Sorry for lack of update my dear blog, but I have been a busy woman! When I do get a few moments, I really don't have the energy it takes to form complete sentences ha! :) So far, so good over in our house :) However, there are a few things to update!
- J no longer lives with us. Actually, J no longer speaks to us. Bee prefers it that way :( Although, if I was a betting monkee, I'd say he probably wishes she would call or write from time to time. I am sure from much coaching from her mom and their Jehovah Witnesses lackeys, J just...left...one day. We had had some discussions about her needing to be a part of the family more, less time holed up in her room, more time doing chores and earning her keep since she was now 19, and graduated from high school with no job, no car, no license, and no plan for school. She asked to spend the night at her mom's one weekend, then asked to stay for the whole weekend, then finally after a week, said she'd be home that next day. Instead, she called and asked if she could spend the night at her friend's house (a fellow J-dub). Bee told her no, because C's birthday was that day. So, she came home, but asked if she could go the next day. I told her she could, but only for a day. She had responsibilities at home. She agreed and happily skipped off to her friends house. Yeah, she never came back. She told us, via text, she was done. Deleted us off facebook, and stopped responding to phone calls and text messages. We turned her phone off, packed her stuff, and put it out on the porch. Done.
-C played her first year of School sponsored football. She did great. The guys loved her. However, their team only won one game :( Little Man, did a wonderful job playing his first year! He LOVES football and he is sad to see it end. He was invited to play in a special all-star tournament in Sandusky this weekend and he is super pumped. So is his daddy ;)
- Little Man tried out for the travel basketball team and did really well. They said he would have made the team, and even could have made the 5th grade team, but he was too young for the latter and the fourth grade only had 3 people try out, so there was going to be no team this year, just Rec. :( In talking with Cassie's rec coach from last year, he is going to put together a 4th grade tournament team so they can at least have fun with that. C doesn't start Basketball until January, but she is going to play for a club team as well in November and December.
And now, for wedding updates :)
- Save the dates went out. They were ah-dor-able! :) Everyone liked them. Unfortunately, I had to give every one away. I was trying to save at least one for me and my scrap-book. I can always order more, but I'd have to order 20. I am going to look for someone who has one that I can have.
- I got my shoes!! They are cute :) Yes, Yes, I know. Flip Flops in winter? But it's inside! And anyone who knows me, knows I live in my flops! Plus, they are Steelers.....and glittery! ;)
- I ordered my veil too! It is super pretty, and I can't stop looking at it :) I'm pretty proud of myself for finding things, like my veil and my dress, that are normally SUPER expensive, for really cheap :) I'm sorry, I want to look pretty and have the whole fair-tale thing, but I'm not stupid enough to pay thousands of dollars on a veil and dress I'll wear once. Pshh. With shipping, from Texas, my veil was $30. :)
- My Bridal shower was 10/6. I wish I had taken some pictures, and I really meant too, but I was too busy enjoying my party ;) It was a lot of fun, with most of the people I love and care about in attendance! I had about 25 people show! We got a lot of really nice stuff and had a blast with my girls :)
- My Invites are half done, with the other half ordered and actually in shipping to me. This was other thing I struggled with. I didn't want something ghetto, but I wasn't interested in spending $200 just on invitations and RSVP cards alone. I scoured and scoured the Internet. Asked people I knew. Finally found that Walmart had some nice looking invites for .64 cents a piece and that included envelopes! Also, you weren't locked into a certain number. So, I could order 53 or 150, or even just 1! I typed up a few other points I wanted my guest to know about (such as hotel info, how to dress, the fact that kids were welcome, also my cell if they rather phone in their RSVP because I did not include return postage on my RSVP card envelopes) and printed that out on some nice colored paper (150 sheets for $2.50) All together, the invites cost $65.00. Add in the $2.50 for paper, and I thought I did well :)
Then, there was the RSVP cards. I didn't really want to spend a lot on them. Again, they were expensive and most I saw came in sets of 10, with envelopes, for about $20. I needed 100, so that was out of my price range. So, I started to play around with a few things and came up with this idea. I went to vistprint.com and ordered a plain (their simplest design) business card. You get 250 FREE! All you pay is shipping! I paid $7.00 in shipping and bought a box of small envelopes and a pack of clear return address labels ($9.00 for 600) . All together, it pulled together nicely, my envelopes were still light enough to require one stamp, and I got all of my invites done for less than $75. I will say though, that AFTER I ordered my invites online, I went INTO Walmart and in their wedding aisle, they had boxes of 50 complete sets (Invite, RSVP, and two envelopes) for $14.00. I would have went this route had I known about them, but I still think my invites are nice and I'm not really put out that I ended up with the ones I did. :)
- Dress! This was the other thing that has had me a little stressed. I knew this was going to be my dress the moment I saw it...two years ago ;) So, when we decided to do this, it was a VERY easy decision. This dress is about $1500.00, but I found it at a wholesale place for $225. Now, $225 is at the very TOP..ok...TIPPY TOP of my budget, but it's still within it ;). However, I wasn't going to just outright buy it when so many other things needed to be done. So, it's been pushed off, and pushed off, and here we are. Exactly 2 months before the wedding and I don't have any cash to buy it :( I was waiting on my clarinet to sell so that I could use that money to buy it, but no one is in a hurry to buy it from me :( I had all but resigned myself to getting married in a regular plain dress I could buy at DEB for like, $30.00, when my mom and dad offered, as of last night, to buy it for me for my birthday (that's in 15 days!) I'll have the check next week! The best part? They are located in Dayton, which is only 4 hours from here so the shipping shouldn't take long! I'm so happy, because it really is beautiful ;)
- Engagement photos. Now, I REALLY wanted to get some taken, because, um, Hello? How FUN! But, I didn't want to spend lots of money on something we didn't need. A friend had offered to take some for us as a wedding present, if we wanted them, but that was after I had hired my awesome photographer and he told me that his price (which, made me stroke out slightly even though it was a really good price..but I have never paid that much for anything in my life that didn't let me live in it,) included free engagement pictures. (My friend is going to take family pictures of us instead) At any rate, we went on Oct 21 to Chapin Forest Reserve and had our pictures taken. It was a lot of fun, and they turned out beautiful!! I can't wait for the wedding pictures! :D
That's pretty much it thus far! I mean, as soon as the RSVP's come back and I know how many people are coming, I will get the centerpieces made, the tablecloths bought, and the favors made. Bee is working with the DJ, my friend's son is making the cake, and all that is left is to buy the food and alcohol! (Ok, and the boys have to get their tuxes, and we have to finish paying the hall off and the photographer :P ) Now that my dress is going to be taken care of, I am super excited for these last two months to go by! Next week we can file for our Marriage license! Woo hoo! Then, the next big thing will be my Bachalorette party on 12/22! :)
Well, that's about it for now :) I'll try to update more often so I don't have to do such a long post. Haha! :)
