Children.

Yubo and I have talked often about children, even before we got engaged. I'm just one of those people that likes to be as prepared as possible, and Yubo is kind enough to indulge me in these "prep" conversations.

I was happy to find that he, like me, only wants 2 children. I don't think either of us leans any particular way about sons or daughters, which is cool. We have two girl names, but are still thinking of potential boy names (suggestions, anyone?).

We don't plan to start trying to get pregnant until I'm just about done with school, which will hopefully be by next spring or fall. But the topic of children and parenting comes up often.

With both of our best friends' wives pregnant and due in the next week (yikes!), my mind comes to children probably more often than it really needs to right now. Most of the time I ask Yubo about how he would handle a certain situation if it were to come up. So the discussions have been focused on figuring out our potential parenting styles and how we can create a positive and disciplined home for our children. I hear nightly the absolute disrespect our upstairs neighbor receives from her college-aged son and it makes me paranoid.* Our biggest challenge will be showing our children how to deal with conflict in a healthy way, which neither of us grew up with.

We're also concerned about how to share God's love with our children. With Yubo coming from a Christian home and my growing up very much in the secular world, we have different views on what might be the best approach. For example, Yubo would really like to put our children in a Christian private school if we can afford it. I would actually prefer a regular public school. We both see the pros and cons for both, and of course it would depend on where we are and what is available by the time they have to go to school.

I think it's really a great thing that we have pretty different backgrounds and experiences to draw from and bring together to help make our decisions. And I'm glad that he's ok with talking about things so early.

*A little rant to get this out of my system:
I was restless last night. Went to bed around 1:00a. Between an overactive mind and random hot flashes, I didn't really get to try to settle down until 4am. That's when the yelling began.... again. This wasn't the first time I've had to lie through their raised voices. As I mentioned above, it's just about a nightly occurrence. But this time it was loud enough for me to actually make out some things said. And it proceeded for 2 hours. So I did not get to try to sleep until 6am. It bothered me more to be able to make out sentences. And in those 2hrs, all I heard was the son's voice. "What is wrong with you?" and similar questions bellowed at her. Something about "I feel like I deserve that." Oh, that sense of entitlement. What irritated me the most was hearing him yell, "I love God. I love Jesus," and in the next minute, screaming, "F--- you, mom." I know they are a broken family, and that could contribute to a good deal of it, but it was a little disgusting to listen to.

It's not in the stars.

I'm not sure if I wrote about this yet in this blog, so we'll do it again. This entry is sparked by a commercial I just saw for eHarmony.

When I thought we were writing our own vows, I wrote this for Yubo. Then I found out that Yubo wanted to do the traditional vows, and this would've been considered more of a letter to him anyhow.

You were a surprise to me. Aside from being so attractive, you started off as everything I didn't want in a guy. I never would have thought that seven years after we met, you would be the one standing before me today. But here you are, despite all the challenges we've faced just being together.
You've seen me at my worst, yet you stayed by my side and helped pick me up again. You've been the cause of some of the best times in my life. And of course, you've been a constant during the frequent boring and mundane events.
Something has kept you in my life, going against what I thought was my better judgment. Now I know that something was God. He made you for me, and designed us to be together.
Out of my love for you, and to honor God's will, I will commit myself to you in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion, no matter what circumstances we may find ourselves in. This I promise to uphold all the days of my life.

The "I commit myself to you" bit at the end came from Hosea 2:19, the verse that was piped onto the top tier of our cake.

When I talked about how we started dating, I explained how he was nothing that I wanted. He drank, he smoked, he was in a fraternity. Ugh. So unattractive. But he kept at it with me because I was his type (at the time, I was cute and petite).

Sometimes it still astounds me that we ever got together, and that we lasted as long as we have. I still joke with him that we should sign onto one of those online dating services to see if they would match us. But then I get scared that they might pair him with another girl that is better suited for him and more his type.

At some point, I realized that if we look at any other way to match people, we should not be together, or at least would not last very long. I think I looked at numerology, astrology, and the Chinese zodiac. Funny thing right now is I searched numerology again and it had good results, whereas however many years ago it didn't. An Aries woman and Scorpio man matching still says it would be a lot of passion at first, but would be A LOT of work to maintain and probably wouldn't last long. And a Rat is just not compatible with a Rooster (amazingly, my family still allowed us to get married, LoL).

