Rivers Ripple

Where has 3 months gone???
When last I wrote we were anticipating the arrival of Baby Rivers...and it was fall.  Now we have enjoyed the winter holidays, recently lots of snow, and are adjusting to life as a family of four!
Dan has been busy with the weather at work.  He has experienced the joys of having no immunity built up, having had both the flu and a nasty respiratory/cold.  Dan has set up his computer monitors in the basement (aka the "man cave") and is anticipating the release of a video game this month.  He's looking forward to an upcoming trip to South by Southwest for work this week (Sarah is having a little anxiety about being a single parent for a week!).
Sarah continues to enjoy being home and, although we've had some rough days, would not trade the opportunity.  She added another successful certified "organic" childbirth to her bucket list in December.  Most days are spent juggling two small children, a needy dog, and squeezing in a little time for herself.  She has continued to complete Sensory Profiles for Rainbows and will return to Via Christi Rehab at the beginning of April.  The two and three year old Sunday School class at church keeps her on her toes (just take Olivia's spunk and combine it with two boys and it's genuinely a good time).  Her goals for the next few months include: trying 3 new recipes (ask her about her granola), reading 2 books, and making a coffee/walk date 1x/month.
Olivia, now 27 months, has gained independence, a newfound sense of concern for others, and a deepened passion for cookies (mostly the baking) over the past few months.  Oh, yes, and the gold star award for best big sister ever (minus the black eye incident of recent and the inability to whisper).  She will talk your ear off when given the chance (usually about princesses, robots, crocodiles, and other imaginary situations combined with real people/places).  Olivia is learning the songs for Sunday school, enjoys PAT playgroup 1x/week, and tried out gymnastics in February.
Kinley, now 11 weeks, joined the family a bit earlier than anticipated on December 17, 2012.  After a bit of a rough start, she now weighs in at a solid 11.7 lbs, and is well known for her sturdy, snuggly self.  She has a sweet voice and smile.  Sometimes Kinley has gas, which really bothers her.  Oh, and she holds the record for most blow-outs in a cloth diaper: currently 6 (beating the old record holder of 1, Olivia).
Brisco has decided both girls are acceptable, especially Olivia who readily shares forbidden snacks with him.  He still loves to sleep above your head at night and demands attention when people visit.
We are all looking forward to a trip to NYC/Brooklyn to see Mary and Kurtis this month.  As always, you can catch up with the latest at our blog (which Sarah is trying to update 1x/week): theriverscurrent.blogspot.com

Life in Chicago

We missed our last post in the fall and that one is on me.  I put it off for a week because I was busy at school and it fell through the cracks.  So, what that means is we owe everyone an extra long post!  We'll do our best.

Katie started work August 15th and has been enjoying working for American Agricultural Insurance Company.  It is a reinsurer (sells insurance to insurance companies) which is owned by and works for the Farm Bureau. She works in catastrophe modeling, the main job of which is to give information to the Farm Bureaus about the risk of their book of insurance (Bored yet?!). Anyway, they make suggestions to the individual companies on how they can avoid being in a situation like Joplin where they suddenly have to pay for an entire town all at once. Unfortunately they do not currently do business with the Kansas Farm Bureau (Farm Bureau P&C is what it is called), so if you have any favors that you can call in to help fix that problem, feel free!

Meanwhile, Andrew is continuing at school and is well into his second semester.  The first semester was two theory-based courses and a general planning skills course.  He had to put together a community profile for the city of Des Plaines, which is near O'Hare Airport, and can tell you too much about the city.  This semester he has added a fourth class and a job researching for a professor who is looking at climate change impacts for Chicago, so his meteorology is still getting a workout.  He's taking a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) class that teaches a program to make maps from data and the general course in plan making is working on making a legitimate plan for an industrial corridor that had two power plants shut down and needs redevelopment.  Here's the view from his transit station at school:

Back at home, the other big change is the new addition to the family.  Scout, as she became known after 2 weeks of frustrating name-searching, has added some frustration but mostly a lot of pleasure to our time at home.  We adopted her in November and she has grown so fast!  Her favorite toys are hair ties, even if Katie is using them and she loves knocking anything that she can move off a counter but her sleep schedule is improving.  We had never heard a cat that chirped before, but she makes a noise when she is excited that sounds like a bird.

