The Blondins 11-25

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The alarm went off for church, Andrew turned if off and decided we would sleep in, and Jen woke up an hour and a half later and realized church had started 15 min earlier! So we had a slow morning and made waffles and eggs for breakfast. As we were sitting down to eat, Andrew got a call from Rus, who said they had spontaneously decided to come to Chicago for the day. We told them to come on over!! They were about 20 min away, so we quickly ate breakfast and took showers!

It was great to hang out with them. We talked about a little of everything. Jen was supposed to work at 3, but was able to be put on call. We walked a few blocks to eat lunch at Los Magotes (I think that's how it's spelled???), a small Mexican diner. Barrett enjoyed the walk, especially over the river. He spent a lot of time on that bridge! We got plenty of photos, but again, mostly of Barrett! These kids are just so photogenic! :) Here's Barrett learning to play Nintendo:And Barrett rearranging magnets on the fridge:

And Barrett going for a ride in our cooler:

Holidays in Michigan!

We left for Michigan the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We had great plans for the short trip, and they all went swimmingly! We got to Grand Rapids about 2:30, just after Beth got home from work. Our plans for this Wednesday were to prepare her home for Christmas!! Yes, that's right! The day BEFORE Thanksgiving we put up the tree and lights and ornaments! Ahh, the joys of being first! We listened to Christmas music and ate green and red wrapped Hershey Kisses.

Andrew gave subtle tributes to Meredith by taking note of how many ornaments have here name and how few have his! Mer, we talked about you a lot while preparing the house for Christmas and for your return!

The next day we went to Lansing to have Thanksgiving with the zurBurgs! It was great to see Mary and Henry and to meet their "kids" for the first time. Their kids are about 10 years older than Andrew and me. The zurBurg tradition is to do a holiday craft after dinner. This year we painted ornaments, which was great fun! In the early hours of painting there were about 5 of us, and after maybe 2 hours, it was just me (Jen) and Deb and our ornaments! Deb was great and taught me a lot about this kind of painting. The Packers beat the Lions and we had a lot of laughs with these guys, so it was a great day!

The next morning, "Black Friday", we woke up at 5am, and were at Circuit City(which opened at 5am) by 5:40 and still had to wait in line for about 15 minutes before getting in the front doors! Once inside, I quickly found the "shortest" line and stepped in. Andrew and Beth gathered purchases and gave them to me in line. Then they went to Menards. They called when they finished and I was still in line. Then they went to Staples, and I was still in line. Then they picked up some breakfast at Panera, Andrew ate his, then came and took my place in line! I was finally about 4th in line, but after standing in line for 1:30, I was ready to get some breakfast!

The rest of the day was fun too! We shopped for ourselves and had a marvelous time! We took a break after lunch to watch Enchanted and take a sit break, then back to shopping! We got home after 7pm, which made for a long but fun day!! The next morning was back to Chicago because I had to work at 3pm. It was great to take a break from home and see Beth!

The Pistons Game (Oh, and the Bulls were there!)

On Nov 8, we went to the Bulls vs. Pistons game here in Chicago. Andrew got us some great tickets online (great as in the price was low for the seats we had, not that we were center court in the lower level of course!) We took the train down to Dan and Edith Michmerhuizen's apartment to meet Edith and pick up dinner. This is Chicago, so there was a hot dog/polish sausage stand that we frequent together for dinners! Then Dan got home from work and we headed off to the game!
It was not the best we've seen the Pistons play, but it was great to be there! We sported the Pistons colors and amazingly we were sitting by some other Pistons fans. No one threw their Cokes at us or tried to beat us up, so the night went well. Until...








The Pistons were within range to take the win with about 2 min left. At this point in the season, the Bulls had not yet won a game, and the Pistons had not yet lost one. Both teams broke their streaks on Nov 8! The Bulls won! Of course we were disappointed, but it was a close game and we had a lot of fun just being there. It has been great having the Michmerhuizen's in town! We love you guys!

The V-hyde surprise! Nov 4

We were on our way back from church on an average Sunday morning... oh, except it was Daylight Savings, when the phone rang. Chris and Holly were in town from Minnesota and were eating lunch at the Charcoal Delights just a block and a half from our apartment! We hurried to get there just as they were finishing eating lunch. They came back to our apartment for a few hours and it was great to catch up a little! We got a lot of photos, mostly of a smiley little girl!

