Menopause, Mom, 'Mazing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A bit happy birthday shout out to my fantastic mom today!!

She is pretty fantastic. And a wonderful mom! She is one of my favorite travel companions, is always there for me, puts up with my crazy antics and my verbal diarrhea, does laundry for me when my machines aren't hooked up and I don't have time to stay at her house to do it, helps me out with youth events, and the list could go on and on and on...
It is a blessing to have her in my life and I am excited to celebrate her birthday today!! And to celebrate the richness that has been evident in it.

We started a bit early yesterday. First we met my friend Sandy for lunch at a restaurant called Eight, which was super good! All fresh food and really tasty!

Then we wandered Granville Island for a while, checked out some Asian markets, went to a musical, went for gelato and enjoyed just walking around downtown!
We were at Starbucks sitting in the sun and my mom was amazed at how incredibly hot her face was and kept asking me if her face was actually in the shade... Finally she looked up and realized there were blazing hot heaters above us! So, with the combination of sun on us and the heaters, it felt like a 30 degree day!
{Not sure if my mom now copies my facial expressions, or if perhaps it's genetic?}
We tried a new fruit called, salak, and it is perhaps one of my new favorites!! I love it and want to go buy some more! You peel off the outer skin and eat the inside as is. I'd say it was kind of like a lychee nut, but I like the texture WAY better! It's kind of acidic but sweet. It's from Indonesia.
We went to Menopause the musical, which was absolutely hilarious. The women in it were exceptional and it was fun hearing all the women laughing because they could totally relate. And the music was super fun too! And the lyrics hilarious!
And then we ended our day with some gelato from my fave place in Vancouver. Mmm... tasty! I made her try the basil and garlic flavors before we got the chocolate ones. ;)

So, happy birthday Mom! Hope you have an amazing and fantastic day- you deserve it! Love you!

Unemployed, Umbrellas

To commemorate my last day at Starbucks, I thought I would snap some photos!! It was a great last shift. It was Sunday morning so there were extra staff there putting away the order which made it more fun. i got to work drive-thru as well, which is my favorite! So here are a few pics of me an my co-workers on my last day ever working at Starbucks!! (hopefully.. hehe)

Louis and I

Laura and Kylie working the drive-thru

Louis making my last partner beverage!

Sarah and I

Kylie and I

Laura and I

After my shift, it felt so good to be done!! Nice to have a chapter close on my life. it was good while I was there and I had a lot of great times, but I am definitely glad to be done. After work, I went home and got changed and headed out to Walnut Grove for Guatemala meeting. We got to hear a bit more about what we are going to be doing on our trip and it sounds like it will be amazing! We're actually going to be going to Belize for a bit as well! i went there about ten years ago and I'm excited to go back, because it was an amazing and breathtaking country! Beautiful-especially the beaches!!

I left my Guatemala meeting early to go to church for a worship team practice. I got to be part of a band that led worship for MBMSI's Missions Celebration Night. It was so much fun! Lots of people came out as well as a variety of people from different generations. it was encouraging to see everyone worshiping together! Afterwards my friend Heidi came over for night. We watched 'Take the Lead' and then enjoyed a nice lazy morning this morning. And now I must get cracking on some schoolwork.. gulp.

This afternoon, Desiree and I are off to Seattle. We're staying there for a couple of nights for her birthday! We're going to the zoo tomorrow! Oh how I love the Seattle zoo-i have an annual membership and love to go! So I'm sure I will have some fun pictures when I get back. Hopefully it doesn't rain, but we will bring umbrellas just in case!

Here's an updated countdown:
A few more hours until I go to Seattle!
8 more days until my last exam
9 more days until Leslie visits
13 more days until I leave for Guatemala!!

And here's the quote of the day:

The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. - Socrates

Seattle, Soy, Snow, Swimming

This week my friend Lindie came out to visit for a few days. On Monday we went to the Seattle Zoo. I actually have an annual membership, so I like to go as often as possible. Every time it's lots of fun and the animals are always lots of fun to watch!
Last time I was there, the bears were still hibernating, so it was nice to see them this time. One of them came into the water, so it was swimming right in front of us (blocked by a glass wall of course). He kept shaking the water off his head. It was a little freaky having a 500 lbs. grizzly bear swimming right in front of you.. Made me wonder how strong the glass really is..
I didn't realize that adult male orangutans get really really puffy cheeks. Thought I'd take a bunch of pictures because it looked kind of funny.

The giraffes kept nailing each other with their heads.. it was really funny to watch.

Lindie, Kacey and I pretending to be spiders

Lindie pretending to be a Komodo dragon.

After the zoo, we found a great restaurant in Everett on the marina. It was a beautiful view and incredible food!!

On Tuesday, Lindie and I went hiking up at Cascade Falls, which was beautiful!! A great day and always fun to go sit and watch the waterfalls up there!


