::::{The Starlicious Blog}:::::

Nothing But Water: Days 1 & 2

2011-07-03T21:38:00.001-07:00

I started my "Nothing But Water" challenge on July 2nd. I slipped up and had a diet pepsi on the 1st, so I had to start a day late. It's going ok so far. It is definitely going to take some getting use to, but it's not as bad as I thought. I haven't had any fried foods either, but I still think I'm eating a lot. Sometimes, I eat like I'm still pregnant. Tomorrow's the 4th so I know I'm going in on some great BBQ, so I'll start eating smaller portions on Tuesday, lol.

I have nothing more to say tonight so I'll update on Tuesday. Happy 4th of July!

Ok, Baby Weight...

2011-06-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

...it's time for you to go!

It's been three months since having Mason and I need to do something about my weight. I gained 40 pounds during my pregnancy and I lost 35 pounds so far. I would like to lose 20 more. I hate to say that I'm going to start a diet, because that's setting myself up for failure. Instead, I'm going to start a personal 100 day challenge. During this challenge, I'm going to do the following things:

- Drink nothing but water
- Eliminate fried foods
- Work out 2x a week

I think drinking nothing but water is going to be my biggest challenge. I drink one or two diet drinks per day and it's not good for my body. I know it, but I feel like I have to have one. They make me feel so bloated afterward. I'm sure drinking only water will be good for my skin as well, so I'm excited to see what happens. I'm going to start on July 1st. I will post more details of my challenge then. Whoo! I need to mentally prepare for this, but I think I'm ready. I'm trying to look right in my jeans and get rid of this big belly.

That's it for today. Until tomorrow.

Baby Shower

2011-06-28T20:38:00.001-07:00

My baby shower was March 5th. I know I shared some of my wedding DIY items, so it wouldn't be right to share my baby shower DIY items.

My mother threw Jay and I a baby shower. I was told I didn't need to do anything and that she had everything covered, but you know me. I just had to add my own personal touch, lol. I knew that I wanted a theme of teddy bears and baby blocks. I thought it would be really easy to find inspiration for a theme like this because the theme seemed so simple, but I only found like two pictures and they were nothing like what I wanted.

I made the invitations. The pictures I took weren't that great. My mother-in-law still has one in her scrapbook, so maybe she will let me snap a better picture.

At first, we were planning to order them, but I had just bought a professional printer and I figured I would try it out and make them myself. I saved a ton of money and they turned out great! I definitely want to practice making more invites for other people. My friend just found out that she's pregnant so I hope she will let me design her baby shower invites :)

I bought a printable party kit by M. Bradley Designs. Her Etsy store is here. She was affordable and really easy to work with.

The kit included a bunch printable items, but I only used the pinwheels, cupcake toppers, banner and candy table signs.

I found some wooden baby blocks at hobby lobby. They came in three sizes and I was so excited about them I bought all three sizes. I bought ten little blocks for centerpieces, two medium bokes for the candy table, and two large boxes for the heck of it. Actually, they are sitting in the closet in Mason's room. Maybe I'll do something with them soon. I have no clue what I'm going to use them for.

Since Jay works nights, I had lots of time on my hands and I had plenty of time to decorate my boxes. My mom spray painted the boxes (she was so awesome for that!) and I added rhinestones. It took a week to finish the centerpieces and two days for the bigger boxes.

I had six guest tables, so I used the extra four centerpieces on the gift table and the sign-in table. Can you believe by the end the night all of the centerpieces were gone? I thought I would be able to keep at least one.

I only outlined the letters on the bigger boxes because I ran out of rhinestones and ran out of time so I couldn't order anymore. I think they still turned out alright.

The shower was wonderful and we had a great turnout despite having horrible weather that day.

Alright, that's enough for tonight. I hope you all will enjoy this post!

Long Time, No See...

2011-06-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

Well hello there, old friend. I have been gone for a little over two years. I've been really busy and I haven't made time to blog my rants and ramblings. That wasn't a very good move on my part, but I hope I can keep up with it this time around. Lots of things happened in my 2 year absence from here. For one, we adopted a puppy. His name is Benny. We named him after the high school where we met.

We FINALLY have him house trained after 2 years. You have no idea how excited I am about this. I never thought it would be hard to train him, mostly because it took no time to train Princess not to go in the house. This is my first time having a male dog and I had no idea that they like to mark their territory. That was killing me. But it's all over now and all is well in the Brown household, lol.

We also recently started a new adventure in our lives: Parenthood.

Yep, that's right! We are now the proud parents of a beautiful and healthy baby boy. He was born on March 29th, 2011.

He is one amazing little guy. I honestly never really saw myself as a mother. I didn't like to watch other people's children and I've only changed two diapers in my life, lol. I didn't get the itch until last year, and we are so, so blessed. I love him so much. Words cannot express the love I have for him. I don't know what I would do without him. He definitely keeps me on my toes!

Well, I guess I'll end it here for today. I need to find something to cook for dinner.

Somebody's mad at me...

2009-04-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

My friend recently got engaged on Christmas. I am happy for her. I told her if she needs any help to let me know. Well, I heard from another friend that she doesn't want me anywhere near her wedding because I didn't ask her to be in my bridal party. Oh for real, for real? I never thought I was going to be in her wedding party because we fell out a few years back and we just started talking again last year. I sent her an invite to my wedding and she came. I thought we were straight, but not you're talking behind my back, and to make it worse, she put it on FACEBOOK. I don't know why she felt like I wouldn't see it. That was a dumb ass move. I guess Facebook beef is real... I'm too old for this mess.

So, anyhoo she sends me a text asking me if I had numbers to vendors and what not and I told her she could have all of my wedding magazines, and she could look at my wedding planner because I LIVED in that planner for a year and a half and if has a lot of stuff in it. She then send me a text saying that she will make sure someone is at her house when I drop off the items. Oh really? You ask me for my stuff, then I have to drop it off to you? Why can't you pick it up? Forget that! There is no way that I'm going to drop this stuff off to her. I can't believe the nerve of people nowadays.

I'm turning in for the night. I had a long day. It seems as the weather is getting nicer, my kids are getting worse.

Le Sigh

2009-04-12T18:33:00.000-07:00

Dieting is for the birds...seriously. I can't stay on a diet for more than a week. From now on I'm going to stop dieting and I'm going to practice eating right. I mean I don;t get it...why do I love food so much? I guess it's not wrong to love food, but I love all the wrong foods. I feel much better when I'm eating better and when I eat bad things, my whole mood changes and I feel down and depressed. That's why I don't understand what is drawing me to bad foods. It's like it's laced with crack, lol. It's addictive.

I am trying another route. I want to take boudoir pics. I was looking at these photographers:

http://studiosinead.com/blog/?tag=michigan-boudoir-photographer

http://www.croftandcampbell.com/#/boudoir---home---michigan-boudoir-photography/

They have really nice pictures. Now, I'm not going to take pictures unless I'm comfortable with my body because I'm not right now. But maybe around Jay's birthday I'll be ready. That will be a nice present for him, lol.

I've Had Enough!

2009-03-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

So I've been struggling with this entry since my last entry. I've been kinda depressed because of my weight.

I've had a love/hate relationship with my weight since high school. I've weighed as much as 180 and as little as 126. As of right now, I am 168. It all lies in my stomach and butt. I hate it because I know I am unhealthy and I try to eat right, but I have temptations all around me ALL THE TIME. I mean literally. At work, we have to eat with the kids. I know I don't have to eat a lot, but the cooks (who are professional chefs and the make AWESOME food) always make extra and all my other co-workers eat, so I eat as well. Then my Husband doesn't make it any better. He LOVES fried food and we eat fried food 75% of the time. I know this is so unhealthy, but it just tastes so good!

Last week we decided to go on a diet together. I thought I was doing ok. I started the week off at 171.0 I still ate what I liked, but I cut my portions and got in my water. By Friday, I weighed in at 169.0. Jason weighed his self Friday morning as well and guess how much weight he lost in a week? 12 pounds. 12 freaking pounds! What the hell? I mean, I didn't have any intentions of losing that much weight in a week, but I thought I could've lost more than 2 pounds.

I'n going to do a lot better starting tomorrow. I'm going to cut out fried foods all together and I'm going to eliminate soda. I only drink diet soda, but that still packs on pounds (I just learned that this morning) And I'm going to try to work out twice a week. I have to start somewhere. I hate to sweat. I think that's why Jason lost so much weight. He went to the gym 4 times last week and worked out about 2 hours each day. I'll just pop in a fitness DVD and hope for the best. If I can finish the DVD, that will be an accomplishment for me.

I'm also going to start researching foods that burn calories and cause you to have high metabolism. I think I focus too much on losing weight. I need to get healthy as well. I can do this...I know I can. I just need to stay focused and say no to fattening foods. Wish me luck. I'll try to give a daily report, but I can't make any promises. I hope I have a good diet week. Hopefully when I start taking better care of my body, I will have a more positive attitude and will become stronger both physically and mentally.

Last night, I started doing some research and I found this article. It's called the Flat Stomach Food Guide. I'm going to read it over a bit more and I might try some of the foods on the list.

That's all for today. I need to get back to working on lesson plans :)

In a Slump...

2009-02-24T19:30:00.001-08:00

Sorry about the lack of posts this month. I'm in a bit of a slump, but next month should be better. Thank you for the awards :D They made me feel better about my blog!

OH...and look for us in the JET!

2009-01-24T14:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, second post of the day! Around the first week of December, my mom sent our wedding picture to JET magazine, well last Monday Jay calls me and said one of his employees saw our picture in it! I was SO excited. I took a pic with my camera phone:

We are the very first picture with the top side caption. YAY for us! It's in the JET with Steve Harvey on the cover. It's from Jan. 19-26th. It will be off the shelves on Monday :( But we had 2 whole weeks up there!!!!!

Ok, ok. I'm gone fr real now, lol.

Happy New Year! (23 days late)

2009-01-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

I am so late with this, but happy 2009! I am claiming that this will be my best year ever! I have been trying to focus om my job. It's becoming more and more demanding. I told myself that I would stop taking my work home in 2009 and I ended bringing more work home. That sucks.

I'm still trying to work on my business. I'm thinking about starting it in the summer. I'll have more time to work on projects. Man, I miss wedding projects! I missed the painting and the gluing and the planning.

I will say this: Marriage is hard work! Especially for me. I grew up as an only child and even though Jay and I have been together for 12 years, being married for 4 months has been the hardest things ever. I mean I get mad over the smallest things and I get mad at him for everything. I don't know. I'm one of those women who thought his flaws would disappear once we got married, but I just see them a lot more now. I've been struggling with this for a minute but I bought a book last weekend to help me.

I heard this was a great book for anyone in a relationship. So far, it's good. I just finished up Chapter 1. I hope to finish up Chapter 2 by the end of the weekend if I can sit still long enough.

I also have been cooking a lot more :) Jay appreciates that. Last night I tried one of Rachael Ray's recipes that I found in her latest magazine. I cooked Mozzarella wings and curly fries. Something nice and simple for a weekend. I will be trying more healthy meals for next week.

I'm trying to break Jay's eating habits. I never knew he loved so much fried food! I refuse to blow up and I won't let myself go. I've stopped saying that I'm going to go on a diet because I start a new one every Monday, but instead I've been trying to eat healthier foods and I have cut down my portions a lot. I gained 15 pounds since we've been married and so far I've lost 8 of those. I hope to lost the other 7 by the end of next month. I'm trying to look fit and sexy this summer!

I'm also planning to start working out on Monday...seriously. I ordered a workout DVD and it came today. I can't wait to try it out. I think this is Jillian Michaels recent workout:

...yeah, I need her ABS in my life. I hope this works for me. I need to go and but some weights so I can start toning up my arms.

That's enough for today. I can't spend my entire Saturday in the house. Maybe I'll go to the casino. My mom won $1,000 last night. I wish I could have that kind of luck!

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I won't be anywhere near a computer because Me and Jay will be spending our first christmas as husband and wife!!! But I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!!!

This is a Christmas pic I took with my class about 3 weeks ago. Happy Holidays!!! Be blessed!

BIRTHDAY POST!!!!!

2008-12-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday!!! I'm 28 today. Thank you God for blessing me see another wonderful year!

Jay was supposed to take me to dinner tonight but due to the wintery conditions...

...our plans are on hold until Friday. Jay has so many delays at the airport tonight so he's going to get home after the restaurant has closed.

You can't really see it from this picture, but there is so much snow falling right now. This is on my parent's block. It's snowing lots more in my town. I'm not looking forward to the drive home. It seems like people forget how to drive when there's snow in the ground. They drive way to fast then they wonder why they get into accidents. Detroit is under a winter snow warning. All this snow is leftover from last Thursday's snow storm. We got something like 8 inches!

So I'm stuck at my parents house surfing the Internet. I'm looking on http://www.evanity.com/. I love this store! I got this shirt from there:

I'm going to wear it to dinner on Friday with a black cami and black pants. I've been asking Jay to take me to PF Chang's for the longest so now he has to take me...he has no choice, lol!

I was so lucky to finish up my Christmas shopping in 2 days! Jay asked me to pick up a gift since he won't be able to get off work, but that was it. I always wait until the last minute to go Christmas shopping. I do well with everything when I'm under pressure, lol!

Well let me go dig up my car so I can go back home. I need a nap.

Why is my money so tight???

2008-12-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

So I guess I'm back to looking for a part-time job. My money is looking too funny these days. Hopefully after Christmas it will look better but either I need a better way of budgeting my finds or I just need another job. Seriously, it's like I don't know where my money goes after I pay all my bills. Sometimes it does burn a hole in my pocket.

My Mom told me that I should've never quit David's. Well, for one I like the employees, but I hated the company. Do you know how many wedding dresses I ruined because they make the employees clean them and steam them? 5. One was the 2 days before. All because I wasn't properly trained on how to care for them. They just threw me in the alterations room and told me I had to do it. It's so funny because every time I messed up a dress, the alterations lady just looked at me and only made comments when I messed up. Thanks...it's really helping now. So yeah, I'm glad I quit. My paychecks were also a major factor. Why was my last check only $20.25??? Um...yeah you can keep that. I can't even fill up my gas tank with that. They cut my hours to 4 hours a week. And it was always the day when I wasn't on that side of town. When Jay and I moved, we moved 30 minutes away from the store. So it's not worth it to make that drive just for that little money. It's pointless. OH yeah! Then I got written up because I wasn't selling at least $3,000 worth of dresses every time I came in. Really? Do you know that we are in a recession and this is the off season for weddings? Did you know that David's? And why did I get all the new brides getting married in 2015 just getting idea on wedding dresses. That's a waste of time when you're in the business of selling wedding dresses. And most of the dresses in the store were all messed up and dirty. I felt like a used car salesman :(

I want to find a part-time job in the education field. I tutored last year and really enjoyed it. Plus it's only 3 days a week and it's good money.

*Sigh* I'll figure something out.

So I'm in a bit of a slump...

2008-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

I just don;t know what to do with myself. I feel like I should be doing something. I don;t know if I'm having wedding withdrawal, but I need something to do. My friend asked me to personalize some stuff for her wedding, so I'll probably do that, but that will only take a day or two.

I've been seriously thinking about starting an event planning service. I think I'll be good at it. I was doing research though, and it's like almost everyone and their momma has a event planning service in Detroit...and then I have to deal with all those brides whose auntie's insist on planning their weddings. *sigh* Maybe I just need to throw myself out there. I follow such wonderful event planning blogs and I really get inspired, then once the computer goes off......nothing. I sit down with my paper pad and pen and begin to write down my ideas and plans and I just get a blank piece of paper. The same thing happens when I write. I have such great ideas for a novel then when I sit down to type them, I lose it.

I'll figure something out.

What a Trying Week...

2008-12-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

My Dad had surgery yesterday. He has Prostate Cancer and he just finished up Radiation treatments last month. He's been having a hard time since and they decided to go ahead and give him the surgery. At first the doctors were against the surgery because of my Daddy's age, but I guess they did some tests on him and approved the surgery.

Thankfully the surgery went well. My Dad is still in a lot of pain, but he will get better. He told me that he was awake during the surgery, but they numbed him from the waist down. I pray that he will have a speedy recovery. We will find out on the 9th of January if he is cancer-free.

My job is stressing me out. I love my assistant, but she is a hoarder. She keeps EVERYTHING and it's making my classroom junky. I hate being in a junky classroom. I can't focus and I know if I can't focus the students can't wither. She collects pop cans and puts them on the window ledge. I put them in a bag and put them outside my door, hoping someone would come and pick them up but she just brought them back in 3 days later. I mean what the hell??? I she really wants them she would take them home. Those cans have been there for about 2 weeks. I'm sick of this crap. And now I'm not liking the layout of my classroom. I think I might need some Feng Shui. I was playing around on Google today and found this: Classroom Feng Shui. I'm going to look at it this weekend and I plan on rearranging my entire classroom for the New Year. I think I will be happier with my job and my classroom.