Grand Rapids Marathon (Oct 28)

Well, after the incredible disappointment of the Chicago Marathon, we registered to run the Grand Rapids Marathon on Oct 28, just 3 weeks after the Chicago! Did we continue with the rigorous training schedule, you ask?? The answer is a less than enthusiastic no. Jen tried a nice and easy 5 mile jog on the Thursday after the Sunday Chicago Marathon, and by the time she finished she wasn't sure she could make the 1/4 mile walk home. Left knee pain was nearly crippling, and this was the first time she had experienced it. Andrew was enjoying the rest and all the free time he now had without hours of running each week. We each jogged about 2 times between the marathons!

We arrived in GR on Friday and stayed with Beth, Andrew's mom. On Saturday afternoon we went to the expo, and discovered how different the GR marathon was going to be from the Chicago. Instead of pace teams to finish in 4 hours, 4:15, 4:30 etc, the teams are named after famous people who have finished marathons! There was the P. Diddy Pacers, Team Oprah, and many more! The people were easy going, and we knew this race was not just about finishing, it was about having fun too.

Sunday morning it was about 29 degrees at the starting line! We lined up and left our coats and pants with Beth, but the gloves and ear bands stayed on! Beth drove to several points along the race to cheer us on! It was great to see her. It was a beautiful run with the leaves changing and a good part of the run along the river. Much of the run was on paths, not on roads, so although it was paved it felt freer and closer to nature. The runners, at least the ones as slow as us, were laid back and open to conversation.

We ran separately and both had a strong start. About mile 12, Jen's knee was becoming problematic again. Until this point, she was ahead of the 4:44 pace team which put her well ahead of her goal of finishing in 5 hours. With the knee, she was forced to walk, jog, and limp. As she watched the 4:44 group pass by, she was nearly in tears. It was about 2 miles until she finally decided she would have to stop early (again!). It was the longest 2 miles she's gone, but felt much more at peace with this than with the Chicago. She met Beth at mile 14, limped to the car, and went to the finish to watch Andrew.

It didn't seem like too long until Andrew came barreling down the straight-away to the finish line! He was surely giving it his all. After a strong finish in just under 4:12 his whole body was shaking! He was so exhausted that he didn't remember how to recover, so Jen assumed the role of coach and told him to stop standing still and bending over! He needed to walk! After 20-30 min of walking and drinking water and nibbling snacks, he felt great. We posed for some photos in the now balmy low 40 degree day and headed off to Panera for lunch with friends.

We regret to inform you... we have no photos of this lunch! But, I assure you it happened! There were about 12 of us from as far away as Lansing and Holland, and we had a nice time of catching up. After that, back to Beth's for a nap and more food, then back home to Chicago.

Most Americans Take Well-Known Bible Stories at Face Value

The Barna Group released a report on October 21 revealing that the following percentages of adult Americans believe the following Biblical accounts to be “literally true, meaning it happened exactly as described in the Bible” as opposed to "meant to illustrate a principle but is not to be taken literally."

• 75% "the story of Jesus Christ rising from the dead, after being crucified and buried"
• 65% Daniel surviving in the lion’s den
• 64% Moses literally parted the Red Sea
• 63% David, killed the giant warrior, Goliath, with stones and a sling
• 60% Peter walking on water with Jesus
• 60% God creating the universe in six days

"This report is based upon a nationwide telephone survey conducted by The Barna Group in August 2007 among a random sample of 1000 adults, age 18 and older. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. "

Read the entire report here.

Back to the States! (Feb 13, 2007)

We awoke after a decent night's sleep, got our continental breakfast. We were NOT taking a taxi!! So we walked 100 meters to the bus stop! When we went to check in, we learned that there is a new 20 Euro ($40) tax for people leaving the country!! So we dropped a quick $80, and boarded our plane.

After a 9 hour flight to Chicago, it was good to stretch our legs a bit! We needed one more flight to get to Madison, and we knew it could be a while because there was a blizzard in Chicago. Looking at the board, over 90% of the flights were either delayed or canceled! We finally got to board, then we sat while the plane was getting de-iced. When we arrived in Madison, Jen's mom and stepdad were there to meet us, and they took us to Rocky Rococo's for dinner (Jen's fav Pizza). We were exhausted, so we went straight to bed and slept great!

