Just a quick photo...

My sister and myself this past Friday night. Some say we look identical.
Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don''t. What say you?

(me on the left, sister on the right)

Next stop .... The Funny Farm

Life has been one crazy whirlwind the past few weeks.. with just the past few DAYS being the real icing on the cake. I've been doing a lot of praying lately. Not that I don't pray every day to begin with, but I've found myself at work even taking a few minutes to get a quick one in here and there. Heck, sometimes I even resort to the ladies room so that I have peace and quiet to focus. It gives me strength. I immediately feel a sense of relief when I can focus on asking God to take the burdens from me and help me make a positive out of them, or to at least give me the strength and wisdom to work through them and not let them control me.
It just eats me alive when there is so much discord in my family/life. I don't know when or how my family fell away to shit but I've persevered and tried to keep it all together... I am not a miracle worker; I've realized that. Tomorrow's another day -- and I try not to dwell on things - I just hope for some light at the end of the tunnel and hope that things start to look up. It's so hard to be happy-go-lucky and plan a wedding when I feel like others in my life are being dealt such a bad hand.. and that my family has fallen apart & no one seems to care to repair it. I can't fix them all. Like they say, you can lead a horse to water........

Have to Spring this on you

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring!! Yippee!! Hope the weather knows that it's supposed to get with the program!

I've been a busy bee...

I haven't updated in days! If I had to tell you what I've been doing that has me so busy, I'm afraid I couldn't. hee hee. Truth is, I have been busy though. The weather's been pretty decent the past few days, I was really hoping to go the track and get a few rounds of walking in or at least a run. I really want to start running. It's such an adrenaline rush... and for me, a person with so many thoughts going at once in this crazy head of mine, it's kind of a way to "run it all out". Stress relief in it's best form!
I really want to go to Cooper River Parkand start running because I think it's the best place to go but it's a rather large track and I don't know if I'd make it. Probably end up face down in the river, from sheer exhaustion. Yikes! But we'll see.

Another thing I love about Spring???

This....



Yes, I have an addiction to Weber's Drive In too! Love it.

** some things to note: DO NOT go to the one in Brooklawn. Do go to the one in Stratford or Pennsauken. <--- which is my favorite.
They're closed on Mondays & the one in Pennsauken occasionally has an Elvis impersonator hanging out in the parking lot with a boombox that blares... you guessed it, Elvis songs! The Pennsauken and Stratford ones are very clean and have awesome service. Go there today and get your Root Beer!

Concert w/ Mom

Friday I took my mom to the Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge Concertat Dennis Flyer Theatre in Blackwood. It was by far one of the best shows I've been to. Most people my age probably have no idea who this group is but I grew up on oldies music so I'm a pretty big fan. I love their songs! Practically EVERY SINGLE ONE.
I waited all night to hear my favorite song and I was convinced they just weren't going to do it... but alas! it was the last song they did. Well, if you don't count the encore, which by the way was kind of moving. The really cool thing about this whole night was that my mom had no idea where we were going or who she was going to see. Here's the story: I'd seen the announcement for this show a while back... and I mean, a LONG time ago. Last year sometime. So I saved it to my Outlook calendar and the reminders were popping up every so many days leading up to the actual night. I kept dragging my feet and putting off buying the tickets until last Thursday. Yes, one day before the show! Stupid? Probably. But anyhoo, I got the tickets online at Ticketmaster and am pleased to say that I could not have gotten better seats if I'd bought them when they went on sale! We were in the middle section which is the best because you can look straight ahead and you're not off to the side. Our seats were seriously in the 2nd row from the stage, (technically).. I say technically because they set up folding chairs (3 rows for the alum at the college, who were privy to such seats.) My mom LOVES Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge and once we even attempted to go see them when she had a comp at one of the casinos some years back... but we got tied up and never made the show. But here we were on Friday ... and I never told her where we were going. I told her a few weeks before the show that we were going 'somewhere'. I asked her to be ready and that it was a surprise. Well I really pulled it off. She had no idea until about 5 minutes before showtime. We even arrived at the doors where there were greeters handing out flyers with the information on it and I quickly intercepted it, asking the lady to not give my mom a program because it was a surprise. Well this poor woman obviously thought I was a loon because she looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well. So we sat down and all my mom could see was a stage with all of the band set up. Nothing else. No flyers, no banners.. NOTHING. So then the emcee comes on and welcomes everyone.. at which time he announces 'them'. To say that my mom was shocked would be an understatement. I thought she might cry. I think I might have. So we sat back and enjoyed the show. Listened, sang along, swayed, bobbed our heads, etc... it was a fantastic show! I wish I could go again.

