Days of Christmas Past Because Christmas has passed. Thank goodness. Okay, I take that back. Christmas was actually pretty good.

We went to visit my mom for Christmas...I met my little sister's boyfriend, he seems nice. We had presents and did pretty good in that department. I got Burt's Beeswax stuff, gloves, 2 CDs, a nice blanket, a nice winter coat, a pretty necklace, and a pair of really cool earrings. Kevin's mom gave me cast iron and good knives, which rocked. Kevin got a DVD with all the old TV Christmas specials, an "indian" blanket, more magnetix (cool magnet toys that he loves, a horse figurine, and a little gargoyle (from me). He also got a ballcap from his mom and woodcarving tools. So far, he's carved a "k" into a piece of wood. We both got gloves...mine are really ugly (I'm just really not into animal prints), Kevin's are acceptable, but not the most attractive.

Together we got a toaster oven, which will be returned (we thought we needed it, but now the regular oven is working), a gargoyle from my stepdad (which was ironically enough, the exact same from I got Kevin), and a gift certificate to Lowe's from my dad and step-mom. We also got some gift cards to Walmart from his dad's family...which have now been spent. We went to Lowe's and got a new faucet for the kitchen sink. We'll use the rest to buy stuff to make me a bowed psaltery and a hammered dulcimer. Woohoo!

Now, there was one other present I received...well, it was a few presents. It was clothing. Sometimes my mom does good, sometimes she doesn't. She did really well with a pair of pants. And then she bought a shirt to go with them. It has plastic rings in the neckline. 'Nough said. But the coup de grace was the velour track suit. Pink and grey. Literally. Oh my. So, we took that back the day after Christmas, and thanks to all the day after Christmas sales, I got 4 more pair of pants, 2 scarves, and a boggin for my noggin.

We also got several presents from friends...including an awesome CD for me, and friends got together enough money to help Kevin buy a side of leather to finish making his period saddle - he just attached the stirrups tonight...the only thing left to do is to attach a girth to it, and he has to have that done by next weekend as we'll be going to an event where he will need it.

On Friday we head down to Atlanta for a New Year's Eve party. I'm really excited about that - I miss seeing my friends and can't wait to see people again. Not much exciting going on around here. Although I have made the realization that since we've picked a wedding date (10/28...I think we've agreed on that) that I can start doing things...like register. Okay, not really, but I can start looking. First thing we'll register for? A new front door from Home Depot.

Okay, Kevin is now in the living room cutting barding for the dogs...yeah, they're going with us next weekend to the event and will be decked out in support of Kevin!

Peace,
Katie  ¶ 10:51 PM 1 Comments

  Pictures of Argus and Wedding location - woohoo! This is Argus the War Dog. He's very cute, in a very, vicious, cuddly, war-like sort of way. He is a giant at 10.5 pounds....okay, really, he's the size of a cat, but don't tell him that. He barks like this: mmmmmmmrrrrrrrrrrARF!









Where Kevin is standing (with Lucky the Wonder Dog) is where we're getting married. It'll be a standing sort of ceremony, as the ground isn't flat enough for chair. With people standing we can fit around 80 or so...but at 7am for a sunrise service, do we think 80 people will show???? Michelle says we have to offer coffee.







This is the view into the canyon from the overlook. It's pretty now, but I can't wait to see it in spring, summer, and fall. It'll be absolutely beautiful.
















And last, but not least, this is the view of the spot from another overlook. The point is where Kevin is standing in the other picture.  ¶ 6:42 PM 4 Comments

  Things are a-happening So, lots has happened this weekend, and it's all very exciting stuff.

First, we went to the vet to get boosters for Argus, rabies shot for Lucky, and dewormer for both. Argus is about 10 weeks old and weighs 10.5 pounds. My next post will be pictures of the little guy. He's either a german shepherd cross or a rottweiler cross...we won't know for a while. He's very cute though, whatever he is.

After the vet visit (which we have to go back in 3 weeks for more shots), we went to Nancy's. For those of you who don't know, Nancy owns a horse farm and Sundance and Stormcloud, our horses, are spending the winter there. It's about 20-30 minutes away, and when you have to drive 15 miles to reach civilization, 30 minutes doesn't seem like it's that far. So anywho, we got o Nancy's to ride and for Kevin to work on teaching Sundance to bow. We get there and it's getting late, so there was no general riding, but Kevin hopped on Sundance and rode him for a few minutes, sans saddle, and then worked on bowing. He got one good bow out of him. Woohoo! After that he put me on Sundance, bareback! I've never ridden bareback before. It was really different. You could feel every muscle move and if he shifted his weight I felt lopsided. And Sundance likes to walk fast.

