Sledding...

So much fun lately...

Dave went on a run for lunch and found a cool hill for sledding.  After nap on Sunday afternoon, we ran up there for some sledding.  Obviously, Mom Bishop can weigh in, but I believe this was the first time I'd ever been sledding.  Fantastic!!

The sled was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Royse.  The hill was cool because it was at the edge of a park, with stairs running up both sides of the hill, so you could just climb up the stairs to get to the top. We went at the perfect time because it wasn't too crowded- but there were also lights.  Here is a video of the boys going...

A lot of fun...

Apple Season

Last weekend was very fun.  Friday night, Dave and Nico met me in Lincoln Square on the bike trailer.  Dave had to edit for the news service, otherwise, we might have grabbed some dinner there.  

Saturday morning, I shot a workshop at CrossFit when Nico and Dave headed to Nico's school for some type of Family Fun Get Together.  After, they headed to the YMCA for swimming lessons and working out.  On my way home, I stopped by the Southport Grocery, for some treats (cupcakes and such).  BTW, reason 3420849305 Chicago is awesome:  In Tally, I could count on one hand the number of little gourmet groceries.  In Chicago, you'd need several more hands.  Like 10. When I got home, Nico and I napped, which was fantastic.  The weather was kind of crummy (thunderstorms and such).  True story, I love the crap out of napping during storms.  

Sunday, we had brunch at our friend Robyn and Jordan's house, which Nico declared to be one of the funnest parts of the weekend.  My friends Kevin and Jennifer were there, and they gave us the real story on how it is in Chicago.  After brunch, we drove up to Libertyville for apple picking.  It was a lot of fun!  Dave and Nico are really good at apple picking!!

Of course, the apples had to be taste-tested.  So, you know.  In actuality, Nico ate three apples on our trip.  The good news is that we have a peck of apples... which might as well be a shit ton of apples.  Have no idea what I am going to do with this many apples.  But I think the old-standby, the Caramel Apple Pie with Cornmeal Crust is going to happen.  I just wish I could make and freeze.    

Opportunity Knocks

So, in other exciting news, I have been offered a course for the winter quarter at DePaul.  I know, right?  Just when I think I am out, they pull me back in!!

Turns out that the senior research methodologist in the SSRC has taught classes in statistics and methods, prior to my arrival, so the teaching coordinator asked if I would be interested.  While I have never taught a statistics class, I have taught methods.  And I have had some pretty damn good training  in the art of teaching.  And also, I have won two teaching awards.  So it's not really like this:

Of course, I am not sure how much of this the coordinator knew when she asked me to teach an undergraduate statistics course.  It's probably a bit uncommon, for someone who is a good teacher to not move automatically and fully into the teaching track.  If I wasn't in Chicago at DePaul, I would probably be at a teaching college, with my four courses a semester and no research activity.  

The conversation I had with the coordinator was a great conversation and she said that she would send me the course list so that I might consider teaching some of the "fun" classes in demography and health.  Yeah.  How much fun will that be?

This development is actually quite fortuidous...Dave and I watched a thing on Sunday Morning a couple of weeks ago about the Khan Academy that has made me rethink how I would revamp my teaching style, if it ever came to that.  

That said, I believe that I will make every effort to incorporate memes in this class, as well as pop culture references to Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Keeping up with the Kardashians.  For example, here is a question that I might ask on a midterm:

"Following the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, a CDC researcher is interested in how many people are infected ("turned") each day.  She has been collecting this data for a year, but decides to draw a random sample of 30, for which she obtained a sample mean of 34.1 infections per day, with a sample standard deviation of 0.4."

Question 1: Calculate the standard error of the mean.

Question 2: Construct a 95% confidence interval to estimate the mean number of infections.

Question 3: Write a narrative explanation of this confidence interval.  

And so on... couldn't it be very fun??

I think so.  

In addition to that new opportunity... I was chatting with one of the other girls at CrossFit this afternoon and she mentioned that she (and another girl in our class) do Roller Derby.  Apparently this particular establishment is pretty good.  And they invited me to come to their tryouts!!  Can you believe it?  My mother's dream come true!  When I pointed out that I don't "skate" they replied this as not as big of a problem as you would think.  Apparently, being an athlete is a solid enough foundation... then after that, it's just learning how to skate.  Normally, I would be all over this.  But I decided to show some restraint and not jump with both feet.  But it was cool that they invited me.  And in case you were wondering, yes, I have thought about what my name would be.  

