Parties, parties and more parties

This last weekend was a weekend of parties as this posts title would suggest. 

I had our house warming planned for the last month but since I'd been sick for the past two weeks not only did I not have time finish up some last minute jobs around the house, but I hadn't done any food prep. And being a good, responsible sickie I didn't do any work on my sick at home days - I rested and slept and read and slept and had baths. I also took anti biotics and lots of cough syrup. In terms of productivity it was a pretty unproductive few days.

But the fact remained that our housewarming party was coming up on the Saturday and I'd invited over 100 people to come for food and therefore at some point I'd need to start cooking some food, even if I didn't get the house in perfect party condition. I waited until the afternoon on Friday was finally feeling a lot better so I headed to Costco to do my shopping. I also hit up Superstore, Micheals and Ikea. Big day. 

Then it was time to head to my sister's. We currently have a homestay student with us for 3 weeks from Korea, her English name is Martina. Jenna also has a homestay student with this program, her English name is Lenice. Both Martina and Lenice have birthdays in the three weeks that they are here, so we decided to throw them a party....with all their classmates. So we headed over to the Maxwell's - it was the Maxwell's, us and 17 Korean students. It was super fun. Food, new friends and lots of fun. 

Lenice and Martina blowing out the candles

Martina and me

We played cards and spoons and instead of having people be "out" of the games, they could perform to stay in - apparently that's a Korean thing. So some of the students did "Gangnam Style", I did "I'm a little tea pot". Fun times. 

Back to the house - I meant to say that our fruit stands make me happy. 

Oh and speaking of the house - Paul put dish soap in the dishwasher.

Oh boy. 

Anyways all of Saturday I prepped for the party. 

I made wraps and dips and worked on recipes and it was awesome. I love cooking for friends. It was a great day. Super relaxing despite all the work. 

The party was scheduled from 4 to 11 - most people began to show up around 4:45. Between 4:45 and 9:30 there were about 70 people that came through the house, usually there was about 30 people at any given time. Oh man it was awesome.We had all sorts of friends come by - the Bartels from Chilliwack, friends from church, family etc. It was awesome. 

I didn't take any photos until partway through and even then I only got 3. 

It was a perfect night. I could not have been happier to have so many friends at our new house. I was so happy. 

Oh and this is Lindsay, I've been mentioning for some time my awesome friend Lindsay and this is her! She was so helpful at the party - helped with food, helped with conversation and helped with my spirits the few times I started to get tired. Not only was her husband an answer to prayer for Paul and I in regards to strong male friendships, but she is a definite answer to prayer for me as well! Thanks Nashville and California for giving her over to Canada!

Anyways, the last guests left by 10:30pm and our house was tidy by that time! Josh & Ana and Lindsay & John were all still hanging around so Ana and and Lindsay very graciously helped me clean up and pack away leftovers. Eventually Paul and I watched some SNL and then went to bed by midnight. 

I was awoken at 8:30am by a phone call - our new chinese homestay student had arrived at the airport an hour early! So I got dressed and rushed off to meet her, which was an adventure in itself. Chloe is very sweet. She's only 15 and we are excited to get to know her and introduce her to Vancouver. She is very independent and already has lots of friend in Vancouver, which is always a good sign of a great roomie. 

I was home by 9:30 and felt exhausted so I thankfully took a much needed nap until 11:30 and then got up to get the house ready for another big day. I was hosting a lunch for our womens ministry team to plan our next retreat and then in the evening I had 15 members of Paul's family coming over for a turkey dinner for January and February birthdays. I wanted to get the turkey into the oven before the lunch. Thank goodness I only needed to prepare drinks for the lunch, the ladies brought the rest. I ran out to the store for turkey bags - and promptly came home without turkey bags. So then I had to send Paul to the store.  

He is heroic and even though he started his practicum the following day and was slated to preach that afternoon he took the time to go to the store for me AND pick up flowers and my favorite Timmies drink. Now THATS a keeper. 

Anyways, lunch was awesome - Chicken Enchilada's by Leah and man, they were tasty. 

I set the table bright and cheery.

And liked it so much I did the same decorations for the dinner party.

Janice and Katie both brought parts of dinner, and I did the rest. People had generously given wine at our house warming and we usually stock beer at home, so there was lots to serve people without having to think much about it. I made up a new green bean recipe that I'm now in love with and had great success with everything I was making. 