It just entertained me that we seemingly went against the world to come together and love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together.

Full disclosure, and Communication Styles.

Read books or ask anyone about what is important in a relationship, and you'll find a whole lot of talk about communication.

Like many couples, Yubo and I have struggled with this. If you've been keeping up with this blog, I mentioned it in an earlier entry.

A brief update: We're still working on it, and we've actually gotten much better at it. Yubo has been putting more of an effort to listen and respond to me, and I've grown in my patience with him. I don't get in such a huff anymore if he doesn't hear me the first time because he's playing a game or something.

I've become more aware of when I say things. I noticed that I would often choose the worst times to talk to him about something "important." It was my way of competing with what he was doing. I was asking him to listen to me at the climax of a television episode, or in the middle of a big boss battle, and expecting him to stop everything he was doing just to listen to me. It became much easier for both of us when I would let him know that there was something I wanted to ask him or talk about, and request he pause as soon as he could (or I would wait for a commercial). So far that's been working for us really well. There are still some instances that come up, but I think now we're handling the situation better.

Anyhow, all of that really doesn't have anything to do with what I wanted this entry to be. I just wanted to touch base on that entry since I'm talking about communication.

For this entry, I wanted to mention that Yubo and I really can talk about anything. Or more like, I can talk to him about anything -- I don't know if he feels the same, but he's usually willing to humor me. Rarely do I find myself too embarrassed to talk to him about something, and we've talked about some pretty awkward things. I've also asked him to help me out with some really awkward things, but he's been awesome enough to not balk at any of my strange requests or topics.

I feel really thankful and blessed to have someone that I can say anything to. I suppose it's because he's come to know me and love me for who I am. I describe myself as someone that is a huge advocate for honesty in a relationship (although, to be perfectly honest, I still fib to my parents... I think it's become ingrained) and is unable to sugarcoat. I don't think I'm harsh, but there are many things that I don't know how to say in a nice way. I suppose blunt is a good word for it. You will often find most of my criticisms preceded with, "Please don't take this the wrong way," or, "Not to sound mean/rude..." People at church have told me that I am brave for sharing about my life and experiences as candidly as I do (I just think it might help someone else to be as open as I am). I guess because I am the way I am, I tend to expect others to be like I am, at least with me. Not much offends or surprises me. Because of that, I feel no one needs to be embarrassed around me when sharing about themselves.

The same applies to Yubo. I've told him that I want him to be as honest with me as I am with him. He, however, is very much the opposite when it comes to these things, especially because his nature is to diffuse conflict and not risk creating it. He's been better with me than he was, but he still can't be blunt with me. Even when he tries to be, his tone is apologetic. The somewhat new issue we're running into now is that he's been so nice before that it would be difficult to take him seriously when he wants to be blunt and firm.

We've concluded that we need to help each other reach a middle ground. I've recognized that I need to learn how to soften my approach to things, especially since I tend to sound condescending when I try and that only makes things worse. And Yubo recognizes that he needs to not be too nice so people can take him seriously when he needs them to, myself included. We explore how we can do this mostly when we discuss how we plan to raise our children. Thankfully, Yubo has been open to allowing me to pre-plan what I can when it comes to parenting. But we know how we can balance each other when we have to deal with our children, and as we continue to discuss it, we've already begun the process of balancing each other in this way.

Role-playing.

I don't know if other gamers do this, but Yubo and I both have character names that we stick to whenever we're given the chance to create our own characters.

I think RPGs (role-playing games, just in case) are really the only types of games where you get to customize and name your character. I assume Yubo's been playing RPGs longer than I have, but for as long as I've known him, he's had a type. He's one of those guys that prefers to play female characters, elven race, and I've teased him often for leaning towards the necromancy class whenever it's available. He tends to design his character towards the dark and sexy look, usually to match the necromancer image. And the name that he somehow came up with for one character a long time ago -- long enough that he forgot which character donned the name first -- is Cisma Iwo. When I asked him where he got the name, he said he just made it up and that it sounded cool.

