Vikki

My FMIL is starting to look a lot more appealing now.... You're much more gracious than I would be-best of luck to you. And you're not crazy for being upset. I would be livid.

Yay! I'm so glad you two are going to work it out and it sounds like keep your cats.

You are the bride girl! Grab an extra glass and invite your moh over and share how you're feeling. I bet she didn't realize this was bugging you and maybe together you can figure out a way to make you feel better about it. It sounds like you have some expectations and maybe she doesn't realize it and has no idea. I hope you feel better in a few days-I tend to go through the same thing around that time too. It sucks. I love your use of that emoticon... That's how I feel some days....

Ouch...tough one. I couldn't walk down the isle without my Dad so I imagine how difficult this is for you. Can you do two ceremonies? Maybe a ceremony locally for family then a ceremony at your dream destination with a few friends and your FI's family. It doesn't really matter which one has the paperwork attached and how lucky you would be to get to have your dream day with your dream man twice!! That might also open the door for local people in both locations that might not otherwise be able to make the trip. Or how about a cruise that originates somewhere your parents could drive to? (I don't know exactly where you live so that could be completely impossible). Good luck and keep us posted on what you end up with.

I rescued "Jupiter The Dog" at 6 weeks, I won't go into details-it was a nasty situation-but the first couple weeks we had to keep him separated until his little body healed. It broke my heart at the time but now I'm glad we were forced to do this because we decided to crate train him at night. It's a safe place and most importantly a routine. It sounds like you've done a great job creating some routines for your dog and exercising him regularly. Every dog is different and your puppy sounds really mellow but we've found Jupiter gets destructive when he's bored and toys don't do it for long. Our trainer suggested more exercise and all the dog shows I watched and books I looked through said the same. I can walk him but not for several hours and I can't take him to the dog park because he tries to herd other animals and gets snappy. (Thank goodness it's not with people!) So I trained him to run along side my bike and he LOVES it. Almost like a sled dog except he's not allowed to pull me, I don't want him to get hurt. We ride a couple blocks to the park then around the track until he gets tired then home. He still has a ton of energy but his behavior is much better. We also just started an agility class. Jupiter is having a great time and loves having a "job" to do. I have an exercise you can do with your dog at home. It's a great dominance exercise and it's really easy for you to do. If you would like the details PM me-it's from our trainers methods and I don't feel comfortable posting it in the public forum. I don't know how much it will help with the destruction but it should help with establishing that pack leader authority. Good luck, I think the agility work will be awesome for your dog and you and I encourage you to continue to work on becoming a leader in your house. Controlled feeding might help if your dog tends to be food motivated. I also encourage you to use verbal praise over treating, especially with a breed that may struggle with weight issues down the road. And maybe you can have your husband ask his agility trainer about his/her views on crate training. If he hears it from somewhere else it might help convince him-it's a great, non-invasive way to show leadership.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jacilynda Oh I did not do so good this weekend ladies! I already told you i had a BBQ yesterday and ate the afternoon away. Well poor Caterina started vomitting at midnight last night and continued to every 40 minutes to an hour. This morning when she got up she was SO dehydrated. I called the Dr and he said I needed to take her to the emergency IMMEDIATELY. We were there ALL day. So to eat we had to go get fast food and Taco Johns and Starbucks are the ONLY things close to the hospital, therefore i ate Taco Johns all day. I did resist my big urge for starbucks cause I'm sooo tired. i'm just glad that after 5 1/2 hours there they let us go home. Although had we waited 20 more minutes (she puked again!) they would have made us stay the night. So I haven't worked out, don't even have the energy to do so and ate crap all day! Oh no! Poor Cattie, is she going to be ok at home or are you going to have to take her back in?? I hope she's feeling better tomorrow. Don't beat yourself up too much on the food but remember, your body will hold up better based on what you eat so over the next couple days if your workouts suffer (totally understandable) try to make sure you pick up some cheese sticks, fresh fruit (strawberries and grapes are great for fast easy snacks) and drink plenty of water. The last thing you want to happen is for you to get run down too. Don't stress - it's just the first week. I'm absolutely failing at food cravings this past week. My new craving is chocolate chip cookie dough. Why bother baking it when I can freeze rolls of it to break up and eat at random.... *sigh* so even though I'm working out every day I'm sabotaging myself. Stay as focused as you can realistically and let me know if there's anything I can do to help out!

