Christin3

Fun weddings are the best weddings. Way to be creative! 3 months ago

I was so worried that the storm would ruin everything, but the sun came out and it helped with the snow. I spent all the rest of my money for the week getting food :-( and I worried that it wouldn’t be enough! But in the end, it was, and everyone seemed pretty good with everyone else there, after some initial awkwardness since they didn’t all know each other, and we had leftovers (shame! I spent all that money!). We watched Tangled, and were laughing like crazy, both at the movie and at the newbie’s reations to it!! It was so great! And we tried all kinds of cupcakes and icings. Once my MOH tentatively asked to try one and walked over, everyone just pretty much dog-piled the table hahaha!! They all agreed on the lemon icing with the orange cupcake (surprising) and the chai icing on the vanilla cupcake (not surprising). They couldn’t agree on anything else haha! I’m thinking maybe a mint and chocolate, and maybe orange or root beer icing on another vanilla cupcake. I don’t know lol! I love love love the rootbeer icing…but it may be best to stick with orange for a creamsicle-like cupcake that’s familiar. After all, I want people to EAT the damn food, since we’ll be paying for it and doing it ourselves!

I was so happy to see my dear dear MOH! She came just to see me for 2 hours before having to drive an hour to a gig! Oh, I love that girl! First time I've seen her in 2 years, but  we just started chatting like the time and distance never existed. <3 She got me a wonderful present, one we'd talked about for years and years!! I'm so excited!! I'm so sad I don't get to see her much, but it's so wonderful to know she still genuinely cares about me as much as I care for her! I don't have many close girl friends, and she's the losest and best one I've ever had my whole life. I'm glad beyond words to know that I made the right choice for my MOH!

So, all in all, a success! I was exhausted, but happy! Now THIS is what I was hoping for with wedding help! I’m looking forward to having a crafting party with hopefully more bridesmaids and my coworkers and friends and friends’ wives <3 It really was such a good time!! Praise God :) 3 months ago

Sad but strong! 3 months ago

Good for you! I hope I can take a page out of your book and achieve this myself! I’m a surprisingly big shopper too…

I’ve been eating less bread and sweet stuffs, and more veggies and fruits and potatoes instead, and things have been looking up! Pair that with St. Ives, exfoliating regularly, and wearing fake nails, and my legs are looking pretty good! Not totally clear, and pasty white from winter, but much much better! I’m not confident about them yet but I’m pretty happy! 3 months ago

I am doing so very very badly with this it’s ridiculous. I’m making more money right now – what the hell is going on?! I don’t know how to save, and when I do I have to use it anyways just to stay afloat. This is just so freaking hard to pay for everything myself (reception, food, decor, etc) and it’s really getting to me. What’s really bothering me is the reception price…that’s due like 2 weeks before and I don’t know how I’m going to get the money!! Also I need at least $900 to pay my two friends who are doing videography and photos. I’m hoping they’ll be okay with me paying them half now and the other half when I receive the finished results. I just don’t know what to do. It’ll work out, he says, and things usually do pan out, but I’m millimeters from the edge and I’m starting to panic and stop sleeping. Just gotta hold on and stop going to stores for now. There’s plenty to do with stuff I already have. Breathe!! 3 months ago

I had all kinds of scheduling bombshells and very super-long days and I missed a meeting that was specifically scheduled for me to talk about scheduling and my boss put a lot on my place b/c she knows I can get things done and my other boss is hard to deal with and I’ve been very disappointing to my other other boss :-( I’ve been so stressed I haven’t been sleeping and I’m on a real emotional rollercoaster for many different reasons (mostly scheduling and money). I was such a mess but J listened to me and let me get it out and snuggled on the couch and watched brainless tv shows until I felt better. He really is just the best. Especially b/c I know he’s having a hard time at work with scheduling and taking on more and more responsibility and potentially training to be assistant store manger and he has his own money problems. I love him so much and I am so beyond grateful that he cares for me just as highly, if not more. I never take him or his skills for granted. 3 months ago

