Of Shopping, Rockstar Jeans, Easter Crafts and family dinners

6:15am did in fact come early on Friday - a day off from work! But I managed to drag my self out of bed, get dressed and throw the coolers and US shopping gear into the car and head over to Irene’s by 6:45am. We headed off to the border “knowing” the lines would be short since we were up so early. WRONG. Usually that’s true but Friday ended up hitting all time high records for wait times and amount of people crossing. Yikes. We got to Peace Arch and the line of cars stretched down the highway. We took the last exit before the line of cars to head over to the truck crossing, which was even longer! It stretched past the lights. One time my sister and I waited for 3 hours at the truck crossing and this line was longer than the one we’d waited in! I refuse to wait that long to cross into the states, so we drove over to Sumas at Abbotsford and joined the line there – still long but not stupid long. We crossed in an hour and 5 minutes. With a 20 minute longer drive to get there, that still put us ahead of the 2 hour wait at peace arch.

We headed straight down to Marysville to hit up Target – where I found many awesome things including these two pieces to hang on my wall, for $4.58 each!

Then it was off to Walmart Supercenter and WinCo foods and Costco, with a repeat stop at Target. Thankfully each of these stores is within 3 exits of each other on the I5 so it was nice and quick to get to each store. We headed north and ended up at Burlington for Old Navy and Panera. The Panera was for sustenance and the Old Navy was for jeans.

Let me tell you about jeans. Well, Jeans and me specifically. I can’t wear all types of jeans – I’m very picky. When I find a pair that fits well I basically buy it in every color that I can and always go back to that store for that brand. My most recent discovery for jeans was at Dress Barn for skinny jeans. I loved mine. I loved them so much that I have gone through 3 pairs of the same black jeans and 3 pairs of the same denim jean in the past 2 years. They are lovely but they always eventually wear out in the thigh – sad. When I went to Dress Barn on my last US visit to pick up a new pair of each I discovered that they no longer carried this brand, and the internet didn’t offer any ideas on how to track them down. I was crushed.

I started telling people about my dilemma in the hopes someone would have a suggestion for replacement jeans. Thankfully my friend Steph Hanlon told me that she swears by Rockstar jeans at Old Navy. I’ll admit I was skeptical. Old Navy jeans? I’ve tried on pants there before and they always seem to thin and cheaply made – could this really be a solution for me?

And the long and short of it is yes. They are indeed awesome. So awesome I bought 3 pairs – light and dark denim, as well as black. I’m in love. Not only are they the perfect type of skinny (tight on the ankle, no bunch at the knee) but they also look good with a belt, which I’d given up all hope of ever finding.

Needless to say I’m constantly in my new jeans currently.

Old Navy also made me happy in another way.

Recently I’d noticed this adorable outfit on Kendi Everyday – I love black and white, especially with a hint of pink. I was smitten. I wasn’t totally sold on the mixed prints personally, but she looked super cute. Sadly, I didn’t have a pink belt nor black and white bottoms.

Enter Old Navy’s adorable black and white striped dress and double belts and voila!

I felt fun and springy in this.

I wore it to church on Easter Sunday – the day was hot and sunny – part of the service was outside and this was the perfect outfit.  I look forward to discovering more ways to wear this.

We got in late Friday night – Paul was away at a stag – so I was left to unload alone. Thankfully our roommate Duncan was home and he very kindly lifted all the heavy stuff for me J Thanks Duncan!! We got everything inside as quickly as possible, throwing all fridge and freezer stuff into the fridge and freezer downstairs and then it was time for bed! My body was sore from all the shopping and car rearranging. Thankfully though we’d had a super quick border crossing on the return, less than 10 minutes! And so I was in bed by 11pm.

A late night rest with "Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds" and some Grey's Anatomy

And to my wonder and amazement I was woken up at 8:30am by the sun streaming in my room…and I didn’t mind being woken up at all – the sun was so lovely. I cranked open the blinds and did some tidying and then made my way out into the real world to get supplies for Easter dinner that night. I put on the neon t shirt and belt with jeans combo that you see above and headed out to find decorations for easter. I went to the Dollar Giant, and $15 dollars later had all the supplies I’d need to make decorative place settings for 20 people. Here’s what I did:

I cut strips of chalkboard from my chalkboard roll – this is the same $12 roll I purchased a year ago and now 6 projects later I’m still using it!

