Wedding plans are going strong

Things are moving along at a great pace and are a lot of fun. (minus the whole $$$ thing, that is a little less fun, lol)

On Monday several of us from both sides of the family went along and did the wedding dress shopping thing. The dream dress style for Jannessa was way out of our budget at the main store we went to, so she couldn't even try on the style she wanted. I had done some searching for $99 wedding dresses in our state and found a warehouse not too far away, so we went to check them out before we committed to a dress. Jannessa found her dream dress right in our budgets! That was a major successful trip! She is so happy and looks so beautiful in her dress. (no pics will be going up until after the big day, Drew does NOT want to get a peek)

ALL the siblings on both sides are in the wedding. They have 8 kids, plus foster kids. We have 7 kids. Add another flower girl. Anyway, there are 6 bridesmaids and 6 grooms men, 2 flower girls (1 not family) and Sam, who should carry the rings, but we know how that will end.

Unfortunately, Joey was told he would be deploying early, so the wedding was moved to the summer, when they really wanted to get married. Later this week he was told he wasn't deploying early and could make it. But we just can't change it AGAIN. So Joey, who is actually not a "legal" sibling, will not be there physically, but we will be including him in the wedding. It remains to be seen if Drew will replace him physically and had another groomsman.

Thursday we went shopping for bridesmaid dresses and placed our order. All except the maid of honor, who is 8 1/2 months pregnant, hers is ordered, but she couldn't try it on. They are not quite the color purple as in this picture, but dark purple is the color.

We ordered Trinity a white dress to match the bride, and the other flower girl is wearing white, too. Trinity's was bought on ebay, along with some cute "glass slippers" to wear. When the dress came she was beside herself with joy! Sam said "Whewe mine?" and Donnie explained that we would be buying him a suit soon. He got mad and pouted. Then the shoes came the next day. He wanted to wear them and I told him they are girl shoes. As soon as we weren't looking, he tried them on and came marching over to us "I not weally a giwl, I not weally a giwl." lol It was too cute! I think it is time to get him something.

Jannessa has been looking through cakes with me, since I will be making the cake. She wants a square cake, and a fountain somewhere in the layers of cake. Right now she is looking at a fondant cake with black ribbon and purple flowers, a fountain on the large bottom layer with two layers on top. This is a pic of the basic stlye she wants.

We have done lots of research on local venues and caterers. I think Jannessa has decided on a place, now we have to decide caterer or have family and friends make it. Over all, things are moving along, and we are enjoying the ride!

Finally!

I have been going nuts this year with homeschool. I did not think Trinity was ready.
We were learning about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving the week of Thanksgiving and she could NOT remember a bit of the story from reading it to her to answering questions about it. Every day we repeated the lesson, and she wouldn't have a clue who the Pilgrims were. Not a clue. I wanted to pull my hair out!

Today we were going over some phonics and she had to fill in the middle vowel, with only the choice of a,e, or i. So I pointed to a picture of a hill, and she didn't know what it was so she looked at the word under it and read "hill." Without the "i" in the word, lol. We went through the whole page, covering the pictures and seeing if she could read them, without the middle vowel, and she DID!

So, out came the reading books and she read and read and read to us.

Way to go, Trinity!

Can Trinity be the cause?

Last year Trinity prayed that God would give her a baby sister. I got pregnant that week! So sad that it ended like it did, though.
Last week Trinity decided she wanted a baby sister and she decided to pray for one. I am wondering if she left out the "baby" part of sister, because within a day she got a future sister-in-law.

Maybe I should have her pray for money to grow on trees so we can pay for this wedding.

Living to Cook

Around here, we cook to live. Lately we have been tired of our constant sicknesses and weight gain, so we decided to make a healthy lifestyle change and start cooking foods that are not pre-packaged. No more high fructose corn syrup in our lives, as much as we can avoid it. (did you know that stuff is in Stove Top Stuffing?????)

