Thanksgiving post!

I seem to take too long between posting blogs. I know that Thanksgiving is far out of most people's minds and we are all looking forward to Christmas now, but here is our Thanksgiving post. ☺

Preston and I stayed in Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday.  My parents were able to fly into the city to be here too, which was very nice.  They arrived on Wednesday evening before T-day and left on the Sunday following T-day.

Our first outing was to the parade. However, there was a pit stop. My dad is very friendly to everyone. He just wanted to say hello to the cop and to several other strangers in the city! It was fun!

The parade! It was quite fun and VERY cold!!! The parade was full of fun floats, lots of bands, and some interesting characters.  We stood next to a train line, and so all the big floats had to get under the train line, which you can see in the few photos of the parade that follow.

As I mentioned, it was VERY cold. The parade lasted till about 11:00 and we stayed there until about 10:00 am.  We did manage to go by the famous bean before going back to the house for our thanksgiving dinner. 

Preston thought this was very funny! :)

  None of us were eager to get up early and go black Friday shopping here in the city. We spent the day around the city going to the Navy pier, the stained glass museum, and the Sears tower (which there was a two hour wait to go up...so we left).  We ate dinner at the famous deep dish pizza place and then went to the Water tower place to do some black Friday night shopping!  We also walked through the American Girl store, which was really neat. We had a fun filled weekend going out to eat, more shopping, seeing the house and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright and of course had the famous Chicago hot dogs.  We stayed busy for sure.

The American Girl store!

Stained glass museum

 

One of the largest Macy stores in the world. It's 8 floors!

We video chatted with my sister and her husband on Thanksgiving day. That was fun!

The nicest part, of course, was just spending time together. It's always nice to be around family, which we look forward to doing again in about a week.

I suppose the Christmas season is starting!!! Friday we woke up to snow covered ground ☺, Saturday I got most of the Christmas shopping done and we went to a Christmas party with some friends from church. Tonight we are going to the Moody Christmas services, which I hear is great!

Then, on to the more fun part of Christmas....we're going South to be with our family!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! :)

From October to now

It's been over a month since we have posted on our blog.  Mostly because we're settled into our routine. Both of us are working full time plus. The weather is beginning to turn cooler, but we are not really talking too much about it because we know that the real cold weather is going to come.  

Way back on the first day of October, we went apple picking.  I made an apple pie and Preston cut up apples and dehydrated them. 






Joseph was in town a few weeks ago and we were able to meet up with him for lunch one Sunday. We quickly snapped a photo before parting ways. For some reason this photo just makes me laugh!




Joseph Roberts, Krystal and Preston

 

 At the end of October we went to one of the interns home and carved pumpkins, which neither of us had done in a really long time. 

The first weekend of November, Preston went to spend some time with his family in Tennessee. 

I stayed here in Chicago for the weekend because I'm still on my "probation period" at work and I had signed up for a 5k race....which was super fun...and I actually improved my pace 

Preston's younger sisters made him a welcome home sign! Derek was just a little too overwhelmed with excitement and surprise to see his wonderful brother, PRESTON!! Hehehe...silly boys.

We are doing very well here.  Just a couple of more weeks until Thanksgiving!! We are very excited to have my parents in town for the Thanksgiving holiday. And then Christmas!!! Yay!

Birthday fun!

Preston and I had fun this past weekend as we celebrated my birthday. Since both of us had to work on Monday (and Preston works late on Mondays) Saturday was my birthday celebration day. To begin, the weather was superb. The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and warm temperature all day! Preston and I ran in a 5k first thing in the morning. Preston did an EXCELLENT (in my humble opinion) job running the race in 24 minutes, while I was happy with my time finishing at 36 minutes. The race was put on by the clinic Preston works at, and it was run through the rougher part of the neighborhood. It was neat seeing scripture along the roadside as we ran, and it was cool to take part in an effort to help the community develop a healthier image of itself!  We're looking forward to trying to improve our time at our next run.

In the afternoon we went to a quaint and dainty little chocolate shop called Leonidas (a Belgian chocolate cafe) where we had a chocolate tasting. It really was just like a wine tasting but with chocolate. The lady brought out several different types of belgian chocolates and talked about each one of them as we ate them.  Preston also enjoyed a Hazelnut latte and I enjoyed a Gingerbread latte. Very tasty event!  We also went by the Hershey store close by. 

