FINALLY! Casey Anthony: INDICTED!

I really don't talk much about this case, and kind of gave up following it because of how extremely ANNOYED I am with this woman. There are no words to discribe someone as COLD HEARTED as this girl, and hopefully NOW that she's been indicted and faces 7 different charges, she'll start talking. I really hope they just find Caylee, or her body, so she can be at peace.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-a1casey1508oct15,0,4870531.story

The charges this "woman" is facing:

1st degree murder
Aggrivated manslaughter of a child
Aggrivated child abuse
4 counts of providing false info. to authorities.

4 Years Ago...

4 years ago today, we got pregnant! It's amazing how much has changed since then!

Bragging on my Website!

Yesterday was a breakthrough for my website! I did some advertising and within a matter of 3 hours, we got 15 new members!

What an amazing day! I'm just so thankful for all of these girls. All of my hard work is starting to pay off! Very exciting.

Some Monday Ramblings

Why is it that Monday and Tuesday DRAG by, yet Saturday and Sunday is gone in the blink of an eye?! Yikes!

Well over the weekend I tried thinking of new 'tactics' to work with Chayce on his behavior. An idea I saw on Supernanny was the Pizza Technique. You make a pizza, cut into 4 slices, and everytime your child is naughty you remove a slice. Here's the pizza I made him...



Well, we also decided we are going to start giving Chayce "allowance". Nothing extravagant. $.50/day... UNDER STRICT CONDITIONS! He does have a chore list. Each day he has 8 'chores' to do. If he completes 6/8 chores (75%) he gets $.25 to put in his little box. If he has atleast 3/4 (75%) of his pizza slices left at the end of the day, he'll recieve another $.25. Each day he can earn up to $.50. Saturdays don't count because we're never home on Saturdays, so he can do his Pizza and chore list 6 days/week which totals a maximum of $3/week of "allowance" he earns.

On Saturdays, he can spend his allowance on whatever he wants!

We think it's a good idea because instead of saying, "Be good and on Saturday you'll get your reward", he gets to actually SEE the quarters EVERYDAY to remind him of his rewards for good behavior. As long as he's at his 75% for behavior and 'chores' (dressing himself, putting his plate in the sink, being polite, cleaning up his toys, etc.) he gets his reward money! And we don't even have to worry about the $$$ because we're using all the coins he's collected in his piggy bank! So they've already been accumulating the past year.

This started as his "snack box" but I slit a hole in it and now it's his allowance box! :)



We'll see if these techniques work. He's already lost 2 slices today. 1 for throwing his quarters at me and another for jumping on his bed (big no no!). He CAN earn them back, which he's attempting as I type this by cleaning up the blocks in the living room.

Oh yes, time for some great news! We are purchasing my wedding gown NEXT Wednesday!!! I am completely THRILLED! Those of you that have seen the gown know what it looks like, for everyone else... it's a surprise until the ceremony! Very exciting!

Thank God for Publix!

A friend of mind keep suggesting using Publix for their floral dept. for the wedding flowers. We already planned to use Publix for our cake [which reminds me our cake testing is TODAY!], so we gave it a shot.

The Florist was AMAZING! A total ANGEL. She sat down with us for about an hour and wrote down everything I wanted, down to the last detail. We budgeted about $1000 for flowers. But when she stepped away to total up the cost, she came back with a piece of paper with $260.00 written on it.

My eyes just started tearing up, and I asked her if she was being serious.

This was no joke! ALL of my wedding flowers for under $300! It's like a dream! That includes the bridal bouquet, 3 bridesmaids bouquets, 8 boutoneeires, 3 corsages, a throw away bouquet, AND 2 HUGE buckets of petals! I mean, you seriously can't beat it. So we're definatly going with that florist to do our flowers.

We HAVE opted to switch our centerpieces to the Tree idea! We are using REAL tree branches. Yep, REAL. Ironically, before we even told anyone about this idea, my father in law called Jon and said, "Hey, you know that big tree in the front yard? Could you help me cut it down next week?" Well OF COURSE! So we're using thebranches from this tree for our wedding reception, as crazy as it sounds. The hanging votives will run us about $200.00. So it's nice to have REAL branches. I just hope they hold up for a year! I read some tutorials on preserving tree branches. One site mentioned using Shallac (???) on them to preserve them. It's apparantly used on patios/decks to keep the wood protected. So we're probably going to try that and see how it works. FINGERS CROSSED! I found a few other photos to show you guys the idea we're shooting for, so here you go!



[ours will have candles hanging from them]




We may hot glue some silk red rose petals to the tree. We're sprinkling fresh petals on each reception table, so it will give the effect that the petals fell from the tree. We like the idea because [besides it capturing the eye, and being very unique!] it gives a great feeling to the season of autumn, as our wedding is in October. It suits us, we think.

Our schedules didn't seem to coordinate with the designer at the bakery, so she put together a cake testing plate for us to take home. I'm going to pick it up when Chayce wakes up. I'll post later tonight or tomorrow with pics of the yummy cake and our decisions!

Quite an Uneventful Week

This week has been super uneventful. Everyday it's rained. Nothing TOO exciting, except for last night when we met up with the Caterer at one of the possible reception sites.

She didn't give us pricing on food [which is our biggest question at this point!], so we're a bit frustrated because we need a ballpark idea or else we'll have to keep looking around. She just kept beating around the bush, which was a bit much. So hopefully I'll get some information on pricing! To rent the facility and use linens will be around $1,400. [Linens in the color scheme we want] That's not too terribly bad. Now if the food runs us like $4000 [Don't gasp! you'd be AMAZED how much they try to screw you over! The hilton wanted $5k just for FOOD!], that'll be a bit ridiculous. Her website says packages start at $18.95/person which is very do-able for us.

Guess it's (again) the waiting game!

Tomorrow we meet with the florist and the bakery. I'm excited about both!

I DID stumble across a great centerpiece idea. We've been set on doing the hurricane style candle holders since July, until yesterday when I saw this idea.







Jon loves it! The caterer said a friend of hers did the same idea! When I asked her where she got the tree branches she said she used real ones from her own yard. WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT?! My biggest concern would be... Will they hold up? Will they start to crumble after so long? We're not sure. But if we do it, we'll paint them black for a more dramatic look.

The Love Dare

So we went out with friends Sunday night and watched the movie "Fireproof". Long story short, it's about a married couple whose marriage is crumbling and they're going to divorce. The man's father gives him thie book called "The Love Dare". It's a 40 day "challenge" and is supposed to make your marriage unbelievably strong and change your whole life. We thought the movie had such a great moral [it was a very low budget film, but the point of the story was amazing!], that I searched online for more information. Lo and behold, the "Love Dare" book exists!



Here's the site:
http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/lovedare/

We found online that you can buy the book at most stores that sell books, so we're going to buy it today and begin! It's not just for failing marriages. It's suggested for ALL married couples. Strong and weak. So with our vow renewal being 11 months away, we think over the next year we need to make our bond with one another unbreakable and even stronger.

If you go to: http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/lovedare/book.html
You can actually see the first 5 chapters of the book!

Are you up for the challenge? I hope so...