Maura

amy - add some bacon and shredded cheddar cheese and chopped green onions - it makes a great "loaded baked potato" salad. we cut the mayo in ours with sour cream so it's a little healthier too.

awww erica, we'll miss you too! (and will be waiting with baited breath until you return with photos hahaha) i'll turn this into the "married in july 08" thread once july is over so we can all still have a place to chat and catch up post-wedding

katrina, even though ive seen everything as youve done it in the process, it is really nice to see it all together at once! everything is stunning and i will be working on my CDs while you're away and thinking of you and BTW, the new hair flower is BEAUTIFUL and goes perfectly with your dress & veil! i love it! i cant believe your time is here already! i am so happy you get back before i leave for my wedding so i can hear all about yours! dont forget to post pics from your legal day on friday!!!!! big hugs and congratulations to you, you know i love ya!

betsy lives in iowa, but she's not on the forum all that much lately... my FI got one of his bachelors degrees in iowa and when we went there for a reunion last summer literally the only thing to do was go to a bar or go bowling... so my advice is to bring your laptop and settle in on BDW hhahaha

eeeee! im so excited for you!!! have you posted what you're wearing for legal day yet?

katrina what day do you leave for MX?

yes people who go cow tipping actually attempt to push the cow over - because cows sometimes fall asleep standing up, so they have no sense of balance when you go to push them over, but it is actually really cruel because you can seriously hurt the cow...

July 2 (this wednesday) is the final weigh-in! and yeah yari i know what you mean. i have struggled with my weight for most of my 20s!

thanks yari i just wish everyone who signed up would participate more!

LOL - fyi, cow tipping is illegal! my uncle once got arrested in college for doing it LMAO

alright ive spoken to ann and she thinks she will be able to take over for the next season. we'll finish out this season with sending your stuff to me and then ann will initiate the next round of BL. ladies, please dont forget to send me your stuff this week!

most resorts will lay down planks and an aisle runner for you if you just ask.

i copyedit professionally (have 2 journalism degrees bach & masters, and a bach in english too) and charge $25/hour to friends and when i was in grad school. i dont charge by the page because i dont feel that fairly reflects the amount of work im going to do - i.e. when i have a client who requires me to do a ton of corrections because they write poorly, i sometimes spend an entire hour on one page. my time is valuable, and worth much more than $3.50 a page, IMHO. now that i have been out of school for a couple years, i charge more.

i dont mind hosting again - i am not sure ann is going to have time until she gets really settled into a routine with gwen - but i will be gone for 2 whole weeks in august, so i will just need another mod to take over for me those two weeks. i think it's a good idea to take off the holiday week and start back up the following week.

alyssa we saw this in the WS catalog just recently and are dying to get one! i think it might be the first post-wedding purchase we make

alright y'all im posting some motivational pics for you so you can see how alli is working for me - here are 2 pics from my shower over the weekend - I AM ONLY 2 POUNDS FROM MY ORIGINAL GOAL WEIGHT NOW!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Abbie maura! OMG you look so good! i'm running to get some alli NOW! and your shower looked so nice, glad you got more good stuff! LOL thanks abbie, i'm really pleased with how my body is changing thanks to the alli. i finally am starting to like how i look in photos! the wedding photos are the most important vendor to me, so i wanted to look really good in those since we planned on framing them for our parents, hanging them in gallery frames in our house etc etc -- i figure if i have to look at them all the time i dont want to look like a fatass and lament for the rest of my life about how unhappy i was with the way i looked on my wedding day! it's been super easy taking the alli and my results are even better the weeks that i work out. ERICA - you look AMAZING! I dont know that I ever saw your dress before, and you look like a bridal beauty queen! i cant believe your wedding is next week!!!!!!

happy anniversary nicole & matt!!! hope you're doing something fun to celebrate

Quote: Originally Posted by Just Martha Maura, I love that invitation! So cute! If I were having a baby girl, I wanted a tea party...Love it! Your pictures look great! I am glad you had a good time...even though your mom was there! I have to ask, what is GSK? I am sure it is obvious, but I haven't figured it out. thanks i loved the invite too! (i think you could still have a tea party even though you're having a boy!) GSK is glaxosmithkline, the drug company that came up with and markets alli

