Rain, Sun, Brunch and more!

Last week, for several days, Vancouver produced many clouds and much rain. It was quite sad really considering the fact that it is the middle of July, but whatever. All week my friend Shelley and I had been planning a Birthday Brunch for Saturday morning because two of our close friends (Grace & Elizabeth) were celebrating birthdays and we wanted to do something special for them. The thing about this brunch though is that it was intended to be outdoors in Shelley's back yard. We were freaking out about the rain and were so nervous that our garden brunch was going to be rained out. We prayed and prayed all week and on Friday it didn't rain was chilly and cloudy and by Saturday morning the clouds had passed and the dun was slowly peaking through the clouds. We were setting everything up and the grass outside was still soaked with water and dew from the night before. We were nervous still. But by 10:45 the sun was blaring and the grass had dried and we were blessed to the max! Some of the girls even got sunburned! Needless to say, the brunch was a success and the birthday girls seemed to enjoy it.
You can see the pictures here.

2 other bits of news...Derek and I went shiopping yesterday and both bought a pair of chocolate brown crocs, they are amazing!
And the most exciting news of all, Derek and I bought plane tickets to New York City and we are officially going on Vacation! We cannot wait to "do New York". We are going to see it all!! It's less than 3 weeks away!!

thoughts about summer

I believe that weather truly can affect a persons mood. We are a little ways into summer now and I feel like I have never been happier. Maybe it is life, maybe it is Derek, maybe it's friends, but maybe it is the Lord providing this beautiful sunshine that tans my skin and brightens my day! I love everything about summer. I love how early the sun rises in the morning and how late it goes down at nigh, I love the sound of flip-flop, flip-flop that surrounds me, I love wearing flip flops for that matter, I love tan lines and capri pants, I love that my hair gets lighter and my smile gets bigger, I love all the pregnant women that seem to bloom in summer season, I love tank tops and pony tails, the beach and the sand. There is nothing that I love more than summer. Can't we just move somewhere that it is summer all the time? I would never tire of it.

oregon, coffee, wedding, groomsmen, beer, friends & family extravaganza!!

Derek and I just got back on Sunday from a crazy trip to Oregon. It was a crazy trip indeed! We left Tuesday after I got off of work and stayed the night in Portland at Derek's sister's house. We got to see his cute niece and nephew and had a short but good time.
On Wednesday morning we got our coffee and hit the road to Eugene where we spent only about 5 hours total. We had to visit a place that is near and dear to our hearts, Camp Harlow. We got to see some good friends and see all the changes they have implemented at camp. It's wierd...but good. From Eugene we took the next drive two and half hours over to Central Oregon to my hometown, Bend. Here we were able to find out footing for a good 4 days. But the madness began as soon as got there. We walked in the door to my parents house and of course they were all excited to see us and immediately we went out for dinner and enjoyed a nice Mexican meal (which is truly missed here in Canada). We then went straight to our friends Dave and Majell's house who are the couple whose wedding we went down for. It was great to see them and be able to spend the evening with them and a few other friends before all the wedding events began the next day. I will spare you all the details but the next 2 days consisted of coffee, the arrival to Bend of Dan and Amanda Johnson, Derek and I applying for our passports, one heck of a Bachelor party (so I hear), some good beer and just a tiny sprinkle of rain at the rehersal. The rehersal dinner on Friday evening was so wonderful. And leave it to Dave to get a keg of Mirror Pond Pale Ale for his rehearsal dinner...thanks Dave! Finally the long awaited day arrived where Dave and Majell would get married and did they ever! It was a beautiful ceremony, a perfect union and a great reception afterwards. Derek did a great job being a groomsmen (along with the 8 others) and got to be an up close witness to one of our best friends getting married. It was such a blast to a part of it all and to be able to connect with so many friends over the couple days prior to the wedding and even more at the wedding. Overall it was a very fruitful trip but of course it wasn't long enough. I miss Oregon :(


Like always....
You can find more pics from our trip here

Surprise! Surprise!

