June in Illinois

So far June in Naperville is way nicer than June in Chapel Hill.  There is less humidity and it's not nearly as hot. But I guess we have to put up with feet of snow in the winter and below zero temps. We have some beautiful peonies in the backyard and it is so nice to have some shady spots for Cali to chill in (even if one is at the expense of the lilac bush). Still loving life in our new home. 

Outdoor upgrades

We have been upgrading our outdoor space this spring (you saw the patio furniture in the last post). This weekend we put together and used the fire pit (shown here with Cali).  We also purchased solar panel walkway lights from Costco.  They are really nice lights (heavy duty) which make a sun light pattern on the ground-what a nice surprise!

Outdoor dining!

Our first 80+ degree day of 2014 coincided perfectly with the arrival and assembly of our patio set. Notice we have bar height. This was our attempt at making it harder for Cali to put her disgusting tennis ball in our laps while eating. Can't wait for summer!

Halfway done

Spring term has 5 weeks left! I'm almost finished my first year as an assistant professor. So looking forward to summer and research.

Spring Activities

With the warm weather we have tackled a few projects around the house.  First up-exercise Cali!  We went to one of the forest preserves (which is really a prairie preserve) on Saturday for a nice walk and she took a dip in the river.

We also gave our outdoor lights a face lift.  They still worked but were beginning to rust and were brass (I hate brass fixtures!) so I washed and painted them with a brushed nickel spray paint.

 Before is above.  After is below.

The light in the backyard didn't work so we bought a new one.

 And lastly, Mike cleaned the garage, his car, and organized the workbench.  It feels great to have these chores off of our plates.  Pretty soon we are going to have to start cutting the grass on the weekends.....

Wow-sorry it's been so long

This winter SUCKED!  It was so cold and miserable that I basically just worked and slept.  But now the sun is shining and it is 76 degrees today!!!!!!

Mike, Cali, and I are doing well.  Mike is traveling  a lot for work but we are handling it well.  He's been home for two weeks in a row-I'm so lucky-but he's back on the road tomorrow.  He loves his job though so I'm okay with the traveling.  It allows me time to prep class and grade.

Let me give you an update of some of what we've been up to.

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch both UNC vs Duke games.  We really liked the first game--not the second.  Here we are getting ready for the second game to begin.

The first week of April I "chaperoned" 41 of the North Central students on their trip to NCUR-National Conference for Undergraduate Research.  Here are some of them. It was a great trip.  I got to meet a lot of cool kids outside of the sciences and I was super impressed with their research and how they presented themselves.  Go NCC!

Now we are settling into the final term of the year and looking forward to summer!

My buddy

With Mike traveling so much Cali has really become my shadow. I don't really mind as she is super warm and adorable.