marriage!

i got married. and made a "cute little married person blog" upon the husband's request. he told me tonight, "i am so proud that we have this. i secretly love it."

not so secret now.

anyways, visit us!

meandmisterc.blogspot.com

friends+paper goods=heaven

thanks hugely to friends cassidy, steph, and sam--we stamped, stuffed, and finished [almost] all the invitations last night! they look great and i want to take pictures of them...but i have no clue where my camera is. my bet is that it's hiding under all the other wedding stuff piled on my desk/bureau/bed/floor.

but it was a lovely 2 and a half hour party with those girls and i am so glad that i have great friends who are so willing to help out. it helps that they are super funny and detail-oriented, so i wasn't [too] worried about the invitations getting messed up.

cass, adrianne, steph, sam, me at cassidy's house in livermore. p.s note my pillow over my legs, trying to cover up...hah.

the little things

jc and i went to home depot yesterday to get wedding decor and guess what i convinced him to buy?!

SEEDS! it is a wonder to me how something so little can make me so happy.

as soon as i can, i am putting those little babies in the ground [aka pots on my windowsill] and we will have fresh carrots, tomatoes, and peppers! and i might have bought green beans, but i can't remember. while looking at the selection of seeds, i announced that in 58 to 72 days, we will never buy vegetables again! i think jc just looked at me like i was a crazy person...either way, fresh summer veggies here i come! now if only it would stop snowing in utah...

image from pepeka

engagements!

we took engagements on monday with our photographer cody buell. it was kind of awkward at first due to my inability to be photogenic, but got a lot more comfortable as we spent more time. cody is super nice and we had a lot more in common than we originally realized. [he loves food, we love food!]

check out his blog...we are already up there!

a tribute

to jessica may. after spending too much time trying on badly made wedding dresses and ridiculously well made wedding dresses that cost more than my college tuition, i decided to go with a custom dress. thankfully, utah totally understands the short engagement thing. other bridal consultants would feign sick when i told them i needed a dress in four months! i don't think jessica even blinked. she works right out of her basement and has an adorable bride's room! better yet, she is half fairy godmother, half edna mode.

anyways, we spent a LOT of time figuring out a perfect dress. like probably more time than jessica ever wanted to spend with a bride. but she helped me find something that i love.

i went for my first fitting for my wedding dress yesterday and it was glorious! my schedule is all over the place this semester and jessica has been amazing about weird consultation hours. i was at her house until MIDNIGHT last night. ahhhh the patience she has. i highly recommend her. there will be pictures of the dress up...but after it is done. no spoiling the surprise!

maybe i will buy her those glasses, just for fun.

yum

as you might know, i am not a fan of cold weather. so i am really excited to move to arizona where cold weather just doesn't happen. i hear you can pick oranges YEAR ROUND. but one downside--no apple and pear harvests. aka no as many delicious homemade apple pie or rustic pear tarts. of course, i could buy these from the grocery store but that is sort of against my motto of buying locally grown food. but really, how much can you do with citrus!?

so you can probably guess how excited i was when i found this citrus tart recipe AND the adorable blog that featured it. there is something so comforting and beautiful about food photography. in my next life, [when i have unlimited time and money to pursue everything] i think i'll go into food photography.

photo by hannah at honeyandjam.com

i forgot

IT IS MARCH!! which means only 3 more months till marriage. and sunshine! well, depending on utah's mood i guess.

 

i'll give you two guesses why i love this photo so much.

by jill thomas. 

i am in love

with this song and video. especially the cute older lady that dances! [remember this post on my taiwan co-worker's blog?] it makes me want to travel somewhere warm. and somewhere where dogs roam free and dancing happens in the streets. amy was always talking about puerto rico....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehu3wy4WkHs

p.s. i WILL incorporate this in my wedding.

p.p.s. did i mention that it took me 25 MINUTES to find parking this morning?? oh and i didnt even find it. after 25 minutes, i turned around and went home. i wish it was warm enough to bike everywhere.

layout drama

after trying to decipher the "edit html" option, i realized i need help.


