January 2006

Well, in an effort to keep friends and family more
up-to-date on what's going on, I decided to try to do
monthly letters. This one will probably be short,
since I only did my year end update a short while ago.
But, there will be more eventful months coming up
soon enough.

Lance and I both wanted to get back into fitness after
the holidays. Not that either of us got very far off
from it, but we missed regular exercise and the rich
foods had left us rather saturated and ready for
simpler fare. So, we set up another online fitness
challenge with some friends of ours. We had done it
leading up to Christmas as well. The basic idea is 8
weeks where you try to get 3 sessions of 30 minutes of
exercise every week. The first time through not many
people were regularly participating. This time, I
guess the Christmas pounds were a bit more motivation,
so we have some people keeping us company with our
fitness.

Lance is really trying to build muscle tone and get
rid of the last bit of fat around the middle. My
goals are a bit less lofty than that. My weight and
measurements I want to remain the same as when I was
measured for my wedding dress. A bit less is ok, but
so long as I don't get any bigger, I'm happy. I'm
also doing it to keep my stress level down. I know
that will be increasingly important as the move and
the wedding get closer.

The other major thing has been starting to pack up the
apartment. Since we know there will be a lot of
things to do in March, we wanted to do everything we
could to get our stuff ready to be moved quickly and
painlessly.

We tackled the bookshelf first. The books we got for
Christmas are being kept in a safe spot at Lance's
parents' place. Fresh reading material is very
important to us. But, the rest of the books got boxed
up and our shelf in the living room disassembled. We
then moved on to our movie collection, most of which
was already at the parents' place. We have a few
essential movies here, and the rest are in the process
of getting transported one box at a time. We've also
slowly been getting the less used kitchen gadgets and
cookware cleaned off and packed away.

We took stock of our cupboards and realized how much
food we have in there! So, we'll be trying to eat and
drink our way through it all. The pudding and jello
isn't hard to eat through. Those 5 cans of creamed
style corn I'm a bit more concerned about! The food
bank might be getting a donation from us soon.

As for wedding plans, this month we sent out our
invitations. The replies are slowly trickling back.
They are arriving at Lance's parents' place. It's
made laundry night more exciting as I get to check and
see how many have been sent back and who's coming!

I'm still trying to decide how much of my beauty stuff
will be taken care of professionally and how much I'll
do myself. Right now it looks like I'll be doing my
own hair and makeup. I picked up some nicer quality
brushes and cosmetics to start playing with. A new
nail salon just opened in the mall, so I might see
about having them do a french polish on my hands and
toes. I think I'll shape the nails myself and just
get them to polish them.

My hair, I'm really not sure about. I've been
experimenting with all sorts of different things to
try to get it to look as good as it can. But, I never
seem to get the results everyone else does. The
latest thing I'm trying is a vinegar rinse. We'll see
how it goes.

We're still looking for a tailor so Lance can get his
suit properly adjusted to fit him. Plus, he still
needs his shirt, shoes, and tie. I'm still looking
for the perfect silver wrap. But, I might just end up
being a bit chilly at the wedding instead.

Plans are starting to be made for various pre-wedding
parties for both of us. I don't want to step on toes
by getting over-involved with the whole process. I
also don't want to end up planning everything and
doing all that work too. So, I'm just not worrying
about it for now.

The wedding music is another thing we're working on.
I got CD's from the library to listen to various
classical pieces for the ceremony. Lance is
considering putting together music for the reception.
It's hard to find enough time to just sit and listen
to the music since our days are so full.

We've also been doing some miscellaneous shopping for
favour supplies, thank-you cards, and honeymoon
clothing. I bought the first bikini I've had in over
10 years. Not sure if I'll wear it anywhere other
than Mexico. There are still a few other things to
pick up for our trip. The two most important (for me)
are sunscreen-SPF45 and a big sun hat so I don't get
burnt to a crisp down there. With all this rain
lately, I sure can't wait to see some sunshine for a
change!