Then we head to WallyWorld. The bane of my existence, but alas, the only place to shop. We took care of shopping and then headed home. It was late, so we called it a night. Next day Kevin gets up and heads to his firefighters class and I start baking for Christmas dinner with his mom. I cooked sausage balls until I felt like I was absorbing fat through my fingers. Then I shelled pecans and roasted those. My fingers started to hurt, but if you want the really thing ya gotta do it. Or something like that.

So, Kevin got home and put something in the kitchen sink to soak. And asked me to turn off the water. Oops. The kitchen flooded. Oops. The kitchen floor is covered in these wooden tiles. The ones near the sink are dead, but we think the subfloor is okay. Yeah, I felt like a schmuck. I feel better though that it isn't completely ruined.

Then we head to his mom's. Dinner was good - there were about 5 kids and 7 adults. Some of the kids were incredibly loud...they just scream instead of talk...so that was interesting. Oh, and Kevin's mom is a really excellent gift giver. She gave me some cast iron and good kitchen knives. Woohoo!

Then on Sunday we went for a drive. To pick out a wedding spot. And we found one! Woohoo! We'll be doing sunrise wedding ceremony at the Canyon View overlook of Little River Canyon. Our plan is this...get married in the morning, have activities during the day, then a reception in early evening/late afternoon. We will not be offended if people choose not to come to the sunrise wedding ceremony...we realize that we are insane, but we'd love to have people there. I'll have pictures up ASAP so everyone can see what it looks like.

We took the dogs with us to investigate wedding sites. Argus is getting MUCH better on a leash. Doesn't fight at all now. And Lucky loves to go out. I think we have to hiking dogs. They thoroughly enjoyed climbing around everything.

We also went for our weekly visit to Chattanooga to visit friends. That was nice, as always. Yummy food and good company. And PRESENTS! One friend got me an awesome awesome awesome CD and several friends got together to give Kevin enough money to buy a side of leather to finish making his saddle with. What is a side of leather you city folk might ask...well boys and girls, it's half a freakin' cow. Just the skin though. Can't take in any stray cows...whole or half. He'll have enough to do the saddle plus some stuff.

And today we are going to pick up pictures...our first professional pictures of the two of us. Let's hope they don't look hideous.

Pictures on the next post...really...I promise!  ¶ 3:57 PM 1 Comments

  The Advent of Argus So, yesterday was Kevin's birthday. I gave him his birthday present a few days early (in a rather round about way...the present visited a few states before he got it)...I gave him a snaffle bit that is proportedly from the 16th century. I'm going to attempt to track down the info on it and where it came from. Alas, we didn't get to do anything on his birthday - he had class in the evening and so even if we had money to go to dinner we wouldn't have been able to. So, sadly enough, I thought there would be no excitement on his birthday.

BUT, I was wrong. Now, some of youfrequent readers may think, oh god, what happened with the truck now, but this does not involve the truck or anything bad.

Kevin left for work in the morning a little before 8am, as usual. I was at the computer at around 10am and Lucky wanted to go out. So, I let her out. Then I heard dog wimpering and thought, "what in the world?". So, I go out to the front porch, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature...oh wait, wrong story.

Anyway, at the front door wimpering is the absolute cutest little puppy ever. Very friendly. Very cold. And very hungry. I brought Lucky inside in case the little guy had anything communicable and then gave him an old towel to curl up on (in the sun). He took a little nap and was irresistibly cute.

When Kevin came home I gave the pitiful face. Kevin at first said she could be an outside dog with table scraps, but I informed him that it would not be fair to have an inside dog and an outside dog. After much discussion and pouty-ness, the little puppy was brought in and barricaded in the kitchen. We fed him a little food and played with him a bit.

During the day he got out of the kitchen, but Kevin said there was no mess. So, he left him out when he headed to class. When I got home the little guy got a bath in the sink. We're both softies and the puppy ended up sleeping in the bed with us.

Yeah, we're gonna have to get a king sized bed. The puppy is a rottweiler/lab mix. He's definitely got some rottweiler in him. I think his head is shaped like a lab's. So, we're talking hundren pound dog (incidentally, that's why Kevin was reluctant for the puppy to be an inside dog).

The little guy's name is Argus...named for Odysseus's dog. I thought he might be a Gus, but really, he's going by Argus. He goes to the vet on Friday for shots. He has round worms most likely, and we'll take care of that too. And then, he might be a travelling dog. We're not sure where he's going for Christmas...but we gotta find someplace for him (and Lucky actually).

So, our family just went from two people, two horses, and one dog...to two people, two horses, and two dogs. More evenly balanced that way, don't you think?

