I'd Rather Be in Paris...

Long time, no blog!

2011-12-10T22:01:00.002-06:00

Things have been so hectic with the pregnancy, Max's birth, and Max's first 5 months! Time has flown by. I tend to post a lot of pictures on Facebook from my mobile phone because that's the easiest way to post pictures of him.

Time flies!

2011-03-03T08:03:00.001-06:00

Ok, ok. I haven't posted in a LONG time. I feel like I need to catch up and do some pregnancy posts. Along the way, I've been typing up some things in Word and just saving it as a document. When I get time (who knows when that will be), I will try to add posts about my pregnancy so far on here.

I am so excited because in about 1.5 weeks, we will be finding out the gender of the baby! I cannot believe it's happening already. We are so excited to find out if we are having a little girl or boy. I don't really have any strong feelings either way. I go back and forth on what I think the gender is.

Can't wait!!!

Upcoming walks

2010-08-29T10:09:00.002-05:00

I just signed up for a 5K on September 12th at Tower Grove Park and am about to sign up for the Lewis and Clark 1/2 marathon in October. Yikes! I'm nervous about that one. I will be walking both of them, though, with different friends.

Will it seem like I'm a fraud if I get a 13.1 sticker afterward for my car? I have always wanted one, but know I can't run it. I worry that I'll kind of seem like a fraud for having one without doing the running. Thoughts?

Quick book review

2010-08-26T17:42:00.000-05:00

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was a bit odd. I thought it was a little odd when the only weird thing was that she can taste emotions in food. It got more weird toward the end of the book. It wasn't awful, but not a book I'd read again.

View all my reviews

Book review

2010-08-22T10:55:00.000-05:00

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very different than the other Meg Cabot books I've read. I probably would've given it 4.5 stars if I could. Even though it was yet another vampire book, it still held my attention. I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. Honestly, I was a little disappointed with the ending. Maybe she ended it that way to allow for a sequel?

View all my reviews

18 Bridesmaids?!

2010-08-18T21:05:00.002-05:00

I'm watching a DVR'd episode of Say Yes to the Dress while catching up on blogs. A bride had 18 bridesmaids and over 400 guests at her wedding. I can't even imagine! I realize I had an extremely small wedding party (a maid of honor and a bridesmaid), but 18?!

Can you imagine even trying to get 18 girls to agree on a dress? I think you'd either have to just say this is the dress - deal with it. Or, let them choose. Tell them the color, length, and fabric, and let them choose a style.

To each his own...

Supper Club

2010-08-18T17:58:00.000-05:00

Angie and I thought it would be fun to start a Supper Club so we had a regular get together with some of our friends. Angie brought Nick along with her this time. He was so well-behaved! He didn't cry at all and was a good sport at being passed around.

For our first dinner, we went to Cheese-ology in the Loop. Most of us had never been there before. I guess I'm a bit of a purist with my mac n' cheese, because I wasn't so sure about adding in things like chicken and beef. I ended up going with the four cheese. It was yummy! The mac n' cheese comes in a little cast iron skillet, piping hot from the oven.

After dinner, we went to FroYo. I think I was the only one who had been there. I love the tart flavor and the mochi you can put on top. Delish! It's self-serve, and they have several different flavors you can choose from, such as tart, peanut butter chocolate, and cheesecake. You add your own toppings (nuts, fresh cut fruit, cookie dough, brownies, sprinkles, granola, mochi, syrups, even cereal!). Then, you pay by weight. FYI - the mochi is a bit heavy so it costs a bit more if you want mochi (well, at least mine does since I like it a lot).

Angie was taking the photo. Here's Alicia, Pilar, Maggie, me, and Donna:

I'm looking forward to next month! We still need to pick a place. We've discussed somewhere out west since that's where many of us live. Somewhere on Main Street? Thyme Out in Cottleville? We probably should decide soon!

Angie - Thanks for letting me use your pictures! :-)

Three Monkeys

2010-08-17T17:58:00.001-05:00

Last Friday evening, I had the pleasure of meeting some fabulous ladies at Three Monkeys. I had never been to the restaurant, let alone heard of it before. Luckily, it was pretty easy to find, and I lucked out with a parking spot in their lot. (The sign about them not being liability for your car being broken into or stolen worried me a bit, though!)

I hadn't met most of the girls before. We ended up with 6 girls total, all local STL bloggers. (Well, I use the term "blogger" loosely for me since I can't seem to think of much to say lately. It feels like my life is boring, so I never know what to write!) We took advantage of the half-price appetizers by trying their spinach artichoke dip - yum!

The service left a bit to be desired, but it was a busy Friday evening. Poor Alyssa had to ask at least 3 times (and 2 different waitresses) to get some ranch dressing. Angie loved her shrimp with cheese tortellini. Most of us ended up ordering pizzas, which made for a very cramped table, since three of us ordered the 16 inch pizzas. Oops! Guess we could have just gone with the 12 inch and still had leftovers. Oh well...I've enjoyed the leftovers. :-) I tried the philly steak pizza. I was a little worried about there being too many peppers, but I think it could have used even a little more.

Here's Angie, Alyssa, and Heidi:

And Randall, Sarah, and me:

It had been a long week, so I tried a drink called the Crown of Roses. It was pretty good. Angie decided to try the Island Escape. It contained Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Malibu Coconut Rum, Absolut Vodka, pineapple juice, splash of O.J. & a dash of grenadine for $6. She said it was good, so I thought I would try it as well. I agree - it was tasty!

It was a great evening, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Kale chips

2010-07-05T20:11:00.003-05:00

Recently, I found a new blog to follow - KERF (Kath Eats Real Food). She posts photos of all her food, and I have been inspired to try some new things. It's also motivating me to be healthier.

I saw a couple of posts when she mentioned making kale chips. I've never had kale before, so I was a bit hesitant to try these. While at Wal-mart, I saw some kale, and it was pretty cheap (I think around $2 for a bunch). So, I figured, why not?!

I forgot to take a picture of my chips, but they looked pretty much the same as Kath's. Here's the recipe:

Preheat oven to about 375*
Use about 1 OXO salad spinner’s worth of kale (which was a stuffed grocery store veggie bag). Tear the leaves off the thick stems into bite size pieces. Spread out on cookie sheets.
Drizzle with about 2 tsp of olive oil
Sprinkle with Parmesan, Asiago or your seasonings of choice. Plus a sprinkle of kosher salt.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until edges are brown and kale is crispy when moved in pan.

I didn't make quite as big a batch since we hadn't tried these before. Since my DH doesn't eat cheese (and to cut calories), I omitted the cheese. Instead, I sprinkled a little bit of garlic powder and onion powder (not the salt version of those since there's already salt).

I was amazed at how they crisped up. I topped mine with ketchup, and DH dipped his in siratcha (however you spell it!). All in all, they were delicious, and we will definitely be eating these again!

With our kale chips, we each had a turkey hot dog on a wheat bun, a pickle, and a serving of baked beans. Delicious, healthy, and filling!

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

2010-06-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
For some reason, I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot more than the second half. I would have given it 3.5 stars, but that's not an option. I decided to go with 4 since I enjoyed the first part of the book so much.

View all my reviews >>

Book review

2010-06-14T17:36:00.001-05:00

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was ok. It was no where close to as good as the Twilight books, though. I think I didn't like it that much because Bella and Edward weren't a part of the book until the very end.

View all my reviews >>

Giveaway

2010-06-14T13:01:00.002-05:00

My friend Amy is hosting a giveaway on her blog. She is giving away a $60 gift certificate to CSN stores. The site hosts over 200 different stores, so there's something for everyone! You can find lighting, kitchen appliances, furniture, home decor, and all other sorts of items.

Visit Amy's blog to enter the giveaway. You never know...you might win!

Thanks for the comments

2010-03-29T18:07:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to say thanks for the comments so far about my recent post! I think I have decided to just continue TTC and see how it goes. :-) I will focus on eating healthier and hopefully not get out of control during pregnancy.

Decisions...

2010-03-28T18:08:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted in forever. I don't know if anyone still has this blog in their Google Reader!

Right now, I'm struggling with a decision. Unfortunately, I gained quite a bit of weight after my wedding in 2008. My weight is something I have always struggled with. I managed to get down to a good weight for me, but I was still technically overweight by like 15-20 pounds! (The height/weight charts have never worked for me as an adult. Try as I may, I cannot seem to get to the weight I should be.) My biological clock is ticking really loudly, though, and I want a baby so badly. The hubby and I have been married for about 1.5 years, so it seems like a great time to try to conceive.

I'm struggling with the decision of waiting until this fall, so that I can lose some weight or just going ahead trying to conceive, regardless of my weight. The thought of not being pregnant until this fall or winter seems so awful and so far away!

Right now, my heart says to go ahead and try to conceive and hope that I can take off some weight after I have a baby. Any thoughts/suggestions?

Love walked in

2010-02-13T10:10:00.000-06:00

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn't very into this book at first. Since I had read some good reviews, I decided to keep going. The further I got, the more I liked the book.

View all my reviews >>

Sunday's food

2009-10-11T21:15:00.003-05:00

Sunday's entry:

It says I am below calories because I exercised. According to MFD, you should eat back all your exercise calories. I'm not sure I agree with that. I was a little over again on sodium, but not too bad. I will try to improve again on Monday. Overall, a good day!

If every day were like today ...
You would lose 2 lbs per week.

DAILY TOTALS

Food Description

Totals
Percentage of Calories^†

[net calories] = [calories consumed] - [calories burned through exercise]

','#FFCCCC', 250,'#000000')" onmouseout="hideddrivetip()" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;">1,216

42
^††

10-35% of calories. The ideal range is 10-15%.','#CCFFCC', 250,'#000000')" onmouseout="hideddrivetip()" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">

^†		Typical Percentages: Fat 20-35%, Carbohydrates 45-65%, Protein 10-35%, and Saturated Fats less than 9%
^††		Incomplete data

	Notes
At a glance ...
	Exercise! You burned 224 calories.
	A high-fiber breakfast can help you lose weight and reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
	You met your water consumption goal!
	You have eaten fiber-rich foods. This is a good indicator of a healthy diet.
	Saturated fats only accounted for 5.3% of your calories. Good job staying below the 9% limit!
	You consumed 1375 mg of calcium. This is 138% of the recommended daily value (1000 mg) for adults under 50 years old.
	You consumed 225.2 mg of vitamin C. This is 205% of the recommended daily value (110 mg) for adult women who drink.
	You consumed 32713 IU of vitamin A. This is 1,090% of the recommended daily value for women.
	You consumed 38.9mg of iron. This is 216% of the recommended daily value for pre-menopausal women.
	Too few calories. Consuming too few calories can decrease your metabolism. This will hurt your long-term weight loss efforts. Note: Make sure you have entered all of your foods for the day.
	You consumed 2392mg of sodium. Ideally, this number should be below 2300mg.

