Gordon and Yvonne

Happy Holidays from the Wu's

2009-12-24T23:56:00.019-06:00

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! After receiving holiday photo cards and annual family updates from friends, I felt compelled to share some photos and share about this past year's highlights.

In the homestretch...

Gordon just completed his 7th semester of seminary classes at Dallas Theological Seminary (Houston extension location) and only has 1 more semester left!! We are both looking forward to life after school because he's been in seminary for as long as we've been married! He's definitely experiencing "senioritis" and it's harder and harder to write those 10 paged papers after writing a zillion 10+ paged papers over the past 3.5 years. Gordon is not sure what lies ahead after seminary, but is prayerfully considering a part time position at our church, Access.

Gordon only has a couple of classes during his last semester. So he will be able to fly to Denver with Yvonne almost every week (see Yvonne's update below) and perfect his snowboarding skills.

Sew busy...

Yvonne is still working for Quorum Business Solutions (after 7.5 years...whew!) and is currently managing a project in Denver, CO. She has had to travel to Denver every week since August '09 and will continue traveling to Denver until the project is over (August '10). She really enjoys the client and team she is working with. She is even renting a loft in downtown Denver, which allows her to retain some sense of normalcy (not having to live out of a suitcase, getting to bake and sew). She enjoys the urban life of public transportation and walking to get to places, but there's always no place like home when she goes home to Houston on the weekends. She is still trying to get used to the constant dry skin and chapped lips, but it's nothing that a big bottle of lotion and constantly carrying around chapstick won't solve! So far, she has had a couple visitors to Denver...Suemy and Carolyn in October, Gordon's mom and sister in November, and Yvonne's entire family will be coming in January! Gordo's Austin and Houston church buddies will also be visiting Denver for a conference at the end of January!

Earlier this year, Yvonne learned how to sew and has fallen in love with sewing. In her spare time in Denver and on weekends in Houston, she spends most of her free time sewing and baking. See her sewing creations (and baking and paper crafting creations) at her new blog. She hopes to open her own business in the future where people can make crafts and eat yummy baked goods.

Our jet-setting shih-tzu...

Trinity continues to be a joy in daddy and mommy's life. She is 2.5 years old now and has definitely matured. She loves belly rubs and face massages. She also loves snuggling up next to mommy or daddy when napping. Trinity experienced her first plane flight a few months ago when she accompanied mommy to Denver to keep her company. Since then, she has flown back and forth to Denver 5 times! Trinity also got to experience snow for the first time in Denver...she's not too fond of snow and the cold weather. She has enjoyed exploring Colorado with mommy and daddy.

What's to come in 2010?

We will be spending the majority of our time in Denver until Yvonne's project is over. We hope to become proficient at snowboarding and look forward to exploring more of what Colorado has to offer. Please pray that we don't hurt ourselves while snowboarding or driving on icy/snowy roads!

Hopefully God will reveal His plan for Gordon in terms of what to do after graduating in the spring. We are open to wherever God leads us. Please pray that Gordon will have a clear vision of how God wants to use him after graduating and pray for our decision making process...that we would put aside our own selfishness and be able to communicate openly and honestly since this could potentially be a big step in our marriage...and that our decision would be glorifying to God.

We are also trying for our first child. We've been trying for a while, but unfortunately, it has not happened yet. We are hopeful that God will bless us with a child, but it definitely has not been easy to wait on God's timing. Next month, we are planning on starting the process of getting tested to see if there are any fertility issues with either of us. Please pray that we'll continue to trust in God's timing and provision, no matter what we discover through this process.

Thank you, faithful readers of our blog, for reading this far. We do not take your friendship for granted and thank God for the friends He has placed in our lives. We hope you and your families experience a merry holiday season and blessed New Year!!

The Amy Butler Weekender Bag: A Step by Step Commentary

2009-09-23T21:24:00.006-06:00

After I made my first Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag, I decided that I wanted to empower novice sewers with the ability to make their own Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag.

I recently learned how to sew back in April of 2009 (thanks to my hubby who bought me a sewing machine and lessons at Sew Crafty Houston for my birthday). After learning how to make a pillow case, simple tote bag, and pajama pants, I decided to try my hand at the Amy Butler Goddess Apron. After making 2 aprons, I decided to take a shot at the weekender.

I first went online to read reviews of the pattern. I stumbled upon several blogs with helpful tips and pictures. All of the blogs talked about how difficult it was to make the bag because of all of the layers and piping. But they also mentioned that the finished product was worth all of the finger pricks, seam ripping and re-sewing, and long hours.

So before I start documenting the process of making my second weekender, I want to give credit where credit is due. These are the blogs that provided the helpful hints and pictures and helped make my first weekender a success:
The Lint Knitter
Miss Behave
craftoholic
all buttoned up
hiuma
wise craft
needle book
sewpixie - tutorial on how to make a pocket inside the lining of the bag

Thank you for sharing your tips and beautiful bags...I hope my blog posts will help others as much as those above have helped me!

baking update

2009-03-05T17:14:00.002-06:00

[y] so i know it's been forever since i've posted anything...call it lazy...call it forgetful...or just accept the fact that i'm not a frequent blogger/facebooker/online networking site user. but i do have an exciting baking update for those who are interested!

i've started making cookie bouquets! it all started when i decided to make one for my friends jade and patrick for their baby shower at work. it took a long time, but i was pretty happy with the results.

then a co-worker asked if she could pay me to make one for her daughter's baby shower. so i made another one and got paid for it! i definitely cannot make a living off of making cookie bouquets though because it's about an 8 hour labor of love (make dough one night and let it chill, cut and bake dough next night and let it cool, decorate the next night and let it dry, put into plastic sleeves and make bouquet the next morning or night) and i only got paid $75. until i can open my own bakery and become more proficient and efficient at making stuff, i shall continue my day job as a consultant!

more the complete set of pictures, go here: http://flickr.com/photos/fortewu/

Sandra and Denver Wedding

2009-01-08T13:06:00.003-06:00

SandraDenverWedding-69
Originally uploaded by fortewu

I know, I know, it's already 2009, but I just got to them. I blame school. But here are the shots I got. My fav are the S and D hanging topiaries.

Up next, sister-in-law, Yvette's wedding. I wish my camera came out more than just weddings. . .

hurricane IKE update: part 2

2008-09-13T19:01:00.005-06:00

[y] we drove around the area to check on our condo, church, and my office. in the westchase area, street lights are either not working or are flashing. there are tree limbs littering the streets and some broken windows in various office buildings. our church (access) was totally ok and there was still electricity also. my office building seemed fine (no broken windows), although i couldn't go inside. our condo suffered some water damage. we had to tear up the upstairs carpet because it absorbed a lot of water from a leak in the roof or window. but thankfully, the previous tenant had just moved out a few weeks prior and it was empty. we'll need to spend some money fixing it up so we can rent it out or sell it, but that's nothing in the grand scheme of things when you watch the news and see the devastation in galveston and hear that the majority of houston is without electricity.

here are some pictures that we took during our drive around the area today after hurricane ike...

going east on richmond at west sam houston tollway

going east on richmond at briarpark (turn left to get to the Quorum office)

today's post-hurricane dinner...

we've eaten better in the past couple of days than most days...thanks to having my parents live with us for a few days!

hurricane IKE update

2008-09-13T10:18:00.007-06:00

[y] it's about 11:30am here in houston on saturday and there is still some wind and rain outside our house from hurricane ike. it looks like it is moving away from us and we're just getting the southern outer bands of the hurricane. thankfully, we never lost electricity. we're also thankful that the worst extent of the damage to our home was that our back fence fell down and there's a leak somewhere in our roof into one of our guest rooms. a water pumping station is also out of commission so we barely have running water anymore. BUT, because of gordo's good planning, we have a bath tub full of water we can use for flushing toilets, etc. each person also had a head light (the ones you use for camping/caving) in case the electricity went out. and gordo cooked a whole batch of his famous soy sauce chicken (to use up the chicken in case the electricity went out). go gordo!

the scariest part of the night was probably around 5am when the wind was howling and shaking our windows. we didn't board up any windows and we don't have those nice double-pane or storm proof windows so we were afraid they would break from the wind. thankfully, no windows broke. although i can't say the same for other houses around us. we don't have any landscaping in our backyard and since our neighborhood is a young neighborhood, there aren't any huge trees near us...so we were spared from tree limbs damaging our house. the water level of the bayou behind our house is rising, but i don't think it will reach the top and threaten to flood our house.

my parents evacuated from clear lake because they were in a mandatory evacuation zone. it was nice having them here all day yesterday and today...in their boredom, they cooked for us, cleaned our house, trimmed the dead part of our plants, and took Trinity on walks. we just hope their home in clear lake didn't sustain too much damage, although they do have huge oak trees and are susceptible to flooding.

we've seen news reports that some downtown buildings have suffered major damage where windows have been blown out and office material are scattered all over downtown. galveston experienced a LOT of damage and apparently the entire island is without electricity. there will be a major cleanup effort in the coming weeks.

anyway, just wanted to let our friends and family know that we're doing fine and staying put at our house until they say it is safe to go out. we're curious to see if our condo and church were damaged so we will assess that when we are able to leave the house.

please continue to pray for the many people without electricity (praise God a cold front is moving in on monday)...for people who sustained a lot of damage to their homes...for the emergency crews and city personnel who are assessing the damage and answering the calls for help.

the view of our backyard from our 2nd floor bedroom with fence blown down
(kinda looks like we have a waterfront view huh...)

a house across the bayou with a hole in their roof, 1 window blown out, and fence down

Cars going swimming. . .

2008-07-24T17:26:00.001-06:00

Cars going swimming. . .

Love the Houston downpour!

running errands

2008-07-24T14:48:00.001-06:00

running errands in pouring rain for the wifey

trinity says...

2008-07-04T17:26:00.000-06:00

more baking

2008-06-24T20:58:00.005-06:00

[y] here are some more pictures from my recent baking...

cream cheese sugar cookies

vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting for caleb and mia's birthday party

Random thoughts

2008-05-31T08:19:00.002-06:00

I was in a half awake/sleep mode this morning as I awoke to get ready for my 8:30am class. I am not a morning person. . . But, while I was getting ready I had some random thoughts/ideas.

Idea #1: A doggy toilet seat cover
I think if there was this product out there that allowed your dog to climb up to the toilet and do their business (#1.) Then all you had to do would is raise the seat and flush. It would work for #2, but you would have to still pick it up. Or if there was a drop lever, that would be cool too. I bet I would be able to train Trinity to do it. I know of cats have been trained to use the toilet. I think dogs can too.

The only thing that I've found online is this. Great idea in keeping the doggy paws clean, but I still have to clean up after the dog.

Idea #2:
This is for some computer programmer. Make a program out there that will translate your documents. Namely, powerpoint files into another language. Use google translate or something. Of course you would have to get someone to do the final edits, but it would take less time. This is for companies doing global presentations.

