Dream Crushed (already)

I don't know what I was looking at earlier today, but I just went to search for the best prices on this resort and the BEST price I can get is $1003/night and that doesn't even include the food and drink!!!!! And the menus are expensive- was like $16 for a hamburger and then 18% tax on that and still need to tip-- so probably like $25 for the cheapest thing! So, not so sure we'll be able to do this now...booooooo. Why didn't I research this better before getting so excited?!?! There is a resort next to this that is part of the same thing, but not as cool as these and can get those for around $300/night...but now doesn't even seem worth it. bleh

Dream Honeymoon

So today I've got in my mind that I really think St. Lucia is the best place for us to go on the honeymoon, since it will end up being more expensive than we'd usually spend on a vacation. We want to do an all-inclusive and there doesn't really seem to be any AI that really sticks out to me as being perfect and there aren't many to choose from. There are 3 Sandals Resorts so i have a feeling we'll end up going with 1 of those, even though I feel ike they are overpriced and paying for the name. However, now I'm in LOVE with this place which is pretty expensive, but we can still make it work...so I'm trying to convince Dustin we just need to stay here for like 2 nights of the trip. It's similar to a place called Ladera I posted about a long time ago, but this one is a little less rugged and more upscale. These are real pictures below that other travellers took. It's called Jade Mountain and the architecture is really incredible (and the walk down to the beach is supposedly quite the workout!): There are separate planks or walkways to each room:

There are some cool restaurants and bars on the beach and at the resort. There is a restaurant at the top along with an infinity pool:The rooms all are unique and vary-- the most expensive ones have an infinity pool in your room. However, I think even the cheapest ones are still nice and you have a private pool, just not infinity. You get your own butler too! They all have the 4th wall missing so you have a great view. Here's some pics people posted of their rooms:

This is a pic of the cheapest room they have:
TAKE ME THERE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Memorial Weekend Update

So we didn't really do anything super exciting for memorial day weekend, but it was fun. The weather forecast was supposed to be nice, so I suggested we try to go to a Cardinal game and they were playing the Royals. I looked online and was able to get tickets for like $10-15 each, but Dustin didn't like how crappy the seats were and thought we should try for the First Pitch tickets. For these First Pitch tix, you go to the box office when it opens at 9am and get a voucher, then bring the voucher to a certain gate 15 minutes before game time and they hand you an envelope with 2 tickets in it. It's only $11 total and you have a chance to get really great seats. So Saturday morning it is raining out and we think there won't be anybody in line, so get there at 9:00 and the line looked HUGE! They hand out at least 275 vouchers, so we probably would have got one, but just drove back home cause it didn't seem worth it to stand in such a huge line. So we decide to try again Sunday morning, but get there at like 8:30 so the line will be shorter. We were still there until around 9:30, so still an hour of waiting around. So we come back at 1:00 and get our envelope. The couple in front of us opens theirs and is like- "awesome- infield box seats" (or something good)! I open ours and just say- "let's go back home." dustin's like- "what? did we get bleachers" I inform him- "WORSE- STANDING ROOM ONLY!!!!!!" Dustin seriously has the worst luck of anyone and now that has rubbed off on me. We'd spent all this time, had our cooler packed, was all excited to sit down and watch a game and now i have to find a place to stand for 3 hours. Lesson learned- we should have just bought the cheap tickets online so we at least had a seat! it worked out well though cause we ran into other people we knew there so we just went to the casino queen party area and sat at a table there and watched most of it on tv.



Friday night we headed over to Breese for my cousin's high school graduation. So hard to believe that he is going to be going to college! I hope when I have kids the time does not fly by this fast! Unfortunately, we had some goober with horrid B.O. in front of us that had to be one of the worst smelling people I've ever been around. Since there was no A/C and we were crammed into bleachers I could only imagine how worse it was going to get as the ceremony went on. Luckily some poor saps came along and sat next to them, so Stinky had to scoot down, away from us. I'm just amazed that no one in the family would tell this grown man that he needs to shower or how they could stand the smell! We had issues getting any good pics turn out, but this is the best one:

Adios chubby

Man oh man-- So I've been reading from all these other bride-to-be's that they have been doing workout videos by Jillian Michaels-- the trainer on the biggest loser. I don't really like going to the gym, but I don't really like just exercising at home either, but figured I'd just try one of the videos on youtube to see what it was all about. I started with Level 1 of the 30 Day Shred and is a 20 minute workout. I'm thinking- how bad can this be if only 20 minutes?!?! First, it definitely felt like at least 30 minutes, so I'll have to clock it next time and I thought it was a great workout for such a short amount of time and made it through more than I thought I would. I need to go buy some weights tonight though-- had to use beer bottles as my weights today...haha! Maybe that gave me some needed inspiration though! I also measure my body fat on the scale and took measurements of my thighs, hips, and waist. I think lately I may not be losing any weight, but hopefully I am gaining muscle cause I've been having some good workouts. So hopefully I'll start to see some results soon. Now I'm off to missy's to watch So You Think You Can Dance!

