October is definitely Nia’s month. She comes off a week of Birthday celebrations and heads straight into Halloween fun. The festivities began on Thursday with a Halloween parade and concert at...
Washington, DC
This is a collection of posts from our tour in Washington, D.C. from July 2014 to June 2016. There are also posts from various other times we were posted temporarily to D.C. for language or job training.
Remember when we moved to Peru in May of 2012? Seems like forever ago (look how small Nia is!) Happily, it’s that time again. I’m pleased to announce that our next adventure will be . . ...
I started back up again at the hospital as a chaplain after taking the summer off to travel to MN. As I mentioned in an earlier post, back in May I wanted to quit because it felt too frustrating to...
Happy Holidays blog readers! Soooo, I was ridiculously lucky to kick off my holiday season in style with tickets to the National Christmas Tree Lighting (courtesy of cousin Kyle who works at the...
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We’re about 90 days out until “wheels up” for Malawi, which means it’s crunch time. It sounds like a lot of days, but I know from experience that it will evaporate in no time...
Let’s start with the good news. WE WENT CAMPING! Yay us! Now for the bad news. We bailed after 24 hours. Here’s how it all went down: We left Friday around lunch, right after picking Nia...
Remember back in 2009 when I was newly married and getting ready for our first overseas adventure? Funny how long ago that seems. Well, back before we shipped out, one of the posts that prompted a...
I can’t place my finger on exactly when it happened, but sometime in the last week we kicked into full on prep mode. I was hoping to have 10 more days or so until the insanity hit, but ready or...
Hard to believe but the movers come one week from today (Deep breath, everyone). As you might expect, the beginning of June was a whirlwind of graduations, good-byes, shopping and coughing (great...
Six Months ago today I started something that I honestly wasn’t sure I could complete. I decided to join a program that would help me cut sugar out of my diet and more importantly, help me free...
This is part two in a series about my experience giving up sugar six months ago. If you haven’t read part 1, you should really start there for some background info. This post is going to focus...
This is my third post in a series celebrating my six month anniversary of going sugar free. If you’re just starting to read, you’re best off reading Post 1 and Post 2 first. In my second...
The Novaks are back in DC for the first time in two years. Although I’m not a big DC fan, it’s nice to come back to somewhere that’s familiar. For the first time ever we’re...
I’m sure you’re wondering why I haven’t been writing these last few months. Well, it was a combination of things – lots of end-of-year activities, still finding work/life...
After 35 days away, I am finally reunited with my family and back in my own bed again! And boy oh boy does it feel good. As you might imagine, being away was quite novel at first… no demands...
Well, look at that. I’m back already. How’s that for keeping my word?! In Tuesday’s post I filled you in about how we spent our summer, so today I’ll tell you what brought us...
Nick was originally scheduled to start language classes on Tuesday, September 6th–the day after labor day. That would have been fine and dandy if we didn’t have the kid with us, but we...
Good day all – Several of you noticed that my recent blogs have primarily been about Nick & Nia and asked that I give an update on what’s been happening with me. I’m touched to...
Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash I was incredibly touched by how many of you read (and commented on) yesterday’s post. I did feel your love and support, so first and foremost, thank you...
It’s fall, my absolute favorite time of the year. You may assume it’s my favorite season because of the beautiful colors or the cooling temps or the delicious crispness of the air (cross...
Some of you will be pleased to know that today’s update has no heavy emotional stuff in it (or at least I’m not planning on it but I guess one never knows where writing will take...
October is Nia’s birthday month, so to celebrate her 11th bday, we invited her cousin Armin and grandparents to come stay with us for five days. It was such a fun couple days. We had the most...
Hello Everyone – Happy Holidays! I realize I have a lot to catch you up on since I haven’t written in so long. I guess I just haven’t felt like I have much to report lately. Our big...
Photo by Miguel Alcântara on Unsplash Last November my mental health was suffering greatly after being trapped inside for the entire month with a nasty cough and sinus infection. I was feeling very...
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Continuing our story… If you didn’t catch Part 1, read that first. I didn’t have much time to mentally process the news because Nia and I were headed to...
My name spelled in Russian Cyrillic cursive I am back, as promised, to fill you in on my first month of Russian Language class at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). For starters, the language is...
Hey Readers- How goes it? We’ve been having the most glorious non-wintery weather here in DC (recent high of 78!) and I am absolutely L-O-V-I-N-G it. Turns out that the winter weather I was...
Happy Easter All! Today I wanted to share a bit about a unique experience Nia and I got to take part in last weekend. As I’ve mentioned before, Nia’s public school is the equivalent of a...
Nick isn’t allowed to take any vacation days during his year of language training, so when Nia’s week-long spring break rolled around, we came up with the next best thing–we had her...
As we all know, D.C. has an abundance of things to do, see, and eat. It’s definitely the thing I love most about the city. It’s an epicenter of culture with museums, festivals, and...
Today is Nia’s 5th grade “graduation” ceremony, which has me reflecting on how much she’s changed this year and the fact that we’re about to have a bona fide middle...
There have been many moments in the last 18 years when I’ve laughed over the fact that I ended up with a husband and daughter who are history fanatics. It would be one thing if it was just a private...