In memory

My aunt died last week.

I had been in the car on the way home from the sketchiest freelance job interview, and I wished that I could just call up my Aunt Anne to ask her how she would have handled negotiating with this guy; it was the first time that I had to make an offer for my services and I got overwhelmed being put on the spot. I felt like, if I could have talked to her, she would have had some sage words of advice. After I’d gotten home and had dinner, I started getting messages asking about how I was doing, and if I was holding up okay. I just knew.

For almost almost as long as I can remember, she made her living as a freelancer. She gave me my first job when I was young I was probably 11, maybe 12 – she was working for a scientific education vendor. Sometimes I helped unpack or repack boxes of books that she had to review, and I remember spending hours cutting up the old catalogs to make a “dummy” version for the next year... I loved working in her office with all of the office supplies (yes, I have a geeky love of office supplies). When I was about 16 she started teaching me more about her work, and I continued working for her on and off, learning more with each project, until I was about 24! She taught me a lot about professionalism and what it means to have a strong work ethic in those 12+ years, and that will always stick with me.

I remember playing the “getting lost” game with her when I was about 10-years-old. She would take me, and sometimes my sister, out and tell us to give her directions. We would tell her to turn every few blocks just because we could. It became a regular thing, and I loved it. She would say, “Let’s go on an adventure and get lost!” I had the chance to visit her back in November and when we were talking about the “getting lost” game, she just said, “I know we got lost, but we got un-lost, too!” This kind of adventurousness stuck with me, and I am absolutely certain it is one reason why I wasn’t afraid of packing up my life to go to Europe 4.5 years ago.

I am still trying to wrap my head around all of the different emotions I am feeling right now. She was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer in October, and Emma and I flew to Chicago for three weeks so I could visit her a few more times. I couldn’t articulate myself then when I could see her, and I can’t fully articulate myself now. Our visits during those few weeks were melancholic trips down memory lane. It was worse when I was back in Germany because I couldn’t stop thinking about her, I couldn’t stop missing her, and I had no way to tell her that myself. She was a mentor, and I miss her very much.

Without a doubt, my aunt taught me a lot of things that helped shape me into the person I am today, and I am incredibly grateful for it.

Rest in peace Aunt Anne, you will live on in my memories. I love you.

Anne Pauline Wallingford
June 29, 1949 – January 15, 2015

A bi-annual update!

So… the last time I wrote anything was in February. A lot has happened since then, and I will do my best to fill you in.

March
My mom visited us for Emma’s 2nd birthday! It was so nice to have a few days to spend with my mom, but I was very anxious about her flying (over Istanbul, no less) with a broken arm.

At the end of the month I started a crafting blog with my sisters, which has sadly not been updated since… August?

April
One of my friends had complications with her pregnancy and hired me to be a nanny/cleaner/extra set of hands until she was in the clear. I worked about 25 hours a week in the afternoons watching Emma and her daughter. It was fun, but made me very much appreciate that I don’t have twins! :D

Over Easter, my mother-in-law invited us to vacation with them in August! Thinking about the upcoming trip really saved my sanity over the summer.

At the end of April I had my first German interview for a job (that I didn’t get). If nothing else, it was a learning experience.

May
I started volunteering at the German American Institute library in Heidelberg. As if I didn’t already have enough to do.

Fabian got a random student job where he had to count people on busses. The company gathers statistics and works with different transportation regions to help them update routes and make service more efficient. Kind of cool, but he ended up having to work quite a few times overnight staying in random small cities at the French border. It was nice that he had the job, but it was unpredictable and left me with little free time.

June
Happy summer! Fabian was still working that job. The highlight was taking a daytrip to Wissembourg, France. We hadn’t been able to have a lot of time for each other, and it was nice to have an excuse to go somewhere together. :) Emma also learned that it was OK to play in fountains…

July
The good parts of July were defined by playing in the rain, a visit from a friend (Jacob), and my 27th birthday! Fabian spent a lot of time writing his thesis, working, and we were both pretty stressed.

August
At the beginning of August, I got a new temporary contract from one of the companies I’ve worked with three times before. It was beautiful timing.

Shortly after, one of my best friends (Stevie) came for a visit! It was a very fun visit, and my in-laws said that she was a “real American!” They especially loved her accent. :)  Stevie is one of those friends where you always pick up exactly where you left off, and it doesn’t matter how much time has passed since you’ve seen each other. It was so nice to have a visitor and not feel like I was changing my life to accommodate her - it was relaxing!

