Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Today is the day!

As i write this post, it is 6 hours, 35 minutes, 2 seconds away.

And all i have left to do is burn CDs, pick up fish, wash Kristin's car, iron all the shirts, find candles...

but i'm surprisingly relaxed. i think maybe i my brain is in denial or something. maybe at around 3:57 i'll start panicking and make a run for it.

i guess we'll see!

for those of you that are coming, see you there, for those of you who can't make it, sorry, and for those of you who weren't invited, 4:00 sahali fellowship, just show up.

ian

Officially Christmas Time!

Hooray!

Yesterday (the 22nd) my parents got here! Now Christmas can start. I am very stoked for this Christmas because we have some good gifts to give. It's strange that this is how i am feeling about Christmas, you know how it usually is when you're a kid, you just want presents. Now i can't wait to give presents and see people's reactions (especially the kids we're giving gifts to). only 2 more sleeps and Christmas is here! Although one more sleep and a whole day and we get to open gifts with the deVrieses. and then a sleep and church and we open gifts with the Groveses. I'm also pretty stoked about having family here for like weeks. my dad doesn't have to go back to work until the 11th of january!!!

ian

Safe Return

Yesterday Phill and Ryan and the girls all made it back safely from Sierra Leone. (Phill is Kristin's brother, the girls are his daughters Amber Meagan and Jessica, and Ryan is their manny.) It was so great to see them again, and hear a few little stories about life on another continent. It was a little sad that Becca didn't come back just yet, but that just means that when she does come back it will be so great...i believe the hope is that she comes back with not one but TWO new babies, Kristien and Noah.

So, if you're reading this, Phill, Ryan, Amber, Meagan and Jessica, WELCOME BACK

And if YOU'RE reading this, Becca, we miss you and can't wait for you to get back here.

-Ian

The Start of Christmas Tradition

It's a wonderful thing to bring two people together at Christmas time. Everyone has their own traditions, things they do with their families at special occasions. Sometimes you wonder why we do these crazy things, but now i know, and can pass these traditions on when i have a family.

Tonight we got the Christmas tree all set up and decorated it. What a great time. We put on some Christmas music (when we were almost done, but you get the idea) and just decorated the tree. It's kind of nice to be in charge, cause then you don't have to worry about moms (sorry moms) saying it's not good enough or there's too many decorations on this branch or not enough tinsel on this branch. You get to decide. Now we're just sitting here, playing Christmas music, and just hanging out. I'm eating my second dinner, Kristin's working on a Christmas gift. And this is our new tradition. When we decorate the tree, we'll sit around afterwards, sipping hot apple cider, listening to Christmas music, and just relaxing. I can't wait to do this every year for the rest of my life!
Here are some pictures of our tree. They are somewhat blurry, but you don't get the full effect of the lights and everything if the flash goes off. I've got to play with the camera's settings to get everything looking top notch. But i do like the left hand one, very artsy.

(We just realized we took the pictures without the star on top. We don't have a star yet. So just imagine the nicest star you've ever seen.)

-Ian

a t-shirt for hunter

as liz requested i designed a t-shirt.
enjoy.

The Place

Well, i've been moved in to the new place for 9 days now, so i figured it was time to get some pictures up here so you can all see where i live/we will live. So here they are. I just took them.

This is the exterior of the townhouse (left). Oooh, aaahh.... Not that exciting...moving on.
Below you'll see a picture of some cool mirrors that came with the place. Gotta love Ikea.














Next you'll see our lovely and spacious living room. Unfortunately we have no furniture. Just those two cool green chairs and the table Kristin painted. Apparently we have a fireplace! We'll find out soon if it is usable though. It's full of insulation at the moment. Note the naked Christmas tree in the corner. Our first Christmas tree! Also note Fran's lovely wreath.
To the right of the living room you'll find the dining room. This is home to my computer as well. Also you'll see our poor sick fishes. Sadly four fish have died this week (A guppy, two danios, and a betta). The causes of death are yet to be determined, though it may have to do with the introduction of new guppies or the fact that the water has turned a lovely greenish color. Mmm Mmm good.

Moving on, here's the deck, off of the dining room. Soon to be (in the summer) home of dinners in the sun, etc. It's nice and big, and currently a bit of a mess, snow, empty liquor containers (not ours). We do have a lovely patio set and umbrella, and a barbecue!

Next is the kitchen. A little small, but it serves its purpose and has already been the source of a few culinary creations. It has a dishwasher!


and to the right of the kitchen, the pantry/laundry room. Complete with washer and dryer and DEEP FREEZE!
Now, before we go upstairs, there is one thing that i have to point out. It is one of my favorite things about this place. Check out these sweet stairs.

