This is a very long post of pictures... but it was hard to summarize a relationship with my dear friend Carina in words...i thought the pictures might help me to share some memories as we anticipate their wedding tomorrow evening!  It's been a wonderful crazy eccentric at times deep and amazing journey together as sisters in the Lord and dear friends and I love you dearly!  You're marrying a great Scott and we wish you the Lord's blessings!

She can be a crazy driver!

 The three amigos at Niagara Falls on a girls weekend!

On the beach in Florida last January...

Golfing with the gators!!

She's a hot one!  All dolled up at Campfire!

Hmmm...should John be worried???  J.A. Macdonald doesn't seem to mind!

Curacao trip - that's an awfully big iguana! 

Enjoying rijstafel in Curacao... it sure was yummy!

Scared of dinosaurs are we??



One of the Mussche sisters...

Shopping in the States!  Oh what fun!  Look at that trunk!

Two great friends with two big plans... our last "single" adventure!

Relaxing on the beach on Pelee Island!  What a fun vacation!

At the southern most inhabited tip of Canada... hopefully we weren't going to fall off and drift into the States!

A typical Carina pose during (or should i say just after) a Settler's game...

 she's a super competitive player...

A typical Danielle pose after a Settler's game...how did i lose yet again???

On a wine tour with the ladies - Brenda, myself, Helen, Carina and Lois!  

This is just a funny funny picture... 

Always needing to be heard!

There's no pining away here, we're a bunch of saps when it comes to Christmas -

 must have a real tree!!!

On the wagon in PEI at Anne's house!

Doesn't she look just like Anne??

A whole birthday crowd - it was amazing to be together with so many wonderful women to celebrate my 30th birthday in style (and secrecy)

Always loves to read!

At my recent wedding shower - i was so happy to have Carina stand up for me as maid of honour!  I only hope i can return the favour as elegantly and capably!  (although i'm a matron - apparently!)



There ain't no flies on us!!!  Horsing around at Campfire!

Carina picked out her wedding shoes long long ago in a faraway mall

We also picked out our wedding hats!

Apparently then she picked out a Scott and they went after a swan in a canoe

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the lake... merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is such a dream!

In the summer, we made a visit up to Caledon to see the lovely couple and share a day with them!  We went on a hike, got "lost" and had some adventures!  Thanks for the great memories!

The happy couple!  December 21, 2012... We wish you the Lord's blessings and much happiness in your marriage and journey together as husband and wife!

It's a lovely day

I just wanted to do a very quick post before i left to go pick up my dear mother so we can go thrift store shopping for some specific items (it's sometimes fun to go with a goal, and at other times frustrating!).
I wanted to acknowledge that it is 12-12-12 today.  I had forgotten about that and when i was writing dates on something at work yesterday, all of a sudden i remembered and then was super excited and made sure all my surrounding co-workers were noticing the significant date - apparently, this will not happen again in our lifetimes!  So i'll have to find something fun to do at that time - 12:12 on the 12-12-12... that's a lot of 12s!!!  I think it might be particularly endearing to me since i'm born on the 12th!
And secondly, the fact that Filip the Fir is proudly and quite capably filling a space in our living room.  We chose him from amongst his 500 identical siblings at IKEA last evening for a great price and trundled him home, all the while debating what his name should be (nothing like creating a character and identity for your Christmas tree i think to keep things interesting).  Was it a boy or a girl?  I think we agreed it was a boy - and since we met our friend Phil at the shop, we thought it might be something in honour of him - though we changed the spelling a little to make it more flowing and flowery...
So now our home smells delicious - we joked last night that we should have taken a picture of Filip in the car and told everyone we just bought a new air freshener - really handy portable and other things like that! 
We've let him settle overnight - he didn't tip or fall but simply popped open his bound together branches and has given us a very pretty show of how symmetrical and full he is, but yet, full of character since he has nearly four tops - do we need four tree-toppers then???

                                     before                                                          after

Rehearsal Dinner!  After the hard work of rehearsing and traipsing down the aisle a time or two, we headed off to the Devries' for a yummy supper of Lemon Grass thai food and some good fellowship between both families and our friends!  There was a lot of love flowing through that house and we felt super blessed and grateful to our God for allowing this special time to happen and bring us together!

Giving a little welcome and speech at the rehearsal dinner!

I really liked this picture - to me it spoke of how the evening went - a mix of the two families and friends -

 sharing food together is a bonding experience and we sure had lots of food to share! 

