Bacon Avocado Chicken Melt w. Garlic Butter // Breakfast Quiche

I love making food for Paul and I weekends. But I get tired of making breakfast food sometimes. 

Saturday we woke up by 10 but laid in bed being lazy until almost noon. It was lovely. By that time we were STARVING and we decided that we should eat something awesome. But nothing in me wanted to cook up breakfast foods. Then I remember a sandwich I'd seen here. 

I knew I didn't have basil, and that I had farmers sausage, not bacon but I thought I would attempt the sandwich anyways. And instead of garlic basil mayo, I'd make Johnny's Garlic Spread Mayo. 

It was an excellent sandwich. 

While the chicken was cooking in the oven I got the cheese out, sliced up my avocados, got the lettuce ready, sliced some tomatoes and for Paul sliced some onions. 

Then I assembled the veggies on the sandwiches.

Then it was time to melt cheese over the chicken, atop garlic mayo and bread.

Mozza and Parmesan Cheese for me, Pepper Jack Cheese for Paul.

Then I added the hot sausage and avocado to the veggie side.

Smoosh it all together and voila!

Again you can see the recipe here.

You should make this sandwich. 

Sunday morning I knew I was planning to grocery shop so I wanted to use up most of my leftover vegetables. I decided to fry up farmers sausage, onions, and peppers. Also I steamed Broccoli and added it at the last moment. I sauteed the veggie mix in onion and garlic salts, and a little bit of Taco Seasoning at the end.

Then I mixed up an egg and egg white mixture, poured it on top of the skillet and baked the whole thing in the oven for 20 minutes or so (check every so often to ensure proper cooking and that it wasn't burning). Oh and I topped it with cheese, obviously. 

It came out looking beautifully! I then cut it like a pie and served it with guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Love.

We ate well this weekend. Also that explain the less than stellar numbers on the scale this morning. Yikes. Back to salads!

Big City Living

We had a great weekend. 

It was filled with friends, food and rest! All the perfect "storm" for a great weekend. 

Friday night I'd skytrained to work since I'd been running late and needed to open up for my boss, which meant I got to skytrain home and have a good 20 minute reading break on my way. Then since it was Friday night and we were headed out at 7 for a play downtown, I decided to go with pub type food and make appies. 

I pulled together Boursin & Crackers, Honey Garlic Chicken Wings, Awesome Bites (cracker, cheese and sausage, cooked briefly) and Perogies. It was excellent.

Then we headed down town. Now by telling you this next part, I am basically saying, hey we aren't big city people, but hey, honesty right?

Because while we live in an urban setting, and fit the technical standards of young urbanites we just aren't. Yes, I work downtown and commute via bike. Very hip right now. But both are purely circumstantial - I would have worked anywhere, downtown just pays the best. And I ride my bike because it's cheap and tricks me into getting excessive  and not because it's environmentally friendly. 

So dressed up in my black boots and leather jacket, heading downtown together on the skytrain, we felt more urban than normal. Especially since we were heading downtown to see Art. So cultured right?

I am not going to lie, we were half excited and half nervous about the play we were going to go see. Our friend Dustin is in Acting School so this was a play he was in through his program. It was a small stage and small cast. Having been in theatre school for 2 years I've seen a lot of awkward plays. I've also seen some awesome ones. I had no idea which this would be!

I'm pleased to say this was one of the better small plays I've seen. I really enjoyed it! The play was Four Dogs and a Bone by John Patrick Shanley. There are four acts or scenes. The first act starts a bit slow, but it needs to to give the proper expository information. The second is a bit more dramatic, has some questionable language, but really builds the story to a place that makes you want to come back after intermission. And then the third and fourth scenes are hilarious. They resolve the story well and are very very funny. I laughed a lot. 

Dustin was playing the role of the playwright Victor. He did a great job. He came onstage looking like Dustin but acting like someone else - I was very impressed. While the other actors were all great (honestly, they were), Dustin seemed to me like the lead. He shone, truly. He will be great at Acting. I was super impressed. 

