Rule #3: How Do You Know That You Have The Perfect Dress?

RULE #3:  Return to the Bridal Shop to Review Your Top Picks


By now you have your wedding gown choices down to a mere few.


Is there one you love the best?  Are you debating between two? Are you not sure that you love any you have tried on?


The decision to "Say Yes To The Dress" is not always easy as you can see if you have ever watched the show on TLC.


What we did was to go back to the bridal shop which had the dress we thought was the one.  When we made the appointment it was not only to re-try on what we liked but to see if anything new had come in which might be better.


And there were more gowns to try, especially when another trunk show happened to be there the day we arrived.


After all the new wedding gowns were modeled and there were some great choices, the one from the previous week was then tried on.  It was the dress! I cried again.  Everyone loved it and our terrific sales person at Kleinfeld confided to my husband that she loved it more than any other one.


They then matched a beautiful veil to the dress and it was done!  


The next time we return to Kleinfled will be for alterations!

Your Search for Your Wedding Gown May be Getting Closer: RULE # 2

RULE #2:  THE GOWN MUST FIT YOUR SHAPE AND COMFORT ZONE

Gowns, gowns gowns...they are everywhere.  So many and so beautiful.

But will every one look great on you?

The answer is a definite "NO WAY!" Unless you are a model, you will need to determine what looks the best.  Most likely you already have an idea of what would be your ideal wedding gown.  That image is burning in your head.  You have looked through bridal magazines, pulled out the pages and then your search begins.

I suggest starting out at a small bridal shop where you determine the right style for your shape. In a small shop, you don't get as overwhelmed by the selections.  Since most bridal shops work by appointment and usually give you an hour or an hour and a half, time does fly by and you want to make the best out of your appointment.

The style considerations for your gown are:  silhouette, material, weight, "bling," waistline, shape and on it goes.  Do you want a neckline which is strapeless, sweetheart, square, scoop, v-neck, high neck, halter...just to name a few?  For the silhouette there are A-line, tea length, ball gown, mermaid styles for starters. Then you move onto the waistline and straps and sleeves.

Gowns are coming into the stores in white, off white, ivory and even blush.  No longer is the white wedding gown the only way to go.

Lastly, the train.  The lengths vary and are referred to as sweeping, chapel, cathedral and so on.

If you put all these pieces of the puzzle together, you can surely limit your choices. 

And since you have already figured in your price point from RULE #1,  you won't have to try on hundreds of dresses.

Don't forget you still have to train to choose!

Buying a Wedding Gown? Rules To Live By When You Finally "Say Yes To The Dress!"

FIRST RULE:  ESTABLISH A PRICE POINT


I guess that you figured out that we were shopping for a wedding dress.  My daughter is getting married in October.


What an adventure!  It takes every ounce of emotion building up to the "this is THE DRESS" moment.


I thought about the way I would feel when I would see my daughter in a wedding gown for the first time and assumed I would cry.  And cry I certainly did.  Not a sobbing cry, just lots of tears in my eyes kind of cry.


That moment has many meanings attached to it.  As I looked at her in the wedding gown, I saw my daughter as a grown woman...starting a separate life with her husband.  Even though she has not lived at home for a long time, this felt different.


I would love to share some advice now that we have been through the "Say Yes To The Dress" experience, a term coined by Kleinfeld Bridal for their TV show on the TLC network entitled "Say Yes To The Dress."


Because wedding gown shopping can be both an endearing as well as stressful time, remove as many obstacles as you can to ease your way through.


I am not sure how many gowns were tried on, but because there are hundreds to choose from, you need to establish some structure.  I would suggest that the price point be the first rule of shopping.  If you don't abide by that, you could be looking at more dresses than reality dictates and then the bride-to-be has a false sense of what dress she can actually choose.


My first thought was to try on dresses you love and we can deal with the price later.  But what happens when the bride loves a dress that is just way beyond your budget and then feels every other dress pales in comparison?  Not a good idea.




FIRST RULE: ESTABLISH A PRICE POINT


More rules to follow so stay tuned.

Are You Constantly Charging Your Samsung Charge Mobile Phone?

It takes a while to get used to a new cell phone.  The real details are in the manual you would have to download or you can just wing it.

A Wall Street Journal online article states that most of us are complaining about how fast our batteries lose their charge during the day.

There are some things you can do, such as lower the brightness of the screen, have the screen close after a certain time frame or more importantly and only if you don't always need it, you can disable 4G.

For your emails and calls,  4G is not that necessary especially if you don't have a way to charge your phone during the day.  If you are streaming movies or using lots of data, then you will want to keep your phone set on 4G.

Besides, not every area has 4G capabilities and your phone will constantly search for it if it is set to 4G.  Searching uses up your battery!

Check out Green Power Batter Saver in the Android Marketplace.

Read the article from the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577205001921978364.html?mod=djemTECH_h#articleTabs%3Darticle

So until 4G is everywhere, here is what you can do on your Samsung Charge courtesy of a blog I came across:  www.xda-developers.com:

 

-go to settings - wireless and networks - mobile networks - system selection - CDMA mode.

Here's to longer battery life!

If Your Veterinarian is Not Available, Go to Vet Depot

The other night my husband had to take our dog to the Emergency Vet in the neighborhood.

An issue which came up had to do with the relationship of a high calcium level, anal gland problems and cancer.

We will be taking our dog back to our veterinarian for a follow-up visit, and will inquire about checking his calcium levels.

Going on the internet to research the issue brought me to a blog called Vet Depot.  I was able to get a great deal of information about anal glands, calcium and cancer right away.  There are so many topics covered on this blog that I now have it bookmarked and will continue to read it.

