3 Days To Go!!

Things are so busy here that I don't have much time to write but I just wanted to add to the countdown! Yesterday was both my last day at work and Chris's last day of the term so we are now busily preparing everything to head to Atlanta on Sunday. Those of you who know me well know that I wouldn't exactly win an award for being the best airplane passenger so I do ask for all of your thoughts and prayers for me but espesially for Chris who has to put up with me on the plane! We are so excited to be in Altanta and can't wait to see everyone soon.

Love,
Amber

The Official Countdown Begins...2 1/2 Weeks

Only 17 days until we are in the land of SUVs, fast food, GAP, 5 lane highways and country music and I CAN NOT wait! Of course we are so excited to see our friends and family (even though I have heard rumors that the only reason I come home is for Taco Bell I can assure they aren't true - but you will certainly score extra points if you suggest we meet up to eat and talk!) - it has been WAY too long. We have finished most of the Christmas shopping we planned to do in Durham and only have a couple of things to pick up in Atlanta once we are there. This weekend is the annual Christmas market in Durham and we absolutely loved last year and have been waiting for almost a month!

Chris is finishing up his school assignments and things for this term and those are all going well. It looks like he won't have to take any significant work to Atlanta and will be able to really enjoy himself while we are there. I have been told by my boss that no matter what she won't email or call me while I am gone and will try to figure things out for herself so I will be free as well! We may not know what to do with ourselves!

We can't wait to see everyone soon!

Love,
Amber

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Ev'rywhere you go;

Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again

With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Toys in ev'ry store

But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be

On your own front door.

The Ferebee Christmas Carol play list has now been working overtime at our house! We are so ready for Christmas and can't wait to be home and see everyone. We have put up our Christmas tree (and I think it looks really nice - good job, babe!) and were getting ready to take some more pictures since we have added more ornaments since these were taken and the lights blew! Once the new lights are on I will add some updated pictures.

The beginning...that is a VERY small tree!

Lights are looking good!

The finished project. Well not quite finished as we have since added some ornaments with color but you get the idea!

Update

Good afternoon, all! I hope those of you in GA are praying for rain becuase it certainly sounds like you need it!!

Things here continue to be busy. Chris is working hard to finish a number of projects before Christmas and the Business School is keeping me jumping as usual. It has turned extremely cold just in the last week and this morning the wind was freezing!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week. I have taken the day off so we can have a "proper" meal with all of the trimmings. On Saturday we are getting together with Jonathan and Sissy Massie (American friends who live in Newcastle) for a second meal which will be a really good time as well. I will try to post pictures afterwards.

I guess that is it for now - just 31/2 weeks to go until we land in the big ATL!

Love,
Amber

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRIS!!!!

HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY, CHRIS! I took today off from work to spend with Chris on his birthday around his classes and then made him his favorite dinner - ceasar salad, fettuccine alfredo with grilled shrimp, garlic bread and chocolate molten cake with vanilla ice cream. YUMMY!! He has had a great day even though there has been a touch of what we are calling his quarter-life crisis! :)

On another note this weekend we got to hang out with Kristen (my friend from GSU and a bridesmaid in our wedding) here in Durham - she is in England for a week to visit a friend that lives in Manchester and they came to see us for 2 days. It was great!!!! I haven't seen Kristen since Christmas and it was so awesome to hang out even if just for a short time. I love you!

So we have had an eventful weekend between Kristen and David being here and Chris's birthday and it has been great! I just want to say Happy Birthday to my sweetheart - I love you, babe! :)

This Weekend

In an attempt to continue with the blogging I have decided that instead of waiting for something interesting to happen I will simply bore you all with the minute details of our lives. So here we go! :)

This weekend we had a great weekend!! First off I got to meet up with our friends Jonathan and Sissy (Sissy used to be Walters from FBA - most of you guys know her) who now live in Newcastle about 15 minutes from us by train. Anyway, Jonathan had to come to Durham for a race and Chris had a bunch of school stuff to do so Sissy and I got to hang out almost the whole day. We had a great time! We had lunch and did a bunch of shopping (groceries and toilet paper but still fun!) and then of course finished the day with coffee. It was so awesome to have someone here that you can talk to and know you are experiencing similar feelings and just life in general.

