I absolutely love weddings! I love them! On Friday, July 28, 2006, Alison Handy and Joel Kooger got married! It was a beautiful wedding and Ali looked stunning!
Kira, my personal hair stylist and make-up artist, came over early in the morning to do my hair and make-up because Lynn and I had several lists of things to do before the 4:00 wedding. Kira always saves me when it comes to special events because, as most of you know, I'm not very good at the whole dressing up thing. I did manage to shave my legs though! Kira even plucked my eyebrows... a first. I don't know if that is something one should publish on a blog, but I think I just did it anyways.
Lynn and I went to Handy's parents house in the morning to bring the corsages and to pick up the boutinneers and to say hello and do Handy's bidding. She had her make-up and hair done and she already looked amazing! There's something about brides, eh. Brides and new mothers. They just radiate joy and are the most beautiful women ever!
So Lynn and I hung out at the Handy's and did odd jobs and ate and talked and laughed and enjoyed ourselves and everyone there. We acquired another list of things to do and so we left to meet the women at Lynn's house for some pre-ceremony pictures. Our task there was to play with the flower girls and we were more than willing to oblige. When Ali stepped out of the car I was beaming. She look incredible. She was so beautiful and joyful and excited. She kept on giggling and saying "I'm getting married!!! I'm getting married!!!" It was so exciting!
We then ran off to the church to get everything ready for the ceremony. There was so much to do before the whole thing started and everything came together nicely.
The cermony ran smoothly as well - that was the only remotely stressful part. If anything had gone wrong then it would have been my fault. As the flower girls walked down towards "Uncle Joel" and gave him a "squishy" hug and kiss on the cheek I had tears in my eyes! They were adorable!
There really is something amazing about seeing a bride just before walking down the aisle. The doors are closed and she's linked arms with her father. The finishing touches are made to her veil and her dress and she takes one last deep breath before the doors are opened and she begins down the aisle to meet her soon-to-be husband. Seeing Ali's face and watching all the emotions that flashed in her eyes (all positive) as the signal was given for the doors to open and the look of excitement and confidence that rested there as she took her first step towards her new life... it was incredible. Her dad had tears in his eyes as he walked his baby down the aisle but he couldn't have been happier either.
The ceremony was short and sweet. Everything was wonderful!!! The first thing Ali Kooger said after walking out of the church was... "It was perfect!" And it was.
We rushed to Lynn's house for more pictures and to Fort Langley before walking onto the ferry and heading to the reception. It was so much fun! The food was delicious! I even got to dance with my brother Joel. I'm not gonna lie, I think my brothers are the funnest people to dance with. I don't even want to know what we look like when we dance, but we have so much fun that I don't even care. He even dipped me... and my head almost hit the ground. We had the dorkiest looks on our faces the entire time and we were so dramatic... I loved it!!
Yup... the wedding was perfect!
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Road Trip
Last weekend I decided to go to Kelowna to see my brother/check out a school so I called my good buddy Lynn up on the Thursday night and we left on Saturday after I worked. We jumped into my daddy's little red Suzuki Swift who we named Bruce and began driving. It was such a hot weekend and we didn't have AC so we had the windows wide open.
I think I like writing these things after the fact because then I can skip the deathly boring stuff and just do the highlights... they are pretty subjective highlights, but I found them enjoyable none-the-less.
Our trip was a disaster from the start, but an excellent one. I had my fudgicle melt on me within a minute of leaving Lynn's driveway. It was all over me and all over the car and a bit in my mouth. Lynn thankfully wiped it up while I drove.
We got to Kelowna in relatively good time considering we were going 40km up most of the hill's. It really is a strange phenomenon to have semi's passing you. But Bruce was faithful and we made it to Kelowna. We even "blasted" the tunes - ABBA and some solid disco music. Daddy called because he went out and got me a BCAA membership because that's how much faith he has in his little car and so he called us and gave us the number just in case we needed it.
