It's Friday!!

cu97tiger

It's Friday, ladies... WOOHOO! Last night I drove down to Richmond (where my sister lives) and am working from her couch today. We're going to go to my niece's elementary school to have lunch with her. And I'll get to play with my 3 year old nephew all day, too. Oh, AND I get to see the new condo my parents had built. They are so proud of it, so I can't wait to see it.

Tomorrow, my sister, brother-in-law and I are walking in a 10k. We are all various shades of injured, so we won't be breaking any time barriers. Sunday morning I'll drive home to DH and the dogs. I already miss them!

What exciting things do you have planned this weekend?

Dignity100

YAY Friday!!

@Cu97tiger - have fun at your sister's and visiting with family today!

My ILs are doing a birthday dinner for my BIL and me this weekend (since they were out of town for both our Bdays).  Other than that, we have nothing planned - just the way I like it!

[Deleted User]

@cu97tiger - Lucky you, working for your sister's couch!!

@Dignity100 - Are you going out to eat for your birthdays?

I came in to work a little later today...  I did my PiYo Lower Body work out this morning so I didn't have to worry about it later.  I did PiYo Sweat last night, too!  My body is really starting to recuperate.  Once I hit the 3-week mark, I could tell a difference.

I'm here until lunch today, and then H and I have lots of errands to run!  I need to return some shoes to DSW that didn't fit, pick up some stuff at the alterations place, go by Half Price Books, run to the fabric store to pick up some lace, go by Home Depot and Target, and then do our grocery shopping.  Busy evening!

Tomorrow morning I think we're going to go for a walk.  I'm making pork chile colorado for dinner tomorrow evening, but besides that we don't have any plans yet.  Sounds good to me!  I need to plant some more in my garden... I didn't get all of my onions planted the other day.

I'm eating a honey mango right now, and it is soooooo good. 

[Deleted User]

LOL @TwoDime's FFIL.  I think I would have an issue with that, too!

minskat30

Morning ladies!

@cu97Tiger - Have fun at your sister's house!

@cocbellaf - MMM, honey mango. 

@TwoDimes - Ugh, I'm sure your FFIL meant well but, just, ugh.

-----------------------------------------

I'm so glad its Friday.  Yesterday was a zoo at work (as was the day before...as will be the day today).  Lots of people take off to be with their kids, which I get, but it means very few of us left at the office doing all the deal work.  So, yeah, I'm tired. 

I'm excited for the weekend through because Sunday H turns 39!!!  And then Monday is our anniversary.  Two years flew by.  I'm taking H out for dinner on Sunday.  He wants me to take off on Monday but I doubt I'll be able to because of work.  Nonetheless, we will be in Mexico in exactly two weeks so the count down is keeping me going! 

[Deleted User]

Happy anniversary, @minskat30!

KeptInStitches

Yay Friday!

@cu97tiger, have fun at your sister's!

@twodimes, I feel you. Bad FFIL sharing the email.

@minskat30, happy early anniversary!

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Tonight FI and I are going to keep working on the house. Tomorrow FGMIL is coming to take away the peonies. The evil peonies that probably are the reason I had ants in the kitchen last summer ... yeah, those suckers can leave. Sunday we have church because it's Palm Sunday and we should go then as opposed to Wednesday evening. Otherwise I'm not aware of anything going on except that I'll keep working on my zerovalent iron lecture.

Last night we finalized the menu for the wedding - house salads with ranch or Italian dressing

chicken piccata

glazed brown sugar ham with apple-raisin compote

garlic mashed potatoes

chef's choice vegetable (probably medley)

dinner rolls

cake - chocolate with chocolate mousse filling, amaretto with caramel filling, pink champagne with raspberry mousse filling

Later we'll have snacks available - chips, caramel popcorn, and snack mix (probably Chex mix). Not fancy but good food.

lavenderfields13

@cutiger97 have fun this weekend with your family!

omg @twodimes I would be panicking too - is your FI going to get this straightened out? How awkward. People on my side and FI's side talked to other people about the wedding (who we weren't definite about inviting yet) and it was so really irritating because then people assumed they were invited.

I don't have much planned for this weekend- need to make dinner reservations for FI's birthday next weekend and get the supplies for the balloon thing I posted the other day.