On Saturday night I baked banana nut bread but with no nuts because I didn't have any and it turned out so yummy! I am having a piece right now at work with coffee and it is even better then it was on Saturday. I am posting the link on here just in case anyone else wants to try it. It has sour cream in it which at first I thought was kind of weird but it makes the bread so moist that I now understand! http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Janets-Rich-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx?src=etaf

When Jim and Debbie (Chris's dad and step-mom) were here they bought us a really cool gadget for the kitchen - a stove top cast iron grill. It weighs a ton and sits on top of one of our burners and works almost as well as a grill on your back porch. We have grilled chicken a couple of times and it has been really good so last night I did pork chops and they were delicious!! They were all fat (not with fat but with meat) and cooked up so good with an apple and brown sugar glaze. Here is the recipe in case anyone is interested - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grilled-Brown-Sugar-Pork-Chops/Detail.aspx?src=etaf

Now it is Monday and we are back to work/school. We fly out for Atlanta in 8 weeks!!! My fabulous friend Kristen (bridesmaid at the wedding for those of you who were there) is flying to England on Saturday for a bunch of different reasons but one is to see me and I can't wait! We will only get to hang out for a day or so because I have to work but I can't wait to even have that little bit of time with her this weekend!

Then Monday (22nd) is Chris's 25th birthday! What an old man! :) I tell him all the time that I am still almost 8 months away from being 25 and he hates it! On the upside what a great place and time to have a 25th birthday and I think he is rather lucky.

Better run for now - my 15 minute coffee and blog break are just about up. Hope everyone is well.

Love,
Amberly

A New Beginning...

Well, I have been inspired to return to the world of blogging! Things here have settled down somewhat and I feel just awful that it has been 6 months since I even wrote on here!!! We will consider this my early New Year's resolution - maybe call it my October resolution.

Where to begin after a 6 months hiatus? Hmm...

Chris just started his final year of study last Thursday and is really excited about being so close to the finish line. Plus, he is taking some very cool classes with a few world-renowned professors. Since he had the summer off he was able to go to the States for a couple of weeks in August - he spent some time in Atlanta with family and friends there, then went to Michigan for Nitchie's wedding (Yeah, congrats Nithcie and Michelle!) and was even able to spend some time with our friends Mike and Lisa who are now back in Michigan as well (Mike completed his Master's in July and they moved back to the Michigan but are hopefully headed to DC soon).

While Chris was in the US I had a visitor! My MOM!! She was our first official family visitor to come and see Durham and the apartment and just experience life here. It was awesome! I hadn't seen any of my family in 8 months and as much as I would have LOVED for them all to come (which obviously wasn't possible) it was so amazing to have my mom! We went shopping and ate at all the little cafes in Durham, we even went to see a movie and spent 2 days in Edinburgh before she flew out. It went by too fast but was really great.

A week after my mom flew back to Altanta Chris was back in Durham and we were getting ready to have his dad, Jim and step-mom, Debbie come for a visit. They were here for 10 days and we had an awesome time. They got to really experience our lives in Durham plus we went to the Lake District for 2 days and stayed at the most amazing little B&B there. I will try to upload some pictures from home later on. It has been so wonderful to have so much family here recently and we are always ready for visitors so if you want to come by just give us a call!

We have bought our tickets back to the US for Christmas!!! We will be in Altanta Dec 16 - Jan 6 - 3 whole weeks! We are going to try and see everyone and do everything that we can so if you have any ideas or want to get together just send me an email.

About 2 weeks ago we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of moving to England! Both Chris and I are still in wonder on almost a daily basis that we actually live here and have had the opportunity to build our lives here. God has been so good to give us this opportunity and allowed us to really settle in with friends and my job and a great little apartment to live in and everything that is Durham from our church to the people to the market - we are just grateful for every part of it. I know that one day we will look back on this and wonder at how we ever survived but more importantly how we could have ever imagined our lives without this time. Thank you to everyone who has supported us this far and please continue to think of us as we are now looking forward to the next step.

Speaking of the next step - we are looking at a number of schools for Chris to go to for a Master's programme. This would mean we would probably move next summer in late July or so (as Durham is one of the options we may not move at all!). Chris's graduation is at the end of June and we could stay in our apartment until the beginning of September if we wanted to. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we now move on to making decisions about schools, programmes and many other things.

After not writing for so long I think I have now written our longest post yet! Now the question is - will anyone read it? :)

Love,
Amber

Introducing Zeke!

Here is the newest addition to the Hagan family...Zeke! My dad has ALWAYS wanted a Labrador and finally he has one. Dad and Austin picked Zeke out a few weeks ago and he has grown even more since these pictures were taken. I think he is going to be pretty big. I can't wait to meet him!

Love,
A.

Americus Tornado Pictures

My Aunt Dawn who lives in Americus sent me these pictures of the damage the tornado caused. My grandparents (on Mom's side), Aunt Dawn, Uncle Mike and their 2 boys live in Americus and although their homes didn't receive any substantial damage Uncle Mike's businesses and Papa's church did. Papa's church is being used as center for the Red Cross and the GBC as it is quite a large building and didn't receive any structural damage. Please continue to pray for everyone living in the community as we are VERY fortunate that our family is safe but many people were not so fortunate.

You can see here where all of the trees were chopped down by the tornado. This road used to be lined with huge pine trees.

