Shopping Day with Mom

I have been wedding planning like a maniac and because of this I have neglected this blog terribly!  I wanted to blog about my wedding planning especially for Vernon and his family to see but I just haven't had it in me to sit down and type.

This is a blog post I had started about a shopping trip with my mom. It was a fun day.

[March 2013] During my wedding planning adventures I had a list of things I wanted to get so I thought I'd go into Escanaba and do some shopping.  I had a coupon for JoAnn Fabrics and I still needed to get a handful of items for the wedding so I thought mom and I could make a day of it.  Sadly, JoAnn didn't have everything that I was looking for, but I did manage to pick up the floating candles needed for my centerpieces.  I did see a cake service set on sale and this was not something I really wanted to buy. It was simple and inexpensive so I went ahead and grabbed it then my mother immediately pipes up... "No! Don't get that! It's ugly!" I just looked at her, "What?" She said it again, "Don't get that, it's ugly!" She was so animated and determined that I didn't buy the cake service set.  It didn't take long for me to figure it out... she's buying us a cake service set. Ha ha ha.Normally I would have blown her off and got it anyway, but I didn't want to spoil her fun so I put it back.

Next stop was GFS.   This is a pretty cool store. My dad is like a kid in a candy shop in this store. They are a supplier to restaurants and businesses but they are also open to the public.  Mom and I just wanted to see what they had as far as party supplies and food.  I don't think we picked anything up here.

Of course I can't go into a town without stopping at St Vinnies and Goodwill as I am still looking for teapots and teacups.  I also found a "collector" type shop in downtown Escanaba and totally scored on teacups and a teapot!

To complete a rather nice day out with my mom we stopped at Hereford and Hops for lunch. It was great! There mom confessed to buying me a, you guessed it, Cake Service Set! She wants to give it to me for my birthday.  She wanted it to be a surprise but I told her if it is wedding related she needs to tell me otherwise I'm getting it myself.

This was a fun day.  Shopping for the wedding and spending time with my mom. It was perfect.

Ring Shopping

I was not looking forward to shopping for my wedding ring.  This is something a couple should do together, and I could not wait 1 week before the wedding to shop for my wedding ring so on one of my visits into Erickson Jewelers I mentioned how sad I was about it.  The owner's response to that was, "We have Wifi and iPads, I'm sure we could bring him in on Skype or something." I of course thought that was an awesome idea!  We ended up doing a Google Hangout on my computer and it turned out great.  I asked Vernon to make sure to get one screen grab so I could blog about it later. :) We picked out a white gold ring to compliment my yellow gold engagement ring.  I love the mixed metals and my wedding band is so sparkly it looks like glitter! I can't say enough good things about this jeweler and thank you Honey for agreeing to do a hangout with me at the jewelry store.

Wedding Expo!

In February I went to my first official wedding outing.  I drug my mom out on what was a beautiful day and we went out to lunch then to the local wedding expo.  For our small town it was pretty nice.  It was hosted by the Midtown Mall.  My goal was to find a florist, baker and a set of toasting glasses like the ones from my    February 3rd post.  I haven't received any input yet on that post and was really hoping for some comments so check out that post and help us out! There was a speaker at this expo who was a wedding planner and he brought up some very good points to think about like scheduling, cake placement, guest lists, meals, stuff like that.  I feel like I'm running blind with this wedding planning thing but so far things seem to be falling into place.  I did find a baker, not at the expo, but through word of mouth and I'm confident she is going to be awesome! I've done some research and found a couple of florists and should really pay them a visit in the near future.  It was cool seeing all the young brides and many familiar faces attending the expo and manning the booths.  I think my mom had fun too, we haven't been shopping together in years, although we didn't buy anything we still had fun.

We Have Been Featured on Real Size Bride!

RealSizeBride.com

Our relationship was noticed by a wedding dress website.  They are not just any wedding dress website, they specialize in plus size wedding dresses.  They wanted to celebrate love and the happiness of a Real Size Bride.  It was fun being noticed and working with them.  Take a look at their dresses, they are ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!

The blog post that was written was very nice.  My family and friends enjoyed reading it and I hope that my family of bloggers enjoy it too.  Help me thank them by sharing the blogpost and/or following their facebook page.

Their blog is full of interesting posts from plus size fashion, plus size modeling and planning weddings.  If you want to check out our article it's called "13 Year International Love Story! A Real Size Bride's LDR Advice."

