Wedding Updates

My parents are coming in from Taiwan on the 21st of December, just in time for Christmas. My uncle invited them up to New Jersey for Christmas, so I will probably be left alone on Christmas Day with a bunch of babies from the Nursery at Church. After the nursery duty, I will head over to my cousin's for Christmas for the babies' and toddler's gift exchange. Well, that's off the subject. Back to my topic.

Yes, even though I was not doing much for the wedding, the planning seems to be moving along anyway. I did not know that I have to have my undergarments ready when I go dress fitting, so I had to go shopping for it with my friend Amy before she had to fly home for Thanksgiving. I took my dress to the seamstress the day after Thanksgiving for the alteration. Not sure why I decided to go right after Thanksgiving since I tend to expand that day. Amazing enough, the dress fit very well. The only areas that need to be altered are the straps and the train.

Move along.. I got my Chinese Dress in the mail today. It was pretty risky to buy clothes online since you cannot try it beforehand and see if you look good in it. Before I decided to buy the dress, my mom and sisters looked at the dress and wondered about the size and we discussed for several days whether to get the dress and if yes, what size to get, since, no offense to Chinese dress makers, the sizes on the tag are not always corresponding to the actual sizes of the dress. Last week, I finally decide that I had to make the purchase because there was only 35 days left till the wedding. After I got it today, I tried it on with my red shoes. It fits perfectly. Amazing.

Move along again. Mom called today to ask me how many bridesmaid I have because she needs to bring the flower holders for me and my bridesmaids. Apparently she has been apprenticing with one of her friends who is very very good with flower arranging and decorating. My mom even makes an appointment to practice her decorating skills at a local church in town before she comes to the States. She is also going to bring the flower girls' baskets and to try to make their outfits.

Hmm.. I am now just rambling on about nothing, therefore I will stop for now. Will try not to let my laziness conquer me.

Two Things:

Andy made me do this.

Two Names You Go By: Ann, Little cloud

Two Parts of Your Heritage: Chinese (Mainland) and Chinese (Taiwan)

Two Things That Scare You: Japanese Ghost Movies and mouse

Two of Your Everyday Essentials: emails & television

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now: Red boots and contact lenses

Two of Your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists: Marvin Gaye & Mercy Me

Two (Three) Things You Want in a Relationship: Trust and Respect (Faithfulness)

Two Truths: I am short and God is Tall

Two Things You Hate (or rather dislike with a passion): people who don't do their job and people who can't drive

Two Physical Things that Appeal to You: Really long and curly eye lashes, Andy's eyes

Two of Your Favorite Hobbies: reading & knitting (when I have time)

Two Things You Want Really Badly: 32 inch flat panel HDTV & all access digital cable

Two Places You Want to go on Vacation: New Zealand & England

Two Things You Want to Do Before You Die: Own a house (or many) & Buying a BMW for my dad

Two Ways that you are stereotypically a Chick/Guy: needing different shoes for different occasions

Two Things You Normally Wouldn't Admit: I am too open a book.. People probably want me to shut up if I keep talking

Two people I would like to see take this quiz: Andy and Ben

Laziness

Apparently people are still checking my blog to see if I have anything interesting to say, about the wedding. I hope I am not becoming one of those "Quitters" that Bruce talked about in the service yesterday. Maybe just a lazy bum.

I may not be the laziest person on this planet, but I am definitely high up in ranking. Amongst all my friends, I can't think of anyone else as lazy as I am. Andy can testify my laziness because I always make him go get things that are probably right in front of me and I refuse to move and reach for them. Or sometimes he gets tired of sitting inside and doing nothing and will encourage me to go outside with him to do something. Of course, the "whiner" appears, "Do I have to?" This is just physical aspect of my laziness.

My second major laziness is to keep in contact with people. This is the aspect that I am trying really hard to improve because once you lose contact with your friends, it's hard to get back in touch. Just take my school friends for example, growing up in Taiwan, I did not go from K to 12 with a lot of the same people because we switch school at every level: kindergarten, elementary, junior high, and high school. I lost contact with a lot of them because I didn' t try to keep in touch. My mom and some college friends actually are the ones that keep me up to date on some of the people that I went to school with. The worst demonstration that I have for this laziness is even my mom is complaining about not hearing from me for months and she has to call just to find out if I am all right. Yet, as I said, I am trying to be better so my friends will not think I have disappeared.

