wedded bliss.

There seemed to be lots of talk in the States about gay marriage and how God defines marriage in the Bible. I don't know why this is an issue. Do you think that if you ban gay marriage then people will just stop having gay relationships? They are still going to be together, live together, and basically act like they are married, so what's the point? Anyways, let's see what the Bible has to say about a honeymoon. In Deuteronomy, it says:

 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him. He shall be exempt for one year for the sake of his family, to bring joy to the wife he has married.”

 Yes! I fully support the Bible's definition of honeymoon. Lots of people have asked where we will go, what will we do since we already travel mucho. It's also been noted that we "already go on like 5 honeymoons a year". Well, with what the Bible has stated, that's exactly what we are supposed to do. 

Webster's dictionary defines honeymoon as : 

1. a period of harmony immediately following marriage

2. a period of unusual harmony especially following the establishment of a new relationship

3. a trip or vacation taken by the newly married couple

I'll take definition #3 and add that to the Bible's definition of a year of bringing joy to the wife. So the question is, not where are we going on our honeymoon, but rather, how many honeymoons will we go on our first year of marriage? 

wedding week.

I think I'm going to wait to blog about the wedding week when we get our "official" pics back from the photographer who was awesome and photographed the wine tour as well as the wedding. It was the best week of my life and I can't wait to see the pics!

pre-wedding vacay.

When we first got to California, we stayed in Mill Valley, northern San Fran area. We went to a baseball game on the 4th which was super awesome and super American. The A's were playing the Red Sox and Big Papi hit his 400th home run which made the game even more exciting. 

 We went hiking in Muir Woods. 

 Drove around the coast to Stinson Beach. It was so pretty and so cold!

 We drove up to Sonoma/Napa area to get some wedding chores done. After each errand, we went to a winery. For example, pick out desserts for the dessert bar, then go to a winery. Pick out flowers, then go to a winery. They were all stunning and had amazing wine.

This is Vine Alley in Sonoma Plaza. There are several tasting rooms that feature wine from local wineries. What a great idea, you don't even have to drive! What a great, relaxing way to start the wedding festivities. I totally recommend this to every bride.

Premiere Lake

We went out to O's lake cabin(s) for 6 days. It's such a beautiful lake that is pretty much untouched, pristine nature at its finest. 

 On the boat ride to the cabin....I like this picture because it's the cleanest my hair looked for the next 6 days. There's no electricity and so no hot shower. I tried to wash my hair in the lake but couldn't get all the shampoo out which resulted in dreadlocks by the time we left. 

 Mini pony! 

 I don't know why, but this picture makes me laugh aloud. 

 The kayaks were so much fun and such a good workout. 

 Rocky effin' mountains. 

The cabins are so cute! 

Pretty! 

We hiked up to Cat's Eye Lake on one of the sunny days. 

The Girl Who Set Her Wedding Dress on Fire.

Accidentally, of course. The Wedding Dress Saga continues. To make a long story short, well, who needs to make it short? I've got all day to write this. The dress has already been to more countries than most people have in their lifetime. We get it all the way to Canada to end up torching it. Apparently, silk is very flammable, in case you were unaware of this little known fact. We hung it up in the cabin and it happened to be leaning up against a lamp. (The most common question, I've gotten about this story is "What kind of lamp was it?" My response: The kind that makes fire? I have no idea, it's a hot lamp, the dress is silk, yada yada the dress caught fire and melted). We came back from a few drinks at Miss Tweedle's place. (By the way, I saw your apartment's renovation in that magazine article, how cool is that?!) So we came home, brushed our teeth, I turned on a reading lamp wondering why there wasn't enough light in the room. What is covering the light? Oh, that damn dress, and I push it out of the way. As soon as I touched the dress, I knew. That would also explain the burning smell. At first I couldn't even breathe or touch it. I flipped the dress over and threw it on the bed and just stared at it. I ran to get O and he thought I had seen a bear (That's a real thing here in Canada). I had lost all ability to talk and just mimed what had happened. O calmed me down and reminded me that "it's just a thing" which didn't help and "we can afford a new one" which made me feel better. We call Miss Tweedle, since she knows everything "wedding" and I put the dress on to see how bad it is. It's bad. It's scorched through 2 layers of the dress. Feeling panicked, we ran through ideas of what to do. We were assured that it could be fixed. Needing another drink or 2 and the hot tub, we hang the dress in the garage. Out of sight, out of mind. The next day, we ran through names of seamstresses in town. Finding my fairy godmother, she was able to cut the piece out and gather it, move the lace on top and sew it all up in 2 days with the help of tiny mice and magic. Now you would never know where it is, and I'm not going to tell you or that's where you'll be looking in all the photos. Also, she made me promise to NOT point it out at the wedding or then people will notice and I will turn into a pumpkin. 

