Thursday, December 04, 2008
post-wedding photo shoot
wow, it's been a long time since i've blogged. much has happened since hawaii back in april... bought a house... celebrated 30th bday... 1st anniversary... and now it's christmastime already. this year totally went by super fast.
to commemorate our 1st anniversary (and really cuz we missed a lot of pictures that i wanted from our wedding day, we asked our photographer friends to take some more wedding pictures for us. it gave me a chance to get all gussied up again and wear my beautiful wedding gown too. we had such a great time and i'm so happy with how these turned out. man, i even liked how my hair and makeup was done better the second time around!
here are the pictures! enjoy!
to commemorate our 1st anniversary (and really cuz we missed a lot of pictures that i wanted from our wedding day, we asked our photographer friends to take some more wedding pictures for us. it gave me a chance to get all gussied up again and wear my beautiful wedding gown too. we had such a great time and i'm so happy with how these turned out. man, i even liked how my hair and makeup was done better the second time around!
here are the pictures! enjoy!
Monday, July 28, 2008
drexel humming
haha, my adorable little cousin humming old macdonald had a farm... the end is the cutest part... i love when kids are just learning how to communicate!
and i haven't forgotten all about the updates i promised below...
and i haven't forgotten all about the updates i promised below...
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
recap - hawaii
It’s been about a month and a half since I last blogged and there’s so much to catch you up on! It’s been a pretty busy month or so since we got back from Hawaii. So I wanna recap kinda chronologically. First of all, Hawaii was great! Weather was pretty good overall, although the first few days was really hazy due to the volcano on the big island and wind blowing the smoke over to oahu. I was able to do 7 out of the 10 on my list of places to eat. Highlight for me was 3660 on the Rise (www.3660.com/). My memory isn’t known to be great, but I do remember that butterfish. It was like butta, baby. Lowlight was Giovanni’s shrimp. It was just too salty and kinda overcooked. Out of the 12, I think I ate 3. What a bummer.
Other great finds: Sandy Beach, where we watched awesome body boarding by the locals. The current was so strong that if you didn’t have your feet planted well on the ground even on shore, you’d get totally knocked down by the wave and dragged into the ocean (like I almost did!) Crazy how powerful nature is. All of the locals in the water had some sort of equipment to help them float or maneuver in the water better, whether they were fins or body boards. So a couple of tourists (you can tell by their very red “tans”) thought they were badass enough to go into the water, but were totally stopped in their tracks when the lifeguard shouts at them with the megaphone “SIR, GET OUT OF THE WATER. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE PROPER EQUIPMENT TO GO IN”. Oh man, the poor guys were so humiliated. Plus, it was a pretty crowded beach and there were a group of local guys hanging out in the parking lot right behind the lifeguard stand and they totally busted out laughing at the tourist dudes! It was pretty hilarious at the time, but so sad for those guys!
It was also really cool that the water is so clear that when the body boarders would bob up and down waiting for a good wave, you could see their entire body floating in the water even when they were vertical!
Another good adventure: Swapna (Dana’s friend from MBA school) and I jumped off Waimea Rock! She got some pretty kick ass pictures of it too. I did this on my previous trip with Henry and Noreen’s pictures from her trip reminded me that I had to do this again. How shall I describe the feeling… well, it looks like the jump goes a lot faster from land than you actually experience. When you jump, you think you’ll hit the water already, but nope, you’re still falling. For me, I totally have to scream just to let out the energy. It’s absolutely exhilarating! Note to self: Gotta remember to do this jump toward the end of trips because water totally gets into my ears and nose and tend to result in some sort of ear ache/infection. When I jumped with Henry, it was several days before the end of the trip and I had to take a trip to Kaiser Hawaii to get some meds. This time, I got sick after I got home already. But maybe it was the plane, cuz Mina was totally sick too and she didn’t jump at all. Hmm, gotta think about that theory.
I tend to babble on and on, so I’ll keep each recap post to one subject and try to finish one every day. Let’s see if that happens. ;)
On deck:
~ house/loan/credit crap
~ break-in
~ new awesome client
~ abbie’s most inspiring graduation speech
~ need to build my branding/website
~ office max blunder
~ iphone sync (re-sadness over break-in)
Other great finds: Sandy Beach, where we watched awesome body boarding by the locals. The current was so strong that if you didn’t have your feet planted well on the ground even on shore, you’d get totally knocked down by the wave and dragged into the ocean (like I almost did!) Crazy how powerful nature is. All of the locals in the water had some sort of equipment to help them float or maneuver in the water better, whether they were fins or body boards. So a couple of tourists (you can tell by their very red “tans”) thought they were badass enough to go into the water, but were totally stopped in their tracks when the lifeguard shouts at them with the megaphone “SIR, GET OUT OF THE WATER. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE PROPER EQUIPMENT TO GO IN”. Oh man, the poor guys were so humiliated. Plus, it was a pretty crowded beach and there were a group of local guys hanging out in the parking lot right behind the lifeguard stand and they totally busted out laughing at the tourist dudes! It was pretty hilarious at the time, but so sad for those guys!
