Something new....

I've created something new that I'm hoping will become a great place for academic partners to network and share their stories.  Check it out here:

theacademicwife.weebly.com

A New Toy

Clay got a spectacular graduation present today in the mail. We're already benefitting from it's awesomeness as you can see here.

It's Official!

This past weekend we traveled back to Ann Arbor to watch the Brain walk across the stage after being hooded and officially receiving his freshly minted PhD. It was a memorable ceremony filled with politically liberal speeches, borderline inappropriate whooping from the members of the audience and a sentimental sigh from myself as I watched my husband take the steps he's been working so diligently towards for many years. It was unbelievably satisfying. And someday when the bank accounts are a little more padded, I will happily hand the University of Michigan my pound of flesh ($$$) for their beautiful custom fit blue robes with specialized hood & tassel so the Brain can look like the sophisticated academic he is.

We also took the opportunity to visit the Henry Ford museum and Greenfield village one more time before our membership expires.

There were paper airplanes, which made the Chief happy...

and other airplanes...

and glassblowers, which made Beaker happy...

but, best of all there was time with family...

I can't thank Clay's Mom and Step-dad for making the trip to Ann Arbor to be a part of this unforgettable moment in our life. We had the most wonderful weekend visiting with them. My folks also made the trip down and I am ever thankful for their love and support. For those friends and family that could not join us, please know that you occupied our minds and hearts as we celebrated. It has been a great journey, one that continues, and we could not travel it so well without any of you.

Easter Fun

Easter was pretty low key for us this year, since we couldn't make the drive to visit family. We just hung around Kingston enjoying the weather and having fun as a family. Here we are dying our eggs for Mr. Bunny to hide.

Our finished products came our quite lovely.

Though we had two casualties while we were decorating...the first just a clumsy mishap, the second a curious cat.

Both were enjoyed by the kids.

Sunday morning the kids woke up extremely early (6:30 a.m.!) to see what goodies the Easter Bunny had left them. They were both excited to get a new stuffed friend, but it was easy to see how exhausted they were.

Hopefully this year begins a new Easter tradition...naptime.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Holiday. Cheers!

Wolfe Island

We took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend and rode the ferry over to Wolfe Island to explore the little town that we can see from our windows.

There's not much to it, considering how large the island is. We wandered around a bit and took some pictures of a few pretty churches, but it's obviously still winter here. Half of the shops are still closed for the season, waiting for warmer weather and tourists before they throw open their doors again.

Humorously, there are hockey decorations everywhere since Wolfe Island is in the running to be named Hockeyville.

All in all, it was a fun way to spend a few hours of our time on a beautiful Sunday. I'm excited to go back during the summer when we can bike and explore more extensively.

It must have been a good time...even I got in a picture for once.

Here's the view of Kingston from the ferry. Our building is one of those tall things, uglying up the shoreline.

Bring on Springtime

I have been waiting for something to write about, but not much has been happening these days. The routine schedule of family life plays out day after day around here with not much variance. Most of the time it is a great comfort, knowing what to expect from life, but it doesn't lend much excitement to writing a blog.

Spring break has finally come for the kids and amazingly it actually feels like spring here in Kingston. The sun in shining and it's a balmy 2.5 C today (for everyone else that's 36 F). Now, I'm certain that some of you are rolling your eyes at the thought of 36 F being spring like weather, but you have to remember everything is relative. We've been suffering an extremely cold winter here the past couple of months, so 36 F feels like heaven comparatively. The lake has mostly thawed, the thick plates of ice giving way to the rolling rhythm of blue waves. Trees are budding, flowers are pushing up from the wet soil and the birds are singing. Yes, spring is definitely in the air and it makes me happy.

We had a wonderful visit with my folks this past weekend, who made the long trip out to see their Grandkids. It was so nice to have company though we didn't do hardly anything. Amazingly, we got to watch U of M play Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament. It felt a lot like being back in Ann Arbor.

The kids and I have been enjoying their time off of school by doing absolutely nothing. We sleep in (if you consider 8:00 a.m. sleeping in) and laze around the rest of the day - playing with legos, coloring pictures, and doing other such stress-free activities. Today, I think we'll take a walk/scooter ride and enjoy some time at the park. The Brain is still working hard this week, so maybe we'll pop in and see if we can entice him out of his hole and into the sunshine.

For those of you who share my strange affinity for Ireland despite not being Irish....Happy St. Patrick's Day. I, for one, will be going out in search of that illusive pot of gold while the sun is shining.

Cheers!

New additions

We've added some new additions to the Cressler family. Meet Morris and Bo Peep:

There has been a lot of discussion over the past few years about adding pets to the family. Beaker would have loved to have a dog, but the Chief doesn't do dogs. He loves cats though. We went out to the pet store today to check these two lovely felines out and of course the kids fell in love. So our little clan has grown a bit and everyone is excited.

More snow...

Thank goodness it's friday. It's been snowing non-stop all day and I don't think I could muster the energy to trudge the snow-caked sidewalks another day....at least until Monday. Everyone here is tired and a bit grumpy so the weekend couldn't come at a better time for us. We need to reenergize.

I'm having a Bridget Jones kind of day. I've been thinking about everything in terms of numbers today. Here's my diary list.

