A Change of Address...

I must apologize for the inconvenience, but I have decided to make some changes around here. A few of you have noticed and commented on the new banner, along with the new name. It wasn't just me being crazy, it's just my new blog.

http://www.abrideagain.blogspot.com/

Yes, I've stepped out of my shell a little bit and decided to blog as myself...under a new blog name...something that will have some continuity with some blogs that are already under construction for the future. I wanted to have the name recognition for those newer blogs and be able to connect all the blogs together, thus the change.

To my followers - I REALLY do apologize. I really hope to see all of you following my new blog, as that's where the new posts will be from now on.

Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience, but you'll find me here now...along with all the histroy that was on this blog...don't worry - I'm taking it all with me!

Thanks for reading, and I'll keep my fingers crossed to see you at the new site soon!

Why I blog…

Someone asked me the other day why I choose to write about my experience as a bride. More importantly, why I feel the need to write about it all as a bride doing it all again. A first-time bride is understandable, since there is all this excitement and anticipation of the unknown coming at you. But for someone who’s already been there and done that…what’s the attraction? And why would people care?

source

Well, it’s not a simple answer. There are several reasons why I blog. First and most importantly, I blog because I love it. I’ve always been somewhat creative and love having the outlet that blogging allows. It’s not necessarily that I think that what I have to say is so important, I’m confident and have LOADS of good self-esteem, but even I realize that my audience is small! But it doesn’t really matter to me if one person reads my blog or if 500 people read my blog. I don’t write for you guys, I write for me.

This keeps me sane. Yes, it’s a way for me to keep friends and family informed with what all is going on with the wedding planning process. This way I don’t have to make three phone calls to three Maids, plus one to Mama CC and one to FMIL…they can read the blog at their own pace and stay caught up with what’s in the works. I just love it when I talk to one of them and they bring up something that I wrote about…makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Yes, sometimes it gets confusing because I wait to talk about things until it’s posted on my blog, but that’s just me making things harder on myself!

Another reason that I do this is because I have really tried to connect with people in my same situation. Planning a second (or third) wedding is WAY different than planning your first wedding, and although there’s nothing wrong with first-time brides, there is often a different perspective that women doing this for a second time around have. And I look for that. I actively search for it. And I can tell you, it’s sort of hard to find. There’s just not that many of us out there being open and upfront about this whole process. It seems to be more “acceptable” to have a small, intimate second wedding, not to do the whole extravagant affair when it isn’t your first wedding. So if my posts can bring someone else some measure of comfort or a feeling of “I’m not alone in this!” to them, then I have accomplished what I set out to do.

And to be perfectly honest, it’s just not the same being a bride for the second time around. There are different issues that I face…things that I deal with that new brides don’t necessarily understand. Things like how your decisions affect people other than just you and your groom. Understanding that at times, there are just things that you cannot have in your wedding because it’s something that brings up painful memories. And being ok with your future spouse telling you that you can’t do this or that for that reason and not being all jealous-crazy-woman about it. Let’s face it, most “encore brides” are more mature, if not in age, then in experience. There are things that we’ve gone through and experienced that new brides haven’t.

We know what it’s like to have the one person that you thought that you could always count on let you down…and yes, it’s different than when a parent or friend lets you down. We know what it’s like to love someone with all your heart, but to understand in your head that it’s best to let them go. And we know when to admit that we made a mistake. With full knowledge of making the mistake at the time that we did it. And we still did it. So, we also know what it’s like to correct something like that, knowing that the other person doesn’t understand and probably never will. Living with that is sometimes hard.

So planning a wedding isn’t all happiness, hearts, flowers and butterflies all the time. It just isn’t. It can be, and there may be weeks in between each maudlin session that an “encore bride” might experience. For me, those moments are few and far between. I think that what makes the most difference is Mr. CC himself and how I am with him. I’m me, plain and simple. And he loves me. Doesn’t ask or expect me to be something/someone that I’m not. And that means the world to me.