We were sure to look over our journal in the few days after our return. We made lists of what we need to see again, and what we can pass on next time. We made notes about packing...what we were glad we had, what we wished we had brought, and what we can leave home next time. If you are planning on taking a trip to any of the places we visited, feel free to ask us our opinions. Anyone who knows us, knows we are not shy to share our thoughts!!! Thanks for reading about our travels, and now we can blog about current life! Here we go!

The Final Day (Feb 12)

This was our final day of our trip. We awoke at the Reeds, and Jerry had made breakfast... cereal, kiwi, toast, and juice. Familiar food was nice by this point! Nate picked us up before 10:00 to go climb the Torre de Hercules, the world's oldest working lighthouse built in the second century by the Romans! It was really windy, but a great view as enormous waves crashed up onto the shore.


Jen was a little disturbed by the "breastfeeding Buddha", which was really "Caronte" the boatman of the sacred river to welcome visitors. Scary!

Then Nate took us to Maria Pita Prazza, the main plaza. There were so many shoe sales! We just didn't have time to shop!! We headed back to the Reeds for lunch, then Nate took us to the airport and we were off to London. Sad to leave, but it's been a great trip!

In London, we had an absolutely ridiculous time trying to get to our hotel, which was about 2 miles from the airport! First, we didn't have the postal code of the hotel, and apparently there are 4 or 5 Hounslow Roads in London! So, we had to call the hotel for the postal code and line up for a taxi again. Then, the driver took us around town, and to make a long story short, by the time we got to our hotel he wanted us to pay $100 for the excruciatingly long ride!! Andrew pretty much said "No way!" and offered him $60. The driver dropped the F bomb in his British accent, and we left the cab quickly! We got into our room and decided we were not even going to leave for dinner! We ate our travel snacks instead... bread, cheese, chocolate, and fruit!

Santiago de Compostela (Feb 11)

We took our final night train from Madrid to Santiago de Compostela, in the Northwest of Spain. The conductor woke Jen up for our stop, but apparently our tickets stuck together so Andrew did not get a friendly wake up! Luckily, he awoke on his own in time. When we arrived in Santiago, it was raining, so we decided to wait it out in the train station and journal for a while. Well, 2 hours later when the journaling was all caught up, it was raining harder!! So we pulled up our hoods and headed out!

Santiago is the #3 pilgrimage location in the world, after Israel and Rome. In the morning we visited el Museo das Peregrinacions (written in Gallego, the language of NW Spain). The museum was free on Sunday mornings, and at the end of our travels we were excited for anything free! Nothing incredibly notable at the museum, just nice to learn some history of this spot. We ate lunch at the small restaurant "Los Sobrinos del Padre" where Andrew got clams with his Caldo Gallego. Very traditional.

After lunch we moved to the highlight of this stop... the Cathedral which "houses the remains of St. James". The story goes that his remains were "rescued" from Jerusalem after his decapitation, put in a small boat, and sailed here by 2 disciples through the Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean in order to hide his bones. They were rediscovered in 813 by a monk led by the stars. At that time, Spain was fighting against the Moors and needed to unite as Christian. Convenient, no?

By this time, it was POURING! So we boarded our last train and arrived soaking wet in A Coruna at 4pm. Nate Finch was there to pick us up! (Remember him? He played and sang at our wedding.) It was raining here too, so he gave us a driving tour of the city, took us to get coffee, then to his place to rest for a bit and catch up. This was our first chance to tell someone about our Europe adventures, so he got more than he bargained for when he asked "How's your trip going?"

We picked up Jerry Reed for dinner and had Spanish tortilla, salad with oil and vinegar, white wine, potatoes (french fries), and delicious pork with garlic. After food and wine, it was back to Jerry's to sleep. We were cashed!

Our Favorites: Madrid and Toledo

Madrid

1: Good, easy to follow metro, but man hallways were too low and Andrew had to walk hunched over!

2: Everywhere seemed close to where we stayed, a short metro ride or walk. Dinner was just around the corner at Restaurante Puerto Rico! Delicious and reasonably priced!

Toledo

1: Stores everywhere selling Medieval stuff... swards, armor, shields...

2: Way more touristy than expected!