Thought #1:
Awhile back I taught a class in Genesis and there was a question asked about what happened to the Edomites. As I am learning about the book of Obadiah, I read this in a commentary.
[ In the late sixth or early fifth century b.c. the Nabateans, from northern Arabia, worshipers of gods and goddesses of fertility and the celestial bodies, drove out most of the Edomites (see comments on Obad. 7). Apparently some remained in Edom and were absorbed by the Nabatean Arabs. The Nabateans were the renowned stone-carvers of Petra. The expelled Edomites settled in Idumea, the Greek name for southern Judea. Later (ca. 120 b.c.) the Edomites there, then called Idumeans, were subdued by John Hyrcanus, a Maccabean, who forced them to be circumcised and to follow Judaism (Josephus The Antiquities of the Jews 13. 9. 1; 14. 7. 9). Herod the Great, king of Judea from 37 b.c. to 4 b.c., was an Idumean (Edomite).

The Idumeans joined the Jews in their rebellion against Rome in a.d. 70, but were almost obliterated by Titus, the Roman general. Only a few Idumean refugees escaped. The Edomites then faded from history.]

John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985), 1:1455.

There you go. I really want to go visit Petra now.

Weddings! Tiffany/Wei and Justin/Andrea

2008-05-18T22:16:00.004-06:00

Sorry, I didn't get to processing these till just last week. It's been a crazy close to a semester. But here are a few of my favorite shots.

Wei and Tiffany Huang

Justin and Andrea Wong

recent baking...

2008-05-17T14:29:00.013-06:00

[y] i just recently downloaded pictures from my camera to my computer and was reminded of several pictures from my recent baking expoits...

tiramisu swirl cheesecakes

spinach and sun-dried tomato quiche in phyllo crust

red velvet/strawberry cake balls covered in ghirardelli chocolate

red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting

cinnamon apple and cranberry palmier

fresh strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting

spinach quiche

banana nut muffin with oat crumble

white chocolate fruit tart

Free $25.

2008-05-13T11:28:00.002-06:00

Kinda like paypal, but free. You can get $25, and you don't even have to deposit anything. Funded by a lot of fancy banks (Citi, Morgan Stanley . . ) Just get your $25!

bad little girl

2008-05-05T11:49:00.001-06:00

IMG_2900
Originally uploaded by fortewu

This little girl is too smart. Recently we've been trying to contain her to the kitchen instead of her small gated play area. But she's too smart. She can still find a way out. So we have to keep finding ways to put the gate up. I'm trying to confine her while I'm home so I can tell her no when she starts trying. Maybe that will work. . . too smart this one.

home sweet home...

2008-04-27T23:30:00.002-06:00

[y] this weekend is only the 2nd time we've been home in the past 7 weekends! it is good to be home on a weekend...there are so many weekend activities that i miss...like baking, going to costco, enjoying my house, playing with trinity... you may be asking where we've been if we haven't been home...well here's a recap:

3/15-3/16: in Austin for Angell and Eunice's wedding
[click here for pictures]
beautiful outdoor wedding in austin...yummy BBQ reception...

3/19-3/23: in Denver/Keystone to snowboard with Alicia, Ed, and Shirley
[click here for pictures]
i never left the bunny slope, but at least i can toe/heel down a mountain now!

3/25-3/28: in Las Vegas for Quorum user group conference
[sorry, no pictures available]

4/4-4/6: in Dallas for Ly and Dana's wedding
[click here for pictures]
gordon was "hired" to be one of their photographers in lieu of a professional photographer and i think he did an awesome job. beautiful bride...handsome groom...mini trinity reunion...ruth's chris reception!

4/12-4/12: Houston to Austin for the MS150 bike ride
[click here to see pictures]
gordon and i did not train + strong headwinds + cheap padded shorts + biking 100 out of the 150 miles to austin = bruised butts for 1 week...but it was a great experience! i probably will never ride it again, but i would totally volunteer. thanks to everyone who donated money to the MS society!

4/18-4/20: New Orleans for Tiffany and Wei's wedding
[click here to see pictures]
mini UT reunion for gordon...yummy food...won $12 at harrah's...new orleans style wedding...

4/20: Andrea and Justin's wedding in Houston
[click here to see pictures]
at the Houstonian...gorgeous outdoor wedding...fun bride and groom...

4/26: Amy Leung's baby shower in Houston
[click here to see pictures]
glowing mom-to-be...made diaper cake and fruit tarts for the first time...

it's definitely been a busy few weeks, but thankfully it looks like we'll be in town for the next few weekends.

on another note, i am in the process of transitioning to a new role within my company. i have the opportunity to be the director of company culture at quorum. i'm really excited about this new role and kinda scared too, since this is a field that is foreign to me and it's a brand new role within the company.

gordon is nearing the end of his second year of seminary and is in the midst of finals and papers. please pray for his diligence in studying for his finals and to not procrastinate on writing his papers. also, isn't gordo such a good photographer [see his flickr]...he's totally getting better and better after each wedding...

trinity is still as cute as ever, but is getting more and more obedient as she matures. we were thinking of breeding her, but after hearing about puppy mills, we think we will adopt all future dogs from a shelter. plus, trinity's chances of breast cancer decrease significantly if we spay her before her first heat. watch out for a video of her performing all her tricks!

ok it is bedtime for me now...gotta wake up tomorrow for a 6:30am flight to oklahoma city!

Ly and Dana Wedding

2008-04-27T16:41:00.001-06:00

LyDanaWedding-3825-2
Originally uploaded by fortewu

Finished working on this set. Congrats guys, and hope you like the pictures!

Here's the full set!

goodness gracious!

2008-01-15T13:43:00.000-06:00

Not that I need another laptop. Or lacking any electronics. . . but this was revealed today.

Absolutely ridiculous I say! I'm going to be incredibly jealous to anyone who gets one. I have never craved over something so inanimate. It's pure genius. I only wish that I was working now. . .

K, must go into a confession time now for coveting the Macbook Air so much.

the gift that keeps on giving...

2008-01-07T21:57:00.000-06:00

[y] does anyone ever read our blog anymore? i wouldn't blame you if you didn't since we rarely update our blog anymore. we're so sorry...the last quarter of 2007 was super busy at work for me and school for gordon. but that's really no excuse...we really should allocate more time to posting updates about our lives. hopefully either gordo or i will write more soon with some pictures, but i wanted to go ahead and post something that has been on my mind for a while...an ode to my kitchenaid stand mixer.

gordon gave me a white 5qt kitchenaid artisan stand mixer on our 6-month dating anniversary so that i could make tiramisu faster. it took forever to whip heavy cream into stiff peaks with a hand mixer, but takes mere minutes with no effort with a stand mixer. since then, the kitchenaid has made many muffins, cupcakes, cobblers, cakes, breads, and many other baked goods. during this past holiday season, i used the kitchenaid at least twice a week for a few weeks. my waistline has suffered from the sugar cookies, lemon cakes, pumpkin cake, gingerbread trifle, cranberry oatmeal cookies, cake truffles, and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. but i have been able to bless coworkers and friends with yummy baked goods.

if you do not have a kitchenaid stand mixer, i totally recommend getting one. gordo found a deal on the 5qt artisan series for $169! that's a steal! i almost want to buy another one, but that would be impractical. i did buy a second mixing bowl though...perfect when making batter in one, and icing in the other.

i love my kitchenaid, but i love my husband more for giving me the gift that keeps on giving...may it continue to give more baked goods to people for a very long time...

flashing lights and loud noises...

2007-11-06T02:23:00.000-06:00

[y] sorry for not posting more often. i only posting now because it is 2:15am in the morning and i have been up since 1:15am because the fire alarm went off at the hotel that i'm staying at here in ft. worth. even though i was confused and not totally aware of what was going on, my body automatically put on my shoes, grabbed the hotel key card, and put on my wedding rings and went out the door to the stairwell. we all had to go outside and it was FREEZING (but at least it wasn't raining)! luckily i wasn't wearing inappropriate shorts or sleepwear. i realized that i didn't grab anything of importance (i.e. purse with wallet, laptop bag, cell phone)...because i didn't take the fire alarm seriously. we stood outside for 30 minutes and then the alarm finally went off...false alarm. as we were going back in, the alarms started again and at that point, it was an alarm malfunction. since the firemen weren't making us stay outside, i figured i'd go back to my room. i sat in my room with that annoying alarm and flashing white light for 10 minutes and even though the alarms are off now, i swear i still hear a ringing in my ears. i took my laptop out to the stairwell where it wasn't as loud and now i'm posting on my blog. thank goodness for my portable wireless modem and little laptop. the alarms went on for another 20 minutes...totalling 1 hour...

i was robbed of 1.5 hours of precious sleep and had to freeze my butt off =( and i have a 7am call with people in india...sigh...i miss my husband and trinity...

Little Red Riding Hood

2007-11-02T16:39:00.001-06:00

IMG_2872
Originally uploaded by fortewu

for Halloween . . . Trinity loved meeting all our neighborhood kids.

Summer 2007 updates

2007-09-12T23:14:00.000-06:00

[g] Sorry we haven't posted in awhile. It's been a whirlwind of a summer. But, I'm getting to you now cause I'm taking a break from my Hebrew studies.

So at the end of July, we said goodbye to home church WHCC, META, and to our friends there. We still love the church and we're excited about what they'll be doing there. We went off to help Ted Law plant a church in Houston. Honestly, I think this is one of the main reasons God moved me to Houston. It's been great so far and I'm excited about future opportunities. If you ever want to check out what's going on, hope on to ACCESSLive.org I pray that God will use us in order to make a difference in Houston and in the world, and hopefully bring a bit of God's love to others.

The next day, we left for our 2.5 week Kuo family trip to Japan and Taiwan. I just got to uploading the pictures on my flickr. I had a great time in Japan, despite the heat and Yvonne glued to her Harry Potter book. We managed to view the sites with ease. We saw a lot of temples though, and by the end, we were a bit tired of them. In the city, I had the overwhelming "Lost in Translation" sense. Every store, they would greet you in Japanese. I would say, no japanese, but they would continue speaking. on and on and on. I found it weird that even in the city, some young girls still wear komonos. It's their going out wear.

Our Taiwan trip was limited to us finding enjoyment when our hotel had wireless. Mostly because I was trying to finish my summer school. We avoided a few typhoons, ate tons of good food, and spent a lot of our parent's money. Yvonne got a new curly hair doo while I got household items and pens. (Yeah, I know . . . my life has relegated to just finding house and school stuff.) Katherine Tang showed us around a night market. Sorry we didn't get too long to spend in Taipei!

That basically was the rest of our summer!

But we have an announcement to make too! We have a new addition to our family. (Many of you already know from facebook.) We got a puppy! Her name is Trinity. She's a Shih-tzu and was born on 7.7.07. (She's named after her date of birth, Yvonne's college, and cause I just finished my Trinitarianism class and loved it.) So here she is a couple of days after we got her.

