Cabin 7

In around the middle of May I took an amazing road trip with Adam and Matt to move all of our stuff from Chicago to a storage unit in Knoxville, Tennessee. We then headed over the mountain into North Carolina and spent some time with Hannah's parents and mine. After Adam and Matt departed I headed north into the Shenandoah Valley and from there into the Massanutten Valley to camp. In the valley within the valley there is no cell phone service and limited internet so that has been part of the reason for our lack of posting. At camp we moved into cabin 7.
And I moved into my office at camp.
Here are some pictures from a hike to Duncan's Knob featuring our friends Dan and Janelle.
God's Peace,
Zach & Hannah

Its been a long time, been a long time, Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

It has been a while since our last posting, and as you might have guessed from the new title of the blog the Parris' are no longer in Hyde Park and we are definitely not in France. We are living somewhere between the two. For the past 9 weeks we have been living near Fort Valley, Virginia at Caroline Furnace Lutheran Camp. Hannah has been working on the support staff building stuff like bridges and boat docks, cleaning stuff like bathrooms, learning how to work with power tools, and mowing acres and acres of grass. She has also been building campfires, preparing supplies and equipment for groups leaving camp, and picking up and dropping off groups in the woods and at the river. She also drives a half-ton pick-up truck all over camp regularly.

On the other hand, I have been doing pastoral care.

Well, I have been doing a little bit more than that. I lead morning and evening worship, meet with each staff member once a week for a little bit of spiritual direction/friend stuff, and I homilize about once a week. Also, Hannah occasionally ropes me into some of her duties, most often its the cleaning the bathroom duties.

Here is a picture of Hannah's handiwork:

This time tomorrow where will we be?

So, we are a day or two away from moving. Instead of writing a sermon I thought I'd share some pictures. They are from my band's show, a Chicago Fire game, and Hannah's fiddle graduation. Enjoy!

Also, the Kinks have taken over my brain and I scored Cornell West's Democracy Matters from the local Powell's bookstore for 7 bucks.

The Band

So, in the midst of the busyness of the semester, I started playing some banjo with some other folks at the seminary. We are kind of a band and we played at the local bar for a fundraiser for the LSTC Senior Class Gift, solar panels for the seminary. Here are a couple of video clips from the show: (Ps, I do some singing on the weight. Its nasally, but its just cause I've had the bird flu.)
Wagon Wheel:

Crazy:

The Weight:

California Stars:


Enjoy the music, in the mean time Hannah and I are still being "in process" for next year, Zach

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As promised here is a link to some pictures from our latest adventures. Sorry that I don't have much time for a longer post with pictures right now, but we are crazy hectic around here.
Despite what Zach said in the previous post, our internship/grad school situation is back up in the air, so we'll keep you updated on where we will actually be when we find out. In the meantime, we are still packing & moving at the end of May...we just don't know where! Prayers are welcome!

What in the world is going on?

With the semester and school year winding down it seems that life is moving at warp speed. So I thought I'd give you a list of what all is going on:

• I am finishing up a paper for two classes (Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ethics and Politics in the African American Community). It's a research paper connecting the anthropology of King and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr using Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Realism.
• Hannah has turned in her resignation at work and will finish up there on May 9th.
  
• We are excitedly preparing to work at Caroline Furnace Camp in Fort Valley, VA for the summer.
• I just finished a paper for my Israel's Prophets class on Ezekiel 34, its Ezekiel using the metaphor of the good shepherd.
• I just finished up my ministry-in-context project where I led a class introducing folks to Islam. It culminated in having an excellent Muslim guest from Northwestern.
• I am preparing to preach on May 4th on the ascension. [So I'll take suggestions on handling God going up in the comments section.]
• Hannah has committed to attending to the University of South Carolina in the fall, so we'll be in the Columbialand are next year. I'll be doing internship somewhere there. Maybe we'll find out soon.
• Hannah has fiddle class graduation tonight, it should be awesome, its at a bar called the Hungry Brain.
• The band I'm playing in (!TeamMusic!) will play our first show on Tuesday night at Jimmy's.
• Also, I am considering how to move our stuff halfway across the country in a few weeks.

