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It's amazing how much time we have spent working on our new home and yet how much there is still yet to do! Scott and I spent most of the day yesterday gathering materials and then doing things such as repainting our front gate, stripping paint from our front windowsill and repainting it, and staining furniture. Scott also spent most of the day debating whether or not this was a "nesting" instinct of mine or if I would have gone through these motions no matter what. I think that he has forgotten that he was not around the first month or so of living in our last place to see all the effort that went into making it as nice as possible as well. Though we have yet to rid ourselves of the hideous furniture - I hope to take pictures before it is picked up on Wednesday so that you can all see just how truly revolting it is (Stephanie came over last night and was amazed that anybody would have the thought to MAKE such an eyesore, let alone that anybody then followed through and purchased it!) - I have to say the place is coming along quite nicely. One of the largest challenges we have encountered is the fact that, once again, our walls are mainly all concrete and it is therefore difficult to hang decorations. I will succeed, however!

Additionally, we are slowly gathering furniture for our arrival in the near future. We scored a dresser and changing table for a total of £35 at Ikea on Friday night. That store can suck out all of your energy as you get lost in the endless maze of stuff (I used to know my way around perfectly, including all the shortcuts to bypass areas I had no interest in, but they have rearranged everything since we were there last, thus vastly prolonging our shopping experience), but you can't argue with cheap purchases of new furniture! We stained the dresser to match (hopefully) the cot (aka: crib) when it arrives. Once the cot is here, we can proceed to complete the nursery and decorations. I have to admit that I am highly excited about this!

And in equally exciting news, I went to the doctor on Friday and learned that I have LOST FIVE POUNDS in the last seven weeks. Considering that my stomach has continued growing during this time and I have not retainined any water during my pregnancy thus far (I am happy to announce that my ankles continue to be as noticeable as they ever were), it is quite a mystery how this has happened (especially since I appear to have developed somewhat of an appetite for the first time in my pregnancy since the bouts of illness are few and far between these days). However, it does give my hope that this child might not be as large and in charge as I have been fearing. (Though there is no denying that he will still be on the larger side of newborns. After all, EVERYBODY has been telling me for over a month now that I look due any day. That can't be a good sign.)

6 weeks of work left...and counting! Then I start my 6-7 months of maternity leave! Not to shabby for Cheryl!

- Mugatu, Zoolander

If those of you that use RSS you may have been confused by the update a few days ago. We did make a new post, however it was posted by the date the post was started which was before Cheryl's post "I Spy Something". We finished blogging about our Egyptian Adventure which you can read about below. All of our pics are available on our other website.

When I was in the States for Michael & Sarah's wedding, Cheryl had a couple of friends, RaDora and Becky visit for a few days on their way to Rome. I know Cheryl had a great time with them and I was glad she had some visitors while I was away. RaDora & Becky left the same morning I got back, which was last Wednesday.

Thursday, Aaron & Ashley dropped by after spending a week in Belguim. (We are just the people to visit on your way to or back from Europe!). It was great to see and hang out with both of them for a few days.

On Saturday morning, Cheryl & I went to a "Nearly New" sale about a half-hour away to look for some used-but-still-in-good-condition (as in nearly new) baby stuff. I was hoping to walk away with a pram (or as we Yanks call it, a stroller). And we succeded. We got a pram, buggy, and car seat (we will need this even though we don't have a car) plus a couple of outfits for a great price all from one person.

When we wearing nearing the end of our shopping experience, I say a stuffed giraffe (of which we have plenty) and found a stuffed Nemo. I thought that it was cool. Then the person selling them pointed out they had a stuffed Squirt (the little sea turtle) and we bought it as fast as I could pull a pound out of my pocket. The sea turtles in Finding Nemo are our favorite characters. I am very excited about that. "Righteous! Righteous!"

We have had crazy busy weeks so far at work and still have a lot of work to do in our new place. Largely because we cannot fully unpack until we get rid of some truly hideous furniture left by the previous tenant in our house.

In happier, super-exciting news---my sister, Amy and bro-in-law Barrett have purchased their tickets to come visit in September to see nephew Caleb and celebrate Amy's XXth birthday (I won't tell)! Awesome!

We will try to update more soon (oh, and we finally got our own internet and our wireless network is password-protected). Thanks to Aaron for helping me set that up while he was here.