I also think I need to become a stronger person. I hate telling people the word "NO" and it always hurts me in the end. Let's use my job for example. We have a Home Based teacher and she has 12 students. They have to come to school at least twice a month to get socialization. I was the only teacher that allowed her and her students in my classroom. I mean, I guess I didn't know any better because this is my first year at this school. For some reason she tells her kids to come in once a week AND when they come, they come in groups. And the best part is...she always leaves us with her kids. I mean we already have 17 kids and now we have to add 5 or 6 more??? And the cry all day?!?!? What the hell. It's so terrible. And she doesn't care about this job. She says she's just here until she gets something better. She tells everyone that she's looking for another job. This would be all well and good, but she's telling this to the higher administration. Bad move in my opinion...ESPECIALLY the way the job market is in Michigan. She has 2 Masters degrees and can't move up within our company. Now my school is always doing internal hiring for various positions, and trust me, she has applied for all of them, but she has a smart mouth and a very negative attitude. Why would you want someone like that in administration. You don;t even believe in your job. I hate when people become a teacher just to pass the time away. This is a career you should love and take seriously. If you don;t like it, just quit. You'll be a lot happier.

Ok, enough about her...I've gotta go cook for the Hubby :)

Peace Out.

Happy Monday!!!

2008-12-01T14:53:00.001-08:00

I had the most loveliest weekend...with the exception of yesterday but whatever.

No pics from Thanksgiving :( I have a nice recap though.

So, Jay had to work but he got off at 2. He wanted to go to his father's house first. Now, I'm surprised that he wanted to go to his father's house because they don't really get along. Anyhoo, I made an apple pie and took it over there with us. All of his family was there and I could tell that Jay was uncomfortable as soon as we walked into the door. When we saw his dad he didn't say hello, but he did say "Hey, have you two had your first big fight yet??" WOW...what a welcome. Then he tried to give us advice. Nah dude, There is no marriage advice you can give us. He's never been married before. What kind of an expert are you? Anyway, we left right before dinner was served (that was Jay's idea) then we went to my parent's house. I got to play with the pooch...that's always good :D And I ate some of my Mom's greens. Yummy! After that we went to his Aunt's house and that was about it. It was a very eventful day.

Then Jay tells me that he wanted me to go shopping with him the next day. Black Friday shopping?? I wanted to pass so bad, but he always went with his mother so this year he wanted to go with me. That was sweet. I decided to go with him and I WAS NIT happy to wake up at 4:30 a.m. I was sleeping too good, lol.

We were planning on going to Best Buy and ABC Warehouse. ABC Warehouse had 42" flat screen TV's for 388.00 I wanted one of those. When we arrived at ABC, there was a line around the corner so we just turned around and went to best buy. We ended up getting a lot of DVD's for $3.99 and $9.99. I was extra excited because we got all 4 seasons of Entourage for $40.00! I love this show.

So all in all I wasn't too impressed with Black Friday. I could've stayed in the bed :)

I'm ending this post now because I have a few projects to finish by the end of the week and I also have paperwork from my job that I need to complete.

Deuces :)

Thanksgiving!! Whoo!!!

2008-11-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, so before I go off and make my pumpkin pies and attempt to make an apple pie, I just want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving :)

I'm so excited! Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. I'll be sure to pack my camera. We are going to 3 houses and I know we'll have a great time.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Don't eat too much!

I have to cook now...SERIOUSLY?????

2008-11-24T16:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I ended up cooking yesterday. He was tired of take out ( and so was I) so he asked me to make him some pancakes. I guess he was in the mood for some breakfast food. I can hook up some pancakes. He enjoyed them so much he asked me to cook for him again tonight....Damnit!

This dude is going to make me go out and get a cookbook. I can only make about 3 dishes. Luckily he only wants hamburgers tonight :) I can swing that. I am so horrible with cooking. I can't even fry chicken :( He knew this way before we got married and said he would do all the cooking, but he's always so tired when he comes home from work, and I really don't want to push him into cooking. I'm gonna learn how to cook some stuff. The food network has been my friend all this weekend. I plan to watch more.

We are going to 3 houses this year for Thanksgiving. His Mom's house, his Dad's house and my Parents house. My Mom taught me how to make the bomb sweet potato pie last year, so I plan on making 3 the night before thanksgiving to take to each house :) Hey, it's the least I can do for eating up every one's turkey, stuffing, and mac and cheese *yum*.

Well let me get started on these burgers. Jay will be home soon...

Thank You Cards...

2008-11-23T11:37:00.001-08:00

So I'm spending this wonderful Sunday afternoon writing out Thank You cards. I made these and had them printed through VistaPrint.

I like how they came out. Today is also Jason's birthday! YAY! Happy birthday baby! Too bad he's working today :( That sucks. I told him I was going to cook for him tonight, but he declined. He knows I can't cook, lol.

Ok, that's all for now. I gotta get back to these cards. My wrist hurts.

I'm Back...and Married!

2008-11-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I suck at blogging...but I have been busy living in wedded bliss. That's right! I'm married now!

September 27, 2008 was the most wonderful day ever. I'll have a recap soon.

So Busy!!!!!

2008-09-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't been on here in a minute! I have been so busy with work and the wedding that I haven't been online as much as I used too :( Well, anyhoo I'm back for a minute. I guess it's because I'm sick and can't sleep. I caught a cold from one...or all of my students this week and I have have been so sick. I'm happy that it came this week though. Having a runny nose on wedding day is not cool at all!

Well, while I was gone I had an awesome bridal shower! It was beautiful. My future in-laws did a great job and everyone had a blast. Here is a link to the pictures: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151365&id=763485240

I got so mad at them last week though. I think I just had a bad week period. My students were bad as hell, I couldn't keep up with my work, and Jay calls me to tell me that one of his cousins, who is a groomsman, has not gone to get his tux and might not be in the wedding because he doesn't have the money for it. What the HELL????? Ok, I KNOW times are hard but...this dude had 3 or 4 months notice about his tux price. Why would you cancel out the week before the wedding. I was so pissed I didn't know what to do. Then, Jay's family had the nerve to up and invite 5 more people after the RSVP due date. Our max is 150. That's it and I think we are over that by a few people. He doesn't get it. He told me just last night that one of his old co-workers forgot to RSVP, and I told him, "Well, I'm sorry, but they can't come. They had a whole month to RSVP and that's just ridiculous." I mean I hate to turn people away, but we are not made out of money. And more people means more money for linens, centerpieces, food, etc. We have a house to furnish, that's where our extra money should be going.

David's also pissed me off. They scheduled me 5 days in a row before my wedding! I have things to do! I have appointments and I have to finalize things. I can't believe they did me like that. I called off one day already and I'm calling off today. I have my final fitting, a meeting with our linens vendor, programs to finish and I haven't even started on the aisle runner yet. *sigh*. I'm going to be very busy today.

Last night, Jay and I started moving our things into our place and we also worked on our first dance. That's when reality set in. We are getting married. This is for real, for real. No more talking, no more planning. We are about to be Husband and Wife. I cried a little. It was such a cute moment, lol.

Well, I have to go and start my day. I will be back tomorrow hopefully. If not, I will be back at lease one more time before the wedding!

I Got a NEW KEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-02T19:20:00.000-07:00

And it's to our new home!

Jay and I have been trying to get this condo for about 2 months. Well, Sunday we got our confirmation and we signed on it today! So here I am just posing with my key, lol. I'm so happy. With 25 days to go, I thought we wouldn't find a place until after the wedding. Now look at us :) Now we have to go shopping because I have to have it looking right. It's a beautiful place too. We have plenty of room in case we decide to have a baby soon, If it's up to my Mom and Jay I'd get pregnant on our wedding night. Nah, I'd like to wait at least 1 year before we officially start working on our baby making.

Short post, but I'm coming back soon with a recap of my Bridal Shower that was this past

YAY for DIY!

2008-08-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

I go back to work full time on Monday so I tried to do as many DIY projects as I could this week. I finished my card box (will post pictures soon), started on my aisle runner...well I took my monogram and wording to kinkos to have them enlarged (It costs about $9.25). My aisle runner is too long so my Dad is going to cut it down to 50 feet for me, then I'm going to start tracing it this weekend. I also made a new monogram. I really like the one we had, but I didn't think it fit in with the wedding. It was a little too modern for us. The new one is a little more toned down. Simple and elegant.

I also had some time to fix a project. I had to redo my memory candle because my uncle passed this summer. I kept looking at my candle and to me it looks like it had a headband and a skirt, lol.

I found some shimmery vellum paper at Joann Fabrics and I bought more of the lacy pearl ribbon (also from Joann's). I also redid the ribbon around the votive candles that will also be on the table. Here is the before:

And the After:

I think using the same ribbon on all the candles looks nicer. I'm pleased with how they came out.

Besides the aisle runner, I have another DIY project tomorrow....the candy table sign. I hope it will turn out looking something like this:

I won't be using the same wording, but I'm going to try this with the cardstock and ribbon.

I'm done blogging for today. I hope to have some pictures of finished projects soon.

Happy Birthday Angie

2008-08-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today is my Sister's birthday. She would've been 36. Angie died in 1988 from a brain tumor when she was 14. I miss her more that I can say. It still hurts like it happened yesterday.

Sorry, I can't type anymore because I'm about to cry.

Can I Vent???

2008-08-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm tired. I go back to work on the 18th, so I'm trying to get as many wedding related projects done. Now, during my entire wedding planning process I didn't bother my bridesmaids with anything. All they had to do is pay for their dress, shoes, hair and show up. Well, I needed help with something so I called my Maid of Honor and she said she didn't want to help me. I have been having problems with her from the start. I never thought my MOH would give me such grief. This chick is a mess. I watched her kids all summer and she owes me about $500.00 for that. She said she was going to pay me when she got her stimulus check, but I didn't see any of it. Instead, she said she's going to have her car fixed. Umm...she has a brand new car. It's not even a year old! I ask her about her car and she tells me that she had some bullet holes in her car that she need to get patched up. WOW...where is this chick going where people are shooting at her????? It's not THAT bad in Detroit. I'm guessing she let someone borrow her car, but you never know these days...

So anyway, 3 weeks ago I told all my girls to make their alterations appointments for this week. Everyone made their appointment, except guess who? My MOH. I told her how much she might need for her and her daughter's dress (her daughter is a Jr. Bridesmaid) and she flipped out. I think in total she needed about $50.00 - $15.00 for hers and $35.00 for her daughters. She damn near cursed me out. She's actually coming out good. I bought her daughter's dress, so she shouldn't be fussing about anything. I know times are hard, but I don't have much sympathy when you got a stimulus check for over 1k, and you're going out every weekend. I'm straight on her right now. I'm supposed to go help her pick out accessories this weekend. We'll see how that goes. I would like to stay as drama free as possible.

THEN....ok so I was on-call at David's today. I called to ask if should report to work and they said no. So, I'm like cool, I can run around and get some things together. Well, two hours later my manager calls me. This manager is getting married in December and is driving everyone CRAZY. I swear every time she works she's crying about something and her and her Fiance' fight more that a little bit. She doesn't know if she's coming or going. So anyway, she calls me and asks if I could please come into work because someone forgot their schedule and didn't show up. So, but this time, I'm halfway across town, visiting with family I haven't seen in a while. At first I wasn't going to go, but she sounded horrible and the store sounded crazy busy in the background, so I agreed to go in. I went home, changed and it took me about 30 minutes to get there. When I walk in the store, she's looking at me all crazy and there was NO ONE in the store. She was like "You're gonna kill me, Vee. You're gonna kill me." I just stare at her because I know what's coming next. She did this shit to me once before.

"I don't need you now. Sharon felt bad and found a ride to come to work."

WTF?! Are you serious? So I just wasted 30 minutes and GAS just to go home??? I was beyond pissed. I think God is trying to teach me patience because a lot of people have been messing with me lately. I see the signs God, and I'm trying to be patient, but it's so hard. I was so ready to throw something at her, then she tried to tell me about her wedding troubles. I don't like to talk to her about wedding stuff because she treats her bridesmaids like idiots..hell she calls them idiots too. She had a fit last week because one of her bridesmaids dropped out because she's pregnant with twins. She's getting ready to go on bed rest...and her due date is around the time of her wedding. IMO, that was a good call on the bridesmaids part. I wouldn't want to go into labor while standing up in a wedding. She didn't congratulate her but she cried, stomped her feet and yelled for her whole shift. Drama queens suck.

I had to re-do my wedding bio. For some reason, my web page erased all my images :( I kept some old stuff, but added a lot of new stuff. Hopefully I'll have it up and running by the end of this week.

My mom gave me a few more addresses so I have to send out some more invites tomorrow. I'm REALLY hoping we can stay at around 125 guests. That would be ideal.

On a happier note, my last flower girl came in and all of my bridesmaids shoes came in today. Now we are just waiting for my mom's dress.

That's it for tonight. I'm going to bed.

It's Official!

2008-08-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

Our invites are finally out of my house! Seriously, I have been working on these for like 3 weeks...

Here is a pic of me when we first started assembling them. I don't want you to see the pic I took today. I look tired and ready to curse somebody out.

These are the cutesy postcard stamps I bought. They are kinda cute. I just like the colors.

And my final picture. All of the invites packed with love and ready to go! Seriously, I felt like screaming when I finished. It's such a relief to have them done.

I chose to assemble my own invites to save $$$. What a big mistake! If I knew it was going to be so tedious, I would have spent the extra $$$ to have my invite lady assemble them. But anyhoo, that's all in the past! Now I have to look forward to receiving RSVP postcards(I hope I don;t have many RSVP problems), pray that we stay at the 150 guest point and get ready for my shower :) My makeup lady said that she's going to do my makeup free of charge for my shower. YAY for saving money! I think I'm all set now. I got the shoes, dress, makeup, and I made my hair appointment last week.

I am SO tired. I have been working non-stop and I have also been helping my Dad. We just found out that he has Prostate Cancer....but the Doctor is very hopeful and says that my Dad will recover and live a long healthy life. Thank God we caught it early. As HDIC says, we have to see him do the cupid shuffle during the reception, lol.

This is my last week off before I have to go back to work. I'm going to try and finish my card box and start on my aisle runner. I might even do my programs. I did a mock up, and it's pretty, but it's not where I want it just yet and that's why I didn't post a pic.

Jay is gone for 2 weeks...2 WEEKS! I miss him already. I took him to the airport yesterday. He says he's having a good time in Atlanta. Him and his co-workers went to Justin's and he said the food was really good. I was supposed to meet him down there next weekend, but I have so many things to do here plus I have to go to work :( I'm hoping Jay likes it enough that he will consider transferring down there. I wold LOVE that! I heard Georgia is in need of Teachers so I could get a job quick!

Ok, I'm getting off track. I'm just so excited to be back blogging!

Worth the Wait!

2008-07-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

I had a REALLY good day today.

I asked my co-worker to make me another jewelry set (because I love her work) and I wasn't expecting it for another few weeks, but she brought it in today. It's a pink bracelet and earrings. She also made me an additional pair of earrings to go with a bracelet that she made for me about a month ago. I love all of her pieces. I suck because I don't have pictures tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

I have been stressing out over my bridal shower dress (I hate that little things are starting to get to me!) Anyway, I was deciding between two dresses One was white and the other was pink. The white dress was WAY to expensive and I couldn't find the pink one in my size. I was also looking for a good deal for the pink dress because I didn't want to pay $178.00 for the dress. Well, as I was browsing ebay today, I found the pink dress in my size and it's brand new.

Guess how much I paid for it??? $49.99!!! Yep, that's right. What a great price right? Bargains make Ms. Vee a happy bride. It's a beautiful dress. I hope it's just as beautiful in person.

My mom picked out her dress for the wedding. It's going to look so beautiful on her. We are going to order it next week. I also ordered 3 more pairs of shoes for my bridesmaids, leaving only 3 more to order shoes.

I added 2 more DIY projects and changed 1. Might as well keep busy when Jay goes away to train for 3 weeks. My 2 new projects involves lots of rhinestones. I love them, but it's very tedious and time consuming. The outcome will be beautiful though :) I'm 50% done with one project. I should finish it by the end of the week.

I'm thinking about changing my program design. I was going to do them like this. I had some paper cut already for the cover, but I can't fold it straight for the life of me. And I can't print on the paper like I want to.

So, I'm thinking of going with more of a layered program like this:

It would be cuter though. I found a pack of layered programs at Michael's. They are the BRIDES brand. I never really paid attention to their stuff until today. They have some cute stuff. They even have a DIY pocketfold set. Too bad it only came in a chocolate brown color. Anyhoo, the programs are black and white. Perfect for me because it takes nothing to add some pink in there. They give you white ribbon in the back, but I can buy pink ribbon for $.50 a spool. I'm going to buy a box once Michael's put out a better coupon than the one for this week (I wish I had this idea during the 50% coupon.) and see how it looks. If it's all good, then I'm going to buy 2 more boxes. There are 40 programs per box so that will give me 120 programs.

