My brother is married!

I just returned from a 12 day stint in Canada. My brother is married! It was a wonderful break from teaching, and a great time spent with family. The wedding was so much fun. It was over the top high end, with fireworks to boot. All us ladies spent the first weekend at the cabin for a bachelorette party. The week followed with last minute running around, family stuff, and hanging out with friends. It was also such gorgeous weather, couldn't have been better. Fall was in full swing, leaves changing. My favorite. And my dad was harvesting, love it.

I woke up Saturday morning at 7:15 and was promptly carried away by a stretch hummer limo to get my hair done. We spend the morning getting ready and then like that I feel like the wedding was over. We walked down the aisle to Blackbird, played by three violinists. The bride was absolutely gorgeous, and my brother didn't look too bad either. All afternoon we went around taking pictures and hanging out in the limo, and then the big party started. I danced the night away, and considering there was an open bar, I felt great the next day. Good thing too cause we had almost 100 people over on Sunday for a pig roast. Mmmmmmmmmm! I rested Monday and Tuesday and then flew back to reality.

Check out some pictures from the week:

Randoms

Song I can't stop listening to: Black Eyed Peas - Don't Lie
Food I can't get enough of: zucchini
Person I want to call every minute of my life: Aunty Heather
Item I can't live without: my camera
Best event of the week : meeting Ronald McDonald
Funniest convo: telling my dad to get a blue suit with grey pin stripe, him repeating "a green suit with a yellow pin stripe?"
Person who thinks they are the coolest, but is not really: Uncle Dean
High of the weekend: being in the front row of the Sugarland concert
Randomest moment: being given a huge bouquet of flowers from a funeral
Number of times I have dropped my phone today: 5
Biggest stressor: taking two graduate classes
Funniest moment: in an assembly this week at school, the presentor said something about Elvis, some kid pipes up "my grandma likes Elvis"
Project for next week: building a dog house for Wylie
Craziest moment of the week: holding a day old baby, congrats Nate and Heather!

I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life.

School has started. I am on week two. My students are wonderful, and I only have 13 of them! It is glorious.
I have a new dog. His name is Wylie Armani. He found me. He doesn't bark, and likes to cuddle. He kinda stinks, but we are working on that. Stella Van Pomplemouse and Banks Van Fleuf Meister, my cats, do not enjoy Wylie, but they like him better than Ruby Van Iderstein (my dog who I had for a week and then she ran away).
I also have a new friend. His name is Andrew. We have been doing a lot of cool stuff lately. He is from MI, which is kinda lame, but other than that he is pretty cool.

Summary of sweet events as of late:
Cara is back! So I am no longer alone in my home.
A whole group of us went cliff jumping last weekend = awesomeness.
I went to the 87th Annual Indian Inter-Tribal Ceremony. Paul McCartney was there.
Andrew and I went to a sweat lodge yesterday = extreme sweating and intense Navajoness.
I went treasure hunting with Paul and Andrew on Saturday. I found three treasures.
I made four batches of nanimo bars.
My soccer team got bronze medals.
Paul, Andrew, Carrie, and I went up to visit Mr. Swets in the fire tower. Its high. You can see a lot. The moom was cool.
I saw Pinapple Express. My favorite part was at the end when Dale and Saul are feeding Red, and he's goes "it's just like I am a baby, num num num num." I think its the facial expression and the moment, cause the quote sounds lame now that I read it. Andrew's favorite part was when Saul comes in with his crazy guns and yells "fuck the po-lice."

I could write 500 posts about all the cool stuff I have been up to lately. But then you might get jealous and then hate me. I don't want that to happen, so there is a small sampling.

Pictures to complete the post, pictures are always fun.

Hiking

cliff jumping

standing on the corner in Winslow, AZ, incase you couldn't read the sign...

my new puppy, Wylie

third place, meh

two kids in their fancy dress at Ceremonial

Paul and I mowing down some cream puffs

The Pinapple Express

That's all.
Hágoónee'

(more pictures can be seen at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012093&l=ac6ef&id=148300936)

Friends are God's way of taking care of us.

Apparently I haven't posted since May, that's pretty lame. Almost as lame as Jeff writing a blog and then not writing anything cause "his fingers are sore from instant messaging."

Frick my summer is almost over. Well at least its been a super sweet summer. I am stuck around New Mexico for the most part. I spent a week up in Alberta. I had a cousin's wedding, and then got to catch up with some old Dordt friends. It was pretty much awesome. Then I headed to Manitoba for a week and half. It was great to see family and my bff Kristen again. Kristen and I headed out to her cabin for the weekend and spent some time relaxing and ATVing. I filled the rest of my time, shopping, seeing family, and just relaxing.

Summer in Gallup has been wonderful though. I just feel so blessed to be living here. I have a great community of friends and they are just awesome. I have been mountain biking a lot, heading up to the forest for barbeque's, and just enjoying the company of friends. It is hard being single here, cause, I am basically the only one who is single. All my friends are married, most have kids, but I always feel included and I just feel blessed to have them all in my life. It is a cool place here, this town.

I have been dog sitting for some friends all summer. It'll almost have been for 9 weeks when they get back. Now I want to keep their dog forever. He is a beautiful golden retriever. I went to the Humane Society to get a dog. Well the dog ran away last week. So that was that. Oh and they banned me from adopting their pets, cause "I lost one of their dogs." Didn't know they could be so picky. Now I am looking for a golden retriever puppy. Exciting, I know.

School starts up here in 3 weeks. Hopefully I get some more camping in by then. I have been doing as much outside as possible. I basically haven't watched TV since April, and I have read a ton of books instead. Life is good.

Here are some pictures from my summer adventures:

Lily and Maggi (my 3 year old bff)

Erica, Audria, Naomi, and Lily

My cousin Tamara, my mom, and I shopping on Whyte Ave. in Edmonton

Wedding Ceremony

Cousins with the Groom, that's only 1/3 of us...

Hanging out with Greg, Russ and Steph on Canada Day

My cousin Adrian and I at the water park in Edmonton

Kristen and I heading out on our ATV adventure

My nice clean quad, after burying it in 4 feet of slime

So there is a little update of my life. I should be in bed, but the lightening and thunder is great right now, so instead of sleep I watching and listening to the rain. Ahhhhhh... Mmmmmmmm smells good too!

10 teaching days left...

One of my co-workers is studying to get his U.S. citizenship, and I have been quizzing him on these ridiculous questions he has to answer.
Yesterday I asked him: "what is the name of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America?"
One of my students goes: "the Titanic"