So Derek didn't take me out to dinner for my birthday afterall. Yesterday at about 4:00pm, I was fully confused when he showed up at my work. Tunrs out he had arranged with my boss for me to get off early and "take me away"! I had no idea what was going on or where we were going. We started heading down Highway 1 and stopped in Abbotsford for dinner around 5:30pm. From there we continued on and about 45 minutes later we pulled up to this random house out in the middle of nowhere. My reaction was "what is this?". Turns out he had this special getaway planned for me at this beautiful Bed and Breakfast out in Harrison Mills. It was amazing there! So peaceful and romantic. We had our own entrance with a very fancy suite. It had a king bed, a dual head shower, your very own bathrobes, a fireplace and outside it had a hot tub! And best of all, they serve you breakfast in the morning to your room! Could not get much better than that. The evening was mellow and we just had to get straight into the bathrobes when we got there. Derek gave me my birthday presents (yay!) and after our soak in the hot tub he gave me a foot rub. Such a great evening. And I was so surprised and had NO idea. Thanks baby, I love you!

See some more pictures at my photo album

Holy Moly!

Last night one of our couple friends invited the usual group of friends to their place for a little get together because they had been out of town and thought it would be fun to see everyone. At least that's what they told us. So we are all sitting around, chatting, eatinf cinnamon bears (yum!) when the couple walks in the house and comes back out with a cake. Everyone turns to look at them and the husband says "well, we have this cake because this is actually a surprise party...for the baby we are going to have". Pretty sure my heart stopped and then started beating again really REALLY fast. It was so exciting! Everyone freaked out because no one had a clue! I am honestly still in shock and am just so happy for them. They did such an amazing job of keeping it a secret, it made the shock of the whole thing that much more exciting!! Congrats friends!

In other news... I had my 23rd birthday two days ago and got fully pampered by my wonderful husband. It was a great day. Tonight he is taking me to a nice dinner but the location is a surprise. I will finally get to open my presents!! I love birthdays and presents!! But I love babies more :)

What the weekend held

Ben and Deanna, friends from Oregon, came to visit this weekend and it was a different type of visit than just having friends in town. Ben will actually be attending Regent this coming fall, therefore in just a couple of months, they are moving here!! So Derek and I got to spend some time showing them Regent College as well as the UBC campus. We also showed them a bit of the city including Jerricho Beach! Sadly, we do not have any pictures from their visit...but soon enough we will get to see them on a regular basis, so it's okay.

On Sunday afternoon, Derek and I took our long awaited trip to Lighthouse Park. We have been wanting to go to Lighthouse park for a long time now, but for some reason it has taken us almost 2 years of living here to get out butts ou there. Anyway, we had a blast and it was a beautiful day. Check out the pictures here.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with feelings such as "I'm growing up too fast" and "I wish I were back in my young single days" and "I feel like an old married lady" and such things like that. I don't like feeling this way but I admit that sometimes I do and sometimes I struggle with that. Which I think, and I hope, is just part of life. I am reading To own a Dragon by Donald Miller (Author of Blue Like Jazz) and it is about his thoughts and reflections on growing up without a Father. In the book he talks about a point in his life where he was living with this family and kind of got to experience what being a dad really looks like in a normal, healthy, God loving family. This is all kind of beside the point, but it is a good book even if you did grow up with a dad, like I did. Anyway, with all the thoughts and feeling that I explained above, I came accross this is Donald Miller's book and it was just a good little somthing that made me think and made me feel happy about the path I am on.

"There were times I would have rather lived on my own, played my music as loud as I wanted, come home drunbk, whatever. But Playing your music as loud as you want and coming home drunk aren't real life. Real life, it turns out, is diapers and lawnmowers, decks and painting, a wife that needs to be listened to, kids that need to be taught right from wrong, a checkbook, an oil change, a sunset behind a mountain, laughter at the kitchen table, too much wine, a chipped tooth, and a screaming child. "

This makes me realize that I really do want "real life". Honestly, I don't ever want to go and live through High School again or worry about being popular or having a boyfriend or knowing the right people. Yes, all that has a time and a place and is sometimes neccesary, but I am over it and now feel so happy and grateful that I get to live life for real.

