Hey girls!

Well, the meeting was just the usual monthly meeting, so we've breathed a sigh of relief for the moment. Chris is switching his schedule preference to 3rd shift (it's currently 2nd) because he has felt great so far this week and is functioning much better! So that's definitely going to improve things for him. He's also studying for his CDL, something he's wanted to get for awhile and thinks could be useful if he gets laid off in August.

I got my exercise bike today! I think it's gonna be an awesome investment for me! I'm planning on using it for 30 minutes a day, and on top of that I'm drinking SlimFast shakes in the morning and watching what I eat. I really need to tone up for our trip to North Carolina next month! lol.

Nessa: Oh! That would make me so mad! Hopefully you guys find a place soon!

Ariana: Your new job sounds so awesome! Especially since you were able to get one so quickly in this economy! And that's great that your FH's party is finally happening! lol.

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Hi Girls,
Autumn: I'm in the same position. I can't find any work because I dont have any experience except for the internships and summer jobs I had during college. I'm even applying to secretarial jobs online just to try to get something going and I'm not hearing back at all. I have a 3rd interview tomorrow with a big ad agency for an internship on the AT&T campaign. it's a great opportunity (and it's paid, even though it's just min. wage). Usually, they hire a lot of the interns after they complete the program, but they're on a hiring freeze for everyone except interns, and have been since last Sept/Oct. Maybe that job will come through, since I've already made it through 2 rounds of interviews. I'm hoping that it'll be in my favor that I'm hobbling into the office in my special bootie - I'll get a vote of sympathy. But I'd really love to have something full time with benefits.
That's cool that you guys are from the VA Beach area. It's really nice there. My FH went to Norfolk Collegiate. And it's funny that you're in Florida now. I grew up in Boca Raton and went to high school in Ft. Lauderdale. My family only moved to GA about 2 years ago when I was already in college.

Nessa: We moved into our apartment in May, and they told us they'd get us a copy of the lease. They never got one to us. After I read your post I emailed the FH to ask him to try and get in touch with them about that since I'm not there. So, thank you for the reminder. I'm sorry that you have to be so rushed though in looking for a house. I'm sure it will be really fun once you start looking. I enjoyed apartment hunting, even though we had to cram it all into one day.

Totally unrelated to wedding stuff, but does anybody watch the Bachelorette? I was so upset Monday night that she got rid of Reid! Since I'm stuck in the house, I've been doing a lot of reading and tv watching. I guess I should be doing more job hunting.

I figured the no-photo policy at some dress stores was to prevent you finding a better deal somewhere else or making a knock-off, but still. Now that I understand that, maybe I can barter with the saleswoman and get two shots, one of the front and one in the back, if I promise no detail or side shots, hehe. Also, this same shop won't tell you the designer of a dress until after you purchase it. Same reason as before, so that I can't find it somewhere else? This particular store's appearance and reputation are solid, but withholding the designer and forbiding photos seems kind of shady to me. Or at least poor customer service. To this customer in particular. ;)

Thanks for the opinion on MOHs. I'm leaning towards having none- I like the idea of keeping everyone equal. It's kind of funny, both of my sisters technically qualify as junior bridesmaids (13 and 15), and FH's sister will only be 17 next summer. Nobody is even old enough to sign the marriage license as a witness! lol. Our GMs will likely be FH's brothers, ages 24 and 18, and my brother, who'll be barely 20. I hope we don't look like a bunch of children playing "house" and "wedding" up there at the altar...