Wedding Ideas/Inspiration

So I wish I would have thought of this at the start, but lately whenever I see wedding pictures online that I like I save them to my hard drive so that way I can reference them later. I'm still torn if I go with just a black/white or black/ivory type theme or work in a fucshia and/or purple scheme. I went to garden ridge this week and just bought all sorts of stuff to practice making some cool centerpieces at home. I think I came up with one that is pretty simple and elegant, so I'll have to post some pics later. Here's some of the photos I've found that I really like:

This photo alone has basically convinced me we gotta do black tablecloths. I just love the look of this:


More proof I like the darker cloths accented with lots of candles and white:

This makes me wanna have paper lanterns everywhere! I saw one where they did it with all shades of the pink and purple family and looked really cool-- I think just white would be nice too:
For the centerpieces I keep coming back to these submarine vases where flowers are submerged in water and then put a candle on top. This is what I practiced making...and ended up with water all over the floor cause forgot about that thing called displacement when I shoved my arm in the full vase!

Finale and Premiere Week

What a busy week...and I'm not even the crazy-addicted tv watcher I was years ago!

So I'm halfway through the Desperate Housewives finale waiting in suspense to see if that crazy dude is going to kill terri hatcher's son MJ. Prediction: No way he's going to get away with that.

I didn't watch the entire season of Survivor, but have been watching the last episodes...was glad to see JT win...and was glad when Coach was booted off. I really think JT is a super-nice guy and is probably going to even try to give some of his money to Stephen.

Last night was the 2 hr finale of 24. I didn't think there was really a crazy huge twist or shocker, but it was a good ending. Jack has some fatal disease but has a 10% chance of surviving with Kim donating an organ or something. Prediction: Nothing stops Jack Bauer and he'll be back in full force next season.

Last night was also Dancing With the Stars finale and results are tonight, which I haven't seen yet. Prediction: Shawn Johnson will pull off the win-- she's so cute that she has to be reeling in the most votes. Gossip Girl and 90210 finales that I have not watched yet and really no clue what they'll do to wrap up the seasons.

Tonight was the American Idol showdown between Adam and Kris. I REALLY like Kris-- he's cute, just a nice, normal guy and I LOVE his style of music. I would sit in a bar all night and listen to him. On the other hand, Adam is extremely talented and I think probably moreso deserves to win....but I don't know if he will win because enough people may be turned off by his gayness and just over-the-top sometimes theatrics. I'd have to see what type of album Adam would make before I'd buy it, but I'd be interested to go see him live! I think it will be a close one and I think Kris may pull out the win as somewhat of a "shocker!" On another note-- what was up with Simons shirt being unbuttoned so far-- i was ready for his bellybutton to make an appearance at any time! And Carrie Underwood rocked it-- I am just OBSESSED with that girl and think she is the best ever.

Then I have The Bachelorette premiere last night, which I really didn't want to get hooked into this season, but I LOVE Jillian so I now I gotta watch it. I didn't see the show last night, so I haven't picked my faves yet. And So You Think You Can Dance premieres Thursday night and I'm going to Missy's to kick off the season!

All this good tv on this week and Dustin is hogging the tv watching the history channel- bleh.

Can't think of a title

yeah! So idol turned out pretty much as I had hoped-- but was still really sad to see Danny go. From what I've been reading online, a lot of people think the Danny fans will now vote for Kris-- so Kris may have a real good chance at winning this thing. Should be interesting to see next weeks performances! And 24 ends next week...so it will be a busy tv week!

So I read this story today that just makes me so mad-- http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.reuters.com/quotslumdogquot-child-star39s-mumbai-shanty-home-torn-down-reuters

I think it's so terrible that these kids starred in the best movie of the year and are living on the streets. I can't believe that people associated with the movie or other people in hollywood don't step up to help get these kids off the streets and into a home. I guess we really don't know the whole story of what's going on, but just seems so sad. I thought I read at some point that there is some money put away for them, but they can't get to it until they are 18...but at this point they'll be lucky to live to that age if they don't get a home, food, education, etc!

What to do!?!?!

I don't think I can vote tonight because I'm being torn in 3 different directions!!!! I really can't decide who I think should go home....nor can I figure out what America will vote for! Here's how I saw it:

Danny (right)-- I am not a big Danny fan. I was not impressed with his first song, but thought he was OUTSTANDING when he did You are So Beautiful. I just can't believe that his wife passed away 4 weeks before the auditions, so I give him so much credit for going through with all this and probably is a nice distraction. I think he has a ton of fans and I think a lot of people are inspired by his story, so he could easily make it through. I think he has a broad appeal from old to young fans, male to female, etc.

