Strawberry Shortcake!

In the two years since I've been diagnosed with Celiac's Disease I've missed out on many of my favorite foods. Pasta, cakes, cookies, bread, all of the things I'm not supposed to eat because now we know it makes me sick.
But of them all, surprisingly, biscuits are what I miss the most.
Box mixes just aren't quite right, and I haven't been brave enough to mix my own yet. But I happened across 123 Gluten Free's biscuit mix and decided to try for a little strawberry shortcake.
They look fabulous, so we'll have to see how they taste!

Vicky's

You know what's really annoying when you're planning a wedding?

Victoria's Secret catalogs that constantly remind you that you are nowhere near ready for a bikini-clad honeymoon.

I'm back on the treadmill, but it's really hard to get motivated when you're running in your basement after the sun goes down (which happens as soon as you get home from work).

Still, every time I finish my 40 minutes and tally up the mileage and the calories I've burned I feel better.

Until 9:20 p.m. when my sweet tooth starts clamoring for attention.

It's 9:19...

Strength

I want to show you what strength is, and what the women in my family are raised to be.
When you fall in love, you hope that everything you see, everything you know about that person is exactly as it should be. That he's just as sweet, faithful, remarkable and true as he was as you fell in love.
Sometimes, however, we don't find out until after that maybe this man is lying. Maybe he's not so good, so sweet, so faithful.
There are so many women in this world who turn a blind eye to that; so many women who would find this weakness and cover it back up as quickly as possible, not wanting their image of him to be sullied.
And then there are women like my cousin, who put her foot down, and then brought the other one down on his face right after it.
Read this blog, and remind yourself of what strength is. So that if a friend or a loved one finds herself covering up the bad man, she may find the fortitude to stand on her own two feet instead.
The Release
I have never been more proud of you, Amber.

From Miss to Mrs.

Two months after my sister got married, my boyfriend dropped down on one knee in the comfort of our home and asked me to spend forever with him.

My beautiful ring.

Obviously I said yes.

My family requested that I wait a little while before planning anything - just to give them a break from my sister's wedding.

That was fine by me, as I was a little burned out on matrimony myself.

I've given them two months, but I haven't been sitting on my hands (who could with that rock on the left hand?!). I've scoured the venues in my area, I've started making a guest list, thought about my dress and even made an appointment for a store in Massachusetts for October. I think I've found a venue, done a precursory selection of the menu, and figured out how I would decorate the reception ballroom.

I've done all of this and I already want out.

It's been two months of quasi-planning and it makes me queasy (say that five times fast).

Don't get me wrong - I want to marry this man. I will marry this man. But I don't see the need to spend the equivalent to a down payment on a house for one night's celebration.

Maybe that's just the initial shock still absorbing, but some of these places are ridiculous! Thousands of dollars just to stand on your grounds for 30 minutes while I say "I do"? A $3 per chair charge for the ceremony so our families can sit down? And 20% gratuity? What if the servers or waitstaff are terrible?? Am I still required to give a 20% gratuity? (The answer is yes, actually. They can fling boogers on my dress and I still have to tip them 20%.)

Now that I know what my sister had to go through for her own wedding, I honestly would just rather elope.

But my guest list of 230 people would not be happy with us.

You read that correctly.

230.

Let the Hunger Games begin.

Date, set, match

We set a date!!

Three months after he proposed, and after checking every venue in the state, we finally found the place we're going to become husband and wife.
So now all the other silly little details can be figured out. Like what to put on the tables, where to seat everyone, which dress I'm going to wear, all that other crap that doesn't matter to anyone else but me.

And then there's the one thing that I will probably stress about until June.
The guest list.

Right now there are 230 people on it, and I have to cut it down to at least 180. Somehow.

#firstworldproblems