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At last!
We’ve finally reached Christmas week!
It’s time to relax and write up the annual holiday missive, to recap and
share the events that shaped our lives this year.
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Nancy
and Jerry at the Parthenon
Athens, Greece, July
2012
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In February this year we had more drama than we
wanted, as a toilet on the second floor of our house malfunctioned, resulting
in a flood that damaged three rooms of our home. Watching water pour through the kitchen ceiling,
I called Nancy who was taking a walk through the neighborhood.
“Nancy,
come home! The toilet overflowed!”
“So? Just
fix it!”
“No, you don’t understand. You need to come home NOW!”
The damage was severe, requiring ServiceMaster and
a number of other contractors to be in our house for about six weeks. The first week was the worst, with nine
industrial strength jet dryers running constantly to dry out the house. For that week, it sounded like we lived
inside an airplane jet engine.
Fortunately all damage was repaired and the house is completely back to
normal.
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Nancy and Jerry at the
Kona Ironman finish
line
October 2012
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On the positive side, this year was our 25th
wedding anniversary! We were both giddy
with excitement about reaching this milestone.
We celebrated by spending a long weekend at the Outer Banks, staying at
a B&B, seeing lighthouses and other attractions in the area.
Also this year, Nancy decided to make some positive changes
for her health. She changed her eating
habits and embarked
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A
svelte Nancy
looks fabulous
in her
sparkly top
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on a new exercise regimen. As a result she lost 45 pounds. People that haven’t seen her in a year almost
don’t recognize her. She looks great and
feels great as a result.
Meanwhile, Nancy’s
job has gone through some gyrations that resulted in good news for us. Nancy
worked in a temporary contract position at Blue Cross, as a project
manager. Earlier this year Blue Cross
outsourced their IT division to Fujitsu, so Nancy’s contract transferred to Fujitsu as
well. Then Fujitsu offered Nancy a full-time job
starting this past April. Nancy loves the job, and
we’re both excited about the change.
The one challenge of Nancy’s job is that is has been about a
one-hour commute each way. When the job
was temporary it
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Jerry sprints to the
finish
line of another
triathlon
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was just something we accepted, but now that it’s
become permanent, we need to cut down on Nancy’s
time in the car. As a result we are building
a new home that’s about 20 minutes from Nancy’s
job. We’ll move in by the end of
January.
I continue to work at IBM. This has been a year of positive change for
me as I was able to get a new position working from home. It’s fantastic, as I don’t have to spend time
in airports, airplanes, and hotels anymore.
I have a lot more free time and enjoy getting to see my wife and my
friends during the week. There were a
few short trips (New York, Singapore, Indianapolis,
Mexico City)
but that’s a fair tradeoff for getting to spend the rest of my time at home.
We enjoyed our vacation travels again this
year. We spent a few days after
Christmas 2011 in Savannah,
Georgia seeing
the historical sites of that city, including where scenes from Forrest Gump and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil were filmed. From there we continued to Jacksonville,
Florida to see Ohio State
play in the Gator Bowl before returning home.
Our capstone trip this year was a small ship cruise
to Greece and Turkey. We went with friends Dave and Amanda
Pickering, and the cruise ship had only 46 passengers on the trip. We visited sites of Athens, including the Parthenon and the
Acropolis. The new Acropolis Museum
was a highlight. We also visited the
monasteries of Meteora and Delphi, home of the
famous Oracle. Our cruise took us to
many islands including Mykonos, Santorini, Naxos, and Patmos. In Turkey
we toured the ancient city of Ephesus (referenced
in the New Testament Letter to the Ephesians) and finished in Istanbul before returning home. Our tour
guide was outstanding. We’d recommend
the trip to all of our friends.
We ended up with a bonus trip this year. My brother Bryan earned a spot to the Ironman
race in Kona, Hawaii, the dream of every triathlete. Of course Nancy and I, along with my father,
had to go along to cheer! We had an
outstanding week in Kona, seeing all the athletes, watching the race, and
hanging out with family. It was easily
one of the best vacations we’ve ever had.
We enjoyed other exciting events this year as well.
- We drove NASCAR races cars at speeds approaching 150 miles per
hour at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- We went skydiving for a second time – nothing quite like jumping
out of a perfectly good airplane!
This time I got to push myself
out of the plane!
- Nancy completed her first triathlon, making me and
many of our friends very proud of her.
- I completed a number of races and other endurance events this
year. There was a marathon in the
spring. In the summer there was a
200-mile relay run from Columbia to Charleston, SC. In the fall I completed a half-ironman,
a half-marathon, and another half-marathon on three consecutive weekends.
- We traveled to Ohio
to visit family and friends. We
attended a few Ohio State football games, including another victory
over archrival Michigan.
Life in North
Carolina is treating us well. We’re happy here and glad we made the
move. We love the weather and love the
outstanding group of friends we’ve made here.
If you’re near Raleigh,
please let us know.
If you haven’t found us on Facebook yet, please
do. It’s great fun to keep up with
friends and family more than once a year.
Happy Holidays!
Nancy and Jerry Canterbury
Last updated 2012-12-22