So that's whats up. I think Hannah will have a picture post soon.
Peace, Zach

Sweet Sixteen pics

Go here to see the rest of the Sweet 16 basketball pictures! Thanks to Erin and JT for the use of their camera since Zach had ours in Germany.

Back in the "Spring" of things...

It looks like Spring may finally be here (knocking on wood now...) after what seemed like the longest, coldest winter of my life. But the weather isn't what I'm here to report on; let's get ya'll caught up with us!

Zach just got back from Germany, and he had a wonderful trip (see zachparris.blogspot.com for details and pics). I was glad he got the opportunity to go, but I wish I could have gone with him, and I was really happy when he came home! With Spring Break over he's jet-lagged but getting back into classes and work. He's still having fun playing his banjo, and now that the weather's a bit sunnier, he'll be getting outside to play and watch some baseball. In fact, he went today up to Wrigley Field with Matt (a Cubs fan) and Adam (a Brewers fan) to watch that game...of course, a true fan, he wore his White Sox hat :)

I have been busy, too. I'm still working at the library, but I've also been in the throws of applying to grad schools (for library science). Thankfully I was accepted to all 3 schools to which I applied, but now we are working with the seminary to get placed at an internship site next year nearby to one of my schools. The whole process has been stressful, but exciting, and I'm so looking forward to grad school!

To relieve the aforementioned stress I've taken up some new hobbies. For my birthday, Zach got me 8 weeks of fiddle lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I've already had 4 lessons, and made vast improvements, especially for never having picked up a fiddle in my life. So far I can play "Boil 'em cabbage down" and "Angeline the baker", and I've been picking out basic tunes like "Twinkle twinkle little star". It's a lot of fun! My friend, Erin, and I have also been learning to crochet, and we've picked it up fairly quickly and are already making several styles and sizes of hats, scarves, and flowers!

Another thing that I've started doing is entering radio contests...now I know you are probably thinking that sounds a little ridiculous, but one day I was in the mood to win something so I looked up Chicago-area radio stations online and entered various contests. Two days later, I got a phone call that I won some movie tickets. I've also won some concert tickets. But the biggest prize I won was from ESPN radio: I won two tickets to the Midwest Regional Sweet 16 games in Detroit and two 6th-row Bulls tickets (plus parking pass). So those are pretty good prizes, and so I'm going to keep entering contests! My friend, Chris, and I drove to Detroit last Friday, stopping to outlet shop on the way, and got to see Davidson and Kansas win their games! It was so awesome! Zach was pretty jealous (but he was in Germany, so he can't really complain, right?) Zach does get to enjoy some up close and personal Bulls action this Saturday, though.

Sorry for such a long post; I'm just trying to bring you back up to speed! Hope you've enjoyed!

Prize Winners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1st Prize goes to Kat!!!! with the entry "Parris is not in France"
2nd Prize goes to Joel Krohn who had an amazingly alliterative entry.

I have settled on "Parris is not in France: Travels through the land of Luther, Lager, and Leder-hosen"

Be sure to check out and bookmark the new site @ www.zachparris.blogspot.com

And check out Kat's blog so that her google rating will soar.

BTW (by the way) I've got just about one more week of class before I head to Germany. Class can't seem to go any slower.