That's right, they're just hanging there! it's cool, it almost opens up the whole area. There are two sets, up and around and up to the top floor. Pretty sweet. Now here is the Master Bedroom. For some reason i just could not get a really good picture of this room. Also, i chose to take the picture on the day i am doing laundry and the sheets are off. Now you all get to see the horrible support i get when i sleep.

That's right folks, a foamie on a box spring! And I wonder why my back hurts. Pssh...

Off of the Master Bedroom used to be a small deck. Like many of the townhouses in this complex, it has been turned into a sun room of sorts. I use it for my workshop. It's nice and cool in the winter, hopefully not too hot in the summer, though something tells me i might cook in there in mid july. This picture has been censored because i am building Christmas gifts in here and the people i build Christmas gifts for may very well be reading this post. In fact i know of at least one or two that will read it for sure *cough*JUSTIN & LIZ*cough*MOM &DAD*cough* Excuse me.
And of course, who could forget the bathroom! Not much to describe here. The lino is kind of gross, but it is being replaced sometime.
And last and most certainly least (right now anyways) is the spare bedroom. Right now it is full of boxes and hidden Christmas gifts. Soon it will be home to my bad bed and a place for people to sleep if they happen to be passing through.
Well, this concludes the tour of Ian & Kristin's new place. Please remember to check under your seats for any belongings, exit to the left and don't forget to visit our giftshop! Thanks for coming!

Long Awaited Update

Well, it's been a while, but there's much to report!

We're officially moved in to the new place (by we i mean Ian is moved in). Thanks to Angelica and Gavin and Henry, things went semi-smoothly and everything is even put away now! I'm just glad it's all over, because i hate moving. Going into it i thought "i've done this a lot, it's no big deal anymore" but now i realize that my previous moves were just so horrible and stressful that i blocked them from my memory and assumed that things went well. Anyways, it's good to be home. Now i just have to get my wife moved in.

With the approaching (approachED) winter, the gutter business has considerably slowed down. Anything below -5 is too cold to hang eavestrough, so i've been spending most of the last 5-6 days at home, with about 5 hours of work on monday. I've noticed that when i'm not working, i tend to grow more and more lazy. i went out and worked and felt great and wanted to do all kinds of stuff, and then today, i felt like sitting around doing nothing. i need to find a hobby or *shudder* another job.

Speaking of not working so much, Kristin is also on a reduced schedule lately. She calls it her "Stress Leave." I prefer to call it her "Didn't-do-enough-school-in-the-last-few-months-so-now-it's-time-
to-catch-up-and-do-nothing-BUT-school" Leave. Needless to say, the next couple of weeks should be interesting in terms of paychecks. But i'm sure everything will be alright send us money. What?

We've decided that because we really hated the idea of registering and everyone keeps asking us where we're registered, that we'd make a list of all the things we need. that list is coming soon, i promise.

i think that's about all for now. oh, here's our new address and stuff:

#76-1435 Summit Dr.
Kamloops, BC
V2E 1S2

(250) 372-9663 (That's 372-WOOD)

you can e-mail us at ian(dot)kristin(at)gmail(dot)com OR ikgroves(at)telus(dot)net

for those of you who have no idea what i just wrote, just replace the parts of the addresses in brackets with what it says (for example, (dot) = . and (at) = @ )

Peace out, y'all

Ian

My Post to Elizabeth

This is my post to Elizabeth. For those of you do not know about Elizabeth she is my sister-in-law and very close to being my neighbor as well. Her and my brother JJ and my litte, sweet, wonderful, amazing, adorable nephew Hunter live just a block away from me and my parents (which soon i will not be so close *weep weep*). Now to tell you the truth, when i first met Liz, i loved her until she stole my brother by marrying him. I still loved her but come on, he was like my best friend and she took him. So after a little while of jealousy, i decided that it was time to actually make Liz feel like my sister(because i have no real sisters, I needed her). And so, i went to Kelowna as much as I could to visit with her more than with Justin and it worked, she's just like my sister now!!!! Then they moved to Kamloops and now just up the street. Now i can see her as much as i want and i love to see her. Ian does too. He's always liked Liz. She's just that fun. It ALSO helps that she has THE CUTEST BOY IN THE WORLD!!!! Man, i love that kid. And she is such a great mom. It's cute. So there you go Elizabeth! I love you

Love Kristin (and Ian)

A Sigh...

so it's nearly official that NO ONE from my mom's side of the family (Mom excluded) is coming to my wedding.

sigh.

while i wouldn't say that we're all the closest family ever and we spend every joyous occasion together (actually it's the opposite, i hardly ever see any of them) i was still somehow expecting that SOMEONE would come. but alas, we picked december 31st, and that is just a bad day for everyone.

since we picked this date i've been worried. we picked it because A) it's a good day for us and B) it's a bad day for everyone else, therefore attendance will be smaller, thereby making our wedding cheaper. now for Kristin, whose family is larger than the population of my home town, it's not SO big a deal, because if one or two or five people don't show up then it's alright, because there are at least 37 other people who will come. but for me, five is my entire family!

sigh.

it will still be a happy and wonderful occasion. no doubt of that. just a little frustrating is all.

peace out y'all

ian

A Happy Shower

Last night I had my very first wedding shower.

