Our Wedding

Draft Testing

2009-03-07T11:44:00.001-08:00

Testing with Drafts in the cue.

Testing FTP Publishing

2009-03-07T11:39:00.001-08:00

Testing FTP Publishing and an EDIT and reupload

happy hauling

2008-09-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

We made it safe and sound in Calgary with all of our stuff intact and hardly any problems with our uHaul truck. Poor Marcus got stuck driving the 24' truck all the way to Calgary while I followed behind in our car with little miss Chloe (the cat).

We've been spending the first two weeks in Calgary unpacking some things, making room to store the rest, hauling furniture and boxes to the basement, cleaning, and sorting through all the hassles of changing provinces. Believe me, there are a lot of hassles... it's basically like moving to a new country, but we just don't have to worry about our citizenship. Not much time so far to see friends and family, although we did pop up to Clive for a day to celebrate Marcus' father's 80th birthday. We also got out to Blake's cabin this past weekend, where we experienced our first snow fall of the season!

As for the matter of a job... I received a phone call the last week we were in New Westminster, and Veer offered me an in-house position on salary with all their snazzy benefits. I have since then accepted the position, so I guess I get to keep on keywording and tackling some other projects too. My first day of work is September 15th. I'm giddy like I'm headed back to school or something. Anyway, it should be a fun job.

That's all to report for now. Hope you're all doing well, and I look forward to seeing some of you over the next few weeks, as we finish off all the moving tasks. Cheers!

as the world turns...

2008-08-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

or some such thing. You know the story so far. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl move away. Boy marries girl... and now boy and girl move back. Yes. Back to Calgary after three years of living in B.C.

We now have eight days to finish packing up our lives out here, load up the dreaded uHaul truck and begin the slow drive over the mountains. And then there's the small task of starting our lives all over again (again). At least this time, the long distance move is leading us to a city we know and love, filled with family and friends we love (but pretend we don't know sometimes). Just kidding. It will be wonderful to be back!

There's the usual stresses involved with long distance moves including unreliable moving equipment, hot weather, and traveling with our cat, which makes us wonder why we don't just pay a moving company to deal with all of this (well, except for the cat)?! And then there's the not-so-usual issues that we will face this time because we aren't moving into our own place. And no, we aren't moving in with our parents either. We will be house sitting for Blake for quite a while. Which has wonderful positives, but also some hassles, like where are we going to put all our stuff?! These things will all get worked out eventually.

The job situation is the greatest point of stress though. Mostly for me because Marcus is already set for work. I will no longer be doing keywording work for Veer. I'm determined to get a job in the arts and not fall back into the retail management trap. There's nothing super wrong with retail management, it's just not for me though. I need something more. We'll see how it all goes.

Wish us luck! We're really gonna need it!

never ending wedding story

2008-03-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

After much waiting, the official wedding photos have finally been uploaded to share with all of you. Of course, I don't know how to upload them to our wedding site and Marcus is a busy man these days, so I just went ahead and posted them to my Flickr page. You won't find them in the gallery of this website, yet. Click here to take a peek into the wedding day. Most of the photos of Marcus and I were taken a couple hours prior to the ceremony. We got dressed at Blake's house and started the photo shoot there. And if you've ever been to Blake's house, you know what an amazing view of the city he has, so we simply stepped outside and had a perfect backdrop! Then we were wisked around downtown to a couple locations and then off to the Shrine Centre (where the wedding took place). It was sooo much fun and it shows in the photos!

Thanks for your patience. It feels like the wedding tasks never end. The design of our "thank-you" cards is done (Thanks, honey). We're printing a proof tomorrow and if that works out, then we'll hopefully be spending many hours writing to all of you folks for a final "thank-you".

say "cheese"

2008-02-22T18:45:00.000-08:00

I popped back to Calgary last week to spend time with the family and was lucky enough to meet up with our wedding photographer (who lives two doors down from Blake). Our wedding photos are all done and I brought them home with me in a large album. SOOO many amazing pics!! We completely lucked out with the weather the day of the wedding and captured a huge variety of shots outdoors before the ceremony. The group family shots are great too!

Our photographer, Bud Moore, did such an amazing job! Thanks, Bud! These are truly the best photos to remember our special day!

When I get a spare moment (ya right), I will make sure to share some of the photos with you in our online gallery.

