Mystery Trip Pictures - Brady

I'm posting some links to the pictures Kevin and I took on the mystery trip. Hopefully Kelly and Amy will add theirs soon!


Album 1

Album 2

Sad to Leave Folly! -Amy

Well, we are getting ready to leave Folly Beach in a couple of hours. It is so pretty here, and everything is just awesome. GREAT beach, GREAT condo, GREAT food! We had an awesome dinner at S.N.O.B. last night that lasted for 2.5 hours!!!! It was a lot of fun, but by the time we were done we were all beat so we headed to bed!

This morning we are all just kind of hanging out. Brady and Kevin went for a run, which I am actually thinking about doing here in a bit. Kelly is laying out and reading on the deck, and I am blogging away!

We have had a lot of fun here, but we are off to Charlotte for the night! After that, Kelly and I are driving the majority of the way home on Monday and stopping in Bloomington on Monday night. I am SO missing Bloomington so this is a great end to the vacation for me! Brady and Kevin are also driving back to the Wayne on Monday.

Well, better go soak up a few more rays at the beach while I can!

Change of Life Plans - Brady

Well, change of plans. I will no longer be going to graduate school. I'm moving to Folly Beach, South Carolina and opening up a roadside stand that sells ice cream and Tokyo crepes. 

Just kidding. :) But if there's one place that would tempt me away from Chicago, it's Charleston. I love how pretty and historic the city is, and Folly Beach is such a fun, laid-back, quirky town. 

We've had a great couple of days. Great condo, lots of beach time, cute stores, trips to the one market close-by, really good food, one trip into the city already for drinks at a rooftop bar, and a fancy dinner at S.N.O.B. there tonight. It's hot hot hot, but that only makes it more fun because we spend a lot of time swimming. 

Mystery Trip Location Revealed!!!!!!! -Amy

I am sitting on the couch about ready to go for a little jog then lay on the beach! Where might I be??? On my mystery trip!!!!!! I'll let you learn about my location in the way that I did!

My trip started from La Porte, where my Mom drove me to Fort Wayne to meet Brady and Kevin (thanks again, Mom!). After I met up with them, we got on the road! We headed south, and drove for about 3.5 hours that afternoon (Wednesday). We stopped at around 10 or 11 to stay at this AWESOME hotel that Kevin and William Shatner (the priceline negotiator) found for us. It was in Florence, Kentucky. It was completely awesome. As soon as I have a way to upload photos I'll post some for you of the hotel! After an awesome breakfast at the hotel, we got on the road around 7 and drove about 4.5 hours to Asheville, North Carolina for an awesome lunch. The town was so cute!! It reminded us all of Bloomington in the mountains. The lunch was delicious, then we kept going for another 4 hours after lunch to my mystery location.

On the way, I was getting hints about my location via text message from Kelly. Here were the hints I received....

1. You're going to the edge of America.

2. The weather forecast for the next 4 days says between 89 and 93 degrees.

3. You will be 874 miles from home.

The last one was an anagram of the name of our mystery location, and I don't have it saved anymore! But, I figured out the anagram and found out that I was going to:

FOLLY BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA (very near Charleston)

It's totally awesome! Beautiful beach, AWESOME house, just totally cool on every level. I will post pictures soon!!!!!

Life Update - Kelly

Apartment:

I LOVE our new apartment! Brady did a great job describing it- the only thing I'll add is that it is very bright and sunny... a definite plus! The apartment is exactly what I had described wanting- at one point Brady even said it's like I thought it in to existence with my list of apartment-wants! I'm really excited to get settled in- I think I'm going to move in around that 20th, so just a little early.

Moving:

So, I used to think that moving was this fun, big adventure but now I absolutely hate it. Yesterday I spent three hours loading all of my crap into this huge trailer and now it is en route to Indiana. I also really miss having my dog around, but know it will be another month or so until I have her full time again. My last complaint is that I have NO money right now! I am seriously broke. Luckily, I get my first partial paycheck on June 30th then will be paid regularly starting July 15th. THANK GOD! If anyone has some extra money they'd like to give me, feel free. (Just kidding!) Below is a picture of what my apartment now looks like. No furniture, just piles of clothes and suitcases!

