About Scarbrough Fair

Welcome to Scarbrough Fair!

My name's Michelle and I'm a quarter of the Fair...my husband Shannon, daughter Lane, and up-and-coming, due-in-December daughter make up the rest, although occasionally you'll see others make appearances here. I was born and raised in Alaska, went to college in Idaho, taught English in Poland for three years afterward, and went to graduate school in North Carolina. Shannon hails from Birmingham, Alabama, and is a die-hard Auburn fan, a Southern gentleman to the max, and absolutely loathes the cold. Lane was born in Alaska and has lived in Alaska, Alabama, Virginia, and Turkey.

Shannon and I met when I was working in Poland and he was working in Ukraine. We worked for different branches of the same company, and our company brought a lot of their employees together for a conference. And that's where we met, back in early 2004. We didn't date until late 2006, though (much to Shannon's disappointment!), but after we started dating we got engaged two months later. We got married the following August in a beautiful, small, outdoor wedding in Raleigh.

Shortly before we finished graduate school we found out I was pregnant. This put some of our plans on hold for a bit, but we wouldn't trade it for the world. Being a parent is full of challenges and joys that you never know until you have a little one of your own. Although it's more work than you would ever imagine, all of the smiles, hugs and snuggles, 'mama!'s and 'dada!'s, and general cuteness makes the extra laundry, never getting to sleep in, extra expense, and general inconvenience to a simple life worth it. Our lives are much busier now that we have kids. But our lives are also much, much more full.

We moved to Istanbul in 2010 when Lane was five months old. Shannon works a lot, but we also get awesome benefits like lots of family time together, lots of vacation time, and the opportunity to live in what used to be the capital of the Ottoman Empire. We don't know how long we'll be here, but as long as we are...we're determined to enjoy it!

So, that's life at the Fair! We hope you'll join us, because between a toddler, a baby on the way, and a foreign country, life is always an adventure!