Peace, Zach

How Oprah Stole Valentine’s Day

Hopefully, y'all were able to catch Hannah and our friend Erin on Oprah. You had to be good a recognizing the back of their heads, I guess we can use it as a judge of who our true friends are. So, if you want to be our friends then you better know the back of our heads. In addition to getting to appear on Oprah, Hannah also got tickets to be in the audience at another show. And if you promise not to let on to Hannah, this year for Valentine's I didn't have anything much planned. But the show that Hannah got tickets for turned out to be the Valentine's Day show. I was thrilled; I figured Oprah would come in and save Valentine's. I imagined that by going to the show we would get all kinds of free Valentine's goodies and Valentine's Day reservations at Oprah's favorite restaurant in Chicago. Well, I had class on the day of the taping of the show. So once again Hannah and Erin headed to Harpo Studios with a truck to put all of our free stuff in. I was at work at the lab school when I received the fateful phone call from Hannah. She was on her way home from the taping, with nothing. I was certain that we would receive a great bounty from Oprah, but instead we got nothing. Oprah had stolen Valentine's, and I was left to my own devices to assemble adequate Valentine's plans. My first idea was to wait for Oprah's heart to grow three sizes too big and return Valentine's Day to us down in Whoville. But it quickly became apparent that Oprah's heart was not doing any growing, and I just had to do it myself. We ended up having a nice dinner at the local Mediterranean restaurant with a bottle of Chilean Christmas wine, and all ended well in Whoville.

I also have some exciting news. I will be heading to Germany and Lutherland (I hear they have really fantastic roller coasters there) during Reading Week/Spring Break (March 20^th – March 30^th) with Pastor Chris and folks from University Lutheran in Clemson. I'm really excited and I am all set to go. I've got a plane ticket and the United States government has given me permission to leave for a while. Taking inspiration from my friend in the real world and the blogosphere, Matt Keadle, I will be blogging my trip to Germany. I hope to get the blog mentioned in the Chicago Tribune in order to trump Matt's Nebraska Rural Immersion Blog's mention in the Chicago Sun-Times. The blog will also serve as a great way to stay connected to my Ministry-in-Context site in Evanston while I am gone. But in order for my blog to be a great success I need a particularly clever and/or humorous name for the blog. In order to come up with the best name possible, I would like to announce the first ever Parris in Hyde Park Blog Contest. I challenge you to come up with the best name possible for the blog about my trip to Lutherland in Germany. Post your suggestions/entries in the comments segment for this post. I will announce the winner sometime in the next two weeks. If you win, you'll win my admiration and respect, as well as mention on the blog.

Also, any help making the Tribune will be greatly appreciated.

Good luck, Zach

Oprah's Bubble People

Yesterday I woke up at 3:30am in order to leave Hyde Park with Erin by 4:15. We had to be at Harpo Studios to check in by 5:00am. Despite the storm the night before, the roads weren't in terrible shape, so we made it to the West Loop and found FREE parking! As show participants, instead of audience members, we had to enter the building through a side garage door. Then we checked in, showing our IDs and going through the metal detectors. After checking our coats we went down the hall to a warehouse-style room directly behind the stage. The staff had chairs set up along with a big breakfast spread for the 100 of us "Bubble People", as we were called.

We signed our lives away on several forms, which mostly just stated that all footage of us while in the building was property of Harpo...FOREVER (seriously, it said that in all-caps on the form). About 6:30am we lined up to go to rehearsal. For those of you who watched the show, you saw that it wasn't just one huge bubble around all of us. Instead, there were island platforms set into a shallow pool of bubble solution. There was a big island in the center and several four-person island surrounding it. Erin and I were at the back edge of the main island. Unfortunately that meant that we didn't get much face time on camera. I managed to stand on my tiptoes twice to peek over the shoulder of the person in front of me in order to get my face on camera for a millisecond (but it was still there!). However, in a more positive light, Erin and I were on camera at least four times...just not the fronts of us. To capture the whole group, they used a camera that was above and slightly behind us. That means that you could see the backs of us and the tops of our heads quite clearly. And we were part of a world record!!

After our segment, we were led offstage (but not before seeing Oprah a few feet away getting her nose re-powdered), and taken back to the area behind the stage to watch the rest of the show from a big-screen TV. Erin and I only made it through the next segment before we decided we were too tired, and that we should go home and just watch the show later on when it aired again. I know for most of you it aired at 4:00pm local, but for us Chicagoans, it airs at 9:00am and again at 11:05pm. On our way out of the studio, we were surprised by receiving copies of two Oprah Book Club books. Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth was the book they were discussing on the second half of yesterday's show, and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth is the book that they are just starting.