Mystery Trip:

I am not actually setting out for the mystery trip until tomorrow morning, but I cannot wait! This is going to be an excellent vacation- I want to just get there already! We'll all definitely post more once we reach our destination and it's no longer a mystery. :)

Mystery Trip! -Amy

So I am finally back and writing! I never feel like I have anything all that exciting going on, but today I do! I'm leaving for my mystery trip today, and will finally find out soon where I am headed! This is going to be very fun, and I am VERY excited for a vacation! I really should be finishing packing, and not writing on the blog, but it was about time for me to post again!

I really don't have any clue where I am going, and that is pretty fun. I am definitely excited to find out and let everyone know all about it!

Alright, well I know this is short, but atleast I made it back to the blog world! I will write soon, probably because Brady is forcing me too while on the mystery vacation :). Just kidding, I DO need to post more!!! And I will.

Oh, also I am pumped for Brady and Kelly that they found an apartment! It is very close to Roger's apartment, which means hanging out and visiting all of my favorite people will be very convenient!!!!

Alright, I MUST go get ready!!!! Ah! :) I'll write soon from a mystery location!!!

Mystery Trip - Brady

Kevin, Amy, and I embark tomorrow evening on Amy's mystery trip! We'll meet Kelly at our destination.

We're supposed to have wireless access, so we'll try to post while we're there. Maybe I can actually get Amy to write something for once. :)

To review, here were the five instructions we gave Amy:

1) Prepare for a long car trip. You'll probably have the whole back seat of the Prius to yourself to spread out.

2) Since this is your trip, music will basically be your choice, so bring your iPod if you want. Kevin and I have an adapter already in the car.

3) Pack for warm weather and water. Where we're going will probably be in the 80s during the day and the 70s at night.

4) Probably pack at least one nice outfit. Not super fancy, just something you could wear to go out to eat.

5) You won't need a ton of spending money, but I'd bring along what you can for some meals and maybe some shopping.

Any ideas where it might be???

The Apartment - Brady

First of all, I am kicking myself because, despite Kelly's suggestion, we DID NOT take pictures of our new apartment. Arrrrgggh... When we move in we'll take them and post them. Sorry about that! We didn't know for sure that was the one we'd choose, and we were kind of in a hurry.

But the good news is: we found a place to live, we were approved for it, and we only have to sign the lease now! Here are the details:

- 3116 N. Clifton.

- Second floor of a three story brick building covered with ivy.

- On a pretty, shady, quiet street that intersects with Belmont, a big, busy, very commercial street.

- About a block and a half from the perfect train stop for me (Belmont purple line).

- A cute yard in the back for Lucy to run around in.

- 2 bedrooms, a BIG living room/dining room area, one bathroom, one smallish kitchen, an enclosed porch.

- One big Chicago-style bay window overlooking our street. :)

- Hardwood floors.

- Kind of an oldish apartment, but well taken care of.

- Cheap. (For Chicago.) :)

- Close to some of our best Chicago friends!

Yay! We expect lots of visitors! As of now we're moving on 8/1, but Kelly might try to negotiate to get in there earlier.

Apartment Hunting Part I - Brady

Kelly and I are in Arlington Heights (Chicago suburb) for my sister-in-law's wedding and go apartment hunting in the city tomorrow. We settled on just looking for a 2 bedroom because Amy's just not sure of her plans yet. If she decides to be up here, we'll figure something out.

We'll update asap on what we find! Hopefully we can post pictures. 

In Chicago!! - Kelly

Well, I made it to Chicago! I am so happy to be here and to be doing something with my new job. I absolutely LOVE the people I'm going to be working with- I spent a large portion of the afternoon laughing. Also, I love the fact that I was absolutely put to work as soon as I got here.

