Adventures in Cooking, Churching (again), and Hiking

Adventures in Cooking:

So last Thursday we went out for coffee with some people from the church we went to last week. One of the girls recommended a cookbook called "The Girl Can't Cook" (And she wants to be a chef, will be going into culinary arts in January, this book was just given to her because it has great recipes in it)

Anyways, so I got adventurous. I bought some salmon to make "Grilled Salmon Skewers on Mixed Greens with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette" (p. 107)

Oh boy, were these ever TASTY! It was really quite simple (except the skinning of the salmon part... that was hard. The recipe calls for skinless salmon but the store didn't sell it without the skin) Here's my finished product:

Adventures in Churching (again):

We decided to head up the street a few blocks to another local church. This one actually kinda reminded me of Burnett, and all the songs we sang I actually knew. "Beautiful One", and "Did you feel the mountains tremble" among others. The sermon was interesting as well. As we were leaving, one girl said to us "I don't think we've met before" ... and we started to chat. Well, I think we keep going to these churches on just the right days. Last week the other church was serving cake. This church, once a month, hosts a lunch for everyone! So she invited us upstairs to have soup with her and some friends. It turns out that her parents actually live in Maple Ridge and go to Burnett!! They are also really good friends with Jason's uncle... Talk about a small world! All in all it was a good time, and they insisted that we take home a package of leftover buns and some soup too. Good times!

Adventures in Hiking:

Since we moved here I've been trying to get into better shape. Every other day I've gone out either walking, jogging, or biking. Sunday afternoon the College and Career group we went to last week had planned a hike. We met up with them at the church and headed out. We went to a mountain called "Sugarloaf Mountain" Well, no one told me how steep some of it was going to be, and boy did I feel outta shape. I was in the back of the pack the whole time (of course I just said I was making sure the boys in front of me kept the pace haha) ... It wasn't too bad, but it was a really hot day, had to be in the 20s ... About halfway up, (when there was no turning back) the leader said to us "Oh and I'll remind you that right now is PEAK TICK SEASON so make sure you check yourself thoroughly when you get home." .... Peak tick season?!?! Uuuugggghhhh so gross!!! I wanted to turn and run at that point ... but I didn't of course, because who wants to be known as 'The Girl Who Runs Away Halfway Through A Hike"? Lucky for me, I got home tick-free and with only a scratch on my leg... A mighty scratch actually from when a large boulder decided to give way when I was standing on it. And some girls on the hike have decided to go on weekly hikes, which I have said I'd take part in. Only next time I'm going to be more prepared, with Deet in hand and a hat and anti-tick vibes. Should be great. I'm also gonna step up the training regime and try to get myself in shape faster. :)

Adventures In Kamloops!

Adventure #1: Save on Foods

Ok so Save on doesn't seem like a very adventurous kind of place. And I guess it's not really, we were just amazed at the quality of grocery-carrying devices! They have the traditional basket, as well as a slightly larger basket on wheels with a larger handle to pull behind you! (Like those backpacks and luggage...) Then, when we realized that this crazy basket wasn't going to be big enough for our shopping trip this time, J came back with what he called a "Fancy-Pants grocery cart". This thing had a cup holder!!! At one point I did hear Jason say "this thing drives like a dream!"

Adventure #2: Church

We decided right away that we didn't want to just sit around the day after we moved in, and that we'd start our church-hunt that Sunday with a baptist church just up the road from us. It was strange, and a little overwhelming, walking into a room full of people you don't know. We sat in the back. I must say, at that moment, I really missed Burnett. But I didn't want to cry in front of a bunch of strangers so I bit my tongue. Anyways, so apparently that day was "Congregation Appreciation Day" ... they had cake and everything! (We so picked the right day to go!) The service was ok... I missed the fantastic music of Burnett... and afterwards we picked up a 'welcome' package (free pen!!) and hung around. When no one talked to us we decided to take matters into our own hands and introduced ourselves to the new worship pastor and his wife, who then introduced us to the couple that heads up their College and Careers group. We ended up going to their group that night and actually met a bunch of nice people! All in all, a good experience, and we got cake.

