kimmers for life

Summer Bucket List

Today I'm participating in Mama Kat's  weekly writing prompts. Today I've created a bucket list of 50 things I want to do this summer. Coming up with 50 things just about killed me, and halfway through I started to wonder why the hell I didn't pick a different writing prompt! I stuck with it, and at the end of the summer I'll post an update to show how many things I was able to cross off.

1. Get way more active on Good Reads. I was really excited about the site when I first joined, but my interest sort of petered out pretty quickly. I think part of the problem is that I feel this weird pressure to add every single book I've ever read to my "Read" shelf which of course is completely overwhelming... and part of it is that I only have a handful of friends on there to interact with. So if you're on there, let's connect! There's not much in life that I'm more passionate about than reading, so if you feel the same, let's chat about books together.
2. Start writing some book reviews, on Good Reads and also on my blog.
3. Get back into blogging. I keep falling away from it, and every time I do I really miss it. I'm going to set a really achievable goal for myself and say that I would like to blog at least twice a week.
4. Get back into commenting on other people's blogs. I go through phases with this and I hate it, because I know how much it means to bloggers to get comments. I will say that I still faithfully read everyone's blogs, I just haven't been taking the time to comment. I'm going to try to work on that.
5. Discover at least 5 really great new blogs to follow. It's been a while since I added to my reader, and I'd love to find some new authors to follow. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
6. Read 5 Stephen King novels. This is something I always mean to do, but I always seem to have a million other books on my shelf that are begging to be devoured. I've only read two or three of King's novels and I want this to be the summer that he and I get a bit better aquainted.
7. Learn to run. Before the wedding, I had managed to lose about 12 pounds through reforming my diet and working out religiously. Since we've been back, I've gained back about half. I've always wanted to learn to run - when I run now about four minutes in my lungs feel like they're going to explode - and now seems like a good time to try. Nick and I have decided to give the C25K another shot, outside this time. I'm hoping that by the end of summer we'll be able to go for runs together to get in shape and stay there.
8. Find a great recipe for apple muffins.
9. Try out some of the recipes in the cupcake cookbook my mother in law gave me.
10. Set up my sunroom as a home office. I want a dedicated space to write and to store my notebooks and things. Somewhere I can go to feel inspired. I recently took ownership of a beautiful antique desk that I'm dying to set up in there. Once I find places for the last few wedding gifts currently taking up residence in the sunroom, I can get the desk moved in there.
11. Finally put together my wedding planning scrapbook.
12. Print my honeymoon pictures and get that scrapbook put together.
13. Get caught up on some of my other long-neglected scrapbooks... god this is overwhelming.
14. Go camping with Nick and Dunkin. We've cancelled our September Disney trip (sob!) in favor of saving up to hopefully buy a house next spring, but I'd still like to get away for a few days and just spend some time together away from our day to day routine.
15. Post. Wedding. Chop.
16. Become a successful meal planner.
17. Add some new recipes to my (very) limited repertoire. I find this challenging because Nick and I don't eat a lot of meat, (basically chicken, ham and turkey) but Nick also isn't crazy about many vegetables (while I love them all). When I try to find recipes we will both enjoy, I get discouraged really quickly. At the same time, I can only eat chicken with rice and corn so many times before I go quietly crazy!
18. Work on my book. I need to stop making excuses and just do it already.
19. Watch all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (I've seen the first two, and I love them!).
20. Finally try the Spanish restaurant down the street.
21. Go golfing with Nick. I don't actually golf, but sometimes I go with him to keep him company, and I sit in the golf cart and read while he golfs. It's actually really relaxing and it's a nice chance for us to spend some quiet time together outside.
22. Continue to work on paying down our debt so we can make the house a reality come next spring. We've made a huge effort with this lately and I'm proud of us.
23. Make a great soup from scratch.
24. Try out my new ice cream maker. (Man, with all these food-related goals, I better hope this running thing works out!)
25. Throw a fun summer party.
26. Send out 5 greeting cards for no reason.
27. Schedule my first riding lesson. Nick bought me a set of them as part of my wedding gift, and for some reason I'm really nervous to schedule the first one! Sometimes it's hard for me to try new things on my own, but I'm really excited about this so I know I need to just force myself.
28. Take Dunkin for lots of walks while it's nice out and we can.
29. Sell my DSLR. I was so excited to buy it, but it's been over a year and I still haven't found the time to learn to use it. Right now I could better use the money to pay off some debt, so if I can get a good price for it, I'm going to part with it.
30. Find a really great point & shoot to replace it with. I had a Sony with a touch screen that I liked a few years ago, but I think it's been discontinued. I'm not in love with my current Nikon. My last Canon was really slow. I'm pretty much at a total loss here.
31. Dust off my wii. Nick and I had so much fun with this back in the day, and now it's been sitting sadly neglected for years.
32. Ditto for the wii fit.
33. Read some books on writing to help me get inspired. I've ordered Stephen King's On Writing from my local Barnes & Noble, but I'm open to other suggestions too.
34. Try to be better about keeping my house clean... although if I manage to successfully work on my book I don't foresee a ton of spare time for intensive cleaning!
35. Get back into Twitter.
36. Make more time for friends and family. For months I've been pretty consumed by wedding planning and starting my new job, but now the wedding's over and I'm a bit more settled in at work, so I'd really like to start reconnecting with my friends again.
37. Host a family dinner with my wedding china.
38. Go to the beach. I love it and I so rarely make time for it.
39. Start using my crockpot.
40. Wake up early enough to eat breakfast at home and spend a few minutes on my computer before I leave for work. I hate being rushed in the morning but I always, always am. The reality is that it's always hard for me to get up, regardless of the time, so it may as well be the first time my alarm goes off instead of the third.
41. Pay more attention to Jasper. The poor guy has lost out on a ton of attention since Dunkin's arrival, and I feel bad about it.
42. Push-ups. Crunches. Lots of them.
43. Get my bike tuned up and take it outside!
44. Spend enough time outside that my freakishly pale self actually gets a tan.
45. Try to get better about not wasting food... we throw so much out every week and I feel terrible about it, it's such a waste of food and money. I think meal planning will help with this.
46. Read the Sookie Stackhouse books! I'm obsessed with True Blood, and I really want to give the books a shot.
47. Sell my wedding dress. I'm never going to wear it again, so really, why keep it? If I can get a reasonable amount of cash for it, I'm going to sell it and put the money toward paying off our debt. And hey, I'm sure there's a girl out there who would love a good deal on a wedding dress, right?
48. Go through my closet and get rid of some clothes. I've been putting this off because I'm still trying to lose weight, but if I'm where I want to be by the end of the summer, my closet is getting cleaned out.
49. Make quinoa.
50. Distance myself a little from the friends who always seem to take a lot more than they give. I have too much going on in my life right now to make time for people for whom I'm not a priority. All it does is limit the time I have for the people who mean the most to me.