Something interesting I've noticed since getting here- I get kind of mad/mean when I feel like I don't know what's going on. Not that I was mean to anyone today, but I don't like feeling like I'm unsure of things and that can make me get a little short tempered. I'm just going to have to embrace the fact that I'm new to living in Chicago, I don't know where I'm going, I don't know the public transportation systems, and that is okay! Just roll with it, right? That's part of the fun! (PS- thank you Brady for being my own personal GPS while I was going to the office today!)

All in all I'm so happy to FINALLY be here (even in the pouring down rain!). I can't wait to look for apartments on Monday and to really get to work in the next few weeks.

Yay Chicago!!

5 Year College Reunion - Brady

Kevin and I went to our 5 year college reunion last weekend. I had a lot of fun - it was so weird and good to see all the people I graduated with again. I also had a great conversation with my favorite professor, Andrea Sununu. She basically urged me to not worry about finding a job after graduate school since the decision to go has already been made, and encouraged me to just focus on doing well when I'm there. She also made it sound like she thought jobs would be out there when I (eventually) graduate. Also, just being at DePauw made me really excited for school and to be a professor. I remembered how much I like reading, writing, and doing research and how at home I feel on a college campus (aren't they the best places in the world?).

By the time I go to my 10 year reunion, I should be done or almost done with my PhD! Whoa.

In other news, Kelly should have landed in Chicago by now. She left Charlotte this morning. Hopefully she'll give us an update of her move when she gets a minute.

Here are some pictures from the reunion weekend with one of my college graduation.

The board where they post names so you know which of your classmates have arrived. We were the first ones there. Geeks. Also, aren't small colleges adorable?

One of the dorms I lived in.

The first dorm I lived in.

East college. I took a bunch of classes, went to tons of talks, and defended my senior thesis here. Kevin and I had to leave early to get to a wedding. That's why we're all dolled up at 9 a.m.

The room I lived in senior year at my sorority.

Marvin's. Classic DePauw food. No visit back is complete without it, although I think I still might be recovering from eating so much of it.

Well thank you very much, friendly lamppost sign. I'm happy to be here.

The dorm room we got to stay in. Hey - does anyone remember how GROSS dorm bathrooms are? I do.

The "Greek Pride" and "Met and Married" ribbons we got to wear.

From our graduation with Dr. Andrea Sununu. We met in her class and have stayed in close contact with her since we left.

It Will Be Lovely - Brady

I just finished reading the book Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. In it, he tells the true stories of Daniel Burnham, the architect who created the "white city" for Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who murdered an unknown number of people during the same time period. It's great historical reading, and I highly recommend it to anybody who's interested in learning more about Chicago.

Toward the end of the book, Larson explains what happens to each of the main characters he's followed. Daniel Burnham, who went on to design all kinds of important buildings and planned whole areas of cities, including Chicago, is getting older and knows he's nearing his death. On July 4th, 1909, three years before he dies, he's on the rooftop of the Reliance Building - which is now called the Hotel Burnham - with some of his friends. As he looks out over Chicago, his favorite city, he says, "You'll see it lovely. I never will. But it will be lovely."

100 years later, I feel lucky to be able to see a Chicago that's got to be even "lovelier" than Burnham imagined. A lot of people, myself included before I moved there, think of big cities as dark, crowded, and dirty. Now I think Chicago is absolutely gorgeous. Below are some of my favorite pictures, taken by Kevin when we lived there. They're mostly skyline shots, but sometimes little streets in pretty neighborhoods are just as nice.

The Chicago River

The Sears Tower

View from an airplane

The Sears Tower again

Pretty view from our old apartment's window

The holidays are so pretty there. Believe it or not, living in Chicago made me like winter.

Skyline from Lake Michigan

Ferris Wheel! Invented for Chicago's Columbian Exposition as an answer to the Eiffel Tower.

Northerly Island. We saw a great Jack Johnson concert there. He called Lake Michigan an ocean. :)

Another skyline view

From U.S. Cellular Field

Millennium Park

Lake Michigan is BEAUTIFUL.