I'm going to go and play with my puppy now!

ks  ¶ 9:27 PM 5 Comments

  Car Karma *Note, I am not using cheesy spelling to be catch-y in my titles!

So, The Boy and I have a car curse looming over us. Seriously. Any of my friends from Atlanta know my car story of the summer...no car working, get in a fender bender in my roommates car, and then I finally get my car back and it costs $400 (which now that I am engaged to a mechanically inclined person I know that I was incredibly overcharged) - and then had to replace some of those parts again (spark plugs). And the car has weird little problems now...the blinkers don't work because they need to be rewired and I need a new top and windows (soft top 2 door Geo Tracker). That's just my car. Kevin has a tendency to get in auto accidents. I'll not even detail that one...but since we first started dating: moved my sister up to college and we got in a fender bender on the way; the transmission died while we were hauling 2 horses; the clutch died and he replaced it but the new clutch was bad and had to be replaced again; flat tire on the way to work; and then a wheel came off.

You heard me right, an entire wheel came off. Now, Ben and Wanda, if you are reading this, you may recall Tim's story on the way to Charleston one year when he detailed a wheel falling off his vehicle...yeah that happened to us two weeks ago.

We were on our way to an SCA equestrian practice and wait, side note:

We live on top of a "mountain". The people around here refer to it as a mountain, and apparently during the ice age or something it was. Now it's like a really freakin' big plateau. There are valleys. You do have to drive "down the mountain" to get to the store. Then you drive back "up the mountain". And, it is like driving up a mountain. We live on Sand Mountain. We were headed to Mentone, on Lookout Mountain (another glorified high elevation plateau). In between the two is Valley Head...a quaint little town, surprisingly enough, in the valley.

End side note (well, in the middle note).

...and we drove down one mountain, through Valley Head and were headed up Lookout Mountain and had just crossed the Mentone town limits sign. And then BAM! The trunk kinda goes kerplunk (too bad I can't do the Batman action words!) and we pull over onto the non-existent shoulder (when I say we were driving up the mountain, I do mean mountainous roads). Kevin looks in the mirror and sees the wheel going up the mountain on the wrong side of the road (slight problem there, as we were still the right side of the road).

So, we now have the truck halfway off the road and he goes and retrieves the wheel, which did eventually stop. He puts it in the bed of the truck and we commence with the phone calls. We call to get the tow and as we're waiting many people we know show up and start directing traffic. And then the fire department showed up and started directing traffic.

The rest isn't nearly as exciting, but we did get the truck fixed. Unfortunately, the brake drum was lost somewhere along AL117.

Now that the truck is all fixed, you think the story is over, don't you?

WRONG!

Yesterday, on the way home Kevin notices the truck driving funny again. When he gets home he investigates and discovers lugnuts missing and bent bolts. So, he has to take the whole thing off again and we have to go to 3 auto parts stores before finding the right kind.

We think what happened the first time is that after fixing the flat tire Kevin didn't tighten the lug nuts enough and they came off and then the rest of the bolts broke. Since then he's been checking them to make sure they're tight, and he thinks someone loosened them. Probably some teenagers being stupid. He took it by the tire shop and nothing is causing extra vibrations to knock them loose. What a pain.

_____________________________________________________

In other news...I get repeated questions about how my recovery from the horse fall is going. I'm doing okay - even went riding again (although Stormcloud and I are breaking up...she doesn't seem to care). I still have some red spots on my arm - I think they might be permanent. I also have a little red mark on my chin/jaw. It's my Red Badge of Courage. My wrist is still bothering me, which isn't a big surprise...it's the one I broke as a child and have had tendonitis in and things like that. I think it's just aggravated every problem I've ever had.

But, I'm doing pretty well. Still have a dent in my jaw. When I see you I'll let you feel it.

Lots of love to everyone!
  ¶ 6:46 PM 1 Comments

  The phoenix? So, I've been gone for a while. We have had an internet shortage at the house, but it is up for now...but not sure for how long.

Unfortunately, nothing very exciting has happened. Let's see, for Thanksgiving we stayed here and I met even more members of The Boy's family. Since we did that we're going to my mom's for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Woohoo!

Let's see, anything else interesting? Not particularly. On the sad notes, both of Kevin's grandfathers have prostate cancer. His maternal grandfather has surgery this week. His paternal grandfather should be having surgery soon as well. Also, I recently found out that some very dear friends of mine back in Atlanta who have been trying to get pregnant for more time than I can imagine have received news that things have gotten worse, not better. And that saddens me a lot, because I think that they would've created the best babies ever. They are going forward with adopting though, and that is good news...because that means that they get to shape the life of a child and share their love, and that is an awesome thing.

Alas, it is shower time. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something more interesting to say...  ¶ 12:18 PM 4 Comments