There were 11 of us there to cheer him on. At Intermission we realized Paul and John were dressed similarly. You can see them below, they even stand similarly. 

I keep both of these blurry pictures in because I love seeing Colin mid laugh in the back left corner of both pictures. It's great. 

Stef and I also showed up matching; black boots, leggings, leather jacket. We keep doing that, on Sunday we both wore brown boots, leggings, blue shirts and a black leather jacket. Weird. 

Afterwards we all decided to head further into downtown to see the Halloween revellers in costume and to grab something to eat/drink. The city was bustling since it was the weekend before Halloween. We past, among other things, a taco, dumbledora the explorer, mario and luigi and a whole bunch of women wearing not enough clothing. It was fun to see. The costumes, not the under dressed women. 

We ended up at Cafe Crepe. Though it was rainy their outside patio was dry and had an awning so we made camp there. It was perfect - cool enough that after all that walking you weren't boiling. 

Here's Jodi waiting for her order.

She is adorable.

Or adorbs as one might say.

I don't know what Sam is doing, but he has his crepes in hand.

Look! There's Jodi's crepe! We sat outside of the cooking window. it was fun to watch. 

Jodi picked the clubhouse crepe...it looked amazing.

Colin & Sam

Me, Laura and Tracy

Stef and Jodi.

Also this happened when I tried to get the shot above...

Then I said, well if you're so keen to get a photo I'll take one of you.

He was not keen, it turns out.

But John was! Plus he had a nutella milkshake. 

Genius.

Then Dustin came by to join us after finishing up at school.

He walked in to our group with much applause.

Then he sat down to join us looking ever much the star.

And we proceeded to heap praise on his acting and the play...

"aw shucks"

Since we were outside the girls were generally bundled up, but it was still totally awesome.

And then it was time to head home. 

It was such a fun night, and Paul and I had such a fun time I decided a picture was in order to capture the moment. 

I loved this picture. 

I posted it on FB as my profile picture...it got many likes and comments. 

I was surprised. I mean I knew I liked it, but I'm in it. I didn't expect other people to like it.

I won't lie, it made me happy.

Totally made me smile. 

Not only the compliments, but also the idea that I'm posing in my profile picture with a knife.

I have awesome friends. 

Saturday we slept in, and then laid in bed talking and reading until noon. IT WAS AWESOME. Then I made the world’s best sandwich. I found the recipe online and oh man. I’ll post the details of that and the recipe tomorrow.

After being sufficiently lazy we decided to be semi productive and worked on tidying the house. I organized my shoe collection and unpacked more clothing that I’d packed before I left. All my dresses are back in my closet and man, when we move in January we’ll need a bigger closet. Yikes.

Then we were heading over to Jenna’s for dinner and a hang out before the Harvest Party. Every year our church hosts the Harvest Party – and this year I had offered to look after Jenna’s kids so she could go. The Harvest Party is awesome – it has a dance party in the garage, lots of people to talk with, tons of food and this year there was a dress up component, cowboy. Even Paul will dress up like a cowboy! So before we left for the Maxwell’s Paul got on his cowboy best. Now since he doesn’t own a boot or a hat, he had to make do with his knife, plaid and belt buckle. He also wore a Camo Hat, because he knows many a redneck man that wears a camo hat. So he is pretty close to country. 

Also Paul hates smiling in photos. 

Sometimes he will for me, but only sometimes.

After the Maxwell’s and Paul left for the party I got to cuddle with my nephews until they went to sleep. Oh it warms my heart so much. Then I did a few things on my to do list with itunes. I wanted to get that over with quickly so I could get to the real task at hand – making a sisters necklace (while watching Downton Abbey). See when I was in Texas we visited Hobby Lobby. Now Hobby Lobby is amazing, but you could go through there and feel so covetous and I just didn’t want to do that. So what I did was decide I’d buy towards only a certain project. This was important since we still had to drive everything home and really only had a little bit of space. So I bought things to make matching long silver necklaces for my sister and I. I am in love with what I came up with. And so is Jenna, win!

On top of that I’d gotten a free mini bottle of wine at work, so that made an appearance that evening as well.  