I bought a pack of plastic tumblers at the dollar store, placed a piece of chalkboard roll onto them and wrote each persons name. It already looked amazingly festive.

Then I filled each cup with grass – yellow for the girls and green for the boys. I added sugar filled plastic carrots to the green grass cuss and white mini eggs to the yellow grass cups. And voila! Finished.

Inexpensive, easy and super super cute.

I also made a simple centerpiece:

I set the tables early - and made it all beautiful and it made me so happy to look out over the tables while I worked.

Then it was time to get to cooking. I was hosting dinner for 20 at our place that night. There was my sisters family, my parents, our friends Dylan and Deve, mine and Jenna’s homestay students and 3 international students from Langara. Dylan and Deve were bringing the appies (spring rolls!), Jenna was bringing buns, salad, dessert and sautéed vegetables and Dad was bringing the mashed potatoes. I just needed to cook a ham and a turkey, toss up a cold green bean salad and bake a green bean casserole. Easy peasy.

For those of you that think “Turkey? Easy? Really!?” Let me tell you – Turkey bags are the way to go. I get mine as Safeway, but you can get them most anywhere. I butter up my turkey with becel (margarine, that is), sprinkle it with garlic salt, onion salt and seasoning salt and then toss diced onions and minced garlic on top of it. I do this all with it sitting inside of the oven bag, in the roaster. Then I close up the bag, cut a few holes as specified on the package and put it in the oven for 2-3 hours. I always end up with tender, juicy, tasty turkey.

For the ham, I’d grabbed a spiral cut at Costco. I put it in the crockpot using this recipe found on pinterest. I found that it didn’t heat at the rate the recipe said it would, so after 3 hours I put it in a pan and threw it in the oven with all the sauce on top and MAN IT WAS AWESOME.

Duncan hates ham and he texted me after he’d tried it to tell me that I was allowed to make this every week if I wanted – that’s approval!

I made the rest of my side dishes easily and then concentrated on my fun food addition: Birdsnests. I made these last year and they were such a hit, I knew I’d make them again. I made enough for our dinner and to bring to the church Easter reception.

And God must be extra good because I even had time to lay in the sun with a book and a drink for an hour before the first sets of family arrived.

The dinner was a great success! Everyone had fun and the food was amazing. The party mostly emptied out by 10:30pm, which was perfect as I was getting pretty tired. 

The only damper on the night was that Paul had come home from the stag with the flu or something flu like. He felt poorly the entire time he was away and it didn’t get any better over the weekend. He missed the dinner, just slept in our bedroom. We had family plans for Sunday morning but instead we had to cancel and stay home so he could rest. While Paul slept I put my laundry away and tidied up our room and then we ate food, with Paul wrapped up in a blanket on the couch. He was terribly cold…and then terribly hot…and then cold again and hot again. It was so frustrating for him! While he vacillated between temperatures on the couch I finished putting away all the canned goods  and shopping from the trip – the family room downstairs had gotten pretty messy! It was all tidy by the time we needed to head to church and by then Paul was feeling a bit better, so he joined us. After church we headed over to the Mitchell’s for family dinner – we were able to stay for a few hours before Paul’s sickness sent us back home. It will still so nice to be all together as family – and have Jodi and Joel with us. Sadly Lyndsay wasn’t able to join us – and LeAnna and her family were back in Europe. But the rest of the crew was there – and we did a lot of talking and laughing and eating.

Monday morning was another beautiful sunny day – I got to sleep in since my boss was covering the morning and I didn’t have to take over until 12:30. I did more tidying around the house and ate a nice leftovers brunch then headed into work in the sun on my bike. Happy happy again.

Monday night we had the MacLeod’s over for dinner and it was a time of laughter and great conversation. Devin and Lydia are LOVELY to spend time with. 

