Today has been like a weird dream. 

I went from dancing with seven dwarves to hanging out with Charles Gibson outside the ABC News bus in the span of about an hour and a half. (I swear I’m not dipping into my husband’s post-surgery painkillers!)

The ABC World News bus tour of battleground states stopped in Indy today to cover Barack Obama’s rally, so Todd and I seized the opportunity to spend a little time with our network’s top news man.  He was more than gracious, warm and comfortable, and very easy to talk with.  (Although I’ll bet I’d feel differently if I were a candidate being interviewed  by him rather than an anchor interviewing him about his experiences covering the campaigns)

Charlie talked with us about our 7pm newscast (the only one in Indiana at that time slot, in case you hadn’t heard) and the fact that today’s news viewers are so busy that there is a demand for news at later times.  He even said the networks have considered putting their evening newscasts as late at 10pm - wouldn’t that be something?  It was great to pick his brain about the evolution of our society and this TV business.

Now I’m off for a couple of days for the dress rehearsal and opening of Snow White at Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre.   I am exhausted from all the dancing, singing, and dwarf-wrangling so far in this marathon week of fast rehearsals, but I’m having a great time.  This version of the play is absolutely adorable, the cast and crew is rock-solid awesome, and I can’t wait for my own little dwarves (Doc and Happy, as they claim to be) to come see Mom in a very different (and unnaturally sweet) light.

It runs every Friday at 10am and Saturdays 10 and 1 thru Nov. 15th - so bring your kids and stick around for autographs afterwards - I would love to meet you!

Thanks to Ian (my still-one-armed-husband) for putting up with my insane schedule this week, and to his wonderful mom, Susan,  and stepdad, Paul for coming in from Georgia to help hold down the Shepherd fort and spoil all of us within an inch of our lives. 

    I will have plenty to write about next week! See you Monday IN HD  - Until then, I’ll leave you all in Todd’s capable hands.

Trish

We at RTV6 have lost a dear friend today.

Don Foss, RTV6’s creative services photographer and a father of two,  fought bravely against cancer.  He and his wife, Susna, never once wavered in his faith during a difficult battle.  Susan tells us he passed away peacefully overnight while sleeping.

Many of us here will be forever changed by witnessing Don and Susan’s strength and grace in the face of such an unexpected challenge.  Their choice to share their story on television  was brave and generous, and has touched countless people with information and inspiration. (Please see the original Prayer Warriors blog by scrolling below this entry to watch the video and read the many inspiring comments)

Thanks to all of you who have lifted up the Foss family with your beautiful and supportive messages.  Todd and I and many of our co-workers have heavy hearts today,  but we feel very lucky to have had the privilege of knowing a person as remarkably kind, upbeat and unblinkingly positive as Don.  

   He is now at peace, and his spirit and message will continue to touch and bless the rest of us.

We will miss you, Don. Thank you.

  I love surprises!!! Not receiving them.  That’s no fun.  I like to be in on the secret.  I’m like a little kid as I giggle to myself about what the unsuspecting recipient will be in for.

  Such was the case a couple of weeks ago. I was planning a birthday party for my darling wife, Valarie, and she had no idea.  I invited over 20 of her very close friends to attend.  A few were even coming in from out of town.  It took several weeks to coordinate the evening.   The challenge, of course, was to avoid suspicion by doing the obvious. In other words be cool and act like nothing was going on.  Easier said than done.

  Our daughter’s Godmother was in on the bash.  And she warned me to delete every phone call, text message and voice mail from my cell.  She told me not to leave any receipts around the house, or my car.  I even had to change the password to my email address!!!  After three weeks, my head was spinning. 

We had the party at Fleming’s Steakhouse.  I told guests to arrive at 6:30 that Saturday night.  I told them I would have Valarie at the restaurant by 7:00.  Of course, now I was paranoid about everything that could go wrong.  I had a hundred different scenarios running through my head.  What if she got sick the day of the party.  What if I had a flat tire on the way to the party.  What if someone called my cell about the party.. and she picked up.  What if she changed her mind and wanted to go to a different restaurant!!!  What if the babysitter had to change her plans!! What if, what if, what if!!! Ah!!!!!!  Thankfully, God had his hand in every detail and everything happened according to plan - almost.

