In the Bleak Midwinter!

Seasons greetings to all!

We've certainly been suddenly thrust into the wintertime here in the Midwest.  In Chicagoland, we've had a series of storms that probably gave us a total of 12ish inches of snow.  Our front walk is now flanked by two piles of snow that has been shoveled 3 or 4 times and the temperature fell down to -13 degrees last night.  So our base layer is set for the winter and we'll see when this snow finally disappears.

On the work front, Katie received a promotion in October which elevated her to a full Catastrophe Modeling Analyst which was a while coming.  She has been modeling some of AAICs biggest accounts and always felt slightly frustrated sending her tagline with the somewhat comical Senior Catastrophe Modeling Assistant title.  Assuming nothing big changes in the next two weeks, they will have had a moderately successful year after dodging a bullet with Hurricane Matthew and despite some major wildfires.

Meanwhile, Andrew has continued his work for Peapod, which has picked up during the holiday season.  In the last few months, Andrew has also been working with his boss in spare time to learn some details of the decisions that go into building the service model and the day-to-day challenges of executing our plans.  Basically, these issues fall immediately on either side of his current work taking in orders each day and producing the next days route plans.

Throughout the fall, we've been following the Cubs in their run through the MLB playoffs.  Katie's family has had season tickets for decades which meant we were able to afford tickets to playoff games.  We each went to Game 2 of the NLCS and Game 5 of the World Series.  As I'm sure everyone knows, they had not won a title since 1908 and few expected that to change this fall.  The question was simply how spectacularly could they lose?  But instead they won in one of the most spectacular runs since the.....2015 Royals! (Guess who's writing this post!)  In all seriousness though, after watching one of our teams go to the World Series three straight years, October baseball is emotionally draining and it wouldn't be the end of the world if we get a reprieve next season.

Other than that...

Obviously the biggest story is our pregnancy!  (Grand)Baby Shook is due on May 17th of 2017.  Katie is doing well and has been relatively fortunate to escape any struggles with nausea.  This second trimester has introduced some insomnia but frequent naps are helpful when they are an option.  We've made the jump to maternity clothing which has emptied her side of the closet significantly!  As we approach the 19th week, Katie is unsure if she's felt the baby move but we've been told to expect that to begin soon.  We've been blessed with a large spread of hand-me-downs already as friends and family (thanks Rutherfords!) are stocking our cache of supplies.

Below are a few photos from our lives the last couple months:

Baby Shook at 12 weeks

Attending game 2 of the NLDS

Fall adventures took us camping in Wisconsin

And apple and pumpkin picking in Northern Illinois

Our Christmas decorations this season, before a couple of the strings burned out.

Our current winter wonderland!

The Givans Have No Internet!

The Theresa and Chris Givans, that is, have shutoff the internet at their place as a way of saving some money. Hopefully, when combined with a deferment or income-driven repayment plan on Chris' student loans, that will make our income and expenses commensurate!

So without internet "delivered" to the house we've been relaying on our still-active data plan and phones or other people's internet—in fact, the first time we tried to borrow someone's internet for this post it was Kate's and it turned out to be down thanks to a problem on AT&T's part.

Finally, we've overcome that and borrowed another connection to bring out an update on our typically-uneventful lives. Chris is still at the library part-time, when he remembers to go in, anyways. Monday night I was actually supposed to have gone in, but forgot about it. In my defense, I don't normally work Monday nights, I'd traded with someone else. Fortunately the library is understanding and even allows you to make up the hours.

Theresa is working with Kate to sell clothes via their Lu La Roe consultancy, which went well this past week. Some appointments to see their inventory plus an open house resulted in a solid income for the week's work.

We'll be driving to the Chicago-area for Christmas, to join Theresa's family. We won't actually be in Chicago all that much but bouncing around between the city, Lake Geneva, and Madison, WI.

That's just about all in our little world, I think. Best!

Enjoying the Fall Colors

The old saying "'no news is good news"   pretty much sums up our post this time.
With that in mind we decided to enjoy the fall colors and pass the pictures on.

The last rose of summer.

The Rivers girls decided to help when they visited.

           Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Love, Grandma & Grandpa

Every Day is New

Hello Family,

You know, I can't even remember the last time that we posted on the blog. Life is going so quickly right now and my brain is filled with so many little moments that I often forget other things currently. And that is just fine with me!

Kurtis and I have had the great pleasure of enjoying time together with our daughter, Aurora. (See, I don't remember whether or not I officially posted her birth on the blog...) He took about a week and a half off right after she was born. Then a lay off at the shop for a short while gave us another month together. Basically the first two months of Aurora's life we got to spend as a family. How lucky! Sometimes there are perks to our jobs being a little less predictable!

We have had a few family members come to visit. First, Mom and Dad for about a week. Rori was only two weeks old at this point, so we spent the days just watching and enjoying cuddles with her. A few wanders out in to the sunshine. Then, Sarah, Emily, Hannah and Susan came to visit at the beginning of October. Again, it was mostly cuddles, but some wandering through the neighborhood too. This was during Mary's recovery period, which she and Kurtis took very seriously to ward off any postpartum depression with plenty of rest.

A couple weeks ago we were finally able to start feeling like we were coming out of the wonderfully intoxicating newborn haze and began to piece together how life would now be working as a family of three. It's such an exciting adventure to be on together!

I head back to work this weekend. Kurtis and I will be able to switch off care for a while, so lucky for little Miss Rori, she will have time with both of her parents. We look forward to seeing all of you for a quick visit coming up at the end of November and hope to make a longer visit in the following near future so everyone can get even more time with Aurora.

In the meantime, with a week that has left some disappointment with the president-elect, I encourage all of you to remember that each day is new, God never sends us more than we can handle and we each have the ultimate power of love to send out in to the world around us.

Love to all,
Mary, Kurtis and Aurora

Pictures mostly from when Aurora was a newborn...

I'll figure out how to download more recent pictures next time...

and I'm sure you'll be bored with all of them soon enough, but I'll keep sharing ;)