feeling like I let him down. I know - it's not logical, but that's what Moms are like, right?

My college roomie Vicki's daughter Kelli visited Denver recently - they pretended Vic and I were with them. Wish we were!

When we do go, I plan to be in much better health (shoulder pain be gone) so I can enjoy it much more. After the flu symptoms subsided, of course the shoulder started to hurt again. But it is slowly getting better. Did acupuncture cause my illness? I do not know. But I'm not going to risk it by getting it again.

Kara and Jud - they do so many fun activities!
 

Despite my whiny presently miserable condition, I still feel very blessed. Amy called Friday afternoon to see how I was. What a sweetie. Paul came home and took care of me - he even made me a milk shake. And then Jud (I'm sure Kara too) was so understanding about the messed up plans. Odie looks at me with those loving brown eyes and gives me a lick every once in a while. What a great fam. Won't it be fun to all be together in Vail this Christmas!

My honey has been patient with his patient...

The Witch is In

Oh - Mama needs this sign...seen at PetCo when Odie got her nails done

Another week bites the dust! It was a busy one. Tuesday we had a retreat for work at Neil Smith Wildlife Retreat. It's a prairie. It was rainy so we didn't venture out to see the buffalo.



Yay - we get to sort seeds!

We did several team-building exercises, including sorting prairie seeds which was kinda cool. No it wasn't hemp Don McKim...

Capture the tennis ball - blindfolded. Then walk around.
 

Wednesday we headed to a meeting at the Fish Hatchery at Lake Rathbun. It was a gorgeous day! And a good meeting with the Iowa Waste Exchange representatives.

Here DMR grows Catfish and Walleye for Iowa's lakes 

aquarium

 

It was a cool trip.

I did 178 today at Physical Therapy - 180 is perfect arm movement. It didn't come without pain...I continue to struggle with that evil stuff. Paul and I are off to St. Louis to see Jud and Kara this weekend. Looking forward to it. I'll report next week!

Momma for 29 years

I was pregnant once before Amy was born. We lost the baby in 1984 - I was just a few months along. So I was understandably very nervous in early 1985 when I became pregnant again. We decided to go to an Obstetrician in Mason City instead of a general practice doc in Osage where we lived. R. Bruce Dunker was a veteran in working with young mommies nervous about losing their babies.

When I heard that heartbeat the first time, I was so relieved. And every time after that! Paul and I went to VEISHEA at ISU that year - meeting college friends. I must have eaten something iffy - and ended up with food poisoning. I puked all night and was so afraid I did something to the baby. Monday morning I trotted into the doc's office to make sure that babe's heart was strong - and it was. Tears!

Oh people. It was a LONG pregnancy. People went from saying - "you're so small" in May...to "you're huge" in September. Even Dr. Dunker said I'd have the baby in September, though I was due October 7th.

In July, Paul and I took a "last childless trip" to Minnesota. We'd looked at pamphlets for resorts - and chose a romantic cabana...which turned out to be a regular 'ol hotel room with a loud air conditioner. I wore a maternity swim suit borrowed from my pal Sally. Paul played golf and I drove the cart.

My due date came and went. I was huge. I weighed more than my husband. My hips were so sore I couldn't walk, so I couldn't work. Dr. Dunker scheduled me to have labor induced at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital on October 9th. Paul and I called everyone we knew and told them. We got up early and made the 45 minute drive to MC and tried to check in. Nix! The hospital was too full - no room in the inn. *#@*.

It was a long weekend at the Goldsmith house. Dr. Dunker wasn't on call again until Monday the 14th. That was the day. I packed 10 of my fave music cassettes to listen to during my calm birthing experience in the suite we'd be using. Wrong. Baseball playoffs were on - St. Louis vs. the Dodgers. Ozzie did a flip and the Cards won. Dr. Dunker was pleased. I didn't get to hear Pure Prairie League. Wah.

Another couple was in the birthing suite first. She was a screamer. I checked in early in the a.m. They kept cranking the Pitocin - the juice that causes contractions. But that baby's head was BIG. So just like a big pickle, forceps were used and soon red-haired Amy Elizabeth Goldsmith emerged. It was around 7 p.m. She was perfect! All 9 pounds 7 ounces of her. The nurses whisked her away to clear her up. Soon she was on my chest and we were calling our parents.