Even though I'm still exhausted, I'm so glad that Erin and I got to be on Oprah. It's so much fun to say that I helped break a world record by being in a bubble with 99 other people on live television on Oprah! And we got free books, and we get to go back to a taping next week that will air later! It was definitely a crazy and memorable experience. I'm sorry that I have no pictures to post from it, but cameras and cell phones aren't allowed into Harpo Studios, so I didn't bother taking mine. Thanks, everybody, for sharing in my excitement over being on Oprah!

Jimmy Rhine!!

Last night we had the good fortune to see the wonderful Mr. Jimmy Rhine. To make it even better, we got to see him at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where Zach takes banjo classes. Jimmy's touring with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, one of our favorite groups. They were in town for a music festival at the Old Town School, so we went up with Matt and Chris (Matt takes guitar classes there, too). We went early and walked around Lincoln Square for some shopping during Zach's lesson, then we had a great dinner before heading back to the concert. It was amazing; all three bands were awesome, and a good time was had by all.Today we headed up to church in Evanston like usual, and Zach was the assisting minister. Afterward we stuck around for lunch and the church's annual congregational meeting. When we got home we watched Ratatouille, which was cute, and then we ran over to the gym. We joined the University of Chicago gym a few weeks ago so we have a place to workout while it's too cold outside. We can't wait for it to warm up so we can run and bike along the lake again!

That's all for now, but rest assured there will be more soon, after I appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show this Wednesday, January 30. I'll be on stage with 99 other people while a man attempts to break a world record by creating a soap bubble around 100 people. Look for me!

Coffee

I feel that this post is appropriate now that baseball's Mitchell Report has been made public, naming players who have taken performance enhancing drugs. Almost a year and a half ago I began seminary firm in my commitment to avoid performance enhancing substances. But now just over 18 months into seminary I find myself addicted to one a performance enhancing substance, coffee. And I have really needed it with all that we have been up to since our last post. So we'll dust off the Wayback Machine and I'll give you a quick review of all we've been up to over the last month or so.

Fortunately, we were able to take a break from the snow and the cold up here in Chicago, and we got down to North Carolina for Christmas. We were able to see lots and lots of family and folks that we hadn't seen in a while. I snuck in some banjo. And I was able to assist at St James in Newton and at Trinity in Vale on Christmas Eve. I also did a little bit of preaching at Holy Cross in Lincolnton. It was busy, but great getting around and helping out at all the different churches. We also found time to get to a Bobcats game and hang out with James Li. Here are some great pictures:

Once we got back to Chicago Hannah got back to work and I got back to class. For my January term class I took a class on Urban Ministry. For two weeks we travelled around Chicago and visited lots of different sites that are addressing issues in the city. We were able to see and hang out with Harry Belafonte, Jeremiah Wright at Trinity UCC, Michael Pfleger at St Sabinas. I just finished up the class last friday, and I now have two weeks before spring classes get started back. And with these two weeks I'll have plenty of time to blog, hold me to it.

This weekend was one of friends, shopping and snow. On Saturday we ventured downtown with some LSTCers to the Christkindlmarket, a German open-booth market in Daley Plaza, with is also home to Chicago's giant Christmas tree and menorah. It was beautiful with all the lights, but it snowed all day long and into the night, so we were very cold! Much to Zach's dismay, I decided the best way to warm up was to head over to State St. for some indoor shopping. We met back up with friends for dinner, then hopped on the Red Line to come home.


On Sunday we woke up to 10 inches of snow, so we dug out the car and made our way north to Evanston for church. Afterward we enjoyed lunch from Chipotle and did some suburb-style shopping. Later that evening we crossed the courtyard to visit and play cards with Erin and JT before we all leave for Christmas. In the meantime we've had fun with Mr. Wilson playing in the snow...he loves it!

Hannah's Hair

Just a quick note tonight. I got bangs today, so the picture is for my family, who asked to see them! In other news, Zach is done with the semester and done with work at the Lab school, and I only have one more week of work before we go head to North Carolina. Yay!

P.S. It's COLD up here!

