jbaxter’s blog

Have you ever had an experience where you are going along and living your life when all of a sudden you realize that both yourself and the friends you've known for years suddenly seem to be grown up?  It hits you out of the blue: wow, this is us as adults.  Where did the time go?  The girl I was in Brownies with (it seems like just the other week) has a son old enough to enter Beavers.  My little sister is turning 30 this year.  I'm getting married and we're planning a family.  Where did the time go?  Have I wasted too much time doing things that don't really matter?  And who is keeping track of what matters?  How do I decide how I want to spend the rest of my life so that I know that each minute counts in a worthwhile manner? 

Maybe I'm being too philosophical but I swear I grew a decade older this afternoon and I'm not sure how to feel about that. 

It seems that our wedding webpage is feeling in better.  Tonight I checked to see if it was there...and it was! :)   I'm guessing that sometimes The Knot is overwhelmed and the site crashes.  This is wedding season and I'm sure that there are lots of people using the site.  So please go ahead and visit us!!

http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=3295258950329721 

If it happens to not be working when you visit it then I advise trying it again later. 

As the title of this posting says...our wedding webpage that we've told all our guests about is broken.  (No, this is not a premonition for our upcoming nuptuals)  It seems that "The Knot" is revamping the way it does things so that they can make more money and as such no longer wants to offer free websites.  In trying to access our page, Jenn has come across many advertisements for "personalized" paid websites but we both liked the free one that we had.  We thought it served us just fine.  Hopefully we'll have it up and running soon. 

Love Jenn and Keith

Here is the link to our wedding webpage:  http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=3295258950329721

We are getting married in 6.5 months and I'm getting excited!!  I leave for BC in less than a week to do lots of planning with my wedding planner and bridesmaids.  I'd love to have a get-together with the girls to connect and relax.  Also while I'm out in BC I'm going to volunteer with Nite Hike for Scouts Canada.  This makes it the 4th year I've hung out in the woods in the middle of the night and it's so awesome...when it doesn't rain.  Take a look at our wedding page and feel free to leave a comment.  No password is needed to get onto the page. 

I am sooooo far behind in updating this blog so soon I will fill it with tons of pics and videos :)

For example, here is a picture of Keith's jeep under the recent snow fall.  I like how the snow sort of fell off the side window but then froze in place.

Jeep in snow

Below are photos of all of our furkids.

From left to right: Buzz, Taboo, Muffin, Koda

Rest of our new house

This is the first video  of our new place.  There is still lots of work to be done.

Picture 005

This is a picture of one of the bathrooms in my old place.  I used to have the litter box in that bathroom (easy to recognize as the box of cat litter on the floor).  When I was walking by one time I noticed that one of my cats (I'm sure it was Muffin) had pulled down some toilet paper from the roll.  I found this extremely funny!  Without her knowing it she had used TP for a good reason!  Usually she just unrolls the roll.  I'd like to think that she was using it like the little human she thinks she is.

I guess this VOX thing is newer than I thought.  I thought that I was slow to get onto this thing and that there would be tons of people on it and some of those people would already be talking about the SCA and I could get some cool ideas on what to do and where to do it.  See, I dated this guy about 2 years ago that introduced me to the SCA and I've been to events and practices occasionally since (and I haven't been scared away yet) but I can't call myself a member or a regular.  I can't tell you the difference between a barony or a principality except that one starts with a "b" and the other with a "p".  My reason for going is the socialization, the fun, and the dressing up!  It's the whole adult version of make-believe and I love it!  If anyone is out there who is involved any which way with Montengarde then drop me a line.  I don't have a SCA name; just call me by my mundane name: baxter.

I've reached the 2 month mark of being away from home and that's not all that bad but we've just made the decision that we won't be going home for Thanksgiving weekend and that's the bad part.  At least that's part of what lead to my crying today.  The other parts were: stress over not being able to pay for university until my condo sells; stress of my condo not selling; stress of living in a rental that's failed 2 electrical inspections and not having somewhere else to move to; stress of trying to focus on picking a venue for our wedding next year in order to get my mind off of our housing situation; and it just keeps going on.  Getting engaged is supposed to be this wonderful time of my life where I can plan my future and get all giddy over lacy things with my girlfriend and instead I'm a whole other province away from the all where I know no one but my fiancee (and he's great and all but not as much fun as girlfriends at the bridal expos).  Then I've got my actual studies to focus on which are the reason I'm even here in the first place: to go to the right university for me and my future career!  What career?  Today I just want to get pregnant and have babies and forget all about making money and being a liberal woman.  I didn't feel too liberal when I was curled up in fetal position crying on my bed about how I was missing my family and friends.  We'd better be able to go home for Christmas or we won't be going home for just a visit; rather I'll be packing up and going home for good.  (It's neither of our's individual decision to keep us both here but rather couple-decision-making-about-us-liking-the-choice-eating-next-week-and-the-price-of-airplane-tickets-over-holiday-weekends)  I'm grumpy and I'm coming down with some Albertan bug and I've been tired everyday no matter how much sleep I get.  We've both been sick with stomach issues since we got here.  I blame this house.  I should get the water tested.  I should report this place to the fire department and city hall.  I should move out.  I should go home for Thanksgiving.