After a night of dancing for Paul and jeweler making for me, we had a quick snack while watching an SNL repeat and then headed to bed.

Sunday was another great sleep in day followed by more good food. I needed to use up the veggies in my fridge so I made a tasty Quiche with Sour Cream and Guacamole on top. It rocked. I’ll post the recipe tomorrow. We invited Katie and Joel over to join us, they had just finished making breakfast so they just brought theirs over and we all watched football and ate. It was a lovely way to start the day.

Then I headed off to Costco and No Frills to do the grocery shopping for the next two weeks. I was stealth, in and out of Costco $200 and 30 minutes later. What up! I spent an hour processing and organizing food and it was off to church!

We looked good.  

Church was awesome. I mean really awesome. It was reception Sunday so we had a party downstairs first that the philipino’s hosted – so it was a real party. Then we headed upstairs for church, worship was awesome and one of the philipino lifegroups did a skip and the message and they did a wonderful job. Again, as per usual, it just felt like family and friends. Church has been so great lately.

Our dear friend Sarah Gotell, who moved away to Nelson in September, was back for a bit so we proceeded to have a girls night over at Leah’s house.  There were just a few of us there so we could actually have time with Sarah and it was lovely. I love Sarah and I love her friends. We had appies and sushi and it was all soo good. I tried new types of sushi and loved them! 

Also Jenna was there and at one point she got up to get something and it looked like she had a tail.

A sweater got attached to the button on her jacket. It made me laugh. 

Oh and I realized how ridiculously different those pictures I posted of Paul were:

I love how versatile my husband is! 

Oh and speaking of my husband, I headed home early from the girls night to be with him because this past Monday he started his first practicum at a High School in North Vancouver.  I'm so excited to see how he does in the actual classroom! He has a great first day yesterday!

Alright I'm off to translate some documents from Portuguese into English....I only speak English, thank goodness for Google Translator!

Eleven Facts, Eleven Questions and a 2-in-1 outfit

Here's the deal. I like answering questions and thinking of things about me. And I like reading other people's answers to questions and things about them. But I don't like following survey type rules. So when my cousin LeAnna posted a survey she'd answers I knew I'd be in, but in a half assed sort of way :)

So 11 things about me:

1. I watched the first episode of Downton Abbey on Saturday and loved it. I would like to watch the rest of the show - I found it on American Netflix and am wondering if our Netflix as it as well. 

2. I make the same lunch every single day for myself and for Karen. Salad with lots of chopped up veggies, turkey breast, slivers of Parmesan cheese and a tablespoon of fried onions. Once I get to work I top it with 2 tablespoons of low fat dressing. I really enjoy it every day.

3. I like eating salad for lunch because then I get to eat awesome and "real" foods for dinner. Warm, cheesy, garlicky goodness in all forms. 

4. Making Paul's lunch is a bit stressful for me since he does not like taking the same thing every day for lunch - trying to make meals that are varied enough and filling enough that he won't need to buy more while he's at school is a bit of a challenge. 

5. I drink more beverages than most people I think. I always have at least once beverage on the go, and often I have more than that. Currently I have three drinks at my desk. 

6. One of my favorite things to do is to read a great novel and eat Salt & Vinegar chips. 

7. One of my other favorite things to do is read a great novel while eating alone at a restaurant. 

8. I see my ADD as a superpower and not a hindrance

9. Last night Paul and I laid in bed for an hour talking about the fundamental differences in how we see money; once I have spent money on something the item is now just my belonging and I no longer associate it with it's monetary value. Once Paul has spent money on something he continues to see that item as worth it's value, either this many dollars or this many work hours. It helps explain some of the different ways we see our possessions. 

10. I post almost daily about what I wear and yet I would never in a million years consider this a fashion blog in any sense of the word - I cannot imagine that what I wear could be considered fashion. I believe I can dress cute and look good, but fashion? I don't know.

11. I follow many fashion bloggers. Half the times I don't understand why or what they are wearing. But I can't stop looking, it's like watching a car accident or something. 