A week later, we went to Dolcedo, Italy (a beautiful town built in the  early Middle Ages) with Fabian’s family for a week, and it was an excellent trip to decompress. We were in the middle of the mountains without internet. I really needed to disconnect, it was very good for me. We took day trips to Nice, France, and Imperia, and Genoa, Italy. We went hiking! We celebrated our 3rd anniversary on vacation with his family for the second year in a row (and this year he didn’t get food poisoning!!) It was so much fun!

The drive to Italy was very easy, we just had the expected hour-long traffic jam leading up to the Gotthard Tunnel (it’s more than 10 miles/16.5 km long and is the third longest road tunnel in the world!), but the rest of the trip was uneventful.

On the way back however, the 8.5 hour trip took 14.5 hours. (Yes. you read that right.) First, we had traffic along the coast getting out of Italy. We later learned that Italians were starting their summer holidays, which meant that the roads were extremely full. Combine that with the torrential rain… it took a while. Then, we got stuck for more than an hour in Milan waiting to pay the toll. So, after waiting for that long, Fabian’s dad decided he wasn’t going to wait in traffic at the tunnel, so, we detoured over the Alps taking the San Bernardino Pass. The views were gorgeous, and were the only thing that made the detour worth it.

We ended up driving next to Lichtenstein, through a corner of Austria, and then around a corner of Lake Konstanz, up to Ulm, and finally back over to Karlsruhe to get to Heidelberg. We were constantly met with traffic and construction. It was SO long.

(Thank you for illustrating my point, Google Maps!)

Aside from the visit and the vacation, Fabian was still working on his thesis, and we were both applying for jobs all over the place. At the end of the month I found out that I got into an English-language study program, but I am not going to go  because it’s located in a dumb town far away from everything useful and the likelihood that Fabian would also get a job there is pretty much non existent. 

The only thing I regret was that the trip to Italy overlapped with when our friends were meeting up in Amsterdam for 5 days. I would have absolutely LOVED getting to visit with them.

September
September also went quickly. We kicked the month off by taking Emma to get her first haircut! It was very exciting, and she was wonderfully non-wiggly when the stylist had the scissors near her face! She looks so much more grown up now!

In the middle of September, the daughter of my mother-in-law’s friend invited me for an “interview” at the marketing/advertising agency she works at. The job was to edit websites based on the templates they provided. The “interview” was a test to see if I could do the job. I went in at 10:00a, and walked out at 4:00p with a job! :) It is on a freelance basis, and I am waiting to see if there is more work for me in October, but I really enjoy the job, and the fact that I have an excuse to go into the city wearing nice clothes!

September was also the month my sisters visited me! We had a wonderful sister trip, the cousins could play together. Emma kept singing a song saying that Kira (my niece) was her best friend. It was so sweet! After they left, I felt very sad that I live so far away and that the cousins don’t have the chance to know each other very well. I miss my sisters very much. :(

October
On October 2nd, Fabian had an interview with the chamber of commerce in Passau. We are anxiously waiting to hear whether or not he got the job (but it does look hopeful).

I am getting my passport renewed (name change, y’all!) and collecting documents to renew my visa, which expires on November 1. I am crossing my fingers that my passport comes back in time!!

Aside from that, Emma decided she was (finally) ready for potty training!! She had had a few accidents during the week, down to one accident on Thursday and then no accidents on Friday. She’s a big fan of helping with the whole process.

I will leave you with a silly story:

Emma really likes her privacy on the potty, which usually means the second the door is closed she says, "Peepee! Finished!" and I go back in. So last night she was peeing before bed, and I was waiting for her to say she was finished, it took a surprisingly long time, and when I opened the door she was mid-pour emptying her potty into the toilet. Of course I surprised her and she got pee all over her hands, which she promptly wiped on her pajamas... but, it was HILARIOUS! :) She looked so proud of herself!

She also fought a night diaper last night, so we said what the heck, let her go without one to see what happens. The most amazing thing happened, SHE STAYED DRY!!! Which was extra good since I spent half the night in her bed with her. But seriously. It's been a whopping 6 days since we started potty training. I feel like I have won the lottery!

 

Until next time…!

Growing up

We had a semi-productive Monday. We did things that were fun, like rearranging furniture, but not things that we needed to do...