I also picked up our wedding bands! We need to get them sized because they both are too big.

I hope I can get more accomplished tomorrow.

DIY Stuff!

2008-07-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

Excuse me for doing this. I need to make a list of DIY things I still need to do.

- Card box (98% done) I still need to get black ribbon for the top.
- Aisle Runner.
- Sticking Monogram labels on take-out boxes for candy table.
- Menu.
- Program (I made a cover, but I'm not sure if I like it anymore. It's metallic. I'm thinking I might like it better on plain matte paper. I'm going to do a mock up with the matte paper next week) I also need to get ribbon for them.
- Tie ribbon on candy scoops.
- Make sign for the candy table.
- Make labels for candy table.

I want to do a few DIY things for my bridal shower, but I don't think they will let me. I really want to make water bottle labels. I might just sit back and let them do that for me :)

Jay is going out of town next week for 3 weeks for training. We need to do a lot next week before he leaves. We definitely need to go to the church and speak with the pastor who will be marrying up. Matter of fact, I will call them tomorrow and schedule an appointment to meet with them. We also need to go over the must play list for the reception. We can go over the ceremony order and reception order once he returns.

I'll have a better post tomorrow. For now, I'm too sleepy to type anymore...

Eventful Monday

2008-07-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I got some things done today.

- Finished my Bridal Shower invite list

- Scheduled my appointment for my makeup trial.

- Picked out shoes for the flower girls

- Bought Initial charms for the Bridesmaid bouquets. How cute! The have rhinestones in them and they were only 2.79. I've seen them online for up to $9.99.

This is the best week to get a lot of stuff out of the way because I only work 2 days (one during the week and Saturday). I can get a LOT done. I'm going to try and complete my card box and add the rhinestones to the bottom of my wedding shoes this week too. I also need to set up an appointment to meet with the pastor that's going to marry us. That's kinda important, lol.

Our aisle runner is too long so I'll take it when we go to the church, and cut it where it needs to stop. Once I get it to the correct size, I can paint our monogram on it. Sweetness. I'm thinking about putting a saying on there as well, but I haven't found anything yet. I'll come up with something.

I think I picked a hairstyle for the wedding day. It's pretty common, but I love it. It's so me. It's the infamous half-up half-down do. Pretty, huh?

I'm also thinking about a possible backdrop for the head table. This is what I came up with (please just focus on the backdrop...and don't mind the flower at the top)

OK, enough of all this. I'm tired now. I'll write tomorrow.

Guess Who's Back...Back Again!

2008-07-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

So I have been busy doing wedding related things this past week. I have been having major design issues so I've been going through everything with a fine-toothed comb and I've changed a lot. I was originally going to use more pink and white. Well, I've heard from lots of people including vendors that I should stay away from so much white. So my decor basically went from this (This is just a pic I found. No feathers and all that.):

To something like this:

This is just a mock up. We aren't having these crushed linens. Actually we were going to go with a pink pintuck tablecloth, but they didn't have the shade of pink we needed, so we are going with a smooth ice (very, very light) pink satin tablecloth and a smooth pillowcase satin black chair cover with an ice pink sash. I think the black against the light pink looks so beautiful. I suck with decor stuff, so the linens lady says she will hook it up for me. She's going to show me another mock up next week and I'll see more. My mom suggested that I should have pink linens, pink satin chair covers and a black sash. This is the closet picture of the pink satin I could find on the web.

It looks pretty, but I don't know. With the black chair covers, it should come out looking like this?

What do you think? Tell me the truth :) My head hurts. I'm going to consult with my Day of Coordinator about all this next week.

My wedding shoes came in last week! Look at them :)

I got them from David's Bridal. I'm SO happy that David's is adding more shoes to their collection. These are from the fall 2008 catalog. I saw them in the magazine and ordered them immediately without seeing them in person. They were beautiful in the catalog and they are even more beautiful in person :) I was going to dye them pink but they look so rich in white. I think I'm just going to add the blue rhinestones at the bottom and be done with it.

And speaking of pink shoes I found my bridal shower shoes! YAY! I found them at a boutique in Downtown Detroit. I never shop at boutiques because most have a no refund policy, but I just couldn't pass these up. And my mom bought them for me :) Aww, she loves me!

I also found the perfect dress there, but that bad boy was $240.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way too much for me to spend on a dress. It was a darling dress, but I'm sure I can find it somewhere else for much cheaper. It was a trapeze dress. I am in LOVE with the trapeze dress. The dress looked like this, except it was in white and it had a tie in the front.

Ok, that's all for now. I need to finish assembling these invites!

Detroit BAB GTG!

2008-07-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

We had a Brown and Bridal get together last night and I had a blast. I had such a good time with the Detroit ladies. We have to do it again soon!

The Wedding and Not-So Wedding Randoms!

2008-07-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

I have been away for 3 days. I have been working like crazy! I'm taking tomorrow morning off. I have a ton of things to do. I have to assemble my invites, work on my card box and start on my aisle runner. I'm trying to wait for my Mom to get back in town for that. I also bought 2 sets of jewelry off of ebay. I'm very indecisive. I'm also having a set made for me. I'll probably wear that set to my bridal shower or for the rehearsal.

I'm tripping out over my reception decor. I need to talk to my decorator about it. I want everything to match or coordinate. I don't know why I'm having these feelings now. I'll probably start on my invites on the 14th. I don't have anything to do that day :)

My reception dress came in today. I was so excited until I found some similar dresses online for $180.00 or less. I paid $257.00 for mine and that was with my discount. I just feel that I can do more with that money. David's will let me return the dress, but I'm going to wait until they are having a high sales week so my return won't hurt as much.I want a chiffon dress, halter style preferably that has an empire waist...and I want it in white :)

Speaking of dresses...I need to find another bridal shower dress. My fabulous dress doesn't fit right. I mean, it fits perfectly, but my chest area is way too big :( I lost my boobies *cries* I think I have gone down a cup size since I started loosing weight. I can't loose any more boobies though. I'll be flat on top, lol. I want the same style of dress. I saw this dress while looking through Knot Bios.

This Knottie is using this dress as a bridesmaid dress. I think it would look great for a bridal shower dress. I'm deciding between these colors. I don't know the theme...or anything else for that matter about my shower, but I just want it to be pretty. The pink is beautiful, but I'm leaning towards the Yellow. It's nice and dainty. I just love the style of this dress.

In other news, Princess started chasing her tail today. I caught it on camera, lol.

That's all of tonight. I can barely keep my eyes open.

So I'm Upset...

2008-07-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Up until recently, I haven't had any trouble out of my Bridal Party. My girls are ok with their deadlines. I also don't ask much of them, so that maybe another reason. Seriously, All I've asked them to do is meet up at a couple of dress shopping appointments for them, pay for their dress and pay for their shoes. That's it.

My Maid of Honor and I have been going back and forth since January about my bachelorette party and bridal shower. She wants to have strippers at both events. What? Are you freaking serious? I don;t strippers and neither! It's just my preference. I'm not cool with that. I want a nice bridal shower and I want to club hop for my bachelorette party. I told her that about hmm.....20 times. She still doesn't get it. I even relieved her from the bridal shower duties because my FMIL and 2 of my Bridesmaids want to throw one for me. She still says that she's going to have strippers there. She took it too far one night. We went out with Jay and his Best Man and she told Jay how she was going to have these strippers at my party and how I might learn something from them. Seriously? How disrespectful can you be??? Now she's mad at me. Whatever.

Only 3 of the guys have paid for their tuxes. We have 9 more to go (Including the fathers, ushers and ring bearer) Jay called one of them yesterday and JUST asked him to be in the wedding. What the hell? He picked his groomsmen the same time I picked my bridesmaids and you're just asking them now??? I remember back in March when I was at one of his family functions and I asked his cousin if he was excited abut being in the wedding (It was more sarcastic because men don't get into it that much) and he said "Whose wedding? I'm in your wedding?" Jay is a mess. I really hope he told the other guys about the tuxes. I have a deadline for the 2nd week of August. They better have them paid off by then. I have enough to worry about.

On top of all that, I found out some stuff about my former bridesmaid.

See, I originally had 8 bridesmaids. I asked all of my girls around April of '07. I know that's early, but I knew who I wanted to stand beside me on my wedding day. One of my friends (We'll call her "Erin") said she would love to be my bridesmaid. See, me and Erin have been REALLY good friends since 2004. We even call ourselves sisters. We have been through a lot as far as school and family so I knew she would be there for me. Well in October, I told all of my ladies in advance that we were going to have a bridesmaid get-together so we could have lunch and try on some dresses. All of my bridesmaids who was in town attended, but not her. She called like 10 minutes before we were supposed to meet and and told me that her son was sick with a virus and they had to stay away from everything and everybody because it was contagious. Ok, fine. No problem. I asked her if I could come by and give her a gift (I had "Will you be my Bridesmaid" gifts for my girls.). I was even going to just put it on her doorstep so she could just reach out of the door and get it since she didn't want to touch me. She still said no. Alrighty then...

So, I set a deadline for February to have all dresses paid for. I gave them at least 3 months to come up with the money. Erin called me the week before the deadline and asked for an extension because her money was tight. Ok, that's fine. I gave everyone an additional 3 weeks to get the money. Well, 3 weeks came and went. I called her and she didn't answer my calls. Finally, Erin called me in April and said that she couldn't buy her dress and that she couldn't be in the wedding. I offered to pay for her dress and I tried to find out why. She was very short with me and just said that she couldn't afford it. I had to accept that. I mean, I know money is tight for everyone now. So imagine my surprise to see her post pictures all over facebook of her trip to Atlanta. She went to Atlanta about a week ago. She had pics of her in her hotel room, and hanging out around town, popping bottles and what not. That trip was at least 500.00. So, I'm pissed at this point, but I still just want to talk to her about things that have been going on with me. So, I send her a message (I sent her a message because she changes her phone number so much, I'm not even sure I have the right one) telling her that I really need to talk to her because I'm going through it and she said she was going to call me. That was the 3rd. It's now the 6th and I still haven't heard from her. I'm very disappointed in her. I was there when she went through her difficult pregnancy. I went to see her almost everyday! I've been to all of her baby's birthdays and when she was going through it with his father, I was always there. So now that I need her, she's nowhere to be found. I thought about now inviting her to the wedding, but my mom and my other friend said that I should. The invites are going out on the 28th so I have about 3 weeks to decide on her. I want to talk to her about this, but I'm scared I'm going to go off on her.

I'll write later. I'm getting ready to go out.

Registering is Fun Stuff

2008-07-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Yeah! We registered today. We have been putting it off for a while. We had originally scheduled it for a few weeks ago, but then I found out that my Dad was sick so we postponed it. We had this date scheduled for about a week and I was actually going to postpone it today because of what happened with my Uncle, but I felt it was better to get out than to stay home and be depressed.

It was nice though. I had a GREAT time :)

Jay did too, but you can't tell by his picture. He didn't want to take any pics, lol. I did good by getting this one. Too bad he didn't smile, I absolutely adore his smile :)

We got to register at 3 stores. We have one more to go. Funny thing though. We didn't register for much stuff at Macy's and JC Penney. I asked Jay to go to Bed Bath and Beyond because I kept hearing everyone say how great the store is (I've never been). Jay didn't want to and said we probably wouldn't find anything there. So since I was driving, I found one and convinced him to go inside. When we registered and began walking around, we found so much stuff! We scanned the most stuff at BBB. We even found some stuff that we put on our Macy's registry for a lot cheaper! I hope our guests shop at BBB. I'm so excited. I hope I don't stalk our registry too much.

In other news, I think my Mom wants me to go to Georgia with her to attend my Uncle's funeral. I wasn't going to go at first because I have to work, but if she needs me there with her, then I will just have to make my boss understand. This is a difficult situation for all of us.

I'll write tomorrow. I'm upset about something right now and I need to get my thoughts together before I make my next post.

I Love You

2008-07-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

I finished my cake table letters tonight. I had to do something to take my mind off of the tragedy we are dealing with. I only had two letters to finish, so I just knocked them out tonight. I'm quite pleased with the way they came out. It look me about 2 hours a day for 5 days straight. It was a bit tedious, but the are going to look beautiful on the cake table.

Jay and I are going to register tomorrow. I think we are hitting up Macy's an JC Penneys and we are going to Bed Bath and Beyond if we have time. We have to make sure we have enough time to make our rounds and get that good BBQ, lol.

Oh yeah, I also got my reception cards in the mail today. Three days before she said I would receive them. That made me a happy camper. Some of them were bent, but I'm sure those were the extras.

That's all for tonight. I'll post tomorrow.

Hard to Swallow

2008-07-02T23:50:00.001-07:00

My Uncle was killed today...

I am still in shock. This was very unexpected. My mom is so sad right now. I cried with her earlier. I hate to see my Mother cry. This was her youngest brother. He didn't lead the best life, but still he didn't deserve to die like that. He was shot 3 times. This is very hard for us to deal with. I'm having surgery on the 14th and my Dad is having a biopsy on the 24th. My Uncle was 53 years old. Three guys are supposedly responsible for his death. The caught one of them so far. He is 21...

I can't say much else about this. I'm too upset to talk or write about it and I can't sleep. I have to stay strong for my Mom though. All of her other siblings are living in GA, so I need to be there for her.

I have to end this post now before I break down again.

INVITES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

So after a week of waiting, I picked up my invites today....

One of my cards has the wrong time on them, but the vendor promised to print new ones and send them out to me today. I should receive them by either Monday or Tuesday. I love them now. When I picked up the invites, I have to say that I was a little disapointed because I thought we agreed upon a pocketfold design, but we saved a lot of money with this design, so that made me happy again. Plus, these are beautiful! She did a great job with the design. I do have to assemble them though. That's a job for my mother and I. We will have them complete during the week the 14th. I won't be working much that week because I'm having surgery. Until then, I'm going to finish some more DIY projects. I guess I can make my Card box and find a way to cut my aisle runner down.

I finally got in touch with the Church and they told me that my 100ft runner is too long. It needs to be 50ft. Either I need to find a way to cut it neatly or find the EXACT one in 50ft, which I don't think will happen. I LOVE my aisle runner. It's so pretty. I'll make it work.

Ok, it's my bedtime now.

I'm still working on my cake table letters. I hope to have them finished by the end of the week. I had no idea they would be this time comsuming.

Last Post for June

2008-06-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

Adios June! Wow, We only have 2 months until our wedding. I had a panic attack today for no reason at all.

Yes, this was a completely pointless post...

Such the Busy Bee

2008-06-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

I have been away for about a week. I was seeing a lot of my projects pile up, so I had to take a little break from blogging. I was a pretty productive while I was away. I'm working on my Cake Table "I Love You" letters. I'm almost done. I might be done by tomorrow or Wednesday night at the latest. It's so time consuming because I bought 12ss rhinestones and they are so small for the size of the letters. The look so beautiful so far. I don't want to post a pic until all of the words are complete. Jay and I say down and we worked out the Ceremony. I can't believe we did all that planning for the reception and the small details that we didn't even begin to plan how our ceremony is going to go. That's the most important part of the wedding celebration. We have it down now and I'm so excited. Now we are in the process of picking out music. I'm hoping we can do that within the next two weeks because I want to finish up these programs by the end of July. I bought the paper for the insides of the program today and all I have to get now is the ribbon. I might pick that up next week since I have a coupon.

I'm picking up my invites on July 1st. I can't wait. I've been excited ever since my invitation vendor Suzie e-mailed me. I can't wait to pick them up. The proofs are absolutely beautiful. Jay didn't want to see the proofs. He just wants to see the finished result. He thinks we spent too much on the invitations, but whatever. I wanted us to have something different and I think we accomplished that :)

We have a monogram now thanks to Megan from Megastar Designs. Jay and I love it!

I already started printing out labels for our candy table take-out boxes.

Yesterday, I returned my wedding shoes and ordered these instead:

They come in white, but I'm going to dye them pearl pink (the color pictured) to match the bridesmaid dresses.

I also re-ordered my reception dress because the one I had at the store had a hole in it. Both the shoes and the dress will be here by August. I hope the shoes come sooner because I want to dye them ASAP and glue rhinestones on the bottom.

Ok, I have to go now. I have another post either tomorrow or Tuesday for sure.

Quickie...

2008-06-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not feeling very well tonight, so I'll keep this entry very brief. I promise to have a longer entry tomorrow.

I met Hill Harper tonight while I worked his book signing. I LOVE him. He is so intelligent and inspiring. As a matter of fact, as soon as I finish up this post, I'm going to lay down and read his book Letters to a Young Sister. We also took pictures. I'll post them tomorrow.

I printed 100+ covers for our programs, now I just have to finish the rest of the program. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it by the end of next week.

Jay has a Co-worker who does ice sculptures and he offered to do one for us for FREE! I also found a soloist for the ceremony. She's doing our ceremony for FREE! I am also getting all of my BM jewelry for FREE!

