So Much!!!!!

Second bedroom

God has been blessing us so much. Not only has he provided us with a home....He is providing it so fast! The apartment will be available for us to move in this weekend! I am so excited to have our own place again. I miss it so much. Being in charge of my own house, and cooking and cleaning for my husband and me. It just gives me such a feeling of accomplishment.

Partial view of Master Bedroom

Livingroom view

This apartment is half a house, two bedrooms and one bathroom. The kitchen is kinda small.....but I can make it work. I have to say, I am most excited about being able to have my kitchen table, in my kitchen!!!!!!                                                      
I have also been discovering, that I am appreciating more and more doing things for me and my husband. Like making growing vegetables that we can eat, freezing and canning food for the winter, doing our laundry and making things that we can use. I LOVE IT! God really is giving me the attitude of a housewife. I think that is just amazing, because when we lived in Scranton, right after we got married, I struggled with having an attitude of wanting to clean and cook and take care of my husband. Perhaps part of God's plan in having us here with my parents was to get me to long for all those things that I didn't enjoy doing before! He has such a sense of humor.

Front of the house

 I am looking forward to going to our new apartment in the next week and cleaning, and organizing again. I can't wait to set up my furniture and to decorate. I LOVE the fall. I just love the crisp air, the smells, and I love the fall decorations. I am longing to have my own apartment just so I can decorate! Then I want to have a harvest party, just so I can be a hostess!!!!!
A friend of mine just gave me an Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer. I love it so much. It makes one of my favorite jobs, (baking apple pies) so much easier. It literally cuts out half of my work. Now if only they could come up with a machine that could make the crust.........

  Unfortunately, I don't have a way to tape this thing in action, cause that would be so cool to post here! Anyways, I used this fancy new machine to make two apple pies last night. (My family is so gonna miss me when I move out!) It is somehow so relaxing to me to come home from work and cook and bake. I love the fact that I can do so many things at once in the kitchen and they all turn out fantastic!!!!! So just in case you were wondering, here is the recipe I used.
                                            APPLE CRUMBLE PIE

   1 cup Sugar
2 tablespoons flour
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled cooking apples (I used 9 apples)
Pastry for single-crust pie
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 cup butter
Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar, and the 2 tablespoons four. Sprinkle apple slices with the sugar mixture and toss to coat. Fill a pastry-lined 9-inch pie plate with apple mixture. Combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the 1/2 cup flour, and the spices. Cut in the butter until crumbly; sprinkle mixture atop apples. Cover edge of pie with foil. Bake in a 375 oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil; bake for 30 minutes more or till topping is golden.

                                                                 
                                                      8-9" PIE CRUST
Use a pastry blender to cut 2/3 cup shortening into 1 2/3 cups flour. Stir in 1/4 cup water with a fork. Roll out on floured board.
 So that was all the fun I had last night, and today my family is reaping the benefits of having a Sarah who loves to bake. The other fun I had last night was playing with my kitty Sammi. Sammi was a wedding present from one of our groomsmen, and she has been with us since the day we got married. She was then only 5 weeks old and so tiny!!!! Today she is a bundle of energetic insaneness. Her favorite pastime being torturing my parent's dog.

Duncan looking so depressed...

God continues to amaze me day by day. Earlier this week I was struggling with a co-worker, someone who I didn't quite get along with that well. I spent that entire day praying that God would give me sweet and kind thoughts and words about this person. Then later this week I have been presented with opportunity after opportunity to talk with this person, and to get to know them better. God knows that when that happens I learn to like the person more and more. It is just amazing to me how quickly prayers are answered sometimes. Sometimes, as I well know, His answer is wait. But other times it just amazes me.
I want to end my post with a couple of thoughts from work.....first the serious one.
I was standing there....munching on a chip, and a really good one at that. This guy approaches, one that I know from work, see him all the time. He says "Why is it that the skinny ones are always stuffing their faces? And yet they get no fatter." I just laugh. Then he says, "That's why I don't believe in a god, it just isn't fair." I was speechless. What am I supposed to say to that?!
Now the funny one....
"Have you heard the one about spinach and boogers? Kids won't eat the spinach."