11 Questions to Answer:

1)      What is the best book that you’ve read this year?

I read the Hunger Games last spring and LOVED them, I read Cathy Kelly's new book, House on Willow Street, and also loved it. 

2)      What is your favorite mealtime (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) to eat out, and why?

Dinner is my favorite to eat out since that is my biggest meal of the day. Breakfast is always fairly typical, I could make it just as well/easily at home and lunch is such a small meal for me that it seems wasteful to spend a lot on it. 

3)      Out of all the places you've lived, and I’m assuming most people reading this have at least lived in two, which place feels most like home?

Where I am now - though if my parents still live in our Port Alberni home, I would assume that would still feel like home. 

4)      Describe your faith, and how you came to it. Or if you believe in nothing, why?
I am a Christian. Specifically I guess I am a protestant, I guess you'd call me a charismatic evangelical or something like that. I am part of a movement or denomination called Every Nation. 

I came to my faith twice, I grew up always knowing and believing in God and had a real experience of Him and relationship with Him in High School, but I was also selfish and tempted by the world, so I walked away from that for 3 years in college but at 23 came back to God and that is where my faith began again. I believe that we are all born sinners, that the penalty for our sin is death. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he lived the perfect life I should have lived, and died the death I should have died. I believe that Jesus Christ rose from death on the third day, and in his conquering death I am saved from the penalty of my sin. 

But practically, every day I know I am weak, wicked and sinful. I know my thoughts. I know this to be true. Every day I am saved and loved by God. I know that left to my own devices if I were to try and do good it would fall flat or I would be trying to make myself the hero of the story; but I know that through Christ I can love and serve people around me. I know that God made me on purpose, with a plan for my life - and I love the adventure of learning to be all that He created me to be, and getting to see what He has in store for me. Because Man, it keeps getting better and better!

5)      Are you a cat person or a dog person?
Technically cat, but really kitty. And actually I hate fur and cleaning up poop so I'm a no animal person for now. 

6)      What is one thing you’d like to do before you die?

Shout for help! 

Just kidding, seriously though I want to have and raise children.

7)      Favorite pizza toppings?
Mushroom, chicken and bacon. Oh man. With Ranch or Garlic Dip. 

8)      Best childhood memory?
Wow - that's a tough question. I had a great childhood (outside of school, which sucked!). 

I loved our week each summer at Lake Retreat camp, I loved family movie nights and I loved time with my sister, when we weren't fighting. 

9)      What do you like most about Christmas?

That feeling that it's a special time; like something awesome is happening. It's food, family, laughter, games....and a time that feels paused.

10)  Where is the farthest that you've traveled?

I've been to Europe, that must be the furthest.

11)  What is your favorite old hymn, and why?

I am not a fan of Hymn's, though they are my husbands favorite. But if I had to pick, I'd probably say Amazing Grace, purely because I find it very beautiful. Come Thou Fount would be a close second though. 

I'm too lazy to make up new questions for you, so you can just answer these if you want to join in :)

And...here is what I wore today, Monday. It's a two part inspired outfit. 

First the bottom half or under layer - black with black and neutrals.

I love it on it's own! And I can't wait to try this in a dress like the inspiration shot. 

But my office cold and I need sweaters, so I noticed a bunch of pins had chunky colorful sweaters with boots. Tada! Insert Pink sweater. 

I also love it.

Getting dressed is a lot of fun.

And I love boots now, officially.

Black & White / Answers

I love the outfit I'm waering today. It's based roughly off some pins, but mostly the shirt is awesome, so a great necklace, jeans and a pair of boots and it's set. 

Boots: Zellers - Canada ($30 on sale currently)

Jeans: Reitmans - Canada

Shirt: Target - USA

Necklace: Old Navy - Canada ($10)

Also if you come over to visit, you'll notice a section of our ceiling is leaking and badly patched. Every morning when the people upstairs shower at 6am it leaks. Looks you can see the water running off the cardboard. And below you can see the bucket we must leave ther to collect water.

Wait, cardboard to help fix a leak? That seems terrible. 
Yup.
And a permanent bucket to collect leaky water?
Gross.
That's our landlords idea of a fix. 

