for mom

So recently Lance & Kristen got married and had a photo booth at their reception. Typically a photo booth is filled by a couple friends or a couple, or parents and kids...or sometimes 6 crazy friends. They had props and everything, so we made the most of it.

It was great to see friends from years past all in one place again. The kind of moment you wonder will ever happen when you are saying goodbye to a set of friends at the end of a phase. Pretty delightful.

winter update

So - I looked back to that post about winter excitement, and that has subdued somewhat.

While it's beautiful to see snowflakes and watching flakes fall from heaven, most of the time it has just been in the way of getting where I want to go. Ah well :) Such is life.

But in the next couple weeks, hopefully there will be some snowboarding in this future. There will definitely be some stalking of amazing bookstores in Traverse City, and a day of cross-country skiing followed by a day of questioning the wisdom of cross-country skiing.

Tata for now.

for Caleb

This post is dedicated to Caleb, my little amazing friend. He turns 4 tomorrow. I eagerly awaited his birth since the day I first knew about it in summer 2006. A tightnit group of Americans working with English-teacher hopefuls in China, we all considered ourselves like aunts and uncles to our own little 'Heartbeat'. Heartbeat turned into a bouncing baby boy, then a beautiful toddler, and now a precocious and boundary-testing 4-year-old.

Although my days are spent working with parents, Caleb reminds me of the joy children bring. Yesterday a sweet 2-year-old died in a bad car accident not far from my home, her little sister will remain unborn, and her mother teeters on the edge of death. I grieve for that situation, and have to stop myself from feeling bitterly toward people (even myself) who complain for things so much smaller than loss of life, and have negative outlooks.

All people are a gift, particularly delightful when they are tiny ones. I'm so thankful that Caleb has come so far, from being a tiny miniscule speck to a couble dozen pounds and so smart, laughing, and smiley. Thank you God for reminding us of joy in the midst of suffering. Wholeheartedly I can't help but believe there is more to our lives than a beating heart that one day stills.

So thank you Caleb. I'm excited to see the person you're growing into.

Insatiable

This year it seems like winter took a little longer in getting here, but we didn't really notice that it was not until December 1 that there was any significant snowfall to speak of. Someone told me that normally we have had about 8 inches of snowfall in the month of November.



Might explain why now on the 10th of December I am still very excited about the season. It doesn't hurt that skiing, ice skating, and sledding (as well as people to drag along with) are within an arm's grasp. This winter hockey is on the agenda (watching, not necessarily playing) as well as snowboarding.


This little guy wasn't so excited about winter. But I have to admit, he was placed in this position post-mortem. He died in a nice warm(ish) attic!

What's got you excited this weather season?

Christmastime is here

And this video just makes me smile and cry a little, it's so lovely..

I know it's completely viral and you've probably already seen it, but just in case...this one's for you mom.

NYC Report

Well, I had a fabulous time in the city that never sleeps, and managed to get a few winks of sleep. Not enough, though, to keep me from getting ill on my return to the homefront. C'est la vie.

Before I forget all the things I did, these things have to be written down!

-Spending a day with an old high school friend and crazily-busy New Yorker Jeff who is a website developer, nonprofit founder and director, and artist of course

-Visiting Little Italy, Chinatown, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, South Seaport, Staten Island, Chelsea, the NY Public Library, American Museum of Natural History, watching the Thanksgiving parade from Times Square...

-Seeing a bible from about the year 900, a first-edition year 1611 King James Bible, 13th century Samaritan Pentateuch, year 1333 edition of the Qur'an and many other pieces at the Three Faiths Abrahamic exhibition at the New York Public Library

-Watching an incredible performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin by the Metropolitan Playhouse. Each person had 2-5 roles and each actor was amazing

-Watching Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (commonly known as TMLMtBGB which was pretty awesome. Don't worry, they have a more famous troupe in Chicago if you midwesterners want to go. The cost is $10 and the roll of the die!