Yay for friends!

I cannot wait for tomorrow! I am so excited and stoked because 2 of my very good friends are coming up to visit me from Oregon. Jess, my best friend, my maid of honour, my soul mate and my friend for life. We have been best friends since Freshman year in High school (that's grade nine to all you Canadians). My friend Kalee is coming with Jess to visit ME as well. When Jess went off to college at Oregon State (boo!) she had a wonderful roommate, Kalee. Kalee and Jess became really good friends and since I pretty much went to visit every other day, Kalee and I also became close friends. Eventhough she was only Jess's roomie, we all caled her roomie, room for short, and that will probably always be her nickname now. So tomorrow after I get off work Jess and room are coming to visit for the whole weekend. And what's better is that Derek decided to take off and go to Rivendale (on Bowen Island) for the weekend to have a little retreat. Not that it's great to have him gone but in this case, it means that me and the girls get the house to ourselves and pretty much get to have a big weekend O fun!!

Yay for friends :)

This is Jess and I about 3 years ago...a couple days before my wedding I think :)

whoa!!

Around UBC (where I work) and all over Vancouver for that matter, they are always shooting movies. After a while you just kind of get used to seeing all the signs, etc. BUT this morning when I pulled into the parking lot I always park at it was crowded with trailers and people, luckily I found a spot to park (phew!). As I get out and start walking towards my office I realize the set of the movie is right in front of my building. The set is supposed to be the University of Washington and so there are UW signs all over as well as a fake coffee cart and tables. It was pretty cool looking actually. Anyway, in order to get to work today I literally had to walk through a movie set! How fun is that?! I kind of want to go back out there...maybe I will be discovered :)

Anyway, in talking about work I thought it would be cool to show you a picture out my office window. Beatiful, hey?


This is my desk here on the left
(the other desk there is for a work study student if and when we have one)

The haps

Yesterday around 5pm I returned home from a long weekend away. Friday morning at 5am I got myself up and out the door as my Washington friends picked me up for a weekend at Malibu Club. Malibu Club is a Young Life camp located in Canada and is a 3 hour boat ride from the NE side of the Sunshine Coast. Young Life was a big part of my life in High School and I was priviledged to go to Malibu for a week as a camper back in 1999 and I got to go again and be on Work Crew there for a month in 2000. I had not been back since and when a couple of my old work crew friends invited me, I jumped at the chance. It was Memorial Day weekend in the States so the Young Life of Seattle thought it a good time to have a Discipleship Weekend for the High Schoolers in their area. Me and my friends (along with about 47 other college agers) volunteered our time to serve on the work crew for the weekend. I wish I could say that I had the most amazing time, but the truth is that I was sick for it all. I got sick about 2 days before the trip and assumed I would just get better as time passed. The case was that I got worse. And when you are at a camp on a island, you can't really go get medicine from the doc to make you better. Oh well. I put on my best face and served the best I could. For the weekend my job, along with my friends and a few other girls, was to be in the Linen Nook. This meant that we did all the laundry, cleaned all the bathrooms and even got to go and dig the dirt out of the cracks in the boards that make up the walkways. All for the Lord. I am now a master at folding fitted sheets! It's quite a skill to have. Jealous? Though it was not quite the trip I expected, it was pretty awesome to be in, what I think is, the most beautiful place on earth basking in God's beauty. You are surrounded by huge mountains, ocean, blue skies and by people who love Jesus. I have not felt that close to the Lord in some time and that made all the travelling and being sick well worth it.

P.S. Check out my picture blog here, it's updated!!

THE SUN IS OUT!!!