If you haven't checked out Bud's portfolio of other work, please visit his website here.

fortune cookie craziness

2008-01-30T10:38:00.000-08:00

Marcus and I order Chinese from our favorite place last night (where they actually serve Alberta Ginger beef... yes, ginger beef is incredibly hard to find outside of Alberta). Anyway, we forgot to open our fortune cookies after the meal and had them this morning instead.

Marcus' fortune read:
"Here we go. Low fat, whole wheat green tea."

Mine read:
"Lucky you. Get out your party clothes. The clean ones."

So very strange and obscure!! We Googled them both and at least we aren't the only folks to receive these weird fortunes!! I definitely want to cross stitch each of these into a nice wall hanging. Not sure what is more weird, the machine that generated these fortunes or the fact that I want to cross-stitch them into something?

walking through a winter wonderland

2008-01-29T09:31:00.000-08:00

We are indeed snowed in on the coast. There was a large dump of snow on Sunday morning, then it started snowing in the middle of the night. We managed to get out to Safeway last night and buy some groceries. Sure glad we did, since the roads are a real disaster this morning. And though it's sort of slushy, it's no where near the typical west coast snow fall. Quite chilly for this part of the country, so the snow continues to accumulate. So very glad I work from home! I think a large number of people have called in "sick" throughout the lower mainland. Marcus refrained from driving to Langley today and will work from the comfort of a borrowed laptop in our apartment. The best part is that I made brownies yesterday afternoon, so with a little hot coco and tea, we're all set to endure the winter weather that has descended upon us. Not that either of us mind too terribly much. This snow is definitely more of a comfort thing to us, a bit of the old home. Stay cozy where ever you find yourself!

a wedding, christmas cookies, and another year older

2008-01-24T09:20:00.000-08:00

That pretty much sums up the past two months! Yes, today being Jan. 24th, Marcus and I have been married now for two months. I had fully intended to blog about the count down to the wedding, but I somehow only made it to five days before the wedding, and then life kinda of exploded, as it tends to do. Needless to say, the wedding day arrived and all went well! It was a wonderful and fun day! Well worth the year of planning. There were some wonderful surprises for me that day too, including a limo ride through Calgary's Christmas light filled night and a way-to-fancy stay at the Kensington Riverside Inn. Who among you doesn't think breakfast in bed is romantic?!

The day following the wedding, we had a small lunch gathering at Blake's house, where we opened gifts and spent some much needed time with family. From there we had to get back to facing reality. Our Honda Accord had died two days before the wedding, but with everything happening, we had to ignore it for a few days. We finally decided to "sell" the Accord to the mechanic at Canadian Tire. And by "sell" I mean simply handover. Too expensive to fix up a car of that age (14 years) and there was no guarantee the engine hadn't been damaged. It was a very sad day, but then Blake came to the rescue and offered us his Infiniti. Which gave him an excuse to treat himself to a new car. So everything seems to have worked out. Phew.

So we got back to the west coast in one piece, married, with a newer car, and a ton of special memories. We then spent the next few weeks sewing up Christmas gifts and sending out our Christmas cards and letters. Christmas itself was quiet and relaxing for us. We video chatted with my family back in Calgary (that's how we open our Christmas gifts together nowadays) and had a great dinner with grilled veggies, shrimp, and champagne.

The next event was my birthday on Dec. 27th. We had a nice dinner out at a local restaurant. Then it quickly became New Year's Eve, which we spent on Gambier Island at Marcus' friend's place. And then boom! It was 2008! And oh how the past four weeks have flown by! We're both quite busy, working lots and involved with projects at church. We've been attending a seminar series at church called Christianity 201. It's been great so far! I'm spending a large chunk of my free time working on posters and kids activities for an upcoming mission fundraiser at church on Feb. 9th. Hope that all works out! And we have yet to design, print, and send out our wedding "thank-you" cards. My apologies if you think we should have been more prompt with these. I assure you we have not forgotten them. We're just very keen to use some of the photos that our photographer took and we've been waiting for him to finish them up. Soon, soon...

Okay, that should bring you all up-to-date on our lives. I hope your holidays were very enjoyable! And thank you to all those who joined us on our wedding day! So very lovely and appreciated!

five days

2007-11-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, only fives days left till the big event!

Marcus and Chloe and I squished into the car on Saturday morning and drove over the big mountains to Calgary. The roads were better than we had anticipated. Hit some bad fog and a little snow, but that's all. Arrived in Calgary just after 8pm on Saturday.