                                                                                                                          

Blessings and Updates

 Today turned out to be totally different than I expected. In a wonderfully awesome way. It all started this morning when we drove all the way to Scranton, PA to get our Sammi back. (Sammi is our cat.) Since our friends who were keeping her for us are moving to Ohio we decided that it was time to take her back. Then we came home and enjoyed a wonderful lunch with my family. One of the few times that we actually all get to sit down together and eat. Then I decided that since I've worked for 15 days straight without a day off, I needed one. So I called in to work today and decided to stay home. I'm so glad I did.
 Since I didn't go to work, Derek, myself and my parents were able to go and look at this apartment that we've been seriously considering. Then after going to see it, and dreaming a lot, we made our final decision. WE ARE GOING TO GET THE APARTMENT!!!!!! YAY!
 Then tonight we hung out with some really good friends. Today was such a blessing. Being able to relax and not having to work until 3 am....really settles the stress level.

So Tired....

 Today I just can't seem to get past how tired I am. I literally stood in the shower and tried not to cry. That's how tired I am. But at the same time I praise the Lord for how He helps me to see things. For the whole 30 minutes I stood in the shower bemoaning my life, wondering why it has to be like this, why I have to be so tired, now I'm sitting here and all I can think about is, i'm so tired, but it feels good. I have this accomplished feeling that one gets from working hard all day, and knowing that I will be working hard again tomorrow.  True, some moments I feel like I can't continue knowing that I work every single day of the week. At times I am so so jealous of Derek who gets days off and just lays around. (Which is totally what I would do......) But at the same time. I am so thankful that God has provided me with work, so that we can save up to have things that we dream about all the time.
 At some point, when I cease to be tired, and I have time to seriously sit down and do this, I am going to put a whole post about my "Truffle Dips". I created them from a suggestion, people have raved about them, and I decided to try and market them. They are a lot of work, but totally worth it. They are heavenly good!!!!! And yesterday, because of a really good friend, I sold 36 of them!!!!!! That is such a big praise. I will totally jump on any chance to make any extra money possible. So exciting!!!!!!
 This brings me to something else that I am thankful for. Great and Awesome friends. God provides them in the strangest places, and sometimes in people that we never thought possible to be friends with, and God uses them to bless and encourage us. God has used my best friend Katherine to be such a blessing to me. I love how we can be miles and miles apart, go without seeing each other for almost a year, and still be able to be blessed by one another. Her radiating Christ in everything she does is such an encouragement to me. Thank you Lord for such a good friend.  Her mother is such a blessing as well. She cares so much about everything and I know that she prays for me every day. Such little things like that, touch my heart so much!!!!!!
  Oh! And before I forget. Another praise. We looked at an apartment several weeks ago, not sure if that is where God wanted us, still not sure if it is where He wants us, but the landlords have decided to offer us the apartment. Please pray for us as we seek God's wisdom in this decision!!!!!!!!!

Life.....Just Life

  There seems to be no better fitting title for this post than just life. Nothing extremely exciting has happened, and nothing too horrible has happened either. God continues to teach us so much as we're living in this interesting situation, and He continues to bring blessing after blessing into our lives. We just have to learn to step back and realize we're being blessed.
  One of the biggest blessings that have happened this summer is my getting my old job back at the farmer's market. I loved working at Anderson's Farm Market, and when we moved back into the area I wanted to pursue working there again. However, just from suggestions from my family, and God's holding me back, I never pursued that dream of mine. Then one day my boss, Bill, approached me and asked me if I would be interested in working at the market again. Praise the Lord!!!!! Now I have been working at the market again for about a month, getting steadily 40+ hours a week. Praise the Lord!!!!! He has just allowed me to be working there again, at a much closer location, with good pay. I still do work at Wegman's on Sundays, sometimes not the greatest hours, but it's another job that the Lord has provided and I hate to give it up. I would say my biggest struggle these days is the fact that I don't have a day off, I work every day of the week, and I am tired. But I am learning to be productive in the hours that I am not working, and God is slowly teaching me to be a clean housewife. ;)
  Derek has received some blessings in the work area as well since we moved up to New York. This has been so hard for him, living with my parents, not much privacy, and his searching constantly for full-time employment. For the longest time he didn't have any luck at all. Then he finally got an interview with Borg Warner, and then we started waiting again. When we finally did hear from them it was that Derek got hired!!!!! But....waiting again, there weren't any job openings for him yet, so we had to wait until there was one. But meanwhile, in the Wegman's area, Derek was able to transfer departments. Now he is working in the Dairy department, and they are giving him a consistent 30 hours a week which is something he wasn't getting before. Praise the Lord!!!!! And some days, they are so understaffed in Dairy, Derek gets to stay late to help them catch up.  So with his working 30+ hours a week, and my working close to 50, we don't really get to see each other much. Something else I'm learning, to appreciate and cherish the times that we do have together.
  Praise the Lord!!!! Derek was able to get a new car. He is so excited, today was his first day of getting to drive it around and he loves it! The man is soooo excited!!!!!! It is such a praise though, that we were able to find a car for the right price, and one that made my husband happy!
  We are praying about an apartment right now. We have been looking around, and we went and looked at one a week or so ago, and we have been praying about this apartment, because it is looking good. Just hoping to get God's direction in this area as it is so easy to just move forward without really praying and asking for God's wisdom in this decision.