I think this is the Winn-Dixie shopping center that was destroyed.

At first I thought this was FBC Americus but the more I look at it the more I think I might be wrong. Either way you can see where the steeple of the church was taken off by the tornado.

This I believe is Sumter Regional Hospital in the middle of Americus. You can see where it looks like all of the windows were blown out.

I don't know whose house this is.

To me this looks like another shopping center that is completely destroyed. I think it is the other side if the Winn-Dixie parking lot and if I am reading the sign right it is where the Cato Women's store was. My Uncle Mike owns a gym near here but I am not sure how much damage it took.

Grocery Shopping

In light of the fact that I have promised myself that I would post on here at least once a week I thought I would share my grocery shopping experience yesterday. I typically shop once a week for most of what we need and during the week Chris will pick up more perishable items for me. We like to shop at this small vegetable / fruit stand owned by a family of local farmers - the produce is so good! Yesterday I picked up the following - 4 bananas, 2 med. white onions, 4 carrots, 2 heads of broccoli (enough for 3 meals), 2 large lemons - and we only paid 2 pounds = $4.00! On Wednesday Chris will pick up some other fruit, possibly apples or strawberries or more bananas and also milk and bread to last us until next Saturday.

You would think this is a good start to my grocery experience but it started going downhill fast! After leaving Robinsons (the produce shop) where you can only pay in cash I headed to Waitrose (the English version of Publix). Here we usually buy canned goods, meats, sauces, frozen things, etc. After about 45 minutes and with a pretty full cart I headed to the que (line). After all of my groceries had been bagged and ready to go I slid our UK bank card through the machine and proceeded to completely forget our pin code and effectively embarrass myself. Of course this one Saturday we had decided that I would shop by myself while Chris went to the library so he was nowhere around to help me out. The pin codes here are set by the bank and you have no control over what it is and can't change it and I can never remember it. Needless to say I went blank and didn't have any cash so I had to leave our groceries and send Chris back an hour later with the correct pin to pay and pick up the groceries. I was SO embarrassed!!!

From now on Chris will either go with me or send me with cash!! Other than the grocery fiasco this weekend has been pretty normal. Many of you will probably already know about the tornado that hit Americus, GA where my grandparents and aunt, uncle and cousins live. Although they are okay and their homes are okay so many other parts of Americus are destroyed and many people from Papa's church were affected. If you could keep the whole town and especially my family in your prayers in the coming weeks it would mean a lot to me. Thank you.

Love,
A.

Well tomorrow has been three weeks on the job and I can honestly say it is going very well! Chris and I have established a "new" routine which involves getting up a heck of a lot earlier (Chester - 6:00am every day!) than I ever did in Atlanta and making my lunch most days. Of course the reverse side is that I am a complete zombie by 10:00pm so going out is strictly reserved for weekends. I think we are adjusting well and finally this week I feel like I understand the job and the expectations so that is a great feeling.

A university environment is so different from anything I have worked in before so there are a number of challenges related to working with academic staff and also the unbelievably complicated structure of the school itself. Gioia (my Italian boss) is awesome! She has not had a PA before so I think there are times when she doesn’t quite know what to do with me but we are both learning. She is not only Associate Dean over all postgraduate departments (5) but also teaches 2 modules in the MBA programme and advises 6 PhD students full-time. She chairs 5 University Committees and sits on 8 (I think) Committees or Boards of some kind. Trying to figure out how all of that fits together has stretched my brain so far there are days I go home and can’t even communicate thoughts that make any sense! I also help the PG Assessment Manager (she is under Gioia) as she needs it and this time of year is very hectic because she prepares and sends out all of the exams for the Business PG modules. I have been up to my neck in exams this week and last. Thankfully everything has to be done with the exams by next Monday and we don’t have to do it again until October. I also liaise with another member of staff who handles (among other things) the Accreditations that the school holds. This includes keeping the current ones up to date and working to achieve new accreditations both in Europe, Asia and the US. There is a big US accreditation board (AACSB) that Durham desperately wants to receive accreditation from and after a year long process of meetings and paperwork AACSB is sending a rep over to meet with the school and determine the next step. I mention all of this because I am working on the events for the weekend / weekdays that he will be here which I am very excited about. They are pretty excited abut the fact that I am American and he is too! Needless to say I am very busy!

Chris classes are going extremely well. He is close to finishing up this year as the third term (late-April – mid-June) is pretty much no classes and all paper / music writing. He has a month off from March 17 – April 16 (their equivalent to Spring Break) and will hopefully be able to complete much of his writing for third term then.