My wedding planning has slowed down a bit due to the holidays but is starting to pick up again. I've posted new ideas on my Pinterest board and still on the search for more teapots.

I Totally Scored!

I feel like I won the lottery!  I stopped at a St. Vincent de Paul store on the way to mom's today and found this set. It was only $4.00.  I'm still on the search for teapots but this was being sold as a set; I just couldn't break it up.  I definitely plan on actually using it for tea one day.

This photo really doesn't do it justice, it's an antique looking kind of white.  I'm so in love with this set!

Thanksgiving 2012

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I was lucky to be able to spend it with friends.  We had a traditional meal with a gloriously delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, corn, homemade stuffing, and dinner rolls.  We finished it all off with pumpkin pie and apple-pear pie.  We enjoyed each other's company, laughed and watched some great movies: Eight Crazy Nights, The Tale of Despereaux, Addams Family Values and last but not least, The Color of Magic.  I take photos of holidays and special occasions because I get sad that Vernon is not there with me, so I bring him with me by taking pictures and talking about him.  Last night was even better because they turned on The Color of Magic, which is a movie based on the Discworld Book series by Terry Pratchett.  Vernon and I have read all of the Rincewind books together and then watched the movie together on one of my trips to England.  But, to be honest, he and I weren't very impressed with the movie and quickly dozed off.  There was so much missing that we got frustrated.  When watching the same movie last night, everyone liked it so very much.  I enjoyed it and happily talked about the Terry Pratchett books with everyone.  It was like Vernon was there and at one moment during the movie I felt emotional and wanted to cry.

 

The next day is.... you guessed it... Black Friday.  I did this once several years ago.  I stood out in a parking lot with a friend at like 4am and I don't think either of us were really planning on getting anything specific.  We just wanted to have the experience.  I don't think I'll ever do that again, especially with the crazy stories that I hear every year  and the scary videos that I see. I can't imagine what the rest of the world thinks of us crazy Americans fighting each other, stepping on children and grabbing and shoving like a bunch of starving wild dogs over a freshly killed deer carcass. It's pretty sad when you think about it.  Just so you non-Americans know, we all aren't like that. 

Today I did go out on Black Friday, but later in the morning when the psycho craziness had died down; but the parking lots are still full and stores are still busy, but it's all civilized.  I stopped at the Goodwill store and found a couple of beautiful teapots for my reception centerpieces.  I want to find used ones and I don't want them to match.  They only cost $1.50 each. I feel like I got the best deal of Black Friday! I was so excited to find these.  I'm going to go back a few times a month to look for more. These are the only ones I'm going to share because I don't want to spoil all the fun.  So exciting!

Tomorrow I have a second Thanksgiving dinner with my parents so that will be fun.  I was able to have some face time with Vernon today after I came back from my Black Friday shopping and he said to me, "Darling, I'm glad you get to have multiple Thanksgiving meals".  Yeah, me too.

It's 10pm and I Should Be in Bed

I'm planning a wedding.  I'm going on no sleep because nothing is booked yet.  I'm up til 2am looking for cake ideas, music, centerpiece ideas, dresses, you name it.  Vernon doesn't want to wait until October so we agreed to pay the extra cost in airfare and do it in July.  I'm really excited about becoming his wife, but right now all I can do is cry.  He's not here.  He's been so supportive but he's not here.  I can't IM him now because he's sleeping and works in a few hours.  The reason I'm crying is because I just realized that I can't have the one thing that I have always wanted at my wedding, the thing that I have been building everything else around and that is daffodils.  I just assumed that they were grown in warm places and in green houses and they were available anytime.  I went to a florist and she tried to talk me out of them until I told her how important they were to me.  Every time I go to England in the spring, I leave here ass deep in snow and arrive in England to daffodils everywhere.  If the florist can get them she said they may be super expensive.  We can't do super expensive on anything.  I know this is a stupid thing to be upset about but Vern and I have waited 13 years for this... will be closer to 14 when the date finally gets here.  You would think I'd be able to have the flower that I want.  I thought I'd look for wholesale flowers, that came up empty too.  I want to plan something that reflects us and our personalities and daffodils are it.  Vernon is so tired when he gets home from work and I bombard him with links and questions and prices and  pictures and he doesn't complain and gives me the feedback that I need.  He feels bad he can't be here to help and I'm trying to not be obsessive but I want it to be special for him.