She's growing quickly! We've trained her to sit, down, shake, and sometimes potty on the pee pad. We're working on walking on a leash, and "stay". But I haven't read any good articles on the internet of how to teach a dog to walk on a leash or to stay (before giving another command to get the treat.) Any ideas?

She loves to help us mop the floor too!

Upcoming. . . more weddings, for each weekend of Sept. And now back to my Hebrew. alep, bet, gimel, dalet, . . .

cake #1

2007-07-14T21:38:00.000-06:00

[y] for a few months now, i've been watching the martha stewart show and it has inspired me to make all sorts of things...cards, sweet potatos fries, cupcakes, turkey burgers, and cakes! through my many trips to michaels and hobby lobby to buy card-making things, i stumbled upon the cake-making aisle and saw a posting for wilton cake decorating classes. i think i'm going to try to take the september class, but until then, i thought i'd give it a shot without any formal training. well below is the finished result (2-tiered caramel flavored cake with vanilla buttercream icing)...

yeah, it didn't turn out very well. i was too embarrassed about the finished result that i didn't bring it to the birthday party the next day...so gordon and i will end up eating it all. i think my icing was too soft so none of the stars held their shape. my friend, sandy, bought me a set of wilton icing tips off of my wedding registry so i had some fun experimenting with the tips...

anyways, hopefully i'll improve and maybe go into the cake-making business after having kids =)

arg. . .

2007-07-13T07:26:00.000-06:00

So lately I've been suffering with bouts of insomnia. Does anyone have any cures without taking Ambien? And does that stuff really work? Those Lunesta commercials are popular as well. Not sure what the problem is, but all my problems usually boil down to stress.

Just this week, I had a sty in my eyelid. Stupid me, I didn't know what it was and I think I irritated it yesterday and I woke up with a swollen eye. Now, all this morning I've been leaning my head so the sty won't rub against my eye and really irritate it. Which I think will lead to a sore neck. So now, I've taped it shut. I wanted to take a picture of it, but alas, I can't use my eye. Stress is bad.

I haven't updated in awhile cause frankly, I've been caught up in writing papers and reading. I decided yesterday with Yvonne's gentle rebuke that I need to limit my television watching. So, for the rest of the summer, I'll just limit it to Kyle XY, So You Think You Can Dance, and Big Brother. I've also been keeping up with Pirate Master, but I don't think it's been worth it. Game play has been sorely lacking.

Sorry to all of my flickr contacts. Yahoo Photos is closing and I decided to go with Flickr. It took a full week for them to finish transferring everything over. But they're all, and I mean ALL there. I upload everything, and not only my best shots. I use it as my storage.

Let's also take some time for some congratulations since I uploaded my pics:

Suemy and Chae - 1/21/07

Marilyn and Andy - 2/3/07

Gretchen and Jim - 3/10/07

Eric and Fiona's goodbye texas, hello OK? - 3/11/07
(anyone have a good pic of them?)

Mike and Lydia 3/30/07

Tina and Josh - 5/5/07

Allen's Graduation - 5/24/07

Yvette's Graduation - 5/31/07

1 year down, ??? to go...

2007-06-10T20:46:00.001-06:00

[y] today is our 1-year wedding anniversary. time flies...

i love you honey!

friends, thanks for pelting us with rose petals...

allrecipes.com

2007-06-09T14:25:00.000-06:00

[y] my favorite recipe site is http://www.allrecipes.com/. almost everything i've tried (with 4-5 stars) has turned out fabulous. the key is to read people's comments because they give tips on how to tweak the recipes.

lately i've had a craving to just bake. but i've been too lazy to go to the store to buy ingredients that i don't already have. so i look in my fridge and see what i already have and type it in their advanced ingredient search. it finds recipes that contain the ingredients that you enter! here are recipes for a few things that i have made with ingredients that i had on hand:

1) apple strudel muffins: i had 1 apple that i had to use up before going on vacation so i found this recipe. i halved the recipe to make 6 muffins and added a small snack size cup of apple sauce and cinnamon. the muffins turned out super moist and yummy!

2) jacky's fruit and yogurt muffins: i had some yogurt and strawberries that i had to use up because i was tired of eating yogurt so i found this recipe. i followed the recipe exactly, except i used strawberries instead of blueberries, 4oz vanilla yogurt, 4oz strawberry yogurt, and a heaping teaspoon of baking powder (per the comments of some people). these muffins also turned out moist and yummy! be sure you use sweet strawberries, though...

3) easy cobbler: i had some ripe pears, canned pears, and strawberries to use up and i had seen this recipe on king kong rah rah rah's blog so i decided to try it out. add 1 tbsp of vanilla extract and cinnamon to the mix. when it's done, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and you've got a winner! at least our small group liked it!

i guess i always have muffin ingredients at home (flour, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, eggs). here are some other recipes for baked goodies that most of you have tried and liked =)

1) classic tiramisu: this recipe takes some perfecting. i wasn't successful the first few times and i realized it was a LOT easier to make with a kitchenaid stand mixer. i've changed up the recipe a few times by using different liqueur's or just plain coffee.

2) cream cheese sugar cookies with sugar cookie icing: i made these around christmas time, and I recently also made butterfly cookies. my coworkers have been the lucky recipients of these cookies, but i promise to make more! allrecipes even used a photo i submitted for the cookies:

here are pictures of the other sugar cookies i've made:

3) mom's zucchini bread: i made mini loaves and they turned out great...

4) bread pudding II: i haven't made this in a while, but it's pretty good...

5) baked brie with caramelized onions: i made this for a friend's bridal shower and it was a hit!

6) banana sour cream bread: this turned out pretty good, but it made a TON! my kitchenaid mixing bowl was almost overflowing. i recommend halving the recipe. i also iced it with cream cheese frosting.

ok so you're probably wondering if i ever do anything besides bake! well the answer is...yes, but for appetizers and entrees, i usually get my recipes from other cookbooks. BUT, here are some non-baking recipes that i've used from allrecipes.com.

1) luscious slush punch: i had this for the first time at a friend's bridal shower and LOVED it...so i made it for another friend's bridal shower!

2) famous butter chicken: this recipe was just ok...i probably didn't use enough butter. it got a lot of reviews though and it's simple to make.

ok that's it for today...maybe later i will post my favorite non-allrecipes.com recipes!

monthly post...

2007-06-09T07:56:00.000-06:00

[yk] sorry that we have been slacking off on posting stuff! it's a weekly ritual for me to visit everyone's blog and see what everyone is up to. it's not fair for me to expect to see new posts from everyone when i barely update our own blog! so i will try to be better about that because i know i'm really bad about keeping in touch over the phone too...

so what have we been up to since our last blog post? well gordon is well into his summer term of seminary...1 class and 3 online classes...and is in a constant state of reading, paper writing, watching his classes online, and stressing. please continue to pray for his studies!

my baby brother graduated from high school and will be a longhorn next year...
we spent 5 days in new york for my sister, yvette's graduation from st. john's law school. she will be working at the Queens county courthouse prosecuting juvenile delinquents!
we saw all the sights around NYC sitting on the top of a red bus for 2 days. i never realized the diversity of architecture in NYC...it's really neat...wish houston had more of that architecture...

we even did this cool scavenger hunt around lower manhattan called accomplice: new york. i highly recommend it for anyone planning on visiting NYC. part of the hunt was to buy a $3 live frog from chinatown. if you want more details, let us know!

And this sunday is our 1-year wedding anniversay! gordon ordered a dozen cookie roses and they were delivered to my office...i love sugar cookies!

ok that's it for now...later, i will post about my latest 2 hobbies...baking and card-making!

τετέλεσται

2007-05-12T09:38:00.000-06:00

I'm done with my first year in seminary. I've never written so many papers or read so many books in a period in my life. Too bad I get a 2-day break, cause summer session starts on Monday. Actually 1-day break cause I need to prepare for my summer class. At least it's a day where I don't have to worry about what I have to read next. Oddly, I feel like reading a book that isn't required. What's wrong with me. Oh by the way, τετέλεσται can be translated as "it is finished." I have to keep up with my Greek over the summer.

Congratulations to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who are actually finishing high school and law school, respectively.

Anyone looking for a nice condo in Houston? We're still trying to sell ours.

friends...

2007-04-26T21:49:00.000-06:00

[y] just got back from dinner with highschool friends...always fun to hang out with the old band girls (and marysia's fiance, andrew). we reminisce, we catch up, we dream about the future...i can't believe we've all been friends for over 10 years! i've known marysia since 3rd grade! what a blessing it is that we're all still keeping in touch...

this past weekend, g and i attended my former co-worker's wedding...congrats uyen and brent! uyen was gorgeous and you could tell brent was totally in love with uyen and so proud to be married to her...so cute! another crazy 8 bites the dust...

Ring around the Rosy

2007-04-18T09:32:00.000-06:00

She was having so much fun. Love you Jocie!

home sweet home...

2007-04-04T23:37:00.000-06:00

[y] whew, it's been a busy few weeks settling into our new home, traveling for work, and traveling for a wedding! i've only slept in my own bed once in the past week! it feels good to be home although there's some more traveling on the horizon. as promised, here a few more pictures of our new home with furniture in it...we love our new home!

our living room...

looking into the kitchen from our living room...

looking into our dining room from the formal living room...

we also just got back from a 4-day trip to maryland for mike and lydia's wedding! congrats to the newlyweds! it was so fun getting together with old friends and playing games, sight-seeing, and playing with cute little jocie! we miss her already! i've decided that i'm not a fan of baltimore...a lot of traffic and too many highways. DC was nice...visited some of the national monuments. we randomly bumped into the leung family charter bus while sight-seeing and they graciously let us aboard so we didn't have to drive and re-park and walk a lot. thank you leungs! i will post pictures from the wedding soon...

bored

2007-03-31T09:03:00.000-06:00

bored at the airport stuck here for 3hours

thank you...

2007-03-06T13:03:00.000-06:00

[y] for the dinners, lunches, emails, calls, pedicure, desserts, flowers, and love...

it was a very nice birthday and a blessing to be reminded of the special people God has put into my life...

And we're off

2007-02-26T02:10:00.000-06:00

We finished moving everything that we possible could move into our new place tonight. My body is sore and my feet are throbbing. I feel like I did when I ran the marathon. (BTW, congrats Bri!) Huge thanks to my mom who was by our side the whole time cleaning like a mad woman. If you've ever wondered why I like cleaning or like things to be clean, I get it from my mom. Also thanks to in-laws who brought good food over and kept encouraging us on! For our dear friends, Simon Lee, Gordon and Amy Leung, Suemy and Chae Cho who came in waves to provide the muscle and the sanity. And my sis and her boyfriend Mike.

So our marriage is still intact even though we had a couple of spouts here and there. (As you know, I'm a little demanding.) Note to self, save enough money to hire movers to keep from fighting.

[y] will be hosting some parties soon. It was after I moved into our townhome, all parties ceased because we simply didn't have the room. We feel blessed to have our home, and we hope that we will be able to bless others with it.

