Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday was a rainy day. My bike ride in was wet and it made me realize how much I wish for a front fender so the road splatter would stay off my face!

I realized that my shirt was dirty part way through the day. Awesome.

But I felt great about my planning all day because I knew my kitchen was ready for me to come home and throw dinner together for 13 people.

My fridge was stocked with a meatless casserole, and a giant turkey to shred and add to it.

You can just go ahead and ignore that box of wine. Go on. Just ignore it.

The casserole and turkey turned into this: Mmmm Broccoli, Rice & Turkey Casserole. Love it.

Preparing for Life Group was very different this week. Normally I do the cooking and Paul sets up the tables, sets the tables and preps the coffee and beverages. No Paul meant no time to set up. Multiple times throughout the evening someone would ask about something and I’d realized that Paul normally did that task – I think we’ll be better prepared for next week, but this is a shout out to Paul – thanks for all you do!

Gabe led worship for us again this week at Life Group, and I am continually reminded at what a blessing that is. Worship is such a huge part of us coming together to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and it really helps us get focused..because sometimes trying to get the group of us to focus is like herding cats – we like laughing and joking way to much!

We have been sharing our testimonies at Life Group, as I’ve previously mentioned, and Dustin shared his this week. Dustin grew up in the same small town as I did. We grew up going to the same church but I was quite a few years older than him and never really knew him. I knew of his family quite well, in fact his older cousin and brother were the “young” youth boys, when I was one of the senior youth. He moved here to go to school in January, moved in with two of the guys in our life group, and finally started to join us sometime in March, right before our Cabin Weekend. He is a great addition to our group – he is funny, kind and very honest. Tonight he was not only sharing his back story but also how God had moved in his life. It was real, honest, thought provoking, humble and pointed us towards God. I am so thankful to have Dustin as part of our group and can’t wait to see how God will use him. I know God has already used him plenty just within our small group!

Oh…this is not only our lifegroup plus some extra’s but also minus some of us…

and this photo is by @Stefany Mailhiot Photography – captions, written by moi of course.

Wednesday has been a regular day at work, but my parents came by for lunch so that made it special. I’ve also just been given a big tedious task that will nicely fill all of tomorrow, so that is a good thing.

And now I need your help. Paul gave me a necklace for Christmas. Well really it was a New Years gift since we weren’t doing Christmas gifts but he wanted to spoil me anyways – what a sweet man.

Alright, now that you’re done throwing up I’ll tell you my dilemma. My sweet husband bought me a beautiful, non returnable necklace that is unlike any necklace I would wear. It is in very “Tara” colours – but not colours I would buy in jewelry since I like my jewelry to match everything, and I prefer my accessories to be silver, not gold in colour. Even my wedding ring is white gold!

It is also an awkward length on me. Because of my ridiculous top heavy-ness there are many types of necklaces I can’t wear, and this would be one that can be quite awkward unless I want the necklace to sink into my cleavage, never to be seen again…which I definitely don’t want.

I’ve been pondering this for a while now and today I saw a similar necklace on one of the bloggers I follow over at the Small Things Blog. Hers was by Stella and Dot and mine is by Blue Ruby, but they are very similar in shape and colour. Seeing how she’d worn hers gave me some excitement to try again. I tried to use similar colours in my clothing. When I tried to wear the necklace just as she did I wasn’t sold. So I tried it a few other ways. Now I have no idea which is best and no one to ask! This is where you come in.

Here are the four looks:

Which do you think works the best?

Sorry for the blur on that last one.

I tried more than once but apparently if the necklace is knotted like that I can't take a non-blurry photo

Also this is what I wore on Wednesday, though the jacket was too hot for most of the day.

Wednesday night I was lucky enough to hang out with my lovely friend Sarah. Sarah and I both grew up in Port Alberni, went to the same church and later both moved to Vancouver. She moved a few years before me - but I moved here at a time when we both needed jobs and I managed to find a job and in that position we needed to find someone else who needed a job, so voila, enter Sarah. We only got to work together for 3 weeks (it was a short term job) but I loved working side by side with her every day. She is joyfilled and kind and caring. She is now a teacher in Richmond and living in a super cute apartment that over looks a gorgeous field that her Uncle farms. It was great to see her new space, and really great to reconnect - I always thoroughly enjoy time spent with her.

We didn't take any pictures last night, so here are a few from times over the years. 

Mostly from our time working together in Vancouver.

A Holiday Monday, taco's with favorite friends and a movie night.

It was one lovely evening, waaaay back in the day.

I still lived with Lyndsay in this photo!

She may hate me for this photo. We'll see.

This one is with our friend Tami.

We had a silly day where we ran around UBC and Sarah's dorm taking ridiculous photos.

We were much too old to be doing this and it was awesome.