{jen}

time to move on & saying good-bye...

i started this blog in may of 2005.  it was an interesting time in my life, one of transition and change.  i enjoyed having a place to put my thoughts and a forum to share my ramblings, photos and scrapbook pages with family and friends.

the state of our economy has me, along with the majority of america, thinking about ways to scale back and simplify.  i haven't been posting here much and the $9.00 a month, while not an extravagance by any means, has become an uneccessary expense.  there are plenty of blog hosts available for free*.  also, typepad recently changed it's posting format and, frankly, i can't stand it.  it's not user friendly, is slow and i can't be bothered to wrestle with it the few times i do post.

many, many thanks to those of you who have followed this blog along, either from the beginning or for snippets of time along the way.

many thanks for commenting and sharing your thoughts and encouragement.

it's time to move on...

"snapshots of my life" will be officially closed down at the end of april 2009.

with gratitude,

jen

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* if you are interested in following me on my new blog:

1. comment on this post and be sure to type your e-mail so i can pass along the new link, OR
2. e-mail me and i'll happily send you the link (e-mail in sidebar)
3. YES...as soon as we get our professional pics, i will be posting many on the new blog!

a few more...

our family and friends have been very sweet and generous in getting us their photos over the past few days...thank you!

   

 

   

 

 

we are married!!!!

the best night of my life

off enjoying life as the new Mrs. B

back with a recap and more photos soon...

   

in case you were curious...

  three little days to go before i walk down the aisle...

couldn't be happier.

can't get here soon enough.

 

what's in a number?

THIRTY DAYS.

Yesterday marked exactly one month until our wedding.  From the time I woke and every time I looked at the clock after, I measured the day by what I will be doing then:

* At 8:57 I will just be walking into the hair salon with my mom, sister and one of my bridesmaids (with the makings for mimosas in hand)

• * At 11:04 we'll be back in the hotel and welcoming the make-up artist, Christine into the suite
• * And, at 2:45 pm, I'll be in the side room of the church, anxiously awaiting my walk down the aisle to E, who will then become my husband in under an hour. Whoa.

I can hardly contain my excitement, my butterflies, the hopes and wishes for the day. Small details and to-do lists aside, I'm ready.

bargain hunting...

i love the library for research and for borrowing audio books for listening in the car but, there's just something about books that i need to own.  it's not the first time i've said it and it won't be the last.  i love books and i love owning books.  however, i'm not opposed to purchasing used books when they are in excellent condition and at a bargain price.

today's visit to the library was specifically to return two audio books and borrow two more.  they are basically all i listen to while driving as radio commercials are terribly annoying to me.  i picked out two james patterson novels i hadn't read or listened to previously and took them up to the check-out.  making a purchase was so far from my mind that i had left my wallet locked in my car - only had my keys and library card on me. 

then, my eye caught the cart. 

the library i visit is a particularly busy suburban branch.  no matter the time of day i visit, there is always a low din and a nearly full parking lot.  the benefit is that they stock new releasee books in bulk.  when the book falls of the "new" list, they take a few copies out of circulation and offer them to patrons at a reduced rate to benefit the library on a rolling cart.  many times, the hardcover books that are offered have not yet been released in paperback and are therefore still quite pricey in the bookstores or even at (my favorite) amazon.com.  if you are lucky enough to hit the library on the right day, you may just find a few gems that you have been looking forward to at $2.00 each.

lightly used hardcover novels that retail for $24-30 a piece for...2 bucks. 

yep. 

i scored these three today from a few of my very fave chick-lit authors and am a very, very happy girl:

        

 

by the way, i saved $47.98 off amazon's current prices for these titles.  beat that!

psa: isn't it romantic...

it still is. 

i love that i have found the person i truly want to spend the rest of my life with.  that he gets me in ways that no one else has.  we've planned nearly every detail of our wedding together and have, for the most part enjoyed the process.  we've toured venues, laughed, pored over spreadsheets, magazines, binders and fonts.  we've price compared candles and bounced around department stores with a registry scanner.  there have been so many conversations about what we are most looking forward to about the big day, and all that the following years may hold.

