Where did the summer go?

Hello from Chicago!

Sorry once again for missing our last posting period!  I could try to claim lack of time but that wouldn't be entirely accurate.  That's not to say our summers haven't been extremely busy!

As I'm sure everyone wants to know, wedding planning is going well.  We just met with our pastor to go over the ceremony and the day is becoming much clearer!  But we'll leave the details for later.  If you can't make it to the wedding I think Mom has passed around by now that we'll be having a reception for Katie and I on the Friday following Thanksgiving, so mark that on your calendars!

Anyway, on to the quick recap of our summers!

I finished classes in the first week of May and headed back to Kansas in time for Samuel's graduation and Mother's Day.  I was shocked to learn this was my first time in Kansas for a year!  As much as I thought moving back to the states would bring an end to the long gaps, it hasn't so far, unfortunately.

Around this time Katie started her summer hours which gives her every other Friday off in exchange for a slightly extended work day the other 9-days of the two-week period.  Meanwhile, I started working an internship for the Active Transportation Alliance, which is a non-profit advocacy organization in Chicago that works for improvements to pedestrian, bicycle, and transit infrastructure and policy.  They have a planning department that consults on projects that further their mission and I was brought on to help with a particular project over the summer that helped site bike racks and safety signs in smaller rural Illinois communities.  I also took an evening class, History of Planning, to get it out of the way before my second year.

So with that running as our day-to-day background, here was the rest of the summer in condensed form

At the end of May, we had some friends from Lincoln visit for Memorial Day weekend

In June, we each traveled for work: Me to downstate Illinois and Katie to Oklahoma.  We also saw Book of Mormon and house-sat for Katie's family friends for 3 weeks while they traveled to India.

In July, Hannah and James visited for the 4th of July and we did an express tour of Chicago.  (CityPass is a wonderful thing if you have 3 days or so to see everything).  Their visit also coincided with a bridal shower for Katie and all 4 bridesmaids were able to attend despite only 1 of them living in Chicago!  We hosted more friends and also made our first trip to Minnesota where it was about 55 and rainy the entire time!

August brought another trip to Minnesota, this one with perfect weather!  Upon returning, Katie had another bridal shower at work.  Hosted yet another friend!  Katie likes to marvel at the difference in number of visits between Lincoln and Chicago, it's like there's more to do in one!  Near the end of the month, the number of wedding related events ticked up significantly.  Meeting with the photographer a second time, doing tastings for reception dinner and cake, dress fittings etc.

And now we're here in September.  School has started again for me.  Katie just had her final summer hours Friday last week.  We're a month from the wedding and as busy as I thought summer was, I'm finding it never really lets up!  I'll leave you with some pictures, from the highlights of summer.

Katie and her bridesmaids

Fourth of July

Downtown Chicago from our Architecture Tour boat

Our neighborhood at sunset from the beach

The spoils of  Minnesota blueberry-picking

End of Summer

Dave gets to start off this post first. 

As usual, he has been busy with work. He worked an early shift this last week and that meant he was off by 4pm everyday. That made all of us happy.

Very happy. We were able to spend Friday at the pool since he worked 6-3 that day. We had two worn out girls!

It all started last weekend when we took our turns being sick and that meant he had off Monday. He took off the Monday the week before to spend time as a family and has Labor Day off. Three (possibly four) 4-day weeks in a row? Not bad! Basketball is still going on, so when he doesn’t have to be at church, he’s at basketball on Wednesdays. He has finished figuring out, ordering and setting up a new video system for the church. Plus building 2-3 (can’t remember how many) computers for the church in addition to all of that. So that is over! However, since our usual sound guy has pancreatic cancer,

Dave has been taking the bulk of that job. I’ve missed sitting with him in church for the last 3 months, but I’m proud of him for serving in that way with a joyful heart.

(Pretty sure he does not know this picture exists, for obvious reasons.)

Photo by Adelynn.

We went on a walk and I pushed Ava in the stroller and Dave pulled the wagon… just for fun  

 

Cake Batter Bars are on my list to make soon! I have leftover funfetti cake mix to use up from the cheesecakes I made for Ava’s dedication.

Accessory Swap is what I had for Women’s Ministry last week. We had so much fun making it girly and blinged up. We all brought old purses, jewelry, scarves, etc and left with new stuff!