Nowadays, I'll usually help him design the character, but the name will either be Mochi (if the character ends up being more cute) or Cisma (if she's going to be more badass).

My first experience with an RPG was playing Dungeons & Dragons with my guy friends. The way my friend Joe led the game was fascinating. It really got us to use our imagination. I never even knew that the game is usually played with a board and character pieces and weird stuff like that. Joe drew out the maps, and we just went off of our character sheets. It really appealed to my acting.

Anyhow, in creating my very first character, of course I thought that elves were the coolest race ever (cuz they are). I actually don't recall my first elf's name at the moment. If I knew where my sketchbook was, I could say since I drew her. But my second elf was the one I grew the most attached to. I suppose it was because I put a lot more thought into creating her. She was a wood elf, and I named her Ruanes Windaria. I loved the name, so I'll usually use it when creating a character. And where Yubo makes necromancers, I tend to go for either a rogue or cleric class.

So Yubo and I both like playing as female elves, but then it splits off. Kinda fun to see that we're not entire opposites though.

Yubo's bad at Tetris.

A quick little entry I've been meaning to write. Adding to it some shots that we tried tonight to make use of the cute little bottles we got in Hawaii.

Yubo sucks at Tetris.
This is how I explain that he is chaos to my order. This phrase came up once when he was trying to put a lot of groceries in the trunk and couldn't get it all to fit. It was because he was just putting stuff in instead of arranging things to fit. I think there was some big box that had slid forward and instead of pushing the box back and into a corner, he was trying to shove things awkwardly around it. And so I told him that he must really suck at Tetris.

Yubo is the worst Easter egg hunter ever.
This came about recently. I have noticed that when he is looking for something, he will RARELY ever find it if it is underneath something. This past weekend, he could not find an umbrella that was on the table in the room we stayed in at the church retreat. It was just on the table, so not a whole lot of surface area to cover. He kept telling me he couldn't find it, until he finally decided to lift up some clothes he had laid over the table. He blames me for that because I told him to hang his clothes over the chair instead of tossing them on the floor.

Few days later, again he needed an umbrella. He had left the black one in the car, so I told him that my Mary Kay umbrella was in the office on the floor right in front of my inventory shelves. He said he couldn't find it. I got up, rummaged through some things that were in front of the shelves, and there was the umbrella.

I blame this on his gaming. LoL. I feel like it's because he's waiting for a little arrow or highlight or something to appear when he's standing in an area to show him that there is something of interest. Or perhaps I should put everything that is important into little treasure chests and hide them, because then he will somehow be able to find them. He can figure out how to get his character to this strange ledge where he's sure there's a treasure chest, but he can't lift up some papers or clothes to find what he's looking for irl.

I'm exaggerating this, I hope you understand. He's not that bad. I point it out in this entry now mostly because of his not being able to find an umbrella twice in such a short period of time. And when he's tired, his brain just doesn't wanna work the way I know it can. :P And ain't that the way with all of us.

Shots
When we popped into one of the 10million ABC Stores on Oahu, I saw all these little bottles of liquor that I thought were adorable. As much as I don't care for alcohol, I really really like the bottles they come in. In high school, I asked my mom to buy a bottle of sake because it was so darn cute. I think my parents still have it in the display case at home.

Anyhow, we got these 12 little bottles that we intended to drink there, but it never happened because we weren't feeling too good. So we packed them and brought them home, and finally decided to open some up.

I have an app on my iPod where you can select what you have on hand and it'll show you all the drinks you can make. Since the bottles are so little, we focused on shots.

I started with a Cokuhalua, which is just coke and Kahlua layered in a shot glass. It wasn't an amazing mix, but it wasn't horrible. Next was a B-52: amaretto, Kahlua, and Bailey's Irish Cream layered in a shot glass. This one tasted pretty interesting. I didn't care for the amaretto. There's a variation of this that uses Grand Marnier (which we also got) instead of the amaretto, so perhaps I'll try that later.

