Stealing this idea from Katie
1. My new husband
2. A God who loves me no matter what
3. That hubby’s accident was no more severe
4. Gut instinct that I should trust more often
5. $0 ER copays for accidents
6. Wonderful parents
7. In-laws who mr. right says love me more than him
8. M y sister, who is also my best friend
9. A wonderful big brother (even if he is just an inlaw)
10. My 6 month old nephew
11. My 4 year old princess niece
12. Wonderful grandparents
13. The blessing of knowing my great-grandmother for 21 years
14. A host of aunts and uncles
15. Cousins that, while they don’t leave nearby, will always be close
16. A beautiful home
17. My red accent wall
18. Gorgeous blue/green master bedroom combo
19. 5.55 acres of farmland
20. Our imaginary (for now) farmhouse
21. The real Christmas tree that I’m going to plant on our farmland
22. A freezer for Christmas!!!
23. Real estate sales (I hate that people had to lose their for my hubby to make money, but I’m sure glad he’s making some!)
24. A cushy desk job
25. Great health insurance
26. Holiday pay!
27. Vacation/sick time
28. Heroes
29. Lost
30. The internet
31. Discovering “Chuck”
32. Surviving without cable
33. Hand-me-down furniture
34. A beautiful wedding
35. Not becoming bridezilla
36. My frugal nature
37. Finding a frugal man
38. Being debt free!! (well for another few weeks till the land closes)
39. My friends at my current job
40. Friends I still keep in touch with from past jobs
41. Recombinate (hubby’s drug)
42. ERs/Doctors that know what they are doing
43. Allergy shots (for me)
44. Snuggles
45. Huggles
46. And love!
47. Wedding showers
48. Wedding gifts
49. Monetary gifts
50. A house full of new appliances
51. Pizza
52. My mamaw’s green beans
53. My mom’s mashed potatoes
54. Mashed potato casserole (can you tell I love potatoes?)
55. Jetted tub in master bath
56. Heated blankets that plug into the cigarette lighter.
57. White chocolate peppermint mocha
58. Fleece jammies
59. Flannel sheets
60. Fuzzy bathrobes
61. Cozy slippers
62. A reclining couch
63. Scruffy bears
64. Chest hair (is that tmi? Me likes)
65. Hugh jackman
66. Brett favre
67. The jets
68. Cvs
69. Walgreens
70. Coupons
71. Kroger
72. Hot chocolate w/marshmallows
73. Splenda
74. Fluff novels
75. Kraft food magazine
76. Tabloids & mindless magazines
77. Unread Michael Crichton books
78. Nora Roberts
79. What not to wear
80. New York City
81. Yankee Stadium
82. 24 diamond engagement ring
83. 33 diamond wedding set
84. Sappy sentimental surprises
85. Getting random flowers
86. Frugal Blogs
87. Inspiring blogs
88. Funny blogs
89. Message boards
90. My Lost message board buddies
91. The loopers (email friends)
92. A cheap honeymoon
93. A relaxing honeymoon
94. Comfy cord pants
95. Shirts provided by my work
96. Christmas with my family
97. Pretty scarves
98. DVDs
99. My (paid for) Toyota matrix
100. Computers
101. My walk-in closet!!!!
November 26, 2008
Bridezilla
Leading up to the wedding, I had several people comment about my bridezilla status. One friend even commented that I could potentially be the worst bridezilla in the history of the world, or at least she’s ever seen. While part of me was offended by the comments, I have to say that the assumptions were based on fact.
While I’m not proud of it, I do have an explosive temper. More than one hair brush has been beaten against the side of cabinet when I couldn’t get my hair to suit me. I’ve even cried for weeks about a bad hair cut (as a matter of fact I’m just now getting one grown out from bad in January). And then there was the cheeseburger incident…although I’ll still swear that I was provoked. So the possibility of the diva in my coming out was quite likely.
With 5 months till the ceremony I picked out a $25 dress at TJ Maxx for my bridesmaids. I also approved a hand-me-down dress that my niece’s baby sister had from a wedding her daughter was in. “Run with it now before I change my mind.” As easy going as I was at first, I thought there would come a point where I wanted what I wanted when I wanted it. Thankfully for all involved, that never happened.
I never met in person with my baker. I just picked out a couple of pictures of the internet and said “make it look something like this”. When they asked for specifics, I told them that I wanted strawberry icing. With any other questions, from them as well as other vendors my common response was “You’re the professional. I’m sure you know better than I would.”
