Randomness

Marriage is crazy.  You have your ups and downs but this week, I feel like I fell in love with my husband all over again.  I honestly can’t remember what moment made me feel that way, but I do love him.  He’s such a great guy and so good to me.

God has been so good to us and even through yet another job loss, we still rise. We aren’t lacking a thing, because God has been so faithful.  We are truly conquerors. Actually we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.

So I complained about many things last week – getting a new microwave, replacing things in the house, letting things go, being in a wedding, issues with friends, etc. Sounds like I had a lot of praying to do. But the most important thing is that I be about it.  I think it’s okay to complain, but you have to do something about the things that you complain about.

One thing that I had complained about for years is my job.  I want a new job, my boss know that I want a new job – who doesn’t know that I want a new job.  Anyway, I recently took a more active approach in my search for a new job.  I actually extended my search to another state.  I am excited about the opportunity.  We will see what happens.

I’m Complaining about it

• Shopping for a new microwave is just a part of growing up.  I didn’t deal with these things when I was younger. 
• We are having to replace a lot things lately and it’s stuff that we need – a new computer, water filter system and microwave.
• I admit we’ve probably been a lot shady on replacing the microwave. We should have gotten rid of that builder’s grade mess a loooooong time ago.
• My husband is holding me to this end of the year deadline of letting things go.  He feels that I have ADD when it comes to certain things in my life so the rule was that I had to focus on one thing.  Boy, is that hard to do. 
• There are a group of friends that I hang with from time to time and all of a sudden I don’t want to be around them that much anymore.  My husband seems to saddened by it because he enjoys their company, but for some reason i don’t anymore.   I’m going to have to dig a little deeper to figure out what it is, but right now I have no clue. They want to go on a trip later in the year but I don’t particularly want to go.  The hubs wants to go so we’ll be there. 
• I’m in a wedding that I don’t want to be in but I’m in it because it I said  yes and I following through on my commitment.  However, I am about to pay a total of $210 for a bride and groom that I don’t know that well.  I’ll take that back.  I’ve known the groom all of my life, but we don’t really talk that much and I am not close to either him or his fiance.  I’ve reached out and they are nice people, but I wouldn’t really consider them friends per say. 
• There’s a minister at my church that lives in the same house as his fiance.  The Word of God says to avoid the appearance of evil. Now no one has ever said anything about this and everyone walks around like its okay.  This bothers me.
• I’ve got to get a better grip on this control that my mom has over me.  For instance, she offered to buy me a new microwave, but it’s on her terms. Also, she’s paying for my anniversary party and every idea that I have gets refuted.  It’s one of those things that when she wants my opinion then she will ask for it.  Other than that, it’s her way. But I refuse to stress myself out over this.

Weight Be Gone

I’ve had a couple of headaches in the past few days but I am definitely making an effort to drink more water so I will be fine.  I’m also doing the Lisa Sansone “Walk Away the Pounds” dvd and it’s great.  I did the 1 mile dvd and worked up a little sweat and I realized how out of shape I am. 

I am speaking my weight loss into existence.  It’s a process, but I know that I can do it.  My overall goal is 60 lbs in a year or less, but I plan to lose 10-15 by Labor Day.

My Changes thus far: more water, less candy, less coca cola intake, smaller portions

Sounds like a lot, but I’m working it out – literally.

Church

For a few months my husband and I have been engaging in deep discussions about our church home.  Neither one of us feel that we are really learning a whole lot.  I always try to find something that I can take away, but it’s not exciting and we are so bored right now.  The funny thing is that we don’t believe that God has told us go anywhere other than where we are.  We still serve and do everything that we are supposed to do, but we are not fulfilled.  I guess we will just have to continue to wait and see what God says.

Update – Anniversary Celebration

So I realize that  so much has changed since the last time that I mentioned me and husband’s anniversary celebration.  We will be having a celebration dinner at my parent’s house catered by my mom and my aunt.  The colors are black and white with touches of something – probably red.  I don’t quite remember what’s on the menu. 

I am quite excited about the dinner.  I believe that my husband and I both gave up the fight so this is really my mom’s show.  She invited a few people that we probably wouldn’t have invited on our own, but hey that’s okay.  She’s paying for it so we aren’t stressed. 

I definitely would like to have a candy bar/buffet – those are so much fun. I tried to stick with a southern comfort type theme, but I don’t think that mom really liked that too much.  I even wanted the old fashioned coke bottles, but she didn’t feel that it was elegant.  Once again, I wont press.