Kris (Center)-- I have LOVED Kris from the beginning-- he is super cute, seems like a really nice modest guy, and I love his style of music. I thought he rocked both songs tonight! First he did Apologize at the piano and then did Heartless acoustic. My big concern is that both songs are more current and he may not have picked up votes from the older people watching the show. EEk- so maybe I need to vote for him!

Adam (Left)-- So Adam is BY FAR the most talented person this season and probably ever on idol that we've seen. Every song he can make his own style and he obviously just has a knack on how to be a rock star! I was glad Simon made a point at the end not to just praise him assuming he'll be in the finals and remind people to vote because that is how he gets through. I think it could be a shocker still where he doesn't make it because people assumed he would get through so they voted the hell out of Kris and Danny. I also think some older people may just think he is too over the top and not vote for him.

Can't wait for tomorrow night!!!!!! I think if I have to pick, I'd pick Danny to go home if I pick it solely off just the songs and not their personality and story.

Help!

How hilarious is this picture?! And it completely sums up how I've been feeling since I have not lost even a pound since I started my "diet." The problem was that I would try and eat healthy, but we had too much stuff going on where I'd eat completely unhealthy things or just pigout. Now that I'm super frustrated, I'll buckle down. I think the only thing that works for me is to write down every single thing I eat-- that way it really makes me think about it...otherwise I just pass through the kitchen and grab a handful of chips or whatever and don't really count that as anything...hee hee! And lately I've been just sitting at my desk during lunch, but I think using that time to go for a walk really does make a difference, so I'll start doing that while the weather is nice. All right-- gotta go chow some dinner now before AI starts!

Wedding bookings

So this week dustin and I split up some of the wedding "to do" tasks. I had done some investigation into party buses, but he called around to get all the pricing and availability. I think the one he picked seems pretty good! My requirements were basically that it had to be a bus over a limo so that way we could stand up and walk around in it and that it had to have the perimeter style seating, not front facing. So I'm thinking this is what will take the wedding party to the ceremony and then we'll use to drive around and get some pictures between the ceremony and reception. He's still checking into the shuttle for the guests...but we have a fun, interesting idea for that!

My task was to book the ceremony music. I found a trio that seemed to have a good selection of music and was reasonably priced and will also play for the cocktail hour during the reception. So I've given them all the info and just need to sign the contract.

And the only other big thing to get done in the next week or so is the officiant. I'll feel a little relief once these are all booked and finalized!

Trying not to barf

So, I just don't understand myself. Anyone who is really close to me knows I have this crazy obsession over scabs, zits, and peeling sunburned skin. I just can't leave them alone and am picking at them on myself or even worse-- will be bugging other people to mess with theirs! So most people probably read this now and think that is totally disgusting...and for some reason it all just intrigues me. However, ANYTHING else related to the body completely grosses me out and scares me. For instance, I refuse to get my wisdom teeth out because just panics me to think about it. So this week I went to the dermatologist and had 3 TINY moles removed, so nothing very major. All went okay and was real proud of myself for not freaking out or anything. Well, the issue comes in that I simply need to change the band-aid on them twice a day and put some polysporin on the band-aid before I slap it on...doesn't sound too bad. The first night I was home alone and nearly fainted while changing the band-aid on the first one and it wasn't even gross or anything! It was just the pure thought that they had cut this mole out of my skin. So I had to quickly get the band-aid on and get to the bed so I could lay down. Then waited until dustin got home to do the rest in case I really would end up fainting. So I kept thinking after the 2nd, 3rd, etc. time it would get easier....but every single time I started feeling so hot, thought I was going to throw up, and the color would just drain from my face! So it seriously is like a 20 minute procedure for me to swap out 3 band-aids because I get so queasy. CRAZY! So thank goodness there are people who actually want to be doctors because I don't see how anybody could do that stuff!

Cinco de Mayo!

So last night started out as just going to be a girls night to have dinner and get some margaritas for cinco de mayo. We had decided on el barrocho which is downtown. Well, we find out that afternoon that they've blocked off the street and are having a party there and all sorts of people we know are planning on going. So dustin was all excited then that he could go and hang out with some guys! They had a dj out there playing some great music and the weather was absolutely perfect! We just love living and working downtown cause really is like being in a small town-- everytime we go places in the city, we run into all sorts of people we know from work, the gym, our building etc.

Don't ask me why dustin and missy thought this would be a funny pose, but they did...and there wasn't much alcohol involved, so kinda scary! Hahaha!