I thought that the stress and anxiety would kick in with a month to go. But it didn’t. Then a week. Nope, no stress, just a little excitement. Surely the day before I would start to get anxious/nervous/cranky/hateful. Ordinarily I would credit the mimosa, but since that wasn’t until later on the evening of the rehearsal dinner, that couldn’t be it.
The only sign of nerves was Thursday night/Friday morning. I woke up at about 3 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. I consider myself an organized person, and I have an infatuation with lists. Going over the Friday to do list in my head, I had difficulty going back to sleep. There was that stack of laundry to put away and packing to do. Rather than lay in bed and waste precious hours, I got up and started on my tasks.
About 15 minutes into my chores, my mother knocked on my door. She has sleeping problems on a regular basis, so I was glad to see a sympathetic face. Until she told me to be quiet and go back to bed. Thankfully, shortly after that my sister got up to feed my nephew and invited me to go out into the living room with her and the little man. She said she would have come and talked to me sooner because she thinks there isn’t anything worse than being awake and alone in the middle of the night, but she thought my mom getting up was to make me feel better.
Once the day got started, the nerves subsided and I finished off my checklist. My sister and I headed into town to get relaxing pedicures, and I got my nails done so they would look like their ragged selves for the pictures the next day. Then we headed to work to drop of some items for the reception with a friend/coworker. She is the queen of organization and event planning and so as I had in the past, I deferred to her professional opinion.
The plan was to meet my parents, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew at the rehearsal dinner site and all ride to the rehearsal site together. (We got married in the National Park, so it was a bit of a drive). Rehearsal was to start at 4, so we decided to meet at the restaurant at 2:30 to give us plenty of time. 2:50 my mom called. They were still at the tux shop, as were Mr. Right and his parents. The shop insisted they try on their tuxes before they picked them up. Good thing, because my future father-in-law popped a button on his trousers and my brother-in-law’s shirt sleeves would have properly fit a midget. Also, they had set aside white shirts, rather than the ivory I had requested, so the ivory shirts weren’t pressed.
My father, the expert negotiator, said that my mom would press the shirt if they would toss in a garter for free. The garter was a last minute purchase because I had misplaced the original. Not sure if my mom agreed to the deal, but like it or not they were in there car on the way.
In the mean time, my sister takes me in CVS to show me her mad drug store deal shopping skillz. I get free and more than free stuff there all the time. I was not impressed with her two calming lemon waters and two chocolate bars purchase. “You mean CVS actually makes people pay for things???”
My parents finally arrived only we couldn’t leave until the princess went potty. My mom waltzed into the restaurant asking for the bathroom. “We’re not eating here now, but we will be later.” After a strange look from the hostess, she explained that we would be coming back for the rehearsal dinner. “We never got a final number. Is the bride with you? We need to talk to her.”
No really you don’t. At this point I was more frustrated than anything. I had nothing to do with the rehearsal dinner, so I didn’t know numbers or menu or any other of their nitpicky questions they had. I gave them my soon to be mother-in-law’s cell phone number and suggested they call her with any questions.
Still not anxious. Maybe concerned that the preacher would actually be on time for the rehearsal and wonder where we were. But never anxious or nervous. The remainder of the night was a breeze. We walked through the wedding order several times and then headed to the rehearsal dinner. The food was wonderful and I think everyone had a great time.
The rehearsal dinner was at the restaurant where Mr. Right and I had our first day, so we took a picture of us on "the" bench, where we sat and waited for a table and got to know each other. But even he says it makes me look bigger than i am so i'm not posting!
Logistically Mr. Right and I had figured that he would need to drive my car to the house, so that Sunday morning it would be there for us to leave for the honeymoon. I double checked that my honeymoon bag was in my trunk. My only mistake was not checking to see if I got everything OUT of the car that I needed. Half way home I realized that he had the wedding bag. The bag with everyone’s folders. The bag with the marriage license. The bag with my “to do” lists. Being a control freak, it was hard to know that someone else was responsible for something so important. Thankfully, I had already given my sister and mother their folders, and they had copies of everything (marriage license excluded) that we needed.
Were I bridezilla, I would have demanded that he bring the bag to me. I decided that if I couldn’t trust him with this one detail of the wedding, how was I going to trust him with the rest of my life? Amazingly enough, I slept better that night.
While I’m not proud of it, I do have an explosive temper. More than one hair brush has been beaten against the side of cabinet when I couldn’t get my hair to suit me. I’ve even cried for weeks about a bad hair cut (as a matter of fact I’m just now getting one grown out from bad in January). And then there was the cheeseburger incident…although I’ll still swear that I was provoked. So the possibility of the diva in my coming out was quite likely.
