Newest addition

Nathan and I don't have children - we have plants.

So far we have three boys: Mortimer (Nathan's fuzzy cactus and tiny aloe plant with lots of leaves), Reginald (a medicinal Aloe I got a few months ago) and Winthorp (an aloe plant Bre gifted to me and I adopted on the spot at my bridal shower). There was just one thing missing: a girly plant.

So...I present to you, Abigail!

Married Life

So far, so good.

And by good I mean okay but could be better because I barely see him.

We're both busy, but at separate times, which is kind of lousy :(

On the plus side, the reception is coming up in a couple weeks and we'll get to see some familiar faces :)

Also, the day before the reception Nathan and I are goin to a mutual friend's wedding where (and I've been told by the bride-to-be herself) Corban is going to be dressed in drag...as a bride's maid. I might have to buy extra batteries for my camera.

Count Down...less than 3 WEEKS!!

AAAAHHHHH!!! Where is the time GOING?

Less than 3 weeks to the wedding....can that be RIGHT?

I can't believe that the time is going by so quickly.

Okay - LIST!

Location: booked and paid for

Rings: Both here, paid for and ready to go

Commissioner: booked and the meeting went great (when we walked into her office, Nathan saw we'd interrupted her game of W.O.W.)

Vows and ceremony: re-re-written from original to reflect Nathan and myself and to make the ceremony last more than 5 minutes

Marriage licence: purchased...mwahahaha.

Dress: DONE!

Things to still do:

E-mail our commish the re-worked vows

Get Nathan going on ordering the flowers so he can make my bouquet (and HOW excited am I that he's cool with this? You have NO idea!)

Figuring out what to do afterwards - Mom has suggested an afternoon 'Tea' so we don't have to worry about doing dinner, and more importantly, drinking

What I did on my birthday!

Hahaha....a whole lot of 'not much'.

I woke Nathan up, then went back to sleep for a whopping hour! Then I got up, had my Frosted Mini-Wheats, and sat around reading for a bit. Then I got dressed, played with the puppies for a while and went and torched for a bit:

After I torched, I toddled over to the couch (aka 'Giant Cat Bed') and watched 'Enchanted'. Nathan came in for the opening credits and justed looked at me like I was an insane three year old. Then he came and watched it with me :D

Then we went and had all-you-can-eat sushi with Peter and Reena...nummy goodness that lead to rolling.

Nathan's ring is ready

Thank goodness!

And it weighs a ton...well, not a ton, but more than 1/2 ounce.

And you can't tell from the picture, but the red gold (not pink, or rose, or strawberry, but RED...because it's manly) in the middle band is colour by my blood, sweat and tears.

Not really, but it sounded good.

11.0mm wide, 2.0mm thick...and it even fit him as a bonus.

My Monday

My Monday began as many have...

Alarm goes off at 5:40am to wake Nathan up. Roll over to wake Nathan up. Make Nathan get up out of bed. Go back to sleep for a few hours. Get up around 9, go into the kitchen to do the dishes. Putter around, FaceBook, return e-mails, get a late brekky and get ready to go out to grocery shop. Go to open the door to find that I've got mail from UFV (asses) to celebrate that I've been accepted into their program (thanks, but no thanks...please see previous comment of 'asses'). Go over to the house to tell Mom that I got in to UFV, too (still waiting to hear from SFU *fingers crossed!!*). No mom in house. Ask Kim (contractor fella) where she is. 'She said something about an alpaca being down.' Oh boy. Go out to the barn. Yup, alpaca down. But not just ANY alpaca, it's Toaster, the brave little alpaca that broke her leg about a year and a half ago. She'd gotten down in the mud and couldn't get herself out. So Mom and I take her into the new bathroom in the back of the house (much to protestations from Brant...who ingratiated himself with kind words like 'Shut up, Shannon' when I told the dogs to get away from the freaked out, nearly dead alpaca. Yeah, he's a winner.) and set about to getting her warm and cleaned off. In short, took a few hours (and a *cough* bad hair cut *cough*) but in the end she was a very happy, grateful Toaster.

Yup...typical Monday.

Brave Little Toaster with her really bad hair cut...sorry Toaster!

Update!

