Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!! Love - Frank, Caryn, & Little Miss Vivi!

Guess who's one month old today?!

Look at me! I'm one month old today!!! Already I've grown so much. I now can make eye contact and follow your voice across the room. I also love watching the mobile in my swing, which I couldn't even see until last week! I like to lay on my changing table and coo and talk to whoever is around to hear me! I'm growing up so fast....already some of my newborn clothes are too tight! This week I've even gone almost 5 hours between feedings at night....but that was only once or twice to give my parents a sneak peek of what is to come. I'm still a little piglet and like to eat every 2-3 hours! Stay tuned to watch me grow....

XOXO-

Vivi

This Is Vivi's World And We're Just Livin' In It!

I finally have two hands to type! My plan is to update this blog'o'mine a little more than I have in the past now that Vivi's in the picture. What a whirlwind these last three and a half weeks have been. Frank and I have been in this weird twilight zone where we have no idea what day it is or what time it is. Last night I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to Saturday Night Live on TV. I had no idea it was even Saturday!

Things are getting better each day. It's either getting easier or we're getting used to surviving on no sleep. My body is feeling normal again too. Can I just say how amazing the human body is?! It's hard to imagine that just a few weeks ago I was HUGE and uncomfortable. Now, I can sleep on my stomach and back again AND without that huge pregnancy pillow that took up half our bed! Besides the whole breastfeeding thing and what that's doing to my body, I feel pretty normal again. It's a great feeling. I'm still about 10 pounds over where I started and I got a little overzealous the other day and tried on a pair of pre-pregnancy jean....HA! What a joke. Not quite ready for the pre-pregnancy jeans. :)

Well, gotta go...I hear Vivi waking up. Like I said, this is Vivi's world and we're just living in it.

More to come later!

Meet Vivienne Grace Arnold!!!

Little miss Vivi made her appearance on Wednesday, November 24th at 4:27 p.m.!! She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 1/2 inches long! More to come later when I actually have two hands available to type! :)

The Finished Nursery!!!

So, it's pretty much done! There are just three little things left to do....put a rug pad under the rug, hang up the mobile, and hang the picture that my mom is currently painting. I went to Babies R Us today and got pretty much everything I needed to bring the baby home. Before today, the nursery was still cute, but we didn't have one bottle in our house. There are certain things that the baby will actually need....having a cute nursery is not a need, but it sure is nice! I just love it in here...I'm currently writing this post from that cute chair in the picture above. Frank thinks it's a little bit ridiculous all the time and money we've spent on this nursery, but I've enjoyed every second of it....well, except the wall paper fiasco, but everything else I've loved! The clothes and blankets are washed, the closet and drawers are organized, we have diapers, etc...think we're ready for little miss Arnold to make her debut. She should be here in the next month! I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy has gone by. I feel like I just took that pregnancy test yesterday.

Work, work, work and no play, play, play...

Frank's been such a good sport. Every weekend for the past two months he's been working on another project we have around the house. In fact, it's 9:32 on a Friday night, and he's in the office caulking the nail marks. We've spent the last two Friday nights at Lowes. My, how things have changed. We're just a bunch of old farts now, I guess. At least our house will look great! :) The nursery is just about finished and so is the office. We're hoping to do our touch-up painting in the office tomorrow and start moving all of the furniture out of the dining room and into the office where it belongs. I can't tell you how good that will make me feel to see my dining room table again. We do usually eat on the couch in front of the tv (a habit that will change when our baby's old enough to know better, I promise), however, there are some meals that you just really need a table to sit at to eat. Like tacos...I had a hard time with my tacos on my balancing plate on my lap this week.

I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel with our various projects. This is a very good thing since we only have about 9 weekends left (or less!) to get them all finished. More nursery pictures coming soon!

Three years later, it finally bloomed!