It was also really cool that the water is so clear that when the body boarders would bob up and down waiting for a good wave, you could see their entire body floating in the water even when they were vertical!
Another good adventure: Swapna (Dana’s friend from MBA school) and I jumped off Waimea Rock! She got some pretty kick ass pictures of it too. I did this on my previous trip with Henry and Noreen’s pictures from her trip reminded me that I had to do this again. How shall I describe the feeling… well, it looks like the jump goes a lot faster from land than you actually experience. When you jump, you think you’ll hit the water already, but nope, you’re still falling. For me, I totally have to scream just to let out the energy. It’s absolutely exhilarating! Note to self: Gotta remember to do this jump toward the end of trips because water totally gets into my ears and nose and tend to result in some sort of ear ache/infection. When I jumped with Henry, it was several days before the end of the trip and I had to take a trip to Kaiser Hawaii to get some meds. This time, I got sick after I got home already. But maybe it was the plane, cuz Mina was totally sick too and she didn’t jump at all. Hmm, gotta think about that theory.
I tend to babble on and on, so I’ll keep each recap post to one subject and try to finish one every day. Let’s see if that happens. ;)
On deck:
~ house/loan/credit crap
~ break-in
~ new awesome client
~ abbie’s most inspiring graduation speech
~ need to build my branding/website
~ office max blunder
~ iphone sync (re-sadness over break-in)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
soooo excited!!!
going to hawaii next week and i was researching places we wanna hit up. guess what i'm most excited for? the fooooood!!!!! i found some sites that had multiple reviews of different restaurants and i swear, i was salivating by the time i finished reading the articles. some of what i'm looking forward to are:
alan wong's for their delicious fine dining and awesome desserts
prawns at romy's shrimp shack
giovanni's shrimp shack (see above link) yum, yum too!
matsumoto's shave ice
3360 on the rise
ninniku-ya garlic restaurant - people have talked about this place and i'm imagining that it's similar to stinking rose, so i wanna try it out. they have garlic gelato, strange eh? we'll see!
spam jam! there's gonna be a whole festival in waikiki all about spam!
coco puffs at liliha bakery - enough said. last time we bought 6 and i think i ate 4 of them in one sitting. i'm gonna bet that dana the sprinkles lover enjoys it as much as i do.
aloha swap meet snacks mmmm, wasabi peas, garlic macadamia nuts, dried cuttlefish...
fukuya delicatessen - these awesome little japanese delis sell the all popular spam musubi-type of little meals. there are all kinds of variations of yummy finger foods and they make the perfect beach grub!
boots & kimo's homestyle kitchen - of course, we cannot forget about the banana mac pancakes! their syrup/sauce is this creamy thing that i've been wanting to bottle ever since the first time i tasted it. alas, the owners keep it a family secret and won't even let it out of the island! i just have to get my fill every time i visit. oh and everything else is delish there too.
i've gained all the weight back that i lost from the wedding already. don't be surprised if i look like a samoan when i return from the island! aloooooha!
oh, if you have more suggestions, please let me know!
alan wong's for their delicious fine dining and awesome desserts
prawns at romy's shrimp shack
giovanni's shrimp shack (see above link) yum, yum too!
matsumoto's shave ice
3360 on the rise
ninniku-ya garlic restaurant - people have talked about this place and i'm imagining that it's similar to stinking rose, so i wanna try it out. they have garlic gelato, strange eh? we'll see!
spam jam! there's gonna be a whole festival in waikiki all about spam!
coco puffs at liliha bakery - enough said. last time we bought 6 and i think i ate 4 of them in one sitting. i'm gonna bet that dana the sprinkles lover enjoys it as much as i do.
aloha swap meet snacks mmmm, wasabi peas, garlic macadamia nuts, dried cuttlefish...
fukuya delicatessen - these awesome little japanese delis sell the all popular spam musubi-type of little meals. there are all kinds of variations of yummy finger foods and they make the perfect beach grub!
boots & kimo's homestyle kitchen - of course, we cannot forget about the banana mac pancakes! their syrup/sauce is this creamy thing that i've been wanting to bottle ever since the first time i tasted it. alas, the owners keep it a family secret and won't even let it out of the island! i just have to get my fill every time i visit. oh and everything else is delish there too.
i've gained all the weight back that i lost from the wedding already. don't be surprised if i look like a samoan when i return from the island! aloooooha!
oh, if you have more suggestions, please let me know!
