apartment tour

Ok, after several tries at uploading, we finally have a video tour of our new apartment. The quality is not so great, but I needed to make the file size smaller, so we had to sacrifice clearness of picture.

Let us know what you think of our new place!

upon returning north

Well, friends, as you may already know, we are back in the northeast. We have moved into our apartment in Binghamton, and we're starting to settle into it.....but we have not yet settled into a routine.

Eric will start trainings for his job with Youth Advocate Programs during the first week of November. I have started doing some online algebra tutoring with Tutor.com, but this is only (hopefully!) a temporary situation because I really want to get back into a public library.

In some ways it's good to be back, and in some ways it's not. It's good to see friends and family and to have more options when it comes to being earth-friendly. I still have mixed feelings, though, about living in a city. I've never paid attention much when Eric was driving us back and forth between meetings and social gatherings before, but now I'm going to have to learn how to navigate the streets and avenues and bridges and parkways and giant shopping centers. Yikes.

Here are some things that I forgot about living in this area while we were in Kentucky:
- The autumn here is beautiful.
- Wegman's is awesome.
- I love recycling.
- It's stinking COLD here!
- We are on the go a lot.
- It's nice to have a cell phone.
- We have a LOT of stuff.

We hope to continue with this blog...we will see what direction it goes!

Nashville pictures

I posted pictures from our trip to Nashville several days ago.
Sorry that I forgot to let you know!

getting ready

As I read Scott's comment, I realized that my last real blog entry was the one I wrote of the extreme pain I felt at the thought of leaving here.

The pain is now not as sharp as it was that night.

The fact that Eric's job and the apartment fell into place so quickly make me think that we are doing the right thing by heading back north. This confuses me. There is so much need here--so much that we could help with--why is God making it so easy for us to return to where we came from? It must be that he's got something else for us to do.

I know I shouldn't try to guess what God's planning, but I'm the type of person who wants to know the answer, so I'm going to try to figure it out. Here's one possibility: Before we came down to Kentucky, I had envisioned this year as one of tremendous personal growth. Ok, maybe "tremendous" is a little too strong--let's say "increased personal growth." It didn't turn out that way. I feel like I did some good, but there were occasions when I felt like I wasn't being challenged....or maybe that I didn't challenge myself. Maybe God is giving me an opportunity to start fresh--or maybe he's got a new challenge for me.

Or maybe I'm completely wrong, and there's something completely different in store for us.

a new home

I found us an apartment! It is at 48 Bevier Street in Binghamton. It is easy to get on the highway and is a few blocks from Otsiningo Park. It is a one bedroom townhouse but all of the rooms are large. Downstairs is a living room, dining room, kitchen and 1/2 bath. Upstairs is the bedroom and a huge full bath, I'm trying to figure out what the most ridiculous thing to put in the bathroom because it is so large (maybe a christmas tree).

When looking for an apartment we wanted to be deliberate about not moving to the 'burbs or a complex. We wanted to be safe and have a nice place but also did not want to insulate ourselves from the realities of poverty in our area as well. After looking at this apartment I knew that it met these criteria. It is not the worst neighborhood in town but there are people living there who are trying to pay the bills day to day.

The plan is to start moving things on Monday and drive to get Sarah on Thursday, returning on the 13th.

Standing in the living room looking at the dining room and kitchen.

Standing in the bathroom upstairs, looking onto our bedroom.

gainful employment

I have a job, mostly, it's complicated let me explain. I have secured part time (20 hours a week) employment with the Youth Advocacy Program in Susquehanna county PA as a "mobile therapist" seems like I should have a couch in the back my truck. I will be doing counseling with 4 or 5 youth at their homes and school. It pays well and offers insurance for both of us. I have another interview for a half time position tomorrow (Friday) to fill in the rest of the time. I am still apartment hunting, I have looked at some rough places but have a few potentials.