Soon to be Mrs.Russell Derksen

So the long awaited pictures have arrived! Unfortunately we didn't take any at the actual time or site of our engagement, we, well i guess he forgot the camera but i think that the ring was much more important! Our engagement story starts about a week into the beginning of the fall semester at Briercrest, Russell gave me a love letter that was sealed with wax and in the wax he had stamped the #7 and in the love letter he circled (with a red marker) the letters "W. and I." and each week from then on i would get another letter with another number in descending order from 7 (7,6,5,4 ...) and the letters eventually spelled out "will you marry me"!!!! On the weekend before we went home for our reading week he gave me letter #1 and on the first day of reading week he took me to radium hot springs and we spend the day there relaxing! Then he suggested that we go to the lake at the campground that I grew up at every summer when i was a kid. I, of course, made it difficult for him by saying that going to a campground in october was silly because it was shutdown and we would freeze but he persisted. We went and when we got there all the wind, clouds and coldness was gone and God put on a beautiful sunset for us. So we sat on a piece of land that juts out over the water and dangled our feet over the water while talking about God's blessings and how beautiful His creation. And as the conversation died he gave me letter #0 and said a bunch of nice things (i forget because i was too excited) then he told me to stand up, and then he got on one knee opened the ring box and asked me to marry him!! Then i said "YES" of course and we laughed, cried and prayed!! God is good and has sent me the perfect man!! So even though we have no pictures of this story we had a girl on my dorm hall (Lisa) take a bunch of pictures for our engagement... alot of them are invitation potentials!! I hope you enjoy:



He makes me smile...

High School sweethearts

Old farm love... we're on a tractor

I'm albino... but other than that this is just a casual picture

A creative blurry shot!

Kisses in front of the bridge

He is handsome!

This is just a cute little walking picture

This is a picture of my gorgeous ring!... Russell picked it by himself and if you can't tell from this picture it has 4 small diamonds on each side with a larger diamond in the middle and the band i would say swoops off on either side of the larger diamond! What an amazing man... and ring!

I Got a Promotion... to UPPERCLASSMAN!

Here I am at Briercrest... again! The move was quite smooth, minus the fact that it took me about 2.5 hours to make my Ikea bookshelf because I made it inside out twice. I was originally planning on rooming with Deanna (my roommate for last year) but since the hall had an open room and upperclassmen are allowed their own room... I now have my own room!!! It is just great! And for those of you who are impatient and are only reading this to see if i'm engaged yet... the answer is no... so read on!!! It has been great having him here though, he has taught me alot already and been alot of support and encouragement! He loves it here too and has more friends than me and has only been here 3 weeks!! We both serve at Joe's Place in Moose Jaw, Joe's Place is a place run by Joe (hence the name) where troubled youth of Moose Jaw come to hang out and we build relationships with them, encourage them, play with them and if given the opportunity share the gospel with them!! But anywho... I know that the most exciting part of blogs is the pictures so here you are...

Caitlin Coleman, Tara Pope and Me getting
pumped to go to the train bridge. Train Bridge what?
You sit with your legs hanging off of a bridge that
the train goes under and as the train comes closer
and closer it looks like it's going to hit you!! And
as it drives under it blows you pant legs everywhere!
Oh the fun of Caronport!

Russell and I at the Point (the "hang out" with
a Subway, Starbucks and Gas Station). We were
watching a movie on a laptop and were getting
bored!


Melanie Snider, Rachel Lawson and I at the
Starfield concert that was in the chapel at
Briercrest! Mel and Rach were here last semmester
but i'm just getting to know them now and
love them tons! Rach is one of the RA's (hall leader)!
These girls are both awesome and love the Lord and
encourage me in my walk as well.

This is a random picture of Russell and his friend
Aaron at the Starfield concert! What funny guys!

This is me post-haircut! A girl (Erica) on the hall
was a hairdresser for a year before coming to Briercrest
so she gave me a sweet, free haircut!! Plus she's the
funniest girl that I've ever met!!!

Well I hope all is well with everyone in the real world!! See you soon

Summer 06... Oh how fast it goes!

Russell and I took some pictures after we attended
a wedding in Didsbury, Alberta. It was SUCH
a hot day and the wedding was simple but beautiful,
Paul Brandt and his wife Liz sang at the wedding.
We decided that since we put the work into getting
dressed up we better take pictures as it was just
inevitable.

Secret...

Would you believe he got that shirt for only
$9.00 ... it looks like a million bucks on him!!