Buckingham Fountain

Skyline view from the park where outdoor movies are shown all summer

Millennium Park again

How could there ever be a better place to live than this?

Harbor at night

Lake Michigan can be beautiful even during the winter.

I love this shot. Buckingham Fountain and the skyline on the kind of day that makes you forget all the horribly hot and cold ones. :)

My Thoughts On Being Married and Living Apart - Brady

I've been meaning to do this post for awhile, so now that I'm on summer vacation I thought it would be a good time to sit down and put my thoughts into words.

I have really mixed feelings about living apart from Kevin. At first, I felt relieved when we figured out we could make it happen. I hated the idea of asking him to look for a new job and move out of a house that he loves. I was actually really stressed out about it. In fact, we have both felt worried about imposing on each other over the last two years. Kevin knew I wasn't wild about Fort Wayne and felt really bad about "making me move here." (He did not MAKE me move. As if he even could. Ha ha. I was enthusiastic to try out living in Indiana and told him, emphatically, he should take the job.)

When the relief wore off, I felt kind of upset by the decision we had made. I had moved to Chicago when we got married because Kevin was in law school there, and then I moved to Fort Wayne with him when he found a job here. At times I feel like it's not fair that I have moved twice for him and he hasn't yet followed me to the best place for my career. These negative emotions, though, are countered by the fact that Kevin is probably the most considerate husband in the world, and I trust him 100% when he says that he likes his job enough here to make it worth the sacrifice of living apart.

And then there are times when I just get nervous that this will damage our relationship in some way. I don't believe it will - the marriage feels pretty rock solid to me - but it's a concern that I have. I get past this by just acknowledging that NOT doing something because you're afraid to is a bad way to live your life. I have also resolved to just be a nicer person to be married to. Kevin's always bringing me little presents or sending me articles I might like to read or doing chores that are technically my responsibility. I'm trying to reciprocate more often.

On the other side of the spectrum, I've also felt really excited about this next step. When I found out Kelly and maybe Amy were moving to Chicago too, I realized that very few people have the opportunity to live with their siblings as adults. My enthusiasm is helped by the fact that I get along really well with both of my sisters.

Also, and this might sound like I'm a terrible wife, I think having our own time and space might be kind of nice sometimes. Even now I really like when I have a day to myself at our house. I think I'm nicer to Kevin when I see him again when I have that alone time. Now, I don't know if 4 days not seeing him will have the same effect, but I'm trying to be optimistic. I also think it will give both of us time to work really hard, him at his job and me at school.

I've obviously thought a lot about this and have talked to some good friends who have made it through time apart. It's always reassuring to hear other peoples' stories. Our friends Liz and Kyle lived apart for quite awhile right when they got married. We also have some friends in med school who are dating very seriously but, because of residencies and fellowships, don't know when they'll end up in same city. When I'm feeling really worried, I think about people with spouses in the armed services and how they'll go for months without seeing each other. All of these situations are worse than ours and remind me that Kevin and I are actually pretty lucky.

Overall, I'm just trying to accept that this is our situation and look on the bright side. Really good things might come of it, and it's certainly comforting to know I'll be living with Kelly and maybe Amy instead of by myself. I also try to keep things in perspective. We'll have our whole lives to be married (still a very hard concept to grasp even after 4 years together!), and someday this will be just one tiny little point on a long timeline.

The Revolving Door - Brady

In the comment I made about Amy's last post, I referred to our potential apartment as "having a revolving door." Here are the wonderful circumstances and coincidences I hope will make that the case:

- Kevin and I lived in Chicago for two years before we moved to Fort Wayne and loved it.

- Many of our siblings and friends heard us talk about how much we loved Chicago. A year into living there, Kevin's sister Lesley called us and said she had accepted a job offer downtown.

- Lesley got together with Paul, my now future-brother-in-law and all-around great guy, right before she moved to Chicago. He accepted a job in the suburbs (sorry Paul, I can't remember exactly which one - Barrington maybe?).

