A quick trip "home"

As a kid growing up in Iowa was nothing special.  Field of corn, field of soybeans, oh look there's a cow!  I desperately wanted to live in a different state.  Let's face it saying "I'm from Iowa" isn't all that fashionable!  Last weekend my family made a quick trip to Iowa City and back in about 36hrs.  Even though we've been to Iowa too many times to count from our current home in southern Illinois this time we took a differnt route into the heartland of my home state.  As soon as I saw that Welcome to Iowa sign I took a deep breath and a calm came over me.  Iowa is a beautiful state.  I've done a lot of travelling by car and seen and lived in tranquil, beautiful parts of the US but Iowa is my home.  No where else will you find rolling hills of green (too many shades of green to count) and the green is splashed with white from Queen Anne's Lace and purple Clover & Coneflowers and it all meets with a clear blue sky.  It's beautiful and peaceful and it's HOME.  Iowa may not be fashionable but my roots run deep in Iowa and now as an adult I'm proud to say "I'm from Iowa".

Like I said our trip was quick.  Eric needed to check in on his stepmom who is being treated with chemo for her luekemia at U of I Hospital in Iowa City.  Many moons ago I attened the University of Iowa - I left in 1996 and boy has that place changed!  Through the change my old crusty apartment building still stands crustier than ever!  It's surrounded by sparkling new townhouse apartments and it sticks out like a sore thumb!  It's been a long time but I didn't expect that much change, I nearly got lost on 5th Street in Coralville!  My favorite fast food restaurant Dill Burgers was gone and something new stood in it's place.  It was nice driving up the hill and pointing out to Eric Carver Hawkeye arena and explaning that it's set into the ground and going by Kinnick Stadium.  Seeing his eyes bulge at the size of the stadium and saying we need to get tickets to "come back for a football game" really warmed my heart.  He know's I bleed Hawkeye black and gold.  I sure do love that man!

A quick update on Jeanette since she's the reason we drove into Iowa's heartland.  She's doing alright.  She was better Saturday than she was Sunday.  It was sad to see her face when we all left Saturday evening.  I could see the disappointment of knowing she was going to spend the rest of the evening alone.  I think all the visiting from Saturday wore her out and Sunday she looked tired and really had a cough to her.  They had to give her a medicine to get rid of extra fluids (it made her pee often) and had to had blood drawn so they could check the oxygen level in her blood and as we left Sunday she was going down to Xray for a chest xray.  I wanted to let her rest yesterday so I'll be calling today to see how she's feeling and the results of the xray and blood/oxygen test. 

Our trip back to southern Illinois was uneventful with the exception of bringing back our 13 yr old niece.  Jonner's in hog heaven with the extra attention and she's a beautiful, sweet girl.  I took her to the library yesterday and she signed up for the reading program on base and started reading Eclipse...it's no wonder I love that girl!  I woke up this morning to her puking :(  She's resting and Jonner walks up to her side and says "Mommy, Cierra don't feel good, she needs to feel all better so she can play with me".  So I'm taking my cue that little man needs some attention and it's time for me to wrap this up and get on the floor to play with him.