We about two months away so we will see what happens.  As always, I expect nothing less than greatness.

Here are a few links that I would like to share: Invitations, Dessert Bar and  Carnation Centerpieces

Diagnosis: Nothing’s wrong with you

I had a visit to the doctor the other day and I told her that I had been experiencing a lack of energy and frequent headaches.  So here comes the questions – do you drink caffeine? do you do this? do you that that?  I answered all of the questions very honestly.  Diagnosis:  Well nothing is wrong is with me, but she suggested that I could lay off the caffeine and maybe ween myself off of it gradually.  She also suggested that I lose 60 lbs – wow!!!  I loved her honesty.  I believe this was the very first doctor that ever gave me a specific number of weight that I needed to lose.  Lastly, she told me to exercise.

I can do this I know I can.  My husband and I had just talked about this a few days before I went in for my appointment.  I already know my problem areas – being lazy, loving sweets and coca- cola.  Everyday I believe that I have at least two cokes (empty calories) and a pack of hot tamales candy.  Good thing for me that Wal-mart has stopped selling hot tamale candy in the big bag.  they only sell the little boxes now and i think that it’s a waste of money.

I took it easy this weekend and I am going to make suttle changes.  However, the coke is hard because I had two today, but no hot tamales – yeah!!!  My goal is to lose 60 pounds in a year because I honestly don’t think that my doctor believes that I will do it.   Wish me well and pray for me as I start my weight loss journey.

Not Really My Concern

I was reading a blog today where a woman announced that she was pregnant. While I felt that I should congratulate her, and I did, I felt bad at the same time. Personally I don’t know what I would do with a child right now. And I get to have my husband all to myself – which is so wonderful to me. I don’t know why I feel bad because if she’s happy then why am I concerned.

That’s Nasty

Today I was so turned off with food because somebody gave me a pastry and it appeared to have bug legs in it. I can’t get the image out of head therefore making a little difficult to eat.

The Blog Understands

The blog understands even if others don’t – Is that really true? It’s just that the blog can’t talk back – that’s only if no one comments. 

Anyway, I feel like I am not so cool anymore. I have a group of friends that I have known well for about 8 years.  All of a sudden I feel rejected because I invited them to my anniversary party and over half of them didn’t bother to respond with a yes, no or maybe so.  Out of the 15 people that I invited, only two will be attending.  I don’t know why I feel so bad because people have lives and I am not a priority.  I guess I just wished that more of them would have made an effort to support me.  I just don’t know why I am taking this so personally because it’s not that deep.  Now I am walking around here sulking about something stupid. But I guess that I just needed to get it off of my chest to tell the blog – because it understands.  LOL

Courthouse Wedding

Here’s a link of a courthouse wedding in Oregon. I love how people are being creative with their elopements. This couple got married alone, then gathered with a small number of family and friends for a quick toast. Then they hosted small at-home reception a few days later. How nice!!!

Inspiration Board

I follow The Finer Things blog from Fine Stationary and I had I requested an inspiration board for my party. 

Here are a few things that I plan to do:

Invitations – I wanted to take the time to do handwritten notecards, but I threw that idea completely out the window.  I made my own invites using a monogram that I ordered from Pink Design Events.

Tablescape – Since this will be a dessert buffet I am think of using a table layout very similar to something that Amy Atlas has done.  My mother let me borrow her long white floor length tablecloth and I will be using my own clear platters and glass cake plates.  I am thinking of using red flowers as suggested on the inspiration board.

I love her idea of the carnation wreath to put on the door as I wanted to do door monograms, but we will see.

Another suggestion was the white organza headband but my hair doesn’t go so well with headbands – I have a lot of hair.  I actually plan to wear big hair that night.

I love the candy buffet, but there will be so many other sweets that I will let that go this time.  But I do plan to order white cake bags so that people can take their dessert to go if they wish.  However, take out boxes would be cute. We will see.

My Dream

I had a dream last night that while I was at work, I had a hard time breathing and no one could help me. Well as soon as my alarm went off I could breathe again. Scary, huh!!! And I don’t know whether or not it was real.