What a blessing :)

I also got my 4,000+ rhinestones in the mail today so I'll be working on my "I Love You" letters soon, possibly this week.

Ok, off to lay down now. I was supposed to get some monogram proofs in my e-mail this morning by my invite lady, but I didn't receive anything :( I hope she sends them tomorrow. I'm supposed to get my invites by July 1st. I hope she's not late with that deadline. Because my RSVP dates is depending on when I send out my invites. I guess I need to start ordering my stamps from Zazzle.

Trouble, Tastings, and Tuxes...OH MY!

2008-06-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

Today was a busy day for us. First, we had an appointment to look at a townhouse. I LOVED it. It was very spacious and it was very reasonably priced. Jay, on the other hand has his mind on this other place we looked at a few weeks ago. It's much smaller and it's more expensive. I have been trying to talk him out of it and I was hoping that our appointment today would seal the deal, but it just reminded him of how much he loved the other place. In my opinion, he only likes the other place because it's downtown, and it has everything in one place (shops, workout center, dry cleaners, you name it) in this facility that we don't have to leave the grounds for anything. I mean it's a beautiful place to live with a beautiful view, but that's not what I had in mind when we began looking for places. He thinks everything is all set. I'll have to sit down with him soon and have a nice long talk before he leaves for his training. We are planning on moving at the end of August so we don't have much time left.

So after we went to look at the home, we had our food tasting. I think this was the best part of our wedding planning so far! We chose our menu for the cocktail hour and we chose our main dish for dinner. The food was SO good! I just know our guests will be pleased with the music. I love our reception venue, but the only thing I'm not feeling are the chairs. They are big, and over sized. I ordered chair covers back when we were using a different venue. Now the chairs are like 4 times bigger and our chair covers just won't work now. The chairs are nice, but they don't quite fit into my wedding vision. I REALLY wish I would've budgeted some money for chivari chairs...

The tuxes was our last wedding related thing to do today. I thought we had this planned out so well. Jay scheduled to have this day off weeks in advance. He was supposed to tell his GM WEEKS ago about the fitting so everyone could make the proper arrangements. He wanted me to go, so I scheduled to have the day off. In all, we are supposed to have 12 men fitted for tuxes, this includes the fathers and ushers. Do you know how many showed up today? 5! Jay told me that he started calling all his people this week for the tux fitting. He was supposed to tell them a week or two ago. I was a little upset at first, because I was hoping to knock this out in one day. From there it got worse. So, we had an appointment with MWTux. We arrive and they told us that they didn't have us down for an appointment for today. WTF? I guess the man who took my call didn;t out us down in the book. So, by this point I'm pissed, but I'm trying not to show it. He says he can take us anyway so we sit down and he takes all of our info down. Then whole we are filling out paperwork, this dude says "Man, I wish I was at the bar right now! I need me a drink! I was at the bar all last night! Hell, I still have a hangover."

Who says that!? I mean, for real? Jay just laughed it off and I kept my eyes glued to the paperwork. Then he throws some vests and ties at me and says, "Here. These are the colors we have. Pick one." Wow, this dude was so rude! Anyway, I'm now giving him the evil eye for throwing the vests and ties at me, but I look at the colors and they didn't have the shade of pink that would match the BM dresses. So I ask him about the color, and he says that he doesn't have that color available to rent. Now I'm disgusted. See, I thought I had this planned out so well. I work at David's part time, so I would always ask the MW Tux rep at our store if they have a pink to match my girls pearl pink dress and she would always tell me that MWTux has a vest color for every David's BM dress color. This pink was very bright and it didn't match at all. Then he told me that the best thing would be for me to put the guys in silver vests. Our colors are pink, black and white. Silver is just an accent color. It would look odd for the girls to be in pink and the guys be in silver. So, while the guy is entering our information in the computer, he's dozing off. I'm about ready to give up at this point. I got up to tell the other GM that I was sorry about the delay. When I came back, he asks for every body's deposits and I ask him if we are getting ready to do a fitting. He says, "We don't do fittings." WOW. How do you know if they will fit??? Jay started getting upset at this point. So, something just told be to leave and go to President Tuxedo. We told the consultant that we needed to think about this purchase and that we would be back a little later, Do you know what he did? He ripped up our paperwork. This dud was straight tripping and I didn't yell or get loud or anything. He was very rude to us.

So anyway, we went to President Tuxedo and thank goodness they had the right color pink to match the BM dresses. The girl we worked with was very nice and professional as well. Jay, my Dad, and 2 of the other GM got fitted for their tuxes and we picked out everything. It was such a blessing! The only other thing we weren't prepared for was that all of the guys had to pay 50% of the tux rental fee up front. Luckily, all the guys had no problems with this and two even paid for their Tux in full. I was so happy because when I thought we were going with MW Tux, the guys were required to only pay a $20.00 deposit.

I can't believe how this went today. I thought I was so prepared with these tuxes. I should have looked around more, but I swore by MW Tux because I work for their affiliate. I'll never go there again for a Tux, at least not to that location. I'm just so happy that it's over! Now we have to get the rest of the guys in to be fitted for their tuxes.

I think I'm going to Jay handle the rest for this task. I still need to get my girls all squared away. I'm so blessed to have such wonderful bridesmaids. I haven't had any trouble with them so far. I'm hoping it stays that way. Less stress for me.

Well, I'm going to start working on my programs tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Unwritten....

2008-06-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

I bought a new pair of shoes today. I couldn't resist. They were on sale at Macy's and I think they are cute.

I don't really have anything to wear with them yet, but I'm sure I can find a cute white dress somewhere. I don't know, I'm not really feeling the clothes I'm seeing at the malls. I'm finding myself shopping online more. I've found some cute stuff, but I'm a little scared of buying from new online stores because I'm not sure if the sizes are true. I would hate to buy something, it doesn't fit and I can't return it. Then I would be stuck with it :(

Princess also got a treat today. I got up at the crack of dawn to take her to the Groomer. Here's her before:

My little ragamuffin :) Here is Princess after her haircut:

I'm noticing that I have feet in a few of my pics. I'm sorry. But at least my toe nails are painted hee hee. I also bought her a new dress. She has about 5. I don;t what it is about Princess, but she loves wearing clothes. When I take something off of her, she will find it and take it to either my mom or my dad and whine until they put it back on her. This dog has way too much sense! I love her to pieces though. I'm mad that her haircut costs more than my hair do.

Ok, enough about all that...on to the wedding stuff! I only have a few small updates today...

We are registering next Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jay brought it up today. Honestly, I forgot with everything that has been going on. I'm so happy he's involved in our wedding planning now. He wasn't at first, but now that we are beginning to pay our vendors, he wants to know all the details. Fine with me :) I only have him for about 2 more weeks then he will be away with training for work. Then we will have to plan from long distance. I'm sure I will be dealing with his mom more.

I bought a wedding shoe the other night at work. I am such an impulse buyer. It's a really cute shoe but the day after I bought it, David's new Fall '08 book came out and I fell in love with another pair. It's a higher heel and it has a big rhinestone brooch on the top and it's more of a sandal. It also looks comfy. I'm thinking of exchanging these for the new shoes when they arrive in the store. There's no telling when they are scheduled to arrive. I might just have to special order them. Either way I'm dying my shoes pearl pink. Jay is going to have on a pink vest so my shoes will match his vest and the bridesmaids dresses.

I also bought 4,000+ rhinestones for my "I Love You" cake table letters. I still need to buy some silver spray paint for the letters and I also bought a pack of blue rhinestones for the bottom of my wedding shoes.

I'm so ready to finish up my DIY projects. As soon as I get my monogram from my invitation vendor, I'm going to complete my aisle runner. I might start on my card box this weekend and if my rhinestones arrive by this weekend I will start working on those. My programs are going to take a little bit of time. I downloaded a free trial of Microsoft publisher and it's good for 60 days so I have some time to work on those. I contacted my contact person at the church, but she didn't answer. I left her a message so hopefully she will call me back tomorrow so we can discuss some of the details of the program. Hell, I don't even know the songs we are using for the ceremony. I guess I need to figure that out soon.

I decided today that I'm going to take a leave from David's. It's too stressful. I'm not going to quit, because I would like to return, but I need at least a month off. There is much too much drama and the customers...boy I swear! Most of my customers swear by the show Bridezillas because they come up in there trying to demand something from me. Now, I like to provide great customer service, but if you get with me, I'm going to get with you. Period. I don't know why some people think they can treat people who work in retail a certain way, especially when retail employees are trying to be accommodating to the customer. I find some brides that I work with to be rude, demanding (I said this already) and unbelievable. Now, I'm patient and nice when it comes to finding the perfect dress because I know they come in looking for the wonderful experience. I am one of those brides who had a HORRIBLE David's experience, so I try my hardest to make their experience better than mine and I have succeeded 98% of the time. The other 2% came in with bad attitudes and if they had a bad experience, it wasn't because of me. It's just time for a little break. I think with about 100 days left, I'm getting stressed, and I don't need unnecessary stress. Plus lifting all of those dresses are becoming a strain on my chest and when I come home from work my chest is always hurting. I'm going to call my Dr. tomorrow and see if she can give me a letter so I can get a few weeks off without having to quit.

I have to get up early in the morning so I'm going to end this post now. Good night.

Sweetness!

2008-06-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I took a much needed break this weekend. A lot has been going on in my life and I just needed to stay home, chill with my family and calm down. I'm feeling a little better now. I've expressed my feelings to my girls and they are offering prayers and positive vibes. It's just what I need right now.

I finished my Memory Candle on Friday. I think it's kinda pretty:

My Dad informed me that I left out a name or two. All of the names couldn't fit onto the candle, so I'm going to put names on the votives using clear labels. I'm going to have them surrounding the big memory candle like so:

A nicer table and some rose petals should work just fine :) Forgive the diapers in the background. I have been babysitting my God daughter every other weekend.

On Sunday, I got a chance to meet up with Knottie/BABS Kilen and I bought her candy table jars. I'm so in love with them! I also got scoops from her, which is awesome because I was JUST about to order some! I have scoops in three different sizes.

All shapes and sizes! There are about 4 that are not pictured. I'm not sure how I'm going to decorate the jars yet. Now that I have them, I can start buying candy. I don't want to buy all of the candy all at one time. That would be a hard hit!

I also bought 2 of these cupcake holders for the candy table. (I already mentioned this in a previous post.)

Each cupcake holder holds 13 cupcakes so I'm going to put 26 cupcakes on the table. I plan on getting them from Meijers and and having them do some in pink and some in white and all will have colorful sprinkles. I'm saving money by going with Meijers because they will customize the colors for free (I mean it's only one color and sprinkles that they use on all cupcakes). My cake lady charges a ridiculous amount for cupcakes, and I'll rather go the cheap route. Meijer cupcakes are yummy too!

I bought this plate holder at Target around Christmas. I got it on clearance for like $9.00. I was planning on putting it in my kitchen, but now I'm thinking I'm going to put this on the candy table also. My mom wants to put some chocolate covered strawberries on the table, so I'll put them on here. Of course I'm going to spray paint it silver.

Ok, That's enough for tonight. I'll write tomorrow.

Today Was a Good Day...

2008-06-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of school! I packed up all of my things and I am officially no longer a teacher at that school. I found it very disturbing that the news would report that Detroit Public Schools (my school district) is estimating 800 teacher layoffs by the end of the school year. I'm probably wrong, but that seems like half of the teachers in the district. They are also predicting that 12,000 students will not return next school year. That's so sad.

My school was awful. The principal didn't care because she was getting fired anyway and just let kids fight everyday, have food fights everyday and the kids talked to the teachers so badly. Luckily, I wasn't one of those teachers, I managed to stay on the good side of most of the students and they respected me. I won't miss how the students vandalized the school. They would take textbooks and thrown them out the window of the 2nd floor window. The teacher would just look the other way. Another thing they did was so sad, I even yelled at them, and I'm not to yell. There is a program called City Year. They worked so hard with the students and all they could do was disrespect them in return. Well one Wednesday City Year planted LOTS of flowers around the school sign and some students helped out. It was raining very hard while they was planting these flowers. The next day, the principal gets in the PA and says the flowers were pulled up and destroyed. I knew then that their was no hope for that school. I won't miss how teachers would get cursed out over the PA for being 5 minutes late to turn in daily attendance....ok, ok enough about that. I have some pics to share.

I had all intensions of finishing my Memory Candle tonight after work, but I bought the wrong size ribbon and now I have to make a special trip to Michael's so I can get the right size ribbon. I might go to JoAnn's. They might have prettier ribbon. Princess decided to help:

She was so sleepy. When I put the candle on the floor to take a picture, Princess crawled over and tried to sneak in a nap. Here is a pic of the candle without her:

So far, so good. When I get the right ribbon I'll be able to finish it. My mom loves this idea.

My invite vendor also sent me some proofs for my invitations! YAY! I'm so happy. This totally made my night. Here they are:

They are all beautiful, but I'm having a hard time choosing one. I'll let her know on Sunday which one we are going to work with, Any feedback? Wanna tell me which proof you like? Leave me a comment, please?

More Wedding Checks!

2008-06-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

We booked the cake today! Now I can officially say that we booked our final vendor. This is what our cake is going to look like:

We won't have the bows on it, but it will have different designs on each tier. The anniversary tier will be cherry flavor and the rest of the cake will be lemon. It's SO good. I can't wait for our guests to taste it.

I reworked the budget and added in the cake. It's not that bad and we are only over budget by $300.00 Better $300.00 over than $3,000.00 over, right?

I managed to get Jay to go to Michael's with me today. It was quite an experience. I went to go get my 2nd cupcake stand for the candy table and some supplies to make our Remembrance candle. I asked for instructions on the BAB forums and I got some great directions. I spent 20 minutes alone in the ribbon aisle and he looked like he wanted to pull his hair out. I didn't want to torture him, but I needed him to help me in case I decided to buy something heavy. Today we also picked out our limo and we are going to register at some stores. I'm not sure if I need to call there in advance to schedule an appointment to register. I guess I'll call tomorrow on my lunch break.

I'm feeling a little rushed right now. I have to basically make 95% of the wedding decisions this month because Jay is going out of town for 5 weeks to train for work. He's scheduled to leave July 1st, but it might be later. If it's later, that's cutting it really close to the wedding.

On a happier note, I lost another 2 pounds. I think I've lost 5 pounds this week! That's so great! I'm getting closer and closer to my goal weight. Hopefully I'll be there by the beginning of August.

Well that's all for tonight. I promise to come back tomorrow with pictures of my completed candle :)

I want to kick her...

2008-06-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

So after I just told the world that my FMIL agreed to pay for the cake, she backed out. WTF? Dude, she's been saying that she was going to pay for the cake from the beginning. I did tons of research on bakeries trying to find the most reasonable price for her and when I did, she said it wouldn't be a problem. So today she changed her mind. That sucks big time. I JUST worked out the budget for Jay so we have the amount that we are going to pay for the wedding. Now I have to adjust it AGAIN. I mean, now we are going to be over budget. Staying within the budget was something I was working so hard for. Damn. We have our consultation tomorrow so I hope it goes well. I didn't need Jay to tell me that today.

In other news, tomorrow is the last day for my students!!! My classroom is pretty much broken down, but I need to put up a few more things. Hopefully I'll get them done tomorrow because my last day is Friday and I don't plan on doing much of nothing but chill out outside of my hot classroom.

So I picked up another DIY project today. I was going to do "I DO" letters for my cake table. I ordered them a while back and I even painted them:

Now I'm not liking them so much. So Monday I e-mailed Crafty Eddy (one of my favorite vendors in the whole wide wedding world) and asked him for more letters. I couldn't really think of some cute wedding words that I haven't seen before, so I just asked for these:

I love them. They are going to look great on the cake table. Now I just need to decide of I'm going to use all crystal rhinestones or a mix of pink and crystal. I guess I'll order the rhinestones tomorrow.

I don't have much to write about tonight so I'll write tomorrow.

Well...

2008-06-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

I went to the doctor with my Dad, and the doctor thinks he may have some kind of heart problem. I wasn't expecting that. My Dad asked me to go with him and drive him to the doctor. I knew then he was nervous or afraid. The last time he asked me to drive him around was when his last two siblings passed back in '04 and '05. I pray that he is alright. My Mom and I are trying to stay positive. My dad is a health nut and takes care of himself very well. Only positive thoughts from here in out :)

In wedding related news, Jay liked the cake! His favorite flavor was the cherry, so that's the flavor we will probably end up going with ( he liked it, I liked it, and my Mom liked it) unless I can get a tier of lemon (it was soooooo good!) I set up a consultation with the bakery owner for Thursday. I'm so happy we are finally close to booking our cake vendor. We have been looking for an affordable cake for MONTHS. And get this...it gets better. FMIL is buying the cake for us! YAY! That's such a blessing! I also scheduled a food tasting with our reception venue AND changed the date for the tuxedo appointment for Jay. While me and my Daddy were out on our outing I bought some things from Michael's with my 50% coupon. A nice Knottie sent an Internet coupon for 50% off one item and I printed out 10 of those bad boys. I'm going there every day this week.

