Job updates

John and I both have job updates. Well, I have an update...John has ambiguity. So, me first.

Last week I started with my new three day a week schedule. It was weird. We finally hired the new nurse practitioner from the job that posted way back in December. She started last Monday. I now work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; the new NP works Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays; and Megan works Tuesdays through Fridays. It's so strange (and sad) to only work with Megan two days a week. On top of all these changes, we also have a nurse practitioner student in the office two days a week (Wednesdays and Thursdays). It's going to take some adjusting...but I know I'll eventually like it!

John's update is a lot more involved. He interviewed for a tenure-track professor position at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan back in February. At the end of the two day interview, they told him to let them know if he was still interested in a week. He decided he didn't want to pursue it, mostly because he would have had to teach calculus every semester forever but also because we've grown to love Chicago and Kalamazoo is the opposite geographical direction for us to move if we're going to go to a smaller city and need to buy two cars.

When he applied to the Western Michigan job he also applied to Google Chicago. He had a phone interview right away but then didn't hear anything for a long time. Friday night he got an email asking if he was still interested. We shall see...

John's current plan is to do more programming with his dad's software company once he's finished teaching for the semester. He's trying to get a website for one of the programs up and running. More to come...but at least for now, we're staying in Chicago!

Parenthood (The TV Series)

I just watched the series finale of Parenthood which originally aired on January 29th. Yeah, I'm a little behind. I also was waiting for the right mood and the right time to watch it because I knew it would be a tough one for me. I think there have only been a couple of episodes in the entire series that I didn't cry while watching. In this last season, I've teared up before the opening credits on more than one occasion. The finale was one of those. Actually, once the tears started, they were hard to stop. I must have gone through at least 12 tissues.

I won't spoil the ending for any of you who haven't watched it. I'll just say that I highly, highly recommend it. I just reread my post about Parenthood from 2011. I'm so glad NBC gave it six seasons...and the advanced noticed to wrap up a lot of loose ends in the series finale. This is a series I'll watch over and over again.

Goals for 2015: 1st quarter update

Work

• Work less. We finally hired a third nurse practitioner and she starts on Monday! Woohoo! More details on what that means in an upcoming post.
• Don't sweat the small stuff. I needed some retail therapy after work one Friday in February but other than that, things have been good. Having Megan, my co-nurse practitioner, back from maternity leave has helped a whole lot in this area!

Exercise

• Run three times a week. I ran 47.85 miles in January, 31.65 miles in February (darn cold!), and 48.07 miles in March. I did not hit the three times a week goal for 4 of the 12 weeks, but only one of those weeks had less than two runs (and that was when I was skiing at Whistler). I also ran my first race of the year, the Shamrock Shuffle 8K the last Sunday in March.
• Do a pull up! I have not succeeded in this yet but I'm getting closer. I've worked out 10 times so far this year and have been to yoga 7 times. I can tell I'm making progress because a few weeks ago I actually did crow pose for the first time ever at yoga. Woohoo!

Personal

• Read books. I've read two books so far this year, Cordelia's Honor and The Charlatans (Remnants of America: Vol 1). I'm now slowly working my way through Young Miles, the book that follows Cordelia's Honor in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.
• Stay involved with Chicago Scholars. I officially recommitted to being a mentor as well as an Associate Board member for next year. Exciting things are happening with Chicago Scholars and I'm thrilled to be involved!

Lent

I grew up Catholic and while I'm not a regularly practicing Catholic anymore (Yup, I've turned into a Chreaster.), I usually still give up something for Lent. Last year I gave up going to Starbucks. Instead of stopping in for my thrice weekly chai latte, I drank tea or hot chocolate at work. I had been a little concerned about the cost as well as needing the caffeine. I gave it up without a problem...but couldn't wait to stop on our way home on Easter Sunday! I found that what I missed the most was stopping in to my neighborhood Starbucks and seeing the friendly faces each morning. My baristas know my order and my name and I missed that more than I missed the chai latte itself.

This year, after much deliberation, I decided to give up Facebook and Twitter. I still checked my notifications and, towards the end of Lent, stalked the @BadgerMBB Twitter feed for Final Four news. I also continued to follow my Instagram feed to at least keep a bit of a pulse on things. Additionally, I still posted a few things on Facebook. But I didn't spend time browsing Facebook or Twitter or keeping up with them like usual. I decided to do this because I was starting to feel anxious about not having time to see everyone's posts/tweets. FOMO (fear of missing out) is strong in me, I guess.

