Day Before the Big Day

Friday morning I got up nice and early and got some running around done before we headed down to Waterloo for the wedding. My mom came over to pick me up at 11:00, and this is how we found the cake when we opened the back to pack my bag:

Cara reacted very well!!!! I am glad that it happened to her, and not to me in 9.5 weeks, because I am not sure that I would have been as calm as she was!!!!! The other girls headed to Waterloo to get checked into the room, and head to our pedicure appointments, and mom and I headed back to her house so that we could mix a big bowl of icing to mend the cake later on.

After we went to the hotel and unpacked the vehicles, we met up with the rest of them at our appointment, and we all were able to sit and get pampered for an hour.

After our pampering, we went to the mall to pick up a few things, and back to the hotel, and out for dinner. We decided to go the Keg for dinner, and by coincidence only, we had Cara's high school sweat heart as a waiter. It was hilarious to see her face when she seen that it was him that would be serving us. He was a good sport about it, as we told him that it was her last night as a free women, and he treated us to a huge piece of cheesecake at the end of our meal.

After we were done with dinner, we headed back to the hotel, and put the baskets together that went in the rooms of the people that were spending the night in the hotel, and then went for a nice hot tub.

By the time we all got our nails done, our eyebrows tinted, and our messed feet fixed, it was like 1:30, and we all got tucked into bed.....we had to try to get a few hour of sleep for our very big day!!!!!

Rehearsal & Dinner

Thursday night was the rehearsal for the wedding. We all headed down to the Waterloo Inn for 7:00 and had the rehearsal in the room that the ceremony would be in, and then Justin's family had rented a suite for the night, that had access to the garden area, and they had everyone back there for the dinner after. It was very nice and relaxing, as we were able to chat with everyone before the big day. Cara and Justin also gave the people that were participating in the wedding their gifts. Us girls got jewelry to wear on Saturday, a brown feather boa to wear in some fun pictures, and a rock, that had our favourite saying painted on it. They were very nice, and it looks great sitting out on my deck right know.

Engagement Photos

A couple of weeks ago we headed down to Stratford to get our engagement pictures taken by our photographer. I went last night to pick them up, and here is a sample of some the proofs. I tried to get one of each pose that we did:I am having a hard time picking which one is my favourite, all though there defiantly are some front runners!!! I am very pleased with the way that they turned out.

Click on the link if you would like to see them all:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35865&l=fd098&id=807100376

Summer Fun

Well we are almost to the end of another long weekend, and what great weather we had for this one. It was a little cool in the nights, but the days were wonderful. We decided last week that we had enough stuff to do around the house that we would just stay at home for the weekend, instead of head up to the cottage.

Friday night we went to Clint and Trisha's for dinner to celebrate Trisha's birthday and then we went to the outdoor dance in Atwood. It was very cold out there, and I don't think that there were too many people over the age of 21 there. I felt OLD!!! We came home around 11:30 and I got into my warm bed.

We are going to end our l

Saturday Curt and the guys went golfing, and I did some cleaning, got some groceries, did some running around, and then I sat out by the pool, and attempted to write my speech for Cara and Justin's wedding. After the guys come home they went in the pool, and we had a BBQ, and a massive game of boccie ball.

Sunday we were over in Atwood all day for the Canada Day celebrations. There was a parade, a ball tournament, and the beer gardens. We had dinner there, it was a pork chop BBQ, and came home after dinner. We went to the hot tub, and watch a few fireworks in the neighbor hood from there, and then went to bed.

Today was a work day. I finished my speech, got all of the wedding invitations ready to go out, and Curt cleaned the garage, and got the hose reel put together for our garden hose. After he was done he had worked up a sweat, and decided to cool down in the pool. We have to take the water out of it (at least our lawn will get a good drink), and put it away until August know, as we do not have another weekend were we will be home to sit in it, until then. We are just about to head over to my parents place for dinner.

We are going to end our long weekend, with a BBQ....yum, yum!!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonder, and safe Canada Day weekend!!!!!!!!!!!

And the WINNER Is..........

Yesterday was the Atwood Loin's 50th Anniversary for their July 1st Celebrations. For as long as I can remember, we have always been to the celebration in Atwood on July 1st. As a kid you would go and play the games, and see how many neet summer toys that you could win to keep yourself occupied for the rest of the summer!!!!