Mother’s Day Dinner

So this Sunday my husband and I decided to host a mother’s day dinner at our home. I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to cook because I don’t have that many dishes outside of spaghetti that cook very well. Both my mom and mother-in-law love soul food or southern food. So here’s my menu for Mother’s Day:

Honey Baked Ham
Smoked Turkey
Mac N Cheese
Green Bean Cass
Skillet Corn
Dinner Rolls
Strawberry Short Cake

At first I was not looking forward to this dinner because I didn’t have a menu that I was comfortable with, but now I am definitely okay with it.

The Songs of Luther Vandross

So I was going through my email  today looking for a draft and I found this email that I wrote to darling husband long before we were married.  I think it’s cute – all of the underlined text are songs of Luther.

============================================

Songs of Luther……..Reflections of Me & You

 

It’s So Amazing how you spend so much time Searching and waiting for someone to Treat You Right.  At some point you get tired of all the Creepin’  and being caught Right In the Middle of Grown Things. 

 

You Don’t Want to Be a Fool so you Wait for Love  because after all the hurt and the pain you still believe in the Power of Love.  Little Miracles (Happen Every Day) and oh was it a Lovely Day   when I decided to Stop to Love.  I was such a Busy Body, but I had to Get It Right. 

 

 I met someone who Knocks Me Off My Feet.  He’s my Superstar  and when I am with him I Want the Night to Stay. He has Better Love than I have ever experienced and Heaven Knows that it’s Never Too Much.  Any Love that can Give Me the Reason to want to say Never Let Me Go deserves to be my Endless Love.

 

So I take this time to say: 

Hello Dear,

As I sit here thinking about us, I realize that The Impossible Dream has come true. You had me Going In Circles  from the start. There Is Nothing Better Than Love and For You to Love and actually tell me means that there is something special about what we have. I am here for you and When You Call on Me/Baby That’s When I Come Runnin’ ….It’s All About You. Now That I Have You, I Know that I’m Keepin My Faith in You. 

 

Only You Know How  to Make Me a Believer in love.  You See Me and love me for who I am and that means the worlds to me.   The Night I Fell in Love with you, I don’t know the date or the hour but I do know that The Closer I Get to You the more I fall in love with you. I never feel Like I’m  Invisible because you give me The Glow of Love.  Don’t You Know That I haven’t stopped smiling?  Promise Me that we’ll never say that we Once Were Lovers but Here and Now we will be together Forever, For Always, For Love.

 

 

Love Ya,

 Aint No Stoppin Us Now were on the move.

 

Couples Outing 1st QTR – 2009

This year, my couple friends (aka The Crew), decided that each couple would plan an outing throughout the year. My hubby and I ended up with 1st Quarter and we chose to go to the AJC Car Show. We have gone to this show at least twice and we had so much fun taking pictures and just dreaming about driving various cars. We thought that our friends would have a blast doing the same. I like to make a big deal out of things, so I plan to make my own invitations and magazine paper envelopes. I also found some vintage car stamps and I am so excited. The invites are collage photos that I purchased for 9 cents at www.snapfish.com (Thanks to www.2000dollarwedding.com because that is where I got the idea). I used pics from that took at the 2007 show and created a collage from that. All of the details will be placed on cardstock or something. I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.

Coasters with Atlanta Landmarks

Speaking of Atlanta things, I saw the cutest little coasters in the AJC last week and I can’t wait to get a set. These coasters are sold at Taste, a gift shop in downtown Decatur. The stone drink coaster has images of popular Atlanta or Georgia landmarks. You can also have your photos put on the coasters. Taste is located at 416 Church Street in Decatur, GA.

budget save the dates

As I was browsing for ideas for budget save the date for the party, I came across a website that suggested Wordle.net. Wordle is site that creates these unique word clouds in an array of colors. They are so neat. The only problem is that I don’t know how to get a good copy of my creation. So here is what I did: I screen print a copy and paste it in MS Word, then I made rectangles and filled them with my chosen color and placed them all around the image. I removed the rectangle lines and then printed it. From there I took a picture of it and uploaded it to computer and there you have it. Now I can use the image for anything that I wish to create. I am not the best photographer so the lighting is way off, but I did my best. You all get the point. Go to Wordle and create your own word cloud. www.wordle.net

DIY Invitations

I have been struggling to find inexpensive invitations for the party and since I am on a budget, I have had to be pretty creative. First, I checked out VistaPrint and I created a lovely elegant invite and then I lost it. Just as I finished making my card, the computer shut down. I took that as a sign that maybe I should not use it. Over the weekend my hubby and I went to Office Depot and they had boxes of invitations kits on sale but there was only one box that we liked. We needed two boxes. Deteremined to get my invitations, I finally went to Michaels where I found invitations that I like.