We're trying to take advantage of the diverse surroundings in our neighborhood.  We're less than a half-mile from just about every type of food you can imagine and we were introduced by a Peace Corps friend of mine to a restaurant called The Hopleaf that has at least 30 brews on tap and a delicious menu and has become our favorite neighborhood restaurant.  We've been to several Cubs games at Wrigley thanks to Katie's family and even got to go on the field!

We met the rest of the Shooks in Minnesota for Christmas (finally!) and thoroughly enjoyed walking on the lake as well as our many games of 1600!  Now that we're back in Chicago, we're waiting for OUR 14 inch snow but it doesn't seem to be coming :(

And remember to save the date! (Physical copy coming!)

In transition… still.

Today was an excellent day to get out of the house (between snow storms it sounds like). I feel like we have been in the house for a straight month! We haven’t, but it seems that as soon as one thing ends, another begins. First we took turns being sick, Dave’s job has been very busy for several weeks, and he went skiing one weekend. By the time we got out of the house for one day after Adelynn’s respiratory flu ended, she came home sick again and there was another weekend that passed. She was feeling better for about 3 days, and then came the weather! We stayed in most of the week. Dave took my car to work yesterday, which I was glad for, and we had nowhere to go, but it just solidified the feeling of being “stuck”. Today (Saturday) he worked almost a full day again. He took a lunch break to go with us to the Low German Supper at Central Christian today. MMM. That’s something we don’t ever miss! I pulled the pregnancy card and went back to get some to-go for dinner! I am not ashamed.

Here’s a link to our Snow Fun so far this year. (There’s pictures)

We also made snow cream yesterday while David was at work. OHMYGOODNESS! It was SO much better than I remember as a kid! We used 10 cups of fluffy snow that Adelynn scooped herself, 1 tsp of vanilla and a can of sweetened condensed milk. Next time we will use a little less snow. We saved some for Dave, which he had never had, and it was all freezer burnt by the time he got home, so we will just have to make some more And it’s very easy to come by right now! None of our yard has been touched – except for the shoveling Dave did, the snow blowing my Dad did, and the scooping Adelynn did, which still leaves a ridiculous amount of snow.

The baby seems to be doing well! It still moves a lot – mostly when I would like to sleep. It also still lets me know when it is hungry and when it approved of what I ate! This pregnancy has gone so fast and it’s hard to believe our little one will be here so soon!

The crib came this week and that gave us a project. Adelynn was happy to help her Dad with that one. She also approved of all the packing materials it came in. She asks about the baby everyday now. She wants to know if it’s coming soon. (Sometimes she asks because she knows her birthday will come after the baby is born.) She will most often say she is having a brother, but sometimes she also says she will have a sister. When she hears a baby cry, she believes the answer is always to give the baby the plug. So, hopefully this next kid will take a pacifier… because it might not get much choice! We are just waiting on the dresser (probably another 2 weeks) and we need to pick up a few more things once the weather lets us go to Target all together!

The nursery isn’t all set up yet, but the crib and glider are ready to go!

Adelynn is doing great. She’s feeling much better this week. Her articulation has really taken off and it’s amazing how much clearer she is speaking. She is very forward with her opinions. This is not new whatsoever, but it is all very clearly articulated. She will ask questions and check for your opinion. If you drop something in the other room: “Mommy, you okay?” or when I get home from a meeting: “Mommy you have fun at your meeting?” She’s always been so considerate and it shows more and more all the time. She’s getting so quick too. Especially if you tell her “no” to something. She doesn’t have a fit, she just tries to reason with you and compromise. She picks up everything you say and is listening even when you think she isn’t! She participates in conversation or brings it up later. She’s very good with telling stories and remembering things. We have gotten to the point where we have to be very careful what we even do around her because we know if it comes out in story-form, it could be misinterpreted. For example: tonight Dave had a plastic knife in his hand while standing near the kitchen sink. Adelynn ran past him with her balloon and she wanted him to chase her. He took a few steps with the knife in his hand. We both quickly realized that the knife needed to be set down (yes for safety) but mainly because we could just hear her repeating that her Daddy chased her around the house with a knife!

