the wedding dress, the beach and the cricket

it was great having daz here over the last few days. he arrived sunday morning (way too early, but that's ok) and then his friend (and mine) dan came up from london (ontario that is, not UK) on monday. they are good guys (and for the ladies - single too). they actually helped me shop for a wedding dress. which, by the way was a successful mission (it may or may not look like the picture below....). anyway we had some good chats about life and God. it was fun to hang with them.

my wedding dress???

....more posts from my holidays.

the beach - annie and i went down the beach for two glorious days. we sat on the beach, swam in the ocean, ate fish and chips and chocolate, and watched many episodes of sex in the city.

the cricket - i went to a twenty20 game of cricket. it was actually fun. i mean i like cricket. but this was fast and thrilling. cricket is always a good time to socialise as well. while my photos only show myself, jayne, aaron and luke - cath, merf, rick, gen, shanksy, etc were all there also. it was a lovely evening. except on the way out - we got stuck in the traffic. but thanks to some cheeky cross country driving in the lancer, we did alright. but not as good as the white car which jayne threatened (in fun) to beat up if they tried to keep pushing in (which they did a better job of than us...boo hoo). good times.

the real world

what is the real world?
i've had a few conversations recently which kind of related to what's the real world and what's not. sometimes i refer to my current situation as not being in the real world. but that is just my perception. in truth, my current living situation is better than most in this world in which we live. i mean, i am actually quite blessed, i have a place to live (even if we do have a few mice issues), i have a bed to sleep in, food to eat, clean running water to shower, drink, cook, clothes to wear, i have a job, etc, etc. what is your perception of the real world? do you consider yourself to be living in the real world?
did you know that the life expectancy in zimbabwe, mozambique, angola is under 40 years of age. I would be closer to the end of my life if i lived there, rather than maybe 1/3 of the way through it (God willing).
did you know that in Eritrea and also in the Congo, more than 70% of the population is malnourished?
did you know that in the U.S. there were over 1 million legal abortions in 1995 (ok so that date is old, but it was the same for 1985, and 1990, so i am guessing that the trend hasn't really changed all that much).
Unemployment in macedonia is at 36%.
Over 90% of the population in Mali, Nigeria and Zambia are living on less than $3 a day.
just to name a few things.
now, i ask you, what is the real world?
am i living in it?

things i love and things i hate

i hate mice. i really hate mice. a saw one in our house on friday night and i freaked. l do thw whole screaming and jump up on whatever is closest thing. i really do. and that's my natural reaction. i hate them. so matt bought us some traps on the way home from work and we set them. we had one dead mouse by saturday morning. sweet. or so i thought. i bought more traps on saturday afternoon. i set them sunday morning. we killed another one maybe an hour later. then, when grace and heather got home from church, grace was walking up the stairs and heard the trap in MY ROOM go off and then she heard squeaking. it was caught by it's leg. they put a bucket over it and a heavy book on top. matt stopped by on his way home from work (meanwhile, i am out with Daz having an absolute blast night toboganning at the local park that has a MASSIVE hill - it was so much fun!!!) and had to take it outside and kill it. then i set the traps again when i got home and bang, before we went to bed, we killed another one. YUK YUK YUK! i hate them. daz got to sleep in my bed, and i slept on the couch because i am too freaked out to sleep in my room. if we catch one more, i am calling the exterminator. in fact, i might call anyway. I HATE MICE.

on a lighter note, my car, which I LOVE. is now up for sale. my little lancer has done me well over the last 5 years. it's been a great little car and i have never once had any problems with it. so thank you little lancer. i hope you go soon to a new family who will love you as much as i have (p.s. if you are in melbourne and want to buy my car, let me know).

i thing i hate is miscommunication. i one thing i love is justice.
two more things i love are my brother (who decided to come and visit - and is here now) and toboganning. one more thing i hate is when it's -15 and you are doing anything but toboganning.