This is too monumental not to share. Three summers ago I bought a plant at the farmer's market. The old man I bought it from threw in another plant for free. So, gladly, I took it and planted it in my yard having no idea what it was. For three years this ugly plant has grown straight up with a bunch of leaves that look strangely like marijuana leaves. We've been calling it the 'marijuana plant' for years and it's the ugliest thing in our garden. I cut it down every year and miraculously it always returns. So, not too long ago, I look out of my kitchen window and this is what I see...a big, beautiful red flower!!! So far I've seen three of these flowers and I've taken pictures of all three because I just can't believe it! I guess good things do come to those who wait. ;)

The New Office/Music Room in Progress

So, the other project in our lives right now is Frank's new music room/office. It's almost finished....almost. And it looks better and better every weekend. We're going for a more contemporary/modern vibe in here. We ordered a desk from Crate and Barrel that is currently still in the box, two months later, waiting for his room to be finished. Hope we like it because now we missed the 30 day limit to return items. We're going to put Frank's framed albums around the top of the room on the red, which I think will look pretty cool. We'll hang some of Frank's guitars on the wall and his miscellaneous framed music art. I can't wait! I like to pretend that I am an interior designer....maybe someday I will be.

The Hard Part is Finished

It's been awhile...I know. Empty promises....I know. I promised I would write on the blog more often, then my whole house turned upside down. We currently have two projects going on at the same time, which means that currently our dining room is filled will all the furniture from those two rooms plus the dining room furniture. Those who know me know that I like to have things in their place and nice and orderly. Well for the past two months I have had to let that all go. Our desktop computer, that was in the old office-now nursery, is dismantled in the dining room. That means that I can only get online and use the computer when Frank gets home from work and I can use his laptop.

I do, however, see an end in sight. Frank's new office, the old sun porch, is now painted, fan is up, and the new wood floors are supposed to go in this weekend. I'll believe that when I see it, though. (That last comment was a test to see if Frank reads my blog...think I know the answer to that question!) Once the office is done, then we can move all of that office furniture out of the dining room....YAY!!!

The nursery project was a thorn in my side and I thank God everyday that the hard part is over. The pictures above document the tearing off of the wallpaper. Mark my words...I will NEVER AGAIN strip wallpaper from an old house. Never!!! It had to be done, unfortunately, as you can see from the before picture. The painted over wallpaper was disconnecting from the wall. After we pulled the wallpaper off, we put a texture on the wall and it looks AWESOME!! One coat of primer, two coats of paint later it was almost finished. Then I pulled off the tape from the molding and lo and behold, the tape took off all of the molding paint. I cried for about 15 minutes about that, no lie, right when Frank came home from work. (I hate you hormones!) Another weekend later and Frank put up the curtain rods and the chandelier (a 4 hour project due to the nice 1939 house we live in).

So......the hard part is over. Now we're just waiting for the crib and dresser, the glider chair, and the bedding to come in, then it'll be almost finished. I can't wait. I think it's going to be the cutest nursery ever!!! More pictures coming soon!!!

You know you're pregnant when....

-You know you're pregnant when you cut out the draw string in your fat pants!

-You know you're pregnant when you wake up in the middle of the night STARVING!

-You know you're pregnant when you eat a huge meal and two hours later you're hungry again!

-You know you're pregnant when your husband, who can't stand the down comforter, throws it off of him and it makes you cry!

-You know you're pregnant when you have crumbs in your bed!

-You know you're pregnant when you have a whole medicine cabinet in your purse along with the list of approved medications during pregnancy.

-You know you're pregnant when you never liked orange juice before and now it's all you can think about!

I could go on and on....feel free to add some of your own! :)

-Caryn

It's a GIRL!!!

It's official...Frank and I are going to have a baby girl! It still doesn't feel real, this whole pregnancy thing...I wonder when it will? Maybe when we actually have something in our house that says "baby"??? Right now, the only thing that's in our house that says we're having a baby is the ridiculous amount of free, hand-me-down maternity clothes I've been given. It's pretty awesome. I really don't have to buy a single thing. In fact, I've been given so many maternity clothes that I had to do a switch out with my regular clothes so they would fit. Not a bad problem to have, believe me. (Although a bigger closet would be nice!) So, I'm going to New York tomorrow for some R & R at my grandma's house. When I come back I'm going to start on the nursery. Wait until you see my nursery ideas...I'm so excited about them! So, a baby girl...I kind of always imagined Frank as a dad with all girls, I don't know why. He would cringe at that thought. He just found out how much I paid for my wedding dress the other day and wished for all boys. Oops...oh well. I shouldn't have told him. Maybe ignorance is bliss....too late!

Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

Oh my...these were DELICIOUS! I got the recipe from foodnetwork.com and it's an Emeril Lagasse recipe. They were probably the best blueberry muffins I've ever made. Frank agrees with me on this one too. So here's the recipe:

Topping:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp butter softened

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

1 tsp finely grated lemon peel

Muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 stick of butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk add 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk and mix...I did this today)

1 tbsp grated lemon zest

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Either line or spray 12 muffin tins.

To make the topping, in a medium bowl, mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the melted butter. Add the buttermilk and lemon zest and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just to combine. Gently fold in the blueberries and try not to break them open and pour into the muffin tins. Crumble the streusel topping over the muffins and bake until golden brown....about 20 minutes.

Let cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.

ENJOY!!!

Back to the Blog

I know it's been awhile since my last post....almost a month now. Shame on me! In my defense, I was in Tennessee for ten days. AND, when I got back I got a stupid pregnancy rash that has made me not want to do anything. Boo. The funny thing about my pregnancy is that I had very few pregnancy symptoms at the beginning. I did occasionally get a sick to my stomach feeling when I was hungry the first few weeks. But, other than that, I've been really lucky so far. That didn't last long and the past two months or so I've felt great. However, I'm having all of these weird pregnancy symptoms like bleeding gums, rashes, and pains in my butt...literally. I guess no one has a "normal" pregnancy. According to all the books I've been reading all of my complaints are normal, but leave it to me to get all the weird side effects of pregnancy. Oh well. The baby seems to be doing great, and that's all that really matters. I'll take an annoying rash any day as long as the baby is okay. We go on July 6th to get our second ultrasound and find out the sex!! I cannot wait. According to a highly scientific poll among friends and family it seems that most think it's a girl. We shall see! I just hope everything is normal and okay. I wish we could have ultrasounds at every appointment just to make sure everything is fine. My doctor said that for normal, healthy pregnancies, just the two ultrasounds at 8 weeks and 20 weeks is all that you need. I guess I should trust her, she is a doctor after all.

So, I'm back to my blog...I promise. In fact, I have a batch of homemade blueberry muffins in the oven as we speak. Depending on the outcome, I'll post the recipe shortly!

Homemade Wedding Centerpieces! That's all you gotta do?

Jesseca's wedding colors were black, white, and yellow. All of her centerpieces and favors were homemade and they didn't look like it at all! I'm convinced that you can have a beautiful wedding on a budget by making a lot of your own stuff. It's really not that hard to do, and I'm not just saying that! Both Jesseca's and my total flower cost for our weddings were under $1000. To those of you not planning a wedding, that probably sounds like a lot of money. But those of you that are or have planned a wedding recently, you know how expensive flowers can be. Jesseca had two different centerpieces....a taller option and a shorter option. For the taller option she used tall glass square vases and filled them with full lemons, branches, flowers and topped it off with a bow. For her shorter option she used mason jars filled with cut lemons and fresh flowers and also topped them with a bow. They were really beautiful and all made by Jesseca and her bridesmaids before the wedding in just a couple of hours. Her favors were smaller mason jars filled with Lemonheads and a bow. She also had custom made stickers to put on the tops of the lids. Etsy.com is every bride's favorite website! That's where she got her stickers (and where I got mine also, but it's not about me right now!) ha ha! Enjoy the photos!

Congratulations Jesseca & Matt!

Is it possible to not drink and still have a hangover?

So...Jesseca and Matt got married last night!!! It was just beautiful. I will upload some photos soon. Unfortunately, I'm laying on the couch and am too lazy to go grab my camera. How is it that I feel like I have a hangover and I drank water (in a wine glass, mind you) all night long? I've never been a big drinker, but everyone that knows me well knows that I love weddings and I love drinking wine at weddings. This was my first wedding minus the red wine. Although, I think my friends might have made up for the difference. Being just a little bit pregnant is an interesting place to be. I'm starting to show just a tiny bit, but mostly I just look fat. I felt like a sausage as I squeezed into my size 8 J.Crew dress that I bought before I was pregnant. I'm going to pack that cute dress away and hopefully I can wear it next summer. Everyone swears I didn't look like a sausage, but that didn't change how I felt. I'll post a picture and you can be the judge. I'm actually looking forward to the days when someone who doesn't know me can look at me and tell that I'm pregnant and not just chubby. I know, I know....when I'm really big and round in November I'll probably look back at Jesseca's wedding pictures and long for the days when I didn't look pregnant.