VistaPrint: 50 Oversized Postcards – Free, Color Printing on Backside – $9.99, 50 Envelopes – $4.99, plus shipping costs and double the order because we need about 75 invites =Total Cost $30 + Shipping

Office Depot: 50 Invitations and Response cards with matching envelopes – $10.00 =Total Cost $20 (cost vary from store to store)

Michaels: 100 Invitations and matching envelopes – $14.99 = Total Cost $14.99

Day 1

Today is the first day of our church wide fast.  We will all be doing the Daniel for 40 Days (excluding weekends). That means that our fast will end on Friday, April 3 (11:59pm).  My hubby and I actually started preparing a couple of weeks ago.  We started eliminating meat from of our meals as well as using less meat.  For the fast we can’t eat any meat during the week, only fruits, veggies, beans and whole grains.

Over the weekend as I started writing my grocery list, I really took the time to think about some of the things that we could eat.  I took all of my cookbooks and looked for vegetarian/vegan style meals.  I came up with a few things, but I wanted to share two recipes that I used. The first is Succotash Supreme from the Patti Labelle Light cookbook and the other Beef & Veggie recipe came from my Campbell’s soup cookbook.

Succotash Supreme

Ingredients: 14 oz bag of lima beans, small onion (chopped), 16 oz corn, paprika, 2 Tablespoons of fresh parsley, 1 cup of chicken broth, then season to taste

spray skillet with cooking spray, sauté the onions in a skillet, add the lima beans and chicken broth, cover and cook for about 5-7 minutes, add the corn parsley and paprika, season to taste

Beef & Veggie

Ingredients: 1 bag of Morningstar Veggie crumbles (this is the beef substitute), 26 oz can of tomato soup, 16 oz of mixed veggies, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

spray skillet with cooking spray, pour in the crumbles, heat for a couple of minutes, pour in tomato soup, mix in the veggies and Worcestershire sauce, cook until veggies are tender, season to taste ( I used salt, pepper, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes)

The first thing that I did before I left the house was drink a cup of lemon water.  I squeezed a whole lemon and added filtered water to equal about 8 oz total.  It is said that lemon water cleanses the body including the kidneys, liver, and colon.  It is also supposed to help you get energy from the food that you eat.

During this fast, I expect to get a closer relationship with God.  I also expect for him to show me some things about myself.  There are some things that my hubby and I are believing God for and I believe that those things will happen.

Including Family & Friends

As I was browsing for ways to include family and friends in our vow renewal, I came across several great websites such as indiebrides and others that I can’t remember. However, 2000dollarwedding.com was the most inspiring to me. I love the blog. With their ideas and inspiration, I was able to complete my “day-of” timeline and organize the order of the event. I was even able to make a list of all of the people that I plan on asking to help us out. I will personally call them and then put something in writing later.

For including our family and friends, we will have my hubby’s father do the opening prayer and my father do the ending prayer and marriage blessing. We two friends and a niece taking pics. Church family acting in every capacity. We will choose two people to make special presentations by of a poem, memory, scripture or whatever they choose. Hopefully, we have all  bases covered.

Color Scheme/Theme

As I have been looking for inspiration for our special event, I have decided to go with a Lemon & Lime theme with touches of pink. Yellow is one of the colors traditionally used for a 1st year anniversary and since our event is in the spring, I thought it would be nice.

Being that I love the Word of God, I had to find christian references to my chosen colors. Yellow will represent the God’s glory and how he desire to reflect it in our lives. The green symbolizes a healthy spiritual growth so that we can produce the fruit of the spirit of God.  And I just thought that pink would be cute – my sorority colors are pink and green so there you have it. I have figured out ways to incorporate the colors in just about everything.  So we are going to have lemon cake and key lime cake (my favorite).  Strawberry cake would be a nice touch too, but we shall see.  Of course our favors will be yellow and green.  I have seen pics of brides with their white dresses and yellow shoes so I may try that.  I am thinking yellow and pink roses maybe.  Definitely flower petals.  It’s cool because my vision is clear.  Yea!!! I have a theme.

Planning Binder

I finally started my planning binder.  I’m working on a budget so it’s homemade, but at least all of my papers are in one folder together.  I had a talk with my pastor and she is willing to officiate our vow renewal.  She commented that she was glad that we decided to do it. As a matter of fact, several people have told me that I will be happy that I am doing this.  Anyway, she is requiring that we buy a marriage workbook since we did not go through a formal pre-marriage counseling.  So we will get the book and meet with her twice and go on our merry way.  I am feeling good because I can now start checking things off of my to-do list.