Chocolate pb oatmeal

2009-10-11T11:49:00.003-05:00

I had this for breakfast Sunday morning. It was yummy and kept me full for quite a long time. The only con about this breakfast is it look a little funny since the hot cocoa mix makes the oatmeal a pretty brown color. :-) It was yummy, though, and I liked the hint of pb.

Chocolate PB Oatmeal

1 packet of plain oatmeal
1 packet of sugar-free hot chocolate mix (I used the diet Swiss Miss that has added calcium.)
3/4 cup water
1-2 tsp. peanut butter (I used Jif, reduced fat, creamy.)

Microwave it all together and stir well. It tastes almost like the no-bake chocolate/oatmeal drop cookies my grandma used to make. YUM.

My modifications- I used 1/2 cup of quick oats from a big canister and cooked them according to the package (1 cup of water). I only microwaved the oats, water, and chocolate. When it was done, I stirred in 2 tsp of peanut butter. According to MFD, the breakfast was rich in fiber, a good source of carbs, contained a healthy amount of protein, and was low in cholesterol and saturated fat.

This recipe contains 232 calories, 6.6 g fat, 9.4 g protein, 5.6 g fiber, and 31% daily calcium.

Braised balsamic chicken

2009-10-11T10:15:00.000-05:00

We had this the other night for dinner and thought it was quite yummy! This is definitely a recipe I will be making again. It was quick and easy to make (always a plus!) and healthy. Great combo!

We had it with mashed cauliflower and some boiled carrots. It was a very filling dinner!

Braised Balsamic Chicken

* 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
* ground black pepper to taste
* 1 teaspoon garlic salt
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 onion, thinly sliced
* 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
* 1 pound fresh diced tomatoes (I substituted canned tomatoes, and it worked well.)
* 1 teaspoon dried basil
* 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
* 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
* 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
* 2-3 cloves fresh garlic

DIRECTIONS:

1. Season chicken breasts with ground black pepper and garlic salt. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet, and saute the onion, fresh garlic, and seasoned chicken breasts until browned.
2. Pour tomatoes and balsamic vinegar over chicken, and season with basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Simmer until chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 15 minutes.

Saturday's food diary

2009-10-11T08:27:00.002-05:00

Saturday:

I still was over on my sodium, but not as much as Friday. Today (Sunday) should be lower. I was 8 ounces under for my water goal for the day.

If every day were like today ...

You would lose 1.6 lbs per week.

	Notes
At a glance ...
	A high-fiber breakfast can help you lose weight and reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
	You have eaten fiber-rich foods. This is a good indicator of a healthy diet.
	Saturated fats only accounted for 3.8% of your calories. Good job staying below the 9% limit!
	You consumed 1223 mg of calcium. This is 122% of the recommended daily value (1000 mg) for adults under 50 years old.
	You consumed 203.8 mg of vitamin C. This is 185% of the recommended daily value (110 mg) for adult women who drink.
	You consumed 17804 IU of vitamin A. This is 593% of the recommended daily value for women.
	You consumed 36.7mg of iron. This is 204% of the recommended daily value for pre-menopausal women.
	You did not meet your water consumption goal.
	No exercise.
	You consumed 2447mg of sodium. Ideally, this number should be below 2300mg.

DAILY TOTALS

Food Description

Totals
Percentage of Calories^†

10-35% of calories. The ideal range is 10-15%.','#CCFFCC', 250,'#000000')" onmouseout="hideddrivetip()" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">

^†		Typical Percentages: Fat 20-35%, Carbohydrates 45-65%, Protein 10-35%, and Saturated Fats less than 9%
^††		Incomplete data

Pumpkin fluff

2009-10-10T15:00:00.002-05:00

We tried this recipe the other night. Both of us liked it. It is kind of a lighter version of pumpkin pie, because of the cool whip. You could use fat-free cool whip if you want. Make sure you get the canned pumpkin that is just pumpkin, not pie filling.

Pumpkin Fluff

12 oz can of pumpkin
8 oz cool whip lite
small package vanilla sugar free pudding mix
1 tbl pumpkin pie spice

Use mixer to whip all ingredients together.

Serve with:
Graham crackers or ginger cookies (dip them in) and dip them in, or try try putting this in the mini-pre made graham cracker crusts. Each of them only has 110 calories, and with the pumpkin fluff it's so satisfying! You can also just eat it in a bowl as a mousse.

Layout help?

2009-10-10T10:24:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since I chose this layout and theme. I do not remember what the tutorial page I used was. Does anyone have a good link to help with changing the layout here?

I think I might still keep the same theme/colors, but want to change the margins. Thanks in advance!

Mashed cauliflower

2009-10-10T10:08:00.001-05:00

Hubby and I tried this the other night. Obviously it isn't quite like regular mashed potatoes, but it was tasty. I made a modification, though. Instead of adding in some butter, I added in some fat-free half and half. I put in a splash, and kept adding a little bit at a time until it was the right consistency.

Mashed Cauliflower

Cook a bag of microwaveable pre-cut cauliflower as directed on the bag.

*Then put it into a food processor or blender with half a tablespoon of butter, a pinch of garlic powder,a pinch of onion powder, and salt and pepper to taste.

*If want it to be thicker you can dry the cauliflower with a paper towel before you blend it.

Cauliflower is very low in calories, so you can afford to use a small amount of butter.

My Food Diary

2009-10-10T09:51:00.004-05:00

Hi to those of you who are still reading this. :-) It has been a long time since I posted. We had a fabulous trip to Europe in June as our delayed honeymoon. Last weekend, we celebrated our first anniversary. I can't believe it's already been a year!

I have put on some weight since the wedding. To help me become healthier (and lose weight), I am using My Food Diary, a site suggested by a friend. It kind of reminds me of Weight Watchers e-Tools. However, I feel like it gives me a LOT more information that will encourage me to eat healthier foods. On WW, you could technically spend your points eating very unhealthy items, and the computer wouldn't tell you differently. (Unless they have changed the program since I last used it.) On MFD, for every food you enter, it tells you how you are doing with your calories for the day, fat grams, saturated fat, etc. It also then adds it up per meal and the whole day. I am going to try to post my daily results on here fairly regularly to keep me accountable.

DAILY TOTALS

Food Description

Totals
Percentage of Calories^†

10-35% of calories. The ideal range is 10-15%.','#CCFFCC', 250,'#000000')" onmouseout="hideddrivetip()" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">

^†		Typical Percentages: Fat 20-35%, Carbohydrates 45-65%, Protein 10-35%, and Saturated Fats less than 9%
^††		Incomplete data

I got a red (unhealthy) box for calories because I was ONE calorie under for the day. Silly!! My other red box is for sodium. I had canned soup at lunch and used it to make our chicken crockpot dinner. Luckily, I don't have high blood pressure, so it's not that big of a deal. I plan to keep my sodium level lower today.

The light green boxes are "healthy," and the dark green boxes are "very healthy." I'm quite pride of how many dark green boxes I got yesterday! :-) Yeah!

Even if you are not trying to lose weight, I highly recommend MFD. It makes you think more about what you are eating and if it is really something that is healthy for you to be eating. If you have any questions about MFD, please don't hesitate to ask!

Oh, also, there is a "forum" with message boards. I have gotten several yummy recipes (that we've already tried and liked) from the boards. There are also groups you can join. As well as having the food tracker, there is an exercise tracker and measurement tracker. MFD does it all!

If every day were like today ...

You would lose 1.6 lbs per week.

	Notes
At a glance ...
	A high-fiber breakfast can help you lose weight and reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
	You met your water consumption goal!
	You have eaten fiber-rich foods. This is a good indicator of a healthy diet.
	Saturated fats only accounted for 4.2% of your calories. Good job staying below the 9% limit!
	You consumed 1129 mg of calcium. This is 113% of the recommended daily value (1000 mg) for adults under 50 years old.
	You consumed 177.2 mg of vitamin C. This is 161% of the recommended daily value (110 mg) for adult women who drink.
	You consumed 33049 IU of vitamin A. This is 1,102% of the recommended daily value for women.
	You consumed 34.5mg of iron. This is 192% of the recommended daily value for pre-menopausal women.

	No exercise.
	You consumed 3193mg of sodium. Ideally, this number should be below 2300mg.

Not home yet...

2009-06-29T02:56:00.002-05:00

American Airlines really overbooked the flight we were supposed to take yesterday. We had seats, but decided to give them up because they were offering a good deal.

Our lunch and dinner yesterday and our breakfast this morning was paid for, as well as the hotel last night. We also received $800 each to use toward American Airline flights within one year.

Since we were planning to go to California around Christmas to visit hubby's family, we figured this was a good deal. He still has about a week of vacation time left, so it didn't hurt to take an extra day.

The best part is that we were able to get upgraded to Business Class again today. It was full yesterday, but not today. Woohoo! I'm hoping there won't be too many people so that I can take pictures. I feel kind of silly taking pictures of the plane, though. We'll see...

Delayed honeymoon

2009-06-10T10:20:00.003-05:00

Yes, I realize I haven't posted in a LONG time. There were some interesting things going on at school that took up a lot of my time after cycle break, and then it was the end of the school year. That means report cards. Not a ton of fun.

I am typing this on a computer at the Admirals Club at Lambert. My dad was very nice and used some of his miles he gets from business to upgrade us. We are flying 1st class to Chicago and business class to Paris. I'm looking forward to the yummy drinks and food and the larger seats! Our flight to Paris is overnight, so it will be helpful to have the extra room to try to sleep.

From Paris, we will catch a plane to Venice, where we will be staying for a couple days. Our cruise (which goes around the Greek Isles and to Croatia) leaves from Venice. After the cruise, we are renting a car and driving to France. Along the way, we are going to stop at Mont St. Michel and St. Malo. [Side note - When I was 16, I studied in France, and we stayed at a youth hostel outside of St. Malo for a couple weeks. I enjoyed it there and thought it would be fun to go back and visit the "walled city."] After the stops, we are heading to Paris, where we will be staying for 5 days. For one of those days, though, we are going to take a day trip to London.

I plan to take a lot of pictures and will try to post some when I return. Unfortunately, school seems to start early this year, so I won't have much time when I get back. The first day of school is July 16th, and Meet the Teacher Night is July 13th. Since my room is being used for summer school, I have a fair amount of work to do the week before school starts - unpacking, organizing, etc. Oh, fun!

Au revoir!

(I was going to try to include some pictures of places in Europe, but apparently the Admirals has disabled the right button on the mouse.)

Another quandry...

2009-03-17T09:02:00.002-05:00

First off, thank you for the ideas so far of where to look for shoes and clothes. I appreciate the comments!

Sheesh, I'm just having all kinds of trouble figuring out clothes and shoes for our trip! I looked online and found some comfortable looking dresses at Old Navy. They actually have petite dresses online. I often have a problem with dresses being too long. Sometimes I can make them work if I'm wearing heels or wedges, but I'm not going to be walking around Europe in tall shoes!

