Some close friends have dropped hints and sent pictures, but they are constantly confusing him with misinformation about what I want (which I find out about after the fact)!  It's really, really frustrating.

Without being a total greedy b*tch... how do I get the ring that I want, while still keeping the element of surprise?  HELP!

xM

However, my sister is getting married June 2nd and people (mainly his mother) are telling us to wait to be engaged until after her wedding so we don't take away from "her moment."  My boyfriend is being pressured because of this reason to wait to ask me, and I feel bad and guilty doing anything as well. 

The thing is, I've been dreaming of getting engaged at this time and would love to have an engagement/graduation party. I also want to have enough time to plan my own wedding.

I want to be there for my sister... but why does my moment have to be delayed? Can we both enjoy the best times of our lives?

Sincerely,

Distressed. 

L: Lean Cuisine Meatloaf (250)

S: Apple (72)

D: Grilled chicken (179), 1/2 baked sweet potato (51), corn (75)

Total: 1217

Please have your life together now.

Love,

Office Manager

--

Dear Conference,

Plan Yourself.

No Love,

Stressed

--

Dear Speakers,

I've emailed. I've called.  I'm about to be reduced to groveling.  I NEED you to get back to me about your travel plans.  Send me your itineraries.  Let me make your plans for you.  But for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, please stop booking flights to Baltimore, NYC, and the wrong weekend.  I really cannot take much more of this asshattery.

Love,

I'm going to crack

--

Dear Board Member,

Months.  You've had these for months.  And you send the names to me for travel booking 30 minutes before a meeting and three days before the hotel block closes?  We're fighting.

No Love,

Pull it together.

--

Dear Snuggleupagus,

Thanks for being just as awesome and supportive this time around as you were in November and December while I was pulling my hair out.  You're the best <3

Love,

Fishy

L: Lean Cuisine Roasted Garlic Chicken (170), cheese bar (60)

S: Apple (72), LC blue cheese (25)

D: Grilled chicken (179), sweet potato fries (103), broccoli with cheese (75)

Total: 1189

So to prepare you, I'm going to AW all of my wedding stuff I haven't AW'd yet. 

Ready? Okay, let's go. 

First, my somethings:

Old: my gma's pearl drop necklace and her pearl ring

New: my hair piece my FMIL bought me

Borrowed: Elle's HP necklace. :)

Blue: my dad passed away last week, so I took one of his favorite dress shirts and cut off the cuff and made it into a ankle bracelet:

Second, hair.

I went to my hair guy on Wednesday and got my hurr did. Here are the results (FI is a TERRIBLE picture taker, so please ignore the angles...)

Inspiration:

Result:

Thirdly, BM gifts:

MOH: still working on...

BM1: She loooves to cook, so I bought her three cook books, one world cuisine, one about fresh vegetables from her garden, and another one on french cuisine

BM2: A really cute ring and an owl necklace from Charming Charlie's

BM3: A bow necklace and a pair of "pearl" earrings

BM4: I handmade her a blanket and embroidered the name of her new college on it

Fourth, I got a new tattoo. My dad's battle with lung cancer ended last Wednesday. White is the awareness color of lung cancer, so I figured a nice, simple ribbon would suffice. 

In case you missed it last time, here is a pic of my dress:

My weight loss isnt going as expected, but hopefully I'll be back on the wagon soon. I'm eating right again, finally, just haven't gotten around the the excercise part. 

My tables are assigned and the cards are ready to print!

I sent out Day Of schedules to all of the women of the day, the men have yet to get me all of their emails... 

I've got to figure out WTF to do about the welcome bags. Anyone have advice here? What do I do with them? I have what I want to put in them, I'm just not sure how to handle dropping them off at the hotel and when. We've got guests coming in Thursday-Saturday...

Anything else you want to know about/see pics of?

ETA: Bachelorette party in Austin THIS weekend!!! Yaaay! Two Saturday's ago was FI's. We ended up running into each other at a bar, where later, some creepy guy slipped something into my drink. I'm going to have my bm's on major drink patrol this weekend. I'm super paranoid. That was the second worst part of last week. 

