Reasons I love Puyallup #4: Flowers and Garage Sales

As Talicia would say, I got a steal deal on this stuff.
On Friday morning, my day off, I went to a few garage sales around town. One had these pretty jars, for 10 dollars each. Whaaat. I was not buying.
But when I went across the street, they were selling them for 2 dollars/dozen. I can do that.
The lady also threw in 3 extra ones for a quarter because they were the last of that particular size.
So what was I to do with all these jars??

Then this morning, I went to the market as usual. 9am and an americano in my system, I was ready for whatever the market had for me.

After meeting the COOLEST milkman ever, who gave Savanah and I free chocolate milk, AND buying some raspberries and blueberries, I ran into this five dollar bouquet of dahlias.
Ohhh I love dahlias. And I love 5 dollar bouquets. So naturally I got them

After some cutting and rearranging, I got three beautiful jars of flowers for my room!!
[On my desk!]

[On my beside table.]

[On my other little table!]

Flowers make my room so happy.
And the price makes my wallet happy. Cliche, but whatever.
:)

Mom's Birthday!

It was my mom's birthday on Monday, and I made her this Nascar cake. Muahaha.
Fudge marble cake with chocolate pudding for the filling, homemade icing, fondant and a nice little hand-written happy birthday! :)

My Tuesday: Kids, Cleaning, Voting & Sonic booms.

Tuesdays have always been busy days for me. For the past two years, mornings are occupied by the Oman kids. Cooking, crafting, running errands, going to parks, etc. Afternoons usually include some office work at the church, coffee and cleaning up around the house. Today was kicked a little into overdrive.

I started my morning with the Omans as usual. I was informed that Claire and Alex needed to clean Claire's room. The sweet, darling girl has SO MANY FLIPPING TOYS. And that in an understatement. But, unlike some nannies who might be overwhelmed by the task of helping a 9 year old and an 11 year old clean a bedroom in 90 degree weather with no AC, I was thrilled!
I LOVE CLEANING.
Can I say that again? I LOVE CLEANING. Organizing, vacuuming, stacking, moving, donating... its wonderful! So in about 4 hours, Claire's room was transformed from a war-zone of dolls, stuffed animals, Polly Pockets, ponies, dress up clothes, arts & crafts, notes and hundreds of books, to a picture perfect, Martha Stewart-y organized girl's room. She was very happy. So was I. I wish my room were messier so I could do it again!

Okay I'm weird. Anyway... there was one minor set-back this morning. The bank. You know, I wish I just kept my money buried in a jar in my yard sometimes [Would-be thieves: I DO NOT do that. Don't even try.] I took a good amount of cash that had been piling up from house-sitting, nanny-ing and such, to deposit. Claire was very impressed by the money, but I assured her I would never see any of again thanks to bills. No big deal.
Anyway, wrote my deposit slip, handed the cash through the drive-thru, and she brought back my receipt. Which read $100 LESS than what I had given her.
Okay so maybe to a millionaire, $100 is not a lot. But I live on a very tight budget here. For real. I politely informed her that that was incorrect, and she didn't believe me!
Yeah I know, CRAZY. Sweet, innocent girl with 3 precious children in the car, and I am going to lie about my deposit. She continued to argue with me and insist that she counted the money right in front of me. Wrong. She didn't. Even the 9 year old in my car knew how much money I handed the teller. So I went inside, she still argued with me, and refused to even consider counting the till. At this point I was near tears. Again, its 90 degrees. I have 3 kids with me. According to this teller I am out $100 dollars, and not going to be paying my phone bill.
Finally, FINALLY I got to talk to the manager. She was very sweet and said as soon as she got a chance she would count the till and call me. She gave me her card, got my number, and promptly called me 40 minutes later to inform me that I was correct and the money was put into my account. Praise the Lord!