Number of walks to school: 3

Loads of laundry to do: 5 (at least)

Weight in pounds: 5 less than before

Pages written: 0

Now, hopefully I'm not as neurotic as Bridget Jones, but I do appreciate her simple (yet obsessive) way of looking at things. It's easy to see how life fluctuates on a daily basis when you think in numbers....sometimes for the good, other times not so much. For example, the 5 pounds lost in weight completely makes up for have a mountain of laundry to do and the fact that I've basically written nothing this week. Thank you Bridget for offering a bit of perspective. Now I want to watch that movie.

On a whole, I say it's been a very good week. It was literacy week at school and I had to make a yellow cat costume for Isabel to dress as her favorite book character. It's a testament to how far my sewing skills have come because I busted her costume out between the hours of 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. the day before she needed it. That time included picking Cole up from school, making dinner, eating, and washing the dishes. Not bad at all. Here she is:

She loved it so much, she even wore it to bed. I love kids.

I have a confession. Since moving to the frozen north, I have cooked every single meal from scratch. No joke. Every single meal.

Now, for some people this may not seem like a big deal. But, those who know me best know that, while I love to cook, I also love to eat out! Despite that we have sworn off eating out until our first payday at the end of the month, so homemade meals have been taken to new heights.

Here are a few things I've made to eat this month:

1. Pierogies from scratch (I made the dough and the filling)

2. Chicken and dumplings (I made the broth using a stewing hen and biscuits from scratch)

3. Fresh Pasta and sauce

4. Southwestern noodle bowls,

5. Sweet potato hash with mortadella

On top of making dinner totally from scratch, I'm also making bread twice a week to feed the masses of my clan. I'm already on my second bag of flour and will probably need to buy a third during our next trip to the grocery store.

The effort of all of this has been worth it. Food has never tasted so good. Maybe that's because we pay for it all ourselves now, but I hope that it's because everyday I'm feeding my family with food that comes from the heart.

What's your favorite home-cooked meal?

On the menu tonight: Tandoori Chicken with homemade Chapati bread and Raita

Now I know how Superman feels when he visits Krypton...

Our own version of Krypton

Woke up this morning to a clear bright sky, beautiful sunrise and freezing temperatures. At 7:30 when I was making the Chiefs lunch the actual temperature was -25 C with a wind chill temperature of -36 C. Now for those of you that can't do the conversion to Farenheit, don't feel bad neither can I. The Brain kindly told me that in USA speak the actual temperature was -18 F with a wind chill of -32 F. I'm not sure how that works out, but he's a math genius so I'm taking his word for it.

Anyway, we laughed to ourselves as we read online that despite the fact that bus routes may be delayed or cancelled due to inclement weather conditions, school would still be in session. In fact, I get the distinct impression that they don't cancel school around here....ever.

Maybe for the Stanley Cup, but it would have to be two Canadian teams in the finals.

So, despite the freezing cold temperatures, we suited everyone up and trudged our way to school this morning. And oddly enough, I kind of liked it. There's something about the cold winter air coming off Lake Ontario. It's refreshing. It's invigorating. I enjoyed the walk to school so much, I came home, grabbed my camera, and headed out to take a few photos.

Now, this sign seems rather ridiculous to me. I mean, who in their right mind would try to drive over to Wolfe Island? Are people really that stupid? In fairness, I hear they actually did allow trucks to drive across the ice a while back, but banned the practice after they lost a couple of trucks to the bottom of the Lake. Call me chicken...I would never do it whether it was allowed or not.

All in all, I have to say that I've actually enjoyed winter in Kingston so far. I would have never thought it was possible, considering how much I hated it in Michigan. To all my friends back in the States, I suggest putting on some long underwear and warm mittens and heading out in the cold. You just might enjoy it more than you think.

Our very own winter wonderland...

I'm happy to report the kids survived their first day of school. Much to my surprise the Chief even enjoyed his French class. Both decided they would go back today, although Beaker was reluctant as usual. Nice to know that moving to Canada hasn't changed her opinion of school.

This is what we woke up to this morning:

Despite the swirling snow, the temperature is more bearable today than it was yesterday. The walk to school was kind of slow, but we still made it in time for the bell. Now I just have to motivate myself to go get milk and eggs. Why do we always run out on the days I don't want to leave the house?

A New Year...a New Adventure

Well, it's been months since my last post and reasonably so. In the fall, we started to anticipate the end of our time in Ann Arbor. The Brain worked endlessly to finish his dissertation, so he could take a postdoc fellowship at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. The kids played as much as they could with their friends in Northwood V and I began organizing, cleaning, and packing boxes. Months of hard work have finally come to an end. After a chaotic move from Michigan to Kingston during blizzard conditions, we have enjoyed the holidays with family and survived the trip back to Canada. We've been in our new apartment less than a week, but everyone seems to be adjusting well.

The kids began school today with nervous anticipation. Here they are all ready to go:

It was short walk across City Park to take the kids to school. From there, I walked the Brain to his office building which is a block from the school and headed back to the apartment for my first morning alone....ever. It's been a little to quiet for my taste, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Here's a few photos of our new place:

The white walls go on forever thanks to our 10 foot ceilings, so something will have to be done about that as well as the terrible 1970s curtains. But you certainly can't beat the view.

The house looking thing is the Kingston Yacht Club building which you can see from our balcony. The other view is from our front windows. That's Lake Ontario and Wolfe Island. It's beautiful and if I'm up early enough I can watch the sunrise.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We really enjoyed our time with family in Michigan, but we're happy to be home and moving forward with our new adventure in Canada. We miss all our friends terribly, so I'm certain we'll be in touch with everyone soon.