3 tubes of pink paint and three tubes of black paint, They were on sale for $1.00. This should be more than enough for what I'm trying to do. I used my coupon in the brush set. I got the set for $4.00
I figured I would just buy a set instead on just one brush. This set has all the sizes I need for my letters.

I went to Walmart next. I bought another ring bearer pillow. I don't know what's up with me, but I guess I'm getting particular about matching things. I bought this pillow when I thought I was having a Tiffany theme wedding:

I don't think I like it anymore so I bought this one . It matches the flowergirl baskets :)

See?

Today I was looking through my wedding stuff and I came across my Unity Candle set. I totally forgot I had it.

I'm only putting a pic up so I don't forget about it again, lol. This was my very first wedding purchase.

My Mom bought us some tosting flutes and a serving set a while back. I almost forgot about these too!

I like it. Very pretty and they were 40 % off!

Alright, enough of this for tonight. I'm going to go watch Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? I also have to get my things ready for tomorrow. I'm sure the power will be back on and we are having an End of the year party. Fun, fun, fun, I'm bringing cupcakes and ice cream...that's why I'm their favorite teacher :)

Good Night.

A Day Off!!!!

2008-06-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

The power is out at my school so there is no work for me today. I'm glad they cancelled school. We lost power right before school was dismissed yesterday and the students rioted through the halls. I thought I was going to have to fight one of those kids. They don't if they hurt the teachers. One of my co-workers gets hit everyday. I was shocked when I saw one of his students throw a text book at him and it just barely missed him. Ah well, we only have 3 days of school left!

Since I'm off, I managed to finish my 2nd Bridesmaid newsletter. I'm learning new things about Microsoft Office every day.

This newsletter was supposed to be send out back in May, but since I'm LAZY and a PROCRASTINATOR, I had to change some deadline dates. They are getting mailed off tomorrow. I also have to send dresses to my out of town bridesmaids tomorrow as well. Jay and I need to register soon too. Next week would be best since I'm off.

My Daddy has a doctor appointment today and he asked me to go with him since I'm off. I hope it goes well. He hasn't been feeling good since last week. I'm glad he's going to the doctor to see what's wrong. I really hope nothing is seriously wrong.

I'm ending this post now, but I'll probably have another entry today since I'm writing this one so early.

Too Damn Hot!

2008-06-09T16:57:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here updating my blog while I'm soaking my feet. I've been rough on my feet for the past couple of weeks by wearing heels to work everyday. I guess I'm finally accepting the fact that I can't wear high heels like I used to. I can't let them go just yet. Let me have one more good summer with them. I promise to wear gym shoes in my down time. I'm starting to feel old now. *sigh*

Oh my goodness. It HAD to be 100 degrees in my classroom today. My students were dying. We had to sit in another teachers class all day. I mean, it's so messed up that all the classrooms in my wing have great air but I have none. I got a bad deal. At least there are only 4 more days of school left. WOO HOO! It's time for a break. Ah well, on to wedding stuff!

I had a "Drive-by" cake tasting today.

The bakery had some cake samples for me to take home to share with Jay. The package had six cake flavors in it: French vanilla, cherry, lemon, almond, chocolate, and banana. I liked lemon and cherry the best. They are the most affordable bakery I've come across and the owner is very nice. When Jay gets off of work he's going to sample the cakes and give me his opinion. If he likes it, we'll set up an appointment tomorrow to go over cake options and costs. I'm so excited!

I bought some votive holders. I showed them to one of my cousins and she told me she didn't like them. She doesn't like votive holders period. She was trying to be creative at her graduation party and used candles with just the metal holder. She put them on the tablecloths and she burnt them. It was a mess. She gets the DA award of the month, lol. This is the votive style I bought.

They are really cute. Mine are clear though. These are the ones I bought:

My decorator had some, but I didn't like hers and I'm a little upset that she tried to used them for my centerpieces. They were really old and plastic. She needs to throw them out.

She asked me if she could have my vases, so hopefully she'll take the holders off my hands after the wedding as well. If she does this, I might get my whole reception decorated for FREE! I got such a great deal with her and she's great as what she does. She's not charging me anything for my centerpieces because she wants my vases. All I have to pay for is the head table, cake table and candy table. She said she could drape the ceiling too, but I didn't get a price from her on that. It's either going to be her or this other vendor. I've seen his draping but I haven't seen hers yet.

I went to CVS today after work to get my Daddy a Father's Day card and I came across these bridal shower invitations:

It's an adorable shower invite. I was thinking of DIYing the invites, but I have a feeling I'm not going to want to do them. I have a lot of DIY projects already and I just added another one today that is sure to be time consuming. I'll see how I feel when the time rolls around. I don't even know my bridal shower colors yet. I only bought one pack of these, so it didn't hurt my pockets :)

Well, I'm going to end this entry now. I might turn in early tonight.

Wedding updates!

2008-06-08T17:44:00.000-07:00

Look at my shirt. Isn't it cute :) One of my fellow knotties has a Etsy store and she's making them now. She does a great job.

Well, I got some wedding updates to share! My future Mother-in-law told me my bridal shower date!. The date is August 31, 2008. That's labor day weekend. I was looking online for a bridal shower dress and I came across this dress:

I think it's really cute. My mom thinks it looks a little after 5. It's only 20.00 so I think I might get it anyway. I have some really cute shoes to match it already. They are silver. I'm not really fashion savvy, so I'm not sure if it's ok to wear silver shoes with a silver dress (they look more light gray than anything) Here are the shoes:

I have 2 months to figure all that out :) I'm also looking for jewelry and I had my co-worker make me a bracelet. It's so pretty. I love it! I'm trying to get her to make me a matching necklace and earrings too.

So, I'm getting ready to start some of my DIY projects. Since Jay is going to be out of town for all of July, I'm probably going to be starting them then since I'm going to have a LOT of free time on my hands. I figure now is the time to get all of my supplies, so when July rolls around, I'll have everything I need. First, I ordered some boxes from ebay:

They are pink :) I'm thinking that I'm going to decorate the boxes with ribbon, pearls and rhinestones. I'm not trying to do anything complicated like put colored fabric on the boxes. I don't want to make this project difficult. I'm thinking of lining up the boxes like this:

It doesn't look right in the picture, but I guess we'll see once I start this project. I have about 3 inspiration pics and I'm going to take a little from each box design. Here are my supplies:

I also ordered these boxes first, but they were too small. I think I may be able to use it for my bridal shower? Who knows. I might just sell it. I would definitely have to put some material on it.

Next, I ordered 40 white CD covers and some Quartz metallic paper for my CD favors and programs. I'm still deciding on the CD favors so I only got 40 (the minimum to place the order). I didn't get the supplies for these yet. I need ribbon and white printable labels for these. I also need the ribbon for the programs.

I already had these, but these are my take-out boxes for the candy buffet. I love these. I got these from a fellow knottie as well.

When I was at Michael's today. They gave me an idea for my candy table. I'm thinking about putting two cupcake stands on each side. Like this.

Cute huh? I might have the cupcakes done in pink and white for the wedding colors. I'm not sure yet. Our candy table will be an array of colors. I didn't want the whole table to match out wedding colors. It would be pretty, but I just really want it to be colorful. These various colors might work out just fine :)

Last but not least I bought my aisle runner today! It's 100ft. And the design on it is beautiful. I'm going to paint our monogram on it.

I still have to get the paint and brushes for it. I'm going to get all that this week though because Michael's has the paint on sale for $1.00 each.

Ok, I'm getting off now. I gotta go watch Bridezillas.

More Progress!

2008-06-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

I ordered my hostess dresses a few weeks ago and they came back a month early! Gotta love David's!

It's the same dress I got for my Jr. Bridesmaid except hers is pearl pink like the bridesmaids. I'm going to cut these hostess dresses so they will be at knee legnth instead of floor legnth. They should turn out really nice.

I never posted a finished result of my Save the Dates, did I? Here they are:

Bear with me. I took these pics with my camera phone and it's not the best lighting. My Design Diva did a great job designing them. I just attached the magnet to the card with black photocorners and elmer's glue. They held up well.

I'm going to have dinner now. I'll write again soon.

Happy June!

2008-06-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it's June and I have 8 more days of work :) I still haven't found a summer job yet. I mean, I'll still be working at David's, but I was looking for something a little more stable. I applied at like 5 places...I guess I can apply for a few more tonight but I was hoping to have something lined up by now.

Jay got his promotion! Now he's going to leave me for 5 weeks! I'm going to miss him so much. Oh well, I'm going to try to busy myself with wedding related projects. I was going to get started on them now, but I might as well start them when he leaves so I can get them done without rushing, It will also help my boredom.

Well, I'm looking for a bridal shower dress and I'm trying to watch the Red Wings, but they are taking too long. 3OT is not cool. Just win already. They all look so tired :(

I'll write tomorrow.

Flowers, flowers, flowers!

2008-05-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

I had an appointment with my florist today and we picked the flowers for the wedding party :) I'm going to have lilies and roses in my bouquet. I think it will be beautiful and my florist pulled out these crystals that she's going to use. At first I thought I wanted Stargazer lilies, but she informed me that the lily that matched my pink is a different one...and fudgecicles! I forgot the name :( Oh well, I can't wait to see what she comes up with! Now I have to stop dragging my feet and get to my reception venue with my decorator so I can have my food tasting and see how we are going to decorate the room. Things are coming together slowly but surely. I'll put it in my phone to call her and the reception venue tomorrow about the appointment.

I have been holding off on the food tasting because I wanted both of our parents to be there with us, but Jay is slacking and he hasn't told me anything. He sucks with wedding deadlines :( He better give me an answer by tomorrow so I set up this appointment.

There is so much that goes into planning a wedding. I think I need a wedding planner. I can;t get my "vision" together, but now that school is about to be out, I'll have more time to focus on the wedding.

Ok, so you can call me the dumbass of the year. I'm thinking I'm getting a great deal on paper for my programs and I ordered the wrong size. I wanted folded programs, but I ordered them too small. Now if I decide to use the paper, I'm going to have to do some fancy smancy work to assemble them. Well see how this works out.

Ok, I have to get ready to work tomorrow. Good night :)

Things that make you go hmmm.....

2008-05-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

My family is weird. I found out today that my niece got married today. Seriously? I mean she's grown and all (she's 21) but I mean a heads up would be nice. She has been living with her boyfriend/fiancee/husband for a year or two, I think. My dad was really hurt, but I told him not to worry about it. I mean, she stopped talking to the fam when she started dating him. That's some weird shit. My sister did the same thing. She is cool with his side of the family, but just stopped calling us. Whatever. I'm not going to lose sleep about it. I have my own life to deal with.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get my old job back. Let me give you a little info about my situation. See right before I graduated from college, I was a head start teacher. I loved working with the little ones. My job was awesome and the company I worked for was awesome. I had full benefits and I got all my holidays off with pay. So, when I graduated from college in '07, I thought it would be better for my teaching career to try to get into a school district for more money and advancement. I applied with DPS and it took them 6 months to get back with me. When they did, I was ecstatic. I was SO happy. Problem was, I could only give my other job a one week notice AND it was in the middle of the school year. They were hurt, but I still tried to leave on a good note. Well, since I've been with DPS, it's been downhill. I'm a substitue teacher (because that's the only position they were hiring for at the time. I was only trying to get my foot in the door. ), there is no sign that I will become a full-time teacher soon. I'm making more money, but I don't have benefits AND I don;t get paid for the holidays, etc. Not to mention the kids are bad as hell. I have students ranging from 5-10. There are fights everyday in the school. The students literally run the school. THEN to top it all off, people think I'm a troublemaker because of the ladies I have lunch with everyday. WTF? I've only been at the school for almost 3 months. I'm not friends with anyone there, I'm cordial and friendly to everyone, but I'm not one to talk about anyone behind their back or curse out the principal (I've seen one of these ladies do this. I was shocked!)

I've had enough, and as soon as I write this entry I'm going to write an apology letter to my former boss and try to deliver it to her tomorrow if I can meet with her. I called my both of my former Center Administrators and they told me how much the miss me and that they would vouge (sp?) for me when I talked the the education director.

Can you believe it?? I'm SO happy I left on a good note. Now I have to patch things up with the education director. Hopefully I can because it's ultimately her decision to hire me back.

I got a little happy with my CC this weekend and I ordered some boxes to make my card box, some paper for my programs, and some CD holders for some mock up CD favors. I'm going to Michael's this week to pick up some supplies. I hear they have a 50% coupon floating around in their stores. I'm getting my inspiration from this company:

Their card boxes are so gorgeous! I hope I can make one very similar to the pink and brown one. Only mine will be in pale pink and black :

For my programs...I still haven't decided on what I want to do yet. I know I don't want the regular paper programs I'm used to seeing at the weddings I've attended. I want something different and beautiful without spending too much money. Speaking of that, I need to order some rhinestones. They will definitely be this size with a bow:

I'm liking this for my CD favor idea.

My mind is racing with ideas, but I have at least a week to get my thoughts and ideas together.

We don;t have a theme for our wedding, but I was thinking that we should have one. I asked Jay, but of course he couldn't think of anything. I guess I just want it really elegant and beautiful.

My invite vendor e-mailed me today and told be that she's beginning to work on my invites now that I've e-mailed her all of my information about my invites. I can't wait to see what she comes up with :)

I also found out today that the chairs at our venue are too big for the chair covers I ordered. So now I have to go the to the linen place to see if I can either get some pillowcase covers (those might not work either...these chairs are huge. I also need to change our tablecloths. Originally I was going to go with a long white tablecloth with a square pink tablecloth on top, but now I'm seriously thinking about a pink pin tuck tablecloth for the tables. I think those linens are just so elegant and beautiful. And it will save us about 300.00 by going with this option.

Ok, well I think I've chatted it up enough :) I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow and I need to write this letter before I go to bed. Jay also has a big day ahead of him tomorrow. He interviewed for a position recently and they called to make him an offer on Thursday...and me missed the call! He's going to call back first thing in the morning and I hope and pray that the offer is still there for him :)

Good night.

I've Been Busy

2008-05-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry for neglecting my blog. It hit me that I have 4 months until my wedding and I've been busy with wedding-related things. I just ordered my paper for my programs, card box materials, and some CD covers so I can practice making my CD favors :)

I'm pretty tired tonight, so I'll try to write tomorrow. I'm SO happy I had today off.

Lots more Done!

2008-05-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

I'm almost finished getting the names and addresses for our guest list. I also ordered the Hostesses dresses yesterday and I'm 99% done with the Videographer contract and I'm 98% done with my invite checklist. I also finished my 2nd Bridesmaid newsletter. Those have to be sent out on Monday along with 2 bridesmaid dresses. They live out of state. My other bridesmaids hopefully will meet me at David's on Tuesday so they can try on their dress and take it home. I REALLY need to get their dresses out of the house because they are a very light pink (as you can see in my post below) and I'm trying to keep them in a safe, clean place.

I am in the process of looking for a GOBO for my wedding. I already have the lighting system, I just need the GOBO. We are having our monogram either on the dance floor or on the wall. Here are some ideas I've found.

Our dance floor is kinda in a weird place, so it might not make much sense to have it there. I guess I'll see during our appointment on Wednesday.

Leave it up to Martha Stewart to give me ideas :) Cameo (VERY similar to my pink) and black is featured in her lasted issues of Martha Stewart Weddings. At first, I wasn't going to incorporate much black in the decor, but now that I can actually see it on a palate, it looks beautiful. We are definitely going to use more black in the wedding. It looks so classic. This isn't my inspiration board by the way. It would help for me to have one because I keep getting off track.

Well it's late and I have a busy day tomorrow. I have to work and I'm attending my cousin's graduation party. I'm dragging Jason along with me, lol.

Good Night.

The Picture Post

2008-05-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm cleaning out my camera and I'm praticing on posting better quality pictures, so here are some pics before I erase them :)

Here is Princess in her stylish winter coat. This pic was taken in January when we got like 8 inches of snow.

Me and some of my Co-workers from David's.

The floral arrangement I got my mom for Mother's Day. Isn't it pretty :)

I absolutely LOVE stargazer lilies. I'm seriously thinking about using some in my bouquet.

My cake topper :)

Princess getting ready to go to sleep on her bear. NOTE: One of my students gave me this bear for Christmas. Princess saw it, took it off my bed and dragged it into the living room and has been sleeping on it ever since. I think it's the cutest thing.

My MOH and her daughter (my Jr. Bridesmaid) are meeting me at David's tomorrow to try on their dresses. I'll make sure to pack my camera. I'm going to bed.

Bridesmaid Dresses!

2008-05-13T20:41:00.001-07:00

WHOO HOO!

