Insuring the Ring

Spoke with my home owners insurance today; to insure any jewelry, it is a certain amount per $1,000.00 per month, which makes insuring my ring around $100.00 a year. Ironically to ensure my house, its only $150.00 per year; who would have thought a ring would be almost equivalent to a house? Needless to say, we are going to do it however Chris has to first send them a letter/email allowing me to insure it since the appraisal is in his name, not mine, and the insurance is in my name, not his.

Dates

Chris and I both want to be able to remember the date. Should we stick with our current anniversary? 9-12-2008? Hmm or what about 10-11-12 since it is numerically fun? Ehh, seems a bit far and I think 9-10-11 is too close...what about 11-11-11? or 12-12-12? or 3-6-12? Yeah I am a dork as I already check these dates; all weekdays.

If we stick with our original date, September 12th 2011 to me is too close due to everything going on with the boys, but is 9-12-2012 too far?!?!? If is not to far, the only problem is that it is on a weekday; Wednesday, which means we would need to wed at a court house; but hey I'm fine with that! Then we could possibly have the wedding party on the 15th in Galena - A Saturday lunch so people can enjoy their stay in Galena? I think so...

Already sending the email to the Inn at Irish Hollow to see what their wedding options are!

Appraisal

Not knowing, or more of not trusting any Jewelry place, we finally just went to to see what we would have to do for an appraisal. We went Jared Jewelers by Woodfield, since it was down the street from where we ate dinner and didn't have to put much thought into it. They said that their appraisers are only there once a month and it cost $95.00. Cheapo me didn't want to pay for that since we already had the appraisal from the place we got it however we did want to verify that it was real.
Needless to say, I eventually just asked the guy if he could tell me the cut of the ring, which is when he cleaned and examined it. His findings, i.e. the color, cut, size, etc., were exactly what our initial appraisal said so that made me feel relieved. I must admit though I was freaking out when he walked away to another counter to clean it with their steamer; I followed him and stared while he did it.
After he returned it we noticed a grey streak on one side of the stone that we had not seen before. Did he switch the Diamond; were my fears and what happened to my parents coming true? Though the doubt was in my head, I do not believe that he did because I like explained to Chris, neither of us fully examined it closely before going in there due to our concern regarding if it was really what our appraisal said and us not wanting to be let down with something we loved; we should have done our homework though and been prepared before we went in and handed it over - oppps!
What made me feel a little less worried was that I noticed that the stone had the same exactly very slight wiggle it had before. Moreover, when we got home, I did spend quite some time on Google checking to see what a jeweler would need to do to switch our a diamond and it seemed nearly impossible to get it to match with only looking at it for less then a minute before cleaning it (http://www.jewelry-secrets.com/Diamonds/Jeweler-Diamond-Switching/How-To-Prevent-Diamond-Switching.html). I also got the brilliant idea to go watch the video of the ring posted on the listing (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&rt=nc&nma=true&item=130509894173&si=MDU9Cto7q0dKYxFBXfYTkieXpCU%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT), and thankfully, if you look closely, you can see a small grey streak in the same spot. I can breath now; I know deep down that have my original stone - Phew!

Court

Apparently being engaged means nothing in the eyes of the court during a custody battle. Gordon tried to fight for us saying it did since Chris bought the ring; Boye responded saying tat a ring is nothing as she could go down the street and buy one...

Andrea

Started contacting my contacts regarding engagement photos. I've been going back and forth with Andrea regarding her taking the photos as she's a great photographer. She's booked for a while but we are in no rush...

Last Names

Chris has been convinced that I do not have to take his last name! Thank you Dawn

To take or not to take....

Ever since I was little, I never wanted to fully take on someone else's last name; be it that I still have my mother's last name or that I am established in my career, there are several reasons. Many would think I would want to change my name due to various things associated with it but I do not; I am who I am and if anything, I would want to 'create' a new name. I think that if I have to change, so should my partner; all is fair in love and war ;) Chris does not care for 'Goodat' or 'Matwin' so I guess I will stay Matt and he Goodwin...

My justifications are many; I am a teacher; Ms. Matt is how my students know me. Also, everything we own is in my name and changing everything just seems like more work then it is worth. Moreover, my credit is good haha. Lastly, I do not want to be known or even thought of as the boy's original mother; I am not the crazy one; keeping Matt would help people realize that I am the second one to come along, not first that we care to forget about... I don't want to be the second Mrs. Goodwin; I choose to stay far away from what is associated with first