Brides on a Mission: Week 11

1. Weight loss/inches lost this week: .8 lbs which officially puts me in the 130's!!! yay! and I'm never going back to the 140's! (until I get pregnant... lol)

2. Highlight of the past week: (not weight, just something exciting that happened): Went snowboarding at Wisp which is my ffavvoorite mountain but it's 3 hours away so we never go! It was my fiance's first time to Wisp and I think I have him hooked now so we'll be going at least once a year :-)

3. Lowlight of the past week (not weight, just something that you need support with): The same snowboarding trip was also my lowlight :-(... we went for the whole weekend with my fiance's friends and I just really don't like them. They are very pushy when it comes to drinking and they just want everyone drunk all the time and its just not my thing anymore.. especially on our snowboarding trip! and they just try to make you feel so guilty and they say over and over again "I just want everyone to have fun!"... well this isn't FUN for me! Next year we're going to go with Billy's family instead.. they all snowboard too and it will be a much more enjoyable and relaxing weekend. Right after we left on Sunday I broke down crying in the car. I understand my fiance was friend's with these people at one point in his life but they haven't grown up at all and I just feel NO need to be friends with people like that! There is more to it than this but I don't want to get into it - my fiance eventually apologized to me and told me that I'm right.. it's not worth being friends with them. I told him we can continue being friends with them but no more trips with them. I don't like living in the same space as them for any period of time.

4. Give a re-cap of your wedding (style/theme, location, amount of people, what you are most looking forward to): Going for the whole plantation country style wedding.. location is a really nice historic home with the mountains in the background.. colors are purple and kiwi and I'll be incorporating a lot of everyday items like shutters which will hold the place cards, a window with white glass markers to sign as our guestbook, a personalized mailbox for cards and lanterns as our centerpieces. We're having approximately 120-130 people. I'm looking most forward to the moment I walk down the aisle and see my fiance standing there waiting for me. He's my soul mate and best friend and I can't wait for us to finally be married!

5. Any wedding news updates: I got my program fans in! We decided to do fans because we're expecting it to be a bit warm here in VA in the middle of June although last year on June 19th the weather was AMAZING. Like high 70's perfect!

6. State a negative thought, and then change it into a positive thought: My program manager has no idea what he is doing! ... and positively thinking... My program manager could use my help to become more educated about earned value and by teaching him I could learn new things myself. (That actually kind of helped! Tomorrow when I sit down with him I'll remember this!)

7. What is your plan to stop change the negative into positive: I've actually been practicing this for awhile now. Probably a year or so ago I just started to let stuff go that was negative because it just wasn't worth getting all worked up about. Also, my mom is a huge advocate for the positive thinking model. If you believe things will go your way then they will. I really think it works. My life rocks :-) I'm very blessed and couldn't ask for more! One of my favorite quotes is "The happiest of people don't always have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that comes their way!" and my other favorite is "Believe it achieve it!" (This was also my beer pong slogan in college ahhah.. I did have a good record!)

8. How did you do with the week 10 challenge (if you didn’t post a fav recipe post one now!): I'm not much of a cook but I do like to make no-fat frozen smoothies. Here's my recipe:

3/4 cup of non-fat yogurt
1 cup of skim milk
1/2 cup of ice
3/4 cup of frozen fruit
2 sweet-n-lows

Just add it all to the blender and blend! Makes two servings of about 130 calories each!


9. Weekly wrap up: It's been an up and down week because of the good but bad snowboarding trip. Very happy that I'm in the 130's now and less than 5 lbs away from my goal! Especially because I don't feel like I've been trying that hard to get here! This is definitely a lifestyle I can continue!

To go along with our positive thinking theme of this week... If you haven't heard of this book I definitely suggest you check it out.

The Secret - Rhonda Byrne

Summary: The Secret book reveals how you can change every aspect of your life. You can turn any weakness or suffering into strength, power, unlimited abundance, health and joy. Everything is possible, nothing is impossible. There are no limits. Whatever you can dream of can be yours, when you use The Secret.


And there is a sequel to it called "The Power".

Here's the link to the offiical website of the book: http://www.thesecret.tv/index.html

Might seem a little quirky for some people but IMO it's a great way to look at life!

To go along with our positive thinking theme of this week... If you haven't heard of this book I definitely suggest you check it out.