So...yesterday was fairly eventful:

Helped mom feed the puppies! (Going to be posting some pics later, but until I do you can see them at: http://www.youtube.com/user/standardpoodlesRfun )

Unpacked the kiln!!! You all have no idea how exciting this was - I got it for my grad prezzie about 2 years ago and have been afraid to unpack it and haul it around from location to location, risking damage every time it's moved. I even programmed the digital controller....I think.

Had the new mattress delivered. The box spring with the mattress on top on my bed frame brings it to about butt height. If I sit on it with my legs hanging over the edge my feet dangle about 8 inches off the ground. Makes me feel like a little kid! :D

Washed, dried, folded and put away about 7 loads of laundry.

And where, gentle reader, was Nathan in all this?

At his second stag with the 'guys' (and his 8 year old nephew), which turned into an all-nighter (well, almost and all-nighter), or so I assumed since Nathan DIDN'T CALL to let me know he wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere. So I'm making brekky today, wandering around kind of pissed off and making a bit of noise, when for whatever reason I poked my head around the corner into the living room. There was Nathan, sound asleep on the couch. He must have gone through the living room door because at about 3 this morning I went and locked the other two, thinking he was going to be out for the rest of the night and I didn't want to be murdered in my sleep and stain my brand new bed with the gore. I took a good look at him and asked what was wrong with his mouth - he peered into the mirror and said it was lipstick. Now, here's where it gets a bit strange: I didn't even *think* it was lipstick from another woman. The first thought that entered my head was 'oh dear gods, what did they make him dress up in last night and where did they parade him?' Turns out the RED lipstick was meant to go with a cute purple number they dressed him up in...with a purple purse to complete the ensemble.


LIST OF THINGS FOR WEDDING!:

Location: booked and paid for

Rings: Both here, just need to do the paperwork so they can be paid for

Commissioner: booked and the meeting went great (when we walked into her office, Nathan saw we'd interrupted her game of W.O.W.)

Vows and ceremony: re-re-written from original to reflect Nathan and myself and to make the ceremony last more than 5 minutes

Marriage licence: purchased...mwahahaha.

Dress: DONE!


Things to still do:
Book apres-ceremony eaty place
Inform guests as to the when/where parts
NOT PANIC...still working on that one.

Saturday....getting closer!

ANOTHER little step coming up.

Nathan and I are meeting with our marriage commissioner this Saturday.

Checklist so far:

Location: booked and paid for
Rings: mine is ready and his has been ordered...again
Commissioner: booked and meeting with her this weekend
Vows and ceremony: re-written from original to reflect Nathan and myself
Marriage licence: purchased...mwahahaha.

Things to still do:
Dress: so far the hunt has been an epic fail
Book apres-ceremony eaty place
Inform guests as to the when/where parts
NOT PANIC...still working on that one.

As most of you know...I went and had my interview with the TEP people for UFV yesterday. Came home *very* depressed and basically went to bed for the night at about 1pm.

I still have yet to hear back from the other schools I've applied to, which is a bit disheartening. This leaves me slogging through work and stumbling through the days in a cloud of sad confusion. I hate waiting.

Taking deep breaths...and little steps...

Good advice was given - take a deep breath, then take another. ;)

So I took a deep breath, then another, then went next door and picked up my marriage license.

And realized that people who don't listen exist all around.

Apparently, 'Sharon' was going to marry Nathan. This was the name the woman put down - while she had my passport in her hand, copying everything from it. *sigh*

Oh well...one more little step in the right direction.

Though I apparently also live in Surrey.

Wedding bands...

So.

*My* wedding band was ready about 2.5 weeks after it went in to the studio. The diamonds came in from Boston. Those took 3 days to ship. The ring is a near perfect match to my engagement ring.

Getting Nathan's wedding band done....is another story all together. Apparently, it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to get a white/red/white gold 11.0mm wide comfort fit band made:

Early February: I send in a request for a quote to have Nathan's band made up by the studio. Now word back for 2 weeks. Faxed it through again and got word back the same day from Cindy that: "Oh, we don't do that, Imperial will do that." Why the HELL doesn't anyone tell me this for the two weeks that have gone by?

