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Monday, May 26, 2008

Weekend of Weddingness - Picture Post!

I've had to make some collages, but the thing I'm not a fan of is the fact that Picasa cuts your pictures in random spots if they decide they're too big. For instance, mom's head is almost cut off in the first picture....and I'm not that bad at setting up a shot! There's a shot I wanted to put in a different collage, but it cuts off both Jody and Sherri's heads! Dumb. But whatever. This will have to do. The ones that don't work in a collage will stand on their own, and probably have a story behind them anyway. Oh yes, there are more stories.

This first collage is of a few shots we had Joseph take on Friday morning, just for fun. Jody (well, all of us really) wanted mother-daughter wedding dress shots for the fun of it. Sherri and I toted our wedding dresses with us through the airport and onto the airplane. We got many looks, and I'm sure most people thought we were going to get married somewhere. Not so much. We did tell a few inquiring minds that it was actually our little sister getting married, and she wanted pictures of all of us with our dresses. At that point, we got many strange looks and answers of "oh". Simply that. "Oh". That leads me to believe that they all thought it was a rather silly idea. I don't care. I think it's cool, and I'll look back on the pictures when I'm old (and probably while I'm not old, too!) and be glad we took them.

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This second collage is from rehearsal evening. There's nothing super fabulous about any of these pictures, especially considering that my favorite picture has, again, been unnecessarily cropped to remove two of the four hats . It was just cute, as the guys all placed their hats nicely on the guest table before the rehearsal :) If you're my friend on Facebook, you can check out my wedding album and see all these better there. The other neat thing was that Bryce, one of Nigel's groomsmen, had a Herbie tattoo. I was a fan :) I grew up watching the Disney Herbie movies, so I thought it was pretty spiffy! One more thing regarding a picture in this set. Jody's maid of honor, Alicia, made it into one of these pictures, amazingly. The reason it was so amazing is because Alicia was involved in a rather unfortunate situation involving the smashing of two cars on her way to the church for rehearsal that afternoon. Her car was one of them. Her car didn't make it out alive, but thank the Lord she did! The relaying of news we first heard was that she had chemical burns and was taken away by ambulance in a brace. Immediately my over-active brain goes into 'worst-case-scenario' mode and I imagine the worst. I'm sitting there in the church thinking my little "sister" wasn't able to walk, and that her burns were all over and really bad and that she wouldn't be able to stand with us on Saturday at the wedding! I did have a moment of relief when we were informed that Jody wasn't involved in the accident (though she watched the entire thing play out from her car!), and was on her way to the church so we could go ahead with the much-needed rehearsal. We later learned that the "brace" was just the C-collar in case of head/neck injury that they put on everyone involved in an MVA in transport to the hospital, and the burns weren't nearly as significant as my mind made them out to be..she just had a couple on each forearm and a smidgen of one on her chest. I think she said she was the most sore from the spot the nurses kept poking her to find a vein for her IV! That's rather impressive. By the end of the dinner, though, one of the burns was starting to hurt from the sun/heat beating on it for the duration of our outside dinner. She was a real trooper, and though she wasn't able to spend the night with all of us (she went home to shower and decided afterwards that she was, in fact, quite sore and preferred to spend the night in her own bed), she was at our house to have hair and makeup done the next morning and was in a chipper mood and happy to stand up as maid of honor for her best friend :) I love that girl.
Fairly self-explanitory, but these are a few of the hair shots on wedding morning! Jody, Alicia and Debbie all had their hair done at mom and dad's house by the girls' friend, Kim. Mom, Sherri and I all went to mom's stylist, Adele's house/salon for our appointments. While the others were having their hair done, I got a much-needed manicure from Adele's friend.Getting ready!