As promised . . . mortgages.
Finding financing for your home is a hair pulling event. There's so many banks out there and you have to dig through so many websites, and make calls in order to find their rates. My first advice, check with your personal bank that you have. Bank of America, our bank, didn't necessarily provide the lowest rate for us, BUT, they didn't have any additional lenders fees for closing. (This is usually a large amount for other lenders.) They also provided us with an additional $250 for closing. So basically what you want to do to compare rates it to look at the APR, the lower the better. To learn more about mortgages and the going rates out there, check out Bankrate.com

vday and more...

2007-02-18T21:59:00.000-06:00

[y] i finally have time to post about some exciting stuff after an exhausting week of making 2 trips to dallas in less than 5 days and going to 6 furniture stores in 5 hours from north houston to downtown to west houston!

first off, gordo was so sweet to order a cookie bouquet for me on valentines day. i LOVE iced thick soft sugar cookies. luckily he got me cookies instead of flowers too, because i had to fly out to dallas 2 hours later and i wouldn't have been able to enjoy my flowers...but i did enjoy a cookie on the plane =)

and now, pictures of our new house! it's still empty...but our official move-in date is feb. 23-24. if you're free, let us know if you can help out! the painting is all done...just need to install the new carpet and we're good to go! here are some preview pictures of the new house!

the dining room

the living room

the kitchen...yes, i had to have green walls in the new house too =)

Crazy in Love by Switchfoot

2007-02-17T22:59:00.000-06:00

Best of both worlds. sweetness.
Switchfoot covers Beyonce's Crazy in Love.

So everyone staying warm in this cold weather?

trinity magazine

2007-02-04T22:38:00.000-06:00

[y] for my trinity friends who went to my wedding and still receive the Trinity quarterly magazine, look at page 62!!

just sign on the dotted line...

2007-02-01T20:00:00.000-06:00

[y] and you might be asking why g posted about shopping for electricity providers and mortgages. well, this past wednesday, we closed on our very first house together! g and i are super excited...we finally have a place that we can call 'ours'. g didn't really consider my condo 'ours' and when g moved in, we realized that my condo wasn't big enough for all of our stuff. we went back and forth about buying a house, but we finally decided to go for it! the house is in shadowlake and we're probably moving in mid-february. we'll post pictures soon and send out updates with our new address!

New Deals

2007-02-01T09:45:00.000-06:00

[g]
Electricity Company
Boy, I really don't understand the deregulation of power. I spent the last 5 hours comparing different plans and companies. Googled companies and wanted to see customer satisfaction. We finally settled on Spark Energy. We didn't like Gexa, because of bad customer service. Y would say horrible customer service, her blood pressure rose everytime she called them to complain about something. Spark, the pros: no monthly service fee, no deposit (depending on your credit), setup automatic payment with your credit card, online billing, and the last 3 months bills are online. They have different plans, we chose the monthly plan for now so if we had to switch, we don't have to pay a termination fee. But they have plans where you can lock your price for a whole year. Electricity prices are estimated to go up about 2% in 2007. So, you decide. Sign up for Spark Energy.

Savings Account
Everyone tells you to build your little nest egg for emergencies. But why just let it sit there? We have a savings account with ING DIRECT. You earn 4.5% interest and it's tied to MY banks checking account. That's right, you don't need to sign up with a checking account with them. It took about 10 min to sign up for. And if you sign up through one of these links, you get $25 bonus! They also have a cool website Planet Orange to teach your kids about saving and spending. There might be other banks that provide a little bit higher interest rates, but Ing Direct has been around awhile and the account is FDIC insured.

1) Sign me up and get $25 bonus! - used!
2) Sign me up and get $25 bonus!
3) Sign me up and get $25 bonus!
4) Sign me up and get $25 bonus!
5) Sign me up and get $25 bonus!
6) Sign me up and get $25 bonus!

Coming soon . . . my recommendations on mortgages and alarm systems.

i take chae suemy...

2007-01-27T23:11:00.000-06:00

[y] those were the first words of the vows that chae accidentally messed up (should have been "i chae, take suemy...") but he must have been too nervous or awestruck by her beauty =) it was cute...congrats chuemy!!

wowee maui: part 3

2007-01-14T20:42:00.000-06:00

[y] ok so after a busy 1.5 weeks of being back in houston, i've finally found time to post some more pictures from our trip...and i promise, this time i'll actually post pictures of us!

almost everyday, we were treated with beautiful turquoise waters, nice sunsets, and swaying palm trees. we did a lot of snorkeling and sunbathing. while on the beach, we always had yummy maui onion chips to snack on...those of you who have been to maui should know what i'm talking about! like we mentioned before, we basically went everywhere that the maui revealed book told us to go. well, the only waste of time was our trip to the petroglyphs...not worth the trek...

we also did 2 of the maui "must do's"...the road to hana and biking down mt. haleakala. for those of you who don't know, the road to hana to a stretch of mostly coastal road along the edge of mt. haleakala along the northern coast of maui. there are waterwalls, nature hikes, cute villages, and other natural wonders along the drive. it was quite a challenge to get to some of these waterwalls...we had to walk through dense forests of bamboo, muddy paths, jumping over a 3-4 gap over a rushing stream 10 feet below, walking across streams on slippery rocks, climbing over big rocks, and other naturey things that i am not accustomed to! but they were all well worth it in the end!

we got to see the sun rise on new year's day atop mt. haleakala at the rim of the crater! it was worth the 3am pickup to the top of the mountain and the FREEZING air whipping around us. after we watched the sun rise, we rode bikes down the mountain...at the top, you're freezing and wearing a bunch of layers...as you get closer and closer to the bottom, you strip off layers of clothing...and then you end up at the beach 38 miles later. i hadn't ridden a bike in 10 years or so, so i was quite anxious about riding down a mountain on a curvy road with sharp turns and no guard rails where apparently there is 1 major accident per week. but i survived and it was so fun! ms150, here i come? =)

on our last day in maui, we treated ourselves to a nice $130 lunch at mama's fish house...it was good fish...but dang, $130?? luckily gordo cooked his soy sauce chicken and i cooked spaghetti on most of the nights =). then we topped that off with a monstrous hawaiian shaved ice in paia. yum!

and this concludes our wowee maui series...

sugar cookie icing

2007-01-09T22:49:00.000-06:00

[y] my photo submission for my christmas sugar cookies made it to the main recipe page for the sugar cookie icing recipe from allrecipes.com!

i highly recommend the icing...easy to make and decorate with. it dries bright, glossy, and hard. the cream cheese sugar cookie recipe that i used for the cookies in the picture is also highly recommended!

wowee maui: part 2

2007-01-02T00:30:00.000-06:00

[y] then the wedding...it totally looked like a scene from instyle celebrity weddings. the wedding was on a grassy lawn with the teal ocean in the background. nanoh walked down an aisle of white orchids...all different colors of cymbidium orchids adorned the tables...we ate under tents of organza as the sun set before our very eyes. it was definitely a wedding in paradise...congrats nanoh and brian!

aisle of white orchids...

a myriad of tropical flowers...

brian and nanoh exchange vows amongst 50 friends and family...

then gordon and i started hitting all the hot spots on maui...part 3 to come...

do we have to go home tomorrow?

wowee maui: part 1

2007-01-01T16:30:00.000-06:00

[y] happy new year!! so g and i have been in maui since christmas eve and we will be heading back to the mainland tomorrow evening =(. we originally decided to come because i had to use up a few southwest rapid rewards before january and southwest allows you to double up your rapid rewards to fly to hawaii via ATA. but it turns out that my friend nanoh was getting married in maui at the same time we were there so double bonus! thanks to maui revealed, we knew where to get the best shaved ice, snorkeling, shopping, and sun-bathing. since we have some down time before we hit the beach again, i thought i'd give a recap...

the first few days were spent with the trinity folks who were in maui for nanoh's wedding. we drove around to become familiar with the island. we went to a luau for the rehearsal dinner (they were shaking their booties so fast that i couldn't get a clear picture).

driving around maui...look at that sky and those trees!

grass skirts...coconut bras...luau!

Congrats!

2006-12-21T01:36:00.000-06:00

[gw] Congrats to my HONEY [yw] on getting promoted to manager at work! She's definitely deserving of it, especially with all those early mornings and late nights that I don't see her. She makes me jealous that I'm not working anymore. : ( But I'm happy that she's happy.

And I counted 20 papers that I wrote this semester. That seems a lot me. That is a lot to me. I've never written that many papers in a semester. That's not including all the quizzes I studied for in my Greek class, and passages I had to memorize. whew! Now I have to work to retain it all. whew, praying that my brain won't fry.

So I'm reading a book on Christian counseling. It brings up all the dilemma's a Christian counselor has to encounter when reconciling their faith and recent studies in psychotherapy, pretty interesting. I thought of going into counseling for a brief moment, because I thought I read people real well, but then my wife promptly told me that I would not have patience with the people I talk to. Which is true. Sad, but true. So I quickly dropped the idea.

Just wanted to show you a pic of my wife's sugar cookies from scratch. She's been perfecting it all week. It looks pretty professional to me! She even made Longhorn cookies. Props to Matt for bringing a Longhorn cookies cutter from Austin.

I'm back

2006-12-19T20:52:00.000-06:00

[gw] Finished my last assignment for the semester! woohoo! I didn't know the grading system of DTS was so difficult. An A- is a 93-94, which gives a 3.7 GPA. Man, no more perfect 4.0. I only have 3 weeks off before I start a one week winter class that I have to start reading for. So not much a break for me! But I hope to get in a book that isn't required by my class (25 Surprising Marriages.) But I also need to finish all those wedding Thank You cards that I haven't been able to finish because of classes. I'll do that while traveling and resting on the beach of Hawaii!!

New Deal

2006-12-06T17:00:00.000-06:00

[gw] I haven't had a chance to update in awhile. I'm behind in uploading pics and making my comments on the books I've read. I've been in a study hole. Non-stop papers and reading. So I'll try and do better. Thank you for everyone that supported and prayed for us while in Bolivia. We'll put up more pics soon, here's one from Santa Cruz though. But, I'll be in a hole a couple more weeks. I have six papers to write and 3 finals to study for. whew.

The house in Austin finally closed and sold. Last amount of money I'll make for awhile. All proceeds will be going to the fine institution of DTS.

New Deal for everyone who likes movies. Buy 1 get 1 free movie ticket from Fandango if you have a Discover card. See details.

misc. updates

2006-11-05T08:45:00.000-06:00

[y] so i see it's been a while since our last post. well lots of blog-worthy stuff has happened in the past few weeks so here's our update!

Bolivia: thankfully, we have raised enough financial support to go to Bolivia! we're leaving in 2 weeks!! please continue to pray for our preparation...that daily, we would learn to work and communicate well together as husband and wife and be open to how the spirit may lead us in Bolivia.

- jen and phil: congrats to mr. and mrs. phil and jennifer chii! they were married in arlington last saturday. finally...after about 9 years of dating!

