A Good Enough Reason to Blog

well, it's been a long time. like a really long time.

i'm bored and Liz tagged us so here is a post:

Five Things About Me That You Might Not Already Know

1) i love liver. liver is so good. oh man. you wouldn't understand. i love liver so much that i order it at restaurants when i get a chance. yum.

2) the first time i ever went trick-or-treating i was 20. when i was younger we didn't celebrate halloween. i really didn't care at the time except that all my friends got to do it. all i got to do was sit in the house quietly with the lights off and do absolutely nothing for 6 hours. we didn't even hand out candy. if anybody knocked on the door, we would either ignore it or tell them we were out of candy. i don't think people bought it when they knocked at like 4pm. they just thought we were a-holes. it was alright not going out because in tumbler ridge at halloween it is generally really cold and/or snowy so i got to be warm, and my friends, because they knew i didn't get to go trick-or-treating, would take an extra bag and ask for more candy for their poor sheltered friend. i've been trick-or-treating once. i was a pimp.

3) i'm a published musician. i don't know if that's the right way to say it. anyways, i wrote and recorded 9 songs in bible school and 3 later on that were made available for a limited time on cd. the original "pressing" became 1/5000th platinum in the first month of sales according to CRIA standards. the cds were recorded with my band, The Asian Liberation Federation. i wrote or co-wrote all of the songs as well as sang and played guitar, bass and drums on all tracks (with the exception of bass on one track). the debut album is entitled "Spoon" and the later recording was an EP called "Lost Tracks". they are no longer available in their original form, however a special edition "Spoon+1" was released and can be made available upon request. the band has no current plans for a reunion tour, so everyone can stop asking.

Hi! It's ME!!

4) I have an intense phone phobia. I hate calling people. I love to talk, but i hate calling people. I'm a receptionist.

5) I'm allergic to everything. Dust, pollen, ragweed, grass, cats, dogs (i have 2), rabbits, horses, cows, ferrets, chinchillas, hamsters, guinea pigs, "hypoallergenic" animals (go figure), perfume, soap, lotion, shaving cream (i do still shave my legs), anything with a specific smell (i do still use deodorant), fiberglass, and a lot of other things i can't think of right now. When we played Scattergories last week, one of the categories was Allergies. The letter was E. As in EVERYTHING.

We will tag..............

Jade, Jael, Jan, Jerrilyn, Dakota. Wow. 4 from the same family. That's gotta be worth something.

We're busy!!!!!

puppy puppy pupster

Here is my dogs:

Star Struck Child

For Canada Day, Ian, our friends, and I had a little party at my friends Matt's house. We spent time out in the back yard because it was a nice day. Next door to Matt is a little boy about 9-10, I'm guessing. This little boy has a trampoline in his yard so he can just hang out by the fence and talk to us. He came over to our yard and even played some darts. This whole time, he didn't really notice me there because I would only be outside for short periods of time as I was making dinner for everyone.

Later, we were eating dinner and this boy was back on his side of the fence. I was all done eating and talking to the group and the boy looks at me and says, "Your face looks really familiar." I looked at him trying to think of where I would know him and I just shrugged my shoulders. "SPIDERMAN!!!", he yells. My friend Talitha says to him, "She isn't Spiderman." I say to him, "I like Spiderman, and I like watching Spiderman." He replies with, "No, you look just like the girl in Spiderman." (Awww, sooooo cute that he would think that.) I said to him, "Thank you. Maybe I should color my hair red and call myself 'MJ'." He told me that I definitely should.

I thought that it was so adorable that he thought that I looked like Kirsten Dunst. I don't think that I have ever been told that before.

Pupdate II

We have changed Toby's name. Her name is now Rudi. We had to change it for reasons that I will explain later. Just thought that I would let you all know. Do not call her Toby.

Update Central

Yes, we're finally updating again!

It's been a weird few weeks. Kristin went to Edmonton for 3 weeks to finish her Dental Assisting course, leaving me to fend for myself here in the 'Loops. She made sure to stock up on food for me, which was awesome, she even made me a bunch of meals and froze them. And, contrary to popular assumption, i survived the 3 weeks on my own. Sure, i didn't eat as much and the house was a bit more messy than usual, but i made it!

The day she left i started tearing the joint apart. It's renovation season, y'all!

That's the before....
Here's the after....
As you can see i was a busy guy. Special thanks to my boss, Tod, for all of his help, and also to Troy and Jason, my peons.

This is not a picture of how it currently looks, i got a lot more done on it but haven't taken any pictures. now it has shingles on the roof and capping over the posts and the beam. also soffits. it looks very sharp.