3: Like Sienna, a small town on a hill with small, hard to follow twisty roads. One difference? El Greco!

Toledo: the Former Capital (Feb 10)

We checked our bags at the train station in Madrid and were surprised to learn we needed reservations for the train to Toledo! So we got some last min reservations and boarded the train 2 min before departure! That's cutting it close for a couple of control freaky first borns!

Once in Toledo we boarded a bus and headed up, up, up into the center of town. We easily found our way to the Santa Cruz Museum, which was free because it was under renovation. There were 15 El Grecos here, and he remains Jen's favorite artist! As Rick says: No painter before or since has captured the supernatural the way he does. Jen likes it because it's not all fluffy and rosy cheeked!

We next went to the Sefardic Museum, which was recommended to us by some folks we met in Sevilla. It taught the history of Jews from Spain, their historical heritage and tradition. It was not amazing, but it was a nice change from art museums! The moment we realized we were ready to go home was when we agreed on lunch at an Asian restaurant. There we were in the small, romantic town of Toledo, and we were having Asian food. Spanish Asian food tastes the same as American Asian food. :)

After lunch, we went to the Iglesia de Santo Tome, where we saw El Greco's most-loved painting: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. The painting remains where the painter placed it 400 years ago. The Count of Orgaz was buried here in this church in 1312. We stood for a while and took it all in. Finally, we went to the Catedral de Toledo. There was art by El Greco, Caravaggio, Velazquez, and Bellini. Sound familiar? They did to us by now! This was a Gothic style church, and great to walk around.

Chicago Marathon Oct 7 2007

Let's start at the very beginning.... a very good place to start... (recognize that from the Sound of Music?)

Sometime on the road trip last fall, we decided to run the Chicago Marathon. We signed up in January and began training in March after settling into our new home here in Chicago. We began to get ready before the official "Spring Training" because spring training required us to run 2-3 miles. After gaining 20 lbs with 5 months of travel, 10 min (one mile) seemed impossible to Jen! So we started on the indoor track at the university running laps and trying not to get discouraged when 3 miles seemed an insurmountable task.

After 12 weeks of "Spring Training", Andrew was recovering from a collapsed lung, and we could both run 6 miles in about an hour. Now it was time for 18 weeks of official training. We ran 4 times a week including the long run on weekends. Usually we only ran together for the first half of these long runs. Once we had completed our 18 mile long run in early September, we ran the "Banco Popular Chicago Half Marathon" to prepare ourselves mentally for race day. Jen's longest race until now was a 5k in college, and Andrew had run a 25k in college, so we needed this "practice run". We woke up at 4am with Jen's friend Diane, and took public transportation to the race. It was good to line up at the start and not cross the start line for several minutes. There were 13,000 runners in this race, and it was great for our confidence and prepared us for the motions and emotions of race day! We both had a great race and felt inspired and pumped up!

Then we completed the 20 mile training run in 3:45 and began to taper to prepare for the Marathon. The week before the race was full of rest, carbs, and intentional water retention! Race morning we pinned on our numbers, rubbed Body Glide on all friction spots, grabbed our Gatorade and headed to the trains. We lined up on the starting line (or 300 yards behind it) with 40,000 runners and it was already 80 degrees. Both of us felt great the first half of the race.

However, Jen started to notice problems at the first 2 aid stations... they were out of water and only had Gatorade. So by mile 5, people left the road and jumped in a fountain in the park, then they drank from it. Then all was well until about mile 14 when we left the shade of the tall buildings and were hit by direct sunlight for the first time. When Jen reached the aid stations at mile 15 and 17, they were completely out of water AND Gatorade!! People were desperate shouting things like "We're DYING out here!" Spectators started to bring out pitchers from their homes and fill people's cups and bottles. (Jen was thankful she carried a bottle during the race.) Some people picked up dirty cups off the ground to get a drink.

That's when people started collapsing. Jen saw people go down, and like the Red Sea, runners parted to go around them. Medics were on them immediately, and ambulance sirens rang out almost constantly. More and more people were walking, so it was difficult to run around them all. By Jen's mile 17, Andrew's mile 19, we heard rumors of the race being canceled and someone told us to walk. We were confused and mumbled amongst ourselves and decided to keep running. 2 miles later, police were lined up across the road and announcing from the car's megaphone speakers that the race was canceled and we were "urged" to walk. One man was shouting "Stop running! We're out of ambulances!" Andrew was allowed to finish all 26.2 miles walking, but Jen was told to take a detour or get on a bus to the finish line. She took the detour and ended up with a total of about 24 miles. We later learned that 45,000 people registered for the race, 36,000 showed up that morning, and only about 24,500 finished.

