I love waking up the day after a fabulous party.

I woke up this morning feeling more appreciated, supported and loved than I have felt in a long time. Last night, to my surprise, my caring and wonderful friends threw James and I an engagement party. I was in complete shock! James had told me that we were going out for dinner at an undisclosed location and that he had to stop off to pick up a cd from Mike Emmons. I was a little on the cranky side because I had been trying to get it out of James as to where we were going for dinner, and I had had no luck. His lips were sealed. As many know, I don't deal well with not knowing plans... I panic: "what should I wear? what is the dress code? how long will we be out? who will be there? should i bring a change of clothes?" etc. James, however, in a show of tremendous courage, stood up to me and would not acquiesce and tell me where we were going.

So when we arrived at the Emmons/Farrington household, I remained in the car while James retrieved "the cd", which was not according to the plans. So instead, they brought the party out to me! Suddenly there were all these people I recognized from university and church surrounding the car. I had been completely duped! And it felt great. Obviously my sour mood changed, as I thanked James for not slipping up.

It was the coolest thing to have so many of my favourite people all in one place for just a few hours! A colliding of my worlds and I loved it! I'm still in shock that everyone managed to hide it from me, since I have always considered myself to be very intuitive when people are hiding things from me. Apparently, I'm not as instinctive as I thought!

If this is any indication of how much our friends care about us, James and I consider ourselves very lucky. Not only did they throw a big party, but about two-thirds of the people travelled over an hour to come celebrate! I can't wait to see the pictures! Right now I am the happiest bride-to-be! I am so stoked for the wedding!

I am so bored today and then I realized that I have not blogged in awhile, so hopefully this will take up some time. The weekend is almost here and thank goodness, because I am restless at work. Last weekend was awesome! I went to James' cottage in Muskoka with Nick, Garth, Irena and Mel. We stayed at the cottage on their sixteen acre island. It has no electricity or running water.... and the attic is infested with bats! So it is always an adventure spending even one night there, let alone the entire weekend! Mel had an encounter with a bat on the first night. While she was outside with Nick, one swooped into her hair and got stuck! Her screaming probably woke up everyone on the lake! I think she almost died of scaryness! On the second night there was a brown bat in the kitchen flying around, which Garth managed to catch with a towel. Personally, I'm not so scared of bats. I wouldn't be too happy if one was in my hair, but I don't mind them flying around.

Aside from our chaos with the bats, we went swimming, woke up at 11am, drove the boat around, went to an art show in Bracebridge (where James' sister, Catherine, was displaying her prints), roasted marshmallows in the fireplace, and basically just lounged around, laughing and getting to know each other better. It was a great weekend.

This weekend is so up in the air. I want to go to the cottage, but apparently, James has to work. Thus, I must stay in Pickering. Apparently James is planning a special date for Saturday night, but what about the rest of the weekend?! Non-cottage weekends are no good, especially when the weather is gorgeous, like it is right now! I'm sure it will end up better than I expect.

Speaking of expectations, you can expect to see much blogging out of me today. Today is one of those Friday's that feels like a Saturday. Yesterday felt like Friday. And to quote my wise friend Mel, "It's not Friday, it's Saturday. Boo to working on a Saturday!"

Today my dad took me out for lunch. It was the first time that he has taken me out, since I started working at his office in May! I don't blame him though, he's been extremely busy with various cases and is often not in the office at all. Anyway, father/daughter lunches are awesome. I like catching up with him and telling him what's going on in my life. It was a good noon hour!

I feel rather boring today. I can't think of much to say. But, as most of us know, I'm sure I won't have any problem finding something to ramble on about, even if I have to ramble on about rambling! I'm not even sure who reads this. I know my Aunt Cathy reads it faithfully by her comments. I know, however, that there must be more people than just her, since the number of visitors to the page goes up every day. So who are you people?!

Does anyone watch the Amazing Race? That show is awesome. I love it! james can't stand reality television, and I think that it annoys him that I love it so much! I couldn't be bothered with those shows about finding someone to marry their dad, the casino, or the comic one, but Amazing Race and Big Brother... they are awesome. And it's not like I put my life on hold to watch television anyway. Last night I went to the dentist (yes again! Just for a check up) and the gym. I know where the record button is and I know how to program on my VCR. If I have other plans, I'll watch the shows the following day or whenever, but I have to watch them at some point. Poor james, I hope he knows what he's signed up for in asking me to marry him!

I was just really challenged by Romans 12. What a fantastic chapter of the Bible! I receive daily verses from Air1.com, and over the weekend, I received Romans 12:2 NLT. It read:

"Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. THen you will know what GOd wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will is."

I decided to pray over that verse and that led me to the entire chapter. I feel like I am completely the opposite of what that chapter is requiring me to be. How did I allow myself to become so far from who God wants me to be? I definitely repay evil with my own evil and I am rarely patient in trouble. I know that I even sometimes I pretend to love others... like who does that?! I am going to pray over this chapter for the rest of the summer, until my heart is transformed. I would appreciate your prayer.

I have been severely lacking in the blogging department lately. This is due to the fact that I have been incredibly busy, but I will try to write at least weekly blogs from here on out.

Last week I finally concluded my tooth saga. Yay! I now have beautiful teeth that are permanent (that means NOT removable!). I spent 6 1/2 hours in a dentist's chair on Wednesday, but it was definitely worth the neck strain and the swollen upper lip!

James' birthday was on Thursday, so a bunch of us met at a local pub (including my parents!) to celebrate. We had a great time and so did James! I bought him clothes to wear this year for his teacher's college placements... the boy didn't even own a nice pair of black pants! So it was Courtney to the rescue, and now he will look more than presentable while working this year!

On the weekend I went to Mel's cottage with two of her friends, Gaby and Kristen. We had a fabulous time, swimming at two o'clock in the morning and causing a ruckus, getting flipped off of the banana boat, driving around in Gaby's Jeep, and suntanning to our hearts' content, since the weather was perfect!

So that was my week and weekend! This week will hopefully not be as chaotic, but you never know! This weekend I'm heading up to James' cottage for more summer fun with Mel, Garth, Irena and Nick. I'm sure some good stories will emerge from time spent with that group! Don't forget to leave comments!

There is nothing like spending the weekend at the cottage. It seems to make any worries that a person has seem insignificant. James said that when he goes up to the cottage he feels at peace and I couldn't agree more. We drove up together on Friday night after work. I love driving with James. As silly as it sounds, some of our best moments have been spent together driving up to the cottage or traveling between Pickering and Hamilton. Anyway, there were absolutely no cars on the road, because most people had taken the Friday off, since Thursday was Canada Day.

Saturday we had beautiful weather. We spent the entire afternoon down by the water. James swam across the lake, while I kayaked beside him and then we lounged on the floating dock with my sister for the remainder of the day. Yesterday, the weather was overcast, but still warm. James painted the outside of the cottage (the areas that were above 8 feet because my dad's knees couldn't handle the height!), I pressured washed the deck (sounds like more work than it really is), and we managed to get in some reading too.

On the way home last night we stopped in at Clevelands House Resort, or rather, we took a detour there! We met up with Kenny Munshaw, who will be providing the music for the wedding. So everything is set in terms of the band now, which is great. We were also able to see Liz (James' youngest sister), and Catherine and Dave (James' oldest sister and her husband). Kenny played at Catherine and Dave's wedding this past December and he was awesome, so we can't wait for him to play at ours! So if there are any requests for music, let me know!

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