Andre Clark - Brady

Hey, guess what?

I had a baby!

On October 3rd I went to my doctor for a check-up because I'd felt decreased fetal movement all day, and at 12:18 the next morning, October 4th, I delivered a little boy by emergency c section. It was a wild and scary experience, made all the scarier because he spent the next 7 days in the NICU, but we are home, happy, and healthy now.

Andy is named for Andrea Sununu. She is a professor at DePauw, and Kevin and I met in her class. We've stayed in close contact with her over the years and think there's no one else who more highly deserves to have a child named after her. Clark is for Clark Street in Chicago. We have lived on or near the street the entire time we've been here, and it's where our first apartment together was.

Here are some pictures of my guy, who's now one month old!

Just a few days old, in the hospital. 

With Dad at our newborn photo shoot.

Today, at one month.

We love this little guy to pieces!

Want to see some pictures of our nursery? - Brady

Here it is!

On the daybed in the corner you can see one of my favorite things about the nursery - three stuffed rabbits. One is "Rabbi" (pronounced Rabby...I'm not sure why, as a child, I spelled it with an "i"). My grandma gave me Rabbi the day I was born and he was my number one favorite toy throughout my childhood. I couldn't sleep without him for years. One is "Bunnit," a doll my bridesmaids got me when Kevin and I got married so Rabbi could get married too. And the smallest one is also from my Grandma. She sent Rabbi a baby when she found out I was pregnant so our child will have a Rabbi of his/her own. 

Babies are EXPENSIVE. So we got as much stuff as we could secondhand. Kevin's parents generously donated the rocker and the shelf/changing table. The paper lamp in the background has been in our room for years. 

We bought the sheep mobile from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, one of our favorite museums. The picture behind it is from a trip to Banff, Canada. 

That quilt is from an antique shop in Nappanee, Indiana, and the weird looking stuffed animal is a "sleepy mouse" from Quebec City. 

On the shelf above the changing table is some diaper rash creme, a picture of me as a newborn, owl decorations from our baby shower, a picture of Kevin as a baby, and a picture of me on my first day at DePauw - the day we met. 

All of the pictures above the daybed are from places we've traveled: Chicago, Phoenix, Costa Rica, and Indianapolis. I actually did the painting on the far right at a wine + painting class. The orange star was a gift from a student in one of my Spanish classes.

Our hospital bags are packed and ready to go! 

And here's a shot of my belly at 37 weeks! Any day/week now! 

A very hard deadline and my job search story - Brady

Yesterday I reach 37 weeks of pregnancy - full term! Here are my latest belly shots:

What I really want to talk about today, though, is this MASSIVE JOB SEARCH I'm doing. That's right. My five/six years of grad school are ending, and soon, and I've got to find something to do with myself when I finish up this spring/early summer. 

I always suspected I would want to look for jobs only in Chicago, and that's remained mostly true. I did apply for a couple of positions down in Bloomington at Indiana University because it would be an easy career transition for Kevin and because we have family down there (and because Bloomington is amazing), but everything else has been here, in the city. I've actually been pleasantly surprised at how many academic positions have come open in the area. I think I have about 13 jobs, total, I plan to apply for. 

Here's my story, for those who are interested: 

Right now I'm ONLY looking at traditional, tenure track, academic jobs. (The exception is a grant I'm applying for that would keep me at Northwestern for 2 more years as a post-doc on a really cool project.) I'm doing this because (a) being a professor is my top job choice and (b) academic job deadlines come around much earlier than "industry" job deadlines. Works out well for me. It also works out well that all of the tenure track deadlines are in October or early November. When I'm on maternity leave, the job market goes into a bit of a dormant period when colleges are reading your applications and deciding whether to interview you or not. 

There's a VERY good chance I won't get any of these jobs. There's a pretty good chance I won't even get an interview, anywhere. The academic job market is really tough, there are tons of applicants for each position, and I'm definitely limiting myself by applying only in one geographic area. I'm totally okay with this. I've decided being where I want to be location-wise is more important to me than getting my number one top choice job. There are PLENTY of jobs out there I'd be happy to do, and I can always try for a tenure track position later. 