Doreen and Ted came early to the party while the rest were at church - so Ted rested in the living room and Doreen and I chatted while I cooked. I enjoy my new grandparents so much and am thankful for them. 

In fact I am thankful for my whole new family - God has been so gracious to me. He has given me another set of parents in town, another set of family at church and even more family to visit in the states. Paul is a wonderful husband and if he was all alone he would still be a treat to be married to, but this whole family thing is icing on the cake!

I got to rest and enjoy the night - we chatted and ate and laughed and it was perfect. 

And just like that it was Sunday night and time to make 5 lunches for the next day, as well as lay out some clothes for the morning - the new week was beginning!

On Bronchitis

I'm finally back at work. In the past two weeks I've missed 6 days due to sickness - the first week I was out Monday to Wednesday with a bad cold. I went back Thursday and Friday, and then over the weekend the cough got worse. I worked Monday and Tuesday but by Tuesday afternoon I left early to go to a walk in clinic where they confirmed that my cold had turned into Bronchitis. I'm a good little sickie so I stayed home Wednesday to Friday - I didn't even blog or edit photos - I rested and concentrated on healing. 

I did feed lifegroup, we did have friends over for dinner on Wednesday (Judy Barker and her kids - Judy was my old youth leader and she is awesome), we also had my parents over for dinner on Thursday as well - but none of those events was stressful nor did any of them involve me cooking much more than I would have had to for our family anyways. Plus seeing people revives my spirits. 

It was then a crazy busy weekend which I'll tell you about later - but for now I'll add that my cough is doing MUCH better and I sleep through the night now, which is miraculous. 

From Pickles to Pretty

We have a new student moving in with us Sunday. She is 15 from China. We're exited to have her. I'm also excited to get her room ready. She will be moving into the upstairs student room, next to ours. It's the "Black and White" Room. It's called this due to the black and white bedspread. Original, I know. 

Unfortunately we don't have a ton of furniture in black and white, and what we did have has gone downstairs to the brown room - it needed the white furniture badly. So we're left with my parents old bedroom suite in brown. They're good solid pieces that my Dad built, but they aren't super modern looking. I'm trying to tie the room together with decorating but need to use what we already own since we don't have a budget for the room. 

I found some cookie and chocolate tins and an old pickle jar and turned them into pieces for the new room using spray paint and washi tape. 

First up was the pickle jar - I cleaned it out and cleaned off the tape on the outside. Then I spray painted the lid with chalkboard paint and added polka dot tape to the jar. Simple but nice. 

Then I took a chocolate pretzel canister and spray painted it with chalkboard paint as well - twice. I added some Chevron Washi Tape to the base for some flavor. Its lid became a tile to lean on the jar and the base became a holder for pens and pencils. 

And lastly I grabbed a chocolate tin and spray painted it white, then wrapped it in Zebra Washi Tape to spice it up. I slid that under some candles to add appeal to the dresser. 

I grabbed some canvases that I'd painted black and added mirrors to a few years back and added those to the wall above the bed. 

At some point I'd like to make a black or white headboard but for now this will have to do. I'd really like a chalkboard headboard - I feel like that would be super cool.  And I am on the look out for a large black and white piece of art to go in the center of the wall, between the two dresser and above the desk to help fill up the space. If I can't find something I might make something...but I'm not sold on what to do yet. 

And that is the transformation of our new student room. 

Of Balls and Sticks

Friday I was still recovering from being sick but was feeling much better – aside from the lingering cough, which still remains. I went on FB and saw this post from my husband.

 Realizing he thought I had evening plans I decided to make the best of it and planned to organize my closet that night – I needed to finish unpacking my clothing and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.

Then when we finally got to chat at dinner (Garlic-Mayo Chicken, Bacon & Avocado Sandwiches – yum) he realized I didn’t have real plans and then shortly afterwards realized the plans he thought he’d made with a group of just guys, was actually with a group of our male and female friends he decided to invite me along. I was tired and needed to do house stuff but I’m so glad I went – we headed out to the driving range. I have been there one other time with this group of friends almost 2 years ago, so it was fun to go again. And since we’re married (therefore Paul feels comfortable to make many an off colour joke) and we were someplace playing a game with balls and sticks, Paul could not stop the flow of “That’s what she said jokes.” Boys.

Then we headed to Timmies for food and conversation. It was great to catch up with Stef and Jodi – and hear about wedding plans as well. After that we went back to the guys house and chatted for a few hours – we were up until midnight, something I don’t often do anymore. Oh and Paul found a couch that he fits well.