8 days later...

so i got engaged last wednesday and wouldn't you know it, one of my best friends cath (or cate as she gets called here in canada) goes and gets herself engaged aswell. YAY!!! every summer, since i was 17, cath and i would make a pact. it went something like 'this time next year, we'll be dating the men we are going to marry'. seriously. but last january, neither of us were dating anyone and we didn't make that pact. can you believe. and now, a year later, we are both engaged. congratulations to cath and shanksy (also known as michael). only bummer is now we'll probably have to miss each others weddings. we always said we'd be each others bridesmaids too. oh well.
anyway, so i thought it appropriate to share photo's of time spent with cath in melbourne. the first ones are when we were out to dinner. then the next lot are when we had to help cath make a video for music camp. we had to be freaks. i was an albanian ninja, then a swedish samuri snowman. you get the idea. enjoy.

cath and gen looking normal

cath as the reporter
merf as who knows what
merf - the aussie chick (i forgot the fancy name) and me as the swedish samuri snowman
gen - as boris
and me as the albanian ninja cat eater

Christmas with the fam

so i never really did write about Christmas in seattle - all part of the big trip. it was really lovely, the first Christmas we had spent together in 5 years! it was a very relaxed day. the first Christmas that mum and i could remember not leaving the house. i was rudely awoken at 9am by santa driving around the court on a fire truck. he was giving out lollies to all the kids, and he even gave some to mum and dad. salvos in the u.s. don't go to church on christmas day (yeah, i don't like that) so we just hung around home, kez and hil came over about 1pm and that's when we finally got to open some presents, but not before we had lunch. man, that was hard. i got some good things, the one i have used the most is the beanie daz bought me - see picture below, though i loved my other presents too. daniel got spoiled, the table and chairs were his present from mum and dad. though i bought him a wiggles video and he apparently always wants to watch it and does the finger thing to let people know.

i am reading a book called the ragamuffin gospel, recommended by my father. i really am enjoying it, if that's the right word. it's challenging my thoughts and revealing new things. always good when that happens. it makes you think. anyway, not going to share anymore about that now. also, a lesson i am learning is that communication is a very very good thing. matt and i had a really great talk last night and it's just so important to know what the other person is feeling and thinking in a relationship. anyway, enjoy the Christmas pics.

cold, snow, NYE and wedding music

i have to admit, much to my disgust, that i am enjoying being back in the winter. don't get me totally wrong, the cold, no, but when you walk through the snow, or walk down the street and the snow is falling, it's pretty nice. and the white, as long as it hasn't been dirt-eed up by the roads, is really quite beautiful. but it is COLD. yesterday when left the house it was -8. brr. i think i told you that. tomorrow apparently it's going to get way lower, like down to -15, never mind the wind chill, i think i better go out and buy some more thermals!!!


our computers at the office are playing up today, internet is down, so i will continue to blog about my holiday out of order. today's photo is from new years eve. i firstly went to a bbq at brent and zena's, then headed into the city with annie to meet up with jayne, luke, aaron, kate and chris (see photo below). we had a great time, we went and stood by the yarra and watched the fireworks. it was a warm night and just fun to be out in the city amongst the masses. and i love fireworks, so that was beautiful. jayne and luke just celebrated their first wedding anniversary on the weekend just gone, so congrats to them. they are all great friends and i was happy to be able to spend it with them!



now, i have obviously been thinking lots about my wedding, thought maybe my blog readers could have some input. today's wedding question is....what song should i walk down the aisle to? i've been thinking about 'it's a nice day for a white wedding', 'eye of the tiger' and 'you've lost that loving feeling'. any thoughts or suggestions? please leave your comments. thanks.

The Aussie Holiday

Now, this may seem like i am on some kind of theme, and maybe i am, but this is by coincidence. i thought it was about time to blog about the rest of my aussie holiday and produce the promised photos. and since my mum is bugging me that she still hasn't seen any photo's of matt and beth's wedding. today is the day. it was a beautiful wedding. the bride, and groom, looked gorgeous. i had a fantastic day and was priviledged to be the MC for the reception.



by the way, it's currently -8 in toronto today, with a wind chill factor of -15. WHAT THE...???

anyway... the pictures...

Beth and Max - i know this one's blurry, but it's the only one i had of the full front of beth's dress

the back
the wedding party
beth and i
the ceremony
the happy couple

the ring

a good picture this time. thanks tim. did you know you should use the flower setting...???

(please note, close ups also make your hand look really wrinkled and old...DOH)

The Proposal

So, here it is. Not great sound, but you get the idea of what's going on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqGZIYdkeZw

And some good old pics right after the event...