So Frank is still sleeping soundly in his bed and will probably be there for the next few hours. Maybe I'll work up the energy to upload my pictures. Or maybe I'll just lay here.

Yes Sir, That's My Baby....

There he/she is! The little peanut is 8 weeks in this picture, so four weeks later he/she is actually the size of a lime, but weighs about 2 ounces. The website www.babycenter.com is pretty cool. We get weekly emails comparing our baby to a fruit or vegetable to put it all in perspective. The first thing Frank said when he saw these pictures was, "Well, we always knew it would have a big forehead." Pretty much. I've always gotten made fun of for my large forehead, or six head as my brother calls it. But let me just say, one random night when Frank was making fun of my forehead, I got out the ruler.....AND his is bigger than mine! So I win. So there. However, our baby is doomed.

Introducing.....

...our baby fig! Yes, we are expecting a real baby, not a fig. However, the baby is now the size of a fig. It all started as a sesame seed then went to a lentil, blueberry, kidney bean, grape, kumquat, and now a fig! Sounds delicious, huh? I will be 12 weeks pregnant next Wednesday, but I just couldn't keep this fig of mine a secret any longer. At some point this fig will turn into a turkey because our due date is Thanksgiving day! Now if only I can get Frank to help me scan a picture of the ultra sound, then I'll post a picture of the real baby, which ironically looks like a peanut. Hmmm...all this talk about food is making me hungry.

The Deli Lady at Reasor's Cobbler Recipe

So, I went to the grocery store after work today and I made two major mistakes. First of all, I was starving. Secondly, I forgot my list at home. I'm a big list maker and I'm also convinced that grocery lists save money. So, needless to say, I spent a lot of money on the most random items. However, there is a silver lining. I had a long conversation with the deli counter lady and even scored a recipe out of the deal. It could be disgusting, who knows?! I'm still going to try it because she swore by it...and when anyone swears by a recipe, I'm game. It all began when I was browsing the prepared foods counter and drooling. (I really should have had a snack before I went because those foods normally don't look very appetizing.) She caught my eye and said she had slabs of ribs coming out of the oven in fifteen minutes. Sold! I was wondering what to make for dinner. So I did my grocery shopping then strolled back to the deli counter. Well, the ribs weren't quit done like they promised, so I had to wait a few minutes and chat it up with the lady. She even came from around the counter to chat with me. That's when I got the recipe. Here it is:

Reasor's Deli Counter Lady's Cobbler Recipe

1 Cup Self rising flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 Cup milk

Mix ingredients together. Then rub melted butter inside an 8 X 8 pan. Pour the batter in the bottom. Open a can of fruit - she suggested blackberries- and pour just a little of the liquid out. Pour on top of the batter mixture and bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean (she said like 30 minutes to an hour - kind of a big difference, but oh well). Viola'

So, if you try this cobbler recipe and hate it, don't blame me. If you try it and love it, I'll take the credit. I'll give it a try soon and let you know what I think.

Jesse & Matt sitting in a tree....

K.I.S.S.I.N.G....First comes love, then comes marriage.....you know the rest! We had Jesseca and Matt's couples shower a couple of weekends ago and it was a huge success! I posted some pictures to show some really cute and inexpensive ways to decorate for a shower. We did kind of an Italian theme. We had all Italian foods like brushetta, artichoke dip, genoa salmai/munster cheese bread, Italian skewers, and a variety of olives and other little bites. Instead of a cake we had a dessert bar with brownies, cupcakes, cookies, and lemon bars. Yum Yum! For drinks we served Sangria, pea tea, some white wines, and a variety of beer. It really turned out great! The best advice I could give someone that is throwing a party for 60 plus people is to rent tables. I couldn't believe how affordable it was. Each bistro table was only $9 and totally worth the money. We just bought some cute red and white checkered plastic table clothes and tied them around with black and white toille and that's it! That's all you gotta do! It was very cute. We also bought some flowers at the local grocery store and filled empty wine bottles for our table centerpieces. We also filled a couple of small vases with fresh flowers and lemons in the base....Adorable! With the help of all the fabulous bridesmaids, we pulled off quite a party! Congratulations Jesseca and Matt!