What's on your summer bucket list??

 

 

 

 

Wedding Bells and Summer Goals

I'm back, I'm married, and the wedding was every single thing we dreamed and more. It really was a fairy tale and I'm so, so glad we did it.

(Pics coming very, very soon.) (If you're my facebook friend, the professional "sneak peeks" are up!) (If we're not facebook friends... why is that?!)

I've also FINALLY staggered free of the Wedding Fog I've been in for the last, oh.... twenty months or so. For the first time in almost two years I actually have free time again! I get home from work and there is NO overwhelming Wedding To Do list facing me! I've been busy, but I haven't been under deadline, and I'm finding that this is a very important distinction.

Now that I have all this glorious free time, I'm looking forward completing the following goals this summer:

• Finally getting caught up on all of my scrapbooking, up to and including the honeymoon. This is a huge project because I am YEARS behind on my scrapbooking. It would feel so great to finally be current! I swear I take less pictures now because in the back of my mind I dread the bins and bins of pictures and materials piling up in my hall closet and silently judging me.
• Continuing to work toward my final weight loss goal. I made great progress before the wedding and managed to lose twelve pounds. Since the wedding and (16 day!) honeymoon, I'm back up four or five pounds. I want to get rid of those plus an additional ten, and I also want to continue to work on toning. In the two months before the wedding, Nick and I were at the gym for an hour or two nearly every day. This summer, we plan to walk outside with Dunkin every day after work, and make it to the gym for strength training three times per week.
• Really working on weeding out anything we don't truly need or at least use. We're hoping to buy a house in the spring, and I really want to move in with significantly less clutter than we currently have. We had a tag sale this weekend, and that was a great start, so we just need to keep up the momentum.
• Stick 100% to our newly created budget. (see above: house!)
• Going camping - Nick's mom has a campsite not far from here that we could use for free and somehow we just never make the time to actually go. This summer, I'd like to spend a weekend at the campsite with the pup and some friends.