Do you know what I found out? I didn't miss it. Well, not really. I missed the news. (Yes, Facebook and Twitter are my main sources of news.) On the plus side, I had a lot of time on my hands. I cleaned up my email inbox including articles I had sent myself to read from April 2014. I actually listened to TED talks (this one and this one) for the first time. My reader (online log of websites/blogs I subscribe to) was at zero most nights.

But (there's always a but) I definitely feel like I need to be back on these social media sites. Most of my friends communicate with me through them. Also, all those articles I finally had the time to read caught my attention from Facebook or Twitter. However, I definitely need to cut down on the time I spend on them. I probably need to cut down on the number of people I follow. My goal for the next couple of weeks is to figure out how to make this more manageable.

Thanks, Badgers!

Last night's game was a tough way to end an amazing season. These guys played so hard all season long. They were so fun to watch! I'm super glad I got to see them in person at Northwestern in early January.

I have a few issues with how the last couple games were officiated. It seems like the teams who are favored or expected to win get better calls. That has to be frustrating as a player and coach. However, in the end, there were opportunities to win. On Saturday, those opportunities worked in our favor; last night they didn't.

No apology necessary, Sam. In fact, thank you. Thank you to each and every one of you for coming to Wisconsin and for being stand up guys and true student athletes. I think it's safe to say Nigel expanded many vocabularies in the last few weeks!

Book Report: The Charlatans (Remnants of America: Vol. 1)

I bought The Charlatans (Remnants of America Vol. 1) by J.T.R. Brown soon after it was released last fall. However, I just got around to reading it. I worked with J.T. at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana when we lived there. It was really interesting to read a book by someone I know!

It took me a couple of chapters to really get into The Charlatans but once I was in, I was in and I struggled to put it down to get to sleep on time. The character building and world building are excellent. Overall, I really like J.T.'s style of writing though sometimes it's a little wordy for me. He also uses an awesome variety of vocabulary words. I had to pull out the dictionary a few times (which I love).

My favorite quote from the book was from page 151:

This country has organized a religion around a man who hated organized religion.

This stuck with me particularly because it reflects my current religious beliefs so well.

J.T. recently announced that Remnants of America Vol. 2 will be out in Fall 2015. I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Title: The Charlatans (Remnants of America: Vol. 1)
Author: J.T.R. Brown
Genre: Post-apocalyptic fiction
Pages: 288
Stars (Out of 5): ***

Race Report: Shamrock Shuffle 8K

 

Natallie and I ran the Shamrock Shuffle this morning. It was our second year running together (though last year we were in different corrals so didn't actually run together but ran identical times) and my third year overall. It's a fun race that kicks off the Chicago running season.

We met in the lobby about 7:45am and walked over to the start corrals. We were a little too early as we were entering the corral a couple minutes after 8am, nearly 20 minutes before our corral closed. The sun peaked out just a little while we were waiting for the start. It was still freezing but the sun made it bearable.

We were in Corral C so we started about 10 minutes after the official 8:30am start. It took a good mile for my legs, feet, and fingers to defrost. By mile two, I was unzipping my jacket and taking off my gloves. It was super windy but it didn't impact us much until just past the 5K mark going south on Franklin. Then, it eased up as we turned east but then hit us again going south on Michigan. I lost Natallie towards the end but found her pretty quickly after the finish.

Immediately afterwards we thought maybe it was going to turn out to be nice enough to enjoy the finish party for a little bit but by the time we made it there we were freezing again.

2015 Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle finishers!

We did a good job of pacing ourselves, starting out between 8:30 and 9 and slowly getting faster. I'm not sure if we ended up with negative splits or not (mile 3 may have been slightly slower than mile 2) but it was close!

Distance: 8K
Time: 41:44
Cost: $50
Pros: Super close to home, well organized start corrals, fun course, super cute green Dri-Fit t-shirt, great on-course support
Cons: Weather kinda sucked this year, fairly crowded
Would I run it again?: Yes!

Wisconsin Alumni Association Chicago Chapter

Last night I participated in the Wisconsin Alumni Association Chicago Chapter scholarship interviews. We interviewed 23 high school seniors (plus a few others via phone) for six $5000/year scholarships renewable for four years. The students were amazing! A few of them were pretty nervous but most of them hid any nerves and answered our questions extremely well.

There were 322 total applicants which were whittled down to 70 applicants by a few committee members. Then, more of us reviewed those 70 applications on paper and listed our Top 25. The applicants with the most Top 25 votes were invited to the interviews. The interviews consisted of four different panels who asked the same few questions to every interviewee (so every interviewee met with four different panels). It's a long night but it's so fun to hear their responses and have the opportunity to answer some of their questions about UW-Madison too.