We went to good ol' Our Lady of the Assumption church for mass yesterday with my mom. And then I had lunch with my oldest and dearest friend Lucia, whom I have not been in touch with for quite some time. And I got to see both Blake and Aaron. A lovely day all around!

Today, Marcus and I are to do running around:
-obtaining a marriage license (fairly important when wanting to get married)
-dropping off supplies at the florist
-buying soap from our fav shop in Kensington, The Beehive
-getting our wedding rings freshly cleaned
-picking up Marcus' comic books that have been accumulating at Comic-kazi

Tonight we having dinner with Aaron and Meghan somewhere fancy, the Tribune Restaurant. Looking forward to that and visiting with them!

Tomorrow, I'm meeting with fellow Veer keyworders for breakfast. It will be nice to finely put faces to names of people I have worked with for two and half years! Yes, that's what happens when you work remotely. In the afternoon, Marcus and I will meet with his brother Tony, our MC for the wedding, to discuss "the plan". The evening will be spent at an After Thought Art Society crit night. Fun!

Wednesday, I'm excited to get a manicure! My first one ever! Mom is getting a manicure too, so it can be a full girly experience!

I'll keep you posted on the rest of the week.

16 days

2007-11-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

So we've managed to check off a few more things from the list:

- Tina has finished making the little button flourishes for the table centre pieces. Yay, Teens! I bet your fingers are sore...

- I think I've determined the seating arrangements for the reception. I doubt we'll change it much from here. We need to get the table numbers and seating cards printed now.

- Blake picked up some San Pellegrino bottled water and Jones Soda to have served from the bar, since there weren't too many exciting choices for non-alcoholic drinks.

- I've been working on our wedding guest book slash photo album. We couldn't find any albums that left much room to write beside the photo space, so Marcus bought a couple sketchbooks. Progress is slow on that because I have to measure out each page and then place the photo corners. After the wedding is over, we're going to rebind the pages into one nice book. Hope this plan all works out.

- Also, related to the guest book... Marcus was encouraging me to buy some fancy fluffy (and quirky) pens for the guestbook signing. Anyone that has worked with me knows I have a bit of a crazy pen collection. It keeps people from walking away with them. Anyway, I haven't been able to find anything I like lately, so I started making our own last night (while watching Criminal Minds). Carried over the button element and added some squiggly wire. You'll just have to be surprised come the big day! I wish I had a hot glue gun, then I could have gone all out "sarah crazy" and added feathers :)

- Blake purchased a couple of boxes from Ikea for gift envelopes, which we might end up decorating a bit. I don't think we've mentioned on the website, but if you're wondering, we did not register for gifts anywhere. I suppose you could say it's terribly untraditional, but we're asking, that if guests would like to give a gift, what we would appreciate most, is a gift of money. That way we can a new bed, which we desperately need, and put the rest towards a down payment in the future.

The list of to-dos is still fairly long. And poor Marcus has gone and gotten really sick with a cold. So he's been benched from wedding planning for several days. I might end up having to dump more things on the family... and meanwhile, I'm really trying not to end up sick myself.

20 days

2007-11-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

Got my wedding dress picked up on Tuesday. Then I dealt with a flat tire. Fun. Well, actually it wasn't bad because I hung out at Ikea while the car was being worked on at Canadian Tire.

Tina got the dress I made her for the wedding. Apparently it fits good and she has no complaints about the ruffles that I snuck in :) Now I can sleep a little more easily. I was pretty anxious about whether the dress was going to fit good, and more importantly, look good on her. So yay!

We've asked several people to assist with the wedding. Tony, Marcus' older brother, is going to be our MC at the reception. Troy and Travis, Marcus' nephews, will be Ushers. Rob, a longtime friend of mine, will be taking photos for our guestbook. And Adam and Janine, Marcus' nephew and niece will be assisting with the guestbook as well. We're still going over everything that will need to be done the day of the wedding and figuring out who can help with what.

I spent this past going back and forth with our venue representative, determining times, menu choices, bar set-up, etc. I think most of this has been taken care of now. A few details are still left to figure out.

The next two weeks are going to be crazy, but I promise to blog as we carry on with the planning.

hats off to jack skeleton

2007-10-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

Wishing everyone a happy Halloween!! Thought I'd share the best Halloween wedding vow, from the "classic" The Nightmare Before Christmas:

My dearest friend,
if you don't mind,
I'd like to join you by your side,
where we can gaze into the stars
and sit together,
now and for ever.
For it is plain as anyone can see
we're simply meant to be.