can anyone lend a helping hand/note/brain to fix the layout into something where at least the header is centered?? my mother would be so ashamed at my inability to format 


some inspiration...
the rockstar diaries
a little sussy
oh happy day 

home!

goals for the weekend at home: find someone to make us a cake. i am thinking something like this--what do you think?

 image from the bridal buzz, 20 worst wedding cakes

i'm back

so. lots and lots and lots have happened since i returned from taiwan. and life has been going so fast that i have not written one thing documenting my adventures.

but i have decided to change! my life now is just as [if not more] exciting than taiwan-and i still have stuff to say. therefore, this blog is being reborn.

here are some life changes since my last post [eight months ago]
-i arrived safely in the states
-i fell in love. like real real love
-i changed my major/minor from elementary ed/tesol to psychology/family life
-i decided i want to go into occupational therapy or hippo therapy
-i got an internship at a family mediation center [acafs in provo] and at a hippo therapy barn [courage reins in highlands]
-jeff proposed! and i said yes. may 29, 2010=MARRIAGE
-we are moving to phoenix, az in the fall

whew. the next four months will be crazy busy and crazy fun. and the best part-i get to spend the rest of forever with someone amazing!

picture from taipei, taiwan 2009.

thanks hualien.

this post is dedicated to everone who ever helped us. even when we didn't understand them. and they didn't understand us. they were unselfish, endearing, and generous. whether it was out of pity, necessity, or love--thank you thank you. i am sorry that i still don't know a lot of your names. i promise when we are in heaven and language won't be a problem, i will tell you exactly how cool i think you are.

ever thanks to...
the beef noodle man that smiled each time we left the night market.
the women who made our breakfasts
the crazy aborigine that made our first night hilarious.
the countless parents that said "hello" even when those where the only english words they spoke.
the aborigine teenagers that took us to the waterfalls
the bao tze man that remembered that i only like the veggie ones
the lady in the dress shop in taipei
the miso soup lady that knew we couldn't read chinese
yuling's dad for painstakingly taking care of the garden upstairs
the bbq man that expressed his love constantly
the many many public transportation workers that helped us lost weiguorens.

and more thanks to those whose names we knew...
to ronald who made us smoothies, [almost] always with a smile
to john who showed us true taiwanese hospitality
to president neilson. enough said.
to chinese jeff for being a good example
to yuling who indirectly taught me so much about myself
to foster whose flawless english gives me hope for my chinese
to teacher stephanie who reminded me that living the gospel is the same around the planet
to the missionaries.
to my family for letting me go
to john legend, lauren hill, and chrisette michelle for providing heartbreakingly real music
to teacher jane who showed me that there are different ways to love kids
to charlie for letting us give him an english name. and providing delicious fruit. and killing BG.
to aiya, the best preschool cook.
to the zhun, zhou, and lee family for being amazing examples.
to teacher michelle for being so skin conscious
to andy for being a ridiculous zhongwen laoshi.
to "monkey boy" for providing candy-like pineapple
to amy for being an amazing coworker, travel buddy, and friend
to trisha lee shappie who wrote the most helpful preschool curriculum books

and to thank you to inanimate objects like...
my scriptures that taught me what life is actually about
whole wheat spaghetti and brown rice that provided sunday meals
the trusty water bottle that went everywhere with me
my journal that helped me clarify my thoughts
skype for helping me realize it was possible to have a six month long distance relationship
byebye books for being glorified yearbooks
the mosquitoes for helping me test my self-control

there are more thanks. but that is all i can manage right now in between packing and cleaning.

see you in the STATES!

last day.

10 minutes to get ...
18 kids into ...
4 giraffe heads
4 monkey tails
4 parrot wings
4 lion manes ...

all for a darling graduation program.

how else would you want to spend your last saturday in hualien?

yippee!

a typhoon is brewing!

music

the latest tunes.