Where to read the blog:  blog.vetdepot.com

Using Crutches Take Practice

Now that I have spent 3 months on crutches, I have finally figured out how to manage.

I have fallen numerous times, slipped, gone forward too quickly losing my balance or landed the crutch on someone's foot.  Ouch!!!

While in the hospital I did get a lesson on how to use crutches.  You always go up or forward with your "good" foot.  Going down the stairs has your "bad" foot going first.  So up with the good and down with the bad.  Easy enough to follow.

I was also told to keep the crutches on an angle out from your body vs directly at your side.  This does help and may affect which height you keep your crutches at. 

I feel that a comfortable height for your crutches is a personal choice.  Keeping the crutch on the hole for my height was not working for me, so I went up an inch.  Don't be afraid to experiment.


Watch out for your pets.  My dogs are always under foot and you can't imagine how easily you can trip over them.

There have been some door thresholds where there is a raised piece such as weather stripping or a metal bar which have caught my crutch many times so raise those crutches as high as you can.

Let's talk about water.  Anytime the ground is wet, please be careful.  The rubber tip of the crutch will come out from under you and you then go flying...sometimes into a wall, sometimes landing on the "bad" foot, so now you are dealing with even more pain.  Any floor surface which is slippery to begin with becomes your worst nightmare when it is wet.   I even slipped on wet blue stone since there was some mildew on the stone. Take small steps whenever the ground is wet and try not to put as much weight on the crutch until you know the surface isn't slippery.

Doors are another problem.  Once I pushed open a metal door I assumed was going to be heavy and before I knew it, the door flew open because it was not the heavy door I imagined it to be. And again I went flying forward.  Then the real heavy doors take good maneuvering because you have to push them way open and get through ASAP before it closes on you.

I learned to carry a cup of coffee in a travel mug so the lid keeps it from spilling on the floors or rugs.  Carrying a bowl of food could be tricky unless the bowl or plate has a good lip for you to hold onto while keeping a finger or two on the crutch.

For carrying laundry I use a shopping bag.  I carry my computer from room to room in a backpack.  Actually the backpack has many functions and has become very useful over time.

Wearing clothes with pockets also helps.

I found that using a folding chair in the shower worked wonders.  You can always order something for the shower, but for the three months I needed it, the folding chair worked really well.

There are cushioning products to help with the pain you will experience under your arms which tend to get very sore.  I have had numbness in one finger as a result of pressure from under my arms because a nerve was being affected.

Needless to say I am looking forward to being able to walk on both feet.  I will not be sad to see those crutches go into storage!

Where to shop for products:  http://www.crutcheze.com, www.juvoproducts.com/designer-crutch-covers-pages-48.php

Do You Know How Visiting Nurse Service Works?

I do now, but it took having surgery to find out.

While in the hospital, a representative from Visiting Nurse Service came to see me.  We spoke briefly and she said someone will get in touch with me once I was back home.

I was released on a Sunday and sure enough, Monday I received a call from a nurse who would come to see me for an initial evaluation.

What an exciting Monday - the nurse ordered supplies for me, noted the type of assistance I needed, took my vitals, checked my wounds and left.  Needless to say, he was mesmerized by the frame and rods running through my foot.  He had never seen it before.

The next day I received a call from the coordinator at VNS.  I was offered a home aide a few times a week for 4 hours each visit. As far as my insurance was concerned, I had unlimited (approved) visits as long as I pay the co-pay.

This was so helpful to me.  I now had someone to help me shower, get upstairs, heat up some food for me and even do my personal laundry.

There also had to be a visit from a nurse each week to establish my need for continued home care.

And there lies the rub!

Apparently it didn't matter that I could not manage to take a shower alone, cook for myself, or do much at all without help.  What only mattered was the fact that the nurse had to justify my having help based on a medical need only.  So if I had a skin infection where the pins and rods went into my leg and foot, that would justify having a home aide.

And for each week I had a home aide, I had to have a visit from a nurse, who was actually my case manager.  If she could not find a medical condition then I could not qualify for the home aide.

I could not understand this because a home aide is not allowed to do anything "medical" for me anyway.  They cannot help with wound care, for example.  I was on my own for that.  Where I needed assistance was of no concern to how this system works.

Had I not had the skin infections, which were the result from having all these foreign object inserted into my foot and leg, I would not have qualified for the home aide.  I cannot imagine how I would have managed alone for that first month at home.

More than likely, I would have had to privately hire my own home aide.

And now a word about the organization which partners with VNS, supplying the home aides:  what a mess!  At first I was told that I live in an area where there is no public transportation so it would be difficult for them to get me an aide. Not everyone has a car. Try finding that information in any of their brochures.

The first aide they sent to me was not someone I wanted around.  I never even saw her wash her hands! Then different aides kept coming.  All of a sudden, there were aides with cars.

There was no consistency of who came and when they arrived.  I had such little energy and was in pain, but I had to spend my time showing each new aide what I wanted, where things were, how to help me get upstairs, etc.  It was just complicating things.  One day an aide showed up but no one had even called me to tell me anyone was coming.

This is not a fault of the aides.  They came to do their job.  It was the coordination which needed much improvement.  After many frustrating calls to the aide coordinator, I instead worked things out with the VNS representative who called me with updates each day to let me know who was coming and when. This person deserves high praise for all her help.

I did eventually get "discharged" by the nurse because I no longer had a medical necessity to justify an aide.  Thank goodness I am now able to manage many things myself, using my ingenuity and determination.

My advice is to be prepared when you are in a situation where you may need a home aide after surgery.  Look into hiring someone on your own so you will have someone to call upon if you don't qualify for the medical necessity clause!