Monday, January 21, 2013

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.


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.

 

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. 

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