August

As August hit, I was soon under the groaning approach of the new school year, and I was tempted to try and do everything just because I had the time.

First part of August was hot, and then there were a couple weeks that cooled down, to the point we had to wear light sweaters at night. First part of August was also the Olympics (if you were under a rock and were not aware of this). We were invited to watch the opening ceremonies with two other couples from my church. The opening ceremonies are very long and we all nearly fell asleep, but we made it through.

We did more rollerblading, and found a nice little lake to take a break at during our 9-mile runs (skates). We survived more thunderstorms and humidity and heat.

The final week of the month, school started again. It was a headache to scramble to get everything settled at the university, as one of my courses got canceled, so I had to fill the slot with a different one to keep my full-time status in order to qualify for the financial aid funding I was granted. The main problem was my work schedule wouldn't allow for any of the other classes being offered, so I had to opt for an independent study class. I have a professor I meet with one on one every couple of weeks Lawrence signed up for a guitar class once a week on one of the nights I have class.

This is a short one, mostly because we didn't do much out of the ordinary and I should be doing schoolwork.

We got fresh peaches from the neighborhood farmer's market

So of course I made a pie.

Farewell, Summer!

July

This is a food festival Chicago holds

This one is a bit late, but whatever, it's summer, it's almost too hot to sit at the desk with the hot laptop. (I have to sit with a fan pointed directly at me). Temperatures have gotten pretty high here in the course of the season, reaching over 90 degrees some days, with about 80% humidity, which makes it pretty difficult to want to do anything. There have been afternoons where we just lay on our living room rug in front of the AC unit. 

Of course, July is the birth month of America and we get an extra day off work for it, so we took the opportunity to head up to Appleton, Wisconsin where some distant relatives(?) (the jury is still out as to whether or not there is any actual blood relation) of Lawrence's live. Kathy and Fritz were in attendance at our wedding. Their home is lovely and large, at the end of a cul-de-sac near an open field with a pond and a water tower. And it was completely air conditioned. We even got a bit chilly in our basement guest room, the first time we'd felt cold in weeks! It was a nice relaxing weekend away from the city, all the hustle and bustle that comes with that. We bought cheese, because Wisconsin, and then promptly left it in Kathy and Fritz's fridge when we left. Well, there's always

next time.

We got our own visitors from across the pond. Lawrence's friend Phil and his girlfriend Leanne came out to visit for a couple days during their "American Tour." We took them out for deep-dish, showed them our apartment, took them down to the lake, and Lawrence took them to Navy Pier. Shame they couldn't stay longer; it was also during the week so we didn't get much more than a few hours with them. 

Floppy hat, Harry Potter, Sand, Sunscreen

Along with the heat, summer has brought with it a series of pretty spectacular thunderstorms. There have been a couple that have been so loud, car alarms go off. We were going to go watch a Shakespeare play in the park with some other couples, but there was a thunderstorm instead, and we ended up just laying on our rug watching the lightning. The rain gets torrential. We've seen thunderstorms, but not like this. In Utah, the rain doesn't last long, and England doesn't actually get too many storms, but the Midwest has its own category of storms; the parking lots flood and the streets run like streams. In fact, we had a tornado warning once. Yeah, Illinois is also within the reaches of tornado alley. The tornado hit somewhere else though. 

We've also finally made it down to the beach. The water has always been a bit chilly, but now the weather is steadily hot, and we finally went. The first time we went, it was the day after a thunderstorm, so we couldn't get in the water because the bacteria level was too high, so we just laid on the sand and read. The next weekend we went, we actually got to go in the water and swim. (Water was still a bit cold). Gotta make use of it while the weather is still warm, especially since it is literally five blocks away. 

And so we wend our way through August.