After months and months of training that took up 10-15 hours a week (or more including recovery time) this was a very disappointing finale. But, we finished, and we finished on our feet. One man died, over 300 got medical help, over 100 hospitalized, and 5 in critical condition still 24 hours later. So if you ever talk to us about it, maybe we won't say we "ran" the Chicago Marathon, but we'll say we "did" the Chicago Marathon. And, we were part of history. This has never happened before, and I hope it never happens again.

El Escorial (Feb 9)

We woke up early and got to the Renfe train station to catch the Cercanias suburban train out to El Escorial. Well, we missed the first train and eventually got the next one! El Escorial is a fortress/castle commissioned by King Felipe and was built between 1563-1584. (You should click on the link to see photos!!) We saw the Hall of Battles: a long thin room frescoed with major battles of Spain's history. You could easily spend half a day trying to take it in!

We also got to see the Pantheon of the Kings, where 26 kings and queens are buried. There are 3 open spaces, all reserved! No room for Juan Carlos, the current king...

After trying to take in as much as we could, we took the train back to Madrid to see the Royal Palace! It's built on the site of a former Hapsburg Palace that burned down. It's Europe's third greatest palace, including "The Porcelain Room" made of 300 separate porcelain plates on the wall held up by screws and the "Smoking Room" for men modeled after a Chinese opium den! The "Throne Room" was amazing...gold and red. It looked fake it was so perfect!

After the Royal Palace we walked to Puerta del Sol and with Rick Steves' guide, we saw a lot of neat things on the way. One thing is that many of these streets have been the same for hundreds of years. That means that street signs were placed before people could read, so the signs have pictures on them to help the illiterate navigate the city!

Our final stop was the Reina Sofia. The most notable piece of art here was Picasso's Guernica. 11'x26'. Amazing! It was great to learn some history and to have help understanding what was going on in this work. Franco, leader of Spain in 1937, gave Hitler permission to try out his new air force on this town. In doing so the town was leveled. On the lower left is a woman holding her dead baby, and on the right a woman dragging her injured leg behind her. It was powerful in the way I picture standing at the Vietnam Memorial to be. Silence required...

On to Madrid! (Feb 8)

It was a rainy morning so we took a taxi to the train station. We took a high speed train to Madrid, and found our way to "Hostal Isabel", which was at a woman's house. Can you guess her name?? That's right. It was Beatrice! We never figured that one out! Another mystery... we had a bidet in our room, but not a toilet. Oh well...

We were pooped and it was still rainy, so we settled in and took a one hour nap, then headed out to the Thyssen-Bornemiza museum. We used the metro, but we were still soaked by the time we arrived. This museum is filled with major works by minor artists and minor works by major artists. Overall worth a visit, but too much art to cover and too much impressionism for Jen! There were works by Titan, Tintoretto, El Greco, Caravaggio, and Van Gogh.

We ate a lunch of tapas, which was expensive but a great sampling of Spanish classics! Then on to the Prado! The Prado Museum is HUGE! The greatest art museum in Spain. We were overwhelmed, and starting to get museumed out! Enough "Madonna with Child" already! When there is so much great art in one place it's hard to appreciate it all. We did get to see Tintoretto's "Last Supper" which was on loan from the Uffizi in Venice. Funny...weren't we just there?? We also go to see "Las Meninas" by Velazquez.

One Long Day in Sevilla (Feb 7)

Andrew had an interesting night on the train with the worst roommates ever! They were 2 old guys, one who turned the light on in the middle of the night to look at his watch! Hello!! Then, early in the morning before the conductor came around to wake people up, he again turned the overhead light on, got up, folded up his bed and sat in the chair waiting to arrive. It was clear to Andrew there would be no more sleeping!!!

When we arrived in Sevilla, we had a hard time navigating the city. We did as we always do, and our first stop was the tourist information booth for a map. This map had no compass rose, and we finally found our room when we realized that the top of the map pointed West, not North! Who puts West at the top of the map??