Also, my pastor came over last Sunday and did a marriage blessing with my dad present. It was simpily beautiful. If our wedding is half as beautiful, I'll be happy. Our photog came and got this stunning picture:

The thing is, I'm not sure if he's stopped "playing the field," so to speak. Last year, I found out he had another girlfriend. When I called him out on it, he broke up with her and we worked through it and I thought we were so much stronger. He gave me a promise ring three years ago, and recommitted himself to me after I caught him cheating. He promised he loved me and that we were going to get married. We even went and put deposits down on a venue. It's my dream place! 

The last few months, he's been acting funny. I'm starting to doubt whether he actually broke up with this girl or not. He doesn't want to have sex with me anymore, and only gives in when I beg. He hides his phone and is always on it, even at the dinner table! I think he has a secret email address. He takes his laptop everywhere and claims it's becaues he has to use it at work. 

What should I do? I love him so much, I just want to make this work.

L: Smart One Turkey with Stuffing (260)

S: Baby carrots (53)

D: Chicken quesadilla (330), salad (58)

Total: 1203

Just wanted to put it out there that Living Social has a deal going on right now for Vistaprint if anyone has stationary of any kind they need to have printed.  It's $19 for $70 worth of product!

L: Smart Ones (260), baby carrots (53)

S: Apple (72)

D: Not sure yet. I have a Devils game tonight. (~425)

Total: ~1218

My boyfriend and I are finising college, and have been dating for almost a year.  We've talked about getting married (jokingly and not) for a while now.  I've spent time with his family (spent Christmas with them, actually), and I love them and I'm pretty sure they love me.  

He's spent time with my family too, and they are....less than enthusiastic.  My mom, who is judgemental, opinionated, stubborn, and an overall hard person to get along with, claims she likes him "as a person" every time I ask her.  She is kind and welcomes him into her home, but she voices concerns to me that are harsh and make him very uncomfortable when I pass them along.

She worries that he'll make me "live in poverty," for example, due to the fact that it is extremely important to him to help the poor.  I try to explain what his plans are for that (which are perfectly reasonable, and will definitely NOT cause us to live in the kind of poverty that she imagines), but she doesn't believe me.  She claims that I am very go-with-the-flow (which is true) and is concerned that he will steamroll my opinion when it comes to big life decisions.  I know he won't, but again she think's I'm being naive and too trusting.  

So, recently he found out that with a specific graduate school program he wants to get into, he'll get benefits and a salary.  Which was my biggest stipulation before we can get married.  I told my mom about the program, not about the we-might-get-married part, and she immediately caught on.  She went off about this, that, and the other thing, (i don't even remember, it became a jumble of words after a while).

So what do I do?  How do I convince her that he'll be a great husband and, someday, father?  At what point do I give up and say "my life, my problems, leave me alone"?  He's doing everything he can, but nothing is good enough.  

So I'm curious, do y'all ever do any pranks on April 1st? If so, what are you planning? 

As for me, I'm trying to think of pranks to pull on my BF and on my roommate...but I probably won't succeed because I am terrible at keeping a straight face :p.

What if he proposes, then runs back down the isle, then I walk up the isle?

I already bought my dress, we have this AMAZING venue booked, and invites have gone out.  I just don't have the ring.

She's kind of all colors; her coat pattern is ticked brown, gray, black, and white. Her tummy is all white, and her tail is tabby striped.

Has anyone else dressed up their pets? Pictures please!

Here's the blog post from the founder of Shark Advocates International explaining the full impacts of the legislation up in front of ASMFC.  CLICK

All I'm asking for you all to do is to send an email telling ASMFC that you oppose their increase on the finning ratios, and that you support banning finning immediately.  

You just need to do this by tomorrow at 5PM.  Here's the contact information, also found at the end of the article.

I usually don't request stuff like this, but we all know sharks are near and dear to my heart.  So please send an email/letter!!!