 

Oh man, I can not wait until we move! Speaking of which, we would love to move to a 4-5 bedroom house somewhere within 15 minutes of this current house. Basically from Fraser to Arbutus, King Edward to 57th. We're pretty open. We don't want to pay more than $2000. We want a yard. 

Miracle needed. Please inform me of any miracle homes you find that meets those parameters. We'd like to move for January but only if the house is perfect. 

Oh! Wednesday night I went to visit my friend Leah Lim. She is awesome. I really like her. We were at her house for dinner on Sunday, I mentioned it here. Not only is she one half of the amazing couple that is 'Nate and Leah Lim' but she's also a rad friend. I met Leah January of 2006 right after I got saved, at the very first EN event that I went to. Since that moment she has extended friendship, grace and a lot of fun. When I met her she was newly married and in school, and now she has just celebrated her 7 year wedding anniversary and has two sweet little ones! You may remember her daughter from Trick or Treating with Connor last year. Anyways, it was so great to hang out with Leah for the evening - conversation is always so natural and we had a lovely time. I'm thankful for women like her in my life. 

So....remember yesterday how I said we were trusting God but had no what the resolution would be? And that it was either the gov's fault or H&R block's fault? Well turns out that the fine folks at H&R Block entered my severance package from Uranium One on the wrong line. By doing this it caused our return amount to jump by $3500. Now it causes us to owe that much. Obviously if we had known we would never have spent that money. In fact I waited a while to spend it in case of error. I'm so bugged now! Now that money was put on debt, so at least it went somewhere good but still it sucks. We'll have to borrow the money to pay the government back and since I'm the only income while Paul's in school we'll have to borrow it with no way to pay it back for a year. How's that for fun?

When Paul called to tell me I was riding my bike home. I spent the rest of the trip trying not to bawl, rather unsuccesfully. 

My tears were of frustration, not anger at God. Frustration at the situation, that is. 

The good news is, because of the apple upgrade on iPad's I had been going to exchange my week and a half old iPad 3 for an iPad 4. To do this I had to return my iPad for a full refund and then preorder a new one Thursday night. I returned my iPad as planned, but we got this news Thursday, so obviously I skipped ordering the new one and will be iPad-less for some time. 

I know, I know - this is a first world problem. I get that. Can I tell you that I cried though? Sometime next week I'll be receiving in the mail a keyboard and case for my new iPad that I no longer have. That will be a sad day. I'm not normally great at saving up for things and this time I did it! And I was patient! Our iPad was stolen in June and I waited until mid October to buy a new one. That is patience like I have never had before. 
But again #firstworldproblems, I know.

So now we are left to figure out a payment plan...
all because some idiot at H&R block put my severance in the wrong line. 

Paul is now on the warpath basically if it's not nailed down and it has any value he wants to sell it. My first instinct is to cut back on our budget even further than we already were and see how we can start to repay this new debt. If we sell things, we won't get much for them and then later have to replace them. I'd rather see where in our budget and future earnings we can find a way to repay. 

I talked about the tendency to problem solve in a post back when I was sick in February. Ironically the post was written a few days before I threw my back out. And yesterday I wrote about peace about an hour before I found out how bad the situation truly was. Apparently I tempt fate by blogging about how awesome God is. 

Anyways, back to problem solving. The question is this: is this a moment to have faith that God will provide? Or is this is a moment to in faith take steps to move towards being out of this problem? Or is it a bit of both?

At well level does my problem solving and planning tell God, "don't worry, I've got it" and at what point is my problem solving and planning telling God, "thank you for all you do, I plan in faith that you are sovereign". That's a tricky balance. We both struggled with that yesterday. 

So Thursday went much like Monday, my plans were cancelled, I wore pajama's and showered and blow dried my hair and Paul and I chose to extend extra lots of love and affection to each other in the midst of the trial. 

I dont' know exactly how this will play out. I don't know if we were be in this home or another home in January. I don't know how many students we'll have living with us if we do have a new home. I don't know when we'll start trying for a baby or how long that will take. I don't know where or when Paul will get a job after school. I don't know what ministry looks like for us in the future. I don't know much. 