So for the past 6 months or so I have been drooling over a high school classmates facebook statuses.

"got dinner ready last night before bed...Sicilian pot roast...2 big ones from Sam's Club with tomatoes, onions, garlic, red wine, herbs and black and green olives...to be served over whole wheat rotini :)"
"made a yummy 3 berry sour cream coffee cake yesterday and dinner last night was FAB! Pork piccata with capers and artichokes and brussel sprouts (OHHHHHHH, you'd eat these...didn't even taste like bs (hahaha), bacon and capers, caramelize...d brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar and topped with toasted pine nuts, currants and raisins WOW"

"made brownies this am...cherry upside down cake in oven right now, what's for dinner? italian meatloaf, boiled potatoes and steamed cali blend veggies ;)..."

Yeah, I feel inferior, lol.

Kathy has made a healthy lifestyle choice, and I admire her for it. She has gone through a lot health-wise. One of her children has autism and she is a 3 year breast cancer survivor. She has always wanted to write a book, so she took her love of cooking and ran with it. She is just starting to sell her new cookbook Living to Cook. On her website she says that through this healthier cooking, which is still fantastic tasting, her husband lost 60 pounds!
Kathy's spirit amazes me. She is on a Dragon Boat team of breast cancer survivors and will soon have a line of shirts in support of the cause available on her website.

Kathy needs to sell about 15 more books for publishing, so I encourage you to check out her webpage and buy her book if you are looking for better eating and a healthy lifestyle without giving up the pleasure of eating.

Wedding bells are gonna ring!

I am so excited! Drew and Jannessa agreed to wait to get married until March 6th so that we can have a wedding!
Her mother and I have been chatting on Facebook and making all sorts of plans! Wedding dress shopping, menu planning, etc. We are going to meet for lunch next week and actually meet in person.
It is actually all pretty funny how things worked out. My friend Jeannie has been telling me for a couple of years that I would just love her great-niece Jackie. Drew has been telling me for a year and a half that I would just love his friend Joey's former foster mom, Jackie. And now, having never met said "Jackie" we are going to be sharing our children very soon! Our children both think we will love each other because we are so alike. Jackie has 10 children, and her and her husband were named foster parents of special needs children of the year last year. We share a love of children!
Both Drew and Jannessa are very afraid of us two getting together and planning things, lol. (not really, haha) They know we are going to be great friends and love each other's child.

So, Drew is marrying his friend Joey's half sister's adopted sister. (complicated, I know) and my friend Jeannie's great, great niece. When Drew and Jannessa met 1 1/2 years ago, Joey said that they would end up married. Way to call it, Joey!

Right now we have a snag in the wedding plans. Our church won't marry unequally yoked couples, and we don't know how equal they are or how equal they need to be. They will be counselling and figuring it out, but HELLO! Five weeks from now is the wedding, and we need to get the invites out! If they can't get married at our church, we need to start hunting for a new venue and pastor.
Another snag is that they want a dance and our church won't allow dancing. Long story, it isn't our religious beliefs, exactly, but the elders decision not to have it in the church itself.
So, fun times!

Wowser! Life changes so fast!

These are my birth children. All 7 of them together. Which doesn't happen too often anymore. I enjoy it when it does happen, though.

My family is changing, though. In the last year we have unofficially gained 3 more children. In this picture you can see Brian, our "fake son" in the Santa hat, Kaytlin's boyfriend Peter, my three older boys in the back row, then my three girls, Drew's girlfriend Jannessa, and Sam.

But now it is more official. Drew asked Jannessa to marry him, and she said yes! Sadly they are going to marry soon and family won't be able to be there. We are trying to convince them to hold off for a month and let us plan a wedding so we can be there, but for financial reasons they probably won't wait. (no, there is no baby on the way, for sure)

So, probably by the end of the week, I am going to be a mother-in-law! Scary! Totally new territory for me.