The front of the house is devoid of siding!

i pulled off all of the siding because i got stoked for vinyl siding. then i found out that the siding we want in the color we want will take at least 6 weeks to get, because they have to actually make it.

sweet. my house gets to be ugly for 6 weeks.

it's alright, it will look good soon. very excited. also i am buying a truck, just a little one, diesel, cheap. selling my car, finally.

more pics to come. i will let kristin handle the puppy post.

ian

I've been defined!

I wasn't in the mood to blog until i read Sarra's blog and found the "how will you be defined in the dictionary" quiz. I must say that technology has advanced so well to be able to describe a person using a computer and their name. and it's spot on all the time!


Ian Groves -- [adjective]: Sexually stunning

'Nuff Said



oh yeah, take a good look at this cause you won't see it again!
Current mood: Missing my wife a lot.

It's here, it's finally here!!!

ANGELICA AND GAVIN ARE GETTING MARRIED TODAY!!!!!

Congrats to them.

I gotta go and get my hair did and my make-up did as well. (i do not have bad grammar, i made my mistakes on purpose).

Hopefully I will have a few pics to follow!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPP!!!

子犬....강아지....собаки младенца

that's right, folks. the puppies have been born.three puppies were born, one, sadly, did not make it. the little boy died shortly after birth. he was the cutest...here are some pictures of the girls, Link and Toby. Link belongs to Devon and Toby is ours!! Toby is the one with white on her face, as well as 2 white spots, one on her back and one on the tip of her tail. they are freakin' cute.

Here's the proud father, who is unable to go anywhere near his kids for some reason. He waits patiently at the door.

Change of Scenery

The only thing exciting in the lives of Ian and Kristin. Actually there have been a few things that have happened, we just didn't feel like posting anything which is too bad but that's life. Mini update: Um...I went to a wedding shower for Angelica, very fun, Ian's parents came for a week, that was wonderful to spend time with the family. My birthday was on the 23rd so now I am 23 and Ian is still a youngster. Jen and I worked together to throw Angelica a great Lingerie party/bachelorette party. Three of my nieces came to visit for two weeks and my brother and sister-in-law came to visit with the other two kids!!! Fun times had by all. If there are any of these things that you wish for us to expand on, leave a comment and we will do a full post on it. If you don't, then we will leave it as MINI UPDATE!!!!!

Now for the weather.

Knowing my luck, it's going to snow. And be cold. Seriously, just when you think winter's gone for good, she (and i say she because winter is spiteful and mean like a woman) rears her head and says "don't you go thinking you can get back to working like a maniac again." Seriously. Enough!

This is Ian, by the way. I decided to type in blue so you would know who is talking. From now on I will try to remember to change the color when I post so you don't get confused and think "when did Kristin start working for Continuous Gutters?" Or "why is Ian having problems with his lady parts?" etcetera.

It's frustrating to watch someone else type and leave all these notes about things that happen. Especially when they leave stuff out.

Example #1

We are going to be grandparents!! That's right, our little boy (Dewie) finally figured "it" out. And Ginger is pregnant. She is fat and sassy.Example #2

At work, our #1 competitor shut down. He had his 2 main guys quit and had enough so he quit. And sold us his truck. So now we are going to be twice as busy, because he referred all of his contractors to us, and also because we are the best and people would rather go from the #2 company to #1 than to the new #2 who was #3. If you catch my meaning. My meaning is I'm awesome.

Example #3

We painted our kitchen! It was an ugly yellow color. Now it is not. Pictures to follow.

In other news, our next door neighbor (the house that is not attached to ours) cut down his pine tree. Good for two reasons...1, it was dropping branches and needles in our yard. 2....


Wicked awesome view!

That about covers it. Stay tuned for more good stuff. Something exciting has got to happen in the next couple months.

Here's those pictures of the kitchen you were asking about....

Before....

and After.....

OK so we don't have a picture of the kitchen with the new color because you really don't want to see our kitchen right now. So here's the color:

Well that should keep y'all happy for a little while. In another couple months we'll post what else is going on. That's how utterly fascinating our lives are, bi-monthly posts.

See you in June.

Story time boys and girls!

Lately I have been reading and hearing romantic stories of how people met, or starting dating, or how the ended up together. At first I was feeling a little jealous because though I am so very in love with my husband, our story to me was very boring. But the more I thought about it the more romantic it seemed. So I thought that I would just share that story with you!