Later.

Caleb Braxton McFaddin should be around sometime in August.

Hello our dear readers. For those of you anxiously (impatiently) wating for our final Egypt post, wait no more. We had some stressful and frustrating several days as our move scheduled for Saturday, 3 June, did not happen as our letting agency dropped the ball. Several times.

Anyway, we finally did get moved in a few days later and then I started this post from Atlanta on my way to Michael & Sarah's wedding in Searcy, AR the hometown of Harding University. Unfortunately Cheryl and Sprout could not join me on this trip and we were all very sad about that. Additionally, we had to wait to get our internet connected and spent a week entertaining friends (Becky and RaDora and then Aaron and Ashley) at our home.

Anyway, back to Egypt and our 2 FULL days in Cairo. We started day 1 meeting up with our friends Pete & Carol with our tour guide Hassan. Our first stop was right across from our hotel, the Egyptian Museum. This place is absolutely incredible. There is so much history and immeasureable amount of items of all shapes and sizes in this museum.

We saw a replica of the Rosetta Stone (the real one is, ironically enough, in London) which is how heiroglyphics was diciphered long ago. Of all the peices and collections, the most famous and popular is most likely the burial belongings of King Tutankahmon (King Tut).

It was fantasitic to see all of these pieces and masks, and the sarcophocus in such detail and still full of its golden color. Unfortunatley, cameras are not allowed in the museum so there we cannot offer you much in the way of visual stimulation. What is also amamzing, is even given the noteable size of the Egyptian Museum it's still too small to contain new discoveries and findings. There are hundreds maybe even thousands of other ancient relics buried in the sand as the best method of preservation. These items will remain until a new museum is completed to be even larger than the Louvre (which is not small). Construction was just bidded on, so this won't be ready anytime soon.

Next on day 5 we visited The Citadel which is part mosque and part former military fortress. It was quite impressive to see how this place was built as a fortress and covered in alabaster stone. The inside was so ornate and detailed. The lights in the picture (see our other website) used to contain candles instead of electricity.

After the Citadel, we headed to a large market for souvenirs with all the shop owners telling Cheryl to buy something for the baby. She would respond sometimes by telling them she needed to save money for Caleb. We didn't buy anything at this market, plus it really stresses me out to haggle prices for stuff. Cheryl enjoyed it as long as the Egyptians play along too.

We ended the day with a Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids. The show occured after dark and involved a history of the main pyramids, who built them, and why. It was told as if from the perspective of the Sphynx and proved very informative and interesting. The only random thing was the Egyptian bagpipe players who kicked off the show as people were being seated. Not exactly what we were expecting to see.

We started our last full day in Egypt with probably the most anticipated events of the trips. One of Cheryl's main goals was to ride a camel in Egypt. I was just excited to see the pyramids (Cheryl was too).
So we started by walking around the first pyramid (the one without the odd top) and we walked up to the entrance made by the explorers a long time ago. Years later they found the actual entrance made by the Egyptians. This is the place I was offered 3 wives and several children for Cheryl, only before the baby is born otherwise the deal is off.

Then we went up to a little area up on a hill adjacent to the pyramids for a little ride. Our wonderful tour guide found a camel for Cheryl to ride and she gladly hopped onboard. Then one by one we all went down. Our Egypt travel buddies, Pete & Carol didn't really want to ride camels, but slowly they each got on and then of course I was coaxed on as well. By far the funniest, best part of our trip was riding our camels in the desert near the pyramids, including "driving" them ourselves on the way back to the main area.
We were able to enter into one room in one of the main pyramids but were not allowed to take photos inside the room (which was empty except for one sarcophogus). We then spent the rest of the day touring Memphis (the first capital of Egypt) and the Step Pyramid (the first known pyramid which shows archaelogists how pyramids were constructed). It was a hot and exhausting last day but well worth it.

As we've mentioned before, we definitely recommend that everybody take a trip to Egypt one day, if possible. The history is amazing and everything is so intricate. And seriously, you have to ride a camel.

Our fourth and final day on the cruise was spent in Aswan and proved to be our busiest day by far. We started the day with a small coach tour around the city, which was a nice break from the heat of Egypt.

