Waterloo, Walk, Worthwhile

After being in Quebec, I flew to Toronto where my friend Andrea picked me up from the airport. Andrea is a friend of a friend of a friend all of which I am now friends with. LOVE how connections and community happen!


I met Andrea when she and another friend stayed at my house. We like to have sushi everywhere we go, so we decided it was only fitting to have sushi together! Traffic was even slightly enjoyable because it was nice to be in the car with good driving tunes and good conversation.


We went to an all you can eat sushi place and decided to be adventuresome and order the 'golden bag'. Scary when you have absolutely no idea what this could entail. Yet it pays to be adventurous because we got a tasty golden bag placed in front of us that we quite enjoyed! Mystery solved. Maybe next time we shall be even more daring!


Then I was off to visit my favorite Ontario relatives! Another reason why it's exciting to be moving to Quebec, because I'm stoked that I will be closer to them! They are a lot of fun and always a great time with lots of laughs together.


On the Saturday we drove down to Toronto to visit my cousin and his wife in their apartment. Walked to the market, bought some veggies and fresh fish and came back to make a tasty dinner of tilapia with parmesan, mayo and caramelized onions on top. Tasty!


I'm thankful to have such wonderful immediate and extended family. They are a blessing and I love that we all get along and genuinely enjoy spending time together. Plus these cousins are related to me in three ways. We are first cousins, third cousins and fourth cousins. Haha. And not to worry, it is all through marriage and not some odd incest or something. Hehe..









While we were eating it was getting pretty snowy outside, which was fantastic. And I was just happy I didn't have to drive in it. But there is something wonderful about sitting around a table with people you love and care about and just enjoying food together that you've had a good time making together. It draws people together in a really neat way I think. I just need to learn to follow a recipe.


Their rooftop had the most fantastic view of downtown Toronto from all around. Even though I had to walk through mounds of snow to look, it was worth it.


I had a wonderful weekend in Waterloo and had fun hanging out with my cousin Adrielle as well. We discovered credit card monopoly- so fun!! The Sunday night, my flight got cancelled, so the next morning I had to wake up in the wee hours to drive to Hamilton for a new flight! But thankfully I made it home, even though I only stayed for 24 hours before heading off to Florida! More on that to come!

Toast, Toy, Television

One of the cutest kids I have perhaps ever seen:


I bought these cups in Disneyland and absolutely LOVE them! I love Toy Story and now I have fun kids' cups! I just need more kids to come over more frequently! Or I will just drink out of them and fully enjoy!

Below is one of the puzzles that came out of the puzzle frenzy/obsession that has consumed my house of late and everyone that has entered into it. Many thanks to those who made the completion of this puzzle possible.
Last week, my friend Laura came over and we restarted our "breakfast club". Except it was for lunch which is even better. We rocked the French Toast and it tasted amazing.


i don't know why i thought it necessary to put a copious amount of icing sugar in a bowl for our french toast. usually one only uses a light sprinkling... but I guess I just wanted a full bowl on the table. Now I have icing sugar in a bowl. Perfect.

Mmmm... with fresh strawberries!

And here's a photo of my friend Maia showcasing my latest fruit purchase: lychee nuts! I have had them many times and if you can get over how they look on the inside, they are super tasty! You just have to peel them and then eat them! Just watch out for the pit in the middle...

And there's a nice, random post for y'all. Was downloading my pictures from my camera and these were on there, so i figured I should post a post about them. So I did. And then you read it. Thanks.

Starfruit, Seattle, Sisters

It's been a busy week, but now I finally have a moment in time to sit and post about some of my recent adventures!

On Wednesday, after an evening practice, I headed down to Lynnwood, near Seattle. I stayed the night in a really cool hotel, waterfalls and all. In the morning I wrote my GRE (an exam you have to write to get into a lot of grad schools). Technically it's a 4 hours exam. It took 2 hours and wasn't too bad. The verbal portion was the worst, only because I didn't know what most of the words meant.. I wonder if other people did? And here I thought I had a good vocabulary. Guess I should re-subscribe to dictionary.com's word of the day! :)

After the exam I headed downtown to enjoy walking around, people watching, some good eats and just relaxing and enjoying life around me. I fully intended to take a lot of photos... I came home with about five. I was too busy enjoying it all and did not want to take out the camera in those moments. That, plus the fact that there were random downpours! haha..
I love all the shops and places along the water. So much fun!
I enjoyed some steamed mussels for lunch. I didn't use the butter, but thought the way it spilled over the edges made for a great photo...
Seeing the men in this boat always makes me want to crawl up there and join them. My hotel was so nice and relaxing that I decided to stay a bit longer. I did a bunch more exploring, went to check out the grad school I'm looking at for this fall and just enjoyed "being" and having absolutely no agenda.

I came home on Good Friday and had some company over! A bunch of friends came over and we made lunch together. But while some of them went shopping, we decided to venture out and try starfruit! I really don't even like the taste... but I think it's so fun that it's star-shaped when you slice it! So here's some pics from that venture!
Ta-da! Stars!! :)
What a great afternoon of great food and fellowship! Was just what I needed after a few days by myself. My favorite part was when I left for five hours for a family gathering and my friends stayed and were still there when I got back! That is one of the things I love about having my own place-to be able to welcome others into my home and invite them to make it their own as well. An incredible blessing indeed.


