Engagement pics

Happy American Thanksgiving to you all :)

Amanda and I are still in a food coma at the moment, recovering from a great day of fun, food, football, and more food in Appleton, Wisconsin with the Messerschmidt family (Amanda's mom's side of the fam).

Our evening with the Hoogendam family was very enjoyable - it was great to catch up with some relatives I hadn't seen in a while, and introduce Amanda to them at the same time. We also got to briefly check out Niagara Falls, which was partially hidden behind the billowing clouds of mist. At any rate, we can check that one off the list. Maybe later when we're rich and famous (either/or would really be quite alright, actually) we'll come back for a second look and stay a little longer.

On our way back to the States, we stopped off near Guelph to visit my Aunt MaryAnn and check out my old stomping grounds. It was great to see her as she wasn't able to make it to the Vyn gathering on Saturday!



Now to the initial reason for posting... the new engagement pics. Tyler Jones, our awesome photographer, just posted a sampling of our engagement pictures to his blog (see: http://www.tylerjonesphoto.com/blog/?p=228). I've selected a few of our favorites so far and posted them here. Thanks again Tyler - looking forward to seeing the whole batch!


Never knew we could look so good ;)


Aspen grove we spotted on our way to Squaw Pass


Yes, we live in Colorado, and it is B-E-A-UUU-T-I-F-U-L !!!







This was a fun experience, and even more exciting to have such tangible memories. It was getting pretty cold as we made our way toward the pass, but we survived, as did our two valiant photographers - thanks Tyler and Dusty!

Amanda's first trip to Canada!

This weekend I've been showing off my fiancée to the extended family. Not only had Amanda not yet met my extended family, she hadn't ever been to Canada before. Since I have the whole week off for American Thanksgiving I figured this would be the perfect opportunity for her to meet everyone. Although she was disappointed by the fact she couldn't get a stamp in her passport as we crossed the border, she has enjoyed meeting everyone and hasn't been too scared off yet. I recognized the potential risk in having her meet everyone before we're married, but then again I don't have any crazy aunts or uncles that might want to jump in her lap and lay a wet one on her (here's to you Aunt Rhonda!). Anyway, we had the party with the Vyn side last night, and now on to visit the Hoogendams tonight :)

In other news, we found a home that we absolutely love on the south side of Denver, and are currently under contract. We're in the final stages of gathering up all the paperwork to get approval for our mortgage, and we'll hopefully be closing when we get back home at the end of the month. It's a really cute ranch with a fully finished basement apartment - so if any of you are looking to make a trip out to colorful Colorado, you're more than welcome to stay with us. Here's a few pics to give you a quick glance:

Snowed in...

So Denver got hit with a respectable winter storm over the past couple days, totaling up to 27 inches in some parts of the Mile High city. While this type of snow might not shut down a robust Midwestern city, we Coloradans aren't used to snow that lasts longer than 24 hours. Snow removal in these parts is almost exclusively the sole responsibility of that giant ball of burning gasses in the sky (a.k.a. the sun).

At any rate, I have benefited from two consecutive snow days and am crossing my fingers for a third! I know I sound a little greedy, but if you had twenty pairs of eyes staring at you all day you'd be ready for a break too :)

On my first snow day I drove Amanda to work, and hung out at the Hospital cafeteria catching up on grading until the campus was officially closed in the early afternoon. We took advantage of the free time and headed to the mall with Amanda's brother Greg. We capped off the night with a riveting game of Rook.

Day 2 wasn't quite as eventful, but equally delightful. Amanda had the whole day off too and we hung out at her apartment most of the day watching movies and only left once to get some groceries.

Anyway, the scrumptious aroma of pumpkin pie is beginning to fill the air. I’m going to investigate…

Still house-hunting

For the past two months Amanda and I have been looking for a house - after all, what better way to decide what to put on our registry than to buy a new place and see what needs to be added! Anyway, it's been a painfully slow and slightly frustrating process thus far. We started out looking at townhomes and steadily bumped up our price limit after not finding exactly what we wanted. There have been a handful of houses we liked and a few we even put offers in on, but the long and short of it is people out here think it's perfectly ok to list their house for $30,000 above the appraisal rate! We still have our fingers crossed to get a deal done before the tax credit expires at the end of November.

This past weekend Justin and Sarah were in town with their two little ones, shopping in the big city and visiting friends and family. This gave my bride-to-be the opportunity to talk about dresses with her flower girl, Anna. While she was dissappointed that the wedding wasn't actually happening this weekend like she thought, she is still very excited to dress up like a princess next summer.

I also got to play baby-sitter as Justin and Sarah went shopping. Since Amanda was conveniently at work I had to roll up my sleeves and change my fourth diaper ever - and it was a solid one! Little Johnny sure downs his protein shakes :)

And on tap we'll have...

