I’m getting MARRIED (someday)!

Because you know, that’s what the ring on my left hand says. So what if it doesn’t have a button to press that recites the phrase ‘You are getting married… I say so!’ It should… lol!

Anyways, at some point… Jay and I will get that legal piece of paper that says we are married. I’m kind of ambivalent to the whole marriage thing though. Since my parents got divorced, I haven’t really thought much of myself getting married. In high school I always used to say that I wasn’t getting married, I wasn’t having kids… I was a career woman!

Well, I’m still career orientated… you know, the whole nine years of college thing! However, I am SO much more family orientated as well! I love my son more than life itself (as I’m sure any parent can a test too!) and want more kids if that be the plan… but marriage, well it just hasn’t hit the top of my list.

Jay and I will have been together for six years this September and yes I’ve had concerns about our relationship in the past… are we meant for each other, can we make this work, is it meant to work… and only in the past year have I really begun to feel, like really feel that this is a lifer thing. It is kind of hard to explain, but I don’t doubt the solidness (is that a word?) of our relationship. I KNOW that there will be problems in the future, I KNOW that we will be tested, I KNOW that marriage will be hard, but I also KNOW that I want to work through the tough times with Jay, I KNOW that I want this to be for life. But with that, I’m still not in a hurry to get married because to me it’s still just a party and a piece of paper. I don’t think being married is going to change anything other than the legalness of it all. Does that make sense?

I know people say it will. And I know for people it does, but after living together for four years and being together for six, what would a piece of paper change? It won’t stop the inevitable arguments, it won’t make life any easier, it won’t start the inevitable arguments, etc etc etc… it just means that we will have something even more powerful holding us together. I don’t know, maybe marriage will change some things… whatever happens though, I think I have at least a year or two to contemplate that. Because well… Jay and I aren’t getting married anytime soon… mostly due to finances.

But… that doesn’t mean a girl doesn’t get to start planning, at least in her head! And at this moment* (everything is subject to change given my mood and/or Jay’s approval) I want our wedding to be all about fun and cheap! Lol! I’m all about just having a good time with our families and friends and not worrying about the big details.

So, I know you are just dying to know what I have swirling through my mind at this point in time, you know, two (if not three) years in advance. I’d love a late summer or early fall wedding. Not too hot or too cold, but you know how well we can control the weather, right? I’d love for it to be outside somewhere.

I love the style of this dress, at least the picture. I guess the whole dress thing will be dependent upon actually going and trying one on and seeing the fit and what I like on my body. I may like this picture, but I might hate it, or something like it on. I’m undecided on a veil though. And I’d love for Jay to be semi casual as well. I’m not all up on tuxes, but he might be. I kind of like the look in the guy picture, but I can’t tell if he is wearing jeans or not. I don’t want him in jeans, but some sort of dark pant or maybe darker khakis. And don’t know about the sandals… and then something similar for the groomsmen. Something either coordinating or very close to coordinating, but something they can definitely wear again or might already have!

              

I love love love calla lilies and love love love the bouquet in the next picture. I don’t know the price of them, but if they aren’t super expensive, I’d love something of the following!

                                

And then something of the following for the bridesmaids!

                             

And when I found these dresses… aren’t they gorgeous! I couldn’t be more in love with them! I thought I didn’t want coordinating bridesmaids dresses but when I saw these I know I HAVE to have them! Okay, have I convinced you at all?! These are definitely some unique dresses, some unique dresses I particularly don’t care for!

                               

But in all honesty, at this point I don’t really care if the bridesmaid dresses are all the same or not. That could very well change in the next couple of years, but here is my thought. I want them to be comfortable, I want them to like the dress, and I’d love for it to be something they could wear again! Now I’ve been in three weddings already and I can honestly say I loved all three dresses that the brides picked out. I loved being dressed up and all prettified… but I also know that bridesmaid dresses don’t necessarily run super cheap either. I guess it will be something that I’ll have to discuss with those whom I’d love to share the big day with and ask their opinions. If they’d prefer matching dresses, then okay… we’ll all go and pick something out… if not matching, but still something ‘bridesmaidish’ like from a bridal shop, then we’ll do that, or if they’d rather just find something themselves, then okay… I’m just going with what I have running through my head here and I thought it’d be a good post.

