The SUN is out today. It is so, so bright. Miss Marple and I keep squinting and I don't mind. Not one bit at all.

The superstitious part of me would like to think that this is because I willed the sun out for this weekend by listening to sun songs, specifically I'll Follow the Sun, Good Day Sunshine and Here Comes the Sun.

Think it worked?

Granted, it is still a balmy 27 degrees out, but spring is coming. I can feel it in my bones. Only 8ish weeks to go!

Domino is canceled. Please excuse my mourning in the coming days.

Also, this makes my not-so-hot day officially BAD. I could handle the slushy snow, being yelled at by a co-worker and lack of a clean apartment, but the cancellation of Domino has put me over the edge.

I actually have tears in my eyes.

My brain is beyond fried from job applications. Isn't that pathetic? I still have at least two more months of this (assuming I am employed very close to the move date). I could possibly have months upon months upon months on end of this. That thought is not happy or comforting.

Still, some things are really great these days. Last night we made the bagel dough from that wonderful book I told you about the other day. We haven't made any bagels yet, but I am eagerly anticipating the comparisons between these bagels and the ones we normally make.

So, I have loved baking my entire life and started out pretty early with peanut butter cookies. Sometimes if my brother was baby-sitting me (oh yeah, did you know we are 10 years apart?) then we would make chocolate chip cookies from scratch. He's really more of a brownie guy, so I'm not sure why we made cookies, but, I digress. Anyway, I worked my way up and tried baking many different things (my one real disaster was the infamous pumpkin pie of Thanksgiving 97) and cooking lots of food from scratch (still a huge passion of mine). I always wanted to make bagels and my mother told me that was a terrible idea. She told me that again when Nathan and I got married and moved up here. Well, you know what? I love baking bagels and she still thinks it's a bit silly, but she's glad it makes me happy. This new bagel recipe we're trying comes out at a cost of approximately 15 cents per bagel. Not bad, y'all, not bad--especially when you consider the bottomless pit I am married to.

Nathan and I had a really long middle of the night discussion the other night on where we want to be, individually and as a family, in five years. And do you know that my goals are not in the least career-minded? Seriously, my goals were all about my five year plan of grinding grains and making all of our food from scratch and whipping up natural cleaners and having babies with cloth diapers on them and all that jazz. Thankfully, Nathan supports this whole-heartedly. In fact, he thinks I should come home, so to speak, sooner rather than later because it would make me the most happy. How to accomplish this is now the big question. Nathan thinks I should write a book about newlywedisms and the new domesticity, but I think there is a lot of that out there already and I don't actually come up with anything new. I'm just really good at gathering information from lots of sources and putting it to work. Also, isn't writing books impossibly hard? I mean, not the writing, but the agents and getting paid and all that?

Y'all, career-wise I'm really not too sure what I want to do with my life. How did you figure this out? Did you fall into something or did you set out on a specific path and make it happen? These things I know:
1. I love to work.
2. I love to do about a million things (like baking, knitting, event planning, retail), but my favorite part of jobs is always the relationships. I don't necessarily become all long-term BFF with people (because, let's be real, if you aren't my family or have names that start with K or S then I have trouble staying in touch with you), but I do love entertaining people. I like to swap stories and find out about other people's lives.
3. I can sell almost anything to anyone.
4. I can be really passionate about products. I always wanted to grow up to be a Tupperware lady, but I am severely lacking in social capital. I would never sell makeup, so please don't email me asking me to become a Mary Kay lady.***
5. I think that I am really, really funny and make things more fun.

So, what to do, what to do? Lots of applying. Lots of waiting. Lots of thinking and praying and wishing and hoping, planning and dreaming to come.

***One time at a Mary Kay party when we had to fill out those info cards for them to be able to stalk you for the rest of your life, the rep had us write down how we felt about being a Mary Kay lady. We could either write 1) Sign me up!, 2) I need more information first, or 3) I would never become a MK lady even if my children were dying and being an MK lady is the only thing that would save them. You know what? I wrote down 3 and I felt bad for my imaginary children that I hated the thought of selling make up that much that I would let them die first. Yes, I know I have some irrational tendencies. I'm not still obsessing over it or anything.

You know with Gmail Google scans your emails and then posts things in the sidebar that you might be interested in?

Every email I get from Netflix about another disc of Rome being shipped (yes, Nathan and I are totally addicted) makes lots of stuff in Chinese pop up in the sidebar.

What is secretly in those Rome emails?

Let's face it, I'm better at looking for apartments than looking for jobs. This isn't to say that I haven't done quite a bit of job searching in the past few weeks, because, truly, I spend hours a day searching job websites.

Speaking of jobs, what are your favorite job websites?

Still, dreaming of apartments and beautiful home design also fills my time--whether I need to find a place to live or not. I am over the moon in love with our apartment here in Boston, but I still used to read Craigslist to get views into other apartments. I'm telling you--I love houses.

