From the Archives: Christmas Package!

About eight months ago we received a package from my Aunt Teresa. She sends us one every year, no matter where we live. Every year it contains a Christmas book. Most years it contains coffee. Last year it contained both.

We received our package on December 11th, and with Noel being born on the 12th, writing a "thank-you" blog got pushed to the back burner. For eight months. Oops.

Lane tearing off the paper.

She sent us Song of the Stars, by Sally Lloyd-Jones. We already had The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones and love it, so we were excited to read this book as well. And it is fantastic. It has great artwork and is about how all creation was anticipating the night that Jesus was born. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Pointing out animals in the book.

So "thanks!" Aunt Teresa and Uncle Tommy for the book and the coffees...the coffee was gone before we got a photo of it, and the book...well, I think it might be our favorite Christmas book yet.

From the Archives: Hello, Vacation!

Last April Shannon's mom and stepdad came to visit. We hung out with them in Istanbul for about a week, and then we took five or six days and traveled around Turkey a bit with them. It was, to be quite honest, exhausting (I was newly pregnant and Lane got five teeth, three of them molars, in five weeks). But it was fun, and it was good to see his parents. Sometimes I feel bad for Lane because she just has to deal with all the craziness that our lives entail, but she seems to do pretty well with it all.

We greeted Sharon and Milton with BBQ sandwiches for lunch, and cake for dessert.

Boy were they surprised! I made a cake for them to announce the pregnancy, and we made cards and had them mailed to the rest of our family members that arrived right around the same time as Shannon's parents got here.

Anyhow, we "did" Istanbul first, taking them to see the main sites here after they had recovered from jet lag. We didn't really get many photos here, since we'd already been to the Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cisterns and didn't want to pay to enter again. The only new site for us was the Blue Mosque, and I'll give it its own post soon.

Me and Sharon (and Lane) in front of the tulips near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.

We spent a few days just hanging out at home, going out to eat Turkish food, playing with Lane, and just enjoying each other's company.

Mimi reading Lane's new Easter book to her.

Papa and Lane, just chillin'. Gotta love Milton's jet-lagged bed head!

Lane in one of her new dresses and daddy, playing hide and seek behind the curtains.

Then we flew to Cappadocia, Turkey, where we spent three days and two nights.

One of the rooms in Derinkuyu, an underground city.

At the Göreme Open Air Museum.

Even Lane had fun!

Cappadocia is full of views like this.

Shannon hiked to the top of a...rock formation?...and got this shot.

People used to live in there. So strange!

Awesomely weird, huh?

Next we flew to Izmir, Turkey, where we spent two days and two nights. Our main reason for going to Izmir was so that we could go to Ephesus, which is about an hour away, but not convenient for flying into. We actually know people who live in Izmir, so we got a bit of help from the airport, finding the buses to Ephesus, and so on. Here are just a few photos of Ephesus. I could easily go into photo overload here but I'll just give you the highlights...

From Selçuk (the nearest city), it's a couple miles to Ephesus proper. So we took a horse-drawn carriage, which was quite fun, and was my and Lane's first time in a horse-drawn carriage (to the best of my recollection).

Arcadian Street. Which leads up to...

The Theatre Gymnasium.

A bit further down (to the right) you'll find:

The Celsus Library

Shannon, Lane, and myself standing at the Celsus Library and looking out into the auditorium with Curetes Street to the back right.

Curetes Street: one of the main streets in Ephesus.

The view from up Curetes Street, looking down toward the library.

Lane did a lot of playing with rocks in Ephesus.

And then it was back to Istanbul for a few more days before they had to leave. We had a lot of fun with them, and of course they loved getting to actually play with Lane (since she was only five months old the last time they had seen her, she wasn't really into playing yet). All in all, it was a great vacation. The time went so quickly...it's always sad when vacation is over, especially when it's with family you don't get to see very often!

From the Archives: Becoming a Southerner

The first time I got my driver's license, I was 16, like most American teenagers. In Alaska your license is good for four years from your next birthday, so mine expired the day I turned 21. I waited until the day after my birthday and went for my new license (because of course I didn't want the "UNDER 21" stamped on my license that would be good until I was 26). Even though I was living in Idaho at the time, since I was still in college I didn't want to change my residency.