No Spoon Needed

There it is...the perfect coconut cream pie! I did it! It was not coconut cream soup! No spoon needed here. There were, however, a few little hiccups. Only a few cuss words were said, not too many. First of all, I used my new double boiler. This pretty much doubled the time for me because you had to fill up the entire pot and bring it to a boil on medium heat. The milk had to get to a scalding point and it took more than 3o minutes. Yikes! There is also another very common mistake when making an egg custard....sometimes if the milk is too hot when you add the egg yolks they scramble....just like scrambled eggs. Mine might have done this a little bit - hence the cuss words. However, I quickly grabbed my whisk and whisked out as much as I could. No one even noticed. Whew. All in all, it was a successful coconut cream pie. Only 364 more days until I make it again. Frank thinks if I made it more often it wouldn't be so difficult. Hmmm....

THE coconut cream pie...4th time's a charm?

As Easter quickly approaches it's that time of year again when I attempt to make Frank's favorite dessert of all time....his mom's coconut cream pie. I heard about this pie for years before I actually got to try it one Christmas. And it was delicious! When I tried it I thought to myself, "I can make this...piece of cake (or pie)!" Frank said that others have tried to make this pie and it's never as good as him mom's. I took that as a challenge! Long story short, I've made this pie 3 times now. Two times we had coconut cream soup and one time, in the middle, I actually made it right! Making a custard pie is a lot harder than it looks. However, now I have an official double boiler, so I'm hoping my new kitchen accessories will help me on this year's challenge.

Here is the recipe exactly as I received it from Frank's mom in an email:

"For the crust: You will need 1 and 3/4 cups of crushed graham crackers. This is 1 package. (a box comes with three packages). I use the bottom of a drinking glass to crush these in a bowl. To this, add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 6 tablespoons of melted margarine or butter. Mix and press firmly to sides and bottom of 9 inch pie pan. Chill one hour before filling, or bake at 375 degrees about 7 minutes. (I usually bake.)

For the filling: I will give this to you in the order I do it, since I like to have everything ready to pour into the milk and keep stirring so it doesn't stick. Separate 3 eggs. Beat the yolks just a little. Put the whites in a bowl big enough for mixing, as you will make your meringue out of them. In another bowl, mix 3/4 cup of sugar, and either 1/2 cup of flour or 1/4 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I use cornstarch if I have it. If not, I use flour - doesn't matter if it is all-purpose or self-rising. Get your coconut out of the can or bag - 3/4 cup of shredded coconut. You will also need 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoring. In a double-boiler, put water in the bottom part, probably about an inch - just till it will barely touch the bottom of the top part when you set in in the bottom part. Put 2 and 1/2 cups of whole milk in the top part of the double broiler and turn your eye on medium heat. You want this milk to heat to a scalding point - this will be when a think film forms on top of the milk. At this point you will start stirring and slowly add your sugar/cornstarch mixture. Heat and stir until this starts to thicken, then add your beaten egg yolks. Continue stirring until thick. Remove from heat, stir in coconut and vanilla flavoring. Pour this into your graham cracker shell and allow to cool while you make your meringue.

For meringue: To your three egg whites, add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and about 1/8 teaspoon vanilla flavoring. Beat until it begins to thicken, then add about 6 tablespoons of sugar (one or two tablespoons at a time) and beat until thick enough to stay where you put it. Ha! Bake at 425 degrees just about 4 minutes or until lightly browned. I always watch this part very closely since it can burn pretty quickly.

This sounds more complicated than it is, once you have tried it a few times, and even if it is not perfect the first few times, more than likely it will still be edible. Good luck!!

Hugs,

Vivian"

I will be making this on Saturday and I'll let you know how it turns out!

Happy Baking!

Oops...I just spent $75 at Loops

I've been wanting to learn how to knit for a very long time. I've been talking about it forever. I've just never gotten around to actually doing it....until now. Well, I just invested $75 in this new hobby of mine, so I better actually learn how to do it.

