Feeling Better

Today I'm feeling much better. I got most of my invitations in the mail today. I only have a few that I am still needing to get addresses on and I have a few I am going to hand deliver. We took the kids out to see where we are getting married tonight. I am finally starting to feel like everything is coming together. We are making our last trip to Springfield on Saturday for all the final touches. Thank goodness. All this planning and picking things out is driving me crazy. I hate making decisions and usually ponder over things forever before finally deciding. . . .which drives Scott crazy.

INVITATIONS

So if you are wondering why you haven't gotten an invitation for our wedding yet, it is because I ran into another snag. The first set of invitations I got 2 years ago but had not printed anything on them. They had Vellum paper and other hand made papers. I absolutely loved them. Well my printer was smart and since the Vellum was thin it detected a different kind of paper and the ink soaked into the paper and made it look blurry. Not on all of them only few turned out good. I just couldn't believe I was having another wedding disaster. I worried about it for several days and decided to go to Walmart and see if I could find more Vellum or something to fix them with. I thought I had found a way to print the small paper on our laser jet printer at work and was going to ask Vikki if she cared it I used it. Of course Walmart didn't have any of the paper so I went with a whole new invitation kit. The best part is it was on sale for $6. The only bad part is I don't have enough. The 40 pack was on sale for $6 and I got the only one they had in this design. They have a 50 pack for $18 which is not on sale that I am going to get tomorrow. At least I don't have to buy 2 at that price. I hope to have my invitations out by Thursday. Does anyone know if there is a specific time frame you are suppose to send invitations out by?
If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any at all. I'm just hoping to get all the bad over with before the big day. I don't want to stumble and fall on my face in my pretty new shoes.

So what can you buy for under $20

So alot of people think I'm crazy but I am learning how to use coupons and with the help of my neighbor and some blogs, I'm getting pretty good at it. I have always shopped for bargains and used comp ads at Walmart but now that I am learning how to double coupons with sale ads and I have gotten several things for free or almost free. Here is a run down of everything I got and yes I added up my tickets from Walgreen's and Country Mart and it was just a little over $18.
9 packs of mechanical pencils, 6 packages of erasers, 6 3 ring notebooks, 3 pkgs notebook paper, 2 pencil holders, 6 bottles of Sauve, 4 Vive pro shampoo/conditioners, 4 pkgs #2 pencils, 3 highlighters, 2 pkgs Dixie plates, bottle of Maalox, 10 Lipton Sides, Chex mix, Chero mix, milk and a case of water. My stash is getting pretty big so I think my plan is working. My goal was to not spend much money in August so we would have extra for our honeymoon. This is just one of my many coupon/sale trips I have taken.
I already have part of my Walgreen's trip planned out for tomorrow. They have the good kind of tuna on sale for .69 which is about what I have been paying for the off brand and they also have travel sized shaving cream on sale for .99 and I have .75 coupons. I will probably go ahead and get one more Maalox since it costs $3.99 and you can use a $2.00 coupon from the Walgreen's easy saver book and then use a $2.00 manfg coupon out of the newspaper which makes it free. I will also look for more of the Vive products. They are on a Walgreen's special of buy one get one free on certain styles and then I used a buy one get one free out of the newspaper which made both of them free. There were a couple of other things I was going to get but I don't remember what it was so I will have to look at the ad again. It helps that Walgreens is right by my work. Over the last two weeks I have stocked up on school supplies and other stuff.
Wish I would have taken a photo of my Walmart trip also. It ended up being another table full of stuff and my total there was $20 and some change. It was more groceries that other stuff. Scott will think I'm so strange for posting this but I want everyone to know with a little work you can cut costs in lots of areas. It's not being cheap its being frugal.

I love this time of year. . .

This is one of my favorite times of the year. We have been very blessed this summer with lots of fresh vegetables. I think I could live of veggies and fruit alone. However, I made Scott a vegetarian meal the other night. He ate it but after his second bowl he said he didn't want me to fix it again. It was a light summer meal and I loved it. Fresh red and russet potatoes from Vikki's garden. She says she now has cantaloupes and plums ready to be picked so this week I need to go get some.

This beautiful bag just showed up on our front porch. We later found out it was from Jerry.

The Dress

So, I have had a few issues with the wedding dress. It just wouldn't be right if I didn't. My mom is making the dress. She cut it out and had it started from 2 years ago when Scott and I was going to get married. Needless to say I have gained some weight since Scott and I got together. She has been working on it and had it over half finished. So, I went and tried it on earlier in the week and couldn't squeeze into it. She assured me she could fix it but of course I had to come home and mope about it all night. Today, I went and tried it on again. Yes. . . my mom tore it apart and put it back together in a days time. She is amazing! Now it is a little big in the chest area. I have never had that problem in my life so she is going to fix that and the next time I go over I should be able to do the final fitting. After that all she will have to do is the final detail work which will take longer than making the whole dress because it has to all be done by hand.

If it can go wrong it will. . . .

In planning this wedding. . .Nothing has gone as smoothly as I thought it would. I have had issues with buying and trading or returning clothes several times. I picked out music that I liked and Scott didn't. (We finally have some we both agree on!) Now I have issues with the flowers. The first ones I liked everyone decided they didn't because it had a lot of lime green in it. Then I pick out something else and wanted a turquoise blue ribbon. . . Not too hard I wouldn't think. I'm not planning anything hard only 2 bouquets and that is it. The flower shop doesn't have any turquoise ribbon and they have had it on order for a long time so now I am going to get my own and take to them. She was really nice about it. But still. The only things that have been easy is my pictures with Kim and getting the appointments for our hair with Kristy. Thank you both very much. This simple wedding we are planning is really hard. . . .

