Christmas with the Taylors!

We just got back from spending Christmas with the Taylors in Birmingham. Here are some of the pictures.... of course almost all of them are of Abby! Looks like she enjoyed her first Christmas! The pictures are a little rough because the camera started to do something wierd part way through the holiday.

Our E-Christmas Letter

Dear Friends & Family,

Every time we open the mailbox and find someone's well-written Christmas letter, Becky feels guilty. We can't even sign a card and get that out to the mailbox! So Becky decided to use these wonderful technological advancements to quickly get one out!

The Taylors have had a busy year! In February, Becky celebrated her seventh anniversary at the community center. Hard to believe that it has been that long! She continues to enjoy serving the families in that neighborhood and the growing Somali and Sudanese population that are using the services of the center. Also in February, was Jeff's birthday!

March was probably one of the busiest months on record! On March 9th, we closed on our first home. We are LOVING it! It was new construction, so all we had to do when we got here was unpack. Becky's mom and dad joined us for the fun! Two days after we moved in Jeff was unexpectedly promoted to manager at his company... just in time for mortgage payments! He continues to work many hours dispatching carpet and ventilation cleaning technicians around the city, dealing with customer service calls, and making sure the day goes smoothly.


On April 1st, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a hiking trip to Fall Creek Falls State Park, about two hours from Nashville. We were also celebrating Becky's round-numbered birthday.


April 16th was a day that will stay on the minds of Hokies for a long time. The day was spent watching news coverage online as the horrible details unfolded. But in the middle of all of that tragedy the phone rang. Our niece Abby was born a week early! She is a cutie! We are looking forward to spending her first Christmas with her.

Abby at only a few weeks old

Abby at six months, playing with Uncle Jeff

Summer was a busy one! We did manage a trip to Gatlinburg with the Taylors. And in August, Becky spoke at a national conference in DC for the Department of Housing & Urban Development's Neighborhood Networks initiative. While there, she got to spend time with her parents, Becky B, and a few of the Garriotts! Poor Jeff was stuck home alone for a few days.

I'd like to speak about this fall, but I'm not sure where it has gone. Time is seriously flying! We did get to spend Thanksgiving in Pasadena with Becky's parents. It was a nice time to relax!

We are spending Christmas in Birmingham with Jeff's family this year. And are looking forward to seeing them all again.

We hope this letter finds you well! Merry Christmas!!
Jeff and Becky

Decorated for Christmas!

Since I've been told I need to post more often (thanks for actually checking the blog, Marta!), here are some pictures of our house all ready for Christmas. Not as much as we wanted to do this year with the new house, but time got away from us!

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! Jeff and I are starting a new tradition where he and I just exchange ornaments for Christmas. Hopefully in a few years we'll need a bigger tree to hold all of them!

The beautiful wreath Jeff's mom and dad sent us for our door!

$500 Diet Coke

We noticed last night on our way to dinner that Coke fridge packs were 3 for $9 at Walgreens... according to their electronic sign out front... so we decided that after dinner we'd stop and stock up! In the five minutes we were in there, someone decided to ram into the back of my precious vehicle (named Cordell if you didn't know). Fortunately, someone who saw it was nice enough to wait until we came out to tell us what happened. I probably wouldn't have noticed for days! He gave us the best description he could of the "perp", but didn't catch a tag number.

So my diet coke addiction cost us $500 last night (that's our deductible)! Cordell goes in for repairs on Monday. =(

Becky Goes to Washington!

I just got back from spending almost a week in Washington, DC for a conference with HUD. They put us up at the Grand Hyatt... quite nice!

Thursday night Mom & Dad drove down and we had dinner with Uncle Chuck, Aunt Debby, Katie, and my friend Becky!

The Beckys!

With Mom & Dad

The view of the atrium at the hotel from the 12th floor where I was staying.

Rafting Pictures

Pictures from our rafting trip on the Pigeon River in east TN!

Gatlinburg Vacation

Just got back from Gatlinburg for a Taylor family vacation! We had a great time and got lots of rest... nice to be home though!

This was our cabin at the Gatlinburg Falls Resort.

We finally got to meet our niece, Abby! She is a little over two months old now and a very good baby! She's decked out in her Auburn gear for the Taylors.

Jeff relaxing on the rocking chair porch!

On our way home, we stopped in Knoxville to meet Kate... and to see Evan & Marta! Kate was born five weeks ago.

Our "Garden"

Here are a few pictures of our "garden"... actually just potted vegetables on our patio for now!

These are ones that my kids will plant at the community center next week... green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes!

Tomatoes!

Cucumbers!

Parsley & Rosemary... we have some basil, too!

And Jeff trying to keep all of our grass from dying!

Yard Work!