I've also discovered something else.  We can't be together when we buy our wedding rings.  It's like going out to buy a pair of shoes.  I'll go out and pick it out and try it on, and Vern will do the same and then we purchase them.  We are supposed to do that together and we can't.  My ring will have to be put together and Vern will need to try his on for perfect fit.  Next time I see him will be for the wedding.  This entire process has been fun but stressful and emotional.  The LDR veterans who have done this before me... I have no idea how you did it without falling apart.  I think maybe I'm just tired tonight.

It's Thanksgiving this week.  I can't be with my daughter and I can't be with Vernon.  That's got me down as well.  This is one bummer of a post and I apologize but I needed to get this out so I can go to sleep.  I'm so tired.  Thank you for listening and I promise I'll make the next post more upbeat and wedding like.

Our Summer Vacation 2012: Pictures, Porketta, Pizza and a Perfect New Swim Suit

Vernon was here for two weeks in July/August.  He brought his daughter and the four of us had a wonderful time.  We started out on day one with family photos!  We were sad that Vernon's son was not able to make it but we really wanted to do this and it seemed like the girls enjoyed it as well.  My friend Nick of NJ Freelance is ridiculously talented and I so badly wanted him to take these photos.  We were so grateful that he said yes!

The first few days they were here it rained.  Here I told him it was going to be sunny and hot and it was just as it was back in England... rainy.  The midwest was experiencing a drought at the time, so it wasn't much rain, and in England they were having severe flooding which was causing mudslides and the like.  Two extreme weather conditions both with devastating results.  Fortunately we didn't suffer from the drought as much as they did in southern Wisconsin.  We just saw it in the produce department with the pitiful looking ears of corn and higher produce prices.

When I go out I like to be prepared, especially when it comes to weather.  Living in the midwest all my life that is the way it goes.  Still raining off and on when they first arrived I thought we'd try "Out to Lunch" in downtown Iron Mountain.  The city sponsors free music entertainment, vendors come by selling food and from 11-2 people can enjoy music while eating their lunch.  We all dressed warm and I even brought an umbrella. The second we got to the concert, the sun came out stronger than I have seen it all summer.  Poor Vernon burned his head and I was hot in my jeans.  Poor Yasmine had long sleeves on.  I blame myself for telling everyone to dress warm.  Heidi and Yaz went to the downtown shops and looked around.  Yaz found some cute souvenirs to take home to friends and family and she got herself a really cute sweatshirt.  Oh... and Vernon had his first Porketta from Crispigna's and he loved it!  They make great Porketta!  I love how he trusts me when I get him to try new foods.  Me... I'm not so adventurous.

Our first weekend together we took the girls to the mall in Appleton, WI.  We had a great time.  We were surprised at how long the girls were gone.  Vernon and I stopped at a few places, but ended up in the food court, hanging out, people watching.  It was nice just hanging out together.  The best part was when we all had lunch at Rocky Rococo's!  It is my most favorite pizza in the entire world.  Some days I actually consider driving the 2.5 hours to Appleton just to have their pizza.  It's so so good.

Vernon enjoyed his pizza, and I believe that Yasmine did too.  It was awesome that they tried out my favorite pizza place. 

Before Vernon and Yasmine arrived I had purchased the most amazing swim suit.  I had not bought a swim suit in probably over 10 years.  I really wanted something that would support my chest and be comfortable.  Well, after searching and searching which seemed like for months, I found Linda the Bra Lady who specializes in garments for women blessed in the "chestial region". I found a beautiful suit top. I found a matching skirt bottom on another site. Vernon loves it and I got many compliments.  Vern and I went to the beach at Lake Antoine here in Iron Mountain.  It's a nice family oriented beach and park and it was not crowded at all.  We had a relaxing quiet afternoon.

We had a great start to our visit together and to Yasmine's first time out of the UK.  It was really important to me that I show her as much as possible, focusing on what we have and do here in the beautiful Upper Peninsula.  

Still Swooning Over the Royal Wedding

I don't know why... but this wedding was the most fun I had since I was actually IN England and I haven't even done a post on it yet. I was reading one of my favorite blogs and noticed an exciting post by Melissa of Smitten By Britain. The Royal Wedding DVD will be out soon! That inspired me to finally write about what I thought about the wedding. Prince William is so charming... (sorry for the pun); and Kate is so classy and down to earth. There is nothing "common" about Kate. Haters were getting sick