He tricked me into thinking it was a serious picture...


Speachless...
We are both really excited to move past this summer... work has been hard and it will be nice to be in a close vacinity of each other for more than a day or two. Briercrest is something that we both look forward to oh so often.

Aurora Borealis?

Wow the moon is awesome... it lights up the
entire picture. We are looking at the northern
lights and the moon lit up the entire picture.
Left-Right= Joelle, me, Wee Wee, Jesse.
It was an amazing night.

God is sooo beautiful.

There is even hints of purple, and no these
pictures are in no way edited... we watched
northern lights dance and fill the sky
for about 30minutes.

You win Saskatchewan, I mean sure all
the rest of the provinces have hills and
landscapes but your skies make up for
it and more.

Regina Trip

Regina trip... (l-r) Wee Wee, Jo, Todd, Me, Jesse

Jo, and I looking GREAT in SAFEWAYS...
I don't think we even bought anything there it
was just nice to be in a real grocery store

Me and me Dilly Bar... we match

Jo, she's kind of afraid of ice cream

Todd and Wee Wee... such blue eyes she has

Hip-hop, Ichiban and Sunsets

(left to right) Annie, Scott Reimer (non-hockey,there are
2 scott reimers, one plays hockey one does not), and Jesse Theissen.
We were at our school's dance/hip-hop team's show.

Dorm-date, we made that entire bucket full of
ichiban noodles... sooo gross. I tried to put a whole handful in
my mouth... did not work.

The bucket of noodles and everyone eating it communaly.

Dorm-date playing Kickball. It was super fun...

Saskatchewan Sunset... no more words.

Birthdays, ET and BEAUTIFUL Sunday

Me pretending to be E.T. and hiding in Michele's closet so that
I can scare her... and it worked!! "Ouch"


Emma(left) and Michele (right)... they are so
beautiful and such amazing women!

Oh gee... well we got in a mud fight and clearly we lost...
it looks like I died my hair brown!! At one point
my nose was plugged and I couldn't open my eyes
because there was so much mud on my face.

Lacey's suprise birthday, her sister Shanda(also on my hall)
brought her to BP's and our whole hall was there waiting for her.
In the picture (far left-right) Jaynee, Breanna, Shanda, Jill, Me, Deanna

Post-church picture, Michele and I almost match...
oops! It was a super beautiful day out though and we
couldn't resist wearing skirts... plus the
picture was inevitable since we are both midgets!
I love her!

WOW we match a super lot...not on purpose!! (Another
post-church picture) from left to right is Michele, Jill, Sarah,
Annie, Jo, Wee Wee, Me, Taryn. I don't think that I knew the
picture was being taken.

WHIT 3

(left to right) Me, Sarah,Taryn, Rachel(lower), Shanda, Annie
I may or may not have just had a nap....

Me, Michele and Annie when it was super cold out... probably minus 25 at least.

Me, Tood (aka Todd) and Annie during YQ. They make me laugh alot!!!

My Room and Hall. WHIT 3.

The above is a crooked picture of my wall and all the pictures on it.
(my bed is just below where the picture ends).

This is the "lounge" at the end of our hall where we pull the
1970's couches together and watch movies on the baby tv.
It's great!!!

My amazing photography skills are coming out in this picture,
It is a picture of the start of our hall. The first door on the left is
Deanna and my room and there are 13 other rooms on this part of the hall and 3 other rooms
not in the picture. We get to paint on the walls with wash-off paint so it doesn't
look like prison... i like it!

This is the outside of Deanna and my room, everyone on the hall painted
our names on the wall outside our door as you can see.... and we use white-board markers
to leave each other notes on the walls. From this picture you can KIND OF see into my room,
My closet door is open and it looks confusing.

And lastly this is my bed, it is very comfortable and Deanna's bed is just across
the room, to the right of this picture. We also have desks and windows but my pictures
of those were even worse than these... sorry!

I will miss living here during the summer but it will also be nice to get out of Caronport!
I also miss warmth alot, it is constantly windy here and even when it does heat up enough
to melt the snow the dirt roads turn to mud, good old Saskatchewan roads.
It is just nuts to think that I won't be seeing alot of the girls that I have lived with these 4months again. Most are not coming back next year or a few that are coming back are
not living in dorms. God has taught me alot through the women here and I will miss them this summer, but i also look forward to a great adventure this summer...
Colossians 3:23
Jenni Simpson