We chose our wedding bands! and a healthy baking day!

I am sad that the weekend has to end because it was wonderfully relaxing and exciting. We are slowly ticking things off of our to-do list for the wedding and this weekend was no exception. When we first got engaged, I was looking for a place to get my ring sized because it was too big - I called 5 different places, getting discouraged because I kept hearing that my ring was going to have to be shipped out for 2 weeks or more and would cost me a pretty penny. Now as you can imagine, when you just get engaged, you do NOT want your ring off your finger for 2-4 weeks, that's what everyone wants to look at! So, I kept searching and found a local shop in Charlotte's NoDa district called CUSTOM. On a whim, I took it in and thought it was at least worth asking what they could do. Amazingly, they told me it would take 2 days and cost considerably less money and they did an amazing job! So, of course, we went back there as a first stop to find our wedding bands! Again I am amazed with this place - they had exactly what we were looking for in Dwayne's band and they are going to custom create mine for a VERY reasonable price. I seriously suggest that anyone in Charlotte, go and check this place out!

Dwayne signing the paperwork!

Earlier in the day we got some family exercise by taking the pup on a long walk at McApline park. I love that we are so close to such an awesome park facility. It's kind of hard to tell, who is walking who here?

Hero always gets really excited for the 1st 5 minutes of walks. He wants to sniff everything, meet everyone and he darts from side to side. Once he calms down, he walks much more nicely but unfortunately that is still the bit of training we need to hammer home with him. We walked about 2 miles and made some friends along the way. I am going to try and start morning walks with Hero to get us both some morning exercise, however, getting my butt out of bed at 615am is tricky : )

We ended up with one tired puppy!

Sunday I went to the Dowd YMCA, which is an absolutely stunning facility. They even have a swimsuit dryer in the locker rooms! No joke. I really enjoy working out in the YMCA facilities, they are always clean, full of friendly people and have more equipment and classes than a fitness enthusiast could dream of! I ran a 5k on the hill course because I have a 5k coming up in a few weeks, that's right folks - its the beginning of race season! A group of us are doing the color run!

When I got home, it was rainy and dreary and I thought, what a perfect day for baking! Dwayne was gone all day so I started looking up some recipes (thanks pinterest!) Everything (aside from the blondies they came from a box) is sweetened naturally with bananas or strawberries. MMM! I can a big slice for breakfast this morning and managed to hide some away so that it's not entirely gone by the time I get home. I have a hungry fiance! : )

Chocolate chip blondies, apple banana bread and strawberry muffins!

Hopefully, with today being another rainy, dreary day - I won't feel bad about spending a good hour or so at the gym. I don't know about you guys but I always feel bad going to the gym when it's super nice outside because I feel like I should be spending time outside but its just more conveniant to get to the gym. Do you ever feel that way?

Next on the wedding to-do list is to find an Officiant and a spot for the rehearsal dinner. Any suggestions? Let us know!!

My First Dress Fitting and My Thoughts on the Abercrombie CEO

Hello all,

This weekend was excellent because I got to relax but also because I had my first dress fitting! I have to admit that when I bought my wedding gown that it was hard to truly imagine what it would look like when it actually fit me. The dress is 2-3 sizes too big because it was a discontinued boutique style and so I bought it off the rack.

Obviously, I can't show a picture but this is a pretty good representation.

Saturday morning my friend and a I went back to the boutique to meet the women doing my alterations.These two women were certainly pros! I thought it would be some long, drawn out process of measurements and in reality, all I had to do was put the dress on and they pinned me into it. I got a really good look at what the dress will be like when its finished and even got to tell them exactly how low down my legs I wanted my "mermaid" style skirt to be. They also showed me something called a 5 point bussel? Acted like I was supposed to know what that was - I didn't so I just smiled!

It was also interesting because when I first put the dress back on, the first question I was asked was "So are you planning anything drastic before your wedding?" I was confused at the question but then I realized - she meant was I planning on changing my body drastically before the wedding. I said no and she started telling me stories about how she has had women come in telling her that they are going to lose 40-50 or 60 pounds before their wedding and somehow she is supposed to know how to alter their dress before they have actually done so. It is an interesting business - this wedding stuff. . The entire relationship I have had with my fiance, I have weighed the same thing and been a healthy person. Why before we make the biggest commitment to each other would I try to make myself look like a different person? Don't get me wrong, I will surely try to step up my workouts and work on my muscle tone but drastic weight loss? No.

It's killing me that I can't share pictures! Obviously, that would ruin the surprise. So, instead I will just share this.

I love ECards!

I will have the first round of alterations back at the end of July and I can't wait!

I have also had a few people ask me about my thoughts on the Abercrombie and Fitch CEO's latest snafu in the lime light. For those of you who don't know, he publicly said that he doesn't sell larger sized clothes in his store because he doesn't want fat people wearing them. His clothes are for the cool kids. An article about it is here.

Now, a lot of people have gotten outraged by this and are talking about petitions and boycotts and everything else. My opinion on this may surprise a few people, but honestly I am on his side.

Say whhhaaa?

Do I think that the way he said it could have been done better or think that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones? Absolutely, but everyone knows that Abercrombie and Fitch is for tall, skinny rich kids whose parents are wealthy and stupid enough to pay $50 for a tshirt that said A&F on the front.

I don't walk into stores like DressBarn or Babys R Us and get outraged because they don't have clothes in my size. I am NOT their demographic - maybe they are selling strictly to middle aged house wives or children. There are even stores out there that cater STRICTLY to larger people - when was the last time that you were outraged at a Mens Big and Tall store not selling clothes for my 5'1 frame? The beauty of our market is that we can have multiple stores that can dig out niches and this has been A&F's for a long time. I remember never going there when I was in high school because even their 'short' pants were 3 inches too long and when I was a size 6 at Old Navy, I was a 12 there. So, I chose not to shop there anymore because obviously, I wasn't who they were trying to sell to.

I think it's time that we stop being SO HYPERSENSITIVE about everything and spend more time getting outraged by the things that matter. Why aren't people as outraged about genetically modified foods and its backdoor legislation or even as outraged that the population of obese people has tripled in the past 20 years? Maybe, people should be more outraged about people not taking care of themselves and less outraged about those same peoples inability to buy jeans from 1 of 1,000 different retailers. Priorities people, priorities.