Small group is starting up again very soon and we are looking forward to that – Adelynn especially :)

Starbucks will soon have their Pumpkin Spice back and I am dying for a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino with extra pumpkin!

I’m keeping busy with my girls as always. I love the Summer but I am glad for the structure that Fall brings. We will have regular play groups again, library story times, dance, etc.

(I’m kind of glad my name doesn’t have an E on the end! I’m out of stuff to say. Are you now noticing my format?)

Adelynn is really enjoying the kittens right now. She asks about them multiple times each day and wants to go downstairs to pet them first thing in the morning.

Dance starts tomorrow! This year Adelynn starts with Tap and moves to Ballet. It’s hard to believe she is really big enough to tap dance!! Her recital will be May 16-17, I am not sure which day she will dance on yet. So add that date to your calendar if you think of it!

wE are at a new place called Poetry In Motion. I met the owner this summer (She does Parents As Teachers) and she hosted a class for us. I was so impressed with her and the way she handled the kids. Since we weren’t real enthused with the owner of The Pointe or their organization/communication skills, the move was a good choice.

Library Story Times will start in the next couple weeks. It’s hard to believe that Adelynn is old enough to sit through the story times by herself!

Yes, Adelynn helped me when I decorated for Fall last week. I’m trying to raise her right! She did an excellent job placing the leaves on the piano.

Not only that, but she admired the wreaths I put up. That made me feel good. She also traded out the chevron pillows on each couch because she “likes them better that way”.

Naps are becoming a thing of the past. So a few times each week we have a dance party in the living room in the afternoons after quiet time. Ava sometimes bounces in her bouncer or lets me hold her to dance to the 80s music! (Adelynn’s choice)

They love to sit in the chair or lay in the crib together to read (and chew).

Little diva even took her purse to the zoo.

We braved Dillons Marketplace on opening morning. We got so many comments while she pushed the cart that is just her size! She only ran over one of my toes and only hit me in the leg once. Not bad for her first time driving a cart!
Every day she wants me to put her hair in “one hair braid”. On this day she also wanted a picture.

Ava is such a chill baby. She is enjoying tummy time more and usually rolls right over to her stomach when she is laid down on the floor. She starts to sleep on her back, but she’s usually on her tummy before too long.

Very often she is relaxed just hanging out in her car seat. No one ever wants to leave her in there, but she is usually content there. When we went to Dillons, she just watched everything from her seat. Now, I wish I had worn her, but that’s just because her seat took up so much room in the cart. She will be sitting up before we know it though!

Adelynn is really her favorite source of entertainment. I’m trying to savor the moments when Ava and Adelynn give each other the giggles and it’s contagious. The car ride to church on Sunday was just constant giggling. It made Dave and me laugh too.

She fell asleep waiting on Mom to get ready to go.

Squishy face!

 

(Getting 3 kittens to hold still it nearly impossible! Let alone to all look at you all at the same time!) The one on the left with the spot on his nose is the sweetest little guy, if I could keep one, it would be him. The one on the top is the more rambunctious little boy. He’s ornery in the best way. The one on the bottom is our chubby little girl who is spoken for by my friend’s Mom. She has the prettiest face and we are pretty sure she is going to have long fur.

Our big cats are up to the same old things! (I don’t have one of Betty, she’s usually with her kittens in the basement.)

Bella on Dave’s dresser. (This is 5 feet tall. This picture is basically taken at eye level.) The good news is that I rarely have to dust it! Have you seen her tail?! It’s really just a giant duster.

Bella giving baths. (the torture was mutual, Ava pulled out a clump of fur, ouch!)

There was something really interesting about this roll of burlap… it was all rolled up when I left it on the floor.

You can always catch up with us on my blog. If you don’t want to check in often to see if there’s anything new, you can subscribe. All you have to do is go here and go part way down the left sidebar and enter your email. Then you will get the posts in your email once I publish them. There’s sometimes recipes or thoughts on parenting or life, but let’s be honest… it’s mostly just pictures of our girls and my favorites of Adelynn’s quotes!

Missouri Life

Greetings from Missouri!