For Yubo, I found something that is called Go Go Godzilla. Just for the name, I had to have him try it. It's vodka, Mt. Dew, and 4 drops of tabasco sauce. I was so excited because a long time ago, my mom gave me this super cute tiny bottle of tabasco, so I finally got to use it. The problem was that I put more than 4 drops. But Yubo was willing to try it anyhow. Oh my goodness, he just about choked. Without the tabasco, the shot is called Dragon Piss (1 oz of each). Doesn't sound very appealing at all, but he liked it well enough to do it twice.

So Yubo had a total of 5 shots (because he had to try out my two shots first to let me know if I would like them). Not enough to do anything to him, thankfully, and I made sure he ate and had him to right to bed. Tired and hungry are not good times to take shots. :/

But he's in bed now, needing wake up early for a meeting. I'm just updating stuff because I'm not tired, and I'm trying to finish the can of coke. Reaffirmed that I don't care about the drinking as long as it doesn't lead to drunkenness, and learned how much I really like Kahlua. (My drink of choice is a White Russian, which also contains Kahlua.)

Highlights of the wedding.

Gotta balance stuff out with what made the wedding memorable in a good way, aside from the joy of marrying the man I love.

Jane Tran and Fionna Cheng
I am absolutely grateful to everyone that helped at the wedding. My mom made gorgeous arrangements for the centerpieces and for the front of the church. Denise Nakamura decorated the church beautifully, adding more to the flowers we gave her. Mr.A and the band were fantastic. Akemi really helped secure the bm dresses. Kelly filled in at the last minute to be a bridesmaid. But Fionna and Jane are the ones that stand out.

Fionna is Jane's sister-in-law. Without these two, I think the wedding wouldn't have been bearable.

I was originally just going to have Jane, along with another high school friend Denise, help me decorate the church with the flowers we would provide. When P. Wayne recommended I get my own coordinator (like a trusted relative) outside of the church, and then saw that Jane was interning to get herself into the wedding business, I jumped at the chance to get her some experience.

Jane and I didn't start off with a great relationship. I remember meeting her in 7th grade when she transferred to my school. I thought she was really pretty, but felt she was trying too hard to fit in. At the time, I was running for student body, and she randomly approached me and asked if she could be my campaign manager. Our relationship got worse as 7th grade continued, and we actually got into one of the lamest fist fights I've ever been in. Actually, probably the only fist fight I've ever been in. Anyhow, it wasn't a real fight, but it did more damage to what I thought of her.

It took many years, my accepting Christ and learning about forgiveness, and the wonders of Facebook that got us back in contact with each other. The first thing I did was apologize to her for being such a retard back then, and she forgave me. And she was gracious enough to help me with the wedding.

The link to Fionna came when I decided I ought to actually get someone professional to do at least my hair and makeup. There was minor drama with the girl I was originally going to use, but I'm so glad Fionna came on board.

Fionna had been in the business for a while, I believe starting off with a bridal boutique. She currently does hair and makeup, and designs and makes wedding gowns and dresses. She does amazing work. That's how she was able to save my dress situation.

On top of hair and makeup for me and 2 of my bridesmaids, Fionna also ended up doing my sister's and her girlfriend's hair, along with fixing the hair and makeup of my MIL. I didn't get a good look at MIL when she got to the church that Saturday afternoon, but I'm told it was pretty bad. It wasn't just for me that she saved the day for. :)

Shameless plug: You can see some of Fionna's work on her FB page - http://www.facebook.com/makeupbyfionna. Rates and contact info available at http://www.makeupbyfionna.com/

L.A. Color
My photo and video guys are partners in a company called L.A. Color. I got a good amount of feedback from guests and family that they're sure that we will get great video and pictures. Guests were impressed with how social Taky (video) was, and how he went around getting interviews from people. Fionna got glimpses of Sam's photos, mostly because he was complimenting her on how well her makeup shot. Yay networking.

They were great to work with. They were fabulous at communicating with me. I didn't worry that they wouldn't get good footage. Complete trust, which is unusual for me.

Shameless plug: Their website is http://lacolor.com/.

Moments with my dad.
This is the biggie. I've had quite the rollercoaster of a relationship with my dad. I suppose I started out feeling like the favorite. My sister was never too happy with that. However, my dad and I grew apart as I started growing up.

