Calgary and Invermere

Aaah Calgary-I really like Calgary, I like the cold crisp weather, I like the tall pine trees, I like the lack of traffic and I love the Rocky mountains which are just down the road.
We spent the weekend with Andrew's sister Michelle, her husband, Andrew and her little boy, Matthew. We spent Thursday in Calgary and spent time with Andrew's Uncle Steven and Auntie Esther. We had great Dim Sum and did some shopping in the local asian market T&T.
On Friday we traveled to Invermere, B.C. to the McBride's newly built cabin by the lake. We had such a nice time. Their house is in the middle of a wooded area, a short walk from the beautiful lake/beach. They have a very nice delux hot tub at the back of the cabin-great for relaxing after a hard day in the mountains :)
On Saturday night we went out for dinner in a Scottish pub and there was a band there playing Irish music. I started chatting to one of the band members and it turned out he was from Kerry and they sang 'The Irish Rover' for me because it was a Cork song :) It was very nice to sit and listen and feel nostalgic about being Irish.
Andrew told Matthew some bible stories while we were there. He told him a story about 'The Good Shepherd' and he told him a story about Mr. Noah and the ark. On Sunday Matthew came into my room with Andrew's bible and proceeded to tell me stories from him it. Be careful how you tell a 3 year old stories:

"I'll tell you a story about Mr. Noah Sharon. Mr. Noah shut the door of the ark and wouldn't let any of the people or any of the animals on the ark. They were all in the water (this is from seeing a picture in his children's bible of animals and people drowning in the flood). Then Mr. Noah hit the Bad Shepherd with his stick. And then the Good Shepherd was on the ark and he saw some bad wolves on a mountain so he hit them with the ark"

Matthew tells a great story! :)

Thanksgiving Plans

I went to my first football game and my last pre-marital class this week. Both were good to start with but while the football got a bit boring toward the end the pre-marital class got more interesting :)
This week is Thanksgiving and Andrew and I are planning to visit his sister Michelle and her family in Calgary-same as last year. We're really looking forward to spending some time with them and visiting their new cabin in the Rockies. I'm also just really glad to have two days off-bliss!!
I think that's it for this week-need to get to bed now-didn't get enough sleep this weekend at all!
Goodnight

Planning and Pumpkins

I realised yesterday that I forgot to do my weekly update last Monday-I don't think anyone noticed though :)
Since booking our venue and confirming our date I have been going crazy doing wedding planning. Last Saturday I went to downtown LA with two friends Evelyn and Natalie. I bought shoes for all of my bridesmaids and I also ordered beautiful dresses for them. I was very excited-I couldn't believe that I had achieved so much in one day! My bubble was burst however when I got a phone call during the week to say that they didn't have all of the sizes I had ordered and that they weren't making any more of those dresses. I was so disappointed, but, multitasker that I am, I started looking on www.etsy.com (check it out) for some dresses and while I was still on the phone I found even nicer dresses than the ones I had previously ordered. I have also ordered my flower girl dress, we have almost settled on a caterer and I have chosen a lot of my bridesmaids accessories. In the middle of all that, this Saturday night, Andrew and I hosted a pumpkin party! We challenged our guests to make a dish using pumpkin and offered a prize for the best one. I couldn't believe the things that people made! We had pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin mash, pumpkin strata, pumpkin dumplings, pumpkin lasagne, pumpkin penne pasta, pumpkin jelly, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin bread! People voted on their favourite and the winners were:
1st - Pumpkin Jelly -by Andrew Fung
2nd - Pumpkin Mash - by Seon Woo
Joint 3rd - Pumpkin Strata and Pumpkin Lasagne by Natalie Tiscareno and me :)

Anyway it was fun and fascinating to see how many things can be made with pumpkin!

June 19th it is!

Well this week was pretty eventful. Andrew and I finally booked our venue. We are hoping to get married at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley on the 19th of June. We also had the first of our pre-marital seminars, which we have to take in order to be married in the church. You do learn some good stuff-if I could just do it all now things would be great!
After P.M.S. we went to check out a dress making store near the church, for my bridesmaid dresses...I may use this lady, I'll see. A friend of mine, Natalie, my roommate, Evelyn and I are hoping to go to the Fashion District on Saturday to see if we can find anything there as well.
We also when to check out a possible photo venue near the church. The San Fernando Valley Mission. If you google California Missions you will find a lot of info on them. They were the very first Spanish settlements in California so there's a lot of history wrapped up in these places. Check out some photos:Andrew could probably do the photos if he didn't have to be in them :P