In the series of photos below, you’ll want to flip through it faster than the slideshow goes on it’s own … it’s more fun to see the changes that way. These photos were taken from noon on Tuesday through noon on Wednesday.

These next few photos were some extras I took while outside this morning shoveling at 5am. And the last one is Sweets geared up to head to work at 6am. The winds were so fierce that goggles were necessary. Trust me.

Every morning (during the week), I am in charge of walking SoMi. Our alarm goes off at 4:50am and I roll out of bed at 5:00am. Needless to say, it is usually dark, very dark on our walks. We take the same walk … down the street, across the main street, past the high school, through the park, past the elementary school, across the main street and back down our street … before entering our gates at home about 20 minutes later.

There are certain characters we see on a regular basis. The cop on break in the parking lot. The old Asian guy taking his slow walk for exercise. The eastern European couple speed walking past us. The young woman running through the park. The guy walking his Greyhound and aging mutt. The rabbits and squirrels. We don’t see them everyday, but often enough to recognize them when we see them.

Last Friday was different. We didn’t see any of them. As we rounded the corner of the high school, I noticed a shadow in the outfield of the baseball diamond behind the school. At first, I thought it must be a rabbit, though I quickly realized it was the wrong shape and far too big to be a rabbit. The shape saw us. Moved. Sat up. That’s when I saw two pointy ears.

Fox? Nah, too small to be a fox. Coyote? Possibly. OMG, there’s a coyote 20 feet away that’s staring us down. What the hell is a pregnant lady with a dog on leash to do?

As the creature continued to watch us, I was shocked SoMi never noticed it. She was busy smelling something on the other side of the path. I was both nervous and calm. Nervous because I wasn’t quite sure what I’d do if the coyote approached or if SoMi saw it and became crazed. But, calm because, in a weird way, I really didn’t feel threatened. I kept a watchful eye on the coyote, but became more and more calm as I realized it was not going to attack. At least it wouldn’t so long as we kept walking by it.

And so, we continued on our way and made an early exit from the park. As we were leaving, I looked back one last time to see the coyote circling in place and laying back down. The thought occurred to me it might have been someone’s dog and here I was abandoning it. But, I quickly shook off that thought. There’s no way I was going to go back to confirm. I had to keep my own safety in mind. Later that day, a neighbor confirmed it was a coyote sighting. He was in the park about an hour or so after me and ran into others who had also seen it.

Amazing. A coyote. In a Chicago park. What’s next, a coyote walking into a Chicago sandwich shop for lunch?

Sweets came up with the following:

His reasoning was that he’d like for me to experience the initial stages of labor at home (the door on the left) … so that when we arrive at the hospital (door on the right), we will only be there for delivery (not, labor and delivery, as the floor is described).

My drawing looked like this:

My reasoning is multi-layered. First, labor is this natural thing, thus the trees, grass and sky. And each stage of labor leads to the next stage of labor, thus the doorway leading to another tree with another doorway and so on.

It was a fun exercise to see the different perspectives in our class.

Speaking of exercise, I’m thinking about lots of long walks this weekend with views like this:

And there will be other forms of exercise, too, because Sweets and I are heading to one of our favorite spots to go camping with friends. Four wonderful days ushering in fall, celebrating babies (our friends are due 2 days before us) and unplugging from it all.

Hope y’all have a great weekend and I’ll see you on the flip side!

In case you missed the fine print last week, Sweets and I went camping with SoMi for a long weekend in Door County. Door County resides on a peninsula in north eastern Wisconsin that juts out into Lake Michigan. There’s water on three sides of the peninsula; inland is inhabited by state and county parks, and quaint towns full of artist galleries and shops and cute inns. It’s a really wonderful get away for city dwellers like us.

We chose Peninsula State Park in a campground we went to last year with friends. And we chose a specific site that was set off to the side of the others. It was wooded and protected and really just perfect. Every morning, we woke up around 6AM (hello sun!) to the birds chirping. And I’m not just talking about a few; we had a symphony of hundreds of chirpers. It was pretty darn amazing.

We spent our days exploring the area. We spent a couple hours at a beach where we went last year. The water was freezing, but that didn’t stop SoMi from chasing a new favorite toy into Lake Michigan. We did, though, have to cut our beach trip short because the black flies were particularly bothersome.

We explored the coast and came across beautiful homes and great little towns. We spent an afternoon hanging out by the marina in one of the towns. A favorite sign reminded us of the dangers of the marina.

In the afternoons, we’d come back to the campground and take a nap. Then, we’d wake up and Sweets would get a fire started. I’d read by the fire (highly recommended!). We cooked salmon and venison steaks for dinner over the course of the three nights we stayed there. Sweets also might have bought marshmallows as big as your head to make some pretty sweet s’mores every night.

Oh and I can’t forget to mention the visitors to our campsite. Mosquitoes and gnats seemed to disappear once we started up the fire. But, the daddy long legs were everywhere! And their web-making capabilities were the speed of light. Take a look at our water jug, out only a short while before it looked like it had been deserted months ago!

And one more photo I had Sweets take just for you … a belly photo. Let it be noted, we ate like champs on this trip and didn’t exercise all that much. So, some of what you see might be bloat. Ahem. But, the rest of it is all Grasshopper, who seemed to like camping quite a bit, because my morning sickness seemed to have subsided this weekend.

And there you have it. Our weekend off the grid was perfect. We came back with a little more sun exposure, a lot more dirt under our nails and feeling really well rested. Though, I’ll be the first to admit, I was happy to sleep in my own bed last night, I’d still go on this trip all over again. In fact, we’re planning to make a similar trip next year with Grasshopper in tow, too!

Hope y’all had a great weekend and as I said, I hope to catch up with all of you over the coming days!

It never makes sense and yet, Chicagoans always hold out hope *this year* will be the year we have a real spring, just like they hold out hope that *this year* is the year the Cubs will do something other than play high school baseball and fill their stands with a bunch of drunks. But, I digress.

The wide swings of Chicago weather over the past week make me think about weather, the big picture. We all have things we love and hate about weather. Those love-hate relationships often determine where we choose to live. Or where we wish we could live. Or where we most certainly wouldn’t ever live.

Me, I like four seasons. I like snow and cold in the winter and sun and warmth in the summer. I like leaves changing in the fall and flowers blooming in the spring. I can’t imagine living somewhere where I didn’t get a taste of each.

However, that doesn’t mean I love everything about all four seasons. For example, some things I hate are constant clouds, humidity and rain. I likely dislike the rain because I’m a curly-haired girl and rain just means frizz is in my own personal forecast. Clouds usually come with rain. But, more importantly, they deny me that really important Vitamin D exposure from the sun. It makes me cranky.

But, humidity? I really hate humidity. And it’s not just the frizzy mop on my head that’s the cause for my hate. I hate walking out the door and immediately feeling sweaty. I hate the difficulty of breathing in the thick air. I hate how sluggish I feel before I’ve lifted a finger. I hate hate hate humidity.

And that’s why I couldn’t ever live in, say, Florida. Or Texas. Or Louisiana. Not a chance.

Given my love for the four seasons and hate for rain and humidity, I’m sure you’re wondering if Chicago is the ideal place for me to live. Well, it’s definitely got the four seasons. But, there are two fundamental problems with Chicago weather: humidity in the summer and clouds in the winter. It’s depressing when all you see are gray skies for months on end.

Perfect weather for me is most likely found in the mountains of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming or Colorado. Places where there are certainly four seasons, but there is more sun in the winter and less humidity in the summer.

What about you – what are your love-hates with the weather and are you living in the ideal location given those requirements?

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