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.....

4 more days.... fa, la, la, la.....

4 MORE DAYS UNTIL I LEAVE FOR CALIFORNIA!!!!!!!! Well, it's actually 5 if I am still counting today, but hey, today has already started and I have already done my advent calendar for today, so that means today doesn't count!!!! It's been stinkin' cold this weekend (like lows of -32) and so it's been a "stay inside and keep warm" weekend, which was actually very good. I had my 2nd exam on Saturday, so I did have to venture out a bit, but I survived and only have 3 exams left to go!!!! The rest of my weekend was WONDERFUL as I got a chance to see my bro and his family, and I did some Christmas baking yesterday and basically just had a really good weekend. The coming up week is crazy busy as I have an exam on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, then Thursday night I have to do laundry, Christmas wrapping, more Christmas baking, and then Friday is a date night and packing. And then we fly out of GP at 10 bells on Saturday morning......... whoot, whoot!!!!!

The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year

The season has arrived!!!!!!! I'm a HUGE Christmas fan, so I look forward to this time of year from right after my birthday..... it's great!!!! I have actually bought all of my presents but one, as it's hard to buy for someone when they are shopping with you, so I feel good about that!!!! To be honest, I have no idea what I am going to get Dan, but I'm working on it.

School has slowed down now that it is wrapping up. I am finished my assignments and just have 2 quizes and 5 exams left!!!! Whoo, hoo!!!! My final exam is on December 18th (which stinks) so I don't get it all done and over with at the beginning, but I'll survive!!! I am pleased with how the semester went, but I am DEFINATELY looking forward to the break.

And in a total of 18 days we are leaving for CALIFORNIA!!!!!! I am sooooo stoked that it's not even funny!!!!! The chance to really get away from everything will be so good!!!! Of course, I'm not really looking forward to not being able to be with Dan over Christmas, but we will survive. Besides, a little time away from each other is good, I hope anyway. I guess we'll see how hard it actually is..... but the plans were made long before he came into my life so we'll deal with it!!!.

As far as everything else, well, things are truckin' along. I almost can't believe that it's December already, because it seems like this year just started..... but again, I guess that's what happens when you get older.

So, until I post again, have a great Christmas season!!! And remember to celebrate the real reason for the season!!!!

Halloween Costume

The likes of which......

So, since it's been about a month since I last posted, I feel I should probably do this again.....

It's been quite a busy month. I'm in the middle of midterms right now, so I'm doing quite a bit of studying and not so much socializing at all, but that's ok. I'm looking at being mostly done my assignments by the middle of November, so that should be good if I can manage that!!!! Youth group is keeping me busy and this weekend is DTP so that should be tiring for all of us. I'm only participating in Friday night's events, however I am staying over at the church with the youth that night, so again, that should be interesting!!!

We went to Three Hills for Thanksgiving to see my bro and his fam as well as some of my mom's brother's & sisters, so that was good, yet the drive was really long. We were in a rental car because my parents decided that they would take on a moose with their car a week before we left!!!! Everyone was ok, except the moose, and they have now bought a different car, so that was an interesting experience for them. Somewhat surprising as my dad is always the first one to see any wildlife, but circumstances were somewhat out of his control so it wasn't his fault.

October has been the month of birthdays for me!!!! My neice Jordan turned 1 on October 10, my brother Darren turned 21 on the 14th, Dan turned 29 on the 19th, a friend Martha turned 27 on the 11th, another friend Robyn turned 20 on the 16th, I had one friend have a baby on the 15th and my best friend Andrea is having her baby sometime in the next day or two, so that's been a full month as well!!!! To celbrate Martha, Robyn & Darren's birthdays, a group of us went costume bowling on the 18th, and that was a blast!!!! We had a birthday supper as a family for Darren & Jordan on the 16th, and Dan's parents were up for his birthday, so we went out for supper and I also made Dan supper just this last weekend to celebrate his birthday.

And I think that kind of summerizes my wonderful month of October!!!! I've started thinking about Christmas and with that comes excitement because we leave for Disneyland on December 20th!!!!!!! It will be different spending Christmas with no snow, but the 4 of us are looking forward to the vacation and are excited to be doing something different!!!! I'm thinking that Disneyland on Christmas Day will be VERY cool to experience.

And for now, I guess that is it!!!!! I'll post pictures of my halloween costume next week!!!!!

Fall

Here are the fall photo's I promised!!!!!!