Happy Halloween, sweetheart!

26 days

2007-10-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

We're still chipping away at the long to-do list for the wedding. Marcus completed the design for the ceremony programs and got them printed on the weekend. We decided on our first dance song, finally. And we've been brainstorming a bit of a must-play list for the reception. I have yet to figure out the music for the ceremony (besides Chelsea's performance).

I completed Tina's "bestman" dress and it's in the mail on the way to her. I hope it fits good. I also completed my jacket. It turned out really nice! Soft and cozy. Now I just need some snow to complete the look. I started my veil yesterday and will complete that this week. It mostly involves hand beading, which I will do while watching my weekly trash tv. The last thing that needs to be sewn is Tina's shrug which I will do this weekend or next week. I also cut some scrap fabric out to sew a simple little purse.

Tomorrow I get to pickup my wedding dress from the shop! I've gone to two dress fittings and it's looking great! They ended up having to take in the bust quite a bit and adding some extra boning in the bodice. And of course it needed to be hemmed and the bustle fasteners placed. Anyway, it will be a nice feeling tomorrow to know that the dress is complete.

We have decided to drive back to Calgary (with Chloe safely tucked into her carry case on the back seat) on November 17th. That gives us a week in Calgary before the wedding to finish off some details and visit with the family. Lots to do before then, though, both wedding and non-wedding related. Poor Marcus is working at least three jobs right now which may become four soon. I will busy this Friday and Saturday with the church Christmas Bazaar, which I have been sewing lots of stuff for. Besides the purses and paperback book covers, I also made half a dozen zippered coin purses and a couple of cosmetic bags.

And early HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to Lisa! Her birthday is on Thursday, so keep her in your thoughts.

five weeks to go

2007-10-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

This week involved a long list of tasks to complete and the next five weeks are looking quite similar.

My mom and dad got back from their trip to Colorado last Sunday. My mom went to the final consultation at the Buttercream Bake Shoppe yesterday. Sounds like everything is set with them. My mom was also given the task of making reservations somewhere for a dinner the Friday before the wedding for those involved with the big day.

Tina (as Bestman) has been given a fairly time intensive task involving buttons and floral wire. She must make approximately 80 flourishes for our table centre pieces. But I think things are a little slow, possibly even completely boring in Lethbridge, so she seems eager to have something to do.

Marcus has started work on the ceremony program and other necessary design elements.

Chelsea (Marcus' niece) has agreed to perform a song during the ceremony. There is a song we've sung at church a couple of times that we really like and we've provided Chelsea with the it. That should work out wonderfully!

I've been keeping myself busy with emailing back and forth with everyone, going to my first dress fitting, making sample table centre piece flourishes (to illustrate to Tina what we need), sewing Tina's dress, and cutting fabric out for her jacket. Her dress just needs to be hemmed now, which I'm hoping to complete on the weekend. I also want to get started on my jacket for the wedding this weekend too. Plus we're attending the church Halloween potluck on Saturday night. And tonight Marcus and I have scheduled in another wedding planning session to discuss this coming week's tasks.

Special thanks to Pastor Mike who provided a pizza dinner on Wednesday night and an informative Christianity 101 session at our apartment. And also to Bradley, who was able to attend and share good thoughts (and chips).

Have a good week everyone!

44 days

2007-10-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

My little heart is starting to feel very giddy indeed. Every time I think about how many weeks left until the wedding, it starts to pitter-patter a mile a minute. Marcus and I have finally scheduled in some wedding planning time together tonight. Lots of things to brainstorm and decide on, like music selections, reception proceedings, tasks that need delegating, and figuring out when we will actually be traveling back to Calgary.

Mostly I start to freak out when I think about the non-wedding things that are happening over the next six weeks, like events at our church, work, Christmas (ya, not sure how we're working Christmas gifts for the family into everything, seeing as we won't be returning to Alberta for Christmas, just the wedding).

I have Tina's "bestman" dress back in my possession, so I've been trying to get that sewn together. While Aaron was in town, we went to Fabricland and he found the perfect fabric for me to sew a winter coat to go with my wedding dress (as we're doing photos outdoors before the wedding ceremony and it will be the end of November in Calgary). I picked a simple pattern for the jacket in hopes that it will come together more quickly. I still have Tina's jacket to sew and my veil to make. I'm anxious to just get in the sewing room and start working.

