More To come.... stay tuned!

We're Married!!!!

Well the big day is over, and what a wonderful one it was!!! Everything went really, really well!! We left after the recpetion to drive to Omaha for our honeymoon! We are currently sitting in the Dallas airport waiting for our flight to Mexico!! We cannot wait to post wedding photos once we get home!.. stay tuned! :)
Thanks everyone for a great day!
We will be sure and catch a few rays for ya!!


signed.. MRS. Van Baren!!!

3 days!

I remember when my countdown said "120 days" I was sure that it would never actually come! Well.. only 3 days left! (2.5 actually!)

Todd's parents are coming today, they will be here in about an hour. Todd is coming here after work tonight, and then the festivities will begin!! My bridesmaids are coming on Thursday to do nails etc! then set up the church, and then rehearsal!

Then Friday is the big day!!! I cannot wait for the day that I can post wedding photos on here!! ;)

By the way- fun tid-bit.. this picture is one of the weekend that we met for the first time!!!!! He came to SD to visit me.. and this was our first "datish" weekend! I knew already that weekend that I wanted to marry this guy!!! He was so outstandingly sweet, kind, and genuine!

What else has been filling my time this Spring????

I am also the girls golf coach at SFC. And this spring, we had an awesome season! We won two meets, and took 2nd place in 4 meets. A huge accomplishment this year was making it to the state golf tournament!! State was yesterday and today- we finished in 5th place as a team! They played really well, I am so proud of them!

So with the golf season now over, my master's degree finished (graduation is this coming weekend!), and school ending tomorrow (report cards still need to be stuffed in the envelopes yet!)....... I will finally be able to focus, and prepare for the WEDDING!!!!.. which is only 10 short days away!!!!! wahooo!!!!

Saying our sad good-byes!

The girls said they started a fund to keep me here as their coach.. and not move to Chicago. Then they came up with the plan that I only have to come back to SD for 8 weeks every spring to coach. They promised that Todd wouldn't care! :)

We had a great year- and great (FUNNY!) memories!! I am going to miss coaching next year! This was really fun!! :)

Todd and Karla's LAST visit before the Wedding!

Our last date, was a hike and picnic at the Palisades Park in Garretson, SD. This is a place that I always take my 4th graders for a field trip. We went just last week, and I wanted so badly to go with Todd!

We had so much fun hiking and wondering around.
We were so adventurous. It was soo beautiful out there!!

This is the "Devil's Kitchen" the Indians used to do all of their cooking down at the bottom-since there was no wind down there! Todd wanted to hike on down!


This is where we sat and ate our picnic lunch! It was so romantic:) We talked about the wedding, and how excited we are to spend our lives together!!!!!!!

TODD'S ROCK CLIMBING ADVENTURE!!!!

HE MADE IT TO THE TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The top of the 4 foot ledge!! WHOO HOOO!!! Go Todd!!;)

This was a great way to close the weekend! Our last good-bye was not even that sad! I get to see him in two and a half weeks, and he will then be my husband!!!!!!

Todd's trip home on I-80 yesterday

*Yesterday Todd drove home from a quick weekend here. On his way home he heard a loud boom, and looked back in his rear-view mirror and saw balls of fire, and smoke. This is the news story about what happened.
I am SOOOO thankful he was not 1 minute behind schedule--- that could have been HIM!! Ohh it gives me chills... If he wasn't going at that exact speed, or if I would have talked him into staying 2 more minutes- or if I would have given him ONE more hug during our good-bye...
In God's providence, Todd made it safely home!! God was watching over him! WOW!!!


DAVENPORT --- Two people died and at least one was injured in a fiery four-vehicle accident that shut down Interstate 80 from Interstate 74 to the Illinois border for more than three hours Monday night.Three of the vehicles burst into flames after the accident about 6:15 p.m. at Mile Marker 305, about one mile west of the Mississippi River near LeClaire. Ambulances, fire departments and hazardous materials crews were called to the scene. Billowing, black smoke could be seen from a distance.The names of the victims were not being released early today by the Iowa State Patrol, pending notification of relatives.The patrol said a semitrailer driven by Anthony L. Johnson, 34, of Arlington, Texas, struck a line of vehicles stopped on I-80 eastbound as they approached a bridge construction zone.The semitrailer struck the rear of a 1989 Chevrolet Corvette, pushing it into the south ditch. It then struck the rear of a 2003 Chevrolet van, pushing it into the rear of another semi, driven by Todd Iagulli, 39, of Westampton, N.J. The first semi ended up in the median.The names of the drivers of the car and van were not released.Gary Martin of Bradley, Ill., who witnessed the accident, said the eastbound lane of traffic was backed up because of construction on the I-80 bridge that narrows traffic to one lane each direction across the bridge. A Corvette and van were stopped behind a semitrailer, when a second semi failed to slow down and rear-ended the van, sending it into the back of the Corvette, he said. The van and the car went into the ditch and were engulfed in flames.The semi that rear-ended the van then sideswiped the other semi before going into the ditch and bursting into flames as well, Martin said.He said rescue workers still were trying to remove victims from the Corvette after 9 p.m. and had already removed one burn victim from the van. Another man and woman who were thrown from one of the vehicles were taken away by ambulance, he said.“The flames were pretty intense,” Martin said. “We couldn’t tell who was in the (vehicles). There was too much fire. There was nothing left of them.”Shortly before 9:30 p.m., emergency crews were pulling the last vehicle from the ditch and all of the fires had been extinguished, Martin said. The fire was so hot, it burned the paint off the van, which was being loaded onto a wrecker late Monday.The interstate reopened to traffic about 9:40 p.m.

Wedding To-do!