Coors light (this is a nod to our Rocky Mountain neighbor, Golden) and Pearl Street's Down Town Brown - really, did you think Amanda would want to serve anything less?

Next, this is where I'd tell you exactly what the menu is, except - as will soon be verified by the inventory we took at our first pre-marital counseling session - I’m not the best listener and can't remember much more than chicken and beef. Oh, and this will be served up buffet style, so you can have as much or as little as you like!

Ok, those are minor details compared to everything I else I have to report on. So things really fell into place while Amanda was home a couple weekends ago. Besides arranging the church and reserving the reception hall, she also found her dress (the exact one in the picture she had been carrying around as the example of what she wanted!), her bridesmaids’ dresses, a DJ, a cake maker, a florist and a caterer. Needless to say, she keeps making my job easier and easier.

We also started our pre-marital counseling a little over a week ago with Dave. We got out our #2 pencils (well, actually they were Dave’s) and took a 165 question scantron test with Likert scales and all – made us feel like we were back in school! I have to admit I did peak at some of Amanda’s answers, but it’s hard not to resist when half of the questions she’s answering were about me. Some of the questions really made us chuckle – like the one that stated, “I am often embarrassed by my partner”, or “My partner is a good listener.” Anyway, we’re excited to get the results back so we can start to discuss her strengths and my weaknesses :)

Ok, Ok, I know it's been a while :)

So, my only true responsibility thus far in helping plan the wedding has been to update this blog site weekly with bits of information and other random anecdotes... clearly I’ve been failing at that.

I am pleased to announce that Amanda has been holding up her end of the bargain! We now have a church, a date, a pastor, a reception hall, and a dj. For the first month and a half or so of our engagement there was a drought of post-worthy information to pass on due to the difficulty of finding a church, but now things seem to be rapidly falling into place.

What I can tell you thus far is that we will be tying the knot on Friday, July 30th, 2010 in lovely western Wisconsin. Part of the reason for choosing this date is that Amanda's parents were married on July 31st, and her grandparents on July 30th. The ceremony will take place at the English Lutheran Church in downtown La Crosse, followed by a reception at Stoney Creek, in Onalaska (I was really pulling for the French Lutheran Church, but I wouldn't want to be the only one that understands what's being said at the ceremony, so I graciously conceded!). Our good friend, Dave De Ridder, who graciously opened his doors to the then long-haired hippie from Oregon for an undisclosed amount of time, will be guiding us through our pre-marital counseling as well as officiating the ceremony.

Well, my duty is done for this week. I'm sure there'll be plenty more to update you on next week as Amanda is currently back in Wisconsin and making plenty of arrangements for her, ahem, OUR big day :)

The Engagement: (His perspective on) Her version

July 19, 2009. It started like any other day... except that I had a sneaking suspicion that Reuben was going to propose to me that day. :) We were back at my parents' place in West Salem for the weekend because my friend Andy was getting married up in "the Cities". I could tell that something was up because my family was acting very strange - some seemed to be avoiding me, others were way more talkative than normal. My mom brought Grandma home with her Saturday night (she almost never spends the night), and there were more relatives that were coming down Sunday for Tim's baseball game. So these were the early events that gave me the impression that this might be THE weekend.

Then, at church Sunday morning I had the sniffles and Reuben pulled out a stack of neatly folded tissues from his pocket - honestly, what guy carries around folded up kleenex on a regular basis! Then, we went to Fayzes for breakfast and my mom, who almost never goes out for breakfast after church, comes along and starts snapping all kinds of pictures.

Anyway, he asked if I wanted to go for a walk after breakfast. He started heading toward the more industrial part of town, so I steered him toward Riverside park instead. We walked for a while before returning to the car. Then he opens the trunk, pulls out a rose and tells me that he wants to take me somewhere. He said it wasn't far - at this point I figured everone stayed at Fayzes and we were headed back that way. Thankfully, we passed on by the breakfast joint! We walked into one of my favorite bookstores and this is where he started acting really strangely. We toured up and down a few isles and I kept asking him what we were doing. He replied something like, "I just wanted you to show me around your favorite book store." I started panicking - there was no way I was going to let him propose to me in front of a store full of strange people. We walked toward the front of the store and he grabbed a book - Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult (I already own a copy) - and asked if I wanted to open it. I said "not really" and so he grabbed the book and we walked out without having paid. I told him that you can't just take the book, you have to pay for it, but he smiled back and said he didn't see anyone trying to stop him so it must be ok.

We walked for what seemed like hours now, and found ourselves back at the park on the river. I picked the bench for us to sit on and then he gave me the book. I opened it and found the letter, behind which sat the most beautiful rock! He read the letter and then got down on one knee (those tissues came in handy again). I was very impressed with how clever the idea was. Oh, and I did say "Yes"!