Life here hasn't been too bad—we're mostly moved into the house and have settled into a routine. We live on the far north side of Columbia. That means away from all the college students, but unfortunately away from all the social-y stuff as well. Columbia's a nice town though, and if we do go out, there's lots of exploring to get done (it's ~110,000 people). We have a couple sets of friends in the area as well, including one with kittens, so we tend to end up all over.

Four of us are living together (myself, Andrew R McHugh, Andrew Robertson, and Sam), two of whom I've lived with before so there's not a lot of adjusting to be done on that front. The house is nothing special, a four bed, three bath duplex that we keep at 77F when we do turn on the A/C (which is usually just when we have guests).

View of the living room
(Sam brews beer. That's all that stuff by the door)

A mostly clean view of my room. McHugh's is the messy one
you can see through my door.

I've been keeping a fairly normal schedule recently, commuting 5 days a week to school for my job (it's about ~45m to Fulton, but they don't expect me there right at 8 so it's been easy enough). So far I've mostly been managing login problems and other basic IT work for students, but I've spent a lot of my down time designing advising toolkits so academic advisors and alumni advisors will know what to do with the data coming out of students' e-portfolios. I don't see my supervisor very often (I think it's been a week), and I have a lot of freedom because the non-techy faculty basically assume I'm working magic. I have an "office" though!

My "desk art." It's a paper model I made of the USS Voyager,
from the TV Series Star Trek: Voyager. The quotes are from
Captain Janeway, my favorite character, on how to lead

My office at least has a good view. The silver
board to the right of my desk is my other personal
touch. It was one of my birthday gifts last year
and has a diagram of Derek Parfit's
"The Practical Problem and its Solutions,"
which I use almost daily.

I say "office," because two afternoons a week, it's former resident shows up and shares it with me (because he doesn't like sharing his current office? I'm not entirely sure why he's there). Then of course there's all the HR materials that people are always coming in and getting, plus the two printers student workers are always using...really I just have a space and the room is a common area.*

*Granted, it's still all a bit frustrating because one of the complaints about the Sustainability Fellow campaign (My position is equivalent but for the e-portfolios) was that we hadn't specified where such a person would be housed. So we did some research and learned that that was the job of the Space Allocation Committee—except, apparently, when it's not. My "office" was found and set up for me in less than two days. When the school actually wants something, the school gets it. They just didn't want the Sustainability Fellow.

I don't think much else is happening here really worth noting (I'm finishing books, riding my bike, etc). Hope everyone else is doing well!

The Great Adventure Continues

It really is the case that life is just one big adventure and every now and then you get some extraordinary moments. Those could range from our wonderful family get togethers to a quiet evening at home to the far off reaches of another land. For Kurtis and I, the past three weeks has been made up of some very extraordinary moments as we took a travel out to Australia. 

When we finished up with our European Adventure, nearly four years ago now, we immediately began naming all of the places we would like to travel to next. Australia quickly peaked the list and ever since we moved to NYC, we have been saving. I’ll try to make this short with pictures versus long with words because there is a whole journal full of things to read about if you have that interest. 

The top hits include but are not limited to: 

A journey to the Green Island at the Great Barrier Reef

 

Little Penguins and Koalas on Phillip Island near Melbourne

A helicopter ride over the Blue Mountain Canyon with Faye & Ian Pandelis (cousins) 

Kangaroos in the wild (pictures in Sept/Oct)

Wandering the rain forest of the Blue Mountains 

Climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge 

 

Uluru and Kata Tjuta (Ayers Rock) 

Taronga Zoo in Sydney 

Great Meals with Family in Sydney, Ballina and Wardell  

 

had to be sure you knew I was actually on the vacation too

- this is what relaxation looks like -

As we returned to work this week we have been tired beyond belief, but 100% happy with our vacation. It is amazing how much traveling to new places can open your eyes to entirely different and awesome worlds and how it allows you to stop, really enjoy life and re-energize. Hope you get a chance to stop and enjoy life for a moment or two this week. 

As for us, we are now facing a big move as our return to reality gave us the distinct knowledge that things keep moving on. And so, we move on to the next house - hopefully we'll find one this weekend and move next weekend. At least, that's the plan...more on that adventure next time. 

Lots of Love! 

Mary and Kurtis