  We got to the restaurant, went to the back room, walked through the door and……. no one immediatley turned on the light to yell surprise.  Valarie had enough time to see the silhouette of one of the guests.  She even realized it was a surprise party before the “great reveal!”  The good news is, she was so shocked it didn’t matter.  She was moved to tears.  It was truly a beautiful night. 

  And I pulled it off!!!!  It was a lot of work, but well worth it for my baby!!!

  Happy birthday, honey!!!

HIGH SCHOOL REUNION - DON’T MISS IT

Apparently I just earned a few points toward the “coolest wife ever” award.

My one-armed husband and I just got back from his 20 year HS reunion for the Belleville (Illinois) West HS Class of 88.       

     Instead of finding excuses to skip it (like most reasonable spouses who don’t know any of their husband’s long-lost classmates) I practically FORCED him to accept the invitation. 

 ”You can’t NOT go to something like this,” I insisted.  “We’re going. You won’t regret it.”  So we called in some grandparent reinforcements to man the house and kids, packed up his portable ice cooler/arm sling rig, and headed toward greater St. Louis.

And guess what - we both had a great time.  For Ian, it was a chance to see people he literally hadn’t seen or heard from at all in 20 years.  Former basketball teammates, close high school buddies, even a few ex-crushes (he had pretty good taste, I’ll admit) 

TRISH PLAYS REPORTER  

 For me, a nosy journalist by nature, it’s a fascinating social situation to witness.  I had amazing conversations with total strangers who seemed incredibly willing to dish detailed information about their lives, their choices, their families, their struggles and joys.  It was a smorgasboard of stories, and I’ll never be able to resist an opportunity like that.

 WORKING MOMS BOND

 I had a GREAT talk with one of his former classmates, Lynne (left with Ian) who’s also a working mom - a physician with twins! 

     I was almost on the floor laughing at her descriptions of the ridiculous overachiever extremes she went to in juggling the professional demands of her career with perfectionist parenting…before finally getting real.  Ian said it looked like we were long lost best friends. 

What I had trouble getting was any DIRT on Ian - it seems he was very well liked and at least publicly, well-behaved. Back then.

 OH..LOOK GUYS, THOSE AWFUL METAL DOORS!!

 We went on the tour of the aging school. I kept thinking how incredulous these kids would have been at age 18, if you would’ve told them that 20 years from now they’d be looking at mundane things like chalkboards, lockers,  and the cafeteria tray shelf, getting all nostalgic.  One gal on the tour actually stopped to take a photo in front of the ugly metal doors to the cafeteria, because they brought back so many memories.

   It was one huge chorus of “Oh, remember this….remember when we…. I remember!….” 

 IAN’S MEMORY?

Ian tried opening his old locker and ALMOST remembered the combination. Maybe after a dozen more tries…

HOOPS, ANYONE?

He and a very cool former basketball teammate, Brian, who was also class president, stood in amazement staring at the old hoops in their gym. (Good thing there was no ball around - I’m sure my one-armed man would’ve given it a try to see if he still had the stuff.) Brian, if you happen to read this, great job organizing a fun weekend!

INDY CONNECTION

I even met someone with family here in Indy - Beth took a photo with me to see if her relatives would recognize one of their news gals.  (If not, maybe I’ll recruit them to RTV!)

     In the end, it was awesome to see Ian re-living some fun memories, and to see how many people had such wonderful things to say about him.   Someone told me, “Ian is one of those guys who you always wondered what happened to, and I’m so glad to see he’s doing so well, still playing music, and has ended up with someone so cool.”    Quite the compliment. I can’t wait till the tables turn - 4 more years till my 20th!