We settled in and headed out to the bullfighting ring and museum. For 4 Euros, we got a guided tour from a guide who spoke Spanish, English, French, and was able to communicate with people who spoke Italian. All this for a tourist group of 6 people! At this ring, only 3 matadors have been killed, and when they are, the bull and it's mother are killed out of superstition.

Next we went to Santa Maria de la Sede, the third largest cathedral in Europe and the largest Gothic cathedral in the world! Amazing! It has the largest cedar altarpiece ever made, of course, coated in gold. It tells the story of the entire New Testament. Another reason this cathedral is well known is that it houses whatever is left of Christopher Columbus (after being shipped around the world). We had a great tour guide here, and we climbed the Giralda tower- no stairs, just winding ramps so they could ride a horse to the top to ring the bells. This is a must see if you are ever in Sevilla!

That night we went to Flamenco Los Gallos. Each song/dance was about 15 min long and each had different dancers and musicians. The Flamenco started very calm and built to something loud with stomping and clapping and strong, sharp movements. We had a great time! then returned home and climbed into bed.

Our Favorites: Barcleona

1) Hair! We saw a mohawk dating a she-mullet, a 60+ year old woman with intentional bright purple hair that matched her shirt(see in center of photo), a woman with a boy cut with one long spiral curl on each side of her neck, rat tails, dirty dreds and so much more!


2) Weird metros! To transfer ou have to exit the subway, walk a few blocks, and re-enter. You never knew if you'd be charged the transfer rate or the full rate... sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!

A day of recovery (Feb 6 2007)

Well, here it is September and I'm back to blogging about February! Life has been busy, but I want to finish telling the story of all our travels!

We spent the morning catching up on our Journal so it would be easy to Blog when we got home! Then we had lunch, talked with Andy and Carol Larsen's for a few hours, and headed out to an early dinner. On the way back we stopped by Fargo's for more chocolates to bring home for family and friends. If you never received one, don't worry, no one did. They didn't make it home, but they sure were tasty!

Then we packed up and caught our train to Sevilla. Just a fun fact: In Spain, men and women do not sleep in the same cabin, so we were neighbors instead of roommates.

La Sagrada Familia (Feb. 5)

Back to our time in Barcelona...

We were staying with the Larsens, and we got a lot of sleep here! Once we finally made it out into the city, we went to buy a ticket to Sevilla. We just happened to walk by Gaudi's Casa Batillo on the Block of Discord. It is a block with some great architecture! Gaudi built his house and then other architects built houses down the block to try to out do him!

That afternoon we went to see Gaudi's masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family). It is a church that Gaudi started late in his life and continued working on until his death in 1929. He always knew that other architects would follow him in the churches construction and design. He left behind his blueprints, and each succeeding architect has made small changes while trying to preserve the original design. Gaudi is quoted as saying "My client [God] is not is a hurry." The construction is funded by donations, and they estimate it will take another 50 years to complete. Every aspect of the church is models after something in nature. For example, the support beams on the interior are like tree trunks, and the ceiling is like leaves in the canopy with spaces to let natural light in. Very cool! One of our favorites, and we plan to return to follow the progress!

That night we took a walk recommended by Rick Steves called "A short, sweet walk." It took us to three different chocolate shops! One was pieces of chocolate that were made on site. Another, in the photo, is "hot chocolate" which reminded me of hot, real chocolate syrup with unsweetened whipped cream on top. It comes with churros for dipping! Delicious! On the walk home, we passed a market with some beautiful peppers hanging! We couldn't resist a photo!

Jury Duty Scam (verified)

We received notification of this in an email. I thought all (any?) of our readers would benefit to be in the know. Check for verification on:

FBI.com
Snopes.com
ScamBusters.org

The phone rings, you pick it up, and the caller identifies himself as an officer of the court. He says you failed to report for jury duty and that a warrant is out for your arrest. You say you never received a notice. To clear it up, the caller says he'll need some information for "verification purposes"-your birth date, social security number, maybe even a credit card number.

This is when you should hang up the phone. It's a scam.

Exploring Barcelona (Feb 4)

We slept in! Ahhh. We needed that.