With 5 months till the ceremony I picked out a $25 dress at TJ Maxx for my bridesmaids. I also approved a hand-me-down dress that my niece’s baby sister had from a wedding her daughter was in. “Run with it now before I change my mind.” As easy going as I was at first, I thought there would come a point where I wanted what I wanted when I wanted it. Thankfully for all involved, that never happened.
I never met in person with my baker. I just picked out a couple of pictures of the internet and said “make it look something like this”. When they asked for specifics, I told them that I wanted strawberry icing. With any other questions, from them as well as other vendors my common response was “You’re the professional. I’m sure you know better than I would.”
I thought that the stress and anxiety would kick in with a month to go. But it didn’t. Then a week. Nope, no stress, just a little excitement. Surely the day before I would start to get anxious/nervous/cranky/hateful. Ordinarily I would credit the mimosa, but since that wasn’t until later on the evening of the rehearsal dinner, that couldn’t be it.
The only sign of nerves was Thursday night/Friday morning. I woke up at about 3 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. I consider myself an organized person, and I have an infatuation with lists. Going over the Friday to do list in my head, I had difficulty going back to sleep. There was that stack of laundry to put away and packing to do. Rather than lay in bed and waste precious hours, I got up and started on my tasks.
About 15 minutes into my chores, my mother knocked on my door. She has sleeping problems on a regular basis, so I was glad to see a sympathetic face. Until she told me to be quiet and go back to bed. Thankfully, shortly after that my sister got up to feed my nephew and invited me to go out into the living room with her and the little man. She said she would have come and talked to me sooner because she thinks there isn’t anything worse than being awake and alone in the middle of the night, but she thought my mom getting up was to make me feel better.
Once the day got started, the nerves subsided and I finished off my checklist. My sister and I headed into town to get relaxing pedicures, and I got my nails done so they would look like their ragged selves for the pictures the next day. Then we headed to work to drop of some items for the reception with a friend/coworker. She is the queen of organization and event planning and so as I had in the past, I deferred to her professional opinion.
The plan was to meet my parents, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew at the rehearsal dinner site and all ride to the rehearsal site together. (We got married in the National Park, so it was a bit of a drive). Rehearsal was to start at 4, so we decided to meet at the restaurant at 2:30 to give us plenty of time. 2:50 my mom called. They were still at the tux shop, as were Mr. Right and his parents. The shop insisted they try on their tuxes before they picked them up. Good thing, because my future father-in-law popped a button on his trousers and my brother-in-law’s shirt sleeves would have properly fit a midget. Also, they had set aside white shirts, rather than the ivory I had requested, so the ivory shirts weren’t pressed.
My father, the expert negotiator, said that my mom would press the shirt if they would toss in a garter for free. The garter was a last minute purchase because I had misplaced the original. Not sure if my mom agreed to the deal, but like it or not they were in there car on the way.
In the mean time, my sister takes me in CVS to show me her mad drug store deal shopping skillz. I get free and more than free stuff there all the time. I was not impressed with her two calming lemon waters and two chocolate bars purchase. “You mean CVS actually makes people pay for things???”
My parents finally arrived only we couldn’t leave until the princess went potty. My mom waltzed into the restaurant asking for the bathroom. “We’re not eating here now, but we will be later.” After a strange look from the hostess, she explained that we would be coming back for the rehearsal dinner. “We never got a final number. Is the bride with you? We need to talk to her.”
No really you don’t. At this point I was more frustrated than anything. I had nothing to do with the rehearsal dinner, so I didn’t know numbers or menu or any other of their nitpicky questions they had. I gave them my soon to be mother-in-law’s cell phone number and suggested they call her with any questions.
Still not anxious. Maybe concerned that the preacher would actually be on time for the rehearsal and wonder where we were. But never anxious or nervous. The remainder of the night was a breeze. We walked through the wedding order several times and then headed to the rehearsal dinner. The food was wonderful and I think everyone had a great time.
The rehearsal dinner was at the restaurant where Mr. Right and I had our first day, so we took a picture of us on "the" bench, where we sat and waited for a table and got to know each other. But even he says it makes me look bigger than i am so i'm not posting!
Logistically Mr. Right and I had figured that he would need to drive my car to the house, so that Sunday morning it would be there for us to leave for the honeymoon. I double checked that my honeymoon bag was in my trunk. My only mistake was not checking to see if I got everything OUT of the car that I needed. Half way home I realized that he had the wedding bag. The bag with everyone’s folders. The bag with the marriage license. The bag with my “to do” lists. Being a control freak, it was hard to know that someone else was responsible for something so important. Thankfully, I had already given my sister and mother their folders, and they had copies of everything (marriage license excluded) that we needed.