OK - posted this in the August thread too but thought I should post here in case you guys never check that one (I mean.... I don't check the June, October, etc etc bride threads haha) - i posted additional stuff under the august thread, so feel free to go check that out if ya wanna. Yesterday was my last and final shower! Here are some of the photo highlights with a link to the whole album at the bottom. (I had such a good time, even though my mom did show up) Enjoy! My Aunt threw an amazing tea party - there were muffins, scones, strawberries, then lots of different kinds of tea sandwiches and punch (with champagne, yum!) and then little french pastries for dessert! invitation some shots showing how much fun i was having ok this one is not supposed to be of me... my grandma's dog was really mad that everyone was putting all their attention on me instead of her, so she kept running in front of my friend with the camera, standing on her hind legs and waving her front paws at the camera for attention. it was totally hilarious! in the photo, i'm not all smiley because of the gift i was opening, i was just dying laughing at the dog haha gratuitous shot so you can see how skinny i am getting! (thank you alli and GSK!) hehe me with a couple of my girlfriends me with my family (with the fakest smile ever on my face since i was sitting next to my mom) award for BEST gift wrap! this was so beautiful i didnt want to ruin it by opening it! each tier of boxes had different kinds of stemware! with all my mom's friends with my gram whole album: Picasa Web Albums - Maura & Jose - Bridal Shower...

mederma and vitamin E oil both work well, and if those dont do the trick, curad scar therapy patches definitely work great. i have a genetic disorder that causes me to scar really badly so i have to be super careful, so i know the tricks of the trade when i do get a cut, right away clean and medicate with extra strength neosporin plus pain relief (not sure it really relieves pain at all, but i am convinced that the plus pain relief kind heals stuff quicker on me than the regular neosporin). once the scabs have healed, rub several times daily with the vitamin E oil or mederma. then if it still doesnt go away, use the curad scar therapy patches every night (you can cut them to fit the size of the scar so you dont use an entire patch at once, and they are a little pricey but totally worth it).

here's a couple more... me with my aunt wendy - she has one of those fancy sewing machines that will embroider computer images... she's not able to travel to cabo for the wedding because she has a medical issue, so yesterday she told me she would make me one of those fancy embroidered tags with the bride & groom's name on it and the wedding date that my seamstress can sew into my dress so i can have a little piece of her with me on my wedding day. i am so excited about this one of the best gifts we got (from my girlfriend from college, we didn't register for any of this but it was awesome!) gorgeous margarita glasses, a bottle of margarita mix, lime flavored rimming salt, and lime cutting boards --- AND tequila! haha and we also got a sweet blender so we can make frozen margs now! thought this was funny.... we got the knife set we registered for from........dun dun dun..... my mom. guess it fits since she's a backstabber LOL tackiest gift from one of my mom's friends was clearly not something she went out and bought... and ok, this was not a shower gift, its a wedding gift we received earlier this past week from a relative of jose's and i'm totally in love with it, it's a wedgewood fine china tea set designed by barbara barry and was $$$$$$$$, so i had to show you guys this is now like one of my most prized possessions - i have ALWAYS wanted a fine china tea set since i was a little girl and now i have a really beautiful one!

Ok yesterday was my last and final shower! Here are some of the photo highlights with a link to the whole album at the bottom. (I had such a good time, even though my mom did show up) Enjoy! My Aunt threw an amazing tea party - there were muffins, scones, strawberries, then lots of different kinds of tea sandwiches and punch (with champagne, yum!) and then little french pastries for dessert! invitation some shots showing how much fun i was having ok this one is not supposed to be of me... my grandma's dog was really mad that everyone was putting all their attention on me instead of her, so she kept running in front of my friend with the camera, standing on her hind legs and waving her front paws at the camera for attention. it was totally hilarious! in the photo, i'm not all smiley because of the gift i was opening, i was just dying laughing at the dog haha gratuitous shot so you can see how skinny i am getting! (thank you alli and GSK!) hehe me with a couple of my girlfriends me with my family (with the fakest smile ever on my face since i was sitting next to my mom) award for BEST gift wrap! this was so beautiful i didnt want to ruin it by opening it! each tier of boxes had different kinds of stemware! with all my mom's friends with my gram whole album: Picasa Web Albums - Maura & Jose - Bridal Shower...

i was so busy with my shower yesterday that i didnt get a chance to log on and wish barrie a happy wedding day yesterday! cant wait til she gets back with pics to share with us!!!! HAPPY WEDDING DAY BARRIE!

amy its so great to see all your stuff together in one place! everything came together just beautifully, you did such an amazing job! i cant believe it is finally your turn i know everything will be perfect for your day, i cant want for you to get back with photos!!!!! xoxo