Anyway, I think I am back on the wagon, and Andy will probably try to keep me there and make me write everyday.. :D

Wedding Invitation

Right after Andy and I have decided to get married, I started compiling a list for all the guests that we want to invite. The list started at 60 people, and has now grown double of that. I am not exactly sure how, but apparently there are a lot of people we find very important to us in our lives.

Our family
I have a huge extended family. Some of them are in Taiwan, and some of them are in the US. I think the family in the US probabl takes up one third of the guest list. Most of them live along the east coast, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. Some other ones live in Texas. When I called and told them that Andy and I are getting married, everyone was thrilled, and promised that they will mark their calendar and try their best to come. Of course, my parents are coming to share the special day with me. I hope they won't feel too cold in January.

Andy has a smaller family than mine, but they too were very excited about our upcoming wedding. Andy's parents even had a Labor day meeting with all the extended family in the Dallas area to talk about the travel and lodging arrangement for the trip. From what I understand, Andy's immediate famil will arrive the Thursday before the wedding, and his grandpa and uncle and aunt will drive up from Alabama around the same time. Not so sure about his paternal grandparents yet, but an invitation is definitely necessary so they won't feel that we forget about them.

Friends and Mentors from Tech
Andy and I both spend more than 4 years in Lubbock, TX, and over 2 of those years we spent there as a couple. We definitely would like to invite some of the friends and mentors that have some type of impact in our lives. Dr. M, my graduate advisor, is like my sorgate mother in Lubbock, and she also took Andy in as another child after we started dating. Job and Jenice, the Sunday class teachers, opened their house and heart to the broke and single students that we were, and provided spiritual guidance that we needed. Stephanie, one of the friends I've known the longest in Texas. She is always cheerful and will alway be there when you need her.

There are also many people that we got to know and become close friends with. Szelyn was my RA and then my roommate. Her sunny and open personality always cheers me up. Anchalee was my across the hall neighbor, and then my roommate. Her caring personality always comforts me. Sarah and Chaohua were my companions to speak Chinese at school. So many times we were just happily chatting away while working, and Dr. M stepped out of her office wondering what we were talking about.

Andy met Bellah when he was involved in Tech Campus Crusade. Bellah was Andy's Ultimate frisbee buddy and also a spiritual leader. However, I think what Andy like most about Bellah is his Smoker. Bellah used to work in the kitchen in County Line (the best BBQ joint in Lubbock). and he makes killer briskets and ribs.

Friends from FXCC
Although Andy and I have only attended FXCC regularly since January of this year, we've made a lot friends there. Jeff and Ashley always open their house for us (the game cube in the basement for me especially). Jeff (Coco) is like a brother that I never had (or wanted), and his lovely wife Laurie is like a little sister that I do have (but I don't fight with). Ben provides all the advices that Andy the law student would like to know. Katherine and Leann can provide help in planning anything you want to relieve your stress. Sammie and Jill provides a lot of love and supports for anyone who needs them.

Please forgive me if I miss anyone, but there are just so many of people that constantly enrich Andy and my spritual life.

Other Friends
Andy has a very special friend who knew him since he was in Junior high. She was his best friend for the longest time (until recently.. :D) .

Andy and I started to get to know Amy (a friend from Taekwondo) when we bumped into each other at the bookstore. Now we hang out almost every week. How can I leave her out of the wedding?

So many others, so little space...

Anyway, Andy and I have finally decided on the wording of the invitation, and I will start working on getting everything ready to be sent out in October. Wish me luck!

Wedding Planning Update

YEAH!! We've finally chosen our photographer. Actually there are two of them. Last Sunday morning after church, Andy and I headed over to Arlington for a meeting with the photographers three weeks after we first contacted them. I first found out about them on a web site, and I was really impressed with the design of the web site, and the photographs. http://www.innovaphoto.com One of our graphic designer friend looked at the web site and was pretty impressed with it. I almost gave up on them because we couldn't seem to find a time that all of us can meet. Because I was so impressed with the web site, I decided to try and make an appointment to talk to them and then make our decision.

