Kristy!

Hey everyone. I want to thank everybody for their positive thoughts, words of encourangement, and prayers. This weekend (Saturday evening), my Nana passed away. Obviously I'm upset, but I'm happy that she can finally be with my grandfather after 28 years. She lived a long, wonderful life (she was 96) and was ready to go. That still doesn't make it easy though. Please continue to pray for FI's father and cousin. FFIL's numbers have finally bottomed out, so now the challenge is to build them back up. Hopefully there will be no signs of leukemia cells. Alice struggled a bit more with her latest chemo treatment and her numbers were not as good as the first two times. She's doing alright though. So that's the latest. Hopefully I'll be able to post some good news soon.

Aw,what a sweetie. Congratulations Christine!

As for the doctor's not being registered, I don't think that's the reason. How many give blood? How many are in the bone marrow transplant database? I think it's something that many have just never bothered with.

I've heard that too but have no idea if it's true. If someone is that unethical, they probably wouldn't do a good job on you anyway. I think it's a shame that so many good organs just end up in the ground when they could save people's lives.

Thanks for the tip. At least I'll have a little car time to relax. I have to remember to bring a magazine or something.

Beautiful job Becks! I totally copied your cake and candles into my wedding ideas file. Your cake is the first one I've really liked.

Thanks girls. My SIL was telling me that her mom is completely drained when she donates platelets, so she freaked me out a little bit. I'm fine after donating whole blood, so I'm sure I'll be pretty much the same after this. I feel better!

I'm donating platelets for the first time tomorrow morning. My appointment is at 9:00 but then I'm leaving to go camping at 1:30. Are the effects afterwards any different from giving whole blood?

I can't wait to read your review when you get back. Are you doing the zipline tour that is all ziplining or are you doing the one that combines with the sky ride thing? (I may not be saying that right.)

That's a gorgeous dress. You must be so excited!

I'm just waiting to find a typo on my invitations. It's amazing, no matter how many times you proof-read something, a mistake always seems to get through. Like you said though, at least it's only $10.

I know I'm a little late to this, but we cracked open a bottle of champange on our -1 anniversary. How many people actually get to celebrate it?!

Let's see, I think we're going to do the zipline tour through the rainforest this time. I hear that's unbelieveable. When we went there in October, we went on an all-day tour that involved a catamaran ride, many of the touristy sites (Sulphur Springs, Botanical Gardens, Diamond Waterfall, etc.), swimming, and lunch at a plantation. Almost every tour operator offers it. We were on a Carnival boat, but I'm not sure if our resort (Coconut Bay) had chartered it or not. Another thing we missed last time that we want to do this time is go to the "Jump-up." It's a street party up in Gros Islet (which is the area we're staying in) that kicks off the weekend every Friday night. Google it, you'll get tons of info. The Fish-fry in Anse la Raye (I think that's where it is), is supposed to be a bit calmer, but also lots of fun. I'll think of more stuff, but feel free to ask. I cannot wait to go back there. It's just gorgeous. (Simply beautiful really is the perfect description.) Also, if you don't mind my asking, are you in the NYC area?

I'm actually not going to book with Karay Media anymore because I won photography from KLK Photography and videography from Blue Skies Video on this forum (Thanks Kristi and Paul!). Had I not won the contest though, I would've booked Ray from Karay Media for photography and Chris from Down the Isle for videography. I haven't heard a bad thing about either one of them and their work is much better than a lot of what I've seen down there.

I found it while researching some other stuff on St. Lucia. It's just palms and flowers though, so it should be pretty easy to do.

I can't find it, but I would PM him. I really thought he did that and table numbers. Maybe I'm losing my mind (which wouldn't shock me right now!)

I can see why you'd be hurt, especially when you were given a variety of excuses (there was always another one in case solutions were found). Some people are just weird about leaving the country though. Maybe that's it?

OMG Abbie, you're getting married tomorrow! YAY!!!! I've been so out of it.

Didn't Jean-Marcus make a picture like that available for everyone? Let me go check...

I'm tired of people not knowing my name, especially since we're a pretty close knit community. So, bye bye froggie.

We're getting married the same day and I'm keeping my eyes on airfare as well. Luckily, St Lucia's flights stay pretty steady, so I don't think I have a lot to worry about. I would recommend deciding when you want to return before booking your flights. It's a good incentive to make that decision.

I really love that 3rd pic Rafael. Any brides debating on entering, just do it. I won my photography and videography on this forum! (Thanks Kristi and Paul!) This is a great contest!

Here's something I'm considering:

You girls are so sweet. I have tears in my eyes from reading everyone's responses. Thank you so much. I just love this forum and everyone on it. You've all been so helpful and supportive, I'm really touched. Thank you for brightening my day a little.

Do whatever you want. Keep in mind that you don't have to have something right away either. You can have an AHR months later.