Let's be honest

I have been tagged by the fabulous Canadian Bride to receive the Honest Scrap Award! To accept I have to tell you 10 random (honest) facts.
Here is goes..

1. I have never been on an airplane. And my first time on our honeymoon!
2. I ramble. A lot. Sometimes I just keep talking and talking-and I don't mean to-it's just me.
3. I have insulin resistance-so I can't have carbs or sugars. And am constantly battling with my weight. It's very annoying. But I'm almost to my goal!
4. My scared shitless that I won't be able to have a baby. I've never tried. But it's one of those things I realllllly want-and things never go the way I want them to go.
5. I have 2 cats named after vodka. Stoli and Demetri. We treat them like our babies-spoiled rotten!
6. I am the oldest of all my cousins and brothers and sisters-but still seem to get treated like I'm still 15. (Extremely annoying!)
7. I hate doing the dishes.
8. But I love to clean my house.
9. I love coffee and cigarettes. Gross combo-but I love it in the morning.
10. I'm a hair stylist.

I'm suppose to nominate some more blogs-but I don't want to duplicate anyone. SO-whoever wants to be tagged-tag yourself!! Have fun!

Bella has 1 day left!

My best friend (and MOH) Bella is getting married tomorrow!! I can't believe this day is here already. I remember as if it were yesterday when she told she was engaged. She has been full of smiles and excitement throughout her whole engagement. Her and Ryan are an amazing couple. I wish both of them a lifetime of happiness.

Tonight is her rehearsal/rehearsal dinner. I am busy getting ready..I won't be posting until Sunday. But stay tuned! I will have pictures! I will also be guest blogging on Bella's blog while she is in Sunny Jamaica on her honeymoon-check it out next week!

Congratulations Bella and Ryan! I love you both!

My {future} MIL is the greatest.

I am one of the luckiest brides to say I have the greatest future mother-in-law. She is like a 2nd mother to me. (Even if she teases me-calling me her little princess) She has raised 3 boys...so having me around has been a challenge for her-but I know she enjoys every bit of it-she told me so!

She is hosting our rehearsal dinner...and last week she promised she would take care of reserving our reservations.

And she did!

We will be having our rehearsal at our church at 5pm on May 1st, 2009.

At 6:30pm we will all gather at the Stonecreek Grill. Mike has lots of friends who work there, and have been going there since it opened. We all love their food! And it's such a cute place! I just love it! We will have the upstairs loft.

Dinner as follows:
Italian Beef
Fried Chicken
Red Roasted Potatoes
Corn on the cob
Garden Salad
Cake (half chocolate and half white)
Soda, iced tea, and coffee


She enabled me to cross yet another thing off my list!!

She is awesome!!



Love you Jill! Thank you!

Honeymoon Part 2

Day 2: Our road trip to Santa Barbara.

We will leave L.A. May 5th and drive up the coast to Santa Barbara. We will be staying at this hotel. It's nothing really fancy but it's perfect for us. We are trying to keep this honeymoon as low cost as we can.
Day 1: LA
Day 2: Road trip-Check in with a bottle of Chardonnay and a box of gourmet chocolates-relax on the beach-and take in as much as we can..
Day 3: Enjoy more of the beach-and then go for our sunset dinner cruise on a 50ft. sailboat.
Check out this view..(I wish we could leave now!)
Day 4: Personalized country winery tour at 4 different wineries. Including a gourmet picnic lunch. A bottle of our chosen wine and 2 souvenir wine glasses. After our wine tour we may walk into town and check out some local restaurants and maybe wind down at some of their local night clubs.
Day 5: Beach and mountain horseback riding. I am especially looking forward to this. I've never seen mountains or the ocean. And absolutely love horses.
Day 6: Our road trip back down the coast to LA, there we will do some more site seeing. Our flight won't be departing until 11:30pm....

Then we will be back home Sunday. Just in time to celebrate Mikey's birthday!

I'm not sure what I'm most excited for....our wedding day...or our honeymoon!!!

T minus 6 weeks

So..last week I told you I have 7 more weeks until my 1st fitting...and I gave you my measurements. (I still can't believe I did that!!) And I promised I would start working out more...

Well, I have! I'm down 3lbs. I've conquered the war I was having with my scale.

It's all thanks to Cyd over at The Sweetest Occasion. She has been my ultimate inspiration! And Jillian Michael's with the 30 Day Shred. She's been kicking my ass. Along with Pick Your Spot Pilates. I feel amazing. I can tell a difference in my stamina and endurance...in just 7 days. It's such an amazing feeling. And my clothes are fitting more loosely each day. I've gone down a couple inches too...

