Just a Day in the Life of a Mom with Twins

Today's blog entry is going to be how to prepare to meet with your wedding vendors. This could be your Photographer, Videographer, Florist, the Bakery, the Venue, anyone that is going to play a part in your big day.  If you don't prepare yourself for the meeting you're about to go into it could lead to a lot of awkward silent moments, fumblings of words and ideas, you could potentially forget to tell them something really important about your day and you remember hours after the meeting has already occurred. A great vendor is going to be someone who knows how to keep the conversation flowing, they're going to ask a lot of open ended questions (not just yes or no answers) and they're going to want to find out as much as they possibly can about you within the timeframe that is allowed. Not all vendors are like this, I had a Photographer one time who was just really laid back, and waited to be given direction instead of doing his own thing, so as the Wedding Planner ...

Well it's been a hot minute since I've written a post. I want to get back to my Wedding Bliss Blog but I feel like I have to show what we've been up to within the last month.  We had a BBQ at our place for the 4th of July. Fireworks are one of my favorite things, so we cooked out and then caught the shuttle to rib fest to watch their 30 minute firework display.  This is where life got a little crazy. A few days later we ended up with no hot water for a week. Our hot water heater finally kicked the bucket after 12 years. I quickly became friends again with the gym, working out and then taking hot showers there. The day we were supposed to get a new hot water heater the guy came, installed the new one but couldn't get it to stop leaking...So what's he do? Shuts off the water. So now not only do we not have hot water, we have NO water. Made for an interesting night/day. The following day they came back (late mind you) and got everything hooked up the way it sho...

A lot of people have been asking me about my health situation and the medical stuff they've been testing me for. I haven't said much before now because I'm just now finally fully understanding it for myself. This is the long version of how I found out I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. I've been slowly gaining weight for a few years now. Nothing big, five pounds here five pounds there. It wasn't until 2013/2014 when my weight skyrocketed. I gained 20 pounds. Throughout 2015 I gained 20 more pounds and knew this was out of control and I needed to get healthy again. My 2016 new years resolution was to lose the extra 40 pounds I've gained, get back to my normal weight, start hitting the gym and getting toned, and just be the healthiest me I could be.  So came January 2016 and I cut out all the junk food, fast food and all meats. I went vegetarian for one month so that my body wouldn't associate chicken with fast food anymore. When I did start eating meat again...

I asked my girls if they would be my bridesmaids shortly after I got engaged. Looking back on it now, after going through all my wedding planner training and helping out other brides during their special planning time I would have definitely done this differently for my girls. I would have given them a cute box with a bridemaid related book instead with some sparking juice and something cute that went along with our colors and wedding theme. But alas that did not happen. Of course I think of all the great ideas AFTER I get married....Oh well I can help out other brides in this area, right? So I asked all my girls, called them if I didn't see them face to face and asked if they would honor me by standing next to me as I say my vows. Everyone said yes! :)  At our rehearsal we gave our bridal party their thank you gifts. We both made bags of goodies for them. The great thing about working at a beauty company is that we get tons of stuff for free. I have bags and bags of it. So I bro...

Our Story - How We Met Late one night in 2010 I had heard enough about this Eric guy from one of my friends. "Who is this guy?" I finally asked and my friend gave me Eric's number. We exchanged texts for a few months until the end of July when I was working at the ULTA out in Orland Park, a few blocks down from where Eric worked at Advance Auto. We agreed to finally meet in person and while nothing earth shattering happened that day, I had a feeling this guy would be a part of my life, I just didn't know how big... Eric and I continued to hang out and get to know each other, but Eric had made it very clear, "I don't want a girlfriend. I'm not looking for a girlfriend. I just want to be friends." And that was fine with me! Imagine my surprise on November 6 when Eric said "I'd like to see where this goes, do you want to be my girlfriend?" While I never expected him to ask me that, I was glad he did because I had started to develo...

I just wanted to answer a few questions after our first year of marriage. Also, I want to get a new series going called Wedding Bliss Blogs - Basically talk about everything that had to do with our wedding, our engagement period, how to prepare for vendor meetings, DYIs, hacks, money saving tips, etc. So I'm really excited about that but let's get started with these questions. When do you feel like you were ready to get married? I was ready around the 2 year mark of our relationship. I knew this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. He was my best friend. He says he knew he wanted to marry me when I said we would do whatever it takes to get him through the $50k surgery he needed to have. It clicked for him in that moment that he just knew I was the one for him. Money wasn't an issue - I cared more about him and his health.  How long was your engagement? We were engaged for one year. We got engaged on May 2, 2014 and our wedding was May 15, 2015....

I thought it would be fun to share some of my fast hair growing tips. Keep in mind that this is just what works for me & my hair and other stylist may have better & different tips for your hair type. My hair also grows extremely fast naturally but I notice a difference when I apply these tips verses when I don't. Let's get started. Tip #1: Do not wash your hair every day.   When you are washing your hair make sure you are washing it twice. The first round of shampoo cleans the product build up on your hair the second washing gets the scalp cleaned. When your hair gets oily it's mainly on the scalp and if you're washing your hair only once with shampoo in the shower you're not getting that oil build up off of your scalp. So make sure you are washing your hair twice when you do wash it and you'll get a cleaner feel any way so you wont HAVE to wash it every day. There are a few products you can use to help you out in this area. You can get a cleansi...