April 2017

Hello! It's May, and We're here to talk about April! The semester just ended this past week so I was a little to wrapped up with school to get the monthly blog post out. And it's still pretty chilly here in the Windy City. We had a pretty mild winter (though Lawrence would probably say it got too cold, which is true, we had some sub-arctic temperatures for a couple of weeks), we didn't get too many snow storms and we had quite a bit of sun despite the frigid temperatures, and then by January and February it started warming up again. But now it's like February and March temperatures just don't want to leave.

But the trees have finally blossomed!

That aside, we've tried our best to get back outside and enjoy the fresh air. We returned to the Lincoln Park Zoo and spent a little more time wandering around looking at the animals. We went earlier in the day and many of the animals were rather active, having just been fed or about to be fed.

We also broke out the roller-blades again for the season and we managed to go out on them a couple

weeks in a row before the temperatures fell again. We--ok, mostly me--will take a bit before being able to do 10-miles like we did by the end of last year, but it's been lovely to be able to get out in the sun and sweat again, seasonal allergies aside.

The school year began to wind down in April, much to both my dismay and relief--the end of the semester usually brings the stress of large final assignments.

We had a little Easter fun, dyed some eggs and got tulips and little Easter baskets. Then we had a ham and cheesy funeral potatoes (they're just called funeral potatoes in the Rocky Mountain West), which we shared with another family who'd had a baby that week.

Lawrence completed a painting he's been working on for nigh on a year. And also, Lawrence has now been in America for a full year! Yay for arbitrary anniversaries! We celebrated by... Shanelle working on her final paper and then we watched TV.

Here's to the summer warming up, and for all the friends and family we'll be seeing in the next few months.

March 2017

Spring has finally arrived in Chicago. Kind of. We had one more big blizzard that was pretty terrific. I It was like trying to walk through ice needles. A few of the trees have started budding and allergy season is kicking in.

St. Patrick's cake

St. Patrick's day came, cut it was kind of a cold, drizzly day so we didn't go downtown to see the river this year. Maybe next year. I did, however, make a Bailey's chocolate cake complete with green frosting.


We went to the theater to see the movie Logan, taking advantage of the $5 Tuesday deal at the Cinemark in Evanston. It was a heart-moving (and rather violent) film certainly not intended for children. But it was a different kind of superhero movie.

I've been making headway on my thesis novel, and Lawrence has started a new painting. We've gotten new plants for the apartment. And of course, the clock my family made for us finally arrived. It's beautiful, and very very large. We had intended to prop it in our chair in the living room, but it's too big. It now makes our TV (which is in no way small) look small. It was a little fractured in places from the journey, so we had to do some quick DIY with wood glue and clamps and it's almost as good as new. It mostly just stayed propped up on the corner until we move to a bigger place. For now, it's on the ground and still visible enough to let us know how much time we're wasting watching TV.