bake yourself a bit of happy.

so. i love to bake. more accurately, i really love finding funky new/rarely healthy recipes. there are SO many great baking blogs that are crazy inspiring, and FUN. i've never been able to bake as much as i have here at new beginnings, because we have huge pantries full of supplies. it's been really fun to experiment and find new recipes from nienie, pioneerwoman, bakerella, and now my new favorite: BAKED.


i really love rustic, simple recipes, and this book is full of those types of recipes. so far, i've only admired the book at barnes and noble, but i hope to buy it soon. i've tried a few of their recipes i've found online, and they're great. also, it turns out that they've just opened their second store in charleston, south carolina. so, carolina friends, you should go! (their flagship store is in brooklyn).

my secret dream is to open a really tiny little bakery, with big chairs, a fireplace, and lots of good books. so until i get an unexpected windfall, it will remain a dream:) but for now, i can pretend in our nice big kitchen:)

safe and sound.

new beginnings and our whole street is fine!!

after an intense 24 hours, we're back home.  nick, jess, and the kids are spending some more time up north, but will be home later today.  the musicks are back home, and i got the 'go ahead' to come home around 9 this morning.

so after doing some clean up in my little upstairs house, i'm going to shower and take it easy.  

some have asked where our girls were/where they went during all of this.  we only have one right now, who works in seattle during the day, so she just spent the night with a friend up there, and she is safe and dry as well.  

i think just about everyone in our immediate area is okay.  i only saw a small bit of flooding about a 1/2 mile away, so the prayers were answered.

after i blogged jokingly about evacuating yesterday, things escalated pretty quickly.  i talked with jess after seeing a press release from the city of puyallup, and told her it might be more serious than we thought.  at that point, i decided i would stay, and the connollys decided they would stay the night with friends.  the men felt we were all safe, but thought leaving might be a good precautionary choice.  but after an ominous phone call with the fire chief, miles, who had previously been very calm, ran into our house telling us the levee was about to break, and we had to leave now.  it all felt pretty apocalyptic for a minute.  

so, i headed out to find a cheap hotel that would allow pets, and jess waited for nick who was about 5 minutes away.  

so the whole thing happened in a little over an hour, from joking about it to being in a hotel.  the whole thing ended up being precautionary, and our house didn't flood at all, and even our fields are flooded too badly.  the rain stopped early early this morning, and i even caught a glimpse of the sun like 10 minutes ago.  the standing water on our street seems to be slowly backing down as well.  hopefully, we've seen the worst of it, and the river will have some time to go down before the rain starts again!

what's happening today UPDATE

we were evacuated.  right now beulah and i are in the travelodge suites in auburn.  what an adventure.  

got a nice little stress headache brewing, but everyone is safe, and beulah and i are laying here watching seinfeld, and the connollys are on their way up north.  

prayers for everyone in the flood zone, that they get out safe.  we'll see how long this adventure lasts.  but for now, here are some pictures of the pup and i in our new digs.  

i may be updating this a lot, mostly because i'm going to be BOred.  

what's happening today

i have been home for about a week, and life is back to 'normal' here.  when i was still at home, i looked at the 10 day weather forecast for puyallup, and was slightly depressed looking at nothing but rain.  and the weatherman has delivered, it has not let up even for a second.  let's just say there have been many wet walks with the dog.  many.  even so, it hasn't been as bad as i thought it would be (mood wise).  but, today after all this rain, the river right across the street from us is threatening to overflow, which means it would overflow straight into our house.  our roads are already flooded, and it's impossible to go outside in anything but boots.  

after our staff meeting this morning, i had to take beulah out, and figured the quickest and most effective way to get her some exercise and get her back in, was to throw the ball for her out in our back field (which is, you guessed it, flooded).  all morning we had been noticing the horses acting strangely and rolling around all over the place, and sprinting from one end of the field to the other.  i took beu to a closed off section of the field and we went about our business.  that is until the horses decided to stampede straight through a closed fence, and right into our path.  i think beulah almost passed out seeing crazy bucking horses running straight at her.  

so now, we're back inside, a little more wet, but no worse for the wear.  

i'm praying that we won't be evacuated, because that would suck.  i'd probably be that person that climbs up on their roof and waits out the storm.  

in other news, i am officially moving back to the east coast in the spring.  BUT, more to come on that later:)

fluffy fingers.

oh new year

well dearies, 2009 is here.

i just got back from a long-car-trip-filled vacation back to the east coast.  great trip.  for now though, let's talk about the best discoveries of 2008 (in no particular order):

cutting my own hair:  not fool proof, you can always tell that i cut it myself, but i'm okay with it.  it saves money and i end up liking it better in the long run.

the northwest:  love it.

pregnancy/childbirth:  living with pregnant women is crazy (fun).  after this year, i will consider myself an honorary half pregnant lady.  

rob and big:  i wish this weren't true, but i laugh so hard i almost cry anytime i watch it.  this is a whole 'nother list in itself, what is the most embarrassing tv that i watch and love.  watch THIS.

connolly babies:  love.

jimmy and faythe:  yep.

beulah:  yes, the first couple of months resembled a pee soaked hell, but we're coming around, and she is only a jerk like 2% of the time.  we're all entitled, i suppose.

macbookair:  a new love.

sitting in the luxury box:  i'll never be able to go to another baseball game again.

specialty's cookies:  eat them.  

30 rock:  but only on dvd.  not as funny in one episode installments.  

living with a married couple(s):  enlightening and hilarious.

here's to 2009, may you be full of surprises.  

just a taste of vacation