Apart from all of that I really am so excited to have some downtime this summer to just relax and spend some quality time with my new husband(!!!) All this warm weather has me dying for a beach day!

What are some of your summer goals or plans?

And now... a few wedding pictures to tide you over!

Wedding Rehearsal:

 

The kiss!

 

Mickey makes an appearance at our reception!

 

Getting ready for our Fireworks Dessert Party with my bridesmaid Katrina:

 

Mr. & Mrs. Maule At the Fireworks Dessert Party :)

 

More to come soon!

Trim the Fat: Wedding Edition

So, I think we all knew it would come to this.

My wedding is in 98 days. And I haven't lost a pound of that 20 I've been trying to lose for months now.

I'm panicking... more than a little.

I'm also starting to feel a dangerous twinge of "how much can I possibly lose in only 3 months, I've left it too late, might as well just accept that this is what I'm going to weigh on my wedding day". I know this kind of defeatist attitude is dangerous to an already lacking motivation level. I know it's not even particularly true and of course, I know that I can in fact lose weight, and probably accomplish a decent amount of toning in 3 months. It's just so hard to make myself actually feel it. I look forward 3 months and it's just impossible for me to see myself 20 pounds slimmer. I've totally lost confidence in myself and my ability to take control and get serious about this.

Fortunately, (unfortunately?) Nick and my parents are in exactly the same boat, so we've decided to have a mini Biggest Loser style competition to try to get the four of us motivated and on the right track. We have 13 weeks between now and the wedding and we each want to lose roughly 20 pounds. To keep things as fair as possible we've split into two coed teams. To mix things up a bit, Nick and my mom are one team while my dad and I are the other. We'll weigh in weekly and the team with the biggest percent lost at the end of week 13 will be the victors. We're still working out what the winning team will actually win but there will definitely be some sort of prize involved.

One of the "rules" we set is that the team members need to stay in touch in between weigh ins and keep each other focused and motivated.

Today alone my dad has sent me three "motivational" text messages.

(Did I mention that the contest doesn't even start until tomorrow. I think that means I'm in for a lot of text messages over the next 13 weeks.)

If all goes well, in 13 weeks time we will all be headed for Florida a collective 80 pounds thinner and a great deal happier.

Please share your weight loss tips! We can all use them. Esoecially me, because Nick is so damn overconfident I'm dying to beat him. :)

I basically just want to tell you about my fantastic birthday present

Today I turned 27, which I'm pretty sure means I'm officially in my "late twenties", but I think I'm going to stay in denial about that for a little while.

I had a pretty great day! We just had our Jack & Jill last weekend, so I really wanted to stay low key for my birthday. The weather forecast for today was horrible, so rather than sit in traffic for two hours trying to get to work like yesterday, I used a vacation day and stayed home. I let myself sleep in a little, and when I woke up Nick surprised me with cupcakes from my favorite bakery. I had a white chocolate macadamia nut cupcake with raspberry mousse frosting for breakfast, and that's a pretty good start to any day.

Along with my cupcakes he gave me my birthday card, and in it, Nick had written the following:

        "Roses are red, violets are blue, 102 days until we say 'I do'."

Awwwwww.       

Nick ordered my birthday present online, and unfortunately the delivery was delayed a few days because of the crazy weather we've been having here, so I don't have it in my hands yet. But he ordered me a Clarisonic, and I am so! freaking! excited! I've wanted to get my hands on one of these for ages but I keep putting off the purchase because it seems like such an up front investment. With the wedding only three months away (!!!) we were supposed to be on a tight budget for each other's birthdays. Nick really splurged on me and I'm so touched that he did. I can't wait to try this out, and I'll definitely review it here after I do.