The Loin's also hold a draw, where they sell tickets about 6 months ahead of time, and each meeting that they have leading up to the celebration they draw early bird tickets that people can win $50.00, and then the day of the celebration they hold an elimination draw, and every so many tickets will be winners of $100.00, and the second last ticket drawn wins $1000.00, with the last one winning $2000.00.

My dad is an member of the Loin's club, so he has to sell these tickets, and a couple of weeks ago he was complaining that he had not sold a winner yet. Well, at the end of yesterday, he was handed 8 cheques, for tickets that he had sold, to deliver to the winners.

For as long as I can remember I have always had a ticket in the draw. When we were younger, Cara and I always had to share one, but I never remember winning anything. Well, this morning my dad delivered this to me:

I guess that makes up for the years that I won nothing. I will probably never win anything from it again, but oh well, it was a good year for the winning to happen!!!! (but notice that there is only one person's name on the cheque.....sorry about your luck Curt, I guess next year you will get your $20.00 out when someone asks you to buy a ticket!!!!!!!)

Strachan Family Friends Shower

Last Sunday our family friend Joanne had a shower for Cara, Jenna and I. Jenna is another family friend who is getting married the week after Curt and I are. There were a lot of people at the shower. Most of the people that were there were there for all three of us, but a few were there just for either Cara and I, or just for Jenna.
We got some wonder, and very nice gift but I was unable to set them all up at my parents place after the shower. It has come to the point that Cara needs to get her stuff out of the basement, and I have to upgrade to the bigger room.
I am not sure what I am going to do with all of the wonderful stuff that I have got, with already having 4 showers, and I still have 3 more to come. I have been told by many people that if I don't have a place for it, they would be more then happy to take if off my hands, but I think that I will manage to be able to house it all, and display, or use it, with pride!!!!!

McLaughlin Shower

Last weekend Curt was away at Justin's stag, and I had a shower hosted for me by the McLaughlin side of Curt's family. It was on Saturday, and was very nice. This was my first shower that I had that was just for me, and I was a little nervous. All the other showers before have been joint with Cara, so I have not had to do all the 'guest of honour' stuff on my own, but this time I did. the hostesses of the day, Curt's aunt Jean, Kristie, his grandma, Laura, and Lauren

my with my grandmas, mom and the pillows that they gave me as a gift

Curt's grandma Marg, with me and the blanket that she gave me

my cake

me serving my cake!!!!!

Thank you to Jean, Laura, Lauren & Kristie for the beautiful shower!!!!!!!!!

Cara's Bachlorette Party

Saturday after I come home for the Relay and I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep, I had a whole whack of people over to our house for a shower for Cara. There was about 20 people at the shower and then about 15 of us headed down to Kitchener for her stagette. We went to Del Dante's for dinner, and then we went to the Flying Dog for the evening.

I know usually the unspoken rule is that 'what happens at the stagette, stays at the stagette', so I am not going to do a lot of stories with this post, just some great pictures. I had to try to ruffle my way through about 75 pictures and choose the best ones to post. There was just too many good ones to narrow it down to 2-3, but I did manage to get it down to 9!!!! At the shower we played a game where Justin had answered a bunch of questions about his and Cara's relationship, and every time Cara did not answer the same answer that Justin had give, she had to add a piece of HubbaBubba to her mouth. Needless to say, not very many of their answers matched, and she had a whole whack of gum in her mouth by the end of the game.
Julie was in charge of getting Cara all dolled up for the evening. When Cara herd who was doing this, she was a little nervous because she has been told stories of past stagettes with Julie and her friends, and what they had to wear. Julie's inspiration was Mexican Mennonite, 80's, scank, and this is her opening the gift, and then the final product. She had a dress like a Mexican Mennonite would wear, and 80's style veil, and boa's around her neck line of the dress, around the bottom of the dress, and around the head piece of the veil.
Cara, Erin and Julie (I bet the Bahama Mama curdled in her stomach later on in the evening!!!!)

Every time Cara moved her head the feather of the boa would wave in the air and she looked like a chicken. Julie started to call her Chicken Little, and every time Julie would call her that, she would start to flap her arms, and cluck like a chicken (she was a little drunk by this point of the evening)

Cara was having a little trouble keeping her glasses up on her nose!!!!

Cara maybe did not need that shot!!!!!!

Cara had cards that she had to play. They would tell her something that she needed to do, which most of the time involved something they a guy, and she would have to do it. This was just one of the cards.

There was probably about 5-6 bachlorette party's at the bar, but I would have to say that Cara was the bride-to-be that got the most attention. I would have to say it probably had something to do with what she was wearing.