If I don't get any of these jobs, I'll keep an eye on new openings during my maternity leave and certainly in the winter and spring when I'm back at school/work. Most postings at that point would be for post-docs (kind of like a fellowship for a few years where you're suspended somewhere between grad student and professor...the idea is that if I got one of these I'd go back on the tenure track job market as the post-doc was finishing up). Or the postings would be for "industry" jobs - research positions at big education policy firms or organizations like Teach for America, One Goal, Ounce of Prevention, etc. I would be completely fine doing any of these things. In fact, some people think getting a post-doc before a regular job is better for your career in the long run because you can publish a bunch of stuff before your "tenure clock" starts ticking. 

It's going pretty well so far! Now that I have good drafts of a cover letter, research statement, teaching statement, etc. drafted, it takes me about a day to apply for each job. I've sent in 8 applications and have 4 to go. 

I had an especially nice moment this morning. I woke up, made myself coffee, and sat down in front of my computer to focus on kind of a hard application. It's an instructional position at University of Chicago, and they ask you to pick a classic text in the social sciences and write about how you would teach it. After struggling for a bit, I narrowed in on one book (Emile or On Education) and finally figured out what I think will be a cool way of teaching it (I won't go into boring details, but it involves pairing it with the movie An Education). It got me really excited about the possibility of working with college kids. I also remembered and felt again that surge of excitement from teaching high school when I would come up with a creative way of explaining a concept. And it felt good to be so productive on a Sunday morning. 

So that's my life these days! I fill out job applications. I walk Molly. I take some time to watch my stomach bop around as this baby kicks me. I spend some quality time with Kevin (we've been trying to do one "moderately priced date night" per week - last night we had veggie brats at this cool bar/restaurant called Northdown Tap and saw a movie musical called God Help the Girl at the quirky Musicbox Theater). I do yoga. Life is simple and good and I think we're just about ready, house-wise, career-wise, relationship-wise (give us just a few more weeks!) for our son or daughter to come into the world and shake it all up. 

The Best Summer - Brady

Up until now, I've always said the best summer of my life was the summer I was in Guy and Dolls at the La Porte Little Theatre. It was the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. I can't remember what I did during the day - maybe worked as a teaching assistant or something. At night we'd have rehearsal. And then after rehearsal, as I recall, we'd always go out and do something fun. Drive around and listen to music. Go to Taco Bell and dance in the parking lot. One of my most vividly fun memories from my whole life was a humid, sweaty, karaoke cast party over at the Krentzes' house. I remember dumping ice down the back of my shirt I was so hot from singing and dancing and basically just laughing hysterically all night long. Nobody parties like theater kids party.

It's different, for sure, but I think this summer has actually topped that one. I don't know how to write this without sounding ridiculous and weepy and sentimental, but I'm just so happy to be pregnant. If you knew me five years ago and knew my hesitation to even have kids, that would surprise you, but once we did decide to go for it we had to try a really long time and lost faith on a few occasions that it would ever happen. On top of that, I've had an easy, easy time the past eight months - no terrible symptoms, tons of support and love from my family and friends. I'm actually sad when I think of all of this coming to an end in October. Things are also kind of fun at work. My dog is a blast. Kevin and I have had a great time setting up the nursery and just enjoying the city, with no pressure to go anywhere or do anything major. So even though this summer hasn't involved sweaty dance parties or late night drives or even any Taco Bell, it's been just about the most content and exciting time of my life.

Anyway, enough of that. Here's a random smattering of photos I've taken with my phone since June that show lots of the little good things we've been involved in this season.

My two favorites at Shakespeare in the Park.

A birthday walk to Lake Michigan.

Molly getting a whole lot of love at Lake Wawasee. 

Happy birthday to me! 

We spent a couple of awesome days at Lake Wawasee at The Oakwood with Molly.

Reading on Kevin's parents' porch.

Good old Stone Lake.

Quebec City.

A Quebec City breakfast.

Berries from my parents' yard.

Dinner at The Stray Dog in New Buffalo.

The belly in Denver.

The belly at Lake Wawasee, growing out of my favorite DePauw sweatshirt.

The belly in Quebec City. I remember thinking it looked huge in this picture. Ha! 

The belly in Evanston (in my work bathroom).

The belly again, a few weeks later, in Evanston.

It's always hard to see summer go, this one especially, but right around the corner, I'm hoping, is the best fall, the best winter, and the best spring. 

What's shakin' with the Jones sisters - Brady

Since I've basically given up on my sisters ever posting to this blog again, I'm going to take it upon myself to let you in on what they've been up to, from my perspective. We'll go in age order.