As for music, it’s not really something I need to be the best of the best. One of my friend’s brothers is starting a DJ business and if he is around in the next couple of years and has a decent selection of music, I might just hire him. I’m sure he’ll be cheaper than some of the ones out there, or maybe he’ll give me some sort of deal since I’ve known him like forever?! Or maybe I’m just hoping. It’s not like the music is the center of the wedding anyways or really that important to me.

Photography is something though that I will not scrimp on. Sorry Jay, lol! I’m a lover of photos and good photos and want some good ones of our special day. A photographer that I don’t have to worry about… maybe that will be my splurge, lol!

I don’t know about food… I don’t know about a reception place… I’d love to have the wedding and reception all at the same place, but don’t know…

I’m thinking I can get either my dad or Jay’s parents to foot the alcohol bill… maybe?! I don’t drink and well our families do… so I don’t think they’d let us have a wedding without alcohol… especially a Hoerth wedding. Plus I don’t like drunk people, so why would I pay for the alcohol when I wasn’t drinking it?! Sounds like a good idea to me, haha! Plus, my mom already said something about how it was good we were waiting a while to get married so she could save up some money for it, which in short means she’s going to help pay for at least a little bit, which means I can get at least that much from my dad (even though I know he could probably afford twice what my mom would offer up) and well I know that Jay’s parents will probably help some too (okay so I don’t for sure know, but I’m guessing they would because he is their first born)…

I know there are like a million and one other details to a wedding, but I want simple. I want to make my own invitations (or at least design them) and get them printed cheap because with both of our big families I’m sure we will need enough. I want simple and clean, yet fun and cheap. Make sense? I’m not all about the big lavish wedding (for us at least)…

Who knows… like I said, we have at least two or three years before we have to worry about anything… but like I said, I’ve been thinking about it (what girl doesn’t dream about their wedding) and thought it’d make for a fun post!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Second Annual Family Corn Roast

My aunt and uncle hosted their second annual family corn roast this past weekend in the crappy weather that we had on Saturday! Crappy weather or not, everyone was destined to make the best out of it.

There was a little game of football… some candy and cookies in a jar numbers guessing game, ladder golf tournament, a bounce house, and even a game of The Newlyweds (which was hilarious)! And… of course YUMMY SWEET CORN!

The rain only made things a little colder and wetter! Everyone had great sprits though!

It was a fun time and Ayden managed to soak through two pairs of clothing! Early in the afternoon he soaked through his clothes and I had an extra set along that I changed him into. I told him that if I changed him he was not allowed back into the bounce house because I didn’t want him getting wet again. He was okay with that and did say out of it. Finally I decided that he could go back in if he didn’t care about having wet clothes for the rest of the night. I’m glad I made that decision because Ayden spent pretty much the rest of the time that we were there in the bounce house with his cousins! Yes he did get soaked again, but he was having fun and I thought that was a little more important! We left right as it started to rain heavier and thus prevented him from getting soaked all the way through.

The corn roast was a success! We were supposed to go fishing today, but it was too windy out to go. Because of that we left to come back to our place early afternoon. I wasn’t going to spend the entire day sitting and watching TV at Jay’s parent’s house if I could do that in the comfort of my own house. And what did we do the rest of the day… just about nothing! Ayden and I played Uno Spin, Ayden played games on the computer with Jay, we watched TV, Ayden played his Wii racing game, Jay and I got school stuff ready, I looked around at the messy house and just sighed… I’m relaxing, we’re relaxing…

One more day and then the grind starts… ugh! Ayden got a letter in the mail from his teacher, it was really cute! I read it to him! She is having the children bring in their favorite stuffed animal on the first day of school to share with everyone. I thought that was a great idea!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Ayden’s Five Year Old Pictures! (Picture HEAVY!!!)

I decided to do Ayden’s five year old pictures myself… getting more and more into this whole photography thing, although I don’t think I’d consider going pro anytime soon. I took some indoor with a white sheet background and they turned out okay. I read somewhere that white was one of the hardest colors to start working with so I think they turned out rather well considering.

 

And then I took some outdoors at the golf course because I couldn’t resist the fence that was right behind us and got some super cute poses on that as well!

And then Jay showed me this AWESOME spot down by the river and I got some super poses there as well. It is definitely a spot that I will go back to over and over again… if only just to sit and listen to the water and read. I’d love to get some pictures of Jay and myself there, but because of all the rocks, I didn’t trust Ayden holding my camera and taking one. But I did get some cute ones of him!