[Deleted User]

@cutiger97 - I love your new anniversary pic in your siggy!

@minskat30 - Happy Anniversary!

@KeptInStitches - Your cake sounds amazing. I want it NOW!

Today I'll probably get off work around 2:00-3:00. Nothing much planned this evening. Probably just a nice dinner at home and some cleaning/laundry.

Saturday we're driving up to Ft. Collins to visit BIL, SIL and our niece. I can't believe she's already 10 months old! We're planning to have an afternoon picnic at a park since it's supposed to be around 80 degrees. So nice!

Sunday I'm seeing Insurgent with my girlfriends in the morning. Then H and I will be going out to dinner with another couple. We're trying to squeeze in as many couple dates before the baby gets here. Should be a fun weekend.

Next wednesday my mom is coming into town for a whole week...so I can hardly wait to see her! 

[Deleted User]

@allusive007 - You sound like you have a really fun weekend coming up!!! 

Oh, I had my performance review yesterday... even though I have only been with this company a few months, they still like my performance enough to give me a prorated increase in pay!  It's not much, but it's better than nothing at all. Hooray!!

lavenderfields13

TwoDimes said:

@lavenderfields13 FI is going to talk to his dad about it, but I'm not sure there's much they can do since it's already out there. I think trying to retract it would just make it worse, so probably the best course of action is to just let it go and hope nobody forwards the email to 8,956 friends. I feel obligated to invite the second cousin since the email went straight to him from FFIL, but if anybody gets a forwarded copy, we'll just have to say, "Sorry for the confusion, but we can only have so many guests due to (fill in the blank reason)..." type of thing.

ETA - and even though FFIL made this little blunder, I'm pretty sure that most people would know not to forward on that sort of thing, right?

I would really hope people would know not to do this! Some people just don't have a clue

@cocbellaf congrats on the increase!

[Deleted User]

Congrats on the raise @cocobellaf! I bet it feels great to be appreciated immediately!

LizzyTish88

@cu97tiger I also love your new anniversary picture in your signature! Have fun with your family this weekend!

@TwoDimes I hope everything works itself out! Sucks when something silly happens from someone trying to be nice, but I'm sure everything will be fine!

@minskat30 Happy Anniversary!

Not too much going on around here this weekend. We have to do a deep clean of the house. BF also said he wants to try to get to the movies this weekend, but we have no idea what we would see. 

Saturday my cousin has a cheer competition so I'll be going to that for a bit. Her team is competing against the local team that I wrote about in my distraction thread so hopefully I will see them get their butts whipped! LOL

I also had my first dream about the actual ring last night. It was so bizarre. It was like 4 rings all connected with four different small diamonds, but when put all together, and in the dark, it looked like Tony Stark's arch reactor. Freakin' strange!!

Hummingbird125

Hey all!

@cu97tiger - Have fun @ your sisters and props to you for the 10k! I have zero motivation to ever walk, run, or crawl any set distance like that..

@cocobellaF - idk what a honey mango is, but now I want one. And congrats on the raise!

@TwoDimes - WTF. Ugh. I'm sorry - that just sucks, but DO NOT stress over it because there is nothing you can do now. I think you should let FFIL & FI  know exactly how to handle responses from people who are not invited to the wedding (if anyone even forwards it, that is), and leave them in charge of that.

@KeptinStitches 0 Glazed ham is one of my favorite things ever. I'd be super happy to have that as an option! I'd also gorge myself on some caramel corn (just ask @GoldenPenguin....)

I'm super antsy for the workday to be over. FI's friend from his hometown should be arriving around 3pm today. We'll probably head into the city fairly early and get some dinner and then go out for drinks. No idea where yet. I think a friend of mine is meeting up with us as well, so it should be fun!

Tomorrow we're planning on going to Captain Lawrence Brewery, which is about 20 minutes away from us. I can basically get drunk on $12, so it's a great deal, AND dogs are allowed so we might bring the pup! Tomorrow night, I assume we'll go out in the city again, but I won't drink a lot because....

Sunday is my bridal shower!!!!! I seriously can't believe it's time for this already. Time is FLYING by! I'm soooo excited to see what my mom and sister planned, and I am thrilled to have a bunch of friends and family in the same room. I've also managed to completely avoid registry-stalking, so I have NO CLUE what I'm getting off my registry, which is going to make opening gifts so much fun! 

nycgal85

It's Friday and I'm barely functional this morning...which sucks since I have office hours, two meetings, teaching, and then we have to go on the castle tour at 5. 