This weekend we put a "stone" edging around the front flower bed... ahhh... the joys of owning a home. I couldn't find what I wanted at the store, so we lined it with pieces of concrete from the empty lot across the street... FREE LANDSCAPING! It's the first time living amongst construction has paid off!

Now we just have to get the grass to grow!

Day on the Lake!

We spent Sunday on Center Hill Lake with our old Sunday School class. Bobby & Patrice have a WONDERFUL houseboat on the lake!

I've also discovered I'm not very skilled at laying out pictures on the blog! I think if you click on them, you can see them full size!

Citizenship

This is Maryan, who was born in Somalia... she's one of my girls from the community center. She became a US citizen on Friday and I went to her naturalization ceremony.

Richmond Times Article

It’s by Larry Hincker who is the VP for University Relations at Tech….

Tech Will Prevail: The Phenomenon of the Hokie Spirit

Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 12:09 AM

Blacksburg . Literally thousands of stories and broadcasts have been written about the tragic events that befell our bucolic hamlet, our academic sanctuary we call Virginia Tech. All of us close to this will be profoundly changed forever. In my own case, it's knowing that hard as these past two weeks have been -- a two-week sprint at breathtaking speed -- there remains a marathon in our future.

I am stealing a few hours from work on this magnificent spring Sunday morning, knowing that I likely will not find time again for several more weeks to reflect. There will be the endless meetings, more media briefings, and -- this may sound odd -- the monumental task of thanking the world for its extraordinary caring and support. It will take months to appropriately acknowledge and thank the hundreds of schools, cities, agencies, and companies and the tens of thousands of people who have in their own special ways helped us cope.

We all continue to mourn each in our own ways. We can only imagine the pain and suffering of so many families contemplating a future without precious loved ones. We wish for some divine wisdom to explain the pain.

Through all the tragedy, through the pain, through the endless questioning, something unexpected appeared. The world saw, indeed it experienced the intangible, yet very real, Hokie Spirit.

The national media descended upon the 'Burg in unprecedented numbers. Grizzled and tested correspondents volunteered that they have never before observed a scene quite like this. We were besieged with more than 140 satellite trucks -- a swarming, snarling, briefing room of 250 reporters, correspondents, producers, and cameramen -- all trying to tell a story that defied even the most macabre imagination.

And although I walked that gantlet several times each day to face the tough and probing questions, I tip my hat to our local and national media, who had to tell this oh-so-terrible story. The media are composed of folks like you and me many have or have had children and relatives at Virginia Tech or schools like ours. Don't be too tough on them for asking the tough questions. They grieve with us. They, like us, wanted answers in order to make rational sense of irrational violence.

BUT SOMEWHERE along the way, the story line changed. Slowly, these grizzled veterans of war coverage, national politics, and international intrigue began to sense something different about Virginia Tech.

Maybe it was the fact that our leadership willingly faced the harsh questions and welcomed the many inquiries certainly yet to come. Maybe it was their surprise that we willingly volunteered so much information early on, even as we were just learning the news ourselves.

Maybe it was the fact that our alumni office made its magnificent new facility open 24 hours per day, while it was literally overrun with hundreds of people, cables, lights, vehicles, and all the appurtenances of modern broadcasting. Our alumni office kept the coffee going around the clock. Good heavens . . . they even fed them. Crusty old newsmen said that never have they been treated with such respect, let alone when a campus community was grieving unimaginable losses.

Maybe it was the spontaneous applause and continuing support for our President Charles Steger or Chief Wendell Flinchum. While looking for scapegoats, the media instead found heroes.

Maybe it was desire of our almost 200,000 alumni worldwide who flooded the university with offers of support, words of admiration, or interviews that took the media by surprise. Without exception, our alums love this place . . . and so now do many in the media.

More than anything, though, it must have been the character and resilience of the Virginia Tech student. Hordes of reporters combed the campus accosting students looking for the downside. "Do you think this is still a safe place? Why would you come back to school now? Wouldn't you rather be home?" Time and again, they answered: "I love this place. You won't find a friendlier campus in America . We are all close. We are like a family."

When one national news correspondent asked a student why he returned to class on the Monday of last week, he responded simply, "Because I think my professors needed me."

His heartfelt and poignant one-liner still takes my breath away.

ODDLY, MUCH of this has been a revelation for me. I am a rational, orderly kind of guy. Oddly, for a fellow in my line of business, while a student I enjoyed physics more than metaphysics. I prefer history to novels. I am not normally a touchy-feely sort of person. Ideas are more real to me than feelings. Yet, I have always known, if only on a rational rather than visceral level, that Virginia Tech was different.