First, we took an authentic 60s chair from Fabian’s grandma, and needed a better place for it until it gets reupholstered, and second, I said enough was enough, and the crib had to move! I wanted free access on my side of the bed again. The problem was, where to put Emma’s bed?! We live in a 2-room (1br) flat, and there isn’t a whole lot of extra space. Fortunately, we are in his grandma’s basement, which means free storage! So, things got shifted around, the desk in the bedroom (aka the dumping ground) got kicked out and into the basement. Next, it was goodbye crib, and hello big-girl bed. So we assembled the kid’s bed frame that one of our neighbors gifted us last year.

Emma was having so much fun watching and helping us. One of us left the basement door open when we were going back and forth, then all of a sudden I hear Emma sounding distressed from somewhere, and when I found her, she was stamping her feet at the top of the stairs (which lead to Fabian’s grandma’s kitchen), looking very upset about the fact that she couldn’t descend by herself. She was also covered in cobwebs from exploring--it was SO funny and cute! :)

So, naturally, the first thing she did was jump on her new bed.

Going to bed was the usual hassle, but she was relatively willing to sleep in “her” bed. Big win! She slept okay, but kept waking herself up coughing. Everything was fine until we were in bed, almost asleep, and hear a big thud. Emma had rolled out of bed! I got right up to see if she was fine, and she was just sitting there trying to get comfortable on the big polar bear pillow we’d laid out to catch such falls. She was still half asleep, and in the end I just took her back with me.

I didn’t realize JUST how much extra space the crib had afforded us! Emma spent a half an hour tossing and turning, kicking Fabian in the face, laying on my head, trying to get comfortable. She was so squirmy I was paranoid she would fall out of our bed, much higher and with nothing to soften the fall.

She didn’t fall out of bed. But, after I woke up this morning she was comfortable laying with her legs completely dangling over the side of the bed. When I tried moving her back into the bed, she wriggled back, but left one foot up… This morning I turned that mini crib so that the long side was against the bed, and I’m hoping that will help keep her off the floor tonight.

So, there you have it: Emma’s “room.” That chair on the left is the one from his grandma, which I am going to make marvelous!

First date

Three years ago today, Fabian and I had our first date. We met after Polish class at Centrum, walked to a copy shop, and printed out patterns to build paper robots. We went back to Fabian’s flat, cut out robots, listened to music, and had awkward conversation. Who would have guessed we’d end up here?! :)

***

Emma is growing up in a big way!! She is able to express what she wants with words (in both languages) and by force (taking your hand and putting it on what she wants). She still babbles a lot, but her vocabulary has grown in a big way. She still sings a lot, too.

In the last week or so, she’s started calling Fabian and me by our names. “Er-ca!” “Fa-bi-an!” She gets the tone so perfectly, too. I hear my exasperated voice coming out of her mouth. Oops… One friend told me she’d heard that kids parody their parents. I can definitely see it.

***

We haven’t been affected by the artic weather that has affected a lot of the US. Instead, we had one of the warmest Januarys on record! It only got below freezing on a handful of days (mostly overnight), and the rest of the time we had a pretty nice average of 40° F. A few days ago, it was full-on SPRING weather!! It was so sunny and was something like 50° F! Emma is definitely happy to be outside more often.

***

Life in Erica-land has been bittersweet. I don’t know; generally speaking, I’ve just been feeling lost. I don’t know what I want, I don’t know where I want to be… it’s all making me depressed.

For the better part of the last three years, I haven’t had a clear picture of where my life is heading. First it was not having a real plan when I moved to Germany, then it was having a baby, after that it's been Fabian’s grad school. I’ve definitely wasted time, I’ve definitely not been as motivated to fully establish myself in Germany and/or fully commit to learning (more) German as I should be.

Even after being traumatized by the kindergarten job with the employer from hell, I’ve still been applying for jobs, but so far nothing has worked out. Next week I am going to inquire about the twice weekly job at the outdoorsy store down the block from Emma’s daycare. It’s run by foreigners, so maybe I have a chance!

I started volunteering as a translator (German > English) for Watching America. I get to pick a German-language article that somehow pertains to the US and translate it. I really just signed up so that I could practice reading in German, and something must be working because the translations are slowly becoming easier. I wish I was able to take German classes along with it, I think I would really be able to make some progress that way.

I also started “teaching” English this Thursday, which is hilarious. I have two students: I am meeting one on a weekly basis, and the other is a two-day intensive kind of thing the first week of March. Both of them need practice speaking and correcting pronunciation. My first lesson was fun, and the woman is very nice, but I am just making it up as I go along. Can any ESL teachers out there give me some tips? :)

***

Back in the middle of January, Fabian’s great aunt died. She had throat and tongue cancer; it was very sad, but most people were relieved she wasn’t suffering and in massive pain anymore. She was such a sweet lady, but I only ever understood part of what she was telling me. The funeral was sad, and incredibly somber. In Germany they really go all the way with the black clothing. I wore a dark blue jacket (or my normal winter jacket) and felt out of place because my jacket was too cheerful.

