21 awesome things from 2009 and 2010

After reading an NPR blogger's list of 50 Wonderful Things from 2010, we decided that we'd make our own list! In no particular order, here they are:

- OUR HOUSE! - In May, we purchased our first home! We can now be found at the address listed on the righthand side of this blog. It's a great house--newly remodeled [completely white inside] with two spare bedrooms [come and visit] and a nice yard [small campfires and compost]. We're within walking distance of downtown...

- Owego - This is the coolest small town in America, and we love it. It has a great bookstore and coffee shop, a particularly interesting cemetery, artsy shops, and now a Mexican restaurant, too! It's right on the Susquehanna River, and it feels like a vacation town, especially in the summer when both ice cream shops are open and kids are riding around on their bicycles.

- Broome County Public Library - Sarah started working at BCPL in July 2009, and in January 2010, she started as the Head of Youth Services [the best department]. She takes care of public relations for the library, and among other things, she purchases books for the teens, which has made her familiar with...

- Scott Pilgrim - Sarah is reading mostly teen books these days, and she's developed a special love for graphic novels and characters like Tiny Cooper. [And before we leave the subject of libraries, we can't neglect to mention our fondness for the Coburn Free Library!]

- Cornell Cooperative Extension--Tioga County - Eric began working for CCE as an AmeriCorps member, and when they received a grant, they hired him part-time to work with small-scale vegetable farmers to improve harvest efficiency and food safety. [Basically, he got to hang out on farms all summer, learning a lot and helping farmers to be more efficient.] He'll finish up with this project in February. [Videos of his work will be posted here in the next couple of months.]

- Achieve - Eric got to go back to Achieve! As the guardianship coordinator, he advocates for individuals for whom the agency is the guardian. He also gets to help with SibShop, Day Hab, and the greenhouse.

- Natalie - On Christmas 2009, Christie and Tim surprised us with a kitten! We have really grown to love this sweet and crazy animal, and she keeps us amused to no end.

- Ruthanne - Eric's brother [Doug] and his fiancee [Catherine] had a sweet little baby girl in May, and we've enjoyed the chances that we've had to hang out with her.

- Tabernacle UMC - When we came back from Kentucky [October 2008], we spent some time visiting different churches, and in the summer of 2009, we started to settle into attending Tabernacle UMC in Binghamton. We love the people, the pastor, and the philosophy of this church, and we feel right at home there.

- Sky Lake - We've been lucky to spend a lot of time at the Lake recently--directing Physically Special Camp, enjoying retreats and camping, and helping with gardening and composting.

- Photography - Sarah is having so much fun taking photos! [And Eric is being awesomely supportive of her doing so.]

- Glee - Eric used to say that he didn't like musicals. He can't really say that anymore.

- Live Music - Lilith Fair, Bob Dylan, K'Naan, Anna Vogelzang, Josh Ritter, Dr. Cetukski, Summer People

- Theater - Greater Tuna [featuring Uncle Shawn!], City of Angels, Monty Python's Spamalot, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

- Mix CDs - Eric turned 30 this past November, and many people responded to his wish and made him mix CDs for the occasion. [If you'd still like to make one for him, feel free to send one, and you'll get a fun present in return!]

- NPR - Our favorite source for news, music, good stories, laughs, etc. Sarah often says that NPR aims its programming for people just like her.

- Rural Health Network of South Central New York - This fantastic organization runs an AmeriCorps program that employed both of us (at different sites) while we were trying to find something more permanent. We met some pretty incredible people and learned a lot about our area.

- Tattoos - In an effort to cram as many life changes as possible in a short amount of time, during the same week that he became an uncle and bought a house, Eric also got a giant new tattoo.

- Beets - Sarah was reintroduced to beets this summer, and she LOVES them. We participated in a CSA this year, and we've also been getting a bunch of local food through Central NY Bounty. It's so great to be able to get so much locally-produced food so easily. [We love our Wegman's, but the local stuff straight from the farmers is FANTASTIC.]

- New York City - Because of the lack of vacation time this year, we were not able to take any long vacation trips, but we did manage to take a long weekend and go to NYC. Thanks to fantastic hosting by Andrew Dill and the Barneses, we really enjoyed our time there. [It was great to see Karyn, too!]

- Doing laundry at home - Thanks to Gramsy and to the people who lived in our house before we did, we have laundry machines in the same building in which we live. You have no idea how happy this makes us. Once we get a clothesline up [hopefully this coming spring], we will be ALL SET.

Those are some of the highlights of our lives during the past couple of years. Please let us know if there's anything you think we should add!