From here we ended up at the high dam in Egypt. The high dam created a 30% increase in the cultivatable land in Egypt and it provides irrigation and electricity for the whole of the country. This was quite fascinating because England has been facing a draught and water crisis for the past year and yet Egypt, which receives an average of 2 days of rain a year, never suffers from water shortages due to this dam. In addition, the high dam has created the world's largest artificial lake, Lake Nasser.

We then drove down the road and piled into a boat to head to Philae temple. Philae Temple was intriguing because this massive stone structure was completely dismantled, moved, and reassembled about 550 meters from its original home on Philae Island to protect it from the rising waters that resulted from the creation of the High Dam. The giant hieroglyphics can be viewed in the picture below.

Before heading back to the ship, we stopped at a papyrus shop where we learned how Egyptians make their intricate pictures on papyrus leaves. We stocked up on several pictures for our home as well, as artwork from various countries and cultures tends to be our favourite kind of souvenir. We were then supposed to take a Felucca ride down the Nile in Aswan but were unable to do so due to the lack of wind to drive the sails.

After lunch, we headed back out for a whirlwind tour of several sites including an unfinished obelisk. An obelisk is a tall, thin, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in a pyramidal top and is made of a single piece of stone. If completed, this would have been the largest obelisk ever made at 42 meters tall. We also visited a Coptic church, aromatherapy market, had tea on the Nile at sunset (where many of our group took the opportunity to smoke the "hubbly bubbly" from a water pipe, which consists of various flavours of tobacco and is demonstrated by Pete below), and gathered goods from a local spice market.

We (along with Pete and Carol who were also headed to Cairo that evening) rushed back from the spice market to catch our van to the Aswan airport at the appointed time. During this chaos of loading up, I somehow managed to fall (don't freak out, the baby was not harmed) and sprained my ankle. Not an ideal situation as we were heading to Cairo to tour the much awaited pyramids! Thankfully I have endured my fair share of sprained ankles in my life from basketball and would not let such an injury put a damper on the rest of my trip. (Tip: if you don't have bandages to wrap an ankle, flight socks work amazingly well to help with the swelling!).

After all of this, we arrived at the airport to discover that there were only 2 seats left on the plane for the 4 of us because Longwood had gotten us to the airport too late for check-in. (We later learned that the Longwood rep in Cairo had contacted our tour guide from the ship many times to warn him that he was planning to get us to the airport too late but his warning was not heeded.) Pete and Carol graciously insisted that we take the seats on the 9:30p.m. flight, agreeing to remain behind until the 1:00a.m. flight. We felt badly but the sad reality is that because of the pregnancy I get very ill if I am too tired and therefore could not really argue with this plan. In addition we were upgraded to business class, as they were the only remaining seats. Unfortunately the flight was only an hour long for such pampering but it was very exciting as I have never flown business class in my life! We even got tableclothes and real silverware for our meal! (We almost did not know how to act in this foreign part of the plane.)

When we arrived in Cairo, we encountered the only other glitch in our week as there was no representative from Longwood Travel there to meet us. This did not concern us until everybody else had emptied out of the airport leaving us with only the cleaners and security guards. Having no contact information for Longwood or our hotel, we were a bit anxious at this point. We figured we could find a taxi but had no idea how far away the hotel was and how much we should pay for such a service (which we would inevitably be ripped off on as a result). Thankfully, our representative showed up just under an hour after arrival, having been given the wrong arrival time for our flight. He took us to our hotel (the Rameses Hilton) and helped us book the tours we wanted for the following two days in Cairo. We were finally able to relax and sleep at about 1:30a.m., not long after Pete and Carol finally took off from Aswan.

The much awaited pyramid pictures and details will follow in the next (and final) Egypt post.

4:00 AM. As Cheryl mentioned yesterday, we started Day 2 very early. Due to the afternoon heat in Egypt it is nice to get a lot done in the morning, but this early rising was for a specific event. Our tour guide detailed an optional excursion to take a hot air balloon ride on the West Bank of the Nile. That’s right folks, a balloon ride.

We paid our tour guide on the boat and waited anxiously for the ride the following morning. We woke, got our breakfast boxes, loaded the coach (van), loaded onto the motor boat for a quick ride to cross the Nile for our ride, and watch the sunrise from 3000 meters in the air. Just as we started to enjoy our tea and coffee on the boat, one of the balloon workers asked to speak with me.