The Secret - Rhonda Byrne

Summary: The Secret book reveals how you can change every aspect of your life. You can turn any weakness or suffering into strength, power, unlimited abundance, health and joy. Everything is possible, nothing is impossible. There are no limits. Whatever you can dream of can be yours, when you use The Secret.


And there is a sequel to it called "The Power".

Here's the link to the offiical website of the book: http://www.thesecret.tv/index.html

Might seem a little quirky for some people but IMO it's a great way to look at life!

I LOOOOVE The Secret. Haven't read The Power yet, but I know the whole focus of both is attracting good into your life through positive thinking, more or less. And I totally believe envisioning the relationship I wanted, like you're shown about in The Secret, is what brought my fiance into my life. He is sooo exactly what I "asked" for, it kinda creeped me out a little early in our relationship

TOTALLY HEAR YOU honey!!!!

My "fiance" and I (don't have a ring yet, so I don't feel right using that term), just decided about 3 weeks ago to get married next year, and we've been on a whirlwind ever since - we (or should I say I, really he didn't do any work!) already made and sent out the invitations. And before that, of course, I had to confirm the location, so I put at $3200 deposit down on the ceremony site, on my credit card - EEEEEEEKK!!!! way more money than i had in my spending plans that's for sure!!!

but it's only money and we only get married once right? i like to quote someone i saw on one of those wedding shows -
"for my next wedding, i'll be right on budget".

I can't imagine the deposit for the ceremony site being $3200, haha. Wow! But you're having yours in Hawaii, right? You'll love it there! I've been to Honolulu and the Big Island (2 separate times) with my family. It's gorgeous there, and the people are awesome. Honolulu is CRAZY tourist-y. Every corner has an ABC store - it's a convenience type shop. But it's great. I loved it. We wanted to go there for our honeymoon and thought it would be too expensive. Well, at this rate, our perfect Disney vacation is costing us $2500. There goes the cheap idea of just staying on the mainland! :-P

Did you have to send out invitations so early because it's a destination wedding? Just curious cause I thought the tradition was to send them 3 months before the wedding....but I know nothing about destination weddings.

I think it's so amazing how much weddings cost. I wish someone would have said to me "whatever you think this wedding will cost, triple it" because that's what has happened! Deposit week is so awful! I can't wait til we are at the point where we're just paying things and not shelling out huge chunks of money.

Oh, update. We ARE using my dream photographer with great thanks to my future in-laws! I am SO excited. We have the option of either doing engagement pictures or a budoir session which I think might be a good gift for my FH. Not sure how I feel about getting pictures taken of me in my bra! :-P

Glad to hear you're able to have that excellent photographer - i think a good photographer is one of the most important things!!! Fortunately, the guy I was interested in in Maui was available for our day, and came as part of the ceremony package at the hotel we're getting married at - so it makes it a better deal, otherwise I would have had to have just booked him anyways.

Yes, we were just in Maui and that's why we decided to get married there. I love ABC store mostly for the cheap chocolate covered macadamia nuts - haha you can tell why mfp is necessary in my life!!! I mostly gave them away as gifts though! I don't think I could personally have a destination wedding without having been to that particular destination - just a bit too much of a control freak for that! My parents are also going in a couple of days so they're going to check the grounds out further and snap some photos for me.

Yes, about the invitations, we sent them out WAY early, seemed too early to me, but my fiance was eager to get them out. Nothing about our wedding is traditional, and his family lives in Northern British Columbia (BC), my family being in central BC, Australia and the UK, we wanted to give people as much notice as possible. This will be a destination wedding for us, but more just a central spot for all of our guests because they would have to travel anyways. Plus an excuse for a holiday! Also, we sent out only 20 invites for 36 people as our venue capacity is small. So we asked for rsvps by May so that if there are a number of people who can't attend, we will still have time to invite a few more friends and still give them enough notice.

I think I'm most looking forward to the day AFTER the wedding, when I know everything has gone off without a hitch and I still have 10 more days of vacation to relax!

I got a call to interview tomorrow for a teaching position for next year literally ten minutes after I posted this. I'm excited but nervous...they are interviewing through Tuesday so I'll still have to wait awhile to hear back. Also, one of my co-workers is also interviewing. I THINK they have two positions open but not sure...this could get intense. But for now...I'm excited!!!