We also went out to dinner, about a million people left me birthday wishes on Facebook, and my parents sent me an Edible Arrangement (YUM). Tomorrow night we're going to see the movie Blue Valentine, and on Saturday my parents are taking us to dinner again. (And on Monday, we all start our wedding diets for real this time.) I'm so fortunate that the people in my life seem to understand that my birthday is a multiple day event. (Just kidding.) (Mostly.) (Sort of.)

Have you ever used the Clarisonic? If so I'm dying to hear about your experiences with it!

You're Getting Married Where?!

Back when Nick and I first started planning our wedding, I made a firm decision not to post here about the wedding planning process. I had a laundry list of reasons why this wasn't something I wanted to talk about on my blog. I was worried that the content of my blog would become too narrow and only appeal to a certain small audience. I didn't want to fall into a niche that would no longer apply for me after I got married. I was afraid that my choice of a Disney wedding would alienate some readers. And on, and on, and on.

But you know what? I've decided that I just. don't. care. My blog has completely fallen by the wayside, and I hate that, and I honestly think a lot of the reason for it has been this weird, self-imposed list of topics I feel like I "can't" write about. I've given it some thought and I've decided that from now on? The only guidelines I'm setting for myself are the following:

• Don't write something that I don't want someone - anyone - to read;
• Don't write about work.

Other than that? Anything goes. Including wedding plans! Because honestly? That's a pretty big part of my life right now, and I think keeping it out of here is only hurting this space anyway. So stay tuned, because I'm working on some wedding posts and I can't wait to share them with you!

In other news, I recently joined Good Reads. I'm still sort of figuring out what it's all about, but so far I'm pretty intrigued. Although, if I understand correctly, apparently if I had an iphone I could simply scan my books' barcodes rather than tediously entering each of them one by one... and this makes me sad. Because I'm already dying for a damn iphone, but my contract with Verizon doesn't renew until December. Sigh.

Regardless, come add me as a friend!

Are you on Good Reads? What do you love about it?

From A to Z

A is for allergies, which are driving me crazy!

B is for blog. Now that some other pieces of my life have started to fall into place, I feel like I can get back into blogging again. I've really missed it!

C is for cheese, my current favorite snack. Right now I'm loving bree on whole wheat crackers, yum!

D is for Disney. We just got back from our wedding planning trip and we had such a great time. As usual the trip went much too quickly, and I already can't wait to go back! We'll be going back for our wedding and honeymoon in May for two weeks, and I'm looking forward to having so much time down there! We'll be able to do everything we want to and still work in plenty of pool time.

E is for energy, which I suddenly have a lot more of. I think it's just my sudden decrease in stress. It's amazing what an impact stress has on every facet of your life! I feel like a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders and it feels fantastic.

F is for fall, my favorite season! Time for the leaves to change and the pumpkin everything to make an appearance! I always feel like the fall goes by much too quickly but I love it while it's here.

G is for Garnet Girls, the new Etsy shop I just opened with my good friend Sarah! We're really excited about this project and I'm so happy to finally open the shop! Stop on over to see us!

H is for Hawaii Five-O, which Nick made me try watching and which is actually pretty good!

I is for ice cream, which I am still eating too much of. Ice cream is definitely my biggest weakness and the one thing I am pretty much always in the mood for. But can I have points for greatly reducing the other sweets and snacks?

J is for I GOT A JOB!! One that I am very, very excited. I'll be handling high profile disability insurance claims at an insurance company nearby. My first day is November 8th and I'm so eager for the fresh start.

K is for Key West. I've never been down there, and I've always wanted to. Nick and I want to do a Caribbean cruise in 2012, and I'd like to spend a few days in Key West first.

L is for looking for bridesmaids dresses - which my girls and I will be doing this weekend! I can't wait to go to some shops with the girls and actually see some dresses in action! I'm also eager for all of the girls to spend a little time together, as a few of them haven't met before.

M is for muffins, which I want to try baking. In the past I've only ever made them from a package but fall weather always makes me want to bake! (See: last year's Christmas cookie fiasco) I would like to find a good recipe for apple cinnamon muffins, anyone have one?