Thanks so much Mom and Dad Devries!  Carina, Tanan and Rochelle are enjoying the feast!

 

Dad's looking a mite quizzical here at his son-in-law to be in a mere 16 hours or so...

but Timothy's relaxed and happy to be done the practice run!!!

Timothy's sisters came up with a really neat idea - they had found paper balloons that you can write well-wishes and thoughts on, then when they're done, you take them outside, light the fuel source under the balloon and they take off up into the skies...carrying the wishes up!  I was hoping we wouldn't set the neighbourhood on fire but there were no issues and everyone had fun adding their ideas to the balloons!

Then we went outside, a giant street party and watched as they were lit and flew off up into the heavens...

 first Timothy's, then mine - and they joined each other in flight!  It was a really neat idea,

one i had never seen before and was so thankful we got to participate in this!

We felt very enveloped by love and support from everyone and were so thankful that

 everyone could be there and be part of our pre-big-day!

Angela took on the dangerous job of lighting the balloons whilst Tom was an able-bodies helper. 

They went up so high, we were so amazed!!!  They seemed to turn into stars themselves!

Only hours to go until the big moment!

We both headed to our respective parent's places for a much-needed night's rest before the busyness and excitement of the wedding day. 

Wedding pics - part 2 - Practice makes perfect!

Rehearsal was Friday night at our church - Rehoboth URC and was very capably orchestrated by our pastor.  He kept things relaxed and we all had a great time - it sure was intimidating walking down the aisle that first time with Dad - Timothy and I had practiced it together a few weeks before in church but that wasn't quite the same as this!  But it sure was neat looking down the aisle and seeing my man at the end and looking forward to being his wife the very next day!! 

All the handsome fellows lined up in a row, waiting patiently for the ladies to trek down the aisle!

Dad and I sure look serious - its a hard job carrying those tulips eh?  We had to remember to slow down
 but thats sure hard to do when you're a little mite nervous! 

There goes my captioning again - i must be doing something wrong - some of these pics are a bit blurry but you get the feeling - we are pretty happy here to be holding hands and gazing into each others eyes - all under the watchful eye of pastor Van Olst.  Shortly before this however, i was quite embarassed to forget the order of my vows - i was pretty nervous for that part - thankfully on the big day, it was perfect for both of us!  Just needed to remember to breathe!  Always helpful!

And trust my dear little sister Lauren to provide some comic relief - i think she was a great

smile motivator for both of us - even in church on the wedding day!  Thanks Lauren!

Wedding pics...finally!!!! Friday - Part 1

The pew bows all neatly lined up outside - i didn't want big fussy ornate pew decorations, just a bit of something to bring some of the outside in!  And the ladies of the Mothers Street Flower Arranging Society (?M.S.F.A.S.?) delivered!

So, a while back, oh, say, maybe five weeks ago, a certain event of some historical and personal significance began to be unfolding - well, truth be told, it was unfolding for much longer beforehand and was in the plans since eternity, as is our comfort.  But the time had come for all the planning and preparations for our wedding to come to fruition and manifest themselves!  And we definitely couldn't have done it all without an army of volunteers and helpers, hugs and encouragement. 
Timothy and I were looking forward to this big day and to being surrounded by friends and family and yes, all the little details here and there played parts in making the big day a success and sometimes the story is in the little details as well - so hopefully these pictures capture a bit of the feel of the days and leave stories left to be told and reminsced over.  

\Tante Willy, Tanan and Tante Tineke all hard at work composing table centerpieces for the reception - it was so neat to see everyone working together, having fun, freezing their poor little fingers off and getting their creative juices flowing!  Tante Willy and Oom Klaas arrived on Thursday afternoon already and she was out there creating almost within a few hours!  What a dedicated lady!

The table outside at Mom and Dad's with all the flower arranging paraphernalia littered about - I was amazed to see that even tomatoes made their way onto the table - i suppose they were green and we were interested in anything green!

Okay, now somehow, my computer won't let me do captions so we'll just have to do with text. 

Rachel is getting very into the decorating spirit at the reception and Timothy is quite amused! 

What kind of family is he getting himself into??

Angela and Josh came with us as well and helped set up tables and rearrange rocks for place settings

and score free coffee and lots of other helpful things!

Carina is busy trying to get those pesky little lights to stay on the front of the headtable -

 it was a challenge to be sure but it was eventually done and looked wonderful!!!