So busy, so happy!

In two weeks yesterday I'll be in England.  In two weeks tomorrow I'll be in Ireland.

I'm married (again) and I've had my birthday (yeah me!).

Life's showing no sign of slowing down any time soon and I'm loving every minute.

I'm having a hard time beleiving it's August.  Ha!  I've been trying not to wish the summer away and yet it has dissappeared right in front of me.  We're now looking at getting married in 11 days and moving in 5 weeks!! 

Other than preparing for my wedding, honeymoon and move, working at Atlantic Catch, and trying to spend as much time with friends at possible... I've had little 'free' time.  Yesterday I helped a friend move into a new apartment.  I'm guess I"m trying to build up a little stock of moving karma so that the next time I need help moving there will be help availble. 

Life's great and the sun is finally shining here in the ol' Hfx.

Instead of talking about my living arrangements, I think it might be more entertaining and timely to talk about Liverpool and Privateer Days.

Life is pretty sweet when you get to run around for four days dressed in linen - stays and bonnets and all good things! Costumes are just so bloody comfy! I got to sing and be a ghost and watch an outhouse race and rum runners. The picking up of garbage kinda stinks, but it needs to be done.

We stayed in Liverpool for the whole week, Sunday to Sunday. Micah had a math conference at White Point beach, and I had nothing to do for the first few days. Yeah! I managed to cook and clean someone else’s house while eating all of their food and sleeping in their spare room. Fair trade I think. Other than that, the week has come and gone and now I need to start organizing the craziness that will be my wedding.

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First off, we planned on having the wedding in August, one year after getting engaged. Now between now and then Micah not only got accepted into Cambridge, but got a full scholarship!! You heard right a FULL scholarship!! I am sooo very proud of him. And it’s such a relief knowing that we won’t have to incure debt over the next year.

That being said, my father was born in England which means I qualify for Right of Abode. I now have a little sticker in my Canadian passport that will allow me to live and work in the UK with no further paperwork. Huzzah!

Now for the putting of the two things together, Cambridge for Micah and living in England for Anna. We decided early on that it would be better for Micah to get a Husband Visa that a Student Visa… less chance of it expiring and after four years Micah would have a British Passport to boot! (I qualify after only two years of residence.)

And the magic of paperwork unfolds before us… We need to have the wedding certificate sent to the British High Commission with all of the other relevant documents and without a wedding of some sort, no documents, no Visa. That would be bad.

After debating moving the wedding in it’s entirety to May, we decided to go ahead a move the civil aspect of the wedding leaving the celebration in August. This is something that I would recommend to one and all! Now my wedding day will be all about celebrating with friends and family and all of the superstitious mumbo jumbo doesn’t apply. I still feel no stress about August and I didn’t feel any stress about the civil thing either. Oh, and I must say that both sets of parents have been fantastic about allowing Micah and me to plan our day the way that we want it. It’s such a relief to know that we only have to agree between the two of us, now play diplomats for our extended family.

Right back to May 27^th…

I spent the Friday night sleeping on the Micah’s parent’s couch. It was just easier to stay there and not go back and forth from my messy apartment. We spent the morning sealing all of our wedding invitation with burgundy sealing wax (that was actually quite fun) and playing board games. Micah’s mother was in Truro at some kind of course and my parents drove down from NB leaving Hillsborough in the morning. By 4 pm I knew that everyone was in town and I was beginning to get very excited. By 6 I wanted to get the show on the road, but we all managed to keep relatively calm while slowly getting swept up by the emotion.

At 6:40 we left the McCurdy’s and went out to the car. Micah’s mother pointed out that the late blooming tulips had been late blooming for a reason – they were to be my bouquet! I was dressed in a robin’s egg blue linen dress that went perfectly with the light pink and orange of the tulips.

We arrived at St Matthais at 6:55 to find that my parents, my sister, our two witnesses Jonathan and Emma and the minister and his wife were already inside. After chatting at the front of the church for a few minutes, Peter called us forward and the service began. I feel like I remember everything that happened and that time mushed itself into a little ball for the duration of the small introduction and vows. The next thing I knew we were sitting down to sign the register and I was Micah’s and he was mine. It all went by so fast and was so wonderful! We were walking back out of the church by no later than 6:20 I’m sure of it!

Emma and Jonathan took Micah and I out for a quick drink before we met up with the rest of the wedding party for supper. The food was marvelous and the company wonderful! We stayed and chatted until probably around 11:30 then all went our separate ways. Micah and I stayed at the Waverly Inn that night.

Sunday could not have been more perfect! After a lazy morning, Micah and I walked down to Point Pleasant Park and got ice cream. We eventually made it back to his parent’s and played board games into the evening.

Life has bestowed many blessings upon me. I am filled with such happiness and such joy. 

Next up : Giving away everything

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Well, it’s been quite a month since I last posted, so I’m going to break up what’s going on into sections. There’s going home to Hillsborough for the open house, getting married, moving in with the in-laws, getting rid of almost all of my worldly belongings, closing my apartment, working at Cox Hanson, working at Atlantic Catch again, Church, wedding planning, World Cup and Privateer Days. … Where to begin. It’s probably easiest to tackle one at a time, so Hillsborough, here I come!

Open House in Hillsborough

Well, I must say that I really had no idea what to expect. My parents had opened their house to the county two years ago for my father’s 60^th bday and we had a crowd in from 1 until 9. It was fantastic then, and it was absolutely overwhelming on the May long weekend.

Micah and I went home on the Saturday bus from Halifax. The night before there was some kind of shindig, the details of which slip my mind. Needless to say getting up for the 8am bus was not really a priority. Somehow, we managed it and arrived in Moncton in time to hit the farmer’s market. Mmm… Kurt’s Sausage. There’s really nothing better that a proper Hot Italian sausage hot off of the bbq with German mustard on a Saturday morning in Moncton! But I digress…

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. We went to church with my parents at Saint Andrew’s Sunny Brae. My father helped gut and rebuild the inside of this church about three years ago, and it’s really quite homey to me. Every Christmas they get me to start Once In Royal David City to start the service. I always feel included when I’m there. Anyhue, after church we all piled in the van and headed back to Hillsborough.

Over the course of the afternoon we had more than 50 members of the community, people who had watched me grow, come and visit our house and meet Micah. It really was overwhelming in the way that the community came together to show their support of me and encourage me forward onto my next leg of life. There were people I hadn’t seen in 8 or 9 years show up, and so many people with whom I had spent so much of my life with. The United Church in Hillsborough, a church my parents left due to politics, showed up enforce!! I couldn’t believe how wonderfully supportive they still were of me after all of these years!! In the end the day was so very wonderful and so very tiring! I guess I left a larger impression upon Hillsborough that I had previously thought.

Even still, I am filled to the brim with gratitude towards Hillsborough. I have soooo many Thank You letters still to write and sooo many people to call and than again. My parents were very good in hosting such an event for Micah and I. Mom gave us a cake knife with our names engraved on the blade. It’s realy cute and something we’ll leave in the box for the rest of our lives! :P

Monday Micah and lazed about and played Eurorails. Again, it was wonderful to have Micah at home with my parents in Hillsborough and for everything to go smoothly. Hopefully this boads well for the future!

Up next: The Wedding - part I