Q’s Hats in Review, Prepping for Rocky

The complaining about how much snow we “didn’t” get is taking up too much room in cyberspace. It is time to just enjoy TV reporters and the hats they are wearing out on the elements.

The last post had some doozies. Thanks for the submissions. If you have a photo to submit, send them in an email to me at IPTVPaul@gmail.com or just put them on Twitter @paulyeager.

Taylor Umland, KWQC, Davenport.

But one of the best ones came directly onto my Facebook wall. Here is the bar for today. A Wartburg College hat being worn on my old TV station, KWQC in Davenport. Taylor Umland was rocking the orange and black during his morning reports in the QC.

One of my former co-workers at KWQC was Matt Davis. Mr. Matt was a nightside reporter when I started and we would do liveshots without a hat. A certain morning radio duo named Dwyer and Michael’s would razz him on-air about not wearing a hat and looking cold on his evening live reports.

The radio guys decided to send a gift to Matt of a hat, which he would sometimes wear and other times it was just sitting on his desk, ready for the call of duty.

Bailey Dietz, KWQC, Davenport.

Sticking at KWQC, we bring in Bailey Dietz from her nightside live shot Thursday.

Former TV6 intern and now reporter at WGBA in Green Bay, WI, Jonathan Gregg is in on the action.

Jonathon Gregg

Jon is a former board member of the Iowa Broadcast News Association. I’m sure he’s already made plans to attend this year’s convention on April 20 in Johnston at the Stoney Creek Inn.

Now to some of the morning crew.

Arielle Nixon was wondering why she had to take a picture of herself wearing earmuffs. She wasn’t sure what the request was all about, but thanks to Pat Dix for this.

Pat’s Tweet.

Thanks for playing along.

Arielle Nixon, WHO, Des Moines.

Thanks to the MW ESPN bureau for this submission of KARE photojournalist Nate Anderson.

Nate Anderson, KARE, Minneapolis.

Jason Rantala, WOI, West Des Moines.

Kim St. Onge, KCCI, Des Moines.

My little reporter, Levi. That’s a hat OVER his hooded sweatshirt.

Megan Ruether is always a good sport about trying new hats and thanks to Travis Jungling for lighting up Megan Friday morning for this picture.

Megan Reuther, WHO, Des Moines.

But it was Megan’s former station that wins the day. You may remember Nikki Newbrough from last year with the space cadet interview subject.

This year she’s gone above and beyond with a sombrero and a friend, Danielle Wagner. I think Danielle is the Ice Princess? Did I get that correct?

Danielle Wagner and Nikki Newbrough of KWWL, Waterloo.

Thanks again for the submissions. We’re only a couple of days away from doing it again with Winter Storm Rocky approaching.

Steve Jobs Babysits My Boys

I have a little confession to make.

The iPad is highly addicting.

That may not be news to any of you with the device, but I may be setting up the boys for a lifetime of addiction.

Almost every day the first question I get is, “Daddy, Can I play the iPad? This week I’ve let them play with it a bit. Maybe not every waking moment, but they’ve spent more time with it than the TV, so maybe that’s a good thing?

Wednesday was no exception. The boys played their games before supper, mostly Temple Run.

During supper we did shut it off to have a debate on the best Disney Pixar movie. Thanks to Nate Vaughn for the topic. Noah said Cars 2 was better than Cars 1. Levi liked Cars 1 better because of the combine. Noah prefers Toy Story 3 over TS2 and TS1. Levi is in the same boat. Then I brought up Incredibles and they both agreed that was their favorite. Although Finding Nemo almost made it to the top of the list on a late rally.

These are some serious discussions we have when it is the Yeager Boys Home Alone.

Now back to the iPad.

Would the boys in the back keep quiet?

I felt brave enough to the take the boys to church choir. I mean, we have the iPad, that’s the only babysitter they need. Noah brought his reading minutes timer to make sure he and Levi would get equal playing time. Every five minutes, they’d switch up and let the other play.

When we got home, Noah wanted to watch one more video. I showed him this last night, but he wanted to see the little boy making all the basketball shots. Check out this little guy between the age of 18-24 months making almost every shot he takes. Impressive.

Maybe next time we’ll work on our basket shooting while mom is gone.

Early Risers Get the iPad

Morning iPad time for Levi.

It is not in most of the Yeager DNA to get up early. They’d rather stay up all night than wake before dawn.

