We've moved! We bought a farmhouse-style home in the historic district of Algonquin, just 5 miles or so from our old apartment. Built in 1892, the house needs a little work! It has all the charm and character we can handle ... and we love it. We've spent the summer scraping and scraping and scraping and finally painting. Of course, we'll have more to do in the spring, but what is finished looks brand new! Now, we are painting inside. Come to visit any time. We have a comfy pull-out couch, an operating (gas) fireplace and lots of hot cocoa.

Before we even unpacked, we had one of our most enjoyable vacations ever. We took a road trip to the panhandle of Florida with our good friends Matt and Erica Freeman. We visited another friend's brother, who was also being visited by his sister Joy and her husband Jim that overlapped with ours. We went boating, swimming and simply relaxed.

In April, shortly after we moved (and sold most of our old, comfy furniture at a garage sale), Sara had laparoscopic surgery to remove a cyst and one ovary. It happened almost too fast to be scary (she even forgot to tell her sister Gina!) but it was for the best. After a night in the hospital and a week at home to recover, she was back to everyday routines and feeling even better than normal.

In fact, Sara finally "realized a dream" and ran in the 25th annual Chicago Marathon in October. The woman who took first place, breaking the world record, was in her age category (taking away any hopes of winning it all :). Despite the fact that she missed out on the $100,000 purse, Sara had an awesome experience. She finished 19,390th place of 37,500 and in 4:31:21, almost a half-hour under her goal. She is thankful to everyone who encouraged and supported her, especially those who always said it was possible. Right now, she has no desire whatsoever to do it again, but we'll see what happens when the painful memories fade and she remembers only the exhilaration of crossing the finish line.

Sara after the Chicago marathon.

Matt might have something to say about it, though, since he seemed to have more stories after the event than Sara, including covering about 13 miles to reach three checkpoints to meet her, a run-in with a pigeon and a few sore muscles. We celebrated both our victories afterward with Giordano's Chicago-style pizza. Yum!

We're both still working, of course, and Sara is still doing some freelancing on the side, which is helping to support the work on the house. Otherwise, there isn't much to report. We're settling into our part of the 'burbs, getting to know the intricacies of home ownership, meeting neighbors, making great friends and taking time for ourselves. It's been an interesting year!

With Love,