- Boise: last week, i went to boise, idaho for the first time in my life. had to go there for work...just a one day trip. random fact: gordon has actually been to 46 out of the 48 continental U.S. states and idaho is one of the ones that he hasn't visited...

jeannie and fernando: they're getting married this saturday!! i just finished their slideshow and it only took 1.5 days to put together! that's because they were so organized in labeling their pictures and providing all the music and stuff that i needed! yay jeannie and fernando!

- Maui: southwest airlines just recently started allowing you to use your free tickets to go to hawaii!! through their partnership with ATA airlines, we can use 2 round trip free tickets to go to hawaii! so we spontaneously booked 2 tickets to maui from dec. 24-jan. 2 (courtesy of 4 free tickets i had accumulated from my traveling days). we're excited about it because hawaii was first on our list of places to go for our honeymoon, but went to the caribbean instead. we're having a difficult time finding a place to live, though...because apparently maui is a popular place to go over christmas! if you've been to maui, tell us about the places that we should go to!!

An Invitation to Pray

2006-10-13T11:05:00.000-06:00

Population: close to 9 million
Economy: 64% of population are below the Poverty Line
Government: leaders have faced difficult problems of poverty and social unrest. Lately, people have been revolting over the socialist regime.
Religion: About 60% of population has been baptized Catholic, but are practicing animists or Christo-pagan
More info available on wikipedia

Our Personal Requests

that God would prepare us spiritually to be humbled, stretched, and willing to go beyond our comfort zone both here in Houston and in Bolivia
that God would continue to refine our marriage and teach us to serve each other unselfishly

If you wish to support us on the trip. Please see our letter. Let us know if you would like one mailed to you personally!

boo hoo part 2

2006-10-03T22:07:00.000-06:00

[g] My car got broken into sometime last night. I'm okay, the car is fine. Just my briefcase with all my cool gadgets and some things in the glove compartment were taken. In one sense, I am sad that my things are gone. Another sense, I'm glad it wasn't a mugging or anything. And it really is just stuff. Now that I'm not traveling the country, and fixing computers left and right I really don't need those items anymore. It was just nice to have. We're hoping the homeowners policy will cover it. At first, I called, and they said it's not covered, but I spoke to another agent and he said it's covered because it's computer accessories. Here's to hoping. . . praying praying praying.

On a related note. Has anyone noticed that Houston has increased in crime? Just Sunday, I heard cars were broken into at 24 hour fitness. I just read this article as I was researching crime statistics. Does anyone remember the story about the guy putting up a billboard warning people from moving to Houston because of the crime rate. He was forced to bring it down.

In case you are very interested. You can go to the City of Houston website and see active incidents and crime statistics for your area.

More importantly now, what can we do? any ideas?
I remember reading in Tipping Point, that the New York had such a big problem of crime in the subways. What they were forced to do, was to repaint the subways every night with any graffiti before it went out in the morning. People got tired of it being repainted, that they just stopped the graffiti, which eventually stopped the crime. Odd, just two years ago, my rental car got broken into in New York and my briefcase was also stolen then.

sigh. . .

boo hoo...

2006-10-01T21:46:00.000-06:00

[y] the astros lost =( the cardinals also lost...we just had to win today and they would be forced to play another game! i'm sad...not only because the astros missed their chance to go to the post-season after a phenomenal 9-game "do-or-die" win streak...but because i've lost out on roughly $40 in non-refundable ticketmaster fees for the NLDS tickets that I got. darn ticketmaster...

i keep thinking, "if ONLY they had just won 1 or 2 more games during the regular season..."

who knows...

oh so close to the NLDS...

2006-09-28T22:54:00.000-06:00

[y] so can anyone believe the astros are where they are today? .5 game behind st. louis for the central division lead? i mean, 1 week ago, they were ~8 games behind st. louis with 12 games left to play. this could be the biggest come-back in baseball history in a play-off elimination situation! i was able to get 6 tickets to the second home game of the national league division series before they went on sale today . woohoo! we just need to win the next 3 games!!

in honor of gordo leung, who helped me get the NLDS tickets...

Jocie - Happy Bday Uncle Gordon

2006-09-27T09:04:00.000-06:00


Jocie - Happy Bday Uncle Gordon. Cutest thing ever!! Thanks Jocie. Uncle Gordon and Auntie Yvonne miss you!

September update

2006-09-25T14:23:00.000-06:00

[g] Well we haven't posted in awhile. Mostly because (from the previous post) I've been in a state of flux. I'm still getting used to sleeping in a different bed. But here's an update of our September. It's been packed with lots of unpacking (pun intended.) We finally got our dining room and living room back however. There's still boxes in those areas.

On the 10th, we went on a one day trip to Austin to visit the launch of Vox Veniae. It was amazing to see and be a part of that ministry.

I had a hughe, ongoing ordeal with Best Buy in getting my stove delivered and installed. There's been 4 rescheduled times and 2 missed deliveries cause they didn't call. Boo. The latest is that I found out I needed to buy a cord for the stove to plug in the way. You would think they would have told you that sooner. sigh. Not very good customer service process. Next time, I will probably not buy from Best Buy appliances. It's delaying putting my house up on the market.

I joined Yvonne on a business trip to New Orleans. Had a chance to walk around the Frenc Quarter on my own. It's amazing how much they have repaired, and what they are still working on. One comment, they spent 183million fixing the Superdome. mmmh yeah. Don't you think that could have been used in a better way?

Then Yvonne wanted us to have a vacation in conjuntion in celebrating my birthday. So since I'm a companion of hers on Southwest, I fly with her for $5. We went to Orlando and rode all the roller coasters at Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. I miss roller coasters. So much fun. But I appreciated the king size bed and sleeping in as well. Thanks honey!

Mixed in between all that, I've started my classes at DTS Houston extension. It's been tough getting back into the sync of studying and taking quizzes/tests. Now I haven't written an English paper since high school. I have to whip one/week out. Whew! Classes have been great though. Lots of information. Lots of reading. Greek by far is my hardest class.

I'll have Yvonne put up more pics. Also, stay tuned for new info on Bolivia! Thanks for all your birthday wishes!

state of transition

2006-09-08T22:51:00.000-06:00

[g] So I've been missing from updating the blog lately. apolgies. I've been in a state of transition for the past couple of months. Moving, starting classes, doing some home remodelling, unpacking, studying.

So for the past couple of weeks, I've been going back and forth to Austin in order to do some fixing and touching up of my place in Austin in order for it to sell. Got a new stove, put in new laminate flooring, repainted all the door jams, fixed some drywall, put in a new vent, and more touch up painting. Of course all the hard work was done by a contractor, but still. I didn't particularly enjoy being alone in an empty house and my wife being away.

This also encrouched on my studying time. I haven't studied in about 7 years now. I'm out of practice. Need to learn to turn off the TV and practice memorizing things again. Consequently, I didn't do too well on my Greek quiz. Uncool. I'm going to ace that class. Need to make flashcards and spend more time in that class.

We now have our living room back after moving all my stuff in. I'm still working on the office/study room. Right now everything is in boxes still and my desk area has not been setup nor have my computers. And without my computers, I feel . . . lost. That's kinda sad. And my laptop has been on the fritz (it doesn't charge properly when I put the adapter on.)

But I'll get the hang of my new schedule soon. I always do through my periods of transition. If it's anything I do well. I plan. I'll crawl out of my hole once I get my office setup and I memorize those dipthongs for greek. (If you don't know what dipthongs are. . . google it if you care. If you don't care, it's not worth it.)

Go Horns. and Go Vox Veniae. (That's for this weekend.)

showers galore

2006-08-29T21:57:00.000-06:00

[y] i had 2 baby showers and 1 bridal shower in the past 5 days...whew! it was such a great blessing to be able to celebrate 2 expectant mothers (sunny and hannah) and to talk with new or seasoned mothers about motherhood and life after a child. no, i'm not pregnant or thinking about having children right now...but it was great to know that if and when, there will be experienced mothers out there who i can talk to.

the bridal shower was for another upcoming trinity wedding...miss jeannie soon-to-be-kim sim! she was such a good sport posing with all of the underwear that we decorated for her! her bridesmaids bought a bunch of granny underwear and we were suppose to decorate them. well most turned out to have holes in "convenient" places and barely any coverage...lucky for fernando! it's always fun getting together with trinity gals...

bolivia, here we come!

2006-08-23T11:06:00.000-06:00

[y] hey just wanted to let everyone know that after prayerful consideration and a desire to serve together as a married couple on the missions field, we have applied to go on a 9 day campaign to Boliva, South America on Nov. 17-25, 2006. we're going with e3 partners ministry(formerly known as GMF) and being led by Mike Jorgensen. besides sharing the story and love of God in areas without thriving local churches, eye clinics will also be set up.

if you're in the eye profession or just have a desire to bless and be blessed in Bolivia, join us! since 5 of the 9 days are holidays or weekends, you only use up 4 days of vacation!

got tagged

2006-08-21T20:36:00.000-06:00

[y] 10 of life's simple pleasures
Got tagged by Palm
1. Being loved by my hubby.
2. Snoozing the alarm clock for just a few more minutes.
3. Lunch break at work.
4. Chipotle, Classic Kitchen, Juice box, pizza, Maggiano's...had to squeeze my food pleasures into one!
5. Checking email.
6. Having dinner with friends.
7. A shower before sleeping.
8. Baking or making food for other people.
9. Getting snail mail.
10. Looking through old pictures.

moving sux . . . but mostly done!

2006-08-18T21:18:00.000-06:00

[g] In the process of moving, and it's soooo not fun. Why are there no available UHAULs? I had to rent a uhaul and the only thing available was a 26'. Do you know how big those are? I can't move around in this thing! Dude, and I reserved a smaller one! geez! I'm a little frustrated. :( Anyone want to help me pack up and move? All day 8/19/06 give me a call. :) Calling all volunteers.

Shoutouts to Peter Sun, Christina Huang, Eric and Fiona Mah, and my mom and sis who helped me move stuff in! Mostly thanks to Yvonne who put up with my whining and moaning. :) Whew! that was an ordeal.

more pocky and new news!!

2006-08-17T08:44:00.000-06:00

[g] This is for my honey who found green tea mousse pocky to be exciting. They have melon pocky too! Check it out here at Asian Grocer. There's a 10 percent coupon off too: sas10off

Just to let everyone know that I've been accepted to Dallas Seminary as well. I'll be going back to school. I'll be taking some classes this semester in Houston first. So see you guys in H-town. I just ask that there be no traffic when I run errands and drive around town. Possible? Puuuleeez?

3, 2, 1. . Bungee. . . Wait.