Ian and I met at school when we were in grade 9, after his family moved here from Tumbler Ridge. My family had just started becoming friends with the Burchart family and the Groves had been family friends with the Burcharts for years and years. Ian and I were both friends with Talitha Burchart and therefore we became friends ourselves. Now back in grade 9 and 10 Ian and I were not attracted to each other at all. He was a short "stickman" as he called himself and I was quite a lot bigger than I am now. But even though we were not attracted to each other it didn't stop the fact that we were pretty good friends, good enough friends anyway that when Ian moved back to Tumbler Ridge we still stayed in contact.

I don't think that it was until after we had seen each other in Kelowna's Orchard Park Mall in grade 12 (HE WAS REALLY TALL ALL OF A SUDDEN!!!!!) that we really started to talk to each other more via MSN Messenger (I know, very, very nerdy). Ian and I could talk for hours and hours and hours with each other, it was never even about anything important, we just had fun conversation. In fact, it got to the point where if he wasn't online, I would be very sad and I found out that he felt the same way.

Then after we graduated, Ian went to school in Grand Prairie and I never got to talk to him unless it was christmas break or a reading break. It made me sad and I missed talking to him. At this point, we still were not attracted to each other yet.

Then when Talitha came back from Grand Prairie (she was also going to the same school as Ian) she had brought pictures from the Christmas dinner they had and she had a picture of really tall Ian in a suit and I couldn't help but think that Ian was starting to look pretty cute.

I was so very happy that Ian had come back home from bible school and I could talk to him again all the time. I still had not told him that I thought he was cute!

Then one day when Ian and I were talking, he mentioned playing his guitar in school and how he had a band. Like most women in this world, I am attracted to men who can play an instrument, my favorite being guitar and drums. So I remember saying to him when he was talking about being in a band, "Ian, promise me that you will never play guitar for me while dressed in a suit because I think that I would just fall in love with you on the spot."

Well that started this whole crazy thing!!! Ian then realized that I was attracted him and he had heard that I had lost a lot of weight and I sent him pictures and he thought that I was cute too!!! And because Ian and I could talk about anything, we really started to like each other. Ian was going to move to Kamloops and find a job here so that we could start dating or whatever but then he started to freak out about the whole idea and decided that he would take a job in TR and not be with me. I was very upset and Ian for this and didn't talk to him for a few weeks, but then I guess I got over it and forgave him and we were back to being friends again.

As the summer passed, Ian moved to Prince George and we still talked all the time. But our friendship was growing stronger and stronger and we started telling each other things that we didn't tell anyone else. We started to trust each other more than we trusted anyone else in our lives.

Then it happened, in April of '04, I was taking a trip up north to visit by brother Phill and his family and I was to going to make a stop in PG to finally go visit Ian. We had only seen each other once in four years and we didn't even talk, it was just a quick "hi" and "bye". I was so excited, I left really late on the bus and got to the bus depot in PG at 9:00am the next morning. And there I sat waiting at the doors for Ian to come pick me up. Butterflies in my stomach! Then there he was, he pulled up in his little Toyota Tercel, walked into the bus depot and looked right at me and didn't even recognize me!!!

I was so excited, I don't even know how I contained myself. There I was with the boy that was like my best friend and he was so good looking and I was right there with him!!! Fortunately for me, he was thinking that I was very cute too!!! We went to his house and sat on his couch at opposite ends. Ian's mom called him and he told her that I was there and she asked how I looked and I heard him day to her, "she looks really good." That's when I knew that he thought I was cute too. After a few hours the opposite end of the couch became sitting right beside each other, which led to holding hands, which lead to snuggling!!!!

Ian tried soooooo many times to kiss me when I was there as well but I couldn't handle it. I really liked him and I knew that if I kissed him, I would fall in love with him and we still lived too far apart for me to be in love with him.

That summer I couldn't stop thinking about how badly I wanted to date Ian and how badly I wanted to kiss him. I saw him a few more times with stops through PG, and nothing ever happened. Then the most exciting thing happened yet!!! Ian decided that he hated PG and that he needed to move again and he decided to move to Kamloops!!!

He moved to Kamloops on Oct 1/04. That's the day I finally got to kiss the boy that I was so very head over heals in love with!!!! Three days later we officially started dating.

From there we got married and now we are where we are now. Married and happy and still so very much in love.

I LOVE MY IAN!!!!!!

