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.

pictures

Some of you may be thinking, "Sarah hasn't started a job yet--why the heck isn't she posting on the blog more often?" This is a very valid question. The problem is that I don't have a good answer for it.

So to satisfy your curiosity for now, I will probably be posting a few entries this morning.

Also, I have updated our picture website, so you can mosey on over there and see what we look like these days!

cool thing

This past Monday, Eric and I, along with several other members of our Binghamton-area young adult fellowship group, went to the Oakdale Mall for a Community Gathering of Peace. Members of the Whittemore Hill UMC had folded almost 1,400 paper cranes, and they were hung on Christmas trees and on the nativity scene in the mall.

There was quite a sizeable gathering of people, much to my surprise, and there was a brief service with thoughts shared by the pastor of the Whittemore Hill church and songs shared by two different UM church choirs. Then the entire crowd sang a few songs together. As we sang "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan, Eric leaned over to me and said, "Grampsy is smiling." This was one of my grandfather's favorite songs, and social justice was incredibly important to him.

I think Eric was right--Grampsy was smiling. It warmed my heart, too, to be able to gather with people of faith in a shopping mall, of all places, to remind one another that Jesus' birth is about love and peace and saving grace and not about Barbie dolls and Jonas Brothers CDs and iPods--Christmas is about remembering to love each and every one of our neighbors, no matter what they think or say or do, because Jesus loves each of us, no matter how foolish and arrogant and sinful we are.

It's easier to buy gifts than to love, isn't it?

Thank you, Whittemore Hill UMC, for reminding me what I should be thinking about during this season.

If you'd like to read more about the Community Gathering for Peace, click here.

on being a housewife

I don't have a job.

It's a strange sensation not to have a job. The last time I didn't have a job was when I finished grad school five years ago. Since then I've been pretty busy, working part time or volunteering or doing something to get out of the house. Now, I'm just waiting....hovering.

It's weird to go from the person who made almost all of the income in the household (while Eric was a full-time student) to being the person who is dependent on the other for financial support. I used to be pretty proud of the fact that I could take care of my husband, put him through school. Now I go back and forth between feeling free and feeling almost useless.

Today I had an interview of sorts for a job at a bookstore for college textbooks. The problem is that I committed to doing a church thing during four of their busiest days of the entire semester. I'm not terribly optimistic about getting the job. That's not the end of the world, really, because it's not my dream job, but it leaves me hanging....still.

So. Right now I'm a housewife. I'm not terribly great at it. I mean, the dishes are done more frequently now than when I had a job, but staying home doesn't make me a good cook.

I will begin volunteering at the library downtown once my background check goes through, and hopefully that'll put me in a better position to be hired by them if a job does come open. Binghamton seems to be kind of a black hole when it comes to library jobs, though.

Today, I ate a fortune cookie, and my fortune was "Good thinks are coming to you in due course of time." I'm not typically one to put a lot of stock in what fortune cookies tell me, but this one was a reminder to be patient, and I appreciated it.

visit to Baltimore

This past weekend, we got a chance to visit Christie and Tim in Baltimore. My mom went down on the bus earlier in the week, and we rode with my dad. Due to some icy road conditions, the trip took us about twice as long as it should, but we were in good humor, and we arrived safely.

It wasn't a long stay, but we got to do some Baltimorian things. We visited the farmer's market down the street from Christie and Tim's house, and we purchased a couple of items from Reid's Orchard stand. We also got to visit a couple of discount stores, and we got some deals (including a pair of jeans that fits me perfect for SEVEN DOLLARS).

Even though it was a short stay, it was WONDERFUL to spend some time with my sister. It gave me a taste of how awesome it will be to have a longer visit over Christmas!

And here's our latest [home-made] family portrait!

quick trip to Philadelphia

Two weeks ago, we went to Philadelphia for a mid-week overnight trip to see Jonah Matranga play at the First Unitarian Church.

While we were there, we got to catch up briefly with a few Philly friends, which was great. Why can't the roads between our cities be shorter?

Jonah Matranga is a musician that Eric really enjoys, and since he makes very few trips to the East Coast, we figured we'd better take this opportunity to see him. It was an incredible show--in a chapel with only about fifty people--and we were in the second pew. I will let Eric go into more detail about the music if he'd like, but I thought I'd share a couple pictures with you.

the return of our cat

For the past two years, our cat Amelie has been living with my very generous parents while we've been in living situations where a cat was not allowed.

About four weeks ago, we felt like we had our apartment settled enough to go and fetch her. Eric said, "Let's go tomorrow to get our cat," and I said, "But it's going to snow." Eric, ever the fearless adventurer, replied, "Let's go anyway!" So we climbed into the pickup and headed down the road, seeing this sort of weather along the way:

We got all of the necessaries from my mom, convinced the cat to climb into her carrier, and drove back through the snow to Bevier Street. She investigated everything inside the apartment and then peeked out the windows. Apparently she did not like what she saw, as she growled audibly and then ran upstairs to hide under the bed.

She spent several days with this sort of behavior, but now she's gotten used to the neighborhood and likes to spend her days surveying the activity in the street.

She's particularly fond of sitting on the steps like a queen and looking down on us in the living room.

It's really great to have our cat back. Since I have yet to begin any job, I especially appreciate her presence on days when Eric's at work. Even though she's deaf, it sometimes seems better to talk to her than to talk to myself!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my parents for taking care of her during these past two years. It's not always been a pleasant task, but we appreciate it very much.

I'll leave you with this parting shot that Eric took of our wild beast.

catching up

Ok, so it's been over six weeks since we've posted anything on this blog.

That
is
TERRIBLE.

And I apologize. To atone for it, I'm going to do some catch-up right now. That will explain the flurry of posts right in a row.

visit to Muddy Fingers Farm

One of the great things about being back in the northeast is that we're in closer proximity to some of our good friends. Last weekend we took advantage of that close-ish-ness to visit our friends Liz and Matthew at their farm in Hector, NY. For those of you who don't know Liz and Matthew (or who haven't heard us talking about them a lot), they own and operate an organic farm and CSA. It's not an easy thing, but they're living their dream and doing their share (or probably more than their share) to preserve our earth for future generations.

We went up on Sunday afternoon, and after catching up a little bit, we walked around the farm with their enthusiastic and energetic dog Gemini. Because it's getting to be late in the year, the cold is slowing things down. While it's not as green as it was earlier in the growing season, you can still see that they have a beautiful place.

We spent an enjoyable evening together, eating well (as we always do at their home), playing Settlers of Catan, and listening to records (yes, the vinyl kind).

Monday morning, they kindly let us sleep in while they started in on their work. Then we layered up against the cold and went out to do some harvesting to prepare for the farmers market on Tuesday. Like I mentioned earlier, it's late in the season, so there isn't as much to harvest. We helped dig up some potatoes, and then we helped to clean them and the parsnips and leeks and onions that they had already harvested.

With the harvesting done, we decided that we should go for a hike. We made a stop to see a friend who works at Wagner Vineyards, and then we headed to the Finger Lakes National Forest. It was perfect weather for hiking: chilly but good once you got moving. Here are some snapshots from our hike:

That last one there is going to have to go on my list of most favorite pictures ever.

When I was transferring pictures from my camera last night, I found this picture that Liz must've taken while we were sleeping:

Thanks for having us, Liz and Matthew--we had so much fun, too!

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.