We've just got to keep this dress safe for 22 more days. Still quite a bit more to go, 1 more plane ride, dry cleaned and transported through 2 more houses. Fingers crossed. 

summer of love.

Our summer has started here in Canada..... Oh, beautiful Canada. Do not be fooled by these pictures. The current temperature at 3pm is 3C or 38F for the Americans or as I like to call it F$CK*NG COLD. I was ready for a change from the heat of Singapore which is a warm 32C or 90F or as O likes to call it "living on the sun". We've had several rainy/cloudy days here, but when the sun comes out, it's really pretty. 

 It stopped raining long enough to get this picture. 

 Rainbow!

 Can you see the deer in the picture?

 I get really excited when I see these. I don't know why, but I always want to push these over. I guess it's like seeing a bunch of dominoes set up, you just gotta knock them over. It wouldn't be a nice thing to do, so I just have to fight the urge. Also, I bet some are glued together. 

It's a slower pace of life. We have to stretch the days out and not do everything all at once or we won't have anything else to do. Sometimes it seems like we hold on to conversations a lot longer than they need to be. Like we might contemplate the population of a certain city for a solid 25 minutes when we could just google the answer in about 25 seconds. 

decisions are hard.

Apparently, most parts of your wedding are supposed to be a surprise for everyone. Unfortunately, I have trouble deciding on things and like sharing what is happening as it's happening. Here's the decision of the week: which earrings for the bridesmaids?

It's really not that difficult these days. I started with a simple google search "What type of jewelry should I have for Jcrew Spiced Wine dresses?" And this popped up:

 I've looked at about a million earrings and still can't decide. Cast your vote for your fave. PLEASE!
Here are the finalists:

 Choice #1

  I've recently become obsessed with rose gold. I love love love it. But not sure if it's the best choice for the dress colors.

 Choice #2

Choice #3

 Choice #4

Choice # 5

Choice #6

Choice #7

books....

 Alright, so I caved in and read the books. I've read Suzanne Collins' first series Gregor the Overlander. It's a series for upper Elementary kids and I loved that so I thought I'd give The Hunger Games a chance. They are very addictive. She's really good with suspense and cliff hangers throughout each book. There's never really a point in the story to just put the book down. I read these when we were on the Gili Islands  for a week. You'll need several days to devote to these books because they are really difficult to put down.

 This is so interesting. If you are even slightly interested in US History or better yet, teaching US history, this is for you. It's pretty shocking how incorrect and egocentric the textbooks really are. Having a US education and then living overseas, I definitely agree with everything the author writes. The US hasn't always had such a "nice" history and it does sound a lot better if the founders of the US are portrayed as the heroes in all circumstances. We've got to be proud to be Americans, right? There's so much I had no idea about, like Helen Keller. It's really amazing how the textbooks are written to glorify certain people but not share important details about their lives.  It's written almost like a textbook so it's a slow read, but worth it.

I've read some of her other books which are pretty funny. I like this one because she takes the piss out of being a Southern Belle. There's a fine line between being a Southern belle and being totally white trash. It reminds me a lot of this lady, Karen Ross, who I used to work with. I can totally picture her narrating this book. I love the Southern sayings and traditions. It's a good, light read.

If you haven't seen this show, you are missing out. It's so freaking hilarious. We've seen Season 1 and 2 and I read that they are working on Season 3. This is Karl's journal as he filmed the show. It's pretty much just like the show with a few more details of behind the scenes. There's something so hilarious about putting someone who hates to travel in amazing locations and he just complains about it the entire time. Really great British humor. Love it.

it's been awhile...

It's been a busy past few weeks with the end of the school year. Lots of good-byes which means lots of parties and farewell dinners. It really hasn't hit me that 3 of my good friends are leaving. We eat lunch together every day at work and have had so many good laughs together. I can't imagine them not being here. We've had about a million goodbye parties/dinners, I guess we just can't say goodbye!

