Fake it til you make it!

I'm so excited!  For my birthday I was finally given the earrings that I had been hinting that I wanted since I got my new bridal set on our 2nd anniversary.  They match my engagement ring nearly perfectly and they're the nicest earrings I've ever had!  While I was admiring the beautiful sparkles of the stones it occurred to me that this is something I needed to share with you all.

Traditionally, the suggestion for men is that they need to save a couple months salary for a ring and according to an article I found from Glamour, they spend an average of $5000 on the shiny rings they buy for their lovely ladies.  

$5000!!!!

Seriously?  In a time when we're all struggling to pay our debts, scrimping and saving to buy a home or even just rent an apartment why, WHY is it still so important to spend this much money on a piece of jewelry?!?!?!

Is it beautiful?  Yes

Is it something we desire?  Yes

Is it something we deserve?  Probably

But really, why does it have to be a perfect, real diamond when you can have a perfect fake diamond that looks just as beautiful?  It kind of makes me angry when women make these huge demands.  No one will know if your diamond is real or not unless they're an expert and how many experts do we have walking around in the general public?  I'm willing to bet that it's not many!  

My proposal is to do what we did- buy man made or fake rings.  The metal is real, in my case it's silver, but the stones are fake.  I'm in love with my rings and earrings and we spent a tiny fraction of what we would have spent if they were real.  Look at the picture of my rings and earrings!  I truly believe that you can't see a difference, they're all equally shiny and lovely and big, which is what we all want, right?  (just kidding!)

If you're a baller on a budget like us, strongly consider spending less money on the fancy stuff and put it towards important things like bills and living or heck put it towards your honeymoon!  It just seems like there are so many more practical ways to spend your money, it's almost foolish to do it the old fashioned way.

High Five for Friday (Vol. 25)

Hello, Friends!  It's a beautiful (not so sunny) day here in the greater Philadelphia area!  I'm back for my 25th wrap of a decent, but busy work week and looking forward to a weekend of volunteering and relaxing.

1. Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary, I'll get to that later, but on Friday night we treated ourselves to a night at the movies.  We went to see Neighbors and it was HILARIOUS!  I was really worried this would be one of those movies where all of the funny scenes are in the commercials but it wasn't!  I won't go into a long explanation, just know that I laughed almost the entire time and was not disappointed!

2.  Saturday we spent in Camden and Philly actually celebrating our 5th anniversary.  I honestly still can't believe we actually made it to 5 years and I won't lie that things are still tense, but we're getting there.

3.  Mother's Day was a little hard for me.  I thought that I'd have a newborn or would be nearly due at this point, but clearly that wasn't in the cards for me.  So I focused on my mom and since money is tight my gift to her was basically to be a servant all day.  As I had mentioned a last week, our basement flooded, so it was essentially a day of cleaning and reorganizing while Jim helped my dad with the lawn.  At the end of the day she said it was perfect because with our help she had accomplished way more than she had anticipated and that helped her to have a more relaxed week.

4.  Sales!  Sales are up and apparently it's partly because of me.  With my company creating my position as a sales support it's opening up the sales reps to sell (makes sense.)  The sales rep I'm partnered with was super excited because "we've" been in the lead all week.  Not gonna lie- I like being on top, I love winning!  It does nothing for my bottom line but it's still fun and I'm learning a lot so I'm looking forward to moving forward into my position as a sales rep at the end of the summer.

5.  Insurance!  It only took 3 weeks, but our insurance was finally straightened out and our cards came in- hallelujah!  This means Jim has one week to get to the doctor before...

6. (Bonus!) he goes to work!!!  That's right, folks!  Jim has finally gotten himself a job!  HALLELUJAH!  I cannot wait for him to get out of the house and start bringing in some money.  I know it will not only help our bank account but also help his confidence in knowing that he is finally doing something to help/support his family!

Now that the week is over it's time to look towards the weekend.  I'll be volunteering down at Rutgers and probably hanging out with some good friends.

How was your week?

What are your weekend plans?

Linking up with some amazing ladies:

Hello Happiness!