I woke my Dad up to take these pics. Please forgive his foot in the pic, lol. And yes, the Pistons game was on in the background :) This was the only wedding related thing I did today besides write out my DIY to-do list. I was having a pretty crappy day at work and my mom has been sick, so when I got the call that my bridesmaid dresses were in, it lifted my spirits. I felt much better when I picked them up. Now I have to distribute them.

Work seems to be getting worse. A teacher got beat up yesterday and everyday there are at least 10 teachers who call in sick. The principal is so mean though and it's for no reason...well I take that back. She got fired so she's been even more bitter since she found out. I'm still pretty new to the school, so I still don't know all of the teachers, but almost all of the teachers there have only been at the school for a year or less. I heard that the principal has been there for 2 years and in her first year, 20 teachers quit. That's crazy! She never suspends the students when they fight or skip school. For instance, the student who beat up the teacher yesterday, was in class today. As a matter of fact, I was pulled to sub in his class today. He's in the 4th grade. I hate calling kids bad, but these are some bad ass kids at this school. They literally run the school. They cause riots in the hall, and teachers get cursed out on a hourly basis. It's so sad. When I was in school, we never did things like this. I mean, we've had bomb threats, fires started in my classroom, the bathrooms, the office. And nothing happens to the kids. Pitiful.

Well I'm going to bed for the night. Hopefully I'll have a better day tomorrow.

Getting a lot done!

2008-05-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I got a lot done today. I made an appointment with our reception venue to go over our menu, I got our RSVP date, I made an appointment with the florist, and I'm almost done with my invite checklist. All I need to do for that is get directions from the church to the reception venue, which will only take about 5 minutes.

So my mom asked two of her students to be hostesses at the wedding. I think they are 14? Anyhoo, I figured I would put them in the same dress as the Jr. bridesmaid, but in a different color. The Jr. Bridesmaid dress is in Pearl Pink, and I'm going to have the hostesses in black. My mom wanted to put them in fushia, but there is no point to that. They would stick out like a sore thumb because that's not one of our wedding colors. I picked this dress because it's on clearance and I can still order new dresses for them. The dress was originally $99.00, but I can get it for like $25.00!!!

My bridesmaid dresses didn't come in today, but hopefully they will come in tomorrow. I'll be sure to post pics tomorrow. I want to post some new flower pics anyway.

Ok, it's getting harder to type now because my dog keeps jumping on my hands. She's having a fit because I'm not sleep yet.

I'll write again tomorrow :)

Quick Update

2008-05-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for bed. It's late. I got some wedding related things done tonight and I'm making a goal to finish all of the things on my to-do list by Friday. I have to, because I just got my schedule from my 2nd job and I'm working like 20 hours again next week. That's crazy. But it's extra money, so I'll try not to complain. I will be ecstatic if I can finish up both my wedding invite checklist and my videographer contract tomorrow.

I need to get my hair and nails done too. I'll try to fit that in tomorrow or Tuesday.

Goodnight :)

Tickled Pink

2008-05-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

So, I was dreading going to work, because I miss my free Saturdays and I checked my bridal registration to pick up my Jr. bridesmaid dress (that arrived yesterday) and I saw that all but one of my Bridesmaid dresses were shipped yesterday. So I should get them no later than Tuesday! YAY! I'm so excited! They came in 3 weeks early. Now I have to clean some space for me to keep them until July. I still have one more flower girl dress, then I need to start looking for hostess dresses. Maybe I'll start looking into those now. Because it's the ordering dates are getting longer and longer. I don;t know whether I should put the hostesses in pink or black. Hell, I don't even know who my hostesses are yet. I need to find some ushers too while I'm thinking about it. AND I still need to finish the invite checklist. I'll try to do that tomorrow because I'm getting my hair done on Monday and I won't have time. I also need to find shoes for them.

4 more months to go. AHHHH! I have so much to do. I need to get back on track.

(Don't mind me, but I need to make a things to do list)

Things to Do - This Week

1. Finish up checklist for invites.

2. Mark calendar for June 14th Groomsman meet and greet. Make sure to tell them that they need to be ready to order their tuxes.

3. Find Hostess dresses.

4. Start looking for my mom's dress.

5. Make an appointment with florist.

6. Pick up Bridesmaid dresses.

7. Look for Bridesmaid shoes.

8. Send off Videographer contract.

I'm tired so I'm getting ready to go to bed. Good night.

Happy Mother's Day to.....Me?

2008-05-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

So, at work today everyone kept telling me Happy Mother's Day. Seriously? I don't have any kids. Everyone knows it. But anyway, my Dad and I sent my mom flowers to her job today. Nice gesture, right? Yeah if she actually went to work today, lol. Usually, my mom goes to work before me, but she didn't today. I got curious and when I went to wake her up, she informed that she had to go to a meeting and she wasn't going to work. I was so disappointed, but then again I should've asked her if she was going to work or not. Sometimes, her principal gives her days off because she works very closely with her. Anyway, my dad told her that we were having flowers sent to her job and she went up there after her meeting. She cut out a picture in a magazine a few weeks back and said she loved this flower arrangement:

It's a Mother's day bouquet from teleflora.com. It's so pretty :) So, when I saw it, I ordered it and it is absolutely beautiful. She really enjoyed her surprise and everyone at her job was so nosy. I also got her a bluetooth headset to go with her phone. They were buy one, get one free at Office Depot and I needed one anyway, so it was a win-win situation. I swear, retailers are trying so hard to get this stimulus check money out of people quick. I saw that Kroger is selling $1200 gift cards. I don;t think I'll buy a $1200 gift card for some groceries, but I'm sure someone will. I think they are giving you an extra $150 if you buy gift cards in $300, $600, or $1200 ( all amounts of the stimulus checks) I'm seeing this everywhere. I hope some people are smart enough to invest some of this money. One of my friends blew hers on one purse. What a waste of money.

I almost cried today. I put $46.50 worth of gas in my Jeep and it didn't fill it up. Gas is 3.77 for the regular grade! What the hell??? I mean seriously? The highest grade is $4.00! This is depressing. THEN I find out today that since I use my debit card to get gas, I'm being chrarged an extra 8 cents for my gas. That's ridiculous.

So, I've been doing great on my diet. I dropped 2 pounds this week. So, I thought I would reward myself. I was craving barbecue chicken tenders from bellacinos. I ate right the whole day and the day before, but when I weighted myself the next morning, I had gained my two pounds back! I was SO pissed at myself. That was a weakness and I should have resisted. Well, I'm not doing that again. It's almost time for me to get my wedding dress altered and I need to at least lose 10 more pounds before then. My goal is to lose 15-20 pounds by September. I've already lost 12. My wedding is in 4 months, so I need to lose 5 pounds every month. I can lose 5 pounds a month in a healthly way is I stick to the program :)

Anyway, my time is up, I need to check my e-mail and Jay is coming by tonight So I need to start cleaning up the house.

Goodnight!

P.S. I got my DB panel at Youmacon! I'm so happy! Now I need to study up on my information because I just know people are going to try and test me.

Down fo the Count :(

2008-05-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

I hurt myself on my new resistance tubes. I feel like I pulled a muscle in my calf. I'm also very sleep, but I have a strong urge to write. Oh well, might ask well not lose it. I gotta take it anytime it comes to me :)

***runs off to write***

Busy, Busy Week...

2008-05-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

So, this is going to be one of my busiest weeks. I have to work my full-time job and I'm working like 20 hours at David's. I have some wedding-related things to complete this week. I still need to:

- Finish assembling Save-the-Dates (I know I'm a month behind, but they will go out this week. I know they are supposed to be sent out by 6 months before the event, but screw wedding etiquette. I'm so over that.)

- Call wedding coordinator at reception venue this week (SERIOUSLY)

- Make an appointment with florist

- Book Bakery (this might take a few weeks)

I went to Meijers with Jay tonight because I had to get some food for a field trip tomorrow and I picked up some resistance tubes. I hope these will work out for me, because I hate hitting the treadmill. I guess I just hate to sweat. I need to get over that if I plan on losing these last 20 pounds. I did ok on my diet today, kinda fell of a little because I had some fried chicken, but I drank a lot of water. I made a nice little lunch for tomorrow's field trip so I plan on eating right tomorrow as well :) I even packed a few more lunches for my students just in case they forget to bring their lunch.

I'm trying to watch Flavor of Love, but it's so hard. These women on this show are so ignorant. They are busted and I'm so ready for Sincere to go home. She's horrible. I don't think any of these women who are left care about him at all. Actually, I'm surprised that he thinks any of them care about him. It's a TV show, he's not all that, and they want their 15 minutes of fame. I guess he could care less. He's still having his babies on the side and he's getting a paycheck.

I started looking into screenwriting software tonight and it's starting at $250.00. Whoo! That's a lot for some software. I'm going to have to do some research before I invest some money in something like this. I mean, I know I want to write and I'm committing to it, but I don't want to get scammed out of hundreds of dollars for something I don't need.

Well, that's all for tonight. I'm going to bed.

So Happy!

2008-05-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

So, I have been in a slump with wedding planning. Well last night my mom helped me try on my wedding dress and it looks SO good :) See, since I got the dress I've lost 14 pounds. I plan on losing about 15 more before I go to have the dress altered. It was so tight when it arrived in January. Now it's falling off in the chest area and it's lose in the waist. I'm so happy. I just need to continue eating right. I also wore a pair of jeans tonight that I haven't been able to fit in like 2 years. So great!

We had a Bridesmaid event today at work and I got to book my limo. I got a really good deal. Now all I need is a cake person and I'll be all set.

So I think I'm seriously ready to write out my story. I was all set to try and write a screenplay, but I've been thinking about writing a novel. I've tried to write it was a screenplay 4 times and it didn't work out. I've written stories before and the words and descriptions comes much easier to me. Maybe I'll try to write a few pages in a novel style and we'll see what direction I'll take.

Jay and I went to see Iron Man tonight. It was pretty good :) Well, I'm getting ready to go to bed. I have a really busy week ahead of me.

Good Night.

Bored at Home on a Friday Night

2008-05-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Happy May! I've decided to stay at home tonight because I'm tired and I need to mentally prepare myself for my busy weekend. I have to work Saturday and I think I'm going out with my co-workers afterwards (depending on how I feel) and I have to work on Sunday. Good times. I'm at home with my poochie and my Daddy. My mom went to the Casino with my cousin (today is my cousin's birthday) and Jay is at work. He has been stressing out so bad over his job. He just had an interview for a general manager position and they said he will hear something back within a week because they have to do a background check. At first, he was somewhat confident that he would get the position, but now it's like he's losing hope. I'm trying to lift his spirits because I know he's such a great worker and a team player. Anyone would be blessed to have him on their team. I hope everything goes well. He really deserves this. He works so hard everyday. I love him so much and I just want the best for him.

I bought 27 Dresses today. It was such a cute movie. Of course my emotional self cried at the end. Aww, so sweet :) Happy endings for everyone all around! It's definitely a movie that I would watch again.

So I made my first Craigslist purchase yesterday. I bought a T-Mobile Dash. Here is a pic of it.

I know it's not really clear, but I have a Hello Kitty screen saver :) It's in really god condition and I got it for cheap. I got all the original items it came with and I even got a carrying case. My blackberry clunked out on me and it would've cost over $200.00 to get another phone and I don't have money to waste like that. I got this for a fraction of the price and it looks and works great. Now I just have to learn how to work it :) And since I'm so bored I put some rhinestones on my headset. It's a year old and I don't use it that much anymore, so I thought I would experiment on it.

These are some rhinestone I had left over from my cake topper. Never leave me alone with a package of rhinestones, lol.

My Flower girl dress came back yesterday. I opened that bad boy up in inspected it in the store. It's perfect :) Much better than the first one.

SO pretty :) I hope we don't have any problems with the 2nd Flower girl's dress. It should be ordered by next week. I ordered the Jr. bridesmaid dress last night. I got it for such a great price :)

So, while I'm just putting all these pics in my entry, I might as well add a few more! Here is the mock-up of our centerpieces:

I think it's going to be beautiful on 18 tables. I'm still not sure about what to do with the head table, candy table or cake table. I'm going to use my own votives. My mom and I are going to put rhinestones on the ones I have and it's going to be SO pretty :) I STILL need to get in touch with my catering manager because we need to get in the reception venue and check everything out. I still don't know about my "vision" Maybe it will come to me once my decorator is there with me.

I don't have a bulletin board in my room, so I made a design on the wall outside of my classroom. I have 7 kids and I traced their hands to make a rainbow. This took a LOT of work. It took two days to complete, but it was worth it because it turned out beautiful. I'm going to get it laminated so it will last a long time.

Then I had them color some umbrellas, flowers and a few caterpillars and I came up with this:

It looks pretty good. I just had to get in the picture :)

Anyhoo, I'm going to get off now. My eyes are getting tired and I want to lay down and watch my shows from this morning.

I'm Back!

2008-04-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

So I have returned after resting for a week and a half. That food poisoning really took a lot out of me. Well, to be honest, it only took me a few days to get over that, the other days I was either working or I was just too lazy to log in to blog. I have been working so much lately. And my second job has me working almost as many hours as my full-time main job. Craziness I tell ya :)

I had an appointment with my decorator today and she showed me a mock up of our centerpieces. I was BLOWN AWAY. I'll post a picture tomorrow. They are so beautiful :) I'm so excited. I knew she would hook them up, but she did a great job. I can't wait to see what she does with the rest of the ceremony and reception. She reminded me that September is fast approaching and I REALLY need to get cracking on things. For one, I need to finish my checklist for my invitations. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow at work since we have a half day. After that I need to schedule an appointment with the florist and our reception venue because the decorator wants to go so I can show her my "vision". Too bad I don;t really have one yet. I've been looking in so many wedding magazines and surfing so many bridal websites that I just can't stay focused on just one thing. I'll probably just stick to the pics in my wedding planner. I have a nice variety in there.

I had to send my flower girl dress back. It had a whole in the skirt. Luckily they sent it back two weeks ago and a brand, spankin' new one arrived today. I will be inspecting it before it leaves the store tomorrow night. And my last bridesmaid ordered her dress last Friday. I'm so happy. Now I just need one more dress for my 2nd flower girl and everything will be great until the guys go pick out their attire. I'm going to let Jay pick out their suits (Of course I should) I have too much going on.

***Kinda Random - But it needs to be done!***

- Call/E-mail Reception venue and ask about food tasting and ask if I can come see the venue on a Saturday within the next few weeks.

- Send off Videographer Contract

- Call and make an appointment with Florist.

- Finish invite checklist

*******************************************

Sorry, I needed to make that reminder. Otherwise I would forget.

I broke my cell phone a few days ago and I haven;t been able to receive calls on my normal number. It's been killing me. No one has left a message, but I know people have been calling. I hope I didn't miss anything important. I tried to get another cell phone through my wireless provider, but they are trying to charge me like $350.00. WTF?? So, I found this guy on Craigslist who is selling his T-Mobile Dash. I'm supposed to go look at it tomorrow after I get off work. I hope it's in a decent condition because it's a good price and he said it didn't have any visible scratches. I'm also going to check it out before I hand over any money. I couldn't believe my Blackberry broke like that. I thought that phone could stand more than just a little fall.

Last weekend was so nice. Jay took me to the Mary J./Jay-Z concert and Mary did the damn thing! She was just wonderful :) Jay-Z was cool, but his performance was nothing like Mary's. She also performed more. He even gave a little shout out to his wife. AWW :) I love Jay-Z and Beyonce'. So the next day, Jay surprises me with tickets to the Katt Williams show. It was SO funny. I had a great time, then he took me out to eat. He was really sweet to me this weekend. I think he felt bad for not being there last weekend when I was sick. He was working all weekend though. He couldn't leave because he was the only supervisor there. I had my parents to care for me so it was all good.

School is DONE :) Now I can spend more time working on my writings and wedding planning. What a great feeling. I feel like I've been in school forever.

Well, I think I wrote enough for tonight. I'll write again tomorrow.

Sick

2008-04-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

Food Poisoning + Me = sick and staying home from work today.

So I have been sick all weekend. Jay and I went to his friends house for his birthday party and his friend cooked. I didn't eat all day and I was starving so I made a plate. Well When I got home I didn't feel well so I went to bed. I woke up the next morning dizzy and I couldn't move. I was sick all yesterday. It was so bad that my parents called an ambulance for me. Turns out I have food poisoning. I feel a little better now, but I'm still very weak.

I'll write later when I'm feeling better.

Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

2008-04-18T23:16:00.001-07:00

So I've been working so damn hard this week. I worked my second job (which is much harder than my regular job and it's half the money. What the hell is that about?) for like 20 hours this week. I was only supposed to have 9 hours this week. I'm only supposed to work tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. I don;t know why in the hell they scheduled an appointment for me at 3. I was trying to get the hell up out of there :( I might just bounce because I'm tired and I'm tired of spending my weekends up in there. It's starting to hurt my ankle and my wrist. *prays* Please don;t let my 1:00 or 3:00 shop up for their appointments. It's suppose to rain tomorrow. Let it pour. I don't care if my hair gets wet :)

In other news, I got to see Jay today. I haven't seen him in like 2 weeks. I was missing my baby. I took a half day from my regular job to spend some time with him and play in the sun. It was hot today. I think it hit 75 or something crazy like that. It's supposed to be 70 tomorrow, but it's supposed to rain, like I said above.