But I do know that God's providence exists. I do see his provision in my life. I do know I am loved and cared for by the God of the universe. And those things are enough. 

Turquoise + Black // Stress + Peace

I'll start with the colours and clothing. Today I wanted something easy and comfortable. I still love my turquoise pants (that still look blue in photos). I also love my easy black go to blouse. I'd seen on pinterest the idea of a turquoise blouse with black pants and thought, perfect, I'll reverse it. Then I noticed later that there were outfits pinned with black on the top and turquoise on the bottom. Win!

And again, I swear my pants are turquoise. I just don't get how this is happening. 

Alright, on to the stress. 

Monday we received a  letter in the mail from the government. These are rarely good things. And true to form this thing sucked. It was a reassesment from our taxes saying a mistake had been made and that we owed the government $3500! That's a lot of money. We received this on the 22nd and the payment was due November 5th. What? Who has $3500 laying around to pay you within 2 weeks?

I mean I'm the only one working since Paul is in school for the year, even with months before a due date we wouldn't have that kind of money. 

UGH. 

So Paul called a Tax Lawyer friend and figured out some of our options. We have a meeting this weekend with the people who did our taxes to find out if a) it's the governments fault and we did in fact pay everything correctly or b) it's H&R block's fault in which case we'll need to pay it. 

In the meantime I was freaking out. I vacillated between feeling bitter and anxious. These feelings aren't strangers to me, though I wish I knew how to get past them. 

Now I know God is in control. I mean He has provided so amazingly in the past. I know that the circumstances aren't what matters. But I couldn't dig myself out of how my heart felt. 

As I rode my bike home I listened to worship music and prayed. I felt so angry and helpless. Powerless to change the situation or my own heart! I said to God, "I can't do this, I can't change my heart or the situation. I need you. You are my only hope for the state of my black heart and you are the only hope in this situation".

Then I proceeded to continue to feel frustrated the whole ride home. I trusted that God would be God in the situation but I had no idea how to act on that. 

I got home, made dinner and bulk baked chicken for the next night's LG. I was tired and stressed. 

Then my phone buzzed and my dear friend had to cancel our plans. I was sad not to see her but oh so relieved to not have to go out and be happy or go out and be. I just wanted to wallow. 

Now I don't know when it started to happen, somewhere in my evening my heart started to feel peace. I did normal things. Normal, seemingly unfaithfilled acitivities, like showering and blow drying my hair. I sat on my couch with a book and a glass of Sangria. God was filling my heart with his peace. Because normally even a book and a bottle of Sangria wouldn't touch the stress in my heart once it gets in there. This was different, it was powerful. My heart felt changed. 

I got to bed early (a feat I normally never accomplish) and drifted into what can only be described as a beautiful, lovely sleep. It wasn't the rush to bed, pray that I would sleep quickly, type of sleep I normally have. It was wonderful. I woke up at 6am with a busy busy work day ahead of me and a giant project to complete, but I woke up still at peace and so wonderfully rested. Rested in a way I rarely feel. 

I also woke up to this:

At some point in my beautiful sleep I'd obviously brought my glasses in to bed. I woke up to find them under Paul. Oh well, shouldn't be too hard to fix.

But back to the moment; Our situation is not resolved. We don't know how this will end. But I know that Monday night God gave me a gift I greatly needed. He put peace in my heart. He took my load and gave me rest. And I am so grateful to a God like that. I don't deserve this and yet he lavishes his love and affection on me. 

Plus He gave me Paul. Paul spent the night being extra sweet and loving, even though he was struggling with the situation as well. I'm thankful to God for Paul for sure. 

So thank you God, peace feels amazing.

Friends, food and "fashion"

This past weekend I headed down to the States. The purpose for my visit was twofold - friends and shopping! 

Not only was I going to be visiting friends but friends I hadn't seen since my last visit in April, and one of the friends is pregnant! So it was great to see her all glowy and beautiful. 

