Hurrican Irene

Hi Everyone,

   This past weekend we had the hurricane hit. On Friday I went to go purchase supplies, because I didn't have all  that I needed. It was chaos at the stores. No stores had batteries or flashlights. The only candles that were available were tea lights or decorative. Luckily I had friends who shared what they had. Normally I have supplies on hand, this time around I needed to stock up. 
   At the stores people were a bit crazy, in the parking lot two women were screaming over a parking spot. I live in a wooded area, surrounded by trees and more trees. It is beautiful, but not great for power lines. 

 We lost power Saturday night by 10pm. We thought it strange, because the storm was just beginning to hit our area, so it was strange. We live in an older house, so lost not only power, but water as well. Luckily we can flush the toilet if we can pour a bucket of water into the tank to refill the water in the bowl.  On Sunday we went out for drive, to see how everything was. We turned from our street onto the main road and we saw the reason we still don't have power.

I drove by this morning and it was still blocked off, and not touched yet. Too bad, because that means there are worse areas that need to be fixed before this.  During our drive we stopped at a church member's house and they still had power. They only live about a mile away from us. We stayed and ate and played games. They we got a call that someone needed a shop vac to suck up the water flowing into their basement. So three sister missionaries, Bro Jones, and myself left to go help. On a good day it was only about twenty minutes from where we were in Mendham. This was not a good day to drive, but we still went.

On one road it was flooded, but the water didn't look too deep, so we tried to cross. I volunteered to get out and walk in front of the car to see how deep the water was.

I walked about fifty feet before it came up to my knees and we decided to turn around. Behind me the water was flowing a bit faster and was making me a bit nervous...good thing we turned around then.
    We never did make it to help the person, but in the time we spent out on the road, we were able to see first hand how much damage and chaos the hurricane left behind.

I will post more later.

Cake Boss

There is this show on TLC that showcases a bakery in Hoboken, NJ. Carlo's Bakery. I have watched the show with a few of my sisters. The bakery is a family bakery, currently run by Buddy, the brother in the family. The others that work in the bakery are various family members, sisters, cousins, and so on.
   I have heard rumors about how crowded it would be, and how you would have to wait in line for hours, just to go into the bakery. Well, my nanny employer at the time was preparing to move back to CA and one thing she wanted to do before the move, was to go to Carol's Bakery. We arranged a day, and the kids and I were going to meet her there.

This is me and baby Cole, and as you can see, there was no line to wait in. It was a Friday evening in May, while school was still in session, before tourist season hit. If you look closely, you will notice that it is packed inside the bakery.

 
 It was a "treat" to see one of the brother-in-laws come down and talk to an employee for a few minutes. I forgot his name. Do you see the stairs in the back? They were filming then, so a lot of people were going up and down the stairs. The sound guys came and stood behind the counters for a bit as well. It was cool.

 They had cakes displayed everywhere on the walls and counter tops.

We bought the pink cake and it was tasty, as well as pretty. It was hard to look at everything they had, because it was so crowded. I ended up buying an apron that said Carlo's Bakery on it, and of course I had to buy cupcakes. 

There were two flower ones that were just plain yellow, the red velvet were the two in the middle and peanut butter cup on the right. I shared some with my friends, but I had to try each one, just to make sure they were yummy. I was surprised at how tasty they were. 

That is me tasting the red velvet, my favorite. It was yummy! 

Hi Everyone,

  Sorry, it has been awhile since I last posted. I hope to do better and post more often. Today's post is about my drive from UT to NJ. I had a temp nanny job that began March 7th. So I decided to start the drive out on the previous Wednesday. 

   The weather didn't cooperate with me, so I ended up leaving in the middle of a snowstorm. Looking back, it wasn't the smartest thing I ever did, but I had to get myself out there, so I went for it.The first picture is of a lonely back road that connects UT to WY. 

This picture was from looking right outside my car, I was looking down and sideways, make sense? I didn't look up into the sky for this pic, that was how high I was up in the mountains. Was I scared? You bet, but I had no room in my head for that, I was focused on driving.

  While a bit scary, the scenery was beautiful and helped me focus on the beauty of the day, instead of the driving conditions. I was blessed to make it to NJ the night before I was to start my temp job.