Sunset Dinner Cruise Photos - March 11th 2011

Yes, I am still alive!

Hey all,

YES I AM STILL ALIVE!!!!

I really have been slack on the blog updates and have not blogged in over a month - life has just been so busy and have really been trying to concentrate on study and get my priorities sorted.

Okay, so where to begin.....

Study has been going well... I last blogged at the beginning of March which was like the end of the first week of uni for 2011. Lots of readings have been done, assignments are slowly happening and now I am currently enjoying mid-semester break. Will give more details later....

The weekend of March 11-13, was a fantastic one....

For Christmas and his birthday in Decemeber, I had given Nathaniel and voucher for a sunset dinner cruise over the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland. We realised at the beginning of March that this voucher would expire by the end of the month and our weekends were already looking quite busy so decided to go on our cruise that particular weekend.

It was such an awesome feeling, being back up in Auckland again and just relaxing. We realised that at that point in time, we were actually not on NZ Soil at all and we were totally loving that feeling.

It was strange have dinner on a boat at first as you could feel the boat going up and down on the water while trying to eat but overall it was a fantastic night and we throughly enjoyed this - it was neat to be able to celebrate a belated Birthday and Christmas with my fiancé.

Another neat thing about the cruise was that we were able to go past Bastion Point (where Nathaniel and proposed back in January) and see things from a different perspective. Honestly, the cruise was so magical - it was amazing.

Will post some photos in my next blog.

While on the cruise, we got a message from the Captain around 9pm that there had been a massive Earthquake in Japan earlier that evening. You really had not seen a cellphone all evening until the captain mentioned this and then it was amazing to see how quickly cellphones/ipods etc came out and people were connecting with friends and family - making sure that everyone was safe.

The cruise finished about 10pm and then we started the drive back to Hamilton. We were both quite tired so were lucky that we had packed sleeping bags etc in the car as we ended up stopping just outside Huntly to get some sleep.

A night of tossing and turning, cold shakes and then being totally warm again and I woke up at 4ish am. After a while, feel back asleep again and then woke up somewhere around 5.

Got back on the road and then headed towards Hamilton. We were so tired and cold that we just wanted something to eat so it was time for a Maccas breaky before heading back to Taurima.

After the breakfast, we ended up going to a couple of Garage Sales and a quick trip to the supermarket and then I had to say goodbye to my handsome fiancé before I would see him again on Saturday morning.

It was interesting how much i ended up sleeping that Saturday afternoon and how lazy I felt - clearly it was due to a restless night.

Anyway, better finish this blog now before I head off in a totally different tangent.

Love you all,

xxxx

Brief catch up of life

Hello to all my wonderful fellow blogers and my awesome blog followers!

Oh how I have missed you all. Sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Life has certainly been going full speed for the last month or so and its hard to think that I have now been engaged for over 2 months!!!!!! Yikes, I feel like im getting older by the second - well, literally I am but you know what I mean.

So what has been happening in the wonderful life of Kathryn Allison Stewart? Hehe, that is only my name for a few more months so I guess I better use it as much as I can without wearing it out :)

So, as you all know... it was a very busy Christmas time and I was working at Totara Springs all summer long.

I got engaged on New Years Day 2011 up in Auckland and was expecting it but at the same time, not expecting it. Read the blogs about the proposal for more info :)

I also went to Parachute Christian Music Festival (with my fiancé and stayed with his family due to my tent being a failure).

I stayed at Totara Springs till Wednesday 3rd Feb and then it was time for Nathaniel and I to road trip it down to Palmerston North to prepare for our parents meeting each other for the first time, the next day. This was the first time that we had seen either of our parents since we got engaged so it was really a chance to catch up with everyone in person and had a few big discussions. To tell the truth and be completely honest, I was totally freaking out about this after a few conversations that had been had between family members over the past month or so. The meeting of both sets of parents seemed to go much better the I expected and once again I had totally over exaggerated how bad it would be - it was great actually and now I am fully looking forward to being a member of the Feldon Family (despite how scared I may be at times).

We had a fantastic time down in Palmerston North (and the short time we spent in Levin) and enjoyed having time off work/not having any responsibility for a few days (apart from each other) and just relaxing. Spending time with Nathaniel's brother (Philip) his girlfriend as well as flatmate (Donna) is always a highlight of these trips and as usual, we had a fantastic time with these two. What an awesome couple they are - hope that they too will get married some day :)

From here we then travelled up to Hastings on the Saturday morning and caught up with more people, went out to look at things for our wedding and also booked the church for a couple of dates as we were not sure when our wedding would be at that stage.

Saturday night involved going over to Taradale for Troy Henderson and David Stewart's engagement party which was very cool - it was a great chance to catch up with people I had literally not seen in months and also got to ask Troy at the same time if she would like to be one of my bridesmaids. Their engagement party was awesome and it was quite neat that it was all held in a backyard with just a couple of marquees/gazebos up and it worked well. Got a couple of ideas for our engagement party later in the year too.

Sunday was going to be a big day as it was the day that I had to move into Taurima Hostel so that I could start my wonderful RA training. Because of this, we decided that we would drive up to Matamata from Taradale that night so we left at about 9:30pm and arrived in Matamata at about 1:15am. Got a good sleep, packed up the car and then it was time to drive over to Hamilton for church at ARISE and then enjoy moving day.

So that was the last week of Jan and the first week of Feb. More blogs to come with more excitement later.

Engagement Ring Photos

Let the planning begin

I was proposed to just over 2 weeks ago and today, I had a smile as big as I did at 2pm on New Years Day 2011.

A week or so ago, I ordered a Wedding Planning Booklet online from amazon.com and was getting it shipped to me in Matamata. Today the Wedding Planning Booklet/Folder arrived and that smile from New Years Day, was once again on my face - bigger and brighter than ever.