SNEAK PEAK!

Just thought I would let everyone have a sneak peak at our wedding. My whole wedding is based around Breanna. We picked out some shirts with the colors I liked and the one that fit and looked the best is the one we got. This is the pattern on the shirt that we chose so the colors for our wedding are turquoise and brown. There are some khaki colors tossed into the mix and my dress is off white. Breanna and Scott now have outfits. Christian only has shorts and shoes if they fit. I'm still looking for a solid color shirt for him to match Bre's shirt.

I love the pretty flip flops we found for her. I hope they fit and I know she will get more use out of them than just the wedding. Note to everyone this is a very casual wedding so please come as yourself. I hope to get invitations out by the end of the month.

Just finished a great book. . .

I just finished a great book. Lately, I have read books by people I have never heard of but so far they have all turned out really good. This was a long but easy read. It was one of those that makes you giggle one place and want to cry the next. I hate to give away all the details but it ended great. what the blurb says. . . what would you do for the friend who broke your heart?Best friends Kamryn Matika and Adele Brannon thought nothing could come between them - until Adele did the unthinkable and slept with Kamryn's fiance, Nate. Worse still, she got pregnant and had his child. When Kamryn discovered the truth about their betrayal she vowed never to see any of them again. Two years later, Kamryn receives a letter from Adele asking her to visit her in hospital. Adele is dying and begs Kamryn to adopt her daughter, Tegan. With a great job and a hectic social life, the last thing Kamryn needs is a five-year-old to disrupt things. Especially not one who reminds her of Nate. But with no one else to take care of Tegan and Adele fading fast, does she have any other choice? So begins a difficult journey that leads Kamryn towards forgiveness, love, responsibility and, ultimately, a better understanding of herself.

I'm now on my quest to find a new book to read. Anyone have any suggestions?

BEAR Spray Anyone?

Scott is planning on going on another Big Foot Expedition at the end of the month. I still can't believe that I said he could go to Colorado as that is a place I have always wanted to go. Anyway from what he has been told there are a lot of bears in the woods where he is going to be so he got some bear spray. Somehow you spray the stuff and it makes the bears run away. Wouldn't this photo make a great ad for selling this stuff?

Christian and Scott read the directions which say to keep the spray where you have easy access as you can come up on a bear at any time. I still can't believe that this stuff cost $50 but I guess if it gets him home safe for the wedding it will be worth it.

FAMILY CAMP

Last weekend we had Family Camp with Scott's Family. We all had a good time even though it rained. We went to Cricket this year instead of Diamond City which is where we usually go. The water was still high but not as high as some of the other places. We had so much rain this year that there really isn't a lot of good camping spots. I meant to get a group photo this year but forgot. I didn't take many pictures at all. I'm not going to tell how many shots it took me to end up with these pictures. I don't think I captured the true beauty of the sun shining through the trees onto the water but I tried. The worst part is I don't know what I did to get these. I need to practice with my camera more. Maybe someday I will have more time.

We had a small birthday get together for Christian which was a complete surprise for him. We hid the cake in the closet of the motor home on the way to the lake.

Wouldn't be right if he didn't have a goofy faced picture. He is such a goof ball just like his dad.

I have no idea who this guy is but he stopped and let the kids look at this huge fish he caught. I can't remember but he said it weighed over 20lbs.

Wedding Plans Update

Well it has been a while since I blogged last. We have had so many things going on. . .We are so excited about our upcoming wedding. There has been a lot of planning going on in our house.
We have finally picked out Breanna's shirt and the rest of the wedding colors will be planned around that. I had colors in my mind that I liked together so I am so glad my mom found a great shirt in Branson that fits into the plan perfectly. Breanna looks beautiful in the shirt and it fits so nicely. We have had a lot of issues with things fitting. Breanna's capri's didn't work out. Christian can barely breath in the shorts we got for the wedding which are 2 sizes bigger than what he has been wearing. And to top it off Scott's ring that I bought 2 years ago was a little too snug and had to be sized. Thank goodness it took them less than a week to fix the ring size. I hope my trip to Branson this weekend will get the rest of the clothing taken care of. Poor Scott has nothing to wear.

Scott had told me he didn't care much about the details of the wedding. All he said was that he wanted it short and to the point with "I DO" and that's it. So I worked for several weeks every night and picked out music that I liked. I ran it by him and he didn't say he didn't like it so then I ran it by my mom who thought it sounded great. I was ready for Scott to burn a CD just to find out he didn't like it at all. So. . .now I'm back to square one listening to songs over and over. The sad part is I still love melodies I had picked. I don't want all country. I don't know why because I love country music. I just wanted something softer easy listening.

Kim (Scott's Sister) took our engagement photos this past Thursday. I am so excited about them and can't wait to see them. I have been patiently waiting which is so hard for me. Pictures is the one area I usually go crazy. Scott wasn't completely excited about the shoot but I know Kim does excellent work and they will be perfect.

There is still so much to do and it's now less than 2 months till the big day. I still have to order flowers and the cake, pick out clothes for everyone, find music Scott can live with, print and mail invitations. I know why people pay someone to handle all of the details for them. It is more work than you think it will be even when you are trying to keep everything simple. I don't exactly know what our budget is but I am trying to save money where I can and we still haven't bought any decorations at full price. My latest finds was a wedding sale at Hobby Lobby where everything was 50% off and I got candles at Hallmark for 70% off. I was going to take a photo to show everyone my great finds but Scott thinks I'm weird for doing stuff like that.