Saturday, October 11, 2014

End of the Summer and Back to School



Halfway through the summer, JooYeon and I had an interesting discussion. I made the comment, "Isn't it nice that I'm in Academia, because it means I have all this extra time with the family in the summer?" JooYeon looked at me puzzled and said, "But you're still working most of the time in the summer!" It was true that I was still going into the office most weekdays, but I think that the lighter workload had made me feel freer compared to the school year. JooYeon, on the other hand, had expected that I wouldn't work at all during the summers and certainly that I would have more time available after completing my PhD program. 

As we talked more, we realized that a good solution would be to use our time together more efficiently. After Katie's birth, we (okay, mostly JooYeon) had become more efficient with getting stuff done around the house, but we hadn't made a conscious effort to figure out how to spend our "beyond cleaning" time wisely. So, we decided to plan things out a bit more. Our first trip was to the Wilds (last blog entry), and our second was a boat trip around the Ohio River.


It was just a day trip; a 2-hr boat ride followed by a meal and some light shopping, but it was a fun outing.


Next was a trip to the Newport Aquarium, where Ellie got to interact with all her favorite sea creatures.





Our final summer excursion was a road trip that began with a stay with some good friends (an old roommate), then out to Stricklers in Indiana for a welcome back campout for Weston who is now studying in a master's program in Sri Lanka. Finally, we closed the trip out with a couple days at my parents' house.



 Once the school year set in, we settled back into more of a routine, but by then it was plenty of entertainment just to watch the girls develop new things every day.


We've been so fortunate that Ellie has continued to be so loving towards her new sister, although we're curious as to what will happen in these next few months as Katie becomes more mobile and has access to Ellie's precious belongings. :)


I'm now in my second year as a visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Ohio University, but I've been job hunting as my current position is a temporary one. JooYeon's in charge of screening all the job postings on about five different job boards. Then she sends me any that seem to meet my criteria and her geographic approval (i.e., the states surrounding Ohio, plus Oregon where her sister lives, and a handful of the New England states).

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