Our House!!

So, here is just a little bit of what our new place looks like. We are renting a 900 square foot basement suite. New kitchen, new paint, carpets, and of course... all our new fabulous-o furniture!! It's nothing much, but it feels like home. We love it here in Victoria and I love living my life with Kyle. We still need a few more things, like a nice piece of art for the living room behind the couch and one for the bedroom and we also need a desk. We love it here....

Long Time... I know

Hey all... well by all I mean like the three people who probably read our blog and just don't anymore because I never post anything. I am sure that I will get better at this now since Kyle is working nights 3pm-11pm every night M-F and I am mostly working days. We see each other in passing and then late at night. We have the weekends though, which is nice.

So, where to start. The wedding was on August 19, 2007. It rained so we had to move the ceremony inside the church instead of in the park. It was so great to have everyone out here for the wedding. I loved having 7 girls stay with me in our (at the time) unfurnished basement suite, all of us sleeping on the floor with my cats crawling on us at night (I have two). I know Kyle enjoyed having the guys stay with him at the old house. All of the stuff leading up to the wedding, such as the rehearsal dinner, trials of all sorts, and family being here was amazing. It was such a help for me to have people here to support me and love me and make things less stressful for me.

The day of the wedding.... well actually. Let me just say, I got so stressed out and was extremely out of it from my stagette that I forgot to pick up Tara at the airport. After she sat there for like 8-9 hours, I finally came home and called her and got her to get a cab to the house. We both cried like babies, but we had fun afterwards. Tara, thank you for not hating me, I love you. The day of the wedding it rained in the morning when we went to get our hair done so we moved everything into the Church of our Lord. Beautiful church. The oldest church in Victoria. The ceremony was gorgeous and I was a little nervous, but really relaxed at the same time. It just felt so right to be there you know? Seeing Kyle at the end of the aisle was my favourite part. When I walked around the corner to walk down the aisle, this smile that I had never seen before, one of just pure joy and overwhelming happiness (or maybe he was just trying to hide his pain for giving up his freedom?) on Kyle's face. Walking towards him just passed by so quickly, the whole ceremony went by so quickly. I wish I could do it all over again and again because I loved it so much. When we were saying our vows, right when Kyle finished his and I was about to say mine, he looked at me and with a very romantic and loving voice he whispered "I'm wearing suspenders" and gave me a dorky smile. I laughed and then messed up my vows. So, when he was signing the marriage license I snapped his suspenders. Too funny.

The night just went by so quickly. I am not going to write much more about it. Here are some wedding photos, just a couple, if you want to see more, you can go to http://photos.christinacraft.com/Amy&Kyle.














It was great to see Teresa again too. I had not seen her since first year of school, but it was like we had never been apart when we got her at the airport. I love that girl so much and she has the biggest heart. Ashley, my maid of honour, got engaged shortly after the wedding. I would not have had anyone else stand beside me in that place, she means the world to me, one of the most beautiful people I know. Kim, my strength and my head a lot of the time. More than I ever could have asked for in a friend. The strongest and most courageous and smart girl I know. Eleni, beautiful inside and out and I love her, I guess I have to now since she is my sister. Nicole and Alex were here at my house with me too.... thanks goes to those girls for just being ready and able to do anything and everything that was stressing me out and just being there for support and encouragement. I love you guys so much. Juanita.... the house would not have been the same without you and Tara I already said thanks and love.

The guys, JP, Matt, Jesse, Aaron, Tim.... I love you all. Jipper I miss you so much. Life is not the same here without you. Matt, I am happy you are home for good!! Jess... I see you all the time... you know I love ya. Aaron, I know we haven't had a lot of time to get to know each other, but you are one of Kyle's dearest friends and for that I thank you, for being there for him. Timmer, love you and miss you.

Okay... this is long enough and it is making me lonely. I miss you all!!

Just So You Know...

Dave Puranen is amazing... I love him.

I had this stupid file in .cdr format from my reception location with the floor plan. It was a really important document and I didn't want to download corel draw just to see it. I searched for programs to convert it, then I signed into MSN and Dave converted it TWICE for me and sent it to me so that I could see it. He is great.

I miss him

Stolen!!