Okay, another question regarding the wedding party: I have three stepsisters who have hinted at being bridesmaids. FH and I like the idea of keeping it to immediate siblings and therefore smaller. I wouldn't really mind if my stepsisters (and therefore my one stepbrother as well) were in the WP if it'd make them happy and keep family peace, but if I could choose without hurting any feelings I'd ask them to participate in the wedding day some other way. What do you guys think? I've known them for about 8 years and our parents married 4 years ago, but they live in CA with their mom so we see them for a few weeks during the summer and a few Christmases. The past two summers I haven't lived at home so I only saw them for a weekend. My point is, we're not super close, but I do care for them deeply. The girls are approx. 15, 17, and 19 and their brother 22. All of the girls were present when we announced our engagement and two went dress shopping with my mom and I last weekend. Obviously it's up to me and FH, and I'll talk to my mom and maybe stepdad too before we officially ask anyone to be in the WP, but what would you guys do? Any advice? Things I should consider? Thank you!

I gotta run, but I'll return later to respond to everyone else!

Hey ladies!

I never had any trouble getting pictures of myself in the dresses I tried on. An option to sneak a few while you're in the dressing room if the salesperson doesn't go in with you. lol. :-) Otherwise, I would maybe be upfront and ask the salesperson if they could take a picture of you in the dress from the front and the back--full body shots--and tell them that you're trying to narrow the field and that the pictures will really help! The worst they can say is no!

It sounds like a few of you girls are having trouble with your wedding parties! The "rules" about what a wedding party needs to look like are really just guidelines--your wedding needs to reflect you. If that doesn't mean a full wedding party, that's how it goes. I would say that your wedding party should be made of the people you can't envision your day without. Other people that you would like to include could be given jobs like ushers, candle-lighters, guestbook attendants, readers, singers, etc. Just be sure to include them in your pictures! A friend of mine had quite a few people like that in her wedding and she had pictures taken with each one of them individually and each person had a corsage and was listed in the program. I mean, you can only have so many in your wedding party! lol. Of course, if you like the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" look...

And as far as the MOH question goes, that can definitely be a tough decision, but for me it was a no-brainer. My 18 year old sister was my MOH and I am SO glad she was! She was such a big help to me! But you don't really need to have one if you don't want to. I mean, like I said. The rules are just guidelines. If you have a friend who is older than the siblings, they could technicially be the MOH just because they can sign the marriage license, and that's what they are supposed to do. If you call them that for that reason, no one should have a reason to be offended. :-)

Nessa: Oh that sucks that you have so little time to find a house! I hope you find something really soon! And that is really weird that you didn't geta copy of your lease. I'm pretty sure that Chris and I got a copy of ours when we signed it...but now that I think about it I don't know!! lol.

Rose: I've read that it's a big red flag when the dress shop won't tell you the designer of your gown. Unfortunately, my sister has the book that I read it in (she's tentatively started planning her wedding even though they aren't officially engaged yet!) but that's crap. I would definitely be wary of buying from them if I were you! The bridal shop I went through was very open about the designers and all of that, and I'm really glad they were, because it enabled me to do my own research on them. A plus there is finding out how reputible (that spelling doesn't look right to me...) the designer is by reading reviews on them. Another thing about what they're doing is that you have no idea or way to find out if the dress they are selling you is actually by that designer, a knockoff, or a designer that doesn't exist. You need to be able to do your own research into the designers. I would demand they tell you or threaten to take your business elsewhere.

Well, my photographer emailed me today and finally got my pictures in! Since my MIL is out of town for another week, she is mailing me my pictures. I'm excited to see them! Took long enough! lol. Now I can actually get my wedding albums...

And Chris has the weekend off so we're going to the county fair on saturday. I'm excited! The demolition derby is our favorite event, and that's what we're going for. :-) We're also going to try and meet up with a friend of mine from school there. I can't wait!

Otherwise, I completely rearranged my living room so I could have a place for my bike. I also switched out our computer desk. I was up till 4 am this morning. lol. It was nice because I was able to sleep in after Chris got home and I didn't spend the entire day skulking around trying to be quiet! lol.

I also finally finished the website for the studio and got in online. I feel really accomplished!

And so far...the entire 2 days of doing it...my exercise thing is going well. 30-35 minutes a day and a slim fast shake replacing one meal. I plan to make this a regular thing.