Did you start a blog during an important event during your life? Was it helpful to you? Did you continue it even after the event was over? This is something that I’m starting to think about as my wedding day gets closer and closer…

Work Out Wagon Results – Week #8

Last Week’s Stats:
Weight – 147
Tummy – 32/36.75 (true waist / “tummy”)
Thighs – 23.25

Last Week’s Goals: (I’ve once again put my actual results in BOLD)
To actually follow the goals that I have set out to follow…I did do better on this one, no matter WHAT the numbers below say
Move to next step of Couch Potato to 5K running plan – run a minimum of three times during the week Ran Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday
Take only one day a week off of SOME form of exercise – days not running either do a P90X workout or swim Still didn’t do as good on this one…
NO SODAS during the week!!! Only cheated ONE time – YEA!

Current Stats:
Weight – 148
Tummy – 31.5/37 (true waist / “tummy”)
Thighs – 23.25

Here are my goals for this week:
Increase my running length of time and speed, following the Couch Potato to 5K running plan – running at least 3 times
Take only one day off of SOME form of exercise – do a P90X workout or swim on “off days”
Continue with no sodas during the week, and making good diet choices.
Work on smaller meals, more often.

I’m really proud of what I was able to get back on track with last week. I watched what I ate and made sure to exercise more. Yes, I should have done something for two of my three days off, but maybe I’m doing just fine with my baby steps to fitness…

I was disappointed in the numbers posting this week. Despite all of my good efforts, it seems like I fell short a bit. I’m counting on that being blamed for my monthly visitors who brings along water retention and bloating with her when she visits! Next week, I hope to continue to see my weight drop and my measurements decrease as well.

I’m almost 100 days out from the wedding right now, and to be perfectly honest, I’m feeling a bit of pressure about the “hump” that I seem to have hit. I cannot get past the position that I’m at with my weight or my measurements, it seems. So, in order to try to force myself to do better and be more accountable, I’m going back to the food journal and really watching those calories. I’m excited that my workouts are at the level now where I’m burning significant calories…I just want to make sure that I don’t undo all of my hard work with bad eating choices.

You might have noticed also that I added a new goal of eating smaller meals more often. This one is REALLY hard for me to do. Not only do I have to make good snack choices, which isn’t all that hard for me, but I have to eat at set times during the day. I noticed that when I did this when I was first starting out on my workout wagon, it really did seem to speed up my metabolism a bit. The past three weeks or so, I haven’t been doing very good with this aspect of when I eat, and I think that the numbers really reflect that.

Is anyone else out there struggling to get past a “road block” in their fitness program? I’m making progress, so I’m ok with this small set-back, but it’s frustrating all the same.

What are you doing to get over your “hump” in the road?

The "Guest Book" Revealed!

Well, since I wrote about the “dilemma” the other day (read - "a few weeks ago") with the signing spots on the “guest book” I wanted to go ahead and share some pics of my work on the actual quilt.

I bought several (five, I think) different patterned fabrics along with a solid black to make up the arcs of the rings. I had envisioned just using the colors black and cream to go along with my color scheme, but fell in LOVE with a fabric that I saw on sale at Hancock Fabrics. It was a cream background, and had black on it, but also included the color grey.

Bringing in one more color really opened up my mind a bit and I ended up with another grey and black material as well. I wasn’t sure how exactly it would all look together, and I KNOW that we’ve had THAT talk before! So I was REALLY anxious to finish cutting up the million zillion thousand pieces that it took to make all the arcs that I think that I’ll need and get to sewing some things together and seeing how the fabric looked.

Here’s the result: That’s just one side of the ring.

Here’s one more shot of the “ring”:
I apologize that it’s such a rough draft, but you get the picture. Just use your imagination and picture the cream muslin inserted to fill in the circles, and the arcs will all be finished off with squares cut out of the same black solid fabric that is the center piece of each arc.

What do you think? I REALLY like them! I can’t wait to see it more together, since it’s still a little hard for me to envision at this point. I know, I know. Imagine how frustrating it is for ME! Anyway, the plan of attack is for me to make as many of these arcs as I can BEFORE the actual wedding occurs…thus increasing the likelihood and ease of getting this project finished AFTER the wedding.

