Lettuce, Latest, L'Hiver

Today I arrived back in Canada to SNOW!!! Truth be told, it wasn't snowing in the States, but as soon as I crossed the border, it was snowing. Guess that goes along with the fact that it's probably ten million times more cold here in the winter with our igloos and all.

I love snow. But now when I've just finished a week in intense heat. And then I remember that although I LOVE winter in BC, this is my last winter in BC for some time, so I need to appreciate the fact that it is a little (actually a lot) milder than what I will be experiencing next winter!

Anyway, had a delightful time away. Hope you enjoyed the blog posts while I was gone. Did some scheduled posting to make it seem like I'm an avid blogger.. hope it worked.

Just a shout out to say hi and perhaps soon and very soon I shall have some exciting photos of the latest posted!!

Have you ever eaten at the Cheesecake Factory? They don't just have cheesecake as the title might suggest, but they have the most expansive and varied menu ever. Anyway, their lettuce wraps are AMAZING. Probably my favourite thing on the menu. Every time I have them, I always say the classic "man, i should make these sometime". So to avoid having to cook, I turned to my mom and said "Mom, you should make these sometime for a family dinner."

And WHAM, tonight it happened, a mere few days after the suggestion occurred. And they were awesome. Lettuce wraps and a night with my family (not to mention my absolutely adorable niece and nephew) makes for a delightful evening indeed.

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!

Underwater, Uglify, Unaccustomed

Underwater cameras = FUN
Underwater pictures = Uglifying {well, not really, but it started with a 'u' so i figured it worked.. but they are not the most complimentary photos to be sure but i will embrace them nonetheless}


As alluded to above, my friend Emily and I had dinner and underwater camera fun the other night. I love underwater cameras but this night photoshoot opened up my world to so many more possibilities.
We wanted pictures from afar and decided why not use the self-timer. While I am not accustomed to using an underwater camera with a timer, we are now officially pros.
We had a lot of laughs, especially because in some of the pictures, our faces are SO distorted!
One of my other favorite things in life is water. I love to drink water, and to swim in it.
I think that is partly as a result of having grown up in the swimming pool during the summers. Every morning in the summer, we would wake up, eat breakfast, go swim, have a lunch break, go swim again, have dinner and then go to bed early to start the day again the next day.
Actually, I was talking to my cousin the other day and we were joking that my brothers and I used to have to go to bed super early.. And whenever their family was over, we'd go to bed while they played in the pool outside. And they would see my brother looking longingly out the window waving, wishing he was there. hahaha.. the thought of it made me laugh. Too bad those sleeping habits didn't stick.
I love eye shots and also crazy hair shots underwater.
If I could be any animal, I think I would choose to be a fish. Actually, maybe a dolphin. Yeah. Because they can attack sharks in the side of the head. Perfect. And they're super smart and everyone loves them. And I know all about how dolphins can get stuck in nets and stuff, so I wouldn't do that.
We decided that a night of swimming fun was not complete without a tea party. We didn't want to go inside wet, so we used our colorful cups for our underwater tea party. A great time was had by all.
Now I think I will go swimming, because this post made me want to do just that! :)

Des' wedding was fantastic! it was outside, with no tent, and it rained quite hard.. but we didn't let that dampen our spirits! And thank goodness for umbrellas! Everything was beautiful and had an essence of magic to it. As I walked down the aisle to "Somewhere over the rainbow" i laughed a bit at the irony of it and wondered where the sun was to create the rainbow.

I have no pictures because I didn't take any, but when I get some, I will post more about the big day! And for now I will recover from standing most of the day and dancing most of the night! Today is truly a day of rest for me! Enjoy your Sunday!

Playing, Progressive, Perspective

Yesterday was a day full of unexpected treasures. Moments of enjoying friendship and seeing life anew through the eyes of a child.

A friend of mine needed a last minute person to help watch her and her friends' kids, so I said I was available and since i had planned to hang out with S that day, she came along too on our adventures with five children.

The day was beautiful and sunny and so we had a lot of fun playing outside. The best moments were "Go chase the bunny" and "Go chase the butterfly" and all five kids would run around chasing the bunnies and the butterfly and it was truly a delight to watch.

I love this photo. :) They have a large hill in their hard which the kids had a great time playing on and running up and down. Their clothes may have gotten quite filthy, but I figure those dirt stains were evidence of great fun that was had. :)

Rolling down the hill. When was the last time I rolled down a hill? And why not? And have I mentioned that these kids are incredibly cute? :)
Then we got down to the serious business and built a spaceship in order to go to the moon. Once we arrived on the moon, we hunted for moon cheese (which the kids decided was swiss cheese) in order to bring it back home to give away as gifts. All in all a delightful day of enjoying being outside and just playing carefree. Gives me a taste of what summer will be like.
Then S and I headed back to church before our youth event which was going to be a Progressive Dinner. I love that there is a playground right next door, because it is also a lot of fun to play on. :)
I love the youth at my church. I know I have said this before, but I really enjoy spending time with them and have been so blessed to get to know them better over the last few months. I'm excited to go to Mexico with a few of them and for other fun summer events and youth in the fall. The fun and adventure shall continue! I love how they show me a different perspective/way of looking at life.
We went to the first house for appies, then for salad and garlic bread at the second stop.

We enjoyed a mini-sermon about how to hold ten nails on one nail-good practical application. :)

At the third stop we enjoyed some tacos

And at the fourth, we had mud pie and pavlova-so tasty!

What a wonderful night to go to four different houses and get to know different people from the church. We were so blessed to have them welcome us into their homes and I am truly thankful for all of them! And I think everyone had a great time and we were all quite full afterwards.
And here is a photo of everyone jumping in order to burn off a bit of the four courses we enjoyed!

A fabulous Friday indeed. I even came home to a banana with a special note with it on my kitchen counter. How sweet.

Enjoy your weekend! Saturday is Seattle day and Sunday is pool party day! :)

Decisions, Dinner, Dancing

I felt like writing a blog post so I am doing just that.

Lately I have been having impromptu dance parties in my kitchen. I have two doorways, so I can dance in and out of the kitchen in a circle with my music blaring. And it's delightful and so freeing to hop and dance around while singing at the top of my lungs.

Lately I have been having a lot of different friends over for dinner or lunch and it's wonderful. It's so nice to be able to host people in my home and cook them a meal and just enjoy their company. I am blessed with a home from which I can do this. :)

Continually I am reminded that I hate decisions. (as mentioned in a previous post). I wish I could figure out a way to somehow balance emotions and logic in my decision making.

And I leave you with a quote that speaks deeply to me right now:
"Not a heartbeat of agony is ever unnoticed or unused by God"

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! :)

Dinner, Date, Done

Kristen has been living with me for the last two months and it has been absolutely wonderful! I have thoroughly enjoyed living with her, even if that has meant losing copious amounts of sleep! We watched a lot of Gilmore Girls, had some great late night chats (and even an early morning chat once when she came up at 4am to chat when I was getting ready for work). She had her last shift at Old Spaghetti Factory and so Chris and I went for a farewell dinner (we like to go have her as our waitress every Friday night). It is sad that we will no longer have a purpose for our friday night dinners... and I will miss Kristen dearly, but here's hoping she has an amazing time in France!!! :)

Kristen was even kind enough to buy us drinks on her last shift. And we don't even tip that well. But we do write great comment cards!! :)