I'm probably going to order several to try later this week. I would need to bring a little shrug or something with me because churches usually won't let you in in a sleeveless shirt/dress. (Also, I will probably have to wear a cami under them because of the dresses being somewhat low-cut.)

My problem now is what shoes to wear. I cannot walk around in thongs/flip flops. They're not supportive enough, nor can I handle the part between my toes. A lot of sandals are completely flat, which really won't provide support for lots of walking. I would like something comfortable, but not ugly. :-)

So, any suggestions to go with dresses like the ones below?

Any other stores you know of that have petite dresses at a decent price? Old Navy is reasonably priced, so I don't mind buying things from there. I noticed they had a skirt or two that might work as well.

Next problem will be finding some little biker short type things to wear underneath. Stupid big thighs...

Recommendations - capris, bermudas, etc.

2009-03-16T09:33:00.002-05:00

I'm searching for some pants/shorts to wear on our trip to Europe in June. Capris would be good, or maybe long shorts.

I have several problems that make it VERY hard for me to find pants/shorts that fit:

I'm short, but petites sometimes don't fit quite right.
My waist is about 2 sizes (sometimes more depending on the fit of different brands) smaller than my hips. "Curvy" fits are better, but often the waist is still too big.
I'm short waisted, so I should technically wear fairly low rise pants. They tend to seem too low, though, and I don't like my underwear or extreme lower back showing when I bend over!
Bermuda shorts tend to be a little too long on me, but regular shorts often seem too short to me. (I have "thick" thighs and don't like them!)

Anyone out there have suggestions? I don't want to pay a lot, which is another party of the problem. Luckily, I think I do have a 20% coupon to Ann Taylor Loft until the end of this month. I also have a gift card to Macy's that I could use, as well as gift cards to Dillard's. I'm not sure what brand to even look for, though...

Money

2009-03-12T18:31:00.003-05:00

Money is on my mind a lot lately! We're doing fine and have a decent amount of savings, but I'm thinking ahead to the near future. Kids cost a LOT of money. Plus, DH will have to get a new car, because his 2-door isn't going to be too useful.

Oh, how I wish I could win the lottery. That would involve buying a lottery ticket, though. :-) I don't buy them because I know the chances of winning are so slim. So basically, I think of them as a waste of money.

Saving money is one reason I've really gotten into couponing. I read quite a few blogs about coupons/saving money, as well as blogs listing freebies. I've received quite a few freebies recently, including a sample of Tide, Aveeno night moisturizer, a Fiber One granola bar, Quaker mini rice cakes, and several others. I figure if people are giving stuff away for free, I'll take it! :-) I've also really gotten into seeing how much we can put into our ING savings account each month. The amount of interest paid has decreased lately, but it still pays way more than a checking account.

Wouldn't it be great to have a tree like this (with large amounts on the bills) in your backyard?

Walgreens Trip #2

2009-03-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

This was definitely my best Wags trip ever. The cashier was really funny. Instead of being annoyed at all the coupons (like sometimes the cashiers are), he was excited. He thought it was impressive when a lady came in with a total of $113 and got it down to $13 by using coupons. Mine was even better! :-)

10 bottles of various Garnier products (mousse, shampoo, hairspray)
Original price - not sure. On sale for $2.99
*Use Wags $2 off Garnier coupon
*Use 10 $1 off Mfr. Garner coupons

Final price = FREE!

4 Glade Lasting Impression Kits
Original price - not sure. On sale for $7.99
*Use Wags $4 off
*Use 2 B1G1 coupons
*Use 2 $4 off coupons

Final price = FREE!

(There could have been some overage, but the manager said it wasn't possible. Technically, I could have received $7.99 off for the free ones. However, since the Wags coupon took $4 off of each of them already, he said he couldn't give me back money. Fine with me...it was still insanely cheap!)

2 Glade Sense n' Spray
Original price - not sure. On sale for $7.99
*Use Wags $4 off
*Use 2 $4 off coupons

Final price = FREE!

Total price OOP = 6 cents!!

According to the receipt, I saved $31 in Wags advertised savings and $77.78 in Manufacturer coupon savings. This is a total savings of $108.78!

Walgreens Trip #1

2009-03-11T18:36:00.002-05:00

I made 2 trips to Walgreens the other day to take advantage of some amazing deals. The breakdown is below the picture.

Axe styling paste - regular price $6.99
* Submit March rebate for free Axe product
* Ask for rebate to be put on a Wags giftcard (receive 10% extra)

Final price = Better than FREE!

2 bottles (100 ct.) Vitamin D tablets - regular price $6.99
* On sale, B1G1

Final price = 2 bottles for $6.99

2 Colgate Total Whitening - regular price $3.49
* Use 2 Wags coupons for $2.50 off Colgate
* Use 2 coupons for $1.50

Final price = FREE plus overage!

1 bottle of VO5 shampoo - on sale for $0.49 (not sure of the regular price)

1 pack of Big Red - regular price $1.29
* Use 1 coupon for 1 free pack

Final price = FREE!

2 Right Guard deodorants - regular price - not sure. On sale for $2.99
* Use a coupon for $1 off 2

Final price = $4.98 for 2

1 Degree deodorant - regular price - not sure. On sale for $2.19
* Use 1 coupon for $0.75 off

Final price = $1.44

Garnier Fructis shampoo - regular price - not sure. On sale for $2.99
*Use Wags coupon for $2 off Garnier
*Use 2 $1 off Garnier

Final price = FREE!

2 Glade Sense n' Sprays - regular price - not sure. On sale for $7.99
*Use Wags coupons for $4 off
* Use 2 $4 off coupons

Final price = FREE!

I ended up paying $21.10 for all this. The total will actually be $14.11 once I get my rebate on the Axe product.

According to my receipt, I saved $50.65

Good walking shoes? Recommendations?

2009-03-09T07:51:00.002-05:00

My DH and I are going to Europe in June for our delayed honeymoon. I need to buy some good walking shoes to wear because we will be doing a LOT of walking. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations?

Unfortunately, my poor toes cannot handle "thong" sandals. So, that kind of knocks out a fair amount of shoes. I was hoping to find something not quite as bulky as regular tennis shoes. Since I'm so short, even if I wear short socks that don't shoe, I look short and frumpy if I wear capris and regular tennis shoes. (And yes, I probably shouldn't care about that, but we're going to take pictures!)

I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to get good shoes that are not the cutest. Oh well...any help is appreciated. :-)

Saddest Male Models, Spring/Summer 2009

2009-02-14T14:00:00.000-06:00

Great! I can't believe anyone made clothes (I use use the term loosely) like these, even if it's just for a runway show. What a waste of money!! I feel really sorry for these guys. I'm only posting a few of the photos. For the rest of them, go here.

(You've got to go to the site to view the back of this one. It's hilarious...and awful!)

A couple other hilarious ones are named : The “Daddy, My Shiwt’s Too Showt” and The “Just A Typical Thursday.”

Fabulous Valentine's gifts!

2009-02-14T08:53:00.002-06:00

Just kidding!

In case you're still looking for a Valentine's gift, your "friends" at 99 cents only (never heard of it) have some great gifts for you!

Don't you just love 99 cent underwear and perfume? The underwear are supposedly a famous brand that they can't advertise. Sure they are. Also, there's no limit on the 99 cent furry handcuffs. Just in case you need to get a lot of them for different people. (Yikes!)

The "bad choice" side includes a 99 cent pregnancy test. Really?!

Original post here.

Recipes

2009-02-08T13:02:00.003-06:00

I had some requests to post a few recipes from last night. They're nothing fancy, but they're both delicious. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I didn't take any last night.

Party Pizzas

1 lb. roll - hot sausage
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. Worcestershire (I usually double this)
1 lb. Velveeta, cubed (I use light Velveeta)
1 T. ketchup (optional)
loaf of party rye bread (or you can substitute thin white sandwich bread, cut into small pieces)

1. Brown the meat. Do NOT drain! (Yes, I know it's bad, but you need the grease.)
2. Stir in all the ingredients excepting bread (duh) until the cheese is melted.
3. Spoon the mixture onto the bread.
4. Back at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes, or until lightly brown on top.

Vodka Slush

7 cups water
2 cups sugar (I use 1 c. sugar and 1 c. Splenda)
4 tea bags (The recipes calls for black tea bags, but you can use regular.)
2 cups water (hot)
1 (12 oz.) can frozen orange juice
1 (12 oz.) can frozen lemonade
2 cups vodka
Sprite/7-Up

1. Place tea bags in 2 cups hot water. Stir until cool.
2. Add vodka.
3. Add in all other liquids excepting Sprite.
4. Freeze at least 24 hours.

Place 2 scoops in glass with Sprite. Yum!

Zombies in area! Run!

2009-01-31T14:39:00.002-06:00

Apparently some people in Austin cut the padlock on an electronic billboard/road sign and then hacked in the password-protected computer inside. Of course, they changed the message.

Here is a picture of one of the signs.

Apparently another sign said "Zombies ahead! Run for your lives!"

You can read the story here.

Sign language

2009-01-31T14:36:00.003-06:00

Yes, I haven't blogged in forever! I have been working 10-11 hour days basically every day. By the time I get home and have dinner, I don't have much time before it's bedtime already!

I was on Gigglesugar and saw this sign.

Here's their caption for the photo:

You do not want to mess with this group of Biaches. They will eff you up bad.

I heart Wags!

2009-01-08T18:34:00.002-06:00

I had a very successful shopping trip to Walgreens today. Here's a picture of what I got, and below that is the breakdown.

2 Stayfree (28 ct.) - regular price $7.29 each
* Use $3 off each Walgreens coupon
* Use B1G1 coupon
* Use $2 off 2 coupon

Final price = $2.29 for 2

2 boxes of Splenda - regular price $4.79 each
* Use Walgreens coupon for $2.99 per box
* Use 2 $3 printable manufacturer coupons

Final price = FREE! (actually $0.02 overage)

2 Puffs (60 ct., with lotion)- regular price $1.89
* Use Walgreens coupon for $0.89 per box

Final price = $1.78 for 2

2 Electrosol (20 ct. + 5 extra because of 25% free) - regular price $6.99
* On sale for $3.49
* Use 2 $2.50 off coupons

Final price = $1.98 for 2

Slim Shot Energy Shots - regular price $4.99
* On sale for $4.00
* Earn $4 Register Rewards

Final price = FREE!

L'Oreal concealer - regular price $8.99 (no coupons or anything for this one)

L'Oreal eyeshadow - regular price $7.49
* B1G1 free on all L'Oreal

Final price = FREE!

(The odd thing is the eyeshadow didn't ring up free. We're not sure why, because the ad said B1G1 free for L'Oreal. The cashier was nice and voided the eyeshadow so that it was free.)