The couple are very young, and they were very organized. They do business out of their apartment and they showcase their products and techniques with several large size and well-designed photos. They first asked us questions about the wedding and then showed us some albums and photo DVD that they did for other couples. After that, they gave us a list of their packages and products and a contract to look over.

In total, Andy and I visited 4 different wedding photography studios. I like some of the services each of them provided, but only this photography studio provides the options that Andy and I can pick and choose to fit our budget, and pictures with good qualities. Any reader is welcome to go to their web site and look at the photos and albums they provided and let me know what you think in you comment. I believe I am not making a mistake.

Oh, another update is that I got a phone call from David's Bridal. MY WEDDING GOWN IS HERE!!! :D

Office Life

Today marked the 3rd week that I've worked in the IT consulting firm. Answering phones are getting easier, but still distracting when I try to finish up resumes. I am getting really fast in handling resumes. I can get resumes done in less than 20 minutes if they are not too complicated. After reviewing these resumes, I found that so many of them are highly intelligent IT professionals, but they simply can't spell or type. When I see typos after typos, it gives me headache. I would expect resumes to be the most basic but powerful tool for a person to impress their prospective employers, and typos can definitely turn them off.

I do wish the company will at least arrange a temporary seat with computer and email address for me because I am currently migrating from one person's seat to the next, whoever is not using their computer for a moment. If I have my own seat, I don't have to worry about interrupting other people's job or invading their personal space when they are not there. Next week I will continue to work there. I guess I'll just take it week by week. My supervisor in the company seems to like me, and the other admins seem to be appreciative of my help. I take that as a good sign.

Anyway, there are some other perks working in this office. They have a nice coffee machine, constant supply of soft drinks and bottled water. Also, since I started working there three weeks ago, there has been three office parties. They ordered from some nice places and did a pot luck. I hope that they will continue to have parties and I won't have to bring lunch to work.. :D

Today, the staff in the office actually threw a wedding shower for one of the office managers, who got married in June. Some of the staff members brought in very nice food, like, sun-dried tomato dip, BBQ chicken dip, and fried chicken wings. Since I didn't take a break until they had the party, I stayed in the party for almost 1 hour. That means that I ate for about 30 minutes. Maybe having party every week is not such a hot idea if I want to fit into my wedding dress.

Talking about wedding, we are still searching for our wedding photographer. We made an appointment to go into Arlington to visit a studio after church. I hope this will be the end of the search. We've visited three photographers so far. I like some of the features from each of them, but it is hard to decide which features we'd sacrifice for the other ones. I hope Sunday's visit will give us additional options or at least let us make our final choice.

Oh well, it's been a long week, and it's time for a little bit video game.. :D Until next time...

Decoration

On one trip to an art supply store with Amy, we noticed the origami paper in the store, and she suggested that I can make my "famous" paper cranes as the main decoration for the wedding. At first I was not particularly enthusastic, but I thought about it, it is actually an excellent idea since folding paper cranes is my trademark to those who know me. I'll just buy some nice paper with Japanese print, and fold the cranes til my hands get cramps.

I haven't started on the cranes yet, but I've started to make paper stars as confetti for the wedding. Everyone thinks that I am crazy, and they are right. I'll just take my time making them, since there is still... how many days? 4 month and 15 days until the wedding.. :P

Updates

It's been awhile since I posted last. No excuse other than just being lazy. Since my last post, many things have happened. I went dress shopping with Leann and Katherine, and I really appreciated their help. It was really fun to try on different dresses and envisioned what I will look like for the wedding. The day we went dress shopping, I also got a phone call from the temp agency that I got a temporary assignment to work in an IT recruitment firm.

I was not too happy the first day I was at the job because I felt out of place and I had to answer phones. I was really crabby that day and Andy and our friend got the full blast of Ann's meanness (although they probably experience it often before). It took me two days to get used to the phone answering and the pace of the job. Now I am still not too thrilled with the phone part of the job, but I am happier with it and feel a lot more comfortable. I am not sure how long the job is going to last, but I'll just take it one day at a time, I guess.

One day during my late-night search for useful wedding related web sites, I decide to look up Internet telephone and I found Skype. I knew about it for a long time, but I've never tried it. It is amazingly cheap. It only cost about 2 dollars for me to talk to my mom in Taiwan for an hour and half. I called them two days in a row. That reminds me, I need to call home again soon.