FI and I had another WR argument. This was the BIG ONE. He didn't come home until 9pm because he was so angry, but we spent a few hours talking it out before bed and then since we both woke up early too, we talked about it more this morning. I think we needed it in all honesty, there were a lot of hurtful things said, but even more so was the things that we felt we couldn't say, and that's all out in the open now. We discussed money, we discussed my BSC mother who is the root cause of most of these arguments (I'm fine until I talk to her...oh, and she dropped the bombshell on me yesterday that the amount of $$ she had originally said she would contribute would actually be half of that, so my budget is f*ed), we discussed what we wanted, what our fears are, what our priorities are, and where we are willing to compromise to make this work. 

I feel a lot better emotionally than I have in the past week or so. Now I just need sleep. But we are still doing the venue tours this weekend, and we're looking at it as a way to decide whether we can or cannot pull off this type of wedding. If we can't, then we need to regroup and figure out something else.

Hummingbird125

@nycgal85 - Hugs. I remember driving home from a venue (that was affordable, but we hated it) with FI once, and seeing that someone I knew got engaged and I got super upset. In my head, all I could think was "This girl is going to have it easy and get to have the wedding she wants without stressing out about the cost of every goddamn thing." I was feeling like there was just NO WAY I'd wind up with a wedding I would be happy with.

Be patient. You WILL find a way to have a wedding you are happy with. That might mean cutting the guest list a lot (which will mean a few tough conversations, but you'll make it out the other end). It may mean doing a Sunday brunch wedding (I have ALWAYS wanted to go to one). It might mean a Friday night wedding. It might mean, as it did in my case, renting out town-owned venue and bringing in EVERY LITTLE THING to make your wedding the wedding you want.

I know the stress you're going through, and in the NYC area it's even worse than normal, but it will all get figured out!

PM me if you'd like any help/advice/cost estimates!!

CLoGreenEyes

Heyyyy beauties! I've missed you!

@cu97tiger your weekend sounds like a blast! I hope you get good weather for all that walking!

@Dignity100 have a lovely post birthday celebration! What are you guys doing?

@TwoDimes, yikes, that is a challenging issue! I think you have a good approach if the worst should happen and you get a swarm of unexpected guests.

@minskat30 happy anniversary!

@KeptInStitches your food sounds amazing! Congrats on finalizing your menu! If I'm correct (can't see tickers on mobile), your day is getting super close!

@CocoBellaF congratulations on your raise! That's the best!

So today I am OFF! The new job is fantastic and I love it, but I am so tired of working five days a week! I don't know how the 9-5 world does it. So I get a three day weekend before I start working nights.

Today I'm starting some voice lessons (bucket list item) and running a bunch of errands, and then tonight I'm going out with this guy I've been seeing for a few weeks. He's pretty cool. Great kisser. So that will be fun.

Tomorrow I may have another date, but I have a feeling this guy and I are more likely to end up being friends. But we'll see.

Sunday my best friend is coming over. We're cooking lunch and taking a walk. Then that night is the season finale of The Walking Dead! I have a feeling it's going to be really emotional and I'm going to ugly cry.

And throughout the weekend, PACKING, because I move next weekend!

CLoGreenEyes

@nycgal85, I'm sorry you are dealing with that. Fights suck, but I'm glad it's all out in the open now at least. Crossing my fingers that you and FI will find some good options this weekend!

speakeasy14

@cocobellaf, congrats on the raise!

TwoDimes Hopefully people do not forward it.  

caseface5 That would be awesome karma if that team gets their butts whipped! (Well for the coach, not the kids)

allusive007 Sounds like a fun weekend! 

KeptInStitches Yum! I want all that food!!!

cu97tiger Good luck this weekend! 

Last night my bf and I finished spackling the guest room.  We ended up getting in a paint fight. Good thing we're redoing all of the floors, because there is now spackle everywhere. This weekend we'll sand the whole house and touch up any spots necessary.  Hopefully will start painting Sunday.

Ok, I need someone to explain the fart bubbles because I feel really left out haha.