Powerade Zero (32 oz.) - regular price $1.49
* Use $0.40 off coupon

Final price = $1.09

Bag of Belgian cookies - regular price around $4
* 75% off in Christmas stuff

Final price = $1.25

Immodium (yeah, we all need it at some point...) 42 ct. - regular price $15.99
* Use $3 off Walgreens coupon
* Use $1 off manufacturer coupon

Final price = $11.99

Fructis shampoo, hairspray, and volumizing mousse - regular price $4.29
* On sale for $2.99
* Use 3 Walgreens Super-Saver coupons for $2 off each
* Use 3 $1 off manufacturer coupons

Final price = FREE!

I think this might have been my best shopping trip ever! With tax, my total was only $30.63.

You can see my savings above - $64.12! Wow! I saved about 66%. It is amazing what you can do by stacking coupons!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T08:19:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

DH and I are heading over to Alton again today. We're going to go to 6 pm Mass with the family. We're going to stay the night in Alton this year. Tomorrow morning, my mom will make one of my favorite breakfasts - her delicious caramel rolls. It just wouldn't be Christmas without them!

I hope everyone has safe travels wherever you are going. Enjoy spending time with your family. I'm kind of sad we won't have a white Christmas, but that's pretty normal around here.

Merry Christmas!!

Donating food to cats and dogs

2008-12-23T17:00:00.000-06:00

While reading a magazine recently (I think it was People), I read an article about a young girl. She saw how so many shelters need help getting enough food for all the animals. So, she started a website with trivia questions.

For each question you answer (only 1 per day), 10 pieces of food get donated to an animal shelter. The food is donated whether you get the answer right or not. There is a site with trivia questions for dogs and one for cats.

I thought I would pass along the link, as I know there are a lot of animal lovers out there. Today I noticed that you can even click to get a daily email reminder to answer the trivia question.

It will take less than a couple of minutes of your time each day, but will add up to help animals who don't have a loving home. Over 63.5 million pieces of dog food have been donated since April of this year, and over 39 million pieces of cat food have been donated since June of this year.

Cat site

Dog site

My new addiction (warning - long post!)

2008-12-23T10:00:00.000-06:00

I have recently become addicted to finding great deals via sales and coupons. I think I first saw posts about this on Brea's blog. I've seen a few other posts since then and have found numerous blogs about the subject. Some relate to particular stores (such as Walgreens and Target) while others focus on combining sales and coupons. Walgreens is often more expensive for a lot of items. However, when certain items go on sale, they're cheaper than other places (such as Wal-mart or Target). If you have a manufacturer coupon, it's an even better deal.

A few weeks ago I saved an amazing amount at Walgreens. (I planned to post this earlier, but forgot I had just saved the draft to come back to later!)

I got the ad for Walgreens Saturday evening and decided to look through to see what was on sale. I noticed there were many things we were in need of on sale - laundry detergent, hand soap, soup (for my lunch), toothpaste, razor rills, trash bags, foil... In the ad, there were several coupons for good deals/sales at Walgreens. I was also able to go through my coupons and go online to find several additional coupons.

My total OOP cost was $48.94, including tax ($45.00 before tax).

My savings was $51.89!!!

I used $22.34 in Walgreens coupons, $17.05 in Walgreens advertised sales, and $12.50 in manufacturer coupons. Here's the breakdown:

2 Arm and Hammer detergents -on sale for 2 for $7, plus 2 coupons for $1 off A&H detergent. Original price - $15.58. After sale/coupons - $5.00
1 Tide detergent (26 loads) - on sale for $5.49, plus used a $1.00 coupon = $4.49
2 cascade action packs - on sale 2 for $7 (unfortunately, I had no coupon for this)
Dove minis (caramel and milk choc. - yum!) - on sale 2 for $6, plus a coupon for $2 off 2. Original price - not quite sure. I think the Dove are originally at least $4 each. After coupons - $4 for 2 packages.
Schick Intuition razor - $9.99. I lucked out and found one with an additional cartridge. Normally, 3 razor refills is over $11. I used a $3 off coupon, getting a new razor plus 2 cartridges for $6.99.
4 Campbell's Soup at Hand - on sale 4 for $5, plus a coupon for $1 off 4 containers. Original price - $8.76. After coupons/sale - $4.00
Softsoap hand soap - no sale, used the Walgreens coupons for $0.99 softsoap. Original price ($2.99 each) - $8.97. After coupons - $2.97
Walgreens whitening mouthwash - on sale for $3.50
2 All 12-Load detergent - used Walgreens coupon (to make it $1.79 each) and 2 mfr. coupon for $1.00 off. Original price - $7.58 After coupons - $1.58 (for 24 loads of laundry!)
2 snicker nutcrackers - yum! :-) - $1.00
Aluminum foil - originally $2.59. With a Wags. coupon - $1.99
Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste - used a mfr. coupon $1.50 off and received register rewards $2.00. Original price - $2.99. After coupons - $0.51 overage (yea!)
Glad trash bags (45 count) - on sale for $5.99, plus a coupon. After coupons - $4.99
Used a $5 off a $25 purchase coupon from Walgreens

The $51.89 saved includes the coupons mentioned above as well as advertised sales through Wags. I don't remember some of the original price of the items. I think I did quite well today! Here is a picture of all the items I bought and the receipt showing the savings:

Braggin' Rights

2008-12-23T08:18:00.002-06:00

Tonight is the annual Braggin' Rights game in St. Louis between Mizzou (BOO!) and my team, the Illini. I haven't been to the game for a few years and am really looking forward to it. From what the sports guys are saying, it should be a good game.

Illinois has won the past 8 years. Hopefully we can make it 9 in a row!

Christmas decor (mostly the tree) - lots of pics

2008-12-22T17:58:00.011-06:00

I meant to post about this a while back, but was having trouble loading my photos from my camera onto my new computer. I finally got it figured out. Silly me took pictures of the tree without the lights on, though, so it doesn't look quite as nice as it does in the evening.

This first picture is an ornament my mom got me of Madeleine and her dog. This is just the first of several French-releated Christmas ornaments/decor.

One of my Illini ornaments. Go Illini! (Hopefully they will win tomorrow night at the rivalry basketball game. DH, my parents, my sister, and I are going.)

An ornament of one of my favorite monuments in the world - la Tour Eiffel. We will be going to Paris on our honeymoon in June and definitely will be visiting the Eiffel Tower.

Another Eiffel Tower decoration. :-) My mom got this for me from Sur la Table a few years ago. It's an Eiffel Tower gingerbread "house." So cute! (You can see the edge of my Eiffel Tower lamp next to it and the other lamp in the background.)

An ornament I painted last year at Glazed and Confused.

An ornament my mom got us this year to commemorate our 1st Christmas as a married couple.

Various ornaments that are important to us. The take-out box I bought last year for DH. There is a fortune cookie that says something like "lucky in love" when you pull the fortune out. We had fortune cookies in take-out boxes as our wedding favors.

The moose ornament is from Niagara Falls, where DH proposed.

DH is from the San Francisco area. We went there on our mini-moon, and I bought the ornament of the Golden Gate, along with a few others.

DH went to Cal-Berkeley for his undergrad (the bear on the left.) The Illini ornament in the middle is for my undergrad. The Florida State ornament on the right is where DH went to law school.

If you look to the right of the house ornament, there is a sea lion ornament from San Francisco. Underneath that is a cable car ornament.

I LOVE Christmas time. We have some other Christmas decorations up, but I didn't take pictures of them. Oh well...I think this is enough pictures! :-)

Please consider donating...

2008-12-22T08:13:00.003-06:00

We all know the economy isn't the greatest right now. Most of us don't have a ton of extra money just lying around. There are lots of children around the St. Louis area who are in need of some Christmas cheer. I watch Channel 5 (KSDK) every morning to view the news and/or the Today show. I kept seeing the advertisements for granting a Little Wish, but kept forgetting to check out the website.

I did this morning, and I'm glad I did! When the webpage for the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition finally came up (several links to click on before that), this message was on the front page:

There are nearly 3,500 Wishes left to grant in only 1 day. To ensure that every child receives at least one gift (instead of two), FACC is managing the campaign by prioritizing gifts on the website. After all first gifts are granted, a second batch of Little Wishes will be posted. Thank you for your generosity and helping us give our foster children a bright Holiday.

It made me very sad to see this message, that some children will not even have 1 gift to open right now. I cannot imagine this, as I have always had plenty of gifts on Christmas. It breaks my heart to think that some children will wake up with nothing under their tree (if they even have a tree) or maybe only 1 gift.

My husband and I have decided to not give each other gifts this year. We received so much for the wedding, that we kind of had Christmas a few months ago! We are getting each other a card, but that's it. So, we decided to grant 2 Little Wishes this morning. I hope that our gifts will put a smile on the children's faces on Christmas morning.

As I mentioned earlier, I know it's a hard time for our country right now. The gifts start at $30 gift card for children. When you think about it, $30 isn't that much. That's about 7 or so drinks from Starbucks. Or a few lunches out. Or a sweater that you wouldn't have thought twice about buying.

Please consider donating to this great cause and making a wish come true for a child (or children) this Christmas!

Website: http://www.foster-adopt.org/

4x4 tag

2008-12-07T08:26:00.003-06:00

My friend Amber tagged me.

You are supposed to post the 4th picture in the 4th file of your picture folder.

My picture is of a gorgeous flower arrangement at the Waldorf=Astoria. The picture is from our engagement trip, when DH took me to NYC (where we stayed at the Waldorf) and then to Niagara Falls.

I will tag:

Trisha (A Day in the Life of a Seelen)
Angie (Klenke Konfessions)
Rhonda (Jordan & Rhonda)
Yara (A Brand New Life...Again)

Darn furnace

2008-12-06T14:30:00.000-06:00

Last night, when DH and I came home from my harp job, we noticed the house was quite cold. Usually, when you come in out of the cold, the house feels so nice and toasty! It was not at all. I checked the thermostat (which had been set at 69), and it was 65!

We found out the vents were just blowing cool air. The pilot had somehow gone out.

I know nothing about our furnace, so I had to go downstairs and read some information on the side of it. (DH knows nothing about it, either. He needs to work on his handy-man skills.) Apparently, you cannot light the pilot yourself. It tries to relight it 3 times. If that doesn't work, then it goes on lockout for 3 hours. Then, it should reset. Great! Over 3 hours of letting the temperature drop!

By the time we went to bed, it was down to 63 degrees. We could bundle up, but I was worried about the harps. They need to be in a constant temperature, as changes in temperature and humidity affect the tuning and can cause strings to break. So, we put a space heater in the room with the harps. We kept it on low and kept the door cracked because we didn't want it to get too hot, either.