I was a mommy! They wheeled me into my room that night and I don't think I slept a wink. I was filled with emotions and adrenalin. And I felt like a truck hit me. 9 lb. 7 oz.

Twenty nine years later she's still perfect! Loving our baby girl.

Wired and ready for action

That's not an old cell phone on my hip. It's a TENS unit, supplying electrical impulses to my shoulder/arm - confusing the insistent painful areas. They've been screaming "pay attention to me!" Now they have competition. Hooha! I hope I don't drop the thing in the toilet. I received it Friday at the Physical Therapist's office. I've been electrocuting myself all weekend.

I survived week 1 post shoulder manipulation. I don't want this blog to be a pity party. But it kinda is. If you don't want to read this Debbie Downer post, click the X at the top right NOW. The blog IS about my life - which has been somewhat sucky lately - I've had a few rough months. Finally, however, I've been diagnosed! And I have an appointment with a specialist at the University of Iowa Hospital in a couple weeks. The crap I've gone through - colon problems, swollen legs, pounding heart, anxiety and now the worst - frozen shoulder - all the result of a wacky thyroid.

I'm so glad there is finally a diagnosis. My husband (Saint Pablo) is too. And I'm glad I have a machine to help with pain. Things are looking up! I am talking about my problems for all my relatives and others who might have these symptoms. Hyperthyroid can cause many things. Be on the lookout!

Fire station - from a former Mercury car dealership. Looks old but all state of the art

The roof of the CR Library is green - growing plants absorb rainwater

I spent the first part of the week at a conference in See the Rabbits - AKA Cedar Rapids. My mother grew up there and we'd go see my grandparents and cousins there when I was little. I always wondered where the rabbits were! CR went through a terrible flood in 2008 and is just now re-emerging from that event. I went on a walking tour of the new LEED certified (that means very environmentally friendly) central fire station and library (where my sis-in-law Mary Goldsmith works). Very cool places - they are doing it right there.

The conference was excellent - I was able to talk with a number of industry people and stakeholders. Our consultant few in Wednesday a.m. to do a session on goal setting and metrics with me. We had over 25 people attending and we used new technology that involved voting with cell phones. It went well. I was beat when I got back to DSM - a lot of face time!

Saturday was game day baby! I attended wearing my new apparatus. It helps me go longer between pain pills. The day was one of the most perfect tailgating days that we've had for a long time. Abby Conover was there with doggy Grover. She was our first babysitter, arriving with a "safe sitter" certification and folder. Tailgating was a good time - McKims, Kevin and Kari, Laura and her mom Ann. It was a nice crowd.

Dwight, Abby, Marilyn, Phil

Nearby our tailgate, the band played Happy Birthday for this group

check out our little cutie patootie photo bomber

Cyclones win! It sure is fun to get a W. Of course it wasn't easy - it never is with our team. But I love hanging with these people on a beautiful day.

On to next week. Things are looking up.

Dr. Wilcox and his black leather bag

I've had some health issues this summer and fall. One night, as I couldn't sleep due to this darn shoulder, I thought about health care. How does it stack up today vs. health care back in the day. I'm not one of those people who constantly reminisces about the "good old days" selectively weeding out the bad stuff. Because face it...there always was some... and there always will be! But here's what I know.

In small town Iowa our docs knew us from birth. And they cared. If you had a good doctor, like I believe ours was, you were in good hands. I remember Dr. Wilcox coming to our house and examining me in our formal living room. He took my temperature and gave me a shot in the butt - probably penicillin. He had a wonderful leather doctor's bag - similar to Mary Poppin's bag. I bet that thing held a little bit of everything! But back then...flu shots hurt like HELL. My sister still refuses to get them - traumatized from our childhood. (see, bad stuff)

Atlantic was blessed with good doctors. In fact even today as I visited my surgeon's office at DMOS, there was a picture on the wall of Matt Weresh - another orthopedic surgeon in that practice (not a shoulder guy). His dad John Weresh was an A-town doc. And for a Creston connection, I believe John's parents are buried at Calvary - the Catholic Cemetery in Creston. Another doc at DMOS - Devon Goetz, son of Larry, former Creston doctor.