We went home to have a good sleep in – after being sick and Paul being in a busy school period, rest was much needed and very appreciated. I got up in time to make a brunch for some ladies – my friend Rebekah is getting married in Washington this summer. I’m in her wedding and 2 other girls from Vancouver are also in her wedding. The rest of her party is spread across the states. Rebekah and her sister Lori drove up and the other Vancouver girls came over and we were able to have a great time of eating and laughing and getting to know each other. We got to talk details and plans, as well as pray for Rebekah and Tony. It was wonderful. I made my new favorite dish from last week, Healthy Parmesan Chicken Wraps. They were a success.

Source: roomag.com via Tara on Pinterest

Also, Lori and Rebekah are sisters and best friends. Jenna and I are sisters and best friends. I assume their relationship is like ours – I see Jenna’s friends as my friends and see my friends as Jenna’s friends – or at least I whole heartedly believe that they would be friends if they met. Given this premise I assumed I would like Lori straight away – and I did. She is awesome. I loved getting to know her.

The other girls in Rebekah’s wedding are also awesome, which makes sense because of course my amazing friend Rebekah would have amazing friends – it just fits.

After the girls left I finally tackled my clothes – I unpacked everything and sorted it all away. It felt awesome. And since I did that I’ve stayed tidy – that’s big for me! I’m a “messy” so even two days of clean in my room is a huge victory.

Just as I finished that job my friend Laura arrived – she was coming over to help me make gallery wall’s with our photos. We have two types of photos – brown/grey frames with art in them and black frames with white highlights. I thought we could do two walls – one in our entrance with the black and white since we have more of them and it’s a bigger wall and one in our den with the brown/grey ones. Laura loves to do jobs like this and I am totally overwhelmed by the thought of it from start to finish.  Deciding where things go overwhelms me and actually putting them up overwhelms me. I’m so thankful she could come help!

The plan was to lay what we had out on the ground and see how it looked.

We did the black and white first:

Then onto the Browns:

Then we called Paul in to execute – him and Laura worked as a team to get the photos up properly. I supervised…or something.

This was the easy part – the hardest was getting the frames onto the top left of the wall – where there is only stairs below going down…and not much to stand on. Paul had to balance on a ledge with us holding him up – it was precarious at best. But totally worth the end result.

As soon as that was out Laura had to dash to an event and I had to start preparing dinner – we were having our friends Josh and Ana over for dinner and games. It was a great night.

I wanted to make something special for them since this was our first hang out since we’d gotten back from our trip – though I’d seen both of them without Paul. I found a recipe on Pinterest that involved things I KNOW Josh loves – bacon and cheese. Genius.

Source: thefarmgirlrecipes.blogspot.ca via Tara on Pinterest

Oh my…it was awesome. I added some fried farmers sausage as well, which was a great plan. Josh and Ana brought drinks – starbucks, retro pepsi and wine/beer – they took my request for fun drinks very seriously. Also they brought flowers. It was the best. Thanks guys!

We played Settlers of Catan, Cities and Knights…until 2:30am. I haven’t stayed up that late in ages!

Sunday I woke up at 8:30am despite the late night (annoying) and headed downstairs to fold laundry and watch some more Nashville – I’m almost caught up. I tried going back to sleep, but that didn’t work. Then I remembered that we have a new student moving in next Sunday and that I needed to get her room in order. This involved some room makeover and some crafting. I’ll show you what I did later – but it’s fun and I like it. I’m not quite done though and it’ll look better complete.

But here’s a hint of how I jazzed up some old pieces:

Then it was time to throw dinner into the crockpot and head to church. I was making another new recipe – Cashew Chicken.

 

Source: daydreamkitchen.com via Tara on Pinterest

And spoiler alert – it was goooood.

It was church as usual and then we were going to the Mitchell’s for dinner with the McCarthy’s and Chibota’s. Say what? Two of my favorite young married couples and one of my favorite sets of family? Awesome! Though I coughed loudly through dinner and the hang out, it was a good night. And I was responsibly home by 9pm. I put the dinner away (I’d made it for our students since they still need to eat, even if we’re out) to eat tomorrow, cleaned up the kitchen and headed for bed….where I laid coughing for a couple hours.

That is the worst.

So tired. So much coughing.