Looking for a dress

I’ve been looking at dresses.  Before we had to cut our budget, I really want a dress by Two Birds Bridal.  I think those dresses are so nice.  They come into a variety of colors and best of all, it can be re-worn.  Nordstroms is a good place and I have been glancing at different dresses on their website, but I haven’t seen anything that I am in love with.  David’s Bridal is having a great sale right now and I would like try out some of their pieces.  Also, I have looked at shoes.  Right now I have my heart set on yellow satin. 

Blah Blah Blah

Today I put in a few phone calls – one to my pastor so that I can book the church. I also scoped out a potential photographer just to see if they may be open to doing what I need.  I haven’t really talked specifics though.  There are so many things on my to-do list, for example:

Get organized – start a wedding folder

Settle on head count

Book the date and venue – Cornerstone of Faith Church (May 30, 2009 @ 5pm)

Book the officiant – Confirmed, Pastor Dukes

Organize vendor list

Book the entertainment

Purchase a dress

Launch a website

Select and purchase invitations

Plan a quick getaway

Meet with Pastor Dukes to map out the ceremony

Send save-the-date cards

Photographers/Music/Flowers/Food

We had an amazing photographer when we eloped and I would love to use him again.  I just don’t know if we can afford him again.  So I have started to think about friends that wouldn’t mind taking pics at our event.  For the music, my mom has some ideas but there’s always the trusy IPOD.  Since it’s at the church, the sound guy will be in place so we don’t really need a DJ.  I am going to ask a lady at the church to assist me with decor and my friend to do my bouquet.  My mother and aunts are handling the food.  So…I believe that I have a lot of main things covered.

Guest List/Head Count

This is a work in progress.  Hopefully we can finalize the list this weekend.  My and hubby and I have had some serious conversations about this.  He is a bit more low-key and I love to entertain.  However, I put a lot of people on the list because I felt obligated.  It’s funny that our budget went down and the guest list went up.  We will see what happens.

Menu

So my mom and I have been discussing various menu ideas.  She and my aunts will be taking care of all of the food details. I want a cocktail style menu, you know small plates and all.  My first thoughts went to chicken wings and meatballs and various salads and such, but that’s not what I really wanted.  It seems as though most non-catered cocktail menus have that same food.  We decided to go a totally different route.  As of now, here’s our menu:

 

Carved Ham & Turkey

Garlic Shrimp

Veggie Wraps

Pasta Salad

Broccoli Salad

Cheese Tray

Fruit Tray

Bruschetta

Favors

For the party favors, we are going for lemonheads (my hubby’s favorite) and coupons (like love coupons). The coupons will list about four different things that we can offer to our guests for years to come.  They will of course be printed in our colors.

So how did I come up with this idea? I was looking at a list of paper gift ideas for the 1st year wedding anniversary and I saw that love coupons were listed.  I thought how cute would that be to make up some and print them out for our guests. 

 I love this idea!!!

Event Logistics

Our church sanctuary is rather small, but I believe that all of the guests will be comfortable.  However, the fellowship hall is even smaller.  It will definitely be too tight for the amount of guests that we plan to have. I would like to see if we can have the reception on the parking lot because it is the most level. 

Venue for Anniversary Celebration

Immediately after we changed our budget I knew exactly where our vow renewal and celebration would be held – at our church.  Since we are members, it will be free for us to use.  I am so excited.  Even though there are a few challenges, I know that everything will work out just fine. 

Budget

One of the first things that you are advised to do when planning anything is to figure out your budget.  My husband and I set a budget and I started looking for a few venues based on that. Then later we realized that there were some other things that took precedence financially so we had to adjust the budget accordingly. I realized that I didn’t have the money to do the extravagant event that I envisioned but I am bound and determined to do this.  I don’t want to have to put this off until the next year or the next year after that.  We will have a celebration this year.  We will enlist the help of family and friends and keep it moving.

Starting to Plan

So this is the year that we get to celebrate our 1st anniversary and we are making a big deal of it because none our family and friends witnessed our union.  We eloped and decided that we would celebrate later.  Now that later is about 4 months away, I have to start planning and figure out the course of action.  I want to have fun and I want this process to be stress free.