In Loving Memory...

Merry Christmas Murphy!

Looks like the duck fits him!! :)

My Sister Stole My Snow!

I hope she enjoys it!!

My Nephew - Before The Incident

Getting a little trim by ol' Dad!

My Nephew Vs. The Table

As my sister said... You should have seen the other guy! The other guy being a table and totally unharmed but still! Saddest picture ever! He better heal quickly... He's got ring bearer duties to perform. Aunt Brittany and Future Uncle Ian send their booboo kisses - with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background.

Beaker Is Awesome

It's Winter Baby!

Time for funny hats and jackets that look like sleeping bags!

More Affairs Coming Out Of The Woodwork

More Proof Of The Drunk Wagon Ride

At least he removed the tell-tale sippy cup from the cup holder.

My Nephew - The Drunk Wagoner

Lay off the sauce little dude before you jump into your brand new wagon. Aaaa-dorable.

I... Uhm... What...?

You Just Have To Laugh

Ian and I got into bed last night at 10:00pm. He turns to me and goes "So, do you know what the status of your work permit is"? I told him that they are behind in processing... I'm here on an implied status... I probably won't hear from them until January... He said "Oh god... we may not be able to go on our honeymoon". Yeah, that's right, at 10:00pm on a Sunday night Ian drops that bombshell on me. Sadly, he is pretty much correct. If I don't get my paperwork before our honeymoon I may not be able to re-enter the country. At this point... it's really out of my hands. I am definitely not postponing my honeymoon because of this. I will try to be prepared as possible - bring a copy of our marriage certificate, my work contract, a copy of my application, a copy of the implied status, etc. I just can't handle any more stress. You kind of have to laugh about it. Best case they send me through. Best worst case they pull us aside and question us more in depth before sending us through. Worst case... I don't know... they force me to go to California and wait for the paperwork? Not completely the end of the world.

A Year Ago Today...

I crossed the border into Canada. I can't believe it's been a whole year. I'm currently missing my mom and California like crazy. Ian and I are going to start planning a trip out there soon. Just have to get through all the wedding stuff and expenses.

Complain And Ye Shall Receive

...at least a little bit of snow.

Meet Hannelore

She is my favorite character in a webcomic we read called Questionable Content. I like her mainly because she is me. I worry. A lot. If you bet $1 that the moment you're reading this I'm concerned about my heart rate or the wedding or the first time it's going to snow or the price of shipping to the states or the odd pain in my shoulder or the amount of time until x event or my asthma or Ian's tooth or ANYTHING ELSE THAT CAN HAPPEN IN LIFE... you would be $1 richer. I even worry about the fact that I'm worrying (YES, I'm very aware of how stupid I am being). I don't want this to slip into full on anxiety. I can still sleep at night... for the most part. I feel overwhelmed and yet pissed off that I'm overwhelmed. I'm loving everything that I'm putting into the wedding. I think I just need a break from work that doesn't involve travel or anything. The few times this year that I took vacation I've had to drive or fly somewhere. Thankfully I'll have that time off around Christmas for a week or more... the best part being that everyone else is off as well. I have seemed to develop a bit of driving anxiety. Like clockwork on the way home, I hit the stretch of road between Guelph Line and home and suddenly I can't breathe. I'm checking in with my lungs to make sure everything is functioning properly (YES, still aware of how stupid I am being). As I would say to other people, I need to build a bridge and get over it. Anyway, Hannelore is still awesome even though she is crazy like me.

**For the record: Everyone should be worried about clowns. They are the enemy afterall.

Another Assignment Done!

Sneak Peek: Elf Edition

Meet The Duckies of December

This is the last of the obvious sets! January... not so obvious what kind of duckies there will be!

Christmas Bummer

Ian tried to warn me. I half listened to him. I was really, really looking forward to have a "real" Christmas. The first real Christmas for us. Real meaning the whole shebang - decorations... a Christmas tree... etc. Unfortunately as Ian predicted, our building does not allow live Christmas trees. Very sad. I will NEVER buy a fake tree so don't even suggest that option. A tree is what makes it a real Christmas. The lights, the smell, the ornaments... I had my heart set on having the full holiday experience. I still love that Ian and I will be together in our own place for it. But I wish we could have the whole thing. We're trying to breathe life into this $4.00 Cedar plant I got a few weeks ago. It's not doing so good because of the cold... but it could serve as Charlie Brown Christmas Tree for us. It makes me miss my mom's house.

What's This? What's This?

There's white stuff on the ground...

My Nephew - Mr. Buzzcut

Page #2 Produced!

This is another assignment from the class I'm taking. It's "okay". =P

Digital Scrapbooking Bonanza!

