Em - I’m still working as a nurse practitioner at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Health Services. In January, I will celebrate my 3 year anniversary. Crazy! In April, we restructured our staffing so I’m now working 3 days a week. It’s great! I’m definitely staying busy...and enjoying work a bit more. Outside of work I’m still running and volunteering with Chicago Scholars. In September, I met two sports celebrities, Lauren Fleshman and Summer Sanders, at a local running event...so awesome! This year, I was voted Chicago Scholars Class of 2019 Mentor of the Year by my cohort of scholars. Such an honor!
John - John’s position at the University of Illinois-Chicago was again extended for one more year. We’re pretty sure this will be his final year at UIC. We’re still not sure what’s next but we’re hoping to be in the Chicago, Madison, or Minneapolis areas. Time will tell! Outside of work, John is still working out and running, including 4 races. It’s fun to run together every once in awhile! We also both started swimming when the weather was too cold to run last winter. John continues to enjoy playing video games virtually with his friends.
Travels - We started off 2015 with a ski trip to Whistler, near Vancouver, with John’s family. It was a great trip! They even got me to backcountry ski on a glacier. It was terrifying but so worth it! In March, we took a little trip to East Lansing, MI where John spoke at a conference. I particularly enjoyed it because there was a McAlister’s there! We went to Disney World with John’s family in May. Disney is always a great trip for us. We rode the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and saw the new Festival of Fantasy parade...so awesome! The American College Health Association Annual Meeting happened to be in Orlando as well so John and I just extended our vacation a few extra days until the conference began. August brought an epic road trip through Canada to Montana with John’s parents. We drove approximately 3737 miles and traveled through 12 states/provinces: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa! In October, I went to New York City for the second time in my life. It was a great weekend trip to celebrate Aubrey’s baby shower...and I’ll probably go back again a little sooner this time. We went to Lake Tahoe for a wedding in November. It was fun to travel somewhere new and see old friends that I hadn’t seen in awhile. We also got in a great hike in the mountains. In addition to these bigger trips, we also went back to Wisconsin/Minnesota a few times to visit family and friends and made it to Homecoming at UW-Madison. Great times!
Visitors - In July, my foreign exchange sisters, Ale and Laura (and their families), came to Chicago/Wisconsin to help celebrate Dad’s 65th birthday. We had an absolutely amazing time. It was so great to meet Ale’s husband and kids, to be Tia Emily, and to spend quality time with all of them in both Chicago and Cochrane.
Challenge - Our biggest challenge this year has been trying to get pregnant. We’re currently undergoing fertility treatments. We’re hoping, praying, and cautiously optimistic that 2016 will be the year!
2016 - We’re finishing up 2015 and starting out 2016 with a trip to New Zealand! John found a 9 day “adventure tour” of the south island. We’re so excited! We’ll also have about a day before and after the tour to spend in Christchurch. Our hopes for 2016 are that John will find a job he enjoys, in a geographical location of our liking, that we will expand our family, and that we will continue to enjoy time with each other, our families and our friends. Happy New Year!
