Where are You From? Me: "Originally?" I find this question very hard to answer since I have technically lived in Illinois (22 yrs), Las Vegas, Nevada (5 months), Orlando, Florida (3 months), San Diego, California (6 yrs), Shenzhen & Hangzhou, China (combined 2.5 yrs) and Portland, Oregon (combined 9.5 months). I am the newer generation that doesn't stay put for very long, unlike the majority of the rest of my family who have been in Illinois the majority, if not all of their life. While on the farm, my parent's home and where I spent my childhood, we enjoyed the peace and quite, long walks seeing lots of corn and soybean fields, many miles in the car (not so fun) and most of all being with family and seeing friends. I think we spent more time ... read more

Chicago is at the top of my list for Top 5 Favorite Cities in the World, but the weather knocks it down the list of places to ever live. I have always thought if I could combine Chicago with San Dieogo's weather, well that would be where I would live but that isn't the case so I just visit there every trip to my homestate of Illinois. This time we spent 3 nights on the north side in the Lakeview East neighborhood with my cousin and her boyfriend. One reason I love Chicago is you can take the "L" or buses all around the city without ever needing a car, hard to get this in many US cities. You def see a different side of any city when riding public transportation and we sure did this ... read more

July 10th-16th We arrived at LAX on Southwest Airlines, my favorite domestic airline for so many reasons: great customer service, amazing Rapid Rewards program, free bags and snacks. My goal for this trip was to do something new in each city, as we have been to all the places on our tirp many times. First stop, was to see my Brother in Laws, who all live in Westwood. We had a great outdoor lunch with Rob & Mike in Venice Beach, sushi in Westwood with Tim & Connor, cheered on Tim & Rob at their weekly co-ed softball game, met Tim's girlfriend, Lisette (also a Midwest girl), strolled around Venice's canals & Abbott Kinney Blvd, got a visit from Stephanie Wold a former employee from Enterprise and hiked Temescal Canyon all while in LA for 3 ... read more

On Saturday evening, we attended a Farewell Potluck for Father Maxy and Father Mark. Father Mark came to St Johns Baptist (SJB) last Summer but we never got to meet him as he contracted Malaria during his visit home to Kenya and needed to be in quarantined for 30 days upon his return to the US. Father Maxy on the otherhand we got to know very well. We always enjoyed attending his masses during our visits to Portland. Then we got to know him on another level when we moved to Portland in December 2010 during my Father in Law's battle with Cancer. Father Maxy was there for the family during his illness, funeral planning, burial and grieving process. He then performed our Marriage Sacrament in June 2011. I was raised in the Catholic Church and ... read more

This past week was crazy trying to see everyone that we wanted, pack and decide when we should leave Hangzhou. Thanks to Kirsten we decided to treat ourselves to some R&R at the Portman Ritz Carlton in Shanghai for 3 nights before our flight on Tuesday afternoon back to the USA. We met up with Crystal for drinks at Starbucks on Tuesday evening. WOW, I hadn't been to that Starbucks at 8pm, only 8am before work, but it was the place to be as it was packed with young professionals socializing with friends. Blows my mind at times how much the coffee scene has grown in this tea culture since we moved to China in August 2009. Crystal had finished her first year of her Pre-Masters program in Glasgow, Scotland so it was great hearing about ... read more