So, in the spirit of distraction by beautiful things, let's talk Etsy, shall we? Here are my favorite sellers and items as of late:

This print is driving me crazy. Yes, it is only $9.50. Why have I not purchased this yet? The answer is that I love a good budget and it just isn't in the cards for January. Maybe for February. I hint to Nathan about a thousand times a day how much I would love this for Valentine's Day. Available here.


This piece is by an artist who used to live in Massachusetts until about a month ago. I actually met her at Bizarre Bazaar. I dropped about a hundred thousand hints to Nathan that day about how much I wanted it, but, alas, I don't have it yet. I am campaigning for this as a V-Day gift as well. I love, love, love that she used a line from one of my favorite hymns. Available here.

Y'all, that cat is steeping a cup of tea. I think this is all that needs to be said. Amazing. I love it. Available here.

I have a dream that one day I will have a beautiful white kitchen with dark hardwood floors and lots of art. This print has a place both in my heart and in that kitchen. Available here.

While I know that it will probably be at least 10 or 15 years until I have a laundry room (here's hoping for a washer and dryer before the room!), someday, somehow I will have a laundry room and this would be darling in it. Let's be real--I have a slight obsession with photos of gorgeous laundry rooms. You know when you were little and you thought the height of sophistication was pink nail polish or high-heeled shoes? I am in the phase of my life when I think the height of sophistication is a decorated laundry room. Available here.

Hopefully before I get that laundry room, I will get a 2-bedroom apartment. Until we have all kinds of babies, that second bedroom will serve as a guest room, office and craft command center. This print would be perfect in the second bedroom of my dreams. Available here.

These little guys will get to hang out in the second bedroom too. How can you not love this? The elephants are in love! Available here.

So, I think we all just learned a few ways into my heart:
1. Washers and dryers.
2. Decorated laundry rooms.
3. Original pieces of art from Etsy.

Do you know how little is going on in my life right now?

Seriously, y'all, I feel like I go to work, mull over my resume and job postings, go work out, come home, cook dinner, wash dishes and fall asleep.

Oh, are you asleep now too because things are so boring?

I haven't taken a photo in weeks or shared anything particularly meaningful here. My life is very, very routine and the exciting things that are happening for me are probably not that exciting for anyone that has cable or a nightlife or lives somewhere where there aren't 12 foot banks of snow around.

One exciting thing is that Bath and Body Works now makes Need a Margarita? body wash. I've loved the scrub for years and the body wash is a much better deal in my opinion. You get a giant bottle for $15 and you don't have to rid yourself of your skin to use it. Let's be real--I need to hold onto my skin right now. My skin and hair are freaking out at the Massachusetts winter. Seriously, MA girls, what do you do? I feel like I'm the only person with flyaway hair and gross, dry skin. What are your secrets?

Another exciting this is that I have fallen deeply in love with a new book on baking. It was recently pointed out to me that my blog makes me sound like a "Martha Stewart wannabe" and a "Mormon housewife," but you know what? I love this book and it's my blog and I'm going to tell you all about because you will love it too. I promise. It is called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and it is awesome. So far, I've made a little loaf of bread for this week's lunches, a batch of cinnamon rolls to celebrate MLK Day and last night I made pizza dough. It takes about 15 minutes to measure and mix your ingredients and then the dough keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks. You get 4 batches of bread/dough/cinnamon rolls. I love it so, so much. I made my dough with whole wheat flour and it's incredible. Now, disclaimer, I certainly wouldn't call it artisan bread. I mean, it is yummy, but if you are expecting it to taste like it came from a bakery that has been using the same starter for 75+ years, then you will be sorely disappointed. That said, I love the convenience of having pre-made dough. Our pizza was awesome last night. I added spinach, artichoke hearts and low-fat mozzarella. It made a 10" pizza which is perfect for two people with an apple and a salad. So, so yummy.

Are you still reading? Seriously, y'all, would Martha Stewart blog about body wash? I think for certain she would never buy anything from B&BW. I think I can never be a MS wannabe until I shun the BeBeDub (yes, this is what we called in college--one of my roommates worked there). I suppose, I should really say Be AND Be Dub after my little Dunkin AND Donuts rant yesterday.

I was so graciously given this award by Mrs. Guru. She is just so sweet!

Laura also tagged me to do a fun little book post, but I'm currently at work and have no books near me! I'll try and remember to do this when I get home.

So the big news in my life is that Alicia and I got all kinds of lost last night--in a car with no locks. Oh man. We wound up in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot (side note: why oh why do people in Boston say D&D when the name of the restaurant is NOT Dunkin AND Donuts?) where Alicia could check the map and I could keep a look out for danger.