** 5 Days, my friends, 5 days **

Says here on my wall calendar that March 20th is the first day of Spring. Sweet!
Now just 'cause it says that doesn't mean that we're going to get springy weather right? But one can hope! If I could pick one season for it to be all year, I'd want Spring. It's not too hot, it's not too cold. It's the happy medium that we all crave. I do like summer but it gets too hot sometimes and I just can't hack it.
When the Spring weather hits, I love taking my niece to the park, I love taking my doggie(s) for walks, I love being able to go to the track and walk (or run, if the spirit moves me), ... I could go on and on about what to do when the sun's out and the wind is there but barely. And the flowers???!! So awesome!

Hop on over

** Ah ha, none of ya'll caught on **

There is a live link to the other blog in my Juggling post.


Silly girls!

Juggling

This might be harder than I thought- juggling two blogs at once.
I thought I could differentiate between the two and keep the wedding stuff there and the other stuff here. It seems all I have on my mind these days is wedding stuff. I really need someone to smack me and tell me to slow down a bit. Good grief. I'm the reason for that heartburn.

Bride-to-be Survival Tips?!

Safe to say that I have been having more and more heartburn lately.. at least ever since I started ATTEMPTING to plan a wedding. It puzzles me so that I've done endless planning for showers, weddings, birthdays, etc.. in the past, without so much stress but yet here I am in the throes of planning my own wedding and I'm met with such frustration already. Is it really this hard? Maybe I'm just creating the havoc myself. The one thing that really stands out in my frustration is the cost of some of the 'things' associated with this wedding. First of all, I'm getting married in a Catholic church, in WHICH we are parishioners.. WHERE, each weekend, we give them our church "offering", which is usually anywhere between $5 and $10.. sometimes more in other circumstances. And this is every weekend.. (52 weeks). So imagine my surprise (for lack of a better word), when I opened the pamphlet last Saturday and saw that we are to pay $350.00 for the ceremony, $20 to each alter boy ( a max. of 2) and it states that you "should consider a small monetary gift" for the officiating priest. Wow! What else can I say. Seriously. It went on to say that the fee for Non-parishioners is $500. Damn, I pity anyone in that boat. Let's not forget that we, as Catholics, are required to attend pre-cana, sessions. Notice, I said: HAVE to. As in it's not optional, my friends. And the cost of this? Oh, just $150. Now do you see why I'm ripping my hair out? I guess it all comes down to money... it's nuts! I am keeping the wedding and the reception, as well as all of the other amenities, as simple as possible, in that I am not going over the top. I want it simple. I really wish I could just win the mega-millions and I would be set. Heck, I'm not even being greedy, I'll take the $500,000. I can get a decent reception out of it, pay for it all up front, not have to ask my dad for any money.. and then buy a nice little home for about $200,000. I even prayed on winning the lottery and promised to donate a large sum to charity.. or the church. (Funny as that may seem, at this point!) Ah, it just seems so complicated trying to get it all together. I do have a year to do it but I feel like the time is going to fly and before I know it, it'll be here, and things will be unpaid for... blah blah blah. Well, if ANYONE has any tips on cost cutting or has anyone that they know of who is a vendor of any sort (photographer, DJ, florist).. do tell me. You'll probably find this post again soon.. because I want start a Wedding Blog. I need one. That should be fun & witty and ......full of whining.

*Quickie* Conversations with a 3 year old

Last night, my precious niece came strolling into my bedroom wide awake, at about 11 p.m. She gave me a hug and then decided she wanted to sleep in my bed. Not unusual -- and I rather love it. So, she sees my wedding planner sitting on my bed & then the conversation went something like this:

M: Dee Dee, is someone getting married?
Me: Yep, I am. Remember?
M: Yeah. To Uncle Jeff, right?
Me: Yep.
M: Dee Dee, do they have a bathroom?
Me: Who? Where we're getting married? Of course they do.
M: Ok. (laughs a little).
**** a short pause ****

M: Dee Dee, what am I going to wear. (laughs a little more).. a dress like yours?
Me: Yes
M: oooh, (brushes her hair out of her face).. Ok.

Is there a Support Group....

For Facebookers!? Good Lord, I am seriously addicted to this. I thought, when I first was introduced to MySpace, that it was quite addicting but Facebook? I've gone to the extremes of downloading the application on to my BlackBerry and now I have all the status updates etc.. at my fingertips. I'm really getting concerned.
I can't go for any period of time without looking at it while I'm working. It's bad my friends! I even went to the diner yesterday for breakfast and saw a gal that I've been in touch with on FB and I sent her a wall post because I knew she has the app on her phone too and would get it within seconds! How funny is that!??
I'm amazed at how many people have reconnected etc.. I'm talking to people on there from high school and such, that I never even looked at twice back then. I guess we all grow up.
Then last night we went to a local bar/restaurant/hangout to meet up with some of Jeff's friends. It turned out that not only was his graduating class there but so were a few other years. This place was jam packed - thank goodness we got there early and were able to 'claim' a table. I had a really good time meeting some friends of his.. etc (well, some of them).. we'll leave those details for another time. But, where was I?? Oh yes, the FaceBook thing. Well, I'm pretty much done with this post.. I just had to share my story with you. In closing, here are some funny pictures that I just have to add.