We have a new adventure that we are excited about – I have debated mentioning it on here because we are not sure if it will work out or not but I think I will! After talking with a bunch of people and doing some internet research it looks like we could rent a small furnished terrace home (basically a townhouse) for a decent amount less than what we pay for our University apartment. Most of these terrace homes are quite cute and much homier feeling than where we are now (which is actually not the bad now that we have more of our stuff here with us) and of course saving even a little money is always a plus! Here are a couple of pictures of one that I really like even though the possibility of us getting this one is very slim because it is available now and we can’t get out of our apartment contract for another 5 months or so.

Well I better run – I have written this on my lunch break and that is about up and I can see my email inbox getting full! Thanks to everyone who has asked about how we are doing since Christmas and I hope this update will satisfy your curiosity! :)

Love,
A.

Job Update!!

I have been wanting to post this exciting news for the past week but there have been problems with the blog site. I think they were upgrading or something.

Anyway, last Friday I accepted a position at the Durham Business School working as the Personal Assistant to the Associate Dean of Postgraduate Studies. It is a full-time position with 5 weeks paid vacation! I was scheduled to start tomorrow but they backed up on my visa paperwork so I will either start Tuesday or Wednesday.

We are so excited for this opportunity! I met the AD in the final interview and she seems very nice. I think we will work well together. Continue to pray for me as I start the job and learn more about the responsibilities and my specific role in the office. I am a little nervous about working in such a different environment!

Chris's classes are going well. He has a conducting tutorial with the conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Symphony on Tuesday which is a huge deal! Then the symphony is playing a concert at the cathedral Tuesday night and we are going to that together.

Just wanted to update everyone on the job news and thank you all for your prayers and support. We love you.

A.

I am afraid I was quite lazy while we were in Atlanta and did not post one single thing on the blog - now we have been back in Durham for a week and I still haven't posted! We made it back to Durham without too much drama - both of our flights experienced rough winds esp. the one coming into Edinburgh but I held it together for the most part :)! Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We took a bus from the airport to the main train station (to catch a train to Durham) and went through the center of the city at about 8am. We were so tired that you know it most have been beautiful to get our attention! The train station was a whole fiasco with our luggage but Chris handled everything and eventually we made it on the train. We were soaking wet and starving but we made it! The train ride is about an hour and a half and takes you south from Edinburgh along the coast until you get to Newcastle where you begin to move away from the coast and if you don't stop in Durham you eventually end up in London (6 hours later). The first hour of the trip is through these little sleepy villages right on the coast (this is the eastern coast of Britain) and at times you are literally looking straight down from the cliffs to the water. So amazing! We are planning to drive up that way once the weather is a little better and take pictures. Chris said it reminded him a lot of the Irish coast. If you have ever read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte this part of England immediately reminded me of her descriptions of the countryside, the cliffs and homes in the book. Even though getting to the train with all of our luggage was really frustrating I am glad we went through Edinburgh simply to see that part of the country - it was amazing.

We brought back a lot of things to make the apartment more homey feeling. This was really important to me since when we moved in September we only had room to bring clothes and shampoo! This time I brought 2 blankets, pictures, rugs for the kitchen and bathroom, fluffy bathroom towels, more DVDs, candles - the list goes on and on. Having these things has made a huge difference in the apartment - we were comfortable before and were adjusting well but now it is so much more comfortable and feels warm. We were also able to bring back clothes and shoes that were more appropriate to the weather - Chris needed new shoes badly and I had to have some flats that I could walk in - needless to say I think we came back with 6 new pairs combined! Thank you to everyone who took the time to give us such useful and meaningful gifts (even the "luxury" ones - a UK straight iron)!

I have been thinking about whether or not this is an appropriate forum to say thank you to our parents and families for all they did to make our visit a great time. Being with our families during Christmas meant so much to Chris and I and I know that you had to sacrifice and compromise a lot while we were there but it didn't go unnoticed and we are so grateful for all that you did. I have memories that will always be with me - too many to write them all but here are a few - Phil and Hattie surprising us at the airport, Christmas dinner with Meme and Papa, BAs at Jim and Debbie's on Christmas Eve, Brandon's picture, Christmas morning with my family, nuts and bolts at Bob and Cheryl's, Monroe's Hot Dogs, Memaw's Christmas Eve extravaganza, giving Grandma and Papa their gift and seeing all of the Hagan family, a lazy day on the boat, family night at the movies with Starbucks!, shopping in Greenville, riding in the car with my dad.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about thank you for indulging me for just a few minutes. To all of our friends that we did get to see (there were so many that we did not) it was wonderful to sit and catch up and you are all welcome to come see us anytime!

I have so many pictures from Christmas and of all of the new stuff in the apartment that I want to post. I will try to do so in the next few days.

Love,
A.

PS - It started snowing about 6am this morning but the ground was too wet to really accumulate and now it is gone and we only have rain. Yes, we were up at 6am putting the finishing touches on one of Chris's essays! I hope it sticks better next time!!