Well, I'll try to keep up with the blog, but now I'd better go to bed so I can get up in time for work in the morning.. :D

Minneapolis Trip

My friend Sarah was getting married, and I couldn't dream of missing her big day. We met at Texas Tech, and we shared a lot of our life stories and experienced others before I moved away. Even though we are thousands miles apart, I still keep her in my mind.

Early in the morning on the 21st, poor Andy took me to the National Airport for my trip to Minneapolis. This was a very nice trip. I got to see DC in the early morning, and I saw the monument and the Capitol. I couldn't resist the opportunity to take a picture of the Ariel view of the great city.

The trip was uneventful, and when I got to the rental car company, I was upgraded from a compact to a full-size Taurus. The hotel room was really nice too, King-size bed with my own fridge.. :D Since I was one of the only 7 out-of-town guests, Sarah made sure that we were all well taken care of. She made dinner the first night, and lunch the next. Rehearsal dinner was at this fabulous local Italian restaurant (southern immigrant family style). The food was wonderful. Pity that I forgot to take any picture of the actual food, but I'll post a picture of the actual restaurant and our waiter, who is very very knowledgeable about all the food on the menu. Quite impressive.

The day before the wedding, I decided to do a little outing of my own. At first I wanted to go to downtown Minneapolis, but the parking for the light rail was a little far and the area didn't seem very safe. I detoured toward "Fort Snelling" state park located just a couple of miles from the airport. It was a very nice park, and Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers run through the park and meet at the tip of Spike's Island. Another neat thing about the park is the Historical Fort Snelling Site was actually restored. At the outside of the gate to Fort Snelling, you are in 2005, but once you get inside, everything is set in the 1820s. I met the school teacher, the clerk for the surgeon, one soldier, several guards, wives of the soldier. Really quite interesting.

The guards

At the guard house


At the day of the wedding, the sky looked bright and the weather seemed to be pleasant. However, 1 hour and half before the wedding, the sky turned black, and the rain and the wind started to blow. I had to go pick up some of the professors from their hotel, and I was really concerned about how the wedding should proceed if the rain and the wind continued.

I got to the hotel, the rain let up a little, but when we got to the Rose garden, the rain started to pick up again. Sarah apparently was really worried because she called everyone that has a cellphone. The problem was, no one picked up their phone. The good thing was, she didn't have to wait for too long, just about the scheduled starting time, the sky started to clear up. The rain and the wind stopped. The temperature was just right, not too hot, not too cold. The wedding started around 1. The ceremony was small and intimate. Both the bride and the groom were very very happy.
The Groom, bride, and me

Taekwondo

I think I am getting old... I love doing Taekwondo, but I seem to start hurting myself a lot more recently. I think it started from that time we did the half head-stand. I hurt my neck, and I couldn't move it for several days. Then when it got better, I decided to go to Six Flags, and you can see what that'd do to my poor neck. Then not long after that, I was starting a no-contact sparring with another lady, I fell and rolled on my left ankle. Not a smart move, and she didn't even touch me.. :( So very pathetic.. The left ankle is still acting weird, and today I did something to my right ankle. I guess very soon I will not be able to walk.. :D Andy will have to carry me everywhere.. He'll love that..

Overall, I still love Taekwondo. I get to know many people who also enjoy this Korean sport. We start to get to know each other a little better, and we stay in the parking lot outside of the dojo long after the class is over and chat the night always. We can whine together and get hurt together. The instructors sometimes make fun of us, and sometimes wish us just concentrate harder, but we still like them..

Taekwondo is not something you learn to beat people up (that may apply to me only), but to learn the discipline and the ways to lead a productive life. It also provides a venue to get some of your stress and frustration about your days out of your system. If the instructors work us hard enough, it's an excellent workout.

It's a pity that I won't be going to class until Monday, but I hope I will enjoy my friend's wedding in Minneapolis. Just keep dreaming about my forms, kicking and breaking techniques in the mean time, I guess. hahaha

Thoughts about Small Group

I am relatively new to the small group system of my church, but I am so happy after I started to get more involved with the group. I am not a person who like to initiate conversations to new people so I appear to be distant and solemn. My ex-roommate said that she thought I was scary before she got to know me better because I never smiled.