On the way to the ceremony (in mom's van), we decided it would be a great idea to have some water because it was SUPER HOT that day, and we were all parched. So we stopped along the way at the Husky Food Store for a 6-pack :) Yes, we made Jody pile out of the van and traipse through the store with us. She didn't want to, but it really was fun! See? She's smiling! Besides, she got the royal treatment the entire way. You can't really tell in this picture, but the 3 of us in the back seat were fanning her the entire way.


Because I was in the wedding party, I don't have any pictures of the ceremony! These are the shots I took as we were leaving the church to head to City Hall for pictures. The '67 Mercury Cougar get-away car is courtesy of mom and dad's neighbor, Dave.
The wedding cake was decorated with their first dance song, "Eternal Love". Cute idea. Then they played the shoe game, which got out of hand quickly. Then there were speeches, including some from my parental unit who, apparently, had a lobotomy sometime between the ceremony and reception (stupid Picasa), and then the bride and groom thanked the kitchen for the food...which we liked.
Check this out...Nigel had a lobotomy too! What is UP with that? :) Oh boy. I'm getting sleepy. There was cake-cutting and cake smearing, along with kissing and dancing.

And garter tossing and bouquet tossing, and then more dancing. But not a lot. We were very sleepy. And we had to kick out the drunken revelers. Well, we tried to...with little success, so we made the guy who was cleaning the hall do it. We had more important things to do. Like chauffeur the honeymooners to their apartment 'cause Jody's car keys were locked in her car. Yup, yet another fun story for the weekend of weddingness! They did get them out eventually, just not in time to use the car as their get-away vehicle on their wedding night. Isn't that what family is for?
I love them!! Congratulations sister and brother!

~K~

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Weekend of Weddingness - Precursor (WARNING: LUCAS VERSION!)