Guns McGee.  

Of course this only works if you have actual guns (i.e. well-developed biceps).  Otherwise, its just sad.  So we will revisit this issue in the nearish future.   

Having extraordinary adventures

You know, it has to be hard being you guys and not being us.  I am almost at the place where I am like, "look at your life, now look at mine.  sadly, you don't have this life..." but I figure that would make me even more insufferable than I already am.

We are having a blast.  Seriously.  We are loving living in a city of decent size, with decent weather.  I am also loving working at a place where securing the next R01 isn't that big of a priority.  I take days off.  Isn't that crazy?  Last week, Nico and I drove out to Earlville to pick strawberries.  It was a bit of a drive, but worth it in my book.

And since we had so many strawberries, we made strawberry pie this weekend.  I mean, what else would you have done.  I brought one in yesterday and was declared queen of the pies at work.  

Friday had an MRI on Friday (guess what? He has a torn rotator cuff.  It's a good thing he lives with a doctor.  Because I diagnosed that mess a year ago).  This necessitated me staying home with Nico on Friday.  Which started with us going to breakfast at a freaking Swedish restaurant.  In our neighborhood.  It is called Tre Kronor and is our go-to place to go when family and friends are in town.  Look what Nico had:

Doesn't that look heavenly?  After said breakfast, Nico and I went to the library.  The library stresses me out a bit because they don't have many firetruck or police car books.  But we'll find them, I think.  

Saturday night, we headed down to Navy Pier.  We had dinner and walked around.  Nico took us to the Children's Museum store and we picked up a couple of t-shirts for his birthday (Chicago Police and Chicago Fire Department).  Which is very awesome.  Do you see them wearing sweatshirts?  Awesometown!!  I remember this time last year playing a game of soccer in Tallahassee where I had sweat dripping off my eyebrows.  And I was standing in goal.  Seriously.    

Sunday we played soccer.  We joined an 8 v 8 league on a team that already has a goalkeeper.  You know what that means?  Me playing in the field.  Which you know is never good for business.  The bad news is that we ended up losing someone to a red card and then proceeded to lose the game.  The good news is that it wasn't me.  So I have that going for me.  

This week I have Thursday and Friday off... so we're probably going to have some more adventures.  

Holy Weekend!

We had a bit of a wild weekend!  Dave's boss Craig was in town, so I took Friday off to hang with Nico and Craig's daughter Lila.  We started off by going to Lincoln Park Zoo.  Which is awesome.  It's free, so it wasnt that annoying when Nico decided 20 minutes after being there that he wanted to go.

After the zoo, we headed back to their hotel, where the kids went swimming in the indoor pool.  We also had Giordano's pizza for lunch.  It was amazing.  It's what deepdish was always meant to be.  Sooo good.

Saturday we had kind of a chill day.  I went to a fitness class in the morning and Dave and Nico went on a drive about.  They went up to Niles and Lincolnwood to check things out.  When they got back, we caught a quick nap and then headed over to the lake for a late picnic.  It was a bit cool, but not too bad.

The grill is one of those portable/disposable things that we got for our emergency preparedness supplies (in case we ever had to stay at a shelter for a week or two due to a hurricane).  Here is Nico the Firefighter putting out the fire.   

Then on Sunday, I gave Nico a hair cut.  Isn't he just precious?

After, we took Lila and Craig to see the Cubs play!!  As an early Father's Day present, Nico got Dave a new Cubs shirt!  The game was awesome.  They won.  And Nico was really good for the whole game.  Seriously.  He lasted all game.  It was great.  I was very proud of him. Lila left her purse in the stadium, so I went back for it, and they all headed back to the hotel, which was down in The Loop, where there was more swimming.  I think it's probably time for swimming lessons for Nico, because little homey is completely unafraid in the water.  

He's been okay, considering all the change.  He still gives Dave a rough time of it for nap time.  But we haven't had any back sliding in terms of potty training or anything.  He says he's going to start sleeping in his firetruck bed when he turns four (yes he still sleeps with us- dont judge).  

Nico, Soccer, Polo, and Puppies in the pool

Am I really down to one post a week? Man, I suck at life!

The weekend was pretty great!! We started out with a game at the Meadows against Maclay. Typically, Maclay beats us when we play. We started closing the gap last year when we lost 2-1 and defended a good bit of the time. This year we went at them pretty tough... and while they were missing their goal scoring machine, we were missing our Iron Lady, Norma Rae, who usually puts the muscle on their goal scoring machine, rendering her useless for the night. We went up pretty early and hung on to the lead for most the game until a handball by our GK outside the box. This resulted in a free kick and a goal and a reassessment of how terrible we are on defending set pieces.