Tuesday night was Lifegroup for Jodi's birthday - I made Burgers with sauteed onions and mushrooms, Ranch Bacon Devilled Eggs, Avocado Greek Pasta Salad (recipe to come) and served it all with chips and Mango Salsa. I also made a home made Ice Cream. This meal seemed super simple to me - and yet the constant raves and shouts of excitement were enough to convince me that this was indeed a rave worthy meal. 

Wednesday it was my friend Lindsay's birthday, so we had her and her husband John over for dinner. I made us Baja Fish Taco's and man...soooo good. 

Original: 

Lindsay, Paul and Duncan were particularly ecstatic and effusive in their love of this meal. This will be made again for sure!!! And I'm so pleased that I went out of my way to get the Queso Fresco - really great taste. Also I accidentally refered to Queso Fresco as "Mexican" for white cheese. Oops. That's Spanish. Right. Embarrassing. 

Last night I babysat the nephews and hung out with Jenna afterwards and bam - it's Friday and the weekend! It's Gabe and Sunny's wedding on Saturday, so that fills up most of the weekend, and add in some babysitting and a McCarthy dinner on Sunday and it should be a good weekend. 

Sunny days, bike rides, parties and weddings

Weekends have been exciting lately. Weddings, Easter and projects. That fills up quite a bit of time!

Last weekend was the start of the wonderful warm weather. Friday night Paul and I decided to have an outdoors date – I met him at Stanley Park on my bike, and he rented a bike. We biked around the park in absolutely gorgeous weather. We sat with the sun on our faces overlooking the beach and felt like we were in Cali.

We made our way to English Bay for Shewarma – it was sunny and palm trees were out. We continued to feel like we were on vacay.

We ran some errands on our way home - Costco, Superstore...a visit to the new Crate and Barrel. The sunset was gorgeous.

Saturday was my big Command Center project – you can read about it here. Then it was time to get prettied up and head to Delta for Paul’s step brother Tyler’s wedding. Tyler and Sara are great fun to have in the family and I couldn’t wait to have her officially join us! The day was beautiful, the couple looked gorgeous and the wedding and ceremony were well thought out and very easy to enjoy. 

Kevin, Tyler’s brother, spoke about his brother and Sara and it was nice to hear about that relationship. Sara's maid of honor also spoke, and it was great view into more of who Sarah was. She welcomed Tyler into the best friends club, and made most of us giggle throughout the speech. Entertaining and very full of love. Later Tyler gave the best groom’s speech I have ever heard. It was honoring and loving and full of gratitude. He did a wonderful job and it was clear how in love he is with Sara. 

There was dancing and family and great food and drinks – not a bad way to spend a Saturday night!

Laura and Salem - most popular baby at the wedding for sure

 Carol - mother of the groom - looks sooo happy

Lighting of the candles

Sara and Tyler Raphael

David and his mom, Doreen, laughing

The weather was so gorgeous

I love this shot of the bride

Me, Paul, Joel and Katie

Me and Paul

Me and my sisters-in-law

Tara, Laura and Katie.

And of course, Salem.

Girls and Carol...and Salem

Between ceremony and reception we stopped at the pub Tyler and Kevin work at to have a beer and kill some time. Both Paul and his Dad could not keep their hands still!

The reception hall was super cute.

Lots of great little touches.

Salem again, of course.

Happiest Grandma ever

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

And the dip kiss

Ted tried to get a photo of us - camera was reversed

Ahhh the Morgans

And the other Morgans

Sunday we slept in (thank the Lord!) and then had a womens ministry planning lunch – these meetings are always such a wonderful time of friendship and relationship, as well as a time of productive planning! I work with a great group of ladies. Then it was church and then off to the Chibota’s for a surprise birthday party for Dylan. We seemed to have surprised him and thrown a great party – it was a great night.

Paul even got spun around on a bean bag chair.

Monday night we had my parents over for dinner – it is such a blessing to have wonderful parents and to have them be in the same town as me! Tuesday was lifegroup and Wednesday we got to spend time with the couple that did our pre-marital counseling, the Siewerts. They live outside of Edmonton now, but were visiting for Spring Break. We LOVE spending time with them.