I finally feel asleep close to midnight and woke up with my alarm at 6am – not pleasant. My chest ached from the coughing and I was sooo tired. But definitely not sick enough to stay home – so off to work I went where I proceeded to cough loudly all day – sorry guys!

Tonight we will eat the Cashew Chicken leftovers and I will be curling up with a blanket and some TV to rest, even though there is lots to do in preparation for our house warming party on Saturday. Then I will go to bed early, no matter how much I’m coughing. Take that cold!

Speaking of our house warming, I have managed to invite like 130 people…what? They won’t all come, but still, that’s a lot of people. And I said we’d have food. Clearly I have boundary issues. I’ll admit though I’m stoked to get food out for them and to have so many people in our home between 4 and mid night – it’s open house style so they won’t all be there at once, which is definitely a blessing!!

Oh and speaking of that weekend some how we have agreed to help host a birthday dinner Friday night with my sister for our two homestay students who both have birthdays while they’re here and host dinner on Sunday for Paul’s family (15 ppl or so) to celebrate January and February birthdays. Yes this is ridiculous, but can I tell you how thrilled I am that I get to do this all? Because I am. 

Of Colds, tenderloin and thrifting

So I’m still sick but I’m at the portion of sick where you cough like a maniac and constantly need to blow your nose, but aside from that feel well enough to “do life” and “be at work”. Sadly though, I’m also still in the stage where I keep myself up at night coughing and this forces Paul to continue to sleep in the living room, and leaves me feeling sleepy all day. Fun, right?

Normally I have the skills to be a trooper when I’m sick – and while I’m still making lunches for my household (4 each day, currently) and making dinners (thank you crock pot) and getting up and going to work – I find it harder this time to tough it out. My inner wimp is winning the sick wars currently.

However last weekend the trooper in me was winning out – I was only 2 days into my cold and feeling pretty good still. Therefore it was a fairly productive weekend. Friday night we had a “breaking the fast” celebration at church and then Paul and I headed over to the Maxwell’s to enjoy dinner – homemade burgers and homemade fries. So good!

Saturday we slept in together and were generally relaxed. Then the Chibota’s stopped by for a visit and house tour – Irene’s been wanting to see the place since we moved in and I was happy to oblige. Then I headed out to run errands and stop by my sisters to help her with an Excel task [any excuse to cuddle with the nephews].

After that I went to the MCC thrift store.

It rocked.

We’re on a budget but I’m also trying to make our house look great and especially trying to make our student rooms look great. I’ve been wanting to get a mirror for the downstairs student room since we moved here – we had one before that broke in the move. Everywhere I have looked it has cost at least $25 to get even a basic mirror. But low and behold at the MCC I found a mirror for $2! Perfect. We weren’t looking for a frame or anything fancy, just a mirror to prop up on a dresser and this fit the bill excellently.

Though now that I see it pictured, I realize I should have cleaned the mirror before taking pictures of it.

I also found a great tray for $6 – It’s in great shape and I can leave it as is, or I might revamp it and make it super fun. I’m not sure yet.

I’m a Tupperware snob. One of my biggest pet peeves is people referring to plastic food containers as Tupperware, when they are not Tupperware brand. I know it sounds silly – but it actually makes a difference to me which it is – because of it’s Tupperware there are certain guarantees I know I can rely on, if it’s any other brand I have no such certainty.

I had a Tupperware shower as one of my bridal showers – this was one of my best life decisions ever. I received over $1000 worth of Tupperware that day – between gifts and getting the host discount. On top of that I have been slowly investing in more and more Tupperware for our house. It makes my life easier and more organized. Now I have almost all the pieces I need. But I’m always on the lookout for interesting pieces that could help me in life.

I’ve been told that thrift stores are great places to look for older Tupperware – all Tupperware has a lifetime warranty, so if they can’t replace it with the same model, they’ll replace it with a newer equivalent. One of my favorite pieces of Tupperware is a giant yellow bowl with lid that I got when I married Paul – it came from his family. I believe it was his mom’s – in fact I have a picture of Katie with her head in this same bowl as a kid. It’s perfect for mixing large batches of food – wings in sauce, veggies in seasoning, pasta in sauce, etc. But when cooking for lifegroup I often wish I had another one or two, since I’m making lots of food. MCC had 3 of these bad boys! I only grabbed two (because I really don’t need to own four of these sets) and have already been grateful to have them. I also picked up a container that is a perfect size for holding cookies and soups and a great jug. I got both bowls, the container and the jug for $11. 11!! The closest equivalent that you can purchase at Tupperware now retails for $22 - $31 each – and the new versions are smaller than the old…and it’s not like the fact that they are old makes them less useful – in fact if for some reason their age doesn’t make them useless, then I’d take them to Tupperware and get a replacement! Win, win, win.