Gotta weigh in on this one.... I have 3 cats. Two of them I have had for 11 years. I don't have children, don't know if I will and these are my kids. They shed, they fuss (especially my vocal male Siamese!) and they sleep on the bed-but they are an irreplaceable part of me. I wouldn't be the same person without my cats, giving them up would be like losing a child-I've had them all of my adult life, much longer than I've had him. They are not "just animals". I'm assuming before he moved in he spent time at your house, he experienced the "cat hair" prevention measures you have to take and saw how much time they spent on the furniture or bed, ect. If he's not allergic to them I don't see any reason you should have to take drastic measures. Part of the problem might be that since the cats have moved into "his" space he's having trouble seeing all of these things transposed from your apartment into his home. Moving is traumatic on animals, especially if they're spending time closed in a basement away from you and the additional stress is probably part of the problem. You could consider a short-term course of medication like prozac to help the cats during the first couple of months, that could drastically cut down on the crying. I had a raccoon invasion in our yard a couple years ago and my Siamese was so upset seeing them from the window at night and smelling them that he started spraying and howling at night. I am not ok with houses that smell like cat so the vet suggested prozac and it solved the problem until we were able to get rid of the raccoon family. Lots of people have animals and keep a clean house. You can encourage the cats to sit on sheets if they are on furniture, get special places for them-like a nice cat post near a window with a bird feeder outside. Vacuuming every day or so as needed. Put cat hair rollers in key places like by the door so you can use them on the way out or near pieces of furniture your cats like to spend time on. I think you get my point. I hope you guys can work it out, if you have to give your cats up in the long run it will create resentment. You may be in a position now where you can keep up two apartments but that may not be practical forever and it's not fair to the cats. Keep us posted on what your resolution, we'll have our paws crossed for you. Vikki (And Star, and Sugarbear, and Mojo)

That sucks. I would agree on starting BC though-I think most people do just fine but in some cases, especially for the first couple of months it can be difficult for your body to adjust. I can't take BC - the hormones are disastrous for my emotions so I actually went online and found a calculator to estimate when I would be on my period and planned my wedding date (8 months in advance) around it. Now....let's just hope it works that way. Good luck with your efforts-and remember. No matter what you'll have a wonderful time, don't let it get you down.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jacilynda Thank you, Alyssa, for setting up buddies!!! I have only been up for 3 hours and was in a huge hurry to get Cattie to the drs for her shots and came home and my buddy had alreay done some HARD CORE working out!!! I love that we have each other to keep accountable, now I feel like I need to go work out for 2 hours! Gee - thanks. Make me look like the bad guy.... :-) Glad it was motivating for you at least. Once you get the gym membership up and running it will be way easier for you too. Keep it up girlie!

Ok - I hope I'm posting this in the right place since it's kind of a joint question about location and photography... Rather than drive my photographer crazy with my pre-wedding neurosis I thought I'd try and get some help here! I've booked the photographer I really like and she has offered to split our time into 2 sessions-this is not something she normally offers for the package we're booking. However I'm trying to weigh the following considerations into making the decision to do it all in one day or split it up. (The package I'm purchasing is a total of 5 hours.) The resort we're staying at is Couples Sans Souci. 1). The resort has a $500 vendor fee. I am having my TA check and see if they would double charge us for two sessions or if another kind of fee like a day pass would apply for that second session. 2). If there is an additional fee for her coming back the next day how would I find out about other possible locations for the shoot? 3). Our wedding party is really small - only 4 guests are being invited and we haven't scheduled a reception so it's probably realistic to have the pre-wedding, ceremony and TTD shots in the same day. 4). Our wedding time is 4:00pm so if we don't split the session and have her there from 3:00 to 8:00 we might get some beautiful near sunset shots. From the almanac I looked at I think we should be close. 5). Artistic expression, use of light and shadow and creativity is very important to me in the photos. From what little I know of photography lighting is very important. Will having the TTD pictures in the late afternoon/early evening light provide a better background than morning light? 6). Our parents fly out the next morning so we can start our honeymoon :-) If we're out doing TTD shots in the morning that might make it difficult to see them off-and I think it will be important for us to be able to do that since they don't all live close to us. So what do I do Do it all in one session after the wedding, take advantage of the potential for early sunset lighting and not conflict with our family's departure OR split the shoot up which will probably result in finding an alternate location (which may have better photo opps than the resort), take the pictures at a different time of day and conflict with the family leaving? Oh-and then I have to consider hair/make-up for a second shoot. Ugh-reading that I realize I am way over-analyzing this but I just want everything to work out and pictures are so important....

Ouch - can you just rent a huge storage unit, throw everything in boxes and park it there for a month? It will be more work in the end but sometimes just buying some extra time now is worth the extra work later. Quote: Originally Posted by Jingles202 CONGRATS on the Buyer....I'm a real estate and I can't tell you how slow the market is in the Washington DC area. I feel your pain however! Breathe...lol Ugh...don't I know it. My fiance has a house on the market there....

Quote: Originally Posted by deefalvey I confess that I am at work and I have not done one single "work" related thing today. So far I have been on BDW for what seems like hours (okay only 3) designed 2 Luggage Tags and a Photo Share card on Vista Print and searched online for a cake topper for our cake. 1 hour to go and I have no intention of doing ANY work! Yeah...I have that day usually once or twice a month. And I know I should feel guilty for it....and I don't.