Ages ago, Amanda introduced me to a website called JessicaSprague.com - a digital scrapbooking instruction site. I was wandering around my favorite links folder and found it again. So I clicked on it and discovered that the course I wanted to take was on sale! Yay!! This morning I put together my first digital scrapbook page. It was mainly a refresher course for me but it helped a ton.

Awww I Miss My Mom!

I tried out Wii Fit Plus tonight. When the screen came up, this is what I saw:

Erik and Mom's Mii Characters were still loaded in there. Awww!!!

It's Different For Us

I'm sure this will be the case when we have a house... but for now they just walk in to the lobby and don't see my name on the buzzer list. So they leave and don't try the building office that is right there. Boo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Although it's not Thanksgiving in Canada (it should be!!)... I'm honoring my American heritage and celebrating the day. =P At work... and eating fish for dinner. But still... Happy Thanksgiving!! Miss you Mom, Erik, Kamber, Cooper and Derek! Less than 2 months until you're up here for the wedding!

The only good picture I could get I'm looking slightly deranged.

It Started With The Game...

Yesterday marked the 5th Anniversary of World of Warcraft. (Side note: the release date was November 23, 2004 - just a slight coincidence about the 23rd...) I would like to sit here and say... it doesn't feel like it's been 5 years but yes, yes it has felt like it. It's interesting how much a piece of software has played a big part in my life. Here's a condensed look back.

It started the day of the release. My boyfriend at the time... hmm... I don't remember if he was my boyfriend or just a friend - we went back and forth a lot. Ross was waiting at a store for the midnight release of World of Warcraft. I remember thinking he was so silly to be standing out in the cold waiting for some stupid video game. A few days later he came to my house, game in hand to install it on my computer. His justification was so that he could check in to the game when he was over. I watched the cinematic with him and it was so beautiful... almost exciting. He casually offered me a slot on his character list to play my own. I created a human priest and, because I didn't know any better, named her Brittany. From the moment I logged in I was hooked. It was beautiful. The music... the ambiance... Everything. I had logged into Northshire Valley and fell in love with it. Even in a recent interview with Jeff Kaplan, the former lead game designer of WoW, mentions this. He says "As silly as it sounds, if I had to go back and look at one moment that made me think, 'This is something special'. It wasn’t one of the big, grand moments where Arthas stormed into Lordaeron and killed his father or anything like that. It was actually just the first time that I walked down the road in Elwynn in the game and I remember looking around and I walked into Goldshire and just thought, 'This is so beautiful and it feels so real and so fantastic.' And I think it’s a lot of the little, understated moments and the coolness of the world that are really what sort of stick with me in terms of what makes Warcraft special." Thinking about entering the world now, it brings back such strangely happy memories. I was such a n00b.

I bounced around on the server for awhile, figuratively and literally. Slowly I realized what PvP and PvE meant and I had created Brittany on a PvE server. I thought it would be fun to try out a PvP server so I landed on Skullcrusher. Eventually I fell into the WoW curse. I was raiding in a "serious" guild. I would have to rush home to raid, stay up late (thankfully it was an East Coast server so it wasn't TOO late) and turn right around the next day and do the same thing. It was a lot of fun sometimes... but the curse part comes in when you've got a raid leader with a huge e-peen and a lisp who constantly yells over Vent because his guild can't handle the adds on Nefarian. At the same time though... there is nothing like downing a boss that you have been dying to kill.

The game caused me to make a giant u-turn around the United States and in my life. I saw something in someone that wasn't there. Sadly for me and everyone involved... it took such a huge change for me to see it. But in the end it was the best decision ever. I moved back to California... landed a job with my dream company, a beautiful townhouse apartment and a better life. I didn't take the game so seriously anymore. It became more of a hobby than something I woke up for. And then I met Ian.

I got Ian's story about his WoW experience the other day. A friend of his - the guy who would introduce us - called him up one day to ask him a favor. For some reason he was busy and couldn't log in or couldn't register (Ian can't remember) and he wanted Ian to log in for him. He started playing and was hooked from there. Eventually he was a tank for one of the best raiding guilds on Mannoroth. How he got from Mannoroth to Skullcrusher I'm not sure. But I was introduced to Ian about 2 years after release. Just like me, he was becoming disillusioned with hardcore raiding. We started "hanging out"... and getting to know each other. He was a big reason the game began to be fun again. It was no longer a chore to play it. We had fun swimming around each continent in Azeroth. He helped me become not so much of a n00b. I still don't have the video game gene that he seems to have but maybe our offspring will get it. I can't do "video game" moves... but I can definitely stand in one place and heal a group! Ian and I got to know each other really well through the game. The rest is history.