Amy, it seems to me, just works all the time. Sounds like some days at her charter school are great and some are tough. She helped them raise test scores a bunch this year using all kinds of creative methods. She occasionally takes a break to have dinner with me or go home to visit my parents. Roger seems to be doing well and continues to give the best hugs in town.

Kelly also works a lot, and I think maybe she got some big news from the office last week that I'll let you ask her about. She and Nate have been redecorating their apartment - I was with them when they recently bought a stylish new couch. She seems to like her yoga teacher training, and she recently went to a workshop with Rachel Brathen, this kind of famous yogi we both follow online. And my #1 favorite actor, Nate, has recently had a bunch of career success - getting a second Jeff nomination (a big deal theater award in Chicago), a part in a Steppenwolf show (a big deal theater company in Chicago), and some exciting auditions. 

Okay, now me! All good things are happening.

• I'm making good progress on my dissertation and have my funding and maternity leave all set up for next school year.

• I'm now 21 weeks pregnant, and we found out the baby's sex this past Thursday. (But we're keeping it to ourselves until the birth because we're annoying. We want to keep gender stereotyping out of the picture as long as we can.) We are crazy excited and a little overwhelmed. Also, more importantly, it looks really healthy. Its legs are long. I've been feeling it kick pretty regularly for the past month, but just this morning I could feel it with my hand, on the outside of my belly, so pretty soon I think Kevin/other family members will be able to feel it too. 

• I'm at Lake Wawasee for the first time this year. It's my happy place. Our good Fort Wayne friends threw us an impromptu baby shower here yesterday. We got a rainforest themed swing and a white noise/stuffed teddy bear toy.

• Something's gotten into Molly. She's been a maniac recently. Kevin thinks she's just feeling really good. She's slim, her allergies aren't bothering her, and she's excited it's warm out and time to swim again. Here's a photo of her sleeping on our bed (I knew it would happen eventually - we kept her off it for the first six months, but we've given in), another picture of her new favorite activity - sticking her head out the car window, and a couple of her playing in the kiddie pool at the dog park. 

• Kevin and I went to New York City over Memorial Day weekend. We spent most of our time outside of Manhattan - in Brooklyn and Queens. We saw both of my cousins who live there as well as some of our good friends, ate some awesome food, and took a couple of jogs through the gorgeous Brooklyn Bridge Park. So fun. I'm ready to be done traveling for awhile, though. I love the Midwest in the summer. 

• I got an article published online! You can read it here. This is basically what my dissertation is about.

That's about it! Big things making me happy and little things making me happy. I'll keep covertly updating you on the super secret lives of my sisters. :) Have a great Sunday!

Lots of excitement! - Brady

You know how sometimes life is just moving along, you're following your regular routines, doing your normal activities, seeing the friends you typically see, eating dinner at your regular restaurants. And then all of a sudden a bunch of exciting things happen all at once and everything looks different? I remember senior year of high school feeling that way, and senior year of college come to think of it. And then a few other times in life, like when I got my first teaching job and we were moving to Indiana, then getting into grad school and moving back to Chicago.

Well, Kevin and I have hit another pocket of excitement. After a couple of years trying to have kids, trips to various doctors, lots of disappointment, and one very big bright spot named Ms. Molly Jones-Rasp (we decided to adopt her after a particularly rough doctor's appointment in which we were told it would still be awhile longer before we could have kids), we're finally excited to announce that we're having a baby in October. Right before we found out that news, as a kind of "we feel sorry for ourselves because we can't have kids" consolation prize, we booked a long trip to France. So the last few weeks and months have brought all kinds of very non-routine, non-typical emotions and activities!

Here's a picture of my belly, last Sunday at 13 weeks. Not too big yet, just a little bit thicker than normal. 

And here are 10 much more attractive pictures of our trip to Paris! I'm also going to include the Facebook link below because there are so many great ones not included here. 

A pretty store called Merci we visited in Paris.

Kevin and me in Burgundy.

The grounds of an abbey in Burgundy.

The medieval town where we stayed out in the country.

The Rose Window at Notre Dame.

A beautiful street in Paris.

Burgundy.

Paris.

The street where we stayed in Paris.

One of the many gorgeous pictures Kevin took of the small town where we stayed in Burgundy.

You can click here to go to the Facebook album with over 100 photos if you're interested! 

Needless to say, it's been a very happy spring. :)