I lived in Idaho for a year after graduating from college and still didn't change my license. After all, why give up residency in Alaska (where I might be eligible for a PFD again one day) when I wasn't sure what I was doing or where I was going with my life?

Then I moved to Poland for three years, returned to Alaska at age 25, and of course, renewed my driver's license the following January. And then I moved to North Carolina, where once again, I didn't get a new driver's license.


My last Alaska driver's license.

A year later I got married. Shannon was a resident of Alabama, me (myself?) a resident of Alaska. Should I get a NC driver's license, since that's where we were living? I'd heard it was a big pain to switch to a NC license, and that still wouldn't make us residents of the same state, so I decided to wait. (Enter my using my passport as i.d. for two years, since it was the only piece of photo i.d. I had with my correct name on it.)

And then this past spring, right at a year ago, I took the plunge. I changed my residency for the first time in 30 years. I got a new driver's license and am now an Alabama resident, along with my husband.

Notice that 10-pound weight gain between the ages of 25-30? I'm totally blaming it on Lane!

The question is, does it make me a Southerner that I have a Deep South driver's license? Or can I still claim Northerner status since that's where I was born and raised and lived most of my life? (Notice how that question is raised: it's not "Do I still claim...," it's "Can I still claim....") I don't think of myself as a Southerner, even if technically I am one now.

From the Archives...

Rewind 13 1/2 months in your mind. Where were you last middle-of-May? I was insanely busy with schoolwork and trying to finish up my master's degree. I was six weeks pregnant. And I was wanting to go to Alaska. My oldest younger brother was graduating from high school. My sister was going to attend the graduation, and I wanted to, but his graduation was thisclose to the rehearsal of my own graduation, which had mandatory attendance. But...we made it work! For starters, we organized it with my sister to be a surprise for everyone in Alaska: no one knew I was coming. Second, I arranged it with a professor to miss my last class, take my final early, and finish reading a book on the airplane in order to finish my classwork. Third, we searched and searched for the best deal we could find on an airline ticket, and approximately $600 later, I was headed to Alaska for the quickest trip I've ever made there.

Saturday, May 16th, I got on an airplane at 6:00 a.m. in Raleigh, arriving in Anchorage at 2:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. East-Coast-time). I waited about an hour for my sister to arrive, and then we waited about an hour for her in-laws to drop a car off for us. We grabbed a bite to eat and then hit the road to Kenai, a three-hour drive. During the drive my sister confessed to me that she had so many friends who were pregnant and that she really wanted a baby, so all that she could think of when she was around them was were they jealous that she was so skinny? I was pregnant and hadn't told her yet. Fail.

When we pulled onto our road in Kenai, I hopped in the backseat and hid for the 1/2-mile drive home. Rachel hugged mom while she bemused that the only way things could get better would be if Michelle were there. And then I hopped out of the backseat and shocked the pants off my mom. She was so excited. Then I broke the news that it was great I was there, but that I wouldn't be able to come for Christmas. After my sister asked why not, I replied, "I don't think they let you fly when you're 8 1/2 months pregnant." Shock of all shocks, they both cried and were happy for us, and my sister immediately felt horrible about what she had said.

Anyhow, that was the crazy part. We spent Sunday and Monday relaxing and just chatting. Tuesday evening was Sean's graduation and we arrived early to get good seats. We watched him graduate, and afterward we headed home, grabbed our stuff, and Rachel and I hit the road to head to Anchorage, arriving at around midnight. We spent the night with one of Rachel's friends, and Wednesday morning we headed to the Great Harvest Bread Company and then to the airport. I caught a flight at 9:00 a.m., getting into Greensboro at 11:00 p.m. Shannon came and picked me up and we got home at around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, and then got up and headed to our graduation rehearsal at 10:00 a.m. that same morning. Shannon's parents arrived that evening, and then we graduated for real on Friday. It was such an insane trip, but totally worth it! Especially now that I have a baby and can't do crazy things like that anymore, I'm so glad that we made it work!


Congrats, Sean!


Sean's the one in the middle, in focus, looking up at his (unseen) floating cap.


All the family (minus husbands): Me, Rachel, Sean, Mom, and Kyle