N is for my new project, making handmade jewelry for my new Etsy shop! I'm having so much fun learning about precious and semi precious stones, jewelry making techniques, and how to open and manage an Etsy shop! We're also planning to sell at craft fairs so I've been researching those like crazy to get us booked for November and December. It's definitely taking up a LOT of my free time, but it feels great to see everything coming together! 

O is for October, which is the month when I start getting excited for Christmas! (Nope, not kidding.) Today I started making a list of all the people I need to shop for, so every time I think of a possible gift idea I can jot it down.

P is for pounds! As of today I'm down to 159.5, which means not only did I not GAIN weight on vacation, I was actually lossing a few pounds. I haven't been working out lately so I attribute this loss to my improved eating habits and greatly reduced snacking. I'm excited to leave the 160s behind and I look forward to the day that I say goodbye to the 150s too. Nick is down to 197 so he is doing even better! We both plan to start using the treadmill now that we're back from Florida. I'd also like to start doing crunches and doing some toning.

Q is for quiet time, which I desperately need! I have been out straight lately and I'm really craving some downtime with my puppy, my fiance and my TV. Just low key, completely non-productive free time.

R is for reading, which I've had zero time for lately and miss terribly. I have a little time before my new job starts, and I plan to carve out some lazy days spent on my couch with a mug of tea and a pile of books.

S is for the south, where Nick and I want to live. We won't be making a move anytime soon - we're really focused on saving for the wedding, and I'm about to start a new job that I'm very excited about. But we do still talk about moving south sometime in the next few years, and I definitely noticed that my new company has an office in Charleston, SC - one of my top dream towns! A sign?

T is for tea, which I've recently become a little obsessed with. I bought a bunch of flavored teas in Florida and I've been loving trying them out now that the temperatures are dropping outside.

U is for unemployed, which I no longer am!!! (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

V is for vows. I really wanted for Nick and I to write our own vows for the wedding, but he is totally against it. I came up with what I think is a pretty decent compromise - we'll each write the other person a love letter, to be exchanged the morning of the wedding and read later that night when the festivities are over. This way we both get to say all the important stuff, but privately instead of in front of all the wedding guests. I have a few ideas for mine, but I'll have to wait until after the wedding to share them with you because Nick does read here!

W is for wedding! Nick and I have finally reached a point where we are doing a lot of planning and pinning down some final choices. Expect some wedding posts coming soon!

X is for... xray? Xtra Mart? Beats me... X is way too hard. I'm taking a pass on this one.

Y is for York Beach, ME, home of the best salt water taffy I've ever tasted. If you ever make it up that way, make sure you go to The Goldenrod, and try the taffy. And then send me some.

Z is for zoo, which our house sometimes feels like! Simba is on this new kick where whenever he wants treats he just starts screaming at the top of his lungs. Since he seems to most often want treats in the middle of the night, this is... not ideal. Jasper is jealous that Dunkin gets so much attention, so he has become obnoxiously clingly. And Dunkin is a total love machine and is my constant shadow (ok I can't lie, that one I love). They're a handful, but I love them all to pieces and I don't kow what I'd do without them.

Confession time

Confession time:

I am really, really not succeeding in getting in shape.

EPIC FAIL.

And I'm embarassed to say that is completely and totally because I am just plain not. working. out. at. all.

I'm extremely frustrated with myself because I was so motivated in the beginning of all of this. I started C25K and I loved it! I actually looked forward to jumping on the treadmill each day and it felt great to really work up a sweat. My legs were sore 24/7 and that felt great too because it felt like Making Progress.

I set myself a goal of doing 100 crunches every day, and for a while I did pretty well with that.

I started making a conscious effort to Make Healthy Eating Choices. Did I completely give up all snacks and sweets? Absolutely not. But nine times out of ten the snack I reached for was a sensible one, and that made that tenth snack feel like an earned indulgence rather than a Bad Decision.

I'm all about Capital Letters For Emphasis today, huh.

It's because I'm feeling sort of stabby.

At myself.

