Of things to come

We've been out of our apartment and completely in our house for almost two weeks now. Naturally, we moved during Central Oregon's ONLY snowstorm so far this season. Bone-dry weather bookended the four days we spent moving. Those four days featured tons of snow that plugged the storm drains, rain that flooded the streets and "fell" horizontally because of the crazy wind, iced-over roads and very chilly temps.

Have to get rid of that storm door soon...I am worried the HOA is going to yell at us for leaving it open all the time.

But we're all moved in now and it feels like we've been there all along. I have been developing plans and plotting with the fervor of a mad scientist. It has been absolutely beyond fantastic. Especially after I discovered this free furniture plans website and nearly lost my mind with giddiness. I am going to build SO MANY THINGS it's ridiculous.

I've also starting purchasing my anniversary present: an assortment of tools. (Happy 5 years, Todd! Our anniversary was in December.) Last weekend, I picked out a sliding chop saw and a small air compressor with a nail/staple gun. Pictures to come soon. Especially action shots.

This weekend, we're in Medford to pick up some of the rest of our stuff and furniture. In preparation for this, I bought a hitch cargo tray (which I have been thinking of and referring to as my "mini trailer") and intend to bring A LOT of stuff back to Bend using it. It's pretty big: it extends two feet behind my car and is five feet wide. Plenty of space for my wing chairs. I hope. We shall see.

I can't wait to post pictures of what the place looks like partially furnished and what I'm going to be up to. This house is going to be a wonderful thing.

Snow day

Yesterday was the second snowy day we've had here, and I have to say, I'd forgotten how much I love snow. I remembered loving it, but didn't remember that I could happily spend the whole day looking out the window. Which I almost did. You can see in the picture that it wasn't really snowflakes wafting down to earth, since they'd clumped together to form "megaflakes."

The only appropriate food for a day like yesterday is soup. (Well, to be fair, scotch, hot chocolate, warm chocolate chip cookies and pancakes also make the cut, but who EVER turns those down?) So I had this sausage bean soup. (Leftovers from last week.) I've made a few changes since I started making this recipe last year, including:

• Sometimes I add spinach (I think the recipe says fresh, but frozen works fine)
• Switched to using shell pasta -- it's cuter
• Add celery. I have this thing for cooked celery. Weird, I know.
• More onion, more canned tomatoes, more carrots.
• Crushed red pepper, since the sausage I use now isn't as spicy. This is a great spicy soup.

I love using it when we're having people over for dinner since it makes the house smell so good. Soup, fresh bread and salad make a perfect wintry fall dinner (or lunch).