The expiration date on my milk carton

Back when Chris went to sea (thank the Lord that is over), I would get excited about his homecoming when my milk's expiration date was after his return date. Now, the expiration date on my milk reads Dec. 02, so I am getting excited about Christmas!

On that note, may I say that I am so pleased by the perfect placement of Christmas in our seasons. Just as the last lovely leaf falls and the seemingly unending gray sets in, the joy-bringing anticipation of Christmas comes to the rescue and distracts our spirits from the temptation to be dreary.

Time Warp

I don't know if I have ever been quite so aware of time as I was yesterday, when we were leaving Boston. On 93 South, we came to the intersection: S to Providence, RI or N to Portsmouth, NH. A year ago, we would have turned N and it would not have occurred to me that I may someday do otherwise. But yesterday, when I watched the roads diverge as Chris veered right and the Portsmouth sign fell left, my brain spun into a time warp. The initial feeling was short of doleful, edging on longing, and closest to a deep yet simple awareness of time. Memories fired in my mind in quick succession then, as the familiar sign fell out of site, I blasted forward into curiousity, semi-nervousness and anticipation about the future. Which way will I turn 3 yrs from now, when we move again if we move again? Which way will I turn to go home from Nashville? Which way from Denver? Which way from New York?
Yesterday, we went to New York. Today, I am in New York. I am not worried.

Actionpacked 4 days

Thursday: Bell ringing at New York Stock Exchange. We met Navajo Wind Talkers and I got to walk around the floor while Chris joined the men on the bell platform. Later, we marched in the Veterans Day Parade down 5th Avenue. I was asked thrice if I was a reporter while I took notes in my cute peacoat. ha. After that, we went out for dinner and free drinks with a lot of uniformed men.

Friday: Turned 400 kids through the historic village. Whew! Then Chris and I went to a military gala, so I was excited about wearing a long pretty gown, getting my hair done, and standing next to handsome him in formal uniform. Chris gave a toast to New York City and did a really good job. Afterward, we changed into our pajamas in the car and downed some caffeine before driving directly from the gala to Boston, Mass. for the rugby match. Arrival time 2:45am.

Saturday: Chris played in Rugby match in Boston...lost :(. Ate dinner in Little Italy YUM! then went for famous cannolis and cappuccinos with a Bostonian friend. Spent the night in his 10-story warehouse-turned-apt. building. Nice view.

Sunday: Freshfruit and creme on Belgian waffles with a side of sunnyside ups and coffee! After the huge brkfst, we walked to Bunker Hill and toured the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). Of course, we drove up and down Beacon Hill (my favorite place in America after Gruene Hall, TX) and scoped out Boston Common in its divine fall colorfulness. On the way home, we called up some friends in Connecticut and invited ourselves to eat dinner with them and meet their kittens, then surprised the Masalins (a family we love) before finishing our trip back to New York City. Home at 11:00pm.

How do I describe Boston? Were Boston a spoken sentence, it would be well articulated. Were it a written one, it would be in cursive.

A reason I like my job.

English Breakfast Tea in hand, I walk from the parlor of our 1890s house staff building, where my sewing colleagues sing English folk ballads in harmony, to the landing, where The Duke of Kent's Waltz (1830) streams from the blacksmith's office, then duck under a clothesline web on my way to the sewing room from which I fetch a handful of vintage buttons and return to my task of mending an 1860s gown.

Cider Donuts

Our history buff and battle reenacting friends, Annie and Jay took us to the Monmouth Battlefield in New Jersey where Washington and Howe clashed and stalemated in June 1778. "This hill is perfect for sledding," Jay told us at the top of the highest, steepest one from which you could see every other. Long shadows of leafless trees reached like skeleton hands over the convex ground hinting that the sledding season was soon to come. Our group hiked under their shadows and over the rolling hills of the battlefield where orchards and cornfields still grow beside 18th century houses. Jay stopped us periodically to enlighten us on facts of the battle: "Here, Washington discharged the obstinate Lee," "There, Molly Pitcher worked her famous cannon," "Down that hill galloped the British grenadiers- oh and Chris, your intimidatingly tall self would have been a brigadier."
After wondering the battlefield for an hour or so, we delighted in the marvel of cider donuts and well, cider from Battlefield Orchard before our Ruby Tuesday dinner and subsequent journey home.