We eventually wound up at a really sketchy industrial warehouse under the Tobin Bridge aka a pretty likely place to run into the mob. Be still my heart. We got out of there fast. It was so frustrating to see the bridge, know we needed to be on the bridge and then not be able to get on the bridge. Still, we kept our cool. We're chill girls, you know? Also, it was only 8:00 a night. Super sketchy things normally happen later, right?

Well, anyway, we finally came upon that glorious view of the city and rejoiced. To celebrate, we drive through Beacon Hill and tried to peek in people's windows. Yes, we are creepy like that. Yes, you too would spy into the houses in Beacon Hill. They are that amazing.

So that's the news from these parts. We did not Die & Die at the Dunkin & Donuts.

Here are the thoughts swirling in my head right now:

1. Resumes are ridiculously hard for me to put together. Seriously. I have done about a million things and am really cool (I promise!), but the timelines don't fit, I'm not really in a field since I just graduated, but am I am just into a field enough that it feels like I'm changing fields when it comes to typing up my resume. My word. That sentence was intense and not in a good way. This is why I'm struggling with the resume apparently.

2. I'm going to Target tonight and I couldn't be more excited. Seriously, y'all--getting out to Target is an event because someone has to drive me.

3. I, like many of you I am assuming, keep checking up on Baby Harper over at Kelly's Korner. Saturday morning when I first read what had happened, I woke up Nathan because I was that concerned about the Stamps family. They've been in my thoughts and prayers ever since. Kelly is the daughter of a preacher (just like me!) and she and Scott struggled with infertility for so long (one of my biggest fears), so I've always been drawn to her. I can't imagine going through what they are going through. I think it's so beautiful that they are being so public about their faith in the midst of this hardship.

Big Friday, Big News, y'all!

Guess what?

Guess who is moving to New York City?

Um, Nathan and I are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, they are closing all of the Massachusetts branches of Nathan's office. Lots of people are being laid off, but Nathan, because he is a superstar hard workers, is being transferred and given more responsibility!

Hoorah for that, yes?

So we'll be moving in about two months and, of course, have about a million things to do before then. You know, like finding a job for me and finding an apartment and saying goodbye to our local family.

Still, how exciting is this? We are excited.

Now, I know y'all probably know New York bloggers that I don't. Tell me about them! I'm soaking up everything I can about New York.

Also, if you know of any event/meeting planning openings in the city, let me know!

Do you ever just feel blindsided by grief?

The other night I was riding home on the T, listening to folk music and thinking about how beautiful it is to be a woman and to have inherited a history of baking and cooking and sewing and babies.

I was thinking about those precious nieces of ours who are growing up so, so fast and becoming such interesting individuals. Last weekend when we stayed with them, one had us in stitches with the lyrics to her "Beethoven" song (Hey! Hey, Beethoven! Milk the cow! Ride the donkey!) while the other one asked me to just to lay down and talk to her for a while while she sketched and I marveled at how similar her request was to my requests at age 6. It's a beautiful thing.

Anyway, I share all this to let you know what sort of a mindset I was in coming home the other day. I'm so blessed to be able to live near my nieces because when I was little I was always so jealous of the people who had aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents all living down the road.

For some of you this may seem odd (Nathan just can't really imagine living that close to extended family), but when you grow up in small town North Carolina, it seems that everybody is related to everybody else. Except, you know, I wasn't related to anyone else. My parents moved out of Randolph County, NC when they were young and first married and we never came back. I never had all that.

Luckily, though, I got to see my extended family fairly often and because it was always a special occasion when I would see them almost all of my memories with my grandmothers are wrapped up in food.

Well, I'm putting together a family cookbook and I received my first recipes in the mail the other day and I wasn't at all prepared. Enclosed in the letter, my aunt had written out my grandmother's banana pudding recipe and it's a beautiful thing, y'all.

I just sat and cried and cried and cried--totally blindsided by renewed grief.

I still haven't gotten it together enough to type out the recipe for the cookbook. But I will. And I will be reminded again how beautiful it is to be a woman. How beautiful to inherit comfort foods and the ability to make them. How beautiful to be a part of the never-ending chain.

Anyone have any experience with this dress from J Crew? It is the Dream Soho sweater dress.

OK, I just found out it is National De-Lurking Day. Know what that means? Officially, you have to tell me today if you read! De-lurk yourselves! Go!

2 completely unrelated thoughts:

1. Y'all, I ate berries today and they were amazing. I haven't been buying berries because, you know, it's winter in Massachusetts and we aren't growing berries. Our salad at lunch today, however, came with a multitude of strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. I was in fresh berry heaven. Granted, I know deep down inside that these berries took about eight hundred millions of pesticides and gas to get to me, but they were so, so, so good. So yummy. Dreamily yummy. In fact, I think I'll dream of them tonight. I only have dreams to carry me through to the summer when berries abound.

