Oops

Apparently I thought it would be OK to leave a plastic spoon resting across a pot of boiling lentils.  It wasn't.

Yum

There is a beautiful apartment building on the corner across from our house with a lovely lemon tree that I always wish were ours.

Also, where is an ostrich when you need one?

Sock Mittens

We knew that moving back to this part of the world would mean being very cold all winter long.  Still, knowing it and living in it are two very different things.

A lot of homes here have central heat in the form of radiators, but they run on diesel, which most homeowners find too expensive for use.  So typically, the only heat source that may be available in a home is a space heater.  Current weather tends to be in the 50's outside during the day, but when there's no consistent heat source inside, the indoor temperature never breaks 60 either.  It's usually somewhere around 55 degrees in here, which feels crazy cold when you aren't really moving around a lot.  That's why one of our most important early purchases was slippers for E and me, and that's why Little Guy sleeps in this (and under blankets):

Home at Last

Our new front door!

After almost three weeks of traveling through Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, DC, Paris, and Amman, we arrived in Ramallah and found an apartment that we're very happy with.  We're on the ground floor of a lovely villa.  On our first night here, our landlords, who live upstairs, brought us this delicious spread for dinner.

One little detail: to get from our apartment to our primary supermarket or to transportation to downtown, we have to walk uphill.  Part one:

 Part two:

Part three:

OK, I'm not sure it really looks all that steep in photos, but trust me, when you're either pushing or carrying 22 pounds of baby, going up is hard work and coming back down is a little scary!

First "Morning" in Amman

(it was actually 1:30 pm, but that's the first time all three of us were awake)

Aunts/Uncles/Cousins

We're back from a quick visit to Portland, with a brief - unplanned - stop in Denver.

Our layover on the way out (on Christmas day) was in Houston.  I know; not exactly a logical travel route.  Our 6:30 AM flight left late, which meant that we arrived in Houston just after our flight to Portland left.  Naturally, the airline had automatically moved our tickets to the next flight for Portland, which wouldn't leave until 6 hours later.  We weren't super excited about that, especially since the flight itself would still be almost 5 hours, putting us in Portland well after the Little Guy is usually done for the day (and, frankly, us too!).  So E asked the woman at the service desk if we could go to Denver instead and spend the night.  A random request, it probably seemed to her, and I'm pretty sure airlines just don't do stuff like that, especially not when you are nobody special and you purchased your ticket using miles.  But this woman didn't even blink.  She just spent the next probably 20 minutes moving our tickets to a flight to Denver that afternoon, plus standby for 2 (was it 3?) earlier flights to Denver, plus a flight the next morning from Denver to Portland.  A Christmas miracle.  In Houston.

Why go to Denver anyway?  E's brother's family is there, so it would give us a chance to see them before we move.  Also half the flight time of going to Portland and a whole lot less waiting around in Houston.  So we trucked off to check on the first of our standby options and, at the last minute, got seats.  E and Little Guy with the Denver cousins:

The next morning we got up early again and got on the flight to Portland.  This flight was, by far, the worst of our flying experience with the Little Guy so far; he was super moody the whole time.  (Later, in Portland, we decided that, in addition to the travel chaos, he had finally started teething.  We eventually got him some pain relief but not in time to keep us all from getting pretty wound up on that flight.)  But we made it and then had a great 2.5 days in Portland with my siblings.

5:00 AM walk in the fog with Little Guy, who hasn't figured out how to handle jet lag yet (this trip involved a lot of way too early mornings!):

 Headed downtown on the Max, with improvised winter wear for Little Guy:

 Siblings (2 of 3) + niece:

 Nephew and brother-in-law:

 Waterfront (siblings, nephew, niece, etc.):

 Headed back home on the Max:

 Whole lot of family:

Here We Go Again

I gave my notice at work last week; my last day in the current round of gainful employment will be January 15.  E has finished phase...2?  or 3?  of...5 phases of PhD work?  I have no idea how this should be measured; all I know is that we're headed into the phases with the least structure and no clear time constraints, namely fieldwork and, eventually, writing.

So in mid-January we're off to Jordan, making a major move for the first time in three and a half years.  It's a record for us to have stayed this long in any one place, although it should be noted that we've lived in three different apartments while we've been here. 

I have a mere 16 work days ahead of me, since we're heading to Portland for a few days over Christmas (hooray!)  So how does all of this selling/storing/packing/traveling stuff work again?