When we got to Kelowna we went and visited my little brother, Justin for a bit. He's been in Kelowna playing for Team BC for the past month and so it's been a while. He is so cute and I love him so much! It was fun to see his friends and to surprise him! David VanderEnde's car drove up so I went to scare him. I snuck up behind the car and jumped in front of his open car door and roared... It wasn't David driving his car. It was one of the coaches so I introduced myself as Justin's sister while Lynn and Justin laughed by Bruce as I yelled from David's car that it wasn't him.
We then left for Vernon where we were spending the night with my really good friend Laura's cousins. We had no idea where her aunt and uncle lived so we parked at this park and went looking for a pay phone. Jeff called us admist our searching and informed us that he lived two blocks away, but they were at Sir Winston's Pub which was a block away so we went and met them there. Oh ya.... I didn't see Earl's, but that's because I was looking in the wrong direction and not because I am blind! So we hung out with Jeff, Curtis, Trevor, Nathan, Cheryl and Shannon. We then went to this other place where we made Lynn dance with us. It took her a little while to warm up, but she eventually got into it and had good time. I'm pretty sure swimming was the highlight of our night though... at least mine and Lynn's. We went to Kinsmen beach.. maybe... at 1:30ish and played frisbee in the water without any light and the guys tried skimboarding... in a lake... It was funny. They don't have the luxury of a tide so they use what they can get. We all crashed at Jeff's house that night - minus Nathan and Cheryl so not all of us actually.
Sunday we went to Church, Beach - watched cardboard boat races... like these kids had to sit in the boats and paddle around this buoy.... quite impressive, we had Screamers or Polar Float - we were apprehensive at first, but the soft icecream/slurpee combo was excellent. We then went and hung out with Justin in Kelowna for a while. I miss him already! He's matured so much since being out there... I'm so proud of him!!! I'm not even joking. I can't even explain the change, but... he's a good kid. He really really is. I absolutely love him! It was still 38 degrees when we were driving him around getting grocery's at 8:30ish.... just a side note.
Disaster struck on our ride back to Vernon for the night. Well, it really wasn't much of a disaster actually. So we are 8km out of Kelowna right near Lake Country or whatever it's called and I see this deer on the side of the road in the grass. I am so excited and I'm like, "Lynn there's a deer!" because she has seen two already and this is my first for this trip. This really was a beautiful creature. It was a big buck and it was nibbling on some grass. It was raining out so I was driving slower than the speed limit, thankfully. So I was going like 90km and this deer decides to bolt in front of me. Uh Oh. I am driving a little Suzuki Swift that I'm pretty sure my brothers could crush if they jumped on it and here this big buck (I've seen a few in my day and I think this was one of the biggest I've seen and I'm not just exaggerating for dramatic effect) decides to run right in front of me. So I swerve to the left and slam on my brakes. I just realized I'm changing tenses at will in this paragraph so I'll apologize to you english majors now. Anyways. I'm swerving and slamming and my heart wasn't pumping any faster than normal. Lynn and I were both so calm and then when I realized that there was no way around hitting this thing I remembered, from good old ICBC on-line road tests, that just before you hit a deer (a moose on the test) you're supposed to take your foot off the brake so that your front end isn't barreled down and the thing doesn't fly through your windshield. So, just before we hit the Deer, I took my foot of the brake and stuck the car in neutral. I was really quite amazed at how well you can think and how quickly things run through your head when you're calm and in a bad situation. So, the deer hit rolled over our hood from Lynn's side to mine and it's face and an antler came and hit the windshield right by my side and then it lay on the ground for a second, got up and ran hobbling away. The first thing that went through my mind was... Amen for BCAA, but Bruce still drove fine. We pulled over to check out the damage, but things looked alright and Bruce still drove. It felt quite... unreal. Right after it happened we had to remind ourselves that we'd just hit a deer because our adrenaline wasn't pumping at all. So we continued our drive back to vernon. On our drive my window randomly fell down and wouldn't roll up anymore and a thunderstorm was starting so we taped that up good when we got to vernon.