J said he’d let me have his one dresser and half his closet – he definitely has stuff in there that he can’t wear anymore/won’t wear anymore. My closet is twice as big as his and it’s FULL – so I’ve been purging a little harder :-/ I don’t really have a choice at this point. I’m donating the clothing to charity so people who really need clothing can have some pretty nice stuff.
I also bought a package of Joy Mangano “huggable hangers” b/c they promise to “double or triple your closet space.” I thought, why not give it a try; I really liked the pants and belt hangers I bought from that brand. Well holy cow, they work! Eventually the velvet flocking will probably wear off but until then, these are my new favorite hangers! If you would have told me yesterday that the magazines were right, special hangers really do make a positive difference in a closet, I wouldn’t have believed you. But after I hung up my stuff, I took a step back and was _very pleased with the result! I guess there really is something to all that “buy more/special stuff to store your stuff better” hype. I gave the old original plastic store hangers to my mom for when guests come over/the laundry. Sweet! 3 months ago

But now that I’m aware of this goal, it seems to have made everything harder. I notice every time I’m unhappy, impatient, upset, angry, annoyed, irritated, amazed by the stupidity of others around me. I notice and then try to remind myself to be calm, be patient…it’s getting harder and harder. It wasn’t always this way; I used to be the queen of tolerance, the saint of smiles upon stupidity and insolence. And now…I find I have little. And still people love me, smile at me, want to talk to me. I don’t understand it. Are they really seeing me or are they seeing who I was? It shames me that I’m worse now that I’m older. I’m trying though, I really am, and I’m sure they can see through my smiles and nods but I’m trying, damn it, I’m trying. 3 months ago

I broke down and bought a bunch of sturdy but cheap magazine holders and proceeded to weed my “collection” of reference articles, magazines, and other whatnot and organize it into categories, then put it back on the shelf. I pulled books that are readily available in the library (and that I’ve read enough times that I guess I don’t need them around) and then rearranged them. My mom came in, snorted, and said “It looks the same.” Well…maybe. I’m not the neatest person, but it’s a very organized mess!! And, it’ll be a lot easier to break down and transport later! I also went through my tshirts and took out the ones that I honestly don’t wear much/don’t like much, even if they had sentimental value.

“Be ruthless, be ruthless!” my one coworker said to me about organizing the decorations in the library basement…and now here I am applying it to my own stuff! Though of course, oddly, it’s always easier to do that with other people’s things lol! 3 months ago

I bought some toothpaste that supposedly strengthens enamel as well as whitening teeth within 2 weeks. It was discontinued…and all-natural. Couldn’t resist! We’ll have to see how it works. 3 months ago

I am worrying more but also having more faith. Sounds counterproductive, and it is. It’s a hard balance, it being winter, and I can feel the spirits more strongly which freaks me out a lot, especially at night in the bitter cold by myself and I’m trying to get into my house and the malevolent feelings get stronger though there’s nothing there that I can see and my key finally turns and I quick slip through the door and slam it shut on them fast! Thank God for sunshine and company; I don’t know what I’d do otherwise. I have more faith in my guardian and God to watch out for me during this crazy time of year, and that all the stuff I’m trying to do will work out in the end, whether it’s how I wanted it to or in a completely different but still good kind of way. It always does, and shame on me for worrying when my plans fall apart, because after some complications, they always come back together in a much better, albeit different way than I planned! I do have faith and I pray that it will only get stronger and make me more confident as I go. 3 months ago

I don’t know WHY I am having any girls in this wedding!! I mean, I’m very proud and very glad for them, all taking risks and trying new things and working very hard at their schools/jobs/finding a job – but really. I’ve planned 2 things so far, with plenty of advance notice, and none of them came. And, this time, only one of them even noticed that I carefully made an event for them to come to! I got almost no feedback on the letters I wrote that contained the scrap of fabric they need to find the right color for their dress, and it’s like, okay, so I realize that there’s 6 months to go – they have time to go look for something, and they’re all really busy right now. I know – I am too. And I’d LOVE to have a girls’ night, and giggle and be silly and play with hairstyles and discuss clothing and whatnot, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen at this rate! I love being around the guys, but I’m wanting some real female company and fun, and most of the girls I know are having babies or have young kids or are too busy working or just too far away. :(

I'm getting pretty exasperated. It's not any of our faults, really, but geez! Way to make me feel like this wedding is at all important to you. I did ask them if they wanted to be in the wedding...one person did turn me down, but now she's involved 100x more than the rest of them!! (In fact, my co-workers are being far better help than any of my girls!)