Relay for Life

Friday night was the North Perth Relay For Life that was held at the Listowel Agricultural Fair grounds. Mom and I are on the the Relay committee, she being the secretary, and I am the Volunteer Committee Chair.
We have been planning this years event since before Christmas, and on Friday night it all unfolded. It was another successful event, and we raised over $132,000.00 for the Canadian Cancer Society.
For anyone that has never been to a Relay for Life, it is a very moving event. It starts off with the opening ceremonies at 6:30p.m. At our event we had a cancer survivor sing a few songs, one being the Melissa Ethridge song, I Run For Life. That song gets me every time I hear it!!! This year we had a family speak on them dealing with their child's cancer. He was diagnosed at 3 months, and is now 9, and still going strong. I don't think that there was a dry eye in the place after they did their speech. After the opening ceremonies, then all of the survivors at the event take to the track and they do the first lap of the evening. This is called the victory lap. It is amazing to see this sea of blue tea shirts walking around the track, and most of the people out there you know personally, and were not aware that they every had to fight cancer, or are currently fighting it.

(the crowd for the opening ceremonies)

The relay itself consists of teams of 10-12 people that walk the track for a 12 hour relay, from 7:00pm until 7:00am....because cancer never sleeps, and neither are we!!!!
At 10:00p.m. there is a luminary ceremony, and as you can see from the pictures below, what they are is a candle in a bag that you can buy either in memory, or in honour of anyone that has/had cancer. This is another part of the evening that is very emotional.
Last year was the first Relay for Life in North Perth, and it was the coldest night of the spring. This year we thought that the weather was not going to co-operate with us either with huge storm clouds lingering in the skies all afternoon, but it seemed to rain every place around us, and we never got hit with anything. About an hour before the event was to start, the clouds brook through, and the sun came out. It did get REALLY cold in the evening, but at least we all stayed dry. It is a lot easier to add layers of clothing, then to try to keep dry!!!!!!
We had a very successful event this year, and hope that next years is as wonderful.

(a luminary that I purchased for my Great Grandma Pestell)

(an one that I purchased for my grandma Strachan's friend Doug)

Shower/BBQ

Saturday was a shower for Karen. She is marrying Curt's cousin Ryan.
The shower began @ 1:00 in the afternoon while the guys golfed, and when they were finished the joined us for a BBQ in the evening.
At the shower we played a game that involved tying a wiener around your waist, and hanging it down between your lets, and dipping it into a dish, and seeing how many tacks you could get to stick to your wiener. This was a very interesting game, and I was the big wiener, or I should say winner!!!!!!!

(Destiny even participated in this game)

We also played a game that you had to write down on a piece of paper something that you wanted to see Karen do. The trick to this game was that Karen wrote down on her piece of paper, she wanted to see us do what we had wrote down on our pieces of paper for her to do. I was thinking that there might be a twist to this game, so I did not write something down that I would have to do. I wrote out that I wanted to see her act out the way that Ryan proposed to her, and since I didn't know the story, I never had to do it, she did. Everyone else had wrote something they had to do as well. Destiny wrote down the chicken dance, and Nicole wrote that she had to run around the property line clucking like a chicken at the top of her lungs, while flapping her arms. It was hilarious. There were people out for a walk, and they were looking at them like they had just lost there mind!!!!!!!

After the fun at the shower, they boys jointed us for the BBQ. It was so hot, I had to go home between the shower and the BBQ and get freshened up. We were sitting in the sun for part of the shower, and all you had to do was sit there, and you were soaked in sweat. Beckie and Jill were not able to make it to the shower during the day, so they too joined us for the BBQ.
Once things unwound at the BBQ, we headed down the street and went to Sid and Lois's to the hot tub. It was really nice. The hot tub was not too hot, and after sitting in the sun all day, it was nice to sit in there and relax.

Strachan's 'Double' Shower

This past Friday night there was a shower held for Cara and I at my aunt Brenda's house.
This was our second 'double' shower, the other one being for my mom's side of the family a couple of weeks ago.
We had the shower, and then a few hours later the guys all came out for a couple of drinks. It was wonderful to have them there, to carry all of the presents to the car for us.
We got some very nice gifts, mostly decorative stuff, that will look really nice in our house, when we finally get them home. Right know all of our gifts are at my mom and dad's house on display.
Thanks to my Aunt Brenda for hosting the shower.

opening my gifts, and my assist Laura being my secretary......thanks again Laura.

Laura, Kayla, and me.

me and Emily