Arm: 11 1/2
Waist: 33 1/2
Hip: 39
Thigh: 20

I think I have done pretty darn good! I hope those inches keep going down!

I just booked my 1st vacation!

I am so excited! I can barely contain myself!

We just booked our flights for our honeymoon!

Our Itinerary reads as follows:
Departing from Chicago: May 4 at 8:07AM
Arriving in LA at 10:36AM

We will be exploring LA, Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Santa Monica our first 2 days in CA. I am a city girl at heart-and I had to see LA if we were coming to California!! We will be staying at the Sky Hotel. It's nothing like the Hilton-but check it out! I just love how fresh and modern it looks. I'm usually the more vintage chic but I love this hotel! I just booked our reservation and the guy who checked us in was super nice! He also said in the beginning of May is the start of their hot season-80 degrees! I am SO looking forward to that! (Here in Chicago it's only 13 degrees...bbbrrrrrrrrrrrr!)

I need some ideas of some cool lounge bars or some hot night clubs! We want to celebrate our 1st night! Any ideas ladies? I have a fav cousin who lives in West Hollywood and she has given me some ideas so far.. The Roxy, Whisky A Go-Go, Elevate Lounge...I'm not sure if we will be able to visit all of them..but we are going to try and hit up a few! I think our plan is to take a cab to Sunset Strip and just walk... I can't wait!

May 5 after breakfast we will drive over to the Santa Monica Pier. I can't wait to see, smell and feel the ocean. I've never seen it. I can't wait. I can't tell you how excited I am!

Next up...our drive to Santa Barbara!

Pretty little dresses

My friend Devon and her daughter, Mahala (my flower girl) came over and we had a shopping adventure! We first went to Burlington Coat Factory to look for flower girl dresses. Unfortunately, we had no luck. None of us fell in love with any of the dresses..

Here is one we thought we liked. But then soon realized we all hated it...


Then we headed over to David's Bridal. I am not a fan of this store at all...but we looked around and found one we loved! In fact, Mahala didn't want to take it off! She felt like a little princess. But I thought $110 was too much for a flower girl dress. But this is the style we all liked! And isn't Mahala the cutest?!

Please excuse my camera phone-I forgot my camera at home!

Now I am scouring the internet in the search of an affordable dress that matches the one at David's Bridal. So far, I'm not having any luck. I mean how hard can it be to find a plain tulle dress?!

Do you girls have any suggestions??? Please help!

Little details

A few weeks ago I posted numerous cake toppers and asked you all what you thought. (Thank you soo much for all the comment love!)

It arrived!



And it's better than I expected! And all under $20! I love it!

Our cake picture is grainy and hard to see-but I tried to find one that looked very similar. Imagine this topper on this cake..


It's crazy how the littlest things excite me so much!

A gift from my MOH.

I received a gift from my MOH recently. She is the craftiest chick I know. And one of the most thoughtful people I know.

In almost 3 months my last name will start with a B...instead of a J.


I absolutely love it. And look forward to admiring it for years and years to come.

Thank you Bella! I wish I was as crafty as you-I'd make you one too!

7 week countdown

Guess what?!

I have 7 more weeks until my 1st fitting! Yikes!

I've lost my holiday weight. But I think I've plateaued. I'm stuck at a 30lb loss. I've stayed the same weight for 2 weeks. It's a little disheartening. I've maintained a strict diet-and still no losses. However, I haven't worked out since Dec. 5th. I've been bad! But I can't complain about my 30lbs loss...

Today I restarted the 30 Day Shred. And it definitely kicked my ass-but not as bad as the 1st few times I did it. So, I think that is good, right?! I'm going to start a workout schedule. Every other day I will do the 30 day Shred along with 20 minute cycling. And every day in between I will do 30 minute pilates with 20 minute cycling. These activities are my favorites...so I think I will get the most out of them. I might even try walking 30 minutes on my lunch break.

I really want to loose some more inches around my tummy. I don't care much about the weight--I just hope to loose some more inches. I'm also hoping that updating this weekly will help me! (This is my blog friend, Cyd's idea!)

Today I'm at...
Arm: 12
Waist: 35
Hip: 43
Thigh: 22

I'm not sure what a healthy goal is. I guess I just want to go down 1 more pants size..

Wish me luck!

and umm..motivation. I'm lacking motivation..(but I'm trying to concentrate on the dress!)