The game itself has definitely changed. I remember when you had to take a portal to get to the other continent because the boats weren't working... If you wanted to get to a city far away, you had many stops in your flight and each time you landed you had to click to get to the next stop. Nowadays you can go from Tanaris to Darnassus with one click and go afk for 15 minutes. Burn out still happens. People were burnt out right before the expansion of Burning Crusade... then again before Wrath of the Lich King. I'm sure this will be a trend that continues. For some odd reason... the game continues to be interesting. It isn't all consuming anymore but it still holds a special place for us.

It has such massive appeal it's crazy. I remember being at Disneyland with Bill, standing in line for the Haunted Mansion. I was telling him that I found one of the pumpkin bags for Halloween. A lady in front of us turned around and asked me where I got it. She was standing in line with her 5 year old daughter. I thought for sure she was mistaken and thought it was a bag we found at Disneyland or something. I explained it was in World of Warcraft... and she goes "Oh yeah, we play too. We just haven't found one yet". She was this sweet 30-something year old soccer mom type. Not at all someone you would peg to play. I was on a bus taking me from the airport back to my car and this family got on. They were just getting back from a vacation in Hawaii. The dad immediately got on his cell phone and apparently called his arena buddy he plays with. He told him how long it would be until he got home and that he wanted to get in a few arena rounds that night. As of December 2008, WoW had 11.8 million subscribers. Macaulay Culkin, Curt Shilling, Mila Kunis, Dave Chapelle, Vin Diesel, and Jimmy Fallon all play it. The 2009 Cy Young award winning pitcher Zack Greinke plays it. It appeals to many different types of people. Ian and I play it somewhat casually now and will probably continue to in the future. If/When we quit... we're taking away some pretty fond memories (yes, we're that geeky)... It started with the game. Happy Anniversary!

After Much Flip Flopping...

We've decided to register. I've been asked about it... I've looked in to it heavily... and then I reminded myself that I really love these plates I found on the Canada Bed Bath and Beyond site. Right now we have some blue and white snowflake plates that are getting pretty chipped and they don't exactly go all year round. SO... I'm going to register there. If there is anyone in the US that wants to get us a gift, the only hurdle is that they have to call to purchase it.

What I'm Currently Listening To...

Please forgive me... I only posted this fan video because it was the only normal-ish version. At the very least you can listen to this beautiful song and look at pretty, albeit emo-angsty boys.

My Nephew - Mr. Adorable

I Have A *Little* Bit Of Road Rage...

...driving so far to work will do that to you. It also causes anxiety in slightly crazy people <-- Me.

Crafting Aftermath

Note to self: Crafting after a long bad day is never a good thing.

Pictures Of Our Wedding Invitations

If Amanda can make us look half as good as she made our wedding invitations look... I'm going to be in tears. Beautiful. It's all becoming so real! You plan and plan and plan... and it's almost time for the actual event...

Awesome Regretsy

I was going to share a link to this post but it's just too awesome. I have to show this off... Regretsy is everything on Etsy that... well... shouldn't be released out to the public. Below is a proof from an artist on Etsy that makes custom silhouettes from photographs. The buyer sent them a picture of her poodle. This is what she got back. Granted - yes, what was she expecting with a fluffy poodle picture? But this is the stuff of nightmares.

What's It Going To Be Tonight?

Pretty much every night I have a dream about something regarding the wedding. We are coming up on less than 2 months until the wedding. Every night I dream something.. good or bad about it. Below is a list of crazy things my mind has dreamed up so far:

• Ian saw my dress a few minutes before the wedding and then Langdon Hall flooded.
• I forgot the music at home and then the wedding got canceled.
• For those Grey's Anatomy fans out there - Ian's mom turned into the mother of Dr. Preston Burke and didn't think I was good enough for her precious son.
• Cooper flung the bird's nest and wedding rings out the window and we couldn't find them in the snow. (This is a possibility)
• The group traveling up from the states gets caught in a snowstorm and spends a few days stuck in a snow bank. (The group consists of my parents, sister and her family. This is also a possibility - okay not exactly... but still!)
• Uninvited Person X shows up at the wedding - too many of these dreams to count.
• My photographer, Amanda, insists we walk onto a frozen pond and it doesn't end well.

I know, I know... I'm crazy. Some of the dreams are good... some are really bad. Tonight should be interesting.

In Loving Memory

My mom called me this evening and let me know they had to put Scottie down. She was the most adorable kitty... flat-ish face.. enormous eyes.. softest fur... so loving. The thing I remember most about her is that when I would go to sleep I always flip my long hair up on the pillow. She would come and lay down on my hair and kneed a nest in it. I used to try to stop her but she kept doing it and would purr a bit so I let her continue. When I got a good scratching session going with her, she would stretch out her neck as I scratched her chin and close her eyes in ecstasy. She was so good to only lay on the towel I laid on this huge bed I had. She would kneed the towel and cause little pulls of thread all over it. I still have it. It moved with me. :(