- Lesley and Paul got engaged and bought a condo in Arlington Heights, a suburb northwest of the city.

- Kevin and I moved to Fort Wayne.

- Paul switched jobs and started working downtown near Lesley.

- Missing Chicago a lot, I looked especially hard at graduate schools there.

- Kelly, missing her home region of the country and loving Chicago too, applied for jobs in Chicago and New York and preferenced Chicago.

- On February 6th at 7:37 p.m., I got a text message from Kelly saying, "I got the job in chicago!!"

- On February 11th at school I got an email from the professor I applied to work with at Northwestern asking me to call him. After a brief interview, he told me I'd been accepted.

- I still went to a recruitment weekend both there and at University of Michigan to make a more informed decision, but chose Chicago pretty quickly - I emailed all of the schools where I'd applied on February 26th to tell them where I was going.

- Amy told us she was going to look for jobs both in Chicago and La Porte. The three of us decided to live together if we all ended up in the city.

- Roger, Amy's boyfriend, found a job in Lombard, another Chicago suburb.

- After a lot of conversation, Kevin and I decided he would continue with his job in Fort Wayne and that we would travel back and forth to see each other every week.

- We broke the news to our families that I would be moving to Chicago, Kevin and I would be living apart half of the time, and that I'd be moving in at least with Kelly.


So there it is. I've got my husband, all of my siblings, siblings-in-law, and siblings' significant others in my favorite city at least part of the time. The apartment will be crazy. Kevin will be there often, Amy will be there either all or part of the time, and I bet Lesley and Paul will come stay with us if they're in the city late and need a place to crash. Add to that all of our friends who we want to come and visit and our parents (especially my dad, the city wanderer), and it will be a full house!

Yay mystery trip! - Amy

I am SOOOOOO excited for my mystery trip, but as some of you might know, I have an issue with being kept in suspense. I always ruin surprises, but somehow this time I have kept my curiosity under control and I literally have no idea where I am going! I am VERY excited and it's going to be a blast no matter what! I'm seriously so pumped!

Also, a little update... I got a job offer in La Porte, so it is yet to be seen if I will actually end up in Chicago with my sisters. However, I know that I will be visiting A LOT even if I am in La Porte, so we can still pretend like the 3 of us are living together! I am really excited about the job in La Porte, but it is a little sad that I might not be living in Chi town next year. That's ok though... it's a great job!

Not much else is new, except that I'm heading to Vegas on Tuesday. I am SO excited for that too!!! June is a fun filled month for me!!!!!

To Amy: Mystery Trip Instructions - Brady and Kelly

Kelly and I, as a graduation gift for Amy (and kind of for ourselves, too), are taking her on a "mystery trip." She has no idea where she's going, so we need to give her an idea of what to pack.

Amy, here are your five simple instructions.

1) Prepare for a long car trip. You'll probably have the whole back seat of the Prius to yourself to spread out.

2) Since this is your trip, music will basically be your choice, so bring your iPod if you want. Kevin and I have an adapter already in the car.

3) Pack for warm weather and water. Where we're going will probably be in the 80s during the day and the 70s at night.

4) Probably pack at least one nice outfit. Not super fancy, just something you could wear to go out to eat.

5) You won't need a ton of spending money, but I'd bring along what you can for some meals and maybe some shopping.

Hmmm...where could it be?

Indianapolis?

Colorado?

Florida?

Detroit?

Maybe Baltimore to visit Aunt Stacey?

Camping?

Seattle?

Mexico?

Canada?

Fort Wayne?

Europe?

Minneapolis?

New York?

California?

Central Perk in New York City?

Stars Hollow, Connecticut?

Maybe where this all started - Bloomington?

Maybe some sort of sporting event?

Michigan?

Arizona?

La Porte?

Chicago?

A pretty bed and breakfast?

Lake Wawasee?

To anyone else reading this, if you know where we're going please don't tell or even hint to Amy about it. We want the destination to be a complete surprise.

Thanks!