We showered and ate breakfast and met the Larsen's at the cathedral at noon. Every Sunday at noon, a local band comes to the front of the cathedral and starts to play (the same song over and over) and locals drop their bags and purses, form circles, and begin to walk/hop/dance the Sardona dance. It was a very patriotic moment, but it is patriotic to Catalan not to Spain. Spain is a country composed of regions that have strong cultural and historical identities. It was very neat to see something like this, even though the dance itself was less impressive than we had hoped!

After the dance, we went with Erik to Parc Guell, a 30 acre park that includes Gaudi architecture. It was intended to be a high income gated community, but flopped, so now it is a marvelous park full of artists painting and musicians singing and playing for donations. This was a place full of life. It was easy to spend the afternoon here. Gaudi is a name you will hear again in Barcelona. His architecture looks kind of like colorful melting ice cream cones. Andrew's reaction?? "When did we enter Whoville??"

That evening the two of us visited the Picasso Museum. Picasso was from Barcelona, and this is the best collection of his art in the country. Early in his career he painted the way other people wanted him to paint... like everyone else. He was good, but we may not have heard of him if he had never found his own style. We got to see his "Guernica" and hear the story behind it. There were photos that his girlfriend at this time took of the work in progress. That is worth seeing! This museum is free the first Sunday of every month, which is when we went.

Then it was back to the Larsen's. We talked with them until midnight, when Andy turned on the Superbowl and the rest of us went to bed! We loved talking with these guys!

Our "Day" in Paris (Feb 3)

We took a night train Salzburg to Paris EST. We got the bottom bunks in a room where the heat was out of control! We tried several times to turn it down, but it was HOT and the heat was right next to our bunks. Also, these were the shortest bunks we saw on our trip, so Andrew was not in for a good nights sleep!

When we arrived in Paris we had to take the Metro from the EST station to the Lyon station, and that was our experience in the city of Paris! We waited in the station and it was very cold! There were great pastries, croissants and apple torte. Probably good we didn't spend more time there!

Our next train was a high speed, double-decker. We had seats on the top level, so we had a great view of the BEAUTIFUL terrain of southern France. This was the nicest first class we saw, and it was relatively empty so we spread out and rested. We cruised along at 300kph, so it didn't take long for us to arrive in Montpelier where we transferred to the train that would take us to Spain. This was in a first class car too, but it felt more like a commuter train! It was old, the seats were broken, and it felt like we would never get there, but eventually, we did.

There was a group of 4 Canadians in their 50's or 60's in front of us so we ended up talking with them. They sounded like they had a lot of traveling experience, but when we arrived in Spain they weren't quite sure how to get to their hostel. Andy Larsen and Erik Amundson were at the station in Barcelona waiting for us and offered to help the Canadians get to their hostel. It was a good chance for us to see a glimpse of the city at night. We went back to the Larsen's and talked for a while. It was great to be with other people and share some of what we'd seen. It was the start of processing for us. The Larsen's were so welcoming, and will continue to be great friends to us.

Back to Life!

Thank you to everyone who showed support and concern for Andrew with his lung collapse! He is doing very well now, especially since his scab fell off a few days ago! What is it with guys and scabs anyway?? He is planning to start running again this week, slowly at first. He still hopes to join me in the 2007 Chicago Marathon in October.

He is still working with the Department of World Mission until Greek starts in early July. We are thankful for that job and he continues to get to know more people in the Covenant. I just finished my first week off orientation at the hospital. My biggest challenge is getting to know people there. I trained with the day crew, now I work with the evening crew, so I have to learn names, who I can ask questions of, and how people work. All in good time.

The weather here has been wonderful! We have gone downtown and walked around and to a street festival. There is always something going on, we just have to pick what we want to go to the most!! We like our small apartment and we are trying to keep life simple. We have joined a CSA, which is Community Supported Agriculture. It is a share in a local farm, and each week we pick up a box of vegetables. If the farm does well, it's a big box, and if not then it is a small box.

As life goes on, I become more and more thankful that we traveled when we had the chance to. It has been great fun to talk through memories together and look at our photos. Everyone once and a while we talk about a story we remember and finish with "What city was that in again??" I'm going to continue to blog and continue to process all that we saw in our travels. Hope you enjoy reading it, or at least looking at the photos!

Collapse of the Lung (May 12)

"Jen, I'm afraid to even speak this out loud." "What?" she replied. "I think my lung collapsed again." So began last Saturday morning, getting out of bed at my mother-in-law's in Wisconsin. With her massive surprise birthday party that evening, we wasted little time in taking me to the University of Wisconsin Hospital.