Happy Holidays

As I sit here typing this, it is pouring down snow outside...our first real snow of the season. Thanksgiving was wonderful. It was so great to have Zach's brother Matt here, and we ate with the Burks and then played cards and games until 11 at night...we do have a lot to be thankful for. We did miss all of you that we didn't get to see, though.
We did some typical Chicago stuff with Matthew...deep dish pizza, Millennium Park with the Bean, Lake Michigan, and a walk along the Chicago River. We also took him to Chinatown to eat, to Daley Plaza to see the big Christmas tree and the German Christkindl Market. I think the most fun he had was making pumpkin pies with Zach, though.

Zach was scheduled for surgery this past Wednesday, but after we waited at the hospital for a few hours, they told us that after reviewing his x-rays and scans again, they decided the surgery might do more damage than good, so he is still in the cast for the time-being, but he will soon be put in a splint and start physical therapy. We thank you for all your support and prayers, and Zach says he looks forward to doing some more blogging when he has more use of his hand and wrist. Zach's 24th birthday was Thursday, and we celebrated by having a nice dinner with some friends. Zach loved getting so many cards, phone calls, Facebook messages, and even a cake sent to him, so thanks everyone!

This is the end of the semester for Zach, so he's been very busy with all his final papers and things. And work for me has been chaotic, as we are in the middle of moving back into our renovated space and trying to get everything back up and running. Last night, however we had a chance to relax and little bit. We attended a semi-formal Advent party, so we gussied up and had some fun with friends.
We wish you all a happy Advent season. Zach will be helping to lead Wednesday services at our MIC church in Evanston this year, and we hope that all of you use this time of waiting and hope to prepare for Christmas. We look forward to seeing those of you in the Carolinas then.

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Happy Thanksgiving from Chicago, ya'll! We are staying here for the holiday this year, and we are happy to have Zach's brother Matthew join us for the week. We'll be spending Thanksgiving Day with some of our LSTC family, JT, Erin, Nora and Sully Burk.

Some of you may already know, but Zach recently went to Gettysburg, PA for the Luther Bowl, a flag football tournament between several seminaries. This was the first year that Chicago sent a team, and they went undefeated to become Luther Bowl champions! Unfortunately, Zach returned to Chicago with a battle wound. He broke his right wrist and will undergo surgery soon. He's doing well, and we'll keep you updated on his recovery. He's mostly frustrated because typing is slow going, and he has some big papers coming up for the end of the semester.

While Zach was out becoming a champion, my mama and granma Pharr visited me in Chicago. We had a great time catching up. I took them to see the Bean, State Street shopping, to eat in Greektown, around Hyde Park, and to Evanston for church on Sunday. I loved having them both here, and hope they will come back soon!

We wish you all a blessed and happy Thanksgiving holiday!

Patches of Pumpkin

Hannah and I made a trip this past weekend out to a pumpkin patch in Monee, Illinois. We enjoyed getting out of "the city" for a little while, and Hannah was able to find the perfect pumpkin. Hannah, in particular, enjoyed the patch with a hay ride, petting zoo and corn maze.

That's all for now. The semester is in full swing. Upcoming are sermons, an endorsement interview, and of course the Luther Bowl. We'll keep you updated.
-Zach

Clemson trip

Hey ya'll! We just got back from a wonderful trip to Clemson this past weekend. We caught a flight out of Chicago at 6 a.m. (thanks to our amazing friend Adam, for dropping us off at 4 a.m.!), and then we saw my dad, Zach's grandparents, and Zach's mama and mamaw before heading down to Clemson. I was happy to get to visit some folks at the library where I worked for 3 years in undergrad. We also enjoyed attending several events put on for LSM alumni. It was the LCM Centennial celebration, and there was a pig-pickin', along with time for alumni to share stories about our Clemson LSM experiences, and a big tailgate before the game on Saturday.

Even though the game was painful to watch, we had an awesome time catching up with old friends, tailgating, getting burritos and sweet tea from Ancheaux's, shopping for some new Clemson gear downtown, walking around campus, and going back to worship at University Lutheran. Thanks to Stuart, Kyle, Cliff, PC & Laura for giving us places to stay, and to LCM (& alumni) and Thomas (& family) for tailgating hospitality.