On Saturday afternoon, Desiree and I headed to the States. We made our first stop at Arby's in Bellingham because that's where the Arby's fun started. Every time we're there, when I'm in the bathroom, I start chanting "Arby's! Arby's! Arby's!" and Desiree just stands outside giggling, while the other customers look really puzzled and confused, wondering who the heck is chanting. The looks I get when I come out of the bathroom are priceless! :)
Desiree had the large roast beef and cheddar which was enjoyed in the moment but slightly regretted later! hehe... We had a fantastic evening-went to a bunch of different stores and then went to Cabaret the musical. It was fantastic. I know a lot of songs from it but had never seen it live. It was well done and thought-provoking as well. And the whole afternoon/evening was interspersed with much laughing.. to the point of almost peeing our pants. Best kind of laughter I think (well.. unless you actually pee your pants.. but sometimes that makes it EVEN better.. not that i speak from experience..)
Sunday was great! I love Easter and the new life it represents and the inexpressible joy of sharing in the risen life of our Savior Jesus Christ. How wonderful to celebrate together intentionally on that day! The morning was spent at church enjoying the two services and a fabulous pancake breakfast in between! Then my friend Maia came over after church and then I headed to Abby for a family gathering which was great as always. Then Kristen and I headed to Vancouver for the Canucks game!
Normally all our pics at the hockey game are identical, so this time we decided to switch it up a bit. The game was great. It was a nail-biter, especially when three goals were scored in the final minute of play. But we won in OT. Phewf. And we got on the big screen of course. It's tradition.
Kristen was making an L... to herself. (for Luongo) It was Luongo's bday so we cheered extra hard for him. I even started the wave which I have never done before. Okay, it only made it halfway around the stadium, but I was still fairly proud of myself for influencing at least a few thousand people.

And so ended a fantastic long weekend! Well, actually we ended it at my new favorite gelato place in Vancouver. It's on venables, has 218 flavors and is worth it just for the experience of going. Didn't take pics but perhaps next time I shall! :)

And right now i'm working on a project that makes me smile and laugh, so when i'm done I will share it here! Have a great week!

Dinner, Delight, Dish

What a fantastic week it's been! I have had some great times with friends this week, had an opportunity to clean and organize my house after renos, and am getting more and more excited for things that are coming up this next week and beyond! Here are a couple fun things from this week and a secret into my cooking! :)

My friend Theresa had a birthday so we got to hang out and I was able to take her out for lunch! After learning that 11:30 is the latest you should try to get a table at ABC, we enjoyed lunch together and hanging out! Was great to catch up! Happy birthday Theresa!! :)


Then I had some friends over for dinner. I like pasta but I don't like most pasta sauce. So, I make my own. So for those of you who are creative and adventuresome, here's a peek into what I put into my sauce: Caesar salad dressing, soy sauce, bbq sauce, hot sauce, lime juice, garlic, mustard, Thai sauce and wine. I know that sounds like a crazy bunch of flavors, but you mix them all together.....

and then you add some spices! Some of the spices I love to cook with are: onion powder, garlic powder, seasoning salt, curry, chili powder, cilantro, italian seasoning, oregano, parsley and whatever else I see in my cupboard that day. So I mix this and the sauce blend, microwave it and then pour it over my cooked pasta and it's amazing! :)
Along with the pasta, I like to serve roasted veggies. So I cut up all my veggies. I try to get lots of different colors of veggies because there's more nutrients and it looks nicer to have a mix of color as well! So I cut them all up, put them in a bowl and add a tiny bit of oil and then dump whatever spices I feel like putting in (see above for ideas), then I mix them all around, pour them onto a pan and put them in the oven. This also works really well with potatoes or yams and once they're roasted, they are absolutely fantastic!

This feast I made was for some good friends of mine and their kids. I absolutely love them and can't get enough of them! So it was great to finally have them over! Here's some pics of the kids making funny faces. :)

And here's us enjoying dinner together (and yes the background is a sneak peek of my renos... and yes, my kitchen is indeed THAT bright!)

All in all a great time together and an easy but great meal to make! Have a good night!

Coming up next: Olympic Gold Hockey Game and Closing Ceremonies!

See you tomorrow! :)

Mexican, Margaritas, Making

My friend Kelly invited me to a Mexican cooking class/social last Saturday and it was so much fun! It was great to hang out with Kelly and see some friends I hadn't seen in a while as well as meet some new ones! We learned to make four dishes and I'm excited to try them out sometime! So if anyone wants some Mexican, let me know!

Kelly and I, after we had turned our socializing "on" for the evening.. haha

The setup for the class was great and there was even a tv to watch from above what you couldn't directly see!
Some of the wonderful ingredients! So tasty! And great to learn a different type of Mexican food that is different from just burritos or enchiladas.

Baking, Burgers, Best

Chrystal and I are quite the homemakers. Actually it's nice because she likes baking and i like cooking. really it's the perfect match! So while Chrystal used the many rotten bananas that have been sitting in the freezer for a while to make muffins, I made turkey burgers! Boy were they tasty-sometimes i even surprise myself!

And here's a puzzle we made. We love making puzzles so it was fun to sit down one afternoon and work on this one. I like fun ones that aren't overly difficult!

Cooking, Crazy, Cool

This week my life group had a cook-off to make a bunch of food for a couple of families. It was great mass compiling the grocery list and figuring it all out and then getting everyone together for the actual cooking. What a great time we spent together as well!! :) And I think the food all turned out pretty good! Makes me want to do something like this for my freezer! (I just need a bigger freezer I guess).

Terry and Joel cooking away

Kat and Joel

Terry stylin' in his apron