Home=sleep. Chris and I were sleepy ppl- That morning, Chris worked the New York Marathon (morning=4am) while I helped with the hope-fillingly great orphan program launch at our church. Whew- what a day.

6:55AM. I went hiking in pajama pants and dress shoes.

I accidentally found a lakeside hiking trail when I got lost on my way home from our friend's apt, where Chris and I crashed after attending a military event aboard the Intrepid in Manhattan. (hence the dress shoes... and the pajamas).
Despite the weird looks some joggers gave me, I really enjoyed my hike! I walked across a stone bridge then alongside a still lake that reflected two tree covered hills. AKA the water was yellow and orange! One particular family of yell low trees looked like they had all caught a contagious cold and sneezed leaves everywhere. Yellow covered the path, the water and the rocks in between. I love autumn and I am lamenting its pending ending.

Oh and the Intrepid- that was quite interesting and fun. The staff turned the information desk into a bar and played Academy football footage on the wall while lieutenants and generals in service dress socialized on the deck of the famous aircraft carrier.

Wouldn't it be terrible to work at a landfill? It is so much better to just pretend they're not there.

. . . please sense my sarcasm. We need to live in a way that takes care of the earth. (I live on Staten Island- (New York City's garbage dump until 1997. The landfill here can be seen from outer space).

I made apple pie by myself for the first time last week. I have made two since and they are dang ugly but boy do they taste good. :) I have also spiced cider and toasted pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin bread cupcakes tomorrow!

This weekend at the historic village, we celebrated Old Home Day:

blacksmithing, tinsmithing, carpentry, basket making, rope making, weaving, quilting, butter churning, cider pressing, bread baking in a historic brick oven, apple butter making, stewing (beef, veg, pumpkin), Indian weaponry making, dulcimer playing, hay jumping, historic game playing, historic building touring...


On week days I give tours the farm to elementary field trippers. The kids pick pumpkins, ride a hay wagon, dig, carry a yoke and buckets, beat a rug, scrub on a washboard, tour a farm house, learn about 19th centry equipment, (and chase chickens :P).

We drove to Western New Jersey where the October hills are covered with a patchwork quilt of heathered red, orange, yellow, and green fabrics. We wound down country roads between meadows and forests past goat farms and cider mills then stopped at an orchard to pick apples. After that, we hiked to a waterfall in tranquil Hacklebarney State Park. Lovely.

My Daddy's Devotional

A devotional that my dad wrote was published in The Upper Room devotional book this week. :) Here is the link:
http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/default.asp?month=10&day=12&year=2010

What Not To Buy

http://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Justice-Global-Impact-Choices/dp/0830836284/

Many in my church are reading this book. I ordered it yesterday. In the meantime am looking through these websites. I do not want to be one of those Americans who unknowingly oppresses people elsewhere with my purchasing decisions. So I am trying to inform myself of "what not to buy" as well as how to help.

http://free2work.org/
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
http://love146.org

Strong Woman

The opening page of the book I am reading reads, "In loving memory of my mother whose strength always amazed me." When I read that dedication, I wrote a prayer, "Lord, make me that kind of a woman. Show me how. Make your strength my strength and keep me thankful, prayerful, and humble. Amen."

I was thinking later that the first step to becoming a strong woman is deciding that you are not the center of your universe. No, I do not mean "realizing," I mean "deciding."


"Strong women, may we know them, may we raise them, may we be them."

Child Trafficking Issue:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/09/07/anatomy_of_an_adoption_crisis?page=0,0&sms_ss=email&at_xt=4cab4e70f4fe7cd1,0

Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis BY E.J. GRAFF | SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

"...The State Department was confident it had discovered systemic nationwide corruption in Vietnam -- a network of adoption that was profiting by paying for, defrauding, coercing, or even simply stealing Vietnamese children from their families to sell them to unsuspecting Americans. And yet, as these documents reveal, U.S. officials in Hanoi did not have the right tools to shut down the infant peddlers while allowing the truly needed adoptions to continue. Understanding how little the State Department and USCIS could do, despite how hard they tried, helps reveal what these U.S. government agencies need to respond more effectively in the current adoption hot spots, Nepal and Ethiopia -- and in whatever country might be struck by adoption profiteering next.