My boys do have my DNA, but for some reason, not enough of the night owl gene is in Noah’s makeup. He’s our early riser.

Levi will stay up late and is pretty good at getting out of bed when called upon. Tuesday morning he had a little incentive in his brain.

Monday night he asked to play iPad when he woke up. I agreed. But like many things, I thought the little dude would forget. Nope. He was up by 7 wanting to play iPad and not even turn on the TV. Who is this kid?

Noah focuses on the puzzle.

His brother wanted to keep working on the puzzle he began on Sunday. He wanted to make sure he would complete our jigsaw challenge. He too, didn’t want to watch TV before school. The two of them later in the evening wanted to watch the PBS Kids app. Fetch and WordGirl are two of their favorite shows right now.

We did get a call from the birthday girl. That was a nice surprise. She had a good day touring offices in London. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

I took the boys voting tonight. We wer voting on the proposal for another new elementary school. I had my driver’s license scanned and my information came up on the poll workers screen. She said Ankeny is a test project for the rest of Polk County. You don’t need an ID to vote, but it helps speed up the process. The rest of you will likely see this the next time you vote. Unless Mark Amadeo messes it up…

Temple Run is the game of the week.

We did come back in time for the boys to take turns playing Temple Run. That is their favorite new app. I guess there are worse games to play than working on quick thinking and coordination.

And just before bed Noah said his tooth was wiggly. Sure enough, two his front teeth were moving around a lot more than before. I don’t see any teeth coming in behind yet, but I’m sure he’ll lose those baby teeth before Christmas so he can wish for something else before the holidays.

As always, thanks for taking time to read this installment of the YBHA.

Monday Night Dinner

Dinner time.

Oversensitive children are usually the first sign of trouble.

Crying over not getting to watch “Cat in the Hat” is two.

And the third indicator of a difficult day comes with fighting your brother because he’s playing with your balloon animal left over from the Freeseman Super Bowl Party.

And this was before 740 AM.

We all made it on time to our destinations, so no harm, no foul.

Grandma Paula and Grandpa Wil took pity on our meal plan and invited us for supper. I suppose it is a chance to make sure we are getting a proper balance of fruits and vegetables.

Candyland is a great place to visit, but you may not want to live there.

A big thank you for the food and good times. And a little break with those that give personal attention does the boys wonders.

Grandma was able to play a mean game of Candyland.

And it was a few years on this day, Wil and Paula were at the hospital. Paula was a little busier than Wil. She was giving birth to a little baby girl.

They named her Amy.

She may be a few miles from her family this week, but her boys do love her and wish her a happy birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

You may want to spend :49 to watch this birthday greeting. Levi wanted to make sure his mother is aware he cried. Classic Levi.

Super Bowl Sunday XIII

Super Bowl Sunday is almost a national holiday, even if it falls in YBHA XIII.

Levi gets in Noah’s face before the end of church this morning. I’m not exactly sure what was being said here.

The boys and I made it to service this morning. The choir sang at 8a and we were in the balcony by 740. The boys had a short night of sleep, but they were pretty good during service. I’m pretty sure it was because the boys were too tired to cause any trouble.

I’m so tired…

Levi may have been tired enough to lay down on the balcony floor. Then again on the couch in the Gathering Place. At least he was comfortable.

Fort Yeager.

We built Fort Yeager in the basement Saturday afternoon. Sunday afternoon we took shelter to watch a movie. A couple of sheets can create some nice atmosphere.

It always gets dusty at the end of Toy Story 3.

Toy Story 3 was on the little screen. It is amazing how the dust seems to kick up at the end of the movie every time I watch it. Amazing.

Super Bowl party with a couple of cousins. Even the kids wanted to watch the game and this was when it wasn’t even close.

Then it was off the Freeseman’s for a little tradition of football. The boys played with their cousins and burned off some energy. They wanted to watch the game, just like their parents.

Six out of seven nights, Levi howls at the moon until almost 10 PM. On the 7th night, Noah will be the one up late. Maybe there is hope for Noah’s sporting interests. I let him watch the end of the game, so he got to see the 49ers storm back and not convert late the game to allow the Baltimore Ravens to win the Super Bowl.

He did get to see this ad, the Dodge, “Keep Plowing commercial.” It features Paul Harvey’s voice talking about how God created the farmer. Pretty powerful and important stuff.