I headed home to work on my final house project of the weekend – wicker bedside tables.  I was looking for something to put in both our student rooms as bedside tables. My aunt came across two wicker bedside tables at a friends house for $5 for two. She picked them up for me and I planned to reinvent them.

Room 1 is brown with brown and white furniture and green highlights.

Room 2 is white with Brown furniture (sadly – if we had money I’d sub in all white or black) but the themes of the room are black and white.

My hope was that both would look great if I repainted them white – when I got them they were blue and green (as pictured below).  I’m not sold on the finished product – neither white covers the previous colour well enough, even with two coats. They both look lightly blue at this stage. The one that was originally blue looks the white-ist so it made it’s way into the brown room as we had a student coming on Sunday and the other will most likely get a coat of grey or black in the future to make it work in the Black and White room.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner – we had our friends John and Lindsay coming over for dinner – and I was itching to try out some Pinterest recipe’s. Guests make for a great excuse.

The menu was:

My standard Roasted Vegetables (easy)

Indonesian Pork Loin (Pinterest, link below)

Ranch Roasted Potatoes (Pinterest, link below)

Source: kitchenconfidante.com via Tara on Pinterest

This recipe involved picking up Mango Chutney – which took me two stores to find. I picked the sweet chutney, not the hot chutney, but the inclusion of Red Pepper Flakes in this recipe made it quite spicy (at least to me). The flavors were good though, and the meat was very tender. It was very easy to prepare. Everyone in enjoyed, myself the least (only because of the spice). I’d make this again if I were having a group of spice lovers over – or wanted to treat Paul extra well one day.

Source: sixsistersstuff.com via Tara on Pinterest

These potatoes were tender. The flavor was great, though a bit mild. In the future I might chose to do a package and a half of the ranch dressing, rather than just one as it could have used a bit more of a kick. However I will definitely be making these again – we really enjoyed them. I might even add some sour cream to top them with at the table as well.

Thankfully our guests loved everything – and Lindsay and our roommate Rachel got along really well, and it was fun to chat with them while cooking. Then the 2 couples played a round of Puerto Rico and then the boys disappeared downstairs to chat, us girls got comfy on the couch to chat and a couple hours later at midnight we realized we should probably call it a night – which involved prying Paul and John away from their conversation downstairs. I love friends like that – conversation, depth, laughter, and the ability to play games!

Speaking of things I love; having people live with us. Once both Paul and I work we can afford to rent our new house without students, but while we live on one income having students allows us to live in such a big house and have Paul focus just on studies rather than having to have a part time job during his program. But we don’t just have students for the money – I love having people around the house! Rachel moved in on the 2^nd of January – she’s originally from Kelowna and goes to our church now. We didn’t know each other super well before she moved in, but now I feel like I’ve known her for a long time. While I make lunches or dinner she often comes and sits in the kitchen and chats with me – it makes my day.

Sunday we had a new student from Korea move in – Kim Eun Saem. Eun Saem is her first name and as that is tricky for us, she has an English name, Martina. Much easier. We went to Langara to pick Martina up Sunday at 1:30 – it was extra neat because my sister Jenna was also picking up a student from the same 3 week group.

We brought Martina home and then she joined me upstairs while I made soup for us all. Since I was sick and Martina had just arrived I didn’t go to church, but Paul headed off to help prep for coffee since our LG was on that week. What I did do was make some awesome soup. One of my favorite types of soup comes from Olive Garden – Chicken & Gnocchi Soup. I found a copy cat recipe on Pinterest and my interest was piqued.

Source: food.com via Tara on Pinterest

This was a bit time consuming, but not in an annoying way. And the best part is it’s VERY tasty. Now, the taste isn’t exactly like the Olive Garden’s. It’s a bit more chicken flavored at home than in the restaurant but it was excellent regardless and this made enough to feed 3 of us for lunch on Sunday, me for lunch on Monday and all 4 of us got a another bowl out of it at dinner Monday night (served with chicken ceasar salad).

And thankfully I had enough forsight to make all the lunches for the next day – salads for everyone.