I've now posted five weeks worth of fitness summaries, and at this point I feel like I'm no further along than when I started. I'm no closer to my weight goal and I haven't formed good exercise habits. I didn't even post about the sixth week, because all I could think to write was, "I really didn't work out. Over the weekend I ate far too much saltwater taffy and fudge. I haven't stepped on the treadmill in weeks. Am officially afraid to weigh myself. Go me!" and I just couldn't bear it.

Then again, I felt ashamed of myself for not posting my failure too.

The only positive things I can find to say at this point are:

I am still eating much better overall, taffy notwithstanding,

and

I'm not ready to give up on this. Not by a long shot.

Nor am I willing to accept the fact that October 4th is too close for me to really make a visible difference in my body between now and then.

What does this mean?

It means this restarts now, today. Not on Monday. Not after one last hurrah this weekend. Now.

It means I weigh myself on Monday and post another Trim the Fat post on Tuesday, good results or no.

It means I don't skip a post because I'm ashamed of my results.

It means that I push myself hard enough to feel good about my progress no matter what the scale says.

It means from now on, I do C25K every other day, period, no exceptions.

It means that on the "other" days, I do some other form of exercise, however small.

It means I do 100 crunches every single day, because I am never so pressed for time that I can't fit that in.

It means that I remind myself evey day how fantastic it will feel to finally meet my goal. How great it will be to enjoy my clothes again. How much fun I will have with the engagement pictures if I feel comfortable in my own skin when I have them taken. How much more energy I will have when I'm in better shape and more active.

How much I never want to be in this situation again.

Have any of you had trouble staying consistent with starting an exercise program? Anyone start out as an epic fail and turn it around into a success story? I'm looking for motivation here!

Trimming the fat: week 5

This... wasn't a great week for exercising. There's really no good reason for that, so I won't try to come up with one. Basically? We just both felt really unmotivated to get on that treadmill. One thing I'm learning about myself during all of this is that for me? Routine is absolutely essential. As soon as I left a few days go by without working out, all my motivation completely drains away and something as simple as jumping on the treadmill for 25 minutes seems like an impossible task. My goal for next week is not to let two days in a row pass without getting in a workout.

The good news is that I did continue to make reasonably healthy food choices this week. I ate plenty of fruits and vegetables and we picked up a couple boxes of popsicles instead of pints of ice cream. I can't even tell you the last time I ate my beloved Cape Cod potato chips.

Given that we barely exercised, (and I say barely because although we didn't hit the treadmill we DID go for several walks and I did do some crunches) I'd say we did pretty well this week.

New Weights:

Kim: 162.5 (no change)

Nick: 205.5 (no change)

Next week I would really like to get down to an even 161. I'm going to try my hardest to get on the treadmill at least every other day, and to do my crunches every day. If I manage that, next week I'll add in some other workouts as well.

How do you maintain your workout routine? Does a day or two off leave you feeling refreshed or just lazy?

All you need is faith, trust and pixie dust!

Those of you who have been reading here for a long time know that I'm completely and totally ever so slightly obsessed with all things Disney. Nick and I make it a point to get down to Walt Disney World at least a few times a year, in spite of living in Connecticut. I dragged him to see Toy Story 3 this weekend. There may or may not be Disney songs on my Ipod. We even got engaged in Disney World last September.

It came as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me at all that Nick and I decided to get married in Walt Disney World.

When Nick first jokingly threw out the idea of a Disney wedding, I immediately rejected the idea. I mean, yes I'm obsessed with The Mouse and I fully embrace that, but did I really want a theme park wedding? Wouldn't it be over the top tacky and unoriginal? Wouldn't I have to listen to an endless stream of complaints and jeers from our guests, especially once they showed up and saw Mickey plastered all over everything? Wouldn't a destination mean sharing our honeymoon with all our guests? As much as I loved Disney, I felt strongly that a Disney wedding was just not for me.

The problem was, I couldn't find a wedding that was for me. In spite of countless hours spent online researching possible wedding venues, I couldn't seem to find anything I could get really excited about. I set wedding planning to the side because I was frustrated that nothing felt exactly right for us.

Then the Wedding Channel aired a special on Disney World weddings, and it was all over.