At first I was feeling really selfish about getting all these gifts and i wasn't sure how to handle the whole wedding presents thing. And it was odd to think that a shower could be for ME. My daddy kept telling me that all these people want to buy me gifts and have a party because they love me and they want to show it by sharing excitement in my life and celebrating. I kept this in mind when I walked into the church (where the shower was).

I was very excited to see ALL the ladies that showed up. We had alot of fun and i felt very loved. So many wondedrful gifts, i loved every single one, and so far NO repeats of anything. Watching the faces of the wonderful women giving me gifts, I finally realized that getting shower gifts is not a selfish thing, it is a LOVE thing. And I am definitely feeling very, very loved.


Kristin

So very sad and pathetic

So, as we all know, Ian is on this BIG tool kick. All he does it talk about tools, look at tools, think about tools, and imagines all the things that he could build if he had all these tools. Well at first it made me all happy that he had an interest in something, then i got kind of sick of it (maybe a little jealous), and now I'm becoming just like him. Yesterday, all the flyers for stores came to the house and instead of me looking at the Michaels ones, I started looking at the canadian tire and home hardware flyers to find tools on sale.

Sigh....maybe i just want him to be happy with tools so i'm finding cheap ones he can buy. Or maybe...secretly....i love tools too. Huh, what?! Did I say anything?!...........

A Whole Lot to Do!

whew!
Ian and i are getting pretty burned out lately. We both work so much and then when we come home we are still working. We are making our christmas gifts as you may know and so after work we go to ian's house and play in his "workshop" making all sorts of things. It's fun but its alot. On top of that, i sit there and do my school work. And now ian's moving at the end of this month so it's time to start packing and cleaning his place now. Plus we have a puppy, fishtank, and bunnies, so we spend alot of time looking after all those things (plus ian got a plant, even that takes time to keep alive). Then there are the wedding plans which i am, frankly, getting sick of. Sorry to those that we have ignored, i really miss you all and i hope that after all this craziness is over we can see you again.

Anyways, i was just venting on my life.

Talk to you all soon,

Love Kristin

Ian's Workshop Begins!

So lately I've been on this huge building stuff kick, and I go to Home Depot and look at tools and stuff and wish I could have them, etc. So on Friday, I'm working on building something (I can't say what because it might be a gift for you!) and Kristin gives me the wonderful idea that we should go buy some sort of tool. Well of course I was excited! I love tools. Of course I can't afford the wonderful DeWalt tools like I use at work, but we went to Home Depot and I bought a mitre saw!
oh man so cool. so i set it up today and tried it out a little bit! wow. so exciting.

now if you'll excuse me, i have things to cut at various angles.

-Ian

Yowza!

So we got to look at the place on Sunday!

Oh. Man.

What a great place! We love it. It's got laminate flooring, fridge/stove/dishwasher/washer/dryer/deep freeze, huge rooms (you could fit two full size pickups in the master bedroom), a deck, AND our own seperate closets.

So I'm pretty sure it's a definite yes that we'll be moving in there. Which is pretty exciting.

So if you don't live in Kamloops and you're passing through (after December) drop in and stay a couple nights!

But only if you don't live in Kamloops.

-Ian

Blessed With a Place to Live

So my sweet and wonderful boss, who has blessed my life so much already, has this condo that he originally got for his daughter. She moved to Calgary and he has his partner's son living in there with a friend. Now the son is moving back home and the condo is empty. So my boss offered to me and ian for when we get married. He is going to get it painted and all cleaned up and it will be ready for us on Decemeber 1. Which is perfect because that is the time that we wanted to move and it takes away Ian and my stress of finding a place. We are going to go look at it tomorrow and just get a feel for what home is going to be. We are very excited about it. I'll let you all know what it looks like when we see and tell you thoughts and plans. Love you all.

Kristin.

Our First Post!

Welcome to our little blog! So far this is the only post because we just made it. Stay tuned for more. Of course you should all know by now that we (Kristin and Ian) are getting married December 31st!

Thanks for stopping by, and keep checking back for updates.

Kristin and Ian