Canada Via Colorado

Let's be honest in saying that I was quite spoiled after spending 14 straight days with my fiance over Christmas.  Coming back to "real life" was a little bit of an adjustment.  When I left Parker the day after New Years, we hadn't set up the next time we'd see each other, which made it even harder to say goodbye.  I probably should have had a better attitude about the whole thing.  Thankfully, it turned out that I had less than 2 weeks to wait.  (Thank you Parker's work travel agent who got him to go up to Canada via Colorado for just an additional $40!)  My pastor in Colorado has agreed to do our premarriage counseling.  It's a little bit tricky since we're getting married by our pastor in MT, but won't be there until just before the wedding.  So, we were super excited that Mike & Leesa agreed to mentor us.  We absolutely love their family (5+ kids) and heart for the Lord.  I was able to be in a women's Bible study with Leesa last year and served in the Dominican Republic with both of them for a week back in 2010.  Not only were we stoked about them doing our counseling, but also about the fact that that means that Parker will becoming back to Colorado at least 5 more times this spring :)

Our weekend together started off with date night up in Denver.  We had dinner at the cutest place, Washington Park Grille (thanks Amy for the best restaurant recommendations).  I was adventurous and tried a salad with duck, while my guy had his favorite dish on the planet...pizza.  It was a perfect start to our weekend-relaxed atmosphere, delicious food, and good conversation.

Friday after breakfast we headed up to meet Pastor Mike at a coffee shop for counseling.  While I'd like to say that the experience was entirely wonderful (and in the end it was) we definitely had a rough start of it all.  The trip there was full of trouble with directions, communication, and music.  Thankfully, time, perspective, and prayer worked wonders on our hearts.  A few hours later, we left as a stronger couple--glad to have experienced this bump in the road and to have come out the other side together.  Mostly, I have the best guy to do life with.  How did I get so lucky?

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key.  We went to church, made meals together, and watched Tebow and the Broncos lose out of the playoffs against the Patriots.  Good thing the friends and delicious food made up for the lack of game.

Another highlight was the fact that Parker fixed my clock.  Well, he technically didn't fix it himself, but he did the research to make it happen.  After spending $10 and 35 minutes alone in the car in an alley of a sketchy part of town, Parker emerged with my working clock and a big grin.  You see, he absolutely LOVES clocks...a true symbol of the value and quality of time, so simply ticking on yet still mysterious, or so he says.  It may seem like a trivial thing, but it's so nice to be able to sit in the living room while watching TV or Skyping and to know the real time.  Let's face it, in the past few months my favorite clock kept loosing time, so I couldn't even do any sort of tricky conversion to figure out the time.  Every time I look at my functioning clock I think of how Parker serves me...even in with the small things in life.  Thanks dear!