2006-08-15T10:42:00.000-06:00

[g] Ed,Gordo Leung, and I went bungee jumping the night before Ed's wedding. It was the last thing we did. We first went bowling, where the married guys pulled a win from behind in the last couple of frames. It was fun hanging out. Ed seemed calm and collected. So back to bungee jumping. We got there at midnight. I was pretty tired from waking up early to travel to Dallas, but I had to bungee. We went to Zero Gravity. They have a couple of thrill seeking rides there. So only 3 of us did it, while a couple of guys just stood there and watched. (I'm generally a thrill seeker, I'll do anything once.) I had to climb up 7 stories, and then the guy up there made me go immediately. I wanted to rest a bit from climbing those stairs. At least I wasn't out of breathe thanks to my running. I supposedly jumped wrong, but I blame that on going first. I was suppose to lock my legs and fall head first. But once I started going over, I just jumped. Was it scary? It doesn't look so high from the ground, but when you're up top. It's pretty high. I was scared yes for a second or two, but I wasn't going to back out. The guy did a count down, 3, 2, 1, Bungee, and I just stood there. He just kept saying go, you can do it, just go. Maybe 3 seconds later, I just went. So here it is. . .

And yes, that's me screaming like a girl. I usually scream at everything. Just to let it all out. Makes it more exhilarating. And yes, that's all the guys laughing at me.

That's me when it was all over.

And that's Ed jumping.

I'll have to digitize my skydiving video and upload it too.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Leung

2006-08-15T02:51:00.000-06:00

[g] It's a good feeling when you see your good friend get married. It was an honor to stand by your side as you took that leap of faith. See you guys soon in Houston, have fun in Hawaii! Congrats AELeung!

new snack and pretty sky

2006-08-09T07:35:00.000-06:00

[y] my good friend kat tang stopped by my office the other day to pick something up and gave me a box of green tea cream coated pocky sticks! some of you probably remember eating chocolate or strawberry covered pocky sticks...and then white chocolate...but i had no idea there were green tea pocky sticks...and they're sooo good! these are probably my new favorite snack for now...

also, on my way to austin, i took a few pictures of the sky because there were so many sun rays...the sun was hidden behind a few clouds, but it was bursting out at any opening in the clouds. it totally reminded me of God's majesty...

ameliatarbet.com

2006-08-06T22:06:00.000-06:00

[y] we made it onto our wedding photographer's website! from the time we booked her in december until recently, she's only added one or two other wedding stories...but she has added our wedding pics into her 'stories' section! if anyone is getting married in austin, we highly recommend amelia...we love the shots she took! go see if you're in those pics...there's a nice shot of emi in there =)

if you want to see all of the pictures that amelia took, you can go to www.pictage.com and look for gordon and yvonne.

has this ever happened to you?

2006-08-05T22:08:00.000-06:00

[y] for you contact wearers out there, have you ever rubbed your eye and the contact shifts to another part of your eye ball (like under your eye lid)? this just happened to me and i started panicking because i was afraid the contact would slip around to the back of my eye ball. it was actually in the top corner of my eye ball and i could only see it in the mirror if i looked the opposite direction. the scary thing is, i could barely feel it...so i could have easily rubbed my eye and assumed that my contact fell out and i couldn't find it...when all along, it's inside my head! i wonder if it would be bad to have a contact inside your eye or on the back of your eye ball...

vrroom vroomm...

2006-08-01T18:40:00.000-06:00

[y] we got a new car!! it's a 2006 toyota rav4 limited edition in nautical blue (basically navy blue). we love it! some of our favorite features are: dual climate control, auxiliary audio jack for mp3 player, mp3 capable 6-disc CD changer, and remote engine starter. also, we're getting a lojack installed so if anyone steals our car, the cops can track it down.

free chipotle!

2006-08-01T10:05:00.000-06:00

[y] you can get a free burrito, burrito bol, or tacos from the chipotle in the royal oaks shopping center (near my house) if you show them your 24 hour fitness card on wednesday, august 2!! so all those people i used to see at the gym or still see (the chiaos, faye/simon, sweis, derbys, jerry sun, kat tang, leungs, rebs) if you still have a membership, go to chipotle tomorrow!!

UPDATE: i went to Chipotle during lunch today (Aug. 2) and got my free burrito bol...no questions asked...they didn't even look at my 24 hour fitness card. too bad i already had dinner plans and can't get another free one for dinner! but you can probably borrow a friend's card and get a free burrito! i don't know what the promo is...and it's not like chipotle is very healthy if you're trying to lose weight by working out. the only correlation i can see between chipotle and 24 hour fitness is after you eat at chipotle, you should work out because each burrito is over 1000 calories!

[g] I also heard on the radio in Austin, that KFC is now selling just 6 legs and 6 thighs for $8.99. That's a deal!! :) Love KFC.

sick. . . UPDATED!

2006-07-31T12:38:00.000-06:00

[gw] I'm sick, so I'll write more later. . . but here's an interesting article.

Cost of being single vs being married

Upcoming: comments about watching movies with a screaming kid right behind you, and review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

-----UPDATE---------

So I dont think I'm sick anymore. While I was working to backup my coworkers harddrive, (Sorry, I haven't gotten to yours Kat!) I took a long nap and ran up the fever till it broke. Then I took some Tylenol to get rid of the symptoms of headache and nausiousness. I'm back.

Topic#1 - the article above. Interesting eh? So it seems prudent to delay getting married it seems. But now that I am married, I better start saving now for the kids. I didn't realize kids would cost that much. Of course they had to take New York couples, so I had to work off percentages. What about the rest of the country? Why don't they do a real survey? To take only 3 couples is kinda a bad sample.

Topic#2 - watching the movies with an annoying kid. We went on a triple date with Eric and Fiona and George and Jill to watch Pirates. Review upcoming. But there was this annoying kid in the audience, that 2 rows behind me. With stadium seating, that's right on top of ya. Every action scene, the boy would scream. Add 2 trips to the bathroom, rolling a toy car down the steps every five seconds, the mom trying to discipline the boy and the boy retaliating, it was argghh. At one point, the boy pounded on my chair. I thought Yvonne was going to go up and have a stern talk with the mom during the movie. eek. I wasn't feeling to well either, the fever was coming back.

Couple of things:
1) It's a PG-13 movie! Why are you bringing a 4 yeear old toddler into the movie?
2) If you cannot control your children, don't bring them to the movie.
3) Why does the movie theatre allow parents to bring their little kids into the theatre. With all of them struggling with internet downloads and dvds. You think they would be first to say. Come to our theatre, we promise no cell phones ringing nor screaming kids!
4) If it was a kids movie, it wouldn't be as annoying. I love listening to the kids react to kids movies, but this was pirates. . .

I love kids and all, but come on!

Topic #3: Pirates of the Caribbean
*Spoiler* is on wikipedia, which I had to read after I watched the movie to understand the plot. Overall 3.5/5 stars. The plot didn't end. It wasn't a full ending to the story, and we have to wait for next year to see the end. Incidentally, I had to watch the first one again, just to remember the first one. That's my only, but biggest complaint. On the other hand, good acting by Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. The action sequences were amazing and fun to watch. Get ready to spend 2.5 hours though. Watch the movie or wait for DVD? wait for DVD.

props to you

2006-07-28T07:50:00.000-06:00

[gw] World's Longest Race - 3,100 miles. No this is not by car, it's all by foot. But they all run around the same block. Crazy what some people do.

true or false?

2006-07-27T14:57:00.000-06:00

[gw] So after a new American, Floyd Landis, wins the Tour de France. He allegedly failed a drug test. Here's the story. Now what I can't believe how stupid a person can be to actually drug up in order to win. Do you not know that they will be drug testing you? I hope Floyd isn't that stupid. I don't think he is.

tip of the day: synchronize your thumb drive.

2006-07-26T14:02:00.000-06:00

[gw] This is for my moms. Since they tend to store information on their thumb drive.

Remember the windows 95 briefcase? Well, I didn't know that they kept it in Win XP. Anyways, here you go. Keep your thumb drive backed up with your computer. Incidentally, the first gift I gave Yvonne was a thumb drive. :) What was your first gift to your significat other?

little faith

2006-07-23T08:24:00.000-06:00

[y] this past monday, my sister told me that my mom was in tears because she lost her purse when she accidentally left her purse in a shopping cart in a walmart parking lot. she went back 30 minutes later and the purse was no where to be seen. my mom had EVERYTHING in that purse...cash, credit cards, phone numbers and addresses that she had scribbled down in a little notebook (that wasn't backed up anywhere else), a flash drive (with her financial info and various other info that wasn't backed up anywhere else), cell phone, pay stub, etc. my mom was devastated, but took action immediately to cancel all of her credit cards and bank accounts. i called her and she kept saying, "i wish the person would just take the money and mail the purse back to me..." and in my head, i'm thinking "yeah right, if a person is so desperate to steal a purse, he's not going to spend money on postage to mail the purse back." but i told my mom that i would pray for that. well the days passed and everytime i reached into my own purse, i remembered to pray for my mom's purse...that someone would return it. well this past saturday, i specifically pleaded to God, "please convict the thief to mail my mom's purse back...it could be a testimony to her that you are faithful and maybe she'll start going to church again." a few hours later, my mom calls me and ecstatically tells me that someone mailed her purse back! all of the cash and gift cards had been taken, but EVERYTHING else was still in there! now what kind of thief takes the time to mail a purse back instead of just disposing of it? i truly believe that it was the work of God to convince the thief to mail the purse back. so i told my mom, "i prayed that God would make the person mail the purse back!" and she said, "thank you!" and i said, "don't thank me, thank God!" well i don't know if she'll go back to church, but hopefully a seed has been planted...

on a completely different note, i occasionally am convicted that i should be more bold and strike up conversations with my neighbors...but i always wimp out. i had 2 taiwanese/chinese single females living around me and all i could muster up was a smile and hi/bye. i already knew one of the girls was christian and had invited her to small group once, but after being rejected, i sort of just quit trying...and now she has moved away. i had never met the other asian female until she caught me a day after she had been assaulted in our parking lot late at night and she wanted to warn me to be careful...but i haven't seen her since that day. almost everyday, i see another neighbor who parks right next to me and details people's luxury cars part-time. well after the assault and word had spread around the complex, he said that we all need to watch out for each other and if i was ever in trouble or needed help, i could call him. so he gave me his business card. he's african american and his name is mohammed. since then, we've been saying hi/bye/how are you doing...but i was always too wimpy and in a hurry to say much else. plus, his name was mohammed...so i figured he wasn't christian and probably would harshly refuse my invitation to church. well gordo has been saying that he wants to get his car detailed and i said my neighbor does it so maybe i can ask him to detail his car. i happened to see my neighbor working on someone's car and asked if he could detail gordon's car this weekend. he said sure and we continuted to carry on a conversation. after i said that we would take my car to church and leave gordon's car here, he asked me what church i attended. i told him and he said, "my girlfriend and i haven't found a church yet..which is bad...but we're always willing to go when people invite us to their church" and i was thinking, "man this is too easy! so i invited him to W, but since he's detailing gordo's car today, he couldn't go today. he said he was born a muslim and was named mohammed by his grandfather, but since then, he has converted to christianity.

these 2 incidents have recently made me realize that i have faith the size of a pea. i pray that God will grow my faith and that i will act upon that faith more and more so that He will be glorified...

smelly finger

2006-07-21T15:39:00.000-06:00

[y] ok so this is kinda gross, but just wanted to see if this happens to anyone else. ever since i started wearing my wedding ring and engagement ring together, it's starting to make my ring finger smell where the rings are. it's because when i wash my hands, it gets wet...and sometimes i neglect to dry out the water from under the rings and in between the rings. so it sort of smells mildewy or like a stale towel that has been used too much and needs to be washed.

anyway, does this happen to anyone else? is it because my ring is too big and water gets underneath? if i had a tighter ring, would there be no water...and thus no smell?

dance

2006-07-21T10:32:00.000-06:00

Has anyone been keeping up with "So You Think You Can Dance?" Finally, Dimitry is gone. That guy could not dance anything but ballroom. Plus, just showing your pecs doesn't mean you're a good dancer. My favorite dancer? Donyelle. You can tell that she's having fun and doing her best each week. I'm rooting for her. I love watching the coreographed group dances the most. My new favorite coreographer: Tyce Diorio.