We also loved getting to see my parents, Zach's parents, and Josh and Arden at my parent's house before we flew back to Chicago late Sunday (thanks to Becky for picking us up even though her game was on). I was sad to leave the Carolinas, but we were happy to be back in our little apartment with our sweet Mr. Wilson (thanks to Elisabeth for hanging out with him while we were gone).

Meanwhile, here in Chicago, Zach's classes continue to go well at seminary. He is preaching his first sermon this week in class. We are also getting know the congregation and community at Zach's MIC site in Evanston. The church and Pastor Sheri have been very welcoming, and we look forward to the coming year with them. Zach's taking banjo classes, and he's really getting good! I'm still working at the law library, but when I'm not at work, I've been spending time with our friends Erin and JT, with their 3 year old Nora, and 3 week old Sullivan (Sully). We like taking the kids to the park when Zach and JT are out playing flag football for the newly-formed LSTC team. They are getting ready to go to Gettysburg in November to participate in the Luther Bowl for the first time. I'm also starting to work on grad school applications for next year, so I am excited for that! We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family, and for all of you that support us in so many ways.

The Summer Don't Live Here No More

Well, it has been a wonderful summer. We've both stayed really busy. So busy that its been difficult to find the time to blog. I apologize for the lack of recent posts. Since our last posting lots has happened. We took a weekend trip to North Carolina for my brother-in-law, Josh's wedding to Arden. It was a great trip. My parents had a pool party on Friday where we were able to see lots of my family. The wedding also brought Katie, Derek, and Simon to North Carolina. Josh & Arden's wedding was great and we congratulate them on that. It was up at Lutheridge. Up at Lutheridge we were able to hang out with some friends from college that we hadn't seen in a long time. All in all, it was a great trip.I have finished up CPE. It has probably been the most beneficial part of seminary so far. I finished up last Friday and I've got a week off before I get back to classes. I also have just sent in my Endorsement materials. Endorsement is the second of three steps towards ordination in the ELCA. I'll have an interview with some folks from my candidacy committee later in the fall to hopefully be endorsed before internship next year. But for this year its more classes. This fall I'm taking:

• Preaching
• Hebrew
• Systematic Theology I
• Understanding Islam
• Ministry-in-Context

This year I'll be working at a church seven hours a week. The parish I have been assigned to is St. Paul Lutheran Church in Evanston. My first Sunday in the parish is this Sunday. I look forward to blogging about my experiences there. Also, because I'm taking preaching this semester I will soon be able to preach.

Before I get moving again, I thought I'd let you know how great the weather has been. I know it might be hard for you to hear in the south but our weather has been fantastic for the past week or so. But I imagine it won't be too long before its cold again. Hopefully, I won't make you all wait as long for the next blog.

God's Peace,
Zach

More Family!

Zach's parents came to visit us this weekend before continuing on to the rest of their vacation. They arrived on Friday evening, and after unloading we went straight to get some Chicago-style deep dish pizza. On Saturday we made our way downtown to enjoy sightseeing in absolutely gorgeous weather. After stopping to get Chicago-style dogs (and a veggie burger for me), we walked through Millennium Park toward Buckingham Fountain. Then we walked along the lakefront to see the boats and the Cool Planets on our way to the museum campus. We spent the afternoon exploring dinosaurs and ancient Egyptians at the Field Museum before heading back to Hyde Park for dinner on the back porch. Sunday included brunch at the Medici (yum!), going to see Rockefeller Chapel, a walk around the University of Chicago campus, and a drive to the North Side to see Wrigley Field. Unfortunately the Cubs were playing at the time, so we didn't get the chance to park and walk around, but it gave Susie and Rick a better idea of how different the various neighborhoods in Chicago can be. Even though the visit was too short, we were very glad to have them here!