Now that Martina was settled into the house and well fed it was time for me to pick up Paul from church and head to a surprise party for our recently engaged friends Sam and Stefany hosted by the Marchioro’s and Jodi. Even though I was decidedly sicker by Sunday and my voice sounded utterly ridiculous there was no way I was missing this engagement party.

The food was great – the company was excellent – the Marchioro’s daughters are adorable – and Jonathan lead us through a version of the Newlywed Game (the newly engaged game) which lead to much much laughter.

The happy couple - Stef and Sam

And a moment later in their natural poses

Me and Lydia

The girls and their hair crayons got ahold of Dustin

I love all the action in this shot - so full of life!

Sam and Stef getting ready for the game

Dustin with the scoreboard

Answers!

This one too is full of life:

Stef is debating her next answer

The kids are are dancing in the center

Lyndsay is riding the girls scooter

We left the party early because we had a planning meeting at our house briefly afterwards where I noticed I proceeded to feel worse and worse. By the time I went to sleep I’d already texted my boss to say the odds of me missing the next day of work were high!

Monday was spent in pajamas mostly in bed sleeping and for a few hours on a bed in the living room watching Nashville. I roused myself enough to reheat soup for dinner and make salad, and throw together lunches for the next day and then was back to bed.

Tuesday was spent mostly in comfy work out gear – I wanted to feel a bit more pulled together than sweats. I also needed to venture to the outside world to the doctors office to grab a prescription and some prenatal vitamins – apparently you’re supposed to start taking vitamins 3 months before you start trying for a baby – so we’re right on track. That trip wiped me out and I was back in bed for most of the afternoon. I got up to prepare dinner for our LG – thankfully I’d thrown the ground beef into the crock pot that morning – and only needed to cook up sauce and noodles and heat up some garlic bread. Super easy, Praise the Lord. LG was awesome. I’m so glad I was feeling better that evening – eating together, worshipping together and going through the sermon together was such an encouragement. Some of the members helped clean up our kitchen, some hung around the house for a few hours, and I made lunches for the next day. It was fun to do that with LG friends to talk with.

Wednesday my boss suggested I sleep in and come in by 2. Thankfully my friend (and our temp) Irene had been able to be in at work for me all week so I didn’t need to stress about how badly my sickness was making things for my boss. Phew! So I made my way slowly to work and worked for 2 and a half hours. It was a good transition back in. That night I made another Pinterest Recipe.

Source: roomag.com via Tara on Pinterest

I had cooked chicken and marinara in the fridge, so this was super easy.

And boy, it was super tasty. We liked it so much, I’ll be making it Saturday when I have some girlfriends over for lunch. So good! Other than making dinner and lunches I made sure to rest more – the next day was my first full day of work after my cold AND I was going to be biking in for the first time from the new house.

When I woke up at 6am it was super cold out – well super cold for Vancouver, -2! Still I decided to brave the cold and bundled up well in my biking gear and hit the road at 7am. I made good time and I think I found a decent route, though I’m not totally sold on it. I loved my previous route to work and miss it’s simplicity and speed. Hopefully I’ll figure that out here as well.

Work was good – though my cough hasn’t gone away yet. My boss suggested I drink hot water, lemon and honey and that’s been helping to suppress the cough. Thursday after work I rushed home to make dinner: Yoshida Porkloin, Asian Green Beans and Rice (tasty!). After dinner Martina and I headed over to Jenna’s house – turns out that Martina and Jenna’s student Lenice didn’t know each other in Korea but have become friends here, when they found out they were living with us sisters. So now Martina buses to Jenna’s house each day and then walks with Lenice to school. It’s super cute. The four of us ate chips and popcorn and played 31. We laughed and it was a great night. We also discovered that Martina and Lenice both have birthdays in the 3 weeks that they are here so we will be throwing them a joint birthday party – what fun!

Also while we were at the Maxwell’s I got to cuddle with Connor and a while after he was supposed to be in bed Austin came out looking super cute and hugging a bat. It was random but oh so sweet.

And today I drove into work – my cough and nose were both acting up and I felt terrible…so I didn’t want to risk it on my bike or have to deal with transit feeling like this. My car was an awesome alternative.

And even though I’m sick I wanted to look cute at work – helps me to feel good. I think I pulled it off.

And it isn't until this moment that I realize that that's the same sweater and pants in every outfit. Interesting. 

Next up, the weekend. Thankful for that.