Lady Gaga was in town and was AMAZING! Great concert! To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect and just knew a few songs. Since then, we've been playing her songs nonstop. She talked a lot during the concert and reminded us to all chase our dreams and be yourself. What are your dreams? Do we still have dreams as adults? Don't we have everything we could ever hope for? I really thought about it awhile and here's what I came up with.
1. Own a house on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean.
2. Travel to Antarctica, Nepal, Russia, Poland, Germany, Norway, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Paris (yeah, I know it's weird I haven't been there), New Zealand. Just a short list.
3. Have another job other than teaching that uses lots of creativity.
4. Run a B&B. (This could be linked with dream #1.)
5. Adopt a baby from Cambodia or Ethiopia. (Yes, I know Americans can't adopt from Cambodia, but it's still my dream)

What are your dreams???

good news!

2 Great things:

1. We have found a new apartment and don't have to move until October at a less busy time in our lives. It's amazing, great layout, amazing location in the city, beautiful view on the balcony. Can't wait!

2. O was named Team Leader. Good for him, big team of 12 other teachers so it's a big job. :)

dream a little dream.

Finished report cards and portfolios a little earlier than expected, so I've had some time to create some more inspiration boards. It's actually been kinda hard to find pics of the winery. They only have a few number of weddings a year. I think this is where we will eat dinner, in the Vinter's Room. Most wine here is from South Africa, Australia, NZ and doesn't have real corks. BUT my hero and good friend, Arno has given me about 100 more corks so I've got more crafty ideas for them... gotta love your French friends who love French wine! The main obstacle now is.... can this fit in my suitcase? And can I just throw it away, er, recycle it when it's all over.

kinda busy.

Between writing reports, creating portfolios, planning a wedding, looking at apartments, preparing a workshop for teachers, teaching, goodbye parties, birthday parties,- we got our wedding bands! YAY! Big check off the excessively long list. We went into a few jewelers, couldn't find anything under $2,000 for each ring. Found this one place, I really liked the band. The original price was $4,280. We talked it down to $800. Yeah, I feel really good about that. It's Asia, all about the haggling. Not only that, but they both fit, so we could walk out of the store with them. Since O has never worn jewelry, everything looked weird on him. But we found one that I, er, WE liked. BUT now, my ring won't fit with it. Trying to figure out how to get a new engagement ring setting so that it will fit together. So add that to the list. Pretty much the list just stays the same no matter how much we get done!

wedding dress saga.

The dress was found in a shop in Virginia Beach. Once you choose a dress and a size, they then order it for you. That means that the dress is made once you order it. They don't have it in the back storage room which is what I thought. Where is it made? Yes, right here in Southeast Asia. The lady at the store said she couldn't disclose the exact location of where the dress was made, but that it was indeed made in SE Asia. So the dress was made here, flown back to Nashville at the head office, then to VA Beach, then my mom sent it back to Singapore. The dress has already been around the world. This summer it will even make it to Canada. This is a well traveled dress. So I got the dress here, it's incredibly too big because the lady at the store said I should get a dress too big and then have it altered. Also, I've lots 10 lbs. The dress is un-wearable at this point. It actually falls to the floor if I let go of it. So I need to get it altered here in Singapore. Several of my friends have had their dresses made here in Singapore. You can design your own dress and they fit it perfectly to your body. Well, if they can do that, can't they alter my dress? Obviously, right? Wrong.

I go to the wedding dress shop where one friend suggested. There's actually an entire street here that is just wedding dress shops. Perfect. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I walk in and explain that I just need a few alterations to the dress. They inspect it fully and declare that they are unable to make the alterations because of the lace on the dress. It would take months to take the lace off, resize the dress and put it back on. Crap. Next shop, same story. Next shop, they won't alter dresses that aren't their own. Fair enough. Next shop, same story- too difficult with the lace on it, will take months to complete. I need it by June 13. After about 8 more shops, I'm starting to panic. I call O and we discuss ideas, maybe we could get this done in Calgary when we first arrive? What other options do we have?

I decide to try one more store.

I walk into the store, I'm kinda freaking out, shaky voice, talking really fast, trying to explain what I need done. The man who is wearing a white suit looks at me, says nothing, hands me a business card and points to an address on the back. What? Where is this? What is this?  He just turns and walks away. I jump in a taxi and go to the address. It's in a part of town I've never even heard of. Singapore is incredibly small, in case you were unaware, and I thought that I've at least heard of every part. I get out of the cab in a maze of warehouse buildings. Where the hell am I? I'm the only person in sight and I have a giant wedding dress stuffed in an Ikea bag- stupid US store never even gave me a bag to put it in, and I'm walking around like a crazy. Find the store, it's just like all the other wedding dress stores with lots of girls trying on dresses and gay men covered in tape measures and pins are running around them. Jimmy, the most flamboyantly gay Malaysian man with a harsh lisp, saves my life. I explain what I need done.
He takes one look at the dress and says, "When do you need this by?"
Me: "By June"
Jimmy: "Ok, how about in 3 hours?"