So while I was at work tonight, I bought this bag to keep my wedding planner and all my wedding related paperwork in.

It's a nice size bag. I spilled chocolate in my other bag and I can't get it out. I don't even eat chocolate. One of my coworkers gave it to me and I forgot to take it out. It melted :( Damn candy. I really liked that bag too.

I decided I'm going to do cosplay. I'm going to o as Bulma from Dragonball. Here is the outfit that I'm going to make:

Shouldn't be too hard to make. The hardest part is the piece on her arm. I'll make it work though :) The anime convention is in November, so I have plenty of time. I'll probably focus on putting the outfit together after I get married in September. I have enough things I'm working on at the moment.

I Want This...

2008-04-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

And I just bought these babies for $9.00!

That is all. I'm tired.

Why Am I Blogging Right Now?

2008-04-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

I should be in bed sleeping, but I'm in bed blogging. I have a horrible headache. I was playing on elevators today...well, not really. So, my paycheck was short 40 hours!! That's half my check. I was pissed. I had to go to the school's payroll department, which is all the way across town mind you, and get the issue resolved. Well I jumped on an elevator and took it to the 11th floor only to find out that I was at the wrong entrance. So I had to go all the way back down, down the hall and back up again. When I got up there, they told me I have to take it up with my school's secretary since she sends out the time sheets. What the hell? I don't have time to be running around trying to fix other people's mistakes. I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow. I wasted so much gas today. It went up today too. I paid 3.54 for the mid-grade. It only filled me up a little past half full. I put 30.00 in the take. That sucks.

So I'm still having trouble with my bridesmaid and ordering her dress. I thought she went to order her dress on Monday but she never made it. So, she's supposed to order her dress tomorrow and she's going to call me so I can walk the saleslady through it so my Bridesmaid can get my discount. I hope this can be over tomorrow. After this I need to order two more dresses. My Jr. Bridesmaid dress and my 2nd flower girl dress.

So I decided today that I want a colorful candy table. At first I was going to match it up with my wedding colors, but I'm having a hard enough time matching and coordinating everything else with my wedding. I'm so excited. I LOVE candy!

Just a few candies that will be on the table. I'll have some chocolate in there too.

I'm Slacking...

2008-04-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

Seriously. I've had my Save the Dates for about two weeks now and I haven't assembled them yet. I'm going to try to finish them this week. Getting all the addresses is another story. Oh well, sometimes I want to say to hell with some of this wedding etiquette. I figure, if I send them out by the end of the month I'll be good :) A lot of people I'm inviting haven't even heard of these. And plus, my mom wants me to order another 100. As long as she pays for them, it's all good. But that's another week and a half. I'll just finish assembling this set so I'll be done by the time the next set comes in.

I am so pissed at myself. So I was running out the house this morning and I forgot my blackberry. completely forgetting that one bridesmaid was supposed to call me from David's so she could order her dress today. So I rush home, hoping that she hasn't called yet, but I was too late. I tried calling her back, but she didn't answer. I know she was already at work. Shit. I have been waiting for a month and a half for her to order her dress and I missed it. I hope she can go up to David's tomorrow because I really need her to order now. She's pushing it. Her dress will be here about a month before the wedding at this point and she still needs alterations. The other girls dresses are coming in by May 30th. More than enough time for alterations and whatever else they need to do. :)

I was a little sad the other day because I realized that more than half of my bridal party live out of the state. 3 are here and 4 live down south. I'm going to try to plan some things the week of my wedding (bachelorette party, get together, etc) so all my girls can be there. I'm just glad they are willing to come up here and be in my wedding.

So, my colors are light pink, black and white. I can't find a theme for the life of me. This is so frustrating! I mean, I don't necessarily have to have a "theme", but I need to find some accent colors. At first I was thinking bright, bold accent colors, but now I'm feeling that anymore. The only dark color we are using right now is black and so far, the only black in the wedding is the men's Tuxes. Now I'm thinking about light accent colors. Something like this:

Whoops, sorry. That's the bouquet I like. Well just imagine it without the darker pink flowers. I think the light pink, white and light Green will look lovely. Now I just have to coordinate all of my flowers so everything looks perfect.

Oh! I almost forgot. I decided on how I want my pews to look.

So pretty :) Ahh! I'm excited about my wedding planning again! SO much for my break, lol.

So Apparently,

2008-04-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

I'm overweight. I went on http://celebrityfitclub.com/ and set up a profile for myself. I need to lose 30 more pounds to be at a healthy weight. I was planning to lose 20 more, but if 30 pounds will get me at a healthy weight then so be it. I lost 12 so far and it seems like I've been stuck at this weight for about a month. It's frustrating, but I've been under so much stress lately. I'm much more calmer now and I think I'm ready to buckle down and focus.

I've had this book since last summer and it's been collecting dust. I guess I can pull it out and get busy. Now the hard part is to stop eating fast food (I rarely cook) and I need for Jay to help me with this. He loves to go out to eat and he loves me the way I am now. Actually last night he told me that he liked me better when I was 12 pounds heavier. See, when I lose weight, the first thing I lose is my chest and my stomach. I would love to lose my big butt first, but that always goes last. My chest has gone down at least 1 cup size since I started losing and I'm frustrated with that. I don't want to lose my chest by any means. I like the size. I was a D cup, now I'm a C. When I lost weight back in '99, I went down to 126 and I was like a 34B. I don't want to get that small again. Maybe I can find some workout activities that will target certain areas? I'll do a look-see. I'm starting my diet on Tuesday. Of course, I'll track my progress :)

I can't get the the beauty shop this week so I'm forced to do my own hair. I haven't done my own hair in so long. It's just so time consuming. I have to wash it, blow dry it, press it (because I'm sure it's time for me to get another relaxer) and I have to style it. I think I'm going to pull it back this week since I planning on working out. It's been really hot in my house and work. I'm going to give my hair a rest for a while. I flat iron it every morning. Too much heat is never good for your hair.

Well, I must be going. I have a bridal appointment with 10 bridesmaids (yikes!) at 3:00 and I need to finish getting ready.

What A Good Day

2008-04-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

So, my day started out pretty crappy. I went to bed very late last night and I wanted to sleep in. So I get this phone call this morning from this guy. He called the house and my mom started bugging me to wake up and talk to him. The guy (Let's call him "D") came to my school on Monday asking the teachers to attend a "Safe Streets" walk. I told him I would attend mostly because no other teachers showed him any support. I could have sword that he said the walk was the Saturday, April 19th. Well, it was this Saturday and I was interrupted from my sleep by his phone call. I was so out of it that I went back to sleep. My mom then busted in my room and proceeded to tell me how I should keep my word, and blah, blah, blah. In reality, she was right, but I just wanted to at least get 20 more minutes of sleep in.

So I felt bad and got dressed and I went on the walk. My mom even tagged along. I'm glad I actually went on this walk because it opened my eyes to some things. D is trying to run for City Council and he also gets grants for schools and children in the city. We were walking to do an audit of the area around the school I teach at. We walked the route I usually take when I go to work in the morning. I couldn't believe hos many vacant houses and safety hazards (broken glass everywhere, vicious dogs, vacant lots with lots of debris, etc...) I couldn't believe it. i never paid attention because I'm more focused on reaching my destination in the morning, but my students have to walk that route every morning and they have to deal with this filth and unsafe envoirment while walking to school everyday. It's such a shame. I hope D can get some grant money so we can fix this neighborhood up. I was also talking with him about his political campaign. I suggested that he get a blog because people rarely read the newspaper around these parts anymore. So he asked me to put him a blog together. We'll see how that goes. I hope it works out. I would to help out in politics, especially after what happened yesterday in the city council meeting. Missed it? Here, have another look:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qqOSNI7l0bQ

It was really sad to think that grown elected officials act like this.

Anyhoo, I bought my reception dress today :)

This isn't the actual dress but it's VERY similar. It looks just like this but it's white and has a sweep train. I love it :) I'm probably just going to wear my tiara with it. I highly doubt that I'm going to want to wear my veil all night. I just would like to take this time out say that although I have my fusses and fights with you David's, I love your discount. Because of you, I was able to get my reception dress for almost 40% off!

I also had a really good day at work today. I sold 9 dresses (mine included) My 2nd flower girl and my last bridesmaid should be ordering their dresses this week so that's awesome. Everyone will have their dresses! And it old took 2 months. I'm happy though. I have a great wedding party. Now if I can just get my Maid of Honor to forget about the strippers we'll be cool.

Well, I think that's all for tonight. I'm sleepy and I'm ready for bed. I

I really get to sleep to late tomorrow (Yay!) because I only have to go in to work tomorrow for a bridesmaid appointment.

See you tomorrow.

It's morning...

2008-04-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

I really should be sleeping right now, but it's now officially the weekend and I don't have to get up for work in the morning! That's such a great feeling. Bad thing is I still have to go to David's tomorrow. BOO!

I'm going to buy my reception dress tomorrow too. Well, either tomorrow or Tuesday. It depends on if I can get my mom up there to see me in it. I know I said that I wasn't going to tell anyone about my reception dress, but I need another opinion and my mom's opinion is the best :)

Since I have at least two wedding related things to do this week, I figured that I'd tie up a few lose wedding ends before I take my break from wedding planning. The main thing is our theme. We have the colors (which I changed the color scheme like 4 times) and I don;t know what to do with them. Our colors are pale pink, black and white. It seems like these would be easy colors to work with, but they aren't...at least for me. I'm trying to find accent colors and I can;t come up with anything. At first I wanted a bold color to make things POP, but now I'm thinking of lighter shades and make things more elegant and toned down. I just want everything to be beautiful and not tacky. I also need to get the information for my invited completed by the end of this month. I'm going to finish that next week so that will be one less things to worry about. I see that I'm going to have a hard time trying to get Jay to sit down with me to figure out the guest list. He's playing and I'm not too thrilled with his attitude toward the wedding right now, but I guess that's typical for a guy. I didn't really expect him to be wrapped up in wedding planning like I am, but at least get serious when it comes to the really important things.

Well I finally got to chapter 2 in my Screenplay" book. Now I'm going to try to download a few scripts and read them. I'm going to focus on the structure and I'm going to see how to make the opening of ACT I appealing because the first scene sets the tole of the whole film. I never noticed that until I read it. This happened to me with the first Lord of the Rings movie. Jay wanted to go see it and I agreed. I thought the first 10 minutes or so were boring and I became uninterested in the movie, so much that I fell asleep in the theatre. I didn't really get into it until I saw it on cable a year later. It was a great movie and an awesome series. I think my opening scene will be good, I just need to learn the correct structure so it will look good on paper.

Well, enough about that...

So, my 10 year high school reunion is supposed to be this year and I just looked on Facebook and the person who was planning it, dropped out. Why in the hell would you plan it and bring a reunion to everyone's attention if you're not going to follow through? If I wasn't so busy. I would take over the planning, but I have way too many other things I'm worrying about. I threw some suggestions his way, but I'm not sure what he will think about them. We are all scattered around now. Many of us don't live in Michigan anymore and we had such a small graduating class (55 people) Most of us haven't spoken to each other in years. So, if we did have some sort of reunion, only 15 people would show up, and that's a high number.

Anyhoo, I'm going to read before bed.

Good night.

Ramdomness

2008-04-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

It is so damn hot in my house! It's like 50 degrees outside, but it's like 80 in here. My dad started cooking and it made the house all muggy. Yuck.

Anyhoo, I asked the last person to be in my wedding just a few minutes ago. Now I have 2 flower girls :) They are going to look lovely in their dresses.

I have a headache from eating too much candy.

For some strange reason, my kids were bad as hell today. Why is it that kids act off the chain once the weather gets nicer.

I'm up to three characters on my character analysis pages. The characters are sounding really good so far. Hopefully I'll write more on them tonight.

Jay is up for a promotion at his job. It would be so great if he gets it. I'm sure he will because he's such a great worker. His company would be crazy not to promote him.

I'm mad that I have to full my gas tank twice a week. I'm also mad that my Jeep dealership didn't give me the flexfuel option.

Well, I'm going to go eat a pear and relax.

Later.

Making a Change

2008-04-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

You ever had a good cry? I mean a really good cry? Well I had one last night. I don't know what came over me. But as I lay in bed last night, tears just kept falling from my eyes. Then I came to a realization. I need to make a change. I'm not happy these days and I have so many things to be happy about. I'm constantly stressed, I'm always trying to help others before I help myself and I out other people first. Well, I'm going to be a little selfish for a while because I'm the one who needs the help now. I'm going to start taking better care of myself.

The first thing I'm going to stop is drinking diet pop. Seriously, I have to have a Diet Pepsi everyday. Usually to calm my nerves. I went all day without having one and I had a little withdrawal, but it wasn't too bad. Hopefully I won't be feening too bad tomorrow. The next thing I plan to do is stop eating fast food. I found that I become depressed after eating french fries. I know, that's so weird. So, I'm going to stop eating them even though they are so good. I'll start that tomorrow because Jay and I went to Fatburger today. It was ok. I'm not much of a hamburger girl. Jay loved it though, I will say that the service was excellent. Seriously, I wasn't expecting that.

I had a better day at work today. I had a talk with the science teacher, and while I don't think anything got resolved, I feel better by getting it off my chest. I walked by the classroom and my students were watching a movie...maybe the principal will walk in one day and say something. But for now, I'm done.

Well, short update for tonight. I'm going to lay down and try to relax. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to assemble my Save The Dates and once I do that, I'll be taking a much needed break from wedding planning (at least two weeks, then the appointments will start piling up again).

Good Night.

Stress out much?

2008-04-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

So, after trying to keep myself from being stressed out, I found yet another reason to worry. My blood pressure is low.

I don't get it. When I took my physical in January my blood pressure was normal. I wonder what has changed in two months? I have a few things that I'm going to try, but I need to get stress free. My jobs are contributing and it's time for me to just have one job. I'm so used to holding down two jobs and going to school full time.

I found out that the degree program I want to take will require me to go to school full time, meaning I can't work because the classes are all through the day. This sucks because I just started at this new school district and I'm going to do it like I did back in undergrad. I might hold off for another year because I need to work to pay for this wedding. Jay said that he doesn't mind me going to school full time, but I've had a job since I was 14. It won't be right and I just can't sit still for that long. Even going full time, it's going to take me three years to complete this degree. Maybe I should go into Social Work instead of Speech and Language Pathology...

I was very upset today at work. I have Special Ed students and they are 5-7 years old. The go to a science class every morning. I'm so tired of the teacher there. She doesn't care about them in the least and she acts like they won't understand her. My kids are actually quite intelligent and most of them just have a speech impairment. I have one Autistic child and she treats him like crap. I decided to sit in their class today and I was so shocked. This teacher has been teaching for 20+ years and she was worst that a new student teacher. She just had them drawing pictures. They draw pictures every day in her class. Why don't you teach them like you teach the other grade levels. I hate that they aren't treated like everyone else. I ended up teaching the class because she refused to do anything with them. If she doesn't care about the students anymore, then she needs to find another profession. I heard she treats all of her classes badly.

In other news, I started reading my Screenplay book today :) It's pretty good so far. I'm hoping to finish chapter 1 tonight. I need to seriously focus on my storyline and I'm going to try and write as I read over these chapters.

Well, it's time for me to go. I need to do a few more things before bed.

Posting Before Bed...again

2008-04-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

It's late and I have get up really early in the morning because I don't have my things ready and I have to fax some paperwork to a potential employer (I'm such a workaholic). I made an appointment to go to the Doctor tomorrow after work, so I can see what's going on with me. Wish me luck. I hope that there isn't anything seriously wrong with me.

I'll update tomorrow. Good night.

Pulling My Hair Out

2008-04-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

One thing about Working at David's bridal, it will make you second guess all your wedding decisions. One of the many reasons why I'm going to quit. Anyway, I was at work today and I found the perfect reception dress. I'm trying to find a picture of it, but it's not on their website. It's all a halter dress and its all flowy and goddess like. I love it. I'll take a picture of it when I go back into the store. It's been in the store for about a month, but I only started looking at it seriously today. I'm going to buy it on Friday. I'm not going to tell anyone about this dress. I told my mom that I was planning on getting a second dress and she told my cousin. Well, a week or two after that, Jay and I went to look over our reception venue and my cousin just showed up acting like she was the wedding coordinator (whatever), and she told Jay that I was planing on changing at the reception. What kind of shit is that? That wasn't her place to tell him that AND I was trying to keep it as a surprise for that night. I'm not going to let her ruin it for me tough :) My reception dress kinda latches my bridesmaid dresses. They are halter-style dresses. Now I have to find some bomb ass shoes for it. I was thinking about these shoes:

Michael Antonio KiKi and they are on sale! Even better. I love these shoes. Then again, I love shoes with rhinestones on them :) I don;t think they are tall enough though. I want some heels at least 4 1/2 inches. I love high heels and I'm so short. I'm 5'1 and Jay is 6'5. I'm going to need all my height and then some for my wedding day!