Someone said something about motivation...I've never been motivated to sweat my butt off before now. lol. I'm not athletic at all--the closest I've ever gotten is ballet and jazz classes. lol. I don't know what it is, but lately I've felt the need to do a complete overhaul on my life. I want to get in shape and get into some healthy habits that I can maintain as I get older and have kids. I don't want to let myself go--I want to be a hot mama!! lol. I've also been getting more involved in our finances, I've been actively building my own credit and developing better organizational habits. I'm not sure what brought it on, but it's happening and I'm excited about it. Maybe I'm getting a different kind of "growth spurt"?? lol. Anyway, the motivation I've had isn't something that I've always had. It's something that has been developed over the last few months. :-)

Hey girls!!

Ryanne~ I have always wanted to go to a demolition durby, but never got a chance to. Our statefair is in my hometown every year, and from the time I was 8 until a few years ago every year I would save up all my money and see the monster trucks. I do miss going to that.....maybe I will find a monster truck show soon and make DH take me. Have fun this weekend!!

Mrs~ I am srry to hear you and FH are fighting. I hate that. DH and I get along great, unless money becomes an issue. There were several times during planning I was ready to call it off because it wasn't worth the stress it was putting on us. We still have to work on how we handle money issues but we are getting better.

So we didn't get the last house we looked at. Which I don't feel as bumbed about as I thought I would. We didn't put an offer in and we have been trying to decide if we wanted to so we asked our realtor today if she could set up a second showing with out the people home, but the listing agent caled her back and said its under contract as of yesterday afternoon. Allwell. It wasn't quite in the area we wanted, was in a school district we want to avoid, and it didn't compleatly wow us when we were there, but the yard sure did. Tomorrow we are taking our kitties to the vet for their yearly shots. I am a little nervous because last year something almost killed them and they had to go to the animal emergancy room, so we are so nervous to be dropping them off tomorrow. But they are only supposed to do one at a time so they will do one tomorrow along with the exam then we will have to take them in or the others one at a time. And after we drop them off we are going to go look at houses in the area we think we want to be in now. We found the further north the more house you get for your money, and I belive its a good school system up there. I am a little bummed also because I was supposed to get my second half of my professional pictures last night, but I got sick and couldn't make it to my review session so I didn't get them :(All well maybe next week.

Hey girls!! I have missed a lot again since I have been on last. I have been so busy with trying to end the old job and getting ready for the new job. It is also my mom's birthday tomorrow so I have been trying to plan on everyone coming over to celebrate, we're surprising her.

As far as the thing with the job ... Autumn my thing was to always finish school first and I did I graduated from college ... I had wanted to go full time 1 year program to get my MBA, that is not going to happen. I am now going part time 2 years. After I had gotten my MBA I was going to try and get an accounting job in a public company so I could sit for my CPA. As we know this isn;t what happened. I am really looking forward to my job and even though somethings along the line of my plan has changed, the overall goal and plan hasn't. I guess my advice to you was that if finishing school full time is your goal, then don't go for the full time job because you will be leaving it for your teacher's job in a year.

As far as the girls looking for the secretary jobs, I have found that the jobs that are secreterial are also looking for people to have bookkeeping experience. My cousin and my mom have applied for these jobs and haven't gotten a phone call back because they don't have the bookkeeping experience. I managed to get lucky because I have 4-5 years experience and accounting is my major. I have told my mom and cousin that I think that they should take a bookkeeping class that way it broadens what they know in the office. It sets them apart and makes them able to be useful in areas that the job may not call for but may need or end up wanting. The job market is really hard, I live in RI and our unemployment rate is 12.4% for June!! Like I said earlier just try and keep your head up about it because getting depressed only makes you fight and matters worse. Also has anyone ever tried searching for jobs online at www.indeed.com. It combines the listings for jobs for monster, yahoo, etc. into one search engine. that is where my mom always looks for her jobs rather than going to each individual search engine.