-Doing a job-shadow at a middle school in the Bronx of my amazing teacher-friend Amber

-Staying up past 3 a 2nd year in a row because of commuting around Manhattan

-BAGELS

-Seeing Wallace Shawn (the Sicilian from The Princess Bride) and some of his friends (Fran Leibowitz, Julianne Moore, Mary-Louise Parker, Josh Hamilton, and others) read some of Shawn's writings at CUNY grad-school from the 4th row

-Ice-skating for free in Bryant Park and dodging the other 200 people on the rink

-Thai food, pizza, Chinese food, baozi, home-made cranberry sauce, Butterball turkey and dinner made by an Albanian :)

-Watching a food cart for the vendor because he had to go to the store (he did come back)

There are just so many fun things that happened. I'm thankful that I can go and do them and have friends in so many different places. It's difficult to live so far away from them sometimes, and impossible to live with them all because everybody's so spread out, but while building community in my little town in Michigan I'm grateful to have friends and family to run to from time to time. So this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for my job, friends, family, and so many colorful experiences that those three things have shaped into something that's called life.

Voting Update

Kristie WON the Del Monte Teacher Monday contest today!

Just in case anyone who read the voting post was wondering.

Autumn

This season has me eating lots of soup, starting to run again (ran a mile yesterday), and eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving week in the south Bronx.

:)

VOTE!

Unless you've been living in a hole (or outside of TVland coverage) you know that it's almost time to see you at the polls. I'm frantically researching who to vote for since I still haven't decided all the people I'm going to vote for.

One person I do know I'm voting for, however, is my cousin, Kristie. She's in a different sort of election. She's an elementary school teacher working on a severely restricted budget in Michigan. She decided to try and get a small grant from Dole to help pay for classroom supplies and fruit for her detectives to snack on.

She's an amazing teacher. Totally fit to the wee ones she educates. So would you be so kind as to click this link and type the letters to validate your humanness? 30 seconds should do it. And you could vote every day if you were so inclined. Or share the link. Or both :)

Vote for Kristie

It's been a busy month so far, working in the corn and pressing cider. Okay, I only hunted through the corn and waited in line for the cider. But it was time for a post and I've got to go back to work now.

:)

Can you see every step?

Watch that step...and that one...and that one..., originally uploaded by sarah_laughingguts.

Or just enough?

I've been worried about you...

That's what Mr. D said to me a couple weeks ago after staff meeting. After seeing the perplexed look on my face, he went on to explain that so often when he first knew me, I was smiling and laughing. Lately he hadn't seen that glow about me.

Hadn't even noticed. Actually, what I noticed was myself feeling a little better lately. The past couple weeks I had worked hard to be more involved, working and playing harder and showing the spark. Granted, this fella doesn't see me that much, but it brought me down a bit to think that for someone who had appeared so nice and encouraging I was beginning to wither and smile with faded eyes.

He encouraged me to make sure I get out there and have fun, because all work and no play makes Sarah a dull girl...So with a smile I told him of my plans for the weekend.

A week later he was laid off.

How quickly things change, don't they? 'Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die' is a little bit of the feeling we have when others we grow to depend on (or ourselves) get laid off/fired/given life-altering news.

So I'm encouraged to remember what's important. To act when thoughts come, not just to simmer on them until the outcome is highly likely to be exactly what I desire. Because we all know there's not enough time in the world for all that. So carpe diem. Make sure you take hold of that day you have, figure out what you're supposed to do with it, and do that. And again tomorrow. And again tomorrow.

ArtPrize Grand Rapids

This year I made it to the show at least once. This weekend is the final weekend of ArtPrize, where 1700+ artists are showcasing their best in hopes of being chosen by the viewer to win the $250,000 prize. It's an amazing show. It can be a little difficult to discuss an artist's work while they're right there ready to tell you all about themselves and what their piece represents. The real bummer, though, is that you have to register in person to be able to vote. The first week we have been able to vote up or down for any work at all. The 2nd week each registered voter has only one vote to use for the top 10 finalists. ONE vote!