***

Fabian is in the final semester of his MA and has started working on his thesis. I’m excited that he’s almost done, and proud of him for having done so well in grad school! He’s started looking at jobs all over the place, too. We’re both all over the map and keeping it complicated. We’re both having mid-life crises and we’re only in our twenties.

***

Until next time…!

It’s almost Christmas??!

Since I last updated this thing, I have returned to Germany, got hired and fired (ask if you want the story, I just don’t think it’s good form to have it out there on the internet), dealt with an exploding toilet, “quit” the choir, had a sick kid, got sick myself, celebrated Thanksgiving with friends, Fabian celebrated his birthday, got a Christmas tree, discovered we are living with a mouse, Emma became a cookie and chocolate addict (thank you, Advent), and now it is the fourth Sunday in Advent and I can’t believe it is just two days until Christmas.

***

First, a good laugh. When I still had a job, one morning the toilet got stopped up and since we had to leave, we decided to deal with it later. At work (a nursery), two children were out sick with hand-foot-mouth disease, which is highly infectious and starts with a fever and gives you itchy red spots on your hands, feet, and in/around your mouth (more on this later). Fabian picked Emma up and we meet up after work to ride the tram home together. I was stressed because I hadn’t seen Emma all day, and she had a 4-hour nap in the afternoon, so I was debating whether or not I should go to yoga; Fabian convinced me I should. Halfway through class my phone tells me I got a SMS, and when I checked after class, it was Fabian saying, “call before you leave, we have a situation.” And what is that situation, you ask? Turns out that as Fabian was plunging the toilet, the water found an exit all over the outdoor entryway. There was a small lake of smelly shit water standing outside. Fabian called his dad to help fix the plumbing/cleaning, Fabian’s mom and sister entertained Emma. When I got home, everything was more or less OK, but it still smelled outside. After dinner, some kohlrabi-ginger soup that gave Fabian a belly ache, I gave Emma a bath, and of COURSE she poops in the tub. It was one hell of a day.

***

Emma and I have been sick pretty constantly since we returned to Germany in October after our stint in the US this summer. We’ve had constant sniffles and coughs, then, back in November, Emma got a urinary tract infection, which was pretty serious until we figured out what it was because she was vomiting, had a high fever, wasn’t eating, was totally lethargic, and only wanted to sleep. Then she got antibiotics and perked right up. Thank goodness. Two weeks later, I had the 24-hour stomach flu, and it was a very “happy” Thanksgiving for me.

We had planned a Thanksgiving get-together with our friends for the last Saturday in November. Thursday night, I started vomiting, and wasn’t feeling better until after a trip to the doctor where I got an IV to help replenish my fluid levels, since I hadn’t been able to keep anything down. Friday I still felt nauseas, but I could at least eat small portions. Saturday was particularly rough since we had all the food and cooking smells in the house. I was glad that I could go pick-up friends from various train/tram stations and get out of the smelly house for a little while. Sadly, it was a lack-luster party for me, I fell asleep when putting Emma to bed around 7:30p. In hindsight, I feel bad that I didn’t really get to visit with my friends. I hope I’ll get to see them again soon.

***

Next, Fabian celebrated his 26th birthday! I gave him a crepe pan and made him an apron, he was pretty excited, and the next day we ate crepes!! Sadly, it was a weird day and didn’t feel all that festive. Fortunately we could do a bit more celebrating the following weekend for Nikolaustag (Nikolaus came to Fabian’s parent’s house and we had a raclette dinner!), and that made his birthday celebration feel happier.



Thinking about Nikolaustag brings me to Emma’s cookie and chocolate obsession. Every day Emma gets a wooden Haba toy in her Adventskalandar (thank you, Henriette!), except on the 6th and 24th, for Nokolaustag and Christmas Eve; those two days she gets chocolate. So, we started the morning with two chocolate Santa’s, one in her calendar, one in her boot. the one from her calendar was gone in an instant, because we didn’t know that she could open the foil wrapper. Before I knew what was going on, the Santa from the boot was open and half eaten! Then she sat up tall in her highchair demanding more “La-da!” (from the German, Schokolade).