On Monday we went back to Kelowna to check out the college.. that lasted 15 minutes. We went to Gyro beach for one last dip and headed home. It was so hot!
We drove home going 40 most of the way, stopping repeatedly so poor Bruce could rest, with the heat blasting, the windows wide open, and the Lion King soundtrack blaring! We made it home safely though and we had SO MUCH FUN!!
I think I like writing these things after the fact because then I can skip the deathly boring stuff and just do the highlights... they are pretty subjective highlights, but I found them enjoyable none-the-less.
Our trip was a disaster from the start, but an excellent one. I had my fudgicle melt on me within a minute of leaving Lynn's driveway. It was all over me and all over the car and a bit in my mouth. Lynn thankfully wiped it up while I drove.
We got to Kelowna in relatively good time considering we were going 40km up most of the hill's. It really is a strange phenomenon to have semi's passing you. But Bruce was faithful and we made it to Kelowna. We even "blasted" the tunes - ABBA and some solid disco music. Daddy called because he went out and got me a BCAA membership because that's how much faith he has in his little car and so he called us and gave us the number just in case we needed it.
When we got to Kelowna we went and visited my little brother, Justin for a bit. He's been in Kelowna playing for Team BC for the past month and so it's been a while. He is so cute and I love him so much! It was fun to see his friends and to surprise him! David VanderEnde's car drove up so I went to scare him. I snuck up behind the car and jumped in front of his open car door and roared... It wasn't David driving his car. It was one of the coaches so I introduced myself as Justin's sister while Lynn and Justin laughed by Bruce as I yelled from David's car that it wasn't him.
We then left for Vernon where we were spending the night with my really good friend Laura's cousins. We had no idea where her aunt and uncle lived so we parked at this park and went looking for a pay phone. Jeff called us admist our searching and informed us that he lived two blocks away, but they were at Sir Winston's Pub which was a block away so we went and met them there. Oh ya.... I didn't see Earl's, but that's because I was looking in the wrong direction and not because I am blind! So we hung out with Jeff, Curtis, Trevor, Nathan, Cheryl and Shannon. We then went to this other place where we made Lynn dance with us. It took her a little while to warm up, but she eventually got into it and had good time. I'm pretty sure swimming was the highlight of our night though... at least mine and Lynn's. We went to Kinsmen beach.. maybe... at 1:30ish and played frisbee in the water without any light and the guys tried skimboarding... in a lake... It was funny. They don't have the luxury of a tide so they use what they can get. We all crashed at Jeff's house that night - minus Nathan and Cheryl so not all of us actually.
Sunday we went to Church, Beach - watched cardboard boat races... like these kids had to sit in the boats and paddle around this buoy.... quite impressive, we had Screamers or Polar Float - we were apprehensive at first, but the soft icecream/slurpee combo was excellent. We then went and hung out with Justin in Kelowna for a while. I miss him already! He's matured so much since being out there... I'm so proud of him!!! I'm not even joking. I can't even explain the change, but... he's a good kid. He really really is. I absolutely love him! It was still 38 degrees when we were driving him around getting grocery's at 8:30ish.... just a side note.
