Rachel's birthday and other end-of winter things

My calendar and heart have been FULL lately.  Full of fun things and full of joy/complication/exhaustion/confusion/sadness, respectively.  The past few weeks have felt like months in all honestly.  So much has been going on, and sometimes I'm afraid to blink or I'll miss it.

In the JOY department, we continue to be so thankful for the friends God has blessed us with in Denver.  We share so many amazing times with them, and I honestly don't know what we'd do without them.  They are amazing companions on this journey of life in Denver.  From Bible Study to impromptu Glee dinner parties to all night dance parties, I feel blessed.

Tasting wedding cakes with Kristyn (the bride-to-be!), Bri, and Rachel last weekend (yum!):

It was Rachel's birthday this weekend and we thankfully got to celebrate her not once, but twice, with two fabulous nights.  The first, a pot-luck/bbq/dance party at the Westras last weekend, and the second, a dinner in LoDo and singing (nay, LOTS of singing) at a dueling pianos "saloon" in Larimer Square this weekend.  I may still be hoarse from the awesomeness that was Wild Ivories.  Both were amazing ways to spend time with good friends and showering Rachel with some birthday love!

 
Catching Craig Ferguson at Comedy Works in LoDo with my folks (they got the six of us - Amber and DJ included - tickets for Christmas, and it was a blast!)

Thanks to WW (some of you know what that is... I'll henceforth be referring to it as Dubdub), I've been doing a lot more cooking at home.  Cooking/experimenting... call it what you like.  So far it hasn't been too shabby!  Here are a few of our recent meals:

Rice cooked in red wine with grapes

Chicken wrapped in bacon and stuffed with scallions, blue cheese crumbles, and pecans:

No-bake, low fat cheesecake:

Baked pasta with TONS of veggies - a mock baked ziti (though I didn't have the "real" noodles"):

And so, life has been good.  Taxes are almost done, the semester is halfway over, plans for the summer are coming together... we are blessed.  The more chaotic side of life will have to wait for a later post.  I am pretty sure it will take me awhile to put it into writing, but it's something I think worthy of time (and so much more) at the very least.  It's a good kind of chaos, the kind I'm thankful for (but still troubled by).  You know how that goes!