....In a cable from Jan. 8, 2008, Ambassador Michael Michalak wrote, "I am becoming increasingly concerned at the growing evidence of large-scale organized child buying in Vietnam ... a system under which unscrupulous orphanage directors and agency facilitators have turned infants into a commodity amidst rampant corruption ... Local officials are willing to create documents to cover 'discrepancies' in a case ... [T]he miraculous arrival of over 30 infant girls at Hanoi Center 1 within five months of the opening of that center for international adoptions is not an atypical trend in Vietnam. We have frequently seen that areas and orphanages not engaged in adoption only have older children and those with special needs. This is a clear illustration of the supply being created to meet demand."

I read an Upper Room Devo the other day...

(http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/) in which a British woman named Emma wrote, "Sin clouds my sense of God's nearness." The line could be easily skimmed over. In fact, I doubt Emma thought much of the wording of this particular sentence. When I read it, I realized that I have always subconsciously thought that "Sin makes God not near." But that is not true. God never leaves us or forsakes us; He is ever near. Our sin just hampers our ability to sense Him.

I wrote a song.

Glory be to God above
May Your love and mercy overcome

On earth as it does in heaven.

Let our every deed proclaim Your name
And our hope for justice prove our faith
In You, the author and perfecter

You bring rest to the weary
You bring strength to the weak
You give peace to the restless
Inheritance to the meek

You call us, Holy Father,
To imitate your selflessness
To feed and comfort,
To pray and listen,
To give our time to the fatherless

To teach and mentor
To help and rescue
Devote our lives to your purposes

… ending:

You bring us hope when we are weary

And strength when we are weak
You give peace when we are restless
Inheritance for we are meek

We commit, Holy Father,
To respond to what you have done
To love the orphan
Forgive our debtor
For such is how you treated us

To feed and comfort

To help and rescue

For such is how you treated us

Questions to ask ourselves:

Is it wanting nice clothes or is it wanting popularity and acceptance? Is it wanting popularity or is it wanting self-confidence? Is it wanting confidence or is it needing faith?

Is it wanting a car or is it wanting independence and control? Is it wanting independence or is it wanting to depend on something constant?

Is it wanting to be attractive or is it wanting a boy or girlfriend? Is it wanting a bf or gf or is it wanting attention? Is it wanting attention or is it wanting to feel worthy?

Is it working to be good at a skill or is it wanting recognition? Is it wanting recognition or is it building an identity?

Is it really about drugs and alcohol or is it about escape? Is it wanting to escape or is it searching for peace?

Is it wanting stuff or is it wanting satisfaction? Is it wanting satisfaction or is it longing for joy?

Put your faith in God because He is constant. You are worthy in his eyes and if you put your identity in Christ, you will be filled with peace and joy.

Below: This diagram's definition is just not true even though the world tries to convince us that it is. We were not created to be fulfilled by these things.

Lie.

Rando comments on my blogo:

Comments of this sort appear on my blog posts quite regularly. I assume they are mass dispersed to various blogs, but why is it written in this manner? Perhaps they writer is trying to mask an advertisement a normal post... but the ad part of it is not very clear and it definitely doesn't incline me to look it up. Waste of the wierdo's time.

"Mature Excellent post, after reading several articles on the subject realized that everything did not look on the other hand, a post once very interested. So engrossed that I missed a football Interestingly, and cognitive, and will have something on this subject? Exl how old dupe! Classroom paper, by the way the author would like to offer yandeks.deneg chip set from the site, "Give the ruble." I would give, so to speak on the maintenance. Oh, thank you. very nice, so we would have done so Accidentally saw. Not expect."