Were I bridezilla, I would have demanded that he bring the bag to me. I decided that if I couldn’t trust him with this one detail of the wedding, how was I going to trust him with the rest of my life? Amazingly enough, I slept better that night.
November 25, 2008
Thanksgiving Ideas
Tomorrow night Mr. Right and I will be traveling 6 hours (after I get off work at 5) to his Grandfather's house. His mother always cooks for his entire family (all 20 of them - and no one else brings anything).
I hate going empty handed. And I'm annoyed that she cooks it all herself. I'm going to make chess bars tonight (they will travel well and are good several days after they are made). What else should I take?
I hate going empty handed. And I'm annoyed that she cooks it all herself. I'm going to make chess bars tonight (they will travel well and are good several days after they are made). What else should I take?
Quick update
the follow-up appointment went okay. and his mother, while critical of a few choices, doesn't want to kill me.
although i do still feel guilty because he was working on something for me. a friend correctly point out that he would have been upset had i paid someone else to do it, so its not really my fault. but still there is that twinge.
last night he asked if finishing the table would be an okay christmas gift for me (we had originally set a $75 limit) and what could i say but "yes".
although i do still feel guilty because he was working on something for me. a friend correctly point out that he would have been upset had i paid someone else to do it, so its not really my fault. but still there is that twinge.
last night he asked if finishing the table would be an okay christmas gift for me (we had originally set a $75 limit) and what could i say but "yes".
November 24, 2008
Say a quick prayer for Mr. Right please...
this weekend he hurt himself with a power tool (belt sander to be exact). we spent the weekend at the ER and we're going back for a follow up this afternoon. nothing life threatening, but its also nothing to sneeze at.
i was hoping to start with the wedding blogs this week, but you'll have to wait at least another day.
i was hoping to start with the wedding blogs this week, but you'll have to wait at least another day.
November 19, 2008
I'm back!
Actually we got back last Friday. Mr. Right is a self employeed real estate agent and had to work some on our honeymoon, and we had to come back a bit early so he could show a client property.
Unfortunately, I've been too busy to blog about the big day or about the honeymoon. I'm hoping to get to that sooner rather than later (i don't want to forget all the fun details!)
Unfortunately, I've been too busy to blog about the big day or about the honeymoon. I'm hoping to get to that sooner rather than later (i don't want to forget all the fun details!)
November 06, 2008
Things I Love Thursday
Pssst...can you keep a secret?
I've already used some of my wedding gifts. I couldn't help it - I had all this new shiny pretty stuff just begging to be brought out of the box.
And you know what I love (besides the man I'm going to marry in two days)? My Cuisinart Mini Deep Fryer. My parents always used a Fry Daddy that they had to dig the fries out with. Being a wimp, that scared me.
So I love that this has a basket to lower the fries into the grease just like the pros use. and a place to rest the basket so the grease can drip off before you serve the fries.
For more great products, check out Things I Love Thursday over at the Diaper Diaries.
November 05, 2008
Bridezilla
I've figured out why so many women get the "bridezilla" label.
Because she makes decisions for months and months, carefully plan everything - taking every possible problem into consideration. She makes plans based on what's best for her fiance and herself.
And then when the work is finally over, people step up and start criticizing her plans. "you should have..." "it would have been better if you would have..." "why didn't you..." "i can't believe your not..."
If you wanted to help, your opinion would have been helpful about 6 months ago. Now all you're doing is putting me down. Because I tried my hardest. I'm sorry that wasn't good enough for you.
I've already encountered several Debbie Downers...and I'm not going to put up with it at the rehearsal. So it'll be my turn to stand up for myself and my choices. And in the process earn my "bridezilla" title.
Because she makes decisions for months and months, carefully plan everything - taking every possible problem into consideration. She makes plans based on what's best for her fiance and herself.
And then when the work is finally over, people step up and start criticizing her plans. "you should have..." "it would have been better if you would have..." "why didn't you..." "i can't believe your not..."
If you wanted to help, your opinion would have been helpful about 6 months ago. Now all you're doing is putting me down. Because I tried my hardest. I'm sorry that wasn't good enough for you.
I've already encountered several Debbie Downers...and I'm not going to put up with it at the rehearsal. So it'll be my turn to stand up for myself and my choices. And in the process earn my "bridezilla" title.
November 04, 2008
Only 4 days left!!!!
Just putting the finishing touches on the wedding plans. :) doing the slideshow tonight, meeting with the chef at the reception site tomorrow.
and it goes without saying that next week i'll be on a bloggy break for the honeymoon.
and it goes without saying that next week i'll be on a bloggy break for the honeymoon.
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