Can you covet a Cake Topper?

Holly is currently coveting this:

Okay seriously...the cake topper is ADORABLE but when your trying to stick to your wedding budget, a $95.00 Cake Topper seems completely unreasonable and excessive!

Seriously, the cake itself is only going to cost us around $200.00. So this "miniature wedding cake topper, handmade in France" is a no go. The piece is detailed in enamel over bronze with a happy bride and groom riding tandem--plus a small white dog in the bicycle basket. 

Now if the basket had two Bengal kittens in the front basket - ALL BETS WOULD BE OFF and the money would be spent cause that is the way I roll but since it does not have two Bengal kittens in the basket, I am on the search for another cake topper!

C'est La Vie! (That's Life!)

This past week Jim and I spent the week in Jackson, Mississippi, celebrating a "Early Christmas" with his family and interviewing and hiring vendors for our upcoming nuptials. There are still a lot of decisions that still need to be made but at least now we have an Officiant, a Caterer, a Baker, a Photographer, a Florist, a Tent Rental Company, AND we have bought and paid for the wedding bands. Of course we could not have gotten all of this stuff done if it were not for all the hard work that our Wedding Planner - Deborah Simmons did before we ever got into town.

Let me tell you - if you are planning a wedding OUT OF TOWN, you really ought to consider adding a Wedding Planner to your overall budget. Deborah has been fantastic so far. Not only has she been able to stick to our budget and find us good vendors but she has some great ideas on little things to add to our wedding that will really make it special (and IN OUR BUDGET!) and she really seems to understand exactly what Jim and I are looking for in terms of the "Wedding" to be refereed to from this day forward as Le Tour du Coeur 2009 (The Tour of the Heart 2009)

We managed to send out almost all the "Save the Dates" (still a few to go out...) and a lovely side effect of that is the nearly finalized guest list. Getting those "Save the Dates" out before the holidays was a personal goal. Does getting them out between the major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas mean I kind of met my goal? In this case - HECK YEAH!

Just before Jim and I left town for the week, I made another big decision. On Friday night, Dec 5th, I put down the money and joined a local TRIATHLON training group called Team Z. 

While this is a step away from the one-on-one coaching that I was doing, I believe this will be the right kind of IRONMAN training for me. I have always done better training with other people and while on race day, everybody is on their own. the idea of having fully supported training rides and long runs over the winter, spring and into early summer leading up to Ironman USA, really appeals to me. 

So this week I am going to drop in on several week-day Team Z workouts and see which ones work best with my week day schedule. I may still find myself training alone during the week but the support on the weekends and at local races throughout this coming 2009 Season will be worth it!

There is more that has happened in the last 2 weeks...Much more but I am going to have to save it for later in the week.  I'm gearing up to get back to regularly blogging.  I have a feeling it will keep me SANE over the next 12 months...or at least it will provide me with a safe place to be CRAZY...(Much closer to the truth!!)

Life is Good!  More later this week!

LiveSTRONG!