The best part is calling the winners. An interviewer is assigned to call each of the winners. It's so fun to deliver such great news! The excitement is palpable through the phone. This is the second year that I made a call and I've teared up both times.

Book Report: Cordelia's Honor

I've decided to track the books I read by writing short "book reports" for each one. These book reports won't be very long and will just give a short description of each book including what I liked and what I didn't like.

 

I finished my first book of 2015 a week or so ago, Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. John recommended it as the next series I should read, adding that each book could stand by itself so it wasn't super important to read them all at once. It took me almost 100 pages to really get into it but once I was in, I was in! I should note that this is actually two books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, put into one.

I absolutely adore the title character, Cordelia. She's a very strong, independent woman which clashes a bit with her eventual husband's upbringing (though he finds it very attractive himself). I also really like the comparisons between the highly technological Beta Colony and the barbarian Barrayar. The concepts of contraceptive implants and uterine replicators were especially interesting to me.

If you like science fiction (I think John also called it a space opera) then I highly recommend this book! I'd call it an adventurous space love story.

Title: Cordelia's Honor
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Science fiction, space opera
Pages: 596
Stars (Out of 5): **** 

Wisconsin

Earlier this month, Governor Scott Walker announced his 2015-2017 budget plan which included a $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System. Additionally, documents were leaked providing evidence of changes to the Wisconsin Idea, the mission of the University of Wisconsin System. Governor Walker later recanted the changes to the Wisconsin Idea, blaming a "drafting error." The University of Wisconsin and the state of Wisconsin are near and dear to my heart.

I understand the need for budget cuts. I don't understand how Governor Walker can cut $300 million from public universities while also pledging $220 million to a new stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks. It doesn't make sense to me that a stadium for a professional sports team should take priority over the education of over 179,000 students per year. I'm truly hoping that my friends and family in Wisconsin will reach out to their senators and representatives to make their feelings known.

I did not understand the "drafting errors" in the Wisconsin Idea at all. Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) was quoted as saying "I really believe the governor has lost his bearings as to who he is and what he does. His job is not to rewrite the Wisconsin Idea. It's to promote the Wisconsin Idea." I can't agree with this more!

One of the changes reportedly made was that the mission of the system is "to meet the state's workforce needs." In my opinion, college is for learning, exploring, and discovering new subjects. It's for meeting new people and expanding your horizons. Sure, the ultimate goal is to find a career after graduation. But, the mission of a system of four-year universities should not be to simply meet the state's workforce needs. Many of the state's workforce needs can be met by those with high school or technical school diplomas. A bachelor's degree (or higher) is so much more.

I received my Bachelor's of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I completed two years of general education courses and then two years as a student of the School of Nursing. I can see how one might think that my degree enabled me to meet the state's workforce needs as a nurse. It didn't. Don't get me wrong, the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing did an absolutely excellent job at preparing me to be a nurse. But, in nursing, what you learn in the books in school is sometimes completely different from what the actual job is like. Also, it's absolutely impossible to thoroughly prepare a nursing student to enter the workforce. There are so many possible places for a nurse to work: a hospital with many different units, an outpatient clinic with many different specialties, a laboratory, a primary or secondary school, a college, and so many more. How in the world could a school of nursing prepare a nurse to work in such a variety of settings in just two years?

Schools don't. Through the coursework and clinical work of a four-year undergraduate education, a nursing student learns how to think critically, communicate in a variety of ways, and work with different people along with the basics of being a registered nurse. What the university gave me were tools to learn how to become a physical rehabilitation nurse once I stepped on that specific unit. I knew the basics of being a nurse and I knew how to learn to be a physical rehabilitation nurse. This is the purpose of a four-year university.

I truly hope that the State of Wisconsin will be able to adjust this proposed budget to one under which the University of Wisconsin System will continue to thrive. I also hope that all the politicians in the state see what happens when someone messes with something as important to the state as the Wisconsin Idea.

Ten years!

Tonight is 10 years since John and I had our first date, a great dinner at Tumbleweed in Madison followed by the movie Miss Congeniality. We had been hanging out for a few weeks prior to Valentine's Day but hadn't gone out on a solo date yet. His parents came into town the night before and asked if he wanted to bring me to dinner. I refused because we hadn't even been on a real date yet (plus I hadn't showered yet that day as we had been doing homework and watching movies). I guess that was all it took for him to get the courage to ask me out.