This post is made up of some random content, but it’s what we have right now! We are just in our ongoing transition phase at the moment. I feel like we have been in a bizarre phase of life since mid-November. It was one thing after another at that point and it seems like things have continued changing since then. But at least we are realistic and realize that life won’t be “normal” for a while

Kate filling in for Chris - Life with Ben continues

Hello family,

It's Kate filing in for Chris. We traded this week because his life is very hectic. Also today his is birthday so Happy Birthday to Chris!

I am very happy and excited to actually have things to update you all on. My life is becoming much fuller than it has been and I am happy and feeling fulfilled. As many of you know I have my own apartment with Ben. I love it and it is finally decorated and feels like home. I have a neighbor across the hall who is in the TECH program in Hutchinson and who has special needs. He loves Benny and once a week he comes over for an hour to spend time with Ben and visit with me. I also recently took him to the Cosmosphere. I like knowing that I am giving back and knowing that Benny is helping someone besides me.

Spending time with him (Doug is his name) has led me to think about exploring possible job opportunities in the future. Doug has helpers that come in several times a week from TECH that help him clean his apartment, grocery shop, take him to the movies, and just spend time with him. I think in a year or so this might be something I will look into. This would be something I would enjoy and Ben would work very well in this job.

In addition, to spending time with dog I have also been spending quite a bit of time at the Kennel Club. I began taking Ben to an advanced obedience class before Christmas and the assistant teacher was Alicia who was a friend of Sarah's in middle school. She now has a service dog who is extremely well trained. (You may have seen him at Casino Night. This dog has come light years since then.). We began talking and she convinced me to take another class that she would be the main teacher in (also she talked me into taking agility so that started this week). We began attending Alicia's class after Christmas. At that point she invited Ben and I to go out with her and  Sparrow for training sessions. Since then we get together once a week and go somewhere with the dog for training and then coffee. It has been wonderful to have a fellow service dog trainer around and also someone who is managing her mental illness very well, going to school, making plans for the future and teaching dog classes. I know she went through a lot of battles to get where she is today so it is nice to have a friend who can relate to where I'm at but also be in a more advanced spot than where I am. It gives me hope.

Speaking of hope, Alicia's goal is to someday open a service dog program. She has asked me if I would like to explore this with her. This has also been a dream of mine and right now we are looking into certification, fundraising options and learning as much as possible about training dogs as we can.

There has been a hiccup with Benny. During the last part of January Benny began growling a bit. I think this was probably because my anxiety is heightened this time of year and he was reacting to that. He just didn't want strange people (mostly men) near me. I made the mistake of calling Darcie, Ben's trainer, to ask for ideas. She has not been cooperative. Heeling Allies still owns Ben (technically they have dual ownership) which means they can possibly repossess him or require us to retire him. I do not think in anyway that his issues are non-fixable nor does anyone who has seen him exhibit this behavior (Alicia, my parents, other Kennel club members). Darcie does not seem to think so either however she does blame me for his behavior. She believes that because I began teaching Ben new tasks and skills (to help with the growling) I caused it. She sent us an email that included taking passages from my blog out of context to 'prove' her point. She has not been nice nor cooperative in this process. Her goal is obviously to save her reputation. She went as far as to imply that I am causing Ben to be unhappy.   Thankfully, due to the progress I have made (thanks to Ben, the work I have been doing with the Kennel Club, my meetings with Alicia and just the general improvements my self-esteem has had) I know I did not do anything wrong. Our goal now is to simply get Darcie out of our lives. Convince her that Ben is improving and that she does not need to retire him nor come and get him. Any prayers, good wishes or anything else you believe in would be much appreciated about this situation.

And now on a lighter note - some pictures:

Grandma made my quit for my bed - Benny is modeling

My friend Verna  and Benny

The top is the first picture I received of Benny in the spring of 2012 and below is a picture taken in December

My tree at my apartment

This is the video I made when recently speaking for a group that donated to Benny. It is pictures of our six months together.