Oh, and that worship pastor called us up last night and invited us out for coffee tonight with him and his wife! I'm excited to have real plans and not just a date with Keifer Sutherland or a trip to Stars Hollow. Real, live people plans!!!

Adventure #3: Our Neighbourhood

We live on a giant hill. But up this hill we noticed an entrance to a park. So we decided to go for a walk (The pictures I'm posting show us on bikes, but that's because I forgot my camera the first time so we went again a couple days later)

This park is flippin' amazing!!! It's called Peterson Creek Park. First you're riding up a road with houses all around you and then when you turn into this park you're in a place that's so quiet and so peaceful that it's hard to believe you're still in suburbia.

Yep, we live in a desert. Those are cactii.

Adventures In Moving!

Well, we're here! Finally! Lots to blog about now! Let me start at the beginning:

Thursday morning:

Got up really early to finish the packing we still needed to do. Went and picked up the truck at 8am. We were aiming to be on the road by noon at this point.

Packing the truck took way longer than anticipated. Garret overslept and didn't join us until 10:30 or so, but he was a HUGE help since my muscles just aren't cut out for our heavy furniture.

So 1:00pm rolls around and we're finally ready to go. We couldn't fit everything without risking breaking things but we figure we'd be ok with the number of cars that were going up Saturday. Anyways, of course we weren't able to leave right then. Take a look at the second picture. See the mattress? Well, behind that mattress is our china cabinet. Do you see that black strap holding the mattress against the china cabinet? It was in the worst possible spot. I looked back through the little doorway/hole thing in the cab of the truck while going through downtown Maple Ridge, and to my dismay the top half of our china cabinet had fallen over. Thank goodness for the mattress though, nothing was harmed! But due to this crazy fiasco, along with a tire with low air on the truck, and an accident on Lougheed, we weren't on our way until 2pm.

After about 4 hours and lots of hills, we got there! Finally! We even saw a bear on the way! (I tried taking a picture but it just looks like a black speck) Unloading at J's cousin's house was exciting, as the two crazy cousins decided it would be fun to ride our office chairs down the metal ramp and into the garage.

We unloaded everything and headed home. Dinner in Merritt, and we were home at almost 1am. I was exhausted. The next day I had lunch with Dad and we packed up the vehicles for our next big move, the Official move.

Saturday morning: A much earlier start... We were on the road by 8am. I was nervous, as I'd never driven this far. Luckily for me I had my sister as a passenger/DJ. Our convoy was made up of myself and my sister in the Vibe (I took the nicest car), J in the Suzuki, my mom, and J's parents. The deal was to meet up at the first rest stop after the toll booth.

I must drive like a superstar, because we were so the first ones to arrive! (Hence, the picture) J was second and my mom was right behind him as a close third. J's parents arrived about a half hour later. (In their defence they had to drop off Gizmo at the grandparent's house and so they took the long way to Hope).

So we ended up at our new place at just after 12:00 noon. Unfortunately, the previous tenant had not moved out yet. We asked her how long she might be and she said "at least another couple hours"... We went to Boston Pizza for lunch in hopes that she might've disappeared by the time we got back. This was not the case. She said it was ok if we moved in as she moved out. Kinda frustrating, but the poor girl was moving all by herself... She'd had a final exam both Thursday and Friday and I guess her roommates had moved out before, so they weren't helping her either. We offered to help her but she said no... Anyways, she wasn't even out by the time everyone who came to help us left. I think she ended up finishing after 7pm that day. Craziness!!

Our place is really starting to come together. That first night as we were unpacking, people downstairs were out on their patio jamming... Lindsey - you would've loved it - there was even a didge!!!!!!!!! Along with an acoustic guitar and a djembe drum. It was a sweet way to unpack!

So those were our moving adventures... Stay tuned for Adventures In Kamloops!!

I just LOVE moving...

