Hello again!

Hello everyone
We are back from our wedding and honeymoon and had a great time. We don't have our photographer's pics back yet but we did manage to get a few from some other people and Matt has been much better at blogging than I. So if you want to see some pics and catch up a bit with us you can check out his - which is changing to OUR website at http://www.windowintomatt.blogspot.com/.

Canoeing Alouette Lake

Happenings

So, not a lot of noteworthy things have happened since we got back from Hawaii, mostly just lots of work with a little bit of wedding planning in between. You should check out our wedding website at


http://matt.schipper.googlepages.com/mattandrachwedding.

Matt's been doing an incredible job of it inbetween all his crazy water trips.

White Rock between postpartum visits.

No words needed....

Trying on bridesmaid dresses! We have them all ordered and on there way anyday! (These are not them).

AmyLou came for a whole long weekend on her spring break. What a gift it was to have her back in close proximity again, even if it only was for four days.
And work. Since coming back from Hawaii, every woman has gone into labor while I'm on call. When my partner is on, all is quiet - wierd. They call me a birth magnet. Needless to say, it's contributed to full weeks and long days. (I need to get de-magnetized!).

Hawaii

They say pictures are worth more than a thousand words so I'll let you soak in the sights and feels of Maui.

It does rain in Hawaii!

Our sleeping quarters for the first night.

A Quarter of a Century

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

"If you'd never been born, well what would you be?

You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree!

You might be a door knob! Or three baked potatoes!

You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes!

Or worse than all that... why, you might be a WASN'T!

A Wasn't has no fun at all. No, he doesn't.

A Wasn't just isn't. He just isn't present.

But you... you ARE YOU! And now, isn't that pleasant!"

-- Dr. Seuss, from Happy Birthday To You!

It's that time of year again and I didn't really think much of it until someone commented that when you turn 25, one is an entire quarter of a century, halfway to 50 or a whole 2 and a half decades. But, when I feel old, my co-workers remind me that even after being graduated from university for almost 3 years I am still the youngest midwife in the province, therefore, I am a "young fart."

Other news.....

My new years resolution was to slow my life down and I am ashamed to say that two months into this new year I am realizing that I have failed miserably.

At the end of January I went to Breakforth again in Edmonton Alberta. AmyLou joined me from Calgary and we had a great time listening to the speakers and musicians. I came away from the weekend totally sleep deprieved and spiritually filled.

Then I spent a couple days hanging out with all my Uncle's and Aunts in Edmonton. We even went on a huge shopping spree to the West Edmonton Mall.

I arrived back in Langley late tuesday night, had clinic all day wednesday, went back on call wednesday night to the busiest 4 days of my life ever. We had 10 births in 9 days and most were first time moms. Over 4 days and 3 nights, I slept 10 broken up hours. My body was living on adrenaline, I felt like I was vibrating. Only by the grace of God were we all able to get through that intense time. It amazes me what our bodies can endure! Here's some of the precious bundle's that entered the world during our crazy busy stretch..... (I'm still recovering - I don't want any babies for long time:)!)

At the end of those 9 days, Matt and I went to Manning Park to visit Justin and Carl. Dad and Josh joined us the next day. We had a great time snoeshoeing, swimming in the pool, and hanging out in the snow cats. I even learned how to ski with 5 very talented guys watching, they didn't let me stay on the greens very long!

Life goes on. Jen, Evan and Anna Boonstra are here visiting from Edmonton, so we went to the zoo on Friday. It was a beautiful day to be outside and check out all those animals. God must have an amazing imagination! Wes and Jen's newest little one is due to arrive right around our wedding day so we are hoping that s/he will come a few weeks early so we can meet him/her at the wedding!
And yes, we are still planning a wedding though plans often take a back seat to the births of babies. (The story of my life as I know it, birth comes first!)

But, we are excited. Excited to be married and excited to have a party and celebrate with all of you!

Are you getting tired yet from reading this? I am, so... I'm going to Hawaii!!!! From the fast paced, working full time, busy life to the island of Mauii, island for the newlyweds and nearly deads, of which I am neither. I'm going with my best friend Kris as a belated celebration of my graduation and then Dad, Mom, Justin, Josh, Reuben and Tianna will join us for a belated celebration of Mom and Dad's 25th anniversary!

Next time I'll post from Hawaii!

Under a Star Spangled Sky

Once upon a time in a small country land not so far away lived a fair Maiden Rahella.

Although she loved her small land, she dreamed of mansions and castles but mostly she dreamed about her Knight in shining armor who would one day sweep her off her feet and carry her away.

When she came of age, she traveled the world from sea to sea, in search of her Knight. After 3 years of searching, unbeknownst to her she finally met her Knight, Sir Mattias. As the years went by Maiden Rahella and Sir Mattias went on all sorts of adventures together but it wasn’t until after 3 years of valiant battles, braving the wilds and slaying dragons that Maiden Rahella finally knew that she had found her Knight.

Sir Mattias carried her off to her small home land for the very special Christmas holidays and on Christmas day, in the very same spot where it had all began, under a star spangled sky, a cool crisp temperature of -26, and their handsome black steed, Arlow, he pulled out a diamond spangled ring and proposed his undying love for her.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End!

For more pictures of our Christmas holidays, check out this link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/matt.schipper/ChristmasInTheCountry?authkey=pVyLva-us7o&feat=directlink

A Few Steps Behind

So just in case you missed it, Matt and I are engaged. Below are pictures from our 2

engagement parties. I have been meaning to update the blog with

the story of how all this happened
and the details that I know

you girls want so badly to hear. Unfortunately my practice
partner was put on bedrest shortly after New Year's and I am
running the show along with my wonderful student. It has made

for many long days....and nights and
blogging time is a rare commodity.
But I thought I'd share some pics and let
them tell some parts of the story. While
you read, don't forget to mark Aug. 1 on

your calender as the big day! That's all for now because I'm off to another birth!

Kris and Laura, the wonderful party hosts.

Trying to place the 10 steps to milking a cow in the correct order. And just in case you were wondering...that is a cow milking competition picture at the top!