Thursday was a wonderful day – my boss let Irene and I off early since it was the long weekend – we left at 3pm, not 4:30. I biked up to my sisters and played around with Connor and Austin in the backyard  in the beautiful, warm sun. It was idyllic and I was ecstatic. Then I headed home for dinner with Paul and back to Jenna’s for our weekly sister hang out. Paul was gone most of the night chaperoning at school so I got a nice uninterrupted sleep…which was important because I was getting up early (6:15am) to head to the states with Irene for the day. 

Phew - part two coming tomorrow!

In Lieu of...

So I wrote up a big blog post yesteray and saved it in a word doc. Then today I was going to open up my folder of pictures, edit them and post it all. And then I got a new work computer, and after the switch over we discovered that it hadn't been formatted properly by IT and now I have no word doc and no ability to reach my content. Le Sigh.

So here we are instead. I'll tell you about my outfit today. Because it's not as simple as I'd hoped.

I bought some new jeans. In my next post I'll ramble on about them, I know this since my post is already written. But to give you context I'll say that I've recently fallen in love with Rockstar Super Skinny jeans at Old Navy. I love that they are actually skinny not just slim, that they hug tight to the knee with no awkward bulge and that i can actually tuck shirts into them and look cute. Usually. 

This morning I remembered this tucking in fact, and further remembered that being able to tuck a shirt means being able to wear a belt. I have a skinny brown belt that I love and am always looking for new ways to wear it. So I threw one of my favorite outfits into my biking bag, with the addition of my new pants and the belt, and off I rode into work. There isn't a full length mirror in the changeroom so I put the outfit on, felt great in it and headed upstairs with no real idea of how I looked. 

Then I went to the washroom and noticed that the outfit was not as flattering as it felt. Yikes. I tried removing the cardigan and that only made it worse. So I went with my standard version of this outfit - untucked with layered tank. Here are the three looks:

How's that for over honesty?
Number one photo isn't terrible, though it's more country or matchy matchy than I'd prefer, and number two is just unflattering, especially with that hip angle. But number three does work, which I already knew since it's my favorite outfit.

Deep, right? Aren't you glad you clicked over to read this?

Tonight I am making Baja Fish Taco's to celebrate my friend Lindsay's birthday. Last night I made burgers, ice cream cake, pasta salad and ranch and bacon devilled eggs for Jodi's birthday and lifegroup and that was a huge success so I'm feeling quite positive about tonight's try. I even went to far as to get some queso fresco from the states - I'm stoked to try and make authentic food for my californian friend.

And just like that, the clouds are back. May I say, weather, you sadden me today.

"Bring back the sun! Bring back the sun! Bring back the sun!"

No?

Menu Plan Monday on Tuesday

Monday: Easter Dinner Leftover Remix

This differed from the normal Leftover's meal since Lydia and Devin were coming over and Lydia can't eat gluten or dairy or meat....so yeah...I had to do some creative leftover remixing and some new vegetable roasting. It was a great meal though. 

Tuesday: Hamburgers and salads (and homemade ice cream cake)

It's sunny and it's Jodi's birthday - nothing says summer party like a BBQ and ice cream cake. Seriously. 

Wednesday: Baja Fish Taco's

McCarthy's over for dinner - It's Lindsays birthday and I wanted to cook something she would flip for - and my girl Lindsay is from Southern California - mexican and fish? Yup, that's a winner!

Thursday: Leftover Remix - Open Faced Turkey & Gravy sandwich

It's my night at Jenna's and I hate to miss tucking my nephews in - so it's time for an easy leftover option. Thank you giant $16 turkey from my Dad! The gift that keeps on giving.

Friday: One pot Crockpot Italian Chicken

It's Gabe and Sunshine's rehearsal dinner, so I needed something easy to grab and go

Saturday: YOYO (you're on your own)

It's Gabe and Sunshine's wedding - so that's enough work for one day :)

Sunday: Chicken and Mushroom Piccata 

Interestingly the McCarthy's are coming over again - for a post Panama hangout - so this time I thought I'd make something John will flip for, and John loves mushrooms. 

And I have a big post coming - about the last couple weekends, some fun new pieces of clothing and cooking adventures but that post is GIANT so I'll space it out over the next two days, so as to not overwhelm you.