Friday, March 21, 2008
happy good friday!
it's good friday, a day of fasting (all meals today should not add up to one full meal) and abstinence (no meat).
i know i shouldn't complain, but geez, service last night for holy thursday was just really long. it was a multilingual mass, but instead of having different parts of the mass in the 3 languages, they chose to repeat the same things in the 3 languages. so it's like we heard mass 3 times, in english, spanish and vietnamese. but despite the length, it was definitely nice to go and have adoration after. they transferred the eucharist to their hall and they decorated their altar so nicely with candles and flowers. it was all very lovely. and it was peaceful praying in that environment again. nothing quite compares.
tonight, we're going to anunciation instead because the good friday service at nativity is in vietnamese.
so mina and a couple other people are gonna come over to watch the passion of christ tonight. i finally found a copy of it. my parents have the dvd, but i didn't end up going there during the week at all. so yesterday, i stopped at a best buy but they were sold out, so i tried blockbuster but they were all rented out too. but i called target today and they have it on hold for me. yayyyy. it'll be a good good friday meditation. like stations of the cross on dvd. mina was asking if i had tissue. she's getting ready for the cryfest. i wonder if i'll cry this time. cuz the first time i watched it with the bible study group, i didn't cry. along with aaron. and our other friends were like, "what's wrong with you? you're a robot!" i dunno. it's not that it didn't move me cuz it was a powerful film for sure. but it just didn't move me to tears at that time. maybe it's cuz i knew it was for a good purpose? and in the end He'd rise again anyway? i dunno... well, we'll see tonight.
oh and i probably won't be posting more this weekend, so Happy Easter!
i know i shouldn't complain, but geez, service last night for holy thursday was just really long. it was a multilingual mass, but instead of having different parts of the mass in the 3 languages, they chose to repeat the same things in the 3 languages. so it's like we heard mass 3 times, in english, spanish and vietnamese. but despite the length, it was definitely nice to go and have adoration after. they transferred the eucharist to their hall and they decorated their altar so nicely with candles and flowers. it was all very lovely. and it was peaceful praying in that environment again. nothing quite compares.
tonight, we're going to anunciation instead because the good friday service at nativity is in vietnamese.
so mina and a couple other people are gonna come over to watch the passion of christ tonight. i finally found a copy of it. my parents have the dvd, but i didn't end up going there during the week at all. so yesterday, i stopped at a best buy but they were sold out, so i tried blockbuster but they were all rented out too. but i called target today and they have it on hold for me. yayyyy. it'll be a good good friday meditation. like stations of the cross on dvd. mina was asking if i had tissue. she's getting ready for the cryfest. i wonder if i'll cry this time. cuz the first time i watched it with the bible study group, i didn't cry. along with aaron. and our other friends were like, "what's wrong with you? you're a robot!" i dunno. it's not that it didn't move me cuz it was a powerful film for sure. but it just didn't move me to tears at that time. maybe it's cuz i knew it was for a good purpose? and in the end He'd rise again anyway? i dunno... well, we'll see tonight.
oh and i probably won't be posting more this weekend, so Happy Easter!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
best things in life are free
especially free food!!! the best things about board meeting days at work are the free food we get to have! they ordered daphne's greek food today and there's so much leftover that i get to have lunch AND bring some home for dinner... yayyy for not having to cook!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
today's gospel
Judas's Bargain
14 Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
15 and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.
16 From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.
17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"
18 And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples."'"
19 The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.
The Last Passover
20 Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples.
21 As they were eating, He said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me."
22 Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?"
23 And He answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me.
24 "The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."
25 And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
i got to church for noon mass just in time to hear the gospel above. the priests' homily really got me thinking... he mentioned how jesus knew all along that judas had been stealing from their treasury. and he knew all along that he had gone to the chief priests to ask for what they would give him to betray jesus. and of course, he knew all along that he was going to betray him. and yet, through all that, he was still waiting, inviting judas to be with him. the priest reminded us that even as judas kissed jesus to signal the betrayal, jesus still called him "friend".