I woke up at 4:00 am (I think thanks to my cat who wanted to snuggle) and checked the thermostat. It was at 65 again. Yeah! However, the vents were still blowing cool air, which I thought was odd. At least it was getting warmer.

When I woke up later (I think around 7:30), I checked again, and it was up to 67. The vents were finally blowing warm air again. Thank goodness! I was worried we were going to have to call someone today and stay around all morning waiting for a service call. Plus, I was worried about the cost!

I think over break, I'm going to call and have someone just come check on the furnace. My dad said they're supposed to be checked every so often, because stuff can build up, causing them to not work. Luckily, I'm off for quite a while, so it won't be a big deal to wait around for someone one day.

Crazy weekend

2008-12-06T14:00:00.000-06:00

We had planned on having a nice relaxing weekend to get things done and enjoy being lazy. As of last weekend, we had no plans, other than making sure to go to the grocery store and making a dessert for school.

That all changed this week. I got 3 last minute harp jobs! While I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend, the money was too hard to turn down.

Friday night, I played from 6-8 pm at Macy's at Chesterfield Mall. There was a Waterford Signing Event. It was nice playing in public, because I don't get the opportunity to do that much. I tend to play for weddings and private events. People were really nice and really seemed to enjoy the music.

Tonight, I am playing at a Christmas party at a location on Lindell Blvd. I'm sure it will be nice!

Sunday afternoon, I am playing at Macy's in Fairview Heights from 1-3 pm. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by and say hi! I'll be playing mostly Christmas music, but also some classical music.

New haircut

2008-12-06T09:10:00.002-06:00

A while before the wedding, I decided I was going to do the post-wedding chop. Then, as it got closer, I wasn't so sure. I was kind of liking having long hair and figured I will have shorter hair when I have kids. (Not too short, though!)

I decided my hair really needed a good cut, though. With using a flat iron, the ends really needed to be cut off. When I told DH I was going to get my hair cut shorter, he shook his head no. I guess maybe he thought I was going to go REALLY short and cut it all off. Not happening. I don't look good with really short hair. I knew it was going to be no shorter than chin length.

Thursday, I went to see Suzie at Metro Salon, upon recommendation from a few ladies. She was SO nice! Sometimes with stylists there's awkward conversation and lots of dead time. Not with Suzie. She took a lot of time when we first met to talk about what color I was looking for and what style I wanted. Through talking, we discovered that her niece and nephew go to the school where I teach. Her mom is also a musician (organist). I might do some music previews at their church. Great for business!

I don't have a picture yet. I got a new computer recently, and I'm still trying to figure out how to install the software so that I can get my pictures off my camera. :-)

Hopefully I will figure it out soon. If not, I might have to ask DH. I will post a picture as soon as I can. (I also have another post ready, but it's waiting for a few pictures.)

My Chinese name

2008-11-30T09:22:00.000-06:00

My name in Chinese isn't that different from my regular name.

Technically, my name should be pronounced "eh-may." Aimee comes from the French verb "aimer" (to love) and means beloved.

In Chinese, the word "ai" means love. "Mei" means beautiful.

Our Mandarin teacher said my name would be "Ai-mei" (Eye-may). I think it's a nice name! :-)

In Chinese, though, the last name comes first. Our last name means "forest." Interesting...

Learning a new language

2008-11-29T10:00:00.000-06:00

Last week was the last week of our 6-week Mandarin Chinese course. The class was through Webster University and was downtown in the Old Post Office.

I am going to take the next class so I can continue to learn a bit more Mandarin. They are going to let DH audit the course since he already knows the language. :-) He's there mostly for moral support and to answer some questions I have.

So far, I've learned how to say some basic things, like asking someone how they are doing, and having a brief conversation about that. We have also learned numbers, immediate family members (mom, dad, sister, etc.), and some basic sentence structures.

I have studied several languages in high school and college. One of my degrees is in French. I also took a year of Spanish in high school, 1 Italian class in college, and 2 semesters of German in college. I really enjoy learning foreign languages, and luckily, it was something that came easily to me.

Chinese, though, is quite different than any of the languages I have previously studied! There are a few things I find quite interesting about the Chinese language.

1) Verbs are not conjugated. In all the other languages I have studied, verbs are always conjugated. In French, it is "je suis" (I am), "tu es" (you are), "nous sommes" (we are). In Chinese, it is "wo shi" (I am), "ta shi" (you are), "women shi" (we are).

2) Adding on to number one, there are no tenses in Chinese. No past, present, future, imperfect, etc. Just the one. They use words like yesterday, next year, etc. to explain time. So, no matter when something happened, the verb is the same. (shi = to be, whether it was 10 years ago, now, or 20 years from now)

3) When you talk about yourself as being hungry, tired, busy, etc. the verb "shi" is left out. You wouldn't say "Wo shi lei."(I am tired.) The correct way to say it is "Wo lei." (I tired.) No wonder it is hard for those who speak Mandarin to learn English!

4) "Shi" means a LOT of different things! So far, we have learned 5 different meanings for this one word. It's a bit complicated! It can mean: to be, ten, room, and city. The characters for each "shi" are different.

5) The tones are a bit tricky to master! In Chinese, there are "accents" on many letters, telling you how to pronounce the word. One means to go up with your voice at the end of the word. Another is a flat tone. Another goes down and then up within the same word, and the last just goes down at the end of the word. It has been hard for us native English speakers to get this part down in class!

Hairstylist recommendations around St. Charles?

2008-11-28T14:35:00.003-06:00

I was wondering if any of you ladies around the St. Charles area had a recommendation for a hairstylist/colorist?

I was going to the gal who did my hair for the wedding, but she's pretty far away. I would like to find someone closer who is reasonably priced. They need to be somewhat experienced (I don't think a student would be good) because my hair pulls red really easily.

How to decide on album pictures?!

2008-11-28T08:02:00.001-06:00

We haven't gotten around to choosing our photos that will be in our wedding album yet. Our photography package included a credit towards an album. We just need to pick the photos and send them to the album designer.

I'm having a hard time choosing about 140 photos. There are so many wonderful photos that I love! I think it's going to take a while. I plan to pull my favorites first, no matter how many there are. Then slowly, we will have to eliminate some until we get down to a decent number!

I wanted to upload some of my favorite pictures, but Blogger wasn't cooperating. I don't know if the file size is too big or what. Bummer!

I ended up creating another album on Facebook with a few of my favorites. If you are reading this and aren't one of my friends on Facebook, leave me a comment with your name or a way that I can connect to you on Facebook.

ETA: You can try this link to see if it works: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10776&l=216d1&id=1131258243

Oh, how I love a good deal!

2008-11-27T11:48:00.003-06:00

DH and I went to the Banana Republic outlet at The Mills Mall last weekend. I had received an email earlier that week that there was a big sale going on.

I picked up a few sweaters (still debating if I'm going to keep all of them) at good prices. Each was 40% off.

The best deal, I think, was on 2 pairs of shoes. I'm definitely keeping the pink pair (rose verbena, a fuchsia color). I'm debating about the blue. The Emilia Suede Flat was originally $69.99 at BR. With the sale going on at the Outlet, I got the shoes for $17 each! What a steal! I love the color of the cura blue, but am not quite sure what to wear it with. It doesn't seem to look right with jeans. If I wore black pants, I'm not quite sure what color shirt would look good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T07:39:00.004-06:00

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and gets to spend time with family and friends.

We are looking forward to going over to my parents' house in Alton later today. My sister, nana, and aunt will also be there. This year, we invited our friends N & N and their son Noah. I'm looking forward to seeing the little guy! He's growing so fast! He will be 1 in January, and his new sister Mia will join the family in March.

Sorry for the lack of posts!

2008-10-18T07:59:00.003-05:00

Things have not slowed down since the wedding! It's been a hectic first week back at school, to say the least. I had Bunco with some teachers from my school on Tuesday evening, and DH and I started a Chinese language course on Wednesday nights. I'm playing in a wedding today, have a wedding show tomorrow at the Ameristar (if you're going - stop by and say hi!), and then a music preview concert at St. Peters Church in St. Charles. Busy weekend!

I really hope to post about the wedding and the trip to San Francisco soon!

On a side note...I showed my students some wedding photos yesterday. One of the kids (I can't remember if it was a boy or a girl) asked why there were so many pictures of me. A little girl said it was because it was my day and I was important! So cute! :-) They also LOVED the pictures with the red socks and shoes. Oh, and of course, they thought it was gross when we kissed!

Some wedding pictures!!

2008-10-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

We just got back to the hotel from some sight seeing around the San Francisco area. I just wanted to share some wedding photos. How exciting to see some of them already!

Here is our slideshow.

On our photog (SJ Macky's) website, you can also view some other photos.

My last post as an unmarried woman!

2008-10-02T20:38:00.002-05:00

This will be my last blog post until after the wedding! It really seems like just a few months ago we got engaged, and I had 1.5 years to plan the wedding.

Today, it really started to sink in. I went to Genovese to borrow some gorgeous jewelry for the wedding. My parents and sister met me there to help select the jewelry. After, we all went out to dinner, since it would be the last time as just the 4 of us, without me being married.

Tomorrow morning, the fun begins! We (my mom, sis, and I) are going to get manicures and pedicures. (My other bridesmaid, a cousin, is not arriving until Friday afternoon.) I am going to get fake nails. Mine are so short since I have to keep them short to play the harp. They won't look very nice in photos. Some relatives should arrive by lunch, so we'll all have lunch together. Not sure what all we'll do in the afternoon, but hopefully relax some! The rehearsal is tomorrow evening, followed by the rehearsal dinner. At the dinner, we're going to be doing a Chinese tea ceremony, in honor of FI's family. Neither of us have experienced this before. Basically, we serve tea to the elders in our family. In return, they give us red envelopes with money. :-)

Saturday morning our hair and make-up stylists are coming to my parents house where we will be getting ready. The guys and FI's family will take some pictures before the wedding, but we're not going to see each other until the ceremony. After the ceremony and church pictures, we're going to head to Forest Park to take some more photos. I can't wait for the reception at WOW!

Monday morning, FI (he'll be DH, then!), my parents, my sister, and I are flying out to San Francisco for our Chinese reception. It will be a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant with some of FI's family and some of his parents' friends. We will be staying in CA for a few days and will return late Thursday evening. I'll post some photos and things we did when we return.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me in the wedding planning process! I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from the ladies on StlWed and a lot of support. I cannot imagine planning the wedding without all your help! I hope to have pictures very soon to share with you, and I'm sure I will have several blog posts about the day!

Flowers & candy - the classic combo

2008-10-02T20:31:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, FI brought over a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me, along with one of my favorite candies - Turtles! He is very thoughtful, which I appreciate so much! Here are a few pictures:

Something old, something new...

2008-10-02T20:19:00.003-05:00

I thought I would post about my Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. I cannot believe the wedding is so soon! It's really sinking in!