A few days later, I talked him into setting up a Facebook account. While he was creating his profile, he came to the relationship section. That's how we officially became a couple. Thanks for making that awkward conversation easier, Facebook!

A whole lot has happened in 10 years! Back then, I could never have imagined we would be where we are today. Well, I guess I could have imagined John being a math professor...but I don't think I would have thought then that we'd still be together and I never would have guessed we would be living in downtown Chicago and loving it. We've now been married for 6.5 years, we've lived in three different cities (Champaign, Urbana, and Chicago), and we've had many, many amazing experiences together. I'm so lucky to have him as my constant companion through this crazy thing called life.

Goals for 2015

I've been thinking about goals for 2015 for awhile now, before 2015 even started...and now we're 25 days in! Natallie and I ran together on January 2nd and she shared her goals with me, divided into the categories like personal/relationship, work, and running. I liked that so I'm making my goals in a similar fashion.

Family 

• Get pregnant. Obviously there's only so much I can actually do to make that goal a reality but I'm going to do whatever I can. The first step is having a hysterosalpingogram this week. If everything is OK with that, we'll have to see a fertility specialist and see what happens next.

• Continue to grow my relationship with John. I think he's awesome (most of the time) and I want to make sure he knows that. He has some potentially big changes coming up with his job situation and I want him to know I'm with him no matter what decisions he makes.

Work

• Work less. Last summer, my coworker and I put together a proposal to move from two full-time nurse practitioners to three part-time nurse practitioners. It was a slow process but the third position finally got approved. Now our boss is starting interviews. Hopefully we'll find a good match for the third NP position soon!
• Don't sweat the small stuff. I often get irritated by little things that my boss or students say and do. I'm going to really try not to let it get to me!

Exercise

• Run three times a week. It's so hard to set running goals while trying to conceive. For now, I'm going to stick to running three times a week and only signing up for races less than half marathon distance.
• Do a pull up! In order to achieve this I need to continue going to the gym with John and doing yoga weekly.

Personal

• Read books. Reading before bed has helped my sleep so much! It's great to have a bedtime routine.
• Stay involved with Chicago Scholars. It's a great organization and I thoroughly enjoy being involved both as a mentor and as an Associate Board member. There are a lot of changes happening now but I think they're going to be great! 

*Bonus Goals (for when I'm working part-time)

• Catch up and stay current with Sports Illustrated and Mental Floss magazines.
• Keep apartment clean and organized.
• Start sewing.

Race Report: Santa Hustle 5k

John, Natallie and I ran the Santa Hustle 5k on December 6th. Natallie ran it last year and thought it was a fun race so when the Finish MS Team emailed me with a $5 off coupon code, I decided to register...and talked John into running it with us.

Natallie with the perfect photo bomb in our selfie

We treated it as a fun run, not running for time at all. We enjoyed the funny signs along the course as well as other runners' costumes. But, in the sea of red, we lost John.

Loved the girls in the chimneys!

I felt terrible when I finally found him after the finish. He was so upset that I didn't run with him. In the future, I will absolutely clarify whether we're running the entire race next to each other or not!

Distance: 5k
Time: 30:32
Cost: ~$42 including fees
Pros: Fun run, good on course support, funny signs on course, nice tech sweatshirts (though the women's ran super small so I got a men's XS)
Cons: Hard to pick out other runners with everyone wearing red
Would I run it again?: Probably

Race Report: Festival Foods Turkey Trot

Way back on Thanksgiving Day, John and I ran the Festival Foods Turkey Trot in Oshkosh, WI. Festival Foods puts on Turkey Trots all over the state of Wisconsin on Thanksgiving Day which I think is pretty awesome. It's also pretty awesome that there's one in Oshkosh so we don't have to travel far to get there. I joked with John that if we spent Thanksgiving in Cochrane with my parents, we'd have to drive all the way to LaCrosse, an hour away, to do the Turkey Trot!

The race started at 8am so we planned to leave about 7:10am. We drove the 10 minutes to the free parking lot, walked across the street to the Oshkosh Convention Center to pick up our packets, hung out inside where it was warm until it was time to start, and then walked a few blocks to the start lines. There are two start lines and two routes, one for the 5 mile run and one for the 2 mile untimed run/walk.

A quick pic before we went off to our separate start lines

This year it was cold and snowing but I felt great! My first and second miles were way faster than I thought but I felt awesome. Then towards the end of the third mile, the roads weren't as clear and my legs were getting tired of running in the snow so I slowed down a bit until the roads cleared up again for the fifth mile. I finished at 41:08, 1:44 faster than last year!

