the reception

danny and mel
me, danny, roz
my hair
roz and i smelling our flowers
danny wearing a bib

roz and nikki

l-r: leighton, thomas, calvin, craig, nikki

lester and mel cutting the beautiful cake

me, mel, roz

the wedding

thanks to jamie for taking most of these pictures...she's calvin's girlfriend, so i gave her my camera to capture some moments from the big day

the day before the wedding we decorated the reception hall. mel thought of everything --she even had a kids table with games and toys and stuff. we decided that we had to try on the funky faceware from the kids table for an extremely formal picture of the bridal party with the bride. from left to right it's nikki, mel, me, and roz
l-r: calvin, lester, mel, glenda, bill (mel's family)
l-r: mel, lester (horizontal), dale, leighton, nikki, janet (lester's family)
the girls rocking the shades. and yes, i'm aware that mine make me look like a bug.

mel and calvin

the whole wedding party

mel and lester

roz looking sassy

self portrait: roz and me

the bridesmaids chilling

regina

we stopped at the border between alberta and saskatchewan to document my first entrance into the province
mel is testing her long-lasting lipstick on roz
while mel was at the spa roz and i ran around buying their wedding present and getting decorations and groceries for the bachelorette party

just after this picture was taken an older man tried to jump in it with his arm around me. awkward.

then in the safeway an old lady told me she loved me. awkward again.

also, that silver wrapping paper you see me holding...yeah, we bought it to wrap our present for them. unfortunately it's not actually silver. no, no. it's clear cellophane. good times trying to wrap that gift seen below...

those aren't christmas trees...they're upsidedown wedding cakes. don't worry, on the other side they're upright. our wrapping job was so pathetic...we used a whole roll, and you could still see some of the cardboard box on the sides. hahaha.

we kidnapped mel and blindfolded her and put a tiara on her head. we took her all around town like this, even in public places. it was good times driving since roz and i had never been to regina before and we had to get places without saying street names so mel wouldn't figure out where we were, plus we had to zig zag a bit to confuse her. we did a really good job at getting around though, i must say.

we went to moxie's for drinks and appetizers and rebekah was able to join us also. i really didn't drink all the drinks, they just put their glasses by me so i'd look like i was an alcoholic or something in the picture.

then we went back to lester's place which roz and i had hurriedly decorated before picking mel up from the spa. we did our nails and watched a movie and ate tons of food and all that good stuff

5 girls on a little couch

ribbon creek

on saturday we went on a hike in kananaskis for focus

it was so beautiful...at some points we were completely surrounded by mountains

we climbed for a couple hours, even through snow, but the waterfall we saw at the end was definitely worth it

the way back only took about an hour, which was really nice (a bit hard on the knees coming down) and once we got to the bottom it started to rain

unfortunately for a few of us who got down first, curtis had the keys to the van and somehow he was 40 minutes behind us on the mountain

we were a wee bit damp and chilly by the time he arrived to let us in the van, but such is life, and it was still a lovely day minus the being really cold and wet part

thora's grad celebration

we went to moxie's to celebrate thora graduating from auc/nuc

yay thora!

pray that she is able to find a job soon...

indian night

on monday nights wycliffe has "cultural nights" where you go and eat food and sing worship songs of a specific culture. this monday was indian night, and stawan and shavenish were both leading worship. merissa joined them as well, since she's this random music guru and happened to listen to indian worship music even though she didn't know what the words meant and so she knew pretty much all the songs they were singing.

well, indian girls love getting dressed up, so none of us were going to miss the opportunity either.

shay and stawan of course got into traditional clothes too.

if you want to hear some of the songs we sang, i'm putting some videos here. i love this beautiful music. it's such a wonderful thing to be led into the presence of God through music from a different culture and in a different language.

mini golf

Today I handed in my last assignment for my Heaven, Hell, Angels, and Demons course. Feels good to be done. But actually it wasn't weighing on me very heavily, because I don't have that wonderful "stress relieved" feeling.

Last night I took a break from my paper on demonization and mental illness and went mini golfing with some people from Focus.
I gave Steve my camera to take pictures because I was playing the game and he wasn't.

I would like to mention that although I was playing the game that does not mean I was playing it well.

Josh had a little trouble with his club...
"Why did you forget to get one?"

"because I'm stupid"

our golf balls made a triangle by the triangle on the green

so impressive

it's true...eventually you can blow the golf ball in the hole

Oh yeah! in other oh-so-exciting news, I got an A on my assignment on Ecclesiastes.

AND the blurb.com people are going to print me another book (that's right this time) for free. sweet!

AND (seriously, today is a really good day)

We got a house!!!

The Valley Song

You have led me to the sadness
I have carried this pain
On a back bruised, nearly broken
I'm crying out to You

I will sing of Your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

When death like a gypsy
Comes to steal what I love
I will still look to the heavens
I will still seek your face
But I fear you aren't listening
Because there are no words
Just the stillness and the hunger
For a faith that assures

I will sing of Your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

While we wait for rescue
With our eyes tightly shut
Face to the ground using our hands
To cover the fatal cut
Though the pain is an ocean
Tossing us around, around, around
You have calmed greater waters
Higher mountains have come down

ecclesiastes 3