My dad has always been a little difficult to connect with. My sister and I have always been, and probably still a bit are, afraid to talk to him. We knew that he loved us, but it was hard to see. Being Chinese really plays into that, I think. My mom also explained to me once that his entire family is just like that. Not very expressive when it comes to positive emotions.

I cling to the good memories I have with him like a lifeline. The favorite memory I share with people is the first time I remember ever making him laugh. It was such a shock.... and exhilarating surprise. I'm sure he smiled and laughed often when I was much much younger, but I don't really recall any of those moments.

The next best memory is from the engagement. He came into the bathroom during my final touches. The look of pride in his eyes and the smile he gave me just made me beam. They put me on top of the world.

Finally, I served tea to him the morning of the wedding. Goodness, and I'm crying all over again. This is probably the most precious of memories I have with him now. I don't think I've ever seen him cry so hard for me. He cried when I left Cali for WA, but not like this. We clung to each other, and I didn't want the moment to go away. And I was crying so hard that Jane wanted to call an ambulence, she thought I was having a heart attack.

His disapproval and criticism has put me to tears and breakdowns several times. I have had MANY nightmares about him, waking up with tears in my eyes and gasping for breath. There has been enough tension in our relationship that just thinking about him could start me crying. Talking about him would always choke me up. But now I have these good moments with him to remind me of how much he loves me.

3 weeks, or 5 days.

We married! Hooray! It happened! But not without our good share of drama and stress.

I probably won't get too detailed about things, so we'll just highlight some stuff. The title of this entry will become clear then.

The Dress
Oh, the bane of my existence. A lot of the drama revolving around my wedding gown could have easily been avoided. It made me wish I did spend all of March down in Cali.

With no sketch or concrete design concept, and no fabric swatches, the dress turned out nothing like I wanted. It was difficult for me to deal with it because the cost was covered by Yubo's mom as a gift to me. But I'm also sad that I can't just blame myself for this. I just felt so horrible because I really wanted it to work out. I had called Yubo's mom when I was deciding whether or not to wear the dress at all. I broke down on the phone with her, telling her that I didn't want to disappoint her.

Anyhow, the lady said it would be better to make the dress in three pieces as one bodice and two skirts so the top would lay well. I conceded to that, even though it kinda defeated my "convertible dress" concept. I just wanted it to look good.

As far as the bodice, instead of following the design I wanted, she took her own liberties to try to "balance" the design. I think I posted a picture earlier. The lace on top gathers to one side and cascades down as a sash. Very asymmetrical and what I liked most about the dress. So the bottom of the bodice went down at an angle, though not nearly as dramatic an angle as I would've preferred, but instead of letting the sash fall from the tip of the angle, she put it on the other side. It ended up giving me no shape and made me look wider. But that wasn't only due to the placement of the sash. It was too big for me. During the one and only fitting I had with her, I asked if it was as tight as it would go (because it actually felt rather loose), and she said yes. When I tried on the dress for friends, they pulled it away from my body about two inches. Given I probably lost some weight due to the stress, but not two inches in a few days.

Also, when she finally attached the lace sash, she pushed up the boning on one side making the neckline horribly uneven. However, she only put boning in the front instead of all around, so the material bunched up strangely.

The material that she chose for the skirts was the last thing I would've wanted. I asked her to use something that was not shiny. I even said that something like satin would be way too shiny for me. When I told her that, she said she knew just the fabric to use. I don't remember which it was, but when I saw it, it was shiny. In her defense, when she made her daughter's gown, what I hear of her material is something I would call glistening. So her perception of shine is not on the same level as mine, but I still figure that using satin as an example should've set the level.

Anyhow, the material was also way too thin. For the big skirt, I had to wear a petticoat underneath so it would poof up. I was able to see the boning/mechanics of the petticoat through the material. She even added a second lining for me to try to fix the issue, but it didn't look any different. The material was too thin and too light to lay over the petticoat correctly. It was also cut and sewn strangely so it just didn't lay right anyway. When I spoke with seamstress friends, they said it was because she didn't cut the sections on the bias.

