Ok, the rundown. We left town Sunday morning (the 18th). Got to my parents’ house that afternoon. Nothing was going on on Monday, so my mom and I baked the shortbread cookies (which were used in place of a cake) and the pumpkin and honey wheat breads. Tuesday Crystal, my matron of honor, got into town, and we went to KMart to do some last minute shopping.Wednesday was set-up day. We all headed out to Camp Augusta (where the wedding was being held) to set up the lodge (where the reception was to be held). We got done just as everyone in the wedding party was arriving for the rehearsal. Once everyone was there we did a quick run-through of the ceremony, then had a nice small luncheon inside the lodge with cold cuts and such brought by Jay’s mom.

Thursday, November 22…the wedding day. We spent the night at a local motel with the boys. We got up early and Crystal showed up a little later to start getting my hair and make-up done. Jay went out to the camp ground. After applying make-up, braiding the sides of my hair and curling the rest, we were ready to head out.
We were running a bit behind and spent the next hour and a half getting everyone dressed, including me, and finishing any last minute set-up. We got a few pictures done before the ceremony, but family pictures had to be done later.

The time of the start of the wedding (2:00) came and went…my parents were running late. We literally couldn’t start the wedding without them as my dad was the one who was marrying us. Once they got there, we all headed down to the amphitheater, the outside area where the ceremony was held. Crystal organized the kids and the rest of the wedding party. With everyone ready, the ceremony began!

The kids, dressed as faeries and elves, walked down each side of the amphitheater throwing glitter to create sacred space. Then the bridesmaids walked down one side and the groomsmen the other, all holding candles. At the top of the hill, Jay and I got our candles lit by Elliott and Crystal, then they proceeded to walk down. Then it was our turn. We walked down each side of the amphitheater.
Once we were on the small wood ”stage”, my dad started reading. The points of it included a unity candle, the vows, the rings, and a handfasting cord.

After the ceremony, everyone went up to the lodge for the reception. Jay and I hung out for a few pictures of just us.
When we got up to the lodge, Elliott announced us. We took our seats and soon after, the toasts began. First the Loving Cup ceremony, hosted by Elliott. Then the personal toasts. Then it was time to eat! We had a big Thanksgiving-esque feast.
After the feast and the family pictures, it was time for the dances. Jay and I had our dance first. Our little niece came up and started dancing with us…it was so cute! Then it was time for the father/daughter dance. My dad whirled me around the floor and had me laughing. Then Jay danced with his mom.

Clean-up began shortly after that…though we thought everyone would stay a bit longer. My mom and I had just put out the shortbread and I had been running around the whole time and didn’t get much of a chance to visit with anyone. I was hoping that everyone would listen to music, relax, and hang out with us longer.
After we got everything cleaned up, Jay and I went back to the motel. We opened the gifts, then realizing how early it still was, went out for a dessert and to see a movie (we saw Beowulf…which we both liked).

So, in a nutshell…the day zoomed by and now it’s a week later. After 13 years, marriage feels no different than before…except for the ring that I still haven’t gotten used to.

I have been having some not-so-great anxiety dreams (or nightmares) about something or other that goes wrong with the wedding. I know a lot of those have been brought on by not having everything. One dream was about getting through the ceremony only to find out we didn’t have a wedding license. A few days later, we got one and that dream hasn’t come back. Another was the night before my dress came…I dreamed that it was all wrong, but there was no time to change it. When I got the dress and saw how beautiful and perfect it is, that anxiety left me (though that whole day before I had it I had butterflies in my stomach). I know I won’t be able to relax too much…and the butterflies are likely to come back as the day draws nearer, but at least we have everything now and I don’t have to worry about something shipping out too late and not getting it. So that in itself is a huge relief.

So, the last week’s countdown has begun. Seven days left to go!