And believe me, I know what it is to be a bridesmaid! I put up with quite a bit in all the weddings I’ve been in (and to), and even went the distance to be a stand-in maid of honor for my good friend when she went dress shopping and bridemaid shopping and shoe shopping (b/c her actual maid of honor was her sister, 2 states away) and I never complained. I know everyone is busy, and they may not like what I’m doing or think it’s important, but that’s what they’re supposed to be around me for!! But I guess it’s all as it should be. They’re just going to stand there and look pretty (hopefully) and keep me sane company for the short time in which I can’t be with Jarrod and the guys. And that’s about it. I’m trying to reach out here, I really am!! Ugh. If it’s weren’t so late in the game, I might have taken my fiance up on his semi-serious suggestion to just have an honor guard of the guys around us and not have any girls but the flower girls! *headdesk 3 months ago

My mom always complains to me about how many clothes I have – but I have two professional jobs (and one’s always too hot, the other too cold) so I need a variety of clothing!! Though I can’t deny I love style and looking “put together.” You can’t tell me that on a hard or crappy day, a compliment about looking nice/good/fetching/pretty won’t lift you up!! Especially when you’re sick and feel like crap. But yes…I was looking at shoe racks online and realized that I have too many shoes to fit on one rack…and I have costumes that won’t fit in my drawers…and special things that will need a drawer unto themselves…so yeah. It’s time to be “ruthless” and start purging the clothes! :-/ If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is! 4 months ago

I’m rearranging my schedule so that I can say yes! I can take more hours/do more work for you at my one library job, where my poor director is on bed rest (probably until she has her child). Geez! But yes! I want to learn to do more stuffs and yes! get more experience and yes! have more hours and so I’m working on that. Also I went to my friend’s house and had a yummy dinner and a great time laughing hilariously with 5 guy friends (5 guys and one girl – and they happily did all the cooking and the dishes. Gotta love em!!) so in the end, though it wasn’t originally at all what I wanted, it was indeed what I needed. And I did have fun! And I want to say yes, I’ll come to your party! more and yes! I’ll have dinner with you and I’m working on that too. I usually do end up having a good time even when I’m really tired or cranky from work and i think I won’t. I’m working on it, really I am :) 4 months ago

So…I’ve thought about moving for a long time. I prepared. I bought things in advance for preparation. I bought storage tubs, made lists, all kinds of things. But now…now it’s for serious :P and I need to start purging and getting serious about getting rid of things, storing things, and making spaces for things! I told my fiance – here you go, you were feeling useless about not doing anything short-term, here’s your mission: make some damn space for me!! He kind of perked up actually lol! It needs to be done, and asap, on top of wedding stuffs, b/c at this rate, I’m moving in with him. Where am I going to put everything?! Can I take everything with me? Do I really want to? What do I give away/sell? What am I taking, and how do I organize it/where will it go over there? And then I need to actually pack it and get it over there, little by little, or with a big freaking moving truck. It’s like we should set a date for move-in day, or at least a date for which I should totally be moved in. EEEEEEEEEE it’s a lot on my plate and I don’t know what my parents or family will think (I dont’ know what I think) but I’m going to get married and therefore it’s time to move out and gosh this is a lot on top of wedding stuffs but since the emphasis is on getting rid of stuff, maybe I’ll gain some money towards the wedding? Ack! We shall see. 4 months ago

It finally hit me – holy CRAP I’m seriously talking about moving out!! Half of me is all nervous and excited and looking forward to the challenge!! The other half is like – wait – holy crap I can’t believe that these words are finally coming out of my mouth and I actually mean them and geez this is BIG and scary and life-altering oh my GOSH! But there you have it – we really could afford an apartment, but with current finances and bills and whatnot, it would be hard. And I don’t really want to start out that way…so it looks more and more like I’ll be moving in with him and his grandfather. It kind of really feels like I’m copping out – going from living with my parents to living with his grandparent – but that house SERIOUSLY needs a female touch (and cleaning!) and it would be nice for his grandfather to have company (and someone to keep an eye on him!) and it would be nice to have people in the house and a dog to walk and to be closer to town and to walk to my one workplace and not spend so much money….it’s still kind of a lame cop out but it’s a step in the right direction, and hey, one thing at a time. We stay there for a year or so at least, we save money, look for serious jobs, maybe find something, maybe move, maybe have an apartment for real and be solid. And if not, we can always save up and make it eventually. Though I do have hope. One thing at a time! And I’m getting closer, praise God, I’m finally getting closer! 4 months ago