9. Weekly wrap up: I'm getting pretty stressed about work. My school is closing in May putting us all out of jobs and no one has a job yet. I do have a summer nanny job which will help a lot and I can always sub...but I love teaching, it breaks my heart to think of not having my own classroom next year. Last year I was a sub and, it was stressful not knowing when I could work or if I would have a good pay check...and I gained a lot of weight during that year. I'm nervous.

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Congratulations!!!

I know how tough it is to find a good job. I just interviewed today at an educational daycare... They even kept me there for a second interview! I was there for 2 hours! I work as a nanny right now and part-time is not paying the bills, so I totally get it.

Good luck!!!!!! let us know how it goes!!

I thought I'd share pics of my wedding dress to try and cheer me up!! I apologize for the look on my face! I think I was crying when my mother took the picture.










And that's my actual veil. Hopefully it will look even better after I've lost some more weight!! I still need to figure out shoes, but I love my dress. There's cap sleeves I can wear with it, and it looks a lot better with those.

I always have to laugh because I got my dress in October. Well, I tried dresses on in March of last year....tried this one on and HATED it....and then....7 months later... I love it! So funny. :-)

@greenpianokeys: Love seeing pictures of brides in that moment of finding THE dress. What an awesome experience! You look great and thanks for sharing!

I thought I'd share pics of my wedding dress to try and cheer me up!! I apologize for the look on my face! I think I was crying when my mother took the picture.

I LOVE seeing other brides in their dresses The dress is beautiful on you!
My dress is hanging in a closet at my mom's house - sometimes I wish I had it with me just so I could look at it, haha! I love it!

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update: HELP...i need a little reasurance.... first off sorry this is so long..& if doesnt make sense... so ive been stressing but not about my wedding...more of my friendship with my MOH....ive known her about 7 yrs or so...and ive never known her to freak out about anything...ive never seen it or heard her doing it... so she wa excited to be my moh and wanted to throw me a bachelorette party (i never wanted one may i remind you but she wanted to so bad) so i explained to her that my friends work one or more jobs and usually need 1 month in advance to get time off...so i suggested that and she freaked on me in a sense...remind u shes not like that...so as my moh and i have diffrent social circles n my friends live a state away...i thought that by tellin her this is could help her witht he callin situation....so i sent her this message as i just explained and the reaction i got back and wanted your opnion on i did anything wrong in letting her know of my friends...=( i just figured she had a bad day but after this situation ive had the worst week n have been so upset n crying n such im really close with her and it had made me angry .....idk im just in shock and its over something stupid but its important me...and as my best friend and moh ....her sister offered to make my wedding cake so if she was to stay mad or how ever she feels...i dont want her sister to back out but if she did i hope that she would tell me so i could continue with my orginal plan of making my own wedding cake...i dont want things aqward or tension that u could cutt with a knife...as these events arise with my bachelorette party in april and my wedding a month later.... i plan on not contacting her or seeing her till she comes to me or the time for my bachelorette party...theres been no other incidents but this one ...so this is why im so shocked and unsure of things rite now...like i said that im not even stressed about the wedding its self....just my friendship with my moh ....




me:
not tryin to push u but most of my friends need like a month in advance for time off....they work like 1 or more jobs....so this is just suggestion to the invites n such n calling....=)
.
friend:
yeah i no! one night something happened and i was busy till like 8:30 -9:00 and i figured that was to late and the next night i went out with zach and yesterday i had two birthday partys i went to and i didnt get home till 10:30. so i will get to it when i have a min at night if you want to do it go right ahead other wise let me handle it . i dont mean to seem *****y but i do have alot of **** goin on around here ....im not saying i dont want to do this or that i dont have time but i need you to back up a litte. .

me:
im sorry if u having a bad day.... .

me:
r u mad at me???? i would hope if u were you would tell me...n not hide it .

friend:
what are you talking about hiding it? in the message i sent you this morning i said i had alot of **** goin on and that i needed you to back of of hounding me on preparations. and that s exactly how i feel. there is nothing else to it. and yeah im agervated but only cuz im tring to handle drama around the house and i have a lot f kid birthdays with parties to attend and gifts to buyand ontop of all this i wake up this morning and the first thing i read is you telling me i need to get on calling people. that is why im upset and thats i! i dont understand what ur talking about HIDING IT! if i have an issue with something i will tell you just like i told you to lay off or take over. .