Dignity100

@CocoBellaF @CLoGreenEyes - My MIL will cook something, I know homemade pizza was requested by BIL - I'm not sure what kind of cake he requested.  I made no special requests since it's his parents.  Usually we either play games (MIL cheats a little though, so we rarely do that anymore - skipping people, takeing extra turns, so forth.  I don't care because it's just a game but her kids always call her out on it) so we'll probably watch a movie at their house.


@CocoBellaF - So jealous that you're able to plant, tomorrow is supposed to be upper 20s for our weather.  Cruel mother nature!  Congrats on the raise!

@TwoDime's - I guess at least FFIL is trying... sure it's annoying, but at least there's an attempt.

@minskat30 - Happy Anniversary!  Happy Bday to your H!

@KeptInStitches - mmmm cake!

@caseface5 - I'm sure Stan Lee will not have designed your wedding ring (at least one would hope).

@Humingbird125 - Have fun at your bridal shower!!!  

@nycgal85 - glad you and FI are more on the same page.

@CLoGreenEyes - Glad your new job is going well.  Hopefully you get into a routine soon though.

speakeasy14

nycgal85 since your mom keeps changing her mind, and seems to be the cause of your stress, I would not count on any contribution from her.  If you guys create a budget without depending on her, then whatever (if she does) she contributes will be extra.

[Deleted User]

@CLoGreenEyes - Have fun with your "friend" tonight!  Bow-chicka-bow-bow! 

jenjen047

@dignity100 - yay for birthday celebrations!

@twodimes - oh no....i can see why that would cause panic. i dont think many people will forward it....but ill keep my fingers crossed for you

@miskat30 - happy anniversary! and happy bday to H! where in mexico are you headed?

@keptinstitches - that all sounds delicious!!

had a busy day at work yesterday (was off site for a client meeting most of the day) but today i dont have much going on. my friend date from weds was rescheduled to tonight so i am looking forward to that. BF was supposed to be off sat but found out yesterday he is working, which is a bummer. so i probably wont do too much this weekend except go to bootcamp.

quick question...is there an easy way to reply to someone without typing @ and their username? when i click the "reply" button below a post, nothing happens.....

minskat30

@jenjen047 - Ixtapa!  I can't wait.  It snowed here last night...seriously.  I'm sick of the cold.

lavenderfields13

@caseface5 I had so many dreams about the weirdest and ugliest rings before FI proposed! I know a lot of people have had dreams like that, it's so weird.

@nycgal85 I agree with @speakeasy14 - pretend like your mom isn't contributing anything and go from there. I've read plenty of advice here about not making plans with anyone's money until said money is actually in your hands. This happens very often! You guys will find something that you love. 

CLoGreenEyes

Lol @CocoBellaF! I promise there are quite a few other redeeming qualities there too. Lucky me!

500days

Good morning ladies!

@minskat30 Happy Anniversary!

@caseface5 FI wants to go to the movies this weekend too. I asked him what he wanted to see and he said American Sniper......at this point I'm going to wait for it to come out on Bluray. Is it even playing in the theaters anymore???

@nycgal85 I know wedding planning is stressful- but it really shouldn't be as stressful as you have been describing here. And it sounds like you and FI are having a lot of fights because of the wedding. This worries me. I agree with everyone else- you should either plan with the money you and FI have only, until you get the cash in hand act like it doesn't even exist. 

This weekend should be very relaxing. I have zero plans! Last weekend was very hectic- food tasting and looking at escort card display ideas. FI wants to make wooden planks to hold the escort cards. If he doesn't end up making them, I have back up planks on Etsy that I can buy. 

FI's truck still isn't done and it sucks having only one car. Hopefully it will be finished this week. I feel like I should be putting my foot down, like @blue&white did with her H. We've put around $3k in repairs into the car and I feel like it may have more problems down the road. Maybe it's time to see what we can trade it in for? I hate car issues. Especially since the plan was for my jeep to be replaced after the wedding....that might get pushed back if the truck continues to act up.

jenjen047

@cocobellaf - congrats on the raise! more is more, and its great to know they are so pleased with you!

@caseface5 - what a weird dream! when my cousin was preggers she dreamt she gave birth to a litter of cats...soooooo go figure. spoiler alert: she did not give birth to kittens

@hummingbird125 - have fun at your shower!!!