Here is Nico... our sitter had to go home to see her doctor, so guess who came to the game and was annoyed he had to be there? Hint: his name rhymes with Rico.

Why does he have a tennis racket? That is a great question. I have no idea why!! Here is an earlier video, I took of Nico last week at the Taylor tournament. This is usually what it is like whenever he is at the field with us:



Saturday morning, Nico and I went to the gym (he went to the kids room). When we came home we really quick got ready to go to the Polo game. John Paul II a catholic high school here had a fundraiser at a horse farm out in Monticello. So we went and watched. It was pretty fun. Nico was relatively good- but was bored pretty quickly. He did get to sit on one of the referee's horses... named Holiday. That was pretty sweet. Will try to get the picture I took of him up later.

True story: I want to own a small farm. Something big enough to have chickens, sheep and maybe a cow. And a HUGE vegetable garden, some fruit trees. I had relegated this as a project for after Nico went off to college, thinking that this would only be possible if we could live way out in the country, which Dave does not want to do. However, after visiting the farm for the polo match, we had a good conversation about it... turns out we weren't communicating very well. Which is cool... because it means the next place we live might work for us living on a farm. Maybe.

We chilled out easy on Saturday night. Sunday morning, I woke up and went for a run. After, we prepared to take the dogs to the annual Puppies in the Pool... where we take the dogs to Truesdale pool, which they open up to dogs the last weekend of the year (before they clean it).



It was pretty fun. Nico was getting ready to throw the ball when Drake lunged forward and snatched it out of his hand. It scared Nico pretty bad, so he wanted to cuddle for the rest of the time there. We won a raffle drawing, which was cool because we never win anything. We won a leash, which would be really cool if we walked our dogs... but they are pretty much beasts whenever we walk, so we dont walk them very much.

Nico's overly cuddliness on Sunday ended up being the first signs of sickness... and he commenced ralphing at about 430. It was really random. But he had a pretty high fever, so I just hung out with him at the house. We layed on the couch and watched TV till he fell asleep. I stayed home with him on Monday and he was pretty much better by the evening.

That is all... except for this video of Nico feeding the guess, which I forgot to embed. Enjoy!!

Easter update

Wow!! What a week!! Sorry I have been out of touch- I had my final exam on Wednesday and practice this week. It has been crazy. Easter was good. We hosted a brunch for some friends. So we did a lot of cleaning and cooking. Nico even pitched in to help:



And this is why it takes us a week to clean our house.

The Easter Bunny brought Nico some candies... and hid some eggs (will put the video up later). Overall, Nico was a gem during brunch. He hung out with Savy Weiss (who is about 6 weeks younger than him) and Jack F (who is 8). He was really good except for when it was time for a nap... and then he was mad. I think he liked hanging out with the people...

On Saturday night before brunch, I was frosting some cupcakes. He had grabbed one and squished it up so I gave it to him to eat. Then I gave him one with some frosting and tried to show him how to frost a cupcake. He took that to mean that he should eat the cupcake. It was all fun and games till I turned around to talk to Dave and I turned back to find that he was going after a THIRD cupcake. What the? How the? Yeah, I ended up having to fill in a hole he made with his frosting spreader with.... more frosting. :)

He really is a lot of fun these days. He is talking a lot. His latest thing is "OK." So I might say something like, "Nico, we are five minutes from home, OK?" And he says, very clearly and plain as day, "OK." Its awesome.

Mama Bishop is coming up this weekend... she is going to hang out with Nico next week, while FSU is closed. I think I have even tricked her into making me a skirt with fabric that looks like fabric she used in my wedding dress, only turquoise. :)

The Chocolate Cake Dance

We had a pretty good weekend. 

I stayed up kinda late on Friday night working on Zoe Claire's quilt.  It's almost done.  Woo hoo!!  I can't wait to go see her, because she is going to get a whole mess of cool stuff!!  Saturday morning, I went over to my friend LaVon's house.  We worked on a necklace that I have been wanting to make.  Am hoping to get it done in time for PAA... but that is not looking  hopeful at the moment. 