Anyway, just this evening, I filled out my ballot. Like any responsible citizen, I read the voters pamphlet. Ah I love my life. I knew ahead of time for the most part who I would be voting for. And once I opened up the pamphlet, my thoughts were confirmed. I'm not all super crazy about not saying who I voted for. I mean, I am a fan of most of them on Facebook. First was Dino Rossi. Easy. I met him. In real life. I have pictures with him, and he's a cool guy. Check.
Then Hans Zeiger. I'm from PUYALLUP. My mom knows his grandpa. Its a given.
Then we got to Richard Sanders. I didn't know any of the people in that particular spot, so I had to read about them in the pamphlet. First thing I read on Mr. Sanders: Eagle Scout. Check.
I voted.

This is turning out to be such a long post. Sorry.

Lastly, President Obama was in Seattle today. That's not the exciting part though. If you are not in Washington/Oregon between Portland and Seattle, I will fill you in on the event.
Two sonic booms. Know what they are? Me either. But they come from jets. F-15 fighter jets to be exact. And they are LOUD. Shake your house, rattle your windows, make you think Mt. Rainier is blowing up loud. [Okay so the last part might just be me. I always think its blowing up. Every knock on my door, every siren. My mom says its because Orting brainwashed me. I just say I'm prepared.] Anyway, you can read the story here, but apparently some float plane on Lake Washington broke into the airspace that was a 'no fly zone' today for the President, and caused the fighter jets to fly almost 800MPH from Portland to Seattle to respond to the disturbance.

All I can say is what a day. What a day.

Afternoon in Seattle!

Last Tuesday, Talicia and I trekked up to Seattle for the afternoon. Puyallup was cloudy and cool, but the farther north we got, the nicer the weather was! By the time we got downtown, it was bright and sunny!

Our very first stop was the market, of course.
We looked in all the shops, stopped by the very first Starbucks and then headed up the hill towards one of our favorite restaurants: P.F. Changs.

Mmm mmm mmmm. I love P.F. Changs. I rarely get to go since it is so stinkin far away.
We had them make the sauce spicy. My taste buds sure have changed in the past few years!!

Lastly, our trip took us up to Capitol Hill, to a lovely coffee shop called Joe Bar. I am pretty sure this is the only picture we took together, but I love it!

I miss my best friend already!!!

Things I love about Puyallup #3:

TACOMA BOYS.

What's better than a 24 hour fresh, healthy market? Um, that's right, nothing.

Savanah and I went to Tacoma Boys the other night. As always, I was in the mood for a random mixture of healthy and not healthy. I opted for the healthy blueberries and granola, and the unhealthy strawberry soda.

Usually I am more of a Dr. Pepper/Coke Zero kind of girl, if I am drinking any kind of pop at all. But this particular strawberry soda came in the coolest bottle. I had to go with it.

Coffee Cake Fail.

I can't believe I am doing this.
I am disbelieving my typing right now.
But, in the spirit of authenticity, I will be real with you guys.
Please don't judge me... here it is:

Yes its my completely failed coffee cake**. I am so sad slash disappointed. I am a terrible baker! How did this happen? The center is not cooked. Its doughy. And flat. And the edges are crispy!! Darn darn darn.
But here are the reasons I believe it turned out this way:

1. I was not baking at my house.
2. Therefor the oven operates differently [gas vs. electric].
3. Brody was waking up from a nap.
4. The egg whites were not COMPLETELY stiff, but I folded them in anyway.
5. I lost my purple water bottle.
6. Okay #5 you might think has nothing to do with baking, but it does. I was upset.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though! I bought a NEW purple water bottle, and I am going to completely whip the egg whites until they are so stiff I can punch them and they don't move.
I understand that is drastic, but I am pretty passionate about my coffee cake.
As I am with front doors, but that's another story/blog post.

**Note: I use The Pioneer Woman's "Best Coffee Cake. Ever." Recipe.
And it is ALWAYS the best ever.
Even though this one failed in beauty, and the center is not completely cooked,
it is tasty! Just a little doughier than usual. :)

Rain, rain! Come back!

Every year in early/mid August, I get sick of summer. Don't get me wrong, I love sunshine and swimming and BBQ-ing, but not as much as I love rain and baking and my yellow Northface rain jacket!

I can't wait to make homemade caramel corn. And for it to be dark by 5pm. I really am a night person. And in winter and fall, the nights are much longer! I can't wait to go to Spooner's and get pumpkins.

Ah fall. Hurry please!