Conversation with Mom

Mom,

So I attended a women's Bible study group that meets every Monday morning- its pretty much a group for stay at home moms, so naturally they bring their kids. Chris asked me how it went and I acted it out for him:
"So how has your week been? Honey, share the ball. My week's been good Tim has been in Uganda and oh sweetie we'll read the book later. And I'm excited to hear about his trip with he gets home. Babe, give him a turn on the cart. I know you're hungry we'll eat lunch in a little while. What did you think of the sermon? Oh Knox don't touch that; play with this instead..." ha.

Mom's response:

That's funny and so true. Only women can multitask like that and keep up with a conversation -- a man wouldn't even try!

Your dad and I were playing golf with another couple one time. And you know how men are so picky about having complete quiet when they address the ball so it doesn't disturb their shot. And women couldn't care less about that. They can stand on the tee or the green and carry on a conversation while they are actually hitting the ball. I always thought that came from having kids with you all the time and having to think about more things at the same time.

http://www.hopechest.org/

One Orphan from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

pumpkins spiced lattes available Next Week.

2 feet from my face, a web of Stars of David stamp the soles of tennies propped up on a table at the other end of a girl in a Princeton t-shirt. We sit in a circle of rustic fabriced chairs in an eclectic Tudor-style coffee shop. Across the street, the University stands like a young fortress, the way that Cambridge may have looked in 1550. Classes start in 2 days and America's smartest freshman scurry around clueless and bumping into things.

Outside, summer is seasoned to taste with autumn. Sunflowers still decorate the median and apples grow alongside gourds at Terhun Orchard where patrons can clip their own flower bouquet, harvest pumpkins, and see a Christmas tree farm from afar. There, I felt like I was standing in three seasons at the same time, so I waved goodbye to the flowers, shrugged at the conifers, and picked 12 apples. After I had selected from Gala, Jonathan, and Macintosh apples, I followed a gaggle of guinea hens, who looked like someone had smeared tooth paste on their faces, scurrying like clueless college freshman to the porch-register, where I was greeted by a dog, a duck, and a very long haired cat. $5.

The orchard sells cider, but Starbucks does not yet sell Pumpkin Spiced Lattes. Therefore, it is not fall quite yet, so I didn't buy a gourd.

New gets old and interesting becomes normal. If you run from that fact then change just becomes routine.

I closed my eyes for the purpose of optimizing my sensory experience three times today.

First at 4:00, after I left the walled garden and sat on the green grass of the allee facing the Georgian-style Phipps mansion, I tilted my head back like a sun-hungry flower and closed my eyes to better feel the wind as it swirled my hair upward and rolled up my neck and face urging me to breathe one of the purest breaths I have ever taken.

Second at 6:30, when Chris and I walked hand-in-hand from the lapping waves across the expanse of white sand, I closed my eyes and relied on him to guide me so that I could better focus on the fine sand that molded to my bare feet with every step and the sound of the ocean.

Third at 8:40, I closed my eyes as the spoon approached my face so that I might savor the taste of hot fudge and caramel on an ice cream-topped brownie in our oak dinning booth... at TGI Fridays.

Union Square Park: Farmers Market

Amongst stone and steel, we approach a patch of green. A network of herb-topped tables across from mazes of “summer annuals.” Between the networks and mazes, bustles a classy throng. Girls in the dying fashion of long blouses over tights and ballet shoes sniff flowers. A granola couple in dreadlocks under worn bandanas walks with armfuls of herbs. Amongst them, double strollers and Yankees t-shirts buzz from vender to vender.
I step up to an organic honey vender complete with honey bees. A sign leaning against the glass jars reads, “We didn’t bring the bees.” The jar lids read, “Summer Flowers, Goldenrod, R, TF, S…” I had no idea there were different kinds of honey. The saleswoman hands me a drop of golden rod on a toothpick tip. That ranks among one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. But I dont want to lug an 8 oz. glass jar around the subways.
I walk on to a table of cider. “Directly from orchards in upstate New York,” says the woman as she pours me a dixie cup sample. This tastes like dry apple juice. “Thanks.”
My hand caresses a sheep skin as I pass the booth of dyed wool and roasting lamb then we pause for Chris' sake at a beef jerky stand for a sample of red peppered dried beef. Of course, I pretend like I am considering buying the product so that I feel a little less like a mooch.
After admiring the works of local artists, I buy a chilled lavender-apple tea from the members of an herb-garden commune. "Can you be replicated?" I ask my tea as I walk on toward The Strand's "18 miles of books."