I’ve been doing follow-ups with everyone today. I had to call the company making the costumes to make sure they’ll be done in time, since I need to have them in 2 weeks at the latest. They are on schedual, so that’s a relief. I haven’t received my niece’s faerie wings yet, so I had to call to make sure they’re on the way (they will be by Monday). I’m ordering my son’s and nephew’s elf costumes today. Had to wait on that to be sure the boys would fit in the costume…my son tried on my other nephew’s costume yesterday and it does fit.

It’s getting down to the wire. I’m trying to get everything organized and completed now. We’ve got the whole ceremony planned out, including the vows done…yay! I still have to finish putting the favors together, but that shouldn’t take me too long. The only things left to pay for are the wedding site (which we’re doing the day of), some rentals (linens, ect.), and the marriage license, which we’ll probably get on Jay’s next day off, since it’s cheaper in this county than getting it in the county we’re getting married in.

So…there’s the update. Last year all this seemed so far away, and now it’s almost here! I’m surprised with how fast it came.

I had my bridal shower on the 6th. We all had a lot of fun! Since the theme of the wedding is Celtic medieval, the theme of the bridal shower was Tir Na Nog - land of the Faerie. I even dressed up as a faerie!

The next day, Oct. 7, my hubby, the boys, and I went to a small Renaissance Faire in Anderson, California. We dressed up, except ‘G’ who didn’t have a costume, and wandered around for a few hours. We had some of their great food, I bought a couple things, and we watched the knights joust!

And now it’s back to wedding planning. I still have the ceremony and vows to write up, favors to put together, a few things left to buy…but it’s all coming together…and fast! I can’t believe there’s only like 5 weeks left! Before we know it Samhain will be here, then the wedding!

So, there’s the quick update on me.

I came across that site sometime at the end of last year and had used some of their coding in some of my friends comment sections. Then in January, I happened upon some of my own tags. Well, of course I was flattered for someone to like my work in such a way as to offer it from their site! I kept looking through the site and lo and behold, my tags are everywhere! This person not only liked my tags, it seems, but loved them…I found a devoted fan! All told, there are 71 of my tags on Profile Jewels.

Well, on my own site, I have a Terms Of Use section that states my graphics are not to be distributed by other people. And what the owner of Profile Jewels, Valerie, is clearly doing is against my terms. If I would have found only a couple tags I would have passed right through without a care. But considering the amount she has on that site, I figured a link back to me wouldn’t be too much to ask. Apparently, it was.

I contacted Valerie (aka Shadow Wraith) about mid-January about getting a link back to my site on Profile Jewels. I even mentioned I would link back to her site…I have no problem with helping others get traffic. Apparently, she didn’t like the competition, because she pretty much snubbed me from the start. She seemed interested in me until she found out I was not the original artist of the art I used to make my tags. Once she knew I couldn’t sue her for use of my work, all bets were off and it took her forever to answer any of my messages to her. She even resorted to name-calling at one point! And all I ever asked for was a simple link…or if she didn’t want to link me, then the removal of my tags from her site. Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so…not with how many tags of mine she has on her site, and going against my original terms of using those tags.

So now it’s been about 2 months and she’s resorted to ignoring every message I send her. I know she hasn’t blocked me, yet, as my messages do get read. I had even contacted her co-owner of Profile Jewels. He said he’d talk to her about it and get back to me. No such luck there, either. He never got back to me and my last message to him is still unread, so I’m guessing I’ve been blocked. Last I looked on the site, he’s no longer a co-owner. So either she’s hiding him so no one else can complain about her theiving of graphics, or he’s no longer co-owner.

Because of all this, I’ve been boycotting Profile Jewels. I did like getting graphics from there, but I will not condone the theft of my graphics or anyone else’s. Who knows how many other graphics on that site are stolen? Who knows how many other people Valerie has snubbed and called names. I ask everyone who reads this to please do the same. Do not use any codes from that site, as you’d be condoning theft of other’s hard work.

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On a better note, I have decided to add codes to my site for people to use my tags on their profiles. Go to RavenMoon Designs, click on Link Ware in the bottom left corner. Then go to the Graphics menu, mouse over Sig Tags, and click Codes. You’ll find a menu for different sections of tags. All I ask is to leave the whole code (including the link) intact when you post the tags.