me:
relax i was just sayin id hope u tell me if u were mad at me for something mabe about previous stuff thats happend that sometimes u get stressed n hold stuff in...u told this to me the other nite when u were over.. n i said i dont know how u do it with out exploding on ppl... no offesnse chicky...as far as callin ppl...i never said u had to start callin i just said that they usually work 2 jobs so it mite be hard in a sense to get a hold i just knew thier scheduel more than u would ...n i was only tryin to help cuz i knew u probley were stressed...so chill out chicky....take a breather....n relax i WASNT hounding or pushing nothing i was just lettin u know my friends work more than one job if u wanted to kno....i know i take things the wrong way most of the time but i think u mite of took my above message wrong about pushin u to call ppl... i know if u needed my help u know where im at..i under stand ur situations with life....i do have one of my own....so i know the same if not more...of daily stresses with life....i hope you dont take this message the wrong way ...no harm in this message ethier...i hate talkin over computers n they become so impersonable...as far as i feel ...i think theres some tension in the air between us and is not good for our friendship or any up coming events...you really dont need to do this for me...i know u want to but if its gonna cause more stress to u ...i dont need you stressin over me... i but appreciate the thought..... im here if u need to talk...where ur stressed out... .

me:
i also think fb is a bad idea for communicatin so if u need me just call me or text ...lol have a good week...


so as ive been dealing with this all week...stressed to the max sounds silly but she means alot to me as a friend i just want things to be normal and okay for the wedding....=) where i had asked her to be apart of my day...im sure shes stressed of the how the tension mite be....

This is the link to a pic of my dress:
http://www.alfredangelo.com/Collections/ProductDisplay.aspx?productID=63052349-7876-4346-b00b-9ca5c68a4edc&categoryID=1975d565-34d2-4d81-90c9-437deabe902d&pg=1&colorId1=

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Let's see that dress!!! Give us a link if its posted online somewhere :-)

I'm a wedding dress fanatic!

And good luck with your interview! Remember... believe it achieve it! Envision yourself in that job and you will get it!
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1. Name: Lauren
2. Age: 27
3. City: Red Bank, NJ
4. Occupation: therapist
5. Wedding date: May 21
6. Fiancés name: Oscar
7. How long you and your fiancé have been together: 4 years
8. Heaviest weight: 148
9. Goal weight and date: 120 by May 21 - reached my first and second goals so decided to shoot for 5 more lbs!
10. Favorite type of exercise: cross ramp (eliptical machine with an incline)
11. Favorite healthy food: hummus

Brides on a Mission: week 8 (Please copy and paste this into your profile)
1. Weight loss/inches lost this week: half a pound lost
2. Highlight of the past week: (not weight, just something exciting that happened): i found out my dress will be in very soon! and i found my shoes!!!!
3. Lowlight of the past week (not weight, just something that you need support with): my dog was trying to jump into my car but felt flat on her back poor baby
4. Give a re-cap of your wedding (style/theme, location, amount of people, what you are most looking forward to): we are having our reception at a vendor on the marina with 150 guests. our colors are navy with light pink accents - the bm dresses are long flowy chiffon and we're using only pink roses.
5. Any wedding news updates: invitations are stuffed and ready to be addressed - we will be mailing them out next week!!!
6. State a negative thought, and then change it into a positive thought: negative: feeling super guilty because i ate some non diet friendly food during a work luncheon today and feel like i probably gained a lb.. positive: even if i gain a lb, i'm still down 23 from my original start weight!!! and the food was delicious!
7. What is your plan to stop change the negative into positive: be mindful and remember not to take everything i have for granted
8. How did you do with the week 10 challenge (if you didn’t post a fav recipe post one now!):
9. Weekly wrap up: this week i made some to do lists and realized how much needs to be done within the next two months!!! time to get busy!

This is the link to a pic of my dress:
http://www.alfredangelo.com/Collections/ProductDisplay.aspx?productID=63052349-7876-4346-b00b-9ca5c68a4edc&categoryID=1975d565-34d2-4d81-90c9-437deabe902d&pg=1&colorId1=

That is a gorgeous dress! Congrats