So in anyways, as I watch that in the background yesterday, I've been working on trying to get exchange working through rpc over https. Anyone want to help me? I can't get it working. It's so frustrating. I realized yesterday I know noone in IT. Other than Yvonne, but she's in consulting and does programming. help me. . . sigh.

wedding bells - ding, ding, ding!

2006-07-17T20:27:00.000-06:00

Yeah! James and Karen got hitched this past weekend. Congratulations newlyweds!! The wedding was beautiful, and James and Karen kept their smiles on the whole night!

Yvonne and I took the opportunity to drive around Dallas and look at potential neighborhoods. We were sad to see that most of the neighborhoods that we wanted to live in were either unsafe or out of our price range. But we're still keeping it all in prayer...that God will lead us to our new home.

Today, I had jury duty. What an experience. First off, there's no public parking in the area, only meters that have a 2 hour time limit. I saw tons of tickets so decided to park in a garage 2 blocks down ($11). Wait another 30min for them to call us in. All the lawyers and the defendent are staring at us as we walk in. I'm in the back row, in the corner. We find out it's a murder case. (whispers in the room) Judge speaks, prosecution speaks on the laws pertinent to the case. People now get confused and start asking about hypotheticals. Took a break. Prosecution continues. The DA did a good job in bringing it back, and told us what was important. Another break. Defense attorney took about 10 min asking us if we could be fair despite our biases. Reminded us of the fact that the defendent is innocent and the state had the burden of proof. They deliberated to see which jurors were going to be chosen. I was 61. Yvonne told me that I was not likely to be chosen. She was right, they chose people mainly from the first and second row. Relieved and disappointed. I was reliving my days in Mock Trial in high school. My sister-in-law incidentally is in law school and is interning for the NYC DA's office prosecuting juveniles. That's tough. Glad I didn't become a criminal lawyer. So 5 hours and earning $6 later. I get to go back to work having served the US Justice system.

wedding bells are ringing...

2006-07-12T20:10:00.000-06:00

[y] so g and i have only been back from our honeymoon for 2 weeks now and we've had 2 weddings to attend the past 2 weekends. and this weekend we have another wedding to attend! i'm not complaining though...it's a great blessing to be able to share in the joy of two friends becoming one. this past weekend, we attended the beautiful wedding of tim and janice mah.

it was the first wedding where 'gordon and yvonne wu' was printed on a placecard and the first wedding where gordon and i could ding our glasses and pay the penalty of kissing each other first before tim and janice would kiss...

while in dallas this past weekend, our good friends bing and ellen graciously hosted us in their beautiful house in east dallas and took us around town...like one of their kids...in the back of their minivan with their 2 young kids in front while watching a baby einstein DVD...it was fun!

during our trips to dallas, we try to drive around and look at houses/condos/townhouses since we might possibly be living there in a few months. we went to a few open houses and found several cute houses and several blah houses. we're praying to see where God would want us to live and in what type of home...how much to spend...etc...

Half portions

2006-07-07T08:52:00.000-06:00

[gw] This is for my "need to portion control my food intake" wife who incidentally has made me a "portion control, please eat dinner earlier, no greasy foods after 8pm" husband.

Did you know Chuy's does half orders? During lunch and dinner. Just ask for it. A waitress told us about it, she was extra nice and prompt with refilling of our water.

Yvonne's favorite dish: Vegetarian Enchiladas
Gordon's favorite dish: Ground Sirloin "Big as Yo Face" Burritos with BOOM BOOM SAUCE
And we both love the free chips and salsa with the jalapeno ranch (ask for it if they don't give it to you.)

Ramen in a Coffee Pot

2006-07-07T08:43:00.000-06:00

[gw] One thing I would like to add to the honeymoon post. I learned how to make ramen in a coffee maker. So just to pass along information if you're as cheap as I am.

Needed:
1 packaged of ramen (not the ones in the styrofoam)
1 hotel coffee maker
3 cups of water
2 forks (that you can get at your local Wendy's or fast food chain.)

Instructions:
1) Make sure your coffee maker is off.
2) Pour 3 cups of water into the coffee maker (packages of ramen usually ask for 2, but you really need 3)
3) Break the ramen in half in the packaging. You don't want to do this once you open the package.
4) Put the pieces of ramen in the coffee pot.
5) Put in your seasonings and oil, and try to pour it into the middle of the pot.
6) Turn on coffee maker.
7) Wait about 5 min as the coffee maker dispenses all of the hot water and let it sit to soften the ramen. Stir so that all the ramen is submerged in the water.
8) Wait about 5 more min or until desired softness of the ramen.
9) Serve into hotel cups.

honeymoon

2006-07-06T22:20:00.000-06:00

[y] ok so i finally have some time to post some pictures from our honeymoon. sorry if you're tired of seeing pictures of us. i promise, we won't post many more pictures of just us...

st. john had better beaches than st. thomas because there's less development and over half the island is a natural park.

the islands had numerous lookout points along the mountainous road.

because the food on the islands were ridiculously expensive, gordon went to the grocery store and got rice in a bag and raw chicken and he marinated it and cooked it. yup, that's an episode of 24 season 5 in the background!

this was one of our best (and expensive) meals on the island. gordon claims he had the best alfredo sauce he's ever had in st. john...

and there's gordon and i...on the beach!

how time flies...

2006-07-06T22:02:00.000-06:00

[y] i had dinner with my high school friends tonight. it was so good to catch up with them (made me realize how out-of-the-loop i was!). i have known these girls for over 13 years! some i've known since elementary school! and now we're all grown up...some of us are married, some are homeowners, others are wedding planners and successful engineers. it's amazing how so much time has passed, yet the bonds of friendship are still there. love you girls!

this picture wasn't taken today...it was taken 2 years ago, but the girls that were at dinner are all in this picture.

wedding pics galore!

2006-07-06T13:27:00.000-06:00

K, so we linked up all the wedding pics that we know of. We haven't uploaded ours yet. If we've missed any let us know!

Flickr pool
Scott Lin
Julie Moon
Perth Tolle
Jeannie Sim - recently engaged!
Allen Kuo
Ours is on the way including those who already have given us their pics.

superman

2006-07-06T11:07:00.000-06:00

[gw] So wifey and I finally got to watch a movie together this past July 4th weekend. And what more American than, Superman. We wanted it to watch it in 3D Imax, but of course it was sold out. (Thank you google text for helping us out so we didn't have to drive 30min for no reason.) So we went to the closest one.

Superman, eh, it was okay. Not what I was wanting. I wanted more action and more story. But don't get me wrong, still worth it to go and watch, especially if your a Superman fan. This weekend though I watched the A&E special on Superman. That was really interesting although I fell asleep, cause it was on so late. But it brought together the full story, from the comics, the Christopher Reeve movies from the 70s and 80s, Lois and Clark, and Smallville. I'm still unsure on how Superman was involved in the Justice League though. Anyone have ideas?

So the scenes where Superman was flying were good, but I've seen the same technology used before. There was no wow effect with him flying or saving the plane. There was good acting though especially with Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor.

Which brings me to one of those fun questions, if you had a superpower what would it be and why?

For me? I like Rogue's, even though she's a girl, I can get all the superpowers you have. :) Though that would be a curse if I wasn't able to even touch my wifey. Okay, I'll go with, speed. So I can get more things done in the day, and it's also my names sake.

we're back!

2006-06-25T20:08:00.000-06:00

[y] notice, no more 'k' after the 'y'! so i've been having trouble adjusting to a new signature...i can't find a good way to sign 'Wu'. it just looks like a squiggly line because it's really 3 u's in a row. i'm on a hunt for all female Wu's to see how they sign their last name. i miss my kuo =(

so g and i are back from the honeymoon, tanner and fatter than ever! we laid out on the beach, ate lots of expensive food, shopped, played in the beautiful azure waters of the caribbean, went snorkeling and jetskiing, and did some sightseeing. oh we also watched the entire 5th season of 24 =). we will post some pictures as soon as we have the chance...

since we've been back, people have asked the following questions:
1) so is gordon moving to houston now? no, he will continue working and living in austin until we find out if he's gotten into DTS
2) so what happens once you find out from DTS? if he gets in, we will need to figure out a timeline to pack up Gordon's condo, change out the flooring and some appliances and put it on the market; then we need to find a place in dallas and move Gordo's stuff to dallas; then we will need to figure out a timeline to pack up Yvonne's condo, fix up a few things, and put it on the market...sigh...can i go back to my honeymoon where the only thing i had to worry about was where to eat or which beach to visit?
3) what if gordon doesn't get into DTS? we don't know...we'd rather not think about it

we're happy to be back where chinese food is cheap and readily available. please keep us in your prayers as we learn how to be husband and wife and cope with the long distance marriage and all the decisions that will need to made this summer...thanks!!

Upload your pics!

2006-06-14T09:07:00.000-06:00

We love everyone's pictures and we want them too! You can upload them HERE! Create your own folder with your name. Whoever uploads the most pictures of us two gets a prize! and we'll spotlight some of the pics on our web page! Note: 4shared only allows one file at a time to be uploaded. But you can zip your pics up to 100MB.

Tech Tip: Get your own account to share up to 500MB of space for free at 4shared.com

fun and more fun

2006-06-13T00:38:00.000-06:00

[gw] Thanks again everyone!! Just wanted to share some pics while we're packing up for honeymoon. Thanks to speedye for putting up this wedding group for us on FLICKR. Thanks guys! I'll also try to setup an FTP server before we leave so you can upload all your pics to us.

Just read this in USA Today. Coincidence? I think not. While yes, wifey did a lot of the work, I had a lot of work assigned to me as well. Still, the wedding went off beyond what we imagined and had tons of fun. Hope you did too!

So wifey and I came back to Austin, but noticed a foul smell. Hmmm, what could it be, the wet rocks from the centerpieces? no. .. . the dried roses? no . . . . I opened the fridge. Unmistakable. Fridge and freezer stopped working. :( All the food in the freezer went bad including the slices of wedding cake that we saved. sad. In any case, anyone in Austin know of a refrigerator repairman?

thanks!