Wedding completion this weekend:

* Dress first fitting

*Florist meeting

*Reception meeting #1

* Wedding music choosen

*Church decorations completed

*Thank-you gifts wrapped

*Making wedding jewlery

*New honeymoon clothes!!

*Made unity candle

Wedding To-Do:

* Final fittings

*Reception meeting #2 and#3

* Meet with cake dude

*Reception agenda

*Figure out our honeymoon

*Wedding Programs

*Grandparent's candles

*Practice hair appt.

*Get marriage licence

*Figure out how I am going to move all of my stuff to Chicago!!!

*wait for May 29!!!!!!!!!

What am I forgetting?????

SWINE FLU???????

OK, so can anyone enlighten me a bit about this stupid swine flu??? It sounds to me like it is just like the flu??? (People die from the flu, too.) Todd and I are thinking about our honeymoon- to MEXICO, in one month. DO you think it will be cleared up by then??? Any advice?!?!?

Our travel agent said that we couldn't really switch our destination this late- but we could go to Siberia, Russia for minimal fees!!!! HAHAH... No thanks to Siberia!!!!

So input? advice? Cuz we are stressing out about this. (OK, I am ... Todd says we will go no matter what! haha..)

All Grown Up!

Here is a sneak-peak to our wedding video!

Two cuties, finally all grown up and ready to get married! Looking back at all of our old pictures, I can't help but wonder what our kids will look like! Todd has such great blue eyes- but I am VERY doubtful our kids will have any:(

Todd Micheal, 3 1/2 years old! What a doll. He looks like such a good kid.

I bet he never did anything wrong... look at that face!!!
Karla, 2 yr old. My mom swears that I never went through the "terrible twos"... hahah.

As I was looking through all of my child-hood pictures, I had to laugh because I ALWAYS had to have jewelry on! Each picture I had a necklace, bracelet,(or several at once)... and I thought hmmm.. I guess some things never change! :)

Shower Weekend!

This past weekend both sides of aunts gave me a shower. It was nice because then Todd's family could make it down for both of them in one trip! Todd's mom and sister-in-law Karen were able to come down with him! Tiffany was planning on coming until she got sick kids- and ended up getting sick herself. It was a very very nice weekend- I couldn't believe all the nice things that we got! And it was nice to have Todd here this weekend- for a little while at least! :)

Shower number 1- Te Slaa shower

Te Slaa Aunts who threw the shower (and Giant Karla!)
Mother-in-law, Mother, and Karla
Small- medium- large!

Sister-in-laws!

This was (after) the shower, when Todd came back! We did not try to color- coordinate!

I got the griddle Todd wanted! He didn't think that a good breakfast could be made without one!! haha. (no promises that a good breakfast will be made even WITH one!! haha)

Shower number two- Klein shower!
This was Christmas- themed. They wrote in everyone's invitation that Karla's favorite thing (besides Todd) is Christmas- so come in a Christmas sweater, and wrap the gift in Christmas paper! One of my gifts was a tub fulllll of Christmas decorations! Ohh how fun!!

These are my two Klein aunts (Aunt Val, and Aunt La Jean) who threw the shower for me, look at all the delicious food!!!! YUM!!!!!

Klein shower


Haha- really liked this, I guess!

Klein shower- Christmas theme!

Personal Shower!

This past weekend my Maid of Honor threw me a Personal Shower! It was such a blast! Thanks guys!!

Jenny and I, and my book of advice!

Everyone taking the quiz from Todd. What will he say!!??

The whole gang, ready for dessert!

Everyone at the HuHot!! YUMMM!!!

Jenny me and Annette!

Our team WHOOOPED the other team at The Family Feud! :)!!

Todd's 4th grade field trip!

This past weekend Todd came to visit! Yay! (March 13)
He came about 10:00pm on Friday night. We went to the St. Patty's parade on Saturday, and to the Brummels, for our last meeting! (We passed- we can get married hehe!) We did a few more things for the wedding on Saturday, and on Sunday had a fun game night with "the gang!" hahaOn Monday- he was going to go home at 10:00 am- but I talked him into staying until lunch. Then after lunch, our class was taking a field trip to listen to the SD symphony at the Washington Pavilion. And after a (small amount!) of pleading he decided to stay for our field trip! He arrived home safely at midnight last night:)
Todd with the 4th graders!

Everyone wanted to sit by Todd on the bus- but I was TOO selfish!!!!

Us at the Symphony

Todd and his new friends!!

Wedding Assembly Weekend!

What a productive weekend!! First of all, my mom and I assembled some flower arrangements for decorations. This was a lot of fun!!! (This is our "wedding room" hahaha AKA spare/nursery room!!)

That's my wedding dress in the background!!! wahoo

We thought that we needed more weight at the bottom of the arrangements so that they weren't too top heavy! SO I kindly asked my dad if he would go out in the snowstorm and get us some rocks!! Haha- he did! (Although he could have put a coat on--!!)

Helpful dad! collecting his rocks!!!

Two of my bridesmaids Jenny and Annette- sensed that I was getting a bit stressed with things, (wedding, and finishing my thesis!) SO they asked if they could come and help me! And boy oh boy did we put them to work!! Thanks again guys!!

We assembled all of our invitations as well as 300 wedding favors!!!! So nice to check them off the list!!

Wedding favors--

This was our last thing of the night- so we were working on these at about 11:45pm and as the night went on, our famous line was "Oh, it will be dark in there- don't worry about it!!!" hahah

FYI- the groom's boxes have more candy! haha

Annette said- life isn't fair!- Times are tough! hahah Oh what a fun evening!

Dad saw we were having so much fun- so he wanted to join in on the fun!!

We're finished!!! My dad made perfect boxes, with a middle layer pad for all 300 party favors!!