Of course Dwain Wilcox's daughter Tressa went back to Atlantic to practice medicine herself. She treated Dad. It says a great deal about the profession and the parent that those children wished to follow in their footsteps...What does it say that neither Amy nor Jud have chosen to follow Paul and me into public service. haha. I don't blame them - it's not what it once was.

Our children were brought up with family doctors too - no house calls though. Sometimes for emergencies I would get Dr. Gandhi - who had an Indian accent. That was rough over the phone when one had a child with ear infection! Marty Meindl - was a pediatrician in Creston when we first moved to town. Mark Young practiced there and was our family doctor. He delivered Jud. Mark was the husband of someone I knew in college - small world!

The best thing about small town healthcare? The nurses. They would get to know you - and you them! Barb from Dr. Hoyt's office became a friend. I miss her!

Especially now. I call nurses who don't know me and don't seem to care as much as those who did. With the new medical software - which I think will be a good thing eventually - I dislike how the nurse spends her time facing a computer screen away from me. It's so impersonal! I think they'll eventually correct this with better computers - iPads? Besides taking my blood pressure, they hardly look at me. Ick.

Now I'm awaiting a specialists office to deem me worthy of a phone call. Really? Hmm think I'll shop around. Sigh. I miss Dr. Wilcox.

Rusty with our ducky friends

Last weekend at the ISU vs. Baylor football game, our friends Joan and Greg Weis came by our tailgate prior to the game. Twice! The second time they had son Ben and his girlfriend Laura in tow. By then Ben's classmate, our little baby boy Judson was at our tailgate along with about 15 of his buddies and his gf Kara.

We hadn't seen Greg and Joan in, well forever! It was so fun to catch up. Back in Creston all those years ago, we didn't know them until Jud and Ben began playing all fashions of sports together. Baseball, football, basketball and soccer. Ben was the quiet but deadly type. A linebacker with an attitude!

When we first met the Weises, Greg was in veterinarian school. He was a non-traditional student - someone who went to school in his late 30's. Wife Joan, a nurse, held down the family fort with their fam of 3 boys during the week. He was home from Ames on weekends.

We often carpooled to sports games the boys played in along with Lucy Hyde and Jim. So it was in the back seat of our Jeep and in the bleachers where we got to know Joan. After Greg graduated (woohoo!) and started a vet practice in the Creston area we got to know him better too. Great people. Odie loves Joan - and moans in delight when she see her. Odie a good judge of character you know.

At the football game last Saturday, Paul pressed Joan for a dinner date we've been talking about since we moved away from Creston - nearly two years ago. We'd been planning to meet with Weises and another couple, Ginny and Wayne Lents, at the Rusty Duck (oops - I just typed Dick by mistake...funny) in Dexter. It's partway between DSM and Creston and is always packed due to good food.

Joan put the date together and we were on! Pablo and I arrived about in Dexter at 6:45 p.m. and Ginny and Wayne walked in shortly after. We've known the Lents fam even longer than Weises because their boys Kevin and Jason attended St. Malachy with our children. Jason is Jud's classmate and he too played sports - sticking with football and soccer all the way through high school. Ginny is a Chicago girl who married a SW Iowa farmer. The stories she tells of adjusting to farm life are hilarious. What  a trooper!

Joan and Greg arrived late due to...you guessed it. A vet call. We had a lovely time catching up on what is new. They're all grandparents and are enjoying that to the hilt!  NOT. It was really enjoyable to hang out with these fab couples. Paul got caught up on farmer talk with Wayne. He truly misses that stuff. Before leaving we talked about a repeat performance. We can't let these friendships go...

BTW - Saturday a.m., on the first day Paul was in the timber for the 2014 bow season he took a doe. So we'll have deer summer sausage and jerky made in Bedford, IA. By that hottie Zeb! Zeb's Smokehouse. 

Shoulder update. Physical Therapy was rough - it was measurement day - making sure I don't slip back from full extension of the arm.
Maybe I like it at 168 degrees. Did they ever think of that?
#painsucks