Hey everyone (not sure who "everyone" is...)!!
I've finally finished editing all the pictures of Jody's wedding day, but not the ones of the general family stuff prior to the wedding. I could only choose 60 for Facebook, and I think 60 here would really be pushing it...so I may have to make some collages or something to get all my pictures in! Since I was part of the wedding party, I don't have pictures of the ceremony or the portrait session afterwards. To check those out, go to www.68photography.ca/blog. There's also a slideshow that's finally up and working again. It may take some time to load though!
It was SO hot on Saturday that there was much fanning of the bride and ourselves, and poor Jody had hair issues :( All her curls had basically fallen out before the ceremony even started, and by the end of the ceremony you could see the combs on her tiara because her hair was so hot and straggly by then. She was sad. But all in all the day was quite good..aside from starting the ceremony late :) Hey, who ever starts a wedding on time?! We sure didn't. Their excuse was pew bows. Or the lack thereof. Jody had all these cute pew bows made up and they, unfortunately, never made it to the pews before the ceremony. Well, not until a kind soul came to Jody in the back room just before the ceremony and said, "I found the bag of bows, do you want them put up?" Jody told him not to bother, but he convinced her he could do it...so she finally said ok. I think she was just so flustered, and we all could have cared less if they were there or not, so we all waited an extra 20 minutes while he put the bows on!! And I shouldn't forget to mention that this was while everyone was already IN THE SANCTUARY waiting for us to start!! Arrrggg...so frustrating. And tacky. Anyway, what's done is done. The ceremony went smoothly and Jody sang a special song for Nigel...which was rather cute :) Then came the receiving line at the end. Can I say GONG SHOW??? None of us were really impressed that the wedding party stood in the line and had to shake hands with the entire throng of visitors, but it was done, and then we got out of there for pictures. Isn't it more normal to have the bride & groom, and the sets of parents in the receiving line to get congratulated on their children's marriage? People just don't know what to say to a wedding party when they shake hands! I basically told people "thanks for coming" or "good to see you" or "I'm the bride's sister"...yeah, weird. I love my sister, so I did it anyway! I just complain about it after the fact :)
Pictures went by as smoothly as they could have. Duane and Kevan did a great job and were methodical and strategic in getting all the family shots done quickly and properly. We waited an extra bit so we could get pictures of grandpa once he got there, even though he had no idea what was going on. The poor man looked like he was just being dragged around and told what to do...which was, essentially, exactly what happened...just in a nice way :) We're glad he was able to fly out for the day with auntie and uncle.
The reception was a bit of a cafuffle at the beginning when Jody realized she hadn't asked anyone to emcee for the evening! We're all standing out back waiting to be announced...waiting and waiting...and then she realized that she'd thought about who she wanted, but hadn't asked them! Oops! Brother-in-law Joseph stepped in and did a great job :) It was a very relaxed reception with dinner and cake cutting and a little dancing. Jody had told me she didn't have much of a program planned; just dinner and dancing. Alicia, her maid of honor, did plan the shoe game...so that was a good addition (until the mike was opened for more questions!), and then they did the first dance, cake cutting, garter toss, bouquet toss, and a short dance afterwards. I think they were expecting more dancing, but by the time we got to that part, most people had left. Meh, that allowed me to be less self-conscious and I actually got out on the dance floor with my little sister and fooled around for a bit dancing to the "Twist"...I even made it into some professional pictures ;) When you're one of only a few out on the floor, I suppose that will happen!
We ended the night corralling the drunken revelers out of the hall and sending them on their merry way, while loading gifts into dad's van and loading wedding party (including the bride and groom!) into the mom's van. This was because Jody's car keys were accidentally locked in her car on Friday night and we hadn't had a chance to get them removed before the wedding on Saturday. It was to be their get-away car after the reception..oops! Ah well, we all piled in and headed to the parents' house to pick up a few of Jody's things, and had bro-in-law Joe drive them to their apartment afterwards. Not exactly ideal, but it's what had to be done! We then saw them Sunday afternoon because Jody had forgotten something at mom and dad's that she wanted on her trip, so that was a special treat to see them off :) They had planned to leave Sunday morning, but weren't able to get the keys out of the car until later in the morning. They made it down the Oregon Coast and into California safe and sound, though! Just later than intended :) They camped all the way down until they got to Los Angeles, where they planned on a hotel for the rest of their stay there. Mom told me that she received a phone call from Nigel on Monday needing a phone number and address of family in the USA. They had forgotten to exchange their money to American currency and weren't able to change it down there without the address of someone related with a US bank account. Mom gave them the info, and I imagine things are fine as we haven't heard back from them! I hope they're having a great time!
I must head out to grocery shop for now (my fridge is EMPTY!), but I will post more pictures tonight, hopefully!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Tragedy in the Chapman Family


On Wednesday, May 21st 5 year-old Maria Sue Chapman, daughter of Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth, was struck by an SUV allegedly driven by her brother in the driveway of her home. She was life-flighted to hospital but died from her injuries. Please pray for this precious family and especially for her brother, as I'm sure he is in extreme pain. Maria was the youngest of 6 children, and the 3rd adopted from China.
Keep this family in your prayers.

~K~

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Weekend of Weddingness!

We are home and Jody and Nigel are married and on their honeymoon! Woohoo!! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the actual wedding preparation edited and ready for posting yet, so that will have to come in a few days. I plan on working on them tonight! Along with pictures, I will post the story of the weekend...because there are definitely many stories to be told.
Check back soon for more wedding info!

Here's a lovely photo we took Friday morning with the sisters and our mom :)
~K~

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Gentleman

I went for a walk with my grandpa the other night, as I do most times when I visit, and each time I notice how he lets me speak if I have interrupted accidentally, lets me go ahead if there's a narrowing in the pathway, if there's a small gateway to pass through or if bushes have overgrown the sidewalk. If I ask him what he'd like to do (be it a game, having a snack, going for a walk), his answer is always "whatever you'd like to do". It's never about him even when I mean it to be. He wants to make sure I'm happy, even though at this point he doesn't remember who I am.
I will always remember him as a true gentleman. Caring, considerate, and gentle. That's my grandpa.

~K~