 Whew!!! So much to be thankful for. It just amazes me what God has done for us, and what He continues to do for us every day. Just today He was teaching me another lesson on my attitude at work. My boss asked me to do something and before I could even think I made a noise that showed how I was not excited about doing what he asked. So then he told me to do something else and he did it instead. To my compassionate heart that is trying so hard to be liked....OUCH!!!!!! Then it got me thinking, am I not paying attention as much as I should? Am I acting as professional and grown up as I would at any other job? Am I being a good example? Then when my boss brought it up it caused me to think about it more again. I think God halted me and said, "Yo Sarah, humility?!" Yeah it's so awesome that I have this job, but I can't take it for granted. It could be taken away from me as easily as it was given to me. I need to pay more attention, and quit cutting corners just because I feel comfortable. I know I'm rambling, but this is something that happened today, and I felt the need to blog about it. God help me to stay humble and be a good example to those around me. Wow....so much to think about.

Here are a few photos in celebration of my 1 year anniversary, even though it was a couple weeks ago, I though I would share some of my favorites. I have such fond memories of that day, but it also flew by way too fast. Myself and a couple of my friends have officially decided that every couple of years a bride should get to plan herself another wedding. By the fourth or fifth one we'd get pretty good at it, don't you think?

          

  This was totally not fair of me......In conversations leading up to the wedding he had informed me that he wouldn't smash cake in my face. But what did I do? I smashed cake in his face. I have such a determined look on my face. In reality, I am not usually that mean. Maybe Derek would disagree............

 This is just one of my favorites. The fact that we got to ride around downtown Homer in the back of a really old cool looking pick-up truck just made the afternoon. The whole day was fun actually. The only downside was all those bugs in my skirt.........                                                                                                                                                                   

Sarah's Labor Day Meal

So I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love to cook. Bake would actually be the better word, because I prefer baking, but I also love to cook. So for Labor Day Derek and I decided to have a couple friends over, and since I miss cooking for my friends so much I decided that I would do the cooking. The line-up for the meal includes......Teriyaki Steak, Country White Bread, Potato Salad, Green Beans and Oreo Truffles.
                                               TERIYAKI STEAK
2lb boneless chuck steak marinated in:
1/2 cup soy sauce                1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar           1 clove garlic minced
2 Tbsp brown sugar            1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp minced onion
This marinated all day then I broiled in the oven until cooked to taste.

                                             COUNTRY WHITE BREAD
I am so lucky to have received a bread machine when i got married. It has made my life so much easier. I greatly enjoy the ability to just throw the ingredients into the machine and walk away.
7-9 ounces milk                        1 large egg
1 1/2 Tbsp butter                      4 cups bread flour
3 Tbsp sugar                            2 tsp active dry yeast
These ingredients I threw into my bread machine on the dough setting. When the timer beeped I threw the dough into a loaf pan, allowed to rise again for about a half-hour, then threw into the oven at 350 for 28 minutes.

The potato salad is my mother's area of expertise, and I let her make it today just because she makes it better than I do. It includes a yummy assortment of potatoes, hardboiled egg, pickles, bacon and mayonnaise mixed in with it to create a scrumptuous salad.