I left work early on Friday and made it to the border in an hour and a half. Considering it was friday on a pro day with work traffic I was pleased with that! What was more pleasing was getting through the border in 15 minutes! I joined the three way line and after a brief moment they opened up a new line right in front of me! So there were only three cars between me and the guards. Rad. 

Then I hauled but down the I5 with smooth sailings and "some nights" by fun. as my driving jam. It was a good trip. A classic stop for Taco Bell (crunchwrap surpreme! crunchwrap surpreme! crunchwrap surpreme!) and I made it to the Foster's in 4 and a half hours. Considering I stopped at Famous Footwear at Seattle Premium Outlets to look for boots (no luck) and had to battle Vancouver and Seattle after work traffic I'd consider that a win. 

Heather and Mark now live in Puyallup. I met Heather 11 years ago at Lake Retreat Camp. We were both counselors and immediately hit it off. We have remained friends despite the distance (near and far - she's lived in the USA or Australia the whole time I've known her). I was in her wedding 5 years ago this past Saturday and her and her husband came up to join us for ours - such a blessing! Her and Mark have a son that was born the same month as my sister's first, Connor. It's been fun to watch Jonah grow up alongside Connor. In my head they'd be friends, despite having never met.

Thankfully Mark and Paul get along famously, and Heather finds Paul amusing, so it makes for great hangouts. We've often gone to spend a weekend with them and we always enjoy it. And of course Jonah loves to give Paul smack-downs. 

Since I was alone this time we did a bit more girl talk than normal though I tried to throw in some American politics to keep Mark partially entertained at least. 

We stayed up late talking and then I had a lovely sleep on the couch. I was awoken to Jonah watching Pengu on the TV. He's a fun kid. I really enjoy him. 

After a morning of hanging out, breakfast and more conversation I headed off to the mall nearby. I put on my new black boots from Zellers, my awesome $30 "leather" jacket from Burlington Coat Factory 2 years ago and headed out. I used Jennifer Aniston as my muse for the outfit. 

Which segway's nicely to the new thing I'm doing.

The Pinterest Challenge. 

I was already using Pinterest as an idea spot for how to wear clothes but then I started following "Pinterest made me do it" and I was hooked. I'm so going to start actually showing you where I get my ideas from. Rad. My outfits won't be as perfectly matching as hers, more inspiration but it will be fun! You can see them if you want to follow me. I'm Tara Morgan on Pinterest, maybe this link works.

Based off the outfits on my list of things to complete outfits I'll wear regularly, I have a list of things I am allowed to buy. Generally the pieces need to be in more than one outfit and be easy and awesome to wear. 

So I was armed with a list - here is what I was looking for and where I ended up finding it:

Chambray Blouse (casual – for life) @ Target

Grey Blouse (casual – for life) @ Old Navy

White Blouse (more formal – for work and church) @ Old Navy

Silk Blouse (formal – for work and church) @ Target

Brown Boots, Steve Madden @ Famous Footwear

Did I see lots of other awesome things that I totally wanted? Yes. And I did not buy them. This is growth. I am an adult.

You'll be able to see the Chambray blouse, White Blouse and brown boots below. I wore the silk blouse on Sunday but forgot to post it. 

Saturday after a successful shopping trip and a great visit with Heather I headed to Costco to stock up. Phew. $500 later I was set. I got everything on my list and few sale items that I hadn't planned on but was stoked to get. 

This was a particularly big shopping weekend for me since we didn't want to come down again until between Christmas and New Years, which means I had to get everything for all the holidays in between and the many parties that come with holidays. Plus feeding lifegroup each week. There was much to buy. 

Oh and the Costco in Tukwila is amazing. It's built specifically for restaurants as well as "civilians" and so there are bulk containers for cooking...like applicances and cooking utensils. I bought some stuff and will buy more once we have a home. It was beautiful and amazing. 

