Saturday, April 18, 2009
Finishing Touches for the Groomspeople
From Top: Adam gets his boutenniere; Jenny's corsage; Rob and his dad, Bob, who came from Florida for the wedding; Kyle gets flowered; Daniel awaits his flower; Steve, Kyle, and Rob ponder the meaning of existence... upside down.
Almost Time...
Aspen was all set, I put some finishing touches on my lips, and my brother in law Sam came in to give me a quick hug before the ceremony began.
Finishing Touches
We waited till the last minute to get Aspen's dress on her. Heather helped me with my shoes. Julia inspected the basket of petals.
Getting Zipped
Getting everything into the dress properly was kind of a chore. I didn't want any wardrobe malfunctions. Stacey and Mom helped. Well, mostly Stacey while Mom stood there and laughed.
Kira and Julia
This is another of my favorite images from the day. Kira and Julia are my friends Kresta and Thad's daughters and some of my very favorite children on the planet. Kira was a "junior bridesmaid" and Julia was a flower girl, charged with leading our little niece Aspen down the aisle. They both looked beautiful.
Some of the bridesmaids getting ready...
I love how they were all laughing a lot. Kresta thought she had too much cleavage in her dress (center photo). Heather painted her toes and curled her hair -- she was all out of control with girliness that day.
Russ Esposito
This is one of my very favorite images out of over 12oo photos. It's quintessential Russ. Like if someone had asked me beforehand who was most likely to be drinking from a flask inside the church, I probably would have chosen Russ. Which is not to suggest Russ is only about drinking, but he is a bit of a rebel. In a good way. We love him.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Rapture
So there was this girl I went to high school with that I spent some quality time with at our 10-year reunion back in 1998, and now she's on Facebook and we are Facebook friends. Back at the 10-year reunion, she was telling me how the pastor at this church she went to said that the Rapture was going to happen on New Year's Eve going into Y2K, and he was helping a select group of individuals at the church prepare for it. She was one of them. Imagine my surprise when I saw her at the 20-year reunion last summer! I guess the Rapture didn't happen after all, and I often wonder how a pastor would explain that away. He probably told them all they weren't good enough or something.
So now every single time I see her name on Facebook, I want to ask her what happened. But I guess that would be rude.
So now every single time I see her name on Facebook, I want to ask her what happened. But I guess that would be rude.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Poppa
My grandfather on my mom's side passed away this past Saturday at the age of 88. It was not unexpected but it hurts just the same. He was a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, a friend, a Canadian, a soldier. He meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
He was our Poppa. He was Daniel's Great-Poppa.
He cooked us perch for supper every time we visited. Every time.
He liked to tease us.
He made funny faces but stopped as soon as someone pulled out a camera.
He yelled sometimes... but what Holden doesn't yell sometimes?
He had opinions, a lot of opinions about a great many things. Lots of us are like him that way -- it's hard to get a word in edgewise when there are Holdens in the room.
He was a great drinking buddy. It's his fault if I was kind of drunk at Cousin Krissy's wedding.
He was as stubborn as the day is long. If you're a Holden with a stubborn streak, it's probably his fault. Some might say that's an understatement.
He was proud. He was proud of all of us, his kids, his grandkids, his great-grandkids.
He was the kind of grandfather you brag about on the school playground. "Oh yeah? Well, MY grandpa fought in World War II and got blown up by a land mine and lived to tell about it!"
He was handsome. It's not hard to see why Nana fell for him. Not hard at all.
He called us "Pet."
He loved to make his great-grandchildren laugh.
When my older sister and I were quite small, we would travel to Ontario in the summertime to visit Nana and Poppa at their home in Cornwall. They would be at their cottage along the St. Lawrence, and we would mostly spend the days in the water. It was so different from our home, this place -- if we walked up the road to the shop to buy Smarties and Coffee Crisps, we passed by people who spoke a different language, people who dressed differently than the people we were used to. We loved it. It smelled like the river, and exhaust from the road. Poppa always kept a pair of binoculars at the ready so we could inspect passing ships on the seaway, and he had a little book with all the ships' names and flags so we could look up the countries they came from. Norway. Denmark. Sweden. Canada, of course. Poppa had a boat, and while we there, he would take us out, maybe just one time, onto the river. The thought of that boat ride would sustain us for weeks before we ever left home, and remembering it after we returned kept us happy for months. The spray as we sped over the water. The musty smell of the fat orange life vests we wore. Poppa at the wheel pointing out interesting sights along the way -- but Poppa at the wheel was more interesting to us than any other sight. He would be shirtless and tan and his hair glinting in the sun. He loved that river.
And this more than anything is the way I remember him: the smells of the river, the fat orange life vests, the boat, the water, Poppa at the helm.
He was my Poppa.
I love him.
I miss him.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Yay, it worked!
So, as most of you are aware, our wedding was waaaaay back on Sept. 27th. That's like, 5 months ago. And ever since I got my photo discs from the photogs, I've been wanting to post a bunch of them on Facebook. But it turns out Facebook has a photo size limit, and most of our wedding photos exceed the size limit. So I thought, okay, I'll figure out how to resize them and then post them in an album. But resizing them made them look like crap. So it finally occurred to me today (bored, during a conference call) that maybe I could post a bunch of them here in my blog. As though that were some novel concept or whatever. And so I did a test with the photo below of my gorgeous niece Aspen, and it totally worked out nicely. So guess what?? I'm going to post a bunch of them here in my blog, because there's no size limit!
And just for fun, here's a bonus photo of The Pook to tide you over.
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