And thank you Lord, they all agree to wear it!!!

After hours of Internet shopping and visiting bridal store after bridal store, we have finally chosen the perfect bridesmaid dress for my friends and sisters to wear, designed by Watters.

Now the next thing I have to do is find the accessories I need to make each girl stand out in a unique way. I'm planning on doing this by finding them a special broach to wear on the bodice of the dress, and a simple diamond letter of their first name initial to add to their bouquet, like so: 

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Have you ever gotten the feeling that God was trying to tell you something?

I received an e-mail yesterday called "Love One Another" from Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. A weekly electronic "homily," he chose this week to share his thoughts on what people should be concentrating on during the "Season of Mercy." His number one recommendation? Confession. Instantly my heart dropped.

Let me confess something to all of you: I haven't been to confession in almost five years.

When it comes down to it, there really isn't a huge reason why I've been avoiding it. I kept telling myself that I couldn't this week because of school, work, family responsibilities, baby-sitting, etc ... you know, all those things that I just CAN'T drop.

Recently, I've been thinking about the sacrament of reconciliation a lot, and I think I've finally come up with a good analogy for it, based on my own experiences. Funny enough, it has to do with caring for your teeth.

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Matt and I finally took the FOCCUS “test” yesterday, and boy, all I can is, it’s a doozy.

The long questionnaire was filled with all those burning questions that many of us may have been too afraid to ask our significant other. From financial responsibilities to raising your children in the Catholic faith, it touched all aspects of life. Below are some that stood out to me:  

“You are happy with the domestic roles that you and your fiancé have chosen” (agree). “Marriage is the only way you will be truly happy in your life” (disagree). “I have had homosexual tendencies towards members of the same sex, and I’m afraid it will ruin my future marriage” (disagree…wow, what a question).   

After taking the time to review the questions that we had to agree/disagree with, I have come to the conclusion that talking about these things is WAY SO IMPORTANT before you get married. Soon we will be meeting with the FOCCUS couple to learn the results.

One thing I do want to discuss with the couple that we will be meeting with is how they got about making their new house or apartment their "home." Now that Matt is in the new place, and I've got some of my things in too, I expected that I would feel comfortable being there. However, I'm just not. It's cold, I can't get the Bravo channel, and sometimes I just want to lay in bed and read (my bed!). Most of the time I just can't wait to get back to my parent's house (yes, I'm 27 and still living with my parents. You got a problem with that?) and just relax there.

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It’s almost Valentine’s Day! Is everyone excited? Have you gotten started on sending chocolates and flowers and jewelry to your “special someone”? Have you perfected your poem and written out your card? Made reservations at a special restaurant?

No? Well, neither have I. Go figure.

It’s not as though Matt and I are “over” V-Day, but actually we kind of just ran out of ideas when it came to surprising each other. Honestly, he’s not going to buy me jewelry anymore because all I ever do is lose it, and me buying him flowers? Yeah, I’ve experienced enough ridicule from when I did that the last time.

Not only that, but saving up money for the wedding does put a damper on what you as a couple can do. It’s hard to justify going out for a $100 meal at “The Melting pot” or “Twisted Fork” when you are staring at the estimated cost of a wedding bar bill for $1,800 (boy, what a shock when you’re used to Riverwest bar prices!).

Anyway, I guess the point of this blog is that, just because you both are on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate special holidays during the year. Below you can find a plethora of ideas on dating with a budget.

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It occurred to me after I posted my last blog that I didn’t fulfill my promise of keeping everyone up to date on my exercise/eating right promise to myself and all you readers.

Yeah, there was a reason for that. Nothing’s been happening yet.

It isn’t like I haven’t been doing the work. I cut down on my alcohol drinking and eating of fast food, I take walks outside as many times as I’m able (usually about once a day), and drink plenty of water and drink no soda. What’s the hold up?

Who knows the real truth behind weight loss and exercise. All I know is that I just finished a garden salad with Italian dressing (was it low fat? I forgot to look…) and I’m on my third bottle of water (I just buy one bottle and then refill it). How do I feel? Pretty empty, to tell you the truth. I miss that extremely full, slightly sick feeling I get after eating a Big Mac. Or a supreme beef burrito. Or a pile of hot wings from Buffalo Wild Wings.

Oh no. Cravings!

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There is nothing more that I hate than moving.

Wait, let me elaborate on that. There is nothing more that I hate than moving someone other than myself to a new place.