of all the hype about the wedding, the specials on every channel, the interviews with crazy royalty memorabilia collectors, look-a-likes making dance videos and the history of their relationship. I could never decide which channel to land on, but would stop if I saw Sharon Osbourne or Piers Morgan, two of my favorite Brits. While I was in England only 2 weeks before the wedding I could see all the tv ads for party supplies, bakeries, jewelers selling the similar famous engagement ring and retailers selling party dresses and fancy hats. Vern and I had been in Corfe and Swanage for the day and did some souvenir shopping. I saw magnets, keychains, spoons, bells, notebooks, jewelry boxes and this plate. I looked at these items, picked up other things for friends and family, came back to the Will and Kate stuff, looked at them again, picked them up, put them down, and told myself that I need to spend my money on postcards for my collection, Heidi and "the babies" (my niece and nephews). I knew I'd regret it but got over it.... well, we got home that night and everyone showed up to wish me a Happy Birthday and low and behold I got the same plate I saw earlier from Vernon's mother. I just started laughing out loud! It is so pretty and English and exactly what I wanted. And to think I nearly bought something like this myself.  I have it proudly displayed on my shelf above my desk at work next to my model trolley car from San Francisco and my model red double decker bus from London.

I loved everything about the hype, the procession, the cheering, the flags, the people, and the ceremony. The ceremony was wonderful. I especially loved Kate's dress. Wow! So simple and elegant. It was perfect. And her sister looked like a Hollywood movie star. It was fun finding the occasional famous person... well, lots of those people were famous, so I should say famous people that I actually knew. I loved the dresses and shoes and hats... all the hats! I'm not a hat person, but they are fun to look at. Some were just terrible too.... loved laughing at them! Like the two I call "the two ugly stepsisters". OMG! I had no idea who they were, but then later I found out they were the daughters of Sarah Ferguson who wasn't invited to the wedding, all of which I didn't understand until I read up on it later.... drama drama drama... now back on track to "the two ugly stepsisters". Those outfits!  That blue dress was, um.... yeah. And then that bow hat... what was that? Do they not own mirrors? If I were there I would have wanted to throw a bean bag through the hoop to win the prize. I guess when you are rich you can dress how you want no matter how hideous.

The moments after the ceremony were wonderful. The carriage ride was out of a fairytale, (YES! I said "fairytale"!) and the march of all the people to the gates of Buckingham Palace...I was amazed at how orderly the people were escorted, and the crowds went on forever. I couldn't believe how many people were there, especially the crazy Americans. Then the kiss... I nearly missed that because I had to get ready for work and they finally kissed... TWICE! So cute.

  

The best part of the wedding wasn't waking up at 4am,  finding the right channel to watch on TV, or logging onto the official Royal YouTube channel and keeping an eye on both screens so I don't miss a thing.  The best part was that little "beep" that led me to discover that..... VERN IS ONLINE!!!!!!! I tell him I'm going to call so we watched the wedding together. It was perfect. Watching the most perfect wedding on the phone with the most perfect man. It was great and I was in a happy giddy mood for the rest of the day at work.

A Castle, Shopping, and a Baby!

I have recently been to England to see Vernon. It was only for 2 weeks and I wanted lots of family time. Well, I got what I asked for as his sweet little granddaughter arrived in this world during my visit there. She is so very beautiful! I think he's going to love being a grandpa.

I told Vernon that I wanted to see a castle. He took me to Corfe Castle and it was breathtaking! It was extremely windy, but it was sunny and clear. There was lots of walking and hiking and now that I'm 35lbs lighter, I was able to enjoy all of that walking and hiking.  It was also my birthday the day we came out here. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate my 40th birthday!

I am not only blessed to have Vernon in my life; I have a wonderful girlfriend named Victoria. She didn't have to be my friend, but from the first moment we met I think we hit it off. She is loving, caring, generous, supportive and understanding. She is a very good friend to me and it is so wonderful having a girlfriend to hang out with during my trips to England. Yes, I love spending every waking and non-waking moment with my Sweetheart, but a girl needs her girlfriends and I really love and appreciate her. I also have to mention our shopping trips. She knows where all the great stores are, especially the ones that carry clothes in my size. I've picked things up from Peacocks, Bonmarche, and Marks & Spencer. 

Yeovil, Somerset is my favorite place in the world, obviously because of Vernon, his family, and everyone else there that I love. Secondly, I love it for all the SHOPPING!

Vernon and I had such a wonderful time sight seeing, spending quiet time together as a family, welcoming a precious new life into the world, and spending quality time with good friends. I love the way I feel when I am with him, and I love knowing that he will be there for me forever. I really miss him.