50 And Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you have come for." Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.
then the priest asked, what was judas' greatest sin? he said it wasn't the betrayal at all. because jesus would have forgiven him for it. judas had actually repented (matthew 27:1-10) for it. the priest said his greatest sin was that he didn't truly believe that Jesus/God would have forgiven him for it. but he didn't have the faith and hope in jesus' resurrection so he ended up killing himself. and it got me thinking... wow, jesus would have forgiven him? that's the guy who turned him in! that's craaazy. then i thought, wow, then pretty much, he'd forgive anyone for anything then. he's just waiting for us to come to him in repentance and salvation.
then my thoughts drifted to what another priest said to our rcia class last week. he was talking to us about purgatory and he totally changed my impression on it. it always sounded rather scary, like people are stuck in a limbo. the priest said that it wasn't anything to be afraid of. he emphasized that purgatory is not hell at all, it's actually heaven. more like a foyer or front room before we can enter heaven just to do the last bit of cleansing our soul so we can enter fully. god truly wants so badly to have us with him and if we just give ourselves to Him, he'll welcome us with open arms, no matter what was in our past. we just need to have faith and hope and trust in his saving love, and truly live for him, not for our own selfish wants or lifestyle. sometimes we hold on to our sins or pain and suffering, kind of like how judas hanged himself cuz he didn't know God's forgiving love. but wouldn't it be better to just give it up to Him and just have Him wash it away, so we can rise with Him?
peace be with you...
14 Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
15 and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.
16 From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.
17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"
18 And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples."'"
19 The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.
The Last Passover
20 Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples.
21 As they were eating, He said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me."
22 Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?"
23 And He answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me.
24 "The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."
25 And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself."
i got to church for noon mass just in time to hear the gospel above. the priests' homily really got me thinking... he mentioned how jesus knew all along that judas had been stealing from their treasury. and he knew all along that he had gone to the chief priests to ask for what they would give him to betray jesus. and of course, he knew all along that he was going to betray him. and yet, through all that, he was still waiting, inviting judas to be with him. the priest reminded us that even as judas kissed jesus to signal the betrayal, jesus still called him "friend".
50 And Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you have come for." Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.
then the priest asked, what was judas' greatest sin? he said it wasn't the betrayal at all. because jesus would have forgiven him for it. judas had actually repented (matthew 27:1-10) for it. the priest said his greatest sin was that he didn't truly believe that Jesus/God would have forgiven him for it. but he didn't have the faith and hope in jesus' resurrection so he ended up killing himself. and it got me thinking... wow, jesus would have forgiven him? that's the guy who turned him in! that's craaazy. then i thought, wow, then pretty much, he'd forgive anyone for anything then. he's just waiting for us to come to him in repentance and salvation.
then my thoughts drifted to what another priest said to our rcia class last week. he was talking to us about purgatory and he totally changed my impression on it. it always sounded rather scary, like people are stuck in a limbo. the priest said that it wasn't anything to be afraid of. he emphasized that purgatory is not hell at all, it's actually heaven. more like a foyer or front room before we can enter heaven just to do the last bit of cleansing our soul so we can enter fully. god truly wants so badly to have us with him and if we just give ourselves to Him, he'll welcome us with open arms, no matter what was in our past. we just need to have faith and hope and trust in his saving love, and truly live for him, not for our own selfish wants or lifestyle. sometimes we hold on to our sins or pain and suffering, kind of like how judas hanged himself cuz he didn't know God's forgiving love. but wouldn't it be better to just give it up to Him and just have Him wash it away, so we can rise with Him?
peace be with you...
seafood lunch at redondo beach
here are some pics from our very yummy lunch at redondo beach!
me and uni
clams and oysters too!
didn't get a picture of the crab cuz our hands started getting too dirty to handle the camera. just trust me. it was mmmm mmmmm gooooood :)
and there was a yoyo contest too. this girl hula hooped AND yoyo'd.
me and uni
clams and oysters too!
didn't get a picture of the crab cuz our hands started getting too dirty to handle the camera. just trust me. it was mmmm mmmmm gooooood :)
and there was a yoyo contest too. this girl hula hooped AND yoyo'd.
quotable quotes
-
"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the
greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks
nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, live, and love."
~unknown
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"live a life that others will remember years from now, NOT because it pointed to you but because of how it pointed to the One who made you."
~ Mark Hart, the Bible Geek
"we grow up learning to become self-reliant, but really we need to be God-reliant"
"we could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box"
"never wound hearts that love u, never give them the endless pain, because wounded hearts are like roses that never bloom"
"there comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we'd let go"