We are a little city: On any given day about 35,000-40,000 people work, teach, and study here. Over the years, we have been told that we act smaller than our size. People greet each other on the streets. Our faculty has an intense interest in the students' well-being. There is a caring here that belies the university size.

Our ranks are large. Including our students and alumni around the nation and world, we approach a quarter-million people. How can this be a family? Yet, it is that and more -- a family of indomitable spirit, a family with deep affection for each other and the place we call Virginia Tech.

The Tech family will not be defined by tragic events and the senseless loss of precious lives of innocents. It will find a way to prevail and again return to the noble role of the academy. Our responsibilities are manifested in doing what we do best. We are a university. We are Virginia Tech. We are immersed in a special sphere of American society -- the sphere of learning, discovery, and engagement. These are more than mere words. This is what defines us. This is what drives our spirit. This is what drives our quest for knowledge -- knowledge for knowledge's sake, knowledge to understand ourselves and the world around us, knowledge to improve our own well-being, and knowledge to improve every facet of life on the planet.

Virginia Tech ranks among the nation's great academies. April 16 cannot change that. However, in addition to our traditional role, the world has now seen this phenomenon that sets us apart from other large American universities. Call it the Hokie Spirit. Call it a deep sense of caring -- call it a love for each other. It is real. It has, it does, and it will forever sustain us.

Larry Hincker is the associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech .

Abby!

Don't worry... you didn't miss anything... she's not ours. This is our niece Abby, born on Monday, April 16th. Can't wait to see her in person!

Hokie Perspective

I wanted to post an email from my friend Becky, a fellow Hokie, who works for CNN in DC. When she heard what was happening in our home away from home, she volunteered to go down and cover the events. Here's an email message I got from her this week... just wanted to share.

I just wanted to give you a quick update and a note of thanks. I’ve been in Blacksburg since Monday around 5p and it’s been such a surreal experience. I’ve produced about 150+ liveshots and set up about 40 interviews. Since Monday, I’ve slept for a total of about 6 hours and today has been one of the first times I’ve had a second to actually stop and consider what has happened to my campus. I’ve been running around so much that it really hasn’t seemed too personal but slowly I am beginning to realize the enormity of it all. It only begins to seem real to me when I see the graphics of “Virginia Tech Massacre” and I realize that it’s not some movie that I’m watching but it’s real and it’s big words across my screen that are actually true. I have yet to break down in tears although I’m sure that will happen at some point in the next few days once I continue to process things.

To my fellow Hokies, I join you in the grief and sorrow and I hope that we can continue to take this opportunity to share the good stories and memories. I have to admit that when I left to come down here within minutes of hearing about the tragedy, I didn’t bring any orange and maroon. Thank goodness our workspace is across the street from the Volume Two! Also, the school and community have been so incredibly nice to us and (with the exception of the extremely frigid temperatures and wind gusts of 50 mph on Monday night) it’s definitely reminded me of all the reasons I loved my time in school and love this place. This place and the people here have made me so happy to wear the title of Hokie!! Also, you wouldn’t recognize parts of this place… unfortunately we in the media have taken over the alumni center and for a few days there have been literally 1000 journalists from around the world. There are about 150 satellite trucks in the parking lot and it’s not an uncommon occurrence to run into Geraldo in the food line!! But good news, I was able to trade in my room at the Days Inn by the Cracker Barrel in Christiansburg for a room at the new Inn at Virginia Tech for the next few nights!

I volunteered to come down here and I’m glad I did. I have been able to show and share with my colleagues what Hokie spirit truly is. And all my colleagues are slowly coming to understand what makes this place special. And unfortunately it took something so tragic for the world to see but I have colleagues who are going to the bookstore to buy paraphernalia. They understand now why we Hokies are such rabid fans! I’ve never been more proud to be a Hokie than I am right now!

I think I’m going home either Saturday or Tuesday morning and life will somehow return to a normal routine but I think it’s only then that having been here and experiencing this horrific story not only as a journalist but more importantly as a Hokie will all sink in. I wish I could have spent a week in Blacksburg under completely different circumstances but it has been nice to be back on campus and be a part of such a great community!

LET’S GO HOKIES! LET’S GO HOKIES!
Becky

Easter

The tradition continues... we journeyed to Jacksonville, FL to spend Easter with Becky's grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins! Despite the weather being very un-Florida-like, we had a lovely time. It was Jeff's first trip down there. As you can see from the photos, we dyed Easter eggs, as we do every time we go down!

First Anniversary

To celebrate our first anniversary, we decided to go hiking at Fall Creek Falls State Park about two hours from Nashville.

Our New Home!

Here are pictures of our new home! Can't wait for everyone to visit! We moved in a week ago today!

This is our first blog... figured it was the easiest way to send out some pictures. And who knows, maybe we'll keep posting things. So check back!