to grandmother's house we go...

without a doubt, my grandma makes THE BEST applesauce in the world. it's simply amazing. so i thought it would be fun to go to gram's house and learn how the magic happens. mand and linc joined me and we had a wonderful time. i love my grandma. she's so loving, witty, caring and lots of fun! mand and i were lucky enough to witness an applesauce miracle - the most jars gram has EVER gotten from a batch, 9 jars. she just couldn't believe it!

let the magic begin.

what's with the crazy cat in the back?

little cheeser.


watch and learn.

he loves auntie marmo.

oops, cut out linco bean.

linc, saying cheese to gram rather than the camera.

now where'd linc go?

aha, i knew we could do it.

[although it may not look like it in the photos, mand & i did help!]

sooo, come on over for some fresh applesauce!

a darn good party...

i love socks. bright colorful socks. and i wear my favorite ones until the heel is worn-out and perhaps a toe or two is peeking out. and then i dolefully walk to the sock bag with my favorite worn-out socks that can no longer be worn. i came to the resolute conclusion that i was going to learn to darn, gosh darn it. so i set up a date with my mom and sisters, and we had a darn good party! mooms [aka mom] brought a darning egg - who knew there was such a thing?! for some reason i had way more socks than anyone else to darn [what does this mean?], so everyone ended up darning my socks, which i thought was splendid! we also had hot spiced cider, pumpkin cookies, and cinnamon rolls [mand had to try out aj's recipe on us - poor us]. we talked and laughed and had an all together darn good time. and i now know how to darn my favorite socks! how wonderful to have a mother who knows how to do it all! she's the best.

my darn fabulous socks.
[take notice of the vintage darning egg]

we have a darn good time together.

why wait?

justin and i have been married for over seven years now. ca-razy, i tell you. it has been absolutely wonderful! i love justin...i love being married...i love our life together. someone recently asked me a question that has been asked many times these past seven years. can you guess what it is? you got it - when are you going to have children? for the past seven years our answer has been the same...maybe in a couple years. now you may be thinking that seven is a few more than a couple. and that is true. but somehow the feeling has remained consistent, that perhaps we'll feel ready in a couple years, and a couple years keeps moving. to be honest, the thought of having children scares me a bit. justin is, without a doubt, my best friend. and i don't ever want that to change. i love the freedom that we have now. this past year we hiked in the adirondacks mulitiple times, took a trip to chicago, traveled to los angeles with friends, went to south carolina to visit family, slept under the stars with friends in limestone, ny, visited craiger in nyc multiple times, took a family vacation to michigan, and went camping in vermont! in the next few months we hope to travel to europe. [yup, we love to travel] it's also hard for me to think about sharing my time [and energy]. justin and i enjoy hiking together, going for bike rides, and date nights... and it's hard for me to imagine equally splitting this precious time with another human being. so when are we going to have children? maybe in a couple years.

crazy in love.

it's christmas time in the cityyyy...

christmas is in the air and i love it! we're already on our second snow of the season [yes, i like the snow], i'm starting to hear christmas music here and there [i usually start it after thanksgiving, how about you?], and everyone just seems a bit happier. i'm trying to get lots of christmas shopping done early - i'm a humungo procrasinator. i'd like to get the shopping craziness out of the way and be able to focus more on Christ and why we celebrate. my family now draws names, which is amazing. it's so much less stressful to focus on one person, than, oh what are we up to now - 12! but it's a secret so i can't tell you who i have. i'm about to read $100 christmas by bill mckibben [he's amazing, read ANY of his books], so i'll let you know how that inspires me. are you ready for christmas?

jake is looking forward to the wrapping paper.

my totally tubular twenties...

i stumbled upon the blog of someone who listed accomplishments of their 20's. i found it enjoyable, so i thought i'd share five accomplishments i've achieved in my 20's along with five things i'd like to accomplish before the big 3-0 hits. after all, i still have plenty of 20's left.

so far in this decade of my life:
- got married to my bff [yay!]

- moved from lakeland, florida to batavia, new york to charleston, south carolina to batavia, new york [home sweet home!]

- bought our first home
- graduated from college [after only 10 short years!]
- started college ministry at church





before the big 3-0:
- become a successful realtor
- pay off student loans [that's quite ambitious, mabye before i'm 40? *tears*]
- get a house in the middle of the woods
- visit europe with my bff [justin]
- convince eggy to move back to batavia :)


















sooo...how about you??

happy veterans' day!

fear not friends, i'm still here.

sorry about the break as i know you're dying to know what's going on in my life these days.

a couple years back i happened to call mand on veterans' day and when she picked up, i greeted her with a jolly 'happy veterans' day!' well, she thought that was pretty funny, so i try to wish her a happy one each year, which reminds me i need to call her.

pals for life!

my [81 year old] boss came in this morning and inquired if i knew why veterans' day is on nov. 11. i did not [you're shocked, right] and he went on to inform me that it was once called armistice day and it marked the end of World War I. i nodded, noting how interesting that was, and quickly googled 'armistice' as he walked away. i found that the armistice was an agreement to stop fighting, a truce. so now we all know. i am glad we take a day to honor our troops. my prayers are especially with those who are away from their families for the holidays.

happy veterans' day!

great pictures, great friends, and cowboys...

another fabulous [my word of the moment, if you haven't noticed] weekend. the weekend started with a relevant worship concert - and those boys know how to worship! it was a wonderful start to the weekend. i love it when the music's loud enough to sing at the top of your lungs and the guy in front of you still can't hear you [i hope he couldn't!].

saturday we spent some time with mom and dad and sweet little linco. he loves his auntie marmo and uncle duhden. dad and justin put together some picture canvases that we ordered. [pictures on canvas?! - genius!] our bedroom walls have been empty and we decided to print some pictures from the adirondacks that justin took. we thought we ordered them from peekskill, ny - just a couple short hours away. however when we looked at the tracking, we saw it was shipped from china! they are beautiful nonetheless. our new art:
saturday evening one of the new pastors had invited us over for cowboy soup. we weren't quite sure what to expect, but it was wonderful! as a vegetarian it's somewhat nerve-racking being invited over for dinner, because you don't want to be picky or rude and not eat what is served. thankfully the soup was mostly beans, [i shared a couple chicken chunks with justin] and it was sooo good. justin, anth, megh and myself took the theme seriously and arrived in cowboy getup. we love those hoisingtons, we're quite blessed to have such wonderful and fun friends.