My music teacher had a Samoyed, and he was the fuzziest furball you’ve ever seen in your life! He was very sweet. He was a mediumish dog, his head maybe came up to my waist. Pomeranians are cute, but they can be kings and queens of the household and real yappers I guess. The JS sounds interesting…maybe you could visit some breeders or friends of friends with these types of dogs before you decide? 4 months ago

My beloved Rusty-roo was put to sleep on Monday. I’m having a massively hard time dealing with this, (especially being sick and on antibiotics and womanly issues and planning and money issues all on top of this) as he was a huge part of my childhood- indeed, though he was the family dog, he really was my dog more than anyone else’s. No dog will ever replace him – especially as I’ve yet to meet one that’s even close – but the aim is not to replace, but so that I can have a family and a dog of my own and provide the love and craziness and fun that I was able to experience, from my 10th birthday to now. 15 years is not a long time, and yet, it is everything. I’ll never forget you, funny puppydog who was too damn smart for his own good! And I thank God that my parents decided to keep him in the beginning and he was such a big positive part of my life :) 4 months ago

Down to 4 library books checked out – which is reasonable – but I haven’t been reading any of them. I may just turn them all in and then this goal will be accomplished! 4 months ago

But of course, time and job constraints are constantly in the way. Maybe now that my mom is home, I won’t have to worry about the dogs, and maybe I can go out more often? I don’t mind working a lot, and the hours are steady, but it’s hard to meet up with others and be awake/social/not have to rush off to bed/work. Maybe I should just ask off for more days? I used to have it that I didn’t work anywhere one day a week…but I can’t afford that now. Maybe later? I just don’t know. At least I’m trying, I really am!! 4 months ago

I finished the tangled save the dates! They are cute (the boy agreed!) (though my mom gave them her eyeroll) with Rapunzel and Flynn on the left and our names, the date, and “Formal Invitation to Follow” on the right. They’re pretty much like a business card cut into 1/3 for the faces and 2/3 for the words. I didn’t bother printing them with a format or on nice paper…b/c at this point I kind of don’t really care haha! Plus I’ll be handing them to people myself most likely, only mailing and/or emailing the image to a few.

That done, I’m going to work on the invitations (considering that he hasn’t finalized the ceremony procedures yet…grr)

And after that, I’ll get to the programs! Hey, at least I have them planned out just right and have the corner cutter and popsicle sticks already! 4 months ago

I ended up being late twice – I forgot my badge, and I was sick and couldn’t believe how fast the time went by the time I was ready to leave. Why is this so hard for me? I can get ready in a flash when I need to…and I don’t have to worry about the dogs so much anymore…is it just b/c I have odd? or I’m so used to being late? or I just really really don’t want to go? or all of them… 4 months ago

Still so much to do!! What am I doing sitting around – time’s a wastin’! I did make save the date cards and I have almost all the addresses and a tentative buffet dinner menu and finally got a cake cutter and the fabric for all the guy’s pants (that’s right—we’re making their pants!!) and got the pattern for the shirts (but didn’t get the shirt fabric yet) and started seriously thinking of a honeymoon spot, as well as working on a few other things…getting there getting there, but still so much to do. How on earth is this all going to work out?! I don’t know…all I know is that it will work out. Somehow. Maybe not the way I planned it, either, but it’s going to be one heck of a fun and interesting and crazy wedding!! 4 months ago

I’m doing a lot better with this now!! Except I failed a bit today b/c I was sick and worn out and I slouched a little…but I was wearing heels today so I probably wasn’t slouching that much (considering it’s almost impossible to slouch in heels!) It’s kind of funny, I used to love heels when I was younger and then gave up on them around high school and now I find that I can walk in them fairly naturally without wobbling and I like the sense of height and class that they lend, as well as keeping me from slouching!! Strange but true. 4 months ago

Not doing so good here. What with end of the year bargains and big bills, I’m close the to the limit :( And there’s big bills to be paid later…how on earth is this going to work? I guess I’ll live as cheaply as possible and put every extra bit towards paying it down…it’s got to get down to at least $50 by July…uh oh. Don’t have a choice with that. Gosh this had better all be worth it!! 4 months ago

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! I’m so excited!! And so anxious!! So many things to do yet and only 6.5 months to do it in…holy crap holy crap how the hell is this going to work out?! All I know is that it will…somehow…such a staggering plateful, it’d be horribly depressing, except –
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! I’m getting married this year!! 4 months ago