Raquel Jillian

Day 1

We achieved our goal; wheels were turning before 6.00 am Friday morning. Driving went well today except for the fact that we lost one of the three vans due to slow border crossing. Things seem to be looking up though we found the third van at the KFC Buffet and we are almost ready to get back on our way. It has been really fun so far, even though we are just driving. There have been a lot of laughs so far and I predict there will be a few more! We stopped for supper at around 9.30 and then booked into a hotel. Fifteen and a half hours of driving and we made it to the half way point; Columbia. That was our goal for day one. After a dreamy shower Olivia, Dana and I snuggled into bed (not all in the same shower, or bed of course) and were all fast asleep in no time. It was short but sweet. The beds were so comfy, but I don’t think it would have mattered if they were hard, I was so tired and sick of being in a van I could have slept anywhere as long as it wasn’t in a vehicle or sitting.

Enter day two

Our plans were to leave at 6.30 am Saturday morning but plans changed when Kerry phoned at 5.15 am saying that we should get ahead of the storm that was coming. 5.30 we got the dreaded call to wake up, pack, and head downstairs to start on the second half of our journey. Our early start wasn’t so bad, you definitely get used to waking up early, which I am glad for seeing as that is how this whole week will be. It is not 11.31 and we are about 300 miles from New Orleans. After our Krispy Kreme (mmm Krispy Kreme), and coffee breakfast we headed back on the road. I am surprisingly not sick of drivin yet but I’m sure it will get there yet. That is all for now I will continue to update later.

4.18 Saturday Afternoon. Driving continues to go well. There have been some minor tensions between a few team member but they have mostly subsided. As long as we don’t stop to eat at Mc Donald’s things should be fine : ). Erik and I have been passing our time by watching Simpson’s seasons, although I only brought along two disks from season six so we are done all the episodes already. Text Twist has also passed a lot of time for us. EandR now hold the record with 65000+ points. In a distant second is a mere 30000+. Needless to say, we rock. No Big Deal.

It has been raining on and off since we stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch in Granada MS. We have now hit Jackson MS, and there is an end* of traveling in sight.

We arrived in Diamond at around 8.30. We grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant and then headed back to our camp. Sleep was much needed by all and I got the luxury of sleeping in until 8.

Day 3

We left for New Orleans at around 8:45, had breakfast, and then went touring. Lot’s of walking, food, and site seeing later we arrived back at camp. That is all for now. I may stay in touch. No promises.

*END MAY MEAN A FEW HOURS YET.

A lot has happened since the last time I posted, so I will try to catch you up on the happenings of my life. On Saturday Mom, Amber, Auntie Martha and went to the Wonderful Wedding Show in Winnipeg. It was so huge and there were tonnes of booth's to look at. One of our very first stops was Rygiel Photography. Amber then went on ranting and raving about their photography as she was at a wedding they did. We looked at their pictures and were very impressed. They had a pretty good package and are VERY unique. Feeling a little pressured I phoned Darcy and we decided that it was a go. They would spend all day with us and that means we only had one photographer as opposed to two like we thought we'd have to get. After walking through the whole show we were famished. After a lunch at Applebees and of course a stop at Timmies we were on our way home. I then headed to Darcy's and we met the College and Career-ers and went curling in Sperling. Jill posted pictures of our great curling skills...we held the team together!!!

Sunday consisted of Church, eats, sleeps, and going to Winnipeg to bowl and go out for a late supper, with Lisa, Tyler, Dicker, Justin, Carly, Mike & Misty, Kelly, Kelli and one of Kelli's friends. It was Kelli's birthday on Friday so we all got together and celebrated on Sunday. It was so much fun. I always have fun bolwing but I am not very good at it. Well this time was a little different! Dicker, Tyler and I both shared early on that we were all less than average bowlers. But did we ever shock people. The first game I ended up second with 136 points. ( I think that was my personal best! But I don't keep close track on my bowling scores!) The second game didn't fair so well for me. Tyler on the other hand finished with an astonishing 210; beating Dicker and winning him a free appitizer. Thus ends Sunday.

Monday consisted of getting up far to early to go line up for 2 hours 23 minutes and 25 seconds to finish our passports. We had gone 3 days before to try and finish but to our dismay we were thirteen numbers away when they closed and were told to come back another day. 26 grumbly people then filed into the elevator, all complaining about how much work they had to take off in order to do there passports, and how close they came. Four numbers away, that was as close as it would come for a lady who had already been waiting for over two hours that day. Monday did go well for us though. After our successful passport finishing, we headed to Selkirk Ave. to rent tux's for the wedding. We were pleasantly surprised at the luck we had. A very friendly woman helping us and exactly what we had in mind for tux's. Sugar Mountain came next dispite our growling stomachs. After our purcahses we entered for a chance to win a nintendo Wii and won a $10 gift certificate to SM (the next best prize to the Wii...Score!) Taco Bell/ KFC was too contriversial for us. People yelling and non of the tills working sent two famished people to Mc.D's. When we got back I finished my errands and in the evening Amber hosted an Epicure party.

Wednesday Mom and I went to Winnipeg and did some wedding shopping. We got a lot accomplished and then our last stop was to Stellas. Yes, it is true as of now my wedding dress is sitting at home waiting to be worn on April 21st. I tried it on again before we took it home and I did not want to take it off! I still love it as much as I did the first time I feel in love with it, maybe even more. I can't wait to wear it and I'm sure I will try it on a few times before teh 21st yet!

Tomorrow I will head off to MDS with a bunch of people from our church and go work in Diamond, LA.; Close to New Orleans. I am getting more and more excited to go. I know that I will miss Darcy crazy much but I'm sure I can make it through. 10 days is the longest we have ever been apart since we have been dating. It will be hard but I know that I am going to have an awesome experience and this is something I have never done before. Please remember to pray for our group of 16 going down to help out.

That is my update on wedding and life in general. Anonymous commenters (amber I'd assume) cannot but me for not posting for the next few days. I will maybe try to post if I feel like it when we get to Diamond but that is not a promise. To everyone who is staying here, hope you all have a good week!