Happy Wednesday!

The braces went on November 5, 2008. The goal: to have them off by October 2009. Pushing it... yes. But, there was good news today at my ortho appointment, things are looking good! The spaces are closing well (for those who remember, you could have stuck a twoonie between my front two teeth - AT LEAST a toonie, probably enough for a couple double doubles anyway, and now - the teeth touch!!!). Things are just a weeeeee bit sensitive these days (I haven't been able to eat properly in at least 6 months), but when Dr. Lee (my orthodontist/dentist) said that he goal is to have them off for the last week in October so that we can have retainers ready for the wedding/honeymoon, I was FLOORED.

Besides that, we got our tax return this week. We weren't going to claim together, but then Daryl would have owed money and I would have gotten a fairly good return. We decided to do it together, and he got a good chunk of change... and I got a big whopping $2,000. I was excited. Our wedding fund was singing the "Hallelujah" chorus. Anyway... YAY!

Plus, it's sunny and warm and SPECTACULAR outside. It's a good day!

Where have you been all my life?

After a lengthy delay, I am back on Blogger and creating a new post - yay! There really is no explination for the absence, except laziness/business around here, and not having anything of real interest to blog about.

As far as life goes, Daryl and I have been busy working. Daryl is now doing his OWN maintenance route, which was his goal within the company. He was recently offered an opportunity to expand his route, but it would require moving to the GTA (Milton being the closest option). So after a long debate, we decided that wasn't what we wanted right now, but would consider it more if the company made another offer. My job isn't nearly as exciting, I have been working lots as we've had several girls off sick, but besides that, nothing is new on that front.

The wedding plans are going well. We met with our co-ordinator from our venue last weekend to confirm that we are doing the ceremony and reception at the same location. I am so happy that we chose to do everything there, it's so low-key and casual, it suites us very well.

Our invitations have been printed, and I'm busy embossing them and adding the finishing details. I'm glad we decided to do them ourselves, ordering them would have been such a hassel, and even though cutting down cardstock to the correct size has been a drag, designing them to be so personal and having my hands on everything has been a lot of fun. I also finished the cake topper, which I made out of polymer clay - and it's too cute! I'm excited to post all the pictures once everything is said and done.

My dress was ordered in early February and has arrived at the store. I was going to keep it a surprise from everyone until the wedding day, but when we were bridesmaid dress shopping, I was excited and tried on the sample for my girls. It will still be nice to keep it from them until the day of, once the alterations and everything have been done. As far as their dresses go, we have decided to go with different designs for each lady, but same colour and label (we have two chosen already, and one more girl to go). My goal for the day is to have everyone happy, comfortable, and enjoying themselves. I don't want anything fussy or overdone, heck, if I could have convinced everyone else, I would be wearing JEANS!

This past weekend, as well as enjoying Sunday with our families (Daryl's parents and grandmother drove up and we had my parents and Bryce over), we went to discuss honeymoon options with a travel agent. The discussions went well, and I'm super excited. We ended up booking a week at Couples Sweptaway in Negril, Jamaica. We're under budget, booked, and stoked to go! Check out the website http://www.couples.com/12sw/index.html if you're interested in taking a look. It seems like it will be a beautiful resort. The honeymoon inclusions are great, and we're hoping to do an excursion or two, but we'll have to see. I think once we're down there, just relaxing will be just fine (Daryl has never flown and I haven't been on a plane since France, so THAT should be an experience in itself). Apparently people are starting to 'register' for their honeymoons, I guess you can pick different things that you would like to do (like have chocolate covered strawberries delivered to the room, a his/her massage, etc) and your friends and family can purchase them as wedding gifts. I'm not sure if I like this idea, but I thought it was kind of neat that you can do that now.

This Thursday we are meeting with Dave, our minister. He married my parents 29 years ago, and we're so happy he's able to do the same for us. We are doing the pre-marital seminars with him, so we should be learning a lot over the next little while. We're also doing a private pre-marital workshop on our own, so hopefully we will learn some great skills to carry us through a long, happy marriage.

Besides updating here, I'm also trying to keep updated on our wedding website. If anyone is interested in taking a look, there is a link on my Facebook page (on my Knot application).

Hope everyone out there is doing well! I'm off to finish up the laundry for now. Here's hoping I make it back on here again soon!