Wedding Weirdness - Part 1

Did you know that there is something known as a "Cake Cutting Fee"?? That's right, they charge you per slice that they dole out at your reception. I figured this was something random at this one location, but when I brought it up with my brother and sister-in-law they were like "yup, they charge you for every slice they cut of your cake." I mentioned it to another married friend and she had also paid such a fee. This is one of those weird things you just don't know about until you get married.... every non-married person I have told has given me a "WHAT?!"

I would like to say proudly that I am getting married at a place where there is no cake cutting fee.... they actually advertise that. So take that, weird wedding fee maker-upper... ha!

So anyway, Nate and I officially have a place for the wedding.... it is in North Houston near I-45 and FM 1960. That means that we can say the date with authority now... December 30, 2006. Get excited kids, it's gonna be a wild ride :)

Weird Wedding Word - Sepia Tone. Now, this is technically a photography term and it's pretty common, but the first time I saw it written out it just looked weird... so there you go :)

Will You Marry Me.....

Last Friday I took a half day and I rushed home to get ready to go to San Antonio with Nate to visit Ben and Amy. The things is, when I got home Nate was already inside my apartment..... with a ring :) Long story short, Nate and I are engaged!!

I was getting some grief for not posting something about this earlier, so here it is :) We are looking to get married on December 30 (Nate's 28th birthday) somewhere in the general Houston area.

Now, some thoughts from this weekend~

-God is so amazing! His timing is perfect and his knowledge of what we need is beyond our comprehension. I never dreamed that he would bring such a godly, caring, and perfect (for me :) guy into my life.

-Friends are such a blessing! The excitement I got as I made phone calls was so encouraging! Then when we got back, there was a large LH group waiting in Nate's apartment to surprise us and celebrate this time in our lives. That meant so much to me to have them there. God has truly blessed me by bringing so many amazing people into my life over the past year. I believe that young singles have the capacity to have such an amazing impact for the kingdom, and the caliber of people in LH convice me of this constantly.

-Glory, it's what it's all about. Glory, God's... NOT mine.


Well, I'm sure planning a wedding will provide some amazing material for future blogs..... get excited :)

For Liz.. and the other Liz :)

I found this tied in with our conversation yesterday, and Liz H..... you started it back up :P

Ladies and Gentlemen.. Life after Summit

So I just witnessed my first Summit wedding yesterday when Karrie and Dan got married. So it isn't a myth...people DO make it out of Lighthouse :) This is always an encouraging thing to see. Anyways, I have included some pictures.... shamelessly ripped off from Leslie's facebook profile (cause I'm at work and can't access my own pics :).

If you know Dan and Karrie, be praying for them as God shows them how to be a married couple. Pray for them to grow closer to Him and closer to each other with every passing day and pray that their love and devotion to God would increase thier love and devotion to each other. Finally, pray that in all things they seek after God's will for thier life together. Congrats guys!

I, Abby, being of sound mind.....

So, I'm at work reading a design manual section on metal beam guard fences (my life IS that exciting, I know you can't believe it :) and the first paragraph is as follows~

"The objectives of this appendix are to make available data and guidelines for the use of roadside traffic barriers (typically metal beam guard fence) in a consolidated and understandable form. These guidelines should be supplemented by sound engineering judgment."

I don't know how sound my engineering judgement is, but I'll give it a shot :P

Adventures in Canada... Eh?

I went to Calgary over the Fourth of July Weekend to visit with Erin and to see some of my family up there. It was so great! The weather was absolutely beautiful and it is always encouraging to be around Erin. You can see God moving in her life and her desire to know him better and serve him completely infiltrates every aspect of her life. I feel so lucky to know her and be able to spend time with her this weekend.

My first day there was Canada Day, July 1st. It was so much fun to be there on their nation's birthday. We got to see parades (or at least get trapped in a town that was setting up for a parade because they had blocked off the street we came in on :), everybody and I mean EVERYBODY was wearing something with Canada written on it and we got free Canadian flags everywhere we went. We went to Lake Louise, Lake Moraine and stopped in Canmore and Banff. The flowers below were outside the Banff Springs Hotel.

My second day there we drove to Jasper (about a 5 hour drive each way, through the mountains :) It was absolutely gorgeous. We saw three rainbows while I was in Canada, below is one at a waterfall. (The other two were in the sky over the mountains... and I live in Texas why?)

We went by the Columbian Ice Fields and Erin and I took the opportunity to get this little photo op~

Erin and I had a great time and came away with quite a few interesting quotes. You might not get all of them, but Erin knows they're funny ;-)


1 -"Do you think the mountains look just like they did when God created them"
2 -"No, erosion."
3 - "Just like us."
2 - "We erode? Is that what happened to my boobs?"
- Names have been changed to numbers to protect the identity of the parties involved :)

"I wish every day was Canada Day. " - If you have witnessed Canada Day, there is no explanation needed. If not, I don't think you will ever understand :)

"Why is that checkmark on that car?" - Erin's car was just shipped from Houston and arrived the day before I got there. Whoever shipped it managed to lose the title and put a white check mark on the car that, as far as we can tell, cannot be removed.

"Crazy Texas drivers!" - Erin's shipped car still has Texas plates... this was our response to any time we did something stupid while driving

"Shagganappi" - the name of a car dealership in Calgary.. Shagganappi Chevrolet

"If we were in a Tahoe I bet our butts wouldn't hurt right now." - I guess we'll never know....

"Mmmm, it smells like......Canada" - Well, it did :)

"I'm seriously thinking about getting the Prince of Darkness, but I'm not too fond of the name. I mean, I'm just not sure I want an evil cup of coffee..."