last weekend while i was in pasadena, zach and i did engagement pictures! zach’s younger sister courtney scouted out some great locations and spent almost 3 hours working with us to get some fantastic pictures. she did an amazing job and i couldn’t be more thrilled about them! thanks court!
here are a *few* of my favorites:
oh the magic that is photoshop… zach took one of our engagement pictures and applied a “painting” feature to it. pretty sweet, huh? 
the rest of the pictures will be up on facebook later today (Lord, willing), and then i’ll be posting some on my blog soon as well. stay tuned….
i love stuff like this…
More than 200 dancers were performing their version of “Do Re Mi”, in the Central Station of Antwerp. with just 2 rehearsals they created this amazing stunt! Those 4 fantastic minutes started the 23 of march 2009, 08:00 AM. It is a promotion stunt for a Belgian television program, where they are looking for someone to play the leading role, in the musical of “The Sound of Music”.
i’m back from another fantastic weekend in pasadena! had a great time, as usual.
friday night was a west coast revival concert. i wore my “i’m with the drummer” tshirt, which i haven’t actually worn during a concert since the night he asked me out.
saturday we did a walking tour of downtown los angeles, and saw cool places like the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the federal buildings, city hall, union station, the L.A. times building, and oliveras street. zach also took me to this old building… that i can’t remember the name of… it’s used for offices and stuff now, but it’s old red brick and REALLY cool inside:
disney hall is also an amazing building. i hope to see a concert there one day!
here we are taking the metro back to pasadena/sierra madre:
you can’t tell in this picture, but i got quite the sunburn on saturday. yeah, didn’t think to put on sunscreen just for walking around downtown. silly girl.
sunday evening zach had to work, so i spent the late afternoon/evening hanging out at the boomsma house chatting with tami and courtney, making fruit salad with ashley, watching School of Rock with the whole fam (plus a friend of paige’s), and then another couple hours talking with all the girls about life. it was such a great time – definitely a highlight from the weekend!
today (monday) was my favorite day, though. zach and i both slept in, drove out to his store (the starbucks that he works at) to get coffee (and pick up his tips), and then went to target to start our wedding registery! woo-hoo! we didn’t have a ton of time, so we just covered a few of the smaller sections. we’ll go back and finish it later.
then after lunch with the fam, zach and i went with his sister, courtney, to do engagement pictures! three locations, two wardrobe changes, and one stop at starbucks later, we had some GREAT shots! courtney really did a fantastic job scouting out locations and coming up with ideas and keeping her eye out for awesome lighting and angles. she and zach are going to sharpen and edit the pictures before they’ll let me see any of them. but zach did send me one as a teaser:
i’ll do a full post with engagement pictures once i get some of them!
but now i’m home and really need to get to bed. goodnight all!
or, AKA, “the week of early mornings.” ok, even for a morning person, this doesn’t sound fantastic to me: 7am dentist appmt this morning… 630am prayer on wednesday… 7am health study subject meeting on thursday… 530am airport run on friday… wow. but hey, i won’t complain. i’m busy in the evenings too and that means this week will go faster. although no matter what, i’m quite sure it won’t go fast enough. i’m flying to pasadena on friday and i cannot wait.
so, i’m discovering that things happen when people find out you’re getting married… i’m at the dentist this morning and the gal asks me what i have planned for the summer. i mention that i’m planning a wedding. so we chat about wedding stuff a bit. then i go up to pay and the lady at the desk is asking me about wedding stuff too and says, “oh, for our brides, we give them a free take-home teeth whitening kit. why don’t you come back and get fitted for it?” uh. ok? i mean, i wasn’t planning to whiten my teeth for the wedding or anything, but hey, if it’s free, why not?
in other news – i discovered this website last week and it’s had me laughing ever since. 
so yeah. happy times. hoping for a fast week!
this past weekend i got to spend 4 days in pasadena. ah, it was wonderful! not only because i got to be with zach, but because i have fallen in love with pasadena and i seriously miss it!
the highlight of the trip was going to disneyland – twice! we went all day on friday with some of zach’s sbux friends for a birthday celebration and then again just the two of us sunday evening. the 2nd time we stayed and watched the fireworks show on main street. i seriously can’t remember ever seeing the fireworks show before – it was amazing! anyone who could see my face must have been convinced i was actually a 6 year old in a 26 year old’s body. between the wide eyes, huge grin, and frequent gasps of delight, i fit right in with all the kids around me. haha!
here we are eating lunch on friday in new orleans square (cell phone pic):
here we are at the birthday dinner the following evening:
while i was in pasadena, my mom went and picked up *the* ring!!! and OH.MY.GOSH. it is GORGEOUS!!! it fits perfectly, feels amazing, and has got to be the prettiest piece of jewelry i have ever seen. i’m THRILLED!