Moving on to the cookies: Fabian has been baking so many Christmas cookies, and Emma got to help out a lot. She snuck a bunch of cookie dough, and of course got to sample the finished product. During the month of December, Emma has asked for/demanded cookies at least once a day, if not more! Now we have to spell out C-O-O-K-I-E whenever we talk about them so as not to get her started on a cookie rampage.

***

On the 16th of December, we bought our first Christmas tree! Even though this will be our third Christmas, we haven’t had the chance to get our own tree. First, while I was pregnant, we were living in Passau and visited his family for two weeks around the holidays. Second, we were in the US for a month between December and January, and having a tree would have been dumb. So, finally, this year, we could have our own tree! :) Emma has only sort of “discovered” it, thankfully, so we haven’t had tree-catastrophes.

***

Last weekend, Emma had a particularly late night, and Fabian and I stayed up until 2a doing miscellaneous nonsense on our computers. I got up to brush my teeth and go to the bathroom before finally sleeping, and when I was in the bathroom, a mouse darted out from underneath the sink cabinet making a beeline for the door (which was closed). Until then, Fabian and I had both “seen” the ghost mouse, but this time we really knew that she was there. I called for Fabian to come help me catch it, but she was too clever for us and we still have a mouse somewhere in the house. We are sort of thinking about getting a cat, but in this exact moment, I am not convinced it’s a good idea, because having a pet means more financial obligations, and right now that just isn’t an option for us.

***

I almost forgot! Remember that Hand-Foot-Mouth disease I mentioned earlier? Well it made its way to our daycare and the week before break 5 of the 7 children got it, Emma included. And because she loves me so much, she gave it to me! !%/§$. It was like chicken pox but only on my hands and feet. My case was definitely worse than Emma's, but she was such a monster it was obvious she was sick, too.

***

With all the Christmas spirit in the air, Emma has picked up (we think at the Kindergruppe), some songs, namely O Tannenbaum and Jingle Bells. Emma will demand us to, “Sing! Singen! Singen!” until we properly start up with '”O Tannenbaum,” then she joins in with “O Tammenoun!” It’s incredibly cute. Two days ago she started the same thing with “Jungle Balls,” which took me a minute… We have a video of her singing her own song that you can check out, if you are interested/haven’t already seen it.

***

The last thing I can tell you is that we started potty training yesterday. I made Emma a pair of crotchless pants so that she wouldn’t have to run around half naked in December; it’s a bit chilly, you know?! We are borrowing some training pants from a friend, and so far it’s not so bad! Emma is starting to figure it out. :)

***

So, that brings us pretty up-to-date. I haven’t had any motivation to do much of anything since I got fired, especially since there is a lot of drama surrounding it. However, I have applied for a few jobs and apprenticeships, and I hope something will pan out because right now I am feeling like the most useless person in Germany. I have no reason to be here. I hope that you are doing better than I am, and that you are enjoying the holiday season!

Until next time…

A great big American FAMILY VACATION: Chicago!

If I could describe the three-week vacation with my in-laws in one word, it would be “intense." But, intense in a good way!

Day 1
Fabian and I had a big agenda to get his family acclimated to the time zone/see as much cool stuff as you can see in four days in the Windy City.

The Boxheimer’s flight landed around 11:00a, and Fabian, Emma, and I met them at the airport. I drove back with all of the suitcases, and Fabian took them on the L back to my parent’s house. Back at the house, we had planned for a big lunch of sweet potato macaroni and cheese, but no one was as hungry as we’d anticipated, so instead of having a big lunch, we snacked then started off to see some of the city!

We started by taking a scenic bus ride to the free zoo. Everyone was moving slowly, and instead of seeing too many animals, we cut through the nature preserve and walked to the beach. My mother-in-law took a quick nap on the sand while we dipped our toes in the lake, and afterwards we walked through a different part of the zoo to find a good bus to get back to my parent’s house. It doesn’t sound like a big day, but when it feels like midnight when it is only 4:00p, it messes with you! It was also stupidly humid, which didn’t help. Everyone (me included!!) was kind of useless.

Back at the house we dined on Chicago-style deep dish pizza, then called it a night around 9:00p.

Day 2
The next day, we planned to take his family to Lincoln Square, Chicago’s German neighborhood. Hilarious, right? Fortunately there is more to Lincoln Square than Schnitzel and Bratwürste—it’s a very pretty area of the city. We stopped at the toy store where Emma got a ball, we had lunch at Café Selmarie (which is absolutely delicious every time!), and we walked through the residential area behind the shopping street.