Lots of Hot Air and Balloons on Parade

Noah steps out into traffic to get a good view of the 2012 Festival of Trees parade. November 17, 2012.

Going back to the Quad Cities is like old home week for our family. We see some relatives, friends and a few former co-workers.

Our trip to the 2012 Festival of Trees parade was no different. We decided to take the boys back to the parade we enjoyed so many times during our stay in the QC. Noah had never seen the parade as we moved west before the 2006 parade.

Before we found a spot to stand along the parade route, we had stepped back into the time machine.

Theresa Bryant, Gary Metivier, Paula Sands, Mike Ortiz, Anne Hughes, Beth Marsoun, Randy Biery, Jim Mertens and Michelle Makelbust were some of my former KWQC-kinfolk. Mertens, anchor at ‘rival’ WQAD, was like a co-worker to me.

Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn carries the city on his shoulders dressed as character from the Nutcracker. He’s the one in red.

We found a spot, not on the curb, but behind the first wave of parade goers in downtown Davenport. Then a nice family sitting in front of us, asked if the boys wanted to sit on the curb to have a front-row seat. We thanked them, sat down, and watched the big balloons march by our vantage point.

Noah enjoyed the parade. Levi befriended a woman in our group whose party we crashed. She asked him if he wanted to be held up higher to see what was coming our way. After the first lift, Levi asked the woman if she was a grandma. She said yes. With 17 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, she knew the joys little children can bring.

The WQAD crew walked by. John David marches on with Cassie Heiter, Rebecca Smith, Terry Swails and Matt Hammill try to keep up.

Levi had to get a boost because the group ahead of us in the parade decided this was an event you stood in the street to see. Not just standing-up-during-an-entire-rock concert, but almost IN the parade. And really, they had no qualms about doing it. A little respect for your fellow parade-goers can go a long way.

We did have a nice view of Antonella’s Pizzeria, the pizza place President Obama visited just days before the 2012 election.

This experience made me appreciate the Urbandale parade “enforcers” who draw a chalkline along the route to keep kids from being squashed like mis-thrown Tootsie Roll. Kids are one thing, adults are another.

Again, thanks to the wonderful people who allowed us to sit in front of them. We were able to see the B100 van, the WQAD newsteam and even Bettendorf City Manager, Decker Ploehn.

Levi was so tough, he didn’t need gloves.

My old Team Weekend pal, Erik Maitland is back in the Quads and now chief meteorologist at Channel 6. He stopped, said hello and even gave us a candy cane. I just hope he didn’t think I was Eugene Kennedy. That would have been awkward.

We even experienced a dance recital.

Again, thanks to our hosts and even some viewers with entirely too good of memories to remember some old weekend anchor. It is humbling to think we made that much of an impression.

Final chapter of YBHA?

The traditional “launch” photo of Amy and her boys.

Tortured readers of the blog have come to expect quarterly updates from the Yeager Boys.

We refer to them as Yeager Boys Home Alone. Again, we are left without, and must fend for ourselves to eat, sleep and stay alive.

This edition comes a little later than the traditional launch of Saturday. Forgive us, we’ve been a little busy playing the distraction game. Amy did depart late Saturday for the Netherlands. But this time, we have some bigger things on the calendar that required experience.

Enter Grandma Honey.

Sunday was a big day at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Ankeny. We were installing our new pastor for care and discipleship, Rev. Pam Schroeder. It was also her first Sunday with us on Des Moines Street and we were having an old-fashioned Lutheran potluck. For those of you not familiar, I’m sorry. They are one of the traditional church’s best events.

The call committee was responsible for throwing the party and since I was the chair of the group, I kind of needed to be there. Grandma Honey is no stranger to staying at church for a long time. The Yeager’s and Bergman’s shut down ALC in Jesup many Sunday’s, so this would have to be one of those days. Instead of keeping Johnny and Paul apart, it was Levi and Noah getting the attention.

The boys did pretty darn good at trying new foods, staying quiet and watching a Veggie Tales movie. Thank the Lord for all things on a DVD.

Shortly after putting the leftovers in the freezer, the Yeager’s loaded up and headed to Jefferson for a benefit for Team Ballard. My cousin Laura’s husband, Bob, is going through cancer treatments. The guest of honor was there, greeting people, giving us all hope as he deals with beating the terrible C word.

Grandma Honey with her youngest and oldest grandsons.