So... I was at the gym today working out. Good workout. About 5km or so on the stationary bike, 4km on the treadmill, 200 floors on the stair climber, arm workout and 12 minutes on the rower. It was good. I went to get a drink at one point and noticed that my bag was gone. I figured that since Eleni had just left, that she took my bag with her. I rushed home to find out that she had not. So I figured out my grad ring was in there ($650 value), a ring my parents gave me that had diamonds and was white gold ($350), two sterling silver bands, some photo ID, my visa statement and my chequing statement, and a bunch of other stuff. So it totaled over $1000 altogether with the Ralph Lauren Sunglasses that were there too. It was more annoying than anything because it was my favourite AE bag and I had to call my bank and cancel my visa and get a new one, cancel my chequing account and open another, file a police report, etc, etc. I was kinda upset, but felt more violated than anything. It just happens that during the time I had my bag stolen which was between 2:20 and 2:45 because it was there when Eleni left, there was no one at the front desk because they were doing a shift change. Smart. Anyways, I am not too terribly impressed by the staff at the gym, but nothing I can do about it now. I am sure it will get back to the supervisor that no one was at the front and someone walked about with someone's bag. It was a very unique bag and they have seen me with it numerous times.

Whatever... other than that excitement for the day, I had my first slurpee of the summer and we booked our wedding transportation. We booked a 10 passenger stretch SUV limo for us and the wedding party and a horse and carriage to take us from the reception to the wedding night hotel. We will have champagne chilled in the carriage for us and go on a 30 minute ride. It will be great.
I am going to go watch Canada's Next Top Model now, so I will write later or tomorrow or something. Maybe tomorrow morning. I work for the next 6 days so we will see when I am awake enough to write anything.

Well... I figure I should write again since I actually figured out that people have been viewing my blog. So what can I talk about today...

Kyle and I bought our wedding bands a couple days ago which was really exciting. I am in love with both of them. We got a great deal on them too. Mark, our guy at the store, didn't charge taxes on Kyle's ring so I got it for the exact price on the tag and Kyle got 50% off of mine. So, we walked out of there with two wedding bands that came to around $550. I am really excited to pick them up on Saturday. We had to get them sized which only takes a few days, so I am going to go in before work to get them.

We ran into some problems with our reception hall, but since everything has been worked out. We actually got to the point where we were looking for other places to hold our reception. Luckily for the place we have reserved, they are really cheap. It works out to be at least $7 less per person than any other place and it includes more. Can't really beat that. Kyle laughs because the wedding band that we got for me is all diamonds so my finger is "blinding" in his words.
I ordered our wedding favours. I had to ship them to Nicole's house because shipments to Canada were closed at the time. So, I will either get on the Victoria Clipper or drive down with someone to pick them up and spend some time with Nicole. I think that everyone will like the wedding favours. I got the idea from a wedding a long time ago now, but still, I don't think many people who are coming to this wedding were at the other wedding. Actually... I really don't think any were. The exchange rate is great right now as well, which means that they cost me only a portion of what I thought they would. It was a good thing I didn't have to ship them to Canada because I had to pay over $50 in shipping to have them shipped within the same state that they are made. Yikes. I can't imagine what I would have had to pay shipping the 6 boxes over the border.

Kyle is doing the transportation stuff and finalizing it today. We are getting an SUV limo for the wedding party to be carted around the city for photos and just general getting around. We went to the park the other day so I could see it, it is beautiful. We figured out a trail that comes from the rd to the most beautiful spot in the park which overlooks the water and I can picture the way it will be set up. I am really not doing it justice in this post, but it is gorgeous. You can see the mountains across the water too. I just hope that it isn't cold or windy that day or rainy in fact.

I haven't really been feeling like myself lately. I haven't been sleeping that well either. I am not sure what it is. I have been on edge. I have been trying to figure out what it is, but I just think I don't feel appreciated by some people I thought did. I don't know, also it could be because I feel like I am just going through a routine, nothing else. I get up, work, eat, watch TV, cook, clean, sleep. Go to the gym sometimes. I guess I am feeling kind of like drone or something. I just want to DO something. Not just exist in the role of an everyday job. I just want spontaneity. I don't know. Just not feeling the same lately. Maybe I just miss my friends and the friendships that I had at school. Tough being away and thinking that I will not be back next year. I won't miss the work, but I will definitely miss the people.

I am going down to see Nicole soon and I think that will really help. I just don't have many close girlfriends out here. I spent the evening with my friend Jenn the other day and it was amazing. I needed it.

Pictures!!!

Well... the wedding is getting closer. 2 months to go today. Still quite a bit to do. I am pretty tired about now but at least I have tomorrow off. I am off to work right now though so I will write more later.

Note To All...

Filling out a mortgage application is scary

thats all

One of our new pics!!

Here is one of the pictures of Kyle and I at the breakwater for our engagement photo shoot. The rest will be up soon.

The Condo!