2006-06-12T10:53:00.000-06:00

thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to our wedding!! praise God that everything was above and beyond our expectations!!

on to st. thomas and st. john (U.S. virgin islands) on thursday for our 10-day honeymoon!! pray for no hurricanes!

special meanings

2006-06-12T10:51:00.000-06:00

So we decided to do a post for all the special meanings from the wedding.

theme : Squares - Gordon and Yvonne like clean lines and symmetry

colors: Pink - Color of the first roses Gordon gave Yvonne, Green - the color of Yvonne's wall in her home, Brown - the color of her couch where I proposed to her

favors: african boxes and tealights - Yvonne went on a mission trip to Kenya and then a week in Uganda by herself. It was when I saw her passion for missions and her returning back to me I knew I was going to marry her.

invitations: CD with slideshows - Yvonne and Gordon have made countless slideshows for friends and church so it was only fitting for them to do their own slideshow and put their invitation on a CD

Some of the gifts:
USB stick - first gift I got Yvonne (yes, I know, we're geeks like that.) She actually loved it.
Leatherman - always be prepared, I carry it around with me everywhere
Yvonne's favorite things - speaks for itself, all her favorite things
Flasks - cause I drink massive amounts of water
Down blanket - because Yvonne is always cold and needs a blanket...even in the summer!

stressed?

2006-06-05T15:44:00.000-06:00

[gw] 5 more days. People are asking me if I'm stressed or excited or worried. Mmm, probably all three of those emotions at the same time. I'll be ready, just hopefully I'll get a little bit more rest. Are YOU ready?

single digits

2006-06-01T09:28:00.000-06:00

[gw] 9 days. goodness gracious. nervous? no, not nervous. a bit worried. . . yep, worried. hope it won't be too hot. I'll melt.

deal of the month: Marie Callender's pies are on sale. $5.99 if you return a tin. (I keep a tin in the car for the month) I have the benefit of seeing the billboard for Marie's every day. Our favorite pie: Kahlua Cream Cheese. yum! We need to post a picture of that one.

quick survey...

2006-05-30T16:04:00.000-06:00

to everyone who has gotten married or really knows wedding ettiquette:

are we suppose to include the professional photographer and assistant photographer in our headcount for food? is it any different if it's a buffet vs. plated? or if the photographer is required to travel from a ceremony site to a reception site?

we hired our photographer for 6 hours (8:30-2:30pm)...and the ceremony and reception are at the same place...do they get time off to eat the reception food?

get stuff done

2006-05-30T08:31:00.000-06:00

[gw] Man, 11 days and counting now. Woke up early this morning so Yvonne and I could go down to the county office to get the marriage license. $41 and took 5 minutes. Went right up to the desk and was probably the nicest county office I've seen. They had flat screen lcds and good cable management in the ceilings. Very nice.

This past Memorial Day weekend was full of last minute wedding stuff. Last night, more things kept popping up in my head. I think I was just shouting them to Yvonne while she was working on the slideshow. Don't remember. . . still a few things left, and need to organize all the things that we delegated off so everyone understands the responsibilities.

Anyways, for all you guys that had weddings recently and registered for Calphalon products. Here's a good deal to get some extra items. Yvonne really liked the baking pan that I've gotten already. Calphalon deal.

reception music

2006-05-26T17:28:00.000-06:00

[gw] I'm collecting some songs to be played during the reception. As well as dance music you prefer. If you want to suggest something, leave a comment. No promises, but I'll try my best.

props

2006-05-23T12:42:00.000-06:00

[yk] gotta give props to my wonderful fiance...

i'm amazingly not really stressed at all because i feel like we've gotten a lot of the last minute wedding stuff out of the way. normally around this time (1-2 weeks before the wedding), my friends are usually stressed because they have to buy gifts for helpers and attendants, do table assignments, make placecards, print programs, etc. well because i always view these things as "last minute" things to do, i was going to save them for the last minute also. but gordon would not let that happen...he "encouraged" me to get these things done earlier or he did them himself so that we wouldn't be stressed in the end. though he stressed me out at the time, i am relieved now that almost all of those things are done...all that's left is tying up a few loose ends and making our slideshow! yes, we're making our own slideshow...we're control freaks...

i can't believe i'm getting married in 18 days!!

Tool of the Day

2006-05-17T09:33:00.000-06:00

Transferbigfiles.com - yep, that's what it does, let's you email someone a file <1 gig to a place they can download. Brought to you by Axosoft. We use their tracking software at work.

Wedding update - working on table assignments now. If you haven't rsvp'd, please do so! I created an excel spreadsheet that allows you to see the number of people at a table. It's pretty nifty. Let me know if you want it for those of you about to do table assignments. How did most of you do it? pen and paper?

31 days - the countdown

2006-05-09T15:54:00.000-06:00

[gw] So I'm surprsingly calm . . . even though our wedding is 31 days away. We've gotten caught up and got a lot of things done. Invitations sent out, layout of table and chairs, program designed, gifts bought, menu decided, cakes ordered, deposits paid.

Just need to make the favors, finalize floral arrangements, assemble programs, couple more purchases left to make, make the slideshow.

The only thing left. . . to get married. :) whoop!

new amazon promotions

2006-05-04T11:20:00.000-06:00

Receive 1 Mogu Small Heart 7-by-9-inch Decorative Pillow, Shocking Pink free when you purchase $25.00 or more of qualifying Kitchen & Housewares and Bed & Bath products offered by Amazon.com. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Save $25.00 when you spend $125.00 or more on Kitchen & Housewares or Bed & Bath products offered by Amazon.com. Enter code MAYSAVER at checkout. Here's how (restrictions apply)

you know wedding stress has gotten to you when...

2006-05-04T07:41:00.000-06:00

[yk] when you wake up in a panic because you had a nightmare that kind of went like this:

It was my wedding day. I was in the dressing room, waiting for my friend, Suemy, to bring my wedding dress (because she was in charge of bringing it). I wasn't at Villa Antonia though...it was at some chapel. The wedding was still scheduled for 10:00am, but for some reason, all of the guests had gotten there really early...like at 8:30am!! So they were sitting around wondering why we were so late. Well it was 9am and none of my bridesmaids were there yet and I couldn't get a hold of them. But for some reason, Suemy's fiance Chae was there early. I asked Chae if he could go back and check on Suemy because I really needed my dress. He said maybe...if I paid him. I thought to myself, "Man, I always thought Chae was nice...what happened?" So I offered $20 and he said no. Then I offered $30 and he said no. Then I offered $50 and he said ok. So he goes off to find Suemy and eventually comes back with Suemy and my dress and the rest of my bridesmaids. Well by then, we only had a few minutes to get ready (makeup and hair wasn't done yet). And when we were ready to walk out...everyone had left =(. Then I woke up...

I think I had this nightmare because Gordon and I are recently feeling the burden of planning and coordinating our own wedding. We didn't really ask a friend to be our wedding coordinator...so we've been having to send out emails to the wedding party about duties, scheduling, and stuff. And we've been spending hours and hours online trying to find the cheapest square glass vases...or ribbon...or fabric. So we finally broke down and asked for help...and what a relief it is to know that we have friends that are so willing to help.

But things are slowly coming together...and we can't believe it's only about 1 month away!! Thanks for your prayers thus far...we can never receive too much prayer...and boy do we need it! =)

deals, deals, deals

2006-04-26T10:25:00.000-06:00

[gw] So I decided to share of my money saving tips and websites that I visit.

Websites
1) gotapex.com
2) slickdeals.net
3) spoofee.com
4) techbargains.com
5) fatwallet.com

Since there has been so many weddings, here how I save some money. . .
1) Use my Discover card, and redeem the rebates for BBB gift cards. Then go to BBB and use a 20% coupon from snail mail and the gift cards that I receive.
2) Citibank Merchant Rewards. You have to have a citibank dividend platinum select card. Save a % from buying at the store, online, or on gift cards. Plus 5% back for groceries and gas.
3) Ebates.com I won't share how much I have saved in the purchases I've made online from ebates. It's a lot. You get the rebates quarterly into your paypal account. Click here to give me the referral!
EDIT: 4)I forgot one! Most important one. If you own a costco card, get one! (by May too cause they're increasing their membership fee!) Then get their American Express card. You get 3% for eating out, 2% for travelling, and 1% for everything else! That's a deal! It's worth the $45 membership fee.

Here's a coupon!!
Amazon.com Save $25.00 when you spend $125.00 or more on Kitchen & Housewares or Bed & Bath products offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BLOOMING

IE 7

2006-04-25T10:28:00.000-06:00

[gw] Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 was launched today for downloads. My initial review. . .

It took about 8 minutes to install. . . a little bit too long
It requires a valid Windows XP SP2 version, and a reboot.
Design: They've included all the new Vista icons of course to start you getting used to the more gradient, 3D design.

Command bar: There's a new command bar, that personally I think is quite annoying. You cannot move the command center to any other level, except for the level where all the tabs are. The only useful button I think on the command center, is the RSS feed. It automatically detects if the page you are browsing is RSS-enabled. To get back to RSS feeds however, you'll need to click on the STAR to get to your favorites, and click feeds. You can't go through the classic Favorites dropdown where all your other bookmarks are stored.

View: New to IE is a feature called Quick Tab (Ctrl+Q). It allows you to view a thumbnail of all your tabs in that window. To create a new tab, you can now only requires a single mouse click in the empty tab next to the last tab you're viewing.

Search toolbar: Similar to firefox, Microsoft added a quick search option, and the abilitiy to add more search providers. I'm surprised they included google, but it's there. As well as MTV, Wikipedia, and USA Today.

Google toolbar: Still works in IE 7 and successful in preventing unwanted popups.

Overview: All in all, good job Microsoft. My only complaint is the ability to move the command center to wherever you want and make sure you duplicate all your commands in the classic toolbar dropdown.

You can download it on the main windows ie page

It's hot.

2006-04-18T18:35:00.000-06:00

[gw] Everyone came into work today wearing shorts, cause it was so hot. Gotta love Austin and being casual every where you go. But I've been telling everyone this. Pray for the day of our wedding. June 10th, 2006. So everytime you think it's hot outside, say a quick prayer. Maybe we'll even get a cold front come through. :) Too bad, it's too hot to ride a bike. I was considering riding my bike to work now that gas prices are so high. Then I heard yesterday, that there was a fatal bike accident (hit and run.)

So how was everyone's Easter? Mine was great. We first had a BBQ for our lounge leaders. I love BBQs. Does anyone have pics from that? Yvonne and I actually help serve communion at Liquid. It was a great moment for me, a snapshot of us serving the church together in the future.

So part of us preparing for marriage, I wanted us to come up with a theme passage and a mission statement. Here you go, what are your thoughts?

Mission Statement

Through our service, we will show that we love Him. Through our actions, we will show that He loves others. Through our love for each other, we will show how God loves his church. It is our prayer that God will use us in this world to bring people closer to Him for His glory.

Theme Verse | 1 Peter 4:8-11

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen