An Old Married Woman!

Jason and I are now hitched! On Saturday, June 2, 2007 we officially tied the knot and took the plunge into married life. On Monday we headed out on the open road for a two-week roadtrip out west. The wedding went well, no major problems and the honeymoon was nice and relaxing. Now we're both back to work and back to life as normal...well sort of anyways. Embarking on a new married life is hardly normal for us, at least not yet. Its kind of funny, because I don't really feel any different, but my entire life is different now. I guess that's a good thing.



Here are a few pictures from the wedding. If you want to see more, you'll just have to come by the house. We have lots of pictures from the wedding and honeymoon that we'd love to share. Far too many to upload on here :)

Only 15 Days Left!!

I can hardly believe it. It seems like only yesterday that we had six months to go, which at that time felt like an eternity. Now the big day is only 15 days away. There is lots to do so I need more time, but at the same time I want the day to be here tomorrow so we can start the party!

Settling In

Saturday was a fun day, spent the entire day loading and unloading boxes, furniture and other items. Then the house was full of boxes, and rather unliveable because of the mess. So Jason and I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday bringing some semblance of order to the living/dining room and kitchen. We also setup my bed so I have a place to sleep. I'm currently sleeping in the jungle so that we can fix up the master bedroom. Yesterday we went to Lowe's to pick out paint colors for the main floor rooms...can't wait to see how they turn out. Hopefully over the next week or two we'll have the entire main floor done. Then we can get rid of the "WOW RED!" in the master bedroom.

Today is the Day

I'm sitting on pins and needles today because today is the day that we go and sign the papers to close the deal on the house. Last night after work I got a certified check for closing costs and today I get to leave work early. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. Don't know how I'm supposed to concentrate on work today...

I am so ready to move, my apartment currently looks like a storage shed, filled up with boxes and everything taken apart and ready for Saturday. Only a few more days and then I can the new house, home :D

3 More Days!!

I can hardly wait, only 3 more days and Jason and I will have the keys for our new house. I've been packing like crazy so that I'll be ready for moving in. It's going to be so great to have a house, very exciting :-)

Waiting...

I hate waiting. All the running about for the house is done and now its out of our hands. So now its just a waiting game. Wait, wait, wait. Waiting for what you may ask? A closing date, then we'll sign our lives away and the fun of cleaning and moving will begin. Hoorah! But in the meantime its wait, wait, wait...

Sewing Up a Storm

On Sunday afternoon I decided it was about time to pull out the sewing machine and get to work on my wedding dress. I had thought about buying my dress, but it seems like the simpler the dress, the higher the price. All I wanted was a simple white dress with a bit of a train, but it seems like all the dresses of that sort are enormously overpriced. So instead I headed to the fabric store, bought a pattern, fabric and notions all for about $100. A real deal I thought. Right after buying the fabric I cut out all the pieces, but since then the dress has been sitting around waiting for me to pull it out.

Sunday I finally felt the inspiration to begin sewing and sew I did. I managed to get the entire bodice pieced together and then started on the skirt. And of course I'm biased, but I think it looks pretty good. I'll have to post some pictures once I get it together. Now I'm thinking about what I can get sewing next...maybe some curtains for the new house...

More House News

Buying a house sure involves lots of signing. Today Jason and I met with a mortgage guy to sign our lives away for the next 30 years. Tomorrow we're headed back over to the house to meet the inspector and see if anything is majorly wrong in the house. Hopefully not, we certainly didn't see anything when we viewed the house. Our next step will be shopping around for insurance. Gotta get all the nitty-gritty details taken care of, then it will be the fun stuff.

Soon I'll start packing up my apartment so that I'll be all ready to move into the new house. I've also been tearing decorating and garden ideas out of magazines. Then it will be off the the home stores to look at paint colors. I can't wait to get in there and start decorating :)

Our Offer Was Accepted!

Hoorah! Jason and I put in our offer on the house on Monday then had to wait on pins and needles for the seller's response. Last night we finally got a call from our realtor that they accepted the offer and that we had to come in to sign the papers. Now we have to get the house inspected and work out the details of financing. Fun fun, I'm so excited :D

House Hunting

As Guamo told me, house hunting is certainly a blog worthy thing. So here is my blog about house hunting. Jason and I have begun the tiring task of trying to find a house to buy and live in for when we're married. We have found one promising possibility in Wyoming.

To the left and below are some pictures that we took while viewing the house this weekend. Enjoy, and there will be more to come :)

Engaged!

If anything were truly blog-worthy, it would be the fact that I am now engaged!

How did it happen? Well, on Saturday afternoon (October 14th) I asked Jason what he wanted to do that night. He said that since we wouldn't be able to go out on our anniversary (he had Asia that night), he would take me out that night instead. He mentioned that he wanted to go to SanChez, tapas restaurant downtown. That should have raised my radar since he doesn't usually have a particular place in mind when we go out. Anyways, we drove downtown and parked at the fish ladder right on the Grand River. We meandered our way to SanChez where we had a very nice dinner.

After dinner we walked back up the river and paused for a moment on the pedestrian bridge by the DeVos performance hall. The view of the downtown there is great so we stopped to admire it. Then he gave me a big bear hug (it was a cold night) and said "so its been two years" (or something like that). Then he said that he had gone shopping and at that point I knew what was going on. He pulled a little box out of his coat pocket and opened it. I could see that it was a ring but it was a little too dark to tell what it looked like. Then he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes and then pulled off my gloves so that he could put the ring on, a perfect fit :)

Festival 2006

On Saturday, Jason and I took Asia downtown to visit festival. I'd never been before and neither had Asia so it was an adventure for both of us. The rain held off while we were there, and we got a chance to walk around and see what was all going on. There were art and craft activities for the kids, and lots to see and smell. All along the streets were food vendors grilling and cooking up a storm. We stopped at a Vietnamese booth to get chicken skewers and egg rolls...mmmm.... Asia had a true foot long hot dog, and wonder of wonders, she ate the entire thing! They had several stages set up where they had dance and music. On the main stage we watched the Grand Rapids Ballet Trainees do a rendition of Snow White. Then the storm clouds started to set in, so we headed for the car. We made it without getting too wet, but the rest of the afternoon it showered on and off. Not so good for the rest of the crowd at Festival.

Phantom of the Opera

Friday night Jason and I were finally able to enjoy my Christmas present. This year for Christmas Jason bought me tickets to go see the Phantom of the Opera and tucked them into the DVD. That was pretty sneaky because he left the tape on the top of the DVD, so I figured it was still sealed. He had to tell me to open up the DVD, and then I saw the tickets. So on Friday I got out of work early and met him at his place. We took Asia down to stay with Grandma then we went to Kalamazoo for dinner. We had a nice dinner at Fridays, the headed to the Miller Auditorium. It was spectacular, definately worth seeing live :) The guy that played the phantom started as the understudy to the original phantom when it played in Toronto. He went on to play the phantom in Toronto, and also played Jean Valjean in Les Miz. Great music, great stage effects. I'm thinking I'll have to go and pick up the book now, so I can read the original story.

Be-u-ti-ful Butterflies

This past Saturday, Jason's mom came up to GR to visit to see the butterflies at Meijer Garden. I forgot my camera, but Jason let me borrow his. I had fun snapping away. Most of my pictures didn't turn out very good...butterflies move around too much. But this particular shot turned out pretty well.

Colorado, Thanksgiving 2005

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I posted anything to my blog. I was looking through some pictures and came across this one from my trip to Colorado this past Thanksgiving. I flew into the Denver airport on Wednesday and Da Cheong and Josi came and picked me up. This picture was taken on our day trip to Denver. Our first stop after getting off the bus downtown was Starbucks :) We also took a drive up into the mountains, which were gorgeous, and had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great trip and I want to go back and trek through some mountains!

Reminicsing Days Gone By

I've been busy going through my old negatives and scanning them onto my laptop. In the process I unearthed this photo from my Calvin days. Natalie was making a birthday cake for a friend of hers and Da Cheong and I were trying to help shave chocolate for the top. Since it was a warm summer day, our chocolate shavings turned into chocolate mush pretty quickly. But it was a lot of fun, though as you can see, quite messy.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: Jason got my promise ring back from the jeweller's correctly sized. So now I can actually wear it on the correct finger. And its prettier than it is in that picture, but that's the best picture I could find.

The Bad: It's only Monday and I'm already worn out...this is going to be a long week.

The Ugly: I spent the majority of the weekend avoiding what I knew I had to do and now I have a ton of homework to do tonight to get caught up again...this is going to be a long night.

Hair Count Diaries: Starting to Thin

The craziness of my schedule is starting to hit me. Not only do I have a lot of reading and writing to do, but I have very little time to do it in. I also have to squeeze in time to do several classroom observations, service learning, interviews, lesson plans, and the list goes on. On top of that, there are lots of new things going on at work too. New projects, new people, more things to think about. Ack! I think I'm going to need a larger calendar just to manage all the things that I need to get done this semester. But I think that once I start getting things completed I won't feel quite so overwhelmed. I think that I will really need my December break by the time December rolls around.

Hair Count: 109,000

Hair Count Diaries: Story Time

One of my classes this semester is Teaching Writing for Elementary Students. We had our second class last night, and it was just as good as the first. The professor taught middle school for years, and uses many techniques that you would use in a middle school classroom on us. Its great fun :) Last night she asked that we each bring a piece of fruit, disguised in a bag. She read us Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, a great picture book with lots of sensory images. Then we had to get to know our fruits and write about them using as many sensory images as we could. The idea is to give the audience an image of the piece of fruit without actually naming it. She also handed out Scholastic book order forms. So tempting...so many good deals... I love this class, its always a fun one to go to, and you never know what the prof will do next. And the great thing is, I get credit for it!

Hair Count: 110,000 strands and holding. So far its not too bad, busy but not unmanageable.

A Quarter of a Century

Happy Birthday to me! Well it is now official, I am a quarter of a century old. Or as my sister would say, just old. I've already had a little bit of a birthday celebration, last weekend when I was home my mom made a cake and my grandparents came over for lunch. We didn't have candles though, mom said it was too early for that. But this morning the birthday fairy visited. I went out to my car to go to work and discovered that the birthday fairy had left a birthday surprise for me. There was a card and happy birthday balloon, and flowers in my cup holder. What a sneaky fairy ;)