Raquel Jillian

Blogging has become non existent for me these days. With the busyness of Christmas in the last month I have found no time to sit down and blog. Christmas was awesome. I love spending time with family and catching up with old friends. Now that it’s over I can’t believe how fast it went by. We got a bunch of stuff for our one day home. New Years was spent with most of my family at the cabin. The weather was so beautiful (minus the drive up in the snow storm!) and we spent a lot of our time outside playing in the snow. I love playing in the snow, although no one ever wants to join me, so very little time is spent playing in the snow every winter. I think I enjoy it so much because I have such good childhood memories of winter. Like dad taking Tyler and I to the outdoor rink in town to play hockey, or building jumps on the dyke to go sledding, and my favorite, Tyler and I walking by the row of trees on Brandt Road climbing over the huge hills, digging caves and pretending we were on all sorts of adventures. I can’t wait till Hailey is old enough to really appreciate winter with me.

Wedding planning is back in full swing now. January 1st as soon as we stepped into the house (getting home from the cabin) mom phoned Levi, Judy and Lisa to come over and discuss wedding plans. We have gotten so much done in the past week and a half I am not stressed in the least about pulling everything together by the time April 21st rolls around. Tuesday Amber, Mom, Hailey and I all went to get our hair done, and then stopped by A Touch of Glass in Niverville to rent napkins and see what other ideas they had for our wedding. Well let me tell you we were all less than impressed. They had quite a few nice things to rent, good ideas for center pieces and all but we did not feel very welcomed there. After our meeting, we grabbed a bight to eat and headed back home. Amber and I have now found a new place to rent wedding decorations and they are almost the same price as A Touch of Glass. Plus they have more selection. Mom and I are going to check it out one day this week yet, so I am praying everything goes well. I am hoping to have all the big things planned (rentals, photographer, bridesmaids’ dresses…) by the time I leave for MDS on the 26th. Yes, I know that it is 11 days away, but if I put my mind to it, and have a little help from Amber, mom, and maybe a few others things will work out. My only dilemma is that I have no clue where to go for tux rentals. There used to be a place on St. Mary’s, Select Formal Wear but it is no longer there. I phoned there old number but it said that it is no longer in service. So that makes me assume that they went out of business. But I will check into it a bit more. I know that there is Moore’s but I have heard nothing but bad news from there, and for some reason I have never liked Moore’s. If anyone was any ideas where there are places to rent tux’s please let me know as that is one of the things I would like to finish before going on MDS. And that concludes my “haven’t blogged in a long time” post.

Tusday after work I headed home, got ready and went to meet the girls at cred. Kelsey, Melissa, Chelsea, Trish, Kristen and I then left for Winnipeg where good food, a great movies and many laughs were shared. Us seven girls (Mal makes it #7) get together after Awana on Wednesday nights and watch ANTM or just sit around and chat. Seeing as Awana is taking a Christmas break we decided to have our christmas party instead of an after Awana get together. And let me tell you I am sure glad we did! 6 girls in Chels' car makes for some good times. We caught up on each others lives and of course talked about the latest reality show finale. We all agreed Ozzy should have won; he was just so cute, and could do EVERYTHING!! The movie was fabulous to say the least. And going on a Tuesday was a good call by us...even though we had no clue at the time. Trish and Chels were impatient standing in the long ticket line so they opted for the express lane. They came rushing back to us and said in excitment "GUYS, YOU SHOULD GO TO THE EXPRESS LANE....I THINK WE JUST GOT FREE POPCORN!!!" We were so close to the front of the line though, so we just stayed. After we got our tickets we realized that we got a free popcorn AND drink. (so did trish and chels, they just didn't realize it right away.) We were all super happy, movie popcorn IS the best. and we had just been talking about how hungey we all were. Then we realized the HEEEEUGE sign right beside us that said "TUESDAY: free popcorn and drink night."...on to the movie...I would really recommend going to The Holiday. It was soooo good! Funny and cute and looong, but good long, not the WHEN IS THIS MOVIE GUNNA END long! After the movie we met up with Mal who had a hockey game that evening so she couldnt join us for the movie. Montanas was our choice restaurant seeing as it was so close to the theatre. More laughs were shared and delicious appitizers were had. All in all a great evening.

To all those who still read my blog I will take you through my weekend. Friday we headed to the city with Jill, Jared, Chad, and Kels, for an evening of food, movies and a bit of laughter. Not wanting to wait for an hour and a half at Earls at the mall, we went back to Pembina and we were pleasantly surprised at our 10 minute wait. After scarfing down our burgers, wraps, steaks and of course chicken fingers (w/o dipping sauce) and realizing it was already 8:50 we drove around looking for a good movie. We did NOT find one. We saw one but it was not the laugh out loud comedy so many of us were wanting to see. Saturday I woke up with the pleasant surprise of Kelsey asking if I wanted to come with her and Jill to the cafe for waffles; and who can resist waffles with white sauce and strawberry juice. Mom, dad, and I then braved the malls to try and finish our Christmas shopping...it did not go so well. We got home at around 6.30 just in time to see Hailey and Am a bit before they went to Eriks hockey game, and we were off to Justins. We got an awesome homemade calender from Lisa and Kelli, and tims coffee and 2 mugs from Kelly. Catch Phrase once again made an appearance, and it proved to be as entertaining as always. Sunday = Church. Lunch was shared with the Friesen and Enns families and Mike and Misty's wedding planning was on the agenda for the afternoon, along with AFV and racing cars down the stairs with Ashton. Pizza Hut was a delightful surprise back at our place with my family who I have missed a lot in the last while (it seems like we havent hung out as a family in a long time!!) Raw vs Smackdown was played and I was defeted both times but it was fun none the less. More AFV was watched, then I drifted off to sleep with the sweet sound of silence around me.