Mothers

An unfortunate thing happened yesterday. A lady that I work with had her mother living with her for the past few months and over the christmas season her mother fell and broke her foot. Because her mother was quite old, she had to stay in the hospital and she was there for quite some time. Yesterday at 2:00 she received that news that her mother had passed away. She held it together at work for the last 2 and a half hours(she decided that she wanted to finish working the rest of the day). She said that she has been expecting this to happen for a week and she was prepared to say goodbye. She shed a few tears at work and we did with her. She said to me that even though her mother was old and it was her time to go that it is still hard because you only have one mom. Then she told me to go see my mom and give her the biggest hug. And that was all that I wanted to do.

I couldn't imagine life with out my mom. I feel like if I didn't have her then my whole world would just fall apart. She has given so much to all four of her kids and she loves us more than we can understand. She does so much for us even now. She is my best friend and I need her. When ever I need someone to turn to I know that she is always there. When I need support for something I know that she will always support my hopes and dreams. When I need someone to talk to she always has an open ear and an encouraging word. Mothers are the greatest blessing that God can give someone and I am thankful for mine everyday.

Mom, I love you.

Two Years

The Exciting Lives of Ian and Kristin

Last night my boss, John, gave Ian and me tickets to the Blazers game. He has season's tickets. We went, we watched, they won 6-4 against the Prince Albert Raiders. We bought a pop and a chocolate malt. We enjoy hockey, so we had a good night. And that is all the excitement in the lives of Ian and Kristin Groves. Woot!!!

Weather!

Working outside has its advantages. Fresh air, exercise, a really good tan.

Working outside has its disadvantages. Sun stroke, dehydration, sun burn, frostbite.

And lately, no work at all.

I can't work in anything colder than -5, because of the materials we work with.

Wednesday I was off because our work truck needed work. Transmission troubles.
Thursday had a high of -11.
Friday had a high of -13.
Today (Saturday), a projected high of -12.

Here's the forecast:




















As you can see, for the next week (up to Thursday) there is no day where the temperature is expected to get above -5.

I am going crazy. I have lots of things to do, but i have no motivation, and as the days go by it gets worse and worse.

The only reason i'm not freaking out about money is because i am on EI to fill in the gaps. That is really nice. Especially this week. Here's my list of things to do:

• Organize the computer room (bills and papers and junk are piled everywhere)
• Finish building lamps (like this one only cooler)
• Clean our bedroom

ok, there's not that much for me to do, but it's still something, instead of this....sitting here downloading episodes of corner gas and the office and playing little games.

and on top of it the dog is driving me crazy. he wants to go outside. until he gets outside. then he just stands there looking at me and alternating his feet in and out of the oh-so-cold snow. then he is so grateful to come back in, only to whine 5 minutes later and want to go out.

yes, yes, i've mastered the art of complaining. thanks for listening.

ian

Backup Your Blog!

A lot of people have been wondering how to backup their blogs without going to every single post and downloading/printing it. Some blog sites/programs have a way to do this and Blogger is no exception. The only problem is it is a little hard to find/do.

So here's a little help...


1. Just in Case

The first thing you need to do is backup your current template. If you've made any changes or customized anything and you don't back it up, you will have to do that all over again. So...
-Login
-Go to the Template Tab in your blog
-Highlight your whole template (click where the text is and press Ctrl-A)
-Copy it (Ctrl-C or right click the highlighted portion and click Copy)
-Open notepad or word or any text editor
-Paste the contents of your template here
-Save it somewhere you know you can get it back, like the Desktop
-Make sure you can close it and find it and open it without any problems.

2. A New Template

The only way for Blogger to show all of the posts in your blog is to change to a new template that they provided (after quite a bit of searching).
I can't post it right here because it is really long so here is a link: Click here for the template
So save that file or copy and paste it to a new file.

Now paste that whole thing into your template in place of everything else.

Now save the template.

Next, go to the Settings tab, and click on the Formatting link. The first option is to select the number of days or posts. Remember what this says so you can set it back. Set it to 999 posts. That's the maximum it will show, so if you have more, you may have to manually save the rest. Sorry.

Once you've done that, republish your whole blog. This may take a while.

3. Save Away!

Now view your blog! It will show all of your posts, starting with the most recent. You now have two options.

1. Save it - Click File and then Save or Save Page As..., something like that. You will most likely want to have a seperate folder to save your blog, as it will have a folder for your pictures as well (it will only save the pictures that actually appear in the blog, so if you just have small versions on the blog and want big ones you'll have to do that by hand.
2. Print it - This will probably take a long time. File-> Print. Pretty basic.

When you're all done, just go back into Blogger, and re-paste your old template in place of this backup template. Then change your Settings->Formatting back to whatever it was. Feel free to save the backup template for future use!

There you have it. Any problems, leave a comment.