Something Old

my veil - I am wearing my mom's veil, which she bought in Belgium on a trip to Europe. It was also worn by my aunt Nancy, who is my godmother. The veil is cathedral length and is absolutely amazing!
hopefully my great-nana's brooch - My great-nana had a lot of extremely nice costume jewelry. One of them was a "diamond" brooch in kind of a star shape. I'm hoping that I will be able to pit in on my bouquet.
lace handkerchief - I might carry a lace handkerchief that I believe belonged to either my great-nana or my nana. My mom also carried it on her wedding day.

Something New

my dress - yep, that's an obvious on :-)
my shoes - both my church shoes (silver) and reception shoes (red) were purchased for the wedding.
hair comb - to wear at the reception

Something Borrowed

jewelry - I am SO excited about my beautiful jewelry! I picked it up today at Genovese, which is where we got my engagement ring and wedding band (a set) and FI's ring. I borrowed a beautiful pair of diamond earrings and a gorgeous diamond bracelet.
my veil - techincally, I'm borrowing it from my mom

Something Blue

dress label - I got a really cute dress label from the gartermaker.
blue ring - I'm not sure if I will be wearing a blue sapphire ring or a blue topaz ring, both of which I received from FI.

My silly cat

2008-10-01T00:15:00.004-05:00

My cat, Melodie (Mel), has an obsession with all types of bags and boxes. She gets very excited when I bring home groceries and there is a new paper grocery bag she can sit in.

There was an empty Michael's bag in my office. Well, Mel decided to poke her way in and sleep in it. I have no clue why the bag is comfier than just sleeping on the carpet, but that's a cat for ya!

Signature platters

2008-09-30T23:52:00.004-05:00

I didn't want to do the traditional guest book, but wanted something for our guests to sign. I used to go to a place called Glazed & Confused with some ladies from StlWed. They have some wonderful wedding signature platters.

Unfortunately, G&C is quite a ways from me. I didn't have time to drive out there and back (about an hour each way) to pick the design and then back another time to pick up the platters. There is a paint your own pottery studio, The Painted Zebra, in St. Peters on Mid Rivers Mall Drive.

We picked 2 different designs. Yes, I know they don't go together at all. :-) We wanted one that had the Chinese double happiness character and one that had our monogram or initial. Here is what we decided on:

Double happiness

"L" - green, black, and white - our main wedding colors.

DIY Unity Candle

2008-09-30T23:42:00.004-05:00

A lot of the unity candles in stores nowadays are way too elaborate for my taste. Either that, or they're too expensive for a candle for 1 day!

I wanted something simple, but not expensive. A plain white candle was too simple, though.

I decided I would go the DIY route. It took me a while to find a plain, unscented white pillar candle that was tall enough. I found one at Hobby Lobby for around $5. What a steal! I also found vellum at Hobby Lobby. I don't remember the price, but it was very reasonable. While there, I decided to get some thin (1/4 inch) black ribbon. Our colors are black and white, with touches of green and touches of red (at the reception).

I designed the design for the candle using PowerPoint. The scroll design is the same design that is used on our programs. It is fairly similar to the design from our invitations. We did not design our invitations, so we weren't able to use that design for our programs/unity candle.

The vellum was really easy to print on. The ink dried fairly quickly. I used double sided tape to adhere the vellum to the candle. Then, I used the tape to stick the ribbon onto the candle.

It was quite simple, and I love the results! Simple and elegant.

Close up of the design.

Various wedding items

2008-09-30T19:25:00.007-05:00

I finally got around to taking photos of the OOT bags that we put together. We had about 25 bags to make. FI and I went to Costco to get a variety of snacks. We also included a St. Louis magazine and map. I also made a timeline to put in the bag and included a list of fun facts about St. Louis that I got from another bride. (Sorry, I don't remember who, though!)

I created the "sticker" for the bags in PowerPoint, print it out, and then made it sticky with a Xyron machine. They're very handy!

I decided to get a hair comb to put in for the reception. It's the Double Sweet Maria comb from Naugi. Sorry for the blurry pic. I couldn't get my camera to take a clear picture - even without a flash!

This week, I also picked up FI's wedding band. He just wanted a plain, simple white gold band.

Make-up colors?

2008-09-30T13:42:00.003-05:00

Warning - this is kind of long. Sorry!

I'm still debating what color shadow to do on my eyelids for the wedding.

Yes, I had a trial. However, the gal seemed rushed (even though I was on time for my appointment). She did not seem to want to redo my eyes when I didn't like them the first time. They were WAY too much, with the shadow (gray) all the way up to my brows! So, she wiped some off. It was a little better, but I still wasn't sure if it was "me." Instead of taking it all off and starting over, she just quickly took it off one eye and tried again in brown. It was ok, but wasn't great because she didn't spend a lot of time on it. It would have been nice to see both eyes with the brown.

I'm debating either going with browns or with gray with a hint of purple (but only on the lids!). I put a faint purple shade over my other eyeshadow (usually a brownish shade) quite often.

I like these 2 photos that I found over on Weddingbee.

Here are some photos from my make-up trial. (Sorry for the blurriness...I'm not good at taking photos of myself!) As you look at the picture, the eye on the left is the gray shadow, and the right is the browns. Also, it seemed heavy on the blush to me. What do you think? I definitely am asking for none on my nose. I'm not sure why she put some on my nose, because my nose is already redder than the rest of my face and gets red easily.

My hair is darker than in the trial photos. It is more like the shade of the second photo in this post.

So, what do you think?

Gray, with a hint of purple? Or browns?

Too much blush?

What do you think of these?

2008-09-28T12:06:00.003-05:00

Special tables numbers were on my list of things to do if I had time. I made up 2 examples.

Please be honest - what do you think?

Is the font ok? Is there too much on the "page" or is is just enough? I think I would glue them onto black cardstock so there's a little black border.

Less than one week!

2008-09-28T08:46:00.003-05:00

I signed on to StlWed this morning just to check out the boards. I'm a wedding of the week!! Wow - less than 1 week away. Crazy! There are quite a few other ladies from the board getting married that day. The only one I know of that has a blog is Maria.

I want to do a Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue drink menu. I made one up last night.

What do you think of the drink choices?

I know a Crantini isn't super new. A Blushing Margarita was new to me since I'd never heard of it, so that's why I put it on there. We're limited in our choices for alcohol. Otherwise, I would use a flavored vodka, but they don't have it at WOW.

For Something borrowed - I found the Sprite-tini on someone's blog. The FL sunrise...well, we could say it's borrowed from FL! :-) FI went to law school in FL, so I thought that was a cute one to choose.

Sorry the picture is so small. I made it large, but this is the way it showed up. Oh well...you get the idea!

One more thing to stress me out!

2008-09-24T19:42:00.002-05:00

Sunday evening, I started to itch behind my left knee. I thought I had just been bitten by something, because my skin reacts a lot, even to mosquito bites. It didn't seem like a big deal.

Well, Monday morning, behind my right knee started to itch as well. What are the odds of being bitten behind both knees? Probably slim to none. I looked in a mirror, and the back of my knees are quite red with bumps!

At first, I thought maybe hives? Then, Monday evening, the top of my right foot started to itch.

I did some searching around on the internet for red, itchy bumps behind your knees and on the tops of your feet. My guess was that I have a type of eczema.

Tuesday morning, I tried to go into a dermatologist, but couldn't get an appointment that day. I had to wait until this morning, Wednesday morning.

I was right! I have a form of eczema that is stress induced. WONDERFUL! Luckily, he gave me some strong cream (hydrocortisone isn't strong enough). I've put it on twice today, and I think it does look a little better. The itching is definitely better. The doctor said to watch it closely and call on Friday if it seemed worse. If it doesn't seem better by Monday, I should call and get another medicine. It sounds like a sort of steroid. Not prednisone (sp?), but a pill form that works faster.

Luckily, it has not spread since Monday, so that's the good news! My dad has eczema, so it wasn't a total surprise that's what it was. I know I've been stressed out before, but I've never had anything even remotely close to this! I guess it takes a lot of stress to cause it!

Please cross your fingers that it goes away quickly! I don't want to look awful in my rehearsal dress and cute shoes!

This sounds like me

2008-09-24T08:29:00.002-05:00

I found the following on the Creative Organizing blog:

Believe it or not, perfectionism is a very common cause of disorganization. Seems counterintuitive that a perfectionist could be disorganized, doesn’t it? Well, the desire for perfection is often so strong that it creates immobility, both at the onset of your organizing projects, and anywhere in the process if you begin to realize things aren’t turning out perfectly.

If you feel that perfectionism is getting in the way of your desire for a more organized home and life, the first step is to recognize this fact. Then, look for ways to take small steps in the direction you want to go. Give yourself permission to organize imperfectly by focusing your attention on progress instead of perfection.

This sounds a lot like me! I'm quite particular about wedding things, stuff at school, etc. My mom says everything can't be perfect! She doesn't understand, then, why my house is messy. I think this kind of explains it.

It's hard to start organizing/cleaning things when the task is huge. Plus, I know that things aren't going to look perfect in the end.

I'm going to work on hard on focusing on progress, rather than perfection, now as I'm organizing and cleaning the house this week and next!

Those already married - please help with my timeline for the photog!

2008-09-23T22:57:00.002-05:00

This is a post for all those who have already gotten married.

My photog will be with us for 10 hours. The guys are going to take pictures at 12:30 before the 2:00 pm ceremony. If she didn't start until 12:30, the photog would be with us until 10:30, which she said is quite late.

I would kind of like to have her take some "getting ready" photos of us. I was wondering how long before the ceremony you thought I should allow for those kind of photos?

I was thinking maybe she could swing by my house (where we're getting ready) at 11:30, which would put her leaving the reception at 9:30, which is still a good amount of time.

Any thoughts or advice?

How did the DMV miss this?

2008-09-23T11:09:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to a quite interesting license plate from Virginia. How did the DMV miss this one? I wonder if they didn't realize the person ordered a Univ. of VA plate instead of the regular VA plates?

Let me guess...the car belongs to a guy?! :-)

Aw, how sweet!

2008-09-22T07:32:00.002-05:00

I had my final dress fitting yesterday. My seamstress, Connie, is absolutely amazing! You would never know the dress was at least 3, if not 4, sizes too big when I went to her less than 2 months ago. It is stunning and fits like a glove. My mom came to the final fitting yesterday with her good friend to learn how to do my complicated double bustle. There are 10 snaps and 15 ties, I think. Luckily, Connie was able to color code the ties to make it a little easier, but it's still pretty complicated! The double french bustle is gorgeous - it reminds me of Marie Antoinette or other French royalty. Love it!

The main point of this post is a sweet email I got from my dad this morning:

Mom said your dress is beautiful!!! I'm sure even more so with you in it :)

Love,
Dad

Isn't that so sweet? I'm lucky to have such great parents. My mom sent me an email last night, too, telling me how great I looked in the dress. All the hard work of watching what I eat has paid off!

