Moving Right Along...

I may not have a lot of money. I may not be the picture of perfect health. I may not be exactly where I want to be in life. But you know what? i am HAPPY. For the first time in my life I can say I an truly happy even through all lifes trials and trips.

I think it has a lot to do with me going back to church. My grandmother begged me for years to get back active in church and I resisted her at every turn. In a nutshell I thought church was for losers. Yes I loved The Lord and considered myself to be a God fearing individual. But sit up in a holier than thou sweaty hot church all day on a Sunday when I could be napping, eating out, on the beach, or just staring at the four corners of my living room? No thanks.

I found myself walking through the open door at Church of the Open Door on First Sunday, March 1, 2009. I admit I was skeptical. I thought I'd find myself in the midst of naive old ladies pouring their life savings into some charlatans fat daddy pockets. Said fat daddy would be pushing a benz through the streets of Miami while the little old ladies tinkered around in 1987 Dodge Darts. Suffice to say I was VERY pleasantly surprised to be greeted with warm embraces, open hearts and kind words. I truly feel that my church- yes, MY church because I took my new member vows on Sunday May 2, 2009- accepted my girls and I as part of the family and I have never felt so tranquil. So at ease. So lovED and lovING. People warn me not to spread myself too thin in working for the church but I love servicing and doing the work of The Lord. As I pinned pink flower after pink flower, made pink bow after pink bow and toiled away to awash The Lyric Theater in pink my mind was in a calm state of nirvana. I was humming. ME, humming!

I could go on and on and on, but I think it's obvious that I an passionate about my faith and my church. I can't wait until tomorrow! We kick off our 41st Annual Pink Tea and paint the city of Miami PINK! I got the cutest matching outfits for the girls. One is almost 18 and the other is 15- far too old for dressing alike but the outfits were so hot that I had to get them for the girls. I will put up pictures of the event sometime next week.

In the meantime here is a picture of our wedding cake tasting that took place today.

We decided on a 5 tier buttercreme cake with 3 layers in vanilla rum, the other 2 in amaretto. The picture to the left is what it will look like except with the extra 5th tier. The flowers on top will be baby pink and white. It's going to be soooo beautiful! The closer I get to our wedding day and the more we confirm details the more excited I become. I'm practically bouncing off the walls at 1 in the morning!

Full Day

Yesterday started out at snails pace. I took a Zyrtec pill at around 630am and I was super drowsy at work. I found myself passing out at my desk several times. I don't know how I made it but even with one of my feet in dreamland, the other in reality I managed to accomplish so much yesterday. I was so proud of myself I bragged to my brother, sister and fiancée about what a busy bee I was! I completed:

1) The first pre-martial counseling session with my pastor and my fiancée. It went very well and I was so happy that my man opened up to someone who, in essence, is a complete stranger to him. I see these next 4 meetings being very productive and I can't wait until next month to tackle more marital solutions. We also put the official date on the pastors calendar, and booked the church for the actual ceremony.

2) I was on the fence about which bakery I was going to choose to do our cake. In the end, the lack of a selection from Bakery A made me go with Bakery B, which is Cake Designs by Edda. I made an appointment for us to have a tasting next Saturday and let them know which cake I was leaning towards so that they would definitely have that sample available.

3) I took a power nap on my fiancée's lap. It felt sooo good! I don't require a lot of sleep to survive but I was crashing yesterday. I woke up charged and ready to go after 9pm last night and this is when I accomplished most of my tasks.

4) I FINALLY completed our first wedding guest list. There are 180+ people on the list. I pray that 80 people decline though so I can get the number right at 100. LOL! No seriously I wish we had room for every family member and every friend that we both have but we are paying per plate and as anyone who has ever had a big wedding knows - it can be very expensive. Most of the people we invited have to come from out of state to attend so there may be a lot of declines from NY, Jamaica, NC etc. But everyone in Florida will most likely make it so I know that a wonderful time will be had by all.

5) I sent out requests for physical addresses for all invited guests. They have started filtering in as of this morning. It seems like maintaing this will be a lot of work so I will probably ask my matron or maid of honor to keep the list updated for me.

6) Finally got my brother to take the HUGE bag of clothes out of my living room to be donated. The bag was heavier than a dead body and packed with brand new and gently used teenage clothes. I tried to donate them to my church by they keep their pantry small so it wasn't an option. My brother knows of a place that gives away donations to domestic abuse victims and of course I was happy to oblige. It felt good knowing that someone else can benefit from us.

7) Began working on a grass roots publicity campaign for our 41st Annual Pink Tea. You can click the link for details.

I think there is more, but that should be enough for now. I do know that I have made a comittment not to take on any more projects. So...

My wedding
Helping my grandmother get her fiances back in order
Preparing my 15 year old for her boyfriends senior prom
Readying myself for a prospect I have been working on for years
The 41st Annual Pink Tea.
Weight Watchers

Are on the front burner right now. Everything else will have to wait until after the wedding. My plate runneth over!

Been Gone For A Minute...

Now I'm BACK with the jump off... :)

I've been seriously slacking on my blogging as of late, and I apologize. I've been super busy in my off-line life. What could possibly keep me away from writing about my Miami escapades, you ask? Well there is the small fact that I am getting married! Yes, oh yes, oh yes! My fiancee popped the question on Wednesday March 26, 2008 and I said yes! So I've been a busy little bee preparing for our big day. Of course this blog will double as a chronicle of my MIA exploits and wedding planning. So stay tuned because the best is yet to come!

In the meantime, check out this clip of the Queen of Blue Eyed Soul, Taylor Dayne rip it at Miami's Jazz on the Bay. So you can't say I left you hanging for a 30days+ and didn't bring you back anything. :)



Shout outs to SoHood305 and BriaMia for the e-mails. I promise to update at least once a week from here on out.