Then I headed to Mali Thai in Tukwila to meet up with Rebekah and Tony. I met Rebekah 5 years ago in Vancouver through our mutual friend Prakash. He'd invited her to church. She also attended Langara and we became instant friends. While she lived in Vancouver we met up regularly, and once she moved down to Seattle she was someone I saw regularly on my trips down. I love getting to hang out with her, and now that Tony is in her life I love hanging out with them. Paul still hasn't met Tony because they only started dating in the spring and so the only other time I've met Tony Paul was away in Kaslo.

Anyways the food was amazing....

And hanging out with such a rad couple was awesome. 

We talked non-stop

And they introduced me to Thai Iced Tea. 

Oh my word. Amazing.

Then it was girl time, Rebekah and I headed off to Starbucks to grab a drink and chat for another hours. And THEN it was time to head towards Canada again. I still needed to stop at Walmart and Winco and a giant buggy full of food and a crazy packed car I was on my way to the border.

Again my trip was fueled by the album "some nights" by fun. and again I had amazing border blessings! I again went to get into one of the three lanes available and again a fourth opened up right in front of me. I was through in 5 minutes, start to finish. Praise the Lord. 

I headed to Surrey to pick Paul up, he'd been out hunting with his Dad, and then as Paul slept in the front seat, I continued my epic jam music and singing. 

We got home at midnight but still had to unload and unpack. We had lots of meat and dairy in coolers that had to stay cold and we can't leave things out in our house due to mice. So it all needed to be dealt with. We were a crazy awesome team and had it resolved by 1am. Then we watched some SNL because really, at 1am, you might as well stay up until 2am. 

I have to say I enjoyed Bruno Mars as both musical guest and host, though some of the skits fell flat for me. I'm not a giant fan yet of the new cast members. 

Sunday morning we slept in. It was beautiful. Then Paul made us breakfast! French Toast and Sausage. Yum.

And I began to tackle our back room...

I'm still not done so you don't get to see a picture. 

Then I decided to try out my new Chambray (or Denim) shirt. Boy was I excited.

I looked on Pinterest to see what inspiration was speaking most to me and the rest jeans won out. 

Since I didn't have or want to have a animal print belt I went with a funky necklace instead.

I thoroughly enjoyed the outfit. 

I may have worn it again Tuesday except with Brown pants. Yup.

I already shared yesterday about church on Sunday so I'll just mention that I was going to be needing to bring treats for a dinner Sunday night. I couldn't decide what to make so I went to Pinterest to see if my food boards could direct me. I had pinned Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icing a while back and realized it would be easy to make. 

It was easy and it was also amazing.

I haven't gotten that many compliments on a dessert in a while!

Top Middle: Plated with 3 ingredient, 3 minute fudge.

Bottom Left: Up close and personal

Bottom Right: Spread, just before baking.

After church we grabbed our treats and headed over for Dinner at the Lim's. We were also hanging out with another couple, Lindsay and John, who we'd had over on Thursday night. We were greatly looking forward to it. 

The view on the way over was awesome.

I was excited because the Lim's are known as being awesome fun godly people, as well as being phenomenal cooks and throwing rad parties. I knew that Nate would have an AMAZING dinner up his sleeve and he did not disappoint.

It was so great. 

Since we all got to the Lim's by 6pm I thought it would be a decently early night and then the next thing I knew it was almost 11pm and we were all still chatting and hanging out. It was a wonderful, wonderful night. With great people and great food.

Monday morning felt early after the late night. Here are my Monday and Tuesday outfits.

Monday night I stayed in. It was a weird, hard, and then beautiful and wonderful night. I'll tell you about it later. But it has to do with a surprise bill from the government. 

Always fun right?

Tuesday I had lunch with a friend downtown at Elephant & Castle

And then I headed home after work to make dinner. On my way home I ran into my cousin Jonathan, since we were both on our bikes we biked about 20 blocks together. It was a lot of fun. Good conversation. 

Then I got home to start cooking. It was Toquito Night at Lifegroup and it was excellent. 

Also I wore the outfit I mentioned above, Chambray with brown pants. And look! A chambray friend!

And shortly after we discovered there were in fact three of us in Chambray. Or denim. Whatever.

And today I totally rocked another Pinterest look.

Good day for sure! So in love with my new boots!