I"M ENGAGED

Well, photos and stories of Aus will just have to wait (i plan on posting a few pics of the trip each day over the next little while, so stay tuned...) but for now...here's the story.
I arrived at Toronto airport, looking for my friend heather who as to pick me up on wed afternoon around 5pm. She wasn't there, so i called her and she was like, oh we got stuck in traffic, joe and i will be there in 10 mins. so i started walking over to some seats, and as i was putting my suitcases next to the seat, i saw matt, and i was like, what are you doing here (he was supposed to be at work), so i ran over and gave him a big hug and kiss and as he kissed me, he got down on one knee and i started to cry and he pulled out a ring and said 'will you marry me sweetie? i was busy crying and for once in my life speechless, he prompted me with a 'can you take the ring i'm shaking' so i took the ring and said yes. ha ha. then, still with tears in my eyes, i couldn't quite see the ring properly and i asked if it was the one we had looked at together, and it was. yay. i love it. so that was the proposal. i guess some of the people around must have been watching, but i was out of it, as we got my suitcases, matt said to the old lady that was sitting there, we just got engaged and she said, i know, i saw.
it's looking like it will be a september toronto wedding. that's the thoughts for the moment.
um, oh, the ring. it's white gold, a brilliant cut (round) solitare. it's set in four claws. it's beautiful. i tried to take some pictures, but it's hard. so here are a few anyway, you might get the jist. and we do have a video of the proposal - though you don't really get to hear anything, but i'll try and get that up on here in the next few days.
oh, and just to make things more romantic, yesterday, when we got engaged, it was actually mum and dad's 31st wedding anniversary, so that is lovely. (that happened by chance).

the beach

oh how i LOVE the beach. beautiful sand, sparkling clear water. oh it's so great. annie and i went down to mccrae yesterday morning. we spent the afternoon on the beach. then went and had fish and chips for tea. yum. then watched dvd's till midnight. then we went to bed, got up, went for a walk, had some lunch and then went down the beach for a few hours. reading and a lot of swimming as it was quite hot. we went back to the house, packe dup our stuff, then headed 5 mins down the road to safety beach where merf, rick, al, kez, rach and dave were. we sat in the water there for a while aswell.
we left and i had a quick shower on my arrival home and then out to dinner with the girls from school (work). tarn, jode, tam, kylie, sar, gerbs and lisa. it was a great time. all speaking all at once, and cutting in on each other as if we'd never been apart. it was a lovely evening.
yet again, another 2 fantastic days in this great country.

one week

oops. it's bene a whole week since i have blogged. i have been getting in a little bit of trouble for my lack of blogging, but there's just been so much to do! lucky today is a a quiet one. i have the chance to catch up.
let's see...what have i been doing?
- had breakfast with beth
- went shopping at eastland with annie
- had 'the greatest fish and chips in the world' with jayne, luke, annie and aaron
- watched tv with brad and steve
- had dinner at the begleys, also with annie and robyn gilcrest
- went through my clothes at the begleys and have so far managed to throw away 2 garbage bags full of them...
- got my hair done by my all time favourite hair dresser nadia
- went out to dinner at tien dat with jayne, and also made the end of the pew things for beth and matt's wedding
- shopping at donnie with jayne
- had dinner with cath, merf and gen, then we made dress up movies for cath who was using them for some game while she's at camp this week (ahh...somethings never change)
- visited al and louie
- said goodbye to mish and mike
then last friday was the wedding. it was so great. i had the most fantastic day. i went over to beth's in the morning and hung out and did annie's hair and make up. then the service was lovely. beth looked absolutely gorgeous. matt looked pretty good too. then the reception was really fun. i was the mc, so that was really special. the bridal table was actually just matt and beth and their brothers and sisters and then chris and i, so we felt very special. and we got some good dancing in too. i really had a great day.
so i think that's about all for now. my time is flying here and that is sad (and good too, yes my darling matthew) but i am having a fantastic time. tonight i'm out to aunty wendy's, then tomorrow, going down to the beach and staying till wednesday. then wednesday night i am returning ot have dinner with the girls from school (work). so that's my next few days.
stay tuned for the photos....

january 1

new years eves are often a let down. they don't usually meet expectations. but last night i had no expectations and i had a great night. i went to a bbq that bubz and zena organised and then onto the city to meet the rest of the gang. we stood on the bank of the yarra and watched the fireworks. it was a really great night. oh yeah, and we took 80 photos.
today i got to see beth in her wedding dress - beautifully stunning. then we, along with annie went and had ice cream.
tonight, aaron, annie and i went into new quay and had a nice night. we also happened to bump into an old friend of annies - heath. that's a whole other story.
anyway, it's very late and i need to go to bed. i am tired and am still a bit sick.
goodnight.