My mom had a very successful shopping trip with my Aunt Carol in Colorado Springs. She managed to find sprinkles for the wedding cup cakes, and lace for the corsages and boutonnieres. Two fewer things for me do deal with. Yay! Slowly checking things off the long list of to-dos...

new photos and turkey dinner

2007-10-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

Marcus and I are trying to get out act together more with the wedding website. We've managed to get some more recent photos uploaded to the album. Some of them are from our wedding shower that was held in July at my parent's house. Others are from a picnic the two of us took together at a local park.

This past weekend we participated in the Run for the Cure in Vancouver with a group of people from our church. It was a very rainy, wet, day. Still lots of fun, but very, very wet. Marcus and I did the 5k walk. Thanks to those of you who donated to the Breast Cancer Foundation!

My brother Aaron is flying out on Friday to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with us. Looking forward to that a lot! We might be the only two Springers enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner this weekend. Blake is still in New York (and, of course, it's not Thanksgiving down there yet). And Mom and Dad and Taddy Bears are in Moab, Utah at the moment, although they'll hit Colorado Springs by the weekend. I'm sure all the various branches of Riedners will be cooking up a storm this weekend. Wishing everyone on this side of the border a Happy Thanksgiving! Take care!

two months and counting down

2007-09-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

Yep, well, that's a bit of a frightening thought... less than two months. So much to do. Not just wedding stuff, but life stuff too. I keep trying to simplify everything as much as possible. I easily over-complicate things, so I'm making an effort not to over the coming months. I figure that's the only way all the things will get done.

Thanks so much to those of you who have mailed back your RSVP cards. Much appreciated! Looking forward to seeing everyone at the wedding!

My apologies for the fact that the rest of the wedding webpage has yet to be developed. We'd both really like to, but seeing as I don't know how to do any of that fancy-smancy web design stuff and Marcus barely has time to breathe calmly these days, it will probably be finished about three months after the wedding is over and done with. At which point the webpage will become our personal couple's page :)

Some of you have already booked your hotel rooms at the Four Points. For those that still need to do this, please do so soon. Remember, the block rooms will only be held until Oct. 20th.

Tina's "Bestman" dress is partly finished. I mailed it to her recently and now I'm just waiting for her to try it on and fit it accordingly. In the meantime, I've been sewing lots of stuff for a Christmas craft fair at our church in November.

We attended the wedding ceremony for our Pastor, Mike, last Saturday. Congratulations to Tracey and Mike! It got Marcus and I all in pumped up for our own wedding and re-affirmed why we want to make this commitment to each other. Things have been strained lately, but we'll make it through this rough spot. Thank you to our very supportive family and dear friends!

my apologies

2007-09-06T10:04:00.001-07:00

Sorry. I can't seem to get the images of the vases to load on the blog page. You'll just have to use your imagination, smile, and say, "oh, those Are lovely". :)

bit by bit

2007-09-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

My lovely parents finally found the perfect large vases for our ceremony flower arrangements. Marcus and I had found some at Ikea that we liked and thought were pretty affordable, except that the vases were not available at the Calgary location and we had no way of getting them from Vancouver to Calgary. So my mom checked out Sunnyside and bought two of these perfect vases. I think they're even better than the ones we had seen at Ikea.

I also gave my mom the task of dealing with reserving a block of rooms at a local hotel for out-of-town guests. I think that is pretty much taken care of now. We have rooms reserved at the Four Points Sheraton, just off highway #1, near Canada Olympic Park. Procedural details will follow for those that are in need of a hotel room. Please do take note that, reservations must be made before October 20th, at which time all un-booked block rooms will be made available to the rest of the public. As it turns out there's a big ski competition at Canada Olympic Park the same weekend as the wedding, so both the Four Points and the new Sandman near the park are booking quickly (since the ski teams are staying there).

I've been spending my evenings sewing on Tina's bestman dress together. It's coming alright, but I have quickly realized that removing stitches from satin is a pain in the butt and the holes remain, so I hope the dress isn't too small anywhere for her. It's going to be a lot easy to take it in, then it will be to let it out and still look nice. I'm planning on mailing the dress to Tina in a half finished state in order for her to give it a try. The dress is fully lined, so any alterations pretty much need to be done before I permanently sew in the lining. Still need to deal with my veil too. I don't think that will take long at all to create, unless I decide to do some beading on it.