Label lust

2008-09-21T10:38:00.003-05:00

Oh how I wish I had unlimited funds for shopping! I recently received a J. Crew catalog in the mail. These are just a few of my favorite items.

The Lulu leather peep toes are such girly shoes! My favorites colors are tulip and dark cloud.

I really like the Silk tricotine Rebecca short dress. I think I would want it in all 5 colors.

The Owen Hobo purse. It's yours for only $395. Wow - for one purse!

For some reason, I have really been coveting winter coats in a variety of colors. I like both the Greta (the shorter coat with double buttons) and the Tulip (the longer, single-button coat). I would get the Greta in black, sea salt, and deep persimmon. I would get the Tulip in sea salt (my favorite), deep persimmon, Mediterranean blue, chocolate, and black. The coats are $330 and $365. They're so cute...wish they were MUCH cheaper!

Tartine cardigan - $88 (yikes!). I love the ruffles at the collar and the hem. If I had unlimited funds, I would order this in a lot of colors - black, chocolate, light pewter, snow, maize, and bright rhubarb.

Lots going on

2008-09-06T07:03:00.002-05:00

Sorry for my lack of posts lately!

I have been at school quite late this week. Two days I was there for 12 hours! We have a new Literacy program this year, which we're still getting used to. Also, report cards are due by the end of next week as we have conferences the third week of September. Our report card is quite different this year, so we're all still figuring it out. The good news is we only have four and a half days next week (Wednesday is a half day for the students) and a four day week (with 2 long days due to night conferences) the following week. Then, we have 3 weeks off! YEAH!

I've been having trouble sleeping again. I think it's due to all the stress between work and home with wedding things. Luckily, I have some sleep medicine that helps. Unfortunately, I don't have enough to last until the wedding, so I figure I will kind of ration it out.

This morning, I'm off to play in a wedding at the Piper Palm House. Then, FI and I are meeting my parents at Lockhaven C.C. (the site of our rehearsal dinner) to decide on the menu for our rehearsal dinner. Tomorrow, we're having our final meeting with our photog. In between, I will be doing other various wedding related tasks, going grocery shopping, and cleaning. How fun!

On the weight loss front - I have been able to move all my clothes excepting some pants (still working on the bottom half) from my "too small" closet to my "regular" closet. Now, I have a lot of "new" clothes that I haven't been able to wear in a long time. How nice! I can't wait for it to get even a little cooler so I can wear some cute light weight jackets/blazers I have.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I have to go get ready for the wedding. Have a great weekend! I hope to be able to post about some things I've accomplished for the wedding soon!

Dogs instead of kids

2008-09-01T10:00:00.002-05:00

I saw a picture of this cute dog on some blog I was reading. I feel bad for the poor thing - all dressed up like that! Although, it honestly doesn't look like it dislikes it. I decided to check out the link to the post the picture is from.

Post.

I'm not going to copy and paste everything from the post. The gist is that in Japan, it's becoming increasingly popular to have dogs instead of children.

Take eye surgeon Toshiko Horikoshi, 46, who pushes around her teacup poodle and her Chihuahua-Pomeranian mix in a pram. (They get tired quickly, could get stepped on, and many department stores don't allow dogs on a leash.)

Oh my goodness! How utterly tacky!!

2008-08-27T20:21:00.003-05:00

I think this might be the tackiest wedding dress I have ever seen.

Where did she even find a dress like that?

From GiggleSugar.

One of my crazy dreams

2008-08-24T07:42:00.003-05:00

This isn't a dream I've had while sleeping, but a dream of something I wish I could do someday.

I've always been a cat-lover. Growing up, we took in many stray cats because we just couldn't turn them away. I adopted a cat, Melodie, a few years ago. My cat is the sweetest cat I have ever had. I don't know how someone could have dumped her on the side of a road. It just breaks my heart when I see all the poor animals that have been abandoned. I do donate to the MO Humane Society. I would volunteer, but with 2 jobs (teaching and harp), unfortunately, I have extremely little free time, and my schedule is so random I couldn't stick to a volunteer schedule.

Oh, I do like dogs, too. I've just never had one. Eventually, probably sometime after we have kids, I'd like to get a dog, too.

I've always wished I had a ton of money so I could create what I call a "kitty and puppy farm." It would be a place with a lot of land, where I could keep cats and dogs that needed a home. Since I would have a ton of money, I would be able to either pay some people to help with clean-up or have volunteer. On a blog I read, I saw a lady who did something similar. (No...she's not a crazy cat lady, either. She just wants to help animals.)

She had 6 acres (I think that's what the video said) and was divorced. She'd always wanted a kitten growing up, but her mom always said no. The lady started slowly by helping a few cats. The number has grown over the years, and there are 500-700 cats at any given time on the property. She has helped save the lives of over 16,000 cats over the years. All the cats (and there are a few dogs) are up for adoption. Many are adopted. Those that aren't, though, have a safe home. They're not up to be killed. They're not stuck in a cage all day, either. They get to roam around the house and the acres, living the regular life of a cat.

I think what this lady does is very admirable. She has devoted her live to helping animals. Here's the link to the blog. There's a YouTube video about her.

Here's a cute picture of Mel snuggling with Clifford. (I bought the stuffed Clifford from a book fair for my classroom. Apparently Mel thought it looked comfy to snuggle with!)

Classy people!

2008-08-22T17:34:00.003-05:00

On WeddingBee today, there was a funny post about a couple who got tasered and arrested at their wedding reception. A few days later they were arrested again. They sound like classy people!

Below is an excerpt:

Gallery co-owner Tom Burnison, however, said that, fueled by alcohol, it got out of control and potentially dangerous, including when a guest heaved a metal lamp into a plate glass window. "Calling the police was a last resort," Burnison said.

When the only local police officer on duty that night arrived, Burnison and his wife asked him to help break up the party because it had gotten "out of hand," with booze, water and broken glass on the floor, Chikaming Township police said. One guest was seen drinking straight out of a vodka bottle, Sepic said.

The officer called for backup and told everyone the party was over. Many guests left, but some refused and began cursing at officers, police said.

"Andy got angry and started yelling, 'What are you doing? This is my wedding! You're making my wife cry!' " Skowron said.

"The crowd was trying to hold back the groom from mouthing off more, but finally he broke free, and they had to take him down," Sepic said of police. "He was heading for the officers. . . . Then the bride moved in and tried to interfere."

I love that they said the police officers "had to take him (the groom) down."

Here's the link to the full article.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1112809,CST-NWS-wed18.article

The photo and original story are from the Chicago Sun Times.

What a lovely picture of your wedding day!

Tagged again....

2008-08-20T19:33:00.002-05:00

I was tagged by Etta this time!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you

2. Post the rules to your blog

3. Write 6 random things about yourself.

I'm not following the next rules and tagging people again. If you want to write some random facts about yourself, go ahead!

I'm going to put some of my random (and weird, I know) eating habits.

1. I HATE raw tomatoes with a passion. I won't eat them on anything. I don't even like when the are on food and I have to take them off, because they leave yucky juice and seeds behind. That being said, I eat cooked tomatoes. The taste is very different.

2. I don't eat any kind of seafood - no lobster, no shrimp, no fish, any of it. The closest I get is crab rangoon, and most of that doesn't have real crab in it anyway.

3. My mom says I have "texture issues" with food. For example, I don't like water chestnuts in Chinese food because they're too crunchy in with the other soft foods. I don't like chili mac or pasta fagioli because I don't like the texture of beans with noodles.

4. I don't like any kind of melon - watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe...all gross!

5. I liked my baked goods somewhat undercooked, but my meat well done (which FI doesn't understand).

6. While I like most baked goods and pancakes undercooked, I like my waffles very nice and crispy.

I know, I know...I'm weird. :-)

Tonsillectomy = weight loss!

2008-08-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

There were a few things I was looking forward to about having my tonsils removed.

1) Weight loss!
2) Time to relax and sleep!

I scheduled this post for Wednesday because I've been posting so much lately. Hopefully, the weight loss will be even better by today. As of Monday morning, though, I've lost 8 pounds. Woohoo! My goal is to keep it off and lose more. I am now about 10 pounds away from my first goal. Ideally, I'd like to lose 20 past that, but we'll see.

Um...I don't think so!

2008-08-18T14:00:00.000-05:00

I found the blog Fit Sugar recently. Their slogan is "Healthy, happy you." One of the posts today is about a yoga move.

Here's what was typed above the picture that inspired the title of this post:

So many people I know are always complaining of lower back pain and tight shoulders from sitting all day. We're either standing or hunched over a desk and we hardly ever bend our backs in the opposite direction. So give this One-Legged Inverted Staff Pose a try. It's similar to the grounding backbend Inverted Staff pose, but you'll also feel this one in your hamstrings and hips.

Sanskrit Name: Eka Pada Viparita Dandasana
English Translation: One-Legged Inverted Staff Pose
Also Called: One-Legged Headstand Backbend

You can get into this pose from backbend or headstand. To find out how read more

I'm pretty sure if I tried this, I would cause myself some SERIOUS pain!

Blurb discount

2008-08-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

I was reading Brooklyn Bride's blog and found the following:

I gotta hand it to Blurb, they're really making my job a whole lot easier....since there were so many amazing entries I asked if we could give EVERYONE a discount on making a book, and they agreed! From now until September 2, 2008, type in brookbrides at checkout for a 10% discount on any book you make! Thanks Blurb, and thanks to everyone who entered!

If you end up making one, definitely send me photos of the final result....I'll post a few on the blog!

I know many of you out there might be making Blurb books, so I thought I would post this. Unfortunately, it's before our wedding. Bummer!

Free Redbox DVD rental - today only

2008-08-18T11:22:00.002-05:00

I saw another on another blog. Yes, I guess you're only saving $1.07, but hey - it's still saving money!

Enter code: 65QM89 at your redbox. -valid today ONLY.

Hope it works for you!

PS - Yes, I know I've had a LOT of posts lately. I'm still out today due to not having fully recovered from my tonsils. I slept until 10 today and could take a nap! I've just been SO exhausted. I'll have to go back by Wednesday, definitely. Not sure, yet, if I'm going back tomorrow or not. Luckily, before I was out last week, I had 35 sick days. Once I'm back in school, I'm sure I won't have time to post quite as often.

Towel Tender

2008-08-18T09:30:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across this interesting invention recently. Quite clever! If you have a really small bathroom, this would be great! Even if you do have a towel rack, it would be handy to have the hand towel right on the sink. It even comes in 4 different finishes to match your faucet.

Another Etsy find

2008-08-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

I saw a post a while back on someone's blog about a cute wooden plaque. The seller is Etsy seller TheKotaBox.

What do you think of this sign? I probably wouldn't get the same color, but I like the style. I'm just trying to decide where I could hang it.