It's amazing.

Go see!


ArtPrize

Dedicated to Jack Horkheimer

One of the unfortunate things about not watching the daily news and focusing on international news is that some memorable events are missed. Like Jack Horkheimer's passing on, unknown to me until this evening. The Star Hustler hustled me right into awe of the starry night - well, the ability to focus on certain happenings in that starry night, anyway. I watched his last episode and noticed he did sound pretty raspy. But that legendary enthusiasm still shone through.

His epitaph, which he wrote years ago for himself:

"Keep Looking Up" was my life's admonition;
I can do little else in my present position.

Goodbye Jack!

Martin family

My great grandmother Bernice (Weiss) Gable 1895-1976 is mentioned at the tail end of my ancestors lineage in this book. It details Martin history from before coming to New England in 1635 and the Martins who helped found a colony there, all the way to Posey Chapel in Three Oaks, Michigan back in 1840, just shortly after Michigan became a state in the Union!

Alice Martin died at age 91 in 1870. And here I thought we've been living longer and longer. It's incredible to see the amounts of time some of my ancestors have lived. And the amounts of children that they have!

September

Is it really 9 months of the way through 2010? I can remember the days when I thought the 2000s were so very far away. A weird little kid, that girl who wondered if she would see the world at all like Laura Ingalls, who saw the turn of a century, and Helen Keller, who also experience the turn of the century. She actually was born in 1880, just about 100 years my senior. What did they think about the changing world? How would they be coping with such drastic changes like television, internet, cell phones, texting? Would Helen have had that surgery that reconnects your vision to your brain? She was so incredibly intelligent.

There's so much to learn!

Weekend in August

Marisa Jealous Pic, originally uploaded by sarah_laughingguts.

This past weekend nuptials took place in this location. We drove to Marquette, MI then 20 minutes further north and down a dirt road. Then we abandoned the cars for a 10 minute trail in the woods to come out on rocks overlooking the pond seen in this picture.

It was lovely.

Weekend in August

sunset, originally uploaded by sarah_laughingguts.

I can hardly wait

:)

Fear

I listened to the words of a song by Mat Kearney this evening:

Closer To Love

She got the call today
One out of the gray
And when the smoke cleared
It took her breath away

She said she didn't believe
It could happen to me
I guess we're all one phone call from our knees

I wonder if people really think about this? In the quiet moments I find myself dreading a bad phone call that will change my life in one single moment. But maybe it will be a single good phone call. There's this feeling that it's going to happen, probably more than once in a lifetime. Those turning-points can sometimes be pinpointed to one clear moment, can't they? Are you thinking of a moment?

Riding *yawn* Part II

Alright, the story: rode over the mighty I-94 to the PCBP and saw many interesting things, mostly in the people and dog department. So many dogs are teeny-tiny! I don't really think I'd want a super small one. Or maybe I just felt really tall because of zooming by on a bike?

Who knows.

Anyway, I had my helmet with me because when I was 12 I was in a mysterious accident and not wearing a helmet. Went to the hospital via ambulance, apparently, thought I was dying, and repeatedly told my father that I loved him. What I remember is pulling out of school and then waking up the next morning wondering why I was in the guest bedroom downstairs.

So the helmet was with me. Since the ride started out in a slow residential area, I was cool and not wearing it. Until I found myself on a 5-lane highway going 20 miles an hour, I remained cool, then became stupid as I realized how fast I was going and how much faster (and disconcertingly close in spite of a well-marked bike path section) cars were driving by me.

I'm no stranger to crazy bike/auto closeness. My very first bike ride on the road in China resulted in an accident. Not mine, but someone who didn't realize I was a 'laowai' foreigner being careful. Yep. Caused an accident. We'll not go into details now as to how it ended. Not one of my proudest moments. Let's just say I wasn't taken by the police for questioning as I was terrified might happen.

Anyway, I'm now exhausted with a satisfied belly and clean hair!