張懸 My Life Will...

her english name is deserts xuan. band's name is algae. but just youtube her [by copy and pasting the chinese] and try to download her music. i love her already, especially 寶貝[in a day].

also, i am now convinced [after finding her and coeur de pirate] that the rest of the world is hiding good music from us. i am thinking of authoring some sort of conspiracy theory around it.

p.s the kids are singing one of her songs at their graduation practice and they are so darling that it brings me to tears. i got to leave the classroom when i started tearing up--unlike my coworker. she was literally bawling during her class. i think we might be a little attached to them...

p.p.s did i mention that amy is teaching them vitamin c's "graduation" song? oh vitamin c. you must make so much money this time of year.

my way of saying goodbye

a whole day for myself, by myself.

meet up with the sister missionaries for brunch
go downtown with one of the YW
try to convince her to let me buy her a skirt [to no avail]
buy an amazing dress instead
head to triangle market
get delicious shaved ice
bike home
call america
have a distracted conversation
lie in bed thinking how nice it would be to take a nap outside
head outside
get bitten by twenty mosquitoes [who i swear just lay in wait for me]
come back inside and lay down for a mid-afternoon nap in my steaming hot bed
bring the other fan in my room
get comfortable with two constant air streams on me
fall asleep.

i am trying to figure out how to say goodbye to taiwan. 7 days left. any ideas?

the good kind of frustration

i was sucking on quite the confusioniscle [like a popsicle of confusion] today while pondering WHY i am have to be so darn patient in waiting for the Lord's timing. can't ours be the same as His? especially when we are trying so hard to line up with Him? wasn't it Him who wants us to always be progressing? i couldn't fit it all together. and was getting mighty frustrated. and i still can't really figure it out.

minerva teichert's depiction of christ in the home of mary and martha. he was just so patient with both women in this story, especially the one that thought she knew better.

but it doesn't matter because the church is true. meaning that He is there and will always be there. in fact, He is everywhere. time has no part in His existence. so while i am being a dumb human, He is patiently attempting to perfect the seemingly unperfectable [me]. which is why life is a challenge. a delightful, scary, frustrating, happiness-filled challenge.

bring it on.

the ride home

so there i was, kicking my way home.

let me explain. my bike frequently has problems. she is really a special spirit with a personality of her own. her favorite thing is to jam the chain while i am either freezing, tired, hungry, or in desperate need of groceries. ally and i had just gotten some delicious ice [my new favorite thing in taiwan] and i pull out to grab some bread and popsicles before heading home. and then ACCHHHKKK clunk. the chain slipped off and quickly jammed into the doohickey, for lack of a technical term. i still needed bread so ally started home while i stopped by the bakery on the way home. the lady asked me if i wanted to wash my hands because they were completely black from playing with the chain. i politely "meiguinxi"ed and went on my way. picture me kicking every so often against the street and then swinging my legs back and forth [like an overexcited three year old on a carousal ride] to gain momentum. all the while praying that the dogs wouldn't sense my inadequacy. thank goodness for downhill rides home. though i did get temporarily held up by some sort of slimy thing hitting my foot, i finally got home.

good news: i would easily win in a "move your bike as fast as possible without touching the pedals but still being on the seat" contest, my hip flexors are much stronger than before, and i laughed enough at myself to last at least one day.

bad news: i have no way to pick up popsicles tomorrow.

p.s. to prevent confusion--picture from biking down taroko when lover was still here. i can only wish that i owned a bike that nice. or looked like that after getting slime attacked and workin' out the hips. someday...

a riddle

it can say nice things

and mean things
it can show happiness
or regret
or sadness
it can express love
or lust
it can sing silly songs
and sad ones too
it can smile
it can kiss
it can heal pains
it can whisper prayers
or shout them
it can teach children

inspired by ginny's homework tonight. i loved teaching her about riddles. and she was so proud that she read them out loud and [almost] stumped ally and amy.



i want to use my lips to be a better person.
and i am figuring out how to do that slowly.
thank you gospel for showing me how it's done.

pen caps

annie stuck a pen cap up her nose today. and i was so impatient that i quickly pulled it out and directed her back to her workbook activity. and that is when i stopped to realize how funny it was. and i started giggling. hard. and the kids didn't really know what to do. it was refreshing.