Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year by going on a family walk over to Broad Street to enjoy the Mummer's Parade.

Our 2009 felt like The Year of Advent with most of the year focused on the arrival of our little Alma. (She was definitely worth the wait!)

However, in glancing at the photos we snapped this year, our year was more than simply waiting. We had a great year with family, friends, trips, work, outdoor adventures, weddings, birthdays and so much else. This might have been my favorite year ever ... I really enjoyed 2009.

Here's to a joyful 2010 with time to wonder at all the blessings in our lives.

Lots of Free Time

My Project H.O.M.E. internship ended at the beginning of this month. I'm so delighted that I had the opportunity to work at such a great organization and on such an interesting project. This has been such a great summer of exploring the subject of homelessness in Philadelphia. My supervisor was, by far, one of the most dynamic, intelligent and positive supervisors I have ever encountered.

Because the internship was sponsored by the Samuel S. Fels Foundation and those internships only last 10 weeks, I am now a stay-at-home expectant mother. It's great to have this time to get things together for the coming baby. Although, I'm feeling so energized days and was just started to get on a roll with regard to working full-time, it is a shame to not be putting my new degree to use in a non-profit environment.

To celebrate the upcoming babe and get some much-needed time together, my mom and I went to a B&B in Ventnor, New Jersey, a nice little beach town, for a few days last week. It was nice to be by the ocean, eat lots of good food and have lots of long talks. My mom is great and I really treasure my time with her. We also ventured up to Staten Island to see my grandmother and my cousin Michael's new baby, which was fun.

Last weekend, once we returned from the beach, I got to spend a morning with my three roommates from college -- Donna, Heather and Amanda -- and Amanda's new baby. They are such supportive and wonderful women. It is always so great to see them.


In two weeks, Joshua and I have another prenatal appointment and ultrasound scheduled. I will give a full pregnancy update then. (For those who cannot wait, the report thus-far would be as follows: All is well!)

Simon has been enjoying the dog park that is just up the street from our house. After some "structured walking time", running a few miles and spending time with us, we usually end up there where he gets to play with his buddies and get dirty. It's really fun to watch.

The photo to the right was after an especially fun evening at the dog park. Simon even received an audible "euck" noise from a lady who was walking down the street who didn't seem to like all the dirt he was wearing.

School started this week. With a full course load of classes, TAing for two sections of a digital geography class, continuing to intern at DVRPC and spending enough time with pup-oh, bossy cat and The Husband, I may not be blogging as often. However, we have fun trips planned for the next few weeks, so we'll be sure to share some photos.

"Creating Tomorrow Today"

This week (finals week, at that) I went on four interviews and eventually accepted a full time internship position at a very reputable non-profit-but-very-government-contact-focused agency.


The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is a "interstate, intercounty and intercity agency that provides continuing, comprehensive and coordinated planning to shape a vision for the future growth of the Delaware Valley region." Basically they are the rock stars of planning in the larger metro area. My position will be mainly doing database work but they also said that I would have a chance to do some mapping, too.

I start on May 19th. Hooray!