Disaster struck on our ride back to Vernon for the night. Well, it really wasn't much of a disaster actually. So we are 8km out of Kelowna right near Lake Country or whatever it's called and I see this deer on the side of the road in the grass. I am so excited and I'm like, "Lynn there's a deer!" because she has seen two already and this is my first for this trip. This really was a beautiful creature. It was a big buck and it was nibbling on some grass. It was raining out so I was driving slower than the speed limit, thankfully. So I was going like 90km and this deer decides to bolt in front of me. Uh Oh. I am driving a little Suzuki Swift that I'm pretty sure my brothers could crush if they jumped on it and here this big buck (I've seen a few in my day and I think this was one of the biggest I've seen and I'm not just exaggerating for dramatic effect) decides to run right in front of me. So I swerve to the left and slam on my brakes. I just realized I'm changing tenses at will in this paragraph so I'll apologize to you english majors now. Anyways. I'm swerving and slamming and my heart wasn't pumping any faster than normal. Lynn and I were both so calm and then when I realized that there was no way around hitting this thing I remembered, from good old ICBC on-line road tests, that just before you hit a deer (a moose on the test) you're supposed to take your foot off the brake so that your front end isn't barreled down and the thing doesn't fly through your windshield. So, just before we hit the Deer, I took my foot of the brake and stuck the car in neutral. I was really quite amazed at how well you can think and how quickly things run through your head when you're calm and in a bad situation. So, the deer hit rolled over our hood from Lynn's side to mine and it's face and an antler came and hit the windshield right by my side and then it lay on the ground for a second, got up and ran hobbling away. The first thing that went through my mind was... Amen for BCAA, but Bruce still drove fine. We pulled over to check out the damage, but things looked alright and Bruce still drove. It felt quite... unreal. Right after it happened we had to remind ourselves that we'd just hit a deer because our adrenaline wasn't pumping at all. So we continued our drive back to vernon. On our drive my window randomly fell down and wouldn't roll up anymore and a thunderstorm was starting so we taped that up good when we got to vernon.
On Monday we went back to Kelowna to check out the college.. that lasted 15 minutes. We went to Gyro beach for one last dip and headed home. It was so hot!
We drove home going 40 most of the way, stopping repeatedly so poor Bruce could rest, with the heat blasting, the windows wide open, and the Lion King soundtrack blaring! We made it home safely though and we had SO MUCH FUN!!
Saturday, July 08, 2006
How could I forget Gordon Kelly???
PS. I had the pleasure of accompanying Gordon Alex Kelly to the Fraser Valley Christian graduation as his date. It had kind of slipped my mind that grad was approaching as quickly as it was, but I wasn't too nervous about finding an outfit to wear. I could always ask my mother to make me a dress the day before like she'd done for my own graduation. I called up trusty Kira a couple hours before the grad and she brought some clothes over for me to try on. In the end I was clothed and ready to go.
It was strange to be sitting in the crowd as an alumni and watching the younger kids graduate, but it was so good to see friends again. I may even have been most excited to see Mr. Kim.
Gordon ended up being quite the gentleman. He pulled my chair out for me so I could sit down, he asked me if I wanted any juice, and he kept the conversation light during the dinner. I'm not gonna lie, I was quite surprised at how well the evening went. Saying goodbye was... well it was the usual. Gordon only kissed me on the cheek once so it wasn't too awkward, but he did ask me to date him and if I would maybe marry him in ten years and such and such. He was so hopeful but I had to tell him that it wouldn't work out. I'm glad that nothing really phases Gordon and that he always bounces back to his cheerful and persistent self. I think he got the point, however, as he told people that I'd broken up with him later on that night. Oh Gordon Kelly.
It was strange to be sitting in the crowd as an alumni and watching the younger kids graduate, but it was so good to see friends again. I may even have been most excited to see Mr. Kim.
Gordon ended up being quite the gentleman. He pulled my chair out for me so I could sit down, he asked me if I wanted any juice, and he kept the conversation light during the dinner. I'm not gonna lie, I was quite surprised at how well the evening went. Saying goodbye was... well it was the usual. Gordon only kissed me on the cheek once so it wasn't too awkward, but he did ask me to date him and if I would maybe marry him in ten years and such and such. He was so hopeful but I had to tell him that it wouldn't work out. I'm glad that nothing really phases Gordon and that he always bounces back to his cheerful and persistent self. I think he got the point, however, as he told people that I'd broken up with him later on that night. Oh Gordon Kelly.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
It's about time...