Let me start at the beginning. At my school, there is the nicest mom that loves to knit and she volunteers her time every Thursday to the Knitting Club. Anybody that wants to learn can come AND it's free! We got an email recently from our school secretary asking if anyone would volunteer their classroom for the Knitting Club on Thursdays after school. I quickly replied that they can use my room so that I would be forced to learn by proximity. For the past few weeks a nice little group of little girls come to my classroom for their weekly knitting club. I haven't officially joined the club...I'm usually getting my classroom ready for the next day as they're sitting around the table talking and knitting. Last Thursday, I finally just went straight to the knitting store, Loops, right after school and bought what I needed to start. I did not think this hobby would cost me $75! Yes...what you see in this picture above is what I got for $75. It better be the coziest blanket ever for that price. Well, and it is organic.

I hope this isn't a repeat of the time I wanted to take piano lessons from our school's piano teacher. She was so nice and patient and even gave me a keyboard to take home for practicing. This new hobby of mine didn't last long, one summer to be exact, when I realized that she had given me the same piano books that my third graders use! It is kind of funny and sad at the same time. Hopefully the Knitting Club won't be the same sort of situation....I'll have to keep you posted!

Best Ever Pot Roast

The first day of spring (also my birthday) and it snows....unbelievable! The hubs and I took a road trip to Kansas City for the weekend to visit the my brother's family. Bryan, my brother, told me that he'd make anything I wanted for my birthday dinner. Sounds like a nice brother, doesn't it? Well, only until he taught his two little boys, my adorable nephews, to call me Aunt Bubba - a nickname he made up for me when we moved to Texas as kids. Oh, and by the way, I HATED that nickname and still do. He obviously is still getting the reaction he wants from me. When am I going to learn? Gotta love big brothers!

Anywho, for some reason meat and potatoes came to mind. Maybe it was the 8 or so inches of snow out the window? Now, I know this blog is new and a few of you are asking, "What is the point of it anyway?" One aspect of the blog is that I love to try new recipes and share them with the world. I rarely make the recipes up myself, but I do like to give credit where credit is due. In this case, my brother did the cooking (this time) and The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook is where the recipe came from. And boy was it delicious! Here's the recipe if you're interested, and you should be interested because it was the best pot roast ever....and I really mean it this time.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/perfect-pot-roast/

That's all you gotta do!

Happy Cooking!

What the heck is cake flour anyway?

I know it's happened to everyone out there...well, everyone that bakes that is. You're happily following a recipe and you come across the ingredient cake flour. You think to yourself, "What the heck is cake flour anyway?" as you pour in your all-purpose flour. Does it really make a difference? Honestly, I have no idea! Wish I could help you out. Well, I actually can help you out if you're really curious. In this month's Cooks Illustrated magazine it states: "With just 6 to 8 percent protein, cake flour imparts a more tender, delicate texture to baked goods than all-purpose. Here's how to make an approximation.

2 tablespoons cornstarch + 7/8 cup all-purpose flour = 1 cup cake flour

Happy Baking!

Are weddings like babies? Does everyone think their wedding is the cutest?

So I decided to enter my wedding into the Brides of Oklahoma Magazine Four Seasons contest. Frank and I got married November 7th, 2009, so naturally my wedding falls into the autumn category. I spent over an hour yesterday going through my 2,000 wedding photos trying to pick out the photos that showed some of the little details that I loved so much. I loved my wedding and I wouldn't change a thing. However, despite the ridiculous amount of money we spent on our wedding, it was still considered a "budget" wedding in the grand wedding world. I realized this again as I watched Jason and Molly's wedding on The Bachelor: The Wedding last Monday night. Of course anyone can have a beautiful wedding when the budget is unlimited, but can you also have a beautiful wedding when you are on a budget? Of course! I just hope the Brides of Oklahoma Magazine realizes this too....because after I spent all that time picking and choosing my photos to submit I made the mistake of looking at some of the photos on their blog. Yikes! It made my wedding look like the junior varsity team. I'll admit it, I had a moment of doubt...maybe I shouldn't enter this contest? I'm clearly not going to win, so why should I even try?

Then I had a moment of empowerment! Of course I'm still going to enter this contest. I'm fighting for the "normal" people out there...not the "unlimited budget" people. I guarantee you there are more people on a budget than not! I think future brides need to see that you can have a beautiful wedding on a budget. I did.....and I wouldn't change a thing.