Eating Together in February

I really enjoy eating with friends for my mental health. February is usually the most difficult month for me, but the Social connectedness is helping me get outside my comfort zone, feel support and give support, and bring added meaning to my friendships. Getting dressed to go out also helps me feel like a real person. Not to mention, I think food may be my Love Language.

Filipino

We had a girls lunch date at our local Filipino restaurant, which I’ve been wanting to visit since I heard of its existence months ago. It made my heart so happy to have comforting food from my heritage—food I grew up with and enjoyed my Dad and Mom making. There was even a karaoke machine!! Will have to try next time 😜

Study Group

This is Jer’s “Study Group” from the Education program in college like 10 years ago! We like to get together every once in a while to catch up. They’ve all since married and are raising families, one of them even working in the same district as Jer. We went out to a fancy restaurant at Thanksgiving Point called Harvest, where it happened to be some Sweethearts formal dance that night so all the teen kids showed up in their suits and dresses with corsages. My face hurt so much from laughing for a couple hours. Tahnee is especially hilarious, my favorite stories were of how she kept getting mistaken for Katy Perry at the airport, anything about her riding her bike, being vitamin D deficient, and a host of other things including her very enthusiastic recommendation of some spicy books haha! We kept the party going afterwards with a trip to a Brooker’s ice cream shop.

Super Bowl

It’s been many years since we’ve watched the Super Bowl (and any football for that matter!), but it was a wonderful excuse to visit with the Dunn family. Can I just tell you how much I love their family? It feels like an extension of our home being with them, an ease and comfort I cherish. Maybe it’s because we grew up together, and there’s a lot of shared history and at the core we’ve found something of a “kindred spirit”. We have the best time even if we’re not doing anything! I am so grateful for being able to spend time with our beloved friends. We cheered on the 49ers (our home state California), and finished off the night with Creamies.

Quarterly Birthdays

I got to meet with and celebrate these lovely ladies birthdays! It was my first time at Oakley’s lovely home, and I was impressed that she still had her Christmas tree up! We had a Taco Salad bar with Nan’s delicious ranch dressing and fresh salsa ❤️ Dessert was gluten free rice krispy cake pops and a special cake that Nancy brought over. We spent the dinner hearing everyone’s favorite birthday memory.

Greek + Game Night

This was such a special meal with our friends the Bowens! We decided to experiment and try a new recipe haha, and got a fancy chocolate cake for dessert in case it didn’t work out. I felt very accomplished making dinner after getting lots of help cleaning and cooking. We played a fun card game called Uno Flip with F, and he loved that! Their little boy who is obsessed with Baby Shark is very attached to L and had a hard time saying goodbye to her. He kept wanting to give her hugs! W was super excited for dessert. Win-win for all in food and company!