Edit: The fabric she used for the skirts was charmeuse, which is described as "a luxury fabric made from silk with a satin finish". I can see why she chose it, but still doesn't make sense when I asked for a material that was not shiny. When talking to Fionna, she said we should have used peau de soie. When I had my sister talk with the seamstress about how unhappy I was with the charmeuse, she mentioned the peau de soie. I wish I was braver about voicing my opinion during that first fitting.

I hate to say it, but it was just a poorly made dress. I did not feel good in it at all. Actually, I felt very ugly in the dress, which is the entirely opposite thing you want to feel in your wedding gown.

What saved me was Jane's sister-in-law. I took Jane on as my wedding coordinator, which was the first good decision I made because she really helped me out. Her SIL had been in the wedding business for a good couple of years. She was actually the one I hired (last minute) to do my hair and makeup. Anyhow, she used to own a bridal boutique, and she dug up this dress that she still had that was so close to my original vision for my dress! She just converted the zipper back to a lace-up, and it fit perfectly and I felt gorgeous in it.

Marriage License
I was on the fence about revealing this little hang up, but here's hoping we don't get into any trouble about it. This will clear up the title of the entry.

Again, another thing that could've easily been avoided. I was not clear that we had to get the marriage license ourselves. We didn't find out until the rehearsal on Thursday. By the time we found out, the license office was closed and Yubo was going to leave for Vegas that night anyway. But he said he would make sure to get back in town in time to get the license. We had to turn in our application by 3pm in order to get it on the same day. He said he would shoot to be back in town by 1pm.

Friday morning, it was looking good for us to get the license in time. He left before most of the boys, but the stress stacked as his phone died and I couldn't get a hold of him. But it sounded like he would stop by home to freshen/clean up, then get to my house by 2pm.

I haven't asked him what happened, but he didn't arrive at my house until 3:00p. I tried applying online when I saw the option, but the box for the bride's middle name was mandatory to fill out, and I don't have one. So I figured we had to go down with the paper application.

Yubo still wanted to try to go, even though I knew it wouldn't happen. The lady at the window confirmed that the app needed to be turned in by 3pm to receive the license the same day. She also told me for the online application, I could've just put a dash, which I didn't see in any of the instructions on the site. So frustrating.

We left dejected. Yubo muttered something about, "I should've come straight here," but again, I haven't asked him what he did to not arrive at my house when we agreed. I tend to think he probably thought he could take a quick nap.

Anyway, Pastor Wayne told me that we would still go through with the ceremony and apply for a marriage license when we got back up to WA after the honeymoon. We would still be married in God's eyes, and just not legally in California. However, because of legalities, Yubo's dad seriously suggested we fly to Vegas the night of the wedding to get legally married.

We didn't do it, thankfully. I think it would've ruined my feelings about our wedding. We went through the honeymoon, got home, and applied for our marriage license up here in WA. We got to the office when they should've been closing, but the worker was gracious enough to finish up with us, closing 30min later than he was supposed to.

On April 27th at around 8pm, we got Yubo's best man Joe and my honor attendant Eric to witness our legal marriage at the church office with Pastor Wayne. So now we've been married for either 3 weeks or 5 days, and it's up to us if we want to celebrate our anniversary on April 10th or April 27th. I say it gives Yubo a second chance if he forgets the 10th.

Super Early Reception
The church ceremony was much much MUCH shorter than the time I had allotted. We ended up having guests follow us from the church to the restaurant, resulting in nearly all of his side getting there a good.... 1.5hr before we wanted them there. My dad didn't know what to do because they were there so early. We ended up just seating them and explaining to them that it would be quite a wait. I felt so bad because a lot of them ended up going to the next door bakery or 99 Ranch Market for snacks to tide them over. But I think most of them still enjoyed it. I mean, they still stayed for most of it.

Uninvited Guests
This issue apparently caused some tension between Joe and Eric. Feel so bad about it, but not sure if it really could've been helped.

Three of Yubo and Joe's friends showed up at the restaurant. I had not been informed in any way that they wanted to come. The frustrating thing was that one of them is friends with me on FB and I didn't hear anything from her about coming. Awkwardly enough, neither had Yubo. Seems Joe was the only one that knew they were coming.