 
  

21 DAYS!

This photo was taken during my last trip to England, December 2009. It seems like several years ago. Well, in 21 days Vernon will have his arms around me in Bristol airport and I can't wait. I'm sad that I have to leave the kid behind but she'll be studying for finals. Tonight I got a new camera, nothing fancy, and it was on sale. I have my flip camera for taking videos which I really love, and I've been picking up things like chocolate and Lucky Charms for the kids per their request. I plan on stocking up on Curly Wurlys as  they are mine and Heidi's favorite candy bar! But... I've been eating healthier for the past 2 months, down 25 pounds and I don't know if I'm smaller than I was when this photo was taken. I have all the same clothes but they are so worn and old it's hard to tell. I have a goal to lose 10 more before the trip but we'll see how that goes. I'm not worried about sticking to my new eating habits while I'm there. Europeans eat differently than Americans. We Americans are pigs and eat way too much. I love the smaller portions in the restaurants and even at the grocery store, the family sizes aren't really that big. I'll have to remind Vernon to fill the ice cube trays as I will be drinking lots of water and I like it COLD! COLD! COLD! Lukewarm water makes me gag. Yuk. Two weeks with Vernon isn't enough. It's overwhelming when I get there, then we get into a mode where it just feels so right when we are together. We can sit quietly in the car, in the living room, at the table, I fall asleep on him when we are watching movies, we are each other's missing half. I'll be turning 40 while I'm there. I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday, especially such a special one. I'm going shopping for clothes with a very good friend so that will be exciting. We've gone shopping together before, and we had a blast. Leaving is horrible. Just thinking about it makes me cry. We feel it creeping up on us when there are 3 days left, then 2, then 1, then we're saying goodbye at security and I have to sit all by myself waiting to board the plane. I cry a lot on that day. It doesn't get easier. I've done this several times and it just doesn't get easier. It's almost easier not going at all, but that's just flipping crazy. I want us to do lots of relaxing, lots of talking, cooking, and I want to watch movies. I did recently whine to him about wanting to visit a castle so he sent me several choices and I'll be picking out where I want to go. I still have to pick up some dramamine so I don't have a repeat performance of the time Heidi and I had our faces in the barf bags as we were roughly coming in for a landing in North Carolina. That was terrible! It's going to be a long 21 days.

Happy Valentine's Day to Me!

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful man like Vernon. He spoils me every year for Valentines Day, just when I think I know what to expect he throws me something I do not expect. And I never expected this!

The end of a fabulous shopping trip

The stupid alarm clock is buzzing and buzzing so loudly! I can't find the snooze button no matter what I hit. It took me forever to set the alarm the night before so that I would wake up with the soft gentle sounds of music in the morning and not wake up Kim, well, that didn't happen.  I felt terrible. Last night I asked her what time she wanted to wake up and she told me 6:30, so I set the alarm for 6. Stupid ass alarm clock. Well, we got an early start, had breakfast although from the way we stuffed our faces the night before, I wasn't hungry for much. Now is when I start thinking about how much fun I had, and it wasn't where I was or what I was doing, it was who I was with. I really wasn't looking forward to taking her back to Grand Rapids but I really couldn't kidnap her could I? The drive back was fun, again we didn't run out of anything to talk about. We also got to pass through the Village of Vernon. Kim and I stopped to take a pic and couldn't stop laughing.

The entire time I was with Kim I could be myself and we talked about all sorts of topics, topics we agreed on and topics we didn't agree on and it was all good.  I missed her before actually meeting her in person, and now that I've met her I miss her so unbelievably much. I hope that she had as much fun as I did and that she felt comfortable around me. I owe a lot to my sister for helping me make this a super shopping trip for Kim, and it was awesome seeing her and my beautiful niece.

My blog is mainly dedicated to my long distance relationship with my best friend and partner Vernon, but these last three posts are dedicated to Kim, my wonderful dear friend with whom I have had a long distance friendship for a little over a year.  She's been on the second half of her vacation here in the states so I haven't heard from her since I dropped her off last week, but I'm so excited to see her online again and to see photos and hear about the rest of her trip.

I had the pleasure of meeting her boyfriend, and he is simply charming. Very nice looking, great smile, and obviously so good to Kim. It was fun sitting in our hotel room with our bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade talking about "boys". We are both very lucky girls.  I look forward to the day when she can meet Vernon. I know he will just adore Kim and vice versa. Kim, I'm really going to miss you, I've got tears in my eyes writing this but I know we'll be friends forever and that makes me really happy!