I'm going to start working on my original story tomorrow night. I still have some writer's block, but I think if I get started on it, my ideas will start flowing and I'll finally be able to get everything down on paper. Wish me luck :)

Well I'm going to bed. I have to work in the morning. I'll be so happy when I'm done with David's and I get to have my weekends back. I have been really stressed out and working there doesn't help (I think I put this in every post. All the more reason that I have to quit) I'm making a Doctor's appointment tomorrow because I've been stressing out so much lately and I've been getting headaches. I hope she can see me this week. They kept giving me brides and prom girls today. I didn't have a break like the other consultants. I didn't even get a break today. I was pissed off. AND I cleaned all of the bridal gowns by myself tonight. There was one other girl there with me. It;s not fair and I'm sure that added to my stress. I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to let anything bother me tonight, but it did. It bothered me all weekend.

I said I was going to bed, didn't I? LOL. Let me stop fussing. Tomorrow is another day. It will definitely be a better one.

Posting Before Bed

2008-04-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

I had to go to work today. I was supposed to go in at 2:00 p.m. I had errands to run before that. I had to go to the bank for my mom, no biggie. So I get to work and say hello to everyone there. Everyone is looking at me all crazy. So when I go to punch in, the computer won't let me because it said that I was too late. It was 2:02. So my manager come up to me and says, "You were scheduled in at 1:00" I told her I wasn't, then I looked at the newly revised schedule and it had me in at 1:00!!! What the fuck (yeah I said it! I've been doing good but they made me say it) I haven't worked since last Sunday. How in the hell am I supposed to know that they changed the schedule without them calling me and telling me. That was some bogus crap right there. I work tomorrow, but I don't work anymore until next Sunday. What's the point of having this job when I spend more in gas money getting there than I make working two days in two weeks? I can't until I can put in my two weeks. I've decided that I'm going to wait until Tuesday to put in my notice. I still have one more flower girl dress (maybe) to get and a Bridesmaid dress.

I'm getting ready to order my supplies for my next DIY wedding project. I'm going to attempt to make this card box:

Yes it's a cake and it looks yummy. But I want to make my card box look like this with the stacked boxes and ribbon. My card box will be pink with the white satin bow. I might use rhinestones instead of the pearls. That depends on if we can get pearls to drape the pews at the ceremony.

Well, it's really late and I need to rest up for tomorrow :)

P.S. Congrats to Jay-Z and Beyonce'! They did get married Friday night...for real this time. Dig that.

Happy Friday!

2008-04-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

Today was an interesting work day. I'm a school teacher and we had the school Superintendent come visit our school because our school is one of five that is in the running for an Extreme Makeover. Everything was cool at first. I couldn't believe that there was toilet paper and soap in the bathrooms today. Seriously, there is usually none in the bathrooms. We have to bring rolls of tissue from our rooms and soap from our rooms. When the soap runs out next week, there is no telling when we will get refills in the bathrooms.

I was pissed because they always tell us that there are no supplies, but they all of a sudden appear when we get visitors. They should've cleaned up the outside of the school. It's so damn dirty out there. There is hardly any grass. It's more mud and dirt than anything. It's so sad...

In other news, my parents out the deposit on our reception hall. I'm so excited because the venue is beautiful. I brought my camera along to take pictures but I was too scared to take pictures and I didn't even bother to ask because I needed to ask more questions about the menu and picture-taking on the grounds. It took me forever to get this appointment with the catering manager. I had so many problems with the first manager and now I'm dealing with a new one. He's cool and I feel bad because I had to put up such a fuss just to meet up with him, but I was nice and pleasant today. He's a nice guy and I'm looking forward to working with him.

I was surfing the net and I cam across this little article on people.com: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20188814,00.html

Apparently, Jay-Z and Beyonce' might be getting married tonight. I think they are a cute couple and I don't know why I'm this excited about their wedding. Seriously, I don't really know why. Anyhoo, I hope it's true this time. I heard earlier this week that they picked up a marriage licence.

There are also more images of the upcoming Dragonball movie on: http://dragonballmovieblog.com/

I'm not feeling Chatwin as Goku at all. I don't how this movie is going to turn out. I'm definitely going to see it, but I just think it's going to be horrible. I love this anime so much and I don't know if they will capture the pure essence of Dragonball.

Well, I'm off to find some items on ebay.

Two Weeks Notice

2008-04-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

I was busy yesterday...well not really. After work, I went to David's to order my Flower Girl's dress and it was gorgeous on her. This is the dress:

It's one of my favorite dresses :) She looked beautiful in it. I also came to a realization yesterday. I'm putting in my two weeks notice at David's on Saturday. It's way to stressful and I can't take it anymore. I thought it would be fun to get a little part time job at a bridal shop while planning my wedding, but it's been hell. Bridezillas, daily headaches, calling brides who don't want us calling them every day asking them to come in and buy a dress. It's annoying and it's wearing thin on me. I need a break so I'm going to take one...at least until I find another part-time job. I'm hoping to stay in the teaching field. This school is hiring after-school tutors, so I'm waiting to hear back from that. I would rather work with kids all day. I love my students.

So, my doctor says that I'm suffering from stress. That can't be good. A good part of my stress comes from working in the wedding industry while planning my own wedding. My mom suggested that I start working out. I guess that will help since I'm losing weight (I lost 12 pounds so far) I don't know, I just need to do something. One of my cousins got diagnosed with MS from being stressed out all the time. I don't need or want that. I need to get it together.

The thing I have been stressed out about lately is one of my Bridesmaids dropped out of the wedding. She has been my friend for a little over 5 years and she was cool peeps. I was there by her side when she had a very difficult pregnancy. I asked her to be my bridesmaid in February of '07 and she acted like she was so excited. I planned a Saturday where I could get my girls together to try on their dress and I even had a cute little gift for them but she didn't show up. She told me that her and her son were sick. I understood but I asked her if I could just drop off her gift and she said no. I mean, I was just going to leave it on your doorstep and you could have reached out the door to get it. So I thought that was odd.

So she knew the deadline to order the dresses (February 26th) and she called me in January and told me she had all of her money. I told her to hold on to it so we could all order at the same time. When February 26th rolled around, she wouldn't answer her phone or anything. Finally she called and asked for an extension. I told her it was no problem, but when the next time to order came around, she just dropped out completely. I was going to buy her dress if she was having financial problems, but she just said that she can;t be in the wedding at all. I don;t get it. She could have told me earlier in the year, even around last October that she couldn't be in the wedding. It wasn't because of financial reasons, it was because of something else that she won't talk to me about. She wanted me to shell out $750.00 in three days to join something with her. I don't have that kind of money lying around. And if she had $750, she could've bought her dress. But whatever, I need to get over that. No matter how hard I stress out about it, I can't change the situation. I'm still very hurt though.

Well, I have a headache , so I'll just leave you with this link: http://truebrideconfessions.com/

Enjoy!

April Fools Day!

2008-04-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well today is my Daddy's birthday. My Dad is an April fool, lol. He had a great birthday. I think my mom and I are taking him out this weekend.

So, I'm working on DIY items for the wedding and I finally finished my Cake Topper. Look!

I think it turned out pretty good. The next things is to assemble our Save-the-Date cards. I hope we can send them out next week. We are sending out a postcard and attaching a magnet to it. I'll post a picture once it's all nicely put together. After a year and half of planning, it's finally seeming real to me.

Jay is becoming more active in the wedding planning now. I mean, he still has no interest in the decor aspect (which I understand completely), but he's helping him where I need him too. I used to be hardcore in planning this wedding and now I'm more 'laxed.I was stressing out of the little details. Now I fear that I'm a little too relaxed about the whole thing. I need to start making appointments to pick flowers and centerpieces. Oh well, but enough about that...

So I got pranked today via the Internet. I was reading The Dragonball Movie Blog (http://www.dragonballmovieblog.com/) and I read this:

According to The Hollywood
Reporter Dragonball has been pushed back yet again. This time to September
18th, 2009.

"20th Century Fox continues to play ping pong with the release
date of the manga adaptation "Dragonball". The film, which was originally slated
for an August 15th 2008 release was recently moved to April of 2009. "We realize
that April just didn't work out for us." says a Fox Spokesperson. "September
looks like a better month and that's what we're going with."Justin Chatwin plays
Goku in the film. James Marsters plays he villainous Piccolo. Chow Yun-Fat, Joon
Park, and Ernie Hudson also star. Emmy Rossum plays Bulma while newcomer Luis
Arrieta plays Weaver, her love interest. "

Then it gave a bogus link.
I'm going to try to go to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow for work.

It's Late...

2008-03-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

We it's not that late. It's 8:00 p.m. I'm late because my Daddy's birthday is tomorrow and I haven't bought him anything yet. I'm on my way to go pick him something up.

I went back to work today. We actually had a good day. Nothing bad happened and my kids were angels. I couldn't have asked for a better day. And I actually wrote on my story a little bit. I went to the doctor and he gave me something for my breakouts. Now I just have to sit down somewhere and calm down because even with all the medication in the world, if I'm still under a lot of stress, my skin won't clear up.

I will say this. I have the worst road rage. I only curse when I'm driving. When I traded in my Jeep, I got one with a HEMI and I have had a lead foot, well it's not that I have a lead foot, I just can't stand Sunday drivers and for some reason I always run into them when I'm in a hurry to get somewhere.

Oh well, I'm craving cake so I'm going to go get my dad's gift and get some cake :)

What a Boring Day

2008-03-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

I didn't do much today. I got some of my clothes ready for the week and I've just been focusing on getting better. I went on http://www.cutesyshoes.com/. and found some really cute shoes. Jay and I are going to a concert on April 25th and it's never too early to start shopping for it. I'm thinking about wearing some high Mary Jane's with some capris. I'm not sure about a shirt yet. I guess I'll go out the the mall next weekend.

Oh! I went to see Semi-Pro. It was a waste of money, IMO. Honestly, after seeing Anchorman, most of Will Farrell's movie haven't been that funny. I mean Blades of Glory and Talladega Nights was funny, but now hilarious like Anchorman. Anchorman still makes me laugh till I cry.

Jay told me this morning that he wants an original Nintendo. This man has every video game system and he doesn't need another one. But, I found myself trying to find him one on eBay today. I found a lot, but I can't see him paying over $50.00 for one. Ah well.

I don't have anything else to talk about tonight. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. I've been breaking out so badly lately. I need to nip this in the bud right now. I think it's caused by my stress. I have been trying to chill out more. I'm going to stop letting things get to me, especially things that I can't change.

Peace Out.

Blah...

2008-03-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

I didn't have the greatest day today. First, I woke up late, meaning I couldn't run my errands before work, and then I had the worst brides at work today. Well, all of them weren't bad, it was only one. She was constantly complaining about everything in our store and she had the nerve to bitch me out about why I needed to help her with her wedding dress. Now, normally I'll ignore a bride like this, but seeing that I was sick AND had cramps today, I went to the break room and cried. I freakin' cried. This woman upset me that bad. I wanted to curse her ass out, but I couldn't. But, I decided today that I'm too old for this shit. I don't let anyone talk to me that way. I love my co-workers and my nice customers but it's the handful of bitchy ones that get to me the most.

I also decided today that I'm going to focus more on my writing, not just my fan fictions but my original works as well. I have been sitting on idea for years, but I have never finished them, but I need to. I think I have some exciting ideas and I want to share them with the world. I hope the will love my stories as much as I love them. My next big decision is is I'm going to write them as a novel or as a screenplay. I like the idea of writing screenplays and I've read a few books on the formatting and terminology, but I've never seriously written one. I'll see how it turns out. I was reading about the screenplay writer for "Little Miss Sunshine" and she said that it took her a week to write it, but it took her a year to tweak it and make it perfect. I hope it doesn't take me that long to perfect mine.

Anyway, Jay (my Fiance') asked me about my bridal shower today. His mother and his cousin (also one of my Bridesmaids) is throwing me a shower and I had to pick my date today. I decided on August 23rd. It's a Saturday. I'm not sure if they are supposed to be held on Sundays or not. If so, it'll just be held on the 24th or August. But enough of that. I talked about weddings all day. Working in the bridal industry while planning your own wedding is overwhelming.

I'm pissed at Jay right now, so I'm guessing that's why he called and asked me about the bridal Shower. Usually, I get happy when we talk about the wedding, but he upset me yesterday. See, we took engagement pictures last month and he hasn't paid anything on the pictures yet. With our engagement pictures, we got a CD with all of out pictures on it and a really nice booklet that kinda looks like a magazine with our pictures in it. As soon as I got it, he wanted to see it but I wouldn't let him. I wasn't trying to be selfish, but I know that once I put something in his hands, I won't see it again. So my mom and dad thought I was being selfish, so I decided to let him see the pictures. I also made some copies of our pictures for his mom because she had some favorites. Well Jay took them to work, kept them there for three weeks and last night he tells me that one of his co-workers got jealous (you know it was a female, right? Of course you do!) after seeing the pictures and spilled coffee on them, ruining all the pictures, including the ones I made for him mother.So he wants me to call our photographer to see how much it would cost to have another one made.

Do you think I'm going pay to have another one made? Hell no! He better come off some money to pay for that. And I'm not contacting him for a while. Forget that, there is no reason that book should've been destroyed. Why did he leave it with somebody. Other people don't care about your stuff. He should've took care of those pictures. That's why I don;t give him stuff. My mom was so mad when I told her, but whatever. I warned her that we wouldn't see the pictures again if gave them to him.

Anyway, I'm trying to take some online tests, so hopefully I'll have something to write about tomorrow.

And Begin...

2008-03-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

This is my first entry. Honestly, this isn't my first time blogging. I was over at Diaryland for a few years, then I tried out Livejournal and Diary-X. Neither of them worked out so now I'm here.

Today was pretty uneventful. I was sick this whole week and today was one of the only days I left out the house. I had to go get a case for my Blackberry. I got a case, but I didn't bother to look at it there so when I got home I found out that it was WAY too big :( I'm pissed off. Now I have to go exchange it on my way to work tomorrow.

Speaking of work...I don't want to go tomorrow. I have a strong urge to kick my manager in her teeth. See I'm a teacher by day and a Wedding Consultant by night. I lead a double life, lol. I work as a Wedding Consultant on the weekends and some days during the week. Well this week I was on break from Teaching and I picked up a few extra days at my other job. I was sick as hell yesterday and I called off. My manager picked a hissy fit at me acting like they couldn't call anyone else in. Heffa, you call me in ALL the time if it gets busy or if someone calls off, so I'm sure that you could do the same for me. Well, she calls me back to tell me that she got someone to cover for me, but says that I have a bridal appointment so I should at least come on for that. What the hell?? I mean, seriously? I called in because I didn't want to come in AT ALL. I'm s-i-c-k. I didn't want to spread my germs and I didn't have the energy to deal with a demanding bride.

So I went in like I was asked to, even though I looked like death, and my manager looks at me as soon as I walk through the door and says, Why are you here?" Are you serious? Don't you remember telling me to come in for my bridal appointment?? I hate when people act that damn clueless. So, after 10 minutes I decided that I couldn't do it. I was dizzy, I couldn't breathe and I was cold. Worst part about it was that the weather was bad and my bride didn't even show up. Inconsiderate ass woman. I helped her earlier this week and she was horrible. She wanted a dress for her 20th wedding anniversary and she picked this big poofy wedding dress that looked like a ballerina outfit. It's not one of my favorite dresses in the store, but hey, it's not my money. Then she brought her 14, 13, and 11 year old boys in for their opinion and they weren't helping at all. They ended up pissing her off. I mean, what do you think teenage boys are going to tell you when you're trying on dresses in front of them? Then were more interested in going to the video game store next door. Brides usually bring their friends or husbands with them. Ok, my rant is done.

Working at this place is really getting to me. I thought it was a good idea because I'm getting married and since I'm basically done planning, I thought I could help another bride who needed assistance. All I'm getting ate whiny, stuck-up brides like you see on TV. I don't get it. I'm not one of those brides. I didn't have to try on 100 dress to find my wedding dress. I tried on 5 and they were all at different times. I guess I don't have the patience for all that. I guess the one bridezilla feature I have is that I'm very indecisive. I've changed our date twice, or colors 5 times, changed churches twice and reception venues twice. All of these changes have been great though, so I'm happy with my final decisions.

In other news...I have writer's block and I don't know how to get rid of it. I'm about 50% done with a chapter for one of my stories, but I just can't seem to focus on it. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

I'm going to bed. Goodnight.