Unfortunately, they were uncomfortable with Cheryl being on the balloon ride, as there is the possibility of a rough landing. Gusts of wind, thermals, and other factors prevent the guarantee of a soft, secure landing. As such, they would not let Cheryl go on the balloon. We decided, since we were already awake to still watch our other boat-mates enjoy the ride as we took pictures from the ground. They would let me go on the balloon, but I wasn’t about to do it without Cheryl. You can see our sad picture below.


After the balloon sadness, we visited the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Queen Hasepshut. The Valley of the Kings basically is a, well valley, containing a series of Pharaoh tombs. This is also the place of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, discovered in 1922. These tombs are not extraordinary on the outside like the pyramids at Giza on purpose. Tombs at The Valley of the Kings were placed as such so they would not be robbed by tomb raiders thousands of years ago.

Inside, however, these tombs are incredible. Just like temples, the entire tomb is covered in hieroglyphics, walls, ceiling, everything. Because these tombs are underground, they are more preserved than the temples and a lot of the colors on the drawings were faded, but still very present. The tombs were to contain all the possessions of the Pharaoh to use in the after-life, however all the tombs are now empty with the exception of a couple of empty sarcophagi (as in more than one). We did see all the King Tut collection in Cairo, but that will come in a few days.

Yesterday actually, I read an article on USA Today about a small discovery at the Valley of the Kings on May 24, the same day we were there. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed inside the tombs and as there are several Egyptian Tourism Police with automatic weapons nearby, we decided not to risk it.

Next we were off to the Temple of Queen Hatsepshut. What makes the Temple of Queen Hatsepshut unique is it is built into the side a mountain as you can see below.


This temple is a set of 3 tiers, and the columns are male Pharaohs at Hatsepshut’s request as a way to show she could rule Egypt just as well as any man. Honestly, we didn’t spend much time here as it was very hot, and we had been up for 7-8 hours already and it was only 12:30 PM.

We returned to the boat for lunch and had a very relaxing (read: napping) remainder of the day as the boat set “sail” for the first time towards Edfu. More adventure the next day. Here is the sunset on the Nile from our boat.


DAY 3

The next morning we started at the reasonable hour of 8:00 AM for a visit to Edfu temple. Edfu temple was discovered (or unearthed) relatively recently in the mid 1800’s. That is recent considering the temple is thousands of years old. It was covered under the sand, which is unbelievable considering the size Edfu temple.

The sand turned out to be a blessing as Edfu temple is the best-preserved temple in Egypt. Compared to the other temples thus far, Edfu’s structure is by far the most intact. It is just amazing the size and breadth of the temple. Series of walls and columns had such detailed hieroglyphics telling such intricate stores.

The main entrance of the temple (the pylons) had 2 large hieroglyphic figures. Usually, the drawings are smaller, but very detailed. These large figures were several meters high, which must have been a challenge. Edfu temple was dedicated to the Egyptian god Horus, the god of protection.

Later we sailed further down the Nile to Kom Ombo for another temple. Kom Ombo temple was dedicated to the god Sobek. Sobek was the god of crocodiles. Apparently crocodiles used to flood the Nile River before it was dammed. Kom Ombo temple also had hieroglyphics showing the first evidence of medical supplies/tools in the ancient times (with a couple of etchings of a pregnant woman).


As the temple is dedicated to the crocodile god, Sobek, there is a mummified croc on display at the temple. Of course we got a picture of that.

We then spent the late afternoon and evening headed towards Aswan, the main city in the southern part of Egypt. That evening, we had an Egyptian party on the ship, complete with traditional dress, Egyptian cuisine, and a collection of bizarre games that probably were not authentic but created an atmostphere of fun and competition.

Day 4 will cover Aswan and our transfer to Cairo. All of the temples were incredible and had different characteristics, its just hard to do it justice on a blog post. Hopefully the pictures we have taken will help.

We arrived at Heathrow Airport on Monday, 22 May, packed and ready to embark on our journey to Egypt. I did my best to hide my impossibly large belly so as not to encounter any of the problems that we had from the airline when we had returned from Austria a month earlier. It worked and no comments were made with regard to my pregnant state, we were offered our boarding tickets, and we moved to the waiting area of the airport to prepare for our departure. And we waited. And we waited.

