Week of Stereotypical Summer Stuff

So this week we went to the lake, and to the beach on the ocean, and watched fireworks.  All very stereotypical summer things.  Lakes here are cool because they are in between mountains.  And this beach was pretty busy.  A really nice lady gave us a blow up air mattress because she wasn't going to take it home with her.  We had so much fun with that mattress.  Its made for two people and pretty sturdy I guess.  We fit eight of us on there, and three of them were guys.  It was squishy but we didn't sink!  It was quite the afternoon of fun! I would post more pics but I'm thinking I shouldn't for my friends' privacy sake.  Maybe they don't want pictures on the net of them.

So that was last Sunday, but on Wed we went into Vancouver for the fireworks. These are heavy duty fireworks. The "Celebration of Light".  They made me take off work early so we could leave for Vancouver earlier. It was an experience.  We went for sushi, at a cute little place which I'm not ashamed to promote on my blog. Look how cute their logo is!

Looks good doesn't it? So we had sushi and bought some snacks at save on foods (as well as a mini cheesecake) and jumped on the Sky train.  We road the sky train all the way to the end, got out at Waterfront station and looked up to see where one of our friends is going to be working on a practicum in September. I'm a bit jealous.  High rise office job in downtown Vancouver.  It sounds good even if it isn't that prestigious actually.  Then we went to see the Olympic Cauldron because one of the people with us hadn't been to the Olympics in Feb.  

It's kinda cool that you can get real close now. So from there we walked to English bay, and we went through this great part of Vancouver with trees on the streets and artsy houses.  I loved this blue and yellow one.

Then we got to the beach and I realized that yes this was worse than the olympics. Everyone was in one little area! But we got seats on a log/by the log and watched the sun go down. Did a crossword. I walked up to the surf and put my feet in the water. It was cold. The tide was coming in so the people at the front were having to move back as the water came up.  Kinda funny to see that.

So did you see the building on that top photo? No? Go back and look. See it now?  Did you see the tree growing at the top?  Yep. thats a huge tree growing on top of a building. It obviously is built for it but its still strange to see!  It was Mexico night, so of course they needed to have some spanish guitar player people.

So now that we have gone to the beach and watched the sun set it wasn't long till we saw the...

"FIREWORKS!"

However, As you can see, sometimes the pictures turn out funny.  It was was hard to get good shots, but I succeeded eventually. 

So now it is time to get super excited for the wedding this saturday of J squared. Oh how i love that couple, and love all the friends that are coming to celebrate!  Of course I'll post after its all over.  

And for my family: Sorry I'm not at the reunion. Have fun without me!

Wedding Number One

I'm so excited about this post!  I had the most amazing time at this wedding.  To save their privacy I'm not going to name names or am I going to post pictures with their faces... and its going to be hard.  But I loved being able to celebrate such a genuine love for each other and for God in their relationship.  God comes first, and it is so amazing to see.  They had a beautiful wedding in two great venues.  The church for the reception was AMAZING!  I couldn't believe how great the architecture and outdoor areas were.  I want to have my wedding there!

I could talk about how beautiful this couple is, how great their family is (the two dads played a song together in the ceremony and the whole family sang a song at the reception), and how entertaining their friends are. The best man played the piano beautifully just as background music during the reception for a while.  The stories that were told were so funny.  The bride and groom were so intentional to talk to all the tables and get a chance to thank everyone for coming.  Their hearts are so big.... they are just so perfect for each other.  

[SPOILER ALERT] I have a picture of a dress I'm wearing to a wedding next weekend.  If you don't want to ruin the surprise don't go all the way to the bottom


Okay, so after the wedding I realized that i was in Tsawwassen, which is right on the ocean. I was so close that I couldn't not go to the ocean.  So off i went to find a beach. I found one. But unfortunately it was too dark to really take pictures.  I took one of the moon and its reflection, and then took a picture of me and my dress (on the beach but you can't really tell).  And i got sand in my high heels. Just in case you were wondering.

YWAM News

Today I got the email. The one that says I'm accepted into a DTS in Slovakia.  The catch is that right now they don't have enough people to run the school. They have 10-15 people registered now but they need 8-10 more to make it viable.  The cut off date is August 10, so I would appreciate prayer.  Mostly for peace and direction.  If the school doesn't run I am going to need a new plan for the fall, and if it does I'm going to have alot of things to do in a short amount of time.  I know God has it all worked out and I need to let it happen in his time.  But knowing sometime takes a while to translate into the way you automatically live your everyday. As always I'll keep you posted.

I donno where to start...

Have you missed me?  Have you?
Well I haven't really missed writing. I've been to busy.  But I'll do my best to catch you all up.

I have:
seen a heron and a little bitty rabbit up close
herded geese
flew kites
watched despicable me (good movie. very cute)
helped with wedding planning
went to a crazy concert with all kinds of alternative people (very good for people watching)
saw Mission's historic park where the mission originally was
drank coffee on a huge log looking out over the river
tried out my hairstyle for the weddings
worked on my tan for the weddings
stargazed from a slightly closed beach... whoops!
attended an AA meeting with work (so interesting, i might start going just to learn)
and had a lice scare!!

Yes you read that last one right.  Lice.  They had an outbreak at the residential program so I wasn't going to take any chances.  I shampooed tonight and washed all my bedding.  The funny thing is I remember the smell of this shampoo from the last time I had lice when i was like 10 or something.  How is that for smell memory?  Good news is I did the whole brush your whole head with the tiny brush and I didn't find even one!  So maybe this was really just for peace of mind... but not worrying is worth it.

I also am getting super excited about all these weddings.  I have one this saturday, one the next and the last in August!  I can not believe all my friends are getting married!  How can they be ready?  I'm not ready!  AHHH!!  Ok. Maybe I'm not freaking out that bad. But it is a mixture of apprehension and absolute euphoria for them.  I really just can't believe I'm old enough that my friends are getting married!

And I have other plans for the summer too.  There is a weekend at a cabin on the ocean, a weekend in Victoria, and some other parties going on too!  So the summer is going to finish fast.

Weeks of CRAZY!

I feel really busy!  Its a pretty cool feeling.  I've had bachelorettes and showers and birthday parties and all kinds of other things happening this last week or so. Plus I'm working!  Tonight I finally am sitting down and taking time to myself.  However, the house is really hot because of the really beautiful (but a tad sweltering) weather we are having.

I do want to tell a little story that i hope my bride friend won't mind that I'm putting on the net. We had a bridal shower this week for a good friend of mine, and her mom did the cutest thing, and after the shower I went home and thought: "my mom would have done that!"  So I need to share.  Her mom told the story of the bride's life using props.  She had her first little christmas outfit.  Then her second one.  and a sweater. and a figure skating outfit.  Another sweater (with barney on it!). A picture of a house they lived in.  And it kept going.  I loved that her mom kept all these little things.  I half expected her to hand over the baby clothes and say, "these are for your daughter when you have one" but she didn't.  I think i appreciated it all the more.  It also wasn't mourning the loss of her little girl.  I was so impressed how it was really just a celebration of where the bride has been, to give us a glimpse into the memories she has of her daughter.  Now as the MC of this wedding I really wish she had saved this little story for the wedding as it would have been super cute, but maybe the intimate atmosphere of a shower is really where we can appreciate the memories best.  Thanks for getting married to my friend, and thanks for a beautiful walk down your memory lane to her mom.

Birthday

My birthday was GREAT!  It was beautiful weather and I had great friends to spend the evening with, even if our movie was a tad on the sad side.  And I got flowers from my parents which are beautiful.  More updates to come! (when I'm not busy with something every night!)