I guess I am just guarded around new people. Opening myself up to strangers makes me feel extremely vulnerable, and I don't like it very much. However, once I move pass that stage, I become extremely open, and I talk about things that people normally don't want to know or talk about.. :D I'll just say sorry in advance to my new friends, BEWARE!

Getting back to the small group, after meeting with the small group regularly, I start to get more comfortable with everyone in the group, and I was very happy that all my small group members were there for my baptism to show their support and join me afterwards to celebrate my rebirth and birthday.

I also got the chance to talk to individuals or couples outside of small group time, and I really enjoy it. I treasure the new friendships that I found and I look foward to the new friendships that I am going to develop in the future.

Wedding Planning

I never thought that I am going to be a wedding-obsessed bride, but I am gradually turning out to be one. What a frightening thought. Growing up in Taiwan, weddings never seem to involve so many different aspects of planning. Hmm... I may be wrong. They just involve other different aspects of planning. Maybe I can put them to comparison side by side..

Wedding Date
US: Usually on a Saturday. Other days of the week may be considered, but not as common.
Taiwan: Any time during the week. If during the week, it will be at night.

Wedding Planning period
US: In general, 6 months to 1 year seem to be a pretty good bet to make sure everything is available

Taiwan: In general, you can plan a wedding in 1 or 2 months because you probably can get the opening slots for everything

Wedding Location
US: Everywhere, i.e. churches, parks, jumping out of a plane, in a barn, home.....

Taiwan: Anywhere you can have a public wedding, i.e. in front of your house, court, church, restaurants...
I guess this is pretty similar

Wedding traditions
US: Nowadays, traditions can be broken. It really depends on what the bride and/or the groom wants, or what the budget allows.

Taiwan: It depends what types of family are involved. My sister who got married last year married into a very traditional Taiwanese family. There are many traditions that bride's family needs to follow. It involved a chicken figurine that was made out of gold, and some other stuff. My family is pretty new age compared to the groom's family in these matters so we had to learn a lot of the traditions to avoid offending the other family..

Wedding ceremony
US: Usually an officiant performs the wedding, gives an encouragement speech, and recites the "Dearly Beloved" passage to the bride and groom to repeat. Then comes the final announcement. Of course, there is the signing of the marriage license.

Taiwan: A court wedding probably resembles an usual US wedding. If you have the wedding anywhere else, usually the groom or the bride invites a VIP to be the main figure of the wedding and give a long speech. You don't even have to know the VIP, as long as they agree to be part of your wedding. That brings prestige to your wedding. After this main speech, there may be several other ones. One good thing is, you may be able to eat while you listen, which means you won't be listening to any of it if you are eating... :D

Wedding Reception
US: Usually happens after the wedding ceremony, and usually the most costly item for your wedding budget. The reception site may need to be booked up to 1 year ahead. It depends on the area and the bride and the groom, different types of food are provided. It can be simple hor o’derve, sitdown dinner, or I-want-to-get-to-the-food buffet.

Taiwan: Usually it's sitdown meal type of reception. If the wedding is held in a restaurant, usually you can eat and drink while watching the wedding takes place. If the wedding is held in front of groom's home, they have catering going and you can still eat and drink while watching the wedding takes place..

Wedding Expenses
US: Traditionally the bride's family takes care of the bill for the wedding, and the groom's family takes care of the rehearsal dinner. Nowadays, if both the bride and groom are working, they sometimes will try to take care of everything themselves.

Taiwan: Traditionally the bride's family takes care of the bills for the engagement announcement and the "Happy Cake" that accompanies the announcement. The groom's family takes care of everything that happnes on the wedding day. As in the US, nowadays, the bride and groom may try to take care of everything themselves if they can.

I am not sure how it's going to happen for our wedding. The traditions will collide.. Pray for things to work out all right for us.

I am just happy that all my friends from church, and my family that are close have already offer to help, only if I can pull myself together in the inital planning...

Grand Opening of the Basement

Welcome! Welcome!

Thanks for coming down my basement. I guess I start this because everyone seems to have a blog going here and there. I talk a lot, but I don't usually sit down and write out things that I did not say (Andy would say, "You have something that you are not saying? Nooooo, I don't believe it.")

I will try not to make this blog too whiny.. :D