Our plane left over an hour late, causing our late arrival into Luxor to be pushed back to almost midnight. We were met at the airport by the Longwood Travel representative and learned that there were about 5 other couples from our plane who would also be joining our cruise that evening. Obtaining a visa at the airport proved easy as we simply paid 10GBP a piece and had a stamp stuck in our passport. Not too shabby and only slightly dodgy.

We arrived at our cruise ship shortly after 1:00a.m. and dropped quickly into bed. The next morning we were up at 7:00a.m. to get ready and prepare for breakfast. We learned that we had been given assigned seats in the dining area, which turned out to be a huge blessing. There were two other couples placed at our table, both of whom were also on a 4-day cruise (everybody else was remaining for 7 days). Both couples were older but we quickly developed friendships with them and ended up also touring Cairo with Pete and Carol (who happen to live in Croydon!). Breakfast was followed by a meeting to explain the upcoming events and discuss optional excursions. Our journey then began.

Our first morning we had free leisure time in Luxor. Scott and I got a horse and carriage to be taken into the city centre with the plan of visiting the mummification museum. Our driver decided to take the "scenic route" in which he stopped by many of his friends' shops, hoping that we would purchase something and he would also get a commission. The biggest downfall of the Egyptian people is that they take every opportunity to try to take advantage of you and rip you off. Luckily we were aware of this but in the end we never had the opportunity to tour the museum because we ran out of time and had to return to the boat for lunch. Still, it was interesting to see the heart of the town of Luxor.

After lunch, we joined our tour group and headed to the Karnak and Luxor temples. This was our first opportunity to see real life hieroglyphics and truly bask in the amazing creations of the ancient Egyptians. Karnak temple was by far one of the highlights of the entire trip. It is the largest temple complex ever built by man, and represents the combined achievement of many generations of ancient builders. The Temple of Karnak is actually three main temples, smaller enclosed temples, and several outer temples situated on 247 acres of land. This vast complex was built and enlarged over a thirteen hundred year period. The walls and ceilings of the temple are covered with hieroglyphics and etched pictures, all of which tell a story, typically one that is related specifically to the god or gods that the temple is dedicated to as well as the pharoah reigning during the construction of the temple. The temple included amazing architecture far before its time, including precisely sized bricks, columns, obelisks, and rows of sphynxes, to name a few.


Many pictures later, we headed to Luxor temple. Though not as impressive as Karnak temple, it too offered its own history and character. After Egypt's pagan period, a Christian church and monastery was located here, and after that, a mosque was built that continues to be used today. Two red granite obelisks originally stood in front of the first pylon at the rear of the forecourt, but only one, more than 25 meters (75 feet) high, now remains. The other was removed to Paris where it now stands in the center of the Place de la Concorde. There are also multiple large statues of Rameses II, who was glorified all over ancient Egypt.


At both temples, we encountered random Egyptian men who would attempt to lead us to back rooms or small spaces. At first it appeared that they were attempting to lure us away from the masses to rob or attack us but we quickly learned that they wanted to show us something "special" (which they probably made up) in exchange for money. Frequently they would tell you that if you touched a certain part of a wall in a specific way you would have good luck. Once again...trying to take advantage of the tourists.-


We returned back to the ship late that afternoon, tired but thoroughly satisfied, hopped in the pool to cool off (the temperatures were in the 100s but bearable due to the fact that it was dry heat) and then had dinner and relaxed on the ship for the rest of the evening. The next morning we had to be up by 4:30a.m.

The complete collection of the pictures from this first day can be viewed on our family website.

I digress from Egypt news (though our first official post on the trip should occur later today) to bring you this special broadcast: MY PLACENTA HAS MOVED!! This, my friends, means that I do not have to worry about being put on bedrest, I do not have to have a guaranteed c-section, and I don't have to worry about other complications that I will not describe in detail. In other words, I'm in the clear with no further concerns of complications, other than my own concerns about the size of this child. Seriously, they did not even measure the baby today but the lady stated very matter of factly that it definitely takes after its dad in the size category. Thanks a lot, Scott! :) Everything is on track and thank you for all of your prayers.

Additionally, the lady doing the sonogram spoke freely about the gender of this child, thus we now know what we are having. If everybody is really nice to us, we might reveal such information shortly.