Next, we took the brown line downtown. I think that the brown line has one of the best views of the city, so we rode through the loop to Jeweler’s Row, and walked to Millennium Park to wait for my parents, who were going to join us.

We walked around Millennium Park for a while, then made our way south to the Buckingham Fountain.

By the time we were finished sightseeing it was just about dinner time, so we walked to the train to head back home. We had been out since about 10a, and by the end of the day I think it is fair to say that everyone was just plain pooped!

Day 3
It would have been cruel to continue at such a strenuous pace for a third day in a row, so we had a slightly slower day and took an architecture tour on the river.

As soon as I heard the guide start talking, I knew it would be hard for my in-laws to understand much (he was talking ridiculously fast), but everyone enjoyed the views. I was excited to learn more about my city, even though I was frustrated with Emma for half the tour.

After the tour, we had lunch outside at the Corner Bakery. This place is FULL OF PIGEONS. Seriously, I know we have a pigeon problem, like, everywhere, but this was just out of control! Emma dropped a piece of bread, and there were at least five birds going after the bread. And really, it wasn’t just a problem at our table. (Ok, I’m done now.)

Next, we meandered in the direction of Navy Pier. At the pier, we had some of the most expensive ice cream I’ve eaten, we didn’t ride the Ferris wheel like we had thought about, and we didn’t actually spend a lot of time there. Everyone was pretty done and ready to sit inside in the cool and just relax. So, we went home.

Day 4
The last day we were in Chicago, I went with Fabian and my father-in-law to pick-up the rental car at the airport (a huge 7-person Dodge Durango, this thing was a boat!), so that we could all drive to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

The day at the botanic gardens was probably my favorite, not just because there was a lot of space where Emma could safely walk around and explore. The gardens are just beautiful, and extremely well planned.

The gardens had a cool exhibit with model trains running on a track through a wooden floral version of the United States. Each landmark was exquisite, and unfortunately I wasn’t with it enough to take many pictures, but here’s one for you to get an idea…

It was such a relaxing day, complete with a picnic lunch under the shade of some willow trees.

Day 5
This was a travel day. We drove from Chicago to Nashville, stopping in the Illinois Amish country along the way. I know that visiting the Amish was entertaining for my in-laws, but I had a hard time getting into it. For me, it was just a tourist trap in middle-of-nowhere Illinois; so I am glad they enjoyed the weirdness of it all. :)

The rest of June, July, and a little bit of August: Part 2

I feel pretty good about getting through some of this!

July
We arrived in Chicago just in time for my feelings of happy vacation to kick in. Naturally I started working downtown the next day…

July was incredibly stressful. Not only was I working at ACRL (a nice arrangement with two days in the office, and the rest of the week at home), but Fabian was also working on writing a paper due at the beginning of the next semester. With us both working so intensely, we barely had time to do anything else or spend time with each other. Emma’s daytime nap was premium working time for both of us. 

In addition to all that, we helped my parents get rid of TONS of old stuff that was just sitting taking up space. Part of that involved convincing them to get rid of the old smelly sofa and buy a new sofa bed, my main argument was that then they would actually have space for four more people to sleep in the already crowded house. It was a success, new sofa—epic sauce.

Despite having to do so much work, we did manage to squeeze in some vacation time. We went to the beach to see fireworks for Independence Day; drove to Madison for a day to randomly visit an old friend; many, many trips to the beach (hooray!!); a few visits to the zoo; and an early anniversary date night.

Emma grew, learned some new words, and made some new friends. I signed her up for the Chicago summer reading program, and we read lots of books together, and went to a few different places for story time. Emma took a little bit of time to get into story time, but by the end of each one she was having a blast.

I also did a bunch of yoga. One of my friends teaches yoga in Chicago, so I went to that studio and took her classes. I didn’t know just how much I would enjoy yoga—it's challenging, relaxing, anti-stress, and fun all rolled into one. What’s not to love? I was doing so well…

Lastly, I celebrated my 26th birthday, but more about that later. Fabian baked me a red current cake—delicious!!!!

All in all, not a bad July.

August
At the very beginning of August, I had a birthday party to celebrate my 26th. The last time I had any sort of birthday party with friends was long ago, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to visit with everyone, especially an old friend whom I haven’t seen in about… six years? And, a welcome visit from our Austrian friend. :)

After the party, we had three days to get everything together before Fabian’s parents and sibs arrived…!