The ideal location, timing, insurance, and connections all were in place when my lung collapsed, forcing me to credit God yet again for taking good care of me, even when it seems like a collapsed lung is more cause for complaint than compliment. Our health insurance had started on the first of the month through Jen's job, so we were covered. Through two connections, one through Jen's friend who works at the hospital and the other through doctors my mom works with in Michigan, the cardiothoracic surgeon instructed us to inform ER he was expecting us. Talk about an in.

The ER folks were nice and not too busy, quickly confirming my lung was indeed collapsed and probably moreso than when it first collapsed last July in Texas. I was not in great pain, only a little short of breath and more sore from my back and shoulder muscles trying to compensate for the lung's limitation. No trauma caused the spontaneous pneumothorax; being a tall, lanky young male increases one's odds. Better than heart disease or cancer I suppose.

The few hours of waiting for my inpatient room were well worth it. I had the room to myself, a flat screen TV, cable, DVD player, cell phone coverage, room service (that's what they called their dining options), and best of all, wireless internet. I misspoke and told someone, "This hotel, I mean hospital, is pretty nice." Exceeding expectations, the surgeon called that evening to explain things and answer a few of my questions. The surprise birthday party went off without a hitch. Jen even came to visit with me that evening and was back bright and early for the pre-op with the surgeon at 6:00 am.

The minimally invasive VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery) procedure involved two small incisions, one on the front and the other on the back of my chest, as well as a chest tube between the middle ribs for a total of 3 holes. I was under general anesthetic the whole time and didn't feel a thing. The surgeon cut and stapled off the part of my lung that was weak and causing these spontaneous pneumothoraces. Then a pleurodesis was performed to fuse the lung to the chest wall, thereby making it difficult for a pneumothorax to develop again (4% chance of recurrence). The chest tube withdrew bad air, allowing the lung to re-expand. The procedure took about an hour.

I came out of surgery like the last Fruit Loop floating in the bowl of milk, thanking everyone in sight for their good work, proclaiming how good I felt and how thankful I was that my lung was fixed. I vaguely remember the words I spoke; hopefully my hearers quickly forget as well. I slept a lot that day and didn't eat a thing. They set me up with on demand morphine (at the touch of a button) that was kept under lock and key. It made me thirsty, which made me drink and throw up. My throat was sore from the breathing tube used during surgery.

The worst part of the day was trying to suck up a ball of mucus that would not dislodge itself from my throat. I even asked the nurse for suction akin to what they use on you at the dentist's office. After about five minutes and my sore throat worsening, I asked the nurse to take a look. She said she saw nothing. Jen solved the mystery, exclaiming, "It's his uvula!" (translation: the hangy ball in the back of your throat). It was swollen to the size of a quarter. I nearly cried and hit the morphine button again.

I spent the Monday and Tuesday taking things easy and working to regain my strength. Friends and relatives from Wisconsin ate meals with me and visited after work. My mom and grandparents made a surprise visit on Monday. I spent the evenings watching the NBA playoffs as I fell asleep. The Pistons finally won their series after I was discharged.

The surgeon removed the chest tube on Tuesday in one swift motion, revealing the bloody snake that had been inside my chest helping my lung to stabilize. Jen estimated eighteen inches were actually below the surface. I hit the morphine button as much as I could before it was removed. To my surprise, it felt like a gentle thud. I thought something had gone terribly wrong, but all was well.

I was discharged on Wednesday. Fresh air never tasted so good! My chest was sensitive to the bumps in the road. We spent that night in Wisconsin. Thursday, we returned to Chicago. I slept long hours at night and took naps during the day. The pain wasn't much. I felt sluggish, timid, weak and out of sorts in the days that followed. I'm told it's all normal after general anesthesia and a hospitalization. Walking outside, having friends visit and showering in the morning all seem to help. I will return to work this week and see how it goes.

My concluding thought is gratefulness for God's provision, family and friends who supported me through it all, especially Jen, and the wonderful advances in medicine that fixed me up so amazingly. I have to give my compliments to my surgeon and all the other doctors, nurses, aides and staff that cared for me so well at the UW hospital. I hope it never happens again!