Well... today we viewed the condo. I am in love with it. It is so homey. It has a skylight right as you walk in the door. The bedroom is really big. The bathroom is rather large as well. Walk in closet. Nice deck facing the fountain in the courtyard and away from the noise and bustle of the busy streets at Bay and Douglas. Amazing kitchen. Everything was just redone. I really love it. I think we are going to try and figure out some financing and we will probably take it. It is a little expensive, but that is only to me. It's a great price for a 1bd+den in downtown victoria with a deck and within walking distance of the inner harbour and the two main malls. I will post some pictures when I get some. I am really excited about it. To think... Kyle and I may own our own place soon. We should be able to resell it in about 5 years and make a decent profit off of it since the market is projected to keep climbing for at least another 5 or so years here. It was just redone so there isn't really anything that we need to do with it and would just be able to resell for more down the line with just a new paint job!! Anyways... that was exciting. I'm going to bed. I am exhausted from a crazy day at work with a very crazy ending!!! I don't think I can really say much about it on here.

Night!

This is the amazing cruise ship that was in the inner harbour a couple weeks ago. There was three there at the time, but this one was amazing.

Pictures of Our House (THAT CAME FURNISHED!)

Here We Go!!!!

Wow... I never thought I would cave and start making one of these blogs, but turns out that it is one of the easiest ways to keep in contact with people when you have a lot to say or tell and no one is on MSN. Yes, I am too lazy and too cheap to pick up my phone and call people so I have been relying on facebook and MSN to do all the work for me. Troubling to say the least. I know I am not the only one out there.

Kyle and I have been thinking about starting a blog and since I am up waaaay too early because I for some strange reason, can no longer sleep in past the wee hours of the morning (probably due to school for so many years and the early hours on my work schedule), that I would start the blog this morning.

So... "How are you?" and "How are the wedding plans?" seem to be two of the most frequent questions so I will let you know!! We are doing great. It is nice to be back in Victoria (home) and working for BC Ferries again. I can do without the working of course, but it is nice to make money. We actually are making more than we expected, about $4/hr more. Which is amazing. It feels like all we have time for right now is work, sleep and wedding stuff. Can be a little exhausting. We are doing well though. The wedding? Well... I kinda stressed myself out last night by looking online at a "To-Do List" and I made my own by looking at that and seeing what I still had left to do. Well... I ended up with a much longer list than I first expected and I kinda got a little stressed. I know that we will get it all done. Lists that long are enough to make even the most organized person a little stressed. We had some engagement pictures taken by our photographer the other day at the breakwater because we get a free session with our picture package (this is our photographers website: http://www.christinacraft.com). I will be posting those when we get them. We also went to view our reception hall and it was nice. We are a little hesitant, but after some talking with the rents, we are happy. I will be going for my trial hair appointment soon which should be interesting. Kyle has gone to do the rest with the tuxes and is almost done our transportation. We booked our honeymoon in Ucluelet and our wedding night suite. Things are coming together well. Still a lot to do though... We are so excited to see everyone in August though.

We are also starting another new adventure. We are actually looking at renting to own or leasing to own a condo. I never thought I would hear myself say it, but $244,000 for a 2bd+2bth condo downtown is a great price. Makes me sick to say that though since my parents' house is like 4 times the size and 1/4 of the price. It just makes more sense to us to be paying our rent money towards something that would be ours and not just to someone that we are renting a basement suite from so they can make a small or large profit off of us and us watch that money be piddled away into nothing. So, we are viewing the condo, actually two condos (the other is in the same building, on the top floor and is 1bd+den, which is almost the same thing, just the second bedroom is a little smaller) on Tuesday morning at 11am. We are really excited about this and I will let you know how it goes. The first that I would do though is take down the awful chandelier that is in the dining room... I hate them. I always hit my head on them.

The house we are currently staying in is nice. It is a three bedroom with one bathroom (amazing, deep claw foot tub), two living rooms, kitchen, 2 sun rooms (one small and one larger), and it is only a 30 minute walk from work, which makes it really easy to get out everyday even when I don't feel like it. We are two blocks from a grocery store, 2 starbucks, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Liquor Store and Subway. We are right by Oak Bay Village which is a great area and about 5 minutes from the water and the Oak Bay Marina. Kyle, JP, Myself and Eleni are all enjoying ourselves. It is really nice to have JP out here.

I will write again soon.... I am going to post some pictures of our summer so far and our house with is antique like furniture and ugly green couches. The pictures of the kitchen are dirty because we had just all gotten home from work and hadn't had a chance to do the breakfast and dinner dishes.