What the what?? The dress has been altered. It fits me, let's not talk about the lace, no one will notice except for me and now you because I've pointed it out. All done. YAY! And they lived happily ever after....

Lessons learned from this:
1. Jimmy asked why I just didn't get the dress made in Singapore. Why didn't I? Not sure, if I had to do it again, that's exactly what I would do.
2. Singaporeans pick out their dress with their groom. It's not a secret. When Jimmy gave me a sheer bag, I explained that won't work. I need to hang the dress up and O can't see it. He found basically a burlap sack to put the dress in and then in the sheer pretty bag to hang up. Whatever, it works.
3. When I saw a groom looking at dresses with his fiance, I noticed that he stood there and critiqued how she looked. He even had the nerve to grab the fat on the back part of her arm. I almost went over and punched him in the face. I think it's better for the groom to stay at home and be surprised on the wedding day.

lost in translation?

We like to partake in the Groupon phenomenon from time to time. Owen bought this for me for Valentine's day:

He decided to get a canvas portrait of us in Myanmar (Burma) in front of the temples. He sent them the picture and this is what the company sent back.

And this picture was attached..... clearly it's NOT the picture that O sent them....

back in 'Nam...

Yes, let's rent one!

First night in Pho Quoc, gorgeous sunset from our villa on the beach.

When I was lying in the Vietnamese hospital, I was thinking 2 things. #1: What is that stain on the ceiling? #2 How the hell did I get here? On our 2nd day on Phu Quoc island, we got up and had little breakfast, sat around with Jen and Jay having some coffee. Then we decided to go for a quick little ride on the motorbikes and be back in time to catch Lauren and Kev as they got up for breakfast. Apparently there's a gorgeous beach on the other side of the island, but we never got that far. Vietnam is known for terrible motorcyclists. Like really terrible. In fact we were just talking about that when this chick who was about 12 years old drove straight out in front of us. O swerved to miss her and we crashed. Our wreck was so sicking to watch that Jen and Jay crashed behind us from the shock of it. As we got up and pieced ourselves together, I look at O and he's covered in blood. His legs were gushing blood. I can't handle the sight of flowing blood so I'm down for the count. Everyone rushes around me and thinks I've had a concussion or internal injuries or I'm in shock. I can't speak and am fighting not to pass out cold on the sidewalk, I just kept thinking how disgusting it looked. This woman came over and started pouring cologne on my arms which was bleeding. I couldn't feel a thing. Jen grabbed me, put me in a cab and we went straight to the nearest hospital. After an xray with an ultrasound machine because that's all they had, nothing is broken. The docs decide to hook me up to an IV. Well, it must have been their first time to ever use a needle because they destroy both hands while trying to get a vein. I later had massive bruises for weeks. This was so incredibly painful. O got really mad at the doc and on the 5th jab in my arm, he leans in the doc's face and says "ALL RIGHT YOU GOT ONE MORE TRY AND THEN WE'RE OUT OF HERE! ONE MORE! THAT'S IT!" Sure enough, that doc just needed a little pressure because he suddenly got it in. Later they come in to give me an injection of god-knows-what. I ask what it is and they say it's Ultatron. Jen said, "Wait, isn't that one of the Transformers?" We send him away and say I'm allergic. (Later, over beers, we had a good laugh about that part of the story.) The doctor was insistent that I needed to stay at the hospital overnight. There was no way in hell I was going to stay in a hospital that belonged in a horror movie. We stayed there a few hours while I went through a few IV bags. We were all beat up pretty bad, but things were really put in perspective when this French couple came in. They had been in a motorbike crash and the girl's leg was gashed straight through. I don't think the doctors knew what to do. O talked to the guy who was freaking out, asked if he needed anything. Found out the next flight off the island was in a few hours. Counting our blessings, we paid our bill and left quietly. The plan for this vacation was to just sit on the beach and drink some beers which is what we did, but we just weren't at the beach. Mostly hung out in our room or on the back patio with our friends, healing our wounds. It took several weeks for everything to completely heal, but we were so incredible lucky. I've got a scar on my arm, but O has got huge scars on his knees. I think he really likes it when someone asks what it's from so he can say "I got this back in 'Nam". Also, Forest Gump quotes never get old when you're in Vietnam.