I see that I have not updated this thing in quite a long time. I guess that not too much has happened. I'm working at Schneiders again. I love most of the people I work with and I love being at work, but I hate going to bed at 8:30pm and waking up at 4:30am... but such is life. I guess that not much aside from that has happened.
My sister Lindsey came down for the weekend and for Benjamin's graduation from Surrey Christian School. It was so good to see her again. I missed her a lot. It was weird to see her here on my turf again, but oh how my family had fun. Thursday night was Ben's grad. My parents did the Parent Speech or whatever they officially call it. My sisters and I were all bawling when they were announcing my parents because, well pretty much because we're babies, but also because Mr. Bron was introducing them and he was talking about "28 years ago...." My family has had continuous enrollment in Surrey Christian for the past 28 years and it was sad to see it all come to a close. Benny was so cute!
On Sunday most of my family came over. Lindsey was still here and so we hung out. We ate. We laughed. We played soccer. We realized how out of shape we were (I was weazing within minutes :S). We played in the pool. We made fools of our selves. And we generally enjoyed each others company. I love it when my whole family gets together. We always have so much fun. It hasn't changed from when we were kids. We still do the same things to entertain ourselves and we are still just as competitive and childish about it all. We still push each other around and think of how many creative and interesting ways we can dive into the pool. Not much has changed aside from the additional girlfriends that accompany some of the brothers, but they are more than welcome.
I had the pleasure of babysitting one of the most beautiful and easiest babies in the world this week. Dayla. She is so cute and she didn't cry at all! We got to go to bed together because I had to work the next day so I went to bed at 8:00 so I could put her to sleep and just fall asleep with her. Babies are so cute though that I couldn't fall asleep because I was just watching her breathe and cuddling with her. I did eventually fall asleep an then my mother crept in and removed her when her mommy came back to get her.
Eric and Josh were also down this week. I was pleasantly surprised. It was fun to see them again and to show them where I live even though I didn't get to spend much time actually with them because I had to work.
Aside from that... Laura came to visit but I'm too lazy to write about that now.
My sister Lindsey came down for the weekend and for Benjamin's graduation from Surrey Christian School. It was so good to see her again. I missed her a lot. It was weird to see her here on my turf again, but oh how my family had fun. Thursday night was Ben's grad. My parents did the Parent Speech or whatever they officially call it. My sisters and I were all bawling when they were announcing my parents because, well pretty much because we're babies, but also because Mr. Bron was introducing them and he was talking about "28 years ago...." My family has had continuous enrollment in Surrey Christian for the past 28 years and it was sad to see it all come to a close. Benny was so cute!
On Sunday most of my family came over. Lindsey was still here and so we hung out. We ate. We laughed. We played soccer. We realized how out of shape we were (I was weazing within minutes :S). We played in the pool. We made fools of our selves. And we generally enjoyed each others company. I love it when my whole family gets together. We always have so much fun. It hasn't changed from when we were kids. We still do the same things to entertain ourselves and we are still just as competitive and childish about it all. We still push each other around and think of how many creative and interesting ways we can dive into the pool. Not much has changed aside from the additional girlfriends that accompany some of the brothers, but they are more than welcome.
I had the pleasure of babysitting one of the most beautiful and easiest babies in the world this week. Dayla. She is so cute and she didn't cry at all! We got to go to bed together because I had to work the next day so I went to bed at 8:00 so I could put her to sleep and just fall asleep with her. Babies are so cute though that I couldn't fall asleep because I was just watching her breathe and cuddling with her. I did eventually fall asleep an then my mother crept in and removed her when her mommy came back to get her.
Eric and Josh were also down this week. I was pleasantly surprised. It was fun to see them again and to show them where I live even though I didn't get to spend much time actually with them because I had to work.
Aside from that... Laura came to visit but I'm too lazy to write about that now.
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