Anyway, I had made a HUGE deal to people on FB that if I did not get their address (physical mailing or e-mail), they would not receive an invitation. However, I made it possible for people to just tell me they were coming or not. Some of my friends could probably attest to my frequent emails, FB messages, and texts wondering if they were ever going to respond to me about coming or not. My dad was hounding me for the exact number of tables I needed. Because of that, I also said that although I didn't want to, I would turn people away that didn't RSVP because of such limited space. So when these three showed up, Eric was prepared to do just that for me. That obviously didn't come off very well to them and to Joe, but we did let them stay.

When Joe told us that they had arrived, my reaction was probably far from what it should've been. It was a deer in headlights, omg what am I going to do, can I curl up in the corner and cry kinda thing. I said very plainly (with a horrified look on my face), "I did not invite them," which I hadn't, and that meant I did not have a seat for them. I knew we had those two extra tables, and I knew some seats were freed up from people that didn't show, but I didn't want them to end up sitting uncomfortably at a table filled with Cambodian people that don't speak English and have them not enjoy the evening. At the time, I didn't know that we had the ability to add on as many tables as we did. I also still don't know where and with whom they ended up sitting.

So y'all are probably thinking, Come on, it was only three people. Well... we had 37 tables, with 2 extra for people to show up unannounced (as is actually quite common at a Chinese reception because these people don't believe in RSVPs). We ended up with 42 tables. I was freaking out because it upped the cost of the reception by that much more. However, it was also that a lot of the American guests just don't understand (or don't want to understand) why you give red envelope at a Chinese reception instead of gifts. It was our fault for not explaining it as well as we could have, but unannounced American guests terrified me for good reason because at a Chinese reception, it's not a free meal. Just a huge culture clash.

The Dance
Because the dress was not ready for me with a decent amount of time, Yubo and I were not able to do a dress rehearsal. Then, because I was saved by that rental dress two nights before the wedding with Yubo in Vegas, we still couldn't have a dress rehearsal.

Man, do I wish we did. The extent of our practicing with me in the dress only involved the lifts, which went find. What we didn't anticipate was tripping over the dress during the more mundane parts of the dance. I think it would've happened with any dress, but during the down of the down-up-up of our waltz, I kept stepping on the back because it would drag on the floor a bit.

This bunching on the floor when I had my knees bent resulted in Yubo tripping on me and both of us falling over. It wasn't so horrible, and we recovered well, but nothing like the performance I intended it to be.

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Despite those snags, we survived the event and are now legally married. It makes me VERY happy that I will never have to go through this again. If ever we renew vows, I'm doing it in jeans and a T-shirt and in someone's backyard or at the church office or something.

We still have to do the WA reception. We plan to perform our first dance and perhaps sing our vow song to redeem ourselves from the actual day. I'm in the process of finding something closer to a ballroom dress to rent that I would be less likely to trip over and fall in. We'll probably have a potluck of some sort to cut costs and make it a more casual thing.

The honeymoon was fun. Yubo really enjoyed his first time to two Hawaiian islands.

We bought a new vacuum (a Dyson Animal), and I convinced Yubo that I needed a stand mixer (a KitchenAid 5qt Artisan Stand Mixer, to be exact) to make a double recipe of cookies for the church retreat we just came back from. Otherwise he would have had to help me mix the dough with a wooden spoon because I was not going to make a double batch by myself. These two purchases makes us feel like we're actually doing the whole married thing. I joke that next thing is to go pick out curtains together..... which may actually happen because I've been wanting to get new curtains since we moved into this place two years ago.

So far, it's been a relief to finally get married. God has blessed us with some little encouragements since flying down to L.A. at the beginning of April.

Some silly pictures and a curious grandfather allowed me to share with my mom about the death and resurrection of Jesus. We have a new brother in Christ, Yubo's dear friend Audie. He gives me hope for my sister. It would seem that Archie had an answered prayer, and I love knowing that she was able to turn to God in her need.

Overall, I'm excited about what God has in store for us as a couple. We know that we probably don't have an easy road ahead of us, but we're praying that we will never lose sight of God being at the center of our lives and relationship.