Dog Crate Analogy

Every day, when it is time for my puppy to go into her crate, I simply toss a treat into it. She follows the snack right in then I close the door. Once she finishes eating and realizes what has happened, she cries and rustles around unhappily. EVERY DAY. I take this to mean that either A) She has not figured out that after I toss treats in the crate, I will close her in or B) Momentary satisfaction is more important to her than consequences.

Are humans not like this too? People repeatedly make the same mistakes and are lured into a crate (habit, lifestyle, or addiction) of sin that traps them. Either A) people haven't figured out that the first step to a sinful habit is the decision to commit the first act or B)we are blinded by momentary satisfaction and do not stop to look at consequences it might bring.

Fortunately, we have a forgiving God who has sent A) Jesus to loose our bonds to sin and smash our shackles and B) the Spirit as a helper to help us not to go on sinning.

1 Corinthians 10:13
James 4:7

Romans 6:15-18
"Don't you know you are slaves to the one whom you obey- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed... you have been set free from sin..."

My New Job

Last night, I looked up from carving the leftovers of the chicken I had roasted for dinner while listening to my JJ Heller station on Pandora.com after coming home from my first full day of work and smiled. The chicken turned out really good; I am so excited to have a job in general; and I really like the job that I have.
I spent most of the day hanging out with three women in an 1820s kitchen. We made strawberry rhubarb pie in a dutch over (we set it on top of hot embers by the hearth and heaped more embers on top of it) and we roasted two chicken breasts in a tin reflector oven while sipping tea and honey that we strained through our handpicked mint and nibbling on brick-oven wheat bread and home-churned butter. All while dressed in 1820s garb. Two women worked a spinning wheel from one corner while the other did the baking. I was just learning for the day, so I tasted things and asked questions and watched the Canadian geese and goslings waddle around the lawn outside.

On the premises, we have a blacksmith, a tinsmith, a cooper, a basket maker, a printing shop, a tavern, an old courthouse, a church, a general store, um... candle-making, book-binding, old school laundry washing equipment... things of that nature. The place holds fairs and festivals, English Country dances, irish musician concerts, October pumpkin picking from our own patch and all sorts of fun fun things like that.
One days that visitors tour themselves, I'll be posted in the general store, but most of the time, I will be a tour guide and walk around with groups.

midday jamboree

From my favorite bay window of my favorite coffee shop, I noticed a jamboree hoppin in the long shadow of Market Square's church. Four motley men strummed, plucked, and tapped facing a horseshoe of bouncing spectators. I rushed to join.

The group made a sort of raspy sound. They sounded like a cross between The Decemberists and a Grand Old Opry regular. Their music reverberated and clanged and their voices sounded like minor chord, harmonized, yodels. From left to right:

The washboard and cowbell player was the only musician wearing jeans and a cotton t-shirt.





The banjo player beside him had a thick red beard that stuck out further than his nose. He was dressed as an Appalachian lumberjack in his red plaid shirt, high-water corduroys, and suspenders. His poor banjo was peeling and torn.





The singer-bass player wore bomber hat. His voice rattled and his head shook when his volume grew.






The accordian player was my favorite. A hat that may have belonged to Charlie Chaplin (as in that old) with a Yankeedoodle's feather in it, a black vest with a few brass pins and what other than silver spoons attached by diaper pins on his breast. He wore a pink pinstripe shirt under that and his pants rolled up to his calves to show his shiny, tapping, businessmen shoes.