We love you all, and we wish there were more days in the week to spend time visiting with family and friends. Thank you for your love and support to us, and thank you for being the awesome people that you are!

project

This is just a brief note to let y'all know of a project that I'm working on. In an effort to try to become better at photography, I'm working on something called Project 365, which involves taking one picture each day that I can share. I am posting these pictures on the picture blog that I share with Kevin and Matt. I'd love to hear any feedback...and I'm sure Kevin and Matt would love for you to check out their pictures, too!

Christmas Tour 2008

Ok, team. It's time for the photoessay about this year's Christmas Tour.

It started out early, with Sarah heading down to Harvey's Lake to hang out with some friends from her home church, the Center Moreland UMC. It was great to see everyone, and it was wonderful to hear about people's adventures, both around the globe and here in the States.

Chrissy loves wings.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Linda's for a delicious dinner with her and Doug. We opened presents and went to the late service at her church in Cortland, which was, as usual, filled with lovely music.

Doug loves tissues.

The next morning, we got up early to head to Newark Valley for Christmas breakfast. (The trip was much less eventful than last year's.)

Eric as a festive elf

Doug outdid us all in eating baked eggs, and we opened gifts and hung out and tried to determine whose wind-up toy was the awesomest.

We all got orange hats.

After that, we headed back to our home in Binghamton to pick up Amelie and some more gifts, and then it was on to Monkey Hollow Road. We ate with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and my grandmother, and then Aunt Barb and the Dawes came over. We opened gifts and spent some quality time together, which was great, especially since I hadn't seen them since we've been back from Kentucky! We spent the night at my parents', and I helped in completing the annual Christmas puzzle, while Eric helped my dad load bees to go to Florida.

Mom testing out my new camera remote control

We headed back to Binghamton on Friday, and then on Saturday we went, along with Abby and Kevin, to Richford for Reanna and Dan's delayed wedding reception. It was great to spend some time with friends that we hadn't seen in a long time....plus we're so happy for Reanna and her dear Pigpen!

Abby, Reanna, Eric: "What wedding?"

That Sunday, Christie came to spend the night with us. It was great to have some sister time. I really wish that she didn't live so far away. They should really arrange cities alphabetically--that way Baltimore and Binghamton could be closer together.

Oh, sisters.

On New Year's Eve, we went with our friend Matt to First Night Binghamton. It was incredibly cold (I think I got windburn on my face!), but it was quite enjoyable. After spending some time downtown, we headed to Mike and Mandi's for some festivities and to watch the ball drop.

Matt, Eric, Sarah

The next day was Stoughton Christmas at the Smith's home in Newark Valley. We ate some delicious food (again!), opened gifts, and visited with fun family that we don't get to see very often.

Linda and Tim in fantastic plastic wigs

So now the holidays are over, and it's back to what we call "normal."

It's amazing to me how we can go so long without seeing some people, and then we remember just how much we really like them! We are very blessed with some wonderful friends and family. Thank you all for being so awesome. We love you.

PS - If you're interested in seeing more pictures, you can visit our picture site.

new look.

Ok, so the whole look is not new, but I hope that you like the new top banner for our blog. I figured it was time to spice things up a bit.

And as for updates, well, our Christmas Tour 2008 is not yet complete, so hopefully we will fill in some blanks after that.

snow!

After two weeks of bad predictions, we finally got a significant snow! Hooray!

Here's a lucky shot I got of Amelie watching Eric shovel the snow. (I put it on here in enormous size so that you could see what's going on more easily.)


If you're interested in seeing a few more pictures of our snow, you can go here and click on "Neighborhood Scenes."

fun times

This past weekend, Liz and Matthew came down to visit us, which was great fun, as usual!

We had shared with them a website that we get a kick out of, where people hold record covers up to their faces (or other parts of their body) to make themselves a continuation of the picture.

We thought we'd try a few of our own:

Liz, Matthew, and Eric as the Bee Gees

Liz as Eric Clapton

Matthew as John Cougar

If you'd like to see the website that inspired us, visit Sleeveface. It's amazing.

Christmas cards

When I was in high school, I vowed that I would never give/send out Christmas cards until I had a place of my own. Eric and I started sending them out after we got married, but a couple of years in there, they became Valentine's Day or St Patrick's Day cards because of our inability to budget time to write a letter and prepare the cards during the appropriate timeframe.

I have often wondered what the point is of sending Christmas cards to people that you see often or on Christmas or around Christmas, but this year, for some reason, Christmas cards seem very important to me. I'm not sure whether it's the fact that I'm home much of the day by myself or whether it might be that I don't feel settled yet in Binghamton and want reminders of all of the people that I care about.

Or maybe it has something to do with the sweet set-up we have for displaying Christmas cards:

(I took this picture several days ago, so if you don't see the card that you sent, don't worry--it's probably up there by now.)

This is not intended to guilt you into sending us a card! It's just to express my excitement for Christmas and for hearing from loved ones.