Flooding

Today the local river reached records high as the snow melted on the mountains and the rain came down. Dave and I spent the day out driving around checking out the rivers between Stanwood and Arlington and watched them rise and flood over into the towns and over the roads.

I have uploaded some videos we took ( here ) and some pictures from the cell phone are ( here ) tomorrow I hope to do a better blog post with some of the better pictures from the real camera but now we are off to get the daughter since most the roads between our house and her friends have been shut off due to flooding.

~ Michelle

Favorite Quotes

I am working on some new ideas... not sure if they will come to be or not but just tossing some ideas around. One of the ideas calls for using quotes....would love to see your favorite quotes.

Here are some of mine ( just a couple as this list could be miles long)

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

-- Buddha

A used material doesn't become a waste until you refuse to discover the potential in it.

-- Unknown

Life is the flower for which love is the honey

--- Victor Hugo

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. --- Herm Albright Would love to have you leave your favorite or favorites in the comment area. ~Michelle

Beach

This morning the alarm went off and it was pouring... not just raining.. I am talking 5 gallon buckets were being dropped full of water... and it was blowing like crazy. Dave had planned on riding the bike to work so we thought we should stay in bed this morning hoping it would at least slow down... did not seem to be in the plans... plus the neighbor showed up and the cat started meowing... rain or not it must be time to get up.

Taking the garbage can to the curb.. very short drive way... but I put on the rain coat and the rain boots.. still ended up soaking wet... figured there was no way I would be heading to the beach today.... even though I do not mind walking the beach in the normal amount of rain... the times where I am sure to be wetter than if I had gone swimming in the surf are just not too much fun.

Then all of a sudden it stopped raining... like a switch was flipped... and then the black sky parted.. and blue was shinning through... I am starting to hope... maybe there will be beach time.. but the tide is high and the beach unwalkable.. so I have to hope that for the next couple of hours the weather holds... and it does.. all of the sky is blue and beautiful and I am headed to the beach :) Had a nice sunny walk and came home about the time the sky started to darken back up.

More of my sea glass photos here

~Michelle

Mt Baker and a Christmas Parade

Saturday we bundled up both the kids ( 17 and 16 year olds, they do not really get "bundled" but I do have to remind them to bring a change of socks and to throw some boots in the back and bring a warm coat) into the jeep and headed out in search of adventure. I had not been tuned in much of the last week to anything local and had no clue that our very own town of Stanwood was going to be having an all day Christmas adventure of its own and it sounds like we missed a really good time. Next year I want to be sure and check that out.

This weekend we headed north.. then some east... and ended up driving to the top of Mt Baker. Lots of snow and it was so sunny that it was just a beautiful drive up the mountain. Everything was covered in snow and shinning, it was so pretty.

We then headed to Lynden, which is a dutch town really close to the Canada border.

Dave had read about a Christmas parade they had with semi trucks and tractors all lite up with Christmas lights. We got there at 5 and the parade was scheduled to start at 6. The roads were all blocked and a few people were sitting in chairs getting ready. It was dry but a bit windy and very cold. Not as many of the shops were opened as I would have liked to have seen.... but there was a bakery... we got some cookies and rum balls and hot cocoa.. wandered around some more.. a place was giving out small cups of soup and there were other places with hot cocoa and cider. by 6 the sidewalks were full and we found a spot to stand and watch the parade while enjoying our treats.

It was very small town feeling with lots of people and lots of floats in the parade. Fire trucks and police cars and semi trucks with big trailers covered in lights. Lots of different kinds of tractors with lots of lights. It was very pretty and well organized. One thing that it was lacking was some interaction with the crowd. Watching all the little kids out there freezing and yet so happy and excited for each of the new floats to drive past, waving and waving with huge smiles on their little faces. Then only one or two of the floats had people that walked along beside them.. a couple of the drivers waved but they were paying attention to driving. I understand that the days of throwing candy from the floats is past... it is just not safe to have kids running around in the road near the floats.. but I was sad to see even the floats with the people on them... not interacting more with the little kids... Grab a couple of local high schoolers and have them walk along with each float... wave to the kids... say hi... smile at them, maybe hand out candy canes.

All in all it was a wonderful time and I look forward to visiting the town again when it is not so crowded.... I wanted to try everything in the bakery and there were a few shops who's windows we could peek in that I think would be great to visit when they are open. Well worth another trip at some point.

On the way home we stopped and did the weekly grocery shopping and picked up pizza for dinner.... came home and watched a little tv with the kids and it was a fun relaxing day.

~Michelle

So Far This Week

This has not been a very busy week... I have spent a lot of time on the beach... Surprise :) Today was so beautiful.. warm and sunny... walked the beach for a couple of hours with a friend and we watched an otter playing in the water and then saw an eagle fly down and try to pick him up.. the otter was able to get away and seemed unhurt.. Eagle was angry and flew away pouting. ( or so it seemed. My friend has a cat that walks with her on the beach... I was worried about the eagle thinking the cat was lunch but the cats have been there for 8 years with no problems.

This has been an amazing week for collecting treasures on the beach.. heart rocks and wish rocks and cool shells and lots of sea glass. I have a bunch of ideas running around in my head... sometimes it gets like this where I have a million ideas, colors, shapes, and a mixture of beads and glass and shells and yarn and wood and wire and things I do not even know... all these projects just mixing around until I sit down and something happens... most often it is not what I think it will be either. It is always fun though.

I did get one new necklace listed... and I have had a couple of request for some items that I am looking forward to making.

The other really cool thing that I did this week is I "launched" a new blog I am working on with the help of a wonderful friend. It is called Coffee Tea and Recipes.. a place to share and talk about recipes. I would love if you would have a peek and follow us there and please leave a comment introducing yourself and share a recipe or two or hundreds. I am hoping this will be a place that my friends and family and people I do not know yet... will come and visit often. I would love if people share their recipes, stories, links, anything they would like to share.

Now I am heading to my kitchen to make some peanut butter cookies and finish up the chili that is in the crock pot for dinner :)

~Michelle