Mid February: Fax Imperial with same exact description for the band. A fax comes through a few days later for a white/red/yellow band with a note that they don't solder tri-coloured bands together. The hell? Tri-coloured? Are these people literate? Turns out, no they aren't. Spoke with one of the bubble-brains and had them redo the quote for the PROPER ring colours. Get the proper quote the same day, tell them to move ahead with it. Ahhh...all is right in my world.

Beginning of March: Imperial calls - they can't do the inside round like they QUOTED me TWO and a half WEEKS previous when I gave the go-ahead. Fine - my ;client; is right pissed off that it took two weeks after he gave the deposit and the go-ahead and now they re-neg on their contract. Fuck.

Mid-March: (now-ish) Faxed BACK to the studio for our designer to get a quote on making it. If anyone can figure this out, she can. Also faxed another company in Quebec on the off chance that they could give me a quote for what I want.

Today: Got off the phone with the studio designer - order the rings from Imperial. Have them do the bands, solder them together, and do the grooves on the outside. Then have it sent to the studio to have them round out the inside.

Damn - I feel like I'm running around in an Abbot and Costello skit.

Venue

Yup - got the venue for the ceremony all booked. See? Nathan's holding it for us.

As usual, Nathan was right from the get-go. I was thinking about the area by the cute little heritage schoolhouse, he was thinking about a gazebo or little pond I had no memory of. Of course, my memory extends as far as grade 6 (I think) slogging through the marshy area to examine pond life (and do you think for one second that this gal took to the cloudy waters in her bare feet like she was instructed? Hells no. Not on my life - there were *things* in there that I could actually see....skittering about), and to the horse trails that Dallas and I would ride...back in grade 11.

Sooo....it's been a while.

Nathan scouted the area after I'd put my application to hold a ceremony in the park - and I spoke with the G.V.R.D. lady today to request a slight change in venue. She had absolutely no problem with the change and, in fact, encouraged the area we had now chosen to be the spot we get married at.

Here's the little schoolhouse area - note the lack of any shelter should it rain (though, I'd be that annoying person who doesn't care if I get rained on at my own wedding).

And here's the new, improved venue!

Did I mention there's the cutest little bridge that goes over the stream that leads into the duck pond?

Proof is in the pictures

Yes, I remembered to post pictures of the beads I've done in the past few days.

Why am I here instead of at volunteering? One of Mom's renovation guy's truck is completely blocking me in. I'm hoping to make it for the last half of the day.

These are from practicing how to do that nifty ribbon technique.

Oooohh...Aaaaahhhh

Going back to my roots with the classic 'Rainbow Swirl Bead'

Simple set with Caliente glass in the Deep Purple

New to me - working with silver foil. I've had the stuff for ages, but I've only revently gotten around to doing anything with it.

EEEE!! Stars (that I made myself, thank you very much) and glowy universe to go with it. Actually DOES glow in the dark.

Did this one early in the year...or was it late last year...? Anyways, it's the 'new' yellow from Moretti...I miss my shimmery odd lot yellow.Something fun...
I know I did this one last year, but I only got off my butt in taking a good picture of it now.
Ahhh....l'amour.

More beads, can it be true?

Yes, I know, it's hard to believe...I've made more beads.
That makes two days in a row. Holy cow - two days where I've had time to make anything?! How can that be? The answer is simple: I didn't do any of the chores I assigned myself. No laundry, no cleaning (though I did do dishes....I can't stand a sink full of dishes).

Pictures to follow (you know...for proof).

Actually did some torch work today...

Not a lot, mind you, only 3 beads. And two of them were smallish.

But, hey! It's an improvement over not getting anything done, right?

Here's a few beads that I've done in the past month or so (I'll see if I can get off my butt tomorrow and take pictures of the newest additions) :

Marrying my best friend....best *guy* friend.

Yuppers....in just a few short....Tuesdays.....I'll be marrying Nathan.

Sometimes it just amazes me that we've actually gotten to this point. Not just that we're older (realitively) but that we're grown up enough to realize that it's just each other for....each other. Not that either of us have been big on the relationships in the past, but it's just....is 'neat' a good enough word? I don't think so, but it'll do for the moment....it's just neat that we're taking the next step to solidify our lives together. And it's funny that everyone says 'Oh, marriage is a big step,' when really, for us, it's not.

Then again....This is a fairly typical moment for us.