Engagment Pics

So Dan & me had some engagment pictures taken yesterday afternoon. Our friends Martha takes AMAZING pictures, so we took her out for lunch and went to Muskroseepi Park (my pronunciation....) and the GP Tourist Centre to take some pictures. It was somewhat cold outside, but we had fun anyway, and it made for a good afternoon!!!!! Martha also did some editing for us on some of the pictures, so that's what the bottom ones are. Enjoy!!!!
My ring

us being cheesy.... but we like it!!!!

Exciting News and a story......

So, for those of you who are really out of touch, I am now engaged. Dan proposed on January 7th and I said yes. We are getting married on May 16th of this year and so the planning and preparing has officially begun.

And for those of you who are asking (Adrienne.....) here is the story......

Dan and me started dating in late August of 2008 and about 3 weeks after that I went with him to Lloyd to meet his family. Things went really well and, although it was quick, I had the "this is it" revelation after that trip. The first mention of marriage came up in October, however I was not ready to talk serious yet, so it kind of just passed. In late November I went ring shopping with a friend, gave my list to Dan, and then waited. Only a week later, while we were Christmas tree hunting in the bush, Dan asked my parents for their permission to marry me, and they said yes. We did promise them though that we would not be engaged before Christmas, however that day Dan and I did pick a potential wedding date. Dan was supposed to get a bonus at work on January 1st, however that was postponed for a couple of weeks, so I was not expecting any kind of question until after January 16th. We did decide to start planning for our wedding however because we knew that 4 months was a short time and we wanted the big things like church and reception hall booked as quick as possible. So we made a couple of phone calls and started the process. On January 4th my car blew the head gasket, so I was out a car. Arrangments were made and on the evening of January 7th Dan & me were going to go out to my parents house to pick up my Dad's second truck for me to drive until my car was fixed. So Dan came over after supper and I was cleaning up Christmas decorations in my living room while we waited for my parents to call and say the truck was ready to be picked up. We were just chatting about this and that and all of the sudden Dan told me he had to get something. So he went over to his coat (I did ask if he was leaving......I thought maybe he had forgotten something at home.....) so I turned back around to keep cleaning up decorations. I saw Dan walking back from his coat (a total of 5 steps away....) and turned back around. He got down on one knee, to which I said "you didn't" and asked me to marry him. I actually said "yeah" instead of yes, but whatever, the meaning is the same. So then we made phone calls to his family and phoned my parents to see if the truck was ready and went out to surprise them with the news.

So that's it!!!!! It's not huge or elaborate, but I have never wanted a huge, planned engagement so it was absolutely perfect for me and Dan!!!!!!

Post Christmas & New Years

Well, this post probably should have happened last week, but sometimes life gets away from you!!!!

I had a great Christmas. My parents, younger brother and me went to Disneyland for Christmas and it was AWESOME!!!! We had an extra 4 1/2 hours in airports on the way down, but compared to what some others had, we had it easy. The weather was not crazily warm, but it was warmer than the -30 to -40 that those here were having, so I had nothing to complain about. It was kind of weird to see Christmas decorations hung out on palm trees and such, but I thouroughly enjoyed my time there, got to ride on some sweet rides, and just relax and spend some time away from home. And for those of you asking, yes I did miss Dan a lot, but so goes life and we survived the week apart and learned some valuable communication skills from it, so that's good as well.

I had to go back to work on the Monday after I got back, so I worked on the Monday & Tuesday, had Wednesday & Thursday off for New Years, and then went back to work on Friday. Not that fun, but I still can't complain!!!! New Years was spent at my parents having our family Christmas, which included the first of me having a special someone there with me!!!!! It was fun, Dan learned some things about me and my family, I learned some things about Dan, and all in all Christmas and New Years was a great time, relaxing, and a nice break.

And now things are back into the swing of things. The first day of school was yesterday, youth group starts today, and piano lessons start next week. Hip hip horray for a return to schedule (insert sarcasm here) and yet another busy semester of school, work, piano lessons, and youth group.

Pictures of Disneyland to come later.....