to sit down

to sit down

Chris brought up an interesting point tonight when I almost fell in the toilet (ya slightly personal, but it supports my metaphor). He left the seat up again and I just sat down expecting to land on the seat. Since I am "very small (in his french accent)," I really did almost fall right in. He said, "Why is it that we as Christians do not always put full trust in God even though He proves trustworthy time and time again? Yet we trust without hesitation that when we sit in a chair it is going to hold us." Even when we sit in a chair with a big hole in it, we don't look before we sit.
I'm reading Romans 5 right now. It talks about the sin of Adam spreading through all men. What was Adam's sin? At the root, it was a lack of faith. That is the root from which all sin springs. We know how God tells us to live, but we do not do it. We read His precepts, but we do not obey them. Why else other than we do not believe Him? He says, THIS will bring you joy. THIS will bring you contentment. This lifestyle will shower you with blessings. Yes, God will choose to bless us in cool and unexpected ways, but many of his blessings are direct consequences of our choices. If we trust Him and live the way He tells us to live, we will lived blessed lives. In the same way, most negative consequences natural come down from not so good, unfaithful, unbelieving, self-centered choices. I remember once when my friend, Laura, talked about how it must break God's heart when we choose frivolous and damaging worldly things over His plan and advice because we think it will make us happy. It must disappoint Him when we choose to trust and follow a lie over the truth that He has freely given to us.
Thoughts

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." -Prov. 13:12

I have lots of little hopes. I d0- I hope that my marriage stays as love-driven as it is right now, I hope that the Lord blesses us with healthy children, I hope that doesn't happen too soon, I hope that I get a job next year, and I hope I get to go on the motorcycle trip with Dad this summer.
If these are deferred, my heart may be sick. If my longing remains for the Lord, He has promised to fulfill it and despite any deferred hopes, I will be a tree of life. (Hopes are not bad. It is possible to be heartsick and a tree of life at the same time.) God is the longing of every human heart; some people just don't know that He is, so they rely on their hopes for their happiness. Our longing is not fulfilled by health or a man or by good circumstance. God is bigger than those.

Lord, a longing fulfilled is a tree of life! Trees of life bear much fruit! Fruitful trees are rooted in you (John 15:5). If I am rooted in ridiculous worldly things, I will bear no fruit. The fruit that I have left will rot- Rotten fruit on a withering tree with brittle branches on dry soil. John 15:6, Psalm 1:3, Matthew 13:6.

Still in Boston. Still Spring.

Sitting in a park in Boston.
left: old brick wharf
right: extension of soft grass under me
straight ahead: rows of Easter-colored tulips
beyond tulips: teenage boy drumming on plastic pales, a kitchen pot, an iron skillet, and the concrete
against my back: the trunk of a cherry blossom tree
overhead: 3-dimensional piece of art- pink clusters like densely packed bouquets tied to a gray skeleton- something a modern artist might build. Each flower looks like layers of petticoats under a flower girl's dress. Around me, the ground is littered with petals that the she has flung.

Boston in the Spring

I drove down Storrow Drive during the part of the day when the sun is so big that it can barely be eclipsed by a beach ball. Across the Charles River, the MIT dome reflected the shade of orange that usually precedes the shade of pink. On the river, the boats' sails shone like triangles of white glass in a yellow cathedral window. Among the sails, rowers' oars flickered in unison as they dove from sunlight to river to sunlight to river.

It's snowing white petals in the streets of Manhattan

I rode the Fung Wah bus into Chinatown and stayed with Brian Stout in his "cozy little money-sucking fire hazard" (Manhattan Apt.). Every tree-lined sidewalk in the city was bursting with bright white. Whenever a wind blew, tiny petals fell into my hair and fallen petals swirled upward into my skirt. Chris' ship pulled into port there a few days later. After the conclusion of my house hunting ventures, we decided to enjoy the spring time. :) So, in a motley group of 7 random people, we went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden- a pocket of pink and white and multitudinous shades of green in the middle of New York. Oh wow- I have never seen so many blossoms at once. From a distance, the Cherry Blossoms look like cotton candy trees, but close up they look like tiny explosions of fine silk. The petals are so many and so delicate and the flowers look so fragile. We wondered around the promenade a while then admired the magnolias and daffodils and tulips and banzai trees (those are the weirdest things I've ever seen).

One of the seven random people knew another random person who knew of a hole in the wall mexican eatery nearby. The one-red walled-room restaurant was tiny and created quite the atmosphere. The menu was quite different from any texmex menu I've ever seen. Ex: I had a pork and pineapple taco. We talked and talked then migrated to the Brooklyn Museum, where many sunned themselves on the steps while Chris and I scoped the exhibit. A dog was quite entertained by the pattern fountain and all the sunners were very entertained by the entertained dog. His mission was to catch the water spouts before they spouted. He ran back and forth attacking H2O. haha!