I also like this plaque, although I would change the font. I don't like the font at the top. I think I like this one better, because it has "family" rather than our names. Since we plan on having kids, I like that it says "family."

One Hundred Push Ups

2008-08-17T17:27:00.002-05:00

Has anyone ever heard of this "program?" You can view the program here. I think I'm going to give it a try starting next week. My upper body has always been weak and is an area that I really want to tone.

I hate to admit it, but I will have to start with modified push ups, like below. I plan to work my way up to doing regular push ups!

I wouldn't have the guts

2008-08-15T14:00:00.000-05:00

Desire to Inspire is one of the many blogs I have in GR. This photo was on the blog today. I LOVE the green color on the walls. I wouldn't have the guts to do that in my house, though. I'd probably want to change it not long after, which would take too much time and money.

So addictive!

2008-08-15T10:25:00.001-05:00

I decided to check out Etsy after hearing raves about the site on StlWed. I just decided to look through the necklaces, and it took FOREVER! It was really hard narrowing it down. I ordered 4 for myself and 2 for my sister (to save until Christmas).

I like "funky" (for lack of a better term) necklaces, but I can't really put off that look. So, I chose ones that are a little more classic, but not too small or dainty. One of my new favorite colors is blue, so I chose 2 blue necklaces. The color of blue is different in each, though. Originally, I was going to get a necklace with a black pendant, but it was all sold out. So, I decided to choose 2 others that were clear so they could go with anything.

For me, from seller dote:

From seller mayerain:

From seller letitiah:

From seller Falsedesire:

For my sister, from seller crystalvibe:

For my sister, from seller nhubs:

Dress label

2008-08-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

A friend (Beckie) had an adorable dress label made for her dress that said "Happily Ever After." The last shot in her wedding album is a shot of the dress label. I decided I wanted something similar so I could have a cute photo, too! Amy posted that The Garter Maker is having a 15% sale. I'm glad I waited a little while to order! Here's a sample design of my label:

Another hair trial

2008-08-14T22:05:00.006-05:00

When my stylist dyed my hair last week, the dye didn't take like we thought it would. I had to go back to the salon for my make-up trial yesterday, anyway, so she dyed it again. Below are pictures from my hair trial and make-up trial. (Yes, they're bad...I took them myself with my tiny digital camera.)

I think I want my bangs going across my forehead more in the front, like below, from my first trial. I guess I'm just used to seeing myself with more bangs. What do you think, lovely readers? More bangs? Maybe also a little poofier on the top and sides?

I'm going to buy some fake hair from Sally's to put in the chignon at the back to make it a little bigger. I'm definitely going with this style - it's more me than the one with the big curls.

My hair is darker. I think it will lighten a little bit in the next week or two.

For my make-up, each eye has a different color. :-) The left eye is smoky gray and the right is a smoky eye with brown. I think I'm going to go with the brown, but a little heavier on the brown. The gray seemed SO dark and dramatic (and not me) in person. However, it looks pretty good in photos. Hm....

My first (wedding) shower!

2008-08-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

My first wedding shower was held in Alton on July 13th (the day after my birthday). It was great! A family friend hosted the shower at her house. The attendees were all from Alton, excepting my cousin (bridesmaid) and aunt who drove in from Ohio.

The cake was based on the design of the shower invites that said "Showers of joy..." They thought it was cute with my last name. :-) I think the baker must have scanned in the invite, enlarged the picture and words, and laminated them to put them on the cake. It was delicious. I love white cake!

Photo of me and my 2 bridesmaids. My sister, Shannon, is on the left. She's the MOH. Yep - we look nothing alike. On my right is my cousin Kristin.

Photo of me with 2 of my good friends. Anna is on the left and Alison is on the right. Anna and I have known each other since we were about 5. I've known Alison since 6th grade. They are going to be readers at the ceremony.

Alison didn't get the memo about colored shoes. All 3 of us happened to wear black and white. Anna had pink shoes and mine were red.

We had a yummy lunch of chicken salad sandwiches, pasta salad, mini quiches (spinach and bacon), and salad.

My sister got me a little crown that I had to wear while opening my gifts.

My mom and my sister made yummy butter cookies as part of the favors for the guests. They also got lotion from Bath and Body Works. We decided on sweet pea because I am going to have sweet peas in my bouquet. (My umbrella cookie broke on the way back to my house.)

My work shower is coming up later this month. I can't wait!

Invites are out!

2008-08-13T10:18:00.009-05:00

We actually sent the invites out over a week ago. I just haven't had time to post about them.

Here is the front of the pocketfold with the band around it.

Main invite inside

Reception card

RSVP card

I bought a calligraphy pen that came with a little book telling how to make the letters. It didn't have cursive in there, so I just printed. It looks nicer than my regular writing. Apparently several people asked my mom who did the writing on them. :-)

I don't know why this one look kind of orange. It's the same color - white.

Hair trial

2008-08-13T10:03:00.005-05:00

Last week, I went to get my hair dyed and trimmed. The stylist also did a trial for my wedding hair. It was ok, but I don't think it's exactly what I want. The dye didn't take right in my hair, so I'm going back today (right after my make-up trial) to get the top a little darker. I asked if we could do another quick trial, this time without the curls. I thought I would like them, but not on me.

Side view. I like the poof on the top.

Back view. The top is really poofy here and the bottom is small. I think I just want a simple chignon.

Another back view:

I want something more along the lines of the styles below. Simple and classic. I won't be wearing a hair comb in my hair during the ceremony because I have my mom's gorgeous cathedral length, Belgium lace veil. I think I'm going to buy a hair comb, though, to put on for the reception.

Shoes!

2008-08-13T08:54:00.004-05:00

I love shoes. I have WAY too many pairs, but that's ok. This post is dedicated to my wedding shoes. I've had them for a little while and forgot to post about them.

I wanted fairly traditional shoes for the wedding, but I didn't want white shoes. I wanted to get a pair I would actually wear again. Since there is some silver thread and light beading on my gown around the waist, we decided silver would look nice. These are Naturalizer, so they have a little extra padding in them compared to most heels. I also bought some foot petals to put in to help.

Next are my reception shoes. I love the photos of the bride showing her colored shoes and the groom showing his colored socks. (Still working on the socks - haven't seen any yet.) My FI is Taiwanese, and red is a lucky color to the Tiawanese, so I thought it would be fun to get some red shoes.

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Since they're a wedge, they're comfier than heels that are that high. I'm probably going to bring a pair of flip flops along just in case I need them.

Surgery

2008-08-12T11:41:00.004-05:00

Yesterday morning I went in for my tonsillectomy. It is so odd being awake, feeling fine, and then next thing you know - they're waking you up telling you it's over!

I did well at first. No nausea when I had some ice chips or a popsicle. However, when I stood up to change into my clothes several hours later, I was feeling REALLY nauseous. It got better when I sat down, so I was fine on the car ride home. However, just getting in the house from the car made me really nauseous again. They said it's because a bit of blood gets in your stomach. Luckily, I've only been nauseous once today. I was able to talk yesterday, even, without pain. We think that's because some of the anesthetic was still in me, as well as the morphine they gave for the pain.

Today, though, my throat is hurting more (even with 2 different kinds of pain meds). It really hurts to swallow and to talk. I've also had the hiccups twice today, which really doesn't feel good, either! Coughing hurts, too! :-(

The ENT said my tonsils were really infected (lovely) and that they also took my adenoids, because I guess they were really large. Adenoids can also cause excess mucous production, which I have had problems with. It should help that and hopefully help with me not getting so many sinus infections. Yeah!

My mom ended up staying over last night because I had to get up every 2 hours to take pain meds. FI offered to stay, but he had to work today. My mom didn't, so it made more sense for her to get up with me throughout the night. I'm using my cell phone to set an alarm for every 2 hours. Between being sleep because I'm getting up every 2 hours and the medicine making me sleepy, I'm sleeping quite a bit!

FI was sweet and brought over some of my favorite flowers - purple tulips. He even brought my mom and bouquet for taking care of me. How sweet!

How cute!

2008-08-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

My sister introduced me to LOLCats a while ago. It is one of my favorite blogs to read (Icanhascheeseburger.com) They always make me laugh or go "Awww!" Apparently they have one for dogs now, too. I'm a cat person, though, so I stick with these. Here's a few. Hopefully they'll make you at least smile! :-)

I saw this one the other day and thought it was so adorable! I want that kitten!

This is like my cat. She loves to sit in all kinds of things. Her favorite, though, is boxes and paper grocery bags. She especially enjoys sleeping in a box in which she BARELY fits.

Body Pump

2008-08-04T22:07:00.003-05:00

Donna (who doesn't have a blog...hint, hint) and I went to Body Pump tonight at Club Fitness. The class is 1 hour of weight lifting - tons of squats, lunges, arms, crazy tricep exercises, biceps, etc. There is a small ab section at the end. Here's part of the entry on Body Pump from Les Mills website (the creator of the class):

BODYPUMP™ is the fastest way to shape up and lose body fat. It’s a toning and conditioning class with weights and is for just about everybody who wants to add strength training into their aerobic workout. The simplicity of the class makes BODYPUMP™ a great starting point to develop strength and confidence. Hot sounds and compelling choreography keep you going through each 45-minute or one-hour workout. You’ll use a step platform, a bar and a set of weights.

This website talks about the various parts of the class:

http://www.lesmills.com/midwest/en/members/bodypump/a-typical-class.aspx

It is a hard class! The first time we used only 1 small weight for the entire time. This time we did 2 small weights for some of the exercises. Our legs were shaking like crazy after all the leg exercises! The plan is to go again on Thursday evening, providing we're not still insanely sore! I highly recommend the class. I did way more reps than I would ever have done on my own.

I'm going to do some cardio and abs (about an hour total) tomorrow evening after my WW meeting. Hopefully I'll have a decent loss. We started back last week after being gone for a while. I met my 10% goal while we were gone. Woohoo! About 18 pounds left to my goal, although my ultimate goal would be to lose about 30 pounds.

I thought I'd post a picture, and this was one that came up when I Googled weight lifting. Um...disgusting!

Interesting cakes...

2008-08-04T13:00:00.001-05:00

I found the blog Cake Wrecks the other day. I was scrolling through some of the old posts and found some very interesting cakes!

This first one isn't the most interesting of the few I'm posting, but I just thought it was bad that this was from an upscale bakery! Apparently they lost the customer's order. So, they grabbed another cake, wiped off the writing (notice the smear marks), and then piped on this message. Why did they put quotation marks around the message? And what is that word - congraniation?

Um...what is this? When would naked babies riding carrots ever be appropriate to put on a cake?!

Seriously?! For a baby shower? Why isn't the mom wearing a hospital gown at least? Not that it would still be really appropriate, but at least it would be a little better!

This one is just creepy! Yes, it's a cake.
I added this to my Google Reader so I can see more cake wrecks!