Feel free to share reunion stories if you have a good one. Thanks for reading-

Trisha

Nope - not that famous guy from Def Leppard, just my gimpy husband, Ian.  He is recovering from shoulder surgery (ouch) so I was off a few days last week playing a dual role of Nurse and SuperMom.

You guessed right if you assumed the surgery had something to do with years and years of drumming.  But that’s just half of the equation.  Throw in an old basketball injury, some damage from a fall, and you’re almost there.  But the clincher was our teeny little nearly-3-year-old daughter, Clara. (I mentioned in a blog entry a couple of months ago how he dislocated his shoulder while playing with her.  The sweetheart really did Daddy in.) The ligament was so shredded, he could barely get through a normal day let alone a gig, so he had to bite the bullet and get it fixed. He is basically doing okay, just sore and tired.

I’ve learned a few things.

1. Kids can be really sweet.

Here’s Clara hiding behind her blankie as she hung out with him right before the surgery. (She held his hand so he wouldn’t cry when they put in his IV.)

2. It stinks to see your spouse in pain.

Really.  And Ian has had plenty.  It has brought out a fierce protectiveness in me that I didn’t really know was there.  I hate not being able to fix a problem for someone, and there’s only so much you can do when someone’s aching like this.  I can’t help but keep thinking of my co-worker, Don and his wife Susan (from the Prayer Warriors blog). When I see how much they’re going through, and this all seems much smaller, and they seem much braver and stronger than I can imagine being.

3. Ice is good.

I’ve gotten pretty good at working what we call his “contraption” -  a giant sling that holds his arm out, with a shoulder cuff that hooks up to a pump and fills up with ice water.   He says he feels like an astronaut on a moon walk, tethered in by the blue tube.

4. Friends and family are very, very good.

We’ve had several guardian angels step in in various awesome ways. Kristina took the kids during surgery, Dean and Adrianna offered a few laughs at a critical time, Jill offered me an evening of girl talk plus wine and guacamole (mmm!) after I’d hit the burnout point. Several co-workers (mine and his) emailed and called to offer their support and make sure he was doing okay.  Ian’s dad has come down from Canada to help his one-armed son run our house now that I’m back to work.  My parents and Ian’s mom and stepdad are also planning to come down for shifts helping us out.

I feel WAY too lucky sometimes.

5. Shepherds are unstoppable

In spite of my pleading, Ian decided to be Superman and work a bit on Saturday night, 2 days after surgery.  Hooked up to his arm-cuff and in the sling, and heavily medicated, there he was on the sidelines watching the kids he’s been coaching perform in a marching band competition. (Yes, I did the driving, don’t worry.)

I told him I kind of liked the fact that he was the spectacle for once.  Only a couple of people singled me out as the “newslady” in the crowd.  Everyone we walked past was gawking at him and the contraption, their eyes wide with sympathy and awe.

6. Life goes on

Kids don’t stop for surgery.  They’ve got as much energy as ever.  In between filling Ian’s pump, helping him dress, etc., and getting meals fixed I’ve been doing my best to get Calvin and Clara out of the house so he can try to get some rest.   I love Conner Prairie so we headed out there Friday.  As always Cal wanted to visit the Indian village to see if his friendly Lenape buddy was there with his drum. (He was.) At least one Shepherd boy can still play drums right now.

I also took Cal to a friend’s birthday at the Bounce Zone - it is absolutely stunning the energy these kids have. I think I saw a few of them levitate off the floor.

Last night Grandpa Shepherd and I took the kids shopping for new shoes.  (Here he is patiently helping Calvin learn to tie them.) Calvin thinks his new shoes are so big he looks like a teenager.

“What if some teenagers saw me in these shoes?” he keeps asking. “What would they say? Would they think I’m a teenager too?’

Todd, by the way, cannot wait to see Cal in the new shoes, so he can subtly ask me within ear shot of the big guy, “Wow, I thought Calvin was only 5. Is he a teenager now??”

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Trisha