The sun has arrived and Vancouver is actually beginning to warm up! Today it's supposed to get to around 25 (celcius that is) and it should be nice most of the week. I love sun more than anything and it truly lifts my spirits. Give me the chance to wear flip flops and a tank top and I am one happy camper! Thank you Lord for sunshine and warmth.

And then there was Thursday...

Today has been a dull and unexciting day at work. Except for when my friend Shannon came and brought me lunch and we got to sit anc chat during my lunch break. Good times. I am excited to get off work because I am excited for what the evening will hold. After work we are going to go to the produce store to do our weekly produce shopping. Then we are having our Canadian friends, Levi and Shelley, over for some homemade pizza...De-licous! Then we will continue to our weekly ritual of watching Survivor. I hope Cirie wins...the finale is Sunday!

I promise I will update my picture blog soon ---> in the meantime check it out and look over my picture past :) www.kbpics.blogspot.com

Oh Happy day!!

My computer is fixed!!!! Derek got a new hard drive and installed it and now it's better than ever!

Currently....

Currently feeling: Bored






Currently Reading: Memoirs of a Geisha





Currently Eating: Strawberries







Currently staring at: Gmail







Currently listening to: Z 95.3







Currently drinking: water





Obviously I am 'currently' not working and slacking off. Oops! So Derek left for the weekend to go to some conference in Spokane with a couple buddies. I was/am quite excited to have the house to myself this weekend and have very much beenlooking forward to it. But when he left at 5:00am today, aside from feeling rather lethargic, I was sad tosee him go and will miss him this weekend. So I am living the single life this weekend and it's going to rock! I am having girls over for a big girl-fest of fun! Including movies, pizza, junk food and pampering. Pretty much heaven for any girl! Hope everyone has a great weekend and I pray the sun shines down on you!

Grad

Last night Derek and I went to the Regent Graduation to watch some of our dear friends graduate! It was very bitter sweet. We said farewell to many friends who we have gotten to know over the past 2 years and whom we will miss greatly. They have been a part of our Regent experience and forever a part of our life. I can't imagine having to that next year with even more, deeper, closer friends. However, it is very sweet becuase next year I will get to watch Derek walk accross that stage with Masters degree in hand and with that chapter of life complete. It will be scary to turn the page and head into the next chapter which, at this point, is unknown. But I have faith that God has a plan for us and that he knows what he's doing. I am amazed at life and how it can fly by so fast and hold so much greatness.

gotta love gmail

So as you know, my computer at home is sick. We think we just need a new hard drive and problem solved. It will suck because I will loose all my info. But $60 for a new Hard drive or $1000 for a new computer. What do you think? Anyway, at home I had all my e-mail set-up in the Thunderbird mail program, which I love because you don't have open up your browser, go to the website and check your e-mail. You jusy open a pogram and they download right it. I use g-mail (google mail) as my main e-mail server and I am just loving it more and more each day. Since my computer has been sick I have been getting my e-mail old fashion way online. But something struck me today. Besides being great and organizing all your emails into conversations, it also never has those little regarding "re:" things in the title of your email. That is amazing and beautiful to me. In other email news. At work (for my work e-mail and such) they use Outlook express. It's fine, again it avoids having to go online and go to a website to retrieve your mail. But you cannot search for emails like you can in gmail. Which is so annoying and just today I have been looking for multiple past e-mails that could be anywhere and took 3 times as long to find them than it would have on gmail. Pretty much g-mail rocks. If you do not use g-mail, you should, and you need to be invited from a current g-mail member to join g-mail, so let me know and I can send you an invite! GO GOOGLE! That's all I have to say about that.