Quote: Originally Posted by jerseykitten Our date has no significance whatsoever. I was so excited after we got engaged, and you know 5 seconds after you tell someone that you're engaged they ask you when the date is, so I wanted to pick one ASAP. [/img] That's pretty much what I did too! I wanted it to be this year, after the hot season, not in the middle of hurricane season, and before the holidays so we decided Nov. 2 met the criteria.

I was wondering too about the size requirements.... I flew to Taiwan last year and they not only weighed my carry-on at the international gate but made sure it would fit inside of specific dimensions. Will I have to crunch my dress down to nothing to get it on?

I don't know a whole lot about booking flights and stuff so I might be using the wrong terminology but our TA bought some sort of tickets that allow us to get a lower price within a certain period of time if the rates go down. It was something like bulk air or contract air maybe I don't know if that helps or not but you might ask the TA's you talk to :-) Good luck!

Congratulations!! Was it a big surprise when he popped the question?

Hi and congratulations on your engagement! I haven't been there but you've come to the right place-I'm sure you'll find somebody here that can give you some feedback.

Welcome and congratulations! I know I feel the same way about not getting communication right away from some of my vendors at the site....but sometimes I think I'm just having bridal jitters. Just keep following up and remember to enjoy the process. You'll only get to do it once :-)

Congratulations!! You'll find tons of information here! Welcome and enjoy.

Hi Jen-welcome and congratulations!

Hi! Welcome aboard-have you decided on a date or location yet?

If a "free" day will help you stay on track during the week I think it's a great idea. Losing weight is all about math. (I know...math actually matters somewhere after college??) 1 pound is worth about 3500 calories. So in order to lose weight you have to burn 3500 calories more than you eat over a period of time. I would recommend you try a food log for a week or two. It can be a little tough to keep up on but record what you eat during the day and add up the number of calories at the end of the day. Portion size gets really important here. Then think about how active you were during the day. I recommend this website to help you get a rough estimate. Calories Burned Calculator, Very Accurate, Quick and Easy. At the end of the day subtract the amount you ate from what you burned and that's your deficit. (hopefully!) Once that deficit adds up to 3500 you can guess you've lost about a pound. That will help you budget how many calories you eat on your free day. I use a calorie counter I wear on my body daily so it helps me get a slightly more accurate calorie count. If I work out in the morning before work-usually medium to high intensity for 45 - 60 minutes-then work at my desk job all day and I burn between 2000 and 2200 calories. My food log for an average Monday - Friday looks like this: Breakfast (including after workout shake) 440 Snack 100 Lunch 350 Snack 150 Dinner 450 Snack 200 = 1690 I try to average about a -500 calorie a day for 5 days then allow for a 0 calorie deficit on the weekends. At these averages I'm not actively trying to lose but just to maintain without gaining. Now that we're starting the biggest loser challenge tomorrow (YAY!) I'm shifting to a -1000 per day deficit 6 - 7 days a week, stepping up the intensity of my workouts and altering my diet down to 1400 calories a day. My goal is between 1.75 and 2lbs loss per week (or a deficit of 6000 to 7000 calories). It's not a big number but it's a healthy, sustainable weight loss amount. If I starve myself with some crazy diet for 3 weeks, kill my immune system and get sick it won't do me a bit of good. So.....sorry for the long winded post-I can go on forever about all this deficit/surplus stuff, I hope I'm not just rambling and something in there is actually helpful for you.

Quote: Originally Posted by ashley&derek Hi My name is Ashley and I'm getting married in Jamaica in November of 09. We have nothing booked yet though. We noticed the prices are a bit high right now and we hope they will come down a bit. I was thinking about getting married at the sunset jamaican grande is Ochos Rios. Does anybody know anything about this resort. Do they do good weddings? If anybody as gotten married there I would love to hear from them. I really can't decide what resort to choose and it is such an important day that I want it to be done right! If any one has anything they can add please contact me Thanks Ashley Hi Ashley, Congratulations on your engagement! I also picked Jamaica in November. We looked around and started pricing ideas and ended up going with an all-inclusive for our wedding. I don't know the size or make-up of your group so I don't know if it would work for you but our total cost including rings, dress, travel and accomodations, photography ect is going to be under $10,000, and 35% of that is the rings. We'll be staying for 9 days and with the all inclusive option we don't have to worry about any major expenses while we're at the resort. One of our biggest concerns was how much we were going to ask our guests to pay. We'll only be inviting our parents and they'll stay for 5 days. The whole thing for them including air-fare is about $2500.... There are a quite few resorts listed here with great contact resources so hopefully that will help you decide. Good luck! Keep us updated on what you decide to do and welcome to the forums.

Congratulations! I'm getting married in Jamaica in November too-so far this forum has been a great source of information. We'll be at Couples Sans Souci on the 2nd :-) Good luck with your planning.

I'm not showing on the list :-) My payment should be processed by now..... Thanks!