Is it really almost the first of February? The time when my fiancé will finally be able to live in the brand new, spacious duplex in Bay View, mere minutes from the lake and downtown Bay View attractions, situated in a quaint, quiet neighborhood? Yay! That’s really quite exciting! 

Wait, I have to help you move there?!

You know the prayer, “God, grant me the serenity”? Yup, this is one of those prayers that I’ve been mumbling under my breath since Sunday. I figured if I’m going to suffer, it might as well be for a good cause. All those souls in purgatory need all the prayers they can get.

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I have had an epiphany.

It all began today when I woke up at 6 a.m., even though my dad told me I didn’t have to come into work this morning. Which was good, because I was hung-over.

While I laid in bed, withering in pain from a massive headache, I began to think over my life this past year. While I don’t really drink as much as I should to warrant the hang-overs I’ve been getting (3 beers tops over a period of four hours, for the most part), I had to admit that something had to be done.  

That’s when I turned on the television, and my life changed.

I caught the second half of the E! True Hollywood Story: Valerie Bertinelli. Much as I was currently doing, Valerie spent many years of her life on cruise control, eating what she wanted, exercising as little as possible and just letting life pass her by. However, she managed to change all that when she became the Jenny Craig spokeswomen, inspiring millions of women in the country, including yours truly. Since this morning, that is.

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So last night my fiancé and I watched “500 Days of Summer,” an awesome kind-of love story with a realistic but not unkind ending. It was funny, warm-hearted, sad, and very reminiscent of my past relationships.

Can I say that, relationships? I better, because it would be kind of sad to say technically Matt was my first boyfriend. At the age of 23 (wait, 24, because he asked me after the New Year).

 So. Divine plan, huh? Destiny, a path.  Life is planned out, right?  Let’s see how viewing my past relationships led me to Matt.

1. Mike: He worked for my family’s business, and I was swept away with his height, his hair and his deep brown eyes. We went on exactly three dates before he left for college an hour and a half away. Hadn’t kissed, barely hugged, grazed my hand in the popcorn bucket … let’s face it: he just wasn’t that into me.


2. Tim: He too worked for my family’s catering business (see a pattern here?), only we managed to hang out much more often, an entire summer in fact. We saw movies, got ice cream, drove around in his car … years later I discovered why he too never kissed me: gay.


3. Peter: Now this guy could actually be said to have been my first boyfriend, although when the situation came up, he always discouraged that kind of idea. I met him through my sister’s husband, learned how to flirt with him, kissed him many times, and basically gave him my heart before I knew he even wanted it.  He later hinted to me that he wanted a relationship without the responsibilities (“I’m not looking for a girlfriend, but let's hang out every night”), and after three months I discovered that I gave way too much away for a guy like that. He broke up with me (yes, I’ll admit it), and left me hurting inside for too long than I care to admit. He’s the one I learned the most from, and if I want to be honest with myself, the one who led me to my future husband.


4. Matt: I met Matt while still going out with #3, so obviously I was so entirely infatuated with him that Matt wasn’t even on the radar, especially after we broke up and I swore off men altogether (I wasn’t going to switch to women, I was just going to head to a religious convent).  I left for South Africa for school soon after, learned why I was hurting so much for a guy who didn’t care that much for me, and discovered the kind of guy I DID want.

Here’s a letter I wrote my friend before I came back from my trip:

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All right … let’s see here … is this what I’m looking for? No, I don’t think this is it. Oh wait, yes it is.

 FOCCUS.

The words seem to jump out at me from the computer screen, where I’m doing some research on the subject for my upcoming nuptials. Although Matt and I did get a sense of this from Fr. Jim when we met with him for the first time, I discovered afterward that I was so nervous that I didn’t hear a word he said.

Being the journalist that I am, I decided to do it on my own and get some much-needed answers for a life that I will soon be entering.

Oh heaven help me.

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Now that I have your attention, let me be the first one to tell you that it's not true. So far.      

However, I felt that my topic this week should be about the topic of children, something that apparently everyone I know who's married has to deal with at one time or another (and even those who aren't!).

Matt and I did discuss children last night, a continuing topic these past couple of months. While we are both in agreement that waiting for at least a year or two before becoming pregnant would be very wise for the two of us (we both feel we're childish enough as it is), we still feel excited at the prospect of having kids. 

Not only kids of our own, but adopting kids is also an idea for our family. I have a niece and nephew who were both adopted from South Korea (Hanna Cha and Jake), and ever since we picked them up one by one at O'Hare Airport, I've been excited at the thought of doing it again. Hopefully we can find a couple of kids from West or South Africa who are in need of a family. 

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