Family

Just a quick update and pictures from my parents' visit to Chicago. We were very sad to see them go, but we had a wonderful time with them. They arrived on Friday evening and we took them to Greektown for supper. On Saturday we slept in and then toured around Hyde Park, showing them where I work, 57th Street Books, and Hyde Park Produce. We also ate lunch at the Medici, then went next door for fresh bread...yum. Later we had friends Erin, JT, and Nora over for delicious homemade pizza and lots of fun! We wanted to show my parents some different areas of Chicago, so we went to the North Side for church on Sunday at Holy Trinity. Afterward we went to pick up some painting supplies for my class (yay)! We went home for lunch and a bit of rest before heading downtown on the Metra. Even though it was 94 degrees we enjoyed a free Brandi Carlile concert, then walked around the Taste of Chicago. We went home on a CTA train and bus to let them fully experience living in Chicago, and then had supper at Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop. It was a very full, but happy weekend, and I wish they could have stayed longer!

Our busy lives...

I know every time we post (which is not often enough, I know) we say how busy we've been. But now it seems that we are busier than ever. Both of us are working full-time and trying to get out and enjoy the summer as much as possible while we can.

My work is chaotic right now because they are completely remodeling the inside of the library, and they are building a brand new dorm right next to the library (and right outside my window). My parents did bring my bicycle to Chicago on their way to Montana, so that is helpful getting to and from work. Zach has been working very hard and gaining a lot of valuable experience this summer working as a chaplain at a hospital in Berwyn, IL. While he has had to deal with some difficult situations, I think he's still enjoying his time there. Most days he carpools with a neighbor of ours that is working there, too, which has been really nice. The worst part of his job is that has to be on-call one night per week, so sometimes he leaves at 7:20am one day and doesn't come home until 5:45 the next day. I'm glad that I have Mr. Wilson for company!

Besides working, we've been looking for fun things to do in the city. So far this summer we've been to the Blues Festival with our neighbors Matt and Chris, and Zach and I went to the Shedd Aquarium during one of its free days. I went up to Evanston for my cousin Elizabeth's graduation party (she went to Northwestern), and had the best time getting to see wonderful family, including my Quaidie! Zach was working that night, but I did bring him back some stellar food. I started taking a painting class at the Hyde Park Art Center, and I'm really excited about getting back into painting again. Also, our good friend Adam came back for a weekend and we loved hanging out and going to see some fireworks with him...we'll be glad when he comes back to Chicago after the summer! We've been spending as much time as possible with our friends, grilling out and enjoying sitting out on our porches. Tuesday we had a cookout with homemade ice cream for the Fourth of July and then headed over to the lake to watch the big fireworks display from the Point. Then for the actual Fourth we both had the day off. We went to the Hyde Park parade and had lunch with friends JT, Erin, and Nora, then rested for most of the day.

In family news, our nephew Simon was baptized this past weekend, and although we couldn't be there, we celebrate with him and his parents. And I can't wait to see them all in August at my brother's wedding! Also, my parents stopped by on the way to Montana a couple of weeks ago, and now they are coming to visit us again on the way back. I am very much looking forward to a longer visit to be able to show them more of Chicago. Shortly after my parents leave, Zach's parents will be coming to visit us, as well. They have both been here, but on separate trips, so it will be wonderful to have them here together! Plus, they are bringing a bike for Zach, and we are both excited to go ride along the lakefront.

We hope that all of you are enjoying your summer so far!

June is bustin' out all over!

It's hard for us to believe that we're already in June. I've especially been grateful for all the sun, warm weather, and flowers we've enjoyed lately; it almost makes me forget how cold the winter was...almost.

We tried to make the most of Zach's time off, so we've been really busy. We went with some friends to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie one night last week, which was a good time. Zach and I have also been doing some "urban trekking" to exercise and explore the area a bit.

This weekend we went with a friend to Lebanon, Indiana for another friend's wedding. We had a really nice time, and it was great to get a break from the city for the day. Sometimes all the noise and traffic start to get old. The city is good for festivals and culture, though, and we had a wonderful time browsing at the 57th Street Art Fair on Sunday.

Zach starts his CPE bright and early tomorrow, so we'll have some updates about that soon.