With Love From Califon

Wow! What a weekend we've had! It all started with our middle-of-the-night trip to Jersey for the wedding of Jill and Tom, two of our favorite friends. We accomplished our mission - no traffic! It did mean, however, that we rolled up at Lois and Earle's at 2:45am - needless to say we did not receive the usual Steeves house welcome (though Kat is always up for a snuffly Hello). We slept a bit to prepare for . . . .wedding activities!!!!

We had a great time Friday evening, first at the rehearsal at Jill's long-time family church, St. John Neumann in Califon. Jill's priest, Father Bill, has known her since she was just a bitty. If I were ever to convert to Catholicism, it would be because of Father Bill! He is so warm and funny and compassionate, truly a vessel for the inspiration and loving kindness that Christianity is supposed to be all about. After a giggle-filled rehearsal the wedding party all trooped over to the Clinton House for dinner - only my second time there after all my years living in Jersey! Jess and I were lucky enough to sit with the Harrison siblings at dinner so we got all the wedding gossip and were within spit-ball throwing distance of the bride and groom (we restrained ourselves). It was a great start to the weekend's festivities.

Saturday was all about relaxation - Jess and the bridal party boys headed over to the golf course for 18 holes and the ladies went to breakfast and a mani/pedi session. I know the boys had fun and our pampering with the girls was just further opportunity to spend time with Jill and look over goofy family photos. Plus Jill's sister Brianne had put together a hardcover book of all our plannings and commentings from the blog - 'Jill's Bridal Beauties' - that we'd been using over the past year to stay in contact and discuss wedding stuff. Later that evening we spent more time with both Jill and Tom at a day-before-the-wedding-cocktail-hour at the golf course, where I rediscovered the joys of white wine and peach schnapps :) Needless to say, my sober Hubby drove Wally home that night!

Sunday morning was so exciting! The bridesmaid's single job was to keep the bride calm and happy on her wedding day. We were 90% successful (show me a bride that can remain 100% blissed out the morning of and I will show you the illicit substances that were required to accomplish it!) and we even got Jill to the church on time! The ceremony was beautiful (only a "minor" vows snafu that Father Bill smoothed over), a full Catholic mass, lots of singing, lots of people truly happy for the bride and groom. I got to walk with Jill's brother Drew - think I may have even gotten a smile out of him! I guess the only hitch was that the bridesmaids all walked up to the front of the church and as soon as we saw Jill enter with her daddy, we all realized we'd forgotten hankies! Many, many happy tears followed as Jill and Tom made their commitment to eachother surrounded by their family and friends. I'm sure it all flew by for Jill and Tom, but everyone there that day knew they were in the presence of something strong and beautiful - we danced out our happiness on the dance floor under a big tent in St John Neumann's backyard, and it even stopped raining long enough for a rainbow to come out - exactly on cue!

And all that was only the start of our adventures in Jersey! After a lazy Monday morning at the Steeves ranch Jesse got a long-awaited phone call from a Syracuse principal - "Congratulations, you're hired!" It's a 3rd grade inclusion classroom - just about the same position he had been teaching in last year in Brooklyn. Jess waited to start his hoopin' and hollerin' til after he hung up with his new principal, and then celebrations were started all over again! So much happiness in such a short period of time!

Since we were in Jersey and feeling like our summer together was truly official now (no more pounding the Syracuse school district pavement for Jess) we got to visit a few places before heading back up North. We had an unbelievable feast at John's dad's restaurant - Woody's Parkside Grill. If you're ever near Sparkill, definitely check this place out. It's a great mix of neighborhood bar (we watched the Olympics on their lovely flatscreen tv's) and fine dining - the food was outta this world! I would especially recommend the stuffed mushroom and coconut shrimp appetizers and the lemon chicken and linguini as a main course . . . After happily crashing nearby at D's house, we even got to see Jesse's grandma - and ran into Jesse's mom who was also visiting! Well, after having all this good luck following us we had to heed Margaret's advice and bought a megamillions lotto ticket - "hey, you never know."

Well, this has turned into an epic of a post - that's the update for us. We are happily snug back in Syracuse, dreamin up ways to use our couple weeks off before school starts up again for us both. We hope you are all well and enjoying the summer as much as we are.

Lots of love
Caitlin and Jesse

Summer's Here! (Officially)

Whoo hooo!! I am posting here now while officially on my Summer vacation! Final's have been taken and passed (yipee!), Portfolio's have been handed in - the next few weeks I am free as a bird!

I have two pictures to show you:

Do you see these lovely muffins? Why yes, they ARE blueberry bran - Jesse's first foray into muffin making! They came out of the oven at 6:10pm and are rapidly disappearing. The inspiration for the muffins was born out of a very real, very serious necessity - we have too many goshdarn blueberries! We picked heaps of them with downstairs neighbor Chelsea and her two kids, Windy and Fox. While Windy kept pronouncing the berries "Good," she didn't quite seem to get the idea because she preferred the green ones to the juicy blue big boys! Fox mostly drooled throughout the afternoon and kept the rest of us good company.

And this is the other latest addition to 203 Hawthorne: an overflowing wine rack! Thanks to two weekends of trips to the Finger Lakes with Lauren and Dan and then Steven and Olga we are well stocked for at least . . . a couple months???