While on bed rest, my main addiction for several weeks was watching back to back episodes of Say Yes to the Dress. This followed my Dick Van Dyke show addiction and preceded that if Pinterest.
It was mostly mindless entertainment, which I needed at the time. But I also learned a couple thongs about decision making. This has become applicable as we search for a new house.
1) Never try on a dress (or tour a house) that’s outside the budget. Invariably, you fall in love and leave disappointed. Then, for weeks nothing measures up.
2) Just as brides want to be princesses, home buyers want castles. Neither is practical, or much fun for that matter. A princess isn’t complete without a prince (and how often do you see both at a wedding? I mean a fun, hospitality focused wedding? It’s all about the bride and the dress), and a castles isn’t complete without a moat containing alligators. We’re a little low on alligators in Minnesota. Plus, moats are ugly.
3) The first one is often the one you fall in love with.
4) What your fiancé (spouse) is attracted to matters. If he loves shiny things, buy a dress with some bling! If modesty is important to him, choose a dress that flatters you without showing too much. Just so with making the big step of putting an offer on a house: I learned that the one that made Erik’s eyes glitter and dance was the one we should pursue most aggressively. (We lost the bid, as I hadn’t yet applied this lesson to our home search.)
Here’s our baby. The bed rest inducing one. Her ‘jammies are huge. I didn’t learn this from Say Yes to the Dress. But the photo was inadvertently uploaded here, and I don’t have the heart to remove it. Enjoy!
MMC
Miss Mary Clare 
Great post. Love the pictures.