Mrs - as far as your situation with fighting with FH about money, I am sorry. People say that is the #1 reason some people fight and it can be so stressful on the parties envolved. When FH and I got engaged we decided to set up our own savings account. In the savings account we both put the same amount of money in and don;t take any money out that way we can save for the wedding or whatever else we'll need. As far as setting a budget, we haven't made it that far yet because our wedding is so far away but the goal from the beginning was to have a decent amount of time to save and prepare for our wedding because we knew that it was going to be a big wedding. Setting a budget for anything is hard, but the best advice I can give you is that you have to determine how much you want to spend on the wedding and how you are going to get there based on the amount of time you have left to save up. For example, if your wedding is a year away how much do you have to put away weekly or bi-weekly to reach your budget goal. Then from there you have to decide how you are going to stick to that budget and what needs to fall into place to ensure that every week or 2 weeks that money is going into an account or something. For me I work extra for FH's job (rec dept.) to save up the extra money. I get paid weekly from them and put the money aside and then put it into our account bi-weekly. Maybe you might have to give up going out to dinner one night, but you can cook instead, something like that. It is all about what you are willing to cut out to save and budget for the future things that you want. Once again, I only know how to do this because I do it in work all the time and I learned it in school. It is very easy for me to know where I can and can;t cut to save that extra $. Good luck and let me know if you need any help!

Nessa - I know how you feel about the house hunting. I mean FH and I only put one offer on a house when we were looking but the amount of houses we looked at was just so overwhelming. I don't know if you have it where you are but another thing that you can do is look at the appraisal of houses that you are interested in and see if the house is worth it or not. Short sales are tough because you need to be bank approved and the offers on them are usually backed up because the agent is so slow or the bank is slow. The same thing happened to me, FH and I wanted to put an offer on this house and when we finally got a phone call back it was to only say that the bank already had offers and back up offers on it. I was like ok well then take it offline from being active because it is not, hello!!! Bottom line is they don't because they are usually foreclosers or about to be foreclosed on and the agent isn;t as worried about that listing as he is about the one where the owners are in it and need to sell soon because they are moving or he only has a 30 day contract to sell the house. What I learned about short sales is that even though they are offers, the offers may not be accepted, their credit may not have come through, and the house gets re-posted so just keep an eye on it until it actually sells! Good luck with the searching though and try not to get overwhelmed in the process!!

As far as the MOH thing. Mine was also easy. I don't have any sisters, FH doesn't have any sisters, so my MOH is my cousin, who is like my best friend. Her and I are really alike and I know that she is going to be such a big help. She is already looking for BM dresses in magazines and different color schemes and stuff. We get along great and have the same taste so I know there isn;t going to be an issue.

I think it was Rose who asked about FH's step-siblings. I guess I would say if there is going to be a problem if they are not included and you don't want to deal with that then have them be an usher and do readings (I know someone else said this). That way they don;t feel left out and there are no hard feelings on the subject. If you don't want them in the wedding, then don't have them. Discuss why with FH and come to an agreement about it. After all, it is your decision.

FH and I have been fighting lately because I was suppossed to have Thursday and Friday off this week from my current job and I had to go in both days. I understand what he is saying and why he is mad, but he also has to understand my situation. there is no one to take over for me and cover for me and because I did so much I can't just up and leave like he thinks I can. Plus as I told you before, my boss was really nice and I am not the type of person to screw someone over. FH just doesn't understand why I can't cut it loose and worry about my new job. I am getting annoyed explaining it to him. I mean I get that it sucks but it sucks for me and it is my decision it is not like he has to go through it, I do. He has also just been an asshole on explaining how he feels, like I went to talk to him about it today and he said what he wanted and when I wanted to reply to what he said he kept cutting me off, which I hate so I got annoyed. I guess it is just if he was calm and nice about his feelings then it would be another story.

Other than that things have been really busy and I am really excited about starting my new job on Monday. I think that it is going to be great and different and I can make it into something great for a career and I am really looking forward to it.

Well I should go and get ready for tomorrow, I will talk to all of you soon! Have a great weekend!