I was a little concerned about this type of quilting. The pattern is a piece-work foundation paper quilt pattern, which is something that I’ve never really done before. Essentially, you copy the pattern that’s given onto special foundation paper and then sew your quilt pieces to the actual paper, which at the same time sews them together. At the end of the project, you simply rip the paper out (in theory that happens easily since sewing the paper perforates it as you go). This gives you a firm foundation to work with and it would seem to me that it would help decrease the chance of error and help make all of your arcs exactly the same. Or at least closer to exactly the same than if you didn’t have it. So anyway, this is a new thing for me, so I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it, but I LOVE it!

It was really easy to pick up the hang of it, after the first one – since you KNOW that one took a little longer to get the hang of it! All in all, I finished the other three arcs in no time flat. I would say less than 10 minutes per arc, but I’m just guessing. So hopefully, by starting early my grand master plan will work out and help me to finish this up after we collect all the signatures.

Did you have a wedding project that you started ahead of time like that, even knowing that you couldn’t finish it until AFTER the wedding was over? How did working on it early work out for you? I’d love to hear about it!

Joining the YMCA...

So I’ve been writing a lot about our workouts. Something that has been happening recently has really affected our workouts. Texas has been in an early heat wave. Yes, I realize that I live in Texas, and that it’s hot here a lot of the time. I get that. I really do. But it’s been unseasonably hot…in late June we’ve been hitting triple-digits on the temperature front each and every day. A cool day (read cold front) for us is high 90’s.

How has this affected us, you’re asking right about now? Well, we run outside. We don’t own a treadmill and we’re not members of any gym. So this means avoiding heat exhaustion is the most important thing for us. When we first started running, we could run right after work (between 5:30 – 6:30 at night) and have no problems. That quickly changed as May became June. We changed our routine to run about an hour after we ate in the evenings. This might mean a little discomfort while running if we ate too heavy a meal, or didn’t wait the full hour, but it was worth it to run during a cooler period during the day.

source

Last week, we had to start waiting until after 9pm to run. It’s been THAT hot. And that’s just not acceptable for us working folks. Mr. CC works quite a ways away from our house, having to go right through downtown Austin to get there. Which puts him going through some heavy traffic, except that he goes so early in the mornings, that he misses it all. (So for those of you familiar with Austin and it’s traffic, you get that that is VERY early!)

So running that late at night forces us to go to bed later and later. And it’s just going to keep getting hotter and hotter. We needed a better solution. This is starting to affect our desire to work out at all, and staying on track with our goals is important to us. Especially since it's not just ME that is worried about looking her best on her wedding day...this is something that Mr. CC worries about constantly.

So what did we do? We joined the YMCA. I don’t know about the area that you’re in, but in Austin, the YMCA has some top-notch facilities for member use. Nice gyms, workout classes, summer programs for kids, and swimming facilities. An extra score for us, since we “lost” our summertime pool when little CC and I moved out of our apartment in Austin and moved in with Mr. CC. Without access to a pool, the summers in Austin can be L-O-N-G…

So just for your information, joining the Y was a simple choice for us. They offer a family membership, allowing all four of us access to all of the Austin area YMCA facilities, for a mere $75/month. There was no activation fee since we signed up the same day that we took a tour, and there is no contract to sign. It’s month-to-month on bank/credit card draft with just a 30-day cancellation policy to follow. Right now, the kids are young enough where they get in under our cards, and they must be supervised at all times. But the Y does provide on-site child care for ages 6 mos and up. Within a year or so, Mr. CC’s son will be able to roam about as he pleases when we’re there, but little CC will have to continue to go to “Hang Time” until she reaches 13.

Lucky for us, we’re pretty flexible and one of us doesn’t mind sitting watching little CC swim while the other works out and then taking turns. It’s a win-win situation for us. We get to run on treadmills (better for our joints on shock absorption) in the A/C (MUY importante in Tejas!) as well as full access to the rest of the amenities that the YMCA offers.

We’re thrilled with our choice, and just to be certain that I did a good thing financially, I did a break-down on the cost. I figured out that if we go to the Y three days a week (which is how often we’re SUPPOSED to be running each week) the cost is a mere $3.13 per visit. I will GLADLY pay $3 to run in the A/C any day of the week!

Check out the new YMCA that just opened last year, and is the closest one to our house:

source

What new expenses did you incur to meet your fitness goals for your wedding? Was it worth the money that you spent?