 

 

Then we took a stroll down a few blocks and walked along the beach front....beautiful night. We ended up at the Navy Pier where we took a boat ride. Not just any boat ride...we road the Seadog, which is a speed boat! It was SO much fun. It's a big speed boat that holds up to 100 passengers and rides around lake Michiagan. Before the boat went back to the Navy pier, we sat still in the water watching a beautiful firework show! A lovely evening indeed and one of the neatest things we have done so far in the city. 

   

A picture of a picture...us in front of the boat...and you can see the city behind

A glimpse of the fireworks

Life is continuing as normal for us. I ride the L (train) every day to and from work. I have been enjoying the ride and I get to read and even crochet while on the train. I make a few transfers to get to work. The blue line is particularly crowded. Every morning as it pulls into the station I see the crowds sitting and standing on the train carts, and I think "I don't believe I will fit in there," but everyday I manage to squeeze my way on and sqeeze my way off at my stop! 

 

Preston is doing well at his internship and enjoying working with the diverse population. We had all of his co-interns over for dinner and games last weekend. They are a great group of people, and it's nice that Preston gets to work around people who share similar beliefs and lifestyles! 

 

We are very blessed, life is good, and God is great.....and the Steelers won their second game!!! :)

Work and Play in Chicago!

Well, we have been in the big city for a month now, and we continue getting acclimated to this new world!

The most exciting thing that has happened as of late is that I got a job. A huge praise the Lord moment and we are grateful for answered prayers. I will be working at a place called Outreach Services as a "Bilingual Patient Advocate."  I will work with patients at hospitals who do not have insurance and figure out what they do or do not qualify for and how we can help them get insurance. Sounds exciting right? :) The start date is September 6th...a week away.

Rice Building - where KJV will be working

The office is located downtown in a building named the "Rice Building".  In the back corner of the first floor there is a pizza place called Giordanos...famous around Chicago for deep dish pizza! We have had one of their pizza's and it was pretty intense! 

To celebrate me getting a job, Preston and I went to Catedral Cafe.  Will Ferrell filmed several scenes at this cafe in the movie Stranger than Fiction, and I ate the best salmon bruschetta there!

 

Preston and I went back to Moody Church this past Sunday. We met up with one of Preston's friends from Mountain City who moved to Chicago several years ago. He and his wife (Philip and Meredith Potter) currently go to Moody Church. The church was having their annual picnic and we participated in that.  For now Preston and I will continue going to the Moody Church. It seems like a good fit for us at this time.

Moody Church is located about a block from lake Michigan, and so after the picnic on Sunday Preston and I took a stroll along the lake shore, and we happened upon the Lincoln Park Zoo (which is totally free!).  I can not figure out exactly why it is free, but it was founded in 1868, making it the oldest zoo in the nation. It was a very impressive zoo, full of polar bears, giraffes, birds, and even Corky's (our cat) cousin:

Corky our cat...see the resemblance?

We have also done a few fun things around town, such as an attempt to go to the Water and Air Show. Of course it was also a rain and lightning show, which made us leave the show early.

The storm!!!

Waiting for the storm to pass...

We went and saw the Buckingham fountain, which is pretty huge.  We went to a baseball game at Wrigley field, and although the Braves (Preston's team) lost, the Cubs fans were super happy, which was a lot of fun.  Walking home after the game, we saw a girl on a bicycle get hit by a turning car (she was fine, but very angry)...the bicyclists in this town are crazy! 

Buckingham fountain

Us at Wrigley field.

We went to this really interesting ice cream place that uses liquid nitrogen to make ice cream totally from scratch in just 3-5 minutes. :) At the end of the blog is a short video about the ice cream shop...if interested to know more.

At the ice cream store...not really prepared for the photo! But you see the "cool" mixers in the background!

Preston and Corky chilling

For the most part we are just living our normal every day lives like we did back in Tennessee...slowly getting the hang of things.

  

* Click video twice to view in a different tab larger sized