Chicago, Harry Potter finale, and a lot of work

Wow. It has been SO busy around here these past three weeks! So I do apologize for the long delay in posting, but I can't relate how busy we've been. The fog is only today starting to lift from my overloaded brain. Seems like I say that a lot, don't I? :) Here's what's been going on for us.
First, two weeks ago we got to see the Harry Potter finale. It was awesome! We went with a friend and two of his children who are big fans. It was quite an experience. We're both still working on the books. They take a long time to read when you only have the 10 minutes before bed to read. But they're so good! The weekend before last we went to the local vineyard where they were introducing their new collector's wines - free tasting. We enjoyed the view from a bluff overlooking the river.
The reason I've been so busy is because I've been teaching my own class, which is two hours of lecture every day. Lectures have to be written, presentation slides made, exams made and graded, reviewing the readings, etc. There is no doubt at all, though - I LOVE it. I walked back from class today with a huge smile on my face. I picked two opposing readings about female genital mutilation that the students debated. They were so into it and had so many great thoughts about the topic. They really seemed to enjoy it. It's an incredible feeling to be part of it. I would like to be in that kind of environment regardless of the topic that I'm teaching.
As I've mentioned previously, I'm also taking a Public Health class this summer toward a Graduate certificate in Public Health. It's a 16 week course shoved into 8 weeks, so it was very intense. I just finished it yesterday morning and am so relieved. The only thing I have left to do before school starts in August is administer the final exam in my class tomorrow, grade it, and post the students' final grades. Yea!
We were also rushing around a lot last week because we were gone over the weekend. My best friends from Belgium came to visit and were in Chicago, so we went to see them. After an 8 hour drive on Friday (lots of construction!), we arrived at their aunt and uncle's house. It was lovely - we had fantastic food, were treated like family, and got a personal tour of Chicago on Saturday. It is so hard to only see them once every year or two, but we talk enough on the phone that it seemed like we had seen them only a month before, rather than the previous year. That's the sign of a good relationship! It was tough to leave on Sunday. To leave the comfort of friends, knowing how much work I had to do by Friday...I would have rather stayed! So I had to finish an entire week's worth of work for Public Health by Wednesday morning, and am now beginning to feel the relief of completed obligations. Time for some R&R! This is what J.J. and Zoie have been up to, in case you were wondering. :)
The Buckingham Fountain in Chicago.
Jonathan looking at his reflection in "the Bean".
Me and my reflection in the Bean.
A view of the city from Millennium Park.
A view of the Lake from Navy Pier. It was very foggy that day - we had perfect weather.
A modern statue downtown, with the warm sun shining.
The four friends!
This was our view driving home. Not grand like Chicago, but lovely.
This month has flown by for us! We hope you've had a great July!

Happy 4th and new things

Happy 4th everyone! We hope you had a fantastic holiday! I unfortunately have no pictures to show for ours, but I am posting one my mom took, and a cute one of JJ. We spent the weekend before the 4th (or 24 hours of it anyway) with family. We got to see Uncle Rob who flew in at the last minute, Rachel (whose birthday is right around the corner), and the niece and nephews. It was really nice, especially since they weren't having their big celebration until Monday.
Monday we celebrated by having my mom, sister, and her boyfriend over for an indoor cookout. I say indoor cookout because we ate "cookout" food but didn't use a grill. It was great. Mom also gave me the china cabinet that she re-finished when I was a little girl. It was a nice stroll down memory lane - my cousin and I used to pretend "McDonald's drivethrough" through the top when it was disassembled. It strikes me how scary-effective McDonald's marketing is that we would play McDonald's as children. Yikes!
Monday night we met a friend and his family to watch the city fireworks. It was a great show - the first time we've ever been in town for the fireworks. It was a blast to spend the evening with our friend's four children - they are amazing. I want some!!
Yesterday I started teaching my very own college class! It was a blast! I really love it. I am lecturing for two hours every day for the entire month. I got to create the entire class myself, which was a lot of work. But it means so much more to hear a student say that they are enjoying the class when you design it yourself. It is such an odd feeling to finally be an instructor at a University. Am I officially a grown-up now?
Yet another new thing this month is a new-found love for Harry Potter. You may be asking - Are you crazy? You haven't seen the movies or read the books before now? The answers are "Yes, apparently," and "No"! We have never bothered to read or watch them before, but we thought it would be something fun to look into this summer. (Well, that's not entirely true - Jonathan took Ricky to see the first two movies when they came out years ago, and I went with my little sister, but we were stubborn teenagers at the time and haven't seen them since.) We're HOOKED! We are reading the books before bed, watching all of the movies, and we even listened to one of them on CD in the car. We love the writing style, the creativity, and the characters. Boy were we missing out! We want to get caught up before the final movie comes out this month.
Hope you all had a great holiday and are also enjoying new things!