Winter Pros and Cons -Amy

Everyone is constantly talking about how much they hate winter and how much they are tired of it. I decided to dedicate a post to calling out the things that we all hate about winter, and also to reminding you of a few of the things you might actually miss when the sunshine arrives. Enjoy!

Things I HATE about winter:
The cold
Bad driving conditions
Thawing out my car
Having to make up school days
Having to wear boots to the gym
Forgetting my shoes and not realizing it until I get to the gym

Things I LOVE about winter
How the snow looks
Feeling like a live in a snowglobe
Snow Days (I enjoy them while they're happening even when I have to make them up!)
Having an excuse every once in awhile to stay in and be lazy
Getting the gunky snow out from around my tires (I'm a little obsessed with this, it's weird)
Comfort food (during, not after)
The holidays
2 hour delays (There is nothing wrong with them. They just rock. Pure and simple.)
Wearing boots
Winter clothes (I love layering... I am NOT a shorts and tank top kinda girl).
How much it makes us appreciate the warm and sunshine we get during the summer!

Stay warm! We're almost to spring!

NYC - Brady

Kevin, Lesley, Paul, and I went to NYC last weekend. Here are some pictures:

Delicious desserts at Rocco's Pastry Shop.

Good friend Maris. Former Chicagoan, now Brooklynite.

Upright Citizens Brigade. I like Second City better, but this was fun.

Peanut butter and jelly, dulce de leche, and rose petal donuts.

Cuteness.

Holiday Inn Soho.

The New Museum.

Chinese New Year.

We didn't go in, but we should've.

New York-ish street.

The Empire State Building

I was trying to put my finger on what makes Chicago different from New York. I came up with this:

• Chicago is more spacious. Bigger apartments, streets, and restaurants.
• Chicago has balconies, NYC has fire escapes.
• As many cool restaurants, stores, bars, and events as Chicago's got, it seems to just be multiplied in New York.
• Chicago is more casual, NYC is more stylish.
• Chicago's cleaner. I guess that's because we have alleys to put our trash in.
• I think NYC's got a weirdness factor (a good weirdness factor) that Chicago doesn't. The Far Rockaways? Bizarre and awesome.
• Cooler public transit in Chicago (I always prefer elevated lines to subways) but faster and more efficient transit in NYC.
• You can't beat Lake Michigan. The water in NYC isn't nearly as pretty.
• Chicago's way better at snow removal.

Wonderful Weekend -Amy

I had a great weekend and thought I would blog about it a bit!

On Friday, I watched from the passenger seat as Kelly braved through rush hour Chicago traffic to get me to my Valentine's Day (2 days early) dinner with Roger at "Shaw's Crab House" downtown. She literally got me there RIGHT on time. 6:30 on the dot for our 6:30 reservation! We had delicious steak and lobster (that was insanely expensive but totally delicious) and only had to pay half the bill thanks to an awesome engagement present gift certificate from one of our good friends. It was totally awesome.

On Saturday, I spent a very lazy and relaxing day hanging out at Roger's apartment. We made breakfast, watched movies, and lounged. Kelly picked me up in the afternoon and I got to check out her gym, which was amazing. It wasn't so hard to spend 30 minutes on an elliptical when I had trashy tv of my choice directly attached to the machine. Then Roger, Kelly, and I all went out to Kirkwood, one of my FAVORITE Chicago spots (because it is dedicated to IU and has all sorts of Hoosier gear) to pack on all of the calories we burned during the workout. The skillet cookie was WELL worth it.

On Sunday, the fearsome threesome (Kelly, Roger and I) got up bright and early (a hem... 11:30) to head to Bloomington for the best thing ever! Karen and Gary got married on Saturday, and we got to be a part of the reception on Sunday! It was SO great to see the most adorable twins in the world (sorry Roger and Ryan), and to congratulate their amazing mom and new stepdad! SUCH a reason to celebrate! I was a total slacker and didn't get pictures from the weekend, but I am going to post some of the twinsies from the good old baby-sitting days at the end of the post. Be jealous that I got to hang out with them; they are not only adorable, they are AWESOME.