There is so much information to scan through and so much to do but I can now start planning and preparing for MY WEDDING :)

As for other things in life, we are now up to Kids Camp at Totara Springs and things are going well. Today was a day off for my fiance and I so we were very grateful to get offsite for a while and just breathe. Also, hopefully my engagement ring will be back in my pocession either tomorrow or on Thursday (which would be pretty amazing) as it is now on its way back to Matamata.

Not sure if there is too much more gossip to report or not apart from things are being finalised for this year in Taurima Hostel - so so excited and praise God for good news about all of this.

2011 is going to be AH MAZE ING and super busy but it is a year that I am looking forward to very very muchly! Lets bring on all the challenges that 2011 will put in my path.

Love and blessings to all,

xxxxxxxx

...THE STORY....

Okay, so lots and lots of people have been wanting to know how Nathaniel proposed so I thought that I would do a blog update here with "THE STORY" and you can all read it as you please and refer back to it if you so desire at a later date :)

So we both had the day off work and travelled up to Auckland to just enjoy and spend the day with each other.
When we got to Auckland, he had organised for us to have a romantic picnic for lunch in one of the Bays just around the corner from Kelly Tarltons. After we had lunch, we ended up heading around the corner to Kelly Tarltons and got to see penguins etc which was pretty cool. (http://kellytarltons.co.nz/)

Then after doing a tour and a few other things at Kelly Tarltons, we headed up to Bastion Point which overlooks Rangitoto Island and most of Auckland Harbour. I was taking photos and meanwhile unbeknown to me, Nate was looking around for a place to get down on one knee. He thought he had found the perfect spot and then a busload of tourists arrived and so he quickly changed his mind :)

Ended up walking around the beautiful gardens there and taking more photos. He pointed out a nice place to take a photo through the trees and stuff and so I got out my camera and meanwhile he was getting down on one knee.

Apparently I was taking too long to take the photo and he was tapping me on the back and trying to get my attention for me to turn around. I said "hold on" and finished taking the photo and then turned around and there was my boyfriend down on one knee and holding out a box with an amazing ring in it.
"Will you marry me?" was what he said and I was so surprised. He said afterwards it looked like I was going to pass out. lol

I was jumping up and down and at the same time telling him over and over "you are not doing this". lol It took me about 2 mins to actually calm down and then he got up and said "I take that as a no then?" I was like "no no no..... ah I mean of course its a YES".

Afterwards he hugged me and said that he thought he had better start out 2011 the way he wants the rest of this year and the rest of his life to be :)

I didn't cry but I must admit, I was pretty close.

No date is officially set yet so please do not ask that one just yet but will let you all know asap.

So yea, that is the story and yes there will be pictures to follow but the ring is currently being resized so I can't quite get a photo of that on here for you right now but good things take time so be patient :)

A dream come true :)

I must say that New Years Eve and New Years Day of 2010/2011 has certainly been THE BEST New Years that I have ever had.

Its quite funny actually as I remember when I was younger, I used to sit at home on New Years Eve and our family did not used to do that much at all. I would usually watch a movie that would be on tele and then once it got dark enough, would either head outside or to the window and watch the fireworks going on from a distance. I would always say to myself that one year, I would be right there when fireworks were going off, that I would be dancing the night away and welcoming in the New Year with lots and lots of excitement - rather than watching a movie and falling asleep before midnight :)

New Years Eve 2010 and New Years Day 2011 were certainly the time for that to all come true.

On New Years Eve, I was helping out my man in the kitchen, attempting to tray up 400ish meringues for the supper at the Family Camp that we were having here at Totara Springs. We also watched a movie after doing the supper and then headed over to the Gym around 11:30pm for the last half an hour of the dance that was happening over there and to get ready for the countdown to midnight. It was so awesome just to be able to spend the New Year with my man and all the rest of the Totara Springs family, doing something other than just watching a movie.

We counted down to midnight and a the strike of midnight, 400 balloons fell from the celling and landed on the floor - now just so you know, this was a massively high celling so it actually looked spectacular. We had just walked out onto the dance floor just before the countdown so were able to have balloons fall down on us as the clock struck midnight and since the lights were off at the time, there was also maybe a slight bit of tonsil tennis that went on as well as a "Happy New Year" or two. After that it was outside to watch the fireworks and welcome in the New Year.

15mins later, after a fantastic start to the New Year, it was time to head off to the land of nod and try and get some sleep. Well that was what my flatmate (Sala) and I had intended but our plans soon changed and we had an incredible discussion about 2010 and all that God had done for us as well as so much more. Eventually we got to sleep around 1am and then woke up again around 8ish. No wonder we were tired that day.

New Years Day of 2011 is one that I will remember for years and years and years to come. I thought it was just going to be my boyfriend and I heading up to Auckland for a day off and relaxing offsite and just enjoying each others company while celebrating the New Year. Haha, well it was that as well as so much more.

We travelled up to Auckland as boyfriend and girlfriend that morning but when we headed back to Matamata.....

Well lets just say that we were no longer boyfriend and girlfriend. :(

For some reason though, I was not too sad about this part because I was now ENGAGED and had a FIANCÉ!!!!!

At last, all my dreams of an incredible New Years Eve and New Years Day had come true. It was a great trip back to Matamata that day and still a week later, the smile from New Years Day, is still bright and clear on my face.

Nathaniel Charles Feldon, I LOVE YOU!!!!!

What made this even better was when I got back to Totara Springs and had celebrated with people, when I was heading to bed around 11pm, I got a txt to say that one of my best friends from High School had been proposed to and her and her man were now also engaged - that wa one we had all been waiting for :)

Stay tuned for more info about the proposal and photos will also follow.