 

I really really loved how they turned out! And I couldn’t resist adding a few extras in there as well!

And one final one of my honey! I love this picture of him, even if he does have golfing shoes on and his sunglasses! Jay is known to hide from the camera so when he sat there and posed for me I was super excited… especially since I love how it turned out! My honey!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Hundreds of dollars later…

…and Ayden is registered for his first month of before and after school care and for about 12 days off of school and any snow day that is potentially going to happen this winter. And… we will have to pay another $111 in two weeks for his next month of before and after school care. I hate how the Y says they will not turn anyone away because of their lack to pay and then charge up the ying yang for their services. After finding out yesterday that we no longer qualified for county assistance with child care funding, we high tailed it into the Y today to see if we qualified for their aid and to finish paying what I hadn’t at the beginning of the summer. I don’t know how poor you have to be in order to qualify for it, but apparently pretty darn poor!

We are not scrounging for pennies in our couch poor, but we aren’t rich either! Jay and I will be in student debt for years to come! And I do mean YEARS, unless we some how win the lottery or both get SUPER good paying jobs after school! And at this point audiologists aren’t exactly pulling in six figures yet… unless you live in a super urban area like New York and have your own practice! In any case, we were declined assistance from the Y which is okay I suppose. Like I said yesterday, I’m just grateful for the assistance we have received and $111 is NOT that much and I figured out that it comes down to roughly $6/hour for the time that Ayden will be attending, even less if we dropped him off as soon as it started and kept him there as late as it went (but we will not be doing that) and $6/hour is not THAT bad. What they get you with is the days off program and the snow days program! It costs $37/day for nonmember days off… and they want payment up front! Well folks take that and times it by the 12 days off that we need plus $60 something for the snow days program and we are talking most of our tax refund account depleted. I’m happy we saved that amount for this purpose if need be. We didn’t have to do the snow days program, but Jay plows in the winter and we cannot chance having a day off when I have clinic (which I need to attend) and have no where to take Ayden. Lets hope for at least two snow days because then it will be like paying for two days off at our money won’t have gone to a complete waste. I’m just glad to have that all figured out!

Jay also had to do some calling around for his financial aid stuff this morning because two of his loans hadn’t gone through yet and they should have. After figuring out that his lender had switched something or another and did not notify us, we was able to switch lenders, get everything back on track, and hopefully by Monday everything will be kosher again. I was just glad that everything was able to be sorted out!

Ayden and I also took a trip to his school today as the class lists were put up. Jay called the school since we didn’t get the letter in the mail yet and was told the lists were up. My biggest concern was making sure he was even enrolled at the school… he is! But the best part is that… he is in the same class as his… BEST BUDDY from daycare! How super awesome is that! He hasn’t seen his buddy since May and I’m so excited for Ayden! He will know someone in his class and it will make it a little easier for him! I didn’t even know his buddy was going to be in the same school. I couldn’t believe it! Things happen for a reason! I feel a lot more comfortable leaving him now! Ayden and I walked around the school and found his classroom as well. It was nice because no one was there. He has 22 students in his class. I didn’t look to see if I recognized any other names on the list after I saw his friend’s name, but he might know someone else too. So we will go again on Monday to meet his teacher and drop his stuff off. Oh, and upon talking to the secretary… she hadn’t even gotten the letters mailed out yet and was able to give us Ayden’s while we were there.

We also hit up the golf driving range today! Jay had off work because they were able to get everything done yesterday, I think I might have said that already in my last post. It was a bit of a lazy morning before going to the Y (oh and then picking up my ring which is fixed, yeah!) and then I wanted to do something in the afternoon besides just sitting around and watching TV and since Jay didn’t want to go fishing, we went to the driving range. Just as fun for Ayden and cheaper than golfing the course and not as boring for me! And of course it was a prime photo op!

   

   

It was a lot of fun to watch them hit the balls and Ayden was doing such a great job as well! Daddy was teaching Ayden the right techniques without going overboard and it was just nice to get outside for a little while before the rain came later. That and well I just couldn’t pass up sitting inside all day while the sun was shining and the forecasted rain was holding off!

Tomorrow we are heading home for my family’s corn roast and then out on the boat fishing on Sunday hopefully! Hoping for good weather too, even if it is going to be a little chilly!

CIAO! LOVE ME!