The date ended and the group dispersed sending Chris, Brian, and I to Union Square Park to see art sales. So far, I like New York.

We are being restationed to NYC

We found out this week that Chris' next job is at sector New York. Fort Wadsworth is on Staten Island (the orange burough) A toll bridge away from Brookly and a free ferry ride from Manhattan. Believe it or not, the south side of Staten Island has trees and grass! So we sought rental houses there. Found one! Isn't it cute? I'm quite excited about the place. :) Innitially, I was not too thrilled about moving to the biggest city in the nation, but I am warming up to the idea and am excited about all the opportunities the area offers.

It's spring!

The sun came out. Finally. So I opened the window to let the shine in. As I ate my homemade italian sausage and brocolli pasta lunch, I admired the contrast between Dick's white fence and the green green grass. As I admired the greeness, I noticed that the bush acorss the street had yellow buds on it! So I ran outside to admire it too. While I was addmiring the budding bush, I noticed that the tall tree beside it had red buds on it! How can i describe how excited I am? I am so excited! It's spring. I'm going on a bike ride.

Lovely Friends

Oh wow. What gifts friends are. And how loving my lovely gifts happen to be. Rachel, Dana, and Laura all flew up here at the same time! I picked them up in Boston where we did some shopping and bookstoring then drove to my cute house in Kittery, Maine. In the mornin, we woke up to the sun and oatmeal banana pancakes. :) We drove up the coast and climbed around an old fort then hopped around the cliffs of Nubble Lighthouse near York Beach. Then we stopped through adorable Newburyport for our picnic veggie lunch (with seagulls) and, of course, for coffee from an elderly Austrian lady- the name of her bakery is Greta's Great Grains.
Next stop was Salem, Massachusetts (home of the witch trials). There, we passed plenty of witch museums and toured the House of Seven Gables, where Nathaniel Hawthorne set his so named book. Our Boston-accented tour guide lead us through secret passageways and narrow staircases. Dinner at the odd. The next morning, we baked Buttermilk scones for breakfast and took to exploring Portsmouth. Poor Dana was sick, so she read and napped. We crossed the old old draw bridge into the old town and shopped and explored a bit. I showed them around Strawbery Banke and we got to go into the Antheneum (an old and awesome library that I have always wanted to get into). We retrieved Dana, made lunch, talked about the Bible, then went to a movie downtown at the old and beautiful Portsmouth Music Hall. We watched a very elegant film about Queen Victoria when she was young. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKs3yIZolsM.
Oh Oh after that, we ate at a restaurant that Dana deemed her favorite restaurant she had ever been to. :) So I was very glad to introduce her to it.

On Sunday we went to my church (which I love) together and then took Laura to the airpuerto. :( We BARELY got her there in time! Oh geeeze- she was so calm though- I was impressed. After we kissed her cheeks and sent her off, Dana and Rachel and I did what other than go to the Harry Potter Expedition at the Boston Museum. That was, indeed, an interesting experience- especially since I have not read the books and have only seen one movie. So I was a real life trivia game for Dana and Rachel while we walked through the exhibit. Then we watched a guy make lightning. After that we stayed at the homey apartment of Rachel's friend, who is a student minister at M.I.T. They made us a yummy and we had fun conversation and I got to take a bath in a beatiful bathtub! I was happy. In the mornin, we gave Rachel big hugs good-bye and then Dana and I set out for a Starbucks (they are rare finds here in Dunkin Land). Then we drove around Andover, Lowell, Concord (as in the Battle of Lexington and Concord), and Walden Pond (As in Henry David Thoreau). People were walking around and playing ice hockey on Walden Pond! isn't that cool! I just think that's so cool. Dana and I had some good good car talks and then I said bye-bye to her in the late afternoon.

HOW WONDERFULLY REFRESHING and ALTOGETHER MARVELOUS IT WAS FOR US TO ALL BE TOGETHER AGAIN! I love you, Girls! Thank you so so much. -Heather