Less than three months to go! Maybe we should get like a big clock on the webpage to count down the days...

check and check

2007-08-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

A few more things are getting completed. Blake was able to go to Moore's in Calgary and get sized for his tuxedo before his adventurous "move" to New York. I think he's also found shoes he would like to wear to the wedding, he just has to order them. Tina got our hair and make-up appointments booked at Swizzlesticks in Kensington. I'm excited about that! RSVP cards are starting to trickle in. Chloe and I run to the door each day when we hear the mail fall through the slot, in anticipation of seeing who will and will not be attending the wedding. Dearest Lisa French bought tickets for she and I to attend the Vancouver bridal show September 16th. We both thought it would be fun to attend one of these shows just to see what it's like and get pumped for the coming "big day". Should be fun! Still haven't worked on the details of the ceremony, or music selections, or found cupcake decorations, but I have started to cut out the fabric for Tina's "Bestman" dress. I really need to get moving on it or else she's gonna end up going to the wedding half naked (or in something bought from Le Chateau the week of the wedding... eeek!)

feeling satisfied

2007-08-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

The invitations have all been addressed and mailed. Phew! Glad to have that task done. I was able to pick up US stamps while on a day trip to Seattle with the lovely Tina Riedner and Peter Curtis Morgan. I also dragged the two of them down to the bridal store while they were in town to show off my wedding dress, which had arrived the week before. Lots of fun! My closet is currently playing host to the gorgeous gown... alterations will be one month before the wedding.

Jared and Marcus went to Moore's last week and picked out the groom's tuxedo and tuxedos for all the male attendants. Sounds like they enjoyed themselves, although the customer service was apparently less than wonderful. I managed to find some shoes for Marcus for the wedding at the Seattle Outlet mall, thanks to the shopaholic Peter Morgan. So I think Marcus is coming close to having his wedding outfit all figured out. I, personally, still need to make my veil (I know, I've been saying that for months), buy some jewelry and fancy under-things.

Next up on the to-do list: figure out details for the ceremony, make hair and make-up appointments, start planning music choices, and find decorations to go on top of the cupcakes.

the latest

2007-07-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

Our wedding blog seems to be neglected lately. There's been plenty of updates to write about, but no time to do it. So here goes:

- We completed our pre-martial classes with Paster Mike. They were actually quite enjoyable (though, budgets were a bit of a nightmare) and we've each learned some valuable tools. Plus we got to know our Pastor more and vice versa.

- Marcus completed the wedding invite design and found a local printer, who eventually fell through, so we got them done at Kinko's. Yes, good 'ol Kinko's to the rescue. Now we just have to set time aside to address envelopes (and also time to drive across the border to get some US stamps, for those American RSVP cards... adventurrre!)

- We finally found the perfect containers for our table centrepieces-slash-guest-favours and they were completely within our budget! Thank goodness for Ikea sales! So we bought three boxes and sat there wondering how we would get them back to Alberta. We managed to fit two boxes in our Accord for our summer trip home. And we're forcing Tina to take the last box back with her when she comes to visit at the end of July. Problem solved.

- So we drove to Alberta, which sort of went something like this... two nights in Banff, one night in Calgary, two nights in Red Deer, four nights in Calgary. There was Marcus' birthday party, a whole lot of family visiting time, a trip to stampede (including the rodeo), a broken down car, a tow truck, Canadian Tire mechanics, an appointment with our wedding DJ, and our wedding shower BBQ (quaintly titled "Camp Marah"). Thanks so much to those who were able to attend our shower and for all the wonderful camping gifts! They will get lots of use over the coming years. Yay, camping!

Phew! So I think that brings everyone up-to-date. Lots more developing. We'll try to be more diligent at writing in the blog.

test

2007-07-20T10:17:00.001-07:00

test

compatible?

2007-05-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

Marcus and I took a test a while back to start off our pre-marital counseling. And no, it wasn't a compatibility test. It just profiled our backgrounds, current state, and expectations. We are meeting with Rev. Mike tomorrow to go over our strengths as a couple. The following weeks will revolve around our weakness and communication methods. I am eager to hear what he has to say. I am also eager to try and improve our communication. I don't think we're a disaster when it comes to communication (if we were, we might not have lasted this long), but we definitely come from two very different ways of communicating and sometimes it's difficult to find a middle ground for arguing or expressing opinions. We'll keep you posted on our progress as things unfold.

PS- Today is Jared's (Marcus' nephew and groomsman) birthday... so Happy Birthday Jared! :)