I had no idea that Disney World weddings could be so elegant and understated. I watched the special, and I recorded it and watched it again with Nick. Something just clicked for me watching that show, and from that point forward nothing but Disney ever felt quite right for our wedding. We were both blown away by the beautiful, meaningful, and yes - even original - weddings that so many Disney brides had planned. We talked about it and we realized that a lot of our great memories as a couple came from Disney vacations. We loved the idea of reciting our vows in the same place that we first made our committment to each other official. We were excited by the prospect of celebrating our marriage in our favorite place and sharing that place with our favorite people. We decided right then and there that Disney was the only place for our wedding.

After deciding we wanted to have a Disney World wedding, I found and joined the DIS, a great online Disney community. I started frequenting the Disney Weddings & Honeymoons board to get inspiration from past and present Disney brides. And I realized that yes - you can hold your Disney weddings inside one of the theme parks. Disney characters can join you for cake cutting and first dances. You can arrive at your ceremony in Cinderella's horse drawn carriage, and you can have a replica of her castle on your cake.

You can also have a perfectly lovely wedding in or around one of the Disney hotels, with no overtly "Disney" elements at all.

In the end, the more time we spent planning our wedding, the more Disney touches Nick and I decided to include in our day. We didn't choose to have our wedding ceremony at Epcot or the Magic Kingdom, and we likely won't spend the money to have a visit from Mickey and Minnie. I have zero interest in taking a ride in Cinerella's coach, and I doubt if her castle will appear on my cake. But somewhere along the way I stopped caring if our wedding came across as "themey" or "childish" or even tacky. The people who know us best will see our choices and know that we planned a wedding that truly represents us as a couple. Nick and I will look back on our wedding pictures and be thrilled that we stuck to our guns and planned something truly meaningful to us. We're both kids at heart, and I think that's one of the greatest things about our relationship - we always, always have fun together.

Last week our save the dates went out, along with a welcome newsletter that my maid of honor Jen helped me design. So far the response from our guests has been great, and a lot of people are already excitedly planning their trip. We've had a few visitors to the wedding website we set up to help our less DIsney savvy guests plan their trips, and I've received a few excited messages on Facebook.  

Oh, and we're heading to Florida three days early so we can hit the parks with friends and family before the wedding, and have a true honeymoon after.

Trimming the fat: week 4

I was pretty sick for most of this week, and the antibiotics I was on made me thisclose to puking twenty-four hours a day. I was not in good shape to be trying to get fit. I did 100 crunches a few days and we went for a walk or two but otherwise I did no real exercise. (Meanwhile Nick zoomed through week two of Couch to 5K, leaving me in the dust.) I fully expected to gain weight and I was braced for it.

I forgot, however, that I had a complete lack of appetite for most of the week.

Timely illness FTW!

New Weights:

Kim: 162.5 (-1 lb)

Nick: 205.5 (-.5)

This week we were both losers! (In the best possible way of course.)

Going forward, I have made a goal for myself to do 100 crunches every single day. I have three months and one week until my trip to Florida, and although I really could care less if I ever have a six pack or even a two pack, I would like to see a flat stomach and an absence of muffin top. I'm hoping 100 crunches a day is a good starting point for that.

(On a side note, I finally managed to bribe Nick into reading one of the greatest books of all time, aka Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone: he agreed to read one page for every two crunches I do.) (I do not think he realizes that I have a goal of 100 crunches per day.) I have to say, finally getting him to pick up that book has been an even better motivator than getting a flat stomach! Every time I reallllllly don't want to do my crunches, it's the pages that get me through it.

I'm planning to start week two of Couch to 5K and continue with that program. On the days that I'm off from the program, I'll do a short power walk on the treadmill and some other targeted exercise (arms, abs, etc). I know that there will be days that I can't or simply won't get any exercise in, but I'm trying to make those days the exception and not the rule.

I still feel like apart from creating better habits, I'm not seeing a lot of progress yet. However, I am thrilled not to have gained this week so for now, I'll take it.

This week I want to know: what are some simple arm exercises I can do without equipment (except small free weights, which I have)?

Don't say push ups! I can't do these, at all. Not even a few.

No seriously, I mean it. It's almost comical to watch me try.