Since it was so cold, we didn't stick around for the post-race festivities, just grabbed our pumpkin pies and met back at the car. This was our third year doing this race. I love our new Thanksgiving Day tradition!

Distance: 5 miles
Time: 41:08
Cost: $20
Pros: Small race, inexpensive, plenty of parking, start/finish line close to parking, easy packet pickup, flat course, pumpkin pie at finish
Cons: Quiet areas along course (which I actually enjoy but could be a drawback for others who need cheering)
Would I run it again?: Absolutely!

Final 2014 Resolutions Update

I wrote this post last Tuesday but then had a formatting issue that I tried to fix without my dear HTML-literate husband's help. Whatever I did made the problem even worse and eventually deleted the entire post, after nearly an hour of work. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy...and just finally have the time and patience to try again.

1. Keep exercising. I ran 51.8 miles in November and 34.53 miles in December. I did strength training 4 times in November and twice in December. We started swimming to mix up our cardio exercise and did that once in November and once in December. I practiced yoga twice in both November and December. John and I also did 3 races, the Hot Chocolate 15k (me) and 5k (John), the Festival Foods Turkey Trot in Oshkosh (5 miles for me, 2 miles for John), and the Santa Hustle 5k. While I was home, I also went cross-country skiing with Mom twice. Overall, I ran 595.57 miles in 2014! That's the distance between Chicago and Washington DC!

   

   Hot Chocolate 15k/5k finishers!

   

   Santa Hustle 5k

   

   Cross-country skiing in Cochrane WI

2. Eat more veggies. I'm still not tracking and I don't think I'm ever going to start tracking because it's obviously just not that important to me. I feel like I'm (well, both John and I are actually) doing a great job with eating more veggies though!
3. Enjoy the moment. I'm definitely doing better at this than I have in the past. Life is good.
4. Make a baby. Well, this one didn't happen in 2014 but we're still working on it...and working with our health care providers to figure out our next steps.
5. Read for pleasure. I finished Kushiel's Mercy, the sixth and final book of the series I was reading by Jacqueline Carey. The end of that series hit me harder than any I've read in a very long time. I didn't want it to be over! It took me a long time to want to read another book but John finally convinced me to start Cordelia's Honor of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's taken me awhile to get into it but I'm finally hooked. Now, I just need to find the time to read my Sports Illustrated and Mental Floss magazines!

   

   My birthday present from Natalie!

6. Give thanks every day. I made it through a whole year of these, even if they weren't always on time. This really helped me with my "enjoy the moment" resolution too. There were really only a handful of days when it was actually hard to think of something I was thankful for that day. I definitely think doing this daily exercise made me appreciate the little things. In the future, I might try to incorporate being thankful into a weekly post instead of a daily one.
   
7. Explore (more of) Chicago. We went to two new restaurants, Bandera and Mercadito (twice!). I also went to Bella Bacino's, a new-to-me pizza place in the loop, with friends. We also saw Pixar in Concert at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and went to the Museum of Science and Industry for the first time since we moved here. I also saw some pretty fancy apartments in the Gold Coast area for Chicago Scholars events. It's pretty surreal when it takes a few seconds to even realize you're in an elevator!

We're already 19 days into 2015. I have my goals in my head but I'm not quite ready to put them into the written word yet. Soon!

Day 358-365

Day 358 - I was thankful for a fun morning with Jamine, Brandon, Cade and Blake, safe travels to Wisconsin, and a relaxing Christmas Eve with John, Mom, Dad, and Grandma. It was quite a change from the nearly 20 person Lenz Christmas Eve of years past but it was still fun.

Day 359 - I was thankful for a wonderful day with my parents. Dad stayed home all afternoon and evening and the four of us played four-handed sheepshead.

Day 360 - I was thankful to spend the evening with some of my high school friends. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures though! I was also thankful for snow. It was too late for the white Christmas I was hoping for but appreciated nonetheless.

Day 361 - I was thankful to get out cross country skiing with Mom. It was quite slippery but absolutely beautiful!

I was also thankful to see more high school friends that evening. It's fun to see how everyone is doing now.

Day 362 - I was thankful to go out to breakfast with Mom and Grandma, watch the first part of the Packer game in a packed Cochrane Inn with Mom and Dad, and then catch the end of the game and dinner with friends and their precious little girl.

Day 363 - I was thankful to spend the night with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was great to see them again! We used to spend every holiday together but now we're lucky if we get together a few times a year.