Grandma Honey was needed for one more day as Ankeny schools were called off for the day as teachers went through a development day.

After grandma was released from her sentence, the boys and I traveled around down, causing mayhem. So, back to normal.

Amy is on what is likely her last trip to the Netherlands, at least for a few years. She is transitioning into a different job with Uncle John. She’ll stay in the metro, but trips will now be to Germany and California as needed.

These weeks are fun, but as Levi told me more than once this week, “I miss mommy!” When he was a baby, he knew no different. Now he’s aware that mom is gone and the boys are home alone.

We will see what trouble we can cause in the final few days of this adventure.

Home Stretch Causing Silliness

I think the sillies have set in with us.

The sillies have finally set in.

We’ve tried to be athletic, enjoy fine cuisine, gone to VBS, and played in the water.

But now, we are just plan losing it.

Crying at little things, emotional breakdowns and fits. And we haven’t even gotten to Levi’s moods yet.

He’s been saying “I want my Mommy!” often the last few days.

I admit, I want her, too. But, we must wait. We will get through this time apart. We have before and we will again.

Yup, pretty sure we’ve lost it.

Parenting can be easy. Good parenting is not. I’m still not sure where I fit in, but do know this much, challenges are a part of the deal and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Noah has been a rock star this week. Very little complaining, great attitude and a smile on most days. He’s had to be patient, as someone else in the house is crying or carrying on about the smallest of things. (Don’t tell Amy, but I may not be getting her children in bed soon enough).

They are both playing hard outside and come home tired. Throw in 90 degree temps and some hunger, and I have Roseanne Barr before her Snickers bar.

I appreciate you taking time to read these thoughts. But frankly, it is time to go bed. Justin Bieber is on Letterman tonight, so no need to stay up and watch the musical guest at the end of the show.

This Fun Is All Wet

Noah tests his aim on Levi. All systems go for some water fun.

Finally a little water to cool me off.

Levi seems to enjoy the sprinkler.

Maddox goes after Levi with his cup of water.

I don’t care who you are, that there is funny!

Noah says, “your turn, Maddox” to see what it is like to have water thrown on you.

Time to burn off any remaining energy with a race around the yard.

The words I write are fine to read. But you really just want to see the pictures in YBHA XI.

I know some readers want to read more about the wonderful Public Television program Market to Market or other fun items about media personalities like Ed Wilson or Jackie Schmillen.

Monday night was a hot one. We played in the sprinkler. Need I say more? Cousin Maddox was over for some good, clean fun and the boys got all wet and seemed to enjoy the evening.

 

Pancakes, Church and Baseball Combine For Great Father’s Day Fun

Sunday morning pancakes with my syrup-y sons.

I don’t think there’s a better way to spend Father’s Day than with my boys in church, at the ballpark and eating steak.

You will find no complaints from me about being home alone with the boys. I’ve spent a few Father’s Day working, this one just happens to be in the middle of YBHA XI.

Noah and 100 of his closest VBS friends helped pack Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (Services at 530p on Saturday, 8, 930 and 11 on Sunday morning) to belt out those Operation Overboard songs one more time. A special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Freeseman for joining us in church. We welcome all, including Methodists, to our party. It was good to have Wil with us and not in the hospital like he was two years ago on Father’s Day.

Take that, Noah!

After Levi allegedly took a nap, we loaded up on the sunscreen and headed to the ballpark. We sat in the sun for nine outs before retreating to the shade and the conversation with Bill and Ron, our regular row mates. We stayed to run the bases just like Anthony Rizzo when he hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth to propel the Iowa Cubs to a win. Even Levi wanted to run and not be carried. He did well rounding first and heading for home.

Finally, we tried something new on the grill for supper. A flank steak that ended up as the base for our fajitas. Thanks to Aunt Kris for joining us and convincing Levi to try steak. He ate it and apparently liked it. He did try a freshly picked raspberry, but quickly spit that out.

Guess who is the aggressor of these two?

Backyard baseball ended in tears, but they were quickly washed away by the hose. You remember my little hose buddy, right?

Mom called to make sure we were alive and upright. Yes on both accounts. She didn’t ask though, if our clothes were dry.

**Speaking of someone spending more daylight hours with his family, best to John Walters on his new gig at Iowa State University. He’ll be headed to Cyclones.TV. John signed up from ABC5 on Friday night. WOI just won’t be the same. Maybe we’ll see him in Ankeny more often.