however, because i only want to wear one ring, i’m planning to continue to wear the ring zach gave me when he proposed (the one with the family heirloom diamond in it), and we’ll have the stone set into *the* ring shortly before the wedding. that way i still get to have the fun of having a separate engagement ring when all the while still wearing just one ring. brilliant, right? 🙂 but for your viewing pleasure, i did take a couple pictures of my preciou-, i mean, the ring. 😉
in other wedding news… the three of the four major pillars of planning have fallen into place:
– solidify wedding date: check
– reserve wedding and reception location: check
– order dress: check
– finalize guest list: almost…
the guest list is the last thing to be wrapped up. once that’s done, we can really start doing stuff (ordering papers, flourishes, envelopes, printing stuff, etc).
i realized a couple weeks ago – we have to go REGISTER! what FUN!!! i can’t wait! 🙂
all the details and things to work on and do – it’s just thrilling me to the core. seriously, i love, love, LOVE event planning! and being able to plan and put on a major event with your best friend, pretty much just the way you both like it – what could be more fun?!
in the coming months, i’m definitely going to need plenty of help, though. let me know if you’re interested in participating in an “assembly night” (assemblying invitations, programs, favors, etc) or doing any kind of set up or food prep prior to or on the actual day! i’ll take all the help i can get!
129 days to go…
so… this past tuesday night was a “last” for me. it was my last time babysitting (at least on a regular basis) the [chris and tara] daukas kids – taylor (almost 7yrs), trevor (4yrs), and rylee (3yrs). chris and tara are stepping out in great faith and following God’s call for them to plant a sovereign grace church in peoria and they moved out there this past weekend. ::sniff:: it’s been over 4 years of every-other-week babysitting. wow.
these kids are so special to me. taylor was 2 when i started… and now she’s almost 7. during the earlier years, taylor was very, um… “sensitive”? haha! she was easily upset and didn’t handle change very well. she was unbelievably dramatic and over the top about everything. my, how things have changed in 4+ years. taylor has grown into a beautiful little girl, a responsible older sister, a thoughtful friend, and a delightful daughter. she’s still dramatic and does much better with more structure, but she has matured so much and it’s been amazing to watch the transformation from week to week before my very eyes as chris and tara faithfully parented her and trained her, all the while encouraging her strengths and talents.
trevor has got to be one of the cutest little boys on the planet. we often joke that it’s the only reason he’s still around, since he has got quite a will and isn’t always the most compliant of children. haha! oh, but you just can’t help but love him to pieces. the ratio of power struggles to fun memories has – for me, at least – become more and more balanced as he’s grown and developed and responded to chris and tara’s admonishment and encouragement. one of my favorite memories (and a crowning moment in my babysitting history), was getting trevor to go to down (as in, to bed) as an infant when no one else could get him to fall asleep at night without wailing for at least 30-45 minutes.
and then there’s rylee. rylee has been the quintessential third child. she’s just along for the ride, tough as nails, wants to do anything and everything her big sister and brother do, and yet still loves to be the little baby of the family who will cuddle and giggle with you and sleeps with her blankie every night. she’s one of the cutest and sweetest little girls you’ll ever know, and she’s been so fun to hang around and play with as her personality (and will – haha!) have started to really emerge.
so before tuesday i told the kids we would have a little party on my last night to commemorate the ending of an era. well, when i showed up tuesday night, i discoverd that THEY had actually planned a surprise party for me! 🙂
i was greeted at the door by the kids holding green roses (since taylor knows that green is one of my favorite colors).
taylor had drawn me a picture with an acrostic of my name:
(arguably the best one is “red” – haha! i love it!)
and they had even made me a green “[future] mrs boomsma” cake, which totally made me smile. as tara said, what engaged girl doesn’t love seeing her name with her future last name?!” haha! yep!
while we were out playing and riding bikes, trevor picked a flower for me too. aaawww. very sweet. (even though i had to tell him afterwards not to pick any more flowers out of the neighbor’s yard – :
: )
chris and tara, you will be so deeply missed. you’ve been such a large and regular part of my life. from poking fun at me being on the phone with a “certain someone” when you’d come home from date nights, to singles retreat memories and conversations, to leadership conference bonding time with trevor, to late night jokes and laughs that i can’t even remember now and that i’m sure weren’t actually all that funny, we were just all super tired and a little loopy, to overnight stays and girl times with tara when chris was out of town, to awesome spaghetti, to TFS prayer and creative team meetings in your living room. so many memories. in particular, one of the most impacting effects your lives have had on mine is the example of your marriage. one of my secret longings was to have a “married to your best friend” type marriages like what i saw in yours. the kind where you laugh at joke with each other and take texas hold’em cards/chips with you on your date night, or are totally ok with going to IKEA or Costco on date night, just because you love doing anything together. you were best friends first, before you became lovers, and the dynamic that it then brought to your marriage was one i admired and wanted. i’m so happy that God not only blessed me with a man who was one of my best friends before he became the love of my life, but He also gave me a fantastic example to observe and learn from and enjoy and respect for several years beforehand.
you both have been good friends, a faithful pastor (and wife), caregroup leaders, and amazing examples over the last 4+ years. the seeds you planted in my life are bearing fruit already and will continue to do so for years afterwards.
may God bless you both, your family, and Grace Church. i love you all.
(note: pictures taken by tara, who also blogged about this memorable evening here.)
Zach & Andrea 