Jillian

We are having a very tough time deciding between two venues. They are both wonderful for different reasons, and our parents and wedding party have said they are supportive of either place being chosen. We are having a 150 person wedding. Everyone is very spread out over Wisconsin and the midwest in general. It will be a December 14 3013 wedding....so a Christmas wedding in general.

The first place is The American Club in Kholer. It was our first choice from the beginning. Our parents have stayed there in the past and have only good things to say about it. Very old world romance, very black tie, and a little more on the expensive end for our guests to stay at. We felt very connected to it when we took a tour and they have excellent service. It is the only 5 diamond hotel in the Midwest.

http://kohler.dirxion.com/weddings/WebProject.asp?...

The other option in the Grand Geneva in Lake Geneva. It is a much larger resort and has an indoor water park for families that would be staying overnight. A little less expensive for our guests to stay at. It is not in central Wisconsin so my side of the family would have a much longer trip to get there. Very nice location, has very good reviews online, and still fairly formal. Maybe a little less charming and romantic overall. They also have a very famous "12 days of Christmas" lights display that would be up.

http://www.grandgenevaweddings.com/

Both places are similar in terms of prices. Both have some awesome amenities for guests who are visiting for a wedding....such as reserved time for ice skating, and trolley service to rooms before and after the reception.

Just looking for some outside opinion on which seems like the better venue. Any thoughts?

We are looking to purchase an engagement ring soon and have visited several local stores. I felt very "informed" on what I wanted to buy and about types of rings and the four C's. However both me and my boyfriend are getting stressed out over getting a good quality ring that is not marked up unreasonably. We went to one of the largest stores in our state (Nebraska) and they quoted us around $5200 for the center stone and the setting all together. It was over our budget and we have saved up to be able to purchase it outright and not do any financing preferably. Looking to stick in the 3,500-4,500 range.

I started looking at similar rings on Blue Nile and James Allen. The settings especially seem to be much less expensive for the exact same thing we had been looking at. My boyfriend is very nervous about ordering something online sight unseen. It is very hard to trust online reviews since companies tend to write themselves good ones.

I am looking for anyone who has bought a ring from Blue Nile or James Allen and would love to hear your thoughts about the process, the final product, and the over all experience. I think for both of our sanity's sake hearing some real world reviews would give us a little more courage when it comes to making a decision on if we want to buy it from a brick and mortar store vs. online.

The other thing that makes it hard is I am looking for a cushion or radiant cut center stone which is not available most department store's inventory.

Thank you!

I guess I was a little curious about this and if anyone else noticed the strange similarities between these two places. The first one does not even list a state where they are located, and has the same exact format for looking through families as the second one.....and yes even the third website has seem eerily similarities to the first two....

Are they all the same agency/ facilitator?

I could not even find any additional information on the web about what the adoption foundation even is and I am curious if anyone knew or had found anything...

Additional question: Why when you ask to receive an informational DVD about adoption do you have to enter the race of the child you are carrying?

http://www.theadoptionfoundation.com/adoption-preg...

http://www.adoptionnetwork.com/birthmother-unplann...

http://www.adoptionspacebook.com/

We are having our 2 year old little boy baptized this upcoming Sunday. My younger sister (20 years old) and my significant other's younger brother (also 20 years old) are going to be his Godparents. I was wondering if it is polite to get them both something small like a framed photo of them holding their nephew or something else as a thank you for agreeing to be an important part of our son's life?

We are both the first to have a child in our families so we don't have a lot to go off of experience wise when it comes to having a child baptized.

Thank you for the help in advance!

I am a little nervous about making new friends. I am a 22 year old mother of a fantastic 14 month old son. His father and I both finished with our bachelors degrees and are moving to Milwaukee WI, where he will be a weekend sports anchor and I will begin law school. We are moving to his home town (which happens to be right outside of Milwaukee) where he has extensive family to help us out, but its pretty small. I have no idea how I am going to make friends. I wont be in school again until next fall so for a whole year I feel like I will be pretty isolated from people my age. A lot of my college friends still have a year of school to go and can't visit often. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thank you in advance!!

I am a 21 year old college senior who will be graduating with two degrees in political science and business administration. I am also a single mother of a fantastic 6 month old son. I am lucky enough to have parents who can support me financially while i finish school full time, and come on some weekends to babysit so that I can go out with friends. I have not spoken with the biological father of my son since the night he raped me after I told him (while intoxicated) that I wasn't going to have sex with him because I just didn't have strong enough feelings for him and probably never would.

I found out I was pregnant a few months later and was fairly decided upon doing adoption. However, when my son was born I changed my mind and decided that there was reason for him being born and that was not for me to just hand him over because he didn't fit into my perfect plan. I dated my boyfriend from high school again while pregnant and after my son was born he basically told me he wasn't ready to be the father of a baby that was not his, no matter what the circumstances. I made the choice to keep my son, and lost the guy I had dated for 4 years total and thought I was going to marry.

After struggling for two months as a single mom, a full time student, and living 2 hours away from my parents, a guy that I had been friends with for almost all of college told me that he really wanted to date me, and that he felt confident that if I gave him a chance, he could love both me and my son. We have been together for over a month now and he is wonderful. I just can't open up and I am afraid that if I can't relax and just talk to him about the past and about things that scare me in the future, I will screw up what could very well be a long term relationship. I am literally terrified to be happy. I am too worried to let myself think past more then the next week with him, even though today we sat down and looked at town's where he could get a job in news production/ sports broadcasting and I could go to law school. Obviously he is comfortable think that far ahead, but I just freeze up. Should I just go talk to a family therapist or just force myself to talk about my insecurities with him and maybe time might help?

Thank you in advance for the advice!

Jill