At this point I don't really know what to say, but since I'm moving in 3 days (kinda 1 but I'll explain that in a minute) I felt I needed to post. I've had lots on my mind that I could post about but whenever I sit down to write anything it all disappears.

Basically, I'm stressed. I haven't been this stressed since August 11th. We had a plan A for moving transportation, but unfortunate circumstances have caused us to go with plan B... Which was about 6 or 7 hundred dollars more than plan A. However, J's dad found us a moving truck that is only $79 dollars BUT we have to move on Thursday (aka tomorrow...) to get those savings. We planned it all out - we'd travel together in the truck on Thursday, and then come back to get our cars and still move officially on Saturday as planned. Well, we spoke to our new landlord and the tenant in our place isn't moving until Saturday. So that put us back to our expensive plan... Unless we could find a place to store our things until Saturday. Praise God for families, because J's cousin is letting us store stuff at his place.

So technically we're moving everything we own to Kamloops tomorrow, but we aren't moving until Saturday morning. It isn't the ideal situation, since we technically have to move twice, the first of which is just us two - I should start pumping iron now so I'm buffed up.

Anyways, I'm sure tomorrow will be an interesting day, so I'll try to remember to post. :) Keep us in your prayers as we go through this crazy transition.

You ain't cuz you not.

To the guy in his bright yellow Hummer H2 , dancing like there's no tomorrow to "This is Why I'm Hot"... .... ... This is why you're not.

But they couldn't get the puck in...

Last night the announcer on the horrible Canucks game while the Canucks were desperately making their attempt to get just one goal:

(With much announcer enthusiasm)

"Bodies and sticks flying everywhere!!!!!"

That was my favourite part of the night.

Birthday Wishes!!!

Happy Birthday to my husband!! I love you more than a billion dump trucks full of lovely things like friends and chocolate and spring! You're my favourite. :)

Here's to another 26, and then another after that, and then some more years too, because I wanna live a long time.

No more Grumpy!

Ok I guess I should post so people don't think I'm always grumpy. I'm not, just a bad day... too bad I don't really have anything to blog about...

News... hmmm, let's see... well we've officially moved in with J's parents. Things are going well so far but we are only a week in...

Today is Adventure Day... 7 months of marriage, it's flying by! I'm loving every minute ... ok maybe not every minute, but it is fun being a wife. I'm just waiting for J to get home so we can go for an adventure stroll.

Just over a month until J's done school. I'm happy about that, but the move is looming... Although in talking with some friends on Sunday I did feel the slightest glimmer of excitement, so I suppose that's a start.

There's really not much other than that. I know, I'm boring. Sorry. At least I'm not grumpy today.

Grumpy.

Sometimes I can't wait to move to Kamloops.

My Day at a Glance

I'm really tired tonight so it's going to be point form...

- Got up at 4:24 this morning, went outside to warm up my car, found 6 inches of snow and a frozen door. Had to climb in passenger side to actually drive to work.

- Drive took about an hour, it took about as long to get from Abby to Mission as it took to get from Mission to Maple Ridge. There was practically no snow after Mission.

- Had shift, drove back to Abbotsford to clean house because our landlord was showing it this evening... on the way though, there was a spider on my dashboard and it freaked me out. I had to get rid of it so I reached onto the passenger seat and the first thing I grabbed was the banana peel from my morning snack. I smashed it onto my dashboard. Made a bit of a mess, but I killed the spider.

- Cleaned my house... It was a disaster, but I managed to clean every single room in the house, AND keep things organized for the move, all within 2.5 hours. I was impressed. And sweaty, housecleaning is a workout!!

- Drove back to Maple Ridge for the rest of my shift. No snow on the road anywhere this time, and it was sunny.

- Saw a tree with 7 or 8 bald eagles. In the one tree! I've never seen that before.

- Worked. It felt long.

- Had a good talk with people close to us. I think things make sense now.

- Went to Bible Study and learned how not to be complicated. It was good.

All in all, a long but decent day. I'm happy I don't work at 6 tomorrow though. I get to wake up at 8!!! That's 4 extra hours!! Praise God!!!