Thursday night, Chris and Kristen joined me to get some homework done at Denny's. Chris brought Kristen a ring pop and we thought we'd take some nice proposal pics. haha. They didn't get much work done, but I got nine pages of a paper typed, which is the most of a paper I have ever written in one sitting! Amazing!


The other day at work it started snowing which was pretty funny. I was kind of shocked because I thought nice weather was coming,b ut I think the snow stint is over and now the sun will be here!! At work one of my co-workers was pouring soy into another staff's drink who asked her to shake it before pouring. So, I started singing "shake it like a polaroid picture". The girl excitedly responded with vigorous shaking, not realizing the lid wasn't on properly. She proceeded to splatter the area with soy milk along with herself. There was quite the explosion and it was pretty hilarious!! She didn't think it was too funny being covered in soy, but that's all right. :)
And last but not least, our pool is finally open!! Okay.. so March is really early, so I shouldn't be saying finally... But I love swimming laps, so I get my mom to open it early every year (although I was a little skeptical with the snow). Every day this week I've been testing it with my foot to see if it's warm enough yet and yesterday it was! (we keep it really warm, so it's not bad in the cold!!) So I had my first swim in our pool for 2008 and swam 100 laps! it was great and i'm stoked for many more swims!
It was a little chilly getting out I must admit!! Last night I had an Easter Family Gathering with my dad's side of the family which was great. We had steak and salmon and it was SO good!! Mmmm!!!

And now I'm off to lunch with my friend Destinye where we will be planning our road trip extravaganza for the summer!! :)

Countdown:
4 more shifts at Starbucks
6 more days of school (dont' know why those two haven't gone down.. gosh)
27 more days until Guatemala!!

Panties, Party and Paques

You're probably all wondering why my post starts with "panties", so I'll explain that one first. Last week, I was working at Sbux on St. Patty's Day and I got to be the person at the drive-thru window talking to people. This lady came through and I asked her why she wasn't wearing green.
V: Where's your green today?
Woman: (checks under pants and pulls out her green underwear) Look! My underwear are actually green! I didn't even think of it!
V: Oh, (already wondering why this woman was showing me a portion of her underwear) you must have unconsciously done it this morning.
W: Oh no, I put these on yesterday, so I wasn't even thinking about that!

HAHAHAHAHAHA. i laughed inwardly but smiled nicely at her wondering why she just shared with me about her almost two days old underwear.

My small group youth girls

Today we had a family gathering on my mom's side! We had about forty people over and as always it was a ton of fun!
Last weekend and this weekend I got to sing on worship team (and ensemble this weekend) and it was really great. Because I've been gone a lot i haven't been able to be in church that much, but it was great to spend the last two weekends there and especially today to be reminded of and rejoice in Christ's ressurection life that He gives us! So great to know that I have something to celebrate, everyday!! :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter and I will be a better Blogger soon.. hehe..

My friend Lindie is coming from Calgary tomorrow for a few days, so I'm pretty excited! Kacey, Lindie and I are all going to the Seattle zoo tomorrow so I will post those pictures sometime in the future! Have a great week!

Cocoa, Cappucinos and Canucks

Last night Gab and I went to the Canucks game. They lost 6-2, but we still had a lot of fun and we made it on the big screen, so that always makes all things better!

The other day, I got my longly awaited for package from Germany! Wow.. I was shocked when I opened it to see how much chocolate was inside! Enough for the year! So if anyone wants some chocolate, let me know! :)
Sorry for not posting much lately. I just started working at Starbucks again and things have been pretty busy. Wednesday night i had my first shift and seemed to remember most things. I find myself putting an extra shot in tall drinks by accident.. oops! So if you get a tall drink that gives you quite a buzz, that would be my fault. :) It has been really fun to see a lot of people I know come in and to have a lot of the regulars recognize me from when I worked there a year and a half ago. Yesterday I totally bailed on the mopped floor and landed solidly on my knee, which broke through many layers of skin and now hurts to move and bend, but hopefully that will get better soon!

This week I also got another job as a T.A. at school. I already TA for one other prof, and another one heard that I had and asked if I would do some marking for him. So this weekend I got to mark 50 papers! woohoo! Actually, over the past year, I have been marking lots of different things and taught a tutorial in stats last semester. It makes me kind of want to be a university professor. When I think of anything else I could do, nothing appeals to me. But as I've been thinking about it, teaching in a university would be awesome and I would love it! So perhaps that is what I will aspire to do.. but we will see! Unless anyone else has some random career plans for me.

Tonight I'm going to something called "Walk through the Bible" at my church. It goes through the whole old testament, so that should be pretty interesting!! Other than that, I need to get crackin' on homework!

And the countdown to reading break begins: 13 more days!!!!