we are now at 50 days.

f.i.f.t.y.

in getting to this point, i've discovered that every engagement ring should really come with a disclaimer:

warning: parts of the planning process will be crappy drudgery and downright frustrating. 

it's not him or me or anything in particular, really.  it's just that the fun, fantasy part of looking at sparkly baubles, flowers, venues and attending food tastings are over.  done.  now it's about the minutia. the little details that all add up to a list longer than your arm. so long that you can't quite see the end of it, no matter how much progress you make each day. these last two months, my friends, are not the fun part.

i know that it will all be worth it when i wake up on the morning of february 28th.  our wedding day.  all the stuff of now will fall away and it will be a flurry of family, friends, hair and make-up and one very classic white gown all leading to IT. 

and, maybe that's why new brides-to-be aren't warned.  i'd like to hold onto a little bit of a romantic notion that the drudgery at the end all gets forgotten in the magic of the day.  that the craziness of those last two months ends up being so worth it that it's not important enough to mention.  i guess by the first week in march i'll have my answer.

now, back to my to-do list. 

(the fortune cookie is a real one that we opened after a take-out dinner last month.  just made me smile)

sometimes i astound myself...

* ring, ring *

Clerk: "Good morning, Town Clerk's office.  How may I help you?"

Me: "Good morning.  Would you please tell me the dates of your upcoming late evenings for marriage licenses?"

Clerk: "Certainly, congratulations!  We are open late on the second and forth Wednesday of each month.  The next evening available is January 14th."

Me: "Great, thank you!"

Clerk: "Do you know what you need to bring?"

Me: "Um...no?"

Clerk: "You both will need to bring an original or certified copy of your birth certificate and your state driver's license."

Me: {silence}

Clerk: "Miss? Are you there?"

Me: "Oh, yes!  Thank you!"

* click *

Me: "Crap."

Next call was to my Mom, asking her to please get my birth certificate out of their lockbox and bring it when she visits next week.  Because her daughter, who is 34 years old and hasn't lived at home in 17 years, still keeps her important documents at her parent's house.  And, it never even crossed said daughter's mind to take the birth certificate with her when she left that same house just. last. week.  Nice. 

visions of sugarplums...

or, in this case, chocolate dipped pretzels! 

last year, rather than my usual cookie baking, i tried my hand at these pretzels.  they were such a huge hit with my family, co-workers and friends that e and i decided to make them a tradition.  for variation, they are half white and half milk chocolate this year.  some with red, white and green sprinkles and others with crushed candy canes. 

see the mini m&m containers?  i have no idea how other people get them to stick.  they seemed to be much too heavy for my pretzels and  just slid off and made a chocolatey mess.   they may have made for delicious snacking but were definitely not gift-ready!

80 pretzel rods are individually wrapped and ready to hand out tomorrow at work. 

and tomorrow night, batch #2 - half to e's family and half to mine.  yum!

did you make any holiday treats to share this year?

deck the halls...

although we've decided not to put up a christmas tree this year (too little time, too little space, feline behavior concerns) i did pull out my holiday decorations and went to town for my first year in our shared home.  it's taken e some getting used to, having never decorated his space before now but, i think he's warmed to it.  the main living area is open floor plan and the kitchen/dining and living room space have a 'visual separation' with some handcrafted woodwork - with the perfect shelf area for seasonal decor and i'm taking full advantage.  i used pumpkins and gourds for autumn and for winter...

the bottle brush trees came in a package of 21 assorted sizes on super clearance last year after the holiday

 the "joy" blocks were a gift from a friend a couple years back (thanks again, diane!)

and the berry floral picks were a new addition this year, purchased at a 50% off sale at a big bix craft store.  just a little touch of holiday that makes me happy to see each time I walk through the door!