On the way home, I ran by the Old Navy for some jeans, because I tore my last ones sitting on a bench at Godby (I went to shoot some photos at a track meet).  I tore the jeans on a sharp part of the bench.  I normally wouldn't be bothered by it (and prolly would not have replaced the jeans) had the tear been in a more convenient place.  Ahem.  As it is now, they dont look cool- like I meant to do it- like on the knee or the thigh.  Its right on the butt of the jeans.  And its just trashy to wear them around.  On a side note- why in the hell does it seem like a tornado has just hit Old Navy.  No matter when I go?  Always a disaster area?  Do people just lose their minds at Old Navy?  Must be...

Saturday night we went Cabos for dinner.  Wherein, Nico showed us "The Chocolate Cake Dance".  Behold!!




Nico has random dances that he does. In the mornings, sometimes he does "The Poptart Dance" which is quite similar to this.   Isn't this awesome?

Sunday, I took Nico out to breakfast and got some groceries.  While he went down for a nap, I went to the eye doctor.  BTW, I heart insurance.  I have a vision plan with my health insurance.  I paid a @20.00 co-pay and got two pair of glasses.  One nice pair from Banana Republic and one off name brand which is for backups.  Of course, they dilated my eyes while I was there, which necessitated a need for a nap when I got home :)

While I was waiting for the glasses to be made, I met Dave and Nico at Borders.  Apparently Nico woke up from nap requesting a "treat".  I don't know where he got this idea... we generally don't do "treats".  Like, if we are going to have candy, we have candy... there is no treat involved.  He is also taken to saying what sounds like, "tight" when we put his shoes on.  Which is strange... because I wasn't aware that he knew what it meant.  Of course, it probably means that it is time for new shoes for him. 

He is also REALLY into trucks and cars and tractors and trains right now.  And I am not sure, but I think he knows some colors (red and white).  Now, if you point to a white truck as ask what color it is, he says something that sounds like "white."  Is it possible that he is a genius?  I mean, it probably is... afterall... look at his mom.  She is pretty smart.  His Dad is okay... :)

All for now.

Big Boy Shoes

We had a really great weekend around here!!

Nico has been out of school for the last two weeks... he's been hanging at the house with Grandma and Grandpa Royse, Dave and babysitters.  So two weeks before he turned one, he took his first unassisted steps.  He started trying to walk much more around the time of his birthday (two weeks ago) and now, he is a walking machine.  Sort of like Forrest Gump when Forrest is desribing how he first got into running. 

Nico: If I was going anywhere, I was walkin'!!

He doesn't have the best balance yet- and he has a very wide stance, which I am sure is common... but he is walking everywhere.  So Dave took Nico a lot this weekend so that I could work and they ended up someplace buying shoes... he wears a 6.  In real shoes... not like those moccasin shoes (like Roby's).  Real shoe-shoes.  I forgot my lunch at home today and Dave and Nico brought it by.  When I poked my head in the back seat, my heart felt a little pang because he was wearing his shoe-shoes, and not those baby moccasins.  How is he already so big?

He is talking a lot now... he is trying to say lots of things.  I feel sometimes like he is "Kicking Bird" from Dances with Wolves.  He seems like he has so much to say, so many questions to ask.  I point to something and say what it is and he looks like he is considering it, like he wants to understand more, how to say it, how to form the words.  Soon.... soon enough and he will be sassing me, I am sure. 

This weekend was awesome.  I spent it mostly working on the chapter for the edited volume I was invited to submit to.  Dave and Nico spent it mostly doing fun stuff like going to Trusdale and hanging out a Lake Ella with the ducks.   Man, this dissertation needs to hurry up, because I am missing out on some funs!!

We are in the process of trying to take away the bottle.  Which I dont think is going to be a huge deal... it used to be a really easy way to get him into bed at nap time and at night.  But lately it hasnt been working like a charm.  He is down to one, sometimes 2 bottles a day, and after this can of formula is gone, we're done.  Add to that the fact that he schedule has been a little weird lately, with the being out of school nonsense.  So he hasnt been sleeping well at night or at nap time.  He is probably going to be a cranky beast for his teachers.  YIKES!!  I always hated when kids would spend a week or two with grandma and come back to school all cranked out out of control.  Turns out, we are those parents.  Oh well.  

So now that we are getting back on a routine, the bottle is ending.  We might have to have a renegoitiation about night time sleeping.  See while he was in school, we didnt have to deal with it much, because he would go in his room and sleep pretty well, hardly waking up at all.  But lately, he's been waking up several times at night... so, we will see.  

All for now.