2. You know how some people have word verifications attached to their comments? I have sort of convinced myself that these are real words that I'm simply not smart enough to know. Crazy? Yes. Still, it could be true, right?

Isn't this a beautiful photo? It is one of the photos in the BBC's Day in Pictures for today. It is the Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria.

I just loved this photo so much that I had to share it with you. I loved the Orthodox cathedrals in Bulgaria. This one, in particular, was beautiful.

I hope that y'all had a wonderful weekend. We certainly did. We babysat, it snowed, we ate a lot of chili and we deep cleaned the apartment. That makes for a fantastic weekend, yes?

Cardio Groove was crazy awesome. I'm pretty sure I didn't do the combination correctly even once in the hour, but as our dear instructor Al said, "That's not the point."

Al was awesome. What a great instructor. He kept the energy up the entire time and somehow taught us the combination without ever stopping. Seriously--it was cardiotastic for the entire hour.

And I know a crazy dance now. Crazy!

You can check out Lilac's take on the evening here.

Also, are you reading Fit Bottomed Girls? You should be. Reading their blog is like talking to your fun and super fit friend--relaxed, inspiring, funny.

Let me tell you something, I am designed to be married.

Nathan has been gone this week (he comes back tonight--no way am I telling the internet in advance of my husband being out of town!) and my whole life has been sort of upside down.

I was really, really nervous before he left. I don't do well with sleeping alone. In college, if my roommate was not there, I would sleep on the couch in the living room. I'm not sure why. It's not like we shared a room.

Anyway, I was dreading Nathan leaving. I had visions of sleeping on the couch with Miss Marple and subsisting on 3 fitful hours of sleep a night.

Well, y'all, I am proud of myself. Yes, I did cry when he left at 7 am Sunday morning, but that probably had a lot to do with the death-flu that we were experiencing. Not much seems doable when you are dehydrated and haven't eaten in 3 days.

Still, I persevered. No, I haven't been very productive this week. I have watched half a season of The Tudors and eaten a good amount of cucumber and salmon in the form of sushi. But, I also went to the gym, got 8 hours of sleep and slept in a bed! Without a cat! Aren't you proud?

Anyway, he comes home tonight and I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to go dancing at Cardio Groove with two lovely ladies from my office and then I might even eat some falafel. You know, so I'll be sweaty and have gross breath by the time my husband comes home. I plan well.

Tonight has been a fabulous day so far. I'm wearing a new dress I picked up at Banana Republic last week for $10. The sun is finally shining again. I'm going to Cardio Groove tonight (can't get over how excited I am!) and my husband comes home.

I think all my teenage dreams are coming true. You see, I always dreamed of being the kind of girl who went to fitness classes with friends. How much of a dork am I? Anyway, I was never that girl until tonight! Oh yes, friends, I am becoming the person I always wanted to be! I'm so excited!

It's nice to be achieving some goals. I was emailing a friend about this the other day. I have the big thing in my life accomplished. The really big thing that I was meant to do is be married to Nathan. Now, I'm working on the medium things. Trying to be healthy. Trying to figure out career moves. Still, the big thing is accomplished.

Getting married is not everyone's one big thing, but I think it is mine. It's such a strange thing to say in a time when such ideas are characterized as not feminist, but for me it is true. I'm still discerning the rest of my stuff in life, but I feel pretty certain I've gotten the word from above on being married to Nathan.

The air is clearing. Slowly, but surely, our little insides are healing and tasks seem manageable.

We have no fresh food in the house right now except for 3 lonely apples.

Everything was eaten or frozen before we went to NC. Then we were ill and no one felt like eating or grocery shopping.

I've been eating salads and fruit at work and hoping for the best. Still, it's time to buy some groceries and stop eating loads of tomato sauce and frozen veggies.

I feel like I am very much in a state of flux right now. Everything is changing, but not in a fast, swirling way, but in a slow, rhythmic, tidal way. It feels right.

I am going to my first ever spin class on Thursday night with this lady. I'm nervous and excited. Spinning seems like something that exceptionally fit people do.

I'm also into full-on beginning of the year nesting. I love cleaning (and dreaming of new interiors) in January.

Oh, and I have a request for y'all. Many of live live in or around NYC or visit often. What are your favorite stores, bakeries, coffee shops? I'm doing a little planning for a few months from now.

Sorry I've been MIA lately. Tuesday I came down with some sort of paint fume poisoning and on our anniversary (Thursday) I was struck with what we thought was food poisoning. Turns out it was just the "worst virus ever that doesn't kill you or even hospitalize you" because Nathan got hit with it last night. Needless to say, we're a bit down and out right now.

I finally got out of the house today for the first time since New Year's, so hopefully I'll have something to write about soon.

Happy going back to work tomorrow for all of you who have been on extended vacations (like me)!