@nycgal85 - sorry about the fight, but it sounds like it led to a great discussion so thats good! agree with PP that you should plan on not having any contributions and then if you get some, awesome!

@minskat30 - have fun!

eilis1228

This is going to be a P&R... I read all of the responses but don't have time to reply to everything. I'm sorry!

I'm off work today because I'm going to try on my dress in about 30 minutes (eek!) and then go to a dentist appointment later this afternoon. After my dentist appointment I have to deep clean the apartment because we have some friends coming over tonight. I'm going to eat my first cheat meal in 2 weeks, and I'm sooo excited for it. We're going to one of our favorite Tex-Mex places, and then for dessert we're going to an ice cream shop next door to the restaurant that has some of the best ice cream ever. They make everything in house, and it's soooo effing good. Om nom nom.

Tomorrow we're celebrating another friend's birthday, and I'm really excited because I ordered her a Disney Princess birthday cake. lol. I won't be able to eat more than a bite of it, but it should be good. I think we're going to an Asian place for dinner that has a million options on the menu. 

Sunday I'm going to address our Save the Dates (!!!), and then we need to run errands and other adultish things. 

PiYo workouts have been kicking my butt. Hard. I have a feeling walking will not be an option tomorrow... may need to squeeze in some time with the foam roller tonight before all the shenanigans occur.

All right, time to head out to my dress appointment. I hope you all have a fabulous Friday and a fantastic weekend!

Oh! Before I go, @nycgal85, DO NOT form your budget with your mom's alleged contribution until you have the money in the bank. Even then, maybe just go with what you guys can afford on your own and save her money for something like student loans, a new car, a house down payment, etc. I'm in a similar situation with my step-dad right now. FI and I have decided to just proceed as if we're paying for everything ourselves, and that way if something happens to his contribution, no harm no foul. If we get the money in the end, it will go towards my student loans. It's so much less stressful to plan a wedding this way, I promise. You guys should not be having so many fights about wedding planning right now. Scale back to what you can afford, or even consider a destination wedding somewhere with immediate family only. You have so many options right now, so you and your FI need to sit down and talk about what you both really want for your wedding. Keep your mom out of it.

nycgal85

Thanks ladies, I know we will find something we love. And thankfully now we are meeting each other halfway on this. FI is giving up a lot of his original demands to be more practical, and I'm going to try and be more flexible with the budget and understand that we are having a big wedding and that's a deal-breaker.

FI and I are both very stubborn people and it makes for a lot of unnecessary disagreements. I also have a very vindictive and emotionally abusive mother and FI knows this (he sees the damage she has done to me). She was playing right into my hand and instead of calming me down she riled me up and pitted me against FI. This is her MO and how she manipulates and guilts people. Thankfully my grandma calmed me down and said she would try to talk some sense into my mother. 

FI and I decided that we would start cutting unnecessary spending and put that money towards the wedding, and do what we can. He's also trying to reassure me that we will recoup a lot of the money spent through gifts (something that is common in NY weddings, but coming from Ohio I still can't comprehend). My mother may come around, but even if she doesn't hopefully she will give us the new amount because without our parents contributions we simply CANNOT have a real wedding. 

I think the biggest hurdle we covered was just that we have very different expectations. NY weddings are huge affairs, very formal, and people put a lot into them but get a lot out of them (most people in NY who have big weddings end up turning a profit). Ohio weddings are much less formal and gifts are much smaller. FI was ashamed at how little we gave my cousin at her wedding, whereas to me what we gave was standard (especially since we had to travel). I think it's one of those differences that we never really discussed until now.

jenjen047

@nycgal85 - i agree that there shouldnt be so much fighting around wedding planning (ive also never planned a wedding so im totally talking out of my ass right now) but it sounds like the cause for your fights are just drastically different ideas of what a wedding should be. but, before you do anything else i think you guys need to agree on a firm budget. if that include contributions from others, great. but if not, thats fine too. once you have a set budget then you can decide what size/style of wedding youre going to have with that money. you said youre going to have a large wedding and thats a deal-breaker, but if you simply dont have the budget to afford to host a "large" group then you cant do it. my point is, the budget comes first. until thats set in stone you cant plan anything else, IMO.