Let’s hope that no other site has as bad netiquette as Valerie has and would actually link to the people whose graphics they use.

Tuesday dawned and still no power. The house was a lot colder than the night before, so we decided to drive into town to get some starter logs to get a fire going with. Since it was early…about 7ish, we also decided on some breakfast. The drive into town was so pretty…the sun was peeking from behind the clouds and everything sparkled white. My camera battery had died a couple nights before, so unfortunetly I couldn’t get any pictures.
When we got into town, we were surprised to find that there was no power there, either. Jay used to work at the casino in town, so he knew they would have a back-up generator going…so we ate breakfast there…and got gas there, as it was the only working gas station in town (so of course, the whole town was there). We then stopped off at WalMart, hoping they would have a generator going, but no such luck. Off to Safeway…they did have a generator going…and a few boxes of starter logs left. We picked up what we needed, and headed home…running into the next storm the further we got up the mountain…and the closer to home.
While in town, we had heard rumors flying that the power should be back on by 1 or 2 in the afternoon. No such luck. Around 4:30ish the lights did the flickering thing again…on, off, on, off…until around 5, then they finally stayed on for good. That is, until about 9 that night…then they went off again until just after 10:30.

Now the storms have pretty much subsided, though we got some snow flurries all throughout Wednesday and some lingering through Thursday, and the power has managed to stay on (knock on wood). We have about 3 feet of snow on the ground, and it’s icy-cold out. The boys and I have been out in it a few times, running around and playing with the doggies. This is what we’ve been waiting for all winter…minus the power outages, of course.

What a fun 24 hours we’ve just had.

We haven’t gotten much out of the latest series of storms…but the other night it started to snow (finally…it hasn’t done that here since right after Christmas), and the flakes were huge. Around 11:30 or so the lights dimmed…but didn’t got out. I figured they would soon, so I shut down the computer and unplugged all magor appliances. The brown-out lasted for quite a while.

Then right around midnight or so (this would be the 9th now) there was a huge flash of light out of the living room window. We were thinking lightening, even though thunder storms don’t generally mix with snow storms…and of course, we didn’t hear any thunder. The lights then went off, and flicked back on…went off, and flicked back on…and then went off for good. We figured a transformer must have blew at the power sub-station up here…that was the flash of light we had seen.

So we lit candles and I caught up on my reading until I got tired. We slept out in the living room, as my room gets really cold without a heater going…and without electricity…no heater.

I figured the power would have been back on when we woke up in the morning. But no, it was not. And come evening…still no power. The boys were getting bored, I was getting cranky (no shower, no computer, no tv, no video games…we were all wearing thin and getting on each others nerves). And to boot, the snow had stopped sometime in the night and all we were getting now was rain.

Some time later, like oh about quarter to 1 in the morning on the 10th (yes, about an hour ago), the power finally came back on. Woohoo! Good thing, too…it was just starting to get chilly and we didn’t have any more firewood laying around (we have a woodstove and a kerosene heater).

I must say, though…I caught up on a good bit of my reading…lol!

(Spoiler Warning: Do Not Read Below If You Haven’t Seen The Movie)
This movie is about “ancient rituals” in a community of women who make men subservient to them. Rituals that include sacrifice, but wrongly portray the truth of it. Yes, human sacrifices were a part of the ancient ways. Did the Celts sacrifice children? NO. Did they lure in outsiders to the tribe and sacrifice them? NO. Criminals of the tribe were sacrificed first…and volunteers second…at least in the Celtic culture, which seems to be the base culture for the movie.

Bottom line, this move was a good suspense/thriller, but a horrible portrayal of anything remotely accurate to the ancient and/or modern pagan ways. It reminded me of a fundamentalist cult…the ones we should all be leery of. If non-Pagans didn’t see Pagans in a bad light before, they just might after watching this movie.