The sweetest icing on the cake of the perfect weekend was that MEREDITH (my long lost Bloomington BFF) drove up from Indy to hit up Nick's and spend the night in Bloomington with us. IT HAD BEEN FAR TOO LONG! Best friends are the BEST!

Big thanks to Ashlie (the not so long lost LaPorte BFF) who was my fabulous sub on Monday as I made the trek back from Btown. It was good to know the kiddos were in fabulous hands!

Enjoy pictures of the twins... and hope you had a wonderful weekend as well!

Oh. My. Goodness. They are tiny in these!

Happy Valentine's Day! - Kelly

Amy, Roger and I are headed to Bloomington to celebrate Karen and Gary's marriage... seriously the best way I can think to spend this holiday! Here are a few pictures of the awesome kiddos that brought us into Karen's family. I can't believe they're FIVE YEARS OLD ALREADY!!

Furnace working - Brady

Thanks goodness for my friend Kristin, who had me over for take-out and Mad Men on Monday night, for the reliable enough South Shore line that got me to La Porte for Tuesday and Wednesday night, and for Kelly's selection week in Champaign so she didn't have to stay around either.

I want to trade places with these girls. - Brady

Why?

Because they're warm. Hot, actually. You can tell it's hot because the camera fogged up as soon as we took it outside.

The gift of an old apartment just keeps on giving. On the plus side our landlord replaced all of our old windows with really new, nice ones. On the other hand, we really need them to hold in heat because OUR FURNACE IS NOW BROKEN. And probably will be for several days. Our landlord's solution? We can move upstairs to the empty apartment. While I think that's a nice offer, it's a huge pain, and we're going to try to stick it out here for a few days to see if he can get this one fixed.

So, I'm particularly thankful today for:

• hot showers and blowdryers
• blankets
• hot coffee (and how fast hot coffee becomes drinkable in a 50 degree apartment)
• the people who live below us whose heat rises and helps us out a little bit
• knowing we have good friends and family members nearby we could stay with in a pinch
• trains to Indiana, my parents' house in La Porte, and no classes Wednesdays

WALKING - Brady

Wow. I've done some mental calculations and, guess what? I walk anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes a day, by necessity, in Chicago. I walk from my apartment to the train and back (7 minutes each way) and from the train to class and back (15 minutes each way). If I have to walk between buildings on campus or to downtown Evanston, or if Kelly, Kevin, and I walk to a bar, restaurant, or a movie in the evening, that's extra time. Even a trip to Walgreen's and back adds about 10 minutes to my total.

I now realize why, despite not great eating habits, I haven't gained any weight since moving to Chicago. (Haven't lost any either, which is evidence of my not great eating habits. Ha!)

I LOVE THIS. I mean, sometimes I hate it, like when it's cold or, for that matter, when I have a cold. But, in general, it is absolutely wonderful to have exercise built into my life in this way.

High School Observations - Brady

One of my favorite parts of the quarter so far has been doing observations for my field methods class at a high school in a low-income neighborhood in Chicago. I like that it gets me back in the classroom and thinking about teaching. I also like that it reminds me that kids are kids. I think "inner-city students" are stereotyped as being scary, dangerous, and out-of-control. But the students I see at the school where I observe are very, very similar in a lot of ways to the rural/suburban students I had at Carroll.

My observations have also made me realize that it's easier than I thought to get a teaching "fix" while in grad school. Going once a week for a few hours is ALMOST enough for me. I don't think I need to be in front of students seven hours a day, five days a week to be satisfied professionally. I've been thinking a lot about eventual careers where I could combine some time in a middle or high school classroom with a research position.

Also, my tug toward going back to teaching has been seriously shot down in the past few weeks by hearing terrible stories about teachers in lots of districts being laid off because of budget cuts. It reminds me that jobs are ALWAYS unpredictable and that even though teaching may seem like a safe option for me, that might not truly be the case. Maybe now's not a terrible time to be committed for four years to graduate school. ;)