Day 364 - I was thankful for safe travels back to Chicago. I was also thankful for an absolutely amazing performance of Cinderella which made for a great date night. I just might have a new favorite show!

 

Day 365 - I was thankful that John's treadmill stress test went really well, that I was able to have lunch with old friends/colleagues, and that we had two awesome couples to celebrate New Year's Eve with.

Keith and John preparing the main course.

So much food!

I'm also super thankful that this is my last "daily" thankful post. I made it one whole year! Whew! Thanks for reading along...maybe I'll turn this into a weekly post at some point...Thankful Thursdays has a nice ring to it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, family and friends! We hope our annual letter finds you well. We can't believe 2014 is almost over. Time seems to move more quickly every year!

Em – I'm still working as a nurse practitioner at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Health Services. The students certainly keep me on my toes! A new nurse practitioner started working with me last December and we have become fast friends. She's currently out on maternity leave and I am counting down the days until she returns! Outside of work, I stay busy running and volunteering with Chicago Scholars. On October 12^th I ran the Chicago Marathon as part of the Finish MS team in memory of my Uncle Randy and John's Aunt Joan. It was an amazing experience that I could not have accomplished without my running buddy Natallie. I've taken on a larger role with Chicago Scholars by becoming a member of the Associate Board and a committee co-chair. I truly love being a part of the Chicago Scholars organization!

John – Last May, John was asked to extend his postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois-Chicago for an additional year. This fall he has again applied for tenure-track professor positions all across the country. There are quite a few in Chicago and the Midwest this year so we're hoping to stay close to family and friends. John spoke at a conference in Kalamazoo and attended a week-long workshop at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota. He has continued working out and has started running regularly. He ran 4 races this year. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games with his friends, both in person and virtually.

Travels – We enjoyed the trip of a lifetime this summer, traveling to French Polynesia to stay in an overwater bungalow. This was a bucket list trip for me and John planned the whole thing! It was absolutely amazing! We relaxed a lot, swam in pristine lagoons, hiked through a tropical forest, and met sea turtles. We spent a week in San Antonio around the American College Health Association Annual Meeting and traveled to Wisconsin to visit family and friends and celebrate special events including Mom's 60^th birthday. Coincidentally, we were coming back from San Antonio to Minneapolis/St. Paul when one of my friends had her baby girl so we were some of the first people to meet her! We also took two ski trips last January, one to Sun Valley, Idaho with John's family and the other to Whitecap in Northern Wisconsin with friends. We're looking forward to skiing in Whistler, British Columbia in January.

Chicago – We love this city and are starting to feel apprehensive about the possibility of leaving it! It's so nice to walk or take public transportation to work and almost everywhere we go! This year we again watched the Wisconsin men's basketball team at Northwestern (and will be going again on January 4^th) and saw the Wisconsin football team play at Northwestern. We also went to multiple Cubs' games at Wrigley Field. We purchased Broadway in Chicago season subscriptions so we've seen lots of shows this year. Our favorite was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We've also enjoyed having lots of visitors. We don't have an extra bedroom but our couch is really comfy (or we can help you find a hotel nearby)!

2015 – We're looking forward to a new year. Hopefully John will find a new job he enjoys, regardless of the geographical location. We're also hoping that this will be the year we expand our family. Of course, we hope to hear from and/or see all of you in 2015!

Day 357

Today I'm thankful to be heading up north to Wisconsin to celebrate the holidays!

Day 356

Today I'm thankful for a fun afternoon at the Museum of Science and Industry with John. I really wanted to see the Treasures from the Walt Disney Archives exhibit and we finally made it! Definitely a good use of a PTO day.

The Mary Poppins storyboard

The Mirror Maze was pretty awesome!

Day 353-355

Friday I was thankful for a slow day at work. I finally got through all the stacks on my desk! Now, I just need another slow day after the holidays so I can dust and clean off my shelf! I was also thankful for a delicious dinner at Mercadito with John, his parents, Natalie, Brigitte and John. So fun!

Saturday I was thankful for a fun day with John's parents and Natalie. We walked through the new park (Natalie and I even went down the tallest slide!), found Natalie a new jacket at Macy's, enjoyed the super crowded Christkindlmarket, shopped our way up Michigan Ave, had drinks at the Signature Lounge, a delicious dinner at Timothy O'Toole's, and ended the night with Frozen, per John's dad's request.

Today I'm thankful for a quiet evening at home. Everything is put away from the weekend and almost all of the gifts are wrapped!