The Northeast Bloggers

Calm Healthy Sexy

The Jenny Evolution

This year we get wood!

Seems so wrong to say that, but I had to!  What am I talking about?  The 5th wedding anniversary!  This year, traditionally, we get wood per this list. There are so many jokes I'd like to make, but I'll be good and keep it PG!

If you haven't guessed already, today is my 5th wedding anniversary.  Holy cow, when did I get so OLD!  I remember thinking what this day would be like in the early part of our marriage.  I figured by now we'd have at least 1 kid, have bought a house or at least a condo, and we'd be headed to St. Lucia (our dream honeymoon location) to celebrate.  Instead, we're just putting the pieces back together after me wanting to jump ship, we have lost a baby, we live with my parents, and I have no idea what we'll do to celebrate.  Dreams coming true (sarcasm!)  But ultimately, we're together, we're in love, and really that's what I should be most thankful for.

My favorite photo from our wedding!

Since it's Friday (hallelujah!) I decided my "high 5 for Friday" would be marriage related- the top 5 highlights of our marriage; should be easy 5 highlights for 5 years.

1. Our honeymoon- we went to Disney and Universal!  I can't wait to go again!
2. Moving into our first apartment.  It was so cute- 2 bedrooms, brand new kitchen.  I loved it!
3. Our 2nd apartment.  This one had 2 bathrooms and was on the first floor.  I loved how big the living room was and that it was easy entry from the parking lot.
4. Our nephew was born and we fell so in love with him that Jim finally said we could go back to the doctor to start seriously trying again. 
5. We found out we were having a baby. (It turned out sad but it's still a highlight for me- 2 magical days is how I'll choose to remember it!)

Now y'all know that our marriage has not been pretty!  We've been on a bumpy road the whole way along!  I had listed out the 5 "lowlights" of our marriage as well but we sounded so F'd up, I had to delete it.  It's just not necessary to wallow in the pain and suffering of the past.  I've had enough of being sad and depressed, I need to move forward and get out of this fog that I've been living in!

It's not NYE but I'm making some resolutions seeing as how this is a new year for my marriage. Here we go:

1. Stop dwelling on the past.  If this marriage is going to last we need to both stop dragging up the bad things that have happened.  Time to let it go and move forward.
2. Reconnect.  We've been doing a pretty good job of communicating but it still feels a little... off?  We need to really reconnect and feel comfortable again.  We're trying, we're getting there. 
3. Get out of debt.  A huge issue with our marriage has been money or lack there of.  We are carrying around the weight of a mountain of debt.  We would be such better people if that were gone, helping us to relax and get moving on other goals for our future.  This would be a huge step towards having a successful life together.
4. Have fun!  There are so many things we want to do and we can't, because of money.  Once we're out of debt, we're going to stay out of debt, but we're also going to have fun.  We're getting that trip to St. Lucia even if it takes us another 5 years (plus I want another trip to Universal, I need to see Hogwarts!)
5. Get healthy!  I really, really, REALLY want to put start a family here, but I'll refrain.  We need to be healthy before we can have a baby.  Our biggest hurdle is Jim's Diabetes.  The doctor told us straight out if we could get is A1C down, we would quite possibly fix the issues we're having and POSSIBLY conceive on our own.  What a gift that would be!  I hate to think that we struggled through IVF, spent the money, took the time, felt the loss, when in the end we could have conceived on our own.  But everything happens for a reason.  We needed to go through that.  Why?  I'm not certain, but I believe that if nothing else all the struggle will help us appreciate our family way more than we ever would have if we had just conceived like it was as easy as breathing. 

As a very wise, very beautiful Matron of Honor once said- Life is a roller coaster so buckle up and hold on tight because it's going to be quite a ride.  I think of that speech every May 9th- how much our lives have gone up and down really is just like a roller coaster.  All I can do is buckle up, hold on tight, and enjoy the ride!  And that's exactly what I plan on doing.

Toasting with our best man and matron of honor!

Linking up with some amazing women!

And the North East Bloggers!