and life continues

Derek is officially done with his finals! He is now recovering and resting, poor guy. I have to admit though it has been quite nice to have him play the stay-at-home-husband role these past few days. He has made dinner every night this week so far and has done his best to keep on top of the housework. Now, if he could only birth us some children we would be set!!
Sunday night we decided to go out for a celebration dinner. We went to this great local Thai restuarant downtown and right on the water. It just so happen to be an amazingly beautiful, sunny day so we had a blast! Great scenery and great food complete with deep-fried bananas and coconut ice cream. On the way home we were going to stop and rent a movie when we drove by Rogers Video and noticed they were having a 'Mega Movie Sale' (or something like that). So we stopped and got 3 DVDs for 24 bucks! We were stoked. So we continued our evening with one of our very own movies. Things at the job are going well. I am slowly but surely learning my through. I am excited to know it all!

computers, portland and finals

I was waiting to mzake a post until I got my pictures (from our trip to Portland) off my camera and I could put them on here. Sadly, 2 nights ago a shelf decided to fall off the wall and flat onto my computer and now is has decided not to work. Very fun...let me tell ya. So picture a photo of Jeff, Jess, and Derek getting into our little Subaru with JJ Bean coffee in hand as we begin our trip. That's the only picture I can remember taking.

Well, we went to Portland for Easter and were fortunate to have our friends Jeff and Jess join us for the drive (we dropped them off in Gresham where they have fam). Fortunaltey living in Canada we get Good Friday and Easter Monday as stat holidays so we had a 4-day weekend. Amazing! It was a crazy busy trip that consisted of visiting our best friends, my sister, Derek's entire family and having Easter brunch with Dan and Amanda as well as a Target run and a little too much coffee and alcohol. We had fun!

This week is Finals week for Derek or in other words "i don't have a husband" week. It's bitter sweet because on one hand I can just kind of do whatever I want with my week, come and go as I please and stay up late watching too much tv and scrapbooking. On the other hand because Derek is so busy and stressed, I am left do anything and everything when it comes to caring for us and our household (cook, clean, grocery shop, laundry, etc). It can be a bit stressful to come home after a long day of work and see the house that my husband has been in all day looking that same if not worse than it did when I left that morning. So last night at 11pm you would have found me scrubbing the shower and cleaning the bathroom. Stress me out! But after this week Derek will be a lot more free and I will hopefully feel like I have a husband again. We are planning a big fun date for Sunday night and I can't wait!!

New Beginnings

It is official! I have finised at The Well and have about completed my first week with SCARP. I am really enjoying it and know that it will only get better. I am in the very beginnings stages so there is still tons to learn. I think I will enjoy working in/for a school. My official title is 'PhD Secretary' at the School of Community and Regional planning. I work on the 4th floor all the way on the opposite end of campus from where Regent is located. I am not going to let myself be lazy and ride the elevator up to the 4th floor so I have to climb the stairs. But yesterday I counted and there are 12 flights of stairs leading to the 4th floor. Man...it's a workout. And this week I have probably avergaged about 8 times aday going up and down those stairs. My butt better look great in a couple months! Anyway, I took some pictures of my last day at The Well (they thre me a little party at the end of my last day) and I forgot to take a picture of my first day of work so I took a pic of me on my 3rd day of work. You can see the pics on my picture blog here.

Friends from home

The past two weekends in a row we had friends from Oregon come and visit us. First, Adam and Katy. Then Dan and Amanda. Adam and Dan are both great friends of Derek's and through that I have also become great friends with them as well as their beautiful new wives. We had so much fun with both couples. A few of the things we did: JJ Bean, Stanley Park, Lou's, Incendio, watched "The Corporation" and had some great conversations. Dan and Amanda inspired and encouiraged Derek and I to live more organically and naturally. So we are going to give it a try. We bought a book called "Worms eat my garbage" and we are going to start a worm bin very soon. I am very excited. We are also going to try and buy a lot more organic food and such. It is all a bit overwhelming but I can't wait to get serious about it. Where to start...?





